The Tablet Staff 

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was honored at the New York Society of the John Paul II
Foundation’s banquet on June 2 at Princess Manor in Greenpoint for his 75th birthday and for
his work in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn-based foundation seeks to preserve Christian heritage and culture, spread the
teachings of St. John Paul II, assist pilgrims to the Holy See and provide scholarships to
students from Eastern Europe to study at the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, where St.
John Paul II once taught.

“I’m being honored particularly because I helped them get their nonprofit status as part of the
Church, so they’re very thankful to me, and so for that reason, I think I’m being honored tonight,”
Bishop DiMarzio said.

“But especially to be honored by the John Paul II association, I have fond memories of St. John
Paul. He made me a bishop in two places and sent me here to Brooklyn, and the last days I was
with him, it was just two months before he died.”

“I was a bishop already and just being with him, he was very sick but he wanted to know about
the diocese, so I had to explain to him what was happening. Almost a half hour, just me and
him,” Bishop DiMarzio recalled.

“He worked to the end giving himself to God’s people,” Bishop DiMarzio continued. “So I’m very
proud to be honored by an association that has his name, because his memory is so sacred to
me.”

In 2003, St. John Paul II appointed Bishop DiMarzio to his current post in the diocese.
Previously, the pope selected Bishop DiMarzio to be auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of
Newark (N.J.) and then bishop of the Diocese of Camden (N.J.). The bishop was the guest of
honor at the dinner in Greenpoint.