Bishop Walsh visits St. Martha's, December 2007

Photos courtesy of Kathleen Lyons. Copy courtesy of Merlene Frey and Karleine Graham.

On December 15 and 16, 2007, Bishop Paul Walsh D.D. made his much anticipated Episcopal visit to St. Martha’s and he was kept busy.

On Saturday, Bishop Walsh arrived as the Social Ministry staff and many volunteers were packaging food supplies and Christmas presents for over 400 clients of our Outreach Department. He had a meeting with the Parish Council, met with the Finance and Liturgical committees of St. Martha and had a town hall meeting in which parishioners were invited to meet the Bishop and express their satisfaction or special concerns for the parish.

Bishop Walsh celebrated the 5:00 pm Vigil Mass with Msgr. Caldwell and Father Cardone, S.M., the Provincial of the Marianist Community. The students were the altar servers, lectors and provided music for the liturgy. A quintet with a guitar player stationed at the side altar were the leaders of song while the band and the school choir was in the loft. Father Cardone reported on the progress of St. Martin de Porres which has increased student enrollment from 120 to over 450 since the Marianists were invited by Msgr. Caldwell to assume responsibility for the school four years ago.

On Sunday, despite the inclement weather, Bishop Walsh, with Msgr. Caldwell, Bishop Cabezas and Father Eden Jean-Baptiste celebrated a Multicultural Mass at 11am. All the choirs sang and the lectors delivered the Word of God in English, French and Spanish. Bishop Walsh commended St. Martha’s parish on the good improvements in the physical building, the involvement of the people in parish life, the strong faith demonstrated and the parish’s emphasis on making Christ visible to the wider Uniondale community. He was also impressed by the manner in which the St. Martha’s community is involved in many services in the Church and the manner in which we support each other.

In his homily for the 3rd Sunday in Advent, Bishop Walsh said that the readings are about “judgment that is a judgment that each one of us must make. Since he died before Jesus, the strong-willed John the Baptist was not a part of the Kingdom brought in by Jesus. John prayed and asked people to repent because God is faithful and will send the Messiah as promised. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy about the Messiah. Jesus demonstrated courage, wisdom, trustworthiness, justice, harmony, peace, joy and concern for the weak. Jesus showed us the face of God.” Bishop Walsh ended by asking each of us to enter into a relationship with Jesus and to behave as Jesus did.

Bishop Walsh also said that he welcomed all to call upon him with any complaints and suggestions, and on behalf of Bishop Murphy, he thanked the congregation for making his visit a success.