Bishop Vincent Darius has urged more than 2000 West Indian-born Catholics in New York to continue making their presence felt at the annual Labour Day Parade in Brooklyn.

“Proclaim the message of Christ… We have a mandate to preach the Good News,” said the bishop of St George’s, Grenada. “There is an urgency in our society. It is as if we are living in a culture of death. We must not be afraid to stand up for the Gospel… The best form of witnessing by Christ is not by words but by our actions… I do not think for one moment that your presence at the parade will go unnoticed” Bishop Darius said as he delivered the homily at an August 31 Mass at St Matthew’s Church. The Mass was celebrated before the Diocese of Brooklyn participated in the 42nd annual West Indian American Day Parade and Carnival on Labour Day.

“People will see, they will admire you. Let’s be witnesses for Christ’s love. Let your conduct speak for itself. The lookers-on will appreciate what you are doing. It’s time we become more proactive in the proclamation of the Good News.”
Main celebrant at the Mass was Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who was celebrating his first public Mass since undergoing quadruple bypass surgery in June. He concelebrated with more than a dozen priests including Bishop Darius; Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq, Vicar for Black Catholic Concerns; Msgr Ronald Marino, Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates; Fr Caleb Buchanan, coordinator of the West Indian Apostolate; Msgr Steven Ferrari, Vicar for Brooklyn, and St Matthew’s parish priest Fr Andrew Struzzieri.

As Mass ended and people spilled out onto the sidewalks of the church before joining the parade, Dave Ali, assistant director of the Catholic Migration and Refugee Office, recalled how the diocese’s presence in the parade has grown by thousands since Fidelis Care, the health plan conducted by the New York bishops, began sponsoring a float four years ago. That first year, 60 people walked alongside the float. Last year, the number grew to approximately 3,400.
“Our presence in this parade is a direct response to Bishop DiMarzio’s call for the new evangelisation. The Caribbean people are diverse and we come together to celebrate that diversity. Here, we put our feet to the streets for the faith,” Ali said.

While the theme for this year’s festivities was “Jump for the Cure, Jump Up and be Counted” - the result of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association’s joint partnership with the American Cancer Society and the US Census Bureau - some in the diocesan crowd played on the parade’s theme with signs of their own that proclaimed “I Jump for Jesus” and “Jesus Is Worth Jumping For.” The diocese also sponsored its own theme, “The Mystical Body of Christ Shining Like Islands in the Sun.”
As the sea of red tee-shirts made its way down the two-mile stretch on Eastern Parkway from Utica Avenue to Grand Army Plaza, the revellers danced and sang to the live music blaring from speakers on the back of a U-Haul truck, next to People of Praise and Liberty, a choir community “who came together to sing gospel with a calypso style,” one member explained.

Volunteers also passed out colorful hand fans advertising Fidelis Care and the Catholic Migration Office, as well as the Catholic National Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Justice for Immigrants.
Bishop Darius, who has attended the parade several times, said he enjoys “seeing Catholics demonstrate their faith. I also look forward to the creativity, the music, and the socialisation that this event brings. It has the capacity to bring all sorts of people together.”
“It’s a great day for the West Indian and Caribbean immigrants to come together and celebrate their heritage,” added Msgr Marino. “It’s also wonderful for the Catholic immigrants to say how proud we are to be Catholic and how much our faith means to our immigrant experience.”
Bishop Sansaricq said, “it’s a way to be present with the people and to show them that we appreciate the culture and we want to evangelise the culture.”

- edited from a report by Stefanie Gutierrez for The Tablet, weekly newspaper of the Brooklyn diocese