Thanksgiving Feast at Saint John's Seminary

Thanksgiving Feast at Saint John's Seminary

Last Monday, November 19, 2012, Mr. David Aufiero of the Diocese of Springfield, Mr. Robert Miskell of the Diocese of Springfield and Mr. Carlos Piedrahita of the Archdiocese of Hartford professed their Faith and took an Oath of Fidelity to the Church in preparation for their Ordination to the Diaconate in the coming days. That same evening, Saint John’s Seminary Community held a Thanksgiving Celebration. In the course of the Holy Hour and Solemn Vespers, Monsignor Moroney offered the following remarks:

Fifty one years ago, Henry Joseph Mansell professed the Nicene Creed and took the Oath of Fidelity to the Church before the Altar at the North American College in Rome.

As the next year, Timothy Anthony McDonnell did the same at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York

It is the same faith which Archbishop Mansell and Bishop McDonnell will place in your hands, as ordained ministers of the Church. In just a matter of days you will promise to “hold fast to this mystery of faith and “proclaim [it] in word and deed according to the Gospel and the Church's tradition.”

It is the same oath which will be taken by the new Cardinals next week in Rome and which was taken by the faculty and me in late September.

It is the Nicene Creed and an oath of fidelity to the faith we have received from the Lord and from Apostles.

Today, you begin your proclamation in the name of the Church, in fulfillment of the Lord’s command, that “the Kingdom of God is at hand!”

May God give you the courage to proclaim it with your lives, this faith you now profess in Christ Jesus our Lord.