The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. We are celebrating today the feast of Saint John Neumann, of whom I know very little. And I didn't have an opportunity of doing any research on it on it, but he deserves more than a passing note here. He is one of us, not like mother Satan. He came to this country as a missionary.
I was associated, I believe I'm depending here on a very long and cloudy memory. I think he was associated with a diocese which was not a diocese then of Philadelphia. But anyway, he was one of the early bishops of this country, one of the missionaries and did a great deal to establish the church on the at least on the Eastern Coast and among the German immigrants. Now it's a good curious coincidence but a happy one that we're having his feast today I think because this is a very local point I'm going to make. Local in the sense that it has to do with our archdiocese of Washington And even as regards The United States, if you compare the archdiocese of Washington to some of the major dioceses like New York, or Philadelphia, or Chicago, where we you know we're very small fish in a big bowl.
But we are what we are and the Church of the United States in the Archdiocese of the United States is what the church is in the Archdiocese of Washington. So we have an interest and the church is a great deal like society. You don't have a strong society unless you have a strong family, and you don't have a strong church unless you have a strong diocese, and you don't have a strong diocese unless you have strong parishes. Nobody can even challenge the logic of those statements. This is self evident.
Now our present archbishop, Archbishop James Hickey, who only came here in August, who has been so intensely active. How the man is doing all he's doing, I do not know and I'm there plenty of others who are voicing the same astonishment. But he's trying to wield us together. He's trying to raise the morale of the clergy and people. As a step in that direction he had a dinner last evening for at Saint Mary's in Lanham to which he invited all the clergy of this diocese.
When I say all, we only number about three fifty, the total that is of the diocesan priests. There are probably slightly less than that number working in the diocese that is on a part time basis or drawing upon the pool of ecclesiastics that we have associated with Catholic University and the various religious orders. But the diocesan clergy of this diocese are only around, they're less than three fifty as of the count last night. They weren't all there but there was a good turnout. And considering the rigors of the weather and the rigors of the epiphany season and the holiday season, it was more than a modest turnout.
I get there were well over 200 there. Cardinal Baum was present, Bishop Marino was there, Bishop Lyons. Now, this is the heart of the matter and when the archbishop got up to say a few words it was very informal. He wanted it be that way. And the thought that struck me because I haven't been associated with this sort of thing very much was what is the bond that holds that man with these two fifty other men.
What's the bond? There's nothing legal. It's a matter of allegiance to our Lord and Master. That's putting him on the lowest common denominator. And if that bond is strong, then that then the bond that is between the clergy and their God, the bond will be strong between the clergy and the representative of the apostles in their midst, their ordinary.
Now this is appropriate to this the feast of Saint John Neumann because he had a great deal to do with the beginnings of the church here, of the clergy, of the relationships to clergy and the people, and the problems which come out of this. There are bound to be problems when you have human beings. Nothing wrong with that. That's a sign of growth. When you don't have problems, you don't have life.
And so thinking of this and then Cardinal Baum and this this has a unity in my mind at least. I happened to have the pleasure of having dinner with him last evening and he was saying the preparations that our holy father is making now for his visit to Japan. He's studying Japanese and he's going to speak, he's going to give his addresses in Japan in Japanese. And Cardinal Baum was saying that the priest who is tutoring the Pope one class a week if you want to call it only once a week, yet he is definitely going to address the Japanese in their native language just as he did in Brazil, in Mexico, and every place he's gone. This is fantastic and Colonel Obama saying that the priest who is trying to help the Holy Father learn in Japanese is simply astounded with his ability to catch it.
Now it's one thing you know to deal with the Indo European language, It's a totally different something to deal with the oriental languages like Japanese and Chinese. Now this you see you'll say, are these things connected? You know they are in my mind because I'm talking about the church, the Catholic church, and the movement in it, the vitality in it to serve our Lord and master. That's what it's all about. The holy father isn't going to Japan for his own ennoblement, for his own prestige.
What does he need a visit to Japan to increase his prestige for? He needs there's nothing in a sense there's nothing personal and in another sense it's entirely personal because he's going as the representative of Christ vicar on earth. He is Christ vicar on earth. And and so we have the church militant. The church in its in its trials, in its fighting, in its warfare, in its readiness.
Sometimes the best defense is an offense. We must be on the march, we can't be relaxed, we cannot fall prey to the to the great law of inertia that a body at rest tends to be at rest. Let's get that law on the other side that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Let's put our weight in that direction. And the church is moving in that direction.
It always has, but at times it but it goes by it goes by waves and troughs. It goes by calms and storms. The church is never totally tranquil, never. Just remember when you had all the turmoil in England and it was a turmoil beyond our comprehension. People didn't know where they were standing from the time of Henry the eighth to Elizabeth.
It is a most confusing time. Down in Spain Saint Teresa of Avila, she's I don't know whether she even knew it was going on. I'm not sure, I have no evidence that she did. So the church is much bigger than any of us. The church is bigger than any country, country and the church is certainly bigger than any diocese and the diocese is bigger than any parish.
But none of it, no diocese is stronger than its parishes and the church is no stronger than its dioceses under the bishops, the successors of the apostles. And so there is a unity here from top to bottom touching the holy father, touching our own diocese with this young and new and vigorous archbishop from Cleveland. He did marvelous work there. He's bringing some of that here and everybody knows we needed to have a little bit of an upsurge around here. We always need it.
That's nothing new. That's why we can bring in new blood. That's why change is often often, not always, for the better. And I I lay these things before you, you are in the many ways the church and it just as all of us are. These are things should be of interest to you.
The welfare of the church should be of vital importance to you. And so I think on this feast of Saint John Neumann, not Newman but Neumann, a German who was very much devoted to the German immigrants to The United States. That it's suitable that we think of him and remember yesterday was the feast of a Saint Elizabeth Seton, Mother Seton, who's buried just up the road here from us. Certainly one of our own, even more than Saint John Neumann. And so at this beginning of the new year, here we had two saints that are in a very special way our own and we're honoring them.
Saint Elizabeth got skipped yesterday because of the epiphany, but we can put her in today and bring her right together with Saint John Neumann and pray earnestly and selfishly and selfishly for our own parish. This is important. We're the church in Garrett Park. There's no other. And pray selfishly that they will have an eye on us.
We need it. They don't need us at this time, and we can pray in the mass now that their that their blessings will be upon this parish and this diocese under the direction of Archbishop Hickey with the firm and loyal support of his clergy. In the name of the father and the son, holy spirit, amen.