Update from the Provost
With the start of the season of Advent this past weekend, we begin a new liturgical year. In just about a month, we will also begin a new calendar year with the arrival of 2021, which we surely all hope and pray will bring better and brighter days for us all. With this new season and new year in mind, I thought it would be good to offer a brief update on the lives and work of the Fathers and Brother of the Oratory and then to continue this practice a few times each year going forward. This update might be especially helpful now since our regular interactions and communications with each other have been so disrupted because of the pandemic.
Father Dennis is well and has spent a good bit of the fall planning for and then hosting the Breukelein Institute’s annual Gaudium Awards which this year took place virtually. Highly successful once again, the event raised over $100,000 which will be distributed to local food pantries and other organizations fighting hunger and food insecurity. The Institute plans also continue its travel and pilgrimage program with a trip to Portugal and Fatima in October of 2021. For more information, visit www.breukelein.org.
Brother James Simon is still the Director of Development at Dominican Academy (D.A.) in Manhattan, which several girls from the Oratory Parishes currently attend. In addition to working for D.A., Br. James continues to volunteer with the Breukelein Institute. While he misses seeing his relatives and friends in person, he does enjoy his regular walks through the neighborhood (with his mask on, of course) with Buddy (who does not wear a mask) in the late afternoons.
Father Mark remains well while adjusting to a few life changes after a recent (and surprise) placement of a stent in his heart. The redevelopment of the Willoughby Street site at St. Boniface which is nearing the end of the long and complex design process has also kept him busy. Demolition and construction should begin in the new year. In the near future he intends to hold a virtual “town hall” to share renderings and floor plans for the new parish community space and Newman Center. He also recently celebrated via Zoom his mother’s 88th birthday with the rest of his family in Australia. His mom still lives on her while enjoying good health and even some limited driving.
Father Michael has had his hands full this past fall with the completion of the new parish offices at Assumption and now with the replacement of the heating system in the church. He continues to make regular visits to Delaware to see his father who is undergoing treatment for cancer. His dad enjoys the time with his son and Buddy too who also likes his time “in the country” away from Brooklyn.
Next month on January 17 Father Mark Paul will mark the first anniversary of his ordination. Despite the fact that he had to spend much of the early part of his life as a priest celebrating Mass privately or via Zoom with no congregation present, he remains as happy and energetic as ever, especially now that we have been able to gather in person for Mass albeit in smaller numbers and with lots of health precautions. In addition to his work as a part-time teacher and administrator at St Edmund’s Prep, this fall he has begun working two days each week at St Francis College in Brooklyn Heights as part of their campus ministry team.
As for me I have continued in my work as principal at Regis High School. While the school has been in remote instruction up until Thanksgiving, I have gone into the building on East 84 Street on most days usually using Citibike (while wearing both a helmet and a mask, I promise). On some weekends I visit my mom in White Plains who remains healthy though of course still mourning and missing my dad who died in late February.
Finally, the Brooklyn Oratory has been blessed in recent months to have two vocation inquiries with us. I ask that you keep these two young men in your prayers in a special way.
A blessed Advent,
Father Anthony, C.O.
Provost
