By Jeanne Sager
MONTICELLO — September 6, 2002 – It isn’t everyday that folks in Monticello hear mass from a cardinal.
But last Sunday was special. Cardinal Edward Egan, the head bishop of the New York Archdiocese, was in town for a short visit at the St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Monticello last week before hopping a plane to help dedicate a cathedral in Los Angeles.
The Cardinal congratulated the parishioners on their active outreach in the community, especially for their work in the St. Anne’s mission in Kauneonga Lake, which he visited early Sunday morning.
“I say mass at St. Patrick’s twice a month,” he explained. “And other times I’m allowed to play hooky and go out to the parishes of the archdiocese, which I understand are the centers of the church.”
Egan reminded parishioners that the tenets of the Catholic church make parishes in the archdiocese a vital part of spreading God’s word, and a place like St. Peter’s with the missions of St. Anne and St. Joseph are doing a marvelous job.
“I like to be in the parishes because that’s where the work of Jesus Christ is being done,” he told the crowd at Sunday morning mass on Broadway in Monticello. “We have a parish so we can repeat what God has told us.
“And I am here now in the center of the archdiocese with you.”
Egan commended the work of the parish priest, Father Robert Ginel, and parochial vicar Timothy Wiggins.
This was actually the third of Egan’s visits to the county, according to Ginel.
Egan has been to Roman Catholic churches in Livingston Manor and Liberty in the past, and St. Peter’s in Monticello was visited by his predecessor, Cardinal John O’Connor.
But it’s still a great honor, Ginel said.
“There are 11 parishes in the county and 10 missions,” he noted. “And although he has been to other churches here in the county, to have him actually come here is honorific.”
St. Peter’s in Monticello has two mission churches, St. Joseph’s and St. Anne’s.
Mass is said daily at the Monticello church at 12:15 p.m., on Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. and on Sundays at 7 a.m., 8:45 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. An additional mass in Spanish is given Sunday evenings at 7 p.m.
Masses at the mission churches are held at 10 a.m. St. Anne’s is open only during the summer.