Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the diocesan bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, Father Christopher Hennu, the rector of the co cathedral of St. Joseph. After last week's edition of us, the bishop, we're back in the podcast room together and so bishop and I will begin in prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Asking our blessed Mother's intercession upon us and all our intentions. 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.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen. Bishop, I wanted to give you a chance certainly to address our community and our faithful. Last week was a difficult week for you and for your family.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Thank you Father Henny, and thanks to all the wonderful people have reached out with condolences and messages of support and most importantly, prayers in these last two weeks. When we were last together, we were talking about the march for life. I was looking forward to going down and I had recorded a session with currents saying I would be there and I spoke with you and absolutely had that intention. And Wednesday after the funeral for Father Reynolds, I went home to I folks to check in on them before going to Washington. I was going to get a train right from Lindenhurston to Penn and then down to Washington. And things had turned radically differently in that one day there was a big downturn, even to the surprise of the hospice evaluation people. On Wednesday night into Thursday, my mother died in the early mornings of Thursday morning. Now she had been battling with Alzheimer's for a number of years and then the last year had declined a good bit. Alzheimer's disease is the kind of an illness where it's not a gradual decline, but there were steep drops and then you have plateau for a while and then another steep drop. And that's what happened a few times in these last couple of weeks. And on Wednesday night we had a chance to pray as a family. I celebrated the sacrament of the anointing of the sick even there, thinking there would be more time. But it was a moment to pray. And boy am I glad we did. That night. We had rallied around her going to bed that night. My father was right next to her bed. She had a hospital bed, he had a bed right next to her. And at one point in the night he didn't hear her breathing. She had that labored breathing. We knew that the end was getting near, and all of a sudden, she stopped. So she died very peacefully after a tough battle, but she died very peacefully with my father by her bedside in the middle of the night. And while death is never easy, it was beautiful in that regard. I think that describes my parents, that they were there for us always, but they also were a married couple, and they were also very much together in everything. That's how she went home to God. So, yeah, it was a difficult moment for my family, as it would be for any family. We love her an awful lot, and it was hard to say goodbye, but it was also a blessing to know that she was at peace after having suffered, especially in these last couple of weeks, and entrusted to the hands of God. But, wow, what an outpouring of love. All of us experienced that. My mom and dad were in their community for over 50 years, maybe almost 55 years. They lived in that same house in Lindenhurst, and so they had deep ties. My whole family had deep ties in the Lindenhurst community and in the parish of our lady perpetual help. My brother lives right there around the block from them. My sister's a principal at St. Mary's elementary school in Manhasset, so, wow. My brother, retired police officer, but involved in campus ministry out in Stony Brook. My sister working with the FBI. We all had a lot of people coming. We all had many, many ties in that community.
I have to say profound word of thanks to people of this church who either in notes, cards and letters, greetings, whether it be at the wake service, people were wonderful. The priest of this diocese of Rockville center, and even some from Columbus and people who came from Columbus. I was so deeply touched by people who came, even from a distance. Our own family is big enough. Just. We had a family night, and just. That was a big group. But it says a lot about the great tribute to my mom, but it also says a lot about the kind of people we have around here in Brooklyn and in Queens and out in Nassau, Suffolk. Again, sad, but an experience of tremendous love.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: I had a chance to visit both wake service and to be present at the funeral mass, and both were filled with great warmth. And one thing that struck me at the funeral mass was just the entire side of the church, or maybe two thirds of the length of the church, was filled with priests. It was as if a very fraternal moment of support, and that's the priestly support. But even the sanctuary was filled with bishops, other bishops.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Cardinal Dolan was very kind to us. He reached out to me, the morning my mother died, I was supposed to be on retreat in Florida with the New York bishops, but we had things here, so I didn't go. Boy, that turned out to be providential. But he called from that retreat. He called me, and he spoke to my father that very morning, and then he was with us and just gave a beautiful set of words and encouragement before praying for the final commendation. Bishop Barris, who's always been a big part of my family since his coming to Rockville Center, Bishop Hennings, whom I practically grew up with, bishop of Providence, and then the other bishops from here in Brooklyn, from Rockville center and New York. Yeah, they were all there. Monsignor DeGracco is a friend of mine from the seminary. He welcomed me into the seminary very early on. He's a year ahead of me, and he's the pastor of my home parish in Lindenhurst. He does things very, very well, and this was no exception. And so the parish was very, very good to us, thanks to Monsignor DeGracco and his leadership.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: And just also, I think, recognition, as we've mentioned in an earlier podcast, that as a people of faith, we mourn differently, with hope, with gratitude, even in your homily mentioning what you learned from your mother, but also from your parents example as a faith filled family, watching.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Them these years as they cared for one another, and particularly in the later portion when my father had to give total, focused dedication to her care, he gave everything I thought of their wedding on August 26, 1961, and the idues that they said to each other, they were saying yes to those days, even then. Even then. And they lived it out so beautifully, so powerfully. It was great example to all of us and a great lesson of what christian marriage is, of how it is with Christ and his church, reflection of Christ and his church.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Your family is also. You have some very young members of the family, I noticed at both the wake and the funeral mass, some of the. I guess they must.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: So my parents have 14 grandchildren and now seven great grandchildren.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And growing. I mean, the grandchildren generation is just getting going. Oh, boy. And so, yeah, we mourned, and we'll talk a little bit about catholic schools week in a little while. But one of the blessings this day is I was able to go to St. Bridget's church. It was purely coincidental, the parish where my father grew up, here in Ridgewood, Bushwick. When I was a kid, they always called it Ridgewood. Now I hear them calling it Brooklyn Bushwick. But I had the opening of catholic schools week mass there. It was a 09:00 mass, it was an english mass, and it was a tour of the school. And that was the only thing I had in the morning. So I was able to go with my dad. And after the experience of the prior week, it was really nice to go with him to St. Bridget's and for him to see that again. One of my sadnesses over these last years is that I haven't been able to share some of these experiences with my father, who really saw I'm kind of living his old life.
So that was a nice healing moment, you might say.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And of course we felt my mother's presence. That's one of the things you talk about mourning differently, and this isn't something I'm just saying, but in some ways, I feel my mother's presence more powerfully now in resurrection than even before, because it's a presence that's very real, but isn't limited to time and space. Not just worrying about her here or there, but knowing, being close to God. I'm close to her, and I can sense that closeness. So our catholic faith is very powerful. But again, people just wonderful. And actually doing this podcast and talking about it in this session is a help for me because I want to express my most sincere thanks. And of course, we have the book where people signed and I have the mascots, and my sister's already got to work on doing the thank yous. And so we certainly want to reach out to as many people as possible to say thank you. Thank you, thank you. But I'm afraid I don't know that we have everybody recorded. And there were more people who reached out in various ways than I could keep track of. And so, as much as we're going to try, I have to rely on means like this to say thank you, because I may not get everybody just because I don't have all the records. So thank you, thank you, thank you. You know that I love you an awful lot. And I am so grateful to the Lord for placing me among people who are so loving. And so I said it that day at the mass. I have to be the luckiest priest and luckiest bishop around just to be surrounded by such wonderful priests, religious and deacons, but really be surrounded by such wonderful people.
And then we get back into the routine. The routine helps us to move forward. I spent the weekend now on a scheduled visit to some of our seminaries. The majority of our seminarians are formed at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoody, but we have seminarians in other places. Two of the places include Pope St. John XXIII up in Weston, near Boston. And that is a seminary that's really dedicated to the formation of men who come later on in life, who are older when they hear the call to follow the Lord. I visited Pope St. John Seminary on Thursday into Friday, and then Friday into Saturday, made the visit to Our lady of Providence, which is connected to Providence College. It's the diocesan seminary for the Diocese of Providence. But we have a man there who's studying in the college seminary, and hopefully we'll be sending more people there. Eventually, I'll get to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where we have a man studying, and to Seaton hall, where we have men studying in the college program. But this was a chance to spend time at the seminary, to spend time with the faculty and get their feedback and give my feedback, and then meet with the fellows who are being formed. And it was great. Again, we're blessed. We have good people being formed. They're open to the process of formation. And very good, generous, courageous men.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Great. Yeah. I think the whole theme of just our topic today is our faith that unites us all. And so you have our faith in mourning, our faith in the joy and the hope of the future of the church and its priests and leaders. But also, then, when this podcast releases, we conclude catholic schools week. You often will say the young people are not just our future, they are our present. But this is the faith in the hopes of also the new catholic gentlemen and ladies to come.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Right, right. So, catholic schools. We celebrated our catholic schools. I mentioned the opening at St. Bridget's, St. Bridget, St. Francis Cabrini Academy at St. Bridget's parish. And then throughout this week, I'm visiting different schools. And most days are two schools a day. One day it's only one school, but then catching up on the office things. But it's a whirlwind tour, but it's an exciting way to meet our students. There's a spirit during catholic schools week. It's a little bit lighter in the schools. During catholic schools week. They celebrate who they are, and they might call it like spirit week. And so there's an enthusiasm that's there, and I'm experiencing it right up close, firsthand. And it's been really encouraging to see, first of all, to see the young people and to see, as you say, the generations yet to come and their goodness and their interest, but also to see our schools and the dedicated faculty, the administrators, the staff, the parents, the boards, all very good and very encouraging.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: The statistics are there for us and in our favor, certainly of the benefits and the rewards of catholic school and catholic education. And also the assistance is there. The annual catholic appeal luncheons that you had recently is a way in which really does support.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: We're very, very grateful to those who support our futures in education and those who work on it. It does make catholic education approachable to a great many people. And certainly if you're interested in catholic education here in Brooklyn, Queens, and you don't think you can swing it, stop by your local catholic school or academy and ask. You might be surprised. You might be surprised or reach out to our futures in education office and see how you can be helped. You might be surprised. We really want to see more and more children in our catholic schools, and we have great opportunities before us, and these schools are good schools. I've been using this week something that St. Irenaeus says about the glory of God. Is the human person fully alive? And indeed, that's what I'm seeing in our schools. We're seeing young people fully alive, and they're learning the skills for life that will help them to be fully alive, to live out their hopes and their dreams, to be able to build up the talents and the knowledge that's necessary. I look out and I see the glory of God in these young people fully alive. But then what makes us really and truly fully alive is the experience of friendship with Jesus Christ. And that relationship is fostered in our schools. So these young people grow up learning the truth of who we are, who God is, to see what God is working through each and every one of us.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: For me, it's exciting as well. The new initiative under the new superintendent of Catholic Schools, Deacon Kevin McCormick, who's co hosted a few times here to make sure that every school during catholic schools week receives a visitor. I'm sure ideally, most schools would wish to have a bishop or yourself there, but it's impossible for you to visit every one of them, and it's impossible even for our limited number of auxiliaries, too. And so last year I was approached, and this year as well, to visit a few schools. A number of priests in the diocese have been asked, and it was very exciting for me. It made me reminisce when my last assignment, we had our catholic school across the street here. It's a little more tough with a school that we're affiliated to, but it's further distance, certainly, than just crossing the street. But to be able to visit, see the school kids, to see their excitement, and every school usually during that week has some sort of a thematic week, and so they really enjoy it and it's a great blessing for them. They deserve it.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: And I'm getting to about eight or nine schools this week, but I'm looking forward to continue visiting. It's not limited to this week, so I'll continue to visit some of our schools and academies. Same thing, try to get to the high schools. On one hand, it's always uplifting for me, but on the other hand, that sense of connection, that's really part of the essence of my responsibility as bishop and bishop.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: As the podcast releases on Friday, February 2, we're kind of incredible to think about how quickly time is flying. Just a point of interest. February 14, Valentine's Day, traditionally is the beginning of the Lenten season here. So we're really two weeks away from the start of Lent, which is also a good opportunity for our listeners to start thinking about and preparing for Lent so it doesn't catch them off guard. Right? What are we going to do for Lent? How are we going to grow in our holiness and grow in our love of God? But this Friday, February 2, is the feast of the presentation of the Lord. And before we can get to Lent, we have to hit February 2 because it's an important day to conclude, really, the Christmas season? No?
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Yes. So liturgically, the season of Christmas is behind us. But there are certain customs that remain, and this is, in a sense, the last of the episodes in the infancy narratives, the presentation, and of course, the finding of the child. But in the presentation, we celebrate Mary and Joseph bringing the child Jesus to the temple to present him in obedience to the law. There are so many themes, the obedience to the law. Jesus became obedient even unto death, so he followed the customs and the law of his time. So Mary and Joseph obediently make that pilgrimage. We can take up the theme of God coming into his temple. It's really and truly now God is entering into the temple. And then, of course, I love the encounter of Simeon and Anna, two elderly people who are awaiting the fulfillment of God's promise, telling everyone that God has been faithful to his promise. Simeon, I love his prayer. I can picture him holding the child and saying the prayer we say every night. Now, Lord, you can dismiss your servant in peace, for my own eyes have seen the salvation which you've won for all of us. Now, Lord, you can dismiss your servant Simeon. I've been waiting all my life and I've seen you keep your promise. Wow. Isn't that amazing? And then, unfortunately, then he makes the prophecy, if you will, to Mary. Right. This child's going to be the rise and fall of many. And the sword shall pierce your heart. So, like, even in the beginning, the cross, cross is present, but it's a beautiful, beautiful day. It's also a day in which we celebrate religious life, consecrated life. The sisters and brothers who gave themselves, gave their lives completely and totally to God. So we celebrate consecrated life on the feast of the presentation. The old name, candlemast day, blessing of candles that we're going to use, Jesus, the light in the darkness, and even there are other customs. I'm one of those who keeps the nativity set up until the feast of the presentation.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: We see that happen. A lot of families will bring the infant Jesus, mostly in the hispanic cultures, but it's true, there's certain traditions. It's just jam packed with a lot. And here at the co cathedral, we're adding another beautiful layer of imagery onto this and a beautiful mass of remembrance. The joys of the births of our children are great gifts to us. But of course, sadly, there are families, couples that suffer losses in their pregnancies due to complications or even deaths in their children's infancy years. And so we decided to offer on February 2 a massive remembrance, the co cathedral, at 07:00 p.m. For that, for those families. And so I really hope that even those who may not have experienced this themselves, please, God, will just be able to join us in prayer and be present with those who have. And so it's a really beautiful celebration of a day. And then we quickly move in to twelve days later to the beginning of Lent. So we'll talk more about that too. Bishop.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Advent and Christmas were short this year and Lent is early. Boy, we just like, keep on moving, right, keep this on our. I feel like we just getting out of Christmas and already we're coming into Lent.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a wild roller coaster. But bishop, we'll have this year at the diocesan pilgrimage and more information of that to come, our Lenten pilgrimage, which is, of course, if we recall last year, an opportunity for parishioners and people of all parts of the diocese to come and step foot day by day as making a lenten journey through the diocese. It begins at St. James Cathedral, it ends at the co cathedral, and then the other churches will be announced in the tablet and online in the coming weeks.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Why don't we pray? I'll use one more time in this general season, the prayer that's kind of known as the Stella Maris in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Loving mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen, yet strive to rise again to the wonderment of nature. You bore your creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us all, and may the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come upon you and remain with you forever and ever.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Amen. Thank you all for joining us in another edition of Big City Catholics. We hope that you'll join us again next week. Continue to share this on your social media. You can find it on most podcast platforms. God bless.
