Catequetical Year Ends in our Four Parishes in New York.

Only one thing is necessary:
to live Christ.
Only one thing is necessary:
the Eucharist. – Fernando Rielo

The long period of intense preparation has borne its fruit: 465 children received their First Communion, and 292 young people received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Some children and Young people also were baptized. The Sacraments were administered during the months of May and June of this year.
Worth noting is the cultural diversity of our parishes: The children and Young people were from Bangladesh, Ecuador, Vietnam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, the United States and the Philippines.

We are grateful to our catechists who, with such generosity, effort, and enthusiasm have journeyed with the students and their families in our four parishes (five churches) that we administer in the Bronx and Long Island. His Eminence Edwin Cardinal O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore and Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, presided and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 44 young people in his home parish, Our Lady of Solace-St. Dominic, in the Bronx, where our brother Robert Badillo, Provincial Superior of the United States, is the pastor. In the same parish, 46 children received the Eucharist for the first time.

At Santa Maria Parish, the first parish entrusted to our Institute in the United States, our brother Martín Esguerra is Pastor. It was His Excellency Bishop John Jenik, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, who administered Confirmation to 18 young people on June 8, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Five days earlier, on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, some 30 children made their First Communion.

On Long Island, that same day, Corpus Christi, His Excellency Bishop Robert Coyle, a new Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre, administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 173 young people at Our Lady of Loretto Parish, where the Pastor is our brother Luis Miguel Romero. There were so many children receiving First Communion this year—270—that they could not all do it the same day, and were distributed among the first three Saturdays of May.

In our other Long Island Parish, St. Luke’s, shepherded since 2001 by our brother Cristóbal Martín, Confirmation was conferred the 12th of May on 57 young people by His Excellency Bishop Robert Brennan, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The previous Saturday, May 5, 119 happy children received their First Communion.

As the year drew to a close, we invited all the children and young people who had received the Sacraments to begin participating in our activities, such as Idente Youth, the School of Acolytes, communities, social service, the World Youth Parliament, and even to help as assistant catechists. Many of them have accepted the invitation and are already enthusiastically participating, deepening their commitment.