As the year 2015 transitions to 2016, it is traditional to make a list of important events and to reflect on them. However, if we were to do so, we might grow depressed.
We had more gun violence in New York City and more random street crimes. Natural law was thrown out the window by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 with the recognition of same-sex marriage. With Vanity Fair’s cover celebrating Caitlyn Jenner, it appeared for many in our country that gender is now forever fluid, that one could be born with one sex but one’s gender could be shifting throughout one’s lifetime. Beloved comedian Bill Cosby was accused again and again by victims as a perverted sexual predator and finally arrested and released on bail to await trial. And the list of the secularization and moral decline of the United States can go on and on.
ISIS continued its bloody rampage throughout the Middle East and the sickness that is this most serious threat to Western civilization, to our nation, and to Christianity, spread its evil to murderous rampages in Paris. Those inspired by the madness of ISIS in San Bernardino slaughtered innocents there. In July, we learned that body parts of aborted infants were mishandled and donations accepted in that brutality. A mad anti-abortionist killed victims in a clinic in Colorado. And the list of atrocities continues.
And yet, we can’t let this be the final word. There have been problems, yes, but also great, great life-giving events during the past 12 months. In the local Church, more than 1,000 people were received into the Church through baptism, both infant and adult, as well as through the RCIA. The Holy Spirit entered the lives of our young people in the sacrament of Confirmation. Wonderful men were ordained to the priesthood for our diocese in June and young women entered various communities as religious sisters. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio ordained two fine priests, James Massa and Witold Mroziewski, as auxiliary bishops in July. Christian marriages between men and women took place in our churches and numberless souls were healed through the sacrament of penance. Church ministries grew and our schools and academies flourished.
In the Church universal, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, continued his Petrine ministry, declaring that this coming year was an Extraordinary Year of Mercy, a jubilee extended to the Church around the world.
We honored our religious sisters and brothers and all in different forms of consecrated life in this Year of Consecrated Life (which extends until this Feb. 2). The Holy Father time and time again drew our attention to the plight of the refugee, the persecuted, and the poor.
October’s Synod on the Family affirmed the traditional teachings of the Church on marriage and family life, all the while urging us to be welcoming and to practice graduality, meeting people where they are and helping to bring them to where they should be.
Perhaps most importantly for us in the U.S., the Holy Father visited Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York, with an arrival and departure right here in our own home diocese. He brought with him brought the love and mercy who is Jesus with him.
These are just some of the good things that have occurred. As we prayerfully review the year 2015, look not only to the trials and tribulations, but also to the joys and the ways, both hidden and obvious, how the Lord Jesus has blessed us. May 2016 be a true year of mercy for each and every one of us.