The Dialog

By TheDialog

The Dialog/www.DonBlakePhotography.com

Bishop Malooly presided this morning at the annual Blue Mass, which is held for police officers, emergency medical technicians, firefighters and members of the military. The Mass was held at St. John the Beloved Church in Wilmington. Father Anthony Giamello, associate pastor at St. John the Beloved and a chaplain in the Delaware Air National Guard, delivered the homily. (See Father Giamello’s homily here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWZ6H3zXLzM )

Although a Catholic Mass, those of all faiths were welcomed.

After Mass, first responders and their families were invited to the parish hall for a luncheon.

The Delaware State Police Pipes & Drums play as Bishop Malooly prosses out during the annual Blue Mass. The Dialog/www.DonBlakePhotography.com

Thomas Donlon of the New Castle City police prays with his children, Josh, 11, and Madilyn, 8, who attend St. John the Beloved School. The Dialog/www.DonBlakePhotography.com

By Joseph Ryan

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.”

Read more »

By Joseph Ryan

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

By Joseph Ryan

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.

By Joseph Ryan

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.

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 Joseph Ryan

Dialog editor

Bishop Malooly said March 13 he greeted the news of the election of Pope Francis I with great joy.

At a press conference at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Wilmington, the bishop said he watched the dramatic announcement broadcast from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome with members of the diocesan staff in his office.

While the bishop doesn’t think he’s ever met the new pope on trips to Rome, his first impressions were good.

Pope Francis appears for the first time on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican March 13. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected the 266th Roman Catholic pontiff. He is the first Jesuit and first Latin American pope. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

“If you saw it on TV,” the bishop said, “the first thing that struck me was he lowered his head and prayed the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.

“He seems prayerful, holy and humble. Those things make for excellent leaders. At first sight, I was impressed. It gives us great hope.”

The bishop also said the growing Spanish-speaking population of the diocese will be encouraged that a cardinal from Latin America, where more than 40 percent of the world’s Catholics live, is now the pope.

“I’m sure they’re overjoyed.” It’s “a sign for them of encouragement” that “may break down some barriers.”

The bishop said he was confident that Pope Francis I’s 21 years as a bishop first and then archbishop of Buenos Aires will provide him the skills needed to run the Vatican. And, “he’ll know the needs of people and of parishes.”

The new pope probably won’t have an immediate agenda, the bishop said, but he expects Francis to outline broadly his hopes for the church at his installation Mass.

“And I’m delighted that he took the name Francis,” said Bishop W. Francis Malooly. At St. Elizabeth’s, the bishop said that one priest has already joked that praying at every Mass for “Francis, our pope, and Francis, our bishop,” will seem redundant.

Bishop Malooly combined a Mass of thanksgiving for the election of Pope Francis at St. Elizabeth’s with the St. Patrick’s Day Mass for the St. Patrick’s Society that supports the St. Patrick’s Center in Wilmington.

He praised the members for reaching out to help the community near St. Patrick’s Church and their support for the Father Trainor Scholarships that enable young people to attend Catholic high schools.

The bishop celebrated a second Mass of thanksgiving for the pope on Thursday morning at St. Patrick’s in Wilmington.

Jeanne Luciano, a member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, was at the St. Patrick’s Mass

“because my mother was Irish,” she said.

She said she missed the announcement of the new pope because she was getting ready for the Mass.

“It’s just great he’s a Jesuit,” Luciano said. “I hear he’s a very humble person. I think it’s wonderful, I really do.”

Joe Swarter, a member of St. John the Beloved Parish, arrived at St. Elizabeth’s after hearing about the election of Francis I in a phone call from his mother, Isabelle Swarter.

He said he’s happy the new pope is from the Western Hemisphere and not from Europe.

“It sends a message that the church is evolving. I understand Jesuits are liberal,” he said. “What are we going to see from this Jesuit?”

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 Joseph Ryan

Dialog editor

Bishop Malooly has approved a three-year capital campaign called “Sustaining Hope for the Future” to address the current and future financial needs of the Diocese of Wilmington.

The campaign, to begin during the next few weeks, will focus on four areas — reinforcing the diocesan lay employees’ pension plan that is under a court directive to be funded with an additional $10 million by the end of 2017, securing priests’ retirement fund, strengthening diocesan ministries and sustaining current and future parish needs.

“I need to get the diocese back on an even keel and out of debt,” Bishop Malooly said Feb. 25 in announcing the campaign. Read more »

By Joseph Ryan

Dialog editor

Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion rite in Dover gives ‘sense of vitality of the church’

Thirty-seven parishes of the 57 in the Diocese of Wilmington sent 253 people, candidates and catechumens, to Holy Cross Church in Dover Feb. 16 to mark their Lenten journey toward full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter.

Bishop Malooly welcomed the packed congregation by calling the annual rites “one of my favorite days of the year.” Read more »