Cardinal Edwin O’Brien celebrates Mass at St. Augustine Church in Ocean City on Friday, March 16, with Deacon Joseph Orlando; Father Michael Rush, pastor; and Msgr. Adam J. Parker, the cardinal’s personal secretary.
Photo by Alan M. Dumoff, ccdphotolibrary.smugmug.com
OCEAN CITY — Edwin O’Brien from the Bronx came to this shore resort town as he has done often over the years. But this time he returned as a prince of the church.
Cardinal O’Brien celebrated the 8 a.m. Mass on Friday, March 16 at St. Augustine Church, St. Damien Parish. He visited on the invitation of his friend, Father Michael Rush, St. Damien pastor.
It has been not quite two months since his elevation to the rank of cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 18. The cardinal is currently Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The order, which has its roots in the medieval crusades, now works to help Christians living in the Holy Land, among other ways, by running hospitals, orphanages and schools.
The cardinal had been archbishop of Baltimore since 2007 (just this week, Pope Benedict XVI announced his successor in Baltimore, Bishop William E. Lori), and before that, leader of the Archdiocese for U.S. Military Services, and rector of the North American College in Rome.
In 2005-06, Cardinal O’Brien served as the papally appointed coordinator for the visitation of U.S. seminaries and houses of priestly formation.
In 2009, as Baltimore archbishop, he told an audience of 500 people gathered for a military-sponsored symposium in Omaha, Neb., that the abolition of nuclear weapons was an issue of “fundamental moral values that should unite people across national and ideological boundaries.”
Last summer, he had an exchange of letters urging Maryland Gov. Martin J. O’Malley, a Catholic, not to sponsor legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. “As advocates for the truths we are compelled to uphold,” the future cardinal wrote, “we speak with equal intensity and urgency in opposition to your promoting a goal that so deeply conflicts with your faith, not to mention the best interests of our society.”
A native New Yorker, Cardinal O’Brien has been vacationing in Ocean City since 1974. He has celebrated Mass before at the parish but this is his first time as a prince of the church.
In his homily, the cardinal recalled that day’s Gospel passage, Mark 12:28-34, where Jesus commanded a scribe to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The celebrant implored the faithful to have a “mono-maniacal,” or intense concentration and focus, on Jesus Christ.
Catholics at the liturgy were excited to see the cardinal and welcome him back to Ocean City.
“It was nice to see the new cardinal,” said parishioner Joseph Hannan, a daily Mass-goer at St. Augustine Church.
“He’s a wonderful man,” added Ruthann Firmani. “He’s done a great job.”
Father Rush has known Cardinal O’Brien for 10 years through mutual friends in Ocean City. The parish pastor said it was “an honor and a blessing to have his Eminence celebrate Mass with the good people of St. Damien Parish.”
Cardinal O’Brien was grateful to be at St. Damien, and also to see the continued success of the Ocean City Catholic community. Last year, the church communities of St. Augustine, St. Frances Cabrini, and Our Lady of Good Counsel merged to form St. Damien Parish.
The parish is “a great community, and I’m so pleased that it’s working as it does,” he said.
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