One Project NJ Update

I would like to write a revised blog post about ONE Project and my involvement in the preparation of food for the needy in Mercer County last Saturday, in response to just a couple comments/questions from parishioners.  I could have taken the easy road here and just deleted my posts altogether and moved on to another topic, but this is a good opportunity to share some of our Church’s teachings more clearly. And I also have a responsibility to clarify my statements if I believe that I have mischaracterized Church teachings in any way.

This past Saturday July 26 I joined hundreds of volunteers from Robbinsville to take part in a new community start up organization called “One Project.”  I was so impressed with the number of young people present.  Altogether over the course of over three hours the volunteers present packed and prepared over 15,000 healthy meals for children in the Mercer County area. Those who participated were able to help the unfortunate in such a direct way. There was a tremendous sense of fulfillment in being able to do that. 

I thank the leaders and co-founders of ONE Project for coordinating this particular event; I want to thank them for giving all of us present the opportunity to carry out acts of charity;  I want to thank them for facilitating that.         

I realize now however that the story is just a bit more complicated.

As I walked through the doors of Robbinsville High School, I believed that this organization had the sole purpose of providing an opportunity for people of different backgrounds, points of view and faith traditions to strive together for a goal that everyone shares, in this case feeding the hungry. I thought that that was the only purpose of the organization: social service, helping the unfortunate. If that were true, then everything would have been fine; the Catholic Church is all about serving the poor and the needy.

Two days after I attended this event, however, a former parishioner pointed out to me that on the “Mercer Me” blog site from July 18, 2014, there was the following statement that surprised me greatly:

“The ONE Project plans to host community education programs that will focus on either equality (issues involving racial, religious, LGBT), education, or drug abuse.”

The Catholic Church and St. Gregory the Great Parish have clear, well defined teachings in the area of marriage, human sexuality and sexual identity. These are all good, true teachings:  marriage as a permanent, exclusive bond between a husband and wife, the goodness of children and openness to life. There are many others; I cannot list them all now in this particular posting. I adhere to all those teachings and do not intend to promote any other type of teachings in those areas. 

I do not know exactly what the leader of ONE Project means when he refers to LGBT community education programs, but I must infer that those programs will involve promotion of same sex ‘marriage’ and the spread of teachings on human sexuality that are antithetical to Catholic Christian teachings. If I am wrong about that, I ask the leaders of ONE Project please to correct my erroneous thinking as quickly as possible.

As the administrator of a Catholic parish, I do need to be conscious of how my actions are interpreted by others to some degree, because there is a teaching role in those actions.    In our culture at this time we are so confused and conflicted about what human sexuality and marriage mean, and there are so many evil, erroneous and deceptive messages out there.   I must reiterate that I can neither endorse ONE Project in any way nor participate in any more of their events, so long as they promote false teachings. As President Ronald Reagan once said, at times we must raise a banner not of “pale pastels” but rather of “bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand.”  This is an instance in which such “bold colors” are called for.

It is Good that You Exist!

I was looking through the bulletin and read our welcoming tip, “Let’s put on a happy face and welcome all who pass through our doors.” I smiled as I read that because it reminded me of a story that happened to me about eight years ago. I was buying some food in a supermarket in Moorestown. As I strolled up and down the aisles looking for my dinner, it struck me that all of the people there were walking around with their heads down – searching for their food or drink items, but that was it.  There was no acknowledgement of the person walking past them. None of us were looking at one another or even acknowledging one another’s presence. 

I’m not saying that there was anything wrong with what we were all doing.  But I don’t think that it was the best thing.  

The Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper once wrote, in his essay “Love,” “[W]hat we need over and above sheer existence is: to be loved by another person.” In other words there is a difference between two or three people just being there occupying the same space, and two or three people being there and loving one another, acknowledging and celebrating one another’s presence.       

Wherever we are, whether in our homes, or at work, or even in the supermarket, love challenges us in some way to communicate to the person in front of me:  It is good that you are here!   “It is good that you exist! (Pieper)”  Even the stranger whom we don’t know is still created by God, whom we do know, and is loved by Him, even infinitely so.

One of my philosophy professors at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, Dr. Atherton Lowry, once shared the story of how he was walking around in a mall and it suddenly struck him that each and every person walking by him, every single one of them, was infinitely loved by God.    

Wow.  Does every person who walks through the front doors of St. Gregory’s Church sense this in some way?  Do they feel that their life has meaning and value?  Do they have a greater understanding of that after they spend some time in our church?  

We have been given a great gift to be a part of this parish where community is an important value.  It is so obvious to me even after just three or four weeks!  People want to talk to one another after Mass, want to catch up on what is going on in the life of their neighbor. You don’t see that everywhere, unfortunately.  It is a gift.   

Friends, the welcoming gesture, the smile, is not for us ultimately; it is to try in some small way to bring the person in front of me to a greater knowledge of Jesus’ love. To allow someone to hear from us:  It is good that you are here! “It is good that you exist!”

My Vocation Story, Part Two

I next discovered that deciding to become a priest was just the first step, really.  Then I had to decide whether to be a diocesan priest or a religious order priest.  Religious order priests (i.e. Jesuits, Franciscans, Holy Cross fathers, Vincentians or Dominican priests) have a particular “charism” that the man feels called to. The Jesuits teach, for example.  Religious orders also have a founder or famous saints to whom the member of the community feels drawn.  The diocesan priest on the other hand lives in a determined geographical area such as the four counties of central New Jersey and is under a diocesan bishop.  I decided to pursue the diocesan route.

At first I debated between joining the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Trenton.  I lived in the Archdiocese of Newark at the time, in Park Ridge, but I went to college at Princeton University in the Diocese of Trenton.  At one meeting a priest tried to cajole me to come to Trenton by saying “We have the shore!”  I admit that the shore was quite a draw (although I have yet to be assigned to a shore parish.). Eventually I decided on the Trenton Diocese.   The Bishop of Trenton John M. Smith sent me to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary outside of Philadelphia for one year to study philosophy and then sent me to Rome to study theology at the North American College.  In Rome (where yes I did have to learn Italian) one is able to see the “universal Church” – to attend lectures with a priest from Spain while sitting alongside students from France, Africa and Malta.  I was also able to attend and serve at papal liturgies.  Those were two of the special blessings of studying in Rome.

There were three famous saints/churchmen, who inspired me in my path to priesthood, who I would like to mention. 

Pope St. John Paul II

The first was Pope St. John Paul II. I was over in Rome in the days following his death and leading up to the Conclave that elected Pope Benedict. It was a spiritually intense and powerful time.  He died on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday.  Millions of people poured in to Rome from all over the world to see his body.  Every media outlet was there.  Every president and king was present at the funeral Mass presided over by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  But it was not so much John Paul’s place in history or on the world stage that attracted me and so many other people to him. It was his holiness, his courage in suffering, his connection to youth, his closeness to God, and the fact that people really felt that he meant it when he told them that he loved them.

St. Jean Vianney

The second person who inspired me was the “Curé of Ars”, St. Jean Vianney, the patron saint of priests.  Even though this priest lived in a small town/parish in backwater France, thousands and thousands of people poured in from all over France and Europe to see him and especially to go to confession to him.   Sometimes he would hear confessions for up to sixteen hours per day.  His preaching, commitment to catechesis and pastoral charity were all models of priestly life. He was a man devoted to the Eucharist.  He led a life of simplicity yet was influential nevertheless in the world; he helped convert France to Christ after the bloody French Revolution.

A view of Ars, a tiny village in France 

where St. Jean Vianney was 

pastor for forty years.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
celebrating midnight
Christmas Mass as pope

The third man was Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. There were certain homilies and texts from him that helped me tremendously along my path to priesthood. One was his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”), which he published in December 2005. This encyclical helped me to realize that priesthood and the Christian life in general are ultimately about love: love for God and neighbor.  This teaching was expressed profoundly by St. Jean Vianney who believed that “the mercy of God is like an over flowing torrent, it carries along hearts in passing,” and who said, “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”   Another important text for me from Pope Emeritus Benedict was a homily he gave at the Chrism Mass in Rome on Holy Thursday, April 13, 2006. In that homily Benedict talked about the hands of the priest.  He called for priests to “put our hands at his [Our Lord Jesus’] disposal” and allow Him to lead us.  He encouraged the priests present not to be afraid but to trust in Jesus.  He quoted the verse from the Gospel of John, “I no longer call you servants but friends.”  All of these images were very helpful for me as I drew closer to priesthood. 

My day of priesthood ordination finally arrived on May 20, 2006. My ordination class also included Rev. Joseph Jakub (currently pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Willingboro) and Rev. Brian Woodrow (currently pastor of St. John Parish, Allentown).   It was a beautiful, grace-filled day culminating in the moment in which Bishop Smith laid hands on my head making me a priest.  My prayer that day was ‘Lord, help me to be your instrument.’  ‘Help me to cooperate with you through the Bishop to spread your love, goodness and grace in our world especially through the sacraments.’      

Photographs from my Ordination Mass, 

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, Trenton, New Jersey, May 20, 2006:

Fr. Joe Jakub, Bishop Smith, Fr. Brian Woodrow and me

Anointing of the newly ordained priest’s hands with oil

Bishop Smith laying hands on me

The Litany of Saints