Celebrating Our Rich Mosaic of Faith
By: Most Rev. Robert Brennan | Bishop of Brooklyn | Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church
Nearly one hundred years ago, in October 1927, my grandfather, Patrick Hynes, arrived on the shores of New York after leaving his family behind in County Sligo, Ireland. I imagine it was a difficult journey, because he did not return to visit his homeland for more than 30 years. He found work and in 1935 married my grandmother, Mary Katherine Blaney, the daughter of immigrants from Belfast.
I recently had the opportunity to address the County Sligo Social and Benevolent Association of New York and to reflect on my grandfather’s journey and his life in New York.
As I think about it, my grandfather did not come to the United States to make his life better or easier. In fact, life was a bit less certain and more difficult in many ways. Don’t get me wrong: He did well working as a trainman in the New York City Transit System. He came not to make his life better but to marry, raise a family, and give opportunities to my mother, her brother and sister, and my generation.
My grandfather’s sister never married, but she served as a bridge for the family, connecting us across the ocean and helping the family that remained back at home. Isn’t that the story for so many of our families? Many of our parents, grandparents, or more distant ancestors came motivated by hope, pursuing the raising of families and the providing of opportunities. They did their best with what they had, without knowing what the future held.
We aren’t perfect, but we do the best we can to live our lives for God and for others: to stand in solidarity, to encourage and support. While we do so, we build up our cities, our communities, and our nation here in the United States. Indeed, we love our country.
It is because of this love of country that we are distressed by political ideologies on both sides of the proverbial aisle, along with the divisive rhetoric surrounding immigration. Coupled with the growing devaluation of human life in this country in these last 50 years, we witness a dehumanization of people who are different and who promote political ideologies different from our own.
We know that as Americans we can do better. We have a rich heritage of solving problems and overcoming divisions. We can have law and order that respects the dignity of every human person and at the same time welcomes the newcomers and refugees. We can treat newcomers and refugees humanely, not as political capital, without causing chaos. We pray for our nation, the land here that we love, and the values it stands for.
On a more positive note, the coming Feast of Pentecost celebrates the rich mosaic of the People of God, the Church. We witness to our faith and encourage one another in that same faith. True, we come from many different backgrounds, but we are united in the one faith. Pope Leo XIV reminds us of the words of St. Augustine: In the one Christ, we are one!