Plans
in place to celebrate 200th birthday of Church in Philadelphia
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
Want to wish the Catholic Church in Philadelphia a happy 200th anniversary
as a diocese on Tuesday, April 8?
At 2 p.m., bells at Catholic churches and Catholic schools across the
Archdiocese will chime 200 times, or for two minutes.
At exactly the same time, cake will be served in many Catholic schools
across the Archdiocese as well as outside the Cathedral Basilica of SS.
Peter and Paul, 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, under an
archway festooned with festive balloons. Eighteenth Street will be closed
to traffic as the festivities — and brief remarks delivered by Cardinal
Justin Rigali — will be broadcast live on streaming video on the
archdiocesan Web site, www.archphila.org.
A band from Roman Catholic High School for Boys in Philadelphia will play;
“Happy Birthday” will be sung and bells will be rung by 200
people, including Catholic school students and other members of the laity,
men and women religious, priests, bishops and the Cardinal.
“For Philadelphia, it is indeed a wonderful moment to look back
over the 200 years to see how the grace of God has worked, and what has
been accomplished,” Cardinal Rigali said.
“We do that … to praise God’s grace and to thank Him
for how he has sustained our forebears and all the wonderful people that
have been part of the community of the Archdiocese for 200 years,”
he added.
Noting Pope Paul VI’s Dec. 8, 1975 apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii
Nuntiandi” (On Evangelization in the Modern World) the Cardinal
said the deepest identity of the Church is to evangelize — to proclaim
Jesus Christ and His Gospel, His word, His teaching, His commandments,
His Church.
“This is the deepest identity of the Church at every single moment
— and this is the greatest of the achievements for the last 200
years,” the Cardinal said. “It is a way in which, with God’s
grace, Jesus Christ has been proclaimed.”
It is, in essence, the legacy of the Church of Philadelphia, the Cardinal
continued.
In a span of two centuries, that legacy has been lived in “spectacular
ways” by the people of God, he said.
“They have been in the parishes, living this evangelization in the
families. Part of the greatest legacy of the Archdiocese are our Catholic
families, who have lived the Gospel of Jesus for all these years.”
Also living the legacy are the priests of the diocese who, the Cardinal
said, have faithfully proclaimed the Gospel through the years. “Priests
and people together have made up this faithful Church that is clergy,
religious, laity, young and old, married and single.”
At the heart of service across the Archdiocese is help for those with
spiritual, mental and physical needs, as well as service to those who
do not know Christ, the Cardinal said.
Catholic schools and parish religious education programs provide substantial
service, he added: “For 200 years, people have been instructed in
the faith.”
At the same time, Catholic health-care workers and those who work with
the poor and immigrants are “part of the legacy,” he said.
“This is a great achievement …
“It’s due, yes, by all means, to the good will of people —
to their understanding of what Jesus wants. But it is … due principally
to the fact that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has been there to
help the people to do it,” the Cardinal continued.
“Family after family, handing down the holy, Catholic faith —
this is why we have the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It’s part of
the universal Church, it’s part of the mission.”
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.