1.      The arrival of the Cross of Christ to the Americas five hundred years ago is an historical event that Catholics should look upon from a perspective of faith.  Certainly there are many valuable and yet critical ways of looking at what happened that October 1492:  for some -- the Europeans -- it was the discovery of a "new" world; for others -- the native peoples -- it was the beginning of an invasion with very complex dimensions:  some positive and others tragically and sinfully negative; for still others -- the African-Americans -- what happened five centuries ago caused an always to be lamented and condemned forced exodus and slavery.¹

2.      But today we here in the Diocese of Brooklyn must strive on this momentous anniversary to discover the richness and complexity of our past in which each and every one of our roots has value.  We should retrace our history step by step in order to fill in some blanks and overcome some prejudices as we discover the real treasure that we are, people of so many and varied origins, tucked away in the two New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.  We must affirm that we are able to overcome the legacies of segregation and racism, which, to our shame, still exist in the United States of America.

3.      Because we as men and women of faith recognize that within historical events the divine presence of the Lord of History is made manifest, we can understand the encounter of America with Europe as the provident vehicle of the Gospel's propagation, an Epiphany of the Christ.  The Cross of Christ is always salvific, despite the shortcomings and sins, even wickedness and crimes, that might be found in some who bear it.  And even though the negative aspects can never be ignored, neither can we ignore those many persons who handed the Cross to us by their sincere and sacrificial witness and sometimes martyrs' blood, and, yes, by their lives of heroic sanctity.  Light and darkness struggled within that first evangelization, but thanks to the light, today in the Americas we enjoy the gift of Christian Faith.²

4.      Within that same Epiphany of Faith contained in the five hundred years of Christianity in the Americas, it is also worthwhile to recognize that both the Amerindians, or Native Americans, as well as the Africans brought violently to America, had within them, as do all peoples, the "seeds" of truth and love, which permitted them to embrace the saving message of Jesus Christ.  So began a process of the Gospel being inculturated and of each and every culture being evangelized, not only the cultures then and now existent, but also those which have taken shape over the centuries, even those which even now are being formed at the end of the twentieth century and those which will emerge in the future.³

5.      For this reason, and with good cause, the Holy Father John Paul II has called upon the Church that makes its pilgrim way in the Americas -- that Church to which the Diocesan Church of Brooklyn belongs -- to intensify its evangelical efforts to such degree that a "new" evangelization is undertaken, "new in its ardor, in its methods, and in its expression."⁴

        The pastoral letter, "Heritage and Hope," published by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) of the United States (November, 1990), was meant to be an echo of that papal call to a "New Evangelization."  Because that noteworthy letter deals with the very topic of evangelization in the Americas, I invite everyone to read it, or to re-read it and even, however possible, to understand it in depth by studying it with care.

6.      In that letter the epic of the first evangelization, undertaken with unprecedented efforts from Spain and Portugal, stands clear, as does the humanitarian work of the Church in the midst of colonization, a labor that especially came to the defense of the human dignity of the Indians.  Suffice it to cite the examples of Las Casas, St. Toribio de Mogrovejo and Vasco de Quiroga, who promoted the abolition of slavery and its effects, that being the final position of Las Casas, Alonso de Sandoval and St. Peter Claver.

         I could pause at many other valiant deeds that letter recalls, such as the formulation of the Law of the Peoples, a pioneering antecedent of today's Human Rights Decree (Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suarez, etc.); the legislation of the Indies; papal decrees; the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc.; but I must go on to draw attention to the events of the first evangelization in the Continental United States, among which stand out the significant happenings in St. Augustine, Florida (first mission, first parish, first hospital in 1565), or of Father Kino in Arizona and of Blessed Junipero Serra in California.

7.      Above all I would like to single out the phenomenon of martyrdom, since, as Tertulian writes, "the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity."  Along this line, the letter, "Heritage and Hope" presents us some impressive facts:  for example, the first martyr -- not yet canonized -- in the United States is the Franciscan Juan de Padilla (1542) in Quivira, Kansas; likewise, in 1549 the Dominican Friars Luis Cancer, Diego de Tolosa and Brother Fuentes -- not yet canonized -- were martyrs in Tampa, Florida, as was the Jesuit Juan Bautista Segura in Virginia in 1571.⁶  All these and many others not cited in the

pastoral letter, but of which there is evidence now easily available thanks to the work of my brother Bishop, Most Reverend David Arias, predate the group of six French Jesuits who gave their lives for Christ in upper New York State and are known as the protomartyrs of North America:  St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brebeuf and Companions.⁷

8.      From another perspective it is especially worthwhile to highlight the ethnic-cultural diversity of the different missionaries that brought the Gospel to what is now known as the United States.  To the already mentioned Spaniards and the Italian, Father Kino, must be added the French missionaries, such as Pierre Baird, Enmond Mass, Jacques Marquette, Marie of the Incarnation, St. Philippine Rose Duchesne, etc.; the English Andrew White and two companion Jesuit Missionaries in Maryland; the Belgian Pierre Jean de Smet; the Haitian Pierre Toussaint; the Czec St. John Nepomucene Neumann, Bishop of Philadelphia; the Italian St. Frances Xavier Cabrini; the Cuban Felix Varela, etc.⁸

9.      Furthermore, there is the example of inculturation of the Gospel shown in the blooming of the gift of sanctity on American soil amongst the native peoples, its symbol being Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, aptly called "Lily of the Mohawks."

         Likewise, among those born here of British heritage must be mentioned the example of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, convert from Episcopalianism, foundress of the Sisters of Charity (the first religious community founded here), and promoter of the parochial school along with Bishop Carroll of Baltimore.  Here too is found Blessed Katherine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, not to mention a host of Gospel bearers, some of whom are in the process of beatification (Mary Elizabeth Lange, Henrietta Delille, Julia Walsh, Francis Clement Kelley, James G. Keller, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Frank Sheed, Fulton J. Sheen, Thomas Merton, William Howard Bishop, Joan Overboss, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, etc.).¹⁰

10.    Our Brooklyn Diocese, by God's special grace, holds a unique and inestimable treasure:  the multi-formed presence of different cultural traditions.  Correctly it is called the "Diocese of Immigrants."  As a rule, each Sunday the Eucharist is celebrated in at least eighteen languages.  Even within the Hispanic community, for example, there is a multitude of various cultures representing the different countries of origin.  It is this Hispanic community that is especially tied to the events of the Fifth Centenary, but also to procuring the rights of both Native and African Americans.

         On the other hand, in our own Diocese there is not any European culture that is not somehow represented, the many national parishes still witnessing that heritage.  Moreover, our Diocese has not only welcomed both Spanish-speaking as well as other Catholics from Latin America, but has also become home for Catholics from Asia, Africa and Oceania.

11.   Before that beautiful and rich ecclesial reality, symbol of our catholicity and unity, one should pause at this Epiphany of our Faith and realize that there is a unique history behind it that is worth celebrating at this moment of the Fifth Centenary.

        As a Diocese, we are 139 years old, having been created in 1853 by Pius IX from the New York Archdiocese, which had become a Metropolitan See only three years prior.  At that time, and for the next 104 years, our Diocese included all the land of Long Island, until in 1957, when Pius XII created the Rockville Centre Diocese, leaving us the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, measuring just 179.25 square miles (464 square kilometers) with a population calculated by the 1990 Census to be 4, 252,262, of which about 1,545,100 are Catholics.¹¹

12.  During its 139-year history, our Diocese has had only five previous Bishops, myself being the sixth.  I take this moment to thank my predecessors for all they did:  Bishop John Loughlin, who governed the Diocese from its creation until 1891; Bishop Charles E. McDonnell, from 1892 to 1921; Archbishop Thomas E. Molloy, the Third Bishop who governed from 1921 until 1956; Archbishop Bryan J. McEntegart, who was installed in 1957 and ruled as Bishop until his resignation in July of 1968, only to die two months later; and Bishop Francis J. Mugavero, Bishop of Brooklyn from 1968 until his resignation was accepted on February 20, 1990, who died suddenly on July 12, 1991, as you will well remember.

        Let us from the depth of our hearts offer our thankful remembrance to these churchmen to whom so much is owed for the growth of the Faith in this Diocese, as well as for the many works and projects they accomplished and supported, and likewise to all the men and women who have worked together in the pastoral ministry of the Diocese.  May the Lord continue to reward them eternally and may we be inspired by their example to continue the apostolic task.

13.  Moving ahead, I wish that our reflection upon the Epiphany of Faith would look to the future so as to make strides in responding to the great challenges that face our Diocese as we embark upon the "New Evangelization."  Rooted in the lights of our Catholic and Hispanic-American heritage, and freed from the shadows that errors and tragic sins have cast, we must develop ourselves more fully as Church in order to preach the Gospel into the third millennium of Christianity.

       For that reason, I desire that everyone, starting with me, with the invaluable aid of my Auxiliary Bishops, of all the clergy, of the religious women and men, of the innumerable lay leaders and of all the people of God, should be recreated with a "new" missionary spirit that would focus especially on bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the following three groups of peoples:

a. To our brothers and sisters who have stopped practicing the faith and have fallen into indifference, agnosticism or atheism for all intents and purposes, or have become involved with various sects or free-wheeling or misdirected movements, so that they return to the Church.

b. To our recently arrived brothers and sisters from Latin America, above all to those who feel disoriented, marginalized or abandoned in their new surroundings, so that they would be incorporated more intensely in the Church.

c. To our brothers and sisters whose presence in our Church is often scant, such as artists, scientists, financiers, businessmen or politicians, so that they would be more deeply involved with the Church community and from within enrich it more profusely with their talents.

14.    This "new" ardor ought especially move towards unifying efforts in spreading and solidifying within the Diocese the hallowed Christian virtues of respect for marriage, human sexuality and family.  So often unappreciated in the mass media today, the rights of the unborn, the virtues of chastity and, too, the gift of virginity, as well as marital fidelity are values that are deeply rooted in the Church's message of faith.

         I urge everyone to multiply efforts and initiatives, campaigns, as well as both personal and communal commitments, in order to try to diminish ever so more anything that undermines the stability of home-life, be it pre- or extra-marital sex, single-motherhood, pornography, sexual promiscuity, or whatever.¹²

15.    I especially exhort and encourage pastors and leaders of those apostolic movements and groups active in the Diocese to strive to discover or to intensify the use of "new" methods/pastoral approaches, adequate for the "New Evangelization."  At this Epiphany of Faith, I wish to emphasize three methodological priorities that should characterize our efforts:

a. That of enabling the pastoral use of mass media, since they are already the modern "Areopagus" through which the Gospel must be spread.

b. That of discovering, if not creating, methods that respect and empower the ethnic-cultural identity of each and every group within our Diocese.

c. That of using the varied and sophisticated data-bank or information technologies.

16.    Finally, this "New Evangelization" calls for "new" cultural expressions, more in keeping with the spirit of Jesus' message.  I, in the name of God, ask each and every one of you to look towards, adopt, strengthen and support at least the following six characteristics of a new culture:

a. All those that reflect the defense of human life from conception to death, in the face of a culture of death that promotes abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, war, etc.

b. All those that promote responsible stewardship, even a certain frugality, in the face of socially tolerated prodigality.

c. All those that point to and support a human solidarity and a communitarian ethic, rather than the dominant culture of individualism and consumerism.

d. All those that manifest the ethical integrated with the technical, the person over things, the spiritual incarnated in the physical.

e. All those that support the sense of duty, of fairness, honesty, and the dignity of work, as well as the just distribution of goods and services, in the face of all types of side-stepping and corruption.

f. All those that exalt sacrifice, commitment, pure love, chastity, single-heartedness, righteousness, etc., instead of hedonism, licentiousness, excess luxury, permissiveness, etc.

17.    This whole project of "New Evangelization" to which I am calling us all as a logical and Christian response to the Epiphany of Faith that I have described as we mark the Fifth Centenary of the beginning of the Evangelization of the Americas, I place at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Star of the First as well as of the "New" Evangelization, calling upon her as Our Lady of the Americas, a title that gathers together all those of distinct devotions, and includes the beloved name of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness and Empress of the Americas, as well as that of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our Diocese and of all the Catholic people that are found within the United States of America, land of hope and welcome, now and forever.

         May Our Lady of the Americas grant that everyone who lives in or comes to the Diocese of Brooklyn in search of a better future within a framework of freedom and democracy, be always welcomed and find in me, with all my limitations, a true friend and zealous pastor.

                                                                        Lovingly in Christ,

                                                                        Most Reverend Thomas V. Daily, D.D.

                                                                        Sixth Bishop of Brooklyn

Brooklyn, New York

Novembe 19, 1993

Feast of Our Lady of Divine Providence

             NOTES

                ^1.   "Heritage and Hope:  Evangelization in the United States"  Pastoral Letter of the Fifth Centenary of the Evangelization of the Americas.  National Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 1990.  "The drama of the Evangelization."

                ^2.    John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, "The Paths of the Gospel," No. 8, June 29, 1990 and, John Paul II, Speech to the participants of the symposium about the History of the Evangelization of America, No. 3, May 14, 1992, "More lights than shadows."

                ^3.   "Heritage and Hope," op. cit.  "The Evangelization and the Afroamericans."

                ^4.   John Paul II, Speech before the CELAM in Port-Au-Prince, March 9, 1983, No. III, and speech before the CELAM in Santo Domingo, December 10, 1984, No. I.

                ^5.    "Heritage and Hope," op. cit. various parts of "Stories of Evangelization."

                ^6.    Ibid.

                ^7.    Bishop David Arias, Spanish Roots of America.  Indiana, 1992.

                ^8.    "Heritage and Hope," op. cit.  "Stories of Evangelization."

                ^9.    Ibid.

                ^10.   Ibid.

                ^11.   "The Official Catholic Directory.  Anno Domini 1992," page 136.

                ^12.   "Sexuality Education Guidelines.  Diocese of Brooklyn," Brooklyn, New York 1992.