Dear Editor: I am writing to publicly congratulate Father Kevin Sweeney on being named the eighth Bishop of Paterson, New Jersey (“Brooklyn Priest Named New Bishop of Paterson,” April 18).

I remember well Father Sweeney as my Latin student when I was the Latin instructor at Cathedral Prep. He and his friends would often engage me in talks about the Yankees or football Giants before class in a fruitless attempt to avoid studying Latin.

While still in high school, he became a Helper of God’s Precious Infants as a prayer at the Choices abortion facility in Rego Park. While serving as vocations director, he would often bring the seminarians of the Diocese to our large monthly prayer vigils.

When he was appointed pastor at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Brooklyn, he and some of his parishioners would stop by nearly every day to pray at Ambulatory Surgery, a nearby abortion facility. It was at this facility that I was sidewalk counseling at the time.

Thanks be to God Ambulatory Surgery closed in 2012 (“Victory for Life – Brooklyn’s Largest Mill Will No Longer Offer Abortions,” The Tablet, Oct. 12, 2012).

I believe Father Sweeney and his group were instrumental in that closing. Again, I would like to congratulate Father Sweeney and I am sure that he will make a great bishop.

Msgr. Philip J. Reilly

Douglaston

Editor’s note: Msgr. Reilly is the Executive Director of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, a group of people committed to maintaining a loving and prayerful presence outside of the abortion clinics.