FISHKILL – Cardinal Timothy
Dolan visited St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Fishkill Thursday evening
to participate in their New Year’s Eve mass.
Father Joe Blenkle, a resident priest of the parish, said he only found out recently that the cardinal was coming to participate in the mass and that it was something he thought was very beneficial to their parishioners.
“It was a thrill to have the cardinal here and a couple weeks ago, about two weeks ago, he told me he’d like to come, to visit the parish and I think our parish really needed a nice ‘shot in the arm’ for the holiday season and him coming is better than a B-vitamin; so, we were very, very fortunate to have the cardinal with us tonight,” said Father Blenkle.
Dolan (left): “… the people that walk the darkness will see a great light …”
In his address to the parishioners, Cardinal Dolan spoke of the New Year being a time of joy and sorrow. With 2015 having a slew of terrorists attacks, disasters, as well as instances of community and police violence, happening across the globe, he sent an inspirational message to the people as they move into 2016.
“You know what, as you look back over 2015, we’re tempted to think that all is darkness, all is despair and then what keeps ringing out is what we heard at midnight mass, ‘the people that walk the darkness will see a great light,’ that no matter how much evil people and predicaments in the world try to trample us, we get up,” said Cardinal Dolan. “And so, Christmas [and the New Year] always reminds us that ultimately, ultimately, light will trump darkness, life will win out over death, good over evil; now, sometimes, that doesn’t seem very evident and that’s when we need hope.”
Cardinal Dolan’s next stop will be the Vocation Discernment Retreat at St. Walburga Monastery in Elizabeth, NJ from January 8th-10th.
