Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome back to a new edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn serving in Brooklyn and Queens, and myself, Father Christopher Henry, here at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Jackson Heights, Queens. Today, as we release this podcast, on Friday, July 10, we gather in prayer in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. We ask our Blessed Mother's intercession for us, for those who listen and join us each and every week, especially for our parishioners of the Diocese of Brooklyn as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: In the name of the Father, Son.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Bishop, how was your holiday weekend? How was the Fourth of July weekend for you?
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Oh, it was terrific. It was really a great weekend. It was special family time. So I put all my stuff, all my appointments and meetings into the early part of the week and took an extra day. So I had Thursday and Friday free.
And then my brother had for more than a year planned a get together on Saturdays with my dad and all of my brothers and sisters and various members of their families. He had a house full and it was great. It was just great. It was. I get to see my family, but it was great to see everybody together and it was a good day. We teased my brother. I don't know if you remember, there was a Seinfeld episode where Kramer was planning a Y2K year 2000 New Year's Eve party like four years in advance.
And so I told my brother, that's what you're doing.
Brought this up last summer. But he wanted everybody, no commitments anyone, no commitments. So that we had. But because of that, it made it a whole weekend worth of things. So it was really enjoyable. My brothers and sisters now all have grandchildren at different stages, so it was great to see older generations.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: That's really truly nice opportunity, especially to have them all together. My family did that once. We planned out a trip to Ireland for my parents anniversary around the time of their 50th anniversary. And it was very special, I mean, because you have to plan out a lot of calendars, so.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: And yours being probably one of the more complicated calendars, I imagine. And that's a little bit of what we're to chat about today is just what's going on in your life, Bishop, and around the diocese, certainly.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Actually, Fourth of July is kind of a Nice holiday for me, because there's nothing ecclesial about it, you know what I mean? Even Memorial Day?
Even Memorial Day, we have the masses at the cemetery. So this is something that there are no other responsibilities. No. No public events. So it was some nice time off. But yes, of course it continues to be a happily busy time. You know, the end of June brings a lot of different things to close out. I had a chance to be together last week with the high school chaplains to thank them for their work and to look to the year ahead. So to the priest chaplains. And it was good. It was good for us to be together, to share the different experiences to from one another. I really enjoyed that. On a Saturday note, earlier in the week, on the feast of St. Peter and Paul, I had a chance to gather with the Venezuelan apostolate planned rather quickly. They put together a mass praying for Venezuela in the wake of that, those terrible, terrible earthquakes and the devastation which still continues to mount as we hear the news coming out of Venezuela. What a tragedy.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Certainly, Bishop, I mean, even as we record this podcast, the thousands that have been misplaced, thousands more that are still yet to be found, and those who have died, those who mourn their loss, the buildings, just the terrible destruction in Venezuela. Bishop, you gathered with the people, not just Venezuelans, but with all those who came together to support at St. Bartholomew Parish. What was that like?
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It's really very beautiful, you know, first of all, our Venezuelan apostle, it's rather new because it was kind of hard to find, if you will, like where the Venezuelans were settled. Sometimes you notice that a particular community settles all around in this particular parish or another, whereas the Venezuelans are a little more scattered and about. And I would meet individuals along the way. Finally, Father Ernesto Alonso, who is not Venezuelan, he's from Cuba, but he took responsibility and he did a terrific job, a terrific job of bringing people together. So last September, on the feast of Our lady of Coramoto, we gathered the dad of the parcel. So at least we had something to go with. We had people who were connected. And then, as you say, it was not only the Venezuelans, but it was held at St Bartholomew nearby to you in Elmhurst.
A lot of other people came from the community, from the neighborhood, just to be together with those who were suffering, with those who were mourning. You know, if you think about it, the people who come from Venezuela here have family at home, and a lot of them are still waiting for news or hearing news that was troubling. So it was good for us to be Together to pray. You know, it struck me Father Alonzo preached at the Mass, but it struck me that first reading on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul was about when Peter was imprisoned and how the community came together to pray and how God miraculously freed him with that earthquake. But you see, from the very, very beginning, in a time of difficulty, what does the church do in difficult times? Come together to pray. We come together to be with each other. But we don't just come together to lament and mourn, but we come together to pray. We come together to seek the help of the Lord, to seek his consolation and to seek his direction. And not only that, one of the things we ask the Lord is to help us to respond. Ok, okay. So Lord, guide us and help us to be instruments of your healing right now. And that's what we seek to do. And of course we're looking to do some relief. We'll be having collection here in the diocese in the coming weeks. We're already starting to find out what are the needs. Catholic Relief Services is already on the ground. And again, it's not a knee jerk reaction, but really trying to address true needs and respond to those we heard from the community there, St. Bartholomew with some, like I guess the consulate is doing in terms of gathering up things, putting together boxes and saying them over. And we'll respond ourselves, especially through Catholic Relief Services.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: You know, Bishop, you mentioned a little bit about like where the Ecuadorians settle, where the Colombians settle, where the Mexican faithful settle, and, and sort of knowing those areas and the Venezuelans a little more difficult. Similarly, you know, at St. Joan of Arc after this earthquake, a number of parishioners came up to me that I would never have known were from Venezuela and introduced themselves to me and to ask for prayers and for support. We are going to have our second collection at the end of this month, the end of July, again to submit to the diocese for that support. But it's in these early phases, I think the most important way we can help is prayer. And without simply people being there to help this recovery process, prayer is the most important. And then as they continue through this, this phase of, of recovery, certainly sending clothes and water and food and supplies as well as financial contributions will be much more appreciated.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: So, so, so those prayers continue. Very, very much so. And you know, it's unfortunate, sometimes it makes a big splash in the news and then it kind of falls off the radar. So it's important to remember, I guess the rescue, search and rescue is probably that phase.
It's coming near to completion. But now there's going to be a new phase of trying to offer relief and support and rebuilding. So we continue to pray. You know, getting back to a little bit more of a positive note. I told you about my weekend. How was your fourth of July?
[00:08:29] Speaker B: It was. It was quite an experience here in Jackson Heights. This is. World cup fever has taken over way.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Has it ever.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: It has certainly taken over and we as a parish have hosted a number of World cup watch parties which have been very successful, especially Colombia versus Portugal. We have a very high percentage of Colombian parishioners. We had Mexico versus England on the holiday weekend and prior to that, Mexico
[00:08:56] Speaker A: versus Ecuador, which brought together a couple of our groups.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: For me, this has been an incredible experience to just to watch the pride of the cultures and the national pride and. And yet we came together. Ecuadorians and Mexicans in my parish are large percentage of the two countries that are represented. Certainly Colombia is also there. But it was a great watch party.
Great experience to be together. Correct.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Fun. It's good fun. And of course, we're recording at the beginning of the week, so we can't even guess where the United States is going to be. We're still. We're certainly rooting for our home team. And it's exciting to see. It's exciting to see how it's affecting so many people. There are the people you would expect it to affect, but lots of people have become more interested in soccer here in the United States because of the whole World cup fever. And it's also great to see the visitors coming into our country and having such a great time.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: I had some friends fly in from. From Mexico to watch some of the games here in New Jersey. And so it really does, you know, especially as we celebrate this anniversary, the 250th anniversary, which we had a great chance to talk with Father Bruno last week. That was really well received, that podcast. A lot of people have been commenting on just how informative that podcast was.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: He's a wealth of information. He really is. We're so glad that we could share with him. And I think that made for us the 4th of July a little bit special as well, to be able to look at the role of Catholics in the foundation and in the subsequent years of our. Of our country. But, you know, we barely scratched the surface of the 20th century. So I think we're going to have to bring it back.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: We're going to have to have like a secondary podcast, you know, a history lesson with Father Bruno.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Sure. Well, you know, and I'm going to give you another one. In the coming year, we're going to be celebrating another big anniversary, and that's going to be the Diocese of Brooklyn. So our 175th anniversary is 2028, but we're going to begin celebrating next spring, May of 2027, because that's when the bishops petitioned the Holy Father for new diocese, one being Brooklyn. So we're going to kick off the centennial area next spring and celebrate all the way through to the. I think it's around the summer is the actual anniversary. So. And we talk about the history there. Think of all of the saints.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Whose feet have touched Brooklyn and Queen soil.
And there's a rich, rich history.
So that's a plug. We've got some good things coming up.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Speaking of good things, coming up with a little bit of a mixture of the World cup, but unfortunately, this country didn't qualify for this year's World Cup. But coming up, you are on your way to travel to Nigeria.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Yes, I'll be traveling with the Nigerian apostle. Archbishop Okeke, who's the archbishop of Onitscha, is really a longtime friend. I was there 24 years ago, and he was just recently ordained coadjutor bishop. He became the archbishop and now is celebrating his 25th anniversary. So he extended an invitation. I think I'll be going to the ordination into confirmation. But the connection, we have so many priests from Nigeria who serve as missionaries to us here in Brooklyn, Queens. Plus we have so many people from Nigeria. We have a very active Nigerian apostolate. You know, this was an invitation long in the making, and finally we were able to pull it off.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: So.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: So I have that coming up. And I also have some travel with Shalom, our young adult community, for their Hallelujah conference, which is a big, big deal for them. So, yes, July is going to take me. I was going to say on the road, but in the air a little bit.
It's good worthwhile travel.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: And, Bishop, it's an honor for me to represent you at this year's trip to the Boy Scout Ten Mile River.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Yes, unfortunately, that. This year. Yes.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I. I certainly will send your regards to the Scouts. And that's been a yearly podcast around this time. So it's going to be a busy, kind of a pretty busy summer.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: For summer.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Bishop, we're excited to see where the Big City Catholics podcast will take us. It might take us to parts of Africa, perhaps, or the globe. So we shall see.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: And in the meantime, stay comfortable.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Boy.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: We had a couple of hot ones. We made it through a heat wave and people struggled but got through.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Let me tell you, Bishop, we had an outage at St. Joan of Arc on our block, and it affected the air conditioning. And on Sunday, July 5, we had no air conditioning in the church. It was a hot. It wasn't as hot as Saturday, certainly, but it was hot in the church.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Sunday.
Yeah. So, like, even the day when you felt like, okay, today's the day of relief, it was not a day of release.
It was only in the 80s, but, oh, it wasn't a day of relief. But, you know, these we've had these days before. We haven't had them recently. And hopefully this portends a good summer for many people.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Please God. Please, God. Bishop, as we conclude this week's podcast, perhaps you could offer us your blessing. The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon the kindness and grant you his peace. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever. Amen.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Amen. Thank you, Bishop. Thank you all who join us each and every week in this podcast. Big City Catholics. We hope that you'll join us again next week. God bless.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Sam.
