Latest / Beyond The Beacon / Priest returns to Cuba for a special mission year

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Priest returns to Cuba for a special mission year · Beyond The Beacon

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jay Agnish.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Bishop, how are you?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh good, Jay.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Doing well, thank you.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a little while.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be back with you here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say I really enjoyed last week's uh episode down in the archives.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: As our audience is kind of taking that in and having a good reaction to that.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we'll have to do we'll have to do another one.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I liked your idea of heading over to the cathedral maybe one time.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I uh so a couple things I want to ask you about Mexico City, but first I wanted to point it so over your shoulder to the right, if you're watching, we have our new Beyond the Beacon t-shirts, and we are gonna be giving a couple of these t-shirts out for free at a very special event that we have coming up soon at our St.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Paul Inside the Walls Evangelization Center.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's um a live podcast recording with one of our favorite podcasts, Jesuitical.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Bishop Kevin is gonna be featured on the podcast, and uh it's open to all.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh check out the show notes for details.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's gonna be the podcast recording followed by an off-the-record QA with the host of the podcast and with you, Bishop, and then a meet and greet after.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a really cool, exciting event that we are uh we're hosting on September 11th.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So check the uh the show notes for for details.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what's going on?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh September 11th, as we know, is uh day when we pause and recall the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um we'll have uh mass at the beginning of the uh time together, um, and then the event that's open to the public will be a little bit later, I think that's right.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh uh you know, I think uh seven o'clock.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: The timing um certainly that'll be part of our conversation as well.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: The impact, I think, it was 23 years ago um when the uh that that the attacks happened.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and Ashley and Zach, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or the hosts uh uh had a nice conversation with them and their producer Sebastian a few weeks ago to talk about what we some of the uh topics that we may discuss.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um looking forward to that.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think uh the election is gonna be the election, right, right.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It seems uh uh as that gets closer, yes.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and um, you know, just also um we'll be mentioning um there's gonna be a March for Life in here in our state of New Jersey at the end of September, September 26th.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just want to mention that you can get information on our DASIN website.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's gonna be the first time it's gonna be organized by the group that does the National March for Life in Washington every year, January 22nd, um, the anniversary of Roe v.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wade, thank God that's been overturned.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But um to build that culture of life is still a challenge, especially maybe here in our state and um in this area.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um an opportunity for us to um share our faith in the public square and uh and advocate on behalf of life um for women and men and families, and um but uh uh on behalf of life uh and that our laws would respect um that life begins at conception.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so we'll again we'll have more information, but that's coming up, and uh so uh that you know we'll have plenty to talk about with uh yeah, and I think you know I think that leads in perfectly to every first Saturday of the month you are uh participating at St.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Margaret's uh uh St.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Margaret's in Morristown uh in a in a march in a mass and a procession for life.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And all are invited to that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we have with us Father Dilone uh Lizabeth, who is uh the parochial vicar at St.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Margaret's in Morristown.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's our guest today.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so Father Dilone, he left Cuba for the United States when he was 19 years old, and he found his way to New Jersey, where he studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: He also went to uh St.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Andrews College.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: He was ordained um a priest of the diocese in 2019 and has been serving as parochial vicar at St.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Margaret of Scotland Church in Morristown ever since.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: But recently, Bishop Kevin Sweeney gave him permission to serve in Cuba for one year as a mission priest.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're gonna get into all that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, do you wanna do you wanna pray?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sure first or um let's place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: As we gather in the Lord's name and give him thanks for his presence, we pray for our diocese and for all those called to follow Jesus in all of our different vocations and especially for Father Dylan as he looks forward to going to his the land of his birth and where he was raised uh to serve in Cuba, that the Lord would guide him and that the Lord would open each of our hearts to serve our brothers and sisters in need.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The patroness of the Cuban people is um our lady under the title of um uh Nuestra Señora de Caridad de Cobre, right, of charity.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um so let us ask the help and intercession of Mary, our blessed mother, as we pray.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um just before we begin, since we're uh broadcasting uh recording a day after the Olympics ended, uh I wrote a little column about it this week, and but uh happy to see Scotty Scheffler win the gold in Olympic Golf, and uh that which was amazing.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh I I know the women's game was very exciting, and it's amazing.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: The United States women's team, they haven't lost like 60 games.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um basketball.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they won by one point.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh soccer, women's soccer won the gold as well.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I happened to see the men's final in basketball on Saturday, and um the old uh old school guys, the um Stefan Curry was incredible at the end of the game, and LeBron James was great throughout, and Kevin Durant, who had been uh uh battling injuries the last few years, uh, along with a real team effort.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was uh uh I know different people like different things in the Olympics, but uh I enjoyed seeing the USA.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Cuba has had good basketball teams over the years.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this year Cuba have been like uh Did they have any uh Olympic medals?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, like I think six or seven, yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right, right.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: We we went before we're better, but now this yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um track and field too, right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the stuff.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um I guess baseball was in for a little while and it must be out now because it wasn't, but baseball Cuba would have been right there.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Breakdancing now, that's right, yes, yes, that's right.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So skateboarding.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so Father Dallin, thank you for being with us.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh as I've been in the diocese now four years, and a big responsibility as bishop is to get to know each of our priests and and be in discernment with them and um conversation and uh and you know the um both I uh in the ordination of a priest and also um in celebrating funerals of our priests.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um it strikes me that um we should always be grateful and aware of uh where priests come from, right?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're not from 3D compute uh printers, right?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they so often they come to us from families, and here in our diocese we have we're blessed by priests who come to us from within the diocese and from many other places.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um Father Dylan is one of those priests who came to us not only from outside the diocese or outside uh um the state, but um but outside the country is um he came um not specifically to come to the seminary, right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But um your dad, I believe, was in Florida, and uh and then you had the opportunity to come spend some time with him, and as Jay said, you found your way to from Miami to New Jersey and into the seminary.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe before we talk about that, um what was it like uh growing up in Cuba?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um what where were you born in what part and and what was life like there?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what year were you born?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're still a young guy, I know.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um I was born in 1986.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I'm from the fisherman town, small fisherman town in Cuba, in the east side of the island, um far from Havana.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, my childhood was, you know, to play in the ocean, you know, things like that.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: My house is in front of the ocean in Cuba.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: So beautiful town.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um you have one brother, is that right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I have one brother there and a sister here in Miami.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um so you know, people today ask me, um, it's amazing that, you know, that you are a priest coming from Cuba, you know, that you are a priest, and I said to people, you know what is amazing?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's not only that I'm a priest, but uh that what I was baptized.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: In those times, difficult times in Cuba, you know.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: For the church.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, for the church.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um so uh people didn't go to church.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: Very few few people, old ladies who, you know, who always remained there in the church that didn't leave the church.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so thanks to them, and to my family that sent me to Sunday Mass, you know, uh, thanks to them, I I knew Jesus, you know.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Did uh how were you baptized as an infant?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you've heard the story of was it uh your mom or your dad or grandparents, or who was it that wanted to make sure that you would be baptized?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: My father and my mother, yes.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so they they brought me to church and they baptized me.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so thanks to these ladies, all ladies that you know they stayed there, they teach me the the faith, you know, the catechisms, and uh and so I grew up in the church.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I remember you telling me about a particular priest who you saw as a role model.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, a father.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um I have a priest there who always um was um you know um trying that trusting everything to us.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, very few kids that we were there in the church, you know, teenagers that we were always in the church, and and the priest there always you know trusted us with everything in the church.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I I you know I spent more time in the church than in my house.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He kept you busy?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, always doing things in the church.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: So what you were ser altar server, you were ring the bells, uh you know, open the church, close the church, do everything.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, everything in the church.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And now you had when in our pre-interview when we talked the other day, you uh spoke about how you got to know the uh the youth of your town or your area, and you would would play with them, you would teach them values, you would eventually even lead some to become baptized.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, as a teenager, well we weren't supposed to talk about religion outside the the church, right?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: Outside the temple.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: But as a teenager, um I used to go outside of the town in a very small community, their poor community, um teach the children the um values, Christian values, not talking about religion because we were not able to talk about religion outside the church.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: So little by little, you know, we got you know the their parents, you know, like friendship, and we start, you know, going there.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: We always bring something to eat, you know, things like that.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: We play with the with the children in that community.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: So at the end we were able to baptize all of them, all these children, to brought them to the church and to baptize there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: One year I went back to Cuba and there was a lady there in the church, and she came to me and said, Dylan, do you remember this?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: And she brought me a picture.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I was standing with an Alp, like I was serving at Mass, and I was around like 20 or 30 kids, you know, children around me, children that I brought from that community to be baptized in the in the church.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: That was something beautiful.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta get a copy of that photo.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, I think things changed a little bit.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm trying to remember now the year.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh do you remember um Pope John Paul II being able to go to Cuba?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, 1998.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: 1998, right, right.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: First time that was Yeah, we we saw outside like poster of John Paul II, you know, like in uh mass in the TV, things like that.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: That was yeah, that was uh that was something.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it allowed things to open up a little bit, would you say?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, right.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: In the church.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um we start doing processions, you know, asking always, you know, for for permission, but uh we were able to do processions in my town.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, things changes.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know that there's um uh still to today and uh over many decades now, very large um Cuban community, Cuban American community uh in Miami, in Florida, um, and that's where you your dad was there, right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Before you um uh was it something that um I guess a number of families uh in your hometown would have had somebody here in Miami or another part of the United States, and that might mean that they would have some possibility of uh coming here.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um do you remember um was coming to the United States something you had always thought thought about when you were younger, or did it come as a bit of a surprise?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nineteen years old were you when how did that happen?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, so my father came here in the 90s, 1992, I think.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: He came here to US and so he became citizen, and he then brought me here.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was something that I was expecting.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you were um six years old um when your dad left, right?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Which is a hard thing in itself, right?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and um I'm sure that took some adjustment, but um when he came here then there was the possibility um and was he able to come back to visit or was it thirteen years before you you would see him again?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: He came back to Cuba on 2000.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, that year in 2000 when I came back to see them.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So your vocation story is is kind of wrapped up in that time when you left Cuba and and went to Miami.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you had spoken about how daily mass was a big part of that for you when you were in living in Miami?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: So before I came here, when I was like 17, 18 years old, uh I started going in in Cuba to discernment discernment meetings in in the diocese of Olguin.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so I did that for one year, you know, discovering my vocation.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought about priesthood.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's something that I wanted.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Were you in school throughout your like later teen years?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Does high school go to like 18 years old here uh as it there as it does here?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So did you graduate from high school?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Around 18 years old?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: But that last year of high school is or junior year, the second last year, is that when you started attending discernment groups, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: We wa we used to go uh like three or four uh guys from my from my parish to to the discerning meetings in the on weekends.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so um when I came to Miami, I was 19 years old, start working in Miami for five years.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I always try to go to to to daily mass.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: I try, you know.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: What kind of work did you do?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh in the furniture company, I used to do um uh repair, uh so furniture, like leather, wood, whatever.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Carpenter like St.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph, yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I did that for five years in Miami.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then um did you say it was Father Enrique Corona that was your first contact with New Jersey or with the Down Patterson?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, he invited me here and so I came here, um, you know, I say, yeah.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: I talked to my father.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: I remember I called him when I came home, I said, I I need to talk to you.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so I told him, you know, I had to, you know, to stop working here and going to to the seminary in New Jersey.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have some family here in New Jersey?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: In no, no, no, no.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: So family back home in Cuba, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in Florida, and in Florida, yes, right.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and how did your dad react or respond?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: He hugged me and he said, you know, I'm your father, I love you, so this is your home.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um so that's it.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: I came here.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: Eight years in the seminary.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um you you were saying when you first came you didn't have much English, and in Miami you didn't have to, you didn't, it wasn't a knee, right?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so then um uh little by little, poco a poco, did you start you had to start learning a new language, and and you came all by yourself here to Patterson, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I guess Bishop Sarratelli and the seminary community, um uh a freshman in college, right?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I guess you were accepted to Seton Hall University, right?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and you started at your philosophy, taking all these classes uh was difficult, you know, learning English at the same time, that was something.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: The first two years I got C and C and C, and then uh at the end I got uh A.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: So that was good.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you you ended up eight years on the campus of Seton Hall, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because the college seminary St.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Andrews and then the major seminary of Macklet Conception.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then um uh was your dad able to come for your ordination?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he came for the ordination.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Was your sister here at that time?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh your mom must have been there in spirit, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh uh she was happy, would you say?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: She's happy now that I'm going back.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then um uh what are your memories from being a newly ordained priest, uh being assigned to uh St.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Margaret's Saint Margaret.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Saint Margaret, I I you know, I tell them this is a family, you know.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: This is St.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Margaret is something.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful community, five years there.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, before I went to St.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Margaret, I was assigned as uh seminarian and and also deacon with Monsignor Kopke.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that right?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was there in San Antonio in Both, yeah.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you had an experience, uh another good experience of the all my years in the seminary with Monsignor Kopke.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they made you feel at home, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've often commented that um when seminarians and priests come to us, uh especially seminarians from outside the diocese, outside the country, um they don't have family here and they need to be received by families in parishes, and so many families do that so well.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was the case for uh with Monsignor Kopke and the community at at St.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Anthony's and Hawthorne, right?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then um uh I guess you heard that uh you were gonna be getting a new bishop, right?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in 2020.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh I I remember you coming to me not too long after I arrived to your brother was you were having some family things, your um um your brother's uh fiance was expecting a child at that time, and uh and you felt the need to to be there for your mom and your brother, right?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you asked for some time.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You want to talk a little bit about what that experience was like?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and thank you for you know giving that time um in the situation that I have with my family, and so I was able to go back to Cuba.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know COVID was here already, but when I went back, COVID was starting in Cuba.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I um I went there, I asked for permission to also celebrate mass, you know.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: And they gave me permission, the government gave me permission.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I started going to different churches in in my mother's town, you know, communities, places that they have mass only once a month.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: So that was, you know, that was beautiful.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was able to be with my family at the time and also to to serve the church.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So is there a lack of priests in Cuba then?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about your the diocese.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a diocese of Holging.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Holging, yes, H-O-L-G-U-I-E N?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, Holgin, yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, this is uh big diocese in Cuba.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think they have 32 parishes.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um 24 trees, and four of them I think they are uh elderly, you know.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so um, yeah, they are in great need of trees.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something I always see when I go back there, you know.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah I was able to to talk to Vision and um your uh pastor Father Jupiter.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um the people at St.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Margaret's, I know um have been you're as you said, it's very much of a family there.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And but um spending five years in your first assignment, or first assignment could be five, six, but some it could be th two or three as well.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So uh depending on these of the diocese and the situation.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so um you um were blessed to have a full five years there, and as we had discussed, it was uh probable that you were gonna be moving on, but then there was a more recent trip um in the spring, this past spring, that led you to ask about the possibility of um spending some uh long longer amount of time back in in Holgain, right?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and thank you again for for this opportunity.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I was uh um had some contact with the bishop, Bishop Emil Emilio Aranguri.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh he actually knows um in the Brooklyn Diocese, uh there's an auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Bishop Octavio Cisneros, who um uh originally from Cuba, and uh uh the former Vicar General, um Monsignor Otto Garcia.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh uh Bishop Emilio knew that I had originally come from Brooklyn and he knew these two uh Cuban priests, wonderful, wonderful priests in Brooklyn, and uh so um he shared with me a little bit about what Father Dylan had shared about the while while there's 32 parishes, there's a lot of people out there spread out, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: In mission par mission churches.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so as you say, some people only have mass once a month.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so um you you felt that um call uh I'll make a little comparison.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure how familiar Father Dylan is with the story of St.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick, but uh he was uh living in England at growing up in the in in Great Britain uh and was taken as a slave in uh in Ireland, and he escaped, um, but he felt the Irish people calling him back.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it sounds a little bit like you've felt some call to to go back to your the people uh of your homeland, right, and spend some time serving them as a priest.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and a chance for you and us to give back to them, right?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because they gave you to us.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and so it's important that uh so uh St.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Pope John Paul II and when he came in 1992 to Dominican Republic to celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the Americas, um, talked about that uh intercambio, that ch interchange that um the church in the so-called first world and third world that we should be working together.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this is an opportunity um for us to share you right with um with uh the a place where there's great need and and and where you really received your faith and your vocation, right?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: And starting soon the the Jubilee year too.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, that's right.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the a lot of plans in in Olgain.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: It sounds like uh uh Bishop Emilio has a lot of work for you already, uh but I'm happy, very happy to do this, and so to serve my own people, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um the people of St.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Margaret's will be with you in prayer and spirit, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you've been receiving a lot of encouragement from them, is that right?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: They have been very, you know, generous.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: They have been very um, you know.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Being a large largely immigrant community, they would understand, right?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: The uh that um sense of being in two places at the same time, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart is uh it's it's hard.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh and you know, Bishop Saritelli, uh thanks be to God, um uh uh we're always in need of priests and we need to pray for vocations, um, but um, you know, um there are parishes that need a Father Dylan here in our own diocese, um, but you're going there for a time and you'll be back, and uh this sacrifice on on our part um allows you to to provide much needed priestly ministry there.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: What was it that prompted you to approach the bishop and ask for to be able to go to Cuba and have this assignment?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: What was calling you there?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: I talked to Bishop even like two years ago when I went the first time I took to Bishop and I talked to Bishop there too.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Father, you are welcome here.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think at that time you said I might be coming back to you at some point to say that I go for I think that's yeah, right, right.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so, yes, after five years in St.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: Margaret and you know, um seeing that I could be moved, and you know, I talked to Bishop and I told him, you know, my desire, and so he was open.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the first thing you're gonna do when you get when you get there?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well I'm I'm I'm arriving then um when when they are starting the novena to our lady of charity.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go again there and to start, you know, um and our lady of charity or caridad de cobre um i on September 8th is the national patron, right?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: So um That's a big day in Cuba church.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the nine days leading up to it, right?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Processions, masses, um uh rosaries, a lot of rosaries.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: People meet at a home.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: They do the novinas and home, so please go and visit them, yes.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: What are some um maybe traditions of uh Catholicism in Cuba uh that stand out to you, maybe not you know, as opposed w w you know, like certain countries certainly have different devotions.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: What what is there something in Cuba that's unique to that?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Olido Charity.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's the big celebration, you know, when people that they don't go to church they go that day.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: So um the preparation for that day is very important and and you know, Christmas.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: When Christmas comes and holy week.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And many of the like Latino um uh countries that um their the love for their for the Blessed Mother under the title of their patron is um obviously for anyone who knows the Mexican community, December 12th, our Lady of Guadalupe, right?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's uh um for the Dominican community, um Our Lady of Altagracia, right?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh uh the Puerto Rican community, um um uh Our Lady of Providence, which celebrated, I think, in November.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and for the Cuban community, as you say, September 8th, our Lady of Charity is uh church, yeah.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And Bishop you're gonna be heading to Mexico City next week.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's at good timing considering that the assumption is Thursday.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And can you tell us about the tie-in there?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll be sharing more information at the slight tangent.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's right.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh uh happy to um I'm just going, I'm only going for five days from Thursday to Monday, but um uh I read this book some recommended to us by one of our teachers called Priest and Beggar about Monsignor Aloysius Schwartz, a great missionary in Korea, actually uh founded Boys and Girls Towns for Orphans in Korea, then in the Philippines, and then founded a religious community of religious sisters, Sister Mary.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um he died of ALS Lugaric's disease in 1992.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: But in his last two or three years of his life, um he broke, he with the sisters founded a girls' town in Chalco, just outside of Mexico City.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um they now have a Boyd's town also in Guadalajara.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um but some uh actually the author who wrote the book, the biography on Father Al, uh Kevin Wells is his name, along with some others, have extended the invitation for me to go and and visit um the sisters and the orphanage.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's about a group of 10 or 12 of us growing going, so I'll be looking, I'll be sending some pictures and uh looking forward to I think they have 4,000 um girls in in the orphanage.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a very uh um uh developed educational plan and they're training them to be missionaries and evangelists, and um many of them have been through a lot of trauma um and and the healing process, the sisters they say kind of mother the children, and um so I've heard a lot about it and I'm looking forward to that opportunity.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: We never know where the Lord may call us or how, right?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um uh the Lord and our Blessed Mother may um direct us to um to to to to service and and also to to learn from and see others who who serve uh I'm sure um you see evangelists and and priests who are missionaries and catechists and Bishop Emilio even um dedicating themselves, right, to um serve the people of Cuba in in some challenging situations, but they they persevere, right?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um as I said, I'm very grateful to the diocese.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm really grateful to you, Bishop.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I love what I'm doing.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll and I know we have to be a little careful in terms of um you're not able to just send pictures like there like you are here, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but you'll be able to send us a few pictures, I'm sure, to keep us up to date on on your work and uh and we'll be glad to share with uh some reports, right, right.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um are you gonna be going, I think, to uh a parish to ask for help for your the mission of the diocese, right?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um in the coming weeks?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to Pumpton Lake, and so I'm gonna be there on the 24th and the 25th, 25th.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well we um um we'll be praying for you and uh and seeing whatever we can do to help support uh thank you the church there in the diocese of Olgeen.
• 32:27
  unknown: Thank you.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father Dialon, for joining us.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh appreciate your time.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Bishop, before we uh wind down this episode, what else is is cooking for you?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: What do you got going on?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh tomorrow I'm saying uh by the time you might hear this year, it's been happening already, but um mass at the um Blue Army Shrine in Washington Township, I think.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh wonderful shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I was able to say Mass there last year.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: They have a Mass on the 13th of every month, um the 13th of May and October, important dates in Fatima.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so um they invited me and I'll be happy to say Mass there tomorrow uh as we're recording uh Tuesday, August 13th.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the 15th, um I'll be happy to celebrate Mass at the um on the Feast of the Assumption at um St.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Vincent Martyr Parish in Madison with who Father Owen, the pastor there and the community are welcoming the seminarians for a seminary and summer barbecue.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: We usually have a summer barbecue with our seminarians, so um yeah um I'll be looking forward to doing that on on this coming Thursday.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for joining us.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe, comment, and leave a positive rating.
• 33:41
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• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Email questions and podcast topic ideas to beyond at patterstondioces.org.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Discover our other podcasts, Coffee with Kupke and the Paul Street Journal.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: See you next time.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the dialogue.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: God bless.