This week Catholic Charities held its annual review meeting which gives the leadership and Board of Directors the opportunity to report to the Bishop on the many extraordinary projects that our Diocesan Catholic Charities carries on in behalf of the vulnerable and needy in our midst.  The largest social service network outside of the government in all of Long island, this is the face of the Catholic Church to pregnant teens, elderly couples, special needs children and their families and a host of other persons and groups who depend on the Church to help them cope with life and become self-reliant with dignity and meaning in their lives.

In the past three weeks, there were graduations from our three diocesan high schools, McGann Mercy in Riverhead, Holy Trinity in Hicksville and St, John the Baptist in West Islip.  Almost 1,000 seniors received diplomas and are going on to some of the best colleges in the area and in our country, thanks to the dedicated faculty and administration at these three Catholic schools.

In May it was my privilege to ordain ten men to the permanent diaconate and assign them to serve in parishes around our diocese.  On June 12, the cathedral was filled with family and loved ones and parishioners of the three men ordained to the priesthood after completing their years of formation at our seminary in Huntington.  A fourth, whom I ordained last year, has completed his studies in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome last week will join them in parish assignments to St James. Seaford, St Brigid, Westbury, St Joseph Ronkonkoma and St. Patrick, Smithtown.

A month ago, 65 men and women received graduate degrees in theology, divinity and pastoral studies after completing their work at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington.  With great joy many will gather in the Cathedral of St. Agnes this week for graduations from the Pastoral Formation Institute for all those who will receive their certificates from the PFI in various areas of religious studies.

In the meantime throughout the year, almost every weekend has seen a charismatic retreat which gathered Spanish speaking members of our parishes for prayer, and deepening of their spiritual lives.  On our campuses, adult and peer ministers attuned to the spiritual and special needs of Catholics in the colleges and universities that make Long Island so attractive to the young collegians of our parishes and those from other parts of the country.  I pray we may find vocations to priesthood and religious life among some of them which is why Fr. Brian Barr and his cohort of priests have made themselves available to offer Mass on these campuses and to conduct retreats for college age students throughout the school year.

In the meantime, my colleagues who oversee the needs of the clergy, the coordination of social outreach in our parishes, the efforts at communications in all the media from this newspaper to Telecare to our website, the various organs of diocesan life like the Presbyteral Council and the Diocesan Pastoral Council, in short, all those who assist me in the many activities that help the fifth largest Catholic Church in the United States function, will gather with me next week to review the year’s efforts and to begin preparations for what we will undertake as a diocese when the summer holidays are over.

What do all these have in common?  Many things not the least of which is that they are all aspects of a healthy and vibrant expression of the Spirit who animates this Diocese of Rockville Centre.  They also are the many ways that the office of bishop is carried on in service to the People of God, a service offered in strict union and collaboration with my brother priests, your pastors and their staffs. But, what all these, including the parishes, all have in common is that they all are assisted by the annual Catholic Ministries Appeal.

None of these could continue to function without your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA). The Diocese has only two real sources of income. One is the annual assessment, called the Cathedraticum, to which every parish contributes a small percentage of its income so that the Bishop and the Diocese can carry on essential work of the Church, only a portion of which I have mentioned above.  The second source is your generosity to the CMA.

Unfortunately the number giving has decreased and, while the average gift is somewhat greater every year, the overall donations through the CMA have grown little and seem to be flat or a little behind last year.  Our pastors are working hard to make their goals.  Many lay people continue to offer their efforts to encourage parishioners and others to give to the CMA which literally touches the lives of all the Catholics on Long Island and many thousands who are not Catholic.

So as we start to look ahead in anticipation of some summer days on this most beautiful part of God’s earth, I would like to ask each and everyone of you to help me.  This week or next or any day before you go on vacation, stop and ask yourself if you can give a little more to the CMA before you and your family go off on your holidays.  If you have stopped giving, for whatever reason, think about this fact: no money from the CMA enriches anyone or adds to anyone’s salaries or benefits who work in this Diocese beginning with your bishop on down to every other person who serves you.  The CMA contributions go exclusively to the five areas of the Diocese that are so much more in need because today’s needs are greater than yesterdays.  So, even if it is only a small amount, that doesn’t matter.  What matters is the generous heart that makes a sacrifice to help others.  And that sacrifice, however large or small, will multiply itself because of your goodness and your care.

So please let’s make an end of the year, beginning of summer effort to give a little more, give a little extra, give something from your heart to the CMA before you go off on vacation.  And may the God who watches over us watch over, protect you and your family during these summer months wherever you may be relaxing and being refreshed by the beauty of God’s creation and the joyful fun of family and friends together.

If you can help, please do so.  Contributions can be made using this form and sending it to:

Catholic Ministries Appeal
Diocese of Rockville Centre
P.O. Box 4000
Rockville Centre, NY 11571-4000

Gifts to the Catholic Ministries Appeal may also be made via your credit card.  Make your donation online by visiting www.drvc.org/make-a-donation.html .

St. Patrick’s currently has received $85,339.09.00
in pledges from 388 families toward our goal of $130,000.00.

Bishop William Murphy  

Today as we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are grateful to God for the wonderful country in which we live.  We call the Fourth of July Independence Day because on July 4, 1776 the founding fathers of our country met and declared our independence from British rule and established our nation.  Over the course of our brief history we have come to know and even take for granted privileges and freedoms that people in other parts of the world look at with wonder and awe.  Freedom from foreign rule does not mean we are not dependent on others or can isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.  You and I are here today because of God’s goodness and blessings and the goodness, sacrifices and love of so many who have gone before us.  At the end of May we celebrated Memorial Day and remembered with pride and prayer those who gave their lives in defense and service to our nation.  Veterans walk among us today with greatly earned pride and are a living source of continuous inspiration to us.

In reading the scriptures from the Old Testament we see the journey of the Jewish people from slavery to freedom.  Freedom from slavery nurtured the hope for their own country.  God led them through the desert for forty years and they finally came to their Promised Land.  What a joy that was for them.  Their freedom and land were pure gifts from God.  At times they took what they had for granted. When that happened the moral and social fabric of their nation fell apart.  Their self-centeredness caused them to be conquered and lose their freedom as a nation. One of the gifts we have in the twenty-first century is learning from the strong and weak points of those who have gone before us in history.  The ultimate gift we all have is the gift of faith.  As long as we stay focused on who we are as the children of God we will not only be grateful for our blessings, we will also be blessings for one another, our country and our world.

In today’s gospel, Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples in pairs to prepare for his coming.  He tells them to take no money, no traveling bag and no shoes.  What he is really saying is do not be distracted by anything, just prepare the way for the Good News of God’s kingdom.  Their focus is to be on God and the kingdom as well as the deep hunger and thirst all people have for God’s love and life.  When they came back from the responsibility he had given them, they were amazed at how the power of God’s love and life worked through them.  By living up to Jesus’ trust in them, they accomplished far more than they would ever have thought and even tried on their own.

We live in a culture that touts and thrives on autonomy and independence.  Yet when we look closely at all that we have and all that is necessary in our lives, we come to realize that we need others.  Most importantly, we need God.  Without Him we quickly lose our way and all too easily become self-centered and closed-minded.  As much as we are independent as a nation, we are also dependent on other nations.  The catastrophe with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reminds us of our ravenous consumption of oil for mobility and utilities and the dependence we have on foreign oil.  Look at the cars in our parking lot and on our highways.  A very large percentage of them come from foreign car manufacturers.  The very food we eat is not all grown here in America.  We depend on the farmers and growers in other parts of the world for this very basic human need.  In our church we are blessed to have four priests from Nigeria serving us in the parish and in St. Catherine’s Hospital.  They have left the familiarity and security of their homeland and families to brings God’s life and love to us through the sacraments and their own personal faith as priests.

The fact is we are both independent and dependent.  Our independence makes us grateful and opens our minds to see the blessings we have as people of faith and people of America.  Our dependence opens our hearts to be people of service to and for one another.  Like the disciples in today’s gospel, we are trusted by God to be bearers of the Good News of God’s kingdom.  We have the ultimate freedom, the freedom of the children of God.  It does not matter what others say or think, we know the truth in our hearts and are called and trusted to share that truth freely, lovingly and generously.  Freely living as the children of God is not always easy, but it is the only freedom that makes us fully alive, vibrant and life-giving citizens of our nation.

Father Walden ; ;