August 6, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

Today, I am beginning a three-part series of articles based on the working document for the World Synod of Bishops entitled, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization,” to be held in Vatican City in October. In January of this year, we submitted responses from the Diocese of Brooklyn to the various preliminary questions proposed by the Office of the Synod. I will try in my explanation of the document to include the responses given by the Diocese, which include individual responses from over 600 individuals from Brooklyn and Queens.

Truly, the Synod on the Family has important consequences for the life of the Church, for the Church is a communion of families. The document begins by describing the Gospel of the Family, or the Good News of the Family, since the family is the means of evangelization when all is said and done. Remember the words of St. John Paul II when he said, “The Church goes by the way of the family.”

As the document enfolds, we hear about how we must communicate the Gospel of the Family in today’s world, because it is certainly God’s plan for marriage and the family that the Church proclaim to the world God’s plan in the family. It begins by remembering that in Genesis the human race is to cooperate with God’s work in transmitting life to its descendants. This is only possible when God’s love is at the center of the family. We cannot help but note that the document refers us to the marriage feast of Cana where Jesus sanctified human love and laid the basis for its sacramentality. The Second Vatican Council’s document, Gaudium et Spes, told us that, “Jesus, in assuming human love, also perfected it, giving man and woman a new manner of loving, which has its foundation in the irrevocable faithfulness of God.”

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.

July 30, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

Last week, I received visits from several bishops from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria. During these visits, it became more clear that the presence of Christians in the Middle East and Africa is threatened now in a way that has never happened. The success of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is one that truly foretells the fate of Christians in the Middle East.

Recently, it was reported, and was confirmed by the bishops who visited me, that the Islamist extremists give three options to Christians whom they encounter in the lands that they have conquered: one, convert to Islam; two, pay a tax which seems impossible to pay; or three, leave. There is a fourth option, however, which is to stay and face the sword. Truly, it is disappointing that the civilized world has abandoned these Christian minorities in the places where Christianity flourished before Islam even was a thought. That is the situation in the world today, however.

The first bishop to visit was Bishop Elias Sleman, a Maronite Bishop of the Eparchy of Latakia, which covers the middle portion of Syria, and who also serves as pastor for the Marionites in that particular area. This area has many Christians. In fact, there is a place called the Valley of Christians, where the presence of Christians has been constant for many centuries. Unfortunately, according to Bishop Sleman, it may soon be empty. He outlined three major challenges and concerns.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.

July 23, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

The Church throughout the U.S. has just completed a special week dedicated to promoting the true meaning of Natural Family Planning (NFP). Natural family planning is an umbrella term that refers to modern, scientifically accurate, healthy and reliable methods of birth regulation. The Church teaches that parents must be responsible for bringing new life into the world so that they will be able to properly support and educate the children that God gives them.

Unfortunately, our contemporary society has adopted what we might call a “contraceptive mentality,” whereby couples often choose means other than natural ones to prevent conception from occurring. This attitude, unfortunately, is also evidenced among our own Catholic people. However, for the most part, I believe that many Catholic couples do not understand the various forms of natural family planning that can assist them in achieving the natural and God-given ends of their marriage, namely the loving, unitive and life-giving procreative aspects of sexual intercourse within the sacramental covenant of marriage. For this reason, the Catholic Church teaches that couples must not actively intervene to separate their fertility from their physical union. To do so is to show disrespect for an important gift given to married couples by the Creator.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.

July 16, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

The influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border of the U.S. has grabbed national headlines in recent weeks and turned much of our attention to our Nation’s capital and our foreign policy. Last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Migration Conference, where organizers brought together migration workers from around the U.S. who not only provide legal services but also resettlement services to immigrants and refugees. It was truly inspiring to see close to 1,000 attendees, showing that the Church around our country is truly dedicated to the service of the strangers in our midst.

The situation at the border – the “border crisis” as it has become known – was the major topic of discussion during the conference. This movement of unaccompanied minors has always been part of the migration and refugee flow, but in the past several months, attention has been brought to this particularly vulnerable group. One factor, which is not well publicized, is that nearly 85 percent of those coming are destined to be reunited with either parents or close relatives who are awaiting their arrival.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.