OUR NEW AUXILIARY BISHOPS

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

With deep gratitude to our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, I am happy to announce we received three new Auxiliary Bishops for service to the faithful of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Our Holy Father has recognized the pastoral needs of the Church in Brooklyn and Queens and appointed three men who reflect the diversity of our Diocese, and understand well its present needs.

The latest edition of the "Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops," published by the Congregation for Bishops in 2004, states: "The auxiliary Bishop, the principal co-worker of the diocesan Bishop in the governance of the diocese, is appointed in order to provide more effectively for the good souls in a large or densely-populated diocese or for other reasons connected with the apostolate." Certainly, our Diocese qualifies as a densely-populated diocese with various apostolic needs. Our new Auxiliary Bishops, I am sure, will meet those needs.

First, all three have a unique understanding of the immigrant experience. Bishop-elect Guy Sansaricq is an immigrant from Haiti. He has served the Haitian population, not only in our own Diocese, but elsewhere outside of Haiti for many years. His direction of the National Haitian Apostolate gives him a unique perspective not only of the needs of Haitian apostolates, but also of the needs of other Caribbean migrants to Brooklyn and Queens. Bishop-elect Sansaricq is the first black bishop to be appointed to the Diocese of Brooklyn. The Diocese, perhaps, has more African-American Catholics, when taking into account the American-born and foreign-born black Catholics in the Diocese, than any other in the United States. This truly is recognition of the unique pastoral need for representation and leadership in the hierarchy for so many of our black Catholics.

Bishop-elect Octavio Cisneros, who has worked effectively, most recently as director of our seminarians and Rector of the College Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston, has the experience not only of an immigrant, but also of a refugee. He came to the United States with the "Peter Pan Airlift" for unaccompanied minors who were sent out of Cuba by their parents to have the possibility of education in a free country that was willing to accept them. The separation from his family and the refugee experience will serve Bishop-elect Cisneros well as he ministers to the large number of Latino Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens.

Although himself not an immigrant, Bishop-elect Frank Caggiano is the child of immigrants and missed being born in Italy by only a year. His sister was born in Italy and migrated with the family. The Bishop-elect was the first in his family to be born in the United States.

Bishop-elect Caggiano has served as Vicar for Evangelization and Pastoral Life for the past two years. He is an indefatigable worker, as I can attest to personally since he resides with me at the bishop's residence.

Since the retirement of Bishops Joseph Sullivan and Rene Valero last year, our Diocese has been expecting replacements. At this time, we were very fortunate to receive a replacement for the vacant position as well, since the Diocese of Brooklyn has traditionally had four active Auxiliary Bishops. It is hard to call our Retired Auxiliary Bishops and Bishop Emeritus Thomas Daily retired since they are so active in the Diocese and are ready and willing to do anything that I, as Ordinary, ask them. It is good to have other Auxiliary Bishops in place, however, who can devote themselves to special areas of work that will be assigned to them in the future.

I look forward to working with our three new Auxiliary Bishops and Bishop Ignatius Catanello, Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar for Clergy, in the years to come. We will form a pastoral team that will seek to serve the needs of our Diocese effectively. We can never forget that we are called to be successors of the Apostles. The Apostles were so designated because they were witnesses to the Resurrection. What a lofty vocation to witness the Christ who is forever alive.

The Episcopal Consecration for our three new Auxiliary Bishops will take place on August 22, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. While a location has not yet been chosen, we will work out the details in the very near future.

I ask that you join me in praying for these newly nominated Bishops-elect, that they will have the strength and fortitude to follow in the footstep of the Apostles ministering to the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens and all of their needs.

Truly, to become a bishop is a call to put out into the deep. I know that these men will take the necessary risks to join the New Evangelization as well as work toward the recruitment of vocations to the priestly and religious life. These are the two main tasks that I will ask them to assist me with, because there are no more important goals facing the Church today. Ad multos annos!