By Tim Harfmann
Brookly Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is no stranger to mother nature. A former Boy Scout, during his time as a Scout he earned the rank of ‘Life,’ the second-highest honor that can be bestowed upon a Boy Scout.
He was also a Scout Leader before he entered the seminary, and as part of a special visit, he traveled nearly 120 miles from Brooklyn to the Catskills mountains where over 1600 Boy Scouts will spend part of their summer at Ten Mile River scout camps.
Nearly 750 of them are from the Brooklyn Diocese.
The Boy Scouts’ motto is ‘be prepared,’ and they were prepared – with sloppy joes and tater tots upon Bishop DiMarzio’s arrival.
“It’s very important to men who are involved in it,” said Bishop DiMarzio, “and it’s always good for the diocese to show their show; so I do enjoy coming up for the day.”
He celebrated an outdoor Mass, where he related to the young Scouts in his homily.
“We don’t have a lot of leaders. We have a lot of followers, okay? A lot of followers on Facebook, on all the Twitter, all that stuff,” he said in his homily.
“It’s a time for all of us to escape from the world of technology, just for us to relax and earn different merit badges and learn new things,” said Eagle Scout Joseph Magliulo, from Troop 139 at Our Lady of Grace Church in Howard Beach.
Among those new skills: learning how to navigate on a map, and practice CPR.
During the Mass Bishop DiMarzio also urged the campers to consider following God’s call.
“It’s an important time for them. We want to encourage them,” he said.
“Either they’re going to be married, or priests or religious or something; but that’s important to make that choice early on. Usually God calls us, not when we’re old, but when we’re young.”
After the Mass, Bishop Dimarzio wished the Scouts a good summer, reminding them to “be prepared.”
Now these scouts are considering their vocation, all while having fun.