Digital Marian Helper Winter_2016-2017

10 C 7H?7D > ;BF;H Ǚš W INTER 2016-17 ǙšǙcWh_Wd$eh] top down.” That is to say, from the Holy Father (who has con- tinually urged the faithful to prayerfully turn to Christ, who offers love, not scorn); from Bishop Scharfenberger (who trusts his diocese can flourish in faith from the tiny mustard seed of prayers and good works); and from her pastor, Fr. Slezak (who says, “If it has anything to do with Divine Mercy, there’s no way it won’t bear fruit”). That’s why Alice is here — and because the spiritual decline of her own family painfully mirrors in microcosm that of the diocese itself. Of her six grown children, only one remains a regular churchgoer. “Two come when I beg them to,” she says. “Two are devout atheists, and one is agnostic. This — and we sacri- ficed long and hard to send them all to Catholic school.” It’s an all-too-familiar story. Due largely to declining Mass attendance, the Albany diocese has closed dozens of parishes in recent years. Holy Trinity itself is the only remaining Catholic parish in Cohoes. There used to be seven. The steady slide toward “post- Christianity” is hardly unique to Albany; it’s just that it’s happening more rapidly here than in other parts of the country, the Barna survey indicates. In the greater Albany region, 66 percent of those surveyed have decoupled them- selves from affiliation with the Christian faith. The national aver- age is 44 percent. Two generations ago, this would have been unheard of in a nation built from the beach- head of European Christian settlers. What’s missing here? As they will do each Tuesday evening leading up to their consecration, the Holy Trinity parishioners partici- pating in the 33 Days retreat will break into small groups to pray and discuss their families, their faith, their dio- cese, the world, and their Christian responsibilities. “We need to find out why people are leaving the faith in the first place,” Doris Blais says to her fellow group members on that opening night. To that point, Bishop Scharfenberger, who took over the 334,000-member diocese in 2014, has a theory that breaks from the boilerplate excuse of collective moral abandonment. “We are in an age where secularism has become a religion unto itself,” he says. “But we do need to acknowledge that the secular mentality wants to be humanitarian, wants to be inclusive, wants to be forgiv- ing. But what’s being lost in all of this is the integration between a life of good works and a life of prayer, which is oriented toward God, our Creator.” To that point, the Diocese of Albany maintains its long-held role as a powerful force of civic good in its emphasis on Catholic works of charity, much of that done in tandem with other denominations and govern- ment agencies. “But are we praising God as the Source of all that’s good?” Bishop Scharfenberger asks. The ques- tion is rhetorical. The answer is, “Hardly.” And this is where Fr. Gaitley’s program comes in. The Jubilee Year connection As Divine Providence would have it, just as Pope Francis was inaugurating the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy last Dec. 8, Fr. Gaitley was finishing writing 33 Days to Merciful Love , a do-it-yourself retreat that — like his 2011 book on Marian consecration, 33 Days to Morning Glory — can be done alone or in a group. Indeed, as the Holy Father was calling upon the faithful to rediscover the mercy of God as the Source of strength and hope, Fr. Gaitley was unearthing and unpacking profound insights from St. Thérèse into the love of Christ, who longs to pour out His mercy, especially on sinners; her discernment that sinners often close their hearts to the Lord’s mercy, a rejection that causes Jesus great suffering; and how she asked Jesus to pour into her soul all the rejected mercy that others didn’t want, so that she could distribute it through prayer to a broken world. Since its release earlier this year, more than 100,000 people worldwide have made the consecration. Father Gaitley wrote the book from his home at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a mere four miles from the border of the Diocese of Albany. When he got wind of Albany’s “post- Christian” ranking, his Marian charism of going “where the need is greatest” kicked in. He and Bishop Scharfenberger formed a close bond. Father Gaitley has made more than a dozen sorties into the diocese to speak about the consecration. The parishes 8_i^ef IY^Wh\[dX[h][h ef[di ^_i Z_eY[i[Éi >ebo :eeh _d 7bXWdo bWij :[Y$ ." Wj j^[ ijWhj e\ j^[ [njhWehZ_dWho @kX_b[[ O[Wh e\ C[hYo$ Ed Del$ (&" m^[d j^Wj Zeeh Ybei[i" ^[ ademi ej^[h Zeehi m_bb ef[d$ M ARY D E T URRIS P OUST