Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. I'm Bishop Robert Brennan, bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn serving Brooklyn and Queens, and I'm here today with Monsignor Joseph Cremaldi, the Vicar general for the diocese. He's the priest whom I work most closely on all things, and he is also the pastor of St. Bernard's Parish in Bergen Beach in Brooklyn. So welcome, Monsignor Grimaldi.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Thank you, Bishop. I think it's my second podcast. I've joined you on that's.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Right. Well, today it's just the two of us. Of course, our hearts and our minds go to people who are suffering, people who stand in the way of war and violence. We're still praying for the victims of the terrorist attack. And now the stretch of that horror really goes beyond what happened that day. But even now, as so many people are living in such danger, so we pray for peace there. We pray for peace still in Ukraine. We turn our hearts and minds to prayer. And I'll offer the prayer of St. Francis. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So October has been a very busy month for our priest. We've had a lot of different activities. Unfortunately, one of the activities was canceled, the Eucharistic Revival. I think we're going to be coming up on our 8th Saturday in a row.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Incredible as it sounds. Yeah, the weekends have been really washout.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Eight rainy Saturday, and the weekends have been crazy. I feel sorry. So many parishes had planned all kinds of activities. We had the Eucharistic revival. I'll be up in Ariesville with a statewide Eucharistic revival. But the very yeah, very messy. That aside, are we looking forward to scheduling that day in the spring, maybe even around Easter time, the week after Easter, so watch for those details. But we've also had many meetings. We've had meetings with all of our priests. We had the mass welcoming the new vicars. We're installing the new vicars. We've had the meeting of pastors. We're going to be having a mass of hope and healing. It's been a very convocation time, really. I think it would be good for us to talk about some of those meetings, particularly the convocation and its impact on life here in Brooklyn and queens. So what a great convocation, right? The attendance of the priests.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we just sharing it today at pastor's meeting. We just finished 250 priests, and that's a phenomenal number considering that we have about 205 or six nine that are in active parish ministry. So we even had a breakout session with the retired priests, priests that were living here in Almagabaro residence. They were part of the day and they were happy and very much honored to be part of the day.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: And they bring a lot of wisdom and experience to the day. It was a great experience. I'm always struck when our priests get together, there's a good sense of wanting to be together. So first of all, it was great having everyone together. We had to fit in a bigger space. We actually had to meet in the chapel because that was at Douglaston, because that was the largest space in the building that could accommodate everybody. And then we broke them up, as you said, into different various groups. They were broken up, according to Deanery, with a special section for the senior priest here at.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: A Meal Together.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Then we had a meal together.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: It was just so great to see how many of the priests were literally they didn't just eat and run, they stayed around. They were talking with each other. They just genuinely enjoyed being with one another. And it was so good to see that.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: It really now that's not a new tradition here. The priests generally gather twice a year for convocations in the fall and in the spring. Obviously, as with everything else, COVID had its impact. But by and large, we gather for different topics. Sometimes it's a pastoral topic to talk about. Sometimes we talk about particular areas of focus, like catechetical formation, or sometimes we talk about things about the priest themselves. Health of priest.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Last year we spoke about From Christendom to Apostolic Mission and set kind of a vision for the future together that.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Was at Away Convocation, which we held at Huntington. That was great.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: And so picking up on that theme this time we spoke about parish life and about really implementing that vision for the reality of Brooklyn and Queens in 2023. We shared some interesting statistics that come from our office, our vicar's office, and that also come from our parish reports and even that last gathering. So we have just a little over 200 diocesan priests assigned to 175 parishes. We have a couple of ordered priests who are very good and very generous. We have religious orders and we're very fortunate to have our retired priest. The retired priests are very active to the extent that they can be. So we seem to be managing. But at those kinds of numbers, we're going to be facing a crisis, especially as the number of priests, I think it's 152 priests are over the age of 71. As people start to retire, we're going to see a change. We're blessed. We have about 40 men in formation as seminarians in various different levels. But you have to realize that's over a long period of time, that's not a number that even if it grows, it's going to grow at the low end. It's going to take a long time for it to grow. But the fact of the matter is, it's 40 men over five years of seminary formation, plus whatever preteology proprietary year, a year of preparation, plus some of them are in college, it's 40 men spread out over somewhere between five and right.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: When you compare over that next nine to ten years, the number of priests that we'll lose through attrition whether or not through them passing on, whether it's through them retiring, getting sick some way, becoming limited in terms of what they can do. The number is certainly much larger than the 40 that we're hoping to ordain so it precipitates, as we're saying, a kind of a vision and a discussion about where are we going as a diocese.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: And at the same time, while we have fewer priests and anticipating fewer priests, we also have fewer people in leadership in various parish ministries right now, the number of people who have the formation to be catechetical leaders, we call them directors of religious education, there are fewer of those around. So pastors are finding it harder to fill some of the positions, some of the parish musicians. It's getting harder to hire parish musicians. So this is across the board. And at the same time, we also have fewer people coming to Mass. Now, there are a lot of reasons for it. It's a concern of ours. That's why we do the Eucharistic revival. But we've measured in 2017, 205, 206,000 people coming to Sunday Mass. That number has gone down in 2023 to 130,000. So from 205,000 to 130,000, obviously, there were big decreases during the COVID years, and we're still climbing out of that. But even that 2017 number was down from the years before. So, yeah, people aren't coming to Mass. We want to try to encourage people back to Mass. We're working hard. That's the whole point of the Eucharistic revival. But there were also demographic shifts.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Exactly right. The demographic shifts, especially in our diocese, I think, are very much contribute to these numbers. I mean, it's not that the number of Catholics, for example, nationwide is down. It's up, but it's in certain areas of the country.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: This used to be a place brooklyn and Queens were places filled with Catholics.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: With cultural.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Built into the community. Right.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: People that identified themselves by the parish they came from. When you ask someone, where are you from in Brooklyn? Oh, St. Mary's Parish or St. Joseph's Parish, that strong identity, that cultural Catholic identity, and that's changed less and less the case.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: And of course, we welcome the people. One of the great gifts of Brooklyn and Queens is that it's the diversity of peoples. But in some of the neighborhoods, Christians are moving out and non Christians are moving in, or in other neighborhoods, Catholics are moving out, and young people who are moving in who have no church affiliation whatsoever. And so we have parishes where there was a day those churches were packed, how many times a day a Sunday are now very empty, not because of anybody's fault, but because the people just aren't there. They're just not there. And then, on the other hand, we do have some sections of the diocese where people are lining up to get into church for Sunday Mass.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Right. We think of all large Hispanic Spanish speaking parishes and parts of the diocese, especially Queens and parts of Brooklyn.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: It's a real blessing and challenge we have. We were discussing the other night bishop at the Queen's Deanery meeting in that Flushing a Whitestone area, I think in that six languages.
In that one deanery, never mind diocese, it's just in those nine parishes that comprise that deanery, I believe are nine parishes, there are six languages celebrated on a given weekend.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: It's Chinese. It's Korean.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Tagalog.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Tagalic. And then you have some Italian Middle Eastern. Yes. Right. You have the Italian, but you have Urdu, right?
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Correct. Yeah.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Which is Pakistani language. It really is a shift of our mindset. It's a real shift. And some of the pastors were saying that the new Chinese Catholics are the people who are going to daily Mass.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Even in English.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Young families. They're the young families. And as they said, weekday Masses. One of the pastors was commenting that more than half the people that is weekday Mass, English weekday Mass, are Chinese.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: So we have to do some strategic planning. We have to look at how do we meet those growing needs and how do we do it in a way that doesn't thin out the resources, but gives us some good parish experiences to offer to people for parish life, taking into account where people are living, what the needs are, where the families are.
A very small percentage of the Chinese population would be Catholic, but a very small percentage of a large number is still a fairly respectable number. And so we're looking to meet those needs. Another deanery, which we haven't gotten to yet, is up in that Elmhurst and Corona area, where, again, we have many large, many, many large families and Hispanic families and tight quarters. There's no building in those areas. There's no amount of building. Parking is tough. Everything is so densely set that we have to live with the space we have. And so we often talk about Our Lady of Sorrows, where I think they have eleven or 13 Masses on a weekend and people line up at every Mass. You have to go in the side doors and out the front doors. It's amazing to see. And St. Leo's, Blessed Sacrament, St. Bartholomew, they're all experiencing the same thing and.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: That'S why there's no one fit for the diocese. Compare it to. We've only been to two deenery meetings so far after the priest convocation, and I know we're planning on getting to all 22, but when you look at, for example, in contrast to the Queen's Deanery of Whitestone and Flushing when we were down in, like, Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights, you're talking about a whole different reality. Not so many languages. Maybe you have Spanish, English, maybe an Italian mass here and there. But mostly English speaking parishes are much smaller, much closer together geographically. As we were commenting in that particular area, we have a good number of these ecclesial movements, coinonea Consolazio, the Oratory. So each area is so unique.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: And there too, like you mentioned, that's a business area. So those are places that have high numbers for weekday masses, right? Sort of something you imagine happening in midtown Manhattan, that's sort of happening in that downtown Brooklyn area.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: So the question came up, how do you, so to speak, measure the pastoral vibrancy of a parish? It's not know by one criteria. They were saying we have probably more people coming to the afternoon Mass on a weekday than we would often have at any other time.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: And yet it's important that we have those resources available.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: So it's an interesting set of conversations that we have. But this is the story of Brooklyn, Queens. It's always been the case, right?
[00:13:18] Speaker B: This is always goes back to the day s when I was regional vicarim before that whole changing dynamic of Brooklyn.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: And it's continued, I think of the landscape at the beach erosion. When you talk about beach erosion, it doesn't mean that land disappears. It means that it gets shorter at one end, but then at the other end it gets longer.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Right? That sand is going somewhere, it's moving somewhere else.
The tide is taking it somewhere else.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: Right. And so that's sort of what happens. And so there are waves keeps on the image. There are waves of people, new people coming in, but it's all changing the landscape. So for the church, the key is to be nimble. The church needs to be resilient. There are certain things that are truth that aren't changing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is always the same. Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is the Eucharist. But what does change are the needs of the people, the language needs, the schedule of things, the way people can get to Mass. I used to joke when I was in Columbus, they said that Columbus City, the churches were developed a mile apart from each other so that nobody would have to walk more than half a mile because most of it was settled in the 19th century. Well, now, in that area in Columbus, everybody has a car. There's not much public transportation. You have to get around by car. So the idea of churches every mile, that's not a need anymore. Then I come here to Brooklyn and Queens and I'm finding out, oh boy, we have a lot of people who still walk. Even if they have cars, they still walk because you might give up your parking space. It might not be there when you get back.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: We have a good number of people that ride their bikes too.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: We have a good number of people who ride their bikes. Exactly.
That's laughing at my expense. I'm one of those. I'm one of those. And people take the public transportation. So there's a very different mindset. So that's something for me coming into Brooklyn from two other diocesan experiences that I'm learning to say, this is different. Here in Columbus, we had rural areas. I used to talk about the Walmart rule. How far do you have to travel to get to a Walmart?
We actually had one county in Columbus that had no supermarkets.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: A whole county with no supermarkets.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: They finally opened one supermarket. So people depend on stores like the Walmarts because that's how far you would go to get to the center of business. And that would kind of factor into our staffing where we would have churches, sure. But here it's different nevertheless. We've had a long history of combining and merging parishes.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's been going on, Bishop, as you mentioned earlier, we talk about merge to partnership. It's not just, so to speak, the final step of the actual canonical merger of these two parishes, but it's happening on that organic level of faith formation programs that are shared, and societies and different outreach programs at the parishes. That's where they begin to collaborate. And see, I often say, yes, as a parish we could do it well, but maybe together we can do it even better. We could have better programs. We could have more effective programs, not only catechetical programs, but programs for the young. We talk about youth ministry. It's a better quality.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: There's parishes that have very few children for religious education, just that's the demographic of that area.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: So how could you pay for a qualified faith formation director with 13 kids in a program?
[00:16:46] Speaker A: How could you sustain? But also with those kinds of numbers, what are you really offering to the young people? Whereas when two parishes work together or three parishes work together, we have a whole lot more that we can offer in terms of resources.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: And I have to say, in the last 40 years I've been a priest here in Brooklyn. The last 20, I've really seen much more openness among the priests. Before, it was in my parish, my parish. That's it. I'll do everything to just make sure my parish remains. But I really sense more and more the men are seeing not only the necessity, but the value and the good points about we're talking at the pastor's meeting, father Giovino gave a great presentation on leadership, lay leadership, and the wonderful opportunities we have for training lay leaders.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: And a lot of them are really online based, like a combination of online and parish based.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Right. Because you say, how could someone have the time to do that? But these programs are so flexible today with the possibility, as you say, online and doing it on your timetable.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: And they're offered by solid resources. Franciscan University Institute Catholic Distance Learning these are high quality programs, so we plug into those. But we count on all the great people who are going for that kind of leadership training. We are very fortunate in that regard.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: So we have 175 parishes, which include 24 merged parishes with two sites with two churches and four merged parishes with three sites.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Now, that's a real stretch, asking pastors to do three sites, because even if you have the personnel, it means you're not in one of those places every week.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Right. And I think they've said the pastors that have been involved this it's harder to create a common identity among three communities. It's a little bit more workable among two. Not that it's impossible. Some of them, they've done a great job with it, but I think that would be a common observation among many of these pastors.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Well, we've had a couple of pastors now, I've had two in my time here who have come to me and said, we've been working together and talking with the people, the priest and the people, the parish councils and the people. They've come to us and said, we think it's time that we actually merge. We're doing everything in duplicate and we can really do it all together. So I was very happy to see that. But that takes years of working together, collaborating, building up trust, and realizing who we are as the Eucharist.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Right. What's fundamentally most important is that we are a Eucharistic community, right? That we are a Eucharistic community. And that as important as the parish identity is and has been, it's more basically we're Catholics. The Catholic identity is what we share and what should be most important.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: And that's what we want to start to do is start thinking more as Catholics than as just parishioners of this place or that place. Now, 18 parishes are in partnership, and that goes to the point you were saying before, where they have their own pastor, but they're working together, providing common youth ministry, providing common religious education. We've been doing it for years with our schools. The academy program was a way of our sharing the resources of Catholic education. So being in a partnership doesn't necessarily mean that those parishes are going to be merged. It may be, but it might not be. But it is a matter of our being able to complement our Mass schedules. Maybe not every parish in a particular area needs to have a 05:00 evening Sunday Mass or even, for that matter, of vigil Mass. Fewer people going to the vigil mass that used to be the big Mass, but somebody needs to have it because people work and all that.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: You and I had that discussion in response to a letter that was a very valid observation by a person who.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Said, in my dean, in my area, there's no Sunday evening Mass.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Right. And it is a value for people who may be working on a Sunday during the day. Yes. Does every parish need a Sunday evening Mass? No, but there should be some availability and to collaborate and work together. Where would that be? How can we share?
We could use the priests of the deanery to kind of share and being celebrants of that Mass. It doesn't always have to be just the priests in that parish where the Mass is celebrated.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: That's right. Because that does commit a fellow every Sunday night to being there, because again, there are fewer parish associates. If it's 209 priests serving 175 parishes, there's not a lot of extra room. But we can collaborate in that way. Same thing with an early morning Mass. Not everybody needs an early morning Mass, but we may need somewhere an early morning Mass. So how do we work in such a way that we can complement one another's schedules? Those are the kinds of questions that we're asking. We're not trying to instill any kind of panic, but we're just asking those questions. What does these Mass attendance look like in our parishes? One of the things I've asked the priests to do is to publish Mass attendance numbers. For years we've been collecting those numbers on a periodic basis. I think four times a year we have Mass count Sundays, right?
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: So on a given Sunday, let's pretend it was next Sunday. So the end of October, send in your Mass counts, your attendance at your Mass counts this week, and then we get the diocesan numbers out of that experience. Well, I'm asking the pastors consider counting every week and publishing it just so that people know they see what the trends are. In some parishes, the changes from one language group to another parish that was predominantly English may have a very small number of people coming to the English Mass, but have very large numbers coming to the Spanish Mass. Some of the parishes that were English and Spanish are now having to make room to accommodate people who speak Chinese. Those are the strategic questions that we have to be asking in the future. Will we have to merge and close? The answer is yes. I'm not going to lie to you. The answer is yes. We've been doing it all along and we always have to face reality. Parishes are not museums, they're living realities. And a very sad reality is that our churches, beautiful churches, also need a lot of care and maintenance. Some cases that's been let go because of financial hardships on the parish over the years. Some cases there are things that are going to be coming due in the coming years. We can't do everything everywhere. It's going to be hard, but we have to face those realities as well. I'm not trying to instill any panic. I just want to be very honest about those challenges. But again, this isn't new, actually. This is the history of the Catholic Church. Right. All around you look at some countries where there was tremendous growth and then where there's been some amount of decline, and then you see, like, the erosion, then you see something else growing. We see growth in a lot of areas of the world right now.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, it's a healthy approach in the sense that we don't want to see our churches become museums. I mean, look at Western Europe. Many churches have become museums now.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: They've been taken over by the state. And that's not exactly what we want, but we can't afford to do everything everywhere.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: But I really believe, Bishop, what's been our strength in the history of our diocese is that there's always been a consultative process. There's always been a process of collaboration in working the clergy, working with the laity. I mean, you could just say, well, look, we've determined that St. Mary's Parish is not meeting the mark. So in six months it's going to be closing. We haven't done that in Brooklyn. And what you're saying is that's not the plan. The plan is to really look closely and to see strategically what is the best approach. And as I said, there's no one shoe fits all you could have deeneries next door to each other that are completely different would need a different strategic plan in looking at it in terms of languages, mass attendance, buildings. Not only the churches, the convents, the school buildings, the immigrant population built these magnificent parishes and structures that in some instances in Brooklyn are literally three blocks away from each other. Exactly.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: And for good reason. Even now, people walk. But we have to be able to decide what we can honestly do. The other issue is that some parishes are living on rent and they're getting a fair amount of money, but they don't have the people. We have other parishes where there are lots of people, where there's a school. And because there's a school, there's no rent. And they're struggling financially. Finances, it's a reality of life. Maybe your finances don't define your family. There's so much more to your family than financial condition.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: But they are a factor in what you can and can't do. The same is true for know. You are so right to say that. There's always been that consultative process, and we pledge to continue to do that. That's one of the things we heard at the Senate. People still want to be part of all of that. It's messy. It's complicated.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: And consultative doesn't mean that everybody gets their way, because we have many, many voices. But consultative means that we really strive to listen and try to make good judgments together and then build on those judgments. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I'm so impressed by the priest here in this diocese. I'm so impressed by the spirit among the priest and the way that they strive to work together. And I'm really impressed even when we have issues that we have to speak about when we might have disagreement. The reason is because they care about their parishions. And I think that we have, again, too, a vibrant church filled with people who are committed, filled with people who really pour out their heart and soul for their parishes. And we want to be able to preserve that kind of commitment.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: And I mean, yes, the cooperation of the priests and as well as your leadership in that you've often said when there is an informed, sound, pastoral plan and it has to be put into effect, like you said, not everyone's going to be on the same page or abort. And sometimes leadership has to make a hard decision, right? But the decision is being made when it's informed by the lady and they've been included in it and it's sound, it makes sense and it's pastoral in that area. It just is strategically what needs to be done. And then you have to bite the bullet. Then you have to make the tough decision sometimes. And that's where the priests and you in terms of your leadership make that something that could be very effective in our diocese as it has been and I'm sure will continue to be.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: And I used to say this elsewhere, I'll say it here sometimes we may end up being shifting institutions or buildings. But on the other hand, what I would love to see here in Brooklyn, Queens, as I would have loved to have seen in Columbus and in Rockwell Center is still a growth in Catholic life. That's going to be our goal. We still want to have a growth in Catholic life. It's just that it may take on new forms with the movements, with our prayer forms, with some of the missionary activity that's already taken place. We want to build on this Eucharistic revival. This isn't all bad news. This isn't gloom and doom by any stretch of the imagination. But this is really responding to where the Holy Spirit's leading us. So that ultimately it's about growth. It's about deepening our relationship with Jesus and trying to increase our Catholic life and mission.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: It's a more I guess, putting it one way, it's a more intentional faith community. That's right. People are there because they want to be part of it and they want to take an active role. And that's so important in terms of the dynamism of the community and the life of the community.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: That's what in turn attracts other people.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: There's a joy and a fulfillment associated with that that's contagious. So.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Again. I look forward to getting around to the other deaneries. This isn't something we're doing. Everything's going to be done in so many months. This is just realizing the reality of our life together. But I look forward to living that life with you. I love being in our parishes and all the different things that are going on here. I say this a confirmation all the time. God has blessed us in many ways and God is doing amazing things in Brooklyn and Queens. God will continue to do amazing things in Brooklyn and Queens. Sometimes it means us letting go and giving God the chance. But God is going to do amazing things here. Well, thank you for joining me today. Thank you. I'm glad we could have this discussion. This is an important moment. The whole point of this podcast is really just to be able to talk as brothers and sisters with the people of this great diocese. Just to say be honest where we are, what we're talking about. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience and thanks for all the help you give to me.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: You're welcome, Bishop. Thank you.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: And we ask God's blessing upon us. The Lord be with you.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: With your spirit.
[00:29:18] 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 you with 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.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to you coming back again next week for another edition of Big City Catholics. God bless you and have a wonderful week.
