Fr. Roger J. Landry
Farewell Reception for Msgr. David Charters and Fr. Roger J. Landry
Church of the Holy Family Parish Hall, Manhattan
February 24, 2022
On February 24, 2022, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia and the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, threw a going away reception for Msgr. David Charters and me as our service at the Mission was nearing its completion, for Msgr. Charters after 3.5 years and for me after 7 years.
This is a video captured by an attendee of my remarks.
Here is a written version of the remarks I had prepared.
- In the story of Joseph the Patriarch, in Genesis 41, there were seven years of plenty in which Joseph, for pharaoh, gathered up an immeasurable store of grain. I feel like my seven years at the Holy See Mission have been like those seven years of plenty in which God, like in ancient Egypt, has filled my life with so many blessings. I’ve made some great friendships, grown so much, and helped a little in the important work of the Holy See before the international community.
- Before I get into some thanks, I’d just like to acknowledge some special guests here tonight.
- My parents, Roger and Midge, and my twin brother, Scot, have driven down here to be with us tonight. I hope that you have the chance to meet them.
- Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of Brooklyn is here. I first met him when I was a pastor and newspaper editor in the Diocese of Fall River and I’ve been fortunate to get to know him and have a chance to work with him here. Thank you, Bishop Gregory, for all your support.
- The Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Patrick Kelly, is here tonight with his wife Vanessa. The Knights of Columbus have been so supportive to the Holy See Mission over the course of our history, including through providing most of the funding for our present headquarters. But the Supreme Knight has more than an institutional connection, but a personal one. A little over 20 years ago, he served as a legal intern and expert at our Mission and so he enfleshes the hope we have for how all our interns may be able to make a difference after their time with us in their families, in the Church and in wider society. Welcome, Supreme Knight and Vanessa!
- George Marlin, Chairman of Aid to the Church in Need USA, is here, together with Sarkis Bogjhalian, Executive Director. They have been friends and trusted collaborators in defense of suffering Christians across the globe at the UN and I’m very happy that in October, the Vatican appointed me ecclesiastical assistant (or national chaplain) to ACN-USA to serve alongside them.
- Peter Vaccari, the President of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association is present, who spearheads so many important programs to assist Catholics in the Middle and Near East.
- There are so many I’d like to thank.
- First of all, God, who in his Providence willed that I have this extraordinary experience.
- I’d like to thank the great Nuncios under whom I have worked, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, who has been a kind and encouraging mentor to me, and Archbishop Bernardito Auza, who back in December 2014 invited me to come to the Mission.
- I’d like to thank Father Gerry Murray, the pastor of Holy Family Parish, and Fr. Joe Chacko, the parochial vicar, for their hospitality in welcoming me to live here at Holy Family. Holy Family Rectory was where the first Permanent Observer to the United Nations resided and the bond between the Holy See Mission and the UN Parish has always been strong. But it was a great joy for me to strengthen that connection and the priestly fraternity I experienced has been part of the seven years of plenty.
- I’d like to thank my priest collaborators at the Holy See Mission, Msgr. Fredrik Hansen, Msgr. David Charters, Msgr. Hilary Franco and their predecessors who have become great friends as together we’ve supported each other in our mutual work.
- I’d like to thank the great lay diplomatic staff at the Holy See: Giulia Maniezzi, Nadja Wolfe, Johanna Hohenberg, Jeremy Faust, Christina Gaudino and their predecessors, like Anna Fata and Kallie Aultmann who are here tonight. They bring so much passion and competence to our work. They make possible the effectiveness of the Holy See Mission at the United Nations.
- I’d like to thank in a particular way the super-hardworking, permanent staff of the Mission who are so generous in keeping us fed, keeping the Mission functional, helping us in so many ways, including keeping us rooted: Thien and Owan Duangmala, Aikalak and Yui Booncharoen, Sisters Sonia, Maria Carmen and Silvia.
- One of the most inspiring aspects of my work these last years has been seeing so much hope for the Church and the world in the internship program that I coordinate. Since 2015, we’ve had 139 interns from 32 different countries. Not only could we not do our work without them, but they bring so much vitality and enthusiasm to our work. Special thanks to our present group of interns — Ewa, Lauren, Aude, Camilo, Conall, Saramarie, Rosario — as well as our alumni who have come here from all over to support us: Sunny, Kit, Siobhan, John, Kristine, Sofia, Camille, Andres, David, among those I’ve seen. I’d also like to thank those who help make our internship program possible. Anthony Viscogliosi, who founded with his brothers the fellowship program that helps pay for many of the expenses for the interns; Dr. Henry Schwalbenberg from Fordham’s IPED program; Dr. Catherine Ruby from the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and International Development; Dr. John Czarnetsky, Dean of Ave Maria Law School, all who provide fellowships for students from their institutions to serve at the Mission.
- I also want to thank the various experts who support our Mission who are present here tonight as well as Bob Lalonde and Zac Danao from Priests for Life, who help, among other things, to make sure our computer systems remain functioning to support our work.
- I’d like to thank the many members of the Path to Peace Foundation and Path to Peace Gala Dinner Committee who are here, who have been so great to work with as we have together tried to raise funds to support the work of the Mission.
- I’d like to express my appreciation and esteem for so many whom I’ve worked with to run conferences at the UN: Gary and Merry Krupp of the Pave the Way Foundation; George Marlin and Sarkis Boghjalian from Aid to the Church in Need USA, whom I have already mentioned; Elyssa Koren from ADF International; Siobhan O’Hara from the World Youth Alliance; Ryan Koch from Lisa Correnti and Stefano Gennarini from C-FAM; and Lynn Walsh and Taj Hamad from the Universal Peace Federation. It’s been an honor to collaborate with you.
- There are many more to thank, but I don’t want to try your patience and I hope to have a chance to thank each one personally. But I think the length of the list does give an indication of just how plentiful these past seven years of plenty have been for me. I ask God to bless you all for your goodness to me and to the Mission.
- For those of you in New York, I hope he continues to bless me with your friendship as I head up to 114thStreet and begin this Fall my work as Catholic chaplain at Columbia.
- And I ask God in a special way to continue to bless Archbishop Caccia and the whole team at the Holy See Mission at this time when the light of Catholic Social Teaching is needed before the international community more than ever.
I append below the text of the article published in the Holy See Mission newsletter on February 5, 2022, sharing some of my memories of the past seven years.
Father Roger Landry, a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, arrived as Attaché at the Mission at the beginning of March 2015, after serving for 16 years as a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, where he had been a high school chaplain, the pastor of two parishes, and the Diocesan newspaper editor for many years.
He was originally recruited by Archbishop Auza to serve as a negotiator on the human rights and development team, but upon his arrival, Archbishop Auza asked him instead to serve as Director of Special Events, an omnibus position that included coordinating the many conferences the Holy See Mission runs each year at the United Nations, assisting on the drafts of UN interventions and the other speeches of the Nuncio, improving the communications of the Mission (website, newsletter, social media, etc.), engaging in external relations for the Mission with the NGO community, the Catholic community and other religious groups, as well as various other activities. Eventually he would also be asked to direct the enhanced internship program of the Mission, take charge of the Path to Peace Gala, and serve as the Executive Director of the Path to Peace Foundation.
“In my first ten days on the job,” he recalled, “I had to work on nine different drafts. Six were speeches for side events during the intense Commission on the Status of Women. Three were for other engagements of the Mission and the Nuncio. I was accustomed to hard work, but I soon learned that the Mission would require a whole new level of energy!”
Among the highlights of his seven years at the Mission, he pointed first to the visit of Pope Francis in 2015, the UN portion of which he helped Archbishop Auza to coordinate.
“Even though it happened during the high-level time of the UN calendar when 180 world leaders converge, and took place immediately before the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, everyone at the UN’s attention was on the papal visit,” he remembered. “It was like Christmas in September. At the Mission, we were getting calls even from national presidents asking for one-on-one visits with Pope Francis. The 160 tickets we had for the General Assembly Gallery were in huge demand.”
He was also very honored to have a chance to coordinate about 125 conferences that the Holy See sponsored at the United Nations, all prior to COVID.
“There’s only so much the Holy See can say in the four-minute official interventions. Side-events and conferences allow us to lay out much the Holy See’s positions on important topics much more extensively.”
He said he was particularly proud of several such conferences.
“We had two conferences on Down Syndrome to coincide with World Down Syndrome Awareness Day, which takes place each year on March 21 (3/21) to call attention their third twenty-first chromosome. In it we were able to have experts as well as the Holy See speak powerfully about what amounts to a genocide of those with Down Syndrome through in utero genetic screening and selective abortion and describe how such practices violate what UN Conventions clearly affirm about the rights of those with disabilities. It was also awesome to have those with Down Syndrome, like Chloe Kondrich and Karen Gaffney, show the whole world their dignity, beauty and intelligence.”
He also recalled a conference held together with ADF International immediately after the canonization of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
“Mother Teresa was a Nobel Peace Prize winner who really put into practice the UN’s commitment to ‘leave no one behind,’ and took seriously the summons to help lift the poor out of material and spiritual poverty. For that event, which had 569 seated and many others standing, we invited 100 of those served by the Missionaries of Charity [the religious order founded by Mother Teresa] in New York to come to the UN and afterward held a banquet in which Archbishop Auza, the President of ADF and several ambassadors and Holy See staff served these special invited guests. I also sat them with name-plates in the rows right behind the UN Ambassadors. It was so moving to me to see those who are often forgotten about by society to see their name at the UN and treated by all of us as dignitaries.”
Fr. Landry was also very happy to coordinate several events at the UN focused on persecuted Christians in Iraq, northern Nigeria, Syria and elsewhere, “to make sure that they would not be forgotten and their cries would echo within the walls of the UN.”
Two other things he mentioned as among the highlights of his time was his work with the interns of the Mission as well as his work helping to coordinate the Path to Peace Gala Dinners each year.
“The interns kept us all younger by their enthusiasm, joy, hard work and abundant gifts. Since I started coordinating the program we’ve had 139 interns from 33 different countries. We have had hundreds more apply from all over the world whom we were not able to accept but who nevertheless I have gotten to know through the rigorous application process. They are a great hope for all of us and for the whole Church.”
With regard to the Gala, he said, “Several of the members of the Gala Dinner Committee have become very close friends. The Gala is a lot of work and I’ve been blown away by the commitment and generosity of so many to help the Holy See Mission to our work before the international community.” He also said the privilege to get to know and work with some of the Path to Peace Awardees has also been a privilege.
His next position will be Catholic chaplain at Columbia University in New York City, an appointment he said was a big surprise.
“Without my knowledge, Cardinal Dolan [Archbishop of New York] called Bishop da Cunha in Fall River to ask if he’d consider allowing His Eminence to appoint me to serve the Columbia community. My bishop called me, we spoke about it, and together made the decision.”
As an alumnus of Harvard College, he is excited to return to an Ivy League campus, “where I know I will learn a lot and have a chance to propose to students, faculty and staff the exciting adventure of Catholic life as disciples of Jesus in communion. In an age of rampant loneliness, individualism, materialism and relativism, Catholics are able to show that there’s a different way to live, and I’m excited to take what I’ve learned at the Mission and bring it to the challenging work of campus ministry.”
Before he takes up his new post, he will have a few months of sabbatical, starting February 28, during which he will have the chance “hopefully” to finish two books he has been working on, preach retreats for cloistered sisters, priests and lay people, lead three scheduled pilgrimages, and do some travel for Aid to the Church in Need USA, for which he was appointed ecclesiastical assistant last October by the Vatican.
He’s happy to have a chance to remain in New York, where he will be able to continue some of the apostolates he has been engaged in and stay close to the Mission, “where some of my closest friends in the world are.”
He also expressed hope that his new position may also profit the Mission.
“I hope to send many bright Columbia students as future interns,” he quipped.