Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome back to another edition of our Dias and podcast Big City Catholics with Bishop Robert Brennan, the DAAs and Bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, father Christopher hen you will begin this podcast in prayer, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. During this month of May, we bring our needs to our blessed mother in a particular way. We ask her blessing. Upon each and every one of us, our listeners, the faithful of the diocese are priests and those who need our prayers at this very moment. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of the th Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:00:45 Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:50 Father,
Speaker 2 00:00:50 Father and son in Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:52 Bishop, this has been a, a very festive week. We started, uh, the week with Mother's Day. I hope that was a good day for you and for your mother.
Speaker 2 00:00:59 It was. I was in the parish of Our Lady of Light, which takes in the two churches of St. Catherine, of Sienna and St. Pasco Baylon in Queens and St. Alban's Queens had a wonderful morning there. They celebrated Mother's Day, and actually they had first communion at one of the masses. Oh, nice. And then I went home and had a wonderful afternoon with my family, my mother. Yes. It was nice to great to bring Mother's Day Greetings and to celebrate with her, and again, with the different members of my family. Wonderful, wonderful. And you got home too.
Speaker 1 00:01:30 We had a full morning here at the Co Cathedral Blessing Moms, and I was so shocked actually at, at the Masses. We invited the mothers to come up to the front. We placed a statue of the Blessed mother in a more prominent place. And I, we presented roses to our blessed mother. Every mom came into church, she got a rose, and then after communion, they brought the rose and presented it.
Speaker 2 00:01:53 We also celebrated this week the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which is something we do here in the New York Province. Yes. On Thursday, something I grew up with you grew up with. Yes. And to me makes an awful lot of sense. It's a ascension Thursday. It's the 40 days after Easter, and it really begins this novena to the Holy Spirit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. These are nine days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday, where the church is just crying out, come Holy Spirit come. Holy Spirit. Of course, the Holy Spirit has already come and the Holy Spirit is already among us, but what we're recognizing is our need, our hunger, and calling the Holy Spirit to come renew us, to make this a time of great renewal, of great Viva as we come to the end of the Easter season.
Speaker 1 00:02:40 That's right. Yeah. What a beautiful, um, you can be here on, on Ascension Thursday and then travel to another diocese for the weekend and you can celebrate Ascension Sunday again.
Speaker 2 00:02:49 I Exactly. Why,
Speaker 1 00:02:50 Why is it that some diocese is, is it because
Speaker 2 00:02:53 I would say the vast majority of diocese have transferred it to Sunday, and the reason is it's a logical reason. It's because, let's be honest, we've kind of lost the Holy days, and I lament that. Mm-hmm. I think there's a value in the Holy days in saying that Sunday is the holy day par excellence every Sunday. But there are certain times, certain feast where we kind of stop in the midst of the busyness of daily life and turn to the Lord we have it, but less now in terms of holy days, we often have it in terms of, well, we have it Ash Wednesday, which is not a, a holy day, not a holy day. Yeah. We have it in terms of cultural festivities, you know, certain national feast days and things like that. Sure. So I guess maybe there is a shift in the world, but the idea is so that more people can celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.
Speaker 2 00:03:41 It's moved to Sunday. I lived in Ohio for two and a half years, and it was moved to Sunday, and I see the value in that. But I did feel something missing, not only on that ascension Thursday, but even to lose that seventh Sunday of Easter. That sense again of the church calling come Holy Spirit, the church awaiting. And in that seventh Sunday of Easter, you, you always get the prayer of Jesus for his disciples, the high priest prayer chapter 17. Yeah. Of the Gospel of John, which is kind of concludes that whole Last Supper dialogue where Jesus is praying for his disciples. And it's a beautiful prayer. He prays for these disciples. There he prays that the Lord protect them in spite of all the dangers they were faced. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and he prays for his disciples to come. Mm. It's, to me, it's just inspiring to hear that Jesus is praying for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:04:34 For you
Speaker 2 00:04:34 And for me today. Yes. Yeah. So I see all the different sides of it, but I'm glad we, we celebrate it. I
Speaker 1 00:04:41 Am too. Yeah. And even, you know, as you read in the missile, the book with the prayers that are used for the mass, you notice that there's specific prayers in preparation for ascension Thursday. And even that is important, you know, the vigil mask prior, which of course would be celebrated on Saturday night. Would it? If
Speaker 2 00:04:57 The vigil Yes. If it were That's right. That's what you would do. You'd celebrate the vigil on Saturday night and then the mass on the day. Yeah. But we are celebrating the ascension. And it is an important feast because a part of humanity, a human body is now in heaven. Not just a spirit, but a human body. Jesus in the flesh has ascended into heaven where he intends to take us with him again. The prayers of the ascension are just so beautiful. Where he is now, we long to be so the ascension, whenever we celebrate it, is an important feast and a great feast. I also love the themes of the ascension, the, the story and the acts of the apostles where, you know, Jesus takes them and he's lifted up from their presence and they're looking up and, you know, where did he go? Right. And, and then the angel says, men of Cali, why are you standing here with your head in the clouds? <laugh> my words. But essentially that's what they were saying. Why are you looking up? Yeah. This Jesus is with you. He, he is ascended into heaven, but he's also with you.
Speaker 1 00:05:52 That's right. <laugh>. You
Speaker 2 00:05:53 Know, so, uh, I I get busy.
Speaker 1 00:05:56 Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Stop. Do what he told
Speaker 2 00:05:57 You to do. Stop start, start staring in the sky. Get your head outta the closet.
Speaker 1 00:06:01 <laugh>. Well, that's, I like that. I that theme too, of get busy. That has been, normally you'd think that the end of this year, as we approach May and June, things should be kind of quieting down, but things are getting busy. I
Speaker 2 00:06:14 Lost that illusion a long time ago. I used to say things wind down in May and June. No. They come to a screeching halt on July 1st,
Speaker 1 00:06:20 <laugh>. That's right. That's
Speaker 2 00:06:21 Right. They actually pick up with greater intensity. And it is a great time with a lot of very happy things. A lot of completion and transitions. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, you know, lots of graduations. And we've been just celebrating the sacraments of many parishes have already had their first communion. These are great days. We had a great day this week too, um, on a different level with, uh, the Futures in Education dinner. You were there.
Speaker 1 00:06:44 I was there. And it really was a beautiful dinner. Again, talk about getting busy. We had over at 75 tables, or 80 tables filled with 10 people at a table. Um, it was a great crowd, beautiful venue of sipri
Speaker 2 00:06:58 And a lot of of people, what's wonderful about this event, a lot of people gather who love Catholic education, who are passionate about Catholic education. That's right. And so we are grateful for that. We're very grateful for that. And they raised about $2.2 million. Incredible. All of which goes into direct scholarships. And that has a twofold effect. So on the one hand, the direct scholarships make Catholic education ex accessible for a wide swath of people. It's not that restrictive. It's really, it it for a lot of different socioeconomic levels. So the point of the scholarships is to make the availability of Catholic education there for everyone. Sure. And that's something that's very important to us. And I find that when I go to our schools, our schools look like Brooklyn and Queens, and you just see the whole gamut of our parishes represented in the school.
Speaker 2 00:07:56 So I'm so glad for that. But they also help our schools. It's not that it goes into, into, you know, just kind of filling deficit spending that direct scholarship. It helps an individual student, but it also makes the school stronger because now more students can attend. That's right. And so they're running more on tuition receipts rather than on subsidy. So it's, for want of a better word, an overused word, a win-win. It is situation. And for the people who are giving, for the people who are at these events and who sponsor a number of different things and who work with futures in education, there's a real commitment to Catholic education and almost a joy in this kind of giving. It's a pleasure. They really want to, and I have to say thank you to all the benefactors, thanks to our futures board and the staff thanks to Monsignor Gig and Monsignor Cassada for, for their vocal championing of Catholic education and support for Catholic education. This was a very good evening for the church in Brooklyn and Queens.
Speaker 1 00:09:05 It was, I imagine it's unlike any other diocese. And the beauty of this celebration, you know, we have here at the co cathedral, a priest from Columbia Father Vice, we invited him to come to the dinner. And it was such a shock for him to see the amount of money raised. You know, they have that thermometer, uh, where they collect the, you know, where you see the money coming in. And, you know, $250,000 raised in at that dinner, you know, in real time, uh, was a, a shocking number. But
Speaker 2 00:09:33 The need is great because it goes to a, a large number of students all throughout the bar of Brooklyn and Queens, to be honest. Wish we could do more for students, wish we could do more for families. You know, again, in some parts of the country, families have a little bit more choice in education. True. They don't have that here in New York. So we really rely on things like this and on the goodness of people who themselves have benefited from Catholic education.
Speaker 1 00:10:00 It was also a joy to honor the commissioners of, of the F D N Y and, and the N Y P D to show the good work that we do in our diocese to show the connections and the collaboration that we have, and the support that the diocese has for the N Y P D, the F D N Y, those who are our first responders here in the city. And, and so many of them are products of Catholic school as well.
Speaker 2 00:10:22 That's right. And then, you know, we had the other Honoraries families who've been supporting Catholic education for a long time, like the Nilar family and, uh, the Golia family. But we also had the director for the Cabrini movie, which we're looking forward to coming out. Yes. So yeah. A lot of talent and a lot of generosity there. So, you know, the other event I had this past week was the convocation for Cathedral Seminary House of Formation. It's an annual event, and usually, you know, we have the partnership with Rockville Center and New York, and usually the three bishops take turns presiding over. That's right. The convocation. And this would've been, um, Cardinal Dolan's turn as it happened. This is the last convocation for Cathedral Seminary House of Formation. And so Bishop Paris, Cardinal Dolan and I were together. Cardinal Dolan presided over the actual convocation. And then I offered the mass with, uh, Bishop Paris joining us.
Speaker 2 00:11:24 And, and it was a touching moment. So it was great. It was a moment of transition for everybody. Sure. For everybody. So Cathedral House Seminary, house of Formation. Over these recent years, we've been educating fellows in pre theology. So those would be the fellows who need two years of theology. Bef they went to another college, and then they need the two years of Catholic mm-hmm. <affirmative> philosophy and formation to go into the seminary formation program. Then we have the college program, and then we have other people who are various forms of discernment. The three diocese that are part of the Ballroom Male Partnership, our diocese working together. We have our fellows there, but a number of other diocese have used us in conjunction with St. John's University. So those who would be graduating the university then move on to the seminary. So it's a transition for them. But as we are closing down the House of Formation this year, this was a transition for everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:12:23 It has its origins right. In, in 1967, the Cathedral College first opened.
Speaker 2 00:12:28 That's right. So, you know, 1967, this was the time when there was a change, a shift in formation of priests. Before that, they used to call it the sixth and sixth program. The way it worked here in Brooklyn was that we had Cathedral High School right down the street from the co cathedral and then Cathedral High School in Elmhurst. The two high schools we only have now Elmhurst students would've studied there for six years, not four years. And then they would've gone on to Huntington or to another seminary for another six years. But in 1967, the needs of the time called for a change. And there was a shift. And so Cathedral College was built. And so now it was high school, being high school, college being college, and then major seminary, being major seminary. So it opened in Douglaston Queens as a four year college, four men who were seeking to become priests who were discerning the call to become priests and had the hope of going on from there to the seminary. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:13:34 And then later on, I guess, so that lasted until the 1980s was 1987.
Speaker 2 00:13:40 And at that time it ran as a regular college. You got your college degree from Cathedral College, and they received an excellent education. Now, now, the majors were generally philosophy, English, and history. I think maybe psychology. It was a true classical education, a number of our priests, but also other men who did not go on to become priests who become real leaders in the church here in the diocese. So it really did prepare men for life and, and other people in other fields, but again, who have an attachment who remain rooted in the church. But yes, a number of our priests went there, got their degree from there in 1980, around 1987, I think it was, again, a new shift, people making decisions at different points in life, the ability to run a college. Bishop Mcg then with Bishop McGahn looked at the needs of seminary formation, and they closed down Cathedral College and opened up what became Cathedral Seminary of House of Formation.
Speaker 2 00:14:37 And so the fellas lived there and went mostly to St. John's. They could go to other colleges based on when they came in and what they were studying, but it became a residence. So they did a lot of their formation there, A lot of their spiritual formation and human formation. They, they learned to live in a religious house, kind of a setting. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that served a new need. They went, like I said, most of 'em to St. John's. And that too had its blessing for really was very effective, uh, for a number of years.
Speaker 1 00:15:10 I, that would be the formation program that I experienced for my four years of college was living in Douglaston. And, and at that time, certainly there were classes even offered in the seminary House of formation. Right. By Father Mark Swart, fogger by Monsignor Deets, who would offer philosophy classes that would be accepted by St. John's University as accredited by St. John's University. That's
Speaker 2 00:15:34 Right. You know, one of our priests, father Bob Lauder. That's right. Taught in the seminary program, uh, when it was, you know, an actual college. And then went to St. John's when the fellows went there. Um, and has been at St. John's since that 1987 day and still is doing some teaching and doing writing and doing great talks, bringing people together. So he's a real blessing for our diocese and has really seen it through all of its different phases. So now in the last year since I've come, we've had to do some discernment. I've done some discernment. I'm with, um, Cardinal Dolan and with Bishop Baris and with a number of our own people locally here to say, well, you know, the needs have changed and there are new opportunities. First of all, this is the major reason that we've made this transition. The church is asking us to take a serious look at formation of priests.
Speaker 2 00:16:29 And we have what's called the program for the ppf, the program for priestly formation. And it has some significant shifts. It changes the whole language. It gets away from the, you know, academic, what grade are you in mm-hmm. <affirmative> and more into stages of discipleship and configuration. All the materials still there, but the way we do it is going to be different. And that's going to require really a shift in our own allocation of our faculty, our human resources, our physical resources, and new opportunities. So one thing is, with all of these changes, we're going to be moving what was the pre theology portion of the program up to Dunwoody, because the degree for that, it's a master's in philosophy, and it's granted by St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoody. So those men will be going up there, they'll be residing up at the Dunwoody campus, and there will be a special program designed particularly for them.
Speaker 2 00:17:27 These would be for men who were coming out of college Okay. In another place, or coming back after some time. And who need those credits in philosophy, the college program. We are going to be taking advantage of the fact that there are opportunities for our fellows where they can live in the, the same kind of a house of formation, but really right there on college campuses. Nice. So that's great. Whether it be, I know we have somebody go up in Providence College, part of the House of Formation in the Diocese of Providence and over at Seton Hall, at St. Andrews Hall, where the, um, they would live at St. Andrews Hall, but take courses at Seton Hall University. But it, it just puts them right there in the heart of the university system, gives them some choices, and then we will possibly be able to adapt what are the abilities and the needs Sure. Of the different college students and provide the best college program. And then we're introducing a new stage. Well,
Speaker 1 00:18:29 The church has introduced this new That's right. New stage. And it's a, it's a word that many have never heard before. The produ stage. This propag duty gear necessarily.
Speaker 2 00:18:39 That's right. It's not a, necessarily a produ gear. And the PPF is very clear that we don't talk in terms of the timeline. It is at least a year. It could be longer. It's a stage. So the idea is that it takes on what we would call the human and spiritual formation. Let me go back a little bit. In the time of St. John Paul ii, the, the church identified four pillars.
Speaker 1 00:19:04 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:19:04 Like the four legs of a table. That's right. Four pillars for formation, human formation, spiritual formation, academic formation, and pastoral formation. And those are all part of our program now. But now we're going to be doing it in different ways. So those first two, the human formation and the spiritual formation, while they take part throughout the entire process. But those are the focus of this first stage. And it's called the prepar duty, which is really preparatory. It's a funny word, but it means preparatory. And why are we doing this? Why is the church asking this of us? Well, you know, the world of 2023 is very different Sure. Even from the world when you That's right. Came to the seminary. Yeah. And you know, you look at the, um, realities of social media and the pressures that are on people, and quite honestly, the breakdown of family life. We find that it's best to begin with this stage. Uh, part of it involves a social media fast. Oh, wow. Yeah. Staying away from the phones, you know, maybe on a certain day, maybe on Sundays to use the phone, but to, to withdraw from that constant need always to be connected. That's
Speaker 1 00:20:22 True. Human formation. That's true. True.
Speaker 2 00:20:24 Yeah. You know, again, that, that transition into living within community. So that will take place for somebody who's already, who already has the college degree before they start anything. For somebody in college, they could do the first two years of college, like any college student, but before they go into the serious philosophy part of college, there would be a year in the middle. And it would be this human formation and also spiritual formation. Some seminaries have had a spiritual year built in. So there too, it would be learning how to pray. It would be learning the different forms of prayer. It would be deepening the spiritual life, learning how to be able to articulate that spiritual life.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 Someone could ask in Bishop, you know, we have such a shortage of priests and a guy wants to consider the priesthood. And it just seems like, you know, we're prolonging this formative process when, you know, parishes that need a priest. Now, obviously, you're not gonna ordain a priest now, uh, someone who just arrived. But what, how do you respond to that? There were
Speaker 2 00:21:32 Two, two answers to that. So, first of all, that's a very good question, cuz that's out there. It doesn't necessarily prolong the formation program, at least not for us, because we have some of these things built in. So right now we have a pastoral year where men work in parishes that comes in the middle of the seminary formation, the major seminary. Now, you know, you could argue about where things belong, but this is changing the order of things. This is doing all of that work now. So they begin with this, but it's still, when you, the sum total of all the stages comes out the same, except that what the PPF is calling from the program for priestly formation is calling for a more flexibility. That maybe we do need more time here or there, depending on the individual. Somebody may find that that time of human formation needs a little bit extra time. Sure. Or that the academic time needs to be a little bit. So there's, it's, it's less rigid cut into one year for this two years for that three years for this. But it's more about completion of the stages. So as it's designed, it doesn't add anything necessarily, at least the way we're doing it here. And then the second answer I would say is, historically the church has gotten in trouble. I'm talking over centuries when it says, oh, we need more men and let's just start ordaining people. Sure,
Speaker 2 00:22:58 Sure. And that's where saints like St. Charles Bar Romeo came up with the seminary system. So what we really want are not more in greater numbers of priests, but we want to be able to offer the best formation so that we can continue to have the best priests we possibly can. We want to continue the work that's been done, but now doing so meeting the needs of a new generation.
Speaker 1 00:23:19 That's, I mean, I think that's the crux of it all. And wouldn't you, as parishioners, as brother priests wouldn't, we want to make sure that the men that are being ordained are ready, are prepared, are, you know, and, and have had the best formation. And that, I guess true, like you, you mentioned the word rigidity, but also I think of it as like an assembly line. Like I went to high school seminary, four years of high school seminary, took four years of college seminary to the major seminaries just as sort of an assembly line. Okay, this is the next step. This is where we go. Now, this is where you get your theology. This is where you put on and even the, the formative years of your diaconate ordination, and now this is when you get ordained, et cetera. So it, it becomes this sort of, you're passing through. But I've realized when I was in the seminary that not everyone even then had the same experiences. You know, some guys had a longer time, some guys took some time to discern there was a, an assembly line process, but it also did have a holistic approach. This really does focus more on that holistic approach.
Speaker 2 00:24:21 So we'll have to see, I mean, we, we pray, we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us along the way to help us to make sound decisions. And I ask everyone who listens in on this podcast, please pray, pray for me. I beg you, pray for me. And I wanna make sure that I'm faithful to where the Holy Spirit is leading us. Um, pray for the church, which is giving us the, the guidance and asking us to implement these new stages and pray for those in formation to be priests. Pray for our future priest, pray for vocations, pray for those involved in the information we really need it. All that said, this is a bittersweet time. So the convocation, going back to the convocation, you know, it's the end of something that was very meaningful. We have to thank the people who have served information over the years. You know, it's the end of, of any kind of a seminary program here in the diocese of Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 00:25:13 And if I may, I think, uh, every priest who's listening to the podcast is probably wondering. Now, Bishop, what's next for 7,200 Douglasson Parkway? What's next for the Immaculate Conception Center?
Speaker 2 00:25:25 Well, we're going to start working on that now. I did not want, I mean, I have some thoughts, but I did not want to jump ahead. I want to bring this year to a completion so that we can make the study. So we're looking at the building and we're looking at a lot of our diocesan needs. One of the things that comes to mind immediately is that with the shift in the past is we also now house the senior priest mm-hmm. <affirmative> at the Immaculate Conception Center. And we have some diocesan offices. So I, no, we need to enhance the, um, living facilities for the senior priest. That's something that's going to be a very high priority. We want to update those facilities. We want to make that really a top-notch NCE for our retired priest. You know, it's not exactly assisted living, but we wanna be able to offer the kind of assistance that we can in fact give.
Speaker 2 00:26:18 So that's really the first thing I want us to address. Sure. That's so, so, we'll we're going to do that, but we have to assess all of our needs. You know, there are a number of offices out there, some others may be out there. Um, it's, it's a great meeting space there. Sometimes things come up, questions come up about possibility of retreat space. We have to see what's feasible, what are our needs and what needs can coexist with other needs. Sure. And so we'll be looking at all of that, uh, now very deliberately at, at this point here.
Speaker 1 00:26:54 Sure. Especially when, um, you invite guests and visitors into the building and sometimes, you know, the, the Bishop McGovern residence for those who've been there, you know, you can easily find yourself walking down the hallway of, of the retired priest's hallway. That's right. And that's not fair on them for them.
Speaker 2 00:27:11 Right. We wanna give them their privacy and provide their dignified home. This is people's home. So we wanna recognize that. The other thing about the I ccc, it is a great place. It has great meaning to a lot of our priest. It's a great meeting spot as a former suburbanite. I, I love a place that has parking <laugh>, but we have some big meeting space, big prayer space. We have the, uh, chapel there, some chapel there. So, and I think we'll continue to use it and use it. Well, great.
Speaker 1 00:27:39 Great. So Bishop, we have a lot coming up in the end of May and, and into early June, you have the diaconate ordination where we'll be ordaining 20 men to the diaconate and, and our priestly ordination in the first Saturday of June. The months get busier. It keeps getting busi, as you said, until that July 1st. But then you'll be in World Youth Day in July as well. So it doesn't really come to a screeching halt for you
Speaker 2 00:28:02 <laugh>. No, no. This is going to be a very busy but very joyful summer.
Speaker 1 00:28:05 Amen. Well, Bishop, perhaps you could lead us in a closing prayer.
Speaker 2 00:28:09 Sure. In these days of Easter, we sing the Regina Cha. I'll pray it in English, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Amen. Queen of heaven, rejoice. Hallelujah. The Son whom you merited to bear, hallelujah, has risen as he said. Hallelujah. Pray for us to God. Hallelujah,
Speaker 1 00:28:25 Rejoice,
Speaker 2 00:28:26 And be glad of Virgin Mary. Hallelujah. For the Lord has truly risen. Hallelujah. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:28:34 Thanks for tuning into another edition of this diam podcast. We hope that you'll join us again next week. God bless.
