Cardinal to Offer Cathedral Mass in Spanish to Show Solidarity With Puerto Rico, Mexico

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Cardinal Dolan will offer Mass in Spanish at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8, to express prayerful solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and Mexico—and their relatives and friends in New York—in the wake of the natural disasters that have ravaged both lands this month.

Three auxiliary bishops who each have given extensive service to the Hispanic community—Bishop Peter Byrne, episcopal vicar of Dutchess, Putnam and Northern Westchester; Bishop John Jenik, episcopal vicar of the Bronx, North Manhattan and Central Harlem and pastor of Our Lady of Refuge parish in the Bronx; and Bishop Gerald Walsh, vicar for clergy—will serve as concelebrants.

Father Eric Cruz, pastor of St. John Chrysostom parish in the Bronx and director of Bronx Catholic Charities, will deliver the homily. Father Cruz is a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent.

Puerto Rico is reeling from the effects of Hurricane Maria, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing widespread damage and crippling the island’s communications network. Meanwhile, Mexico confronts massive destruction from a succession of earthquakes, which have left more than 300 people dead so far.

A second collection will be taken at the Mass to aid victims of the natural disasters in both places.