St. Matthew serves as an example for all of us, said the Vatican’s secretary of state, at a Mass celebrated at Manhattan’s Church of Our Saviour on Monday, as world leaders and others gathered for the United Nations’ annual general assembly.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, marking the feast of St. Matthew, drew a parallel between the tax collector turned apostle and the diplomats and UN personnel filling the pews.
“He decided to follow Christ, no longer tied to his old post,” the soft-spoken Parolin said in his homily. Cardinal Parolin offered both the liturgy and his homily in English.
Just as Matthew was called out of a compromised and widely despised profession to a life of witness, Parolin suggested, those serving in public life today are called to bring their own vocations, diplomacy, government, service to their nations, into line with a higher purpose.
The cardinal invoked Aristotle’s idea that virtue is found in fulfilling one’s proper function.
“We know from an ancient Greek philosopher that virtue truly lies in the function,” Parolin said.
He extended that idea to the diplomatic corps in the room.
“The virtue of a representative of a nation is to pursue the common good of everyone in that nation,” Parolin said.
Archbishop El-Kassis concelebrates
Joining Cardinal Parolin in the celebration of the Mass was Archbishop Christophe Zakhia El-Kassis, the Holy See’s new permanent observer to the United Nations. Archbishop El-Kassis was appointed to the position earlier this year, succeeding Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, now the apostolic nuncio to the United States.
The Mass was also concelebrated by Bishop James Massa, rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary and auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, and Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, pastor of the Church of Our Saviour and executive director emeritus of Catholic Charities of New York.
Msgr. Sullivan welcomed and thanked Cardinal Parolin and Archbishop El-Kassis for their presence and for the Mass.
On Sept. 8, the eve of the opening of this year’s UN General Assembly, Archbishop Ronald Hicks of the Archdiocese of New York led an annual evening prayer service at the Church of the Holy Family on East 47th St., near UN headquarters, to pray for peace and to bless the assembly and those attending it.