Father Robert T. Cooper

February 24, 2019

           Among the harmful consequences of the multidimensional clergy sexual abuse crisis is the way that it disfigures the face of the Church and impedes the Church’s mission. In the best of times, many Catholics are timid in spreading the faith and inviting people to consider becoming Catholic. The shame and disgust that understandably follow the revelation of sexual abuse by hundreds of clergymen, the lack of horror and adequate action on the part of some leaders in the Church to stop it, the lack of transparency on the part of some to own up to their responsibility, and the open divisions that have formed over what to do about to it today, all make it much more challenging to perceive Christ and His holiness operating in the Church. They render our message about God, the Church, and faith and morals in general, less credible because of the failure of so many messengers to practice what the Church preaches. Yet, as St. Paul insists, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20). God always seeks to bring good out of evil. Paradoxically, at times like this, when the Church has suffered a gut punch that has knocked the wind out of the Mystical Body, when she limps into the public square with a self-inflicted black eye, God is still mysteriously at work opening people up to the life of grace.

          In 2013, Pope Francis gave a stunning commentary on the Gospel account of Emmaus to the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean assembled with him for World Youth Day in Brazil. Focusing on why the two disciples were leaving Jerusalem and heading downhill into darkness crestfallen at the crucifixion of the one they hoped was the Messiah, only to have their hearts burn when the anonymous Wayfarer explained to them that Scripture taught that such sufferings were a confirmation rather than a contradiction of the Messianic Mission, Pope Francis made a general point: “The reasons why people leave also contain reasons why they can eventually return. But we need to know how to interpret, with courage, the larger picture” and warm the hearts of others with the fire of our own faith in spite of shattered expectations. Applied to the sexual abuse crisis, the reason why some leave the Church, and others would find it unattractive to join, is because people legitimately expect the Church and her ministers to be, if not holy, at least honorable; when they find filth, they are disgusted and repelled. That nausea, however, contains within it the seed of a burning heart, once they meet people who are sickened by the sludge as much as they are and not only still believe but fight to restore the Church to its true dignity, loving the Church as Christ does.

          We must always remember that the Church is and does not merely have a mission. This is a time for us to grasp that the reform of the Church will involve a “reshaping” to its true apostolic nature, given to it by Christ. The Church today is a lot like St. Peter after he and his companions had fished all night and caught nothing. After borrowing Peter’s boat to preach to the throngs, the Carpenter from Nazareth instructed the expert fisherman to put out into deep water and lower his nets for a catch. Peter had already cleaned his nets and was exhausted, discouraged and ready for bed. Fish, he knew, moreover, were caught in shallow water in darkness not in deep water in broad daylight. Yet, reluctantly, against his human wisdom, he did as Jesus said — and caught the largest catch of his life.

          This is an opportunity for all of us in the Church to put the Barque of Peter out again into the deep and troubled waters and lower our nets. Even if it seems the least propitious time to catch anything whatsoever, the reality is that grace is super abounding. People are searching for those who are not hypocrites, for those who still are faithful “despite it all,” and after perhaps enduring some rude jokes, true and false accusations, and many questions, we may just find them more open now than ever to the deepest Answer to their most existential questions.

         I recently watched an interview with Bishop George Pallipparambil, Bishop of Diocese of Miao, India. He had come from the Himalayas to New York as the guest of Aid to the Church in Need to speak about what has been happening in his region over the last 30 years and to ask for help so that that growth might continue. Thirty years ago, there were no Catholics throughout the region, which is inhabited by nearly 100 different tribes who have often been brutally at war with each other. Now there are 90,000 Catholics, with 32 parishes, 156 mission stations, 44 schools, 13 high schools, 1 college, 28 Diocesan priests, 68 religious order priests, 165 women religious, 158 lay catechists, a diocesan seminary with 31 seminarians, and the only hospital in the region of 17,000 square miles — the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined — where among other successes in the two years since it opened, infant mortality rates have declined by 80 percent. It is a situation that reminds us of the Acts of the Apostles and the spread of the early Church. One of Bishop George’s collaborators, a deacon from Ireland, calls him, only half-jokingly, “The St. Patrick of Miao.” We could call him a 21^stCentury St. Paul of Tarsus.

          Everything started in the late 1970s. A few young warriors from the tribes journeyed far from their villages and found some peers who were educated and had jobs because they had been able to go to a Catholic school not too far from the region. The warriors were able to persuade their families to allow them to go away to be educated at the Bosco Bible School. Several months later they and girls from the village returned not only with professional skills — they went to school from 5:30 am to 10:30 pm each day — but well fed, having had the chance to have three meals a day instead of a few meals a week. They were also able to read and write and were talking about a new God and a new Book. Across the tribes, the leaders came together and sent a message to then Father George, saying, “Please come to us and tell us more about this God Jesus who has done so much for our children.” Nine-hundred were baptized in Borduria in 1979. Thirteen years later the first Church was built, with Father George as the founding pastor. He trained lay leaders, catechists, and youth ministers, and recruited the Missionaries of Charity to help him care for the needs of the poor. He traveled extensively throughout the region, preaching and strengthening the faith and setting up mission stations throughout, providing education for the kids and establishing youth groups, women’s groups and mothers’ associations, so that women would no longer be treated as the property of their families. In 2005, Pope Emeritus Benedict established the Diocese of Miao and appointed Father George its first bishop. The exponential growth has just continued.

              In the interview, Bishop George described a little bit the sufferings of Christians in various parts of India, including his own, and the risks he himself took to try to plant the seeds of the Gospel in a place where doing so was initially against the law and French martyrs once irrigated the soil with their blood. But he spent most of his time joyfully describing what God has done since he began to put out into the deep. He also described the appeal of Christianity and his particular missionary priorities. When people are baptized, he stresses, “You are becoming a member of the biggest family in the world!” Especially for people who are isolated, knowing that anywhere they might travel they would find the Gospel expands their horizons to the grandeur of God Himself. The people, he says, are also attracted to how Catholicism makes everyone equal. Members of tribes are even lower in the caste system than the untouchables. In the Church, however, the dignity of everyone is affirmed. The Christ he preaches is “Christ with them.” He seeks to help them to understand, in contrast to the dualist animisms that have pervaded that territory, that God came into our world, is totally and only good, remains at their side, and in fact, loves them. Part of that love is shown in the love that those believe in Him have for each other, which is the motivation behind their building so many wells, schools, hospitals, and dispensaries. They cannot miss that love. And he tries to form them to love Christ and others in return. He has started perpetual Eucharistic adoration at a shrine constantly visited around the clock by faithful in two-hour shifts, praying for the needs that are sent in from all over the Diocese. Extraordinary miracles, he said, happen as a result of prayers there. These bring many more to the faith. One boy had had his foot severely broken and turned from front to back because of a soccer injury. He was carried to the shrine by family members who had heard of its reputation. They prayed. And they saw his foot turn around before them as prayers were being said. The bishop said laconically, “Twenty families were baptized as a result!”

                There’s much more that could be written about what God is doing in bringing so many to the faith among the Mongolian indigenous peoples of northeastern India. But I think we can find in what Bishop George is doing perennial lessons that are just as important for the new evangelization as missionary work proper, lessons that can help us recover the Church’s true missionary form after the scandals. We are still members of the biggest family in the world, and the Church at its best behaves toward each other with familial love, featuring spiritual fatherhood and motherhood. Everyone has equal dignity. Christ is still with us, loving us, and seeking to help us truly love others, by defending, protecting and caring for them, rather than tolerating any exploitation of them. And Christ is still blessing us in the Eucharist, desiring to work miracles and to turn His Mystical Body around.

February 17, 2019

           The continuous wave of revelations of the sexual abuse scandal in the Church has been sickening and disheartening for so many as we confront the suffering of countless victims, the wickedness of predators, the lack of spiritual paternity and pastoral determination on the part of those with the responsibility to root it out, and the corruption and tepidity that not only tolerate such filth and infidelity but sometimes augment it. Those who know Church history are aware that throughout the centuries there have been periods of infidelity and iniquity in which spiritual cancer spread throughout the members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the clergy, religious orders, the laity, even the papacy. They also know that in response to such pervasive degeneracy, God was not indifferent and inert. Where sin abounded, His grace super-abounded, witnessed above all in the saints, movements, and devotions that He Himself inspired to bring the Church to her knees in prayerful conversion.

          Hope comes from the recognition that God never abandons His people but remains with us speaking to us in prayer, purifying us through penance, sanctifying us through His sacraments, and desiring to draw good even out of the evil we have committed and endured. The pace of reform always depends on the level of cooperation we give to God’s work of rebuilding. Over the past several months, there have been many voices that have tried to sketch out the ways the Church needs to be reformed, but if we were able ecclesially to receive Jesus’ clear input — not just our inferences based on what He has said to us already through the living word of Sacred Scripture, but the Divine Physician’s diagnosis of the problem and prescription for healing for the Church’s present wounds — what might He say?

            I think the answer to that question may be sketched out through credible private revelations given to an anonymous Benedictine priest from October 3, 2007, through June 2, 2016, found in the book recently published by Angelico Press entitled, In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart — The Journal of a Priest at Prayer.  The words In Sinu Jesu come from the Latin Vulgate of how St. John reclined during the Last Supper “on Jesus’ breast” (Jn 13:23). This priest’s journal, in which he humbly and plausibly claims to have regularly heard Jesus and Mary speaking to him, reminds us that Jesus desires to have an intimate heart-to-heart relationship with all of His beloved disciples, but especially with His priests. Throughout its 308 pages, Jesus and Mary — and also on rarer occasions God the Father and a few saints — cover many fundamental aspects of the Christian spiritual life in such a profound, direct and moving way that it is the most compelling text of spiritual reading besides Sacred Scripture that I have read in years.

          What I would like to focus on, however, is what Jesus communicates to His interlocutor about the roots of the priestly scandals and what God is asking the clergy and all the faithful to do in response. “All of heaven weeps over the sins of my priests,” Jesus states, which are a “grievous affront to my own priesthood,” adding, “Every time a priest sins, he sins directly against me and against the most Holy Eucharist toward which his whole being is ordered. When a priest approaches my altar laden with sins that have not been confessed or for which he has not repented, my angels look on with horror, my mother grieves, and I am again wounded in my hands and my feet and in my heart.” Would we expect any less?

          Jesus’ desire, however, is not to condemn but to convert: “I am about to renew the priesthood of my Church in holiness. I am very close to cleansing my priests of the impurities that defile them. Soon, very soon, I will pour out graces of spiritual healing upon all my priests. I will separate those who will accept the gift of my divine friendship from those who will harden their hearts against me.” He emphasizes about the latter what we now all know: “Those who do not live in my friendship betray me and impede my work. They detract from the beauty of holiness that I would see shine in my Church.” The root of priestly sins, Jesus says, is the “loneliness” that comes from a lack of friendship with Him. Jesus desires to be the friend each priest needs, “the Friend with whom they can share everything, the Friend to whom they can tell everything, the Friend who will weep over their sins without, for a moment, ceasing to love them.” He laments, “If priests lived in my friendship, how different my Church would be! … Many of the sufferings and hardships experienced with my Church at the hands of her ministers, my priests, would not exist.”The lack of “experiential knowledge of my friendship and love,” Jesus continues, “is the root of the evil that eats away at the priesthood from within.”

           This lack of friendship, he says, is seen in the “coldness and indifference” with which priests approach Jesus in the Eucharist. “There are priests who go into my church only when they have a function to perform.” They receive little from their daily communion “because they expect so little.” He adds sorrowfully, “Even after two thousand years of Eucharistic presence in my Church, I remain unknown, forgotten, forsaken, and treated like a thing to be kept here or there.” Priests, moreover, “keep themselves apart from me. Their lives are compartmentalized. They treat with me only when duty obliges them to do so.” And because of loneliness, they look for love “in other places and in creatures unworthy of the undivided love of their consecrated hearts,” as they try to “fill the emptiness within with vain pursuits, with lust, with possessions, with food and drink.”

          What is the remedy? “The sins of my priests call for reparation,” Jesus declares. The particular reparation He implores is Eucharistic adoration. “The renewal of my priesthood in the Church will proceed from a great return to the adoration of my real presence in this the Sacrament of my love. … This is the remedy for the evil that has so disfigured my holy priesthood in the Church.” He underlines, “I want priest adorers and reparators, … priests who will adore for priests who do not adore, priests who will make reparation for priests who do not make reparation for themselves or for others.” He says that priests “will be renewed in holiness and purity when they begin to seek me out in the Sacrament of my love,” meaning the Eucharist.

          Time with Christ in prayerful adoration will develop that friendship that is the source of true priestly life. “The secret of priestly holiness,” Jesus states, is “a life of friendship with me, a ‘yes’ renewed each day to the gift of divine friendship that I offer each priest.” This is where priests learn to identify “with all my interests, with all my sorrows, with all that offends me, and … with my burning zeal for the glory of my Father and for the holiness of all my people.” He adds, “All the rest is secondary.” To enter into friendship with Jesus means to enter, He notes, into a “privileged and sweet relationship with my Mother,” imitating the relationship both St. Joseph and St. John had with her. “The great renewal of the priesthood in my Church will begin when priests understand that I want them to live in the company of my Immaculate Mother.” He wants us to pray each day the Rosary and the Ave Maria Stella and to entrust our lives and needs to her, both big and small.

          The reform also involves, He says, embracing the purifying fire of love of the Holy Spirit in very practical ways: “I will pour out the Holy Spirit upon all priests in the form of a purifying fire. Those who welcome that fire will emerge from it like gold from the furnace, shining with holiness and with a wonderful purity for all to see. Those who refuse my fire will be consumed by it.” Living by the fire of the Holy Spirit means that priests strive for holiness. “There has never been in all of history a single priest whom I have not destined for a great holiness,” Jesus says. “A holy priest is quite simply one who allows me to live in him,” and for this reason, “I offer them my presence in the Eucharist. Yes, this is the great secret of priestly holiness.” So many of the problems in the clergy and in the Church have come from priests’ lowering the bar for themselves and for everyone else.

          To grow in holiness, Jesus says He wants priests to “go to confession weekly,” to meditate each Thursday on Chapters 13-17 of the Gospel of St. John, preferably together with adoration, and to grow in the exercise of spiritual fatherhood based on trust in God’s Fatherhood. “The fatherhood of the priest is a grace that I shall renew in the Church now,” because the Church “suffers in that so many priests do not know how to live the grace of their fatherhood,” abandoning souls to “live like spiritual orphans.” Jesus says to His Benedictine dialogue partner and through him to all priests, “Be a father.”

            Finally Jesus encourages the prayer of what He calls the “Chaplet of Reparation” or the “Offering of the Precious Blood for Priests.” Like the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, it is prayed on ordinary Rosary beads. On the ‘Our Father’ beads, we say, “Eternal Father, I offer you the Precious Blood of your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish or spot, in reparation for my sins and for the sins of all your priests;” on the ten ‘Hail Mary’ beads, “By your Precious Blood, O Jesus, purify and sanctify your priests;” and at the end of each decade, “O Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, have mercy on all your priests and wash them in the Blood of the Lamb.” What a beautiful prayer to say for the renewal of the clergy!

          What I have shared are just a few coins of the enormous treasure contained in In Sinu Jesu. I urge you to buy this book and prayerfully read it. I encourage you to purchase a copy for any and all of the priests that you may know. And I exhort you to pick up copies for your friends and family members who do not know how to respond to the scandals the Church is enduring. It will bring you and them into the heart-to-heart conversation with Jesus that is at the root of the renewal that the Church urgently needs.

February 10, 2019

           Today, we celebrate World Marriage Day. One of the duties of parish priests is to prepare couples for the Sacrament of Matrimony. Many priests love this work. Others admit they find parts of it taxing. Nevertheless, almost all parish priests do it, dedicate quite a lot of time to doing it, and, like other aspects of priestly work, try to do it well. That is why it came as quite a shock when the Prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery of Laity, Family and Life, which is in charge of the Church’s universal care for the family, declared that priests are basically incompetent to do this work.

          In an interview printed in the July/August 2018 edition of Intercom Magazine, published by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Kevin Farrell made headlines when he said, “Priests are not the best people to train others for marriage. They have no credibility. They have never lived the experience. They may know moral theology, dogmatic theology in theory, but to go from there to putting it into practice everyday life … they don’t have the experience.” This was not the first time he has alleged universal priestly ineptitude with regard to marriage preparation. In September 2017, at a conference in Belfast, he emphasized that priests have “no credibility in this area” because they have “no credibility when it comes to living the reality of marriage.” What is needed, he said, is accompaniment by other married couples “who have walked in [married couples’] shoes.” He implied that his comprehensive assertions might be partly autobiographical extrapolations because; he said, he did not “have a clue” when his own nieces and nephews asked him some questions about marital difficulties. “I have no experience of that and the majority of priests don’t have that experience,” he said. However, in the Intercom interview, he also contended that priests’ lack of competence and credibility is matched by a lack of commitment. Basing himself on his previous experience as Bishop of Dallas, he said, priests, with all of their duties, “are not going to be interested in organizing marriage meetings.”

          Priests who are in fact interested in organizing meetings with couples to help them get ready for the Sacrament of Marriage found his comments disheartening and disturbing. Many married couples likewise found them bewildering. It is one thing to make the obvious point that effective marriage preparation involves not just parish priests but well-trained married couples, something that happens in most parish, diocesan, and online marriage preparation courses in the United States. Cardinal Farrell’s regrettable emphasis, however, was not to encourage greater lay participation but to undermine priests’ involvement and credibility—as if, because they have never been married, priests have nothing to contribute. This led Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin humorously to tweet, “It seems fair to ask, then, if a celibate cleric has sufficient ‘credibility’ to lead a dicastery devoted to laity, family, and life.”

          Cardinal Farrell’s comments made me wonder how familiar he is with St. John Paul II’s works on marriage, which consider his objections and persuasively refute them. In the opening words of the introduction to his book Love and Responsibility, for example, the future Pope took up the Cardinal’s objection: “There exists a view that only married people may speak about marriage, and that only persons who experience love between a man and a woman may speak about such love. This view demands personal and direct experience as the basis for speaking in a given field. Thus, priests, religious and celibate persons cannot have anything to say on matters of love and marriage.” Then John Paul II responded: “A lack of their own personal experience does not hinder them since they possess a very rich indirect experience proceeding from pastoral work … [where] they encounter precisely these problems so often and in such a variety of ways and situations that another experience is created, experience that is undoubtedly more indirect and ‘foreign,’ but at the same time much more extensive.”

          Even though priests do not have first-hand experience of marital life, the saintly pope underlined, they have a far more extensive second-hand experience than almost anyone because of their pastoral work hearing confessions, counseling couples, and sharing the joys and struggles of their married spiritual sons and daughters. They also have their first-hand exposure to the reality of family life from growing up in a family. His Eminence, however, not only seems to have forgotten John Paul II’s insights, but also to be unaware of what Pope Francis has recently said about priests and marriage preparation.

          Speaking to parish priests in the Vatican on February 25, 2017, Pope Francis commented, “In most cases, you are the first people to be approached by young people desiring to form a new family and marry in the Sacrament of Matrimony. And it is again you to whom married couples turn in crisis as a result of serious relationship problems, with a need to rekindle their faith and rediscover the grace of the Sacrament. No one better than you knows and is in touch with the reality of the social fabric of the territory, and experiences the various complexities: unions celebrated in Christ, de facto unions, civil unions, failed unions, happy and unhappy families and young people.”

          “With each person and in each situation,” the Pope continued, “you are called to be travelling companions who can offer witness and support. May your primary concern be to bear witness to the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the primordial good of the family, vital cell of the Church and of Society, by announcing that marriage between a man and a woman is a symbol of the spousal union between Christ and the Church. Such witness is put into practice concretely when you prepare engaged couples for marriage, making them aware of the profound meaning of the step which they are about to take, and when you journey with young couples with attentiveness, helping them experience the divine strength and the beauty of their marriage through light and shadow, through joyful and difficult times.”

          He went on to say that, he wanted marriage preparation be a “true catechumenate” that could accompany engaged couples similar to the way the Church for months accompanies adults preparing for the Sacrament of Baptism. And he stressed, “This catechumenate is principally entrusted to you, parish priests….I encourage you to implement it despite any difficulties you may encounter.” Those are not the words of someone with a low estimation of the credibility, competence, and commitment of priests with regard to the Sacrament of Matrimony.

          I have had the chance to prepare over one hundred couples for marriage. I normally meet with couples cumulatively for about eight hours because I am convinced that in a culture that does not support marriage as the lifelong, faithful, and fruitful union of one man and one woman, this time is indispensable to help them build their marriage on the rock of faith. Over the course of our conversations, we discuss their family backgrounds, how they met, how they determined the other was the “right one,” how the proposal happened, what marriage means, why Christian marriage is a Sacrament, what role God plays in their relationship, what is distinctive about marital love, what they love about the other and how the other has shown love to them, what their desires are for children, how to grow in prayer and faith as a couple, how to forgive, and what marriage experts say are best practices on communication, finances, and relations with in-laws. We go over in depth the necessary intentions for a valid marriage. We cover the what and why of the Church’s teachings about natural family planning, adoption, infertility, cohabitation, contraception, in vitro fertilization, and pornography. We even tackle what to do if they happen to fall in love with someone else.

           In all of this, rather than being an insurmountable handicap, my priesthood is actually an asset. My chaste celibacy allows me to be more objective in talking about human sexuality in God’s plan than someone whose ideas are marked too much by personal experience. My seminary training is likewise a plus. So many generous Catholic couples who volunteer to lead marriage preparation courses certainly can talk effectively and eloquently about various practical realities of living a Catholic marriage, but in general, they cannot speak to the theology and sacramentality of marriage the way priests can and couples deserve. These priestly contributions are an indispensable service to couples, who are often beguiled by our secular age to look at marriage in a desacralized way.

            Most helpful of all, however, I think, is simply a priest’s presence and prioritized concern for the couple. Many young people, including Catholics, do not know priests personally, because they see them only in chasubles. Many come to marriage preparation not practicing the faith, in one way or many, and have lots of unanswered questions and misconceptions that will impact their marriage and spiritual life overall if left unaddressed. Over the course of the hours we have together, those questions can come up. Trust can build. The practice of the faith can return. Doubts about “credibility” can be overcome. Real evangelization or re-evangelization can take place.

           When a priest shows how much he cares in making the time to get to know and form them, and then brings the fruit of that burgeoning friendship to their rehearsal, wedding homily, reception, future baptisms, and more, it can have a favorable long-term influence on their relationship with all priests and with the Church. I hope that the intense reaction that Cardinal Farrell’s unintentionally offensive remarks have provoked among priests and faithful might lead him to reassess his conclusions. I also hope that it will help him, and the Dicastery he directs, better to encourage and support priests in the trenches in their important labor—together with married lay people—in preparing couples not just for marriage but for the Sacrament of Matrimony in its fullness. The future of the Church depends on that crucial and ongoing work.

February 3, 2019

          The image above is called the "Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas over Averroes." It was painted by Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497) in 1471 and is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Most scholars consider St. Thomas Aquinas to be the Catholic Church’s greatest philosopher and theologian. He was born in southern Italy near Aquino in 1225 to a wealthy and aristocratic family. His father was a count. His mother was a countess.

         When he was five years old, his parents sent him to be trained by the Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino. As a young student, St. Thomas was known for his prayer and hard work. He had a philosophical bent early on and would ask questions like: “What is God?” His teachers realized his superior intellect and recognized that he needed better instruction than they could provide. So at the age of fourteen, he was sent to the University of Naples. In only a matter of months, he surpassed his professors at the university in knowledge and understanding. It was at Naples that he first began to sense that God was calling him to join the Dominicans.

        When he was seventeen, he revealed his plans to join the Dominican order to his family. His family was strongly opposed to this idea. St. Thomas’s uncle had been the Abbot at the prestigious Monte Cassino Abbey. They hoped Thomas would follow in his footsteps. The Dominicans were a new order known for their itinerant preaching and begging. His family found this unacceptable. So as Thomas was on his way to join the Dominicans in Rome, his brothers kidnapped him and imprisoned him at Roccasecca Castle. At one point, his family even sent in a prostitute to his cell to try to tempt him, but he drove her out with a burning torch. His family kept him imprisoned for fifteen months until the Pope finally intervened for him. He was released and joined the Dominicans in Naples.

         During his captivity, Thomas’s sister brought him a copy of the Bible, Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Peter Lombard’s Sentences to study. The Dominicans were delighted to see his intellectual progress during this time. The Dominicans sent Thomas to study with St. Albert the Great in Cologne, Germany and then the University of Paris. St. Albert the Great was a man of great learning who was interested in practically everything including science, mathematics, geometry, medicine, botany, astronomy and, of course, theology and philosophy.

         St. Thomas was physically a big man, but also gentle and humble. Because he was so quiet his fellow students nicknamed him the “Dumb Ox.” However, when he was called upon in class to give a defense of a very difficult thesis, St. Albert the Great predicted: “We call this man a ‘Dumb Ox,’ but his bellowing in doctrine will resound through the whole world.” St. Albert’s prediction has been fulfilled. The writings of St. Thomas Aquinas continue to be influential in the Church and the world today, over 700 years after his death.

         St. Thomas was ordained as a priest at the age of twenty-five. He preached to large crowds all over Italy, France and Germany. People would travel for many miles to hear his brilliant explanations of Holy Scripture. As he became better known, there were more demands on his time. He remained faithful to prayer, preaching, teaching, and an arduous travel schedule. All the while, he was writing his greatest work–the Summa Theologica–a systematic presentation of philosophical and theological truths. He was offered the Archbishopric of Naples, but he turned it down to continue preaching and teaching.

          When arguing against an opponent, he always presented the best version of his opponent’s argument. Then he would proceed to show how the argument fails. Many people, in order to win arguments, will misstate an opponent’s argument in order to argue against a weaker position. This is called setting up a “straw man” or “straw horse,” but St. Thomas never did this. He treated his opponents and their arguments seriously and with intellectual honesty.

          St. Thomas was best known for incorporating insights from Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, to explain the truths of Christianity. In his work On Being and Essence, he explains that God is pure being, fully actualized. Everything else borrows existence from God and is in a state of becoming. In teaching how Jesus is present in His body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, he used the word transubstantiation to explain how the underlying substance of the bread and wine were changed while the appearances and other properties remain the same.

          St. Thomas is also famous for his five proofs for the existence of God. The arguments involve God as the Uncaused Cause or the Unmoved Mover. He is the only necessary being, whereas everything else has existence by analogy. He is the most perfect Being one could contemplate. As we see a design in nature, so there must be a designer. This designer is God.

         St. Thomas argued that the truths that we can come to know through a rigorous application of human reason and the truths that can only be known by a special revelation from God flow from the same source, and therefore, when properly understood, complement rather than contradict one another. He taught that human beings were not simply souls using bodies, but rather are embodied souls. Our bodies are not just something we use, they are us. It is not just our souls that will live forever, but like Christ, our bodies will be raised on the last day.

          At the age of 48, St. Thomas was experiencing regular ecstasies and visions. Once after offering Mass at a Church in Naples, three of his Dominican brothers heard a powerful voice praise St. Thomas saying “You have written well of me, Thomas…What reward will you have?” St. Thomas replied: “Nothing other than yourself, Lord.” After this vision, St. Thomas could write no more. He said all he had written seemed to him as straw. It’s not that what he had said before was not true, but nothing he said or wrote compared with the beauty he had seen directly. It was like the difference between talking about love and being in love.

          St. Thomas died while he was on his way to the Council of Lyons called for by Pope Gregory X. He was taken in along the route by Cistercian monks and died on March 7, 1274, at the age of 49. He was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323, and proclaimed a doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V in 1567. St. Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint of all Catholic universities and students. We celebrate his feast on January 28, the anniversary of when his body was transferred to a shrine in Toulouse.

         We can learn so much from the life of St. Thomas Aquinas. We can learn from his courage and perseverance in pursuing his true calling in life. He was always patient when arguing against an opponent. He won many of them over to his position through his personality and great learning. He could have enjoyed a life of great wealth and privilege, but his tastes were simple and he lived his vow of poverty. He had a great memory which he nurtured through study. Sometimes he would forget his surroundings when he was absorbed in thought. Nevertheless, when he did speak, he expressed his thoughts calmly and systematically in a clear and simple manner. He valued his education as a way to learn about the God who he loved and the world He created. He taught others to love God too by passing on his learning to others.

         St. Thomas was a genius, but more importantly, he was wise. Wisdom comes from God. Not everyone who is smart is necessarily good or wise. Some people believe that living a life of virtue makes you weak, but it’s the exact opposite. St. Thomas taught that virtue is a power to do good. Sin is the abuse of a power God has given us to do good that instead we use for evil. It is sin that weakens and virtue that makes a person strong.

          St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us of the importance and value of a good Catholic education. The knowledge and love of God should come first and then everything else flows from that. All of us are called to love God and serve Him in different ways according to the unique gifts and talents He has given to each of us. A Catholic education should help us to be a well-rounded, knowledgeable, cultured person who loves God and loves their neighbor as himself. A Catholic education is more than just job training. It seeks to develop the whole person, recognizing the human person as created in the image and likeness of God and destined to share everlasting happiness with Him in heaven.

          Theology is the “Queen of all Sciences,” but a Catholic education should include not just the study of religion, but also of philosophy, science, mathematics, history, literature, music, art, poetry, theater, languages and participation in sports. A Catholic education should help form a person who loves God and their neighbor; a person who is always seeking to grow in knowledge, holiness, and fidelity to the truth. It should instill a love for learning in the student and help them to understand that education is a lifelong process. We ask St. Thomas Aquinas to help us to follow his example, to grow in wisdom and lead us to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (cf. John 14:6)

January 27, 2019

           As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, a review of documents from the Holy See and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides clarity on the Church’s mission in Catholic education. Catholic education is an expression of the Church’s mission of salvation and an instrument of evangelization. Through its schools, members encounter God, who in Jesus Christ reveals His transforming love and truth. As a faith community, students, parents, and educators, in unity with the Church, give witness to Christ’s loving communion in the Holy Trinity. With this Christian vision, Catholic education fulfills its purpose of transmitting culture in the light of faith, integrally forming the human person by developing each student’s physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual gifts, teaching responsibility and right use of freedom, preparing students to fulfill God’s calling in this world, and attaining the eternal kingdom for which they were created.

          In the fullness of time, in His mysterious plan of love, God the Father sent His only Son to begin the Kingdom of God on earth and bring about the spiritual rebirth of mankind. To continue His work of salvation, Jesus Christ founded the Church as a visible organism, living by the power of the Spirit. Moved by the same Spirit, the Church is constantly deepening her awareness of herself and meditating on the mystery of her being and mission. Thus she is ever rediscovering her living relationship with Christ “in order to discover greater light, energy, and joy in fulfilling her mission and determining the best way to ensure that her relationship with humanity is closer and more efficacious”—that humanity of which she is a part and yet so undeniably distinct. Her destiny is to serve humanity until it reaches its fullness in Christ. Evangelization is, therefore, the mission of the Church; that is she must proclaim the good news of salvation to all, generate new creatures in Christ through Baptism, and train them to live knowingly as children of God.

          To carry out her saving mission, the Church uses, above all, the means which Jesus Christ has given her. She also uses other means which at different times and in different cultures have proved effective in achieving and, promoting the development of the human person. The Church adapts these means to the changing conditions and emerging needs of mankind. In her encounter with differing cultures and with man’s progressive achievements, the Church proclaims the faith and reveals “to all ages the transcendent goal which alone gives life its full meaning.”

          The Church establishes her own schools because she considers them as a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole man since the school is a center in which a specific concept of the world, of man, and of history is developed and conveyed. It is precisely in the Gospel of Christ, taking root in the minds and lives of the faithful, that the Catholic school finds its definition as it comes to terms with the cultural conditions of the times. It must never be forgotten that the purpose of instruction at school is education, that is, the development of man from within, freeing him from that conditioning which would prevent him from becoming a fully integrated human being. The school must begin from the principle that its educational program is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person.

          Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church He founded. Through education, the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to translate this proclamation into action. Since the Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God’s help, the educational efforts of the Church must encompass the twin purposes of personal sanctification and the social reform in light of Christian values. 

          Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost, every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals His transforming love and truth. Christ is the foundation of the whole educational enterprise in a Catholic school. His revelation gives new meaning to life and helps man to direct his thought, action and will according to the Gospel, making the beatitudes his norm of life. The fact that in their own individual ways all members of the school community share this Christian vision makes the school “Catholic”; principles of the Gospel in this manner become the educational norms since the school then has them as its internal motivation and final goal. 

          From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment, one illumined by the light of faith, and having its own unique characteristics. The Gospel spirit should be evident in a Christian way of thought and life which permeates all facets of the educational climate. The implementation of a real educational community, built on the foundation of shared projected values, represents a serious task that must be carried out by the Catholic school. The preparation of a shared project acts as a stimulus that should force the Catholic school to be a place of ecclesial experience. Its binding force and potential for relationships derive from a set of values and a communion of life that is rooted in our common belonging to Christ. Derived from the recognition of evangelical values are educational norms, motivational drives, and the final goals of the school. Certainly, the degree of participation can differ in relation to one’s personal history, but this requires that educators be willing to offer a permanent commitment to formation and self-formation regarding a choice of cultural and life values to be made present in the educational community. 

          When Christians say communion, they refer to the eternal mystery, revealed in Christ, of the communion of love that is the very life of God. At the same time, we also say that Christians share in this communion in the Body of Christ which is the Church (cf.  Phil 1:7; Rev 1:9). Communion is, therefore, the “essence” of the Church, the foundation and source of its mission of being in the world “the home and the school of communion,” to lead all men and women to enter ever more profoundly into the mystery of Trinitarian communion and, at the same time, to extend and strengthen internal relations within the human community. Since true education must strive for complete formation of the human person that looks to his or her final end as well as to the common good of societies, children and youth are to be nurtured in such a way that they are able to develop their physical, moral, and intellectual talents harmoniously, acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and right use of freedom, and are formed to participate actively in social life. 

          To fulfill the mandate she has received from her divine founder of proclaiming the mystery of salvation to all men and of restoring all things in Christ, Holy Mother Church must be concerned with the whole of man’s life, even the secular part of it insofar as it has a bearing on his heavenly calling. Therefore, she has a role in the progress and development of education. Education today is a complex task, which is made more difficult by rapid social, economic, and cultural changes. Its specific mission remains the integral formation of the human person. Children and young people must be guaranteed the possibility of developing harmoniously their own physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual gifts; and they must also be helped to develop their sense of responsibility, learn the correct use of freedom, and participate actively in social life. A form of education that ignores or marginalizes the moral and religious dimension of the person is a hindrance to full education, because “children and young people have a right to be motivated to appraise moral values with a right conscience, to embrace them with a personal adherence, together with a deeper knowledge and love of God.” That is why the Second Vatican Council asked and recommended that “all those who hold a position of public authority or who are in charge of education to see to it that youth is never deprived of this sacred right.”

          It is important for Catholic schools to be aware of the risks that arise should they lose sight of the reasons why they exist. Catholic schools are called to give dutiful witness, by their pedagogy that is clearly inspired by the Gospel. They have the responsibility for offering Catholic students, over and above a sound knowledge of religion, the possibility to grow in personal closeness to Christ in the Church. 

            The young people we are educating today will become the leaders of the 2050s. What will religion’s contribution be to educating younger generations to peace, development, fraternity in the universal human community? How are we going to educate them to faith and in faith? How will we establish the preliminary conditions to accept this gift, to educate them to gratitude, to a sense of awe, to asking themselves questions, to develop a sense of justice and consistency? How will we educate them to prayer? As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, let us take this opportunity to ponder these questions and to thank God for the great gift of Catholic education! 

January 20, 2019

         In most political and cultural circles, for decades, there has been much talk, passionate action, and legal success in the fight against unjust discrimination. Persons are created equal in dignity and most people naturally rebel when someone suffers prejudice or injustice on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, age, religion, handicap, or other reasons. However, one area that generally gets a pass from the typical opprobrium that attends brazen discrimination is the practice of abortion. Discrimination in favor of abortion is somehow ignored and permitted by so many who in no other circumstances would tolerate it. Among some social circles, such discrimination is sometimes almost treated as genteel.

         Many know that Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger with explicitly eugenic intentions. In a 1932 speech about compulsory sterilization, Sanger spoke about ensuring that “morons, mental defectives, epileptics… illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope-fiends” are sterilized so that they do not have children. In her autobiography she proudly recounted her speech to a Ku Klux Klan meeting in 1926 and in a 1939 letter, she wrote, “We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Jesus once said, “A rotten tree produces bad fruit” (Mt 7:17), and we should not be surprised to discover discrimination in the fruits of a tree that began with such blatant eugenics.

           The practice of abortion is clearly racist. In the United States, for example, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an African-American woman is five times more likely, and a Latina twice as likely, to have an abortion than a white woman. Even though African-American women comprise just 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 36 percent of abortions. Twenty-eight percent of African-American pregnancies end in abortion, compared to 11 percent of white women. Studies show, however, that African American women do not support abortion more than whites or Hispanics and, yet, when the statistics are controlled for economics, are still three times more likely than white women to have abortions. Could it have anything to do with the fact that a disproportionate number of Planned Parenthood and abortion facilities are built in minority communities?

          Internationally, there is an obvious racial and abortive pattern to development assistance. In the last 20 years, for example, there has been a shift in foreign aid budgets to African countries. According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent analysis of Foreign Aid to Africa (2014), more money is now being given for population control programs than for health, water supply, sanitation, and education—and nearly for all of them combined. For other continents and regions of similar socioeconomic status, however, population control budgets comprise just a small percentage of development assistance. There is clearly an unmistakable priority among some in developed nations to have fewer babies from Africa.

          The practice of abortion is also sexist. While over the course of several decades there has been much progress ending discrimination against women in the workplace, education, healthcare, culture, access to ownership, and control over land and other property, financial services, inheritance law, and other legal structures, there has been relatively little work against ending the practice of the systematic discrimination against the youngest girls in the womb. As scholar Mara Hvistendahl documented in her monumental work “Unnatural Selection,” there is now an international deficit of 160 million girls who have gone “missing,” because they have been preferentially chosen to have their lives ended through the combination of pre-genetic screening followed by sex-selection abortion. Many groups and agencies that say they are advancing the cause of women and girls are notably silent when the most vulnerable of those they claim to be defending are being systematically targeted. Such tacit cooperation in this lethal form of discrimination against girls is, at the very least, inconsistent.

           The practice of abortion similarly discriminates against the handicapped—and does so badly. We see this in a particularly repellant way in the case of those diagnosed in the womb with Down Syndrome. Last August, CBS News reported that Iceland was on the verge of eliminating Down Syndrome, but what it really meant was that Iceland was eliminating those with Down Syndrome, because 100 percent of parents of babies who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome have been choosing to end the life of their son or daughter. In Croatia, it’s similarly 100 percent; in Denmark, 98; in France, Germany, and Spain, 96; in many other countries, over 90.

          Rather than stop it, many abet it. In November 2017, one of the members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, based in Geneva, stated during an official meeting, “If you tell a woman, ‘Your child has…Down Syndrome … or that he may have a handicap forever, for the rest of his life,’ … It should be possible for her to resort to abortion to avoid the handicap as a preventive measure.” Defending those with disabilities, he said, “does not mean that we have to accept to let a disabled fetus live.” How can such a position be consistent with the human rights of those with disabilities? In a March 14column in the Washington Post, George Will made the case that what we are confronting with respect to Down Syndrome, in Iceland and beyond, is a “genocide,” the deliberate attempt to eliminate a category of people.

            Speaking in June 2016 at a Jubilee Mass for the Sick and Those with Disabilities, Pope Francis spoke to the logic behind those who permit the practice of aborting those with disabilities. “It is thought that sick or disabled persons cannot be happy,” he said, “since they cannot live the lifestyle held up by the culture of pleasure and entertainment. In some cases, we are even told that it is better to eliminate them as soon as possible. They fail to understand the real meaning of life, which also has to do with accepting suffering and limitations. The world does not become better because only apparently ‘perfect’ people live there…but [becomes better] when human solidarity, mutual acceptance and respect increase.” In October 2017, at a Vatican Conference on People with Disabilities, Pope Francis said that “at the cultural level, through a prevailing false understanding of life…an often narcissistic and utilitarian vision unfortunately leads not a few to consider persons with disabilities…as if [their condition] prevents one from achieving happiness and self-fulfillment. It is demonstrated by the eugenic trend of ending the lives of the unborn who show some form of imperfection.”

          The statistics show that those with Down Syndrome and their families not only can be happy but are among the happiest groups of people alive. A 2011 Study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics by Harvard University Researchers associated with Boston Children’s hospital showed that 99 percent of those with Down Syndrome say they are happy with their lives, 97 percent like who they are, 96 percent like how they look, 99 percent of them love their families, 97 percent like their siblings and 86 percent said they make friends easily. Ninety-nine percent of their parents say that they love their child with Down Syndrome, 79 percent testify that their outlook on life is more positive because of their child, and only 4 percent regret having their child. Among siblings 12 and older, 94 percent declare they are proud to have a brother or sister with Down Syndrome, 88 percent say they are better people because of him or her, and only 4 and 7 percent respectively say that they would “trade their sibling in” for another or are embarrassed by their brother or sister.

          Can you think of any other situation that would show such high numbers among children with a particular condition or no condition at all, and among their parents, and siblings? Yet, tragically, the vast majority of those diagnosed in the womb with Down Syndrome are being aborted while so many others permit this lethal form of discrimination; as if it is somehow self-evidently for everyone’s good.

          What can we learn from the abortion exception to the practice of discrimination? I think we can see how corrosive permitting abortion is to moral reasoning in general. Most people opposed to racism, sexism, and discrimination against those with disabilities are at the very least uneasy with the use of abortion preferentially to eliminate African-Americans, girls, or the physically or mentally disabled. They recognize, however, that if they were to say or insist that abortion should not be used against certain categories of people, then logically they would have to answer the question why should it be permitted against anyone. If it is against the human dignity of some, is it not against the human dignity of everyone?

January 13, 2019

         We all celebrate our birthday with great joy. We have just celebrated the birthday of Jesus, certainly the greatest birthday of all. Now we are celebrating the feast of His baptism. But I wonder how many of us celebrate the anniversary of our baptisms? How many of us even know when we were baptized? This Sunday, the liturgical season of Christmas comes to a conclusion with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. This is a time when we might ask ourselves why Jesus would allow Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist and what practical applications might we make in our own lives.

        There is a difference between the baptism of John the Baptist and the baptism that Jesus gives to us.  The word baptism means to submerge in water. Baptism was not unknown to the Jewish people. Within the Jewish tradition there was a rite of immersion for legal purification for those who had become defiled under the Mosaic Law. Baptism was also used for Gentile converts to Judaism. Moreover, the Jewish Qumran, a community in existence during the time of Jesus, had been practicing baptism as a rite of initiation and purification over a period of years.

         From the beginning, John's baptism focused on conversion. His exhortations and appeals for personal repentance prepared the people to receive those graces which Christian baptism gives to us. While John's baptism, a ritualistic expression of conversion, penance, and repentance, did not confer sanctifying grace, Jesus' baptism, a sacrament necessary for salvation, does bestow upon the baptized sanctifying grace.

         Jesus had no need of conversion and repentance.  He is the sinless one. So, why did Jesus allow Himself to be baptized? There are a number of reasons that we can consider. First of all, Jesus needs to make Himself known to the Jewish people. A number of years ago, I had an opportunity to work in a mission territory in a very poor part of South America. Telephones, text messages and email were not always available. Without these means of communication, which we take for granted, it was common to interact with people in a more personal manner. Jesus walked the earth at a time when modern communication and the news media simply did not exist. A spiritual movement within the Jewish people was being stirred up by John the Baptist. It was very appropriate for Jesus to begin His public ministry by making His first public appearance precisely where John was baptizing. It is John the Baptist who announces to the crowds: "Behold, the Lamb of God!" (John 1: 36). Two of John's disciples are so moved by Jesus' appearance that they decide to become His disciples. Thus, Jesus uses the act of baptism as a means to make Himself known to the people.

         Secondly, the Lord's baptism is a moment of decision and identification. For thirty years He has faithfully carried out His Father's will in the ordinary circumstances of His hidden life. Now the Father is calling Him to begin His public ministry. By being baptized, Jesus, although He is sinless, identifies Himself with the very people that He has come to save. At Calvary, Jesus takes the sin of the world upon Himself.  In a similar way, as He immerses Himself in the waters of the Jordan, the sinless one takes upon Himself the sins of humanity. Through His baptism, Jesus announces to the world that His public ministry has begun.  In His humanity, He freely chooses to complete this mission and makes a free decision: He will carry out the Father's will to its' ultimate consequence. Through His baptism, Jesus identifies Himself with all of us (sinful humanity) so that we can come to Him filled with total confidence and peace.

         It would be a mistake to consider, as some spiritual writers do, that Jesus was confused about His identity and did not know that He was the Messiah until his baptism in the Jordan. On this matter, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is very clear. "The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it" (CCC 464).

"This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, 'increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man', and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking 'the form of a slave'.

But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person. The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.  Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father.  The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.

By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal" (CCC 472-474).

         As we contemplate the mystery of Christ's baptism, there are a number of practical applications that we can consider. 

          In today's culture, many people, even those who are baptized Christians, have great difficulty with their own identity. Many people wonder what their purpose is in this life. People find little or no meaning as they carry out their daily activities. A cloud of laziness hangs over many people as they also strive to find direction for their lives. This Sunday's liturgy shows us that Jesus gives us meaning, purpose, and direction. It is through the sacrament of baptism that we become His disciples. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and it is precisely in Jesus that our human existence finds fulfillment.

          Moreover, the consideration of Jesus' baptism, gives us an opportunity to remember our own baptism. If you do not know the date of your own baptism, it is a good idea to go through your personal files and find out when it occurred. Many people celebrate the anniversary of their baptism with a special celebration like a birthday. After all, baptism is the day that we are reborn. We become children of God, active members of the Church, and temples of the Holy Spirit. Original sin is washed away; we receive sanctifying grace and the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The reality of baptism certainly gives us great cause to celebrate.

         Finally, as we contemplate the baptism of the Lord, we are reminded of our apostolic mission as disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus commissions the Church to go forth and baptize all nations. It is erroneous to deny that baptism is essential for salvation. The large numbers of people who have not been baptized should inspire us to always seek the salvation of souls. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism underscores the apostolic dimension of baptism, precisely because it is the Holy Spirit who appears as tongues of fire at the moment when the Church begins its mission to baptize all nations.

January 6, 2018

           Before I entered the seminary, there were three significant days in my week: Monday was the much dreaded day school or work began; Wednesday was the hopeful hump day when most of the week was over; and Friday was the glorious final day of the week that ushered us into the weekend. Since then, I have gained a new appreciation for the sacredness of time. The liturgical cycle gives shape and meaning to the year, and each season brings new significance. But the liturgical year is just the beginning. Did you know Mother Church has also assigned meaning to each day and month of the year? Let’s briefly examine the significance of each day and month.

Holy Days

     Sunday: The Holy Trinity – Sunday is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This is entirely fitting as Sunday is the first day of the week and the day when we offer God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) our praise, adoration, and thanksgiving.

     Monday: The Angels – Monday is the day in which we remember the angels. Angels are powerful guardians, and each of us is protected by one. Many of the saints had a great devotion to the angels in general and to their guardian angel in particular.

     Tuesday: The Apostles – The Catholic Church is apostolic. That is, it is founded on the authority and teaching of the apostles, most especially that of St. Peter to whom Jesus gave the keys of his kingdom. Each bishop is a direct successor of the apostles.

     Wednesday: Saint Joseph – Saint Joseph is known as the prince and chief patron of the Church. As the earthly father of Jesus, he had a special role in protecting, providing for, and instructing Jesus during His earthly life. Now that Christ is ascended into heaven, St. Joseph continues his fatherly guardianship of Christ’s body, the Church.

     Thursday: The Holy Eucharist – Our Lord instituted the most Holy Eucharist on a Thursday, so it is fitting that we remember this greatest of sacraments on this day. The Eucharist is the greatest gift of God to mankind, as it is nothing less than Jesus Himself. What gift could be greater?

     Friday: The Passion – Jesus was scourged, mocked, and crucified on a Friday. Because of this, the Church has always set aside Fridays as days of penance and sacrifice. While the U.S. sadly does not require abstinence from meat on Fridays, penance is still required in one form or another. This day should always be a day of repentance and a day in which we recall Christ’s complete self-sacrifice to save us from our sins.

     Saturday: Our Lady – There are a number of theological reasons Saturdays are dedicated to Our Lady, perhaps the most significant is that on Holy Saturday, when everyone else had abandoned Christ in the tomb, she was faithful to Him, confidently waiting for His resurrection on the first day of the week.

Holy Months

      January: The Holy Name of Jesus – There is no name more powerful than the name of Jesus. The Catechism sums up the power of this name beautifully: “The name ‘Jesus’ contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray ‘Jesus’ is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him” (CCC #2666).

       February: The Holy Family – The Holy Family is an earthly reflection of the Holy Trinity. By meditating on the Holy Family, we can learn the meaning of love, obedience, and true fatherhood and motherhood. We are also reminded that the family is the foundational unit of both society and the Church.

     March: St. Joseph – St. Joseph is the icon of God the Father–silent but active and perfectly providing for the needs of all. The Church constantly invokes the protection of St. Joseph, admonishing us to ite ad Joseph, go to Joseph.

     April: The Blessed Sacrament – Holy Church is the guardian of the Holy Eucharist. For two thousand years she has guarded this treasure, administering it to the faithful and proclaiming that it is nothing less than Jesus Himself. We can never be too devoted to the Blessed Sacrament or show it too much honor.

     May: The Blessed Virgin Mary – Our Lady has long been associated with the beauty of flowers and the coming of spring. This is fitting because she is both beautiful and the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the life of the world. In May, the Church remembers our glorious lady with crownings and processions in her honor.

       June: The Sacred Heart of Jesus – The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the revelation of God’s immense love for us. It is often depicted as a fiery furnace, pierced and broken, but beating with love. The Sacred Heart is also a profound reminder of the humanity of our Lord, for His heart is not a mere symbol, but a true physical reality.

     July: The Precious Blood – The blood of Christ saves us from sin. It is the blood of Christ that gives us the hope of heaven. St. Paul tells us that Jesus reconciled “to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20). Without the blood of Christ shed for us, all would be lost.

     August: The Immaculate Heart of Mary – The heart of Mary is a motherly heart, a heart full of love and mercy for her children. The heart of Mary is also the channel through which all the graces of God flow down to us. She is “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

     September: The Seven Sorrows of Mary – Aside from Jesus, no human being has suffered more than our Blessed Mother. In perfect obedience to the will of God, she consented to her son’s torture, humiliation, and brutal executed for our salvation. As any parent knows, watching one’s child suffer is the greatest suffering of all. Mary still bears the sufferings of her divine Son in her heart.

     October: The Holy Rosary – The rosary is one of the most powerful weapons the Church possesses. We are constantly exhorted by saints, popes, and Our Lord and Our Lady themselves to pray this simple yet profound prayer. Accordingly, Mother Church has set aside a whole month to the promotion of this prayer.

     November: The Souls in Purgatory – The souls in purgatory are suffering a great deal, and they cannot pray for themselves. They are our brothers and sisters, and as members of the body of Christ, we must pray and offer sacrifices for those who have gone before us, asking that they may rest in the light of God’s presence.

     December: The Immaculate Conception – The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a profound mystery. In the Immaculate Conception, Mary was without sin from the first moment of her conception. She is perfectly united forever to her spouse, the Holy Spirit. Their fruitful union produced a wedding of heaven and earth in the God-Man, Jesus Christ. We will meditate on these truths for all eternity.

          The Church takes seriously the call to sanctify all things, even time. The Catholic significance of days and months is a profound reminder that our lives are finite, and that time should not be squandered. As the Psalmist said, “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12). But more than anything, it reminds us that time is a gift from God, and with Him and through Him, all things are holy, and nothing is without meaning.

December 30, 2018

            In April of this year, Pope Francis published an apostolic exhortation on the call to holiness in today’s world. Entitled Gaudete et Exsultate, “Rejoice and Be Glad,” taken from Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, the papal appeal passionately urges us “not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence,” but to commit ourselves, body and soul, to responding to God’s “call to holiness in today’s world.” The relatively short and often eloquent exhortation is unique in magisterial style. Normally Popes only use the second person singular (“tu” in Romance languages) in letters to young people or to individuals. The Pope strikingly uses it throughout this letter, seeking to draw each of us— including you and me—into dialogue.

          “I would like to insist,” he writes, “primarily on the call to holiness that the Lord addresses to each of us, the call that he also addresses, personally, to you: ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” Addressing any possible anxiety we might have before such a vocation to sanctity, he counsels, “Do not be afraid of holiness. It will take away none of your energy, vitality, or joy. On the contrary, you will become what the Father had in mind when he created you, and you will be faithful to your deepest self.” The exhortation was fittingly released on April 9, the Solemnity of the Annunciation this year (March 25 was Palm Sunday), because Christ took on our humanity so that we might participate in His divinity. Holiness is our sharing in divine life.

          “At its core, holiness is experiencing, in union with Christ, the mysteries of his life,” he states. “It consists in uniting ourselves to the Lord’s death and resurrection in a unique and personal way, constantly dying and rising anew with him. But it can also entail reproducing in our own lives various aspects of Jesus’ earthly life: his hidden life, his life in community, his closeness to the outcast, his poverty and other ways in which he showed his self-sacrificing love.”

          However, Pope Francis did not want to write a “treatise on holiness,” but rather to “repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges, and opportunities.” Holiness is not an idea, like the Gnostics believe, thinking that holiness depends fundamentally on what we know. Holiness, rather, depends on how we put into practice what we have learned from Christ. Christianity, after all, “is a practical religion: it is not there to be thought about, but to be practiced, to be done.”

          Moreover, Pope Francis has written the most extensive, practical treatise on the call to holiness in the history of the papacy. I would urge everyone to read this letter in its entirety (vatican.va). But as a primer, I would like to share ten practical nuggets Pope Francis shares.

          First, holiness is the deepest meaning of our life. “A Christian cannot think of his or her mission on earth,” the Pope notes, “without seeing it as a path of holiness, for [as St. Paul wrote], ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification.’ Each saint is a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel.” He says that it’s “to the extent that each Christian grows in holiness [that] he or she will bear greater fruit for our world.”

            Second, holiness is found in ordinary daily life. It does not involve “swooning in mystic rapture,” or having the stigmata, or being listed on the rolls of canonized saints and martyrs. We are not called to be Saint Someone Else and therefore “should not grow discouraged before examples of holiness that appear unattainable.” There’s a “middle class of holiness,” he says humorously, often found “in our next-door neighbors,” among our “own mothers, grandmothers and loved ones,” who “living in our midst reflect God’s presence.” We are all called to this holiness “through small gestures,” mindful that “every minute of our lives can be a step along the path to growth in holiness.”

            Third, holiness begins with desire. St. Thomas Aquinas stressed that to become a saint we have to “will it.” Pope Francis says he wrote the exhortation to help the “whole Church devote herself anew to promoting the desire for holiness” and praying that God will “pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God’s greater glory.” This desire for holiness, however, does not mean it is principally our work. Pope Francis cautions us against the Pelagian heresy that pretends that holiness depends exclusively on our personal strength and abilities. Rather, it depends on God and His grace. “Only on the basis of God’s gift, freely accepted and humbly received can we cooperate by our own efforts in our progressive transformation.”

                Fourth, God carries out the work of our sanctification, among other ways, through the traditional means of sanctification already known to us: the various methods of prayer, the inestimable sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation, the offering of personal sacrifices, different forms of devotion, spiritual direction, and many others as well.” We should take all of these seriously.

            Fifth, holiness can be understood more simply as living the Beatitudes. “Jesus explained with great simplicity what it means to be holy when he gave us the Beatitudes,” Pope Francis writes. “In the Beatitudes, we find a portrait of the Master, which we are called to reflect in our daily lives:…being poor of heart,…reacting with meekness and humility,…knowing how to mourn with others, … hungering and thirsting for righteousness, … seeing and acting with mercy …keeping a heart free of all that tarnishes love,…sowing peace all around us,…accepting daily the path of the Gospel, even though it may cause us problems, that is holiness.”

          Sixth, holiness flows from a life of prayer. “Holiness consists in a habitual openness to the transcendent, expressed in prayer and adoration. The saints are distinguished by a spirit of prayer and a need for communion with God,” the Holy Father indicates. “I do not believe in holiness without prayer.” Part of that prayer is discernment, since the path of holiness is “given to us by the Spirit,” helping us to hear His voice and attune our lives to Him. Discernment is “an authentic process of leaving ourselves behind in order to approach the mystery of God, who helps us to carry out the mission to which he has called us.”

          Seventh, our prayer must overflow into charity. “We cannot forget that the best way to discern if our prayer is authentic is to judge to what extent our life is being transformed in the light of mercy,” Pope Francis says. Holiness “is nothing other than charity lived to the full.” He says that we have to “acknowledge and accept…the uncompromising demands of Jesus” to care for Him in the poor, sick, stranger, naked, ill, imprisoned, and needy (Mt 25:31-46) because “our Lord made it very clear that holiness cannot be understood or lived apart from these demands.” The ultimate criterion on which our lives will be judged, he says “is what we have done for others.”

          Eighth, our holy, self-giving love must be cheerful. “Far from being timid, morose, acerbic or melancholy,…the saints are joyful and full of good humor.” The exhortation is entitled “Rejoice and Be Glad” because the Christian life is marked by “joy in the Holy Spirit,” which is what helps make holiness “the most attractive face of the Church.” Each of us is called to have that joyous face.

          Ninth, growth in holiness is a battle that requires perseverance, patience, courage, and meekness. “Holiness is…boldness,” Pope Francis says. “You cannot grow in holiness without committing yourself, body and soul, to giving your best to this endeavor,” because “The Christian life is a constant battle. The battle is not just against the ways of the world or against our human weaknesses and inclinations; it is also a “constant struggle against the devil” who incessantly seeks to divert us from the path of sanctity—and from God—in this world and in the next. For that reason, “Those who really wish to give glory to God by their lives, who truly long to grow in holiness, are called to be single-minded and tenacious.”

          Finally, holiness is not principally a solitary battle, but one waged in communion with God and his faithful in heaven and on earth. “Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others,” something we see in the Holy Family in Nazareth, in the early Church, in so many homes and religious communities today. We are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1) urging us on to victory, so that we may truly become one as God is one, a communion of saints within the Triune communion. Among all the saints, Pope Francis proudly stresses, stands Mary, who “teaches us the way of holiness and walks ever at our side.”

          The path that Pope Francis is describing is not easy. This battle entails, he writes, “a readiness to make sacrifices, even to sacrificing everything.” But he adds, “God asks everything of us, yet he also gives everything to us. He does not want to enter our lives to cripple or diminish them, but to bring them to fulfillment.” That fulfillment is the eternal life to which God summons each of us through the universal call to holiness—which Pope Francis has now engagingly made more practical.

December 23, 2018

           One of the most rewarding aspects of the Holy See’s Mission to the United Nations in New York is the ability to organize conferences at UN headquarters to shine a spotlight on realities that deserve greater attention and to give a voice to those whose cries for help are not adequately heard. In November of last year, the Church sponsored two conferences on what Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities have endured at the merciless hands of ISIS. Since ISIS has been militarily defeated in Iraq and is on the verge of defeat in Syria, there is a serious risk that the attention of the world will move to other crises. But we cannot forget what happened or those who suffered. While we tragically could not prevent the barbarities Christians, Yezidis and others endured, we must act to bring them justice, help them rebuild, and prevent ISIS from achieving one of its main objectives, which is the liquidation of ethnic diversity and religious pluralism from the region.

            We heard first-hand from survivors of ISIS atrocities and focused on what was needed to hold accountable the barbarians who carried out their sadistic rampage of murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking, suicide bombings, enslavement, forced marriage, human trafficking, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence—in short, what the United States, Iraq, Hungary, Lithuania, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the European Union and others have termed a genocide.

            We heard from a courageous Yezidi girl, Ekhlas Khudur Bajoo, who on August 3, 2014, was kidnapped by ISIS as they invaded her city of Sinjar. Her father was brutally executed, as part of a mass murder of males in the village. She, at 14, was sold into sexual slavery with hundreds of other girls and raped and humiliated each day for six months. Her sufferings were so severe she tried, but failed, to take her life. Three times she attempted to escape but was caught by ISIS troops, beaten and tortured. Finally on her fourth attempt, she succeeded. She came to the UN conference to speak on behalf of all those women who have suffered or are still suffering. She begged everyone present to “wipe our tears, heal our wounds, bring back the smiles on our faces, and rescue the girls who remain in captivity.” She finished by appealing, “I ask you not to remain silent. Stand with me and with all the survivors. Bring back our smiles.”

          We heard by video from a Syrian Christian, Gaby, who was kidnapped by ISIS and tortured for three weeks before his family arranged a costly ransom. We also heard from Dr. Nezar Taib, a psychiatrist and regional health director in Dohuk, who catalogued for us the various physical and psychological traumas among the thousands fleeing from ISIS terror and captivity whom he and his team have treated. Everyone present, from Ambassadors, to NGO delegates, to experts on the Middle East were repeatedly moved to tears. One of the UN technicians told a reporter that he has worked for 30 years at the UN—helping to run several conferences a day, five days a week (an estimated 40,000 conferences)—and said that this event was the most compelling he had ever attended.

              The second conference focused on the rebuilding necessary to help those who had been driven from the Nineveh Plain by ISIS to return home. We heard from Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Erbil, where most of the Christian refugees were welcomed, and Fr. Salar Kajo, pastor of three affected parishes in the north of Iraq, where Christians are now returning. We also heard from ambassadors from countries and leaders of three organizations—the Knights of Columbus, Aid to the Church in Need USA, and the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee—that are heavily committed to the rebuilding effort.

              ISIS left many of the cities and towns of the region in rubble, destroying homes, Churches, schools, public utilities and infrastructure. What is needed is the equivalent of a “Marshall Plan” that was used to reconstruct bomb damaged Europe after World War II. It begins by clearing rubble, rebuilding or refurbishing houses, reestablishing water and electricity, and reconstructing medical, educational and community infrastructure; next, creating jobs through microfinancing so that a local economy can be established and people can transition from dependency to self-sufficiency; then providing physical and psychological care to those in need, educating the young and training them to help rebuild their societies. This is not just to return to them what ISIS sought to pillage from them. It is also to ensure the true defeat of ISIS.

              Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, echoed the fear of the great Lebanese Statesmen, Charles Malik, one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after World War II. “You may win every battle, but if you lose the war of ideas, you will have lost the war. … My deepest fear—and your greatest problem—is that you may not be winning the war of ideas.” Anderson commented, “While ISIS is now gone as a military force, so too are the victims they forcibly evicted. The philosophy behind their genocide–the idea of cleansing Iraq of religious minority groups like Yezidis and Christians–is on the cusp of success. Quite simply, if the religious minorities displaced by ISIS do not return to their ancestral homes in sizeable numbers, ISIS will have won the battle of ideas. In that case, not just Nineveh, and not just Iraq, but the entire world will be poorer for that outcome–and threatened by it.”

              The only way to make sure ISIS cannot claim any victory is to restore Christians, and with them pluralism and diversity, to where ISIS ravaged. The Nineveh Plains had been home to more than 40 percent of the Christian population of Iraq, but in most of the region, only 12 percent of the Christians have been able to return. Archbishop Warda stated, “One positive outcome that has followed the genocide by ISIS has been the denouncing of their tactics by the entire world community–Christians, Muslims and others. Now it is time for action as well as words. Not only the West, but Islamic countries as well, who have been affected by terror of ISIS’ ideology, must commit resources to save pluralism in Iraq as a manifestation of their opposition to this ideology of hatred and genocide.”

              Father Kajo spoke on behalf of his parishioners, who “want only to live in peace … in our historic lands where we have harmed no one.” They are deeply afraid of more violence, he said, and for that reason “sleep with suitcases already packed” and “only buy small amounts of food.” He said that even though “there are many tragedies in this world today, and our story is only a small one now. Please do not forget the persecuted minorities of the Nineveh Plain.”

              Pope Francis hasn’t forgotten them and is trying to stir the world to remember them. Last year, when he was given a special edition Lamborghini Huracan, he announced that it would be auctioned off so that the proceeds could be given to the “Return to the Roots” project being coordinated by the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee (a unified effort of the three major Christian churches in the Nineveh Plain) with the help of Aid to the Church in Need and the Knights of Columbus. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, his Secretary of State, called the work of the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee “praiseworthy and greatly needed” and expressed the “deep appreciation and encouragement” of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church “for this noble and difficult effort.”

              If you would like to help out in this noble, difficult rebuilding effort, I would urge you to go to www.christiansatrisk.org, the site set up by the Knights of Columbus to channel support directly to the Church’s efforts in the region. The average cost to repair or rebuild a home for a family in the region is $2,000, and so your contributions will go a long way.

          As we prepare for Christmas, meditate upon the generosity of the Magi who came from the East, and ponder with horror the slaughter of the Holy Innocents soon after Christ’s birth; we have the opportunity to do something to help those who are striving to keep the memory of the Prince of Peace alive in the region where the Church is not just a branch of Christianity but a root, where the disciples were not converted by St. Paul, but baptized him.

December 16, 2018

         On July 25, the Church marked the fiftieth anniversary of the most reviled and rejected magisterial document of all time. Many papal encyclicals remain unread, others are perused and ignored, but Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae was pervasively condemned and opposed. This antipathy came not only from predictable sources, like radical secularists, sexual revolutionaries and anti-Catholic Christians, but also from remarkably atypical ones, such as various Catholic bishops, priests, religious, theologians, and otherwise observant married couples.

          Since its publication, surveys have shown that over ninety percent of Catholic spouses at some point in their marriage have contravened its moral summons and that most consider its teaching on the immorality of the use of contraception in marriage erroneous. Opposition to it ushered in an age of dissent, both open and private, since if the Church can be wrong in teaching about marital morality, then how can her teaching be trusted in other areas? And the hostile reaction to it has led, among other things, to a severe enfeeblement of the teaching office of the Church, as many clergy, theologians and catechists, called to preach the Gospel in and out of season, have remained mute, refusing out of embarrassment, fear of opposition, or pusillanimity masquerading as prudence, to acknowledge its existence, not to mention faithfully transmit its teaching.

          So why does the Church celebrate its Golden Jubilee? Because the teaching of Humanae Vitae is nevertheless unmistakably true. Its message, at the dawn of the Sexual Revolution, was both heroic and prophetic. Its predictions of what widespread contraceptive use would lead to have become sadly and conspicuously validated—marital infidelity, general lowering of moral standards, the objectification and instrumentalization of women, the coercive use of it by public authorities. Other negative consequences that were not mentioned but flow from a contraceptive mentality and lifestyle metastasized—promiscuity, divorce, out of wedlock conception, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, in vitro fertilization, cloning, embryonic experimentation and destruction, widespread under-population, the acceptance of same-sex sexual activity and ultimately the redefinition of marriage according to a non-procreative ideal has resulted. Honest observers are increasingly admitting that Paul VI was right about both effects and cause.

          Truth in general is often unpopular and rejected. Most of the Old Testament prophets experienced severe rejection, many were persecuted and some were executed. It was only later, once the people had experienced the consequences of persevering in sinful behavior, that their words were acknowledged as coming from God, accepted, and put into practice. Jesus Himself experienced rejection in Nazareth and in Jerusalem, including from religious leaders who conspired with the Romans to kill Him. Even among His disciples in every age, most dissent in practice from His more challenging teachings, like loving one’s enemies, picking up their Cross daily, forgiving seventy times seven, living the Beatitudes, and treating everyone in need as if we were caring for Him personally. And we see the popular rejection of the truth throughout Church history. Saint Jerome wrote during the fourth century, “The whole world awoke with a groan to find itself Arian,” because so many Christian faithful and clergy had accepted the heresy that Christ was really a creature, not God.

          Truth, however, is not determined by polls of popularity. Pope Paul VI anticipated opposition to Humanae Vitae. “Perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching,” he wrote, but added that the Church cannot “evade the duty imposed on her of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical.” He said that the Church, “no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a ‘sign of contradiction.’” And in the last century, there is no way that the Church has been a greater sign of contradiction than with regard to Paul VI’s and the Church’s efforts to keep conjugal love open to the love and will of God.

          However, to regard the Church’s teaching on contraception as a fundamental “sign of contradiction” is to do it an injustice, because it is not principally a negative retort to Playboy, pills, and prophylatics, but a positive articulation of the goodness of human love in the divine plan. The fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae is a chance for the Church to ponder that Gospel anew and commit herself to understand it better, live it, and proclaim it. At the same time, the Golden Jubilee is an occasion for an honest examination of how we have received the gift of the truth contained in Humanae Vitae, confess where we have failed, and make a firm amendment ecclesially and individually to live and announce its sanctifying message better. We can consider several areas of needed improvement.

          First, we must do a better job on proposing moral alternatives to contraception. Paul VI noted that there are serious physical, economic, psychological and social reasons why a couple might determine that conceiving a child at the present time would be imprudent. Many think, however, that contraception and complete abstinence are the only options. That is why teaching fertility awareness methods in accordance with the extraordinary growth in scientific knowledge since the “rhythm method” of the 1960s is so important. Not only do fertility awareness methods promote respect for women, increase spousal communication and dramatically decrease divorce rates, but the knowledge they provide are among a couple’s greatest aids when they hope to conceive. Every engaged couple should receive this training. It should also be a standard offering in a parish’s accompaniment of families as well as part of the remote sacramental marriage preparation in every religious education program. Failure to do so is a spiritual malpractice that only abets the contraceptive culture.

            Second, we must assist couples to involve God in their approach to sex and children. Making love is meant to express in body language what a couple says verbally before the altar–that they give themselves wholly and receive the other just as God made them–without rejecting their built-in capacities to become a mom or dad in the very act God made for those capacities to be expressed. Many couples unfortunately put up in their bedrooms a virtual “No entry” sign to God, eliminating the procreative significance from their love-making and thereby effectively evicting the Creator. Many couples, moreover, make “planning” decisions about family size without prayerfully consulting God. This Jubilee is an opportunity to assist them to unite all aspects of their married life to God.

          Third, we must honor and thank those couples who have faithfully sought to live by the teaching of the Church without much support and encouragement from fellow couples, their parishes and the wider Church. Whether by generously raising up a large family of disciples or having recourse to moral means when their circumstances do not permit it, many are true heroes of faith whose example should be put on a lampstand.

          Fourth, we must overcome our shame in preaching the challenging parts of the faith. Many clergy and married couples treat the teaching of Humanae Vitae as “bad news” rather than Good News and clam up out of embarrassment. St. Paul experienced similar shame early in his apostolate with regard to the Cross, but eventually the reality of Jesus’ crucifixion and the need to be “crucified with Christ” became his boast. He would urge us, like he urged the first Christians, not to be ashamed of the Gospel. The teaching of Humanae Vitae is not a peripheral or optional part of the Catholic faith, because essential to our faith is loving God and loving neighbor, and neither God nor one’s spouse is sincerely loved through the sins involved in contraception. The Church needs to proclaim that love with apostolic boldness all the more at a time when many treat lust as a god and when the sexual revolution catalyzed by contraception has left so many hurt and our culture ailing.

          Fifth, we must strengthen the teaching of Humanae Vitae by communicating its substance in ever fresh and adequate ways. This is what St. Pope John Paul II sought to do. While absolutely agreeing with its conclusions, John Paul thought that Paul VI’s natural law analysis of the “conjugal act” was not the most effective means to communicate the “why” behind the “what” of the Church’s teaching. For a subjectivist, emotivist age, he did not think an objectivistic analysis of spousal actions, however coherent, would be widely convincing. Philosophically, he sketched out a personalistic, anthropological analysis of what the use of contraception does to men, women and their attitudes toward children–the truth of which readers could verify on the basis of personal experience. Theologically, especially through his famous Catecheses on the “Theology of the Body,” he sought to ground the teaching on contraception in the light of Sacred Scripture, which he was convinced would be more persuasive to people of faith than objectivistic natural law argumentation. Communicating the faith always involves seeking the best methods to convey unchangeable teaching in changing times. The fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae is an opportunity for evangelically faithful creativity.

          The history of the Church has shown that the reforms of popes, ecumenical councils, and new religious orders often take decades to take root and be appreciated. Sometimes the words of prophets, moreover, are valued only after people have suffered because of a failure to heed them. Humanae Vitae’s fiftieth anniversary is a time to read it with renewed eyes, and to pray that its prophetic teaching on the blessing of marital love in God’s plan—and the affliction that cannot be avoided when that gift is treated as a curse—will be listened to anew and responded to with humble and courageous faith.

December 9, 2018

          Waiting! We are not very good at that anymore. Maybe we never were. Yet, in this instant-everything modern age, we get frustrated if we have to wait for any length of time. Just the other day, I complained to a friend about a package I had ordered from Amazon that had not arrived yet. After all, it had been three whole days! Moreover, according to a recent New York Times article, “People will visit a Web site less often if it is slower than a close competitor by more than 250 milliseconds.” That is equivalent to .25 seconds–way too long for any sane person to wait.

          Waiting feels like time wasted, and who can afford to waste time these days? We have too much to do. Every second counts. Yet the advent season is all about waiting. During advent, we are reminded of all those centuries when God’s people awaited the fulfillment of His promises, the years of uncertainty, the time of doubt. This side of Christmas, it is easy to think that this season is all about arrival, the birth of Jesus, and that is partly true. The story does find its fitting climax in the coming of the Messiah. However, let us not forget the waiting that preceded Christ’s advent, the waiting that marked the time before Christmas, the waiting that God forced His people to endure.

          Maybe a little waiting is a good thing. I know that is a heretical thought for some of us, but bear with me for a moment. Here are five things that I believe that we can learn from waiting. They probably will not help much the next time that you are stuck in a traffic jam on your way to an important event, but I still think they are worth our reflection.

1. Waiting reminds us that we are not the center of the universe.

          It is so easy to get caught up in our own plans, convinced that everything we do is absolutely, crucially important. That is part of what makes waiting so frustrating, and so valuable. Being forced to wait gives us the opportunity to remember that other people have plans and priorities as well. We are not the focal point of the universe. That does not make our plans unimportant, but it does put them in perspective.

2. Waiting reminds us that God is in control.

          At the very least, waiting forces us to realize that we are not in control, and that can be a valuable opportunity to reflect on who is in control of our lives.

3. Waiting reminds us that life is a gift.

          Forced to sit at a stop light for several precious minutes, I have a choice. I can choose to grumble and gripe about the loss of my precious time, or I can remember that those very minutes were a gift God gave me so that I might have the opportunity to live for His glory. Sure, this was not how I had planned to use them. But that does not change the gift.

4. Waiting reminds us that the present matters.

           Sometimes I think waiting frustrates us because we are too future-oriented, always focused on what comes next. What about now? Next is in God’s hands. Now is what we have. Done well, being forced to wait can be like watching a particularly spectacular movie scene in slow motion. You know the movie will continue playing at regular speed soon, but for now you are just enjoying what is on the screen.

5. Waiting reminds us that the future is bigger than we think.

          Sometimes I think waiting frustrates us because we are not future-oriented enough. We try not to think about it much, but I believe we all have a sense of our own mortality, and it seeps out when we are forced to wait. We have a finite amount of time, why waste any of it waiting for things to happen? But, of course, our time is not really finite. We are destined for eternity. That does not mean we can get complacent with the time we have now, but waiting can remind us that this life is part of something much larger. In the light of eternity, is a two-minute wait at the grocery store really that onerous?

          I believe the advent season is a great opportunity to think differently about time. God made His people wait for centuries before He fulfilled His promises to them in sending the Messiah. And we have waited many more centuries since for the final fulfillment of God’s redemptive promises in the second advent of Messiah and the full realization of His Kingdom.

          Why all the waiting? I cannot answer that question for sure. (I tend to be very careful answering “Why?” questions when it comes to God.) At the very least, though, the waiting reminds us that this is God’s story, His plan, and His promises. He is in control, and He will take this story wherever He pleases. Waiting reminds us, slaps us in the face at times, that we are not the center of the story. It is not about us, and things do not always (often!) go the way we would like them to go. Finally, all the waiting helps us to think differently about both the present and the future–valuing the present as a gift and cherishing the future as our ultimate hope.

          Will that change the way you feel as you burn through forty-five minutes waiting for the doctor to call you in for your appointment? I do not know. It might, or it might not. But maybe it will give you the chance to view that time differently.

December 2, 2018

           “Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.” These words from the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent throw a powerful light on the particular character of this period at the beginning of the liturgical year. Echoing the attitude of the prudent virgins in the Gospel parable, who sensibly took enough oil with them to await the Bridegroom’s arrival, the Church calls upon her children to be vigilant, to stay awake to receive Christ who is passing by, Christ who is coming.

          The desire to go out to meet Him, to prepare for the Lord’s coming, makes us consider the Greek term Parousia, which Latin renders as adventus, from which comes our word “Advent.” In fact, adventus can be translated as presence, arrival, and coming. This word was not invented by the early Christians; in antiquity, it was normally used to designate the first official visit of someone important–the king, the emperor or one of his officials–coming to take possession of a province. It could also be used for the coming of the gods, emerging from obscurity to show themselves in strength, or to be celebrated by their worshippers. Christians adopted the term to express their relationship with Christ: Jesus is the King who has entered this poor “province,” our world, to visit all men and women. He is a King whose invitation to share in the feast of His Advent is extended to all who believe in Him, all who are sure of His presence among us.

           In using the word adventus, Christians were simply stating that God is here: our Lord has not withdrawn from the world; He has not left us alone. Although we cannot see Him or touch Him, as we can with sense-perceptible things, He really is here, and comes to visit us in many ways: in the reading of Sacred Scripture; in the sacraments, especially Holy Communion; in the liturgical year; in the lives of the saints; in the many happenings, however commonplace, of our daily lives; in the beauty of creation...God loves us; He knows our name; everything about us interests Him and He is always present beside us. The certainty of His presence that the Advent liturgy suggests to us discreetly but constantly throughout these weeks brings before our eyes a new image of the world. “This certainty which the faith gives enables us to look at everything in a new light. And everything, while remaining exactly the same becomes different, because it is an expression of God’s love.”

          Advent invites us to stop and be silent, to take in the presence of God. These are days when we can think again about Saint Josemaría’s words: “we’ve got to be convinced that God is always near us. We live as though he were far away, in the heavens high above, and we forget that he is also continually by our side. He is there like a loving father. He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children; helping us, inspiring us, blessing–and forgiving.”

          If we steep ourselves in this reality, if we think about it often during Advent, we shall feel encouraged to talk confidently to Him in our prayer and during the day; we will put before Him the sufferings that make us sad, the impatience and questions that arise in our hearts. This is the right time to strengthen our conviction that He is always listening to us. “To you I lift up my soul, O my God. In you I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.” We shall also understand that the unexpected turns a day can take are very personal touches from God, signs of His attentive watchfulness over each of us. Our attention is often drawn to problems and difficulties, and sometimes we scarcely have any energy left to perceive the many good, beautiful things that come from God. Advent is the time to consider more frequently how He has protected, guided and helped us throughout our life; to praise Him for all He has done and continues doing for us.

          By being watchful and attentive for loving details from our heavenly Father, our heart will pour out acts of thanksgiving. The grateful memory of the good things God has done for us helps us also in dark times of difficulties, problems, sickness, and suffering. “The joy of evangelizing,” wrote Pope Francis, “always arises from grateful remembrance: it is a grace which we constantly need to implore.” Advent is a time that invites us to keep, so to speak, an internal diary of the love God has for us. “I imagine,” said St. Josemaría, “that you, like me, will thank our Lord. I know too that, without falling into false humility, this thankfulness will leave you even more convinced that you have merited nothing of this on your own.”

          Dominus veniet! God is coming! This short exclamation opens the time of Advent, and is heard in a special way during these four weeks, and throughout the entire liturgical year. God is coming! It is not merely that God came in the past, nor a simple announcement that God will come in the future. It is something actually happening; it is happening now, and it will go on happening as time passes. At every moment, “God is coming”; in each moment of history, our Lord says: my Father is working still, and I am working.

          Advent invites us to become aware of this truth and act accordingly. It is full time now for you to wake from sleep. Watch at all times. What I say to you I say to all: watch. These calls from Sacred Scripture in the readings for the first Sunday of Advent remind us of the constant comings, the adventus, of our Lord. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today. God is not just in heaven, uninterested in us and our history. He really is the God who is coming. Meditating attentively on the texts of the Advent liturgy helps us to prepare so that we do not let His presence pass unnoticed.

           For the Fathers of the Church, God’s “coming”–continual, and part of his very being–is concentrated in the two main comings of Christ: His Incarnation, and His glorious coming at the end of history. Advent unfolds between these two points. The first days underline the expectation of our Lord’s last coming at the end of time. And as Christmas draws near, the memory of the Bethlehem event, which brought the fullness of time, becomes more vivid. “For these two reasons Advent is markedly a time of pious and joyful expectation.” The first preface of Advent combines this double theme: “He assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh, and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened for us the way to eternal salvation, that, when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is at last made manifest, we who watch for that day may inherit the great promise in which now we dare to hope.”

          The fundamental note of Advent, then, is one of waiting; but it is a waiting that our Lord comes to turn into hope. Experience shows us that we go through life waiting and hoping. When we are children we want to grow up; as young men and women we wait in hope for a great love to fulfill us; when we are adults we hope for professional fulfillment, a level of success to shape the rest of our lives; when we grow old our hope is for some well-earned rest. Nevertheless, when these desires are fulfilled, and also when they fail, we realize that the thing hoped for was not everything. We need a hope which goes beyond what we can imagine, which will surprise us. And so, although we have great or small hopes, which keep us going from day to day, without the greatest hope of all, born of the Love the Holy Spirit has placed in our hearts, everything else is insufficient.

The time of Advent encourages us to ask ourselves: What are we hoping for? What does our hope consist of? Or to go deeper: what meaning does my present life have, my today and now? “If time is not filled by a present endowed with meaning,” said Pope Benedict XVI, “expectation risks becoming unbearable; if one expects something but at a given moment there is nothing, in other words if the present remains empty, every instant that passes appears extremely long and waiting becomes too heavy a burden because the future remains completely uncertain. On the other hand, when time is endowed with meaning and at every instant we perceive something specific and worthwhile, it is then that the joy of expectation makes the present more precious.”

           Our present moment has meaning because the Messiah, expected for centuries, is being born in Bethlehem. Together with Mary and Joseph and with the help of our Guardian Angels we wait for Him with renewed excitement. On coming among us, Christ offers us the gift of His love and His salvation. For Christians hope is filled with certainty: our Lord is present all though our life, in our work, in our daily cares; He accompanies us all the time, and one day He will dry our tears. One day, not so far away, everything will find fulfillment in God’s kingdom, a kingdom of justice and peace. “The season of Advent . . . restores this horizon of hope, a hope which does not disappoint, for it is founded on God’s Word. A hope which does not disappoint, simply because the Lord never disappoints!”

           Advent is a time of presence and of waiting for what is eternal; and a time of joy, an intimate joy that nothing can take away. I will see you again, Jesus promised his disciples, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. The joy of the time of waiting is a deeply Christian attitude that we can see in our blessed Lady: from the moment of the Annunciation “the Virgin Mother longed with love beyond all telling” for the coming of her Son, Christ Jesus. Mary teaches us to wait with a peaceful heart for the coming of our Lord, while we also prepare interiorly for that meeting, joyfully trying “to build a crib for our God in our hearts.”

November 25, 2018

          Time Magazine named the “Silence Breakers” their 2017 Persons of the Year. Time focused fundamentally on the women who courageously came forward to bring into the light the sordid sexual abuse and harassment they had suffered silently for years at the clutches of powerful entertainment and political leaders who, once acclaimed and admired, are now scorned and humiliated as perverts.

          “This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight,” Time wrote. “But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but also do not even seem to know that boundaries exist. They have had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they cannot afford to lose. They have had it with the code of going along to get along. They have had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.”

          The sudden fall of so many is yet one more instance of Jesus’ prophetic warning to hypocrites of every age, “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Lk 12:2-3). Eventually the truth comes out. Eventually some form of justice, in this world or the next, comes to those who commit injustice, and to those who endure it.

          It is understandable that when there is so much attention on high-profile testimonies of sexual abuse and harassment that people have endured, many others who have suffered similar violence and indignities will gain the strength to tell their story; similarly, those who have repressed the pain and memories for years cannot help but be reminded of the deep wounds that they have long tried to cover over. So perhaps it is finally their time of readiness to seek help to understand, name and be partially healed from what happened.

          As they turn to those they trust, many will come to priests for a listening ear, counsel, and prayer. Similarly, those who have hurt others through sexual abuse and harassment will come in greater numbers to beg forgiveness from God for the terrible harm they have done, to one or to hundreds. So priests are often witnesses of aspects of this personal and interpersonal cancer of sexual abuse that do not make the evening news, chat room, or kitchen table.

          While much ink has been dedicated to the names of celebrity predators and victims and to the breadth of the plague, analysis of the causes has been shallow to nonexistent. With sexual abuse, the problem is popularly framed as fundamentally a lack of any or of true consent; the link to sexual harassment, though—unwanted advances or degrading comments, glances, or other behavior—points us to a deeper root: a total failure to appreciate the other’s personal dignity, through relating to the other mainly as an object for one’s gratification or consumption.

          Moreover, where does such sexual objectification of the other originate? It comes from not just the lust of the flesh and the desire for domination that are consequences of original sin. It is abetted, and abetted strongly, by a culture that is increasingly celebrating and enslaved to lust, one that, rather than fighting it, features, foments, and fêtes the sexually addicted objectification of others. We are reaping what we are sowing. And when we sow poisonous seeds, we should not be shocked by a harvest of toxic fruit.

          We know that lust and license, perverts and predators, have always existed to some degree. What is different in the fifty years since the sexual revolution—like we see in the episodic degeneracy of the bacchanalia that preceded the fall of ancient emperors and empires—is that they are no longer seen as evils to be opposed. Just as sadists can use a situation of war for their bloodlust and get cover for killing innocents, so the sexual revolution has made it possible for predators to carry out their flesh lust. How many more casualties from the sexual revolution do we want to make?

          Sexual predators are not just those who violate others’ freedom; they are those who violate others’ dignity. While consent may make exploiting others for sexual gratification legal, it does not make it any less immoral. Those who use prostitutes prey on them and fuel the demand behind the whole sex trafficking scourge. Those who use the pornography industry prey on the women, men, or children objectified and victimized, as well as on the consumers who become increasingly interiorly enslaved. Those who use Tinder or otherwise engage in the hookup culture are mutually using each other as objects to satisfy harmonious hedonisms. Now we have the rise of the sexbots—robots resembling movie stars or models, or even children or rape victims—with which the owners can fantasize. What habits, we have to ask, are being formed in the hearts of people who make such choices?

          For two-plus generations, moreover, in most places, sexual education has not only been woefully inadequate but downright destructive, focused fundamentally on technique and the importance of consent rather than on forming hearts and minds to respect the others’ dignity. It treats sex as a recreational contact sport rather than as a thing of genuine love linked to commitment and to the natural generation of children. The general permissiveness that induces educators to train young kids how to use various forms of contraception—under the pessimistic premise that they could never exercise self-control for the sake of a greater good, like fidelity to a future spouse, or their own dignity and long-term happiness, or even justice to their Creator—teaches them, explicitly or subliminally, that they are animals without power ultimately to say no to their sexual urges. Once the young have ingested that moral poison, the only means left to restrain future sexual harassers is really the threat of legal punishment or public shame. There is a better way, which we will talk about below.

          While multiple causes have contributed to the widespread sexual objectification, coercion, and abuse of women, one that deserves special note this year is contraception. 2018 is the fiftieth anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, the Church’s prescient response, basically, to the invention of the birth control pill. Paul VI recognized that contraception would change the way men looked at women and interacted with them sexually, inside and outside of marriage. Before, every woman was a potential mother of the man’s child, a fact that often sharpened his eyes and put brakes on his impulses. With widespread contraception — and later, access to abortion as a fall back when contraception was forgotten or failed — man began to regard woman far more easily as an object, to use her body for his pleasure, and to discard her afterward.

          Paul VI said that it does not take much reflection on the consequences of birth control methods to realize that contraception would “open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards.” Once a man, he said, “grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods [he] may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection” (HV 17).

          A culture of contraception rejects the maternal meaning of a woman’s body in the very act by which a woman can become a mother. Once woman’s full dignity and nature are no longer embraced in the lovemaking between spouses, we should not be surprised at how quickly, Paul VI was indicating, respect for women, and woman’s dignity will collapse in other sexual contexts as well.

           What’s the alternative? If we are really serious at creating a culture in which no woman ever has to tweet #MeToo, then we must stop sowing toxic weeds and start spreading fruitful wheat. It is time for an honest conversation about, and vigorous education in, personal and cultural chastity. Contrary to popular confusion, chastity is not equated with continence, abstinence, or celibacy; it is raising one’s attractions and interactions with another to the dignity of the person as a whole. St. John Paul II taught that it is tied to purity (seeking God in another, for “the pure of heart will see God”), piety (reverencing the other as God’s image) and love (willing the good of the other as other; treating the other as a subject with his or her own ends, rather than as a means to one’s own; and ultimately sacrificing oneself and others desires for the other’s good).

            A culture of chastity is one in which women are more easily respected as they ought to be, so that no woman needs to suffer the objectification that can lead to harassment and abuse. A culture of chastity forms people with the self-mastery necessary to love rather than exploit others, to recognize lust for the poison it is, to reject the interior attitudes that can lead to objectification and predatory behavior, and to strengthen people courageously to say no to sexual coercion. A culture of chastity is needed now more than ever!

November 18, 2018

           When the pilgrims lowered the anchor in Plymouth harbor in December 1620, they were filled with hope. They had survived a perilous three-month journey on an inhospitable Atlantic with only one casualty. Their incessant prayers for a safe arrival had been heard. They had finally landed in the new world and were ready to begin a new life. Little did they know the year that would await them.

          Of the 103 that disembarked, more than half would die before winter was over. Governor John Carver, their leader, succumbed quickly to fever. Ten of the seventeen husbands and fathers died. Fourteen of their seventeen wives also perished. The young wife of soon-to-be Governor William Bradford drowned in Plymouth harbor before even reaching shore. Those who avoided the grave remained in grave danger because of fevers, famine, and freezing temperatures. Yet they did not give up hope.

          With the Spring came the arrival of Squanto, who taught them various survival tactics, like how to distinguish between poisonous and good plants, to tap maple trees for sap, to fertilize soil with dead fish and to plant corn. When that soil produced a modest harvest a few months later, they organized a feast not just to thank Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit and their large families, but principally to thank God for all His blessings since their arrival. The fifty-one survivors easily could have looked at the previous eleven months as the worst year of their lives. They had buried almost as many bodies in the soil, after all, as bushels of food they had taken from the soil.

          The reason they were able to thank God so heartily, however, in spite of the suffering they had endured was because they believed those hardships and blessings were both part of God’s providential care. Providence comes from the Latin word “fore-see,” to “look out for,” and therefore, to “provide.” And they were confident that God, who foresees everything, who always looks out for His sons and daughters even when it might seem like He is not, would indeed provide, as He did. No amount of personal suffering could shake that faith. No amount of personal hardship could rock their trust in a God whom they knew loved them and was looking over them.

          They convened full of gratitude because they realized they were on a pilgrimage not only to Plymouth but also to Paradise. Everything—adverse or propitious, life and even death—was part of God’s plans for them on their journey not merely to the new world but to a New World. That final destination, and their faith in the God who awaited them, were what gave meaning to all their sufferings and joys along the way.

          They had come to our land in search of religious freedom. As they neared the first anniversary of their arrival, they used that freedom to express heartily their gratitude toward God and to others. We still enjoy that freedom; however, there continues to be growing incursions by secularist judges and legislatures against the religious freedom upon which our nation was founded. Archbishop Charles Chaput once wrote, “Religious liberty as an ideal sounds lovely. But in the abstract, it has very little power. It has political force only to the degree that ordinary people believe and practice their faith—and refuse to tolerate anyone or anything interfering with their faith…If lay Catholics accept government behavior [that infringes on religious liberty] without inflicting a political cost on the officials responsible for it, then they have no one to blame but themselves when they find that their liberties have gone thin.”

           As we come together with our families on Thanksgiving Day, it is proper for us to put it to its supreme use in expressing gratitude to God. No matter what type of year we have had, everything has come from God’s providential hands. Many we exercise our religious freedom and give praise to the Lord from whom all good things come into lives.

          So in a time when mankind has all but forgotten that the Lord is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Author of all our victories, who arranges every opportunity and fashions every blessing, this Thanksgiving Day may serve as good reminder to give thanks where thanks is due. “May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26). Happy Thanksgiving!

November 11, 2018

          When suicides happen, most respond with discretion and whispers. Because of shock, shame and a desire to avoid speaking ill of the dead, obituaries use euphemisms about unexpected deaths, and family members and friends are understandably reluctant to divulge how their loved one died. There is almost an unwritten cultural pact between mourners and condolers to get through the funeral with as few mentions of the S-word as possible. All of this is understandable and, in a sense, compassionate and noble.

          When celebrities take their life, however, it brings the S-word out from under the black veil. Since everyone knows them and how they chose to end their life, and because most interlocutors are not the victim’s immediate family and friends, it gives people a chance to talk about suicide out loud — and to grapple with the question of why. That is what has happened in the last few months after the suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and of celebrity chef and CNN travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain. On street corners with strangers, dinners with friends, conversations in between meetings, and various pastoral settings, seemingly everyone has been bringing it up with me, in an attempt to understand it.

          How, they ask, can people who seem to have everything going for them—money and material possessions, fame and influence, millions of appreciative fans—determine that they do not have reason to go on? How can those with lives most would covet decide that life is not worth living? How can such successful people feel like such personal failures? How can those who inspired so many be so hopeless themselves? How can such responsible people who built huge businesses be so irresponsible toward their loved ones left behind?

          Talking about the S-word is a little easier when there seems to be a clear cause, such as known mental illness, depression, substance abuse, or a catastrophic personal event. It is more straightforward, albeit no less sad, therefore, responding to the deaths of Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Junior Seau, Whitney Houston, Aaron Hernandez, or the many celebrities who have ended their lives through overdoses. But when those who do not give any indications of being suicidal do so—54 percent of those who take their own lives have not had any known mental illness—it forces us to confront deeper questions that we cannot really duck if we want to avoid many more premature funerals.

          Suicide is now the tenth leading cause of death in the US, responsible for 45,000 deaths in 2016, one every 12 minutes. In 2016, according to a comprehensive study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 9.8 million or four percent of American adults seriously considered suicide, 2.8 million devised a plan to take their life, and 1.3 million attempted it. (The only good news we can find in the data is that 87 percent of those who contemplate suicide do not act on it and 96.5 percent of those who attempt it thankfully fail). Although women are more likely than men to have suicidal thoughts, men comprise 78 percent of suicide victims.

          The numbers concerning young people are much more frightening. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people 10-34. Among high school students, according to a 2013 CDC study, 17 percent (22.4 percent of girls and 11.6 of boys) considered suicide in the previous year, 13.6 percent made a plan about how they would attempt it (16.9 percent of girls, 10.3 percent of males), and 8.0 percent of students attempted suicide at least once in the previous year (10.6 percent of girls and 5.4 of boys), with 2.7 percent of students (3.6 percent of girls, 1.8 percent of boys) requiring medical attention as a result of injury, poisoning or overdose.

          How should we respond adequately to this suicidal surge? First, not only should we not duck the issue but we should commit to address it with resolve, perseverance and honesty.

           Second, this involves confronting, exposing, and eradicating the culture that promotes and even extols suicide. There is a growing pro-suicide movement that has now made it legal in eight places in the States—California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington—and several European countries for people to murder themselves. Euphemisms abound. It’s called “Death with dignity,” or “Physician-assisted dying,” even “Euthanasia” (good death), but it is suicide. There are well-funded movements that glorify deaths, like Brittany Maynard’s, that are seeking to extend its legalization, as if suicide is a good thing and a marker of cultural “progress.” They have been lobbying the American Medical Association to eliminate its opposition to physician assisted suicide (PAS) as “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” No one should be surprised that physician-assisted suicide has led to a 6.3 percent increase in total suicides in the states where it has been legalized, considerably higher than the general five percent increase since 1999. It is schizophrenic to try to prevent suicide on the one hand and promote it on the other. We must recognize the promotion of suicide for what it is—and resist it with vigor.

          Third, we should know the warning signs and risk factors. Suicide is a “cry for help,” but one that many hear only after it is too late. We all have to get better at detecting the signs. Experts tell us that, among the signs, are talking about feeling hopeless, wanting to die, feeling like a burden, having no purpose, feeling trapped, being in unbearable pain, feeling isolated, or looking for a way to end one’s life; others are withdrawing, showing rage or extreme mood swings, acting anxious, agitated or recklessly, sleeping much too little or too much, heavy use of alcohol and drugs, or seeking revenge. Factors that can increase the risk are familial history of suicide, mistreatment as a child, clinical depression or mental disorders; physical illness; relational, social, work or financial setbacks; barriers or resistance to accessing mental health treatment for suicidal thoughts or substance abuse. Most but not all people who die by suicide exhibit warning signs: 46 percent have a history of mental or emotional illness, and an additional 44 percent have a history of substance abuse, but that is retrospective, not predictive. It is normally a combination of many factors, triggered by a setback or a sense of hopelessness. When we deem someone suicidal, we should not leave the person alone. Rather we should remove as much as possible the means that one could use to take one’s life and then take the person to an emergency room, seek help from a mental health professional, or call the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800.273.TALK).

             Fourth, we should promote a culture of resilience that helps people deal adequately with the risk factors. At a macro-level, these involve trying to strengthen family financial security and housing stability, covering mental health conditions and suicide care in health plans, promoting connectedness with peers and the community especially among teens, reducing access to lethal means, and training people in coping and problem-solving skills, especially in the family.

           One of the biggest resilience factors is, unsurprisingly, the regular practice of religion. A 2016 study by the Psychiatry Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women who participate in religious services at least once a week are five times less likely to commit suicide than those who never participate. Faithful Catholic women were the least suicidal of all, with not a single suicide among 6,999 women studied over a 15-year period. Why? It’s not just that Catholics do an effective job on communicating both that and why taking one’s life is contrary to what God’s plans for our life. It is also because practicing Catholics, looking at the Crucifix and knowing the stories of the martyrs, can grasp more easily than others the redemptive meaning of suffering. Rather than escape, they pick up their cross and seek to follow the Lord to Calvary and through Calvary to the eternal Jerusalem.

           Practicing Catholics, however, and everyone else in our culture, must do a better job in training others to deal with inevitable setbacks, contradictions, shame, sufferings and pain—not merely with medication but with greater maturity and hope. Concentration-camp survivor Viktor Frankl argued that the only people who survived Auschwitz and Dachau were those who had a reason to live in the midst of so much suffering. They could make sense out of what they were enduring. We have to help people find that meaning. And, as we have seen with Spade and Bourdain, money, fame and worldly success are not enough.

             Fifth and lastly, part of building this resilience is forming a greater culture of mutual solidarity. We live in a self-centered, self-pitying age that exalts rights to the almost total exclusion of responsibility, and that, while hungering for compassion, often fails to extend it. This general cultural trend is seen in the growth of suicide. There are 6 to 32 survivors for every suicide, depending upon the definition used—7 percent of U.S. residents know someone who has committed suicide in the last year—and it is impossible to express in words the pain survivors endure. Economically, suicides and suicide attempts cost $70 billion annually in work and medical-related consequences. Forming a greater culture of solidarity not only would help everyone better care for those in danger of taking their lives, but also help those who might be vulnerable recognize the lie that suicide leaves no victims, or only one.

              Over the past several decades, the Church has changed its practice with regard to funerals for those who commit suicide, because we have recognized that the vast majority who take their life do not seem to do so with deliberate and free consent, but are suffering with mental illness, depression, addiction, hopelessness or many other maladies. But the Church and the culture together must work to do more than entrust the suicide victims posthumously to God’s mercy and console grieving family members and friends; we must resolve to do everything possible to prevent those funerals, by helping the vulnerable to experience hope and mercy in life.

           Those who patiently and compassionately help those tempted to suicide have traditionally been called Samaritans, and for good reason: They do not ignore but respond to the cries of help for those in the various ditches of life. The question for all of us is: Will Kate Spade’s, Anthony Bourdain’s, and the 45,000 suicides in our country each year, convince us that we all have an important role in that saving work?

November 4, 2018

          On Wednesday, we celebrated All Hallows’ Eve, meant originally to be the vespers of the Feast on which we celebrate all the saints in heaven and reflect on the vocation we have received to one day to be numbered among them. Unfortunately, in many places, Halloween has a far different meaning. I am not talking about the relatively innocuous practice of boys’ vesting as Spiderman or Jack Sparrow and girls’ dressing up as Tinkerbell. I am referring to the explicitly diabolical connection Satanists give to this day. As ex-Satanists have testified, Satanists mark this day as the devil’s “birthday” and seek to celebrate it with sanguinary sacrifices.

          This is admittedly a topic that most people for straightforward reasons want to avoid. Secularists have problems publicly recognizing the existence of an all-loving God; it is immeasurably more difficult to acknowledge the existence of a spiritual being who hates God and hates us. Even many Catholics prefer to ignore the evidence of the diabolical, rationalizing Jesus’ multiple confrontations with the devil in the Gospel as literary devices, and regarding the films of contemporary exorcisms either as creepy fiction or as evidence as yet-to-be-diagnosed-and-medicated psychological disorders. As uncomfortable as the topic may be, however, Satan is real and so are Satanists.

          It is important that we reflect on this reality and pray for the conversion of Satanists and all those who have beguiled into various occult practices that are anything but benign. For this intention, there is no greater intercessor than Blessed Bartolo Longo (1841-1926), the former Satanist priest who became, according to St. Pope John Paul II, the “Apostle of the Rosary.”  

         Bartolo was born to a devout Catholic family near Brindisi, in southern Italy. He was a brilliant, though mischievous kid, who began to lose his way at the age of ten after his mother died. His adolescence was a time of great upheaval in his country, when Garabaldi was seeking to eliminate the papal city-states and unite Italy. By the time Bartolo entered the University of Naples law school, many of his professors were ex-priests preaching nationalist venom against the Church. He was quickly caught up in their fervor. “I, too, grew to hate monks, priests and the Pope,” he would later write, “and in particular [I detested] the Dominicans, the most formidable, furious opponents of those great modern professors, proclaimed by the university the sons of progress, the defenders of science, the champions of every sort of freedom.”

         In his confusion and emptiness, without God to turn to, he began to visit some of Naples’ infamous mediums. That was his introduction into the occult. Soon, his thirst for the supernatural led him into outright Satanism, where after a period of intense study and such rigorous fasting that he was reduced to skin and bones, he was consecrated a satanic priest and promised his soul to a demon. For the next year, he began to preside over satanic services and to preach more boldly and blasphemously against God and the Church—treating them, in a diabolical reversal, as the real evils.  

         His family back home tried to talk him about of the path he had chosen, to no avail. They began to pray and to ask for help from whoever might lend a hand. Professor Vincenzo Pepe, a solidly Catholic professor at the university, responded. He began to meet with Bartolo, accosting him, “Do you want to die in an insane asylum and be damned forever?” Bartolo could not ignore the psychological and physiological state he was in. Professor Pepe eventually convinced him to see a Dominican priest, who after three weeks of lengthy conversations, on the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1865, was able to welcome him back into the Church and give him absolution.

         To keep an eye on him, Professor Pepe allowed Bartolo to move in with him and started to surround him with faithful and dedicated Catholics. Each day for two years, as a voluntarily-imposed penance, Bartolo worked in the Neapolitan Hospital for Incurables. He prayed. He became a third-order Dominican. He made a promise of celibacy to serve God with an undivided heart. He sought to do reparation for his scandal by returning to his Satanist hangouts, holding up the Rosary and publicly renouncing his former ways.

          Nevertheless, he still despaired. He could not forgive himself or see how God could ever forgive him. One day, while fulfilling some legal business in Pompeii for his client Countess Mariana di Fusco, and seeing how great was the people’s poverty, ignorance, moral corruption, and dependence on witchcraft, God helped him to see both how he could be saved and how he could spend his life saving others.

          “One day in the fields around Pompeii,” he wrote, “I recalled my former condition as a priest of Satan…I thought that perhaps as the priesthood of Christ is for eternity, so also the priesthood of Satan is for eternity. So, despite my repentance, I thought: I am still consecrated to Satan, and I am still his slave and property as he awaits me in Hell. As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘One who propagates my Rosary shall be saved.’ Falling to my knees, I exclaimed: ‘If your words are true that he who propagates your Rosary will be saved, I shall reach salvation because I shall not leave this earth without propagating your Rosary.’”

         He spent the whole rest of his life, beginning in Pompeii, propagating the Rosary and imitating the mysteries it contained. With the financial support of the Countess, he built Pompeii’s famous Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, founded elementary schools and orphanages, inaugurated a print shop and technical school to give the children of convicted criminals the chance of a better life. He wrote books on the Rosary, composed novenas and prayer manuals. The former Satanist eventually became a friend of Pope Leo XIII, who had a great devotion to the Rosary. From Pompeii, he also began the popular movement that led to the solemn dogmatic proclamation of the Assumption in 1950.

          Perhaps his most lasting contribution of all will prove to be the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. It was from Blessed Bartolo’s writings that Pope St. John Paul II found not only the idea of mysteries covering the time of Jesus’ public ministry, but also what the individual mysteries should be and what all five as a whole should be called. When he proposed the new Mysteries of Light in his 2002 encyclical “The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Pope St. John Paul II did not hesitate to show his admiration for this holy man whose conversion and subsequent holy life demonstrate that no matter how far away from the faith one is, there is always hope. After referring to Blessed Bartolo’s insights throughout his Rosary encyclical, St. John Paul II concluded by quoting the prayer of the man he beatified in 1980.  

         This prayer is a fitting way for us to conclude this article and to pray for those who, like Blessed Bartolo once was, are still caught under the bondage of Satanism and the occult: “O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain that unites us to God, bond of love that unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven.”

October 28, 2018

          November 1^st is All Saints Day, a day on which we commemorate those who have been formally recognized by the Church as saints. This might make it seem like sainthood is an unattainable goal for ordinary Christians. Nevertheless, every Christian – indeed every human being – is called to holiness and sainthood.

           The Second Vatican Council taught, “The Lord wishes to spread His kingdom also by means of the laity, namely, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace. The faithful, therefore, must assist each other to live holier lives even in their daily occupations. In this way the world may be permeated by the spirit of Christ and it may more effectively fulfill its purpose in justice, charity, and peace” (LG 36). For the Christian, therefore, holiness is not an option. The grace to walk the path of holiness is available to each one of us.

           We should be quite clear that the call to holiness does not mean saying “no” to life. On the contrary, holiness requires us to say “yes” to a life truly and richly lived. Mary spoke just such a “yes” when she said to the angel, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” At the same time, it is true that saying “yes” to holiness does require us to let go of some of our most cherished idols. Our false gods have a powerful hold upon us. However, Pope Emeritus Benedict encourages us by saying that “idols are merely a product of man’s desires and are as impotent and lifeless as a statue. Indeed, those who seek salvation through ‘the work of human hands’ – placing their hope in wealth, power, or success – only deceive themselves.”

          “But how can I be a saint?” you ask. At its most fundamental level, saintliness (that is, holiness) is a gift from God. God alone is holy in Himself, and He communicates HHHHhhis holiness to us through the grace of the sacraments. The sacraments “ground the common vocation of all Christ’s disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces needed for the life according to the Spirit during this life as pilgrims on the march towards the homeland” (Catechism, §1533).

           Initially, God makes us holy through Baptism. By the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation He preserves us in this grace of holiness. In the Eucharist He feeds and nourishes the life of holiness within us. When we stray from the path of holiness, He restores us to fellowship with Him in the Sacrament of Penance. He leads us to live out the gift of holiness in a certain vocation, perhaps with sacramental grace of marriage or priesthood. At times of great distress and illness, and especially when death draws near, God again gives us the healing gift of His holiness through the Anointing of the Sick.

          Therefore, God has richly provided the means for us to live a holy life. Yet living in this holiness remains a struggle for us. We must “endure to the end” (Matthew 24:13), despite opposition and hatred, wanderings and lapses, betrayals and discord. Jesus warned His disciples that before the end there would be an “increase in lawlessness,” and that because of this “the love of many will grow cold.”

           St. Paul speaks of the struggle to live a holy life as a race which must be run although the prize is given at the beginning: “It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity,but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:12-14).

          This is what the life of holiness is like. It is saying “yes" to the prize (the gift of holiness) and “yes” to the race (the imperative to live a holy life). It is running as if the prize must still be attained, yet knowing that it has already been given. But how can holiness be a gift when it remains something for which we should strive, that is, an imperative? Here again, Pope Emeritus Benedict gives us guidance: “What is the relation between the imperative and the promise? I would say it is bilateral, that is, the promise comes before the imperatives and makes them possible, and it follows the realization of the same imperatives. That is, before everything we do ourselves, the God of love and peace has opened himself to us, he is with us... However, on the other hand, it is valid to the extent that we truly enter into this presence he gave us, into this gift already present in our being. His presence, his being with us, grows naturally.”

           May the example of the Church’s saints – and their intercession for us in our struggles – be an encouragement for us all to live out the gift of holiness in the hope of attaining the goal! 

October 21, 2018

         The term “busybody” usually refers to one who is intent on the matters of others but looks little to his own issues. Busybodies also tend to focus especially on the faults, foibles, and troubles of other folks. Seldom are they chattering away about good news related to other people; more often it is the scurrilous and scandalous that occupies their minds. Merriam-Webster online defines a busybody as “a person who is too interested in the private lives of other people.” It is a form of sinful curiosity.

           Many of us are far too interested in things that are really none of our business. That alone is problem enough. But the problem is compounded in that the busybody is almost always too little concerned about his own “issues” (we used to call them sins). When our attention to, fascination with, or scorn about sin is directed outward, we lose the proper introspection that properly examines our own need for repentance. The pointed index finger too easily ignores the three folded fingers pointing back at oneself and those three fingers symbolize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit urging us to look to our own vineyard.

          Indeed, Scripture says, “They made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept!” (Song 1:6). For we who would be prophets too easily ignore the Word of God as directed to our own souls. Further, it is a common trap of the devil that he keeps us focused on what we cannot change so that we do not focus on what we can change. In other words, it is more difficult to change others and less difficult to change ourselves. Thus the devil would have us focus on others, who are hard to change, so that we will not focus on our very self, whom we can more easily change. Thus, being a busybody is not only obnoxious; it is a trap the devil enjoys laying for us.

          Pope St. Gregory the Great has a meditation near the end of his Pastoral Rule wherein he ponders the problem of the busybody. He uses the story of Dinah from the Bible. He does not use the term “busybody,” but the related concept of “self-flattery.” Let us review some of his observations.

Frequently the crafty enemy … seduces [the mind] by flattery in a false security that leads to destruction. And this is expressed figuratively in the person of Dinah. For it is written:

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land^;  and when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humbled her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob; he loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her (Gen 34:1-3).

For [pertaining to us] Dinah “goes down to see the women of that region” whenever a soul neglects to consider itself and concerns itself with the actions of others and wonders beyond its own proper condition and order. And Shechem “takes the soul by force” inasmuch as the Devil corrupts the mind that is occupied by external matters. “And [Shechem’s] soul was conjoined to her” because the devil considers us conjoined to him through iniquity. And … the devil calls before our minds a false sense of hope and security … Thus it is written that Shechem “spoke tenderly to her” when she was sad [humbled]. For to us the devil speaks to us of the greater offenses committed by others … [Pastoral Rule III.29].

          In effect, Gregory uses the story of Dinah as an allegory of the trouble we get into when we focus too much on the lives of others and look not enough to our own souls. For Dinah gets into trouble when she tours the land to see the pagan women (the Hivites) and their inquires with a sort of fascination into what they do. And one of the men of that land seduces her, taking advantage of the vulnerability caused by her sinful curiosity. Nevertheless, even after being humbled and sinned against, she still lets him speak tenderly to her. She is far too fascinated with the Hivites. Thus her seducer, Shechem, was able to speak tenderly to her and win her heart, a thing no seducer should be able to do.

          But so it is with us. We are far too fascinated with the sins and struggles of others. Like busybodies, we go out to consort with the people of the sinful world. And being focused on and fascinated by them, rather than looking to our own selves, we open ourselves up to being taken advantage of by both the devil and a sinful world. We are an easy target when we do not look to our own soul but rather are preoccupied with the scurrilous details of the lives of others.

          Then the devil seizes us and has consort with our soul. He speaks “tenderly” to us telling us how, compared to others, we are not really so bad. Here is a false security indeed. We have been sinfully curious as to the struggles of others, and now we are in the devil’s clutches being reassured by him. We should be angry with him for seducing our vulnerable soul in the first place! But instead, we let him sweet-talk and reassure us. Thus, we are prey two times over. First, we indulged our sinful curiosity into the struggles of others, and then having done so, allowed ourselves to be falsely reassured by the devil of our relative innocence.

          The bottom line is that busybodies are easy prey for the devil. By looking not to their own lives, but instead prying with sinful fascination into the lives of others, they wander into sin easily. And all the while, since they look not to themselves, they are easily deluded by the thought that at least they are not as bad as so-and so. The only problem is, “being better than so-and-so” is not the standard for eternal life. Jesus is the standard. Only grace and mercy can help us meet that standard.

            The busybody is busy about all things except the one thing necessary. As St. Paul says, “If we would judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged” (1 Cor 11:31).

March 3, 2019

          Bishops today, to be truly effective in the aftermath of the new wave of sexual abuse scandals, have no choice but to be true and thorough reformers. They cannot merely be good priests with a sacramental upgrade. They cannot be just competent managers and institutional maintenance men. They cannot be amiable and personally pious clerics who are intimidated before the wolves. They cannot be great evangelists who have no time for, or interest in, good governance and problem solving.

         The new conditions of the episcopacy today after the scandals require that bishops be saintly reformers. Reformers are not passive men. They are not naïve, excuse makers. They are bold and prudent problem attackers, strong fathers intent on defending their family against danger. They live with a patient urgency. Like Jesus, they have a zeal for their Father’s house with the courage to confront moneychangers or anyone else turning God’s Church into a place of manipulation and sin. They cannot wait for the fire that Jesus came to light on the earth to burn away whatever is unfit for the kingdom and renew the face of the Church and earth.

        For those looking for models, there are many from which to choose: Ignatius of Antioch, Ireneus, Hilary, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Leo, Gregory, Peter Damian, Bellarmine, Francis de Sales, Alphonsus and the intrepidly heroic prelates of the faith of the 20^thcentury under persecution. However, I think the greatest reforming bishop and model of all is St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), who reformed the Archdiocese of Milan and the Church universal after the terrible sins, scandal, and disarray that precipitated the Protestant Reformation.

         Here is what he faced. The sprawling Archdiocese of Milan had not had a resident bishop for eight decades. Many priests lived with concubines stolen from the married men of their parish, thought they were exempt from confession, and did not even know the formula of absolution to confess others. “If you want to go to hell,” one popular saying intoned, “become a priest.” One convent of religious women was so debauched that the nuns were simply called prostitutes. Several orders of men were depraved to the point that one tried to assassinate him while he was praying. Corruption of morals among civil leaders and average Joes was ubiquitous. Needless to say, he had a challenging assignment!

         As Msgr. John Cihak points out in the first sentence of a great and much needed new book, Charles Borromeo: Selected Orations, Homilies and Writings, “Charles Borromeo should have been part of the problem.” He was appointed nepotistically as a Cardinal at the age of 22 by his uncle Pope Pius IV, given a slew of benefices, and made the de facto Secretary of State, all while not even being ordained. Instead, however, God used him to be the point man to finish the Council of Trent, implement its decrees, publish its Catechism, reform the liturgy and liturgical music and so much more. After his uncle died, moved by pastoral zeal, he was able to persuade St. Pius V to allow him to go to Milan to serve the Archdiocese.

         When he arrived, he wasted no time. He did not need to wait a year to go on a listening tour to form a plan. He knew what the Church’s perennial pastoral plan of holiness was and he got right down to work. He reformed the bishops of the Province with various Provincial Councils to implement the decrees of the Council, because he recognized that if one Diocese were faithful and another unfaithful, the people would rightly be confused. He reformed the clergy, arranging for retreats and appealing to wayward clerics to repent and “be who you were promised to be.” If they refused his entreaties, he removed and replaced them, because their sinful and scandalous behavior was an obvious impediment to reform.

          He reformed lax religious orders, sometimes with the help of the Pope, sometimes with the help of civil governments. He reformed priestly formation. Previously it was done by means of apprenticeship. He formed seminaries to ensure that some of the best priests he could find would properly and adequately form future priests. He reformed parishes, traveling throughout his extensive diocese to get to know his priests and people and correcting abuses wherever he found them. He reformed the laity, especially corrupt civil officials, whom he first met with privately, but if they refused to convert, he went public and denounced their behavior for the scandal it was. He taught Catechism himself and formed the first Catholic “Sunday School” system, requiring priests to teach, so that all the faithful would learn the faith. He excelled in charity, liquidating his personal fortune and so many possessions of the Archdiocese to care for the poor, especially during the famine of 1571 and the plague of 1576, when he fed 70,000 a day.

            But most of all, he reformed himself. He fasted, used traditional instruments of mortification, and limited his sleep to four hours a night. If he was going to lead a reform of the Church from within, he knew that he himself needed to be constantly conformed to Christ. He was therefore able to hold others accountable by his example and not just his words. None of the reforms he implemented is particularly surprising. One did not have to be a genius to identify what the problems were in the archdiocese. What distinguished him was that with total resolve he dedicated himself to addressing rather than ducking the problems. He did so at the same time that he stressed not merely what Christian faith and morals oppose, but the good news they affirm, so that people would learn the great “yes” of faith. Morever, he did all of this before he died at the age of 46.

            During the Second Vatican Council, St. Paul VI decreed that his twelve orations to brother bishops and various sermons to priests be published and given to all the bishops of the world. They contained, Paul believed, the principles and paradigms of ecclesial reform in every age. Msgr. Cihak’s book translates many of them into English for the first time. They deserve to be read by all bishops today, and by everyone who loves the Church and is praying, fasting, and working to see her reformed anew.