Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

A Thanksgiving reflection by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano

Thanksgiving Day was always my father’s favorite holiday. He loved it for many reasons, not the least of which was for the incredible meal my mother used to cook. I remember those days fondly; we began with a big breakfast, watched the same movie later that morning, and then we would sit at the table for hours. I delighted in that time with my family, in the traditions, and of course, in the food.

I’m sure many of us share very happy memories of Thanksgiving, which makes this year of the pandemic so much more troubling, knowing that we cannot safely gather in large numbers–even in our own homes with those who are dearest to us. In a year of much loss and anxiety, this is yet another heavy burden.

It may seem inappropriate to speak of giving thanks during a pandemic when so many have died, and so many others have become ill. However, I believe that only with a deep and abiding sense of gratitude in our hearts we can hope for better days and persevere before any challenge.

Perhaps we should let this most difficult year be an occasion to reflect on the full meaning of Thanksgiving in our lives. In my view, Thanksgiving is a holiday that draws upon deep Judeo-Christian religious roots. As Christians, ours is a faith of thanksgiving for the many gifts and blessings that God has given us. Everything we have, we owe to God’s love and providence. For Christians, a spirit of thanksgiving should be the foundation of every day of our lives.

In fact, the Eucharist, which we receive during the celebration of Holy Mass and we believe to be the source and summit of our Catholic faith, is derived from the Greek word, eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving.” This means that every time we attend Mass, we are invited to thank God the Father, through Jesus His son, for the gifts in our life, and the priceless gift of eternal life to come.

On a personal level the pandemic has disrupted our lives and caused us to feel anxiety. Yet we must not lose sight of the growing number of those who have felt the economic consequences of job loss that has led to growing homelessness, hunger, and even despair. As we experience this unexpected vulnerability, let us pray that it deepens our bonds with our sisters and brothers across the globe who have long faced daily uncertainty, including chronic unemployment, food instability and a lack of medical care.

It has also been a year in which many Catholics remain afraid or unable to attend Sunday Mass and those who do attend abide by significant restrictions designed to keep all safe. These precautions are necessary, but they are not easy, and I am very grateful to see such universal cooperation with the protocols that we have put in place to safeguard life.

We are also encouraged by the response of so many who have come forward to help those in need. In our diocese Catholic Charities has performed extraordinary works of service, parish volunteers have reached out to those who are most vulnerable, and our dedicated teachers and staff have kept diocesan schools open to safeguard our children. Likewise, every day, we witness the courageous and inspiring response of other faith traditions and all people of good will to help those in need.

As people of faith we believe God has remained present to us since the pandemic began. How can we look upon the faces of our brothers and sisters on the front lines of health care who each day run into the breach and not be overwhelmed with gratitude for their goodness and their courage? How can we look upon those who comfort the sick and their families and do everything possible to save lives without profound thankfulness for their very witness? How can we not see the face of God in them and all those who have acted with courage and compassion?

We must not forget that even in our moments of profound suffering and grief, the love of God, made manifest in the Eucharist and in the love of our brothers and sisters, will triumph over every challenge. We know that God does not desire for us to suffer. However, when we do, he is present with us, holding us in the palm of his hands and promising us that he will never let go. Knowing that God will always keep his promises, even in the face of all that I have just described, I remain overwhelmed with a deep sense of deep gratitude that God will bring us renewal and new life.

My friends, I know that there are many challenges ahead during the coming weeks. Yet I invite you to join me in pausing today not only to look forward in patient hope for the vaccines that will save millions of lives, but to remember that our God has not and never will abandon us.

As we sit down with loved ones this Thanksgiving—or perhaps gather together virtually—let us find reasons for gratitude, for therein lies our hope. Let us also pray for our own families and for those struggling with the hardship of separation this year, and most of all for those who are afflicted with Covid-19, and for the many in our midst who have suffered the loss of loved ones.

In this spirit of remembrance and gratitude, I wish you and your family a very healthy, blessed, and happy Thanksgiving.

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — A century ago, seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood helped bury Philadelphia’s dead in the global Spanish influenza pandemic.

This year, the young men of St. Charles are helping to keep hungry people alive during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Apostolic work in addition to classroom studies has long been a regular part of the seminarians’ formation in which they fan out two-by-two to schools, senior facilities and other settings to serve people in the community.

But because of the social restrictions of COVID-19, those opportunities for service are gone this year. In their place arose a partnership between the seminary’s apostolic formation program, led by Father George Szparagowski, and Caring for Friends, a private multiservice organization feeding hungry people throughout the area for 46 years.

Sixteen seminarians of St. Charles’ College Division traveled to Northeast Philadelphia Nov. 5 for a four-hour shift at Caring for Friends, assembling meals and boxing them for distribution to people in the five-county region of southeastern Pennsylvania.

The young men split into groups, with some assembling nutritionally balanced meals in single-serving trays in the spacious kitchen. Others worked an assembly line placing seven meals in a box, stacking the boxes on pallets in collaboration with the group Muslims Serve and some young men from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and storing the meals in walk-in freezers for later distribution to homebound seniors.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia’s center city, another group of about a half-dozen seminarians handed out food to homeless visitors at Hub of Hope, a shelter run by Project HOME out of Suburban Station.

Directly feeding the neediest in the community “is eye-opening and pretty awesome,” said Adam Johnson, a fourth-year college seminarian studying for the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

“In helping other people, we’re putting faith in action,” he told CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

His classmate Rob Bollinger, a member of St. Agnes Parish in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and a Philadelphia seminarian, put his experience in a broader perspective.

“There’s something really beautiful about serving,” Bollinger said. “It feeds my daily life in the sense that it’s not something temporary (but) more meaningful because it’s not self-serving, but it’s serving others.”

All 24 men in the seminary’s College Division work every other week at Caring for Friends and food centers such as Hub of Hope “to grow in the virtue of charity,” said Father Szparagowski.

He praised the service partnership and said the seminarians enjoy their experience “because it builds up fraternity. We all work together (and) we look forward to it.”

“They see the purpose of their work — feeding people — especially people who come in to pick up food (at parishes). They didn’t realize how many people in Philadelphia need help. A lot of times it’s working-class people that just need food assistance, and that really surprised them. They love helping people, and they love the interaction,” he said.

Especially grateful to provide seminarians with a way to serve the community and to add to the ranks of volunteers he greatly needs is Vince Schiavone, CEO of Caring for Friends.

Formerly called Aid for Friends, it was begun by his mother, Rita, in her Northeast Philadelphia home. Her vision was to set aside some of the family’s dinner each night and bring it to lonely, homebound seniors and deliver them a home-cooked meal and companionship. That work continues under a new name and a greatly expanded mission.

Today, Caring for Friends’ threefold mission continues to include serving seniors. Individuals still provide single-serve meals in aluminum trays, and along with the meals prepared at Caring for Friends’ kitchen, they are frozen and distributed to seniors from its warehouse.

But the operation has ramped up significantly this year. Schiavone said before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, his organization was supporting 2,000 seniors through meals and boxes of food delivered each month in the region. That number has swelled to 33,000 seniors currently.

Caring for Friends also is a food bank that, according to Schiavone, supports shelters, recovery houses and some 250 community food cupboards at parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and all houses of worship.

It also supplies food to Muslims Serve, which serves at Hub of Hope, plus St. John’s Hospice, Bethesda Project, Ronald McDonald House and local politicians’ offices where people seek food assistance.

Schiavone said last January, “we were giving out about 100,000 pounds of food a month and during COVID it’s been over a million pounds of food a month.”

His organization also operates a “caring kitchen” where a great deal of food is prepared to be handed out wherever the needs for food exist. That includes making 850 sandwiches each week for one organization alone — the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul — and distributing snack bags made by schoolchildren and community groups throughout the region.

This is the mission of service in which the St. Charles seminarians are immersed.

“Seminarians are helping in a time of great need,” Schiavone said.

By Matthew Gambino | Catholic News Service

Editor’s note: Earlier this month Bishop Frank J. Caggiano announced that college-seminarians and pre-theologians from the Diocese of Bridgeport will undertake their formation and studies at St. Charles Borromeo in Philadelphia beginning in January 2021.  (see the November issue of Fairfield County Catholic for the full story).

NORWALK—The coronavirus pandemic couldn’t stop a 40-year-old tradition, as the clergies and choirs of Temple Shalom, United Congregational Church and St. Matthew Parish gathered virtually for an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration of song and worship on the evening of November 24.

“This gathering joins together different faith traditions to both praise God and pray to God. It reminds us that there are good people everywhere, and that we have more that unites us than divides us,” shared Msgr. Orlowski, pastor of St. Matthew Parish.

This tradition in the West Norwalk faith communities began 40 years ago. “It’s a second-to-none gathering that always brings a smile to your face and peace to your heart,” said Monsignor. “It is a marvelous opportunity for people of all faiths to gather to give thanks to our one, true God.”

Rabbi Mark Lipson of Temple Shalom expressed that even though the interfaith community could not all gather in person, they would still be able to create a bridge between faiths through a virtual celebration.

Video footage from past years gatherings featured hits such as, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Reach Out and Touch,” “A Million Dreams “(from the Greatest Showman) and even the combined clergy singing “A Little Help From My Friends” by The Beatles.

Mayor of Norwalk Harry Rilling and his wife Lucia brought greetings. “We can never lose sight of the important things in our life—our God, family, friends and the faith that will get us through these difficult times,” said Mayor Rilling.

“We are keeping everyone in mind this time of year,” said Lucia Rilling. “We are wishing the best holiday season to all. Let’s hold on to what this time of year means to all of us.”

“In the midst of fear, uncertainty, suffering pain and even death—the question we ask is how do we cope? What is there that we can hold onto? The answer is faith,” said Father Sunil, parochial vicar of St. Matthew Parish. “The Word of God offers strength and the courage to remain positive. He tells us to not let our hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. We are the children of hope, our God does not abandon us.”

“The vaccines seem promising, we do see a light at the end of the tunnel,” assured Father Sunil. “While we are in the midst of suffering, we should look to him to give us patience, strength and the ability to endure. Through this interfaith service we ask God for the healing of our world and to send peace upon all his children.”

Members of United Congregational Church shared “A Prayer for the World” and the Southworth Family shared a lovely acoustic song.

One of the most memorable moments of the evening came when the Temple Shalom Choir gathered over Zoom to sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

“How fortunate we are to live as friends and neighbors and how much we share in common,” said Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar from Temple Shalom. “Creativity teamwork and technology helped us to share this service again even in the most difficult of circumstances.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — While confusion has arisen in recent days in the media over “the moral permissibility” of using the COVID-19 vaccines just announced by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna, it is not “immoral to be vaccinated with them,” the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine and pro-life committees said Nov. 23.

Bishop Kevin J. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, addressed the issue in a memo to their brother bishops.

A copy of the memo was obtained by Catholic News Service Nov. 24.

“Neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine involved the use of cell lines that originated in fetal tissue taken from the body of an aborted baby at any level of design, development or production,” the two prelates said. “They are not completely free from any connection to abortion, however, as both Pfizer and Moderna made use of a tainted cell line for one of the confirmatory lab tests of their products.

“There is thus a connection, but it is relatively remote,” they continued. “Some are asserting that if a vaccine is connected in any way with tainted cell lines, then it is immoral to be vaccinated with them. This is an inaccurate portrayal of Catholic moral teaching.”

Bishop Rhoades and Archbishop Naumann cited three Vatican documents that “treat the question of tainted vaccines”: the 2005 study by the Pontifical Academy for Life, “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived From Aborted Human Fetuses”; paragraphs nos. 34-35 in the 2008 “Instruction on Certain Bioethical Questions” (“Dignitatis Personae”) by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and the 2017 “Note on Italian Vaccine Issue,” by the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“These documents all point to the immorality of using tissue taken from an aborted child for creating cell lines,” they explained. “They also make distinctions in terms of the moral responsibility of the various actors involved, from those involved in designing and producing a vaccine to those receiving the vaccine.

“Most importantly,” they added, “they all make it clear that, at the level of the recipient, it is morally permissible to accept vaccination when there are no alternatives and there is a serious risk to health.”

In a Nov. 21 statement, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, Mercy Sister Mary Haddad said CHA ethicists, “in collaboration with other Catholic bioethicists,” used the guidelines released by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life in 2005 and 2017 on the origin of vaccines and “find nothing morally prohibitive with the vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech (Pfizer’s German partner) and Moderna.”

She also said CHA “believes it is essential that any approved COVID-19 vaccine be distributed in a coordinated and equitable manner,” because COVID-19 “has had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, low-income communities, persons with preexisting health conditions, and racial and ethnic minorities.”

CHA encouraged Catholic health organizations “to distribute the vaccines developed by these companies.”

Bishop Rhoades and Archbishop Naumann did not point to any specific media outlets claiming the moral unsuitability of the vaccines. However, after Pfizer and Moderna announced their vaccines, at least two Catholic bishops warned against using them, saying they are morally tainted.

On Nov. 11, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that results of a large ongoing study show its vaccine is 95% effective; the vaccine is already being manufactured and has been since October. Five days later, Moderna said preliminary data from its phase three trial shows its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19.

Pfizer and Moderna are applying to the U.S. Food and Drug administration for emergency approval of the vaccines, which would quickly pave the way for distribution of the vaccines. The FDA is to meet Dec. 10.

On Nov. 16, Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, tweeted the Moderna vaccine “is not morally produced. Unborn children died in abortions and their bodies were used as ‘laboratory specimens.’ I urge all who believe in the sanctity of life to reject a vaccine which has been produced immorally.”

In a Nov. 18 video posted on his diocesan website and subsequent interviews with local media, Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of Fresno, California, weighed in on the vaccines, saying: “We all want health for ourselves and for others. We want to promote that also … but never at the expense of the life of another.”

In May, the Trump administration launched Operation Warp Speed, the moniker of its initiative to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Americans as quickly as possible. The program has funded the manufacturing of six promising vaccine candidates, two of which are the ones announced by Moderna and Pfizer.

As soon as the FDA approves their vaccines for distribution, Operation Warp Speed hopes to distribute 300 million doses around the country by January. Because Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines involve two shots per person, this would be enough to immunize 150 million Americans.

Other COVID-19 vaccines on the horizon include one being developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University.

Like Bishop Rhoades and Archbishop Naumann, John Brehany, director of institutional relations at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, said a recent interview on the “Current News” show on NET TV, the cable channel of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were not themselves produced using cell lines derived from aborted fetal tissue.

He expressed “great respect for Bishop Strickland,” calling him “a bold courageous witness to the faith,” who is saying “some true things about issues that go back decades in pharmaceutical research and development,” in the production of vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and other diseases.

But in the case of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, Brehany emphasized, any connection to aborted fetus cell lines is extremely remote.

For Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist in Chicago and a member of the Catholic Medical Association, this indirect use raises an ethical issue for Catholics.

“The fetal cell lines were not directly used in the Moderna vaccine, but they were indirectly used several steps away from the actual development of the vaccine,” he told “Currents News” in a separate interview.

Any such cell lines were derived from tissue samples taken from fetuses aborted in the 1960s and 1970s and have been grown in laboratories all over the world since then.

In its 2005 study, the Pontifical Academy for Life said Catholics have a responsibility to push for the creation of morally just, alternative vaccines, but it also said they should not sacrifice the common good of public health because there is no substitute.

“Catholics can have confidence if there is a great need and there are no alternatives, they are not forbidden from using these new vaccines,” Brehany told “Current News,” but he added: “There is much the church calls us to do in seeking out alternatives and advocating for alternatives.”

Catholics “need to provide the urgency and advocacy” to get pharmaceutical companies to understand there are alternatives to using fetal cell lines to develop vaccines, “so they can see the need for this,” he added, echoing the Pontifical Academy for Life.

A case in point is the decision by Sanofi Pasteur to no longer use an aborted fetal cell line in producing its polio vaccines, a move recently approved by the FDA.

Sanofi is one of the companies currently developing a COVID-19 vaccine by utilizing “cell lines not connected to unethical procedures and methods.” Inovio Pharmaceuticals and the John Paul II Medical Research Institute are other such companies.

By Julie Asher | Catholic News Service

BRIDGEPORT—Each year, The Leadership Institute creates a poster for Advent, Lent, and Summer.

This year’s Advent poster includes “27 Ways to Prepare for Christmas.” Perhaps, in these interesting times, these tips and resources are even more important.

The poster reads: “Preparing for the coming of the Christ child during a global pandemic brings its own set of challenges. Many families will not be able to gather as usual, and many of those who usually serve others in shelters and on the streets might not be able to do so. That means our own preparation must look different this year too. Here are twenty-seven ways your family can prepare for the Incarnation.”

The colorful poster is a great resource for families and parishes, and all those who wish to immerse themselves in this holy season in preparation for the joy of Christmas.

In addition to the popular Advent poster, The Leadership Institute has also compiled a list of the best Advent resources available, just in time to help you and your families celebrate Advent well. They are even categorized for an easy search.

Click here to download a PDF of this year’s Advent poster.

Click here for a plethora of other Advent resources.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While the coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions have interrupted people’s lives and brought suffering on a global scale, every individual — including the pope — has or will experience traumatic interruptions in their lives, Pope Francis said in a new book.

“Illness, the failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal,” he said, are moments that “generate a tension, a crisis that reveals what is in our hearts.”

In “Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future,” a book written with author Austen Ivereigh, Pope Francis said he had experienced three “COVID moments” in his lifetime: lung problems that threatened his life when he was 21; his “displacement” in Germany in 1986 for studies; and when he was sent away to Cordoba, Argentina, for almost two years in the early 1990s.

“Let Us Dream” will be published Dec. 1 by Simon & Schuster. The section on what the pope called his “personal COVIDs” was excerpted in Italian newspapers Nov. 23.

In those major moments of challenge and pain, Pope Francis wrote, “what I learned was that you suffer a lot, but if you allow it to change you, you come out better. But if you dig in, you come out worse.”

Writing about his diseased lung, the pope said, “I remember the date: Aug. 13, 1957. I got taken to hospital by a (seminary) prefect who realized mine was not the kind of flu you treat with aspirin. Straightaway they took a liter and a half of water out of the lung, and I remained there fighting for my life.”

He was in his second year at the diocesan seminary and it was his “first experience of limit, of pain and loneliness,” he said. “It changed the way I saw life.”

“For months, I didn’t know who I was and whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I’d make it either,” the pope wrote. “I remember hugging my mother and saying: ‘Just tell me if I’m going to die.”

After three months in the hospital, “they operated to take out the upper right lobe of one of the lungs,” he said. “I have some sense of how people with coronavirus feel as they struggle to breathe on ventilators.”

One of the nurses, “Sister Cornelia Caraglio, saved my life” by doubling his antibiotics, he said. “Because of her regular contact with sick people, she understood better than the doctor what they needed, and she had the courage to act on her knowledge.”

Pope Francis said he also learned the meaning of “cheap consolations.”

“People came in to tell me I was going to be fine, how with all that pain I’d never have to suffer again — really dumb things, empty words,” he said.

Instead, he learned from a nun who had prepared him for his first Communion and would come and hold his hand, how important it was to sit with people, touch them and keep words to a minimum.

The time in the hospital recovering, he said, gave him the time and space he needed to “rethink my vocation” and explore his longing to enter a religious order rather than the diocesan priesthood. It was then that he decided to join the Jesuits.

This article originally appeared in Catholic News Service.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Young people today should not waste their lives dreaming of obtaining trivial things that provide only a fleeting moment of joy but aspire to the greatness God wants for them, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating Mass on the feast of Christ the King Nov. 22, the pope told young people that God “does not want us to narrow our horizons or to remain parked on the roadside of life,” but instead he “wants us to race boldly and joyfully toward lofty goals.”

“We were not created to dream about vacations or the weekend, but to make God’s dreams come true in this world,” he said. “God made us capable of dreaming, so that we could embrace the beauty of life.”

At the end of the Mass, young people from Panama, the host country of World Youth Day 2019, handed over the World Youth Day cross to young people from Lisbon, Portugal, where the next international gathering is expected to take place in August 2023.

The handoff originally was scheduled for April 5, Palm Sunday, but was postponed because of the lockdowns and travel bans in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

In his homily, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Jesus tells his disciples that the good done to the least ones are done to him.

Pope Francis said that works of mercy such as feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and visiting the sick or imprisoned are Jesus’ “‘gift list’ for the eternal wedding feast he will share with us in heaven.”

This reminder, he said, is especially for young people as “you strive to realize your dreams in life.”

This article originally appeared in Catholic News Service.

BRIDGEPORT—The St. Francis Xavier Fund will be the focus of the Giving Tuesday appeal of the Diocese of Bridgeport on Tuesday, December 1.

The fund was created to provide resources to vibrant urban Parishes experiencing fiscal challenges during the pandemic.

“During this time of unprecedented prolonged hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the St. Francis Xavier Fund has been very effective in helping parishes that have been critically impacted by dislocation, unemployment and illness,” said Joe Gallagher, chief development officer of the diocese.

Gallagher said he hopes that Giving Tuesday will be an opportunity for people around the diocese to rally around the work of the St. Francis Xavier Fund.

Kelly Weldon, director of Foundations in Faith, the fund has been innovative in reaching out to parishes that are vibrant yet financially challenged during the pandemic. “By targeted giving and engaging parish communities including young people, the fund has worked immediately to help those in need,” she said.

In 2020 The St. Francis Xavier Fund has distributed:

  • COVID 19 ‘Phase One’ Emergency Funding Grants to 11 Parishes totaling $230,000
  • Funding for a new boiler in a cold rectory—Bridgeport
  • Funding for gutter repairs to stop a major leak into a Church and repair associated interior damage—Stratford
  • Funding for a comprehensive parish Technology & Communication Enhancement Project—Bridgeport

Weldon said that as a result of St. Francis Xavier Fund grants many parishes have “stood strong as outstanding disciples of faith; by helping each other with child care, online learning, food sharing and being continually in prayer.”

However, with the resurgence of the coronavirus, the needs are expected to grow, Gallagher said and he believes the Giving Tuesday will help others to focus on the urgent needs of parishes and those they serve.

“Giving Tuesday on December 1 is an opportunity for us all to band together and declare the COVID-19 pandemic will not defeat us! We will help our brother and sister Parishes survive, then thrive, because we are a family in faith. We are being called!”

The St. Francis Xavier Fund is part of Foundations In Faith, a 501c-3 recognized charity, established by the We Stand With Christ capital campaign,  that is committed to supporting and transforming pastoral ministries in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

(To contribute to the St. Francis Xavier Fund please visit: www.bridgeportdiocese.org/stfrancisfund.)

There’s a catch-22 happening for thousands of family farms in Honduras who grow coffee as their way to earn a living, and it’s this: growing and processing coffee takes a lot of water, but Honduras has been in a drought for more than five years now. The very thing most needed to earn a living is also the very thing in short supply. Catholic Relief Services has been working with thousands of coffee farmers in Central America to use improved techniques that save them a lot of water. It’s working. Using these techniques, Wilfredo Sanchez, the farmer in this photo, reduced the water he uses to produce coffee by 75 percent. When water is already in short supply, saving that much water really makes a difference.

The previous reflection originally appeared on Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Facebook page. Follow the Bishop for daily reflections and weekly videos.

BRIDGEPORT— Baptism is our pledge of allegiance to Christ, and it requires a life of service and love, said Bishop Frank J. Caggiano in his online Mass on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

“We Come here Sunday after Sunday to renew our pledge of allegiance to Christ, the King of all things,” said the Bishop on the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year before the beginning of Advent.

The bishop said the Gospel of Matthew (25: 31-46,) “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me,” conscripts us to a higher calling “to serve the one true king by serving others, to become his eyes, hands, and feet in the world.”

“We honor and serve the Lord by being his agent of change, hope, peace, forgiveness and love. If we fail to do that, we fail to honor him and our allegiance can become hollow,” he said.

The bishop began his homily by recalling that when he was a boy, he had “the great privilege” of being taught by the Dominican Sisters of Kentucky at St. Simon and Jude Parochial School in Brooklyn.

“The Sisters ran a tight ship and our day started the same way,” he said, noting that first thing every morning the students put their coats away, said morning prayer, and then turned to the American flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, “Words we know very well and have recited thousands of times.”

However, he said he didn’t begin to understand the full import of the pledge until he was older, and every evening on the TV news there was a report on the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

“I began to recognize the holy catechism that the pledge is, and what it means to those who have sworn their lives to protect the country and pay the ultimate price.”

The bishop said that allegiance is given to an authority that sustains us throughout our lives, and to honor that authority we are called to serve generously.

Likewise, he said that as we gather in prayer and worship, “We recognize that there is someone far more important to whom we must pledge our allegiance–to a king unlike any other who recognizes our poverty and suffering.”

However, It’s not good enough to give God just “the part of our lives that we want to give,” but to give him every aspect of our lives and to hold nothing back in our allegiance to Christ, he said.

“We honor Him through the sacraments, but do we speak about him and allow him to animate all we do in the ordinary moments of our life, so that the name of Christ is on our lips often?”

The bishop said that Jesus, who shared our humanity, invites us to share a place in his kingdom, and that he has led the way through his own death and resurrection.

“Baptism is our pledge of allegiance, the beginning of our road to discipleship as members of the kingdom of love and reconciliation by which we enter into the mystery of life,” he said.

Just as we pledge allegiance at civic and sporting events, we should not be afraid to tell the world we’re Christians and we owe Christ everything, the bishop said. We should be prepared to “serve him like the brave men and women in the armed forces, suffering and sacrificing to the point of giving our lives.”

In his weekly spiritual challenge, the bishop called for an examination of conscience as we approach Advent and urged us to ask ourselves a basic question, “As we end the year together, do we recognize the authority under which we live? How often do we acknowledge the authority of Christ over you and me?”

Before giving the final blessing Bishop Caggiano wished everyone “a blessed, happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving celebration. And as we begin the new liturgical year together next week, we pray for a year of blessing and healing that the pandemic will come to an end for us all.”

Bishop’s Online Mass: The Bishop’s Sunday Mass is released online every Sunday morning at 8 a.m. and available for replay throughout the day. To view the Bishop’s Sunday Mass, recorded and published weekly, click this link or visit the YouTube Mass Playlist.

For information on the Sunday Family Rosary every Sunday at 7:30 p.m. visit: https://formationreimagined.org/sundayfamilyrosary/

BRIDGEPORT—Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has issued a decree formally promulgating the new Funeral Norms and the Norms for the Order of Christian Funerals in the Diocese of Bridgeport, which are now available in their entirety online (see links below).

The norms will go into effect as the Liturgical Law of the Diocese of Bridgeport on the First Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2020. They will be subject to future revision five years from the date of publication.

The bishop issued the decree today (November 22, 2020 ) on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Prior to the promulgation the new Norms were presented to the Presbyterate of the Diocese for review and have been duly approved by the Council of Priests.

The 22-page document was created after a two-year process coordinated by the diocesan Leadership Institute and the Liturgical Commission. It offers a comprehensive guide to all norms and considerations in a Catholic funeral including music, the homily, flowers, words of praise, the participation of family members and the responsibility of clergy and funeral directors, and all those involved in the funeral rites.

The introduction to the newly revised norms states, “From the beginning of the Church, Christian funeral rites and burial have been an important spiritual and pastoral practice. Our Catholic faith understands death as the entrance into eternity. It expresses a hope in the resurrection of the dead won for us in Christ’s Death and Resurrection. We also recognize the value of prayer for the deceased and show reverence for the body which remain Since the Christian response to death stands as a witness to Christian belief regarding life here and hereafter, our rites and ceremonies connected with Christian death and burial unite us to the paschal mystery of Christ’s victory over sin and death and must remain consonant with this belief.“

The decree states that with the provision of the new Norms, any and all customs until now practiced, as well as all existing liturgical norms regarding funerals are abrogated.

Click for Bishop’s Decree for the Promulgation of Funeral Norms

Click for Funeral Norms for the Order of Christian Funerals

Click here for resources about Catholic Funerals and pre-planning.

Click here for information on the Norms, educational resources, and more.

TRUMBULL — It was a day to pay tribute to a beloved icon in the history of St. Joseph High School — Coach Vito Montelli, whose story, “God, Family & Basketball,” written by sports writer Chris Elsberry, was recently published.

Former players, teachers, colleagues, students and friends showed up with their families last Saturday so “Coach” could inscribe their books at a book-signing in the school gym as the line of people snaked out into the parking lot.

During his 50-year career, he won a Connecticut-record 11 state titles, coaching the St. Joseph High School boys basketball team,

“It was terrific. It was great,” Coach Montelli said of the day. “People called if they couldn’t make it. There were dozens of former players from recent years.”

Among the well-wishers was Tom Roach, retired teacher from St. Joe’s who Montelli hired as his first JV basketball coach, along with Jim Olayos, director of athletic advancement at Notre Dame-Fairfield High School and former athletic director at St. Joe’s, whose book, “The Kindness Formula,” was recently released.

“Some of the faces that I saw and some of the calls I got afterward meant a lot,” Coach Montelli said. “You always have those. When you’re friends with them, you know darn well that if you need a favor, certain ones are going to rise to the occasion all the time. That is always true.”

The Montelli story is first and foremost a story about his faith in God and how it inspired his life as husband, father of six children, and coach.

As his youngest son Tommy told Elsberry: “It’s his core. It’s the most important thing to him, followed by his family. And to many people’s surprise, basketball is important, but it’s a very distant third. This was something that was ingrained in us at a very young age, and it’s something that he tried to teach his players as well.”

As Coach Montelli explained it: “I was satisfied that it was me, my family and our faith. My wife Dolores of 62 years and I watch the Mass every morning on EWTN, and we say the rosary right after it, and then I start my day.”

Her nickname, he says, is Magee although he’s not quite sure why he gave it to her. However, he is sure of one thing: “She’s the brains in this outfit.”

BRIDGEPORT—To help combat the spread of COVID-19 in the greater Bridgeport area, the Queen of Saints Hall of the Catholic Center is now being used as an on-site location for both COVID-19 and antibody tests.

The Diocese of Bridgeport announced an agreement with Progressive Diagnostics, LLC of Trumbull, a clinical medical laboratory, which has begun providing high-volume, COVID-19 PCR (saliva) testing along with antibody blood tests (beginning next week) that are FDA EUA approved.

“We’re very proud of this initiative, which is offering an essential service to help flatten the curve and safeguard lives in our community,” said Deacon Patrick Toole, episcopal vicar for administration of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

“Masks, testing and contact tracing are essential until there is a widely available vaccine, and this offers a timely new option for people, particularly as the pandemic is expected to surge over the next few months,” said Deacon Toole.

Curt Kuliga, entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Progressive Diagnostics in Trumbull, said, “Our whole purpose is to expand access to quality affordable care. We are simply blessed to be in partnership with the Diocese of Bridgeport and the forward-thinking leadership of Deacon Pat Toole, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano and many of the clergy and staff, who are committed to expanding care in their communities during the pandemic.”

“The collaboration with the Church will not only provide access to FDA EUA authorized PCR saliva testing, but it will also add jobs as we continue to expand patient collection centers throughout the diocese. The Church has an altruistic spirit, which aligns well with our company’s thinking.”

Brian Bellows, chief strategy officer of Progressive Diagnostics, who is a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena in Trumbull and has served for many years on the board of St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, has been instrumental in forging the partnership, which may bring additional test sites to other diocesan locations.

Deacon Toole said the decision to open Queen of Saints Hall for testing is consistent with the considerable health and safety protocols the diocese has introduced in its parishes and schools since the beginning of the pandemic.

He said that Progressive Diagnostics has designed a system that ensures all patients are socially distant and professional specialized cleaning is performed between visits and every evening. As an added measure, the HVAC units that supply the heat/ac to the hall are being equipped with state of the art Air Scrubber ActivePure Technology to purify the air and reduce exposure to bacteria and viruses, FDA EUA approved.

“Their primary concern is the safety and health of their patients, Catholic Center employees and the community. Accordingly, they implemented policies and procedures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” Deacon Toole said.

Queen of Saints Hall provides a separate entrance for those who come to the building for testing. The side door to the hall, adjacent to the parking lot, also allows for easy access, while the rest of the 75,000 square foot building remains off-limits.

All testing is by appointment only with times available between 9 am-5 pm Monday through Friday during the week and a separate drive-up testing on Saturdays 9 am–3 pm within the parking lot.

Testing results are generally available within 48 to 72 hours. Progressive Diagnostics accepts all forms of health insurance.

Catholic Center building unites two eras of pandemic

The repurposing of part of the 75,000 square foot Catholic Center campus to respond to a pandemic unites two eras in the Church and in Bridgeport history.  While the facility now houses the Offices of the Bishop and many diocesan ministries and programs, much of the building history is related to its role as a contagious disease hospital.

First opened in 1917 in response to the Spanish flu, it was hailed as a modern hospital, the structure was known to generations of area residents as Englewood Hospital, as it treated successive waves of scarlet fever, mumps, measles and polio.

The original 1917 building is the 25,000 square foot, u-shared, core carved into the hillside of what was then a remote, 10-acre site. The west wing was added in 1929 along with a 25-room nurses residence The east wing was opened in 1937 to meet the rising need for health care in the growing city.

The building was expanded again in 1962 when the Diocese of Bridgeport purchased the site as the home of Notre Dame Girls High School after the city closed the hospital. The project, which included bump-outs in back, interior redesign, creation of 29 classrooms and a new gym, now the Queen of Saints Hall.

According to officials at the University of Connecticut Health Center, the 1918 Spanish flu has been described as the catastrophe against which all modern pandemics are measured. Health experts believe that as many as 100 million people around the globe may have perished in the outbreak—which is believed to have infected up to 40 percent of the earth’s population.

The Spanish flu had a grim efficiency that rivaled the medieval plague. Many of the 1918-19 victims woke up in full health and were dead within 24 hours—dying of suffocation after their lungs filled with fluid. Eight thousand people died in Connecticut during the last four months of 1918.

The Catholic Center is located at 238 Jewett Avenue in Bridgeport.

BRIDGEPORT—Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has issued a decree permitting the celebration of Christmas Vigil Masses beginning at 2 pm in parishes throughout the Diocese of Bridgeport on December 24, in order to provide more options to the faithful seeking to safely attend Mass on Christmas.

“With this provision, it is my desire and hope that each parish priest or rector ensure that enough Masses are celebrated in order to allow the reasonable accommodation of all the faithful who wish to personally attend a Holy Day Mass for Christmas,” said the bishop in the decree, which was issued on November 16 in response to the worsening coronavirus crisis.

In the decree the bishop references the ongoing pandemic and State health regulations restricting attendance at religious gatherings.

The decree states that “as we are nearing the celebration of the Holy Days of the Nativity of the Lord, the faithful are generally in need of more options to be offered by their pastors to attend the Christmas Holy Day celebrations.”

The earlier vigil time represents a one-time exemption for Christmas 2020 because of the extraordinary situation created by the pandemic, the larger number of people expected to attend Mass at Christmas, and the need to socially distance and follow other procedures to safeguard health.

Diocesan policy requires people to register in advance for Mass in order to help parishes plan and to facilitate the notification of other parishioners if someone tests positive.  The faithful are also asked to wear a mask and practice safe distancing when they are in Church.

Click here to read the Bishop’s New Decree for the Celebration of Christmas Vigil Masses