At the Invest In Education rally at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo on Apr. 10, 2013, I shared some facts and figures regarding investments the Catholic Church is making in the education of children in Western New York. The diocese and the BISON Scholarship Fund have contributed a combined $21 million in tuition assistance to families whose children attend Catholic elementary schools. Watch my remarks and to learn more about the rally visit: Invest in Education 

Gracious God, we praise and thank you for the gift of life and newness of life in Christ Jesus. We thank you for the Resurrection of Jesus, your son, and for the life and light that shines on in the darkness of the world. We are all burdened in these recent days because of the plant explosion in Texas and the horrific bombing in Boston.

We ask especially Lord for your healing grace upon those who are grieving. We ask your healing love upon those who are injured still and recovering and upon medical personnel who are treating them. We ask you to bless those wonderful women and men, first responders and so many others, who walked into a very dangerous situation to come to the aid of their brothers and sisters. And we ask you Lord to give eternal rest to those whose lives were taken from them.

In all of this we pray, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

In my years as bishop of Portland in Maine, I had the privilege of participating in three World Youth Days, those electrifying encounters of young people from around the world with the Holy Father. I traveled with groups of young adults and teens from Maine to Cologne, Germany, Sydney, Australia, and Madrid, Spain. 

It was in Cologne in August 2005, four months after Pope Benedict XVI was elected, that I spotted a large sign posted on a protestant church. “Habemus Christum” it proclaimed – we have Christ. My first thought: this is a rather ecumenically insensitive retort to the famous “habemus papam” – we have a pope – that rang out in St. Peter’s Square that April 19 to announce the election of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.

Who among us has not known the bittersweet experience of spending special time with someone we love and, upon parting, feeling that small, aching sense ofseparation...aching because you know yourself in that person's presence to be somehow more fully the person you are meant to be? That ache of loss is magnified a thousand times when the separation has to it the mark of finality, as in death. I remember it well at the bedside of my mother at the moment when intuition nudged me to begin haltingly the final prayers for the dying minutes before she breathed her last. I remember, too, how strong was that feeling ofloss during the dark hours of those first few nights.

"I thirst." What a stunningly commonplace yet poignantly human utterance on the lips of Jesus crucified! "I thirst."

This is real thirst that the gospel is speaking of, the thirst every human being knows so well. I can remember vividly my own father, a few hours from his death. His difficulty breathing, even with oxygen, dried his mouth. The dryness was uncomfortable, even painful for him. The best my sister and I could dq for him, according to the nurse's instructions, was to place tiny fragments of ice gently between his parched lips, hoping it might bring some small reliefas we surrounded him with our prayer and love.

I was in Albany Mar. 19-20, 2013, for the New York State Catholic Conference Public Policy Day.  Listen to our podcast about the bishop's from New York meeitng with Governor Andrew Cuomo

It is with profound gratitude to God that I welcome the election of
Pope Francis.

This is a moment of tremendous grace, demonstrating our most important Catholic conviction, that he is a man selected through the intercession of the Holy Spirit to shepherd the Church for years to come.

As the first Holy Father from the Americas, I was impressed with Pope Francis’ humility and spontaneity as he began his first blessing to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, by asking everyone to pause in silent prayer, to pray for him and bless him.  That was a powerful moment.

I ask the faithful of the Diocese of Buffalo to join me united in prayer as the papacy of Francis begins.  May God bless and guide this humble servant as he leads the Universal Catholic Church.