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The
name – “Baltimore” brings to mind the four General
Chapters of the Clergy, the first Synod of Baltimore
(1791), the meeting of the American Bishops in 1810, the
seven Provincial Councils and the three Plenary
Councils. These dates and events pass before your eyes
with images of your predecessors, who were instruments
of God for the rooting, expansion and consolidation of
the Catholic Church in the United States.
We
cannot forget the Baltimore Catechism – which for
decades, formed the religious, moral and civil
conscience of American Catholics.
Like the Bishops of the past, you face difficulties
which, although different, are equally serious and
challenging: particularly the loss of credibility in the
Church, which comes from a lack of orthopraxy and
orthodoxy in a small, but very damaging number of its
ministers and its faithful. Like those early Bishops,
we must have the great humility, to put Jesus Christ at
the center of our prayer, at the center of our lives and
at the center of our pastoral actions.
Pope Benedict XVI has decided to dedicate the next
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (5-26
October 2008) to the theme The Word of God in the
Life and Mission of the Church. Commenting on this
decision, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said: “The
Church is born from the Word of God whose fullest
meaning is the Word of God Himself, the Incarnate Word –
Jesus Christ. It is the word of the prophets, the word
of the apostles and finally, the written word of the
Bible. Being born from this Word, the Church is
renewed, regenerated every time she returns to this
Word. The Word of Sacred Scripture is in the hands of
the Church, so that she will drink from it abundantly
and be renewed by that contact. It is the Word of God
that leads us to the will of God himself; to His desire
to communicate with us. This Word tells us what God's
plan is, what he wants from us, what he wants from the
Church, what our duty is and what our future is.
Therefore, the Church is constantly renewed by drinking
from the source of the Word of God, as she is renewed by
being nourished by the Eucharist.”
All
of us are familiar with the words of Saint Jerome – “the
one who ignores the Scripture, ignores Christ. And he
who ignores Christ, ignores the power of God and the
wisdom of God (1Cor. 1:24).”
It
is my impression that the Bishops and the Faithful of
the Church in the United States are thirsting to muster
again the courage and to experience this Wisdom of God
and this Power of God.
Toward achieving this goal, don’t the Bishops believe
that it would be invaluable for all the dioceses to have
a wave of proclamation of the Word of God, of
evangelization with faith and courage? It is the Word of
God – proclaimed and witnessed in fidelity that will
restore the trust in the Church of God.
On
this past October 28th, Pope Benedict XVI told the
Bishops of Ireland: “Superficial presentation of
Catholic teaching must be avoided, because only the
fullness of the faith can communicate the liberating
power of the Gospel. By exercising vigilance over the
quality of the syllabuses and the course books used and
by proclaiming the Church’s doctrine in its entirety,
you are carrying out your responsibility to ‘preach the
Word…in season and out of season…unfailing in patience
and in teaching (2 Tim. 4:2)’”.
I
am not suggesting that the Bishops should be
“watch-dogs” of the faith; I am speaking of something
much more difficult: the “munus docendi” of the Bishop
must lead the Faithful to live in gratitude to Almighty
God for the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of
the Church, the gift of service, the gift of joy and the
gift of fidelity.
In
the same talk to the Irish Bishops, the Pope said –
“Even though it is necessary to speak out strongly
against the evils that threaten us, we must correct the
idea that Catholicism is merely ‘a collection of
prohibitions’.”
Evangelization needs the support of three agents:
1)
The Family: Which shows future generations how
the gift of faith becomes love, life, fidelity, mutual
dedication and joy;
2)
The School: During the synods of Baltimore, the
Fathers of the Church in America intuited the great and
important role that schools would have in the growth of
the Catholic community, here in the States. Keeping in
mind the words of the Holy Father – “only the fullness
of the Faith can communicate the liberating power of the
Gospel”- the Catholic school should give the students a
top quality in teaching, a discipline for life, moral
and human values which help them to choose what is
better, more honest, more just and more beautiful;
3)
The Mass Media: The first Catholic newspapers
were born in Baltimore, where the necessity for them was
truly seen. Today, Mass Media has developed
enormously. Media can cause damage, but can be used
also for great good. With competent and well trained
personnel, the Catholic Church should find ways to
utilize the media more effectively for the service of
the Gospel and in the service of humanity. We can only
imagine how Saint Paul would have used the Mass Media of
today.
A
contribution that each Bishop should make to the future
of his diocese concerns the quality and the quantity of
priests. We not only suffer a great reduction of
priestly and religious vocations; also a pastoral plan
for vocations seems to be lacking intensity, clarity and
determination. Today, Jesus Christ, with difficulty,
will find in the family, in the school and in the Church
someone who will lend Him his or her voice to call
others to follow Him. Ten to twenty years from now, how
many priests will there be to serve the Church in the
United States? This is a pressing problem that we
cannot ignore.
What type of priest or religious Brother or Sister is
needed in the Church in these United States, today and
tomorrow? This is a question with which every Bishop
must be personally concerned. Speaking to the Bishops
of Switzerland, this past November 7th, the
Holy Father said: “one thing which causes us all
concern, in the positive sense of the word, is the fact
that the theological formation of future priests and of
other teachers and announcers of the Faith should be
outstanding. We need, then, good theological faculties,
good major seminaries and well-trained teachers of
theology who can communicate not merely knowledge, but
who can lead those seminarians toward an intelligent
faith; in this way faith becomes intelligence and
intelligence becomes faith”. [My translation]
On
the 21st of last September, the Holy Father
told the newly ordained bishops that they should give
special attention to their priests. He said: “May this
be your first concern with regard to the priests.
Always act towards them as fathers and elder brothers
who know how to listen, accept, comfort and when
necessary, also to correct; endeavor to collaborate with
them and be close to them, especially at important
moments of their ministry and their lives.”
Addressing himself to the Bishops of Ireland, who are
living in a situation similar to ours, Pope Benedict
said: “In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you
have had to respond in recent years to many
heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors. These
are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric.
The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an
urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these
have been damaged. In your continuing efforts to deal
effectively with this problem, it is important to
establish the truth of what happened in the past, to
take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from
occurring again, to ensure that the principles of
justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring
healing to the victims and to all those affected by
these egregious crimes. In this way, the Church will
grow stronger and be ever more capable of giving witness
to the redemptive power of the Cross of Christ. I pray
that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, this time of
purification will enable all God’s people to “maintain
and perfect in their lives that holiness which they have
received from God” (Lumen Gentium, 40).
The
fine work and selfless dedication of the great majority
of priests and religious… should not be obscured by the
transgressions of some of their brethren. I am certain
that the people understand this, and continue to regard
their clergy with affection and esteem. Encourage your
priests always to seek spiritual renewal and to discover
afresh the joy of ministering to their flocks within the
great family of the Church.”
The
Word of God – rediscovered, loved and proclaimed, will
give the Church in America a spirit of renewal and
fidelity, new credibility among Her members and respect
on the part of all. These same results will be attained
by a clear and visible attitude of communion between the
Bishops and the Holy Father, communion among the bishops
and communion between the Bishops and all the Faithful
who have been entrusted to each of them.
This is expressed in the words of our Holy Father – Pope
Benedict XVI, as he spoke to the Swiss Episcopate, this
past November 7th:
“I
consider it important that the Bishops, as Successors to
the Apostles, on the one hand, bear true responsibility
for the local Churches entrusted to their care by the
Lord, so that there the Church of Jesus Christ may live
and grow. On the other hand, they must open the local
Churches to the Universal Church. Given the
difficulties of the Orthodox with their autocephalous
Churches and the problems that face our Protestant
friends with regard to the disintegration of the
regional churches, we must recognize the enormous
significance of universality, how important it is that
the Church opens herself to totality, truly becoming, in
her universality, one Church. This is possible only if
the local Church is alive.
This communion must be fed by the Bishops together with
the Successor of Peter in the awareness of Apostolic
Succession. All of us must continually make great
effort to find in this mutual rapport the proper
balance, so that the local Church might live with her
own authenticity and, at the same time, the Universal
Church may be enriched by the local Church, inasmuch as
both participate in a give and take and in this way the
Lord’s Church grows.” [My translation]
“It
is by your love for one another, that everyone will
recognize you as my disciples” (Jn. 13:35).
I
pray that the “grace of the place”, the grace of
Baltimore will bring you the faith, the courage and the
vision of your predecessors.
Thank You. |
