The Giglio, lifting the spirits of Italian Americans, and keeping a Brooklyn parish alive.
For more than a hundred years Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg has carried on this tradition.
That’s thanks to the parishioners who make sure it happens, especially the chairman of the feast.
We’re taking you back to summertime in this edition of Pulse of the Parish.
By Elise Ann Allen
ROME — (Crux) Frank Pavone, long a controversial figure in American Catholicism for his unconventional pro-life advocacy who was recently laicized by the Vatican, has accused his bishop of abuse of authority and “constant lies,” saying he has no intention of quitting his ministry.
Speaking to Crux, Pavone said Bishop Patrick Zurek, who oversees the Diocese of Amarillo where Pavone was incardinated as a priest, has been threatening to dismiss him from the priesthood for the past five years “under three or four changing, shifting rationales.”
“In American law, you go after a crime in search of a person. Something wrong has been done, and you go and track down the people responsible for it. This is the opposite, it’s a person in search of a crime. They’re going after me, and they keep changing the reasons why,” he said.
Pavone called Bishop Zurek’s actions an “abuse of authority,” and said he is aware that he’s made mistakes in his ministry but that he has sought to make reparation for those errors and has been obedient to instructions from his superiors to cease and desist certain activities and functions, such as those tied to U.S. politics.
“I want to be a priest. I’m not leaving the Church under any circumstances. If you close the door, I’m going to be standing on the other side of the door waiting for it to open again, and I’m going to keep doing my pro-life work,” Pavone said.
“You tell me whether this is work that’s consistent with the Church or not. I’m going to keep doing it, and I’m going to keep faithful to my calling as a priest. That’s a calling, not a piece of paper,” he said.
Dismissal from the clerical state
Over the weekend, news broke that Pavone, 63, had been dismissed from the clerical state for disobedience and blasphemy after a long and contentious deadlock with Bishop Zurek.
The news was communicated in a letter dated Dec. 13 and sent to all U.S. bishops by the Vatican’s envoy to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre.
In the letter, Archbishop Pierre said he had been informed by the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy, South Korean Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, that on Nov. 9 of this year, “a supreme decision admitting of no possibility of appeal directed that Rev. Frank Pavone be dismissed from the clerical state.”
“As you will know, Father Pavone was a very public and high-profile figure associated with the Right to Life Movement in the U.S. His dismissal from the clerical state may, therefore, be a matter of interest among the faithful,” the letter said.
Given the interest the decision will likely generate, Archbishop Pierre included a statement on Pavone’s laicization that he said was approved by the Dicastery for Clergy and could be posted to diocesan and archdiocesan websites “if you deem appropriate.”
The statement, which has since been published on the Diocese of Amarillo’s website, said that the decision to defrock Pavone “was taken after Father Pavone was found guilty in canonical proceedings of blasphemous communications on social media, and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”
“Father Pavone was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop,” the statement said.
However, “it was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”
Referring to Priests for Life, the statement said that since it “is not a Catholic organization, Mr. Pavone’s continuing role in it as a lay person would be entirely up to the leadership of that organization.”
Decades of controversy
The Founder and National Director of Priests for Life, which he established in 1990, Pavone has long been a lightning rod in U.S. Catholicism.
In one of his most notable controversies during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, while also serving as co-chair of Donald Trump’s pro-life coalition, Pavone produced a livestreamed video in which he placed a basket containing the body of an aborted baby onto an altar. The video, which urged Catholics to oppose Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, caused immediate backlash, with Bishop Zurek insisting that he would investigate the incident.
In January 2020, further controversy erupted over his appointment as co-chair of the Pro-Life Voices for Trump coalition and his announcement in April of that year that he would be joining the Catholics for Trump advisory board.
In July of that year, Pavone announced that he would be stepping down from his position on the Catholics for Trump advisory board in compliance with a request from the Congregation for Clergy that he not hold formal titles with political campaigns.
That request was based on Canon 287 of the Code of Canon Law, which states in its second article that clergy “are not to play an active role in political parties … unless, in the judgment of the competent ecclesiastical authority, this is required for the defense of the rights of the Church or to promote the common good.”
Speaking to Crux, Pavone said Bishop Zurek’s request that he renounce his priestly duties dates back to at least 2017, when the two of them had a meeting attended by other clergy in which Bishop Zurek asked Pavone to limit his pro-life advocacy and indicated that he no longer wanted Pavone inside of his diocese.
“I said, okay, you don’t want me to work inside the diocese, and you don’t want me to work outside the diocese,” he said. “You want me out of the priesthood altogether, don’t you?”
Pavone said Bishop Zurek initially denied the claim but a few weeks later sent him a letter asking him to voluntarily request laicization or Bishop Zurek would formally ask the Vatican to do it.
Two years later, in 2019, Pavone said the Vatican “dismissed” Bishop Zurek’s request and authorized his transfer to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, which was led by Bishop Michael Sheridan until his death in September of this year.
Once this agreement had been reached, Pavone said the Vatican authorized his transfer but ordered him to stay in his new diocese for at least half of the year, restricting his ability to travel as part of his advocacy with Priests for Life.
“Neither [Bishop Sheridan] nor I saw that as workable because the whole purpose here is to enable me to continue this mission and foster this vocation of full-time pro-life work, which is what I’ve been doing for 30 years,” Pavone said.
At that point, Pavone said, “we were back to square one, and Bishop Zurek was complaining.”
He said he eventually got wind that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy had issued a ruling on his case with the pope’s approval based on Bishop Zurek’s complaints and was told that he needed a sit-down meeting with Bishop Zurek to go over that decision.
However, Pavone said he refused the meeting after deciding years ago that “I could no longer deal in any way, shape or form, on a human level, with Bishop Zurek, because of the constant lies, manipulation.”
Pavone said he found out about his dismissal from the clerical state over the weekend through media requests for comment on Archbishop Pierre’s letter.
Defending past record
Pavone defended his record on the allegations of blasphemy and disobedience in Archbishop Pierre’s letter, saying no one contacted him about the incident with the video of the aborted baby in 2016, but that “Instead of asking me what happened, all of a sudden I’m seeing in news reports that the diocese is launching an investigation.”
“Talk to me, ask me what happened. Call me, sit down with me. But no, they have to make a big show,” he said, saying Bishop Zurek “never asked me once through the whole process, okay, tell me your version of what happened.
“He had his own set of facts in his head and just went public with those facts even after we refuted them. Ultimately, that became one of his reasons for calling for dismissal from the clerical state,” he said.
In reference to his support for Donald Trump and the former US president’s MAGA movement, Pavone said that in both cases, the video and his political advocacy in the Trump campaign, “the things I was asked to do I did. I was obedient, cooperative, I carried out the changes I was requested to make.”
Pavone also denied the allegations of blasphemy, saying this charge is in reference to an angry tweet he sent out to a supporter of President Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle, “when half the country was furious.”
“I went off into some tantrum, and I said, ‘G.D. loser Biden supporter.’ I shouldn’t have done that, and I don’t usually do that. It was an unusual moment of anger,” he said, accusing Bishop Zurek of blowing the issue out of proportion and making “a theological thing out of it,” saying, “God does not damn these people, Father Frank is declaring theologically that God is damning Biden and the Democrats.”
“It’s like, bishop, are you living in an alternate universe? In this one, where I live, people get mad, and people sometimes say things they shouldn’t say, and they say them out of anger, and you know what, one of the bad things we say sometimes is the G-D word.”
He also lamented the lack of recognition for his lifelong dedication to pro-life ministry, saying Archbishop Pierre, in his letter, referred to his association with the pro-life movement in the United States, but there was no sign of appreciation.
“You might want to work in a little phrase, just in passing, his 30 years of work ‘for which the Church is grateful,’ or ‘we judge this action to be necessary, but we recognize the value of this work, we’re grateful for the commitment.’ But no, they can’t even bring themselves to throw in a little phrase like that, which tells me all I need to know,” he said.
Pavone said he believes part of the reason this decision was made now is “a change in personnel” inside the Vatican, saying there are more than 20 years of back and forth with the Dicastery for Clergy under both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in which attempts to negotiate different solutions were made.
“Under Pope Francis, it’s been different. There’s also been a change in personnel at the Congregation for Clergy…They don’t know the history,” he said, saying he believes there is also “growing frustration” among U.S. bishops over allegations that he has been disobedient.
Referring to his ministry, Pavone said, “There’s no question that there’s nothing which is inconsistent with church teaching. So, what’s the problem? They’ve never been able to tell me or anyone else the problem.”
Going forward
Pavone said that he “absolutely” intends to continue his work regardless of the Vatican’s ruling and pointed to what he said are several successful ministries within Priests for Life, such as healing and mercy ministries, and he also credited them as having had an impact on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to overturn Roe v Wade.
“We’re proud of the accomplishments, so no, I didn’t go along with [Bishop Zurek] telling me to stop doing this work, and I’m not going to do that now either,” he said, saying, “it’s full steam ahead.”
“My board and my staff are 1000 percent united behind me, and around me and with each other, we’re in a good situation,” he said, saying the supporters of Priests for Life are “supporting us not because of the bishops, they’re supporting us precisely because we’re doing the work they wish their bishops were doing, but they’re not. So, I think we’re in a good position for moving forward.”
Pavone said that if the Church “closes the door” on him, then he will not go away but will be standing “on the other side of the door. I’m not going to go join some Protestant church or anything like that, I’m sticking with the Church, and I’m sticking with the priesthood, this is my vocation.”
No Vatican decision can change “what’s in my heart,” and it “doesn’t change my passion and my commitment to this cause, and this mission, it doesn’t change that,” Pavone said, adding, “I’m here. As soon as you want to be reasonable, as soon as you want to open that door again, whether it’s this pope or the next pope, I’ll be around, and I’ll walk back through that door.”
Neither the Dicastery for Clergy nor the apostolic nunciature in the United States responded to Crux’s requests for comment.
The Diocese of Amarillo could not be reached by phone for comment on this story.
By Bill Miller and Jessica Easthope
BAY RIDGE — On Monday morning, Dec. 19, three retired NYPD police officers walked slowly to a pair of aged, solitary tombstones in the Revolutionary War Cemetery behind Xaverian High School and respectfully laid Christmas wreaths on them.
Next, they drove to Green-Wood Cemetery, where they placed wreaths at the final resting places of people, including a Civil War veteran, who served in the military.
A couple of days earlier, they were at St. Peter’s Cemetery on Staten Island, where they placed circlets of Christmas greens at the graves of Father Vincent Capodanno and Pvt. Joseph Merrell. Both men were natives of the borough and recipients of the Medal of Honor who died in combat — Merrell, an infantryman in World War II, and Father Capodanno, a Navy chaplain in Vietnam.
But the three retirees were just getting started. On Wednesday, they planned to leave more wreaths at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale.
The nonprofit group Wreaths Across America, based in Harrington, Maine, provides wreaths to brighten gravesites throughout the U.S. of those who served the nation in uniform. They coordinate ceremonies at more than 3,400 locations across the United States. People like the three former cops do the legwork.
“I’m just a volunteer,” said a humble Louis DeMarco of Brooklyn, who is retired from the New York Police Department. “I focus on the U.S. military, plus the police officers and people from the NYPD who have been killed in the line of duty or have passed on.”
Helping him on this blustery morning were two retirees from Staten Island. Garry Dugan, a former homicide detective, began working for the NYPD in 1968, the same year as DeMarco. Joining them was David Brooks, a retired NYPD sergeant.
All three are Catholic, but their goal was to bring wreaths to the graves of veterans or cops of any faith because, they said, all were willing to sacrifice for their community and country.
Although retired, Dugan and Brooks still keep busy schedules, yet they dropped everything to help with the wreaths.
“It’s a sense of pride to do this, to let people know that these heroes are not forgotten,” Dugan said.
“Life goes on, and I think they’re rewarded in heaven,” Brooks said. “And I think they’re examples for us to follow.”
DeMarco was shot in the line of duty in 1978. He recovered and retired in 1984.
“I loved being a cop,” said a weeping DeMarco. “I love this city. I love what we did. And those young kids out there today — they got a tough job.”
Some recipients were both veterans and cops, like officers Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster. They were walking the beat together in January 1972 in Manhattan’s East Village when assassins ambushed and murdered them.
Both Laurie and Foster served in the U.S. Marine Corps with combat tours in Vietnam before joining the NYPD. Their deaths marked a tragic sign of the times. Laurie was white, Foster was black, and their killers belonged to the militant Black Liberation Army.
In 2018, DeMarco attended a graveside ceremony for Foster at Long Island Cemetery. The occasion was the delayed, posthumous awarding of the Silver Star medal for his heroism in Vietnam.
There, DeMarco met representatives of Wreaths Across America and purchased his first wreaths — including one for Foster.
In 2021, DeMarco raised enough money to fund 160 wreaths from Wreaths Across America. This year, he raised enough for 200 wreaths — around $3,000.
Some of those who donate request wreaths for the graves of their loved ones who served. DeMarco’s list also includes people he knew in the department, like one of his mentors, Officer Mario Tesoriero, a Marine from the Korean War era, whose grave is at Green-Wood.
Locating some of the graves is tough. In a vast cemetery like Green-Wood, there are many turns and bends in the roads, which makes map reading very difficult. Also, it’s hard to read some graves with inscriptions weathered by wind and rain.
Still, the three retirees pressed on against the chilly winds, steep slopes, and slippery grass. Sometimes they passed the grave of someone they didn’t know but who, according to the gravestone inscription, was clearly a veteran.
That’s how Maj. Jean Victor DeHanne (1834-1904) got a wreath on Monday.
The retired cops — who at that point were joined by another volunteer, John McDevitt — didn’t know the major’s story and could only speculate he might have served in the Civil War.
They were correct. In 1862, DeHanne enlisted in Brooklyn as a private in the 176th Infantry Regiment. He was discharged a year later but returned to service in 1864 as an assistant surgeon serving in Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s bloody “March to the Sea.”
Later, Maj. DeHanne was a U.S. Army surgeon during the Indian Wars and served in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Not knowing any of that, the volunteers went through their routine, placing the wreath and uttering a few words.
“Thank you for your service, Major,” DeMarco said. “Rest in peace, God bless you, and Merry Christmas.”
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Tuesday’s Mass on 12/20/22
This Christmas season a retired NYPD officer is honoring those who have died for our country.
With Title 42 set to be lifted on Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams is worried more migrants will head to New York City.
We continue our Pulse of the Parish series with a stop at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg.
The Holy Father celebrated his 86th birthday.
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said he wrote a resignation letter in 2013, his first year in office, to be used in case he became physically or mentally impaired and unable to fulfill the duties of the papacy.
In an interview published Dec. 18, the day after his 86th birthday, Pope Francis said that during the time that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was Vatican secretary of state, a position he left in October 2013, he gave a resignation letter to the cardinal.
“I signed it and said, ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation. Here you have it,'” the pope told the Spanish newspaper ABC.
Pope Francis joked that now that the letter’s existence has been made public, someone will go after Cardinal Bertone and say, “Give me that piece of paper!”
But he also said he was certain Cardinal Bertone gave it to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who succeeded him as secretary of state.
The interviewer also noted that Pope Francis had named several women as secretaries or undersecretaries of Vatican offices, but that he had not appointed a woman to lead a Vatican dicastery, although his reform of the Roman Curia says it is possible for a layperson to head a dicastery.
Pope Francis responded that he has been thinking of appointing a woman to lead “a dicastery where there will be a vacancy in two years.” He did not say what office that was.
“There is nothing to prevent a woman from guiding a dicastery in which a layperson can be a prefect,” the pope said.
However, “if it is dicastery of a sacramental nature,” presumably like the dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Bishops, for Clergy or for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, “it has to be presided over by a priest or a bishop,” the pope said.
Asked if he worries about active Catholics who may feel neglected by the pope paying so much attention to people who feel far from the church, Pope Francis responded, “If they are good, they will not feel neglected.”
But if they do feel shunned, he said, they may share the fault of the elder son in the biblical parable of the prodigal son, echoing his complaint to his father, “I’ve served you for years and now you take care of him and don’t pay any attention to me.”
That attitude, the pope said, “an ugly sin, one of hidden ambition, of wishing to stand out and be considered.”
Pope Francis also told ABC that he believes the church is making progress “little by little” in tackling clerical sexual abuse and in becoming more transparent in handling the cases.
Asked what he would say to Catholics whose faith in the church falters every time a new case is made public, the pope said, “It is good that you feel outrage about this. That leads you to act to prevent it, to make your contribution.”
“It doesn’t scare me,” the pope said. “If their faith is faltering, it’s because it is alive. Otherwise, you would feel nothing at all.”
Also Dec. 18, Italy’s Canale 5 television station aired an interview with Pope Francis in which he was asked about Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when he began a prayer asking Mary to intercede for Ukraine and had to pause because he was crying.
War is “madness,” the pope said. “I tell people, please, don’t be afraid, but let’s cry a little bit. We should be crying today about these cruelties” that always go with war.
Pope Francis said he has met many children from Ukraine in the 10 months since Russia began the war. “None of them smile. Not one. They greet you, but they cannot smile. Who knows what they have seen.”
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Monday’s Mass on 12/19/22
Pope Francis kept a busy schedule of appointments on his 86th birthday.
However, those he met with didn’t forget his special day.
Before awarding the Mother Teresa prize to three recipients, the Pope was given bouquets of sunflowers by the Missionaries of Charity.
He also met with a group of seminarians from Rome, and the president of Slovenia.
Later in the day, the Pope met with artists performing at the Vatican’s annual Christmas Concert for Peace. They played him songs with drums and bagpipes, which of course included “Happy Birthday.”
The following day the Pope invited a group of children receiving aid from the Santa Marta Pediatric Dispensary to the Vatican, with their families and volunteers.
They sang him happy birthday and presented him with a cake, before he encouraged a bit of mischief.
“And now, take some frosting, take it, take it, and in the mouth. Is it good? Go ahead,” the Pope said.
A group then performed circus tricks, and even the Pope participated.
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Friday’s Mass on 12/16/22
GRAND ARMY PLAZA — With the flip of a switch, the Diocese of Brooklyn’s official Christmas tree came to life on Wednesday, Dec. 14, with 16,000 twinkling lights shining brightly against the evening sky.
The 28-foot-tall Norway Spruce, covered with those glistening LED lights, stands majestically beneath the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza.
Bishop Robert Brennan, who led the countdown to the tree lighting, marveled at the sight of the tree, as well as the life-sized Nativity beneath it, sitting at the center of the busy Brooklyn traffic circle.
“And in the middle of all this busyness, we’re proclaiming the joy of Christmas,” he told The Tablet.
Before the ceremony, which was hosted by Currents News Anchor Christine Persichette, a crowd gathered at Grand Army Plaza to see how the tree would look when the lights were finally turned on.
“I just happened to be coming by, and I saw this tree. So I decided to stay and watch,” Jacqueline Lionel said. “I love anything that has to do with Jesus Christ and the day He was born. I guess you can say I’m here to honor Him.”
The theme of this year’s tree can be summed up in one word: Unity.
The multi-colored lights are meant to display the diversity in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which is known as “The Diocese of Immigrants” and where Mass is celebrated in 33 different languages. Shining brightly together, the lights also symbolize the unity in the diocese as well as among Catholics worldwide who are united in the belief that Jesus Christ came into the world to be the savior of all men and women.
“The tree, lit up in the brightly different colors, is really a sign for us of both unity and diversity,” Bishop Brennan said. “Unity means that with our differences, all the different ways that we approach life [and] cultural backgrounds, there is something that pulls us together. And that, for us as Catholic Christians, is our faith.”
The call for unity comes at a time when the nation is divided over many issues, including immigration and the question of how to handle the number of undocumented immigrants who cross over every day from Mexico to enter the U.S.
The tree lighting ceremony, held against the backdrop of music performed by the choir of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, was sponsored by DeSales Media Group, the technology and communications ministry of the diocese and parent company of The Tablet.
It also featured a prayer for unity from Auxiliary Bishop Witold Mroziewski, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros, and Father Alonzo Cox.
“May all of us, created in the image and likeness of God, continue to grow in unity as one body, one spirit, one church,” said Father Cox, the director of The Liturgy Office for the diocese. Bishop Mroziewski read a portion of the prayer in Polish, and Bishop Cisneros recited a part in Spanish.
The tree, purchased by the diocese from a family-owned farm in Pennsylvania, was brought to Brooklyn a week before the lighting ceremony. It was cut down, transported to the borough, and set up at Grand Army Plaza by Torsilieri Inc., the company that provides the same service for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Msgr. Sean Ogle, vicar for clergy for the diocese and chairman of the board of DeSales Media Group, said prayer is important, particularly now.
“Above all,” he said, “we know we need the power of prayer to light up the world’s darkness.”