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.

July 2, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

This week, we celebrate the Fourth of July, the remembrance of the beginning of the independence of the United States of America. Contemporaneously, Catholics in the U.S. have been asked to observe a fortnight for religious liberty, which began on June 22, the Feast of St. Thomas More, the martyr for religious freedom during the reign of King Henry VIII.

This year’s remembrance of the Fortnight for Freedom finds ourselves in a little better condition than we were last year, with religious liberty still being threatened in our country, a nation founded on “liberty and justice for all.” Certainly, that liberty contains the right not just for worship but also for our preservation of conscience. The Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obama Care, with the mandate, which was part of the regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, state that all entities who provide health care insurance in its strictly defined definition of religious organizations must provide contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs to those it covers.

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

June 25, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

Several months ago, one of our priests ordained seven years ago, Father Raphael Munday Kukana, asked for an appointment to meet with me. At our meeting, he brought me two surprises. The first was the manuscript of a book he wrote in 2013 entitled, “Unworthy Servant: What Good Can A Priest Do?” The book is his personal reflection on his then six years of priesthood and is truly fascinating.

Most importantly, perhaps it is the question that Father asks in the book on which we can meditate as we welcome 13 new priests to the Presbyterate of Brooklyn and Queens. He says, “The underlying question behind this reflection is ‘What good can a priest do?’ This question should really be a starting point because priests are ordained not to do some ‘good,’ but, simply put, to serve.

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

June 18, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

On Saturday, June 28, through the Grace of God, I will ordain 13 men to the priesthood for service to the Diocese in Brooklyn and Queens. Some superstition surrounds the number 13. For some it is bad luck, yet for others, especially for Italians, it is a lucky number since the Feast of St. Anthony falls on the 13th of June.

For many, 13 truly is a baker’s dozen, 12 plus one, a full complement. We are blessed since I am told that our 13 ordinands are the most for any diocese in the U.S. Certainly, this is the most men I will ordain to the priesthood since I began my Episcopal ministry among you ten-and-half years ago. We have great reason to rejoice, for we have no difficulty in placing all of these men in assignments in Brooklyn and Queens, as we are in need of those who can serve the diverse population of the diocese.

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

June 11, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

This week, we have the coincidence of celebrating Trinity Sunday and the secular holiday of Father’s Day. It is a happy coincidence, because as we meditate on the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, we recognize that it is the teaching of Jesus that reveals to us the Blessed Trinity, especially His relationship to His Heavenly Father. Jesus told us that He and the Father were one, that He had come to do the Father’s will and that in effect there was no division between them but only a union solidified by complete love, which the Holy Spirit gives to the life of the Trinity.

Also, we cannot forget St. Joseph who was the guardian of Jesus during His life, recognized by most as His earthly father. We recognize in Joseph’s sacrificial paternity the necessary element of sacrifice, which all fathers worth the name must give in order to truly reach the pinnacle of fatherhood. We see in the relationship of Jesus to the one known as His earthly father and His Heavenly Father. It is the ideal relationship that a father must have with his children.

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

June 4, 2014 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep”, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and we recognize that the coming of the Holy Spirit did not just happen to the Church 2,000 years ago, but it is a present event, especially as we receive the Holy Spirit in all the sacraments. Because it is the Holy Spirit that makes our encounter with Jesus possible.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has a series of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit beginning in April. It is not yet complete, but he has already covered five of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which I wish also to summarize for you. In my preaching for the Sacrament of Confirmation, I have developed a Confirmation Lectionary based on nine sets of readings which deal with a specific theme. One of them deals with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I will supply the gifts not covered by the Holy Father.

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