Week Seventeen: A Sacramental Reality Real Presence
In his book The Universal Christ, Father Richard shares that he wrote this teaching on the Eucharist on Easter Sunday 2017 with “great joy”:
When Jesus spoke the words “This is my Body,” I believe he was speaking not just about the bread right in front of him, but about the whole universe, about every thing that is physical, material, and yet also spiritfilled.
Seeing the Eucharist as a miracle is not really the message at all. I can see why we celebrate it so often. This message is such a shock to the psyche, such a challenge to our pride and individualism, that it takes a lifetime of practice and much vulnerability for it to sink in as the pattern of every thing, and not just this thing.
The bread and the wine together are standins for the very elements of the universe, which also enjoy and communicate the incarnate presence. Why did we resist this message so much? Authentically eucharistic churches should have been the first to recognize the corporate, universal, and physical nature of the “Christification” of matter. While Catholics rightly affirm the Real Presence of Jesus in these physical
elements of the earth, most do not realize the implications of what they have affirmed. The bread and wine are largely understood as an exclusive presence, when in fact their full function is to communicate a truly inclusive—and always shocking—presence.
A true believer is eating what he or she is afraid to see and afraid to accept: The universe is the Body of God, both in its essence and in its suffering.
The Eucharist is an encounter of the heart when we recognize Presence through our own offered presence. In the Eucharist, we move beyond mere words or rational thought and go to that place where we don’t talk about the Mystery anymore; we begin to chew on it. Jesus did not say, “Think about this” or “Stare at this” or even “Worship this.” Instead he said, “Eat this!”
We must move our knowing to the bodily, cellular, participative, and thus unitive level. We must keep eating and drinking the Mystery, until one day it dawns on us, in an undefended moment, “My God, I really am what I eat! I also am the Body of Christ.” Then we can henceforth trust and allow what has been true since the first moment of our existence. The Eucharist should operate like a stun gun, not just a pretty ceremony. We have dignity and power flowing through us in our bare and naked existence—and everybody else does too, even though most do not know it. A body awareness of this sort is enough to steer and empower our entire faith life.
This is why I must hold to the orthodox belief that there is Real Presence in the bread and wine. For me, if we sacrifice Reality in the basic and universal elements, we end up sacrificing the same Reality in ourselves
Tuesday, 26 April 2022
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Seventeen: A Sacramental Reality The Body of the Cosmos
Father Richard continues to emphasize the centrality of the Eucharist in a Christian life:
The Eucharist—or what many Christians refer to as communion—becomes our ongoing touchstone for the Christian journey. It becomes a place to which we must repeatedly return in order to find our face, our name, our absolute identity, who we are in Christ, and thus who we are forever. We are not just humans having a God experience. The Eucharist tells us that, in some mysterious way, we are an ingested God having a human experience!
This continues in Romans 8:19–25 (as creation), 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, and 11:23–25 (as bread and wine), and in 12:12–13 (as people). In each of these Scriptures, and in an ever-expanding sense, Paul expresses his full belief that there is a real transfer of human and spiritual identity from Christ to Creation, to the elements of bread and wine, and through them to human beings.
Thus Eucharist, like Resurrection, is not a unique event or strange anomaly. Eucharist is the Incarnation of Christ taken to its final shape and end—the very elements of the earth itself. It is all one huge continuum of Incarnation. It is indeed one sacred universe,
all things turning around one thing (uni versus), the divine. [1]
Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn (1926–2022) wrote about "Jesus and Buddha as brothers." On the Christian communion ritual, he writes:
The bread that Jesus handed to you, to us, is real bread, and if you can eat real bread you have real life. But we are not able to eat real bread. We only try to eat the word bread or the notion of bread. Even when we are celebrating the Eucharist, we are still eating notions and ideas. “Take, my friends, this is my flesh, this is my blood.” Can there be any more drastic language in order to wake you up? What could Jesus have said that is better than that? You have been eating ideas and notions, and I want you to eat real bread so that you become alive. If you come back to the present moment, fully alive, you will realize this is real bread, this piece of bread is the body of the whole cosmos.
If Christ is the body of God, which he is, then the bread he offers is also the body of the cosmos. Look deeply and you notice the sunshine in the bread, the blue sky in the bread, the cloud and the great earth in the bread. Can you tell me what is not in a piece of bread? The whole cosmos has come together in order to bring to you this piece of bread. You eat it in such a way that you become alive, truly alive. . . . Eat in such a way that the Holy Spirit becomes an energy within you and then the piece of bread that Jesus gives to you will stop being an idea, a notion. [2]
Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Seventeen: A Sacramental Reality When God Meets Us
Popular Christian author Rachel Held Evans (1981–2019) has an expansive understanding of how Christians, as the body of Christ, can celebrate the sacraments together:
Something about communion triggers our memory and helps us see things as they really are. Something about communion opens our eyes to Jesus at the table. . . .
“God works through life, through people, and through physical, tangible, and material reality to communicate [God’s] healing presence in our lives,” explains Robert E. Webber when describing the principle of sacrament. “God does not meet us outside of life in an esoteric manner. Rather, [God] meets us through life incidents, and particularly through the sacraments of the church. Sacrament, then, is a way of encountering the mystery.” [1]
This is the purpose of the sacraments, of the church—to help us see, to point to the bread and wine, the orchids and the food pantries, the post-funeral potlucks and the postcommunion dance parties, and say: pay attention, this stuff matters; these things are holy. . . .
Enter one another’s joy, one another’s family, one another’s messes, one another’s suppers.
Evans also encourages us to recognize and celebrate the sacramental nature of Jesus’ ministry:
Indeed, the word sacrament is derived from a Latin phrase which means “to make holy.” When hit with the glint of love’s light, even ordinary things become holy. And when received with open hands in the spirit of eucharisteo, the signs and wonders of Jesus never cease. The 150-plus gallons of wine at Cana point to a generous God, a God who never runs out of holy things. This is the God who, much to the chagrin of Jonah, saved the rebellious city of Nineveh, the God who turned five loaves of bread and a couple of fish into a lunch to feed five thousand with baskets of leftovers to spare. This God is like a vineyard manager who pays a full day’s wage for just one hour of work, or like a shepherd who leaves his flock in search of a single lamb, or like a father who welcomes his prodigal son home with a robe, a ring, and a feast.
We have the choice, every day, to join in the revelry, to imbibe the sweet wine of undeserved grace, or to pout like Jonah, argue fairness like the vineyard employees, resent our own family like the prodigal’s older brother. At its best, the church administers the sacraments by feeding, healing, forgiving, comforting, and welcoming home the people God loves. At its worst, the church withholds the sacraments in an attempt to lock God in a theology, a list of rules, a doctrinal statement, a building.
But our God is in the business of transforming ordinary things into holy things, scraps of food into feasts and empty
purification vessels into fountains of fine wine. This God knows his way around the world, so there’s no need to fear. . . . There’s always enough just taste and see. There’s always and ever enough.
Thursday, 28 April 2022
Richard Rohr's
Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Seventeen: A Sacramental Reality Sacramental Vision
Contemplative author and artist Christine Valters Paintner honors the formal sacraments of the church while also inviting us to celebrate the sacramental nature of all life and all beings:
One of the classic definitions of a sacrament is something that is an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible grace. In the Christian church there are different rituals that are considered to be sacraments. The Catholic Church has seven sacraments, while other denominations count fewer among their number. However, this idea of sacramentality extends beyond the formal sacraments such as Baptism, Matrimony, Communion, and the Anointing of the Sick. This sense of sacramentality, rooted in the Incarnation, extends our vision out to the world so that everything can be a sacrament, meaning every person, creature, plant, and object can be an opportunity to encounter something of the Divine Presence in the world. Sacramentality is a quality present in creation that opens us up to the Sacred Presence in all things. Sacraments reveal grace.
When viewed through this expansive lens, we discover that the more we cultivate intimacy with the natural world, the more we discover about God’s presence. All of our interactions with nature can be sacramental, and all the ways nature extends herself to us are sacramental as well. Sacramentality breaks through our surface obsessions in the world and plunges us into the depth of the Sacred at ever y turn. It is a spontaneous reminder of God’s creative upwelling and expansive love, calling us to love beyond boundaries. St. Isaac the Syrian [seventh century] defines a charitable heart as one “which is burning with love for the whole creation, for [humans], for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons—for all creatures.” [1]
Paintner talks about the shift that takes place when we see life in this way:
This discovery that every creature and every created thing can be a window of revelation into the divine nature is an invitation to fall more and more in love with the world. To see that teachers of grace exist everywhere means to bring a sense of reverence to the way we walk in the world. When we encounter nature as sacrament, we can no longer objectify it. We can instead create the circumstances that nurture and nourish this kind of vision. . . . Sacramental vision means not only that we grow in our love of God’s ways in the world but also that we grow in our sense of kinship with creation. . . .
There is a sense of God’s incarnate presence in creation that shimmers forth to reveal the holiness of all things. Notice how your senses come alive when you walk out in the world aware of its sacramental nature. What do your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin each reveal to you about how God is alive in the world around you?
Friday, 29 April 2022
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Seventeen: A Sacramental Reality A Cosmic Icon
When we discern the sacramental principle in the world—the presence of God in every person and every place— then we can rejoice and celebrate the fullness of life and the joy of creation. —John Chryssavgis, Creation as Sacrament
Greek Orthodox theologian John Chryssavgis compares creation to an “icon . . . the epiphany of God in the world and the existence of the world in the presence of God.” [1] He writes:
Just as the Spirit is the “air” that the whole world breathes, so too the earth is the “ground” which we all share. Were God not present in the density of a city, or in the beauty of a forest, or in the sand of a desert, then God would not be present in heaven either. So if, indeed, there exists today a vision that is able to transcend—perhaps transform—all national and denominational tensions, it may well be that of our environment understood as sacrament of the Spirit. The breath of the Spirit brings out the sacramentality of nature and bestows on it the fragrance of resurrection. . . . [2]
Everything is in some way sacramental. All depends on the receptiveness and openness of our hearts. . . . Nothing is secular or profane; nothing is pagan or foreign. . . . Were God not tangibly accessible in the
very earthliness of this world, then [God] would not be the loving, albeit transcendent author of the universe. This is surely the implication of the basis of the Christian faith, namely, that “the Word assumed [or became] flesh (John 1:14), which we all too often, in a reductionist manner, take to mean “became human.” . . . Unless Christ may be discovered “in the least of his brethren” (Matthew 25:40) and in the least particle of matter, then he is too distant to matter [emphasis added]. There is a wonderful saying attributed to Jesus, which expresses the reality of his presence everywhere:
‘Lift up the stone, and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood, and I am there.’ [3] [4]
Centered in Orthodox theology, Chryssavgis urges all Christians to care for the earth as an expression of our faith:
No matter how carefully [humans have] sought to foster material prosperity and selfsufficiency, it is now clear that grave “fissures” and “faults” have appeared on the face of the earth. . . . The image of God in creation has been shattered; the face of God on the world has been distorted; the integrity of natural life has been fragmented. Yet, it is precisely in this shattered world that we are called to discern the caring nature of the Creator and discover the sacramental nature of creation. . . .
The aim is to induce personal and societal transformation in making choices that respect creation as sacrament. Such transformation is only possible through divine grace, the energy of the Holy Spirit, the creative and motivating force for everyone and everything. [5]
Argentine doctor: Losing weight would ease Pope Francis' knee pain
25 April 2022
by Christopher White Vatican
Pope Francis holds onto the arm of his chair as he arrives for the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 20. Since February, the pope, who has long suffered from sciatica, has repeatedly had difficulty walking, resulting in a number of modifications to his public schedule. (CNS/Paul Haring)
ROME — Argentine journalist and doctor
Nelson Castro, who has become a friend of Pope Francis, says the Roman pontiff's knee pain would be greatly improved by losing weight, something Francis has told him he is trying to do.
"His [being] overweight is a key part in improving the pain he is suffering from his knee," Castro said in an interview with NCR.
Since February, the pope, who has long suffered from sciatica, has repeatedly had difficulty walking, resulting in a number of modifications to his public schedule. Francis
was forced to cancel a Feb. 27 day trip to the Italian city of Florence and his plans to celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass to mark the start of Lent.
On April 22, Francis suspended his public appointments to undergo a necessary medical checkup following a demanding Holy Week schedule at the Vatican.
Pope Francis grimaces in pain as he gets up from his chair during the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 20. The pope told the Argentine newspaper La Nación his limited mobility and pronounced limp are due to a torn ligament. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Castro, who last visited Francis at the Vatican Feb. 14, said the pope told him at the time that he had lost just over 3 pounds.
In 2015, the Italian news agency ANSA reported that doctors had advised he cut back on his pasta intake.
"That's a real problem for him, because he likes eating," he joked, "And I know that his cook is very good."
Castro is the author of the 2021 book La Salud de Los Papas (The Health of the Popes), which details the health of the pontiffs from Pope Leo XIII to Pope Francis. The book, which Francis encouraged him to write, includes a 2019 interview between the pope and the physician.
In an April 22 interview with the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación, Francis said he is suffering from a torn ligament in his right knee, which he noted is being treated by icing and painkillers.
"Ligament recovery is slow at this age," the pope said, adding that doctors have assured him it will improve over time.
Castro said that based on the information the pope told him at the time, there is not a clear medical solution to the pope's knee problem. He said surgery could be an option to treat a rupture, but it would not necessarily be effective for inflammation.
In July, Francis faced the greatest health challenge to his nearly decade-long papacy when he was hospitalized for 10 days after having intestinal surgery during which doctors removed half his colon.
In his estimation, Castro said, the pope was "recovering very well from that operation."
"The day I saw him, his walking was very good and he wasn't in pain at that moment," he reflected.
Castro said that in footage of the pope during the Vatican's Holy Week events Francis appeared pleased to be out among the crowd of tens of thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square.
The pope already has a full summer travel schedule, with likely visits to Africa, the Middle East and North America.
"There is no question that should the pain worsen and worsen, it will be a difficulty for him to travel," Castro said.
While Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI relied, at times, on a cane and a wheelchair for assistance in moving around,
Castro doubted that Francis would be eager to go that route.
"He told me that he is following all of the advice of his physicians, and so far he hasn't received that kind of advice," Castro added.
En route to Rome after a two-day visit to Malta earlier this month, Francis acknowledged to reporters that his health is unpredictable, but said he remains optimistic.
"At this age, we don't know how the game will end," said the pope. "Let's hope it goes well."
Christopher White Christopher White is the Vatican correspondent for NCR. His email address is cwhite@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @CWWhiteNCR.
Monday Starter: Georgetown event will focus on the legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman
25 April 2022 by
Chris Herlinger
Sr. Thea Bowman through the years (Courtesy of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration)
Georgetown University will host a public dialogue May 3 on the legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman (1937-1990), a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration who "lived out her Catholic faith and African American identity through her ministry of evangelization, education, and action for justice," the university said.
The Jesuit institution is renaming the chapel in Bowman's honor at the university's Copley Hall, which will now be called The Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman Chapel
Bowman "was a Catholic religious sister, scholar, singer, and teacher," the university said in announcing the event. As part of a series of forums called the Dahlgren Dialogues, the event will "examine Sr. Thea's continuing challenge for the Catholic Church, the United States, and all of us to resist racism and welcome the gifts, leadership, and impatience for justice of African Americans."
Among those scheduled to speak at the event are Ogechi Akalegbere, the 2021 winner of the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, who serves as Christian service coordinator at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Maryland.
Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory smiles and claps as a gospel choir named for Sr. Thea Bowman sings during a Black History Month Mass of thanksgiving Feb. 20 at Immaculate Conception Church in Jamaica Estates section of Queens, New York. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Also speaking are Sr. Patricia Chappell, the moderator of the leadership team for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur U.S. EastWest Province, former president of the National Black Sisters' Conference and the former executive director of Pax Christi USA; and Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington and the former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Another featured speaker will be Shannen Dee Williams, an associate professor of history at the University of Dayton who specializes in women's, religious, and Black freedom movement history. Williams is the author of the forthcoming Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle.
The Dahlgren Dialogues, co-sponsored by Georgetown's Office of Mission and Ministry and the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, are a series of conversations with experienced leaders in the context of prayerful reflection on current topics at the intersection of faith and public life.
The 6 p.m. event will be held at the university's Dahlgren Chapel. Those who cannot attend in person can watch a livestream of the event by RSVPing on the morning of the dialogue.
At the threshold of life and death 25 April 2022
by Marjorie Guingona
Spirituality
(Marjorie Guingona)
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
"Thank you God! I am alive!" This was the first thing I joyfully uttered the moment I woke up early on the first day of April. The soft cool breeze gently blowing through my window and the radiant dawn breaking was enough to make me bounce out of my bed to begin a new day. From a distance, I could already hear the sacred call to prayer of our Muslim brethren echoing throughout our neighborhood. And so, after a quick shower, I headed out for a brisk 20-minute walk to
the Santo Niño Cathedral for the 6 a.m. Mass.
Time flies so fast — and as I began the second quarter of this year 2022, I simply felt gratitude for the precious, priceless gift of life bestowed upon me by our Creator. I felt this sense of gratitude even more keenly upon learning the heartbreaking news of the death of a young priest who never saw the light of day today, but passed away at 3 a.m. while half of humanity was engulfed in deep sleep. He was only 42 years old.
He succumbed to sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer of connective tissue — cells that connect or support other kinds of tissue in the body. His tumor spread so fast in his bones, muscles, tendons and the blood vessels of his arms and legs that he deteriorated quickly, and he died in less than a month. I had only a few encounters with him in the not-so-distant past, but his ready smile, lighthearted countenance and zest for life and for the mission shall remain in my heart, and I am thankful for having met him.
At 57, I sometimes wonder if I deserve to be saved at all. A number of friends, relatives, acquaintances and even family have not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic that caught the world by surprise early in 2020. We continue to grieve for the loss of our loved ones whom we will no longer see. In a sudden twist of fate, they have left this earthly life all too soon. I realized that now more than ever, death no longer knows age. Death comes like a thief in the night, and only then do we fully grasp its meaning when someone dear and near to us suddenly passes away.
Humanity seems not to have learned from history's horrible lessons of war and violence. Or have we? Blood remains grimly etched in our history books, never to be forgotten. Time and again, we kill one
another, all because of hate, greed, envy, pride and prejudice. It is so alarming to see the tragedies of the ongoing war in Ukraine, where thousands of lives and properties have been lost, and we are still counting.
The entire human race and the whole of creation is in danger of being totally eradicated with a mere push of a button, for efforts of peace negotiations to stop the war seemingly remain to be a far-fetched reality. And so, as we find ourselves at the threshold of life and death, we continue to hold on to our fervent prayers that a glimmer of hope will shine through the gloomy clouds of violence and despair.
I remember the horrors of World War II as sadly recounted by my grandfather Lolo Teofisto, in his personal journals from 1942 to 1945. He wrote them so vividly that I could almost imagine myself right beside him and my grandmother, taking refuge in the basement of their house in Manila, terrified by the loud and deafening noise of warplanes in a seemingly endless exchange of ballistic air fighting between the American and Japanese military. Thank God they survived! But the 1945 Battle in Manila caused so much havoc in the country, resulting in the death of more than 100,000 innocent civilians and leaving the capital in total ruins. The monthlong battle was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific, and with Warsaw and Berlin, Manila was considered one of the most devastated cities during the entire war.
April happens to be Earth Month. The weeks leading up to Earth Day on April 22 provide a time to realize that new life and hope can resurrect from the ashes of war and violence. It occurs right after the Holy Week celebration, and Easter sets the tone for Christians to resuscitate what has died — for as it is now, our planet continues to be threatened with extinction by our selfish
pursuit of material idols. In his encyclical Laudato Sí', Pope Francis reminds us that we are all connected. Creation is God's great gift to us. Without it, humanity will not survive.
Earth Day 2022's theme. "Invest in Our Planet," is a wake-up call for all of us to come together to take action to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihood — as one human family. Our future is full of hope if we invest all our time, talent and treasure to make a green future a reality. We are enjoined to act courageously, innovate broadly and implement equitably as one global community to save our planet that is now on the brink of total destruction if we do nothing about it. We can no longer remain indifferent to this urgent call because climate change is real and global warming is changing the face of the Earth.
At this juncture of our history, we need an ecological conversion and a personal/collective transformation of hearts, if we are to restore nature’s beauty, bounty and biodiversity, for time is running short. Our partnership for the Earth is a vital gift our present generation can pass on to the next generation. We need to invest in a healthy planet for the sake of the children of today and their children of tomorrow.
Finally, as I walked back home from morning Mass, an inner sense of tranquility dwelled in me. New life awaits despite the sad and disturbing news of death and war raging in our world today. Hope springs eternal and I smile at the heavens knowing that we are not alone in the journey. The Risen Lord Jesus is with us in every step of the way; I remember his words: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live' " (John 11:25)
Eternal rest grant upon the soul of Sacred Heart Fr. Joseph Butlig, O Lord! And may perpetual life shine upon him! Amen.
Marjorie Guingona
Guardian Angel Sr. Marjorie Guingona is from Butuan City, Philippines. After her formation in Madrid, Spain, she ministered in Mexico, Nicaragua and Los Angeles. Since 2020, she has worked with the Subanen Indigenous peoples in the Diocese of Pagadian, Philippines. She has an academic background in religious education and pastoral ministry and has written several books.
After tense year of debates, US bishops to gather for retreat in June
25 April 2022
by Brian Fraga
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, gestures during a Nov. 17, 2021, session of the bishops' fall general assembly in
Baltimore. At his left is Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, USCCB vice president. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
The U.S. Catholic bishops will gather for a retreatlike special assembly this summer in San Diego to focus on episcopal unity after a tense year and a half in which deep divisions surfaced among prelates over the issue of denying Communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians — including President Joe Biden.
There will be no public session for the June 2022 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops because the normal assembly business of committee reports and presentations are being set aside for prayer, reflection and episcopal fraternity, a spokeswoman for the conference told NCR.
Instead, the June 13-17 special assembly will feature spiritual talks given by Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia, with time for private and communal prayer, Mass, social outings and "fraternal dialogue," according to a memo sent to the bishops.
"As I mentioned to Archbishop Fisher, although this is not a formal retreat, it is a time [for] us to grow as bishops intellectually, pastorally, and spiritually," Bishop David Talley of Memphis, Tennessee, wrote in the March 7 memo, obtained by NCR.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia, shown in a 2019 file photo, will deliver spiritual talks to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June. The assembly in San Diego will include no public sessions. (CNS photo/Simon Caldwell)
Talley, the chairman of the bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, wrote that the conference's working group organizing the gathering asked Fisher to delve into themes related to unity and mutual support among bishops; polarization in the country and divisions in the church; unity with the pope; and stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, among other points.
"They're very much focused on the internal life within the church," said Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, a journalist who has covered bishops' meetings for decades. Reese told NCR that the bishops, for a few decades, have met every few years or so for retreatlike gatherings where they focus on spiritual matters instead of the practical business of passing resolutions and voting on documents.
"I think it's a great idea that they do this," Reese said. "The bishops need something like this. Bishops don't really have anybody to talk to. Priests talk to each other. Pastors can get together and talk about their experiences. But bishops, who can they talk
to, especially the ones in rural areas who are a long way from any other bishop?"
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas — a member of the working group of bishops organizing the special assembly — told NCR he is looking forward to the gathering's informal format where he said bishops can benefit from guided meditations and conversations with one another.
"It's a more relaxed, conversational building up of understanding of how things are going," said Flores, who chairs the conference's Committee on Doctrine. He said the special assembly offers "a big picture moment" for bishops to reflect on themselves and the church.
"This year, particularly because the synod is something that's kind of on our minds, would be a good moment for us ourselves to live something of what the Holy Father is talking about, which is communion, mission and participation," said Flores, referring to the 2021-2023 Synod on Synodality.
Several bishops pray during a Nov. 12, 2018, session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore. (CNS/Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
The bishops' spiritually-oriented, in-person gathering this summer comes one year after a tense virtual meeting in June 2021 that featured hours of sometimes contentious
public debate over a document on "Eucharistic consistency" that some conservative prelates wanted to address denying Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
The idea for the document grew out of a special working group that Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the bishops' conference, formed to consider the implications of Biden, a pro-choice Catholic, elected president in November 2020.
During last summer's debate, a few bishops called out Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats, by name. Other bishops expressed concerns about the divisive nature of the debate.
At their fall 2021 general assembly in Baltimore, the bishops discussed the text in several closed-door executive sessions before overwhelmingly approving a milquetoast document that reiterated Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist without directly addressing the issue of pro-choice politicians.
Flores said this year's special assembly is coming at "a good time," adding that such a gathering "builds up the communion of the bishops, which is supposed to help build up the communion of the church."
The retreat in San Diego has the potential to help the bishops improve communication with one another and foster conversations outside the partisan divisions of American and ecclesial politics, Reese said.
"Sometimes if all you know about a bishop is what he stands up and says at a bishops meeting in November, then you don't know much about him," Reese said. "These are opportunities to form friendships, drink beer
together, talk into the night and get to know one another."
In addition to prayer, the USCCB memo mentions possible social outings for the bishops, including a visit to the San Diego Zoo, a self-guided tour of the decommissioned naval aircraft carrier USS Midway and a round of golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course.
Also to help the American bishops bridge the ideological divide and heal any festering grievances will be Fisher, 62, who was ordained a Dominican priest in 1991 and was appointed by Pope Francis in November 2014 to serve as the ninth archbishop of Sydney.
"He is certainly not someone who's going to lead [the bishops] into schism," Reese said.
However, during a World Youth Day press conference in 2008, Fisher angered clergy sex abuse survivors when he appeared to refer to survivors "dwelling crankily on 'old wounds.' " Fisher, who at the time was an auxiliary bishop in Sydney and an organizer for World Youth Day, later said his remarks were taken out of context, claiming he was speaking about reporters.
Fisher has defended traditional church teachings on life and sexuality in public affairs. He spoke out against euthanasia in a 2015 debate with ethicist Peter Singer. Fisher opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia and said he was "deeply disappointed" when a slight majority of Australians voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in a nonbinding referendum in December 2017.
In his March 7 memo, Talley said the American bishops asked Fisher to reflect on the assembly's theme of "Episcopal Fraternity and Communio," with the
centering Scripture verse being Matthew 18:20, where Jesus said that "where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them."
"The image is that of the Lord Jesus Christ calling the apostles and forming them into a community around Himself. This communion with Himself suggests for us bishops unity in Christ as His apostles," Talley wrote.
Fisher is scheduled to deliver seven talks and celebrate the closing Mass on June 17. The list of themes Fisher was asked to speak on includes "how to do fraternal correction with love," the isolation and loneliness that bishops struggle with, suffering and healing, the centrality of the cross, and society's growing secularization.
Reese said the fact that the bishops asked Fisher to speak on secularization touches on internal ecclesial debates over who or what to blame for the decline in Mass attendance, alienation from the church and the hierarchy, and the decline in the bishops' moral authority.
Said Reese, "Is it secularism? Consumerism? Is it sin and human weakness? Is it all those things? Or is it [the bishops] covering up the abuse crisis?"
Brian Fraga
Brian Fraga is NCR staff reporter. His email address is bfraga@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter at @BrianFragaNCR.
Francis has opened the Vatican's top leadership to women. Are lay cardinals next?
22 April 2022
by Phyllis Zagano, Religion News Service
Vatican
Pope Francis leaves after a consistory to create 14 new cardinals in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in this June 28, 2018, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Pope Francis is reorganizing the Vatican Curia — the church's administrators and his senior staff — and may name new cardinals in June.
Francis' new apostolic constitution, "Praedicate Evangelium" ("Preach the Gospel"), issued last month, noted that the heads of dicasteries and other offices that manage the church need not be ordained. This highlighted Francis' stated aim to give "more space" to women in the church.
Most of the important dicasteries are as a matter of fact headed by cardinals. But if
any Catholic can head a curial office, the question becomes, does the title come with the job? More importantly, is the title needed to do the job?
If the main duty of a cardinal is to be an adviser to the pope, and there is no ordination required, it could make sense to restart the tradition of lay cardinals and to include women in the mix.
Since the 16th century, cardinals have come mostly from the ranks of priests and bishops, but this has not always been the case.
Some Spanish and Italian royals were created cardinals in the medieval church. More recently, Pope Pius IX named the curial lawyer Teodolfo Mertel a cardinal, two months before ordaining him deacon in 1858.
Mertel was not exactly a lay cardinal — he received clerical tonsure, a rite just short of ordination, in his late 30s — but he remained a cardinal deacon for the rest of his life.
As auditor of the papal treasury, he oversaw a good part of the Vatican's money.
There is even historical evidence of female deacons doing much the same. A sixthcentury inscription recalls the Deacon Anna, who, with her brother, appears to have served as the treasurer of Rome.
Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, however, anyone named cardinal was required to be at least a priest. The 1983 version of the code dictates that in addition to being chosen from among men who are at least priests, new cardinals are to accept ordination as bishops. Appointing a lay man or woman would require a change to, or at least a dispensation from, the law.
Yet in the late 1960s, Pope Paul VI considered making the French philosopher Jacques Maritain a lay cardinal, an idea Maritain himself rejected. There is a rumor that Mother Teresa turned down Pope John Paul II when he asked her to become a cardinal.
So lay and female cardinals are not beyond the realm of possibility. The question is, would it make any difference?
It would certainly be interesting. Lay or deacon cardinals would be admitted to the College of Cardinals, which since 1179 has elected the next pope. It's highly unlikely a lay or female cardinal would be elected the bishop of Rome.
But Francis has already named a layman, former journalist Paolo Ruffini, to head the Dicastery for Communication, and the pope's emphasis on the church's mission of evangelization signals that his choice of personnel — male or female, married or single, ordained or not — depends solely on an ability and willingness to do the job within that context.
The message of "Praedicate Evangelium" is that becoming a cardinal is secondary and relative only to how gaining the title would or would not advance the task at hand. That includes expanding management and ministry to laypeople. That also includes telling the world that woman are equally talented and capable human beings.
So, has the time has come for female cardinals?
Maybe so, maybe no. But it is a new church.
Phyllis Zagano
Phyllis Zagano is senior research associatein-residence and adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, New York. Her most recent book is Women: Icons of Christ
What kind of Catholics are we?
22 April 2022
by Sr. Quincy Howard, O.P.
Ministry Spirituality
World War I trench warfare (Creative Commons/Wikimedia Commons)
What does it mean to be a vowed Dominican Sister, a member of the Order of Preachers within a church that largely rejects women preaching in liturgical settings?
Lucky for me, I am blessed with a high tolerance for perceived contradictions. In fact, it was my penchant for incongruities that, after 25 years as a non-practicing
Catholic, drew me back into the fold. For me, the endurance, scope and coherence of the Catholic tradition belie a profound underlying Truth that enables me to live with the inherent, sometimes painful, contradictions of the church.
A church that has been shaped over two millennia of doctrinal, theological and scientific developments has a complex and messy story. The church claims a universality in nature that at the same time contradicts the idea of the one true church; these holy tensions are inherently part of what makes Catholicism unique.
But there is also an unholy tension that is building in the U.S. It has been ushered in with the rigid, dualistic overlay of the 21stcentury American culture wars.
Psychological findings reveal that the human brain is hardwired to seek consistency. So when persistent, internal contradictions are perceived, they can generate mental stress that often manifests in unhealthy ways. Unresolved contradictions — dissonance between apparently conflicting ideas or perceptions — can lead to behaviors like harsh judgment, catastrophizing and defensive attacks. These response patterns are being exploited in the American Catholic community to sow division among the people of God. A universal church divided into opposing camps is the true contradiction taking root, and the lines are conveniently drawn according to the culture wars.
A recent article in America magazine looked at the fragmented nature of the church's public voice in the United States and how foundational values of Catholicism have been usurped by the narrative drama of the culture wars. The authors use the apt analogy of battlefields with American Catholics in their respective trenches,
committed to defending their side or attacking the other. The fact that we have allowed these trenches to take shape and the degree to which we continue defending them against each other will only serve to further delegate our faith as "one more ideology competing for adherents."
As the people of God, how might Catholics begin moving toward reconciliation? Pope Francis has opened a space for such a "disarmed entry into no-man's land": the Synod of Bishops on synodality.
Synods grow out of an ancient form of gathering in the church, rooted in the concept of "walking together." The modern synodal process is intended to help the pope and leadership of the church understand the call of the Spirit and so better lead the people of God.
Sr. Nathalie Becquart, appointed consultor and undersecretary to the Synod of Bishops, has described the synod process as an invitation for the people of God to become protagonists in the full expression of agency within the context of the church. American Catholics are invited to read the signs of the times and discern responses to offer up. The synod offers a forum for Catholic encounter, listening and discernment. It's a chance to deepen our sense of dialogue by centering the Spirit, not agendas and ideologies. This is our invitation to speak boldly, with parrhesia — without fear — about our hopes and concerns. We are being asked to trust in ourselves as instruments of the Spirit, the ultimate protagonist who renews the church. The ecclesial and spiritual renewal possibilities are as astounding as the current state of division in the U.S. Catholic community.
To date, there has been lackluster engagement by U.S. bishops, with
procedural details and crafting of reports overshadowing our call to engage as protagonists in the story. Some attribute this to rebelliousness in the hierarchy or to a lack of courageous leadership. Having failed to hold hardliners at bay, it now takes great courage to prevent the church militants and other disruptors from derailing engagement by people of goodwill. Being misunderstood or, worse, drafted into the culture wars and co-opted by one side, must be a fear of many church leaders. I say that because it is for me, even as I write this reflection. Fear and anxiety around genuine, good-faith engagement on certain triggering issues paralyzes many Catholics.
Cynicism is another massive hurdle that the people of God must overcome for a meaningful, fruitful synodal process to unfold. We have become too accustomed to having no agency in the context of the church. But the synod is a God event. This historic season in the church and in humanity urges us to enter into the biblical story, to trust and to embark on a new journey for the people of God.
Initial questions are crucial: How would we ensure that the input, the concerns and the dreams cannot be swept aside? How might we hold bishops accountable for acknowledging and not diminishing the holy grumblings and the prophetic hopes of the people of the church? How will a hope be transformed into an actionable opportunity? How do we make this a bold and joyful struggle?
Fear and anxiety around genuine, good-faith engagement on certain triggering issues paralyzes many Catholics.
To begin a journey like this requires courage and conviction on the part of the pilgrims. Sometimes it's hardest to take the first step, so I offer up a suggestion. My example as a
woman in the Order of Preachers is only one of many in which half the human population is relegated to the ecclesial peripheries in the church. Let's look at the role of women in the church: There are women everywhere called to serve in more and different ways. Can we talk about that? Could we be willing to take a risk to have this conversation without retreating to the trenches?
Discerning Deacons is a project that believes we can. Its mission is to engage Catholics in the active discernment of our church about women and the diaconate. The synod process provides the perfect-sized container for the issue. Let's imagine how a prophetic diaconate might provide leadership that could animate, channel and capitalize on an energized church of the people. What if we were not afraid to have the conversation?
Discerning Deacons will hold a national consultation over two virtual events in May as part of the synod process. These forums will be incorporated into the process through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' "Region XVI," designated for the participation of national Catholic organizations. All are welcome. Perhaps this is another way the Spirit seeks to pull us out of our trenches. Perhaps the Spirit is moving in you to become a protagonist.
With such a long history and abundant church doctrine, it can be easy to forget that the truth of our faith ultimately comes from the trustworthiness of our Teacher. And his good news is a vision many of us are prepared to preach, if given the opportunity.
Quincy Howard
Quincy Howard is a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa. She lives in Wisconsin, doing planning work on behalf of her congregation. She recently ended a ministry on Capitol Hill as a federal policy advocate for social justice.
Aquinas vs. QAnon: What Catholics can do about conspiracy thinking
26 April 2022 by
Ann Garrido
In this Aug. 2, 2018, file photo, a protester holds a Q sign, referencing the fringe conspiracy theory known as QAnon, as he waits in line with others to enter a campaign rally with thenPresident Donald Trump in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (AP/Matt Rourke, File)
Lately, in my work as a conflict facilitator, I've noticed a trend about the question of "truth." Of course, every conflict is rooted in questions of "truth" — what makes a
situation difficult in the first place is that the parties involved hold different pictures in their minds about what is going on and what it means. Parties frame these as questions of "truth."
Yet most conflicts are not really about "truth" — at least not in the way we think they are. As a rule of thumb, both parties agree on the basic facts of the situation. What they disagree about is which facts matter, which ones are more relevant, what we should do about the facts.
A couple of years ago, however, I began to see situations where it wasn't merely a matter of perspective concerning the facts, but disagreement about the facts themselves. I began to hear stories of not only fellow coworkers and congregants, but also longtime friends and beloved family members unable to find sources of information that both would find trustworthy. I was witnessing the early signs of a different sort of pandemic — a conspiracy pandemic.
Now questions about conspiracy thinking come up in almost every conflict workshop that I offer: QAnon, the origins of COVID19, the safety of vaccines, the stolen 2020 presidential election, the purpose of 5G. Occasionally even the Flat Earth Society makes a reappearance.
What links these disparate narratives is a common disregard for widely available factual data and an overemphasis on data that is missing or limited in scope. Conspiracy thinkers believe in their own capacity to discern information and perceive patterns of connection that others can't see, while their counterparts feel angry and exhausted at the very prospect of trying to have another conversation that — based on previous experience — will go "absolutely nowhere."
in Guelph, Ontario. (CNS/The Crosiers/Gene Plaisted)
The situation alarms me as a conflict facilitator, but also as a theologian and faculty member at Aquinas Institute of Theology, where we steep ourselves in all things Dominican, especially of course the thought of Thomas Aquinas. In the dead of night I can sometimes hear Thomas as if through a bullhorn wanting to wake all of us up to the dangers of this phenomenon and the urgency of some sort of coordinated response, not just as a nation, but as a church. I believe he would see conspiracy thinking as a matter of concern not only politically — pertaining to the health of our common life with one another — but in terms of faith.
It is from Thomas' Summa Theologiae that we derive the classical dictionary definition of truth as "the adequation of thing and intellect." More simply, truth is having a picture of the world in your mind that aligns with how the world really is. In contrast to some Eastern spiritual traditions, Western Christianity understands the world as
St. Thomas Aquinas is seen in stained glass at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
existing on its own separate from our minds and regardless of what we believe about it. So either the climate is slowly warming or it is not slowly warming, but whether it is warming or not is not dependent on me believing it is. Either Joe Biden received more votes or Donald Trump did, but me believing one way or the other does not change the actual number.
Our beliefs do matter, however, because they motivate our actions. It is in our own best interest to make sure our minds align with reality, or our choices will be poor ones. I may not believe in gravity, for example, but if I jump off my apartment balcony, I'm going to hit the ground at the same speed as someone who does. It is not reality that is in danger. It is me.
Many conspiracy theories seem fairly innocuous. Is anyone really the worse off if I don't believe Apollo landed on the moon? Does even Paul McCartney care that I think he actually died in 1966? Why be concerned? Two reasons. First — on a theological plane — as Christians, we reverence "Truth" and "Ultimate Reality" as names for God and any time that we have a picture in our mind that is less true than it could be — even around the fate of a Beatle — we are also one step further from God than we could be. Conspiracy thinking has spiritual consequences, even if sometimes subtle ones.
But I concede this big-picture theological concern can sound a bit esoteric. So let me name the more immediately worrisome one: Across history, many conspiracy theories that perhaps seemed inconsequential at first have led to horrendous results. The obscure 1905 "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" book asserted a Jewish conspiracy to achieve world domination. Three decades later it was used by Nazis to justify Jewish genocide. The denial of the existence of
AIDS in the 1980s by the government of South Africa contributed to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Current disinformation campaigns about COVID-19 vaccines have already contributed to unnecessary deaths as well. The very real impact of conspiracy theories makes them not only spiritually but morally troublesome.
As a church we need to treat conspiracy thinking with the same vigor as other significant moral issues of our time, such as immigration policy, abortion, racism and human trafficking.
Aquinas would note that if we are genuinely misled by information and believe it to be true when it is not, there is no sin involved. We are simply in the very unfortunate state of error. But if we know the information to be fictitious and nevertheless assert that it is true, then we are lying and in a state of sin. Moreover, if others have tried to point out to us that we are mistaken and we refuse to receive more accurate information when we could do so as creatures gifted with reason, we are culpable of the sin of "vincible ignorance" — a term from the past that we probably need to take out of the closet and dust off.
As a church we need to treat conspiracy thinking with the same vigor as other significant moral issues of our time, such as immigration policy, abortion, racism and human trafficking. Pope Francis regularly confronted disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine in his preaching this past year. And his annual World Communications Day messages have been consistently strong in raising alarm about "fake news," especially on social media.
Parishes and dioceses could be doing much more to take on conspiracy thinking as a moral crisis. Possibilities include bulletin articles, preaching from the pulpit, faith formation opportunities on media literacy,
book studies and discussion of films like Netflix's The Social Dilemma. Making headway on this issue is going to require coordinated, sustained effort as a community dedicated to truth. It is more than any one of us can take on individually. And yet, at the same time, each of us hungers to figure out how to deal effectively with the situation in our own personal relationships.
So, what can we do as people who are committed to truth and, at the same time, to "loving our neighbor"? A few tips from the field of conflict studies could help, even if they may not produce the immediate solutions we hope for.
A sign showing major news organizations along with the words "fake news" is held up as thenU.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Washington, Michigan April 28, 2018.
(CNS/Reuters/Joshua Roberts)
First, recognize that conspiracy thinking is not something unique to the left or the right, the young or the old. It is not particular to race or religion, socioeconomic class or even degree of education. As an academic, I know that I am tempted to hold in high estimation my own capacity to discern information and perceive patterns of connection that others can't see. Realizing the desire to "know" shares a border with a desire to be "in the know" can give us greater empathy. Truth is not an easy thing
to discern and, while there are no such things as "alternative facts" from a Thomistic mindset, there are almost always going to be such things as "additional facts." None of us yet has a mind entirely aligned with reality. So we can acknowledge the pursuit of truth is a universal struggle and journey.
Second, consider the purpose of your conversations. We generally participate in conversations about conspiracy theories with the goal of changing the other person's mind and helping them to "see the light." Yet if we only consider as successful discussions that result in the other changing their view, we are setting ourselves up for frustration and failure. Instead, we should embrace more manageable goals.
What can we reliably achieve in any conversation? We can always learn more about what the other believes. We can ask questions about their view, not with the intention of being converted to it ourselves, but with the goal of figuring out why this story is compelling to them. I sometimes imagine myself in the role of a journalist, asking questions to make sure I have their story clear enough that I could summarize it back to them in such a way they would be able to nod and agree, "Yes, you heard me."
This is important because while people rarely change their minds about their convictions, they never change their minds if they feel belittled or dismissed. Persons who feel they are not being taken seriously are likely to become more entrenched in their patterns of thought, not less.
Another way to help persons feel respected and heard is to acknowledge their feelings. Acknowledging feelings is, again, not the same as agreeing with the other person's story but noting that underneath their
conspiracy beliefs are often strong emotions of fear, anxiety, even despair.
For example, "It sounds like you are really worried that being vaccinated might affect your ability to have children in the future" or "I hear underneath what you are saying a grave fear for the future of our country — that it might become a place where your voice no longer counts."
Even if we cannot for the sake of truth share their narrative, we do often share their feelings, and this can provide a point of connection: "I, too, feel a lot of anxiety right now. I, too, want our children — including those not yet born — to be healthy. I, too, want our country to have a future."
Finding common ground at the level of emotion can also provide a potential bridge to share our own perspective. It may sometimes be helpful to identify briefly why you are not persuaded by their theory. For example, "Here's what I've been hearing that is most persuasive to me … " or "I think what has persuaded me to think differently is ". At the same time, it is not helpful to get locked into a "battle of the facts" because this is where the conversation is most likely to get stuck. Possible shifts to keep the conversation constructive include:
• Inviting intellectual humility and reflection on sources of information: "Neither you nor I are scientists/doctors/polling officials and we are not going to be able to sort this issue out once and for all on our own. The best we are going to be able to do is make sure that we've checked out the quality of the sources we are using to inform our perspectives. I've been getting my information from ____ and ____ because … ".
• Naming your own feelings about the conversation itself and the impact the conversation is having on your relationship:
"I'm frustrated because we keep getting into the same conversation over and over again and it's not changing either of our minds but it does feel like it's hurting our friendship. I'm worried because I care about you and I care about our wider family. I'm scared our differences on this matter are becoming a rift we won't be able to heal."
• Inviting strategies for moving forward in your relationship: "I know we've gone in circles on this topic and unless some major new information comes forward it's probably not helpful to keep revisiting it. Maybe the bigger question is how we want to still be sisters when we think so differently on this topic. What commitments can we make to each other?"
A commitment to truth is fundamental to our lives as Christians. We witness to this by trying to always make sure that our own minds are aligned with reality. At the same time, we witness our commitment to truth by the way that we choose to "be true" to one another even in situations marred by untruth. Sometimes we might need to set boundaries on what conversations we are willing to have repeatedly. During a pandemic, we might need to create physical distance from one another for safety's sake.
But we can also work to keep bridges of care for one another open — talking about other topics, engaging in common activities when talking isn't working, gift-giving, acts of service toward one another. Although perhaps not as well known as his writing on truth, Aquinas' comments on "pietas" — or what we owe our kin and "countrymen" — may be relevant during this tough time: Our religious devotion to truth can't erase our devotion to each other.
And, hopefully, our ongoing devotion to each other will make possible what all of our rigorous debates have not. Thomas reminds us that it is only God that can lead a person's
mind toward greater truth. It's only by the gift of grace that anyone experiences conversion. But when we work together to form a circle of both concern and compassion around persons with conspiracy thinking, we are working as God's eyes, mouth, hands, feet. And, perhaps not immediately, but eventually, truth wins out.
Ann Garrido
Ann Garrido is associate professor of homiletics at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis and a consultant with Triad Consulting. She is the author of Let’s Talk About Truth: A Guide for Preachers, Teachers, and Other Catholic Leaders in a World of Doubt and Discord (Ave Maria Press, 2020) and #Rules_of_Engagement: 8 Christian Habits for Being Good and Doing Good Online (Ave Maria Press, 2021). She is a member of the “Preaching and the Sciences” grant project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. She can be reached at anngarrido.com
The future needs us to say 'Yes'
26 April 2022 by Nancy
Sylvester
(Pixabay/Gerd Altmann)
Recently at community prayer we reflected on the Annunciation. One of the readings included the line: "Mary could have said 'No.' "
That line wouldn't leave me. It captured my imagination. I wondered how many other potential Marys were offered the same invitation and had to say "No." What would have happened if no one said "Yes"? How different would our evolutionary journey be?
Mary's "Yes" enabled Jesus' "Yes." On the cross, seemingly abandoned by his Abba God, Jesus from the depths of his being repeats her assent "be it done to me according to your will." A "Yes" that reverberated throughout the universe and shifted the evolutionary trajectory toward Love.
And Jesus could have said "No."
Both Mary and Jesus were facing impossible situations. Mary, an unwed mother, is with child. Not the proper pedigree for someone who would be asked to bear and raise the chosen one of God. I'm sure she struggled, as any woman would, finding herself in such a situation with the feelings of guilt and shame. How would she afford to care for him? Where would she get support? What does it mean for her own life?
Jesus, too, having tried to live his life faithful to the spirit within him, faces arrest, torture and crucifixion — the ignominious death of a common criminal. How much easier would it have been to answer Pilate in ways that would have freed him. Feelings of failure must have flooded him as his closest friends deserted him at this critical time. Questions any one of us would have asked were probably his: Was it worth it? What did I do wrong? How could I have let so many people down? Those feelings of abandonment deepened when he cried out, "God, my God why have you forsaken me?"
Mary and Jesus could have said "No," but they said "Yes."
Their "Yes" continues to reverberate and emerges in each of us, as does our freedom to say "No."
I began to reflect on when we say "No" to the invitations of the Spirit. How do we know when such invitations are offered?
A good place to start is by becoming aware. Aware of what is going on around us and in us — the worldview through which we see things. Alert to the subtle shifts within our body. To realize that "sensing" is another way of knowing, complementing thinking and feeling.
Contemplative practice helps us do just that. Allowing oneself to become present to the moment helps to silence the extraneous noises within and outside us. We drop down and into the spaciousness where Divine Love dwells.
The invitations that seek our "Yes," our fiat, come from that deep center of ourselves.
Contemplation silences our fears, our should/woulds/coulds, our blame and shame. It continues to invite us to become our True
Self, our most authentic self. Over time it invites us to put on the mind of Christ, to be compassion, love, mercy and forgiveness as we engage the world and those around us.
Sometimes those invitations are less than dramatic. It might be a call to be less judgmental with the people you live with and your family. Or to refrain from telling someone how to do things better — the way you would. Perhaps it is being a bit more generous with your time and doing something extra for someone even when you feel as if you have no time.
Being aware of the subtle shift from one's regular responses and behaviors to those more reflective of one's truest selfstrengthens us to continue saying "Yes" when more difficult invitations arise in us.
Living in this time of chaos brings forth multiple situations that invite us to respond out of the depths of our being — to respond from Christ's consciousness.
Invitations come to us:
• To engage the differences among us and love those with whom we disagree;
• To make changes in our lifestyles and economic systems to ensure the health of our planetary community and Earth Home and be merciful toward each other when we fail;
• To appreciate diversity and de-center ourselves especially if part of the dominant culture, and forgive our blindness past and present;
• To support choices for life that respect women's moral integrity and people's gender identity and be compassionate to self and others for resistance to change;
• To work for peaceful resolutions to all the violent conflicts and to embrace the suffering with hope.
We hear these invitations when we are alert to the "still small voice" within. Ignoring these invitations is saying "No." G.K. Chesterton wrote: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
Through the centuries the Sprit's quiet invitations have not always been heard. The evolutionary process is moving through destruction to creativity. Our "Yes" is part of this emergence. Each of us is needed more than ever to respond from our True Self as Mary and Jesus did. The future needs our "Yes."
Nancy Sylvester
Nancy Sylvester is founder and director of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue. She served in leadership of her own religious community, the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, Michigan, as well as in the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Prior to that she was National Coordinator of Network, the national Catholic social justice lobby. ICCD is beginning its third decade with new resources and programs. For information go to www.iccdinstitute.org.
What is good for the planet is good for national security and economy
26 April 2022 by
Thomas Reese, Religion News Service
(Unsplash/Engin Akyurt)
I'm old enough to remember when gasoline cost less than a dollar a gallon in the United States. This was before the first energy crisis in 1973 when, in response to the Yom Kippur War, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declared an oil embargo. Even with the embargo, it took until 1980 for the average price of regular (unleaded) gasoline to exceed a dollar a gallon.
Government officials and experts bemoaned the fact that our national security and economic prosperity were at risk because of our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Sound familiar? So do the proposed solutions.
Back then, domestic oil producers pushed for more drilling on government land and in
the oceans. These producers made huge fortunes and paid little taxes.
For their part, environmentalists pushed for government regulations encouraging conservation. In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a law setting the speed limit on federal highways at 55 mph, which lasted until 1995. Fuel efficiency standards were gradually imposed on automobiles and household appliances over the strong objections of their industries. Families and businesses were encouraged to turn their thermostats up in the summer and down in the winter. Wear sweaters in the winter. Throw away the jacket and tie in the summer.
Through the ensuing decades, economists have proposed a simple but politically unpalatable solution: Increases taxes on oil and gas.
The rationale for tax hikes is clear. Increasing taxes increases the price of fossil fuels, which discourages consumption. It also allows the public to capture some of the profits that oil companies take when they inevitably raise prices themselves. Gas taxes also reduce the need for complex government regulations; consumers and businesses are incentivized by gas prices to purchase more fuel-efficient cars and equipment, as they did in the 1970s.
When it comes to the risks of depending on foreign oil, we've learned nothing in the last 50 years. Our national security and economic prosperity are once again threatened by our energy suppliers. Russian oil revenues pay for its wars, most recently on Ukraine; a Middle East awash in oil revenues encourages radicalism.
Back in the 1970s the public was only starting to hear about greenhouse gases that come from burning fossil fuels and the
impact of climate change. We know that environmental changes will not only hurt the planet but also increase economic disruptions and armed conflicts, which will multiply the number of refugees.
It is a trifecta: Economic prosperity, national security and the survival of the planet all depend on our reducing oil and gas consumption.
Sadly, consumers can only focus on this week's gasoline prices. Politicians can only focus on this year's elections. As a result, stupid ideas like eliminating the gasoline tax are proposed.
We know what to do. Decrease oil and gas consumption. Increase alternative sources of green energy. Fast-track research and development of green technology. Wind, solar, and thermal and perhaps nuclear energy need to replace our dependence on fossil fuels. A gradually increasing carbon tax would help do this.
We have already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on wars in the Middle East in the name of protecting our oil supplies. War is threatening again, but we still refuse to make sacrifices in our pocketbooks or our lifestyles. We continue to make matters worse by buying oil and gas from governments that are not our friends. In the
(Unsplash/Evergreens and Dandelions)
war to save our nation and the planet, we are not fighting back.
Meanwhile, climate change will do more damage to our country than all the wars we have fought. This invisible war will consume our children and grandchildren as soon as the end of this century. We need to change our attitudes toward carbon-based fuels. We need to sacrifice for the common good like Americans did during World War II.
Holy Week is a time for sacrifice; Easter is a time of hope. There is no Resurrection without Calvary. There is not hope without sacrifice.
We must choose whether we will be the greatest generation that saved the planet, or will we be the selfish generation that sacrificed future generations for our convenience. I fear that we are on the latter path because we want Easter without going through Holy Week.
Thomas Reese Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese's column for Religion News Service, "Signs of the Times," appears regularly at National Catholic Reporter.
While focusing on Ukraine, don't forget the rest of the world
28 April 2022
by Thomas Reese, Religion News Service
World
A Ukrainian woman lights candles inside a church in Lviv April 17 during the Russian war. (CNS/Alex Kent)
The American public is incapable of multitasking when it comes to international relations. We can focus on only one crisis at a time. Today, we are rightly focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it would be a mistake to ignore problems in the rest of the world.
After World War II, our focus was on stopping the spread of communism, first in Europe, then in Korea, Vietnam and Latin America. After 9/11, we became obsessed with stomping out Islamic radicalism. Some of this was justified, but by looking at the world through a single lens we made terrible mistakes in Latin America, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting corrupt governments that were disconnected from their people.
The world is much more complicated than we believed. We in the West thought if we simply killed or rooted out all the communists and Islamic terrorists, we would solve the problem. In fact, we often made it worse as collateral damage from our response turned more people against us.
We also ignored the social, economic and political problems that bred communists and Islamic radicals. And when we did recognize these problems, we naively responded with ineffective programs insensitive to the local cultures.
Economic sanctions, for example, can be a blunt instrument that hurts common people much more than the leaders of a regime. Sanctions have not brought down the Cuban and Iranian regimens, but they have hurt their people. The Vatican has always opposed sanctions for this reason. St. John Paul II even opposed the economic sanctions imposed on the Polish government by President Ronald Reagan.
Similarly, though most Americans support the West's efforts to help Ukraine against the unjust aggression of Vladimir Putin, we need to look at them with a critical eye, and recognize now that some of our actions will have negative consequences.
Sanctions that cut off food and medicines are inhumane and immoral. They are the economic equivalent of indiscriminate shelling of cities. We must find ways of limiting the impact of sanctions on innocent civilians.
We must also consider the impact of sanctions on third parties. Making it impossible for Russia to sell its grain and fertilizers to other countries will cause higher prices and even famine around the world. The war has also made farming impossible in Ukraine, which with Russia is
a leading exporter of grain for the world. This may be good for Western countries' agribusiness, but it could lead to political chaos and increases in refugees in the Middle East and Africa.
A church destroyed by Russian shelling is pictured in Lukashivka, Ukraine, April 27. Russia denies targeting civilian infrastructure, but the BBC has identified a number of religious sites that have been destroyed or suffered damage. (CNS/Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)
If it is OK for Europe to continue buying oil and gas from Russia, why is it wrong for countries with hungry populations to buy grain? If we don't mitigate the side effects of sanctions, we will cause serious problems around the world.
There are already too many problems in the world. China is losing its war against COVID-19. Ethiopia, South Sudan and Yemen are still racked by war. Palestinians and Jews are fighting on the Temple Mount. Violence between Christians and Muslims is escalating in Nigeria. The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, is challenging the Taliban rule in Afghanistan as it faces economic collapse. Hindu nationalists are using violence with impunity in India.
In the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua has systematically repressed any opposition to
the government. Brazil and Hungary are led by populist presidents who used democracy to attain power but now are undermining democratic institutions to stay in power. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has documented ongoing violations of religious freedom globally. And then there is global warming.
Solving these problems is getting more difficult as people have lost faith in their political, economic and religious leaders. They are fed up with corruption and an economic system that makes the rich richer and shrinks rather than expands the middle class. They find it difficult to distinguish between fake news and legitimate media.
With so many problems in the world, Americans may be tempted to retreat to isolationism. On the contrary, we need a comprehensive foreign policy implemented by an intelligent but humble diplomatic corps.
With so many problems in the world, Americans may be tempted to retreat to isolationism. On the contrary, we need a comprehensive foreign policy implemented by an intelligent but humble diplomatic corps. We have made too many mistakes in the past to think that we have the answer to the world's problems. Every policy should be examined for possible negative consequences. Programs should be supported not by ideological theories but by evidence that they work.
A good place to start would be to put the full force of the U.S. government behind defeating corruption. Corruption made it
impossible for us to win wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Corruption makes the war on drugs a joke. Corruption enables human trafficking. Corruption has kept Putin in power. Corruption undermines our attempts to improve the lives of people around the world. Corruption undermines good government and alienates populations around the world.
The Panama and Pandora papers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have revealed in detail how corrupt politicians and businesspeople hide their money with the aid of lawyers, real estate agents and weak government regulations. Congress has the power to curb this, and it should, by working to eliminate shell companies and other practices that allow criminals to hide their money.
Ukraine deserves our attention, but it is one of many connected crises around the world. We won't have stopped it until we stop ignoring the rest.
Thomas Reese
Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese's column for Religion News Service, "Signs of the Times," appears regularly at National Catholic Reporter.
Cardinal Czerny: Sustainable development must put solidarity and human rights first
28 April 2022
by Brian Roewe Leaders
Cardinal Michael Czerny looks on as Pope Francis delivers his Easter message and blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 17. The pope has named Cardinal Czerny as the new prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. (CNS/Paul Haring)
A true system of global sustainable development hinges on recognizing others as siblings in a shared world whose dignity and rights must take precedence over corporate interests, said a top Vatican official this week.
As new economic models emerge and the world increasingly becomes a global marketplace, seeing one another as siblings is essential to upholding the human rights of all, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, the recently appointed head of the Vatican
Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
But viewing that human fraternity through a lens of individual liberties "threatens the universality of human rights," he said. "The same is true of the absolute and unquestionable freedom of the market: the rights of commercial enterprises cannot be put before the dignity of the poor or the care of the environment.
"The right to human development cannot be subjected to any calculation of profit, nor to any claim of social utility, which ends up justifying the option to leave the weaker or less gifted behind," he added.
Czerny made the remarks April 26 during a virtual conference co-hosted by two Canadian universities. The speech was one of the first Czerny delivered in his new role after Pope Francis removed the interim tag from his title three days earlier.
The speech also came months ahead of an expected papal visit to Canada this summer, where Francis is expected to meet with Indigenous people in the wake of a national reckoning around abuses at church-run residential schools after mass graves were uncovered in recent years. Czerny, who as a child moved with his family from Czechoslovakia to Montreal, said he hopes the papal trip, along with Francis' recent apologies at the Vatican, will bring about a new stage in the church's relationship with Indigenous people.
Pope Francis meets with with Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, abuse survivors and youth from Canada, along with representatives of Canada's Catholic bishops in the Vatican's Clementine Hall April 1. (CNS/Vatican Media)
"I believe there is a movement away from colonial and contemporary injustice and toward all being siblings in social friendship," the cardinal said.
The half-day online conference explored the Catholic Church's contribution to global sustainable development, both in a diplomatic role in world affairs and through the laity. The conversations among the panelists drew heavily from Francis' two encyclicals, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" and Fratelli Tutti
Among the participants were Anne Leahy, a former Canadian ambassador to Russia and the Holy See, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, apostolic nuncio to Canada, Jenny Cafiso, executive director of Canadian Jesuits International and Villanova church historian Massimo Faggioli.
In 2015, all member countries of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, consisting of 17 sustainable development goals to collectively reach within 15 years. Among them: eliminating poverty, promoting gender equality, reversing biodiversity loss and limiting climate change.
But the world has made limited progress on those goals. The COVID-19 pandemic dealt the agenda a massive blow, with the World Bank estimating that millions of people have fallen back into poverty in the past two years. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also drawn increased international attention, and in some cases, has resulted in a doubling down on fossil fuel use.
"Simply put, we are currently facing a crisis in global sustainable development," said Michael Manulak, an assistant professor in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, which organized the conference along with the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto.
Manulak added that the current world landscape, particularly on climate change, makes Laudato Si' more relevant today than when it was issued in 2015. Referencing the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he said it "paints a stark picture" of challenges facing countries this decade to rein in rising temperatures — what he called "a fundamental prerequisite to achieving sustainable development and integral human development on a global level."
A bald eagle is pictured in a file photo perched in a tree in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. (CNS/Reuters/Carlo Allegri)
Delivering the opening keynote address, Czerny said at the core of integral human development is the recognition that fulfillment of each person's potential is a right for all people and a responsibility for all to uphold. He said the church in its diplomacy keeps focus on the goal of the common good, and when necessary, calls out obstacles to it.
The cardinal said that in Fratelli Tutti, Francis states that an understanding of liberty and equality must begin with "consciously cultivated" fraternity, and that the individual is best understood "within the fabric of a social 'we.' " Seeing fellow people as siblings goes beyond national borders, Czerny said, and the promotion of integral development is also a responsibility from nation to nation, especially for more advanced economies.
"If we do not recognize that every human being has a fundamental and inalienable right to his or her integral development, then 'there will be no future either for fraternity or for the survival of humanity,' " Czerny said, quoting Fratelli Tutti.
"Since there's only one common home, only one planet, then we can't just keep on growing, advancing, speeding faster," Czerny said. "And since there's only one human family created by God, we're all siblings and urgently need to treat each other as such."
Snow in East Bolton, Quebec, covers the heartshaped and frozen Baker Pond Dec. 24, 2021. (CNS/Reuters/Bernard Brault)
Séverine Deneulin, director of international development for the Laudato Si' Research Institute based at Oxford University's Campion Hall, said that a major contribution the church can make is in changing the current narrative around global sustainable development.
"Because as it stands, sustainable development encompasses green growth, net zero [greenhouse gas emissions], but we can continue with business as usual" rather than make changes to address problems with current development models, she said.
Deneulin pointed to problems arising from the growth of clean energy. The push for electric cars, for instance, has led to increased demand for rare earth minerals like copper, cobalt and lithium, which in turn has resulted in more mining — an industry whose history is rife with land disputes and human rights violations — and with it more instances of water scarcity and infringements on lands of Indigenous communities, particularly in Africa and the Global South.
"So this so-called green solution is not working, either, and it does create injustice," she said. "And the role of the church is
precisely to highlight these injustices and these connections, too."
Beyond that, Deneulin said the church can not only propose a new narrative around development, one "of solidarity and personal and structural ecological conversion," but then must also promote it and live it out through the church's actions and institutions with programs like the Vatican's Laudato Si' Action Platform, an initiative launched by the integral human development dicastery.
John Milloy speaks during a virtual conference April 26. (EarthBeat screenshot)
Should all Catholics in Canada not only call for action on climate change but also support the lifestyle changes and sacrifices it would require, it "would bring about a sea change," said John Milloy, director of the Centre for Public Ethics at Martin Luther University College and a senior staff member of former prime minister Jean Chrétien.
"As Laudato Si' reminds us … we can't leave [political issues like climate change] to the market to sort out, as Catholics we have a duty and a responsibility to get involved in a real and meaningful way to our political system," he said.
Panelists suggested that Canadian Catholics can engage the work of integral human development through organizations like Development and Peace, the Canadian
church's Caritas affiliate, Jesuit Refugee Services and a Canadian-based chapter of the Laudato Si' Movement, which recently produced an eco-investment accelerator toolkit to examine redirecting finances from fossil fuels toward cleaner alternative energy sources.
The ongoing process of reconciliation and decolonization around the church's relationship with Canadian Indigenous communities also provides a path for Catholics and the local church to embrace integral ecology, the panelists said.
"It's only when their voice is at the table, that the change will happen," Cafiso of Canadian Jesuits International said.
While the church has sought to play a leading diplomatic role, perhaps its greatest means to influence international discussions is by supporting grassroots social movements and the people and communities at the front lines of environmental destruction, panelists said. Several pointed out that many of the overseas mining companies are based in Canada, providing an opportunity for the nation's Catholics to press businesses to ensure human rights protections.
Asked how to ensure that new models of sustainable development don't become a
Jenny Cafiso speaks during a virtual conference April 26. (EarthBeat screenshot)
new version of colonialism, Czerny said, "The only way is dialogue, dialogue, dialogue."
While the pandemic has led many people to prioritize individual liberties and push back against public health measures, several panelists agreed that church teaching on integral human development can play a key role in disrupting turns inward toward instead solidarity and working together to create a better world for everyone.
"If we do want to apply Catholic social teachings, we cannot do that in isolation. It's not a private conversion. It's a global action," Cafiso said.
Brian Roewe
Brian Roewe is NCR environment correspondent. His email address is broewe@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter at @brianroewe.
Melissa Lucio case in Texas highlights Catholic opposition to death penalty
An interview with Catholic Mobilizing Network's executive director, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy
28 April 2022 by
Melissa Cedillo
Justice People
Esperanza Treviño, mother of Melissa Lucio, bows her head during a vigil at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine April 22 in San Juan, Texas. On April 25, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Lucio's execution, which was set for April 27. (The Monitor via AP/Delcia Lopez)
On April 25, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Melissa Lucio that was set for April 27. In 2008, Lucio was sentenced to death for the murder of her 2- year-old daughter, Mariah, who died two days after a fall down a flight of stairs. Catholic advocacy groups and faith leaders have spoken out against Lucio's planned execution for months. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron Country
to consider new evidence of her innocence in the death of her daughter.
One of the key Catholic groups advocating for Lucio's innocence is the Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN). After news of yesterday's stayed execution, Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy issued a statement in which she said: "We give thanks to God that Melissa will not be executed this week and that she will soon have the opportunity for a new trial to prove her innocence. Melissa is a person created in the image and likeness of God."
"In Melissa's case, we see clearly how deeply flawed our capital punishment system is, and how it places innocent lives at risk. Her story also reveals how this system targets the most vulnerable among us, including people of color and those with histories of serious trauma," the statement added.
Lucio wipes her eyes in a courtroom in Brownsville, Texas, on July 10, 2008, the day she was sentenced to death for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. (AP/Valley Morning Star/Theresa Najera)
Murphy told NCR that she was inspired by the movie "Dead Man Walking," a film about St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean ministering to a man on Louisiana's
death row, which challenged Murphy's understanding of a consistent ethic of life and expanded her concept of God's mercy.
NCR Latino Catholics Fellow Melissa Cedillo interviewed Murphy via email about her work with Catholic Mobilizing Network and Melissa Lucio's case.
NCR: Why do you think Lucio's case in particular has gotten so much national attention?
Murphy: There are two main reasons I think the country has grabbed onto Melissa's case. The first, of course, are the incredible doubts surrounding her guilt and original conviction. Various pieces of evidence presented at her trial were later proven to be false or wholly discredited by modern forensic science. No evidence was ever presented that Melissa was abusive toward her children. Her confession had all the hallmarks of being coerced.
The second reason, I think, that Melissa's case has captured the nation's interest is her obvious humanity. Here is a MexicanAmerican mother — and devout Catholic — who suffered the unimaginable loss of a young daughter and was then at risk of having her life taken by the state. She was the lifelong victim of physical and sexual abuse, who went on to further be victimized by the cruelty and brokenness of our capital punishment system. In Melissa, we see our own humanity and are reminded of the dignity of the human person. We feel in our hearts how wrong it would have been to prematurely end her life.
What does Catholic social teaching say about the death penalty?
Catholic Social Teaching helps us understand why the Church calls the death penalty "indamissible" in all cases
Melissa
[Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267]. The principle of "life and dignity of the human person" reminds us that every person is endowed with a God-given dignity, and because of this, we do not have the authority to create or destroy life — even the lives of those who have caused grave harm. The death penalty also places innocent lives at risk, as we see with the case of Melissa Lucio. In the modern era of capital punishment, more than 185 innocent people have been exonerated from death row after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, speaks to guests at the Vatican Embassy in Washington Oct. 10, 2019. (CNS/Catholic Mobilizing Network/Jim Stipe)
The principle of "preferential option for the poor and vulnerable" calls us to care for the marginalized among us. The capital punishment system disproportionately targets vulnerable populations, including people of color, people experiencing poverty, and people with serious mental illness, intellectual disability, and severe trauma.
Catholic Social Teaching offers a framework and principles for orienting ourselves to Gospel values and Christ's teachings. It is clear that the death penalty is
incompatible with these principles for all the ways that it violates human dignity, risks innocent lives, fails to bring healing, and targets the most vulnerable among us.
Do you think this could be an opportunity for Catholic political leaders across party lines to advocate together to stop the death penalty or this execution?
Absolutely. Over the past several weeks, we saw in Texas how Melissa Lucio's case has united decision-makers across party lines in opposition to her execution. Last month, a bipartisan group of 83 Texas representatives called on Gov. Greg Abbott and the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant Melissa clemency or a reprieve. You do not have to identify as a Republican or Democrat to be horrified by the prospect of executing an innocent person.
What did it mean for the Texas bishops to also speak out against Lucio's execution?
The bishops of Texas are a consistent witness against all executions happening in their state — and Melissa's troubling case has been no exception. We were grateful to be able to highlight [Brownsville] Bishop [Daniel] Flores' and Austin Bishop [Joe] Vasquez's strong statements against Melissa's pending execution in CMN's recent video about her case. And it has been encouraging to see them bear witness in other ways, such as the prayer vigil organized by Bishop Flores and the Diocese of Brownsville the past week, where some of Melissa's family members were in attendance.
Has the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops addressed this case or the four scheduled executions that were to take place in the span of nine days this month?
Catholic bishops in the United States have long been strong and vocal on this issue. For decades, the USCCB has been emphatically opposed to the death penalty. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development — which addresses capital punishment — has been a tireless advocate to end the death penalty.
Typically, state executions are addressed by local state bishops. Of the four executions that were scheduled for April, Catholic bishops publicly declared the Church's opposition in each of the affected states (Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina). Prior to the April 21 scheduled execution of Oscar Smith in Tennessee, the state's three bishops met with Gov. Bill Lee and urged him to halt its upcoming executions. (Mr. Smith's execution was ultimately granted a reprieve by Gov. Lee due to an "oversight" with the state's lethal injection protocol.) In South Carolina, where the only two available methods of execution are currently firing squad and electric chair, the Diocese of Charleston has issued multiple statements opposing recent efforts to restart executions. And in addition to its advocacy against the execution of Melissa Lucio, the bishops of Texas publicly condemned the state's April 21 execution of Carl Buntion.
At the national level, the USCCB was very vocal against the 13 executions carried out by the federal government under the Trump administration in 2020 and 2021.
Anything else you'd like to add?
There is a resurgence of state executions happening right now. This is a result of the pandemic, which caused execution and death sentencing rates to slow for the past two years. Now with pandemic restrictions
lifting across much of the country, executions are picking back up.
It is important to note that despite the recent uptick in execution dates, the nation as a whole is unquestionably trending away from the use of capital punishment. To date, 23 states have formally abolished the death penalty. More than two-thirds of U.S. states have either outlawed capital punishment or otherwise have not carried out an execution in at least 10 years. 2021 was the fifth consecutive year with fewer than 30 executions and 50 death sentences nationwide. And a higher percentage of Americans oppose capital punishment than at any other time in the modern history of the U.S. death penalty.
While the long-term trends toward abolition are in our favor, it is still critical that Catholics use their voices to oppose the rise in executions which is currently taking place. People can sign up for CMN's Mercy in Action Project to be notified about upcoming executions and ways to take action to oppose them at catholicsmobilizing.org/mercy.
Melissa Cedillo
Melissa Cedillo is NCR's Latino Catholics Project fellow. Her email address is mcedillo@ncronline.org.
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'I thought of religious life, but feared I wouldn't make it'
28 April 2022
by Joan Chittister
Spirituality
(Unsplash/Joe Beck)
Fear of making a mistake holds more people back in life than we like to imagine. If they try to ride a bike, they might get hurt. If they go into a crowd, they might not know what to say. If they move to another house, another job, another city, another university, they might not like it there. And so they declare all those things off limits and never try.
Stephen Hawking, the physicist, lived until 76 with Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS — a neurodegenerative disease — that eventually makes it impossible for the patient to talk, walk, swallow or breathe. The question is clear: Was his work on an entity he himself could never experience a mistake? He put the answer this way: "One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist. Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist."
"Perfection," you see, is the enemy of growth. The randomness of creation in a world of multiple shapes and shades of the same species produces so many things that are almost, but not quite, what they would seem to have become. Obviously, it is the power to create growth that is the impulse of creation.
On the other hand, psychologically, the search for perfection is even worse. It reduces life to the static. It stops us from trying. It makes it impossible to become the rest of ourselves, the best of ourselves.
In fact, too often, it is fear, hesitation, the desire to be perfect that traps us from becoming everything — anything — we might possibly become. In the end, it is exactly the need for perfection that makes the beauty of the spiritual life such an "impossible dream."
Most of all, fear of failure is particularly toxic where the spiritual life is concerned. The number of people who go through life remembering that they "thought about going into religious life for a while but ended up figuring that they could never make it" — and so never tried — are legion.
And so, to talk about the place of religious life in the modern world is, at very least, to run into two of the most demanding questions of the era.
The first is "How do I know if religious life is for me?" The second is, "Why would anybody go to a monastery in the first place?" The surprise is that the answers are not really as complex as they may seem.
In fact, the answer to the first question is another question: How do musicians know they should be musicians? Or how do auto mechanics know they would like to work with cars? Or how do doctors know they
want to be surgeons? The answer is as obvious as it is disturbing. In every case, there is a deep down, simmering fascination in the subject at hand. Or to put it another way, our vocations are already in us. The call of creation is already calling us to set our sights on the good and use the gifts we've been born with.
Then, secondly, there is the felt awareness of the fit between my personality and my continuing interest in the possibility of a religious vocation.
It's then that I am meant to answer the call. Too often I never really abandon the possibility but I also never make a genuine attempt to explore the question seriously. And that's where the mistake lies. We ignore doors in us that we were afraid to open and so miss the other part of ourselves — our souls, and our spiritual development. We are all on our way home to the God who made us. Finding that path is the purpose of life. Which is why the question of how to lead a meaningful spiritual life is a perennial one.
Some of us were made to make music, others to open a business, all of us to pursue truth and justice. And some of us were made to make the spiritual life real in every generation.
Those people go to monasteries and convents, to seminaries and far away missions to test their call to bring the presence of Jesus, the love of God and the fruits of the Spirit into a secularized world. But all of us also find ourselves immersed in the kind of money and power and control this culture promises and dangles before our souls, keeping us inured to the spiritual life. So we simply go on. But to where? And to what? To fullness of life or to regret?
But one thing is clear: the question of religious life is a perennial one.
Some of us were made to make music, others to open a business, all of us to pursue truth and justice.
And some of us were made to make the spiritual life real in every generation.
Even then, I was taken off guard a bit by the question with which the woman began the conversation. "I really admire people who commit themselves to religious life," she said. "But how do you know that it isn't already extinct?"
I was sitting with one of those women who had thought a lot about religious life but in the end just let the idea disappear — but not totally — and so was still talking about it. This time, to me. It was an important transition to which she was referring.
Religious life itself changes in every great period of cultural change. Otherwise, how could we possibly address the pain and needs and fears of every new generation if we don't bother to know them? The important thing to remember is the insight of the Roman philosopher Boethius. "Every age that is dying," he taught, "is simply another age coming to life." And we are.
Yes, religious life is in transition now. We're going from being rural and institutional bodies of small groups in small places to institutionalized ministries and multicultural community building. And that's what the world itself is changing into, as well.
Religious life is not a series of parochial institutions to which the people go. Religious life is about our going where the people are so that they can find spiritual depth and help when and where they need it.
Most of all, viability in religious life is not a numbers game. Otherwise we must ask the same question of marriage: Is marriage becoming extinct because, at least in this era, marriage is more fragile and less stable
than we expected it to be before divorce became an option? Over 40% of marriages end in divorce now. But marriage has also grown into richer relationships. The truth is that the catalogue of human possibilities has expanded — and so expands the arc of civilization with it. Institutions change as society changes. But that kind of change does not necessarily destroy the commitment and stability of our own hearts.
And so it is with religious commitment, too, as it changes itself to do more and better what it once did differently in the past. Change was everywhere after the Second Vatican Council: The clothes we wore changed, the works we did changed, the way we went through life as adult women rather than dependents from the Victorian Era changed, too. And all for the good.
Life was evolving, yes. But not the vows, not the community lifestyle, not our commitment to something greater than the self. But those things are the real essence of holiness and do not change.
From where I stand, religion and religious life are not immune to change. On the contrary, if anyone should be able to muster faith in the God of tomorrow, to seek the fullness of the spiritual life, to trust the move from one generation to the next, it is surely religious life. After all, it has done all of that for the last 2,000 years.
Can religious life change? Yes. Has it become extinct? No. Not in a world where the spiritual life is the ongoing call of God in every heart — and to those wholly, eternally and fully intent on matching their gift of the spiritual life with full faith in God's call to it.
Joan Chittister
A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, Joan Chittister is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women's issues and contemporary spirituality in the church and in society.
