December 16, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Christmas came early this year in Queens when a desperate mother left her newborn infant in the just erected Nativity scene at Holy Child Jesus Church in Richmond Hill where Bishop Octavio Cisneros is pastor. Certainly, it was a much better ending for that child than the two newborn infants who have been discovered thrown from buildings in the past month.

As we progress in Advent, we saw a terrible massacre at the Planned Parenthood office in Colorado Springs. The deranged assailant mumbling about body parts of babies somehow justified in his mind the violence he perpetrated against innocent people. And early this month, the carnage in San Bernardino, California, reminds us that domestic terrorism, especially inspired by international terrorism, is very much a problem which we need to confront in our society today.

There was a telling headline in one of our most read newspapers saying, “God Isn’t Fixing This.” Yes, how true it is that God cannot fix the problem of evil in our world which we have contributed to in so many ways as individuals and as a society. No, there is no miracle fix to the problem of evil, especially as it is manifested in violence in our society. We must realize that the United States, unfortunately, is one of the most violent societies in the world today. Notwithstanding war-torn areas, the violence perpetrated in our society many times is less vivid but just as real. The violence of abortion, child abuse, domestic abuse, as well as crimes perpetrated on innocent victims points to the basic change needed in our society. How can we make a difference in teaching the dignity of human life and respect for persons? Is it the movies which our children watch, the video games or, most probably, the violence in families which only is later manifested outside the home? What can be done?

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