By Connie Berry
Sun editor

The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities held a press conference Dec. 20 announcing Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to canonize one of their own, Bl. Mother Marianne Cope. The date for the canonization in Rome has not yet been announced. Pope Benedict also announced the impending canonization of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, a native of the Mohawk tribe who converted to Catholicism, along with five others. Bl. Kateri, from the Mohawk River Valley region in New York, will be the first Native American saint.

The Franciscans held the press conference in the chapel at the St. Anthony Motherhouse where Bl. Marianne’s reliquary is located. Sister Lorraine Wesolowski, director of communications for the sisters, welcomed all those in attendance, including Bishop Robert Cunningham and many of the sisters. The woman cured by the second miracle, Sharon Smith, was also there.

Bl. Marianne Cope proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XVI

By Connie Berry
Sun editor


This year will bring the canonization of a woman whose life can be described as nothing less than extraordinary — a woman who was a leader within the Diocese of Syracuse and beyond.

On Dec. 6 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes for Saints ruled a second miracle attributed to Bl. Marianne Cope was an unexplainable medical recovery. Then, on Dec. 19, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the Franciscan nun a saint. Now the sisters and the rest of the world are waiting for an announcement as to when her canonization in Rome will take place. Sadly, the director of Bl. Marianne’s cause for sainthood, Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, OSF, passed away just days before the Dec. 6 decision. Nearly everyone familiar with the cause would agree that Sister Mary Laurence will now finally be near the woman whose life she researched with painstaking fidelity.

Sainthood within the Catholic tradition dates back to the martyrs of the church. Holding up those whose sanctity and virtue is considered heroic has taken place since the death of Christ. In a nation as young as the U.S., only a handful of saints have been canonized. The recent announcement regarding both Bl. Marianne and Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha means Upstate New York will soon be in an elite group. Including these two women, there are only now a dozen saints who were either born in or served significantly in the U.S.

Father Robert F. Bogan, long-serving priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, passed away on Dec. 27. He was 79.

Father Bogan was born in Utica on February 16, 1932 to Lawrence and Gertrude (Kommer) Bogan. He was a graduate of St. Francis de Sales High School in Utica, St. Andrew’s Seminary in Rochester and later St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester. He attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1958 with a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.). He earned a master’s degree from Syracuse University in 1963.

Father Bogan was ordained at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse on May 24, 1958. He served in many parishes and positions throughout the diocese during his career. He was associate pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Clayville; associate pastor of Most Holy Rosary Church in Syracuse  and Onondaga County Children’s Court Priest Counselor; associate pastor of St. James Church in Johnson City; pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Whitney Point; pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Binghamton; priest-in-residence at St. John’s Parish in North Bay; temporary administrator of the Church of the Annunciation in Clark Mills; temporary administrator of St. Christopher’s Church in Binghamton; temporary administrator of St. Francis de Sales Church in Utica;  and administrator of the Church of the Annunciation in Clark Mills. He retired in July 2010.