'Powerhouse'

Archbishop O'Brien calls Bronx veterans hospital patients a spiritual force

By JULIA MARTIN

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, U.S.A., told patients at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Kingsbridge section that they and the patients at the 173 VA medical centers in the U.S. are the powerhouse of the Military Archdiocese.

Archbishop O'Brien mentioned the prayers they offer, the sacrifices they make, the cooperation and help they lend one another in their needs and suffering and said, "All that offered up to God brings tremendous spiritual power to those who need it most, those who are in harm's way this very day."

The archbishop, spiritual leader of 1.2 million Catholics in military service and their families around the world, is himself a veteran of the Vietnam War, having served as an Army chaplain. He also served for five years as a chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Among other assignments, he was rector of St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie.

The Mass in the interfaith chapel of the Bronx VA hospital was the archbishop's second. The first, on Oct. 6, 1997, was five months after his appointment as military archbishop, when he chose his native Bronx to begin a series of visits to veterans medical facilities around the country.

In his homily, Archbishop O'Brien said that Christ performed many miracles and was a wonderful preacher but it was in dying, helplessly, on the cross, that he saved the world.

"And it's through people in this hospital who seem to be helpless that we may find immense strength, immense spiritual energy to make the Church holy and to make this archdiocese holy," the archbishop said.

"Whenever you feel abandoned, look to the cross," he said, "and you will find that same strength that Jesus had as he endured the suffering and pain on the cross--that is where we get meaning."

Concelebrants included Father Gregory Lyttle, coordinator of the chaplains program at the facility, and staff chaplains Fathers Roland Lafontant, Stephen Shubiak and Eugene O'Hara.

The 80 people attending the Mass included some 30 Catholic War Veterans (CWV) and auxiliary members. Throughout the hospital, the Mass could be viewed on closed-circuit television.

In performing the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, Archbishop O'Brien anointed the forehead and palms of each individual with the Sign of the Cross and laid his hand upon his or her head. Some were lying on gurneys, some were in wheelchairs and others used canes.

Among the patient escorts was Anthony R. Sannella of Yonkers, a CWV volunteer at the facility. Sannella told CNY afterward the archbishop's visit made a difference. "When somebody with his rank goes to the hospital and visits the patients, that's a shot in the arm," he said.

Besides patients, those who were anointed included a volunteer, Sister Pierre Drury, O.S.U., of Mount St. Ursula Convent in the Bronx, who has developed macular degeneration.

Sister Pierre, Father Lyttle's aunt, said volunteering at the VA hospital "is very fulfilling because there's something divine in these people that inspires me, in every one of them."

Immediately after the Mass, Archbishop O'Brien went to the spinal cord unit to administer the anointing of the sick and give the Eucharist to Morris McGee, a patient who is a Korean War veteran and a retired professor at Montclair State College. He is a daily communicant at the medical center.

Afterward, the archbishop was the guest of honor at a luncheon for some 65 guests at Rigoletto's in the Bronx. Host was Richard DiRusso, commander of St. Joseph's Post 1925, CWV, in the Bronx.

Special guests included Lt. Gen. James D. Hughes, U.S. Air Force, retired, who was among the Catholic War Veterans from Newburgh at the Mass.

The general, who led those who presented the gifts at the Mass, was former Commander in Chief of the Pacific Air Forces and former Military Assistant at the White House for President Nixon.

He called the Mass "one of the most moving experiences I have had in many a year."