Remember, when you were in school, how we’d wait for the announcement, the evening before or early the next morning, that “school would be closed” due to the snow?

I can still recall the shouts of joy at that good news!  There’s nothing like an unexpected “day off”!  Bring out the sleds!  Get the chocolate ready!

We all had one yesterday.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  Did you “take it easy”?  I did (although I did write this blog).

It struck me how refreshing this “down time” was.  Yes, I caught up on some mail and phone…

January 26, 2015

Saturday, I had a very memorable experience.

Last summer, on a visit to Eastern Correctional Institution up in Napanoch, I was introduced to prisoners who were enrolled in college  – - yes, real college !  – - and was very impressed with the program.  These inmates invited me to be the commencement speaker at their graduation.  I was moved and grateful, and happily accepted.

This remarkable college program, all taking place behind bars, is called the Bard Prison Initiative, and has been up and effectively running at six of New York States’ prisons, as well as in six other…

January 22, 2015

The caricature of a priest, (or any preacher, or rabbi) is that “we’re” hung up on sex” always wagging a finger at “sinners,” ever-ready to condemn, never leaving it alone.

The opposite is true.  We rarely, if ever, speak about it.  (Just ask Pope Francis!  Did you see that, on his flight to Asia last week, a journalist asked him if he would condemn contraception.  He replied, “Why are you always asking about that?”)

I’m not proud about the fact that we rarely speak about the sixth and ninth commandment.  Why don’t we?  One reason might be that, decades…

January 20, 2015

Thanks be to God!

We all heard the good news yesterday from Pope Francis himself, that he will visit us here in New York City.

Yes, we’ve expected it for awhile, as he himself has expressed his hope to come see us.

I have assured him of a warm welcome!

Although the exact itinerary will not be set by the Holy See until around March 1, we would expect Pope Francis to visit us some time before he intends to go to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families. He plans to be there September 26-27, so we should welcome him…

An interesting article from Bill McGurn in last Friday’s New York Post called Tocqueville v. Terror.   Here is an excerpt:

The received wisdom is that France — and Europe — must respond to the threat of radical Islam by rededicating themselves to their highly secularized selves. What no one asks is whether it might in fact be the way the French and the Europeans define a secular state that accounts for some of their weakness.

Well, some have asked.

Not quite a decade ago, Pope Benedict asked at Regensburg, when he warned of the perils of…

A headache . . . to maintain property, pay for it, insure it, protect it.  It can become all consuming.  No wonder the followers of Jesus have usually been suspicious of it!

Then again, a blessing . . . if we use our buildings and properties to praise God, teach, serve, house, feed, heal and welcome.

We haven’t a lot of cash in the coffers of the archdiocese.  As the annual reports we publish show, we just about break even.

But, we do have some property.  Most of it is used as Jesus would want . . .for prayer, education, feeding, shelter,…

Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal had an insightful “Houses of Worship” column, Letting Education and Religion Overlap, by Robert Maranto and Dirk C. van Raemdonck.  Here is an excerpt:

“Ironically, free-market, highly religious America is dominated by government-education monopolies, while social-democratic, highly secular Belgium has embraced school choice, including state-funded religious schools. Belgian parents can choose public or private schools, including publicly funded Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish schools, as guaranteed by the national constitution.

While comparing Belgium’s relatively small yet diverse population (11 million), with the U.S. is difficult, especially when it comes to social outcomes, there’s no…

You talk to me about Pope Francis; you tell me about your parish and your priests; and you especially so often lovingly and gratefully talk to me about the sisters!

How we Catholics love the nuns! How we agree with the Holy Father, “It would be impossible to think of the church without the sisters!”

No wonder Pope Francis has designated 2015 as the Year of Consecrated Life, as we thank God for the gift of our sisters, brothers, and priests in religious orders.

I’m now just finishing Father Theodore Maynard’s classic life of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and earlier had completed…

Today I visited with the grieving family of murdered Officer Wenjian Liu.  Just as with my visit last week with the mourning family of Officer Rafael Ramos, I was very moved by yes, the depth of their loss, but also by the gratitude they savored for their son, husband, brother and cousin, and the sense of hope they exhibited.

Then I stopped-by what has almost become a “shrine” to the memory of the two fallen policeman at the site of their execution in Bedford-Stuyvesant.  The scene reminded me of Lourdes, or the tomb of a saint,…

The following homily was delivered at this morning’s 10:15  am Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral:

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

12.21.14

God’s Holy Word, which we just heard, and the sermon that follows, are supposed to be good news.

Some days that’s tough to give, this good news and this is one of them, as we mourn the brutal and irrational execution of two young, promising and devoted police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu; as we tear-up thinking about their heartbroken families; as we are in solidarity with our police officers who experience a “death in the family;” as we…