Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the seventh Bishop of Brooklyn, has led the Diocese since 2003. He is a forceful voice on behalf of migrants and immigrants, whose causes he has worked for through most of his priestly ministry. Complete Bio
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
As we celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday, it is always an opportunity for us to reflect on what we have to be thankful for and count our blessings. Each morning we priests offer the Holy Eucharist. The word comes from the Greek — thanksgiving. We must nurture a grateful spirit. It is especially appropriate that as a nation we celebrate the importance of Thanksgiving, just as the Church enters into the First Sunday in Advent, a time of expectation.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Having just returned from the Ad Limina visit of the Bishops of Region II to the Holy See, I wish to report to the people of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Our visit included meetings with the Offices of the Holy See and most importantly, our Holy Father, Pope Francis.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Some of the most significant pictures I keep of my father are those where he is in his WWII uniform. The first is the wedding picture of my mother and my father. In 1943, he was deployed state-side, and he wore his uniform when they were married.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Each day, we live our whole life from beginning to end. This is what I mean; when we awake in the morning it is like being born, born again. As we carry on through the day, with its ups and downs, we mimic in a certain sense the life cycle that we follow. And then finally at the end of the day we go to sleep. When I was in third grade, Sister Maureen told us that sleep was a rehearsal for death. This was quite a weighty thought to put in the mind of young children. Yet, I never forgot what she said because in a certain sense falling asleep in the Lord is not something that we need to fear.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
This month on November 13, we celebrate the feast day of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She has been much in the news lately; in our Tablet, at the Columbus Day parade and still being mentioned in what now has become a political issue in our city and state.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The power of forgiveness was recently shown in a dramatic court room when former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murdering her neighbor Botham Jean, when she mistakenly entered his apartment thinking it was her own. She identified the victim as a burglar and shot him to death. But this is not the end of the story. The courtroom was presided over by Judge Tammy Kemp, who is a deaconess in her church. The scene began when the 18-year old brother of the victim, Brandt Jean, asked the judge if he could embrace the now-convicted murderer who received a 10-year prison sentence. Judge Kemp hesitated, but eventually allowed the two to embrace. This too is not the end of the story.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
This year, World Mission Sunday takes place during an Extraordinary Missionary Month, called by our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to mark the 100th anniversary of the apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XV “Maximum Illud,” which emphasizes the missionary call to proclaim the Gospel.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The month of October has been designated by the Bishops of the United States as Respect Life Month. This gives us the opportunity as Catholics to remind ourselves of our obligation to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable from the beginning of life and at every point in between until natural death.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The month of October is dedicated to Our Lady and her Most Holy Rosary. Perhaps we can focus our thoughts on this wonderful devotion and its impact on the life of the Church in the last centuries. The Rosary has been called the prayer of everyone, from the most to the least educated. Everyone can pray this prayer in a meditative way that gives an insight into the life of Christ, as seen through the prism of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
It seems incongruous that after a public information campaign began for “She Built NYC” to nominate women for statues to be erected in the City of New York, since women are unrepresented in our statuary, that the woman who received the most votes, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, was not chosen as worthy to be honored for her contribution to our City.
