Blog - March 2013 RSS Feed

It feels great to be back home! I would like to share with you my article on Holy Week and Passover that was recently published in the New York Daily News . Here is an excerpt: This upcoming week we will see both brutality and tender love in our churches and synagogues.

In this homily, Cardinal Dolan reflects on the importance of the Cross of Christ.

Obviously, our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, hadn’t been listening to the news. If he had, he would have heard about the major “problems” facing the Church, and would have announced “changes” in the Church’s “policies” on abortion, birth control, celibacy for priests, condoms, women priests, and allowing divorce and remarriage.

It has been awesome taking part in the events in Rome these past three weeks, saying goodbye to Benedict, and then taking part in the conclave last week to elect Pope Francis. Today I will be joining our new Holy Father for his Mass of Installation, in Saint Peter’s Square.

Did I call it or what? While I obviously could not make any predictions about who would be chosen the Successor of St. Peter — — except to observe multiple times that those kind-but-misguided people betting on me were obviously sipping too much grappa — — I did remark that I thought the new Holy Father would choose the beautiful Feast of St. Joseph , March 19, for his first public Mass.

After his appearance on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis returned to the Domus Sancta Maria where we cardinals had all resided during the conclave (By the way, his limousine, with proper security escort, stood ready to chauffeur him back to the Domus, but, he got on the bus and rode back with all of us!).

It’s called Domus Sancta Marta , the Latin for Saint Martha’s House , and it’s been my home the last forty-eight hours here in the Vatican, along with 114 of my brother cardinals. You remember St. Martha, don’t you?

On this joyous day, I issued a statement in my role as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the election of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Here is the press release: STATEMENT ON THE ELECTION OF POPE FRANCIS CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN OF NEW YORK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2013 The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has taken the name Francis, marks a great milestone in our church.

Greetings again from Rome, the Eternal City, the city of Saints Peter and Paul! One last word early this “morning” as I pack to leave the North American College, where we cardinals have been staying, and go into the Vatican itself, where we’ll be hosted at St. Martha’s House , a simple little residence.

Today is Laetare Sunday, let us rejoice! Let me share with you my homily from Mass this morning at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Monte Mario. If you would like to read it in Italian, please click here. Homily, 4 th Sunday of Lent Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Rome March 10, 2013 His Eminence Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan Today is Laetare Sunday , “Rejoice Sunday!” This is appropriate because I rejoice to be with all of you here at my titular parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

We cardinals here in Rome – – along with all our brothers in the Sacrament of Holy Orders – – take our task of teachers of the faith very seriously. These days in the Eternal City offer us a welcome occasion to do that.

In my blog post this past Wednesday , I invited you to join me in a novena of prayer to Saint Joseph, asking him and his virgin-wife to look after the whole Church and get us an inspired successor to Saint Peter.

Greetings again from Rome, the Eternal City , the See of Saints Peter and Paul ! I miss you! It’s been ten days since I left the archdiocese, and as the old song goes, “I wanna go home!”  Especially will I miss you all on Saint Patrick’s Day , the Feast of the patron of our great archdiocese and our renowned cathedral.

It seems so providential that we would meet here in Rome for this extraordinarily significant event during Lent. These forty days are a sacred occasion of recalling the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus – the Paschal Mystery – uniting ourselves to the death of Jesus by dying to sin, through prayer, sacrifice, and acts of charity, so that we might rise with Him to life at Easter.

Greetings from Rome! I invite you to listen to daily papal election updates from Rome on the Catholic Channel of SiriusXM. You can listen to them online, click here .