March 11, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

This weekend, March 14 and 15, the Diocese of Brooklyn will take up the Catholic Relief Services Collection that funds six Catholic agencies that work to serve our suffering brothers and sisters around the world. Through humanitarian aid, resettling displaced individuals and families, and providing legal and advocacy services for migrants, the Catholic Relief Services Collection allows us to see every encounter with a person who is suffering as an opportunity to help Jesus in disguise, a term coined and made popular by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Catholic Relief Services was there for the Typhoon in the Philippines and still assists in the reconstruction process.

Catholic Relief Services is present in assisting the refugees from Syria and other countries in the Middle East who flee for their lives and take with them nothing but the clothes on their backs, and whatever they can carry.

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

February 18, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brother and sisters in the Lord,

As we begin the season of Lent, the Rite of Election on the first Sunday of Lent is perhaps one of the highlights of the Liturgical Year in the Diocese of Brooklyn. For those who are to be Baptized and fully initiated on Easter, their journey begins in earnest during this 40-day period.

On this first Sunday of Lent, we gather them together and challenge them with the Word of God which always, on the first Sunday of Lent, concerns the temptations of Jesus. Those who wish to be Baptized will be departing from a life dominated by Original Sin, and offer themselves up to the grace of God. Those to be fully initiated will receive Communion and Confirmation on Easter. It is truly a life-changing experience for them.

In our own diocese, the statistics are overwhelming, as they are nationally. In our country each year, almost 250,000 people are Baptized, or fully initiated. In this diocese, the numbers are normally 1,000. This year, we have 480 Elect, those who will be receiving baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, 555 will be completing their initiation through Confirmation and Eucharist, and 44 will be coming into full communion into the Catholic Church, as well as 79 children, for a total of 1,079.

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

February 11, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Next Wednesday, Feb. 18, we begin the season of Lent, the time when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Easter Mystery. It is a time of preparation which over the centuries has taken many different forms.

In the Message for Lent that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has issued this year, he has taken the theme: “Make your hearts firm.” (Jas 5:8) The season of Lent is the time when we are asked to firm up our faith, when we are to give special attention to training our will so that we can love God all the more. The phrase “make your hearts firm” has special meaning to me because five-and-a-half years ago I underwent quadruple bypass surgery. One of the wonderful gifts one receives following this surgery is a red heart-shaped pillow which is needed to hold tight to your chest whenever you cough since you do feel that you are coming apart. Quadruple bypass surgery entails breaking the sternum, commonly called the breastbone, for the surgery. It takes many months for that bone to heal and to this day I still feel the wires which were put in place to keep it together.

The pillow has a special meaning, as it is called the “Brave Heart Pillow.” Yes, your heart must be brave to undergo that type of operation. And so it is with Lent, we have that brave heart, for without brave hearts we will have wills that are weak and we will not be allowed to follow the will of God. As Pope Francis says in his Lenten Message, “As a way of overcoming indifference and our pretensions of self-sufficiency, I would invite you all to live this Lent as an opportunity for engaging in what Benedict XVI called a formation of the heart (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A head which lets itself be pieced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.”

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

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

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Last November, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis declared a Year of Consecrated Life beginning on that day and to continue until Feb. 2, 2016, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. As a religious, Pope Francis understands, perhaps better than many, the gift of consecrated life to the Church, as well as the difficulties of leading a consecrated life in the world today. In perhaps his most telling statement in his Apostolic Letter to all consecrated people he said, “I am counting on you to wake up the world, since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy.” Wake up the world. Make the world realize that the true content of the Gospel is the work of religious as it has been in the past, is presently, and will be in the future of the Church.

The Holy Father outlined three aims or goals for the Year of Consecrated Life. First, is to look back on the past with gratitude; to recognize the great contribution that religious have made to the life of the Church over the past centuries. A humble evaluation of past contributions is necessary so that we can set our sights on the future. Second, is to live the present with passion gratefully remembering the past but recognizing that the essential aspects of consecrated life are much needed in the Church today. The Holy Father makes it clear “… the Gospel is truly the ‘manual’ for our daily living and the decisions we are called to make.” Consecrated religious take the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Their following of the Gospel is complete and gives to the world a witness that is unique. So the Holy Father reminds religious: “The Year of Consecrated Life challenges us to examine our fidelity to the mission entrusted to us.”

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

January 28, 2015 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep,” Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

The current situation in our country, especially in the City of New York, brings to mind the question of racial and class divide in our society. I am grateful to my brother Bishop Edward Braxton, of Belleville, Ill., for his reflection on “The Racial Divide in the United States: A Reflection for the World Day of Peace 2015.”

In a past article, I commented on our Holy Father’s message for World Day of Peace where Pope Francis reflected on the theme, “No Longer Slaves, But Brothers and Sisters.” The Holy Father reminded us that besides the obvious enslavement of people which, unfortunately, still happens in the world, there are other types of enslavement which are just as heinous. Bishop Braxton, in his reflection, writes a very personal and poignant pastoral letter on a new awareness of the racial divide and the obvious need for a call to dialogue.

There has been a series of unrelated acts of violence against African-American men that has brought to our attention a continuing racial divide; first, Trayvon Martin, then Michael Brown and finally, in our own city, Eric Garner. Bishop Braxton brings to our attention three other cases to which I was totally unaware. As we reflect on the feelings of our fellow Americans we recognize that even the terms we use are divisive. Why should we speak of someone as an African-American or as black. Does color divide us? Does it make a difference? Or are our national origins divisive? Or are we “all” Americans?

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

January 21, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

The Final Report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, which will serve as a preliminary document for next fall’s Synod on the Family, gives us much thought for consideration. I would like to focus my attention in this column on the proclamation on the Gospel of the Family.

The Gospel of the Family can only be proclaimed when we look upon Christ who initially gave the Good News of salvation to the world. The Divine Pedagogy was meant to bring the family, and especially marriage, to a higher and more perfect order recognizing the gradual preparation in God’s revelation regarding marriage and the family.

We begin in the Book of Genesis where it is proclaimed that God made male and female, “A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and the two become one flesh.” (Gn 2:24) Throughout the Old Testament, we see a gradual development in the understanding of family. In Jesus’ revelation, we recognize that He goes beyond the law of Moses which allowed divorce for certain reasons. In Christ’s teaching, marriage was brought to a new level where it truly cannot be dissolved for any reason.

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