Papal Nuncio Celebrates French Mass at St. Agnes by Laura Eng

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, center

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Papal Nuncio, celebrated the French Mass at St. Agnes Church in Cobble Hill on Sunday, October 7th. Joining the pope’s envoy to the United States in concelebration were Diocese of Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Parish of St. Agnes/St. Paul Pastor Monsignor Joseph Nugent, Father Paul Anel, Father Willy Kingsley, and Deacon Leroy Branch.

In attendance were many members of the French-speaking community residing in the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens area who warmly welcomed their compatriot, Archbishop Pierre. According to Father Anel, who hails from southwest France and has lived in Brooklyn for ten years, a visit by the Papal Nuncio, a first for the parish, was “an important recognition for the French community and a reminder that modest and humble as our community may be in terms of numbers, we are part of the larger, universal Church…part of something bigger.”

The French congregation is comprised of a number of young families with small children who were no doubt attracted to the area by local French-English dual language programs, including the one implemented at P.S. 58 by the late visionary principal, Giselle Gault-McGee. In response to the influx of French families, Bishop DiMarzio had the idea to start a French Mass at St. Agnes in 2014. Father Anel estimates there are 20 to 25 French families regularly attending St. Agnes and he, in turn, came up with the idea to start a French religious education program. There are currently 15 children (ages 6 to 11) registered and there is also a monthly pre-school “éveil à la foi” (introduction to catechism) for children ages 3 to 6.

The gospel read during the Mass was from St. Mark and included the passage in which Jesus instructed the disciples, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” With the many children present and the Mass punctuated by the sounds of crying babies and scampering toddlers, some even crawling up the center aisle, this reading was particularly appropriate. The offerings of bread and wine along with bouquets of flowers were carried to the altar by slightly older children accompanied by local restauranteur and chef Jean-Jacques Bernat. And when it was time for the collection, that too, was performed by children with several young French girls passing the baskets and carrying them to the foot of the altar.

After Mass, I spoke to Archbishop Pierre who expressed his gratitude for being invited to St. Agnes and stated, “Being French myself and representing the Holy Father in this country, I’m very happy that the great number of French people living here have not forgotten to celebrate their faith.” The French Mass gives them “the possibility to connect with their tradition, to celebrate their faith, but also to live as a community… living our faith in community can only contribute to society.”

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Comments are closed.

READ OUR FULL PRINT EDITION

Our Sister Publication

a word from our sponsors!

Latest Media Guide!

Where to find the Star-Revue

Instagram

How many have visited our site?

wordpress hit counter

Social Media

Most Popular

On Key

Related Posts

An ode to the bar at the edge of the world, review by Oscar Fock

It smells like harbor, I thought as I walked out to the end of the pier to which the barge now known as the Waterfront Museum was docked. Unmistakable were they, even for someone like me — maybe particularly for someone like me, who’s always lived far enough from the ocean to never get used to its sensory impressions, but

Quinn on Books: In Search of Lost Time

Review of “Countée Cullen’s Harlem Renaissance,” by Kevin Brown Review by Michael Quinn “Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: / To make a poet black, and bid him sing!” – Countée Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel” Come Thanksgiving, thoughts naturally turn to family and the communities that shape us. Kevin Brown’s “Countée Cullen’s Harlem Renaissance” is a collection

MUSIC: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

Mothers of reinvention. “It’s never too late to be what you might have been,” according to writer George Eliot, who spoke from experience. Born in the UK in 1819, Mary Ann Evans found her audience using the masculine pen name in order to avoid the scrutiny of the patriarchal literati. Reinvention, of style if not self, is in the air

Film: “Union” documents SI union organizers vs. Amazon, by Dante A. Ciampaglia

Our tech-dominated society is generous with its glimpses of dystopia. But there’s something especially chilling about the captive audience meetings in the documentary Union, which screened at the New York Film Festival and is currently playing at IFC Center. Chronicling the fight of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), led by Chris Smalls, to organize the Amazon fulfillment warehouse in Staten