“Follow My Voice” 

This weekend, a historic event took place not far from where we live.  Archbishop Ronald Hicks was installed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as the 11^th Archbishop of New York, taking over from his immediate predecessor, Timothy Cardinal Dolan. Cardinal Dolan served in that role for almost 17 years, one year longer than another great man of the Church, John Cardinal O’Connor, who served as Archbishop of New York from 1984-2000. Prior to coming to New York, Cardinal O’Connor had served for 27 years as a military chaplain in the U.S. Navy, eventually rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. This week, in the current edition of Imprint magazine, I came across a story that Cardinal O’Connor often would share about his time in the Navy, about a flight he took with a young naval officer in 1968. It was a small plane, with just the two men on board and the evening flight was scheduled to take only a couple of hours. About an hour into it, they suddenly found themselves in a storm. There was tremendous turbulence, and a thick blanket of fog enveloped the plane. With visibility at zero, they could only see each other by the lights of the instrument panels. While they were still about 50 miles from their destination, a warning light started flashing, indicating that they were running out of fuel. The pilot used his radio to contact several nearby airports, but none gave permission to attempt landing because of the fog. The situation was dire. O’Connor then told him to issue the international distress signal, hoping that an airfield would take the chance of receiving them so as to avoid the possibility of a crash that would endanger their lives and the lives of those on the ground. The pilot resisted, concerned that people would discover that he had taken off without enough fuel, and that the incident would be a black mark on his flight record. As the superior officer, O’Connor gave the man a direct order to send out the S.O.S.  

As soon as the S.O.S. was issued, a voice came on the radio, saying: “SX395, I hear you.” The young pilot explained the situation, and the voice responded by identifying himself and his location. “Follow my voice,” he said. Calmly and steadily, the voice gave the pilot instructions on what to do. “Don’t be afraid,” he said, “Just follow my voice.” Then, O’Connor recounts, “suddenly we looked down. We couldn’t have been more than a hundred feet off the ground when we saw the first lights – they were the landing lights of the field, and we glided in for a perfect landing.” Thinking back on that experience, the Cardinal said: “I could never forget that voice, the quality of the voice, the kindness of the voice, the experience of the voice, the calmness of the voice… ‘follow my voice.’ That is what the Lord says to us: ‘Follow Me. Follow My voice. Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid. I will bring you home.’” In these days, Archbishop Hicks surely must be considering the enormous responsibilities of being the new Archbishop of New York. We should say a prayer for him as he begins this phase of his priestly ministry, that in those moments when he feels overwhelmed and unsure what to do he might hear the voice of the Master and follow wherever it leads him. 

posted 2/7/26