Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros of Brooklyn will celebrate an archdiocesan-wide Mass with the Cuban community Sept. 16, at 3 p.m. at Holy Family Church in Glendale. The bishop, a Cuban-native, will bless the parish statue of Our Lady of Charity. Following the liturgy, there will be a reception, and the bishop will show a film on the life of Father Félix Varela.
Bishop Cisneros serves as vice postulator for the sainthood cause of Father Varela, a 19th-century Cuban priest who supported Cuban independence from Spain. Father Varela lived in exile for many years in the United States.
The Tidings recently asked Bishop Cisneros to discuss the significance of Father Varela's life and ministry.
Q. What do you want Cubans in Los Angeles to understand about Father Félix Varela?
A. The Cuban Félix Varela was the first Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the Irish immigrants that came to New York City in the early 19th Century. In those days Catholics represented the minority of Christians living in this area, and his apostolic work came to help and sustain the faith of all the newcomers, who being destitute and deprived of basic elements for living, had to fight for daily survival.
Father Varela was among the first priests who brought the Roman Catholic faith to New York, who worked tirelessly to improve the standard of living of the immigrants, and in the process became a social reformer. He also was a champion of the Catholic faith, and throughout a newspaper that he founded, and his abundant writings, defended the rights of Catholics to worship and gather in an ecumenical atmosphere.
Q. How does he serve as an inspiration of the Cubans living in the Diaspora?
A. Father Varela left Cuba as a deputy to represent the island in the Spanish Courts. While he was living there, the political situation of Spain changed and he was forced into exile to the United States, and never returned to Cuba. He spent the next three decades of his life in a hostile environment, and his faith sustained him throughout his trials.
In addition to being a priest, he was a well established professor, and a journalist, but the harsh reality he encountered was not a detriment to adapting to the needs of others. He always thought that the past never had a tomorrow and he lived always in the present, consoling others in the name of Christ. We, who have been exiled also, can take a look at his life and follow his example, when as a result of living in another country, rough times come to us.
Q. What did his ministry mean for the people of New York that could be understood by us today?
A. Father Varela left a legacy in New York that is still very much alive. Today, the Chinese community lives around Transfiguration Church that in yesteryears was a bastion of Irish Catholicism, and now is in the middle of Chinatown. The children of Transfiguration know about Father Varela's deeds and have placed a bronze statue in their school yard as a sign of perpetuating his memory. The Archdiocese of New York is celebrating 200 years in 2008, and Félix Varela's memory will occupy a central part in the festivities.
Q. What do you appreciate about the documentary on Father Félix Varela by Signis y Videografia which will be shown during your upcoming visit to Los Angeles?
A. A high degree of professionalism went into this film (Spanish with English subtitles). The research was done in Cuba, Spain, Florida and New York. The video shows in detail Father Varela's early years, his adolescence, and youth, and how he became the influential person in the minds of so many Cubans that later on became the framework of the Republic. It is a beautiful one-and-a-half hour depiction of his life, trials and tribulations.
The Cuban Mass on Sept. 16 will be held at 3 p.m. at Holy Family Church, 209 E. Lomita Ave. in Glendale (and not 12:30 p.m. as per last week's Looking Ahead item).
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