Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. I'm Deacon Kevin McCormick, the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn. And I'm here with our ordinary bishop Robert Brennan, and it's great to be with you, Bishop
Speaker 2 00:00:21 Deacon. Kevin, it's great to be with you. Thank you for, uh, co-hosting today. Shall we start with the prayer? Sure.
Speaker 1 00:00:27 I'd be honored. Let's begin. In the name of the Father of the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord God, we're always in your presence. And as we begin this new school year, we ask you to open up all our minds and hearts and lives to see the grace that abounds in all that we do. And we ask Blessed Mother Virgin to be with us as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blesses the fruit of thy room. Jesus,
Speaker 2 00:00:50 Holy Mary, and mother of God, pray for us sins now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 Name the Father, son the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. So you've had some summer.
Speaker 2 00:00:58 I've had a great summer. We've been hearing in the podcast. We had the pilgrimage to Lisbon, which was awesome. I had some vacation time, some family time, and priest friends over in Ireland. It was great. The downside is the New York part of summer ended on July 27th, <laugh>. That was the last time I put my feet inside of Salt water <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 Well, you probably have a few days that you could sneak away, but for the most
Speaker 2 00:01:22 Part Oh yeah. But the season's over. Yeah. I don't go out there without the lifeguards, so yeah. Smart move. That's it. Smart move.
Speaker 1 00:01:27 It's, we wanna keep you around. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:01:29 <laugh>. I wanna stick around. Good. You're right. It's been a great season, a great summer, great opportunities. There's something nice about, you know, the, the pace of summer, the light. I already missed the sun in the morning and in the evening. The short, the days were already visibly shortening.
Speaker 1 00:01:44 And it's beginning though of the best time of the year. Right? Or at least you'd want your superintendent to think that way. School is started. Today was our first day, and it was the first day in which, uh, many of our kids were back the rest of the week at high school. And the grammar schools, the, the faculty, the administration, the kids will all be coming into school. The parents will be giving size of relief that they're <laugh>, they can relax a little
Speaker 2 00:02:05 Bit. Do you, do you remember that old Staples commercial where the song is, it's the most wonderful time of the year and the parents running up and down with the, the shopping cart, throwing things in <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:02:16 But bye. But I'll tell you this, Bishop, this is my favorite time of the year. And when I was a principal and then last year as the superintendent, I play that song all the time. Much to the chagrin of my family and my colleagues, but I live for September. This to me, is very exciting. Obviously I love the beginning of football. I love the hope of cooler weather, but I really do love the fact that schools begin. I'm in 58th grade. I've been going to school since September of 1965. I started a Lady Mercy in the Bronx and I've been involved in Catholic education every year since. And to me, this is what we belong. You know, a ship looks nice in the harbor, but we belong at sea. And that's why I think about schools. I think
Speaker 2 00:02:52 That's great. That's a great image. The ship looks nice in the harbor, but we belong at sea. I'm a four season guy, so I really do lament the end of the summer. And I have to confess this year, I really wish the weeks were reversed. I wish we had this week's weather. Oh yeah. Last week and last week's weather with those brisk mornings. This week I lament the end of the summer. But once we get there, once you pass Labor Day, I'm all in. And weather-wise and the, and the new season, and whether you're in school or not, at least maybe in the church, there's something about September and new beginning and everything is fresh. Everything's clean. People talk about New Year's resolutions on January 1st. I think most New Year's resolutions take place in September. So this year I'm going to whatever. Right? Yeah, yeah. We, we set out goals. There's just something about the newness books. Sometimes you start new notebooks or you just, everything begins again. And that there's something to be said for that. That
Speaker 1 00:03:48 Cyclical nature is so essential. And the way the school feels in September is different from October. It's different from January. It all kind of plays into it. Much like a liturgical calendar, you know? That's right. We we're in green, our pastors are getting ready for advent already. Now. I don't wanna rush anything, but in all part of that cycle. And that's what I love about, you know, being in 58th grade is the fact that there is that cycle. There is that rhythm that breathing in and out. And I see it, you were at some schools today, I, I'll be at schools all week. You see it with the kids, the teachers, the floors are
Speaker 2 00:04:16 Perfect, right?
Speaker 1 00:04:17 <laugh>, what's gonna happen this year, again, using the metaphor of this ship, where is our journey going to take us over these next 10 months? And it'll be the best of times, there'll be some struggles, but we are gonna be there together. It's very exciting to me. It's sort of like, obviously the Holy Spirit is always with us, but now it's sort of like, where are we going chief? Put us in. We're gonna see where we go. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:04:38 I was at St. Athanasius today and it was great seeing everybody arrive, parents bringing the kids, dropping the kids off, the kids reconnecting with each other. They too were lamenting the end of summer, but boy did they fall right into the rhythm. Again. One, one of the things I love about our schools is there's a sense of order. Everybody comes in, they know where they're gonna go, they line up, they find their lane, you might say, and there's still kids and they're having fun. But when it's time to start, they're ready to go. I think it's
Speaker 1 00:05:06 A real hallmark of what we do in Catholic schools. So we take very seriously who the kids are. We know their kids. They're supposed to act like kids, but we also know that we hold them to a standard of behavior and respect that they follow through. Kids will always respond to the expectations you give them.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 I was asked today by one of the media outlets, what's my message to parents today? I thought about it and I said, twofold, thanks for entrusting us with your children and we are here to support you. One of the things that we see in our schools, or one of the roles that we play is to support our families. Parents are trying to pass on the faith. The parents are trying to educate their children. Their parents are trying to form their children to be good members of society. And they also want their children to be children, to enjoy their childhood a little bit, but also to see in that time some kind of growth. And that's a big thing for us. We wanna support you parents in probably the most important roles that God can give to
Speaker 1 00:05:59 Somebody. Oh my goodness. And you see it, and I'm a grandfather now, so I've, my, my kids are all older, but I see what my daughter and son-in-law are going through. I see what our parents are going through and it's scary. It's very scary. In the old days, we are men of a certain age, if you will. So in our day, grandparents, aunts, uncles, they weren't so far away. I grew up in a neighborhood where my relatives were everywhere. And now the society has fractured us. And in many ways we need surrogate grandparents and surrogate aunts and uncles and and people who are there. And I do think our schools provide that for them because again, you're not there from eight to three, but you've committed, you're part of it. And as you said very well, Bishop, we thank them for their trust in us.
Speaker 1 00:06:36 And in return, we walk with them through this whole thing. And this is something I don't think we emphasize enough. We allow kids to be kids. We never hold back the truth. We want Catholic critical thinkers, but what we talk to four year olds and eight year olds and 12 year olds and 18 year olds about, are radically different. Not that the truth isn't there, but a six year old can't understand what an 18 year old or our colleges can't understand. And I think sometimes we've forgotten that in the larger society and we can celebrate it in our schools.
Speaker 2 00:07:04 And the kids teach us a lot. They really do. You know, this weekend, speaking of families, this weekend is a rather historic weekend. Toward the end of last year, beginning of this year, Pope Francis approved the beatification of an entire family. I can't think of a time in history when an entire family was beatified. At the same time. We have cases where, for example, the parents have seen Therese were beatified, of course, that she herself is the same now. The situation was horrendous. And they, this family rose to heroic strength. It was a set of parents and seven young children. One of them actually born during the whole melee, but the Oma family of Poland, Joseph and Victoria and their seven children hid Jewish people from the, the Nazis. They hid people from the neighborhood. They weren't just doing something in an anonymous kind of a way, you know, like, just like, it wasn't a political kind of a thing. I think the man was a man of strong convictions. But they saw the humanity in every person. They saw their neighbors. These weren't just anonymous people getting killed. These are neighbors. These are people we farm with. These are people in our community. And they were being hunted down by the Nazis in an inhumane manner. And this courageous couple and their children hid people for well over a year in their attic.
Speaker 1 00:08:25 And they did it out of love. They didn't get anything out of it. It cost them their lives. But such admiration for the mom and dad that they taught their children, this is what we do. This is, this is we are we, we have to take care of it. And it doesn't matter that they don't come and worship the way we do. These are all God's children. And thankfully we don't live in a time that, you know, Germany and Poland and, and other places in, in Europe in the, in the forties had to go through. But at the same time, the idea of calling our families to be places of courage, to stand for the truth, to stand and not be afraid and, and to support your children when, when there's a situation where, you know, someone's challenging the dignity of all life, uh, from the womb to the tomb, the dignity of someone who may not look like you or speak with your accent or whatever. And that's becoming more of a struggle. And I do believe that are people of faith. I mean, I think Catholics do it the best because that's your own. But okay, aside people of faith who are dedicated to the understanding of God's presence in all that they do, they respond. That's
Speaker 2 00:09:24 It. And in this particular case, this couple, Joseph and Victoria, they would deeply religious believing people. My understanding is that Joseph himself was deeply motivated by the parable of the Good Samaritan. And in fact, in one of the articles I was reading about the whole thing in the family Bible, after everything had happened, there were two passages in the gospel of Luke that were underlined and they were from a related kind of a section. So the first was the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with everything you have, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He underlined that. And then the other passage that he had underlined involved that parable of the good Samaritan. These were not just people doing good things, but these were people who were deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That experience of the gospel really informed their decisions in how they were going to live their family life.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 I think a lot of people struggle with the question of where is the sacred? Where is holy places? So when you see a church that's a holy place. The bishop, the priest, the sister, the deacon, they may be holy people. But the fact is, and I I know you agree with me on this, the the sacredness of God is in creation. It's in the sloppiness of the every day. It's in the common ordinary unspectacular flow of life. It's there that we meet our God. It's not up in the mountains. For some, maybe most of us listening to this podcast, no, it's gonna be in the grocery store on the, even the Bell Parkway. They may find some kind of way grace <laugh>. But that idea of finding grace where God has put you this alma family, they paid the ultimate price, but they had the ability to see 2020 grace that surrounded them and weren't afraid to, I mean, certainly they were afraid, but it didn't stop them. It didn't paralyze them from doing what God needed them to do.
Speaker 2 00:11:09 Exactly. And that God gives us the grace to do it, as you said before, thankfully most of us, probably none of us will have to face those kinds of choices. But it does give us a glimpse at the holiness of life as a family that, and that families transform the world around us. That families, by the authentic living of the gospel, by being rooted in the truth, by living in love for each other as a family, but also as a family, loving those who are in need, recognizing the dignity of every human person, no matter what it gets sometimes harder and harder to do it, to be faithful as Catholics gets sometimes harder and harder to do it when you find people mocking your belief or, or even sometimes persecution. There was a story about a family in Massachusetts that was refused adoption simply because they were Catholic. And because they were Catholic, they would take on certain value judgments that would not be mm-hmm <affirmative> acceptable in secular society. We do have to face tough choices. And thank God we're surrounded by a lot of families who make those sacrifices.
Speaker 1 00:12:16 And yet people who've dedicated themselves to celebrating God in everything they do. We also come up on a, a rather somber anniversary. Monday is the 11th, nine 11 again. That's right. We were much younger men back then, you know, I do remember very vividly. I'm sure you do too. And those of us who are old enough to remember that, remember if you are under 26, 27, you don't remember that. You know, that's, I know. Isn't that wild? And you were born if you were 22 years ago. That's right.
Speaker 2 00:12:39 But
Speaker 1 00:12:40 After that happened, in the midst of the chill of the horror, do you remember the love that was everywhere? People kind of put aside the stuff that didn't matter. They focused on what did matter. I wonder, Bishop, do we need to be hit in the head to see it sometimes?
Speaker 2 00:12:51 Sadly, that's true. We do respond, don't we? And we saw in those days, in 2001, the horrors of hatred, but the best of humanity. And you know, we talk about this family. I'm glad you said this, I hadn't thought of making this connection. One of the questions I'm thinking is, I'm looking at the Oma family. I'm saying, wow, what were all the factors that had to go into them making this decision? And in some ways you had to say, gee, am I putting my family at risk? But think of all the people on September 11th who had many reasons to say, maybe I should hold back because my family. But they were running into that building. People made sacrifices that weren't just their own sacrifices. They made sacrifices that their family feel. Even today,
Speaker 1 00:13:35 22
Speaker 2 00:13:36 Years
Speaker 1 00:13:36 Later, they didn't what nationality they were. They didn't care what language they spoke. Everybody was there. Everybody was there. And the opportunity was created. And the overwhelming majority responded in such a way, I can't help but think of Father Michael Judge and as the symbol of that and him being carried, he gave everything, but there were 3000 others that could have been carried the way he was. It's a very so sobering time. But I do think it gives us reason for hope. We see the crucifix as the ultimate sign of hope. So even in the deepest despair, the planes don't have the final word. The Nazis don't have the final word. Death doesn't have the final word.
Speaker 2 00:14:07 And so for us years later to be remembering and honoring a family that stood tall in the 1940s, for us now to remember so many of the heroes of 2001, it shows that there is something stronger than death. And of course we know that the ultimate final answer is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And the fact that we were created for something even greater,
Speaker 1 00:14:32 Even greater, the true is empty. But that's April Omar, I dunno if it's April or March this year, but that's, uh, look it, it's time. New beginnings. And we give thanks for people like the Ulma family. We give thanks for those people who sacrificed at nine 11. We give thanks for our own families that sacrificed. So you could be a bishop and I could be a deacon and, and our parents and my, my wife and children. All the things we all,
Speaker 2 00:14:53 We think about people who have made long journeys. I'm thinking of like my grandfather and people who made long journeys under difficult circumstances so that their children could have opportunities. We look at the asylum seekers today, and I know there are a lot of political arguments that are very important political arguments. We're dealing with a very bad immigration system when the church has been calling for years for comprehensive immigration reform. But when I visit with some of the people who made this journey, they've made difficult choices for the bets for their children. And we started off talking about our schools families making tremendous sacrifices so that their children can be children. They're making tremendous financial sacrifices. I think of my own parents, five children at one time in Catholic schools. I don't know how people do it. And they do, people work so hard to provide some opportunities. People work hard bringing their children to mass on Sunday or to religious ed when there were so many other activities going on because they know that the gift of friendship with Jesus matters more than anything else. And then being rooted in the truth, standing up for the dignity of life, standing up for the dignity of every human person. There are many heroes who had to make some really tough choices. And God bless them, they did. But there are lots of people and lots of families have to make choices every day.
Speaker 1 00:16:12 We stand on their shoulders, we stand on their shoulders. That's it. We stand on their shoulders. They seem hackney, but I love it. They plant seeds for trees that they'll never rest under the shade of. That's St.
Speaker 2 00:16:21 Anthony Awa. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:16:21 Is it? Oh, cool. Yeah, it is. I, but it's, that's what we're supposed to do. Yeah. That's what we're supposed to do. Yeah. So it's gonna be a great year. I know we'll have plenty of time to speak with each other and, and all the other great things that are going on. Our religious ed programs are opening up, the parishes are renewed and everybody's off from vacation, the schools. That's my focus. But man, there's so many wonderful great things that are gonna be happening and I'm glad to be a small part of
Speaker 2 00:16:43 It. I have a day this week with the catechist. I'm looking forward to catechist appreciation. We're going to pray with them at Mass and celebrate their generous service in our religious education programs. This week we have this year of Eucharistic revival
Speaker 1 00:16:56 For Saturday October, isn't it October 7th?
Speaker 2 00:16:58 October 7th. Again, I keep begging the listeners of this podcast, we need to pray for good weather that day. Yes. I'm depending on it and we're really looking forward to it. I'm hearing some parishes or deanaries are sending buses. Yeah. This could be a really good e experience of our being the church. It's the body of Christ gathers around the altar, around the body of Christ to be fed, to be the body of Christ here in Brooklyn and in Queens. So this is a year of revival and we wanna get to the, the heart of that. It's not just a day. We want to have that day. And we also have the New York State event, and then next summer, the national event, the Eucharistic revival isn't just about events, but the events spur us on in
Speaker 1 00:17:41 The common, ordinary unspectacular flow of everyday life. <laugh>. Beautiful.
Speaker 2 00:17:45 Beautiful. So thank you for co-hosting today. I pray that we've started off on a good foot. We know that, but that, that energy kind of sustains us as we go forward in the year ahead. Great things ahead. Thank you for joining us for another edition of Big City Catholics. We look forward to being with you next week. And now we ask for God's blessing. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He look upon you with kindness and grant 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. Endeavor. Amen. Amen. God bless you and have a good week.
