I was in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI three times, twice while he was pope and once before he was chosen to lead the Catholic Church. In 1986, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger came to Manhattan to make a philosophical presentation at a Lutheran church. He was considered a controversial figure because he was the head […]
Author: Ed Wilkinson
The Life of the Church Will Move On
You can call him Pope Emeritus or Pontiff Emeritus. He’ll wear the white cassock but not the red shoes. He’ll live out of view of the public in what used to be a cloistered convent. These are some of the things that we know about Benedict XVI’s future as he “retires” from the papacy. There […]
Remembering Benedict As a Great Pope
The New York Times ran a column this past week asking the question about whether or not Benedict XVI will still be infallible when he retires. The answer, of course, is no! Only the reigning pontiff is infallible and only when he makes a definitive statement about faith or morals. In fact, the Holy Father […]
Diocesan Archives Are Part of NET-TV Series
This being the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, there is a lot of interest in the Council and exactly what happened there. There has been lively debate about what was the “spirit” of the council. Did the reforms brought about by Vatican II lead to chaos? Was that chaos a […]
Mayor Koch Was a Friend of the Diocese
When Mayor Ed Koch died last week, the Diocese of Brooklyn lost a good friend. I had forgotten how good a friend he was until I began to do some research, with an able assist from the now retired diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa. I had been Editor for only two years when an ugly controversy […]
Truth About Abortion Is Marching into View
After 40 years, it looks like the daily press has finally discovered the March for Life. The annual demonstration in Washington, D.C., to oppose the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion generally draws just about no coverage in the press. This year, it was different. The daily papers’ websites all carried feature […]
Dr. King’s Achievements Require a Response
It was chilly on the holiday marking the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but inside St. Teresa of Avila Church in South Ozone Park, the spirit was warm, and the rhetoric was hot. This was a noon prayer service, sponsored by the Vicariate for Black Catholic Concerns, to commemorate Dr. King’s […]
‘Little Miracles’ Happen At the N.Y. Life Center
Fridays are usually quiet days at the New York Life Center in Bay Ridge. But when we visited recently, it was anything but. The center, a non-sectarian help place run by Catholics for pregnant women and young mothers, offers pregnancy tests, counseling, support and clothes for babies. It’s a pro-life approach to discouraging abortion by […]
Much to Learn from The Tridentine Liturgy
If dalmatic, amice and biretta are part of your daily vocabulary, you probably were present at the Pontifical Solemn Mass that was celebrated last weekend in Latin at St. James Cathedral-Basilica in Downtown Brooklyn. For the first time in 50 years, a bishop celebrated Mass in Latin at the cathedral in accordance with the Tridentine […]
2012 Was a Year Filled With Highs and Lows
It was a year of contrasts. You might say there was the good, the bad and the ugly. Locally, we rejoiced in May when we learned that Pope Benedict XVI had named two priests of our diocese as auxiliary bishops. The ordinations of Bishops Raymond Chappetto and Paul Sanchez took place on July 11 at […]