AskaNewYorker: I have an idea what you, do but what do you really do?
Monsignor Cassato: Well, I’m the pastor here at Saint Anthanasius parish
here in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a very unique neighborhood here in the City of
New York. And I’m also one of seven police chaplains for the City of New
York. So I am very much part of the Police Department. Not only do I wear a
Roman collar and a black suit but I also wear a Roman collar in a blue suit,
the uniform of the City of New York.
AskaNewYorker: Most professions are considered “jobs”, but do you
consider yours a job or a calling?
Monsignor Cassato: I guess really if you’re going to answer that, it’s
a life. It really is a calling, a life, a vocation. Just as people are called
to be in a sense married. That’s a calling in life. Some people can’t
be married. Some people don’t want to be married. It’s a calling
to be married. And this is also a calling. It’s a calling to be a priest.
God and service through the church and people that come in contact with you.
I would say more than anything it is truly a calling or a vocation as you say
in the traditional word.
AskaNewYorker: When in your life did this calling occur?
Monsignor Cassato: I can remember back. This is a very interesting story. I
can remember back to the second grade when I was in Holy Family School in Canarsie.
And I remember in the penmanship books you had the letter A and you had to do
a page of A’s, and then at the end of the book there was this composition
practice and they started off in script “When I grow up…”
and that was the opening line, so I took mine and wrote “When I grow up
I want to be a priest because I want to help people make their First Holy Communion”.
Now, this happened to me let’s say when I was 7 and now I’m 59.
So that happened to me 52 years ago. I can remember that great day in the second
grade. I can remember the teacher’s name. I can remember raising my hand
and I was not a kid that usually raised their hand. I was a little timid in
school in the beginning. I’m still a little timid, if you can believe
that. I raised my hand and I said that in class, publicly, which for me was
a big statement, because I was a timid kid it took a lot to say that. So that’s
how it started how, when and where it started. And it stayed with me.
AskaNewYorker: The Da Vinci Code–are you planning on seeing it? And what do
you think of all the controversy?
Monsignor Cassato: I have very mixed feelings on it right now. I was first
thinking of going to see it. And then I said to myself, “does that really
just say that I buy into it?” And I make Tom Hanks $10 wealthier. I don’t
know…I have a very mixed feeling right now.
AskaNewYorker: Is it like what happened in the Muslim faith with the cartoon?
Monsignor Cassato: Yes. Same thing. I think there would be a tremendous protest
in other faiths, and we as Catholics don’t seem to unify enough in that
kind of protest. So there have been a lot of thoughts going through my mind
about it. It’s an attack on the faith. I guess if you go look at the book
in the library, it’s classified under fiction. But people, it’s
interesting, are often misled, and you know how you can put a misleading topic
in the newspapers—even the New York Times–which can pull you this way
and things like that. So I’m a little on the edge right now. There was
a real feeling to go see it. Now as I think about it more and more I think not
to. The thing of boycotting it in the sense….maybe we’re making
it too big in the Catholic Church, maybe we should not be out with the guns
to shoot it. I have very mixed feelings. I’m sharing my real feelings;
my mixed reactions….It will be interesting to see where this goes. In
the sense of Best Picture, is it going to win an academy award? Why am I saying
this? Because there were, if you notice, 25–30 years ago, movies like Going
My Way and different movies that portrayed the Catholic Church in a very positive
light. There seems to be an angle in Hollywood that often puts the church into
a bad light. And most movies that are out there today are portraying the Church
in a bad light. So what I’m trying to say is, this could be part of the
anti-Catholic agenda that might be out there too. So there are a whole lot of
issues.
AskaNewYorker: So what’s the key to being good Catholic?
Monsignor Cassato: To me, today, in this world, just following the Lord. Following
Jesus. Trying to live as best you can with the Lord. Trying to know what the
Lord calls you to do and trying to do it. And I think all of us are trying to
do it. It takes effort, it takes work, and it takes some sort of commitment
and trying to see what the lord calls each of us to do in our lives.
AskaNewYorker: Who are your heroes?
Monsignor Cassato: It’s interesting, I have a lot of people that I kind
of look up to. But I’ve got to tell you a little story. Probably one of
the nicest men, really a hero in my life, is this guy Joe Esposito, who is the
chief of the police department in the City of New York who has a wonderful,
wonderful care and concern for people and a wonderful care and concern for the
police of the City of New York. He is one of the top men I ever met in life.
AskaNewYorker: Do you have a favorite apostle?
Monsignor Cassato: Probably Peter, because he was probably the most thick-headed
of all the apostles.
AskaNewYorker: When you had a moustache, which actor did you most resemble?
Monsignor Cassato: Tom Selleck, and I love it! And some say I look like Keith
Fernandez from the Mets.
AskaNewYorker: Last question…Out of all the Italian restaurants in the
city which is your favorite?
Monsignor Cassato: Bamonte’s.
Maybe because it’s a place where I feel most at home.
