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Dialog Editor
Just days before his ordination to the priesthood June 8, Deacon Glenn Evers recalled the moments his heart felt “on fire and at peace simultaneously” when he decided to become a priest.
The years leading to his priesthood vocation had clearly been a bit “restless.” Read more »
Dialog Editor
Part one of two:
Practicing his faith while practicing the law
St. Thomas More award recipient Tony Flynn feels blessed to be able to serve the church
A life’s vocation in law imitated popular arts when Tony Flynn decided as a youngster that he wanted to become a lawyer.
Flynn, the Diocese of Wilmington’s attorney, says he “never really considered doing anything else,” after being inspired by TV lawyers on “Perry Mason,” “The Defenders,” and by Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch in the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Read more »
Dialog Editor
“We ask Jesus to be present to our special children,” said Bishop Malooly April 14 at the Celebrate Life Day Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Bear.
The special children at the Mass included Devin Liew, 9, who received his first Communion from the bishop, and Giavonna Marquez, who was confirmed by the bishop.
The annual Mass is celebrated for the students and their families from two special-needs religious education programs in the diocese, at Holy Child Church in Wilmington and at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, as well as special-needs Catholics from other parishes. Read more »
Dialog editor
Sister Suzanne Donovan, the first full-time director of Human Resources for the Diocese of Wilmington, has announced her retirement at the end of July.
In addition to heading Human Resources for 14 years, Sister Suzanne has been the first director of the diocese’s Safe Environments program, including running “For the Sake of God’s Children,” the program she helped develop in response to the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” issued by the U.S. bishops in 2002. Read more »
Dialog Editor
The government should not define or redefine marriage any more than it should define life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That’s Father Leonard R. Klein’s view of the bill before the Delaware legislature this week that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. House Bill 75 is called an act “to provide for same-gender civil marriage and to convert existing civil unions to civil marriages.”
Dialog Editor
Bishop Malooly wrote a letter to Delaware legislators Monday stating that marriage “is a unique relationship between a man and a woman.”
The April 15 letter was sent four days after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell announced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. In 2011, Delaware legalized civil unions for same-sex couples.
In his letter, the bishop wrote that while the government can regulate marriage, it’s “not theirs to define or redefine its essential makeup. It remains God’s design, a permanent union between a man and a woman.”
Bishop Malooly wrote to Delaware legislators April 15 saying it’s not for government to define or redefine “the essential makeup” of marriage. (CNS)
Bishop Malooly said his letter was not written “to attack anyone, but rather to join the current public debate about marriage and to voice once again the God-given meaning and purpose of marriage.”
He wrote that God created marriage, a unique relationship and loving partnership between a man and a woman, for two purposes: “the good and happiness of the couple and the continuation of the human race.”
Bishop Malooly acknowledged the current notion that marriage is “just about love and commitment between two people,” an argument that supports the redefining of marriage to include persons of the same sex.
However, the bishop told lawmakers, while marriage is about love, “it is also about the unique expression of love that only and man and woman as husband and wife can give to each other.” True marital union, he wrote, “is impossible without the sexual difference. Sexual difference and the capacity to procreate is the very starting point for understanding why it is so important to protect and promote marriage as a union between one man and one woman.”
Marriage isn’t a label “that can be attached to different types of relationships,” the bishop added.
Marriage “is best described as a communion,” where, in the words of Scripture, ‘the two become one flesh,’” the bishop wrote.
“No other relationship, no matter how loving or committed, can have this unique capacity to bring about new life. This is why sexual intimacy is reserved for married love.”
Marriage is the only union “that has the capacity to do what God ordered: ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’”
With his April 15 letter, the bishop also sent lawmakers a copy of his February pastoral letter to Catholics on the church’s teachings on marriage. That letter, “Marriage – Gift from God,” is on The Dialog’s website, www.thedialog.org
Following is the text of the letter Bishop Malooly sent to legislators.
Dear Legislator:
I am sending you a copy of my pastoral letter on marriage dated February 2, 2013, as you consider House Bill 75, which proposes the State of Delaware’s recognition of same sex marriage. I wrote the pastoral letter on marriage and I now write to you, not to attack anyone, but rather to join the current public debate about marriage and to voice once again the God-given meaning and purpose of marriage.
Marriage is an ancient institution established by God as he breathed life into the human species. Holy Scripture tells us God created them “male and female” (Genesis 1:27), and in so doing, God created marriage as a loving partnership between a man and a woman for two purposes: the good and the happiness of the couple and the continuation of the human race. Marriage is a unique relationship between a man and a woman.
As we contemplate the human person in all his/her aspects, we see the wisdom of God creating the two sexes, providing human persons the beautiful capacity to love one another deeply and to express that love in such a way that it has the capacity to create new life.
There is a popular argument that says marriage is just about love and commitment between two people, which argument supports the redefining of marriage to include persons of the same sex. Its implication is clear: if marriage is about love then any two adults who love each other should be free to marry. Such an idea has a wide appeal today. But love as well as freedom does not operate in a vacuum. Like our breathing depends on oxygen, love and marriage depend upon truth. A critical question to be asked: Does love have anything to do with the human body; with being a man or a woman? There follows the additional question: Is there anything unique about the love expressed between a man and a woman?
Marriage is indeed about love but it is also about the unique expression of that love that only a man and woman as husband and wife can give to each other. The beauty and the complementarity of the sexes is precisely the capacity to give life as the husband and wife give themselves completely to one another; as Holy Scripture says “the two become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). True marital union is impossible without the sexual difference. Sexual difference with the capacity to procreate is the very starting point for understanding why it is so important to protect and promote marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This is not arbitrary or discriminatory, rather, it is reflective of reality and truth.
Marriage is a special relationship. It is not simply a label that can be attached to different types of relationships. Marriage is unique because the commitment it calls for is best described as a communion, where in the words of Holy Scripture, “the two become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). No other relationship, no matter how loving or committed, can have this unique capacity to bring about new life. This is why sexual intimacy is reserved for married love. Marriage is the only context wherein sex between a man and woman can speak the true language of the total gift of self and which is open to the gifting of new life.
Marriage is the oldest human institution. It existed long before any human government that today attempts to redefine it. Despite the many variations marriage has undergone throughout the centuries in a whole range of cultures, it displays certain common and permanent characteristics. Safeguarding those characteristics helps to secure the well being of the family and, in turn, society as a whole. Marriage is not merely a human institution. Governments may find it necessary to regulate marriage in certain ways but it is not theirs to define or redefine its essential makeup. It remains God’s design, a permanent union between a man and a woman.
As you consider legislation which attempts to redefine marriage, I offer these comments which speak to the uniqueness of the union, the marriage of a man and a woman; the only union that has the capacity to do what God ordered: “Be fruitful and multiply.”
Sincerely in Our Lord,
Most Reverend W. Francis Malooly
Bishop of Wilmington
The following Action Alert was issued by the Diocese of Wilmington on April 16.
TAKE ACTION NOW
The Delaware General Assembly will be voting very soon to redefine marriage. Marriage was established by God as a unique relationship between a man and a woman for the good of society, for the wellbeing of the couple and their children and for the continuation of the human race. Now is the time to tell your representatives in Dover that you oppose efforts to redefine marriage.
Go to the following online address to send an email to your representatives:
http://capwiz.com/cdow/issues/alert/?alertid=62596446
Dialog editor
Dr. Gilbert A. Leidig Jr. is a cardiologist who, by the nature of his work, frequently holds patients’ lives in his hands.
The parishioner at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hockessin, said that in addition to providing the miracles of modern medicine and surgery to his patients, his Catholic faith is never far from his thoughts at work.
“We frequently talk about God in the operating room,” Leidig said. Sometimes after surgery, “patients will say ‘thanks for saving my life.’
“‘It’s God who saved your life,’ I tell them. We were all honored to be here to help. You give him the glory.” Read more »
Dialog editor
Five co-chairs of Sustaining Hope for the Future also named
Bishop Malooly has announced a $28 million goal for the diocesan fundraising campaign, Sustaining Hope for the Future.
The money will be used to fund a lay pension plan for diocesan and parish employees, priests’ retirement needs, diocesan ministries and strengthening and sustaining parish needs.
Dialog editor
Bishop Malooly has announced he has assigned the pastoral care of Christ Our King Parish in Wilmington to the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.
In a letter read at Palm Sunday weekend Masses at Christ Our King, the bishop cited the declining number of parishioners in the Ninth Ward parish. There are now “fewer and fewer parishioners” where there was once “an abundance of young families whose children populated the parish school, as well as older and middle-aged families.”
Christ Our King Church in Wilmington’s Ninth Ward neighborhood. (The Dialog/Mike Lang)
He noted that like at so many city parishes, Christ Our King has faces unique challenges. “Ministries have been reduced,” the bishop said, and the parish had been without a permanent pastor for nearly a year.
Bishop Malooly wrote that in recent months he discussed with Father James Greenfield, head of the Oblates’ Wilmington-Philadelphia province, the Diocese of Wilmington’s need to find additional priests and the Oblate community’s desire “to serve poorer and under-evangelized” communities.
As a result of those talks, Father Greenfield agreed “to assign Father Joseph Brennan to the service of the diocese” and the bishop will appoint the Oblate priest full-time pastor of Christ Our King.
Father Brennan’s assignment will begin on May 7.
“Since there is ample room in the parish rectory, I expect other members of the Oblate community will take up residence at Christ Our King rectory,” the bishop wrote. “It is my hope that the collaboration of the Diocese and the Oblate community will produce new life and renewal for Christ Our King Parish.”
Bishop Malooly thanked Father John Kavanaugh, a diocesan priest, who has been administrator of Christ Our King for the last nine months. “Father Kavanaugh stepped out of a well-deserved retirement to attend to the pastoral needs of your parish,” the bishop wrote. “This is not the first time since retiring several years ago that Father Kavanaugh willingly and generously offered to help.”
The bishop said he is looking forward to the “new time” and “renewed opportunity to continue to grow the Lord’s work at Christ Our King Parish.”
Home diocese
“As Oblates we feel like the Diocese of Wilmington is our home diocese,” said the religious order’s provincial, Father Greenfield. The Wilmington-Philadelphia province’s headquarters is at 2200 Kentmere Parkway.
The Oblates currently minister in the diocese at one parish, St. Anthony of Padua, Salesianum School and Nativity Prep School, all in Wilmington, and at the community’s DeSales Centre in Childs, Md.
“St. Anthony of Padua is the sole parish we’ve administered in the diocese since 1924,” Father Greenfield said. “So it’s time.”
Taking on the pastoral care of Christ Our King “fits in line with our strategic planning,” said the Oblates’ provincial.
“We’re making a priority of serving the marginalized and under-evangelized communities,” he said.
The fact that Christ Our King is a neighbor of the order’s Salesianum School also “made it very attractive to us. We can meet the needs of the parish and get some synergies going between the high school and the parish.”
Father Greenfield said Father Joseph Brennan, who will be assigned as pastor, is currently a parochial vicar (associate pastor) at St. John Neumann Parish in Reston, Va.
A native of Washington, D.C., Father Brennan, 51, was ordained in 1998 and has previously been a pastor at Oblate parishes, including in Wilmington, N.C., at Immaculate Conception Church.
Father Greenfield said other Oblate priests will live at Christ Our King’s rectory, such as faculty members at Sallies or a senior priest who helps minister at the parish.
“We don’t expect the parish to support the guys who live there,” the provincial said. The order will do that.
Because Christ Our King “had major temporal [material] challenges,” Father Greenfield said, the order is going into the parish ministry “realistically. We’re seeing what we can do.”
The provincial said the Oblates will work very closely with the diocese during the next several years as its Ninth Ward ministry evolves.
Dialog editor
BEAR — Krystal Piedrabuena has another reason to celebrate becoming a full member of the church during the Easter vigil rites at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Bear.
The 12-year-old is the daughter of immigrant parents, Viviana and Gregorio Piedrabuena, from Argentina, so the election of Pope Francis, who was Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, was another cause for celebration in her family.
Bishop Malooly enters St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Bear through a Knights of Columbus honor guard for the March 19 Mass in thanksgiving for the Mass in Rome marking the beginning of Pope Francis’ petrine ministry. (The Dialog)
Krystal and her mother joined the congregation at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for the March 19 Mass celebrated by Bishop Malooly in thanksgiving for the first Latin American pope’s inaugural Mass that day.
The possibility of a fellow Argentinian as pope didn’t cross her mind prior to the conclave, said Viviana.
“We thought it would be a Brazilian,” Viviana said. “We were so delighted to see him [announced on the balcony]. It’s a very exciting time, very emotional time.”
The Piedrabuenas aren’t from Buenos Aires. They’re from Mercedes, in the Corrientes province of northeast Argentina. But that didn’t lessen their excitement.
“All day we called everybody in Argentina about what was happening,” Viviana Piedrabuena said.
Bishop Malooly in his homily at the Seton Mass, shared his excitement about Pope Francis.
“It’s an exciting time,” he said, noting the feast day of St. Joseph was appropriate for the pope inaugural Mass because of Pope Emeritus Benedict’s birth name of Joseph Ratzinger and because St. Joseph was the protector of Christ and the church.
The bishop said the pope’s demeanor on the balcony of St. Peter’s when he was announced to the world was of someone who “believes and hopes and knows that God is with him.”
The new pope at 76 years old is prepared to lead us as Joseph served his family, the bishop said, “discreetly, humbly and silently but with an unfailing presence and fidelity.”
Bishop Malooly said Pope Francis has shown many “wonderful signs” of leadership.
“First thing he did was pray with the people, not over them,” the bishop said.
The pope has also emphasized that Christ is the center of the church. “Without Christ the church and Peter (the pope)” will fade.
The bishop said he’s also pleased with Pope Francis’ emphasis that Jesus came for the sinners.
“The Lord never tires of forgiving us, as long as we know how to return to him with a contrite heart,” the new pope said.
The bishop also liked Pope Francis’ recommendation, “Never give into pessimism, that bitterness the devil invites us to every day.”
Several days before Bishop Malooly was going to participate in the annual Cross Walk by diocesan youth that stops at Wilmington parishes, he noted Pope Francis sees the cross as integral to the faith.
“Walk in the presence of the Lord and the church will move forward,” Bishop Malooly said, citing the pope’s words.
The bishop prayed that Pope Francis would lead the church forward in good health, in grace and blessings.
Father Steven P. Hurley, diocesan chancellor and a concelebrant at the Mass, said after the liturgy that “I have a really good feeling about [Pope Francis]. Just his style, the confident smile on his face. Choosing the name Francis is significant.”
Irene Saah, a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner, said, “My first reaction when the pope appeared was he reminded me of Pope John Paul II. I said to God, ‘you have sent a humble man.’”
Saah, who is originally from Cameroon, Africa, added, “The Lord has sent someone who’s meant to bring a lot of reforms in the church. Things are going to change. We should pray for him.”
The Mass included the combined choirs of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Knights of Columbus, Knights of Malta and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Father Roger DiBuo, Seton’s pastor, invited the congregation to a reception in the parish hall after the Mass.
