“Today is a day for us to examine our consciences, to decide what action we must take here and now, not when it’s too late,” declared Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., in Our Lady Star of the Sea Chapel, Manasquan, Sept. 1 during the inaugural World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation Mass.
Hundreds of faithful drove, walked or bicycled to the small church affectionately known as St. Denis Parish’s “beach chapel” which had been nearly destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in October, 2012, to join with their brothers and sisters in faith, the Bishop and some 20 priests of the Diocese, including Father William Lago, pastor of St. Denis.
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Befitting the location of the chapel, just one long block from the Atlantic, many congregants were casually dressed in shorts, t-shirts and sandals. Even Bishop O’Connell, chuckling, joked he and his fellow clergy were clad in bathing suits beneath their clerical robes.
The mood soon turned more serious. When the Bishop asked which congregants had been directly affected by Sandy, many hands rose and faces reflected the grief of loss, uncertainty and despair the storm had waged upon them. Father Lago had estimated that about one-third of those at the Mass were from St. Denis and many of them regularly worshipped in the small chapel. A plaque marking the height of the water that had filled the house of worship was fastened to the wall at the entrance, ever reminding the congregants of the travails they had experienced that October and months, even years later.
Recalling Sandy, the storm which laid waste to much of the Jersey shoreline, Bishop O’Connell said, “We simply did not anticipate what nature can do to us.”
Continuing his homily, Bishop O’Connell cited Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” and drew a parallel between this great natural disaster and what Pope Francis wrote about the planet he called “Sister Earth” which “cries out because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”
“Pope Francis is sounding the alarm, the warning,” the Bishop said. “We cannot, we must not remain unprepared for this storm of our own making.” He urged the congregation to respond to the crises of our common home as people of faith, and answered those who dismiss the Pope as a nay-sayer and concerned with issues on which he is not qualified to speak.
“The negative effects of our unrelenting assaults on the environment, what [the Pope] calls ‘one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,’ extend far beyond air, water, oil, energy, land and climate,” the Bishop stated. “These assaults are symptoms of a ‘throwaway culture’ that places little value on the human beings and their sacred, God-given dignity and worth.”
Congregants hailing from around the Diocese welcomed the newly minted day of prayer and respect for God’s creation. Barbara Strout, a catechist in St. Denis Parish who teaches children preparing for First Holy Communion, was drawn to the idea of being at the first annual Mass. While Strout found the gathering to be “joyful,” she was particularly moved by the Bishop’s reference to Superstorm Sandy.
She explained, “I live four streets from here, and I had to evacuate my home when the storm hit.” Strout said she was out of her home for a week, and she lost some belongings in the water that flooded her basement. But she considers herself to be among the lucky ones. “Because my house was elevated, [I] didn’t get it as bad as the neighbors did,” she said.
With those memories still very present, Strout felt called to make changes after listening to the Bishop’s homily. “It made me think that I have to be a lot more responsible. I have to get more involved in being part of the solution, instead of part of the problem,” she said.
Mercy Sister Maureen Conroy of the Upper Room Spiritual Center, Neptune, attended the Mass with four other women in her community. She was encouraged by the showing that evening, noting that “prayer, and the spiritual blessings that come with it, are so very important in caring for the environment.”
Parishioner Nancy Riggin, who attended the Mass with her husband, David, praised Pope Francis for exhorting people “throughout the country and the world to take care of the great planet that was given to us by God.”
Caring for creation, Riggin said, holds added meaning especially since she lived by the sea. “I see the sea every day,” she said with a smile, “and it’s a beautiful part of our creation.”
Father Daniel Gowen, pastor of St. Michael Parish, West End, and a native son of St. Denis Parish, saw the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation as being a way to “raise awareness to the plight going on in the world that we take for granted.”
“Our Holy Father wants to teach us and help us to recognize that it is our responsibility to take care of the planet so that it will be here for many years to come,” he said. Father Gowen noted a small group study on the papal encyclical is being formed in his parish beginning Sept. 6 and will be offered over the course of several weeks.
Frank and Laura Venezio were among the congregants who traveled a distance to attend the Mass. They learned about the gathering from Father John Large, who had announced it during Mass that morning in their home parish of St. Thomas More, Manalapan.
Frank, who is now retired after serving 25 years as a police officer in South Orange, said that daily Mass and a greater interest in his faith are all part of what he sees as a new chapter in his life. It was the first time that the couple had been at a Mass celebrated by the Bishop.
“He really gave a great sermon,” Frank said. “We try to do our part, we recycle and all that, but this was a call to do more. It was very moving.”
Pope Francis, expounding upon the themes of his encyclical on the environment, announced the inaugural "World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation" to be celebrated annually each Sept. 1. In his Aug. 6 letter establishing the commemoration, the Pope wrote the day was intended for Catholics to “be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live."