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Address to the Bishops of the U.S.
Rediscover
the joy of living a Christ-centered life via the virtues and prayer
On
Wednesday, 16 April [2008], after a white House Visit, the Holy Father
returned to the Apostolic Nunciature for a birthday luncheon with the
American Cardinals, officers of the United states conference of catholic
bishops (USCCB) and his entourage.
Later, the Pope went to the National Shrine of the Immaculate
conception, where a group of about 600 collaborators of the Bishops'
Conference awaited him. He prayed briefly in the Blessed Sacrament
Chapel and then descended to the Crypt dedicated to Our Lady of the
Catacombs, where he was greeted by Cardinal Francis E. George, president
of the USCCB. About 400 American bishops were present. The Pope
celebrated Vespers with the U.S. Bishops; the service was broadcast on
maxi-screens outside the Shrine for the benefit of the faithful.
The
following is the Holy Father's Address to Bishops.
Dear Brother Bishops,
It gives me great joy to greet you today, at the start of my visit to
this country, and I thank Cardinal George for the gracious words he has
addressed to me on your behalf. I want to thank all of you, especially
the Officers of the Episcopal Conference, for the hard work that has
gone into the preparation of this visit. My grateful appreciation goes
also to the staff and volunteers of the National Shrine, who have
welcomed us here this evening. American Catholics are noted for their
loyal devotion to the see of Peter. My pastoral visit here is an
opportunity to strengthen further the bonds of communion that unite us.
We began by celebrating Evening Prayer in this Basilica dedicated to the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a shrine of special
significance to American Catholics, right in the heart of your capital
city. Gathered in prayer with Mary, Mother of Jesus, we lovingly commend
to our heavenly Father the people of God in every part of the United
States.
For the Catholic communities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and
Louisville, this is a year of particular celebration, as it marks the
bicentenary of the establishment of these local Churches as Dioceses. I
join you in giving thanks for the many graces granted to the Church
there during these two centuries. As this year also marks the
bicentenary of the elevation of the founding see of Baltimore to an
Archdiocese, it gives me an opportunity to recall with admiration and
gratitude the life and ministry of John Carroll, the first Bishop of
Baltimore
— a worthy leader of the Catholic community in your newly
independent nation. His tireless efforts to spread the Gospel in the
vast territory under his care laid the foundations for the ecclesial
life of your country and enabled the Church in America to grow to
maturity. Today the Catholic community you serve is one of the largest
in the world, and one of the most influential. How important it is,
then, to let your light so shine before your fellow citizens and before
the world, "that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father who is in heaven" (Mt 5:16).
Many of the people to whom John Carroll and his fellow Bishops were
ministering two centuries ago had travelled from distant lands. The
diversity of their origins is reflected in the rich variety of ecclesial
life in present-day America. Brother Bishops, I want to encourage you
and your communities to continue to welcome the immigrants who join your
ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their
sorrows and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home. This,
indeed, is what your fellow countrymen have done for generations. From
the beginning, they have opened their doors to the tired, the poor, the
"huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (cf. Sonnet inscribed on the
Statue of Liberty). These are the people whom America has made her own.
Of those who came to build a new life here, many were able to make good
use of the resources and opportunities that they found, and to attain a
high level of prosperity. Indeed, the people of this country are known
for their great vitality and creativity. They are also known for their
generosity. After the attack on the Twin Towers in September 2001, and
again after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Americans displayed their
readiness to come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in need. On
the international level, the contribution made by the people of America
to relief and rescue operations after the tsunami of December 2004 is a
further illustration of this compassion. Let me express my particular
appreciation for the many forms of humanitarian assistance provided by
American Catholics through Catholic Charities and other agencies. Their
generosity has borne fruit in the care shown to the poor and needy, and
in the energy that has gone into building the nationwide network of
Catholic parishes, hospitals, schools and universities. All of this
gives great cause for thanksgiving.
Resist 'private level' religion
America is also a land of great faith. Your people are remarkable for
their religious fervor and they take pride in belonging to a worshipping
community. They have confidence in God, and they do not hesitate to
bring moral arguments rooted in biblical faith into their public
discourse. Respect for freedom of religion is deeply ingrained in the
American consciousness
— a fact which has contributed to this country's
attraction for generations of immigrants, seeking a home where they can
worship freely in accordance with their beliefs.
In this connection, I happily acknowledge the presence among you of
Bishops from all the venerable Eastern Churches in communion with the
Successor of Peter, whom I greet with special joy. Dear Brothers, I ask
you to assure your communities of my deep affection and my continued
prayers, both for them and for the many brothers and sisters who remain
in their land of origin. Your presence here is a reminder of the
courageous witness to Christ of so many members of your communities,
often amid suffering, in their respective homelands. It is also a great
enrichment of the ecclesial life of America, giving vivid expression to
the Church's catholicity and the variety of her liturgical and spiritual
traditions.
It is in this fertile soil, nourished from so many different sources,
that all of you, Brother Bishops, are called to sow the seeds of the
Gospel today. This leads me to ask how, in the twenty-first century, a
bishop can best fulfill the call to "make all things new in Christ, our
hope"? How can he lead his people to "an encounter with the living God",
the source of that life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks
(cf. Spe Salvi, 4)? Perhaps he needs to begin by clearing away some of
the barriers to such an encounter. While it is true that this country is
marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of
secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to
influence their behavior. Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in
church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices
or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for
practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized,
to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to
adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being
from conception to natural death? Any tendency to treat religion as a
private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every
aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the
transforming power of the Gospel.
For an affluent society, a further obstacle to an encounter with the
living God lies in the subtle influence of materialism, which can all
too easily focus the attention on the hundredfold, which God promises
now in this time, at the expense of the eternal life which he promises
in the age to come (cf. Mk 10:30). People today need to be reminded of
the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that
implanted within them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given
opportunities to drink from the wells of his infinite love. It is easy
to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and
technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking
we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs.
This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by
ourselves cannot attain (cf. Spe Salvi, 31), our lives are ultimately
empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a relationship
with him who came that we might have life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10).
The goal of all our pastoral and catechetical work, the object of our
preaching, and the focus of our sacramental ministry should be to help
people establish and nurture that living relationship with "Christ
Jesus, our hope" (1 Tim 1:1).
Continual formation, education
In a society which values personal freedom and autonomy, it is easy to
lose sight of our dependence on others as well as the responsibilities
that we bear towards them. This emphasis on individualism has even
affected the Church (cf. Spe Salvi, 13-15), giving rise to a form of
piety which sometimes emphasizes our private relationship with God at
the expense of our calling to be members of a redeemed community. Yet
from the beginning, God saw that "it is not good for man to be alone"
(Gen 2:18). We were created as social beings who find fulfillment only
in love
— for God and for our neighbor. If we are truly to gaze upon him
who is the source of our joy, we need to do so as members of the people
of God (cf. Spe Salvi, 14). If this seems counter-cultural, that is
simply further evidence of the urgent need for a renewed evangelization
of culture.
Here in America, you are blessed with a Catholic laity of considerable
cultural diversity, who place their wide-ranging gifts at the service of
the Church and of society at large. They look to you to offer them
encouragement, leadership and direction. In an age that is saturated
with information, the importance of providing sound formation in the
faith cannot be overstated. American Catholics have traditionally placed
a high value on religious education, both in schools and in the context
of adult formation programs. These need to be maintained and expanded.
The many generous men and women who devote themselves to charitable
activity need to be helped to renew their dedication through a
"formation of the heart": an "encounter with God in Christ which awakens
their love and opens their spirits to others" (Deus Caritas Est, 31). At
a time when advances in medical science bring new hope to many, they
also give rise to previously unimagined ethical challenges. This makes
it more important than ever to offer thorough formation in the Church's
moral teaching to Catholics engaged in health care. Wise guidance is
needed in all these apostolates, so that they may bear abundant fruit;
if they are truly to promote the integral good of the human person, they
too need to be made new in Christ our hope.
As preachers of the Gospel and leaders of the Catholic community, you
are also called to participate in the exchange of ideas in the public
square, helping to shape cultural attitudes. In a context where free
speech is valued, and where vigorous and honest debate is encouraged,
yours is a respected voice that has much to offer to the discussion of
the pressing social and moral questions of the day. By ensuring that the
Gospel is clearly heard, you not only form the people of your own
community, but in view of the global reach of mass communication, you
help to spread the message of Christian hope throughout the world.
Clearly, the Church's influence on public debate takes place on many
different levels. In the United States, as elsewhere, there is much
current and proposed legislation that gives cause for concern from the
point of view of morality, and the Catholic community, under your
guidance, needs to offer a clear and united witness on such matters.
Even more important, though, is the gradual opening of the minds and
hearts of the wider community to moral truth. Here much remains to be
done. Crucial in this regard is the role of the lay faithful to act as a
"leaven" in society. Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens
think in harmony with the Church's teaching on today's key ethical
questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral
formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the
authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.
Faith and reason favor marriage
In this regard, a matter of deep concern to us all is the state of the
family within society. Indeed, Cardinal George mentioned earlier that
you have included the strengthening of marriage and family life among
the priorities for your attention over the next few years. In this
year's World Day of Peace Message I spoke of the essential contribution
that healthy family life makes to peace within and between nations. In
the family home we experience "some of the fundamental elements of
peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of
authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are
weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the
necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to
forgive them" (no. 3). The family is also the primary place for
evangelization, for passing on the faith, for helping young people to
appreciate the importance of religious practice and Sunday observance.
How can we not be dismayed as we observe the sharp decline of the family
as a basic element of Church and society? Divorce and infidelity have
increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone
marriage or to forego it altogether. To some young Catholics, the
sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil
bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with
another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of
Catholic marriages in the United States together with an increase in
cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of spouses,
sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble
lifelong commitment, is simply absent. In such circumstances, children
are denied the secure environment that they need in order truly to
flourish as human beings, and society is denied the stable building
blocks which it requires if the cohesion and moral focus of the
community are to be maintained.
As my predecessor, Pope John Paul II taught, "The person principally
responsible in the Diocese for the pastoral care of the family is the
Bishop ... he must devote to it personal interest, care, time, personnel
and resources, but above all personal support for the families and for
all those who … assist him in the pastoral care of the family" (Familiaris
Consortio, 73). It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from
faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as
a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the
transmission of life. This message should resonate with people today,
because it is essentially an unconditional and unreserved "yes" to life,
a "yes" to love, and a "yes" to the aspirations at the heart of our
common humanity, as we strive to fulfill our deep yearning for intimacy
with others and with the Lord.
Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America and
elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors.
Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities
have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and
duties by such gravely immoral behavior. As you strive to eliminate this
evil wherever it occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of
God's people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to
showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given
responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach
of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out
with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.
Responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the President of
your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was "sometimes very badly
handled". Now that the scale and gravity of the problem is more clearly
understood, you have been able to adopt more focused remedial and
disciplinary measures and to promote a safe environment that gives
greater protection to young people. While it must be remembered that the
overwhelming majority of clergy and religious in America do outstanding
work in bringing the liberating message of the Gospel to the people
entrusted to their care, it is vitally important that the vulnerable
always be shielded from those who would cause harm. In this regard, your
efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit not only for those
directly under your pastoral care, but for all of society.
Walk the path of hope, prayer
If they are to achieve their full purpose, however, the policies and
programs you have adopted need to be placed in a wider context. Children
deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its
proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading
manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent
today. They have a right to be educated in authentic moral values rooted
in the dignity of the human person. This brings us back to our
consideration of the centrality of the family and the need to promote
the Gospel of life. What does it mean to speak of child protection when
pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media
widely available today? We need to reassess urgently the values
underpinning society, so that a sound moral formation can be offered to
young people and adults alike. All have a part to play in this task
—
not only parents, religious leaders, teachers and catechists, but the
media and entertainment industries as well. Indeed, every member of
society can contribute to this moral renewal and benefit from it. Truly
caring about young people and the future of our civilization means
recognizing our responsibility to promote and live by the authentic
moral values which alone enable the human person to flourish. It falls
to you, as pastors modelled upon Christ, the Good Shepherd, to proclaim
this message loud and clear, and thus to address the sin of abuse within
the wider context of sexual mores. Moreover, by acknowledging and
confronting the problem when it occurs in an ecclesial setting, you can
give a lead to others, since this scourge is found not only within your
Dioceses, but in every sector of society. It calls for a determined,
collective response.
Priests, too, need your guidance and closeness during this difficult
time. They have experienced shame over what has occurred, and there are
those who feel they have lost some of the trust and esteem they once
enjoyed. Not a few are experiencing a closeness to Christ in his Passion
as they struggle to come to terms with the consequences of the crisis.
The Bishop, as father, brother and friend of his priests, can help them
to draw spiritual fruit from this union with Christ by making them aware
of the Lord's consoling presence in the midst of their suffering, and by
encouraging them to walk with the Lord along the path of hope (cf. Spe
Salvi, 39). As Pope John Paul II observed six years ago, "we must be
confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the
entire Catholic community", leading to "a holier priesthood, a holier
episcopate and a holier Church" (Address to the Cardinals of the United
States, 23 April 2002, 4). There are many signs that, during the
intervening period, such purification has indeed been taking place.
Christ's abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually
transforming our darkness into light: all things are indeed being made
new in Christ Jesus our hope.
At this stage a vital part of your task is to strengthen relationships
with your clergy, especially in those cases where tension has arisen
between priests and their bishops in the wake of the crisis. It is
important that you continue to show them your concern, to support them,
and to lead by example. In this way you will surely help them to
encounter the living God, and point them towards the life-transforming
hope of which the Gospel speaks. If you yourselves live in a manner
closely configured to Christ, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life
for his sheep, you will inspire your brother priests to rededicate
themselves to the service of their flocks with Christ-like generosity.
Indeed a clearer focus upon the imitation of Christ in holiness of life
is exactly what is needed in order for us to move forward. We need to
rediscover the joy of living a Christ-centred life, cultivating the
virtues, and immersing ourselves in prayer. When the faithful know that
their pastor is a man who prays and who dedicates his life to serving
them, they respond with warmth and affection which nourishes and
sustains the life of the whole community.
Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that
press upon us from every side. Adoration of Christ our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament prolongs and intensifies the union with him that is
established through the Eucharistic celebration (cf. Sacramentum
Caritatis, 66). Contemplation of the mysteries of the Rosary releases
all their saving power and it conforms, unites and consecrates us to
Jesus Christ (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11, 15). Fidelity to the
Liturgy of the Hours ensures that the whole of our day is sanctified and
it continually reminds us of the need to remain focused on doing God's
work, however many pressures and distractions may arise from the task at
hand. Thus our devotion helps us to speak and act in persona Christi, to
teach, govern and sanctify the faithful in the name of Jesus, to bring
his reconciliation, his healing and his love to all his beloved brothers
and sisters. This radical configuration to Christ, the Good Shepherd,
lies at the heart of our pastoral ministry, and if we open ourselves
through prayer to the power of the Spirit, he will give us the gifts we
need to carry out our daunting task, so that we need never "be anxious
how to speak or what to say" (Mt 10:19).
As I conclude my words to you this evening, I commend the Church in your
country most particularly to the maternal care and intercession of Mary
Immaculate, Patroness of the United States. May she who carried within
her womb the hope of all the nations intercede for the people of this
country, so that all may be made new in Jesus Christ her Son. My dear
Brother Bishops, I assure each of you here present of my deep friendship
and my participation in your pastoral concerns. To all of you, and to
your clergy, religious and lay faithful, I cordially impart my Apostolic
Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the Risen Lord.
Response to
Questions Posed by the Bishops
Working
for the new evangelization to bear fruit in American Church life
On Wednesday, 16
April [2008], after celebrating Vespers with and then addressing the
U.S. Bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the
Holy Father answered the following three questions posed to him by
certain Bishops.
The Holy Father is
asked to give his assessment of the challenge of increasing secularism
in public life and relativism in intellectual life, and his advice on
how to confront these challenges pastorally and evangelize more
effectively.
I touched upon this theme briefly in my address. It strikes me as
significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the
secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within
the context of the separation of Church and State, American society has
always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public
role, and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply
religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional religiosity
and go about business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly
undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot prescind from
a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the Gospel encounters in
contemporary American culture.
Of course, what is essential is a correct understanding of the just
autonomy of the secular order, an autonomy which cannot be divorced from
God the Creator and his saving plan (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 36). Perhaps
America's brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for
professing belief in God, and respects the public role of religion and
the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief
to a lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that
certain things "out there" are true, but without practical relevance for
everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life:
living "as if God did not exist". This is aggravated by an
individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a
Catholic approach to "thinking with the Church", each person believes he
or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds
but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ.
Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind,
Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of
this age (cf. Rom 12:3). We have seen this emerge in an acute way in the
scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion.
On a deeper level, secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm and to
pursue more actively her mission in and to the world. As the Council
made clear, the lay faithful have a particular responsibility in this
regard. What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the
intrinsic relationship between the Gospel and the natural law on the one
hand, and, on the other, the pursuit of authentic human good, as
embodied in civil law and in personal moral decisions. In a society that
rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every
level of her teaching
— in catechesis, preaching, seminary and
university instruction
— an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth of
Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound
understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a liberation both
from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and fulfilling life. In
a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught as an integral way of
life, offering an attractive and true answer, intellectually and
practically, to real human problems. The "dictatorship of relativism",
in the end, is nothing less than a threat to genuine human freedom,
which only matures in generosity and fidelity to the truth.
Much more, of course, could be said on this subject: let me conclude,
though, by saying that I believe that the Church in America, at this
point in her history, is faced with the challenge of recapturing the
Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and
imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for
human fulfillment. I think in particular of our need to speak to the
hearts of young people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages
contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness
and truth. Much remains to be done, particularly on the level of
preaching and catechesis in parishes and schools, if the new
evangelization is to bear fruit for the renewal of ecclesial life in
America.
The Holy Father is asked about "a certain quiet attrition" by which
Catholics are abandoning the practice of the faith, sometimes by an
explicit decision, but often by distancing themselves quietly and
gradually from attendance at Mass and identification with the Church.
Certainly, much of this has to do with the passing away of a religious
culture, sometimes disparagingly referred to as a "ghetto", which
reinforced participation and identification with the Church. As I just
mentioned, one of the great challenges facing the Church in this country
is that of cultivating a Catholic identity which is based not so much on
externals as on a way of thinking and acting grounded in the Gospel and
enriched by the Church's living tradition.
The issue clearly involves factors such as religious individualism and
scandal. Let us go to the heart of the matter: faith cannot survive
unless it is nourished, unless it is "formed by charity" (cf. Gal 5:6).
Do people today find it difficult to encounter God in our Churches? Has
our preaching lost its salt? Might it be that many people have
forgotten, or never really learned, how to pray in and with the Church?
Here I am not speaking of people who leave the Church in search of
subjective religious "experiences"; this is a pastoral issue which must
be addressed on its own terms. I think we are speaking about people who
have fallen by the wayside without consciously having rejected their
faith in Christ, but, for whatever reason, have not drawn life from the
liturgy, the sacraments, preaching. Yet Christian faith, as we know, is
essentially ecclesial, and without a living bond to the community, the
individual's faith will never grow to maturity. Indeed, to return to the
question I just discussed, the result can be a quiet apostasy.
So let me make two brief observations on the problem of "attrition",
which I hope will stimulate further reflection.
First, as you know, it is becoming more and more difficult, in our
Western societies, to speak in a meaningful way of "salvation". Yet
salvation
— deliverance from the reality of evil, and the gift of new
life and freedom in Christ
— is at the heart of the Gospel. We need to
discover, as I have suggested, new and engaging ways of proclaiming this
message and awakening a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can
bring. It is in the Church's liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of
the Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed and
lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much to do in
realizing the Council's vision of the liturgy as the exercise of the
common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful apostolate in the
world.
Second, we need to acknowledge with concern the almost complete eclipse
of an eschatological sense in many of our traditionally Christian
societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem in the Encyclical
Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and hope are not limited to this
world: as theological virtues, they unite us with the Lord and draw us
toward the fulfillment not only of our personal destiny but also that of
all creation. Faith and hope are the inspiration and basis of our
efforts to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In
Christianity, there can be no room for purely private religion: Christ
is the Savior of the world, and, as members of his Body and sharers in
his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we cannot separate our love
for him from our commitment to the building up of the Church and the
extension of his Kingdom. To the extent that religion becomes a purely
private affair, it loses its very soul.
Let me conclude by stating the obvious. The fields are still ripe for
harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God continues to give the growth (cf. 1 Cor
3:6). We can and must believe, with the late Pope John Paul II, that God
is preparing a new springtime for Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio,
86). What is needed above all, at this time in the history of the Church
in America, is a renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her
shepherds actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have been
wounded, and to bring strength to those who are languishing (cf. Ez
34:16). And this, as I have said, calls for new ways of thinking based
on a sound diagnosis of today's challenges and a commitment to unity in
the service of the Church's mission to the present generation.
The Holy Father is asked to comment on the decline in vocations
despite the growing numbers of the Catholic population, and on the
reasons for hope offered by the personal qualities and the thirst for
holiness which characterize the candidates who do come forward.
Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the
priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a
local Church. There is no room for complacency in this regard. God
continues to call young people; it is up to all of us to to encourage a
generous and free response to that call. On the other hand, none of us
can take this grace for granted.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will
send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with
the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often
think that prayer
— the
unum necessarium
— is the one aspect of
vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue!
Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in
Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation,
strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which
we come to know the Lord's will for our lives. To the extent that we
teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating
with God's call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the
discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue
between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to
pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.
It has been noted that there is a growing thirst for holiness in many
young people today, and that, although fewer in number, those who come
forward show great idealism and much promise. It is important to listen
to them, to understand their experiences, and to encourage them to help
their peers to see the need for committed priests and religious, as well
as the beauty of a life of sacrificial service to the Lord and his
Church. To my mind, much is demanded of vocation directors and formators:
candidates today, as much as ever, need to be given a sound intellectual
and human formation which will enable them not only to respond to the
real questions and needs of their contemporaries, but also to mature in
their own conversion and to persevere in life-long commitment to their
vocation. As Bishops, you are conscious of the sacrifice demanded when
you are asked to release one of your finest priests for seminary work. I
urge you to respond with generosity, for the good of the whole Church.
Finally, I think you know from experience that most of your brother
priests are happy in their vocation. What I said in my address about the
importance of unity and cooperation within the presbyterate applies here
too. There is a need for all of us to move beyond sterile divisions,
disagreements and preconceptions, and to listen together to the voice of
the Spirit who is guiding the Church into a future of hope. Each of us
knows how important priestly fraternity has been in our lives. That
fraternity is not only a precious possession, but also an immense
resource for the renewal of the priesthood and the raising up of new
vocations. I would close by encouraging you to foster opportunities for
ever greater dialogue and fraternal encounter among your priests, and
especially the younger priests. I am convinced that this will bear great
fruit for their own enrichment, for the increase of their love for the
priesthood and the Church, and for the effectiveness of their
apostolate.
Dear Brother Bishops. with these few observations, I once more encourage
all of you in your ministry to the faithful entrusted to your pastoral
care, and I commend you to the loving intercession of Mary Immaculate,
Mother of the Church.
Presentation of a
Chalice to the Archbishop of New Orleans
Acknowledging the suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims and the
goodness of the local Church
On Wednesday, 16
April [2008], following Vespers and a brief question-and-answer session
with the U.S. Bishops at the national Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception, the Holy Father presented a chalice to Archbishop Alfred C.
Hughes of New Orleans, Louisiana, for his courage during the period of
reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina and as a sign of his prayerful
solidarity for the Catholics and all people of the area. Here are the
Pope's Words.
Before leaving, I
would like to pause to acknowledge the immense suffering endured by the
people of God in the Archdiocese of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane
Katrina, as well as their courage in the challenging work of rebuilding.
I would like to present Archbishop Alfred Hughes with a chalice, which I
hope will be accepted as a sign of my prayerful solidarity with the
faithful of the Archdiocese, and my personal gratitude for the tireless
devotion which he and Archbishops Philip Hannan and Francis Schulte
showed toward the flock entrusted to their care.
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