Bishop William Murphy
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Mary in Our Lives |
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December 8, 2010 |The Long Island Catholic Vol. 49, No. 33 | BISHOP WILLIAM MURPHY
Every year on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our Seminary at Lloyd Harbor witnesses the ordination of men to the diaconate who are in their final preparation to be ordained priests the following June. Bishop DiMarzio and I alternate in ordaining the men for our two dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre. The ordaining bishop for the particular year is also the bishop who offers the opening retreat at the beginning of the academic year to all the seminarians enrolled at the Immaculate Conception Seminary. For our seminary it is the highlight of all the events that take place there. Of course, the families present are proud and joy-filled to see their sons, grandsons, brothers and uncles receive this ordination to the diaconate, the final liturgical moment before their ordination to priesthood. The seminarians rejoice for their brothers with whom they have been living, praying, studying and preparing themselves for the same goal.
Our Lady whom we all honor on her feast day under the title of the Immaculate Conception is central to our lives of faith and central to the life of both our dioceses. To be Catholic carries with the gift of faith a deep and filial love for Mary. The Church long has dedicated the month of May to Mary. We also focus our devotion to her in October through special emphasis on the rosary, an emphasis that makes October the month in which we renew our commitment to all human life, especially the unborn.
But in a certain sense this month of December brings Mary to us with very distinctive and compelling force. First in sequence is of course Mary in her Immaculate Conception. This dogma, while defined in 1854 by Blessed Pius IX, has been a part of our faith as a Church from the beginning. This devotion grew more and more widely a part of the Church’s prayer life over time. Theologians from the early Church on extolled God’s goodness in recognizing that, by a special gift of God’s prevenient grace, Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin so that she could be the fit instrument of God’s plan of salvation. As St. Bernard loved to say, “She conceived Him in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb.” That is why she always willed to do what God asked of her whatever that may be. That is why she, who committed herself to be the virgin Daughter of Sion, was made fit through this grace to become the Ark of the Tabernacle, the one who bore Jesus within her as He dwelt in her womb until the day of His coming into the world. That is why we, with the whole Church, believe and rejoice in her perpetual virginity, a virginity that makes her and her alone, the Virgin Mother of God. For all that we hail her as “Full of grace.”
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Religious Liberty and Thanksgiving |
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December 1, 2010 |The Long Island Catholic Vol. 49, No. 32 | BISHOP WILLIAM MURPHY
Bishop Murphy was invited by the leadership of the Islamic Center of Long Island to deliver the keynote at an interfaith gathering Nov. 28 to celebrate religious liberty in the spirit of Thanksgiving. The following are the reflections he shared with those gathered at the Center in Westbury.
Thank you for gathering us here in this beautiful Islamic Center so important for the life of Muslims and of us all who live on Long Island. I offer my thoughts this evening in the same context of Cardinal Francis George who writes of the “necessary conversation” on the part of dialogue between Christians and Muslims and others to constitute the foundation of our contribution to a greater global solidarity in behalf of religious freedom. (George, “The Difference God Makes,” 112f) As Catholic Bishop here, as a member of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on ecumenical and interfaith affairs and as a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue I pledge to you my renewed commitment to be a partner in dialogue, a brother in building a good society and in defending the rights of all and a friend at all times.
In 1948 a remarkable group of men and women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, met in Paris with a charge from the newly formed United Nations Organization to draw up a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On December 10 of that year the General Assembly of the UN adopted and promulgated the declaration which has been adopted and adhered to by almost every nation in the world. Article 18 reads, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and in public and private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
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Reasons for Thanksgiving 2010 |
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November 24, 2010| The Long Island Catholic Vol. 49, No. 31 | BISHOP WILLIAM MURPHY
This is that special American moment when the whole nation pauses to say thanks to God for the many blessings that are ours. I know there are some who will want to keep God out of it. We will always have them. But the original inspiration for a Day of Thanksgiving was without doubt focused on God who, the Pilgrims devoutly believed, had shown his wondrous deeds (Mirabilia Dei) in their calling to and their flourishing in this new land as in their survival as his Chosen elect. God was a central part of daily life in the struggling colonies, sometimes obsessively so. But that God was and always will be the giver of all that is good meant that the recipients, the Pilgrims, all Americans, you and I, have a responsibility and obligation (The Pilgrims liked those two words) to render thanks to God who created us and “who gave being to all things that are” (as Harvard University declared in 1935 at their 300th anniversary).
For a moment put down this column of mine and stop and think of some of the blessings for which you are thankful. That’s right. Stop reading. Close your eyes and reflect! .......
Like you and perhaps all of us, I think first of family, of faith, of friends. I have very special reasons to be grateful and thankful to God for the gift of priesthood, for the call to the episcopate, for the mission the Holy Father gave me by sending me here to be your pastor and shepherd. Not a day goes by that I do not thank God for the priests of this diocese. I see them as my special brothers to whom I owe so much and on whom I depend, without whom my mission would be impossible.
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To Belong More Deeply: New Words, Same Mass |
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November 17, 2010 | The Long Island Catholic Vol. 49, No. 30 | BISHOP WILLIAM MURPHY
Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, the priests of the diocese were invited to attend a clergy conference. These semi-annual gatherings of the priests and bishops give us priests the opportunity to spend some time together in prayer and fellowship while focusing on some issues of importance for our pastoral ministry. Msgr. James Swiader, vice rector of our seminary, organizes and conducts these meetings that are voluntary but which are truly a worthwhile way to spend an afternoon and evening with brother priests of our diocese.
While we often invite experts from outside the diocese to present a theme for information and discussion, that was not the case this time. Msgr. Swiader, as part of a group that is working on a new Sunday Mass initiative, suggested we use this gathering to present to the priests a vision of a process that would in the next two years address a number of inter-related issues for our life as a Church, in particular our life as the Church that celebrates the Divine Liturgy of the Sunday Mass.
One important event that is shaping these initiatives is the fact that on the First Sunday of Advent next year, November 27, 2011, the Church in the United States will begin to use the new English translation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. This last sentence probably needs some explanation. After the Second Vatican Council, when the liturgy and sacraments were determined to be celebrated in the vernacular, or local languages, there was of course the challenge of translating the texts into the local languages. A group called ICEL or the International Commission for English in the Liturgy came into being. This group was charged with the translation and, in a comparatively brief time, did a good job of giving us the translation of the Roman Missal for use at Mass. Thus we have been using the Roman Missal in English published in two kinds of volumes: a Sacramentary, which has the texts of the prayers and petitions of the Mass found in the Roman Missal, and a Lectionary, which contains the readings at Masses for Sundays, feast days and ordinary days of the year.
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St. Charles Borromeo |
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November 10, 2010 lThe Long Island Catholic Vol. 49, No. 29 | BISHOP WILLIAM MURPHY
On November 1 of this year, the Ambrosian Archdiocese of Milan celebrated the 400th anniversary of the canonization of St. Charles Borromeo. This extraordinary figure was canonized in 1610, only 26 years after his death in 1584 at the age of 46. Born into a Milanese noble family, he was early on headed toward a life in the Church as a priest. He studied canon and civil law at Pavia not far from Milan where today stands one of the most ancient and beautiful Carthusian monasteries in all of Italy.
When his uncle, Cardinal Giovan Angelo Medici, was elected Pope in 1559 as Pope Pius IV, young Charles was brought to Rome, created a cardinal, and named the Major Penitentiary of the Holy Roman Church. Shortly after that, he was named by Pius IV to be the Archbishop of Milan which was badly in need of a new bishop. There the future saint addressed the problems of the lax morals of both priests and laity. He introduced reforms and began a seminary in light of the teachings of the great Council of Trent at whose sessions the young bishop played an active and prominent role. He was a tireless preacher and a pastor who travelled throughout his diocese. Seeing the need of better education in faith and morals, especially for the young, he formed the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine which remains to this day both in Milan and throughout much of the Church the banner under which catechesis and faith formation is offered to children and adults in the Church.
While his reforming spirit provoked hostility from clergy and laity, his influence went far beyond Milan, especially in Italy and neighboring Switzerland. When he was canonized in 1610 by Pope Paul V, the news was greeted with great enthusiasm by all ranks of Catholics who found in him a pastor and a teacher whose life was truly worthy of imitation by priest and bishop and whose words touched hearts and reformed lives.
All that helps to explain why, on November 1 of this year, Pope Benedict sent a letter to the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, to join his voice to all those in Milan and beyond who were observing this anniversary as a way to honor the memory of the saint and recall his person and his teaching for the good of the Church today.
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