St. Isaac Jogues Visited Man- Hood
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FROM THE CARDINAL OUR BETTER ANGELS o question about it: 2020 has to Sunday Mass. St. Patrick’s Cathe- print like a telephone book. (Remem- been a tough year so far. So dral, glorious though it may be, is in- ber telephone books?) I’m pretty sure N many deaths, so much suffer- complete without the presence of the we would have needed extra pages, too. ing. It took a lot of tears, hard work faithful. As difficult as it was to sus- I can’t overstate how proud – and and prayer to get through the “first pend public Masses, it was the right thankful! – I am for the priests, dea- wave” of the coronavirus pandemic thing to do to protect the congrega- cons, religious women and men, and in New York – and health experts say, tion and the community. And now it’s laypeople who have made such sacrific- there may be more to come. the right thing to reopen – carefully, es, not just caring for the sick but also As a people of faith, we will keep with a slew of precautions to keep our- feeding the hungry, helping the poor working to help those in our own re- selves and our neighbors healthy. and homeless, teaching our students, gion still suffering the direct and indi- How do we move forward in these and finding exciting new ways to deliv- rect effects of the pandemic: the sick, the challenging days? er the love of Christ at a time when our unemployed, the hungry, the displaced. We can take our lead from some of tried-and-true practices became too Then there are the people in the regions our saints. New York has been blessed risky to continue. Our News and Notes where Covid-19 is still raging; they, too, to be home to more than our share. section is full of their work. I thank you need our help and our prayers. “Saints of New York” begins with St. all warmly. I also thank the archdioce- Even as we endure this health cri- Isaac Jogues, one of the North Ameri- san students who shared their thought- sis, the country struggles to come to can Martyrs, who lost his life carrying ful and beautiful work with us through terms with centuries of racial injus- the message of Christ to the Indians of the CYO Art and Essay Contest. tice in the aftermath of the senseless, upstate New York and Canada, and St. Elsewhere in the issue, we speak sickening death of George Floyd and Kateri Tekakwitha, a young woman with Fr. Thomas Berg of St. Joseph’s other incidents of discrimination and of the Mohawk whose intense devo- Seminary about the ethics of end-of- bigotry directed toward Black Amer- tion to Christ and the Blessed Mother life medical choices. We learn why icans because of the color of their still inspires us. Mother Seton. Bishop sacraments can’t be received remotely skin. We pray that, at last, significant Neumann. Mother Cabrini. They’re and consult with some contemplative changes will be made to address this all here, along with lists of venerables sisters whose cloistered life of prayer issue – and we know we need to do and blesseds and servants of God. offers the ultimate lesson in how to our part in creating those changes. There’s been a lot of sanctity in this find joy in social distancing. As Catholics, of course, we try not neck of the woods. As we return to our new everyday to be focused on doom and gloom. We In “Heroes of New York”, we recog- routines, then, let us try to embody the know that our travails on this Earth are nize a few of the many selfless Cath- lessons we have learned. Let us emulate a prelude to eternal happiness in heaven olics who have stepped up to help us our saints and heroes, be kind to our with our God. We have a responsibili- through the Covid-19 crisis. Those neighbors, tolerant of those who dis- ty to do what we can to help our fellow profiled here would be quick to point agree with us, and loving toward all, es- humans, but that’s not a burden. At the out that they are not alone; had we list- pecially those who are different from us. end of the day, it’s an occasion for joy. ed every deserving person, ordained The days to come will bring new For me and my brother priests, it has and lay, Catholic and non-Catholic, we challenges. Let us rise to them with also been a joy to welcome you back could have filled the entire issue in tiny joyful goodwill and humility. Yours in Christ, by Arianna Chin, a sixth-grader at St. Augustine School in Westchester. | On the cover: Mother Cabrini. Illustration by Vinny Bove. Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan Archbishop of New York Blessed Mother Mary Mother Blessed † FALL 2020 1 Archways FALL 2020 1 FROM THE CARDINAL † Finding inspiration in times of trouble 4 FORUM Why sacraments can only be delivered in person; Catholic doctrine on cremation; choosing a Sunday mask 6 NEWS AND NOTES 19 HEROES New York’s Catholic parishes and organizations keep the faith — and deliver services — in a time of crisis; OF NEW YORK the Dominican Nuns of Perpetual Adoration on the spiritual benefits of isolation; the Church’s doctrine on end-of-life A few of the many frontline heroes medical decisions; recommended reading of the pandemic in New York from the Christophers 12 SAINTS OF NEW YORK CONTACT US EMAIL: [email protected] Profiles of the saints and venerables WEBSITE: associated with the archdiocese archny.org OFFICE: 1011 First Avenue, New York, NY 10022 24 A QUARANTINE archnewyork archnewyork ART AND ESSAY CONTEST ny_arch archny Archways and CYO of the Archdiocese of NY challenged young people to send us art and photography created during social distancing; here’s a sampling Christina Hanson, executive director of Part of the Solution, a Catholic Charities-affiliated social services agency in the Bronx. Photo by Gerri Hernandez. FORUM What is Catholic Doctrine regarding cremation? From the earliest days of the Church, portation, space limitations and costs to believe that “the dead will be raised Christians buried the bodies of the sometimes make bodily burial difficult imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:52). dead in imitation of Jesus’ burial and or even impossible. It is important to To forestall such disbelief, cremated as a sign of hope that we will share in keep in mind, however, that inhumation remains (cremains) must be treated ASK A PRIEST his resurrection. To be human is to remains the strongly preferred norm. with the same reverence and respect as have both body and soul, and we be- As the Code of Canon Law states, “The an intact body and must be interred in lieve that our bodies will be raised, Church earnestly recommends that the a cemetery or mausoleum. We would glorified and reunited with our souls pious custom of burying the bodies of not keep the body of a loved one on a for all eternity. Our Lord himself in- the deceased be observed; nevertheless, mantelpiece, divide it among relatives voked the imagery of nature to make the Church does not prohibit cremation or scatter it from a mountaintop – and Why can’t we receive sacraments remotely or virtually? this point: A grain of wheat falls to the unless it was chosen for reasons con- we should not do so with their cre- ground and dies in order to rise up and trary to Christian doctrine.” mains, either. Rather, Christians must This question has bubbled to the bear fruit (John 12:24). The practice of In other words, the Church permits lovingly bury those remains, knowing surface gradually. With the techno- burying the dead (inhumation) distin- cremation, but hardly encourages it. that the Lord will raise up the body, logical revolution occurring in our guished Christians from pagans, who Cremation remains forbidden if it is though now reduced to ashes, at the midst – first slowly and then with burned their dead and did not believe motivated by a contempt for the body last day (John 6:40). greater and greater velocity – it was in a bodily resurrection. or a disbelief in the resurrection. This only a matter of time before we would Since the early 1960s, the Catholic is the risk against which the Church Rev. Brian A. Graebe, S.T.D. have to contend with questions about Church has permitted cremation, rec- cautions us: When we see a body re- Administrator sacramental participation and tech- ognizing that factors such as trans- duced to ashes, it can be more difficult Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral nology. Fortunately, we are not lost at sea here. Our answers lie in long- standing Church teachings. To begin, let us be clear about what SUNDAY MASK takes place when the sacraments are celebrated. We say of the sacraments that they are encounters with Christ and His Body, the Church. These en- counters are personal in nature, and when we speak of personal encoun- ters, we mean that presence is a re- quirement. I do not have an encoun- WEAR THIS ter with you unless we are in each other’s company. We may have con- A hand sanitizer station at tact by phone or by correspondence, St. Ignatius Loyola parish on the but that kind of contact does not con- Upper East Side of Manhattan. NOT THAT stitute an encounter. Next, we must take into account the nature of our sacramental encounters.