Joy is a true gift of God, and what a gift it is to those who share in it.
For more than a decade, the CNEWA family delighted in the joy of Denis J. Madden, who as Father Denis joined CNEWA as its regional director for Palestine and Israel in 1994. Two years after engineering a remarkable feat — the restoration of the great dome of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, involving the historically contentious custodians of Christendom’s holiest shrine — Msgr. Madden joined the New York office as CNEWA’s associate secretary general, where he coordinated the expansion of CNEWA’s work in northeast Africa, particularly in Eritrea and Ethiopia. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI asked Denis to serve as an auxiliary bishop of a particular church, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, where he coordinated the many ministries of Baltimore’s inner city parishes.
It was a move that put to great use his skills as a clinical psychologist specializing in conflict resolution.
But the many editorial meeting battles waged between this author and the editorial board were perhaps the greatest challenges for this man endowed not only with joy, but a steely sense of justice and truth and unyielding compassion and love for the poor and the marginalized.
Bishop Madden is “a good friend, ideal collaborator and a perfect associate,” Msgr. Robert Stern said of the newly appointed bishop. He’s “a very pastoral priest, a man with great concern for the poor and needy. We will miss him.”
And we did.
Yesterday, Pope Francis accepted Denis’ resignation nearly a year after his submitted it according to the norms of canon law. No doubt the Holy Father saw in this man the same qualities that served the CNEWA family and the poor we are honored to serve: joy, selflessness and effectiveness.
Well done, Denis! “Onwards and upwards!”