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.
“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.
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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
