Opening Prayer and Welcoming Remarks by Cardinal Edward Egan
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| Cardinal Egan |
According to him and he’s the one that crunches the numbers, we are doing better than we were doing last year. And so let’s be careful that we don’t become too pessimistic. And I know that here in the Archdiocese of New York I don’t want us to become at all pessimistic. Our Catholic Charities operation has a budget of a little over half a billion dollars
And about five years ago I was in the Bronx for the dedication of some new housing that Catholic Charities had done. I was sitting next to the former Mayor Giuliani and he leaned over and he said to me, “You know, I couldn’t run this town without Catholic Charities.“ And I said, “Well, Your Honor, you’re going to speak now and then I’m going to speak next. If you forget to say that I’ll tell them that you did.” And I’ve always repeated that.
So I want to be sure that we understand the great charitable institutions of any town or any city. I come from a village in the Midwest. I try to pretend I’m only a New Yorker, but I’m not. I’m from the Midwest and I know villages and towns as well. And in any one of them you must be able to depend upon the great charitable institutions. I was on the Fairfield County United Way every year. I never missed a meeting. I think it is a great charitable institution to support and never should we let ourselves get too frightened. Our people sometimes step up to the plate much better in hard times than when things are good.
Volunteerism is the name of the game. If you had to say which is the more powerful, the number of dollars that are put together or the number of hours, there is absolutely no comparison because while the great charitable institutions are important in the sense they have to be optimistically supported, what’s right on the local parish level is what really does the job.
I’ve been here nine years. I’ve spent practically all my time focusing on parishes. When I came here, I looked up at the great building there on First Avenue, the skyscraper we have. It says the Catholic Center. And I said, “Someday I’d like to take that down. That is not the Catholic Center. The Catholic Center is the neighborhoods and the parishes. This is the administrative office to help them do their job.”
When I go to the parishes, I never fail to ask the pastor to list for me the volunteer efforts and I congratulate them in a kind of a canned sermon that I’ve been using for nine years and getting a lot of wear out of. And I will recite this is what they’re doing and I hardly ever go anywhere that it’s not something I would never have thought of. Parishes provide not only pantries but places for clothes, for bedding, and so forth. There’s one parish we have in the upper counties where those in need can come and look around at what you want and then as you leave we give you a little bill and you don’t pay anything. So when you walk out, you walk out feeling the parish saw to it that you were helped and you know you can come back if you need to.
Look at the number of parishes that are running pantries, the number of parishes that are running byzantine operations; what importance there is in these operations. Consider the number of people that are sitting alone in this town. In Manhattan, most people live alone in this wonderful borough and have no one to talk to. What a great charity it is to go and see them. So twinning with other parishes, ones that are needed, having parish pantries, having parish availability for clothing and all that, on the local level you can’t do enough of that.
Furthermore, we’ve got to be willing to be open to groups that come together. Let me tell you a couple of good ones. We have one here in New York called YESS, Y-E-S-S. We’re not good at spelling here. Young Executives to Serve our Schools: Now these young people raise an immense amount of money and will let anybody know. And their slogan is, “We do windows,” because they want everyone to know that they repair bathrooms, stairways, boilers, anything that nobody else wants to repair.
We have a new group of Catholic Charities. I met with about 200 of them. They’re going to do the same thing as YESS. They’re going to be in the parishes. They’re going to take care of people one-on-one.
For me, this is exactly what Dr. Anderson is after. This is exactly what we’re all after: Local parish, local groups, and at the same time support for our great charitable institutions.
I had Mass this morning at 8 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and if Dr. Anderson chose this day because of the First Reading, he did very well. It’s from Isaiah’s 58. Marvelous. It’s a conversation between the Creator and the creature. And the creature says, “Lord, I’m knocking myself out doing penance, fasting and so forth and you are ignoring it. I have the impression you’re not taking note of it at all.” And the Creator responds, “Then you’re right because that’s not enough,“ He said. And then the words “Are you clothing the naked? Are you caring for the hungry? Are you visiting the imprisoned? Are you releasing those who are in bonds? Do that and tell me again and I will answer ’Here I am.’”
That’s what this is all about. Isaiah wrote that for Dr. Anderson and for you. And so this morning, I just say I hope that you sense as you become deeply involved in volunteerism that the Lord is there, right there with you.
