St. Mary's Church, Roslyn: Pastor's Page

Palm Sunday

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

We have now come to Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. During the course of the next seven days, we will have the opportunity to walk with our Lord through the last week, and most important moments, of his life on earth. Elsewhere in this bulletin you will find the complete schedule for Holy Week and Easter. Do not forget that this Monday, March 25, is the diocesan Day of Penance, and confessions will be available in the church from 3:00 to 6:00 pm continuously.

A reminder to those of you who pray the Divine Mercy devotion, so close to the heart of Blessed John Paul II. Good Friday is the day to begin the Divine Mercy Novena, which concludes just prior to the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter). On that day we will have a special Mass at 3:00 pm in the church. From 1:00 to 3:00 pm we will have special Divine Mercy devotions, and extra priests will be available to hear confessions in the lower church. You will find a flyer with more details in this bulletin.

On Tuesday last, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Pope Francis inaugurated his Petrine ministry at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square, with attendance estimated at one-million pilgrims. During that Mass he   received the symbols of his office, the pallium and the fisherman’s ring. We will discuss the meaning of these symbols after Easter. There are so many interesting and inspiring stories coming out about our new Pope, but I would like to share just one with you this weekend.

After Pope Blessed John Paul II died in 2005, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires offered a reminiscence in the Catholic magazine 30 Days about the inspiration the late Pope had given him:

If I remember well it was 1985. One evening I went to recite the Holy Rosary that was being led by the Holy Father. He was in front of everybody, on his knees. The group was numerous; I saw the Holy Father from the back and, little by little, I got lost in prayer. I was not alone: I was praying in the middle of the people of God to which I and all those there belonged, led by our Pastor.

In the middle of the prayer I became distracted, looking at the figure of the Pope: his pity, his devotion was a witness. And the time drifted away, and I began to imagine the young priest, the seminarian, the poet, the worker, the child from Wadowice… in the same position in which [he] knelt at that moment, reciting Ave Maria after Ave Maria.  His  witness struck me.

I felt that this man, chosen to lead the Church, was following a path up to his Mother in the sky, a path set out on from his childhood. And I became aware of the density of the words of the Mother of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego: “Don’t be afraid, am I not perhaps your mother?” I understood the presence of Mary in the life of the Pope.

That testimony did not get forgotten in an instant. From that time on I recite the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary every day.

−Fr. McCartney

Election of Pope Francis

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

“Brothers and sisters … You know that the duty of the Conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as though my brother cardinals went almost to the end of the world to get him. But here we are.”

With those words, the pontificate of Pope Francis began. The news came as a surprise to all of us, since the former Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio was not high on the list of any of the papabile the news media told us to expect. And so many firsts! The first pope from Latin America; the first Jesuit; the first to take the name of Francis; the first from the southern hemisphere; the first to be ordained after the Second Vatican Council; and the first native Spanish speaking pope in more than five-hundred years.

Pope Francis, even before appearing on the balcony to greet the faithful, placed a call to his predecessor, Benedict, the Pope Emeritus. By the time you read this, they will have already had a private meeting. How interesting to think of a conversation between two bishops of Rome! It says so much that Pope Francis wanted one of his first acts to be leading the people of the world in prayer for Benedict XVI.

I am sure that by now you have read the new Holy Father’s biography. Born in Buenos Aires in 1936 to Italian immigrant parents, he took a degree in chemistry before discerning his vocation. Ordained as a member of the Society of Jesus in 1969, he served as a novice master, theology professor, and the Provincial (regional superior) of Argentina for the Jesuits. He became rector of the seminary where he had studied, and also served as the pastor of a parish. He studied in Germany and obtained a doctorate in theology, and worked as a confessor and spiritual director in El Salvador and Spain. In 1992 Blessed John Paul II named him an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, and in 1998 he became the archbishop of that diocese in his own right. He was elevated to cardinal in 2001, and also served as president of the Bishop’s Conference of Argentina for six years.

His reputation for simplicity and personal holiness is well-known, and is certainly connected to his selection of the name Francis. As archbishop, he chose to live in a simple apartment with an elderly bishop and he cooked and cleaned for them both. He used public transportation instead of a private car, and frequently wore a simple priest’s cassock on his daily journeys through the city. His love for Christ has manifested itself in a great compassion and concern for the poor, and has also made him a zealous advocate for life issues, and a vocal opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage.

The media is expecting Pope Francis to be a reformer, and I believe they are both right and wrong. We should recall that St. Francis of Assisi, the great reformer of the Thirteenth Century, had a great love of the papacy, and a very strong personal commitment of obedience to the pope and fidelity to the teachings of the Church. I believe we shall see Pope Francis inaugurate a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy and initiate a great drive for spiritual initiatives in the church. But the “reform” the news media is hoping for and expecting, a change in fundamental Catholic Church teaching, will not (and, indeed cannot) happen. In short, the Pope will be Catholic. And as Catholics, we must begin right away to assist him with our prayers. In the words of the old prayer for the Pope: May the Lord preserve him, give him a long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and may the Lord not hand him over to the power of his enemies.

−Fr. McCartney