The Dialog

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Christians are called to be revolutionaries, changing the world one heart at a time, Pope Francis said.

“A Christian who is not a revolutionary today isn’t a Christian,” the pope said June 17 during a conference that quickly turned into a rally for evangelization and care of the poor.

Pope Francis arrives to lead the opening of the annual Rome diocesan convention at the Vatican June 17. The pope led the three-day gathering of priests, religious and laypeople who were meeting to set pastoral priorities for the coming year. (CNS/Reuters)

More than 10,000 people gathered at the Vatican, most in the audience hall, but also in the parking lot outside, to listen to Pope Francis kick off the annual Rome diocesan convention, a three-day gathering of priests, religious and laypeople to set pastoral priorities for the coming year.

Speaking for 30 minutes without a prepared text, Pope Francis repeatedly called upon Rome’s Catholics to take seriously their responsibility to bring God’s love and the promise of salvation to the poor, the sad and the suffering.

The revolution started 2,000 years ago by Jesus, who accepted death in order to save humanity, is the longest lasting revolution in history and the one with the greatest impact on the world because it focused not on territory or power, but on changing human hearts, the pope said.

The grace of Christ, he said, gives people “a heart that loves, a heart that suffers, a heart that rejoices with others, a heart full of tenderness for those who bear the wounds of life and feel like they are on the periphery of society.”

“Love is the greatest force for transforming reality because it breaks down the walls of selfishness and fills the chasms that keep people far from one another,” he said.

Using phrases and metaphors that have become a staple of his homilies, Pope Francis urged Catholics to leave the comfort of their parishes, go out to the streets and share the good news with others.

“Each one of us can think of persons who live without hope and are immersed in a profound sadness that they try to escape by thinking they can find happiness in alcohol, drugs, gambling, the power of money, promiscuity,” he said. In the end, though, he said, they just sink deeper into the abyss.

“We who have the joy of knowing that we are not orphans, that we have a Father,” cannot be indifferent to those yearning for love and for hope, he said. “With your witness, with your smile,” you need to let others know that the same Father loves them, too.

“In the Gospel there’s the beautiful passage about the shepherd who realizes that one of his sheep is missing and he leaves the 99 to go out and find the one,” Pope Francis said. “But, brothers and sisters, we have only one. We’re missing 99! We must go out and find them.”

It is tempting to take the easy path, “staying home with that one little sheep, combing it, caressing it,” he said.

However, the pope added, “the Lord wants us to be shepherds, not hairdressers to sheep.”

A parish community that stays on the church grounds with active members talking only with active members “is a sterile community,” he said.

Pope Francis said he knows it is difficult to have the patience and courage to go out and share the faith, but that is what every Christian is called to do.

And, he said, Christians should not be surprised when they get disappointed about the results of their efforts, but they must recognize that the devil is behind their discouragement.
Every day the devil sows in our hearts seeds of pessimism and bitterness.”

To counteract the devil, the pope said, Christians must draw strength “from prayer, mortification, the desire to follow Jesus and from the sacraments, which are an encounter with Jesus.”

Each Catholic has an obligation to witness to Gospel joy in their families, neighborhoods, workplaces and schools, he said, but they must remember that the poor are the first to need and deserve the good news and concrete expressions of Christian love and charity.

“At the Last Judgment, as we read in Matthew 25, we will be judged by this,” he said, referring to Jesus’ words: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama June 14 nominated Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS),  to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Obama’s announcement about Hackett came late in the day, along with his nominees for ambassador posts in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Denmark and Ethiopia.

“

Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services, and Miguel Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, leave the consistory led by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican last year. President Barack Obama had nominated Hackett to be the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services, and Miguel Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, leave the consistory led by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican last year. President Barack Obama had nominated Hackett to be the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. (CNS/Paul Haring)

It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” the president said.

Hackett retired in December 2011 after 18 years as president of CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.

If confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, he would succeed Miguel Diaz, who left the post in late 2012. Diaz now is a professor of faith and culture at the University of Dayton, Ohio. As of June 18, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee had not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing on Hackett’s nomination.

Hackett was appointed president of CRS in 1993. During his tenure, he established a division focusing on outreach to dioceses, parishes, Catholic organizations, and colleges and universities, and laypeople were first appointed to the CRS board of directors.

Catholic Relief Services now operates in more than 100 countries, with a global staff of nearly 5,000.

“Ken’s dedication to the poorest and most vulnerable on behalf of the church, and through programs often sponsored by the U.S. government, reflects his ability to engage both sectors in serving those in need in highly complicated environments,” said Carolyn Y. Woo, CRS’ current president and CEO, said in a statement June 17.

Strengthening ties with the Catholic Church, both in the United States and at the Vatican, was one of the themes of Hackett’s tenure at the helm of CRS. “Under his leadership, the agency renewed its spiritual core even as it grew into one of the largest nongovernmental aid agencies in the United States with a budget that exceeded $800 million,” the agency said in a press release.

Diaz said Hackett “brings a wealth of experience and perspective on issues related to global health and humanitarian assistance, as well as service to the poor, an important focus for Pope Francis. I wish him much success as he builds bridges between the United States and the Holy See.”

Born in West Roxbury, Mass., Hackett joined the Peace Corps shortly after his 1968 graduation from Boston College. Assigned to a Catholic mission in rural Ghana, he worked in an agricultural cooperative and saw “the actual impact of American food aid on the health and well-being of very poor kids in a very isolated part of a West African country,” he said recently.

After completing his Peace Corps assignment, Hackett joined CRS, the U.S. Catholic relief and development agency, in 1972. He started his career in Sierra Leone, where he managed a nationwide leprosy program and a maternal and child health program.

Subsequent positions took him to various posts in Africa and Asia, as well as in CRS’ Baltimore headquarters. As regional director for Africa, he managed the agency’s response to the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85. He also supervised CRS operations in East Africa during the crisis in Somalia in the 1990s.

In February 2012, Hackett and Diaz represented the U.S. government at the consistory led by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican ceremony. Pope Benedict XVI created 22 new cardinals from 13 countries, including two from the United States and one from Canada.

In May of that year, he received the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal during commencement ceremonies. The medal has been given annually since 1883 to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

In announcing that honor, Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame’s university president, said in a statement: “Ken Hackett has responded to a Gospel imperative with his entire career. His direction of the Catholic Church’s outreach to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and unsheltered of the world has blended administrative acumen with genuine compassion in a unique and exemplary way.”

Hackett is a former North American president of Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of humanitarian agencies of the Catholic Church and a former member of the board of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum at the Vatican. He also has been an adviser to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

By Francis X Rocca

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — A report that Pope Francis privately acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican offers a sensational example of his unvarnished speaking style and a reminder of the challenge that style poses for the papacy in the age of digital communications and vanishing privacy.

On the other hand, an acknowledgment that the Catholic Church’s central administration is troubled by factionalism and personal failings must be less than startling to anyone who has been following the news lately.

Pope Francis meets with leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious during a private audience at the Vatican June 6. Although news stories focused on leaked remarks in which the pope appeared to acknowledge the existence of a “gay lobby” at the Vatican, most of his remarks addressed concerns on church unity. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)

But the context of the headline-grabbing comment is a series of remarks most illuminating for what they reveal: not about divisions within the church, but about Pope Francis’ vision of its harmony and unity.

Pope Francis’ words to the leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Men and Women Religious, or CLAR, as originally reported on a website in Chile, have not been denied by anyone who was there.

A statement from CLAR, issued after the Chilean report, described the leaked account of the June 6 Vatican meeting as a “summary based on the memories of the participants” and a reliable record of the pope’s “general meaning,” though not a verbatim transcript.

Speaking to his fellow Latin American religious, the first Jesuit pope touched on some of the major points of tension that have marked relations between religious orders and the hierarchy in recent decades. He did so in a manner at once conciliatory and firm, both encouraging and sober in its assessment of the church’s problems.

He urged the religious to “put all your commitment into dialogue with the bishops,” even though “there are some (bishops) who have another idea of communion” from that held by many religious.

The pope also counseled his visitors to take a constructive attitude toward criticism and discipline from the Vatican.

“Maybe you will get a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine (of the Faith) saying that you said this or that,” the pope reportedly said. “But don’t worry. Explain what you have to explain, but keep going.”

While affirming the reality of error and the hierarchy’s responsibility to correct it, his emphasis was on forgiveness.

“You are going to make mistakes, you are going to put your foot in it. That happens.” he said. “I prefer a church that makes mistakes because it is doing something to one that sickens because it stays shut in.”

Yet, Pope Francis did not hesitate to classify certain trends in the contemporary church as manifestations of ancient heresies. As an example of, he cited the case of an unnamed superior general of a congregation of women religious who encouraged members to “take a spiritual bath in the cosmos” in lieu of morning prayer.

Complaints about such innovations by religious orders are by now a familiar refrain from bishops, but the pope added what some might find a surprising link between doctrinal fidelity and the church’s commitment to social justice.

Expressions of “pantheism” such as the sister’s worry him, the pope is quoted as saying, “because they skip the incarnation! And the son of God was made our flesh, the word was made flesh, and in Latin America we have flesh to spare. What happens with the poor, the pains, that is our flesh … .”

The pope also drew a link between the church’s social and moral teaching by relating economic injustice and legalized abortion in an analysis that defies any division between “social justice” and “pro-life” categories of Catholicism.

“Abortion is bad, but that is clear,” he reportedly told the religious. “But behind the approval of this law, what interests are behind it … .” In an apparent reference to international organizations and private foundations that promote population control in underdeveloped countries, he added, “they are at times the conditions placed by the great groups to support with money, you know that?”

Pope Francis also offered his visitors a sort of parable about the unity of clergy and laity.

Recalling the 2007 conference of Latin American bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, which he described as a key step in a “continental mission,” he noted that the event “was not celebrated in a hotel, nor in a retreat house.”

Inside the conference rooms beneath the sanctuary of Brazil’s greatest Marian shrine, the bishops could hear the singing of the faithful overhead as “background music,” the pope said. “This made it very special.”

According to Pope Francis, contact with the faithful at Aparecida made a crucial difference in the prelates’ deliberations. He cited the case of Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, then archbishop of Brasilia and now prefect of the Vatican congregation that oversees religious orders, whom the pope described as having a relatively stiff manner.

Then-Archbishop Braz de Aziz “went out with his miter, and the people got close to him, and they brought the children near, and he greeted them, and hugged them like this,” the pope recalled. “This same bishop then voted. He could not have voted the same way if he had been in a hotel.”

The little story is a rich and suggestive image of Pope Francis’ hopes for the flock he has been chosen to lead: a church whose leaders are not shut in with each other but surrounded by, in his words, the “people of God.”

By Catholic News Service

SAN DIEGO — Three bishops weighed in on the ongoing congressional debate on immigration reform legislation June 10, warning against amending a Senate bill in ways that would block the path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.

At a news conference in San Diego, held as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opened its annual spring meeting, the chairmen of three committees reiterated the bishops’ support for comprehensive immigration reform that protects families and workers.

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., speaks on immigration reform legislation during a news conference June 10 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Diego, where U.S. bishops were meeting for their spring meeting and retreat. As the issue is debated in Congress, the bishops reiterated their support for comprehensive immigration reform that protects families and workers. (CNS photo/David Maung)

“Each day in our parishes, social service programs, hospitals and schools, we witness the human consequences of a broken immigration system,” said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration. “Families are separated, migrant workers are exploited, and our fellow human beings die in the desert.”

He called the status quo morally unacceptable, adding, “This suffering must end.”

Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Communications and former chair of the migration committee, specified a handful of concerns for changes to the bill that might be attempted on the Senate floor. The Senate began debate on the bill the previous week and was scheduled to take a procedural vote over whether to allow debate to continue June 11. A panel of House members was reportedly still working on a version of a bill for that chamber.

“Some will argue that before we can begin welcoming new citizens, we will need more fencing and blockading of the border,” Bishop Wester said. “However, making the legalization program contingent upon border metrics that are practically impossible to achieve would effectively prevent the undocumented from ever becoming citizens, or even legal residents. Such a step would render the immigration reform program useless and the bill not worth supporting.

“We urge Congress to maintain the current balance between enforcement goals and improvements in the legal immigration system, including a path to citizenship.”

He said the bishops also would oppose amendments to reduce the number of people who might pursue the path to citizenship laid out in the bill, S. 744. “Additional measures to make the path to citizenship more difficult, such as an increase in fines or imposition of other difficult income and employment requirements, or amendments to remove the citizenship option altogether, also will meet our opposition.”

Bishop Wester said efforts to prevent immigrants in the legalization program from obtaining benefits such as the earned income tax credit, Social Security and eligibility for health care coverage also would meet the church’s opposition.

People who pay taxes and otherwise contribute to the economy “should not be barred from these benefits, to which every worker should be entitled,” he said.

Bishop Wester said he hopes the legislative process would lead to improvements in the Senate bill, not additional restrictions.

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, a member of the board of directors of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, warned that attempts to reform the immigration system would fail if they don’t allow for immigrants to fully incorporate into American society.

He said the key points of the bishops’ policy goals for immigration reform include:

• An accessible and achievable path to citizenship that includes the maximum number of people. If the goal of reform is to address the problem of irregular immigration in a humane manner, he said, then all undocumented people should be brought out of the shadows and placed into the new system. “Leaving a large group behind does not solve the problem, and in the future, could create new ones.”

• Family unity as the cornerstone of the system. “Immigrant families help our nation both economically and socially” he said. “This nation cannot take an immigrant’s labor and deny the immigrant’s family.”

• “Enforcement by itself, especially along our southern border, will not solve the challenge of irregular immigration,” said Bishop Soto. “The punitive enforcement-only approach has been the default policy for the last two decades. It has only aggravated the problem of irregular immigration. Our southern border should be a place of mutual support and an extension of hands across boundaries, not a militarized zone. Sadly, many of our elected officials see more enforcement along our border as the sole solution to irregular migration. We oppose the acceleration of border enforcement as a prerequisite for a legalization program that includes citizenship. An effective legalization program with a path to citizenship will lead to more effective border management.”

Bishop Soto said that it’s important to consider why people risk their lives to come to the United States, and how to address global poverty and persecution.

Archbishop Gomez said as the debate continues, the nation must answer several questions:

“Do we want a country with a permanent underclass, without the same rights as the majority? Do we want to continue to separate children from parents, creating a generation of young U.S. citizens who are suspicious and fearful of their government? Do we want a nation that accepts the toil and taxes of undocumented workers without offering them the protection of the law?”

“The answer to these questions, of course, is a resounding no,” said Archbishop Gomez.

By The Dialog

The following is Bishop Malooly’s prepared text for his homily during the June 8 priesthood ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington. The bishop ordained Deacons Christopher Coffiey, Glenn Evers and Brian Lewis priests of the diocese.

On behalf of the Church of Wilmington I want to begin by thanking the families of our newly ordained, the parents, the immediate family, the extended family even their faith-filled friends. All of you have helped lead our ordinands to God’s Call to the priesthood. Thank you for your faith and your example.

I had asked the soon-to-be priests to choose the readings for today and share with me their thoughts. The first reading from Isaiah is very familiar: the prophet speaks of being called into the service of the Lord as servant of the people of faith. Jesus himself quoted this passage when he entered his own synagogue in Nazareth to begin his public ministry. He was handed the scroll and he unwrapped it at the 61st chapter. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor.” Read more »

By The Dialog

The following is Bishop Malooly’s prepared text for his homily during the June 8 priesthood ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington. The bishop ordained Deacons Christopher Coffiey, Glenn Evers and Brian Lewis priests of the diocese.

On behalf of the Church of Wilmington I want to begin by thanking the families of our newly ordained, the parents, the immediate family, the extended family even their faith-filled friends. All of you have helped lead our ordinands to God’s Call to the priesthood. Thank you for your faith and your example.

I had asked the soon-to-be priests to choose the readings for today and share with me their thoughts. The first reading from Isaiah is very familiar: the prophet speaks of being called into the service of the Lord as servant of the people of faith. Jesus himself quoted this passage when he entered his own synagogue in Nazareth to begin his public ministry. He was handed the scroll and he unwrapped it at the 61st chapter. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor.” Read more »

By The Dialog

The following is Bishop Malooly’s prepared text for his homily during the June 8 priesthood ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington. The bishop ordained Deacons Christopher Coffiey, Glenn Evers and Brian Lewis priests of the diocese.

On behalf of the Church of Wilmington I want to begin by thanking the families of our newly ordained, the parents, the immediate family, the extended family even their faith-filled friends. All of you have helped lead our ordinands to God’s Call to the priesthood. Thank you for your faith and your example.

I had asked the soon-to-be priests to choose the readings for today and share with me their thoughts. The first reading from Isaiah is very familiar: the prophet speaks of being called into the service of the Lord as servant of the people of faith. Jesus himself quoted this passage when he entered his own synagogue in Nazareth to begin his public ministry. He was handed the scroll and he unwrapped it at the 61st chapter. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor.” Read more »

By Mike Lang

Staff reporter

NEWARK – The Diocese of Wilmington marked a first on June 6, when a priest of the diocese celebrated his 100^th birthday. A party was in order.

The guest of honor was Father William Jennings, the oldest and, at 73 years ordained, the longest-serving priest of the diocese. Guests included residents, employees and volunteers from the Jeanne Jugan Residence, where Father Jennings has lived for several years, as well as family and friends from throughout his priestly ministry. Read more »

By Mike Lang

Staff reporter

From his early days as a member of St. Stanislaus Parish in Wilmington, Deacon Christopher Coffiey had the priesthood in mind. But when it was time to choose a high school, he went to Hodgson Vo-Tech, where he concentrated on heating and air conditioning, a far cry from souls and spirits.

“I had no aspirations or true inclinations to go right into the seminary, partly because I wasn’t really looking forward to going to school,” Deacon Coffiey said in the weeks prior to his ordination, which was scheduled for June 8 at the Cathedral of St. Peter. “I enjoy fixing things, working with my hands, working on cars, doing that kind of stuff.” Read more »

By Joseph Ryan

Dialog Editor

Just days before his ordination to the priesthood June 8, Deacon Glenn Evers recalled the moments his heart felt “on fire and at peace simultaneously” when he decided to become a priest.

The years leading to his priesthood vocation had clearly been a bit “restless.” Read more »