Bridgeport, Conn., Jan 2, 2021 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has announced that Bishop Frank Caggiano is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday.
Bishop Caggiano has been systematically testing for COVID every Monday. On Wednesday, December 30th, the lab returned a positive diagnosis.
Diocese officials say Caggiano is not suffering any symptoms but has suspended public appearances for 10 days in accordance with CDC guidelines. This Saturday, January 2nd, the Bishop had to skip the awaited ordination of Deacon Brendan Blawie, a native of Newtown who graduated from Marine Officer’s Candidate School in Quantico, VA in the summer of 2012, and was ordained as a transitional deacon on June 20, 2020 by Caggiano.
Bishop James Massa, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn and rector of St. Joseph Seminary in Dunwoodie ordained Deacon Brendan to the priesthood at 11 am (local time) at St. Augustine’s Cathedral in Bridgeport.
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Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Gyumri, Armenia, June 25, 2016. / L’Osservatore Romano/CNA
Vatican City, Dec 10, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis told seminarians on Saturday that praying the rosary can “unveil the mysteries of the priesthood” in its moments of joy, sorrow, and the glory to come.
In a meeting with seminarians from Barcelona, the pope urged the young men to remember that “when you are a priest your first obligation will be a life of prayer.”
“Dear seminarians, take up your rosary and ask Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy, to help unveil the mysteries of the priesthood to which God calls you, contemplating the mysteries of his Son, realizing that the joy of discipleship and perfect identification with the cross are the only way to glory,” Pope Francis said on Dec. 10.
Pope Francis spoke to seminarians from Barcelona at the Vatican on Dec. 10, 2022. Vatican Media
The pope explained that the joyful mysteries of the priesthood are “born of gratitude for that preferential love that God showed you by calling you to his service.”
He recommended that seminarians contemplate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s attitude at the Annunciation and ask: “How was she when God called her? And how was I? With what zeal do I consider my future priestly life? Will I rise up … with love, to bring God to the world? Will I take him up the most arduous and painful of mountains?”
Pope Francis added that the fifth joyful mystery of the rosary, the finding of Jesus in the temple, contains a particular lesson that should never be forgotten.
Throughout life, we must always return to look for Jesus in the tabernacle, he said, encouraging the future priests to “lose yourselves there with Him.”
In the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, a priest is reminded that he “must aspire to a crown of thorns,” to be identified with the Lord in his suffering, the pope said.
“There is the sacrifice of assuming one’s own cross and beginning a path, often of abandonment. It is the sacrifice of life. Looking at the cross we raise our eyes to heaven and see our destiny,” Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis spoke to seminarians from Barcelona at the Vatican on Dec. 10, 2022. Vatican Media
For a priest, the glorious mysteries are found in the Mass in thanksgiving for the Passion of Jesus, he explained.
“After the triumph of the resurrection, Jesus entered the sanctuary of heaven and from there he perpetuates this continuous thanksgiving. Seeing him seated at the right hand of the Father calls us to hope and fills us with joy because he assures us of heaven,” he said.
“For this God sends the Holy Spirit, the only one who can teach us these mysteries, and one day he will give you the gift of being priests of Christ. Never cease to savor and remember this love of predilection that is poured and will be poured abundantly into your heart, at your ordination, and for the rest of your days.”
“Never extinguish this fire that will make you fearless preachers of the Gospel, dispensers of divine gifts. Unite your flesh to that of Jesus, like Mary, to immolate yourselves with him in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and also in the glory of his triumph,” Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis presides over a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on July 23, 2023, for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. / Credit: Pablo Esparza/EWTN
CNA Staff, May 14, 2024 / 12:47 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Tuesday urged families around the world to remain close to grandparents and elderly family members, imploring loved ones to spend time with older relatives who may be facing “solitude and abandonment.”
Francis noted that the Bible contains numerous examples of the “fear of abandonment, particularly in old age and in times of pain.” The theme for this year’s observance is “Do Not Cast Me Off in My Old Age,” a reference to Psalm 71.
“All too often, loneliness is the bleak companion of our lives as elderly persons and grandparents,” the pope said.
He noted that when serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires he “would visit rest homes and realize how rarely those people received visits. Some had not seen their family members for many months.”
War often leads to high rates of elderly abandonment, the pope said. “How many of the elderly are left alone because men — youths and adults — have been called to battle, and women, above all women with small children, have left the country in order to ensure safety for their children.”
Another prejudice against the old, the Holy Father argued, is the claim that they “rob the young of their future.”
“There is now a widespread conviction that the elderly are burdening the young with the high cost of the social services that they require, and in this way are diverting resources from the development of the community and thus from the young,” the pope wrote.
“This is a distorted perception of reality. It assumes that the survival of the elderly puts that of the young at risk, that to favor the young, it is necessary to neglect or even suppress the elderly.”
Citing the biblical example of Ruth remaining by Naomi’s side in the latter’s old age, the Holy Father urged families: “Let us show our tender love for the grandparents and the elderly members of our families.”
“Let us spend time with those who are disheartened and no longer hope in the possibility of a different future,” he wrote.
“In place of the self-centered attitude that leads to loneliness and abandonment, let us instead show the open heart and the joyful face of men and women who have the courage to say ‘I will not abandon you’ and to set out on a different path.”
In announcing the observance in 2021, Pope Francis said that grandparents and elderly family members “remind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between generations, to transmit to young people an experience of life and faith.”
“Grandparents are often forgotten, and we forget this wealth of preserving and passing on the roots,” the pope said at the time.
“How much we need a new bond between young and old,” Pope Francis said at the time, “so that the sap of those who have a long experience of life behind them will nourish the shoots of hope of those who are growing.”
I ask God’s blessings on Bishop Caggiano
Symptomless “cases” is an oxymoron, and is a form of FRAUD.