On Saturday, I had the privilege of ordaining to the priesthood two young men whom I have known for a long time.

Two new priests for the Diocese. Photo courtesy of John Christian.

St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Clearwater, which we have been using for some time while our Cathedral of St. Jude is being remodeled, was packed to the proverbial “gills” with priests, deacons, religious, families and friends of the new priests, and our seminarians and some who are thinking of the seminary. I would estimate that about 1300 people were present when Justin Peter Paskert and Gioan Nguyen Vu Viet answered the call to orders with their “present.”

The then transitional deacons, Deacon Justin Paskert and Deacon Viet Nguyen. Photo kindness of Dana Rozance with Vidaroza Photography.

The ceremony took 135 minutes, but I would be willing to bet the house that no one looked at their watch or wanted to leave at its conclusion. There is something overwhelming about ordinations.

Photo kindness of Dana Rozance of Vidaroza Photography.

I call it a veritable tsunami of emotion and feeling which builds throughout the ceremony and the release is often found in thunderous applause from the assembled.

Father Viet alone is quite a story, as is the faith witness of his family. Always wishing to be a priest and attempting on several occasions to enter the seminary in his native country of Vietnam, he was prevented from doing so by the Vietnamese government authorities who have the “right” to vet any and all candidates for the Catholic priesthood prior to their admission into any seminary in the country. In Father Viet’s case, it was probably guilty by association with his uncle who is a priest in the Diocese of Hue and who is at this very moment in prison for the “outrageous” crime of speaking publicly on behalf of democracy and freedom of religion throughout Vietnam. Now in his third decade of imprisonment, his uncle, Father Thadeus Ly, was released briefly when his jailers discovered that he had cancer but he was quickly put back into prison where he remains today. Needless to say, I asked everyone present to pray for Father Ly, for his health, for his freedom from prison, for his liberty to again be a priest to God’s people in his home diocese.

BUT, one member of the family in jail was not enough and when the young Gioan Nguyen Vu Viet protested his uncle’s imprisonment, he too was placed in prison, in solitary confinement and sometimes going days without being fed even subsistence food and water. He was a “political” prisoner of the government of Vietnam. They tried to break him but they could not. They tried to kill him even but they could not. It was all about his faith, his desire for the freedom of his uncle. A human rights group from the United States discovered his case and several members of Congress sought his release to come to the United States and end the punishment of an innocent man.

They succeeded, Viet came to the US and to the Tampa Bay area and soon sought us out to see if he might pursue his longtime goal of priesthood in the United States. We accepted him, put him in the seminary, and on Saturday ordained him a priest. His mother and a few other relatives were allowed to come for his ordination, but the government of the United States refused to approve a request for a visa for Father Viet’s brother and sister, fearing I suppose they might “overstay” their welcome.

The joy among the Vietnamese community over one of their own being ordained a priest  was clearly present, just about every Vietnamese priest in Florida was with us for the ordination, and Viet’s bishop from his home diocese of Phu Cuong, Bishop Joseph Nguyen Tan Tuoc, was present for the ordination of a man who his predecessor as bishop could not get the Vietnamese government to allow to enter the seminary. How sweet is that?

With Father Viet Nguyen and his mother. Photo kindness of John Christian.

Father Viet has been assigned as Assistant Pastor of St. Paul Parish in St. Petersburg where he served his pastoral year two years ago and where he became much loved by the parishioners. In time, of course, he will minister closely and directly to the Vietnamese community in our Diocese which currently gathers for Sunday Mass at Epiphany Church in Tampa and Holy Martyrs of Vietnam parish in Largo.

Father Justin Paskert, after graduating from high school joined his Dad and brothers in the family plumbing business in southwestern Hillsborough County. I remember meeting Justin when he was in grade school and high school and he would serve my confirmation Masses at his home parish of St. Anne in Ruskin. Nine  long years ago he came to Father Len Plazewski, then the Vocation Director, and asked him if he might enter the seminary. He completed four years at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and five years of theology at the Regional Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach. During his pastoral year, he was at Corpus Christi parish in Temple Terrace but any parish that had Justin during his formation years for any purpose felt blessed. Quietly effective in many ways, he was elected the President of the Student Body at St. Vincent de Paul seminary, thereby enjoying the respect and confidence of his peers.

With Father Justin Paskert and his parents. Photo kindness of John Christian.

Father Paskert will serve his first years of priestly ministry at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church in Tarpon Springs.

I have the greatest level of confidence that these two men, one once a plumber and the other once a prisoner (“for the Lord” in the language of the great St. Paul) will do well. They sure got off to an incredible start at their ordination to priesthood yesterday and for them both, the best is yet to come. If you wish to read my homily on this occasion, you may do so below or via a PDF version by clicking here.

HOMILY AT THE PRIESTHOOD ORDINATION MASS FOR

JUSTIN PETER FRANCIS PASKERT AND JOHN NGUYEN VU VIET

By

Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch, Bishop of St. Petersburg

St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Clearwater, FL

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Viet and Justin, may the applause of your family and friends and indeed this local church of St. Petersburg, ring in your ears and remain in your memory long after the doors of this church have once again been locked and all of us have withdrawn. The affirmation just heard and to be repeated several more times is but our only way of expressing our pride and joy in you and our gratitude to the Lord of the harvest who has skillfully planted the seeds of your vocation in your heart and carefully managed their cultivation to this moment.

Our applause is genuine. Our pride is real. Our hope is palpable. Our love for you is unconditional. Our desire to support you even more in the days and months ahead is freely offered. However, praise can be a fleeting thing. Christ Himself who used the same words from Isaiah as we proclaimed in the first reading in his great return to the synagogue of his youth would soon hear applause give birth to skepticism, truth give way to cynicism, and popularity quickly decline to opposition. Today you conform yourself more closely to Christ, the priest. He sacrificed himself, you will offer sacrifice. He forgave sinners in his name and by his power; you will forgive through the ministry of the Church thereby offering both pardon and peace. These and more are awesome responsibilities of which no man is truly worthy but as was Aaron, you too have been called by God. Priesthood is not about power, nor might I add is the episcopacy. We are called to serve, friend and foe alike, the learned and the ignorant, the faithful as well as the erring. In recent days Pope Francis has reminded us with his stark, simple, stunning and stirring words, there is no room in Christ’s church and especially in ordained and consecrated ministry for careerism and a self-reverential approach to priesthood stands in stark opposition to the ministry of Christ. How, often, as in this morning’s readings do we hear Christ deflect praise by reminding his listeners that he is busy not about His business but that of the one who sent Him. Genuine ministry is always at the service of someone higher than ourselves – we are merely instruments in the hands of the Almighty.

It has always been amazing to me in my thirty-five years of priestly ministry how the core or substance of who we are and what we were ordained to do remains unchanged but the accidentals change. Perhaps an analogy might help? Understanding priestly ministry today is something like eating an artichoke – truth and transparency require me to admit that is something I have never done and would not ever think of doing. However, watching others attack this weird looking vegetable, the satisfaction that is gained from peeling off and sipping the contents of the leaves eventually gives way to both gazing at and then eating the core. The leaves are teasers, if you wish, for the delight that remains hidden to both the eye and the palate until the end. The core of the priesthood is our role in the celebration of the sacraments, of transubstantiation and of reconciliation, of baptizing into new life and anointing those soon to pass into life eternal, of reminding those who are about to begin their life together as husband and wife that fidelity has its place in marriage and in ordination and consecration. That’s the core but each priest has an opportunity to sweeten the leaves – to smile when it seems the impossible has been asked of us, to invite to the table those who society and perhaps even our ecclesial community tends to exclude, to eat with prisoners incarcerated and to assist those incarcerated with their own addictions to find new freedom. Christ is the core of priestly ministry, but the leaves can be sometimes of our doing and sometimes under the influence of others.

Justin and Viet, you are the first of what will likely someday be called the “Francis priests.” Almost every priest in this church today can say that they are Paul VI priests, John Paul II and Benedict priests and now Francis priests. I very much consider myself a Paul VI priest but I will not belabor definitions. However, I think Paul VI’s vision of the Church post Council was what excited me enough to shut up and listen to the voice of God calling me to ministry in the Church. A lot of who I am, how I act as a priest and bishop, how I envision Church was shaped by his ministry, his vision, his commitment to the Council. The core of my ministry, the fruit if you will of God’s call is the same as everyone else’s and it has been very satisfying for thirty-five years, to me and I hope to God to others.

But if I were your age, I would be enchanted by Pope Francis. I too believe that the future of the Church depends not on how we serve the comfortable, but how we reach out to the fringes, the excluded, the vulnerable, and the forgotten. Doing that will make some uncomfortable in ministry and some uncomfortable of their ministers. But look at the ministry of the Lord – little time was spent with those whom he was most comfortable with and a lot of time was spent on those who had no other friends. Both of you have great gifts of experience to bring to your priesthood, leaves if you will which have special delight and will want others to continue on until they find the core.

Justin, you know that there is dignity in hard labor for with your father and in the family business you took pride in the product of your labor no matter how dirty your hands and clothes became. You know how hard it is to gain a dollar and how quickly and foolishly that which came as a result of hard work can disappear in a consumer moment. You will be a comfort to God’s holy people as they search for meaning and dignity in their work.

Viet, you have stared your prison guards in the face, conquered incarceration, proved that there is no restraint which can chain the human longing for freedom of religion and when faced with solitary confinement and starvation, you felt the presence of Jesus in a manner which none of us ever will, you cloned yourself to Paul and Silas and Peter for whom chains and ankle irons never confined their preaching and powerful witness and your hunger was for the bread of life.  Who better in this whole diocese to say, “I have come to bring freedom to prisoners?”

My brothers, the leaves, which surround the core of your priestly ministry, raise great expectations in all of us today. Both of you have born the heat of the day and may Francis, our Pope, who understands the challenges of life perhaps better than many of his saintly predecessors and perhaps even of ourselves inspire you to become “Franciscan” – and sorry sons of St. Francis, you know how I mean that!

The daily journey to the core substance of your priestly ministry will provide you with many moments of joy and happiness. Everyone here this morning joins me in welcoming you to priestly ministry at the service of others. AMEN.

+RNL

Father Thomas Stokes, S.M.

Word came to me late yesterday of the deaths of two wonderful people. The Marist Fathers province informed us of the death of our dear Father Thomas Stokes, for many years the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ybor City. Father Stokes retired last summer but remained around until the Fall when he returned to Ireland for the final time. I wrote lovingly about this man and his time among us last year and you can access that tribute by clicking here. For this moment, Father Tom did not have a long period of restful retirement, but now he rests in peace in that better place to which we all aspire and to which all of us who knew Father Stokes know that he is almost there, for sure.

When I arrived in the diocese in January of 1996, our communications officer was Joseph Mannion. He also died yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. Joe was one of the first people I heard about after my appointment as bishop became known as he had been a classmate and friend in Rome at the North American College of Cardinal William Keeler, a wonderful friend of mine and mentor to me. He told me that Joe and his wife remained close friends of his and that the diocese was blessed to have a communicator of his talent. Upon arriving, I found that Joe had been an on-air personality of Channel Eight here in the Tampa Bay area for a number of years and was a highly respected journalist in the newer medium of television. Joe was also the lobbyist in Tallahassee for Pasco County which necessitated his presence in the capital during legislative sessions and we were beginning to have the challenge of coming to know and handle the sexual misconduct claims of priests and other diocesan employees. It became almost impossible for Joe to represent both the county before the legislature and the Church before the media and he chose the county. A part of me always thought that because of his lifelong love of the Church and the priesthood, it was just awful for Joe to have to speak to these crimes of unspeakable pain and suffering perpetrated largely on minors. I would see Joe and his wife on occasion, always when his friend Cardinal Keeler was in town, and at the annual Red Mass in Tallahassee once each year when the bishops were in town. He was a great man in every way, a great servant of his Church and his faith, and a witness to both. May he rest in peace and may his wife Elizabeth and his sons be comforted by the memories of a life well lived and a service to the Lord and to humankind of the highest quality.

Finally, this brings me to the Lord’s most recent gifts. On Saturday last, I ordained eleven men to the transitional diaconate (this means simply that they are on their way to priesthood ordination next year and will serve as deacons only during a transitional period of thirteen months).

Photo kindness of Alexander Rivera, seminarian at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

The ordination took place at our regional seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach where Monsignor David Toups is Rector and Monsignor Michael Muhr, both priests of our diocese, is spiritual director. Three of the eleven men were ordained for the Diocese of St. Petersburg. They are Brian Fabiszewski from St. Catherine parish in Largo, Jonathan Emery from St. Clement parish in Plant City, and Kyle Smith from Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Land O’ Lakes.

Deacon Kyle Smith, myself, Deacon Brian Fabiszewski, and Deacon Jonathan Emery. Photo kindness of Alexander Rivera, a seminarian at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

The other new deacons were from the Archdiocese of Miami, and the dioceses of Palm Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville and Pensacola-Tallahassee. My opportunity to ordain at the seminary to the diaconate comes once every seven years as the owning bishops of the seminary rotate the privilege. It was a glorious day with a glorious liturgy and I departed confident that six of our dioceses would be getting eleven great priests a year from now. Pictures from the occasion can be found by clicking here, as is my homily (click here to read it) on this occasion.

So indeed with two deaths of friends, colleagues and witnesses to the faith, the Lord has taken from our midst great people, but in the ordination rite, the renewal of ranks continues and he gives us continued hope for the future.

+RNL

HOMILY AT THE PRAYER VIGIL TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle

April 10, 2013

Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch, Bishop of St. Petersburg

Giving the homily at the prayer vigil. Photo kindness of Sabrina Burton Schultz. To see a few more photos from the prayer vigil, please click here.

For the first time in my seventeen years as bishop of this diocese, the consequences of a heinous crime and the application of the death penalty has come to our area and in just a few minutes Larry Mann will himself experience death by lethal injection. My thoughts first go out to the family of Elisa Nelson, the young girl brutally murdered by Mann over three decades ago who are hoping that the death of this man will help bring closure to their long period of grief and suffering. No one, least of all myself, can speak of their experience of the loss of a daughter in an unspeakable way which this family has lived with. It would be tragic not to take this moment to pray for the Nelson’s and to commend again their darling daughter Elisa to eternal rest with God.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.

We gather this evening also to pray for the abolition of the death penalty in our state. We take as articles of faith that even one who has fully violated the fifth commandment, Thou shalt not kill, should not have their life taken by anyone other than the author of all life, the Lord God. All of the modern popes since the Second Vatican Council have spoken to the issue of capital punishment. While all have allowed it in the narrowest of circumstances, it was Blessed Pope John Paul II who said that it should be extremely rare. It is extremely hard to be pro-life when it comes to its beginning and postulate the arguments against abortion and still be for capital punishment. That same heart and mind which abhors the horror of abortion should logically abhor the state deciding who will live and who will die.

Proponents of the death penalty argue that justice can only be served when one violent act is responded to by another. As a child, my parents always taught us that two wrongs do not make a right. When “right dwells in the desert” and “justice abides in the orchard”, then the great prophet Isaiah promises that “justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.” After over two hundred years of the exercise of the death penalty, there is no valid evidence that it reduces crime, that murders diminish, and that the people live in greater security. It is not and never has been a deterrent.

Florida’s use of the death penalty is one of the most egregious in the nation. It does not take the same unanimous jury which convicted the felon in the first place to initiate the death penalty. In fact, it only takes seven out of twelve members of a jury to recommend death, by lethal injection or the electric chair. Only one state in the union shares this sad statute with ours. Our elected judges can overrule a jury and assign the death penalty if they do not concur with the jury’s recommendation in capital cases. Death comes cheaply in Florida in our statutory law.

In the last two years, the governors and legislatures in two more states have abolished capital punishment: New Mexico and Maryland. Tonight we pray once again that what the rest of the world views as a barbaric response to admittedly heinous crimes becomes rarer and rarer to use our Holy Father’s words. “Forgiving one another as God has forgiven” us is part of our religious DNA. It is why we are here tonight. We use this occasion of yet another moment in Florida’s sad history to pray to God, the author of all life, to enlighten the hearts and minds of our people and elected officials and remove this last statutory remnant of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

+RNL

Nearly one hundred and fifty priests either living or serving in the diocese joined me at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Clearwater (the Cathedral is under renovation and will be re-dedicated on September 12, 2013) for the annual Chrism Mass during which the three oils used throughout the year for the sick and infirm, for catechumens, and for baptism, ordination, consecration, confirmation are blessed.

Blessing the Oil of the Sick. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

Blessing the Oil of Catechumens. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

The latter oil is called Sacred Chrism and has a very special place in the Church’s life.

Consecrating the Sacred Chrism. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

Every parish in the diocese is represented annually and during the Mass the three oils used during the coming year are blessed by the bishop.

Parish representatives holding their parish’s Oil of the Sick as it is blessed. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

Parish representatives holding their parish’s Oil of Catechumens as it is blessed. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

But it is also the Mass at which our priests renew their priestly promises and their commitment to the ordained ministry which Christ has called them to.

Renewal of Priestly Promises. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

To see more photos from the Chrism Mass, please click here.

Giving the homily to a packed St. Catherine of Siena. Photo kindness of Maria Mertens.

As I have mentioned before, it is always something of a homiletic challenge for the bishop of a diocese since the readings are always the same and the congregation is mostly the same. I offer you here my thoughts during this amazing Lent and beginning springtime in the Church. To read the homily in a PDF version, please click here. To listen to audio recorded by Spirit FM 90.5, our Catholic radio ministry, during their live broadcast of the Mass, please click here.

Dear brothers in the priesthood and brothers and sisters all.

            It’s Springtime in Rome, both climatologically and ecclesiologically. The stunning events of this Lenten season will not soon be forgotten and the election of Pope Francis has captured both the imagination and attention of the world – not just the Catholic world.  Why, one might ask? What can we as ordained and baptized expect from our new Holy Father?

            In reply I would offer three words: continuity, compassion, and simplicity. Each noun for me has a deeper meaning and each noun might possibly have special import today at our annual Mass of recommitment. The readings for this Mass are very familiar. In his first return to his own synagogue in Nazareth where he had for three decades attended, worshipped, listened and believed, and even though he was sent by the Father as the deliverer of a New Covenant, Jesus emphasized continuity with the past by choosing well-known words from the prophet Isaiah and applying them then to himself. Though a new day had dawned in his preaching and missionary work since leaving his hometown, yet he soon returned and immediately established compatibility with the past and continuity with its ages long teaching of right conduct towards God and our fellow women and men. Greatest of the prophets, greatest of the priests and the great High Priest at that, and a king in the sense that his generation would find difficult to accept and understand, Jesus offered a New Covenant consistent with all Israel had been preparing for. Jesus offered an outline for his ministry consistent with his tradition yet expanding its scope and mission.

            In his very first recorded sermon in that synagogue, he chose a passage from the great prophet, which emphasized both the source of his strength for his mission and compassion for others. He had come to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. There was no trace of human narcissism in this man as he placed the crosses of life of others before his own well being. He clothed himself in Isaiah’s words and then by his actions in his public ministry did everything and wrapped himself within the context of his two great loves: love of the Father who sent Him and love of his neighbor.  In three years, he not only restored physical sight to the blind man but spiritual sight to the woman at Jacob’s well, he challenged the rich young man who in the end could not leave all to follow him, and comforted countless others.  He told his twelve to travel light, accept what their hosts offered in terms of food and shelter, asking not for the first places or special treatment or deference. Knowing that there were many more people in his society who were caught under the unjust heel of economic oppression, he worked to give them their freedom. His only enemy was the status quo, not the Roman occupiers, not scribes and the Pharisees, but oppression, which cried out to heaven for vengeance. And his love was unconditional; it cared not for caste or class, male or female, pagan or believer, rich or poor. Every man or woman on the face of God’s earth on Friday if they choose to do so can gaze at that figure on the cross and see in his outstretched arms, I did this for you.

            And then there was his simplicity. The author of the words from the Book of Revelation, which was our second reading understood the need for simplicity as he writes, Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. . .the ruler of kings of the earth…who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father….and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him….all the peoples of the earth will lament him. The words are simple enough; the example is very hard to live out. I see in this passage not a Lord who comes in judgment and says, “I told you so” but one who comes and simply says, “I begged you so.” I did not pull rank, I did not strike you dead or deaf in your disobedience, rather I left the door of reconciliation open until we both breathed our last on earth. Take up your cross, understand that every day you will not always smell the roses, love the Father and I, care for your neighbors, eat my flesh, drink my blood.

            He chose Peter to lead his Church after his death. Not the smartest, not at all educated, impetuous and given to constantly sticking his foot in his proverbial mouth, a denier, a fair-weather friend on occasion, and on occasion also a coward. But due to his dedication to continuity with his Master’s teaching and example, he and now two hundred and sixty-five chosen who have followed have kept the bark of the Church afloat, as beloved Pope Benedict said in his final discourse, sometimes on smooth seas with gentle winds and sometimes in the turbulence of the times.

            So what can we expect of today’s Peter? Francis will maintain the continuity of the Church’s teachings, certainly on doctrinal matters and on most if not all-disciplinary matters. But he has already demonstrated that he has, like us, lived, preached, ministered, administered in the real world of this hemisphere. He will, I suspect, be more practical and pragmatic and perhaps less dogmatic.                                    

We know his heart is full of compassion for the poor and I see the Church’s magnificent social teachings rising once again rightly to their preeminent place in our beloved Church’s life. The unfinished work of Gaudium et Spes will begin to bloom again in this new Spring time. Quite frankly, the actions of our Church often speak louder than its words and to the extent that the Church in the modern world shows compassion and understanding through actions, not words, towards women, towards the poor, towards immigrants and other powerless, toward those trying to cope with their sexual orientation, deal with a mistake made in their youth in choosing a spouse and watching the dream evaporate and the relationship no longer sustainable. Compassionate words accompanied with compassionate action will give witness once again to Christ’s presence in and power over his Church. Paraphasing the great St. Francis, and recalling Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta’s use of the same idea, act always and then use words only if you absolutely need to.

I ask each and every one of you my brothers as well as myself, have you, have we done enough in taking on the challenges of poverty and injustice in our small part of the vineyard? Our new Pope has taken on the political leaders of his country time and time again for justice for that nation’s poor, Yesterday came assurances that he would support the cause for canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero. May  I ask you to think again about the ecumenical justice ministries of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, FAST and HOPE. If the cost of belonging is an obstacle for your parish belonging to either, then today I offer you the opportunity to deduct your membership fee in either from your APA goal and we at The Pastoral Center will make the sacrifices that will occasion. There is no easy, politically correct way to advocate for the poor but it did not stop our Lord and it has not stopped Jorge Bergolio, Pope Francis. There will be those who criticize and most of us are accustomed to that and accept it as the price of doing something good for the forgotten and neglected. Not to decide, however, is to decide to leave our brothers and sisters largely without a voice.

            Finally, Pope Francis leads us by his  simplicity. Every morning this week, he has invited to his morning Mass, the gardeners of the Vatican, the street-sweepers, and the chair placers/removers from the square, the switchboard operators. At the Eucharistic table of the Lord he has invited those who labor for him but never get a chance to meet him. It’s springtime in Vatican City as well as here. In renewing our commitment to priesthood this morning, join me in asking the Lord who gave his all for me, for us, to give us now or once again the gifts of accepting continuity, increasing our compassion for those we serve, and allowing us to set aside passions for status and standing for an exercise of a simpler priesthood so that with love, faith, and hope we might help Francis our Pope rebuild Christ’s Church. Can it not also be Springtime for the Church in Central West Florida? Let us pray so.

+RNL

No worry about “empty nets” at this fish fry.

Tired of running around to local television stations and emotionally exhausted from watching the events of this week unfold, I thought it time to get out and connect with the daily and real life of the Church yesterday. Many of our parishes have started or continue the custom of having Friday Night Fish Fries for the parishioners and one of the more successful in this area has been running at St. Timothy parish in Lutz. When a friend told me that last Friday night they served an all-time high of 464 people, like the unbelieving Thomas I had to see for myself. So last night for dinner, off I went to the Friday Night Fish Fry. Father Ken Malley met me with his ever-present smile on his face and took me into the woefully inadequate (for this event) parish hall.

This works is both an inside job and an outside job!

I met the members of the Men’s Club, all forty of them, dicing and slicing, frying and serving, filling and refilling. To my utter amazement, they were having a great time. By opening time at 530pm the hungry masses were assembled and by closing time at 730pm, this week about 445 were served fried fish, french fries (the best I have had anywhere and I fancy myself a connoisseur of fries), huge pizza slices for the kids or a big kid like myself who really doesn’t like fish all that much, cole slaw, a shrimp cocktail appetizer and an appropriate veggie. Father Malley was proud of this Lenten event and mentioned that it was a great “feeder” (no pun intended) for the weekly Stations of the Cross at 700pm.

An apprentice “fish man” and one of the several women who help their husbands.

The Saint Timothy Men’s Club has about ninety active members and the parish Women’s Club is also quite large. What amazes me are the number of younger men who belong and gift their time and talent to events like this. I met Jason for the second time last night. He approached me and said we had met several weeks prior and while I struggled to place the face with a moment in my life, he generously said that he came up with the parish at the Rite of Election as a “candidate” coming into the Church at the Easter Vigil. After I told him he did not miss any time in joining the Men’s Club of a religion he was not yet a member of, he smiled and said simply, “I love it here.” He then shared with me his journey in faith story which has led him to Catholicism and that his wife is also a convert. He introduced me to his sponsor in the RCIA whom he had never met prior to approaching the parish and asking to join this year’s list of candidates for full communion. His sponsor said, as many do, that he felt he had gotten as much out of the catechetical formation moment as Jason and they would be lifelong friends. Both wanted to extract a promise from me that neither Father Malley nor Deacon Jerry Crall would be transferred away from St. Tim’s. At this moment I was very happy that I am in the Diocese of St. Petersburg and not in Rome. What happens here is so real and so meaningful, even a fish fry.

Smiles reflect their happiness at the task at hand.

The purpose of the Friday night fish fry is not to make huge sums of money for the parish, though there is always a profit from each of these evenings but it seems to me that the real purpose is creating a sense of unity and pride among the workers and those who come for their parish. Now I understand why parishes have carnivals during Lent. I am sure that they wish it might fall outside of Lent but these are probably the only weeks that the owner of the ferris wheel and merry-go-round have available and although such a good time seems contra the spirit of Lent, it can be and is exactly the opposite. If we are united with Christ in his suffering (and God knows we are indeed), then we can also be united with him as a community which pauses to pray and review its life and rejoice in our common desire to form a family in faith. There is indeed a place for these things in our parish life, even during Lent. Some might complain that real penance would better be served by offering an opportunity for bread and watered down soup. If it works, fine. But the spirit I witnessed last night and often see in other parishes in so many ways when they gather for Lent in other ways indicates a reality of unity which our Church badly needs.

I guess in the end, the people who fried the fish and the potatoes serve God as well as those who will gather in coming days to elect a new Pope. Unfortunately it is the latter which garners all the attention and the former and other good things which our Church does as Church is so often overlooked. Thanks to St. Timothy’s last night. I still have one carnival in a nearby parish to attend as well as one auction at the parish within which I live to go to before Palm Sunday. Once I might have considered my presence there a Lenten penance but more and more I find grace at fish fries, fries and Ferris wheels.

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Pope Benedict XVI at his last general audience on February 27, 2013. Photo credit: News.va Facebook page. Read the full text of his last general audience by clicking here.

I suppose almost everyone expects that bishops will “fall into line” and always praise popes. As I have mentioned before in this space, if I had a serious difference of opinion, I am certain that I would not rush to publicize it. When a subordinate criticizes his leader, he or she almost always weakens their own authority. Additionally, as I have mentioned here before, prior to our ordination as bishops we take a special oath of fidelity to the Holy Father and his successors in office. Usually papal transitions take place in the context of death, conclave, election and the beginning of a new chapter in the two thousand years plus of Church history. After the funeral and its concomitant outpouring of affection for the deceased Holy Father, all the critics come out to analyze his performance in office and the state of the Church which he left. We have no experience of how to behave when a pope resigns his office, remains alive, recedes into the shadows for prayer, meditation and reflection, and leaves everything to his elected successor. I hope the Church will be kind to Pope Benedict who on Thursday at 2pm EST will cease being the bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter. He did not wish the job in the first place but humbly accepted it, probably not expecting to live long enough to watch his physical stamina take its slow leave of him.

But assume the position he did and he exercised his office with far more patience, love and tenderness than his critics eight years ago expected of him. I would say that he should be well-remembered for his work in bridging the gap between the long pontificate of Blessed John Paul II and whomever the Holy Spirit and the Cardinal-electors choose to succeed Benedict. His two encyclical letters are stunning, not just because of their theological insight, but because they address convincingly issues of charity and justice and peace. Eight years and a few weeks ago when the Catholic world was thinking still of the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II, his written legacy was one of long, most of the time challenging to comprehend encyclical letters. Benedict’s encyclicals were shorter, much easier applied to life and living, and challenging to one who wishes to live a fuller Christian life. In this case, the theologian probably bested the philosopher though Pope Benedict would be too humble to claim such. Think for a moment on the long series of Wednesday audience talks on what would come to be called Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body.” In Benedict’s first encyclical letter, he succinctly and clearly spoke of human love in a few pages.

As I have said many times since the announcement of his resignation, his three volume series on Jesus of Nazareth will be on the bookshelves of preachers for a long time to come. His treatment of the “resurrected body” of Jesus opened my mind and answered questions which I have long thought of, like how does one enter a locked room by coming through the walls. That insight alone makes death even less to be feared. His talks in the United States and England during pastoral visits were very clear, well-done and educational and instructive. He managed to weave the thread of both faith and reason in a manner in which the secular world was largely unable to challenge. So what was the difference between the two popes: one was a phenomenologist by education who had the time to think and write while the other was a professor who had only so many minutes to teach his class in a manner in which the students could “get it.” There is room in the Church and the world for both.

Pope Benedict was neither grim nor humorless as some would have us believe. I remember one occasion when Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk was president of our Conference and Archbishop Keeler was Vice-President. We had our standard one hour meeting with the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to raise issues of concern to the bishops of the United States and to listen to the concerns of the Congregation about something that they understood was happening or had happened in the U.S. At the end of the agenda, Cardinal Ratzinger noting the time and the fact that we had completed our working agenda asked if there was anything else which anyone wished to bring up before adjourning. The Secretary of the Congregation at the time, Archbishop Alberto Bovone, asked for the floor and asked this question of our President, Archbishop Pilarczyk. “Excuse me, Your Excellency, but would you know how many internal forum solutions to marriage are given in the United States?” Looking unusually perplexed, Archbishop Pilarczyk responded, “By their very nature, Archbishop, there should be no way of knowing how many internal forum solutions are given in our country!” The room broke into laughter, led by Cardinal Ratzinger who quickly said, “Basta” or Italian for “enough.” If an internal forum solution to a marriage is given by a priest to a penitent, it is done within the seal of confession and is afforded the same level of secrecy as the confession of a sin.

The Cardinal lived in the same apartment building outside Vatican City as Cardinal Pio Laghi, formerly Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. On one occasion I entered the building elevator with Cardinal Ratzinger, who was returning from lunch to the office wearing his black beret and simple black cassock. “How is your visit to the Holy See progressing, Monsignor?” he asked, beginning a short but delightful conversation. Even as Pope, his humility was always evident.

So the history book on the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI ends tomorrow at two p.m. I think history will be kinder to him than some contemporary commentators. He did more than keep the chair of Peter warm for a successor, he gave it his all. I see that the PEW Research people have found that more than three-quarters of American Catholics have generally good feelings about him, not as high as his predecessor’s 90% plus approval rating, but then Benedict never set out to win a popularity contest, just to be a good shepherd of God’s people. I likely shall not write about him again, but if I were at the heliport tomorrow night at 5pm Rome time, I would be crying, I am sure. Nobody is perfect but Pope Benedict XVI in my eyes is about as good as it gets.

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Bishop Norbert Dorsey at his 50th anniversary mass of ordination to priesthood on April 28, 2006. Photo credit: Diocese of Orlando

Today is the day when the church universal  celebrates what is called “The Chair of Peter”. I intended to use this day to reflect on the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI which will come to an end  next Thursday at 2p.m. EST as the Holy Father vacates the papacy for his remaining years in prayer and solitude. But that reflection will have to wait because last night about 850pm Bishop John Noonan, the Bishop of Orlando notified me of the death of Norbert Dorsey, C.P., third bishop of Orlando, a few minutes earlier. Bishop Norbert was a brother in the episcopacy, a friend, a wise, lovely, cultured, deeply spiritual man. So I have lost a brother, not Tim or Jim, my blood brother, but a brother bishop, a neighbor, and a dear friend.

Norbert M. Dorsey was a passionate Passionist. No one my age who ever thought of being a priest in the ’40′s and ’50′s could possibly forget something called SIGN magazine. In many ways, next to Catholic Digest, it was THE Catholic magazine. My paternal grandparents in Boston, surely worried about that wing of their family living in Protestant West Virginia and Virginia gave my family an annual subscription to SIGN magazine hoping that it would keep the “Catholic” flame of faith alive in the “heathen” lands where their son, daughter-in-law and three children were living. And in many ways SIGN did just that. When old enough I always read it and looked at the advertisements for priests in the back. Passionist priests also preached parish missions in the small churches of my youth. They all seemed to come from the east coast and Boston with their distinct local dialects and to me that seemed especially sent as messengers from God.

I recalled this feeling once in conversation with +Norbert and he told me that I was not far from wrong – they were messengers from God sent to preach the faith and win souls for God. Bishop Norbert was from western Massachusetts (Springfield) and he did not have to travel far to enter the religious community which he loved all his life. A gifted musician, after ordination, his religious superiors sent him to Rome to study sacred music and to teach in their seminary. So loved and admired was he that in time he was called to the Passionist generalate in Rome to be their world-wide orders Assistant to the General Superior for English speaking countries. It was there that he was eventually surprised one day to be called and told that Pope John Paul II wished him to come to Miami as an auxiliary bishop. Shocked at this sudden news and saddened deeply to leave the comfortable climes of his Passionist community of priests and brothers, he consented and started his new life as an Auxiliary to Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy, whom he had never met, in Miami where he had seldom visited except for its airport on his way around the world visiting his community.

“Who is this man?” the Miami priests asked. It did not take them long to discover a kind, holy, loving and sympathetic bishop. Auxiliary bishops in Miami did not do a lot of administration in those days and were used mostly for sacramental purposes like confirmation and show the flag at things the Archbishop either did not wish to attend or could not attend. Bishop Norbert lived in a small two-room apartment at the Cathedral rectory. He “cut his teeth” as a bishop in multicultural and multilingual Miami and the priests came to like him as a person, though they had not known him as a priest or pastor.

When Bishop Thomas Grady reached the retirement age in Orlando, Bishop Norbert was called north to become the third bishop of that diocese. He started new parishes in the rapidly growing area, bought the downtown US Post Office and turned it into the Pastoral Center or Chancery Office for the diocese. Ever the gentleman, ever the kindly priest he was often tested, mostly by testy priests, but he calmly stayed the course and led by humble example. When the time came and he felt his energy diminishing, he asked the Holy Father for help and getting it, retired soon thereafter, turning over this beloved diocese to others. Two bishops have served Orlando since Bishop Norbert’s retirement and he has been in diminishing health for almost all of his retirement. Living with a Passionist brother, Gus, he privately celebrated Mass, prayed, read, and smoked cigarettes.

As his neighbor to the West for a few years prior to his retirement, he was always encouraging to me, ever ready to lend a hand or an ear. He loved priests, even those few who gave him occasional fits and that is what I will always cherish as my memory of him – he loved priests. It hurt him as we all hurt when a priest was credibly accused of misconduct with a minor and it was on his watch when many cases came to light. Each was a crucifixion for him as were their acts for their victims. So last night, after a long period of illness which ended as a result of cancer, he went home to the Father. The church in Florida was blessed by his presence among us, the people of Orlando knew they had a good shepherd, and I lost a brother bishop last night, a friend, a wise counsellor, a genuinely good and holy man. Your own passion is now over, dear +Norbert. May you rest in peace.

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Father Evaristus Mushi
1956 – 2013
Photo credit: Diocese of Zanzibar website

I first learned of the death of Father Evaristus Mushi yesterday while checking my emails from a retired pastor who once enjoyed the presence and priestly service of Father in his parish. The details were astounding to me and crushing. This good priest, whom the people of St. Benedict’s parish in Crystal River and Our Lady of Grace parish in Beverly Hills came to know and love, was murdered at the entrance to his parish church in Zanzibar, an island in the Indian Ocean off of and a part of Tanzania, by at least two men who gunned him down on Sunday morning before Mass. Police investigating the murder think they now have in custody the men who killed Father Mushi but only time will tell. Father is the third clergy victim of such attacks since Christmas including a second priest,  but one of the clerics attacked was an Islamic cleric.

We remember Father Evaristus as an extremely kind, generous and genuinely holy priest who helped us here out for three years before returning to his country of Tanzania. He may well be a martyr for the faith. But for now, his parishioners, family and friends mourn this senseless act of violence and pray for the peaceful repose of his soul.

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I am certain that almost every serious Catholic has spent the run-up this week to Ash Wednesday thinking about “Super” Monday. Here I use the word “super” only to emphasize the magnitude of the news to which we awakened some forty-eight hours ago. Pope Benedict’s momentous decision to stand down from his office of Pope later this month  commanded almost all of my energy Monday as I raced from one local TV station to another, answered phone calls and mail from friends and others, and had dinner with about twenty-six young men interested enough in a vocation to priesthood to come with their parish priests to dinner with the bishop (this latter group was full of good questions showing an interest in things ”Churchy” that I found quite surprising.) As a consequence the time I would usually devote to preparing myself spiritually for Lent which began this morning was seriously encroached upon by the news coming from Rome and around the world.

Distributing ashes during the Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Petersburg Catholic High School. Photo courtesy of Maria Mertens. View more photos by clicking here. 

Only last night, after coming home from my final confirmation for seven weeks (in this diocese we do not confirm during Lent), dead tired and knowing that I had my traditional Mass with the students of St. Petersburg Catholic High School this morning for Ash Wednesday in just a few hours, I retired to my chapel for some quiet time. It occurred to me that the three principal actions of Lent are all to be found in some way in Pope Benedict’s brave and humble decision. If fasting reflects sacrifice, imagine walking away in a few days from one of the world’s remaining spotlights. Even our critics acknowledge the continuing presence of the papacy and its influence in much of the world. While some might wish to write Popes off as irrelevant, they can not. Pope Benedict’s highly successful pastoral visits to Great Britain, to use only one example, showed that a politically neutral moral voice still has a role to play in the public square. This Holy Father can retire into the “wings” confident that he has made a difference. So he soon begins a life time fast of giving up the “spotlight” as you will, which has been his and watching the attention which remains with the office to come to his successor.

Pope Benedict has twice including this morning in his General Audience mentioned that he looks forward to spending his remaining days in prayer for the Church and (I am sure) for himself. During Lent we are all encouraged to look for more opportunities of communicating with our Lord in prayer. When Jesus grew weary and tired, the Gospels all tell us that he often went off to a “quiet place” to be alone in prayer. The Holy Father has chosen the same path in withdrawing from the glare of leadership of the Church and will spend his remaining time on earth praying for the Church, for us. In some ways, it would  not miss the mark too much to say that life will be one long Lent for Pope Benedict.

Finally, the thought occurred to me that in the challenge of “almsgiving” which is also a part of our Lent observance, there are many ways in which we can place ourselves at the service of others. Giving m0ney is one way but not the only way. It may come as a surprise to many, but the popes of the modern era are not rich men. I doubt if they ever receive a salary and while it is also true that they receive what they need to live and maintain a modest household, there is no such possibility as accumulated wealth derived from the papacy. They live simply in what I believe is incorrectly called a “palace” (sometimes “prison” would be a better word), spend a lot of their day seeing people and having little time for themselves, constantly preparing public statements, greetings, encyclical letters which have to be delivered within the next 24 hours, week or month. Benedict took time out from his little leisure time to write three wonderful books on Jesus of Nazareth, pure gifts – alms of another kind. He did not so much receive as a result of the office he held, but “spent” himself for us.

The Light Is on for YOU

So, in these special forty days beginning today, each of us has an opportunity to join ourselves to him in the practice of this Lent by making more time for prayer, giving up something we hold precious but which might no longer be essential (at least for the next six weeks) and sharing our gifts, talents, selves with others even if we do not have the means to share “alms.” During Lent, giving of our “arms” can be just as fulfilling as giving of our “alms.” In  his final, humble and extraordinary gifting of himself, all of us can find something which we can do to make this Lent special. Confession and reconciliation are also essential and your parish will be having many opportunities for receiving the sacrament in the coming weeks, what with Penance Services and for the fifth year in a row, on Thursday, March 7th, “This Light is on for YOU” during which all our parishes will be open and priests available to hear your confession from 5pm until 7pm. Find out more information about “The Light Is on for YOU” by clicking here.

Lent 2013 begins with historic significance but at the personal level, the possibilities of turning away from sin and returning to the Gospel are even more awesome.

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With Pope Benedict XVI at the Ad Limina visit in May 2012. Photo credit: Servizio Fotografico de “L.O.R” Cita del Vaticano.

Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation this morning and will be leaving the Petrine office on February 28, 2013. I arrived at the office today with the parking lot full of television trucks and a room full of reporters. I began with a brief statement which you can read by clicking here, knowing that the media gathered was likely looking for some hint of controversy or some deep, dark secret as to the “real” reason. For the full audio of the press conference, recorded by our Catholic radio station Spirit FM 90.5, please click here. I also knew I would have a better opportunity to share what I believe to be the truth here in this blog.

I believe the Holy Father has served the Church incredibly well throughout his entire life. Brilliant, patient and pastoral as priest, bishop, cardinal-prefect and pope, he has given his unique gifts to the Church and we have been enriched by them for many years prior to his election as the successor to St. Peter. He loves the Church and the Church should love him as he exits “stage right” to spend what time he has left in prayer, reflection, and hopefully writing. Ever the superb teacher, I would hope that there might be enough energy left in the man to continue to open the worlds of theology and scripture to us as he has done so beautifully with his three books on Jesus of Nazareth.

Seventy-eight years old when called to the chair of Peter as bishop of Rome, he summoned forth enormous personal energy to lead us for eight years. No one who has been in his presence, as I have had the privilege of being, could be anything but happy that his desire to withdraw from the physical, mental and emotional demands of the office have led him in his 85th year to wish to relinquish the office and all its demands. Wishing to spare us anything resembling a “death watch” and sensing that he has done what God has asked of him, he has given the Church one last gift. And, as I mentioned during the press conference, it should not have been a surprise to anyone. He said several times he would resign if he felt no longer able to lead the Church as God might wish of him or as he personally wished. Most all Popes today are selfless servants of the Gospel. Believe it or not, they live simply. There is no “rush” derived from the exercise of power and most dread the demands of administration. If elected, they must choose to serve, and if they choose to serve, they must sacrifice so many things that we hold important in our daily lives.

Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict are entirely different but I believe that the latter has survived very nicely any comparison to the former. They were good friends and held each other in esteem. Benedict did not try to be John Paul because it would not have worked. Comfortable in his own skin, Pope Benedict XVI led the faithful according to the mandate given to Peter by Christ and came to serve and not to be served. He has been a wonderful leader who has often been wounded by the actions of a few which have called into doubt the relevancy and credibility of the Church. Let me add here, knowing that this will upset some of his critics, that the bishops of this country and of the world have had no greater friend in addressing the issue of sexual misconduct than Josef Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. He got it early on and knew what was required for the ultimate purification of the Church.

Popes mean a lot to bishops. We recognize them as the supreme heads of our family of Roman Catholic Christianity. We wish to assist them in spreading the Gospel and shepherding Christ’s church. We do not wish to become simply another problem to them and we take an oath of loyalty to them. I have always admired and esteemed Pope Benedict, before and after his election. He was generally easy to serve, support and admire. I will miss him as will many other people in the Church and I wish him well in his final years, happy to have been in his service and the Lord’s when this humble successor of St. Peter decided to step aside and let another succeed to the throne which is really a cross.

Thank you, Pope Benedict, and may God give you strength and health for the remaining part of your earthly pilgrimage.

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