PROVIDENCE — Even a strong nor’easter with flooding rains was not enough to prevent more than 750 Catholics from pouring into the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul on Thursday, May 22, to participate in a Mass celebrated for members of the Spanish-speaking community.
Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R. offered the Mass two days into his episcopacy, having been installed as the 10th Bishop of Providence on Tuesday.
Father Nolasco Tomayo, director of multicultural ministry, said that Bishop Lewandowski’s language skills and experience will serve him well in his new diocese.
“We are so blessed and grateful for the late Holy Father appointing him, not only because he speaks English and Spanish and Portuguese very well, but at the same time he has a great deal of experience working with the Spanish communities everywhere, so he’s going to be a big blessing for us.”
He said that Bishop Lewandowski will be instrumental in advancing projects that have been in the works to serve Spanish-speaking communities in the diocese.
“People are really grateful and happy to have him here,” he said.
“When the bishop is speaking in all languages they really listen and pay attention to the shepherd when he speaks.”
Bishop Lewandowski spoke in his homily about the love that Jesus has for us.
“He gives us an example of the kind of love that we should have for each other: Love one another as Jesus loves us,” he said.
He said that people have this idea that love is a feeling or emotion, or a thing that represents one’s love, like a wedding ring or a gift.
“We have the idea, too, that love is like a dream, that someday I’ll find the love of my life, the man or woman of my dreams. And sometimes we think that love is impossible, and actually when we look at scripture we learn that love is a person we encounter, it’s Jesus, who shows us tremendous and deep love, and wants us to love others in the same way.”
He described love as an encounter with the person we love in Jesus, who saves us from sin, saves us from death and makes us members of God’s family and the church.
Father Jairon Olmos-Rivera, the diocese’s first priest from the Dominican Republic, serves as parochial vicar at St. Michael the Archangel Church, Providence. He said the appointment of Bishop Lewandowski also greatly pleased the Hispanic community, who previously enjoyed having a Spanish-speaking shepherd in Archbishop Richard G. Henning.
“It is a great joy and happiness for us as a Hispanic community to receive Bishop Bruce, who loves the Hispanic community, who speaks the language. He knows the culture and it’s a great blessing to describe our great joy and happiness. It’s a great blessing and a gift from God and the Holy Father.”
Jasmine Porcayo, the sacristan at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Providence, said that many in her community have been praying for another bishop who understands their needs.
“I’m so happy. We’ve been praying for this, for a bishop who can speak our own language,” Porcayo said.
“I feel that he is Spanish — I feel his heart, and he is very humble,” she observed. “When he gave his homily tonight, I said to myself, ‘he is Spanish’” she said, noting how fluent in the language he is.
Bishop Lewandowski served in Spanish-speaking communities for much of his ministry, including in the Dominican Republic, the Bronx, New York, and in Baltimore. He also speaks Portuguese well.
“We are so happy. We are really enjoying this moment as a Spanish community,” she said.
During the Mass, children and young people dressed in colorful costumes representing the native dress of different regions of Mexico, South and Central America and the Dominican Republic brought forward to Bishop Lewandoski “bouquets of prayers” — small, wrapped parchment scrolls, each in the name of an outreach ministry or church movement.
The bishop accepted the spiritual bouquets and prayed over each pair of worshippers as they came forward.
Downstairs, following the Mass, there was a large celebration featuring a long buffet of native foods, including empanadas and tamales, and an assortment of desserts.
The atmosphere was quite festive, with colorfully clad cultural dancers performing to a Latin beat as Bishop Lewandowski spent more than 90 minutes greeting attendees in a receiving line, where he happily posed for photos and offered individual blessings upon each.
Sister Elizabeth Castro, H.M.S.P., director of the Office for Religious, and a native of Mexico City, finds Bishop Lewandowski to be very caring and compassionate.
“We are so blessed to have His Excellency Bishop Bruce because he’s such a great shepherd, a great pastor, an example for all of us, his compassion of heart, his love for Jesus in the Church and his closeness to the people, all of us in his flock. He is very thoughtful. It is a great joy for the diocese.”
Carlos Escalona attended the Mass and celebration with his wife Carmen. Both are involved in St. Patrick and Blessed Sacrament Parishes with Catholic Relief Services and brought up that organization’s spiritual bouquet at Mass.
Carlos said that he is excited to have a bishop who speaks his language.
“I loved the part of the homily where he talked about love. He seems like a person who enjoys being close to the people and we really like that,” Escalona said.
Bishop Lewandowski was grateful for the turnout of so many, considering the adverse weather conditions, although he was not surprised.
He attended a funeral in Westerly earlier in the day and drove up the coast back to Providence to see different parts of his new diocese. At one point, he saw surfers out in the choppy waters buffeted by strong winds.
“They have stronger and more resilient people here in Rhode Island than I ever thought,” he told Rhode Island Catholic. “Even in the rain, Rhode Island is beautiful. It was a great day and we’re capping it off tonight with something even greater.”
