The Dialog

By The Dialog

Serena Brasco, the principal of St. Juliana School in West Palm Beach, Fla., has been named to the same position at St. Mary Magdalen School in Wilmington, effective July 1.

Brasco will replace Barbara Wanner, who is retiring after 26 years as St. Mary Magdalen’s principal.

Brasco’s hiring was announced May 10 by Father Joseph McMahon, pastor of St. Mary Magdalen.

According to Father McMahon’s release, Brasco has worked in Catholic school administration for 16 years, the past seven as principal at St. Juliana. Before becoming principal, she had been an assistant principal and a fifth-grade teacher. She also taught middle school at St. Luke Catholic School in Palm Springs, Fla., and kindergarten at St. Mary School in Sacramento, Calif.

Brasco holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University, Sacramento, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University. She was nominated for the National Catholic Education Association Distinguished Principal Award for the current school year.

By The Dialog

Lay Executive Committee will provide input and support diocese’s $28 million fundraising effort

Bishop Malooly has named a Lay Executive Committee for the Sustaining Hope for the Future campaign, the $28 million diocesan fundraising effort.

The 22-member group, which held its first meeting April 11, consists of men and women from every area of the diocese who will provide the bishop their input and strategies for the fundraising.

The money raised by Sustaining Hope for the Future will be used to fund a lay pension plan for parish and diocesan employees, priests’ retirement needs, diocesan ministries and for strengthening and sustaining parish needs. Read more »

By The Dialog

ASTON, Pa. – Sister Regina Dengler, who ministered in the Diocese of Wilmington for 11 years, died April 3 in Assisi House. She was 90 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 66 years.

Sister Regina, a native of Baltimore, arrived in Wilmington in 1993 and worked in social services and pastoral care. From 1993-97, she worked at St. Martin’s House in Ridgely, Md., providing transitional services for homeless women and their children. She worked at Guardian Angels Day Care in Wilmington, operated by the Ministry of Caring, from 1998-2004.

She spent most of her career in secondary education, teaching in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the dioceses of Allentown and Harrisburg. She also ministered in pastoral care in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and spent a year in congregational administration in New Jersey.

Funeral services were Monday, April 8, in Assisi House. Burial was in Our Lady of Angels Cemetery, Aston, after a Mass of Christian Burial.

Donations in her name can be made to the Sisters of St. Francis Foundation, 609 S. Convent Road, Aston, PA 19014.

By The Dialog

Bishop Malooly will celebrate a special Mass of Thanksgiving for the installation Pope Francis, on March 19, 7 p.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Bear.

Priests of the diocese will concelebrate the Mass, which will be the same day as the new pope’s installation Mass at St. Peter’s in Rome.

The Mass is open to the public and all are invited.

By The Dialog

Newly elected Pope Francis checks out of the church-run residence March 14 where he had stayed in Rome. The pope returned to the residence where he checked in as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, before becoming pontiff and insisted on paying the bill, despite now effectively being in charge of the business, the Vatican said. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)

By The Dialog

Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, announced March 14  that Pope Francis will not use the Roman numeral I after his name.

The spokesman has also said the pope selected the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.

By The Dialog

Bishop Malooly has released the following statement March 13 on the occasion of the election of Pope Francis:

“It was with great joy that I heard the news that our cardinals, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have elected Pope Francis to guide the Catholic Church as the Vicar of Christ.

“I ask the people of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore to join me, and Catholics around the world, in prayer for Pope Francis, that God will bless this new successor to St. Peter. We are confident that with God’s help, Pope Francis will have the grace and strength to lead our church in these times of challenge.”

By The Dialog

Bishop Malooly’s homily at Mass in Thanksgiving for Pope Benedict

The following is the text of Bishop Malooly’s Feb. 28 homily during a Mass of thanksgiving for Pope Benedict XVI at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church in Greenville.

We take a break from our Lenten season for a moment of thanksgiving, thanksgiving for the life and ministry of Pope Benedict XVI. As we pray at this moment, he has already left the Vatican by helicopter to go to Castle Gandolfo. In less than two hours he will have resigned the papacy. I want to reflect for a few moments what he has meant to us and what he will continue to mean to us. Our pastor, Msgr. Joe Rebman, chose the readings for this particular Mass. He had intended to celebrate it himself and most graciously, as always, welcomed my request to be the celebrant as the diocesan bishop.

In the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Ezekiel talks about the shepherd who tends his flock and that shepherd would seek out the lost sheep. For Pope Benedict his ministry wasn’t just maintenance of the church but a constant emphasis on evangelization and strengthening the faith. We see that specifically in his writings, teachings and in his travels. He has that wonderful facility of being a learned man and yet able to communicate with the masses. His writings are simple and to the point, obvious and yet profound.

In the Gospel from John, Jesus reminds us that “this is my commandment, love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends.” This is exactly what Pope Benedict has done. His love is so great that his resignation is his laying down his life for the continued growth of the church.

The Holy Father reminds us that this will be a time of prayer for him. As each Christian gets older prayer becomes the opportunity to draw even closer to the lord and at the same time to provide a special gift of intercession before the lord for all of us.

The Holy Father in his last public appearance spoke very personally about his relationship with the Lord. He told us, “he has been close to me. Daily I could feel his presence.” And then he continued, “I have felt like St. Peter with the apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant, then there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the church it has ever been – and the lord seemed to sleep.  Nevertheless, I always knew that the lord is in the barque and that the barque of the church is not mine, not ours but — his and he shall not let her sink.”

What a beautiful image at this time of transition. As Pope Benedict has given his entire life for the good of the church and now generously and graciously he moves on so that someone else might lead and yet does not abandon us because he has promised to support the church through his prayer and intercession before the Lord. He now takes on a new role for the sake of the church, not unlike what Jesus did so often when he moved away from his disciples for moments of prayer and conversation with his heavenly father.

I have fond memories of Pope Benedict. I remember seeing him many times in St. Peter’s square as Cardinal Ratzinger walking up to priests from any country and beginning a conversation with them in there native language.

In June 2008, after I had been informed I was being appointed bishop of Wilmington but before the public announcement, I was in Rome and in greeting him with 100 other bishops thanked him for this assignment.  Just last January of 2012, I greeted him at the Vatican with the other bishops of our province and he so graciously told me he understood the challenges I faced and kept me in prayer.

And now let me pray for him as in a new way he interceedes on our behalf with the Lord who has been close to him, daily, as he said, “I could feel his presence.”

I thank god for the gift of Pope Benedict!

By The Dialog

The following is the text of Bishop Malooly’s Feb. 28 homily during a Mass of thanksgiving for Pope Benedict XVI at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church in Greenville.

We take a break from our Lenten season for a moment of thanksgiving,  thanksgiving for the life and ministry of Pope Benedict XVI. As we pray at this moment he has already left the Vatican by helicopter to go to Castle Gandolfo. In less than two hours he will have resigned the papacy. I want to reflect for a few moments what he has meant to us and what he will continue to mean to us. Our pastor, Msgr. Joe Rebman, chose the readings for this particular Mass. He had intended to celebrate it himself and most graciously, as always, welcomed my request to be the celebrant as the diocesan bishop.

A helicopter carrying Pope Benedict XVI takes off from inside the Vatican on its way to the to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Feb. 28, the final day of his papacy. (CNS photo/Stefano Rellandini, Reuters)

In the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Ezekiel talks about the shepherd who tends his flock and that shepherd would seek out the lost sheep. For Pope Benedict his ministry wasn’t just maintenance of the church but a constant emphasis on evangelization and strengthening the faith. We see that specifically in his writings, teachings and in his travels. He has that wonderful facility of being a learned man and yet able to communicate with the masses. His writings are simple and to the point, obvious and yet profound.

In the Gospel from John, Jesus reminds us that “this is my commandment, love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends.” This is exactly what Pope Benedict has done. His love is so great that his resignation is his laying down his life for the continued growth of the church.

The Holy Father reminds us that this will be a time of prayer for him. As each Christian gets older prayer becomes the opportunity to draw even closer to the lord and at the same time to provide a special gift of intercession before the lord for all of us.

The Holy Father in his last public appearance spoke very personally about his relationship with the Lord. He told us, “he has been close to me. Daily I could feel his presence.” And then he continued, “I have felt like St. Peter with the apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant, then there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the church it has ever been – and the lord seemed to sleep.  Nevertheless, I always knew that the lord is in the barque and that the barque of the church is not mine, not ours but — his and he shall not let her sink.”

What a beautiful image at this time of transition. As Pope Benedict has given his entire life for the good of the church and now generously and graciously he moves on so that someone else might lead and yet does not abandon us because he has promised to support the church through his prayer and intercession before the Lord. He now takes on a new role for the sake of the church, not unlike what Jesus did so often when he moved away from his disciples for moments of prayer and conversation with his heavenly father.

I have fond memories of Pope Benedict. I remember seeing him many times in St. Peter’s square as Cardinal Ratzinger walking up to priests from any country and beginning a conversation with them in there native language.

In June 2008, after I had been informed I was being appointed bishop of Wilmington but before the public announcement, I was in Rome and in greeting him with 100 other bishops thanked him for this assignment.  Just last January of 2012, I greeted him at the Vatican with the other bishops of our province and he so graciously told me he understood the challenges I faced and kept me in prayer.

And now let me pray for him as in a new way he interceedes on our behalf with the Lord who has been close to him, daily, as he said, “I could feel his presence.”

I thank god for the gift of Pope Benedict!

By The Dialog

Bishop Malooly released the following statement today in the wake of the announced resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

“I was surprised to hear the news that Pope Benedict XVI has announced his resignation at the end of the month. No one knows the rigors of the pontificate like the Holy Father and I am sure he gave much consideration, and most importantly, much prayer to this decision.

“I thank God for the gift of Pope Benedict.  He has been very supportive of me during my years as Bishop of Wilmington, most recently in my visit to the Vatican last year.

“We entrust the church to Christ’s care, and we know that the Holy Spirit will guide the cardinals who will elect our next pope.”