Bishop McCarthy

Msgr. James F. McCarthy, 56, the pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Shrub Oak who was secretary to Cardinal O'Connor for 12 years, has been named Auxiliary Bishop of New York by Pope John Paul II. The announcement was made May 11 in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, papal nuncio to the United States.

The newly appointed bishop is to be ordained to the episcopacy in St. Patrick's Cathedral Tuesday, June 29, the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. He has announced that his episcopal motto will be "Evangelium Gratiae Dei" ("Gospel of God's Grace"), from the Acts of the Apostles.

His elevation to the episcopacy brings the number of archdiocesan auxiliary bishops to nine, of whom two are inactive.

Cardinal O'Connor said in a statement May 11, "Our Holy Father has once again demonstrated his special love and appreciation for God's People of the Church of New York, and I am grateful beyond measure.

"Bishop-elect McCarthy's services are sorely needed, and I look forward to his collaboration together with that of his brother auxiliary bishops in New York. He will bring great gifts to our mutual effort to provide God's People the services they so richly deserve. May he live many healthy years. Let him be buoyed up by our prayers."

Bishop-elect McCarthy, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton since 1996, issued a statement in the form of a letter to his parishioners.

"In all things I am grateful to God," he wrote. "My nomination to the episcopacy by Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, overwhelms me. I am humbled by His Holiness' bestowal of trust and I have pledged to him my complete obedience. However, in my heart I know that this is not about me but about the needs of the Church.

"One of a handful of things that I know His Eminence, Cardinal O'Connor, can not do is bilocate. As his auxiliary bishop, it will be a privilege to represent him in any way possible--doing the work of our Lord."

In the statement, he called priesthood "a gift beyond expression."

"In more than 30 years of my own priestly ordination, the awe of offering Mass and sharing intimately in the joys and sorrows of countless parishioners has never waned," he wrote. "I have been richly blessed with the great support and friendship of my brother priests and the unceasing love of my exceptional family. And you, my dear parishioners and friends, continue to be a blessing that is as dear to me as anything but my faith."

Bishop-elect McCarthy was named a monsignor in 1986 and was advanced in rank to honorary prelate to his holiness in 1990. Last year he was elected to a three-year term on the archdiocesan Priests' Council by the priests of the Northern Westchester and Putnam Vicariate. He also was an elected member of the Senate of Priests, forerunner of the Priests' Council, from 1971 to 1976.

He was appointed administrator of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in May 1996 during the illness of the pastor, Msgr. Edmund F. Fogarty, and became pastor three months later after Msgr. Fogarty's death. The bishop-elect had served as secretary to Cardinal O'Connor since May 1984, two months after the cardinal was installed as Archbishop of New York.

As secretary, Bishop-elect McCarthy was frequently in Rome with the cardinal and often in the company of the pope. He accompanied the cardinal on numerous pastoral trips outside the archdiocese, including journeys to Iceland in 1994, and to Poland and Albania in 1993 when the cardinal participated in the ordination to the episcopacy of Archbishop Rrok K. Mirdita, the Albanian priest of New York who is now Archbishop of Durres-Tirana, Albania.

After both trips, Bishop-elect McCarthy wrote detailed articles for CNY describing the cardinal's visits to religiously and historically significant sites such as the Monastery of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, home of the revered Black Madonna and national shrine of Polish Catholics; the grave of the Polish martyr Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was murdered by the communists; the Warsaw Ghetto, then marking the 50th anniversary of the uprising led by heroes of the resistance, and the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. He also reported the cardinal's meetings with local prelates, clergy, heads of state and other dignitaries, including Lech Walesa, then president of Poland.

Those trips overseas were part of the inspiration for a special ceremony at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish to prepare for the Jubilee Year 2000, held at this year's Easter Vigil on April 3. Bishop-elect McCarthy blessed a black granite marker in the center aisle of the church, like the floor markers in churches in Rome and other places marking historical events. It is engraved with a prayer and the words "The Great Jubilee of 2000 A.D., Church of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Shrub Oak, New York."

A capsule containing the prayers and petitions of parishioners during 1999 will be sealed beneath the marker on Christmas Eve Mass at the time that Pope John Paul II will open the Holy Year Door of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to inaugurate the Jubilee Year.

He told CNY in March, "It is our hope that the jubilee marker will be a reminder to those who pass over it, with their tears, their joys, their hopes, their fears, that in every part of their lives they must keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and be reminded that he is the center of history."

Bishop-elect McCarthy will offer the annual Mass of Remembrance for deceased children of the parish and nearby parishes Saturday, May 22, at noon in the main church. The parish recently built a chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, attached to the church; in front of an icon of the Mother of God are a perpetually burning candle and a Book of Remembrance containing the names of the deceased children.

The bishop-elect, born in Mount Kisco July 9, 1942, is the son of the late Eleanor and James F. McCarthy. He graduated from Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and studied for the priesthood at Cathedral College and St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, where he earned an additional master's degree in sacred Scripture. He holds a master's degree in pastoral counseling from Iona College in New Rochelle.

He was ordained to the priesthood June 1, 1968, and served a summer assignment at St. Peter's parish in Monticello before being assigned to St. Denis in Hopewell Junction. From 1976 until his appointment as the cardinal's secretary in 1984, he served at St. Benedict's parish in the Bronx.