Bishop's homily at closing recaptures past of Diocese, looks to challenges of future

On December 8, 1996, the feast of our diocesan patroness, we gathered in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany to launch our Sesquicentennial celebration and called upon the members of our diocesan family during the forthcoming Jubilee year to honor our faith heritage, imbedded as it is in the blood of the North American martyrs, and to discover how the Lord's spirit is truly leading us to advance the reign of God into the new millennium.

Indeed, our year-long observance of the founding of our Diocese on April 23, 1847, has proven to be a special time of grace; a privileged moment in which we in our faith community have had the opportunity to honor the past...to appreciate the present, which is built upon the past...and to discover the tomorrows as yet to be realized.

THE PAST

At our opening ceremony, we recalled with great pride the heritage of Isaac Jogues and his martyred Jesuit companions...of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Sir William Johnson, Governor Thomas Dongan and our native Americans who were so important in our prehistory...the accomplishments of our bishops from our founding bishop John McCloskey through my predecessor, Bishop Edwin B. Broderick...

AND THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DIOCESAN AND RELIGIOUS ORDER PRIESTS LIKE:

* Father Peter Havermans, who established St. Peter's and St. Mary's parishes in Troy, LaSalle Institute, the Troy Hospital (now Seton Health System) and St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary;

* Father Clarence Walworth, the pastor of historic St. Mary's in Albany and a pioneer in the ecumenical movement;

* Monsignor John Glavin, the founder of our diocesan newspaper, The Evangelist;

* Father Patrick Peyton, the creator of the Family Rosary and Family Prayer movement;

* Father Ben Kuhn and that original band of Friars who 60 years ago launched Siena College in a Loudonville farmhouse;

* Father Joseph Lamanna, the labor crusader who battled the infiltration of communism in the unions; and

* Father Thomas Tooher, a leader in the Priest Council Movement both in our Diocese and nation...

AND THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF RELIGIOUS SISTERS AND BROTHERS LIKE:

* Lucy Eaton Smith of Glens Falls, the foundress of the Dominican Sisters;

* Mother M. Angeline Teresa, who had served as a Little Sister of the Poor and proceeded to form the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, and whose candidacy for canonization has been introduced to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints;

* Mother Aloysia Hardey, foundress of Kenwood Academy, which later merged with St. Agnes Academy operated by the Episcopal Diocese to become the ecumenical Doane Stuart School;

* The daughters of Mother Marie Rose Durocher, who in 1884 inaugurated the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany;

* Sister Mary Blanche Rooney, CSJ, the foundress of the College of Saint Rose;

* Sister Paula Harris, RSM, the foundress of St. Peter's Hospital;

* Sister Mary Basil Roark of Troy, who established the DePaul Provincial House in Menands for the North East Province of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul;

* Mother Bernadette, who oversaw the life and the mission of the Sisters of the Presentation for so many years;

* Mother Dolores Stepien of Albany, now the Superior General for the Sisters of the Resurrection in Rome;

* Brother Edward Thomas Lopez, CFC (Irish Christian Brothers), the first principal of Bishop Gibbons High School in 1958, which in 1976 joined with Notre Dame School; and

* Brother Jeremy, FSC, who in 1854 was assigned by his Provincial Brother Facile of the Brothers of the Christian Schools to open LaSalle School in Albany...

AND THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LAITY LIKE:

* Madame Henriette de La Tours du Pin, the French aristocrat exiled during the French Revolution, who emigrated to the United States and became a leader of Catholic life in post-colonial Albany;

* Mary Reed Newland, the gifted religious educator and storyteller;

* Charles Tobin, the renowned lobbyist and public policy maker;

* Governor Al Smith, the first Roman Catholic to run for the presidency of our United States: and

* great benefactors such as Peter Cagger and Elizabeth Brady Farrell.

WE REJOICED IN OUR ETHNIC DIVERSITY -- in the sterling contributions made by the waves of Dutch, German, French, English, Irish, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and African immigrants as well as in the contributions of the newly arrived from Vietnam, Korea, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

We also recognized the role that members of our diocesan family played in the Civil War and in all the conflicts from the Spanish American War to the Persian Gulf War as well as those members of our Diocese who have championed the cause of Christian pacifism. And we remember, too, those involved in coping with nativism, Know-Nothingism, communism and xenophobia; and in building up a network of parish churches, schools, colleges, catechetical centers, hospitals, nursing homes and social service agencies, which have been a source of personal, social, emotional, educational, cultural and spiritual growth both for members of our faith community and for people of the general population as well.

And we committed ourselves to recall and to celebrate this magnificent legacy of faith during our year-long celebration. This, I believe, we have done par excellence:

* IN FEBRUARY, the Jesuit scholar, Father Gerard Fogarty, the premier American Catholic historian who holds the distinguished Chair of History at the University of Virginia, delivered a Sesquicentennial lecture at The Egg in Albany, recounting our origins as a Diocese coping with issues like immigration, trusteeism, the Industrial Revolution and the influence of the Irish hierarchy in the life of the Church. Our own historian and legislator Jack McEneny filled in the panoramic sweep offered by Father Fogarty with colorful local lore.

* IN APRIL, some 700 of our diocesan youth gathered at Siena College in Loudonville to be uplifted and inspired by Tony Melendez, the singer and youth minister extraordinaire, who has overcome his disability of being a thalidomide baby who was born without arms, and who along with other superb presenters, challenged our young to be proud of their Catholic heritage and to integrate faith into all of their daily life's activities.

* IN MAY, our Sesquicentennial historical exhibition opened at the old Chancery to rave reviews. Pieced together with patience and perseverance by Joe and Connie Mondel, it captured through documents, photographs, sacred vessels and historical artifacts our pilgrim journey through the past century and a half. Following its showing at the Chancery, the exhibition has been on tour to 11 sites throughout the Diocese -- from Oneonta to Ilion, north to Hudson Falls, south to Valatie and to its permanent home here in our Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

* IN SEPTEMBER, an estimated 7,000 of us gathered at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville on a gorgeous, sun-drenched day for the celebration of a magnificent liturgy of thanksgiving with the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan; Cardinal John O'Connor and the bishops of our province; as well as with our native bishops of whom we are so proud: Joseph Ryan, Harry Flynn, Matthew Clark and John Nolan, who sadly passed away two weeks ago.

Who present will ever forget the beauty of the day and the setting, the splendor of the music, the majesty of the ritual, the pulsating pride and enthusiasm of the participants, and the eloquence of the Reverend Dr. Gregg Mast, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Albany? His predecessor, Domine Johannes Megapolensis harbored and provided safe passage to Europe for Isaac Jogues.

Like Bishop David Ball of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany and Rabbi Aryeh Wineman at our opening celebration, Pastor Mast paid tribute to the sterling ecumenical and interfaith dimensions of our diocesan history which sentiments are certainly reciprocal.

For those who were not able to attend the Auriesville event, our friends at Time Warner Communications have televised a replay of the liturgy on several occasions over the past month.

* IN OCTOBER, Hudson Valley Community College in Troy was the site for Gathering 97, where the renowned liturgical musician Marty Haugen graced us with his haunting, spirit-filled hymns; and gifted presenters like Father Edward Hays, Sister Donna Markham, Father Walter Burghardt, Father Francis Dorff, Rev. Jorge Chacon, Maricela Quintana, Eileen Tabert and Kathleen Chesto, enriched us intellectually and spiritually with their sage insights, creative vision and pastoral suggestions.

In addition to those diocesan-sponsored Sesquicentennial events, choreographed by Betsy Rowe and literally hundreds of people working on various committees, there were parish liturgies, historical displays and activities in our schools and catechetical programs, spawned by the well prepared and very practical Sesquicentennial manual, produced by Jeanne Schrempf and the Sesquicentennial Manual Committee.

There were also eight regional events, beginning with an Epiphany Vesper celebration and procession of banners at St. John the Baptist Church in Schenectady and concluding with a liturgy at the Cathedral and historical exhibition at the South Concourse of the Empire State Plaza sponsored by the three Albany County deaneries. In between, the Mohawk Valley parishes sponsored a liturgy and catered picnic at the Kateri Shrine in Fonda. The parishes in the Catskill/Taconic region hosted a liturgy and reception at St. Mary's in Hudson and a harvest festival at the Irish Cultural Museum, capped by vespers and benediction.

The parishes of Rensselaer County conducted a three-day prayer vigil and Eucharistic liturgies in conjunction with the House of Prayer at the newest church building in our Diocese, St. John Francis Regis in Grafton. The Otsego/Delaware region observed our Sesquicentennial with a Festive Evening featuring a performance of a Kateri musical by a local musician; and the Adirondack region gathered at the Saratoga Springs Civic Center for vespers, parish displays and musical presentations by a special combined choir.

During the course of the year, two wonderful books commemorating our Sesquicentennial anniversary became available: "Canals & Crossroads," the first-ever comprehensive history of our Diocese written by Sally Light, edited by James Breig, and published in a handsome coffee-table edition; and a history of the Diocese for children titled "How We Tell God's Story," delightfully written by Sister Eileen Lomasney, CSJ, and creatively illustrated by Sister Marion Honors, CSJ. Although intended primarily for children, this precious jewel offers rich fare for people of all ages. Both of these splendid works were appropriately cited and praised by Cardinal O'Connor in his homily at our Auriesville liturgy.

On a more mundane, but nonetheless significant note, especially for the parishes and institutions effected, in accord with the biblical jubilee tradition of forgiveness, we were able to wipe clean more than $3.1 million of debt. Also, some $120,000 were collected in conjunction with our Auriesville Sesquicentennial Liturgy to be used for the poor of our Diocese, our nation and our world. These funds were distributed equally to the following causes: our parish food pantries throughout the Diocese, Habitat for Humanity and Catholic Relief Services.

Truly, I think we can say without boastfulness or exaggeration that our year-long Sesquicentennial observance was one worthy of our proud heritage and one which has more than done justice to fulfilling the first half of our Sesquicentennial theme: "Honoring Tradition."

THE FUTURE

This reflection on our diocesan history, and the individual and collective faith stories such involves, has given us the foundation, motivation and inspiration we need to address the second half of our Sesquicentennial motto: "Discovering Tomorrow."

In a sense, the first step in this process of discovery is to recognize and appreciate the needs which face us as a faith community. We can shape our future only to the extent that we understand the realities which we are experiencing in the present, and then offer the vision, the hope, the knowledge, the tools and resources required to continue the pilgrim journey of faith we are privileged to share: that journey which stems from the call of God to Abraham and the prophets, that detoured through the Egyptian exile that led to the promised land, that reached its apex in the appearance among us of the Word made Flesh, and that has wandered through the corridors of history for the past two millennia, marked by mileposts along the way, such as the catacombs, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, and countless divisions, scandals, persecution, revolution, reform and renewal.

As we stand on the threshold of the 21st century in this local Church we call the Diocese of Albany, based upon an analysis of the data surfaced in our recently conducted pastoral planing process, we have identified six major needs which must be addressed creatively and constructively if we are to be prepared to meet the challenges which the Lord has in store for us in the next phase of our ever-unfolding and always unpredictable journey of faith:

1. The need to foster collaborative models of ministry which will enable all the members of the Church to understand and to fulfill their baptismal call to holiness and ministry;

2. The need to develop and maintain an ongoing, lifelong process of faith formation, with a particular emphasis on youth ministry and young adult ministry;

3. The need to engage the entire diocesan Church in an understanding of the ministry of evangelization and its implementation in the contemporary milieu;

4. The need to facilitate the liturgical renewal envisioned of the Second Vatican Council, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist as the center and focus of Catholic Christian life;

5. The need to support and maintain a comprehensive ministry of social service and of advocacy for justice which fulfills the Gospel mandate to care for the poor and the vulnerable; and

6. The need to exercise responsible stewardship so that we have the fiscal, technological and management resources required to fulfill the mission of the Church in the days ahead.

While I cannot articulate all the various components of this strategic plan -- both because of time constraints and because the plan itself is still in the process of modification and emendation based upon a consultation process presently underway -- there are three dimensions of the plan which are solidified and for which I would seek your prayers and support today:

1. During the New Year of 1998, we will be implementing a major strategy for promoting VOCATIONS to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life developed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and titled "A Future Filled with Hope."

Over the past three decades, prompted by the vision and spirit of the Second Vatican Council, we have witnessed a veritable explosion of ministries on the part of our lay faithful, who in ever increasing numbers are serving as lectors, Eucharistic ministers, liturgical planners, ministers of hospitality and musicians at Eucharist; as catechists, evangelists and ministers of healing on behalf of the poor, the sick, the homebound, the addicted and the incarcerated; and as parish council members, youth ministers, pastoral associates and parish life directors.

We rejoice in these expanding ministries and as a Diocese are committed to develop and deploy the resources needed to provide our laity with the formation, knowledge and skills required to exercise these ministries effectively.

However, over the same 30-year period, we have also experienced a marked decline in vocations to the ordained and vowed life, both of which vital charisms are indispensable for the Church. While there are many sociological and ecclesiological factors which have contributed to this decline, the fact remains that a shortage exists and that there is a shared responsibility on the part of the entire Church -- especially on the part of parents and the ordained and vowed ourselves -- to address this shortage.

Consequently, we will be forming a vocation committee in each parish (or at least in each cluster within our Diocese) whose members will seek to assist our priests, deacons, religious, campus ministers, Catholic school teachers, catechists and liturgy committee members to create an atmosphere wherein God's call can be heard, and men and women can ponder seriously and prayerfully whether the Lord is calling them to serve our faith community in this particular way.

2. As we continue our pilgrim journey as God's people in this Diocese of Albany and move into the future, we must be assured that we have the fiscal, physical, technological and human RESOURCES necessary to accomplish our mission.

Our Sesquicentennial observance has reminded us how our ancestors in this Diocese, at a great personal and fiscal sacrifice, developed a marvelous network of churches, rectories, convents, schools, colleges, hospitals, nursing homes and human service agencies throughout our 14-county Diocese, designed to serve our spiritual, educational and social well-being. That they have done splendidly. However, many of our facilities are aging and in need of substantial repair; others are no longer suited to meet the demands of the 21st century.

Consequently, at both the parish and diocesan level, we face the challenge of replacing, renovating or restoring our existing outmoded facilities, and of developing additional fiscal and technical resources which will equip us to meet the new and expanding needs of our faith community. To assist in this task, we established the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which provides our people with the opportunity to share their blessings with the parishes and institutions of our Diocese. To date, we have assets of $4.4 million in this Foundation. For this, we are deeply grateful.

However, in addition to this endowment fund, which by its very nature is designed to serve the long-range needs of the Church, there is also a critical need for an infusion of capital funds to address the new construction or renovation which must take place, and to develop the financial, communication and technological resources required to strengthen and endow our core ministries of faith formation, Catholic schools and Catholic Charities, as well as to ensure essential formation and training for all those who minister in our Diocese.

Hence, we will be studying the feasibility of conducting a major fund campaign, which, if undertaken, will enable the parishes and institutions of our Diocese to begin the 21st century and the next phase of our diocesan history with the resources needed to build upon the magnificent faith legacy we have inherited.

3. The final challenge to be addressed in the immediate future is our observance of the MILLENNIUM itself, wherein we will be responding to the call of our Holy Father Pope John Paul II to prepare spiritually for the Great Jubilee: that year of grace and favor which will usher in the third millennium of the Christian era.

In our Diocese, we have chosen Renew 2000 as the major vehicle to facilitate this preparation. This choice was based both upon our positive experience with the original Renew in the mid-1980s and upon our assessment of the capacity of the Renew process to address in one way or another the six critical needs identified within our Diocese, which I mentioned earlier.

Our millennium observance will commence in the Fall of 1998 and extend through the year 2000. It will enable all of the parishes and apostolates of our Diocese, whether employing Renew 2000 or not, to engage in that study, reflection, faith-sharing and prayer that our Holy Father envisions as essential for anticipating the millennium celebration. It will provide us, both personally and institutionally, with the opportunity for conversion and reconciliation.

Indeed, as our Holy Father rightly notes, reconciliation must be the hallmark of our millennium observance. A spirit of reconciliation, in other words, is the essence of our being Christ's disciples and of our ability to carry out the apostolic mission which the Lord has entrusted to our care.

How desperately needed this spirit of reconciliation is, both within and without the Church! Across the spectrum of Church opinion, there are very angry voices emanating from those who apparently feel justified in using a rhetoric of violence toward those with whom they disagree. Vitriolic epithets and bullying tactics are bad enough when bandied about by shock radio and TV hosts who daily pollute the airways with incivility and demeaning characterizations. But such perverse discourse has no place among those of us who glory in the name of Christian.

Yes, within the Church, we can disagree and challenge; we can probe and prod; but we cannot -- or at least should not -- engage in personal attacks, character assassination or self-righteous condemnation. Rather as today's Gospel montage reminds us: "Be compassionate; pardon; do not judge; do not condemn."

This spirit of reconciliation must also manifest itself in a willingness to reach out and to seek forgiveness from those who in any way have been harmed or alienated by ministers of the Church, especially the clergy. I'm thinking, for example, of those turned away by the harsh rebuff in the confessional...by an insensitive or unwelcome response given to couples seeking to be married in the Church or to have a baby baptized...by the mistaken impression left that only those with wealth or social status have access to a Church annulment...by sexual misconduct which violates the sacred bond of trust which must always exist between the servant and the served...by the unanswered phone call, the unkept appointment, or the unextended invitation.

To all those who have been hurt in these and other ways, even if inadvertently, we must be willing to say; "We're sorry, we apologize, please forgive us."

Indeed, we have ample precedent for such a spirit of reconciliation. For example, the Pope and bishops in our own country and throughout the world have apologized for the mistakes and failures of the past: for the excesses of the Crusades; for the perfidy of the Inquisition; for the condemnation of Galileo; for the tolerance of slavery; for the exploitation of our native Americans, exercised under the guise of spreading the Gospel; and for the anti-Semitic attitudes which reached their nadir in the Holocaust.

And in that same spirit of reconciliation, we, too, must apologize for our failures: for the chasm we so often perpetuate between the ordained and the non-ordained, the vowed and the non-vowed, the married and the celibate, males and females, heterosexuals and homosexuals, young and old, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, black and white, Anglo and Hispanic. We also need to heal the scandal of disunity between ourselves and Protestant and Orthodox Christians, and to come to a better understanding of and respect for our Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu brothers and sisters.

This spirit of reconciliation must also evidence itself in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the southern hemisphere of our own continent and with those in the developing nations of Asia and Africa. Furthermore, in our role of co-creators with the Master of the Universe, we must be concerned about the many and varied ways in which we personally and corporately pollute our rivers and streams, our mountains and valleys, and the very air we breathe.

Lastly, this spirit of reconciliation must lead us to be instruments of justice and peace within our world and society by combating the racism, sexism, classism, militarism, ageism and homophobia that still thrive in so many hearts...by rejecting the culture of death which engulfs us and which manifests itself in abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide and capital punishment...by waging war against substance and child abuse, domestic violence, pornography and violence in the media, which coalesce to erode the very fabric of society, thus contributing to family breakdown and social dysfunction...and by challenging the self-interest, hard-heartedness and corporate greed which scapegoat the poor, immigrants and welfare recipients, and which so often pit the younger generation against the older generation, or the middle class against the underclass in a no-win battle over limited resources.

If these challenges, and so many others which could be mentioned, seem too overwhelming, too demanding or too burdensome, then let us be consoled by listening again to the words we heard in the first reading spoken by that great contemporary martyr Archbishop Oscar Romero:

"It helps now and then to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that should be said, no prayer fully expresses our faith. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No set of goals and objectives includes everything....We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way and an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter in and do the rest. We may never see end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not Messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."

It is true that we are not the master builders, not the messiahs; but we are called to be the workers, the ministers and the prophets for our day. With God's grace, we can provide the yeast which produces an effect far beyond our capabilities.

Last year, at the opening of our jubilee observance, we lit the Sesquicentennial candle, and representatives from each parish transported the flame from that candle back to our respective faith communities to be kept burning brightly during our year-long anniversary celebration. This afternoon, as our Sesquicentennial draws to a close, we will emerge from this cathedral to find it bathed in light, symbolizing the call we have to be light for the world.

Having been renewed and refreshed by our Sesquicentennial observance, let us go forth from this mother church, filled with zeal and enthusiasm, with courage, hope and determination and with pride and gratitude so that, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary our Patroness, we may fulfill that mission which is ours: that mission captured so succinctly and insightfully in our diocesan vision statement; that mission and vision which calls us "to live as God's priestly people, sharing the responsibility to witness to the Lord's unconditional love and to bring Christ's healing presence to our world."

For unless this Christ-centered mission is the focus of our life together as a people of faith, then all of our efforts as a diocesan community, successful as they may be from a fiscal, social, educational or humanitarian point of view, will be as the proverbial sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.

May we, therefore, strive to embrace and fulfill this mission with all of our mind, heart and spirit, both now and forever and ever. Amen.