“For the poor you have always with you, but you do not always have me”

I don’t want to imagine what it is like to sleep on the streets of New York in the middle of winter.  Cold concrete with no place to call home.  These home-less are the forgotten veterans of Vietnam and other conflicts waged for America’s protection.  They are Marines, Army Rangers, and damn fine soldiers who, I don’t have a clue, but maybe they feel like they are Prisoners of War in their own nation.  But even without much more than the clothes on their backs they have dignity.  So it’s probably just me complaining for them.  There are also artists who, once again it’s me talking…have been let down by a world that has failed to “see” their art.  There are illegals who, perhaps they came in search of streets paved with gold, but never “made it happen.”  Women who are drug addicts or victims with crosses casting shadows too black for a simple mind to comprehend.

East Village, NYC. December, 2011.

…but as you know photographers normally don’t get a picture of themselves.  With the Archbishop making great strides to embrace/bear hug every soul present in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral there was plenty of JOY experienced by ALL at tonight’s young adult mass.

After hearing that the congregants were invited to a post-mass party at a bar named Rosie O’Gradie’s, Cardinal-Designate Dolan couldn’t help quipping: I used to date Rosie O’Grady.

And that was just a warm-up for many of his spirited interactions with his New York flock. One Wisconsin native, Susie Duecker, gently reminded Dolan that he was indeed the man who confirmed her.  In deadpan fashion he asked, “Did it work?”

Susie Duecker being bear-hugged by Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan

Sharing the Laughter, Sharing the Joy

World Youth Day in Madrid, 2011

The next World Youth Day will be held in Rio de Janeiro. And the one after that in Krakow, Poland.  For more info go to: http://worldyouthday.com/krakow-2016