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CARDINAL BEVILACQUA TO PREACH AS DIOCESE CONCLUDES SESQUICENTENNIAL OBSERVANCE
Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, the retired Archbishop of Philadelphia, will return to his native Diocese of Brooklyn Sunday, Nov. 16, to preach the homily at a Mass closing the diocese’s observance of the 150th anniversary of its founding.
The Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, 59th St. and Fifth Ave., Bay Ridge, with Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio as the principal celebrant.
The 217 parishes of the Diocese have been invited to send ten representatives each to the Mass, said Msgr. Otto L. Garcia, the Vicar General. Tickets were mailed to the parishes for distribution this week.
Established July 29, 1853, the Diocese originally consisted of the four counties on Long Island---Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. With the growing Catholic population on the eastern end of the island, Pope Pius XII divided the Diocese April 6, 1957 and formed the Diocese of Rockville Centre to include Nassau and Suffolk.
Cardinal Bevilacqua has maintained strong ties to the Diocese of Brooklyn over the years. Ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese in l949 and as an Auxiliary Bishop in l980, he served here until l983, when he was appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh. In l987 he was named to lead the Philadelphia Archdiocese and guided the Church there until his resignation earlier this year at age 80.
The basilica Mass on Sunday will culminate a series of events that began with vicariate Masses opening the sesquicentennial observance that were offered July 20, 2002, with Bishops Thomas V. Daily, Joseph M. Sullivan, Rene A. Valero and Ignatius A. Catanello as the principal celebrants
The sesquicentennial theme was marked at the diocesan pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington in October of last year.
Later, anniversary lectures were delivered by Father Michael Himes, a Brooklyn priest on the faculty of Boston College, and Dolores Leckey, a Brooklyn native who is the former executive director of the Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Children of the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In October, the diocesan anniversary and The Tablet’s 95th anniversary were celebrated at a dinner that drew 1,100 to the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. The program included the showing of a film integrating the history of the Diocese and the diocesan newspaper.
Also last month, more than 400 parishioners, selected by their pastors for outstanding involvement in the life of their respective parishes, received specially-struck commemorative sesquicentennial bronze medals presented by Bishop DiMarzio at services held in churches in each of the four vicariates.
Next Spring, a commemorative book on the history and life of the Diocese will be produced by Editions du Signe, a French publishing house, written by Father Peter I. Vaccari, of the faculty of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, L.I.
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