CNA Columns: Bishops' Corner

The birthday of the Church and the path we choose

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap.

Anything without heart, anything without love – and I mean politics, music, law, art, even religion – anything without love, no matter how brilliant, is finally inadequate and weak. At the end of the day, the human soul yearns to be loved, and to love in return. And it won’t settle for anything less.

God loves us so deeply that he sent his only son to live, suffer, die and rise again for our salvation. That’s the message of Easter. The message of Pentecost – the “birthday of the Church” that we celebrate this Sunday – builds on Easter.

In sending his Holy Spirit to the Apostles in the upper room, God invites each of us to join him in a passion for evangelizing the world. We are Christ’s witnesses. Our mission is to respond to the fire of God’s love. But desire alone won’t remake the world. So how do we accomplish the work God sets before us?

First, we need to wake up, shake off the cocoon of the world’s narcotic noise, and recover our clarity about right and wrong. We do this by praying, and we need to pray every day. Praying, no matter how unfocused we might be at first, clears the head and the heart. It also clears the ears, so we can hear God’s quiet voice.

Setting aside some silent time with God each day plants the first seed of sanity. It sends down deep roots, and the soul grows a little stronger every day. If we listen well enough and long enough, God will tell us what he wants uniquely from each of us.

Second, we need to seek out confession regularly and stay close to the Eucharist. We can’t lose hope when we know we’re forgiven. We can’t starve to death when we’re being fed with the Bread of Life. And the stronger we get in the Lord, the more we have to give to others. The sacraments are literally rivers of grace. They bring us new life. They have real power.

Third, we need to share Jesus Christ consciously with someone every day. We need to make a deliberate point of it. And we don’t have to hit people over the head with the Bible to do it. Life naturally presents us with opportunities to talk about our faith with friends or colleagues. Nothing is more attractive than a sincere, personal witness to the truth. And remember that what we give away in faith, we get back a hundredfold.

Fourth, we need to show a little courage. In the same Scripture passage where Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, he also tells us that he’ll be with us always, even to the end of the age. If that’s so – and of course, it is so – then what can we really worry about? What better friend can we have in the struggle for the soul of the world, than the God who created it and us?

Fifth and finally, we need to be faithful to those who love us, and to those whom God calls us to love. So often we overlook the simple fabric of daily life and the persons who inhabit it. But that’s where real love begins. That’s where all discipleship starts. It’s why Augustine wrote that “to be faithful in little things is a big thing.”

God made each of us to make a difference. Whether we seem to succeed or fail is not the point. We may never see how God uses us to achieve his will. But it’s enough that we try – and then profound things can happen.

Readers my age may remember that Dag Hammarskjold was secretary general of the United Nations many years ago, during the Congo crisis in the early 1960s. He was also a Christian serious about his faith. Hammarskjold died when his plane crashed on a peace mission in Africa in September 1961. After his death, his diary was found and published under the title, Markings. This is a prayer he wrote in his diary shortly before his death:

[Oh God,]

Have mercy
Upon us.
Have mercy
Upon our efforts,
That we
Before Thee
In love and in faith
Righteousness and humility,
May follow Thee,
With self-denial, steadfastness and courage,
And meet Thee
In the silence.

Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee,

Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.
Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But Who hast dedicated me
To my fate.
Thou –

We live in an era wounded by sadness and cynicism, but also ennobled by men and women of grace; people not so very different from you and me. This year, on this Pentecost, we get to choose which path to follow, because while God’s Holy Spirit calls each of us by name to his service, we have the freedom to say yes or no.

If we really want to preach the Gospel, renew the Church and give glory to God in the years ahead, the only means that will work is to speak the truth in love through the witness of our lives. And it’s always been so.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace – now and always.

Reprinted with permission from the Catholic Philly, official newspaper for the diocese of Philadelphia.

May is Mary’s month

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop José H. Gomez

This has been a custom in the Church dating back many centuries. And it is beautiful to associate Mary with the coming of Spring and the new birth of flowers and plants and crops in the field.

In this special month, in which we will celebrate Christ’s Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, I encourage you to deepen your devotion to Mary.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we see the beautiful image of the early Church united in prayer around “Mary, the mother of Jesus.” That’s what Jesus wanted. His last wish – some call it his last will and testament – was that his mother should become our mother. He told the apostle St. John and each one of us: “Behold, your mother!”

So we need to make sure that Mary always has an important place in our lives. The Gospel says St. John took Mary into his “own home.” We need to do that, too. We need to develop a deep personal relationship with Mary – one of love, affection, devotion and trust.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom in the household at Nazareth, with Mary and St. Joseph. And we grow in faith and holiness if we stay close to Mary. If we listen to her words and learn from her example.

At the Annunciation, Mary told the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

She entrusted herself totally to God’s will for her life. She made a commitment to cooperate with his will, to be a “handmaid” to his plan of salvation.

I like to think that Jesus learned something of his own attitude of trust in God’s will from Mary.

We can hear her faith reflected in the words that Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Thy will be done.” And we can hear how deeply Jesus lived this attitude of abandonment to God’s will. On the night he was asked to die for us, he prayed: “Not my will, but thine be done.”

That’s the attitude we need to live as children of God and children of Mary. Like Jesus and like Mary, we need to trust that our heavenly Father knows what is best for us, that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives.

We need to say to God in every circumstance, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”

We can also learn a lot from Mary’s habit of reflecting on the life of her Son. The Gospel says she treasured his words and pondered the meaning of his actions: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

In this, too, she can be our model. We should spend some time each day contemplating Jesus’ words and deeds through our prayerful reading of the Gospels. Like Mary, we should keep his words and example in our hearts. We should pray for the grace we need every day to love her more and to be more like Jesus.

We turn to Mary because in her arms we always find Jesus Christ. And in him we have safety and peace.

Mary teaches us to always look to Jesus. Her last words in the Gospels, at the wedding at Cana, should be the first words that define how we live: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Mary teaches us to be open to what Jesus wants to do in our lives. She welcomed Jesus into her life and gave him to the world. That should also be an example for us. We should be ready always to bring the gift of Jesus to others.

So in this month of Mary, as we pray for one another, let’s all try to take some practical steps to deepen our devotion to Mary. Maybe that means praying the Rosary with more devotion and affection. Maybe it means saying a special Marian prayer, like the Memorare.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Queen of Peace, so throughout this month of May we should offer prayers for peace in our city and in the world.

Let us ask Mary’s intercession to help us love her as Jesus loved her. Let’s dedicate ourselves to sharing our lives generously with others – as our Blessed Mother did. And let’s ask the Virgin Mary to be more and more a mother to us.

Reprinted with permission from The Tidings, official newspaper for the diocese of Los Angeles.

Abortion and contraception consequences on display in Gosnell’s “house of horrors”

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Bishop James D. Conley

Our news outlets are not known for their squeamish attitude toward violence. On the contrary, reporters are often criticized for fixating on violence, exploiting it as fodder for the 24-hour news cycle.

We rarely see journalists shying away from a gruesome case. Yet, the media has been reluctant to cover the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell – a Philadelphia abortionist accused of committing unspeakable crimes at his “Women’s Medical Center.”

Already indicted by a grand jury, Gosnell is on trial for running a “house of horrors,” where hundreds of infants were born alive and beheaded with scissors.

The testimony against him includes some of the most shocking statements ever made in an American courtroom. His former aides speak of infants whose hands and feet were kept in jars, and their bodies flushed down toilets, after they were delivered alive and decapitated.

Somehow, this story went largely unnoticed by mainstream reporters. One would expect a murderous doctor, running a “clinic” reminiscent of Auschwitz, to face a media blitz and a burst of public outrage.

Instead, Gosnell’s trial has been treated as a low-key, local story. Pro-life advocates took up the task of publicizing it, using social media to make up for news outlets’ silence.

I suspect journalists would rather ignore what happened at Gosnell’s “Medical Center.” The case raises too many disturbing questions – about the mentality behind abortion, and our culture’s troubling attitude toward human life.

For instance, most “pro-choice” partisans dismiss the idea that abortion leads to infanticide. They distance themselves from thinkers like Princeton’s professor Peter Singer – who defends the killing of newborns, and the “right” to abortion, on the same philosophical basis.

But Gosnell’s trial shows the difficulty of separating abortion from infanticide, in theory and in practice.

Indeed, there is a hideous logical consistency in Gosnell’s career. He started off killing children in the womb, and ended up killing them after birth. At some point, the distinction between abortion and infanticide must have struck him as a mere technicality, just a matter of geography.

Most abortion advocates are, thankfully, not so logical. Most of them find Gosnell’s actions appalling. Yet they have no valid or compelling grounds on which to condemn his particular methods of abortion as wrong.

Indeed, on the level of moral principles, infanticide and abortion are equivalent. Kermit Gosnell took the abortion mentality to its logical conclusion.

This is a hard fact, with disturbing implications. It is an inconvenient fact for journalists, and many members of their audience, to face. This partly explains their reluctance to cover Gosnell’s trial, since it directly raises the question of abortion and its relationship to infanticide.

But the link between infanticide and abortion is not the only issue raised by this case. There is also the larger question of how human life is regarded, in a culture where contraception is widespread and abortion becomes “backup birth control.” After all, most women who seek an abortion are on some form of birth control.

Kermit Gosnell’s actions are the logical outcome of the abortion mentality. But they are also, in a deeper sense, the result of what Blessed John Paul II called the “contraceptive mentality.”

Many people wrongly believe contraception prevents abortion. This is not borne out by statistics, or by careful thinking about the issues.

Research shows that contraception leads to riskier behavior, more unplanned pregnancies, and consequently, more abortion. When contraception fails – as it inevitably does – couples are tempted to eliminate the “unwanted” life.

Kermit Gosnell looked at these “unwanted” lives, and saw burdens placed upon women. He was more ruthless than most, in his efforts to eliminate these living “burdens.”

Most people do not share Gosnell’s ruthlessness. But many in our society seem to share his attitude: that human life is sometimes an inconvenient and unnecessary burden, rather than a sacred gift from God.

This is the “contraceptive mentality” that Blessed John Paul II saw as a root cause of abortion. When we see any human life as a troublesome burden we must manage, rather than a sacred gift entrusted to our care, there is a temptation to get rid of the burden by any means necessary.

The Gosnell case suggests that our society’s view of human life is deeply wrong. It suggests that a culture of contraception cannot avoid becoming a “culture of death” – in which some lives are seen not as gifts, but as burdens.

Our media outlets thrive on provocation and controversy, but they shrink from life’s deeper questions. They shy away from suggesting that abortion might lead to infanticide. They don’t dare to ask whether the “contraceptive mentality” makes us callous toward life.

The popular media will not take the risk of raising these more fundamental questions by publicizing Gosnell’s trial. That is why we must raise awareness of this case, to help the world see the consequences of contraception and abortion.

Reprinted with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Lincoln.

The Boston bombings and their aftermath

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap.

Violence and grief in the Boston area have rightly dominated our news media for the past week. The latest terrorist bloodshed is not at all senseless. It’s the work of calculated malice. Innocent people, including children, have paid the price for other people’s hatred. Our most important task right now is to pray for the victims and their families.

God exists, and God can heal even the worst suffering, despite every human attempt to ignore him and every terrible sin that seems to “disprove” his presence. And yet it’s fair to ask: How can a good God allow this kind of evil to happen?

The answer is both simple and hard. There’s nothing soft-focus or saccharine about real Christianity. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for the brave; not the complacent, and not cowards. The world and its beauty give glory to God; but we live in it with divided hearts, and so the world is also a field of conflict. God’s son died on a cross and rose from the dead to deliver us from our sins. He didn’t take away our freedom to choose evil. Until this world ends, some people will do vile and inhuman things to others.

The irony of human dignity is that it requires our freedom. It depends on our free will. We own our actions. And free persons can freely choose to do wicked things. Spend an hour browsing through Scripture: It’s the story of a struggle between good and evil that cuts bloodily through every generation in history. And the story is made bearable, and given meaning, only by the fidelity of God – the constancy of his justice, his mercy, his solace, his love.

Within hours of the Boston bombings, public officials were telling the nation that terrorists would not be allowed to destroy “our way of life.” It’s the duty of leaders – an important duty – to reassure and strengthen their people in times of tragedy. Our country has a vast reservoir of goodness built up by generations of good people. America’s best ideals are well worth fighting for. But we also need to remember that our way of life is as mortal as every other great power; and sooner or later, America will be a footnote in history. Only God is forever.

In the coming weeks, in the wake of the Boston tragedy, we’d do well to ponder what “our way of life” is beginning to mean. No one deserved to die in Boston. Terrorism isn’t washed clean by claims of psychological instability or U.S. policy sins abroad. And no one should be eager to see in the carnage of innocent spectators God’s judgment on a morally confused culture here at home.

And yet, something is wrong with our way of life, and millions of people can feel it; something selfish, cynical, empty and mean. Something that acts like a magnet to the worst impulses of the human heart. We’re no longer the nation of our founders, or even of our parents. Some of their greatness has been lost.

The character of our way of life depends on the character of my way life, multiplied by the tens of millions. We shouldn’t waste time being shocked or baffled by the evil in the world. It has familiar roots. It begins in the little crevices of each human heart – especially our own.

In the days ahead we need to pray for the dead and wounded in Boston, and their families. And then, with the help of God, we need to begin to change ourselves. That kind of conversion might seem like a small thing, an easy thing – until we try it. Then we understand why history turns on the witness of individual lives.

Reprinted with permission from the Catholic Philly, official newspaper for the diocese of Philadephia.

The divine creation and gifts of marriage

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila

Marriage, most fundamentally, is gift. Or, perhaps more clearly, marriage is a series of gifts, connected and intertwined with one another.

Marriage is the gift of a husband to a wife. And the gift of a wife to a husband. Marriage is a gift from God – an opportunity to form a family, a community of love. Marriage is the place where the gift of life begins. And marriage is a gift to every community, every culture, every people – marriage is the gift of stability, of civility and of love. Marriage is the first and essential community to society.

Today many people seem to be confused about marriage. They seem to believe it is an institution created by governments – a recognition of a partnership of adults. In some ways, marriage has become viewed as a social recognition of mutual affection between two adults. This view of marriage is relativistic and self-centered. If marriage is created by governments, governments may modify marriage, may change and alter its definition. And if marriage is about recognizing mutual affection, then it doesn’t matter who loves whom, and any type of partnership could be recognized as “marriage.” But this view of marriage couldn’t be further from the truth.

Marriage is a divine creation. It is rooted in the divine command of God to Adam and Eve, to “be fruitful and multiply.” In fact, marriage is rooted in the very creation of Adam and Eve – men and women were created, from the very beginning, to live in a communion of love with one another. Men and women complement each other and share in creation of human life in their love for each other. In marriage, two become one flesh in their children, love becomes a whole new person – the fruit of their married love. This communion is the gift of marriage.

Marriage is written in the very fiber our existence. And the gift of marriage is for something. When a husband gives himself completely to a wife, and a wife completely to her husband, the marriage bears fruit. Children stem from marriage. So does community, and unity and social stability.

At the very heart of marriage, at its very core, is a call – a call for men and women to be procreative through their total self-gift to one another.

Over the past few months, we’ve debated marriage and civil unions in Colorado, and the Supreme Court has debated marriage in Washington. The marriage debate is not likely to cease soon.

Lately, faithful families I know have told me that they are discouraged. That the confusion, and the attacks, and the hatred of the world have dampened their spirits. That the world’s view of marriage has made them feel under attack.

Be not afraid, brothers and sisters. I pray that the Church will be a place of renewal for you. A place of refreshment and joy. A place to encounter Jesus Christ apart from the noise, confusion, irrationality and anger of the world. The world needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the witness of joy-filled marriages. And so does the Church.

Over the next several weeks, I will offer reflections on marriage – its history, its meaning and its potential. I pray that my reflections will be helpful to you. But I would be remiss if I do not mention that the witness of faithful marriages is tremendously helpful to me. My heart is filled with joy by couples living their sacramental marriages faithfully as husbands and wives, in the communion of their children and grand-children.

We are blessed, in the Archdiocese of Denver, by thousands of families striving to live according to God’s plan, the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. By young couples, scrimping and saving to put their children into Catholic schools. By older couples offering their wisdom, and their witness of enduring fidelity and love. By families sharing the grace in their lives with our entire Church, and our entire community.

Thank you for your witness. Marriage is a gift. I thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for giving and receiving that gift, and for entrusting it to the loving care of the Lord.

Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Denver.

Our new Pope’s challenging vision

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop José H. Gomez

I wish all of you and your families Easter blessings! This was a joyful Easter for me and I was touched to see so many of you at our services at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. In some cases, we had “standing room only,” which is a beautiful sign of your devotion to Jesus Christ.

For all of us, this was also the first Easter celebrated with our new Pope Francis. In my prayers during this time, I have been trying to accompany Pope Francis as he begins his ministry as the Vicar of Christ on earth.

And already, he has given us many examples of goodness, humility and tender pastoral love for the family of God.

I have been listening carefully to Pope Francis’ words, trying to understand the heart and mind of our new Holy Father.

One theme keeps coming up – how the Church must “go out from itself” and fight the temptation to become inward looking and self-absorbed. In fact, this was the theme of his talk to the College of Cardinals before the conclave that elected him.

In that talk, he said: “The Church is called to come out from itself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographical, but also the existential: those of the mystery of sin, of suffering, of injustice, those of ignorance and absence of faith, those of thought, those of every form of misery.”

“Our new Pope is reminding us that everything starts from our deep life of prayer and our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. But we can’t stop there. We can’t forget that the Church exists to evangelize.”

Pope Francis is saying that all of us in the Church need to come out of our pious “shells” – the comfortable patterns and practices that keep us “protected” from the demands of truly living our faith in our everyday life. We need to overcome our natural tendencies to self-centeredness so that we can really live for the good of others and for the Church’s mission.

Pope Francis says: “We are called to follow in his footsteps. … To step outside ourselves so as to attend to the needs of others; those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of comfort or help. We should not simply remain in our own secure world, that of the ninety-nine sheep who never strayed from the fold. But we should go out, with Christ, in search of the one lost sheep, however far it may have wandered. … going out in search of others so as to bring them the light and the joy of our faith in Christ.”

“Self-referential” is a word that I’ve noticed a lot in our new Pope’s writings and talks. What he means is that we are always tempted to focus too much on our own ministries, our own internal structures and programs. When we do this, we lose our evangelical instincts. We become “managers” not apostles, Pope Francis says.

Our new Pope is reminding us that everything starts from our deep life of prayer and our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. But we can’t stop there. We can’t forget that the Church exists to evangelize. We can’t forget that the gift of faith is given to us so that we will share it with others.

When we know Christ and love Christ, we have the duty to share that knowledge and love with others. Faith increases when it is tested and shared. So the more we go out and give of ourselves and our faith, the more our faith will grow. “The power of grace … comes alive and flourishes to the extent that we, in faith, go out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others,” the Pope says.

In his talk before the conclave, Pope Francis referred to the ancient Catholic idea of the mysterium lunae (“the mystery of the moon”).

The Church Fathers used to say that the Church is like the moon and Christ is the sun. The moon has no light of its own. It only reflects the light of the sun.

This should also be true for each of us as disciples and for the Church. Like the “moon,” we have no light of our own. We have only the light that comes to us from the “sun” of Jesus Christ. So we are called to reflect in our own lives the light of Jesus Christ. We are called to bring his light into our world. To scatter the darkness through our faithful witness to his Resurrection.

So in this beautiful season of Easter, let us pray for one another and let us try to unite ourselves more closely to our new Pope Francis.

And let us ask our Blessed Mother to support us as we try to go outside ourselves, to seek the lost, and to reflect the light of Christ in our ministries and in everything we do.

Reprinted with permission from The Tidings, official newspaper for the diocese of Los Angeles.

Assaults on Christianity – the challenge to be bold

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Bishop Arthur Serratelli

Not many news reports carried the story. But somehow it was able to leak. A professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton was teaching the course called “Intercultural Communications.” In one exercise to demonstrate the deep-seated emotions that surround issues, the professor asked the students to write Jesus’ name in big letters on a paper, place the paper on the ground and then stomp on the name of Jesus. Ryan Rotela, a junior, refused.

Ryan was polite and sincere. He calmly disagreed with the professor’s request and refused to do the exercise. He paid the consequences for his refusal. Suspension. A university supervisor told him not to return to that class.

After the incident, Florida Atlantic University declined to recognize the inappropriateness of what had taken place. The university made the rather innocuous statement that “While at times the topics discussed may be sensitive, a university environment is a venue for such dialogue and debate.” No apology. No explanation.

No sensitivity to religious belief. In fact, the contrary. A few days later, under pressure, the university did apologize.

Would that such incidents were rare. Not so! In 1999, some students at Temple University were upset when they discovered that the university was a venue for the play “Corpus Christi.” The play portrays Jesus and his disciples as being gay. To counter such an attack on faith, they organized an alternative play called “Final Destiny.” The university allowed “Corpus Christi,” but not “Final Destiny.”

In a joint report, Texas-based Liberty Institute and Washington-based Family Research Council have catalogued the growing number of anti-religion incidents in our educational system. One federal judge ordered a high school valedictorian to remove any reference to Jesus in her graduation speech. If not, she faced incarceration. On another occasion, a public school official reprimanded an elementary school student for praying over his lunch.

Why this fear of religion? In an address to the 1973 Childhood International Education Seminar, Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Harvard University Professor of Educational Psychiatry, said that “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers…, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being… It’s up to … teachers to make all these sick children well…” He sounds much like Freud who labeled religion “a universal obsessional neurosis.”

Today, diversity and tolerance are the shibboleths of our educational system, especially in so many of our universities. But tolerance does not always embrace Christianity. We are witnessing a significant rise in attempts to silence Christians and push Christian values from the public forum. Why? Perhaps something of an answer lies in very nature of Christianity. Christianity claims a unique and, to be frank, an exclusive place among religions. The founders of every other faith have a grave. Jesus does not! His tomb is empty. Only Christians claim that the founder of their faith rose from the dead and is Lord of all. The resurrection of Jesus makes Christians bold in proclaiming Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Our modern world, however, wants nothing to do with such absolutes. Our modern world holds that any opinion, any belief, is as true as any other. In such a context, Christians should expect opposition and persecution.

One wonders what the reaction would have been if the Florida Atlantic University professor had asked the students to put a name other than “Jesus” on the slip of paper and then stomp on it. Had he asked them to write “Obama,” undoubtedly he would have provoked a backlash of political criticism. Had he dared suggested “Mohammed,” the media would have widely reported the incident and the reaction would have been strong and, maybe, even violent. The fact that he did suggest the name “Jesus” shows the rising confidence among secularists to assault Christianity.

Martin Luther King once said, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people” (“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963). Ryan Rotela was not silent. He took his stand for respecting the name of Jesus and the Christian faith. Surprising enough, he is a Mormon! Imagine what would happen if Catholics were as bold.

Reprinted with permission from The Beacon, official newspaper for the diocese of Paterson, N.J.

The encounter of Easter

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop José H. Gomez

Our Filipino brothers and sisters have a beautiful Easter devotion they call Salubong (“The Encounter”).

Gathering before dawn, they relive the meeting of the risen Jesus with his Blessed Mother on the first Easter morning. The women come from one direction carrying a statue of Mary who is covered in a black veil. From the opposite direction, men come carrying a statue of a risen Jesus. Their two processions meet in front of the church. There, a child who is dressed like an angel removes Mary’s veil of mourning and the people enter the church with joy to celebrate Easter Mass.

In the Gospels, there is no mention of this meeting between Jesus and Mary after his Resurrection. But popular faith sometimes starts where the Scriptures leave off. And many saints and mystics have reflected on this encounter down through the centuries.

The Franciscans who brought Christianity to the Philippines taught that Jesus appeared to Mary before anyone else. John of Caulibus, in his Meditations on the Life of Christ in the 14th century, imagined Jesus and his mother falling to their knees when they met:

“Then they arose with tears of joy, she embraced him, pressed her face to his, and held on tightly, falling into his arms as he eagerly supported her. Later, when they were sitting down together, lovingly and carefully she looked him all over: at his face, and at the wounds in his hands, and throughout his entire body.…His mother rejoiced, ‘Blessed be your Father, who returned you to me!’ … So they conversed at some length, rejoicing and observing the Paschal Feast in a delightful and loving way.”

It is beautiful for us to reflect on the joy that Mary must have felt to have her Son back!

I also wonder what Jesus felt at that moment.

As he embraced his Blessed Mother, did he remember the widow he had once met in the town of Nain? (Luke 7:11-17) Did he think that Mary’s situation was a lot like hers – that Mary too was a widow grieving the death of her only son?

At Nain, Jesus touched the dead boy’s casket and he sat up and began to talk. The Gospel account concludes: “And he gave him back to his mother.”

On that first Easter morning, Jesus was giving himself back to his mother.

This is the joy of Easter! It is the joy of knowing that Jesus will “give back” to us all that we might suffer and lose in this life. Christ is risen and we will rise with him!

Easter joy is knowing that God’s love is stronger than death. It is the joy of knowing that Jesus is on our side!! That he will lead us through all the dark valleys to the light of his love and peace.

And Easter reminds us that Christian salvation is both universal and personal.

Jesus came to save the whole world. But notice how he did it. He came into this world at night and unnoticed, as a little baby. In the same way, his Resurrection happened in the middle of night – and again, nobody was there to see it.

The Gospels don’t describe salvation in earth-shaking events or overwhelming shows of power. God’s power is the power of humility.

Jesus came to save the world one person at a time.

When we reflect on his ministry, we recall so many personal and family dramas – the widow of Nain; fathers and mothers whose little children are sick and dying; men and women suffering from poverty and diseases of body and mind; Mary and Martha, two sisters whose brother Lazarus has died.

Our lives are no different. Jesus also comes to bring us salvation in the reality of our daily lives – in our worries and sufferings; in our struggles and setbacks; in the trials we face in our lives.

The promise of Easter is that if we believe in him, if we trust in his Word and stay close to him, Jesus will wipe away every tear. In his compassion, he will heal our sadness and fear and take away our uncertainty about the future. So let’s have confidence in him. In his rising, all our lives are raised.

So let us rejoice this Easter with our families and our friends. Let us pray for one another and let us share with one another the joy of the Resurrection.

I ask a special blessing for all of you families, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary our Mother. May Mary help all of us to live with the joy she felt when she looked upon her Son and our Savior, risen to die no more.

Reprinted with permission from The Tidings, official newspaper for the diocese of Los Angeles.

With a new pope installed, it’s time to come home

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Well, folks, it’s done, and tomorrow, Friday, I’ll be home, in time for Palm Sunday. As much as I savor Rome, and as much as I have been profoundly inspired by the events of the last three weeks, it’ll be good to be back home with all of you, especially for Holy Week and Easter.

Actually, it’s not “done” at all. In fact, it’s just the beginning: the pontificate of Pope Francis promises to be exciting and uplifting. Once again, Jesus came through, keeping his promise to be with His Church always. On February 11, when we heard the somber news that Benedict XVI was leaving the Chair of St. Peter, we wondered who could ever take the place of this erudite, humble, holy man. Our own Marist College, known for the professionalism of its polling research, reported that nearly 90 percent of Catholics in the United States highly appreciated Benedict’s papacy (none of them, unfortunately, write for the major local newspaper, where only bitter “former Catholics” need apply).

And now we smile and thank God that Habemus Papam, “we have a Pope,” and an extraordinarily appealing one at that.

What I’m about to say might surprise you. Yes, the office of the Successor of St. Peter is essential to the Church. We note that apostolic is one of the marks of the true Church. The Pope assures us that we stay connected to the apostles, especially St. Peter.

Yet – and here’s the surprise – the Church is not equated with the Pope, and, the effectiveness of the Church does not completely depend upon the Holy Father. The Church counts, when all is said and done, only upon Jesus. The life of the Church is not synonymous with that of the activities of the Bishop of Rome, however much we love him, listen to him, and are loyal to him. The Church is bigger than our Holy Father.

And he’d be the first to tell us that.

Yes, Jesus is radiantly alive in the ministry of the Successor of St. Peter, whose teaching, governing, and sanctifying is uniquely effective.

But the explosive light and life of Jesus reaches to the ends of the earth through the Church in her fullness, not just through the ministry of its Supreme Pontiff.

Next week, we’ll re-live the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus in the solemn liturgy of Holy Week…Jesus is there!

On Palm Sunday, thousands of believers will risk harassment, persecution, harm, and even death as they approach Mass in all parts of the world, in hostile cultures, or under oppressive governments… Jesus suffers!

On Monday, Reconciliation Monday, tens of thousands of Catholics in the archdiocese will approach the Sacrament of Penance…Jesus forgives!

On Holy Thursday, I’ll help at the breadline at St. Paul the Apostle Church near Lincoln Center, as hundreds of homeless are fed, only one of hundreds of places where the hungry have food, the sick are healed, the aged and infirmed housed, the lost welcomed, the poor consoled, all in His Holy Name…Jesus serves!

And that same evening thousands will gather to relive His Last Supper, and then walk in procession with the Holy Eucharist…Jesus is really present!

On Holy Saturday, more than 2,000 people in our parishes will enter the Church as new Catholics…Jesus invites!

On Easter, approximately 2.2 million of us, just in the Archdiocese of New York alone, will worship at Mass, and receive Him in Holy Communion…Jesus feeds!

God’s people pray and believe; God’s Word is preached and accepted; God’s poor are loved and served; God’s life is imparted in the sacraments; and Satan is on the run! That’s the Church! Jesus is there!

As I left the conclave last Wednesday, exiting the loggia where our beloved new Pope had just appeared on the balcony, I was eager to get to a phone. I had an urgent call to make, and it had nothing to do with the new Pope Francis. I was expecting very important news.

But the phones were still blocked in the Vatican because of the conclave blackout. I was impatient even during the festive meal with the Holy Father, at the Domus Santa Marta where we Cardinals were staying. I tried the phones again with no luck.

Finally I got to the North American College, to be exuberantly greeted by cheering seminarians and hundreds of journalists. But the only person I wanted to find was my secretary, Father Jim Cruz, who came pushing through the crowd grinning, holding up his iPad, with the news I really wanted: a photo of a healthy Charles Kenneth Grissom, the new baby of my niece Kelly and her husband Mike, who had been born just the day before, when I had already gone into the secrecy of the conclave.

And I’ll baptize Charlie on Easter Monday! Jesus is there, in that marriage of Kelly and Mike, in their new family, and soon in the little soul of Charlie!

That’s the Church…that’s God’s goodness…that’s the light and life of Christ. That was as much good news as the election of Pope Francis. God is good to His people.

Yes, Jesus teaches, serves, governs, and sanctifies in a uniquely effective way through the Successor of St. Peter, our Pope. Yes, Jesus seems especially present in the simplicity, sincerity, and humility of Pope Francis.

But, as Pope Benedict taught us, as Pope Francis tells us, in the end, it’s not about them; it’s not about the Pope; it’s all about Jesus and His Church!

Reprinted with permission from the Catholic New York, official newspaper for the diocese of New York. Column originally ran March 21, 2013.

A new holy Father and the legacy of a name

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap.

Francis is the name of several extraordinary saints. Francis Xavier, cofounder of the Jesuits, is one of history’s greatest missionaries. Francis Borgia, a member of one of the most famous (and infamous) families of the Renaissance, turned away from wealth and privilege, joined the Society of Jesus and rose to become its superior general. And Francis De Sales, the great mystical writer, ascetic and bishop, founded a religious order of women with St. Jane De Chantal. He also worked closely with the Capuchin Franciscans to preach a renewed Catholic faith in his diocese in the wake of the Reformation.

But the Francis most people remember when they hear the name, including many non-Christians and non-believers, is the Poverello, “the poor one” – St. Francis of Assisi. This is the saint whose name our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, has chosen. So it’s good to know a little bit about him.

St. Francis once said that “the saints lived lives of heroic virtue, [but] we are satisfied to talk about them.” Francis himself wasn’t satisfied with pious words. He wanted to act on the things he believed. He called his brothers to live the Gospel with simplicity and honesty. And that’s why he used the words sine glossa – “without gloss” – in his Testament. He saw that the Gospel wasn’t complicated, but it was demanding and difficult. The scholars and Church lawyers of his day in the 13th century had written commentaries called glosses. And these glosses were very good at either explaining away the hard parts of the Gospel, or diminishing our need to follow Christ’s demands. Francis wanted none of that. He was a radical in the truest sense. He wanted to experience discipleship at its root.

Francis lived in a time as troubled as our own. It was an age of Christians killing Christians, Muslims and Christians killing each other, wars between cities and states, and corruption both within and outside the Church. Views of society and the Church were changing. The feudal system was falling apart. For much of his life, Francis was lost in the confusion. But in his experience of faith and prayer, he came to some basic insights that gave him a very powerful inner freedom. And this enabled him to live the Gospel with simplicity and clarity in such a way that he not only was converted himself, but also became the leader of a movement of conversion in the Church and society at large.

Today the Church seems to be in similar disarray. We have all sorts of factions fighting each other, among priests, among bishops, and certainly among our laypeople. We’re humiliated and shaken by the criminal sexual behavior of some of our clergy. And this has led, even for some who are deeply loyal to the Church, to a lack of confidence in our bishops, in the Church and her future, and even sometimes to a lack of confidence in Jesus Christ. We wonder if the Gospel is really true or if the Church is just another fraud.

Francis felt many of the same sentiments, and he faced many of the same questions. And yet a very clear part of his spirituality was his love for the Church, his obedience to her pastors, his unwillingness to be critical of the Church. Instead of tearing her down because of the sins of her leaders, Francis chose to love the Church and serve her – and because of that love and by his simple living of the Gospel without compromise, he became the means God used for the renewal of a whole age of faith.

When God spoke to Francis from the cross of San Damiano – “Repair my house, which is falling into ruin” – Francis heard it literally. He thought he was supposed to repair the chapel of San Damiano near Assisi. But of course the real call was to repair the larger Church with an interior revolution, by the personal witness of a pure and basic living of the Gospel.

The Franciscan tradition tells us that often in his life, Francis would meet with his community, and this man who was one of history’s greatest saints would say to them, “Brothers, up to now we have done nothing. Let us begin.” And I think that even though we’ve accomplished many wonderful things in the Church in Philadelphia and throughout the United States, if we want to be what God calls us to be in the years that lie ahead, we need to be like St. Francis.

Francis wasn’t the only Church reformer of his day. Plenty of other men and women saw the problems in the Church and tried to do something about it. Francis wasn’t even the smartest or the most talented – but he was almost certainly the most faithful, the most honest, the most humble, the most single-minded in his mission, and the most zealous in his love for Jesus Christ. And I’d argue that these marks of authentic Church renewal haven’t really changed at all in 800 years.

Throughout my life, I’ve often turned to the Prayer of St. Francis before the Crucifix. It goes like this:

Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, so that I may carry out your holy and true command.

It’s always easier to talk about reform when the target of the reform is “out there,” rather than in here. The Church does need reform. She always needs reform, which means she needs scholars and committed laypeople to help guide her, and pastors who know how to lead with humility, courage and love. But what she needs more than anything else is holiness – holy priests and holy people who love Jesus Christ and love His Church more than they love their own ideas.

Today, just like 800 years ago, the structures of the Church are so much easier to tinker with than a stubborn heart, or an empty hole where our faith should be. Reforming the Church, renewing the Church, begins with our own repentance, our own humility and willingness to serve – and that’s the really hard work, which is why sometimes so little of it seems to get done. But as our new Holy Father understands so well, it can be done. Francis showed us how. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.

Reprinted with permission from the Catholic Philly, official newpaper for the diocese of Philadelphia.