Hello and welcome!
At the beginning of the month, I was in Washington, D.C., for the Transitus celebration at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land.
The Transitus is a ceremony to recall St. Francis’s death, which takes place on October 3rd, the eve of his feast day, at the Portiuncula in Assisi. Every year, throughout the world, Franciscan friars, sisters, and third-order members celebrate this wonderful commemoration. I have been in Assisi on the feast of St. Francis in the past, where the superior generals of the three branches of the First Order and the Third Order Regular, and many other Franciscans, gather for the occasion.
In Washington, the tradition is that the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land hosts a gathering of all the Franciscans in the area — priests, sisters, brothers, and lay Franciscans.
The Franciscan Monastery belongs to a province that St. Francis founded so that the friars could serve in the Holy Land, particularly at the holy places. When you go to visit Bethlehem, Nazareth or Jerusalem, you find many churches that are cared for by these Franciscan friars who have been working there for 800 years.
Besides their houses in the Holy Land, they also have houses in Rome and Washington. The one in Washington is to promote the Good Friday collection that’s taken up for the holy places. At that monastery, they have replicas of all the various shrines in the Holy Land, such as Bethlehem, Calvary, the Holy Sepulchre, and so forth. 
They also have a chapel that is a copy of the Portiuncula.
This year, they asked me to preach at the celebration, and I told them that, for the Irish people, the Transitus is like the wake and the reading of the will. And then I reflected on St. Francis’s last testament, his “will.”
The service is the same service that they had when St. Francis was dying. We prayed the psalms that he was praying. We read the Gospel from St. John of the Last Supper. And after the prayers, we carried his relic and a habit in procession from the main church to the chapel that is the replica of the Portiuncula, where we concluded with a blessing with the relic of St. Francis.
From Washington, I traveled to Toledo, Ohio. The Bishop of Toledo, Bishop Daniel Thomas, has invited me several times to come for the Feast of the Holy Rosary on October 7th, which is the patronal feast of the diocese and its cathedral, Rosary Cathedral. So, I was very happy I was finally able to make it.
I had never been to the cathedral in Toledo before, and I was quite overwhelmed by the beauty of the church. It is just stunning. It must be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the country.
I told them I have a long connection to the Toledo Diocese because, as a child, we would go in the summers to a cottage at a place called Put-in-Bay on an island in Lake Erie, near the Canadian border, which belongs to the diocese. Every Sunday, a priest would come in a little Piper Cub to celebrate Mass in the church there, and I would serve at Mass.
But this was my first time at the cathedral, and I was really blown away by the beauty of the church, which was begun by Cardinal Stritch, who later on became the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago. (I was happy to remind Bishop Thomas that Cardinal Stritch’s mother was an O’Malley from County Mayo!)
We had a rosary and then the Mass afterwards. It was a very beautiful celebration, and I was very happy to be a part of it and to finally get to see the beautiful Cathedral of the Holy Rosary.
In the cathedral, they have a mural of the Battle of Lepanto, which was, of course, the day of the Holy Rosary because Pope St. Pius V had called for a rosary crusade when Europe was so alarmed by the invasion of the Ottoman Empire.
And in my homily, I said it was sort of like our Cuban Missile Crisis, where people were so terrified and felt that they were really endangered. And it was the intercession of Our Lady that delivered them.
In my church in Rome, we have the flags that were carried into the Battle of Lepanto. And I have seen the cross in the cathedral in Barcelona, which was on the prow of the ship of Don Juan de Austria when he led the Christian forces in the Battle of Lepanto.
I was also very happy to see Sister Anthony Mary, who is working as the delegate for religious in the Diocese of Toledo. She was with us in the bishop’s office and at the Pastoral Center and wanted to be remembered to everybody.
On October 14th, I was in New York for the Napa Institute’s Eucharistic Mass and Procession.
For the last several years, they’ve organized this Eucharistic event at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and this year, I was asked to preside at the Mass and preach.
Before the Mass, there was a Holy Hour with several very good talks.
Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, gave a conference.
He told a very moving story about an incident that took place many years ago in Mongolia, just after the fall of communism, when there was great poverty. Someone broke into the tabernacle in the church they were constructing and stole a monstrance, probably thinking it was very valuable and they could sell it. The catechist who reported it to the police told them their most precious possession had been stolen and that it is what supports the entire church. When the officer taking the report asked for a description, assuming it was solid gold or covered in precious stones, the catechist said it was contents that were valuable, and it was “a thin, white, unleavened bread.” The officer got very upset with him, thinking this was some sort of joke, and sent him away. But, the cardinal said, the catechist was telling the “pure truth,” the Eucharist is the immeasurable treasure of the Church.
Father Ambrose Criste also spoke about the kind of poverty we experience in the West, not one of money but one of loneliness and spirituality, and about the great value of the Eucharist.
There was also a conference by the man who plays Christ in “The Chosen,” Jonathan Roumie.
He spoke about the intensity of filming the Crucifixion for the upcoming season of the show and said it was the hardest thing he has ever done. He said the only way he could sustain himself was by partaking in the Eucharist as often as possible.
In my own homily, I continued with the theme of Jesus’ promise to stay with us always in the Eucharist. I’d like to share that homily with you here:
After Mass, they carried the Blessed Sacrament in a procession through the streets of Manhattan. It was very impressive.
Then, on October 18th, I went back to Washington for the dedication of the chapel and altar for the Sisters of Life, who moved into a new convent that had formerly belonged to the Poor Clares. I noticed they painted it the color of their habits—the shutters are dark blue and the house is white.
They have a beautiful new chapel, and so we had the consecration of the altar and the blessing of the chapel.
The Sisters were founded by John O’Connor, the Archbishop of New York, who was a very close friend of mine. And so I was happy to be at the dedication of the chapel with their sisters. They were founded to promote the gospel of life, and as I mentioned in my reflections to them, in every generation, religious communities arise to address the particular challenges of that age, and certainly, their community is a gift for us at a time when the gift of life is under attack.
The next day, October 19th, I celebrated Mass at the Capilla Latina, where I ministered as a young priest. There is a young pastor there now, an American, and he called me and asked me if I would be willing to come and say their Mass for the closing of Hispanic Heritage Month.
I hadn’t been there for many years, and it was a joy to be back. I was particularly surprised to see that some of my parishioners are still there, even though it’s been 42 years since I left!
While I was there in Washington, I also visited two Spanish sisters who had worked with me in the Centro Catolico. They are Carmelitas de Vedruna, Sister Carmen and Sister Pilar.
And, of course, they treated me to some coffee and pastries.
On October 23rd, I was back in New York for the Catholic Extension Society Dinner, which was held at the Metropolitan Club.
I was happy to be invited to introduce Mario Paredes, who received the Spirit of St. Francis Award. Mario has been a friend for half a century and has made just an outstanding contribution to the life of the Church. He was the director of the Northeast Hispanic Catholic Center that organized Hispanic ministry in over 30 dioceses of the Northeast, at a time when the Church was just beginning to focus on the need for Hispanic ministry. He helped dioceses set up Hispanic ministry, he trained leaders, and he published catechetical and liturgical materials in Spanish.
He was also the founding editor of El Visitante Dominical. He used to organize retreats for the Spanish-speaking priests. He became involved with the American Bible Society and made thousands of Bibles available in Spanish throughout the country. He has been involved as the head of Somos, a group that works with low-income families, providing them with medical attention in New York. And he is also the head of the La Academia Internacional de Líderes Católicos, which is a program to give pastoral formation to Catholic leadership. His contributions have been very, very great, and so I was very pleased that he was singled out for this honor by the Catholic Extension Society.
As I shared with people, when I became a bishop in the Virgin Islands, our total diocesan budget was $30,000 a year. With that, I had to support the retired bishop, myself, two seminarians, and a nun. And so I was very happy when I started to get help from the Catholic Extension Society, which has done so much to help missionary dioceses and parishes throughout the United States and U.S. territories.
My last trip of the month was to Pittsburgh for our Capuchin Jubilee on October 24th. Every year, there’s a day when all of the friars celebrating significant anniversaries of profession or ordination are invited to St. Augustine’s Church in Pittsburgh for a celebration.
This year, there were about 10 of us who were able to go, and three of us — myself, Brother Paul, and Brother Bill — were celebrating 60 years of profession. It’s hard to believe!
Finally, I want to add a word of congratulations and gratitude for Bishop O’Connell on his new appointment as Bishop of Albany.
He was such an invaluable help and close collaborator here for 20-some years, and we wish him godspeed as he takes on this very challenging ministry.
Until next time,
Cardinal Seán