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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Mass Celebrated in Bethlehem on AMS Pilgrimage to Holy Land

ARCHDIOCESE FOR THE MILITARY SERVICES, USA
News Release


Contact Taylor Henry
(202) 719-3643

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12/24/2013


Archbishop Timothy Broglio gives homily at the Church of St. Catherine

BETHLEHEM—During a Christmas Mass at the Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, called on Holy Land pilgrims to remember why Christ was born—to assure human salvation. The archbishop celebrated the Mass on November 27, 2013 during a weeklong pilgrimage by nearly three dozen members of the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS). The pilgrimage was timed to coincide with the end of the Year of Faith, the 13-month period from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013 declared by Pope Benedict XVI to summon Catholics the world over to conversion and a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Archbishop Broglio said:






“This is only a transitory place for us, and so we walk on pilgrimage with the reminder that our goal is everlasting life; and it is important to keep that mind, because so often we’re distracted by all of the things that cry out for our attention on the way, but a pilgrimage reminds us that we walk here in the Holy Land in the footsteps of Jesus and that it is a mirror image of our walking for the reward of everlasting life, whose beginning, in a very immediate sense, took place here in Bethlehem, when the Savior of the world was born.

“… this is a good occasion to think about the immense love of almighty God for us. Everything planned for a reason. Everything an invitation, so that we might be able to understand the prophets of the Old Testament. So that we might be able to listen anew to the message of the New Testament. So that our faith might be strengthened. Our pilgrimage was born as an activity of the Year of Faith, which ended on Sunday. An invitation to renew that faith. To be strengthened in the that faith. To reach again the fundamentals of that faith, which, as Pope Francis tells us repeatedly, is an expression of God’s mercy. His desire to draw us in. His desire to awaken in us the understanding of his passion, death and resurrection, so that we, too, look forward and hope for that celebration. As we enter in, then, to the mystery of the Eucharist, we are reminded of the simplicity of a child—of a baby. And we are reminded that this child was born to assure that salvation of the human race. And so we are humbled by such an expression of love. And we are brought also to that sense of renewal, of recommitment to our faith. And we ask the Lord to strengthen us in our faith.”

More than a dozen priests and U.S. Military chaplains concelebrated the Mass with Archbishop Broglio: AMS Auxiliary Bishop Neal Buckon; Father Stephen Panzer; Father James Danner; Father Edward Grice; Father Jame O’Neal; Father Patrick Wedeking; Father Alwyn Albano; Father Leo Moras; Father John Schuetze; Father Stephen McDermott; Father William Hahn; Father Dan Fullerton; Father Anthony Rowland; and Father William Ferguson.

An edited video of the Mass can be viewed here


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The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) was created as an independent archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 1985 as the only Catholic jurisdiction responsible for endorsing and granting faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military and VA Medical Centers.

AMS-endorsed priests serve at more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29 countries, making the AMS the nation's only global archdiocese. AMS-endorsed priests also serve at 153 VA Medical Centers throughout the U.S.

The AMS service population also includes American Catholic civilians working for the federal government in 134 countries, but currently, due to limited resources, the AMS cannot adequately serve this population.

Worldwide, an estimated 1.8 million Catholics depend on the AMS to meet their spiritual and sacramental needs.

For more information on the Archdiocese for the Military Services, visit www.milarch.org, the only official