When Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio ordained 10 new priests to serve in Brooklyn and Queens, he told them that their ministries had been made much more difficult because of two Supreme Court decision issued that week.

“First with the decision on the Affordable Health Care Act, we will be forced, it seems, to go against our consciences, to provide abortions, sterilizations and contraception, in our health care programs,” he explained.

“Worse yet, yesterday, same-sex marriage became the law of the land. In this, we see other consequences for the Church, its institutions and the institution of marriage itself. It now becomes nothing but love. Love is not marriage. There’s more to it. There is the propagation of the human race. There is the union of man and woman that comes to us from the Creator Himself.

“No Supreme Court decision can ever change this. They were wrong on abortion and they’re wrong on this same-sex marriage. And you will have to deal with that in your priesthood.”

The Bishop told the 10 new priests that they should heed the words of the day’s Gospel when “Jesus sends his disciples as lambs among wolves.”

He also encouraged them saying that the Church has endured greater persecutions in the past.

“Always meditate on the law of the Lord and His word because you must believe what you read, you must teach what you believe, and you must practice what you teach,” he said.

Bishop DiMarzio ordained the men on Saturday, June 27 at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Prospect Heights. He was joined on the altar by Auxiliary Bishops Raymond Chappetto, Octavio Cisneros, and Paul Sanchez; retired Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq; and Bishops-elect James Massa and Witold Mroziewski. Several hundred priests and deacons also attended as the church was filled with more than 1,200 people. During the ceremony, the bishop also anointed the hands of each ordinand.

Ordained were: Fathers Christopher J. Bethge, Nicholas Marco Colalella, John Gribowich, Christopher Ryan Patrick Heanue, Jose Andres Henriquez Castano, Daniel O. Kingsley, Lukasz Lech, Mark A. Matthias, Rafael Jason Perez and Alexander Piñacue. (Their assignments are here.) Following the ordinations, the new priests bestowed first blessings upon family and friends. Their first Masses were scheduled throughout the weekend in their home parishes.)