by Msgr. Thomas Caserta

A former professor once remarked to me that a priest will always have a special place in his heart for the bishop who ordained him. In February of 1979, I was ordained to the priesthood by the fifth Bishop of Brooklyn, Francis J. Mugavero. Over the past 35 years, I have found my old professor to be right. I indeed have a special place in my heart for the late Bishop Mugavero.

June 8th of this year will mark the 100th birthday of this remarkable man. What follows is not a detailed biography of the first Italian-American Bishop of Brooklyn or, still less, a historical assessment of his time as Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn and Queens. It is my hope that this will be read as the tribute of a son to a gentle and compassionate man who was a father to thousands.

I first met Bishop Mugavero when I was a junior in high school and went one day a week to the bishop’s residence to serve his private morning Mass. The first morning I served for him he came jaunting down the stairs whistling. When he arrived in the sacristy, he said, “Hey, Tommy, how’s everything?” I had not introduced myself. He took the trouble to learn my name before I arrived. That quality of personal leadership and genuine affection would mark every dealing I ever had with him.

Much later in my life when my father died, Bishop Mugavero was unable to attend the wake, as was his custom with priests’ parents, since he was out of town.

A few days after Dad’s burial my mother called me to say that she had received a telephone call from the bishop placed by him personally. He spoke with her for almost half an hour. The result of his kindness was evident when my mother said to me, “I felt so much better after we talked.” Ever the social worker he was trained to be, he seemed to have an unlimited amount of time for people. Ever the priest he so clearly was, he used his skills, as his motto proclaimed to, “Love one another.”

That motto was also a fitting expression of Bishop Mugavero’s unswerving commitment to the social teaching of our Church. No one recognized and honored the privileged place of the poor and disenfranchised among us more than he. Decades of selfless work in Catholic Charities gave our diocese a record of intelligent concern for the materially needy, the emotionally and spiritually impoverished that is second to none in the American Church.

Anyone who knew Bishop Mugavero could attest to his love of beautiful things and appreciation for the finer aspects of life. Steuben glass, the Metropolitan Opera, hand-selected fruit from the Jefferson Market, sausage from Faicco in Greenwich Village, were only some of what he enjoyed. Never once, however, were those material things placed before the needs of people. The bishop loved life very much. He loved people more.

That love of people expressed itself primarily in meeting their spiritual needs. Once in a very private conversation he gave me some advice about hearing confessions. It was honest, compassionate and filled with the mercy of Christ. St. John Paul II had not yet written his “Reconciliation and Penance,” but Bishop Mugavero helped me understand the Sacrament of Reconciliation was to be “the tribunal of mercy.”

His compassion along with fidelity to Church teaching was also exhibited in February, 1976 when he published his pastoral letter, “Sexuality, God’s Gift.” It is a document that is as valuable today as it was 38 years ago. When I occasionally teach the Theology of Marriage course at St. John’s University, it is required reading for the first part of the semester. The response is always overwhelmingly positive. Bishop Mugavero’s commitment to the dignity of the human person continues to touch minds and hearts.

Perhaps Bishop Mugavero’s greatest kindness to me occurred when he asked if he might ordain me in St. James Cathedral. At that time transitional deacons were usually ordained in the parish in which they were serving. Since I was in a non-parochial assignment, there was a question of location for my ordination. One day the bishop asked if I had decided and I said no.

Quite surprisingly, he said, “I don’t get a chance to ordain in the Cathedral very often anymore… You want to make an old man happy? Let me ordain you in the Cathedral.” Ever the social worker again, he asked me as a favor but let me make my own decision. In so doing, he gave me the privilege of being ordained in the same place as so many of my brother priests including those I admired most. It is only one of his kindnesses to me for which “thank you” will always be inadequate.

I think of my favorite photo of Bishop Mugavero. For many months it could be seen on billboards around the diocese, one of which on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was particularly striking. It showed Bishop Mugavero holding a young and obviously developmentally disabled child in his arms. It was hard to tell which smile was more moving: the bishop’s or the child’s. That is the way I choose to remember the bishop who ordained me: not in the company of mayors and cardinals in which he often was, but holding to his heart one of Christ’s little ones.

I did not always agree with his decisions or share the same view of the Church, but I do recall that at the end of Bishop Mugavero’s funeral Mass, a most extraordinary and illustrative thing occurred. As the pall bearers lifted his casket to their shoulders, the priests of the diocese began a spontaneous applause. It quickly spread through the entire church. I do not believe there was a dry eye at that moment. As the casket passed me, all I could think to say to the man from whose hands I received the greatest and most undeserved gift of my life – the priesthood, were words he so often said to so many of us, “Ya done good.”

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Msgr. Caserta is the pastor of St. Bernadette’s parish in Dyker Heights.

 

Highlights of Bishop Mugavero’s Life

Born: June 8, 1914

 

Baptized: St. Ambrose Church, Bedford-Stuyvesant

 

Attended: Cathedral College, Brooklyn; Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington; and Fordham University School of Social Work

 

Ordained: May 18, 1940 by Bishop Thomas E. Molloy at St. James

Pro-Cathedral, Downtown Brooklyn

 

Parish Assignments: St. Joseph Patron, Bushwick, 1940-41, and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Ozone Park, 1941-44.

 

Catholic Charities: Assistant Director, 1944-48; Queens County Director, 1948-61; Secretary to the Bishop for Charities, 1961-68

 

Appointed the Fifth Bishop of Brooklyn July 15, 1968

 

Retired: Feb. 20, 1990

 

Died: July 12, 1991 – Buried in Crypt Chapel at Immaculate Conception Pastoral Center, Douglaston.