Homily of Bishop Howard J. Hubbard

It is fitting on this Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of our Diocese, that we gather -- from the Vermont border to the Pennsylvania border; from the foothills of the Berkshires and the Green Mountains to the threshold of the Appalachian mountain range; from the Adirondacks to the Catskills; from the Hudson Valley through the Mohawk Valley; from Hoosick Falls to Little Falls; from the Sacandaga Reservoir to the Delaware River Basin; from the Naval Museum in Whitehall to the Baseball Museum in Cooperstown; from Glens Falls to Copake Falls and Haines Falls; from Fort Ann to Fort Plain; and from all the various villages, towns and cities that dot our fourteen-county Diocese. We gather for this spirit-filled prayer service in which we commence the year-long celebration of our Sesquicentennial Anniversary, that anniversary which commemorates the founding in 1847 of this local Church we call the Diocese of Albany.

We have chosen as our sesquicentennial theme: "Honoring Tradition, Discovering Tomorrow." From this gathering this afternoon to the closing ceremony on the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception a year from now, in our parishes, schools, religious education programs; in our families, diocesan offices and agencies; on our college campuses and in our religious communities, we will be looking for ways to honor our faith heritage, imbedded as it is in the soil made rich by 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.

Ours indeed is a rich faith tradition: a heritage of saints and scholars; a heritage of sinners and scoundrels; a heritage of wave after wave of immigrants, with each wave making its own indispensable contribution to our cultural, social and spiritual fabric; a heritage of priests, deacons, religious and lay persons, like all of us gathered here today, who have built up and maintained the magnificent network of churches, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and human service agencies that grace our Diocese -- a Diocese which currently consists of 403,000 Catholics, 187 parishes, 38 mission churches, 3 colleges and one graduate school of theology, 47 high school and grammar schools serving an academic total of 17,400 students, with another 37,000 young people under instruction in our religious education programs; 17 campus ministry chapters; 4 hospitals ministering to 560,000 patients annually, 9 extended-care facilities caring for 1,500 aged and infirm persons, 2 Diocesan Counseling Centers; 25 diocesan departments; 27 persons serving in prison or jail ministry; 12 retreat centers and houses of prayer, 8 residences for senior citizens; and 31 social service agencies attending to the social, emotional and psychological needs of those who are poor, homeless, refugees, addicted, incarcerated, deaf, developmentally disabled, experiencing problem pregnancies, in need of adoption, foster care or day care or coping with AIDS or family dysfunction, just to mention a few of the multi-faceted social services that are rendered annually by our Catholic Charity agencies to over 154,000 people in our Diocese, regardless of their racial, religious, ethnic or socio-economic background.

This does not include the countless number of services provided by fraternal and sororal organizations like the St. Vincent de Paul Societies, the Ladies of Charity, the Legion of Mary, the Knights of Columbus, Malta, St. John and Lithuania, and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas; or the contributions of Catholic lay people in their neighborhoods and communities and through their activities in the workplace and marketplace.

The sterling heritage, which we celebrate in this Sesquicentennial observance, precedes the founding of our local Church in 1847. It is a heritage illumined by Saints Isaac Jogues, John Lalande and Rene Goupil, the 17th-century Jesuit missionaries who traversed the trails from Canada to Lake George, from the mighty Hudson to the majestic Mohawk Rivers in a valiant venture to bring the Good News to our native Americans, and by Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha who became the premier respondent to the message proclaimed by the French missionaries; a heritage of Sir William Johnson, a Catholic sympathizer, if not an underground Catholic, who fostered Catholic colonization in that area of the Mohawk Valley that now bears his name, despite the anti-priest laws that were in effect in his day; a heritage of Thomas Dongan, the Irish Catholic who served as the first English Governor of New York State and who penned the historic Dongan Charter with its religious freedom clause, which charter was to become the basis for the future New York State Constitution.

It is a heritage of Catholic patriots like France's Lafayette and Poland's Kosciuszko, who fought so courageously for freedom on our diocesan soil during the American Revolution; a heritage of circuit-riding priests out of historic St. Mary's in Albany, the first Catholic church in upstate New York and the second oldest in our state; and of pioneering parishes in Newport, Troy, Hudson Falls, Schenectady, Hoosick Falls, Saratoga Springs, Amsterdam, Little Falls, Schaghticoke, Hunter, Watervliet, Waterford, Hudson, Gilboa, Whitehall, Cohoes, Schuylerville and Ballston Spa, all of which were in existence before the establishment of our Diocese.

It is a heritage of French-Canadian, German and Irish Catholics, who in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, came to this area, settled originally by the Dutch and the English, in search of work and a better life: building the roadways, the canals and the mills that made our region both the gateway to the West and an economic powerhouse in our nation's first half-century.

The first Roman Catholic Diocese in the New World was the Diocese of Baltimore, established in 1789 with John Carroll as its bishop and the entire 13 colonies as its territory. In 1809, the Diocese of New York was erected, which embraced all of New York State. The growing presence of Catholicism in northeastern New York State led to the establishment of our Diocese in 1847, under Bishop John McCloskey, who held a series of firsts: the first priest ordained for the Diocese of New York, the first Bishop of Albany and who later, as Archbishop of New York, was to become the first American cardinal.

On the same day, April 23, 1847, the Diocese of Buffalo was also established. Buffalo embraced what is now the Diocese of Rochester, which was severed in 1868; and our Diocese of Albany included what are now the Dioceses of Ogdensburg and Syracuse, which were established in 1872 and 1886 respectively. The visionary and energetic Bishop McCloskey enabled the fledgling Diocese to grow and flourish organizationally. Many of the aforementioned immigrant groups brought with them their priests and religious communities to help meet their pastoral, educational, social and spiritual needs. The Augustinians, Jesuits, Redemptorists, and Franciscan Fathers; the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Daughters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Holy Names and Assumptionist Sisters; and the Christian Brothers established parishes, schools, hospitals and orphanages. This cohort of immigrants was followed at the end of the century by arrivees from Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Ukraine -- all accompanied by their priests and religious: the Resurrection and Felician Sisters for the Poles; the Baptistine, Venerini and Filippini Sisters for the Italians. Also, the Little Sisters of the Poor came to care for the aged in Albany and Troy; the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, to develop reformatory schools for girls in these same communities; and the Sisters of the Presentation, to run an orphanage for boys and girls in Watervliet.

The first half of the 20th century saw the Diocese strongly impacted by its bishops, the pastoral Bishop Thomas Burke, the saintly Bishop Thomas Cusack, and especially Bishop Edmund Gibbons, who guided the Diocese from the waning days of World War I through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War and the onset of the Cold War. Bishop Gibbons' great devotion to the Carmelite saints, Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux, moved him to establish the cloistered Carmelite Monastery in Schenectady and to welcome to Germantown the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm. His background as superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Buffalo prompted him to become a staunch advocate for Catholic education, involved in the founding of Saint Rose and Siena Colleges, Mater Christi Seminary and our diocesan newspaper, The Evangelist, originally developed as a parish bulletin by the legendary Msgr. John F. Glavin, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Rensselaer for 61 years.

Bishop William Scully and Bishop Edward Maginn built upon Bishop Gibbons' legacy, especially in the realm of education, opening 22 new parochial schools and 4 new high schools between 1950 and 1960. They represented the Diocese at that watershed event of 20th-century Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council, continuing in the tradition of Bishop John Conroy, the second Bishop of Albany, who represented the Diocese at the First Vatican Council.

However, it fell to the eighth Bishop of Albany, Bishop Edwin Broderick, who is present with us today, to implement the norms and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, especially in the areas of liturgy, ecumenism, catechetics and the development of collegial bodies like the Priests' Senate, Sisters' Council and Diocesan Pastoral Council. He also saw to the expansion of the Church's social service ministry from its Capital District focus to all fourteen counties of our Diocese.

Throughout the history of our Diocese, there have been towering figures like:

* Father Peter Havermans, the Dutch Jesuit-become-diocesan priest, who founded St. Peter's, St. Mary's and St. Joseph's parishes in Troy; the Troy Hospital (now Seton); LaSalle Institute; two orphan asylums; and St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary;

* Madame Henriette de La Tours du Pin, a French aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette who came to America to escape certain death during the French Revolution and upon whose farmhouse cellar was built the historic house, located on the grounds of the current St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham, which, from structural evidence, may have served as a way station on the Underground Railroad to Canada in mid-19th century;

* Fathers Edward Wadhams and Clarence Walworth, fellow seminarians for orders in the Episcopal church, who as a result of their involvement with the Oxford Movement, spearheaded by John Henry Newman, followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church. Father Wadhams became the first rector of our Cathedral and the founding bishop of the Diocese of Ogdensburg; and Father Walworth, the pastor of historic St. Mary's.

* They fostered the career of Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulist Community and built upon the groundwork for the positive ecumenical climate that exists in this part of the Lord's vineyard, laid initially by

* Domine Johannes Megapolensis, the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, who harbored Isaac Jogues from his Iroquois tormentors and secured for him safe passage back to France.

* Then there were Peter Cagger, the prominent Catholic layman who was instrumental in the establishment of St. Peter's Hospital, which bears his name, as well as in assisting Bishop Francis McNeirny, the third Bishop of Albany to complete the construction of our magnificent Cathedral Church in 1892;

* Leandre Alexandre du Mouchel, the great Cathedral organist, whose musical compositions and choral work earned him a world-renowned reputation;

* Lucy Eaton Smith, of Glens Falls, a convert to Catholicism, who became the foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the American Congregation of St. Catherine de Ricci, promoting the retreat movement for the laity within our Diocese and beyond; and

* Margaret Brady Farrell and the members of the Brady/Farrell family whose largesse was responsible for the development of the Brady Maternity Hospital, St. Catherine's Infant Home, the Grotto at St. Vincent's in Albany, and the Mercy Mother House Chapel, as well as for donating the land that would eventually be used for the new St. Peter's Hospital, Maria College, Mater Christi Seminary, the Dominican Monastery, and the Holy Cross Novitiate and Retreat House in Valatie.

* There were also Martin Glynn of Schenectady, who became the first Catholic governor of New York State and a leading advocate for workers' rights, and

* the Happy Warrior, Governor Al Smith, who along with his family, became such an integral part of the Cathedral parish and the first Roman Catholic to run for the office of President of our United States.

Nor must we forget our native sons and daughters who first heard the Good News proclaimed in the churches, schools and catechetical programs of our Diocese and then went to serve God's people in other parts of the Lord's vineyard. For example, we honor people like:

* Bishop Patrick Ludden, the first Bishop of Syracuse;

* Bishop Henry Gabriels, who succeeded Bishop Edgar Wadhams as the second Bishop of Ogdensburg;

* Bishop William John Kenny of Delhi, the third Bishop of Saint Augustine;

* Bishop Bernard Mahoney of Rensselaer, Bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota;

* missionary bishops like William Ambrose Jones, of Cambridge in Washington County, who as an Augustinian priest became the second North American Bishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Franciscan Bishops Elias James Manning of Troy, now serving in Valenca, Brazil, and Bishop Capistran Heim of Catskill, now serving in Itaituba, Brazil;

* Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis-St Paul and Bishop John Nolan of the Military Ordinariate, who regret they cannot be with us today;

* Archbishop Joseph Ryan the first Archbishop of Anchorage and Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester, who honor us with their presence today.

Many other native sons and daughters of our Diocese have brought the Good News to other parts of the vineyard. Some have gone to Maryknoll and from thence to distant places. Many others have exercised their ministries as members of religious congregations of women and of men in missions that they serve abroad. Numerous laypersons have served the mission of Jesus in dedicated ministry in other countries. It is appropriate to remember also the many other laypersons who laid down their lives on foreign battlefields in defense of our freedom. We honor and celebrate them all today.

In addition to the dynamic personalities and movements of people who helped shape this local Church, our Diocese has endured all the isms of the past century-and-a-half: lay trusteeism, know nothingism, nativism, modernism, Americanism, pietism, anti-Semitism and the threat of Fascism, Communism and McCarthyism. As a faith community, we have dealt for better or worse with the Abolitionist Movement, the Labor Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Peace Movement. We've wrestled with and continue to refine our position on the role of religion in society, the place of the Catholic school in a pluralistic democracy and the mission of the laity to be about the transformation of society.

And so for all these splendid facets of our diocesan history and tradition, which I have touched upon, and so many more that could be cited, we give thanks today and hopefully will continue to be inspired by this glorious faith heritage we have been bequeathed.

However, as our sesquicentennial theme suggests, we must not only honor tradition but discover tomorrow. Please God, then, our year-long jubilee observance will not only enable us to reflect with pride on the sterling accomplishments of the past, but also serve to re-energize us to meet the challenges of the present and to prepare us to address the still uncharted spiritual and pastoral opportunities of the third millennium of Christianity.

The words set forth by Bishop John McCloskey in his inaugural homily delivered to the faithful assembled in 1847, which we heard earlier in the service, still remain most appropriate today: "Fortunately for us, the foundations have already been laid....Yet we are called upon not only to continue the work but to enlarge and increase it; to lay new foundations broader and deeper, to erect a structure more spacious and more enduring that the stranger and the wayfarer may enter in and find rest."

And what is the mission that lies ahead and rests upon what has gone before? It is captured beautifully and succinctly in that prophetic vision of Isaiah, which Jesus cites in today's Gospel passage to describe for his hearers his own mission (Luke-4 16:20), namely, "To bring glad tidings to the poor,...to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

And this, my friends, is still our mission both now and for the future. The mission to show a preferential option for the poor by our service and advocacy, the mission to heal those who are spiritually blind through our programs of lifelong faith formation; the mission to free those who are oppressed by the materialism, consumerism, ageism, sexism, racism and narrow parochialism and regionalism of our day by refreshing and enlivening them with the living word of God and the liturgical and sacramental life of our Church; and the mission to proclaim liberty to those captivated by political correctness and the fickle and fleeting fads and fashions of the moment, by nourishing them with the time-proven and time-tested spiritual tradition of our ancestors in the faith.

More specifically, we must address those six major needs surfaced in our recent pastoral planning process:

1. The need to develop more collaborative models of ministry that enable the laity, in particular, to take their full and rightful place in the life of the Church by providing the formal and informal educational and formational programs that will assist them to recognize, to develop and, then, to utilize their God-given gifts and talents for the service of the Church and our wider society;

2. The need to foster and promote youth ministry so as to involve our young more dynamically in the life of the Church, and to pave the way for them to be active and effective Church leaders in the 21st century;

3. The need to be more innovative and creative in adult education and formation especially using modern means of communications like VCRs, cable programming and the Internet, as well as to offer more experiential forms of learning such as the small faith-sharing groups that the RCIA and the RENEW process provide;

4. The need for evangelization to reconnect with the large number of our fellow Catholics who are alienated from the Church and the rising tide of our fellow Americans totally unchurched, as well as to serve the needs of the growing Hispanic, Black, Vietnamese and Korean communities within our midst;

5. The need, in light of the declining number of ordained priests, to ensure that the Eucharist remains the center and focus of the life of Catholic Christians; and

6. The need to help our people grasp and digest our Church's social teaching about the sacred dignity of the human person, the sanctity of human life, the solidarity that exists among all the members of the human family and the responsibility to promote the common good as we struggle to relate this teaching to the issues of the economy, the environment, welfare and health care reform, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, abortion, the arms trade and the growing gap between the haves and have nots, both at home and abroad.

And it is my hope and prayer that as we refocus on our mission as a Diocese during this Sesquicentennial observance, it will lead us to renew and deepen our relationship with Jesus; to make Him and His plan of life the centerpiece of our lives, and to recommit ourselves to live as His faithful disciples during our sojourn here on earth. For if a deeper bonding with Jesus is not the end result of our anniversary observance, then all of our festivities -- successful as they may be from an educational, social, cultural and fiscal point of view -- will be as the proverbial sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

In a moment, it will be my privilege to make the formal proclamation of our Sesquicentennial observance as a year of jubilee. Our reading from the Book of Leviticus today reminds us that during the jubilee year, we must stand in fear before the Lord: not fear in the sense of foreboding, but fear in the sense of awe and wonder at the majesty of God leading to a conversion of heart, that enables us to attune our way of life to God's way of life.

Historically, one of the characteristics of a jubilee year is that of forgiveness of debt so that we might begin the next phase of our journey with a clean slate. In that tradition, then, today I hereby announce a forthcoming plan to forgive the indebtedness for assessments and insurance accrued by our parishes, schools and institutions within the Diocese, which our Chancellor for Finance Jay Feeney informs me amounts to over 3.4 million dollars.

I hope that this gesture on the part of diocesan administration will spur a similar response of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation throughout our Diocese, especially manifest in our care and concern for the poor and vulnerable, and prepare us well to move toward our 200th anniversary and into the new millennium as a people of faith and service; a people sustained by the intercession of Mary our diocesan patroness; a people inspired by the sterling accomplishments of our ancestors in the faith, both those mentioned here this afternoon and all those countless unsung heroes and heroines who have brought us to this happy day; and a people imbued with the spirit of Jesus, symbolized by the Sesquicentennial candle, which we are about to light and whose flame will be transported to each parish of our Diocese to be kept burning brightly throughout our year-long anniversary celebration.

Through our Sesquicentennial observance, then, may we continue to grow in our unity with one another and with Jesus, our light, our life and our salvation so that we can fulfill our diocesan vision statement: "To live as God's priestly people, sharing the responsibility to witness to God's unconditional love and to bring Christ's healing presence to our world."

(12-12-96)

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