It was a jam-packed week for U.S. bishops.
Parishioners at St Michael – St Malachy have made it their mission to welcome the strangers to the Big Apple.
We’ll have the story of a day camp at Our Lady of Fatima in Jackson Heights that draws campers from all over the borough.
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Friday’s Mass on 11/18/22
The U.S. bishops had a day of closed-door meetings in Baltimore on Thursday and are now headed back to their dioceses.
It was a busy week, where some headlines were made.
Here’s a recap:
And, in this midterm election year, the bishops discussed how they can guide Catholics when they hit the polls.
National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, John Lavenburg has been with the bishops all week in Baltimore. He joins Currents News to break down the week.
By Jessica Easthope
You can acquire a lot of secret ingredients over 40 years as a professional chef. Michael Edmonds says his favorite one is no longer a secret; his faith is a part of every meal he makes.
“My faith is very, very strong, if anything this is the fun part of my faith because this gives me the opportunity to give back,” said Michael.
Michael’s owned his own restaurant, cooked for celebrities and royalty but these days he finds himself in a very different kind of kitchen.
“This fabulous life, what are you doing here, this is part two of that fabulous life to me because I get such pleasure here,” he said.
Now he cooks full time for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Maspeth where he’s worked for five years.
“It’s nothing fancy, they live simply, it’s very easy to take a chicken breast and make it spectacular or salmon and make it something unusual and pretty because you eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth and that’s key,” said Michael.
Michael can barely remember all the big names he’s cooked for, but technique, he can never forget. He whips up meals on a modest budget, he says that’s when his training kicks in. And the brothers seem to love it, but more than that, they love Michael.
“Michael is a tremendous person, I know he’s a great cook and a good chef but over and above that he’s a great person to be around and he adds a lot of our community here,” said Brother Xavier Werneth.
By Jessica Easthope
Michael was the baby, Peggy Virgadamo’s youngest of four, her pride and joy. They spoke every day, even when he moved down to Florida. They were more than mother and son – they were best friends.
“What a beautiful gift God gave us to be able to share in the creation and development of a child throughout their entire life and what greater gift could I have,” she said.
Now Michael and Peggy’s relationship lives on through this book, “Love Letters from a Mother to her Dying Son.” Peggy wrote letters when she couldn’t be with Michael during his last days.
“I wasn’t allowed to see him, he didn’t want us to quote – watch him die, I guess I was being protected and my pastor said to me, thing of Mary and the pieta and I said she got to hold her son, I didn’t,” she said.
On April 14, 2017, Good Friday, Michael lost his battle with an aggressive form of throat cancer.
“I went through the anger and the frustration and my faith was shattered I didn’t care if I lived or died and I’m not that kind of person, I still had a beautiful family who loved me, I had no right feeling that way but I did, I lost my son, I lost my baby,” said Peggy.
Peggy took her time to grieve before pouring her loss and love into her book. She published it on Amazon earlier this year, with all of the proceeds going back to Cathedral Prep, Michael’s alma mater.
“Cathedral’s motto is “men for greatness,” to me, and of course I’m prejudiced but Michael personified that in every phase of his life,” she said.
The book was on Amazon’s best seller list among new arrivals in the bereavement category the week of its release.
“If I can help one person get over this hurdle of feeling despair and hurt and lost the book is worthwhile,” said Peggy.
With her through her grieving and writing process was her pastor at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Father Anthony Sansone.
Father Sansone says the book has inspired his own view on life after death.
“His spirit is quite present, I believe in the invisible and much of what has happened in the past year he has brought about by the very power of God,” said Father Sansone.
Peggy sought out to help others – but the book has allowed her to heal.
BALTIMORE — On the second day of the U.S. bishops’ conference fall general assembly, a proposal to update the conference’s voting guide for Catholics fostered the most discussion, with multiple bishops calling for the next iteration of the document to address current political realities and societal divisions.
In the end, the bishops voted to forgo major changes to the document before the 2024 election. They will instead develop an introductory note for the document that will incorporate more recent papal teachings and policy developments and then tackle a full “re-examining” of the document once the election passes.
The document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” has been issued every four years since 2007, always a year ahead of presidential elections to avoid the conference appearing partisan.
Bishop John Stowe of Lexington said the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the COVID-19 pandemic, and national divisions are examples of societal changes that make it “irresponsible” for the conference to suggest it has nothing new to say, and he urged changes to the document.
Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, echoing Bishop Stowe’s sentiment, urged the conference to give great attention “to the crisis of democracy” that the nation has experienced.
“Our people are uneasy about this, and we must speak to this question in a non-partisan way, a way that comes from our tradition,” Cardinal McElroy said. “I feel like if we let this moment go … I think we will be missing out on what is probably the central challenge to us at this moment as a people.”
Other bishops acknowledged that it doesn’t appear the document is reaching people in the first place. Emeritus Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn said if the voters’ guide doesn’t address the nation’s division, then it’ll be hard to get people’s attention and therefore form their consciences.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, suggested one way to reach people — both Catholics and non-Catholics — is making every November “faithful citizenship month,” where the USCCB would encourage people to look at Catholic social teaching.
“We have to do a better job of getting that into the hearts and minds of people,” he said.
After the public session ended, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chair of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, told reporters that the bishops recognize that not enough people have access to the document. He said it will be important to figure out new ways for people to access and digest its content.
The Nov. 16 public session also included an immigration update from Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, the outgoing chair of the USCCB Migration Committee, who spoke about the importance of continuing advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform.
Bishop Dorsonville highlighted that the past two years — under President Joe Biden — were expected to be “the best opportunity in quite some time” to make progress toward immigration reform, but little was done.
Now that the Democrats have lost control of the House of Representatives, the outlook is even bleaker, according to Bishop Dorsonville.
“Millions will continue to live in the shadows without legal status. Family members will remain separated. The most vulnerable will suffer,” he said. “Disorder will continue at the border, and the very future of our country will hang in the balance without a functioning immigration system.”
Earlier in the day, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, chair of the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, gave an update on the Eucharistic Revival, revealing that they’ve been able to cut the cost in half, from $28 million to $14 million.
Bishop Cozzens added that they’ve traveled to Indianapolis several times to prepare for the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress. He said that it will be a three-day event that will have the same environment as the World Youth Days, with catechetical sessions in the morning, a festival atmosphere in the afternoon, and all 80,000 attendees gathered together at night.
After launching Corpus Christi processions nationwide in June, the National Eucharistic Revival is still in its first stage, which takes place at the diocesan level. Cozzens said the goal of the initiative is trying to “bring people to an encounter with a living Jesus,” which leads to a missionary conversion.
Earlier in the public session, eight bishops were elected to fill USCCB leadership positions:
It is day 2 of the bishop’s public meetings in Baltimore. The hot topic of the agenda today: the Eucharistic Revival campaign happening around the country.
We are getting some reaction after former President Donald Trump made an announcement last night that he’s running.
A mother compiled the letters she sent her son during the 23 days before he died.
BALTIMORE — In his first remarks as the newly elected U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio said he would welcome the opportunity to meet with President Joe Biden and denied that his election is a sign of “dissonance” between Pope Francis and U.S. bishops.
Archbishop Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, led each round of voting but didn’t break the majority threshold of 119 votes until the third round, when he garnered 138 votes. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore — who was elected conference vice president soon after — was second in the presidential vote with 99.
After the Nov. 15 public session, Archbishop Broglio fielded questions from the media, including how he’ll operate in the political arena. The archbishop said he looks forward to possible conversations with U.S. political leaders and that he wouldn’t miss “any chance to insert the gospel into all aspects of life in our country.”
That would include a conversation with Biden, a Catholic whose pro-abortion stance has made for a turbulent relationship between the Oval Office and USCCB in recent years. Archbishop Broglio highlighted, however, that outgoing USCCB president Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles wasn’t afforded the opportunity.
“I know that there has been a great desire on the part of [Archbishop Gomez] to meet with the president, and that hasn’t been possible,” Archbishop Broglio said. “If it’s possible in the future, I’ll certainly take advantage of that. If he wants to meet with me, I’d be happy to meet with him.”
Archbishop Broglio was also asked about his time as Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s secretary from 1990-2001 and how that experience forms the way he views issues of clerical sexual abuse in the Church. Cardinal Sodano, who died earlier this year, was the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who repeatedly defended and covered for then-Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legion of Christ who a Vatican investigation found committed a wide range of sexual abuse and other forms of misconduct.
Archbishop Broglio answered that “hindsight is always 20/20,” noting that he had left working in Cardinal Sodano’s office by the time the accusations against Father Maciel came out. He said those circumstances are always “a good reminder that we have to be attentive and that we have to be proactive.”
This year is the 20th anniversary of the Dallas Charter, and the body of bishops ended the first day of their week-long general assembly with a prayer and reflection on the document.
In other comments, Archbishop Broglio said he’s “not aware” that his election indicates “dissonance” with Pope Francis as some people have suggested, saying that he’s “certainly in communion with Pope Francis as part of the universal church” and that the two are “brother bishops.”
As for his approach to the USCCB presidency, Archbishop Broglio said he intends to continue the work of Archbishop Gomez, which includes fostering unity among the U.S. bishops after a challenging few years.
In a conversation with The Tablet after the public session, Archbishop Lori, the soon-to-be USCCB vice president, said unity among the bishops is paramount to the success of the church.
“[Unity] has always been critical, but the importance of it is highlighted in a very polarized culture and in a culture that challenges the unity of the church itself,” Archbishop Lori said. “I don’t think that coming together in unity can be overemphasized. We can never stop finding our unity in the Holy Spirit, who enables us to encounter the person of Christ and to be rooted in his love.”
Unity among the U.S. bishops was a focus of Archbishop Gomez’ final address as USCCB president.
Archbishop Gomez said that it’s not inevitable that the U.S. falls into secularism but added that the church needs “a bold pastoral strategy to communicate the Gospel, to use every media platform to turn hearts and minds toward Christ, to call our people to be great saints.”
The archbishop said the Synod is an opportunity to do just that because it “reminds us that the Church is all of us together — bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians; religious and consecrated; lay people in every profession.”
“[This moment] is about remembering that we’re in this together, that we belong to God, and that we’re all called to be saints,” he said. “It’s about each one of us doing what God is calling us to do to build his kingdom.”
Archbishop Broglio will take over the USCCB presidency from Archbishop Gomez, and Archbishop Lori the conference vice presidency from Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit at the conclusion of this week’s fall general assembly. At the time of the election, Archbishops Broglio and Lori each held leadership roles within the USCCB, secretary and pro-life chair, respectively. Bishops will be elected to take over those roles today.
In what turned out to be Archbishop Lori’s final address as the USCCB pro-life chair, he spoke on the need to build a culture of life through engaging the mind, heart, and soul. He acknowledged that the recent votes in five states to protect abortion rights didn’t turn out how the conference had hoped, and that the “job of educating, catechizing, evangelizing, is perhaps more massive than we thought.”
Archbishop Lori told The Tablet that the Dobbs decision this past summer has changed the work of the committee. With abortion laws now in the hands of the states, he said the committee’s work shifted to working with individual bishops and state conferences on their advocacy efforts.
He added that the committee is producing documents that give diocesan leaders a “user-friendly” and “practical” way to approach advocacy, and convening state conference directors to share best practices, while still presenting a unified message for the U.S. Catholic Church as a whole.
His advice for whoever takes over the role today is to focus on changing hearts and minds.
“The advice I would offer anyone stepping into this is to continue the work of helping brother bishops, priests, deacons, and our lay coworkers to speak and bear witness convincingly to the invaluable dignity of human life and to concentrate first and foremost on winning the hearts and minds of fellow Catholics who might be on the fence,” Archbishop Lori said.
The Catholic church on UVA’s campus, St Thomas Aquinas, opened their doors immediately after the lockdown was lifted.
Father Joseph-Anthony Kress, the chaplain there, said students in this generation prepare for these situations but living through them and then living with the grief is entirely different.
Father Kress said around 400 students attended a vigil that was held. Parish staff will continue to be available for anyone who needs to grieve.
Those who are getting food and clothing at churches like St. Michael – St. Malachy in East New York have never had to ask for a warm meal or a coat or blanket. Volunteers say they’re helping them find their faith again, and doing it with as much dignity as possible.