1. No category

FOUR U.S. CATHOLIC PUBLICATIONS, INCLUDING
OSV NEWSWEEKLY, ISSUE JOINT EDITORIAL IN SOLIDARITY
WITH U.S. BISHOPS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY | PAGE 19
christian
persecution
... and what
to do about it
MARCH 15, 2015
Curbing the religious
education ‘drift’
Maronite Catholics respond to needs of Middle East
Christians through fundraising, prayer and solidarity.
Between receiving the sacraments of
first Communion and confirmation, the
number of children in faith formation
classes declines, but stressing a relationship with Christ and engaging them in
unique activities can help stem the tide.
>> NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE 4
>> NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE 5
In the spotlight:
The Church and the
news media
Russell Shaw provides a
historical tour of the
relationship between the
Vatican and the press up
to the present day.
>> IN FOCUS, PAGES 9-12
VOLUME 103, NO. 46 • $3.00
WWW.OSV.COM
Emulating St. Joseph
As we celebrate his feast on March 19,
Christ’s earthly father provides a stunning example of strength, humility and
selflessness for all to follow.
>> FAITH, PAGES 14-15
NEWSCOM, CNS, SHUTTERSTOCK
2
IN THIS ISSUE
MARCH 15, 2015
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
OPENERS | GRETCHEN R. CROWE
Two new family saints, and a stand on the death penalty
A
s if anticipation for October’s Synod of Bishops on
the Family Part II wasn’t already going to be momentous
enough, the ante was upped
with the unofficial announcement that Blessed Louis and
Zélie Martin will be canonized
at the Vatican during the same
time frame.
According to a March 3 report by Zenit News Agency,
Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for
the Causes of Saints, made the
statement while at a gathering
discussing saints and family holiness. As of press time, neither
the Vatican press office — nor
Pope Francis — has confirmed
this development, but in many
ways it would make sense.
Parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, one of the most beloved
saints of modern time, Louis
and Zélie would be the first
married couple to be canonized jointly in the history of
the Church. The move is both
a fitting nod to the blessings
and sanctity that can be honed
through that beautiful sacrament of unity, and also a strong
statement on marriage to make
during the family synod.
During their married life,
Louis and Zélie had nine children, four of whom died at a
young age. Working in harmony, they lived lives rich in spirituality and constantly practiced
the spiritual and corporal works
of mercy. The publication of
Thérèse’s autobiography, “Story
of a Soul,” brought universal attention to her parents’ lives of
great holiness and fidelity.
The couple was declared
blessed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and on the day of the
Oct. 19, 2008, beatification, the
Holy Father made a direct connection between Louis and Zélie and the role of the family in
today’s society.
“In thinking of the beatifica-
tion of the Martin couple,” he
said, “I am keen to recall another intention very dear to my
heart: the family, whose role in
teaching children a universal
outlook that is both responsible
and open to the world and its
problems is fundamental, as it
also is in the formation of vocations to missionary life. ... With
their life as an exemplary couple
they proclaimed Christ’s Gospel. They lived their faith ardently and passed it on to their
family and those around them.
May their common prayer be a
source of joy and hope for all
parents and all families.”
***
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Page 19 Editorial on capital
punishment. Drafted and approved as a joint venture of
America magazine, the National Catholic Reporter, the
National Catholic Register and
Our Sunday Visitor, it stands
as a strong, united and pro-life
statement against the U.S. death
penalty.
Such a combined effort is not
unprecedented, but it is rare,
and as such, we hope that it
contributes to the national debate. Our Sunday Visitor has
long been opposed to capital
punishment, and we are proud
to stand side-by-side with our
fellow national Catholic publications.
[email protected].
SAINT OF THE WEEK
ST. PATRICK
Captured and taken to
Ireland at the age of 16,
Patrick
underwent a
profound
religious
transformation.
After escaping, undergoing spiritual
training and being consecrated a bishop, Patrick
returned to Ireland, serving
as a missionary for 29 years
and winning the conversion
of virtually the whole of the
Irish people. His feast day is
March 17.
ON THE COVER: A woman attends a Mass in Damascus,
Syria, on March 1 in solidarity with Assyrians abducted by Islamic State fighters. Newscom photo
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THIS WEEK
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
IN PHOTOS
MARCH 15, 2015
IN BRIEF
Notre Dame’s Father Hesburgh, 97, dies
Holy Cross Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, who led
the University of Notre Dame through a period of
dramatic growth during his 35 years as president
and held sway with political and civil rights leaders,
died Feb. 26 at the age of 97. The university did not
cite a specific cause. “We mourn today a great man
and faithful priest who transformed the University
of Notre Dame and touched the lives of many,” Holy
Cross Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame’s current
president, said in a statement. Father Hesburgh held
16 presidential appointments over the years, served
four popes and earned 150 honorary degrees.
Vatican finances
COMMUTERS: Pope Francis talks with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on Feb. 27 as they sit in a bus following a five-day Lenten
retreat with members of the Roman Curia in Ariccia, Italy.
The Vatican March 3 published on its website new
rules governing the guidance,
oversight and control of its
financial and administrative
activities. The new guidelines
include the power to levy
sanctions and take “civil or
criminal action” in cases of
“damage to assets,” as well as
providing protection for whistleblowers raising red flags
about “anomalous activity.”
Marriage ruling
After a March 2 decision
striking down Nebraska’s ban
on same-sex marriage, the
state’s three Catholic bishops
said the ruling “presumes to
nullify what God has written
on human hearts — that marriage is between a man and a
woman.” The U.S. Supreme
Court is scheduled to hear arguments in April on whether
states can ban same-sex marriages. A ruling is expected in
late June.
Cardinal hospitalized
PRAYER: Iraqi Christians attend Mass at Mar George Chaldean Church in Baghdad on March 1. Christians in Iraq continue
to struggle amid violence and persecution.
BY THE NUMBERS
RELIGIOUS RESTRICTIONS
The Pew Research Center Feb. 26 released a study detailing
religious restrictions due to governmental regulations or social
hostilities around the world in 2013. Here is a sample of the data:
Countries where levels of
restrictions on religion are
high or very high:
39 %
Pew Research Center, CNS, News.va, Shutterstock
Global population living
where levels of restrictions
on religion are high or
very high:
77 %
According to a March 3 news
release, Cardinal Francis E.
George, retired archbishop
of Chicago, was admitted to
Loyola University Medical
Center on March 1 to undergo
several days of tests to evaluate
his condition since he stopped
treatment for cancer in late
January. “The cardinal continues to count on the prayers
of so many who have written
to wish him God’s blessings,”
said the statement.
Papal schedule
The Vatican on March 3 released Pope Francis’ itinerary for his one-day visit to
Pompeii and Naples, Italy, on
March 21. Included will be
a visit to the Shrine of Pompeii and a celebration of Mass
MILESTONES
San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Robert W.
McElroy was named to
head the Diocese of San
Diego by Pope Francis
on March 3. Bishop
McElroy, 61, is a native
of San Francisco who
has spent most of his life
in the Bay Area. He has
been an auxiliary bishop
since 2010. He succeeds
Bishop Cirilo B. Flores,
who died Sept. 6.
Father Roger
Landry, former pastor
of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River, Massachusetts, has been
assigned to work with
the Vatican’s Permanent
Observer Mission to
the United Nations.
The 44-year-old priest
began the four-year
commitment March 3.
Brother Paul
O’Donnell, a Franciscan Brother of Peace
and a nationally regarded pro-life advocate
and speaker, died Feb.
20 at his community’s
residence in St. Paul. He
was 55.
in Naples’ central Piazza del
Plebiscito.
Congolese priest killed
Father Jean-Paul Kakule Kyalembera, a diocesan priest
in Congo, was shot and killed
Feb. 25 in an apparent attempted robbery. The victim
served at a parish in Mweso,
situated in North Kivu province. Three suspects were arrested and interrogated by
police.
3
IN QUOTES
“Yes, but who am I
to judge if I am capable of doing worse
things?”
— Pope Francis, on the need
to recognize one’s own faults,
during his homily on March 2.
“Even as pontiff, he
has remained a priest
who does not want to
lose contact with his
flock.”
— Domenico Giani, the
commander of armed Vatican
guards and Pope Francis’ chief
bodyguard, on the pope’s pastoral style, in the March issue
of the magazine for the Italian
state police.
“If Reader’s Digest
asked me to write
about the most
amazing person I’ve
ever met in my life,
my answer would
be, without a doubt,
Father Hesburgh.”
— Lou Holtz, former University of Notre Dame football
coach, on the Feb. 26 passing
of university president Father
Theodore M. Hesburgh.
“[He was] a man who
appeared to be alone,
but who never felt
alone because God’s
grace was present in
him.”
— Msgr. Americo Ciani, a
canon at St. Peter’s Basilica,
on Willy Herteleer, a homeless
man who died and was buried
in a Vatican cemetery.
4
NEWS ANALYSIS
MARCH 15, 2015
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
The struggle to retain post-Communion youth
Engaging activities, a personal encounter with Jesus are essential
to retaining young people who otherwise may drift from the Faith
By Joseph R. LaPlante
A robust class of 30 second-graders
made its first Communion at St. Matthew the Apostle Church in Indianapolis in the spring of 2014. But when the
parish resumed faith-formation classes
for third-graders in the fall, only seven
returned, according to Aaron Haag, pastoral associate for the parish.
That anecdote illustrates a larger reality acknowledged by parish leaders and
catechists throughout the United States:
Many young people who receive their
first Communion won’t return to religious education classes until it’s time for
confirmation, if they return at all.
“There seems to be a drift,” said Danielle Ehlenbeck, director of religious education at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in
Kiel, Wisconsin, who noted that after
second-grade faith formation classes,
only some 25 percent of students return
as third-graders. “After fourth and fifth
grade, we lose some more,” she said.
“That is the age where we lose them.”
The reasons why
children.
“We have more dual-income families
who are busy on the weekends with the
‘religion’ of sports and activities; and we
have more single parents who are spent
by the weekend from work and family
responsibilities, and they don’t want to
think about it,” she said.
Yet another factor in the drifting of
children from religious education, cautioned Haag, could also be how the parents of the so-called “drifters” perceive
they are being treated.
“I think (the Church) treats [socalled] ‘hoop-jumpers’ with frustration
that they have pulled away after the sacrament, and (the parents) pick up on
that, and they don’t feel welcome to return,” he said.
There is also a tendency for directors
of religious education and catechists to
focus too much on the students who
aren’t in class as opposed to those who
are, Haag added. “It is important to
temper those concerns and focus on the
kids who come,” he said. “For every one
of those kids who are not here, there
are kids who are coming to me to share
Christ with them.”
Father Andrew Kurz, pastor of three
churches in the Diocese of Green Bay,
Wisconsin, said part of the problem has
to do with some parents viewing reli- Stemming the tide
According to several catechists ingious education as “jumping through
terviewed, fifth-graders are the most
hoops.”
“‘Here is first Communion, let’s get challenging age group to retain. Rosann
that done,’ and then they are gone until Halick, director of religious education
the next hoop, confirmation,” he said, at St. Bonaventure Church in Concord,
California, said engaging those students
describing the sometimes-mentality.
The emphasis on sacraments-only in church activities is essential when it
religious education could stem in part comes to keeping them.
To this end, on some holy days of obfrom parents wanting to please their
children’s oftentimes more religious ligation, Halick invites the fifth-graders
grandparents in order to avoid a per- to participate in the Mass as the lecceived social stigma that comes with not tors, the hospitality team, ushers and
altar servers. Halick also said her parreceiving the sacraments.
ish’s summer Bible
“[This] is an incamp attracts young
teresting phenomDID YOU KNOW?
people in the key
enon that we are
age group of third
seeing across the
On average, about
through fifth grade
country,” said Patti
in big numbers.
Collyer, coordinator
“If I could capture
of youth and young
the interest, involveadult ministry for
people are confirmed
ment and enthusithe Diocese of Oakthan receive first
asm of Bible camp
land, California. “I
Communion each year.
throughout the year,
think this generawe would stop the
tion of parents does
— Source: Center for Applied
drift,” she said.
not have a real comResearch in the Apostolate
St.
Matthew’s
fort level talking
in Indianapolis atabout their relationship with God. I do see a lot of grand- tempts to involve elementary students
parents who are actively supporting the with its Christ And My Peeps (ChAMPs)
formation of their grandchildren, and I program.
Like many parishes, St. Matthew’s ofsee that as very positive.”
Collyer also contends that two ends fers programs for middle-schoolers and
of the economic spectrum are playing a older teens, Haag said, but ChAMPs is
part in the erosion of faith formation for directed primarily at third- through
25 % fewer
Once children have completed preparation for their first Communion, catechists
say many tend to stop attending faith formation classes. CNS photo
fifth-graders. “ChAMPs is a great time
for all pre-middle-school kids to meet
with their friends while learning about
a faith theme,” Haag said. “They use interesting opening activities, interactive
games and/or sciencelike connections,
fun age-appropriate music and other
activities like acting out, making commercials or playing board games. They
end with a prayerful connection to the
theme of the night.”
Rosary Camp
Father Kurz, whose duties extend to
St. Joseph Church in Champion, Wisconsin, and the neighboring parishes of
St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Killian,
has received an enthusiastic response
from young people to Rosary Camp, an
overnight lock-in held four times a year.
In a school gymnasium, artificial
Christmas trees are brought in to create
a campout atmosphere, and the youth,
all third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, set
up tents for their overnight stay.
“On Friday night after they all set up
their tents, I explain what a meditation
is ... The prayers are the soundtrack to
back up the movie going on in your head
as you meditate on the Good News, the
mysteries of the Rosary,” Father Kurz
said. “I tell them that praying the Rosary
is like tapping your head and rubbing
your belly at the same time. They seem
to just eat it up.”
The campers watch a movie about the
Fatima apparitions, and Father Kurz repeats the earlier lesson about the Rosary
before Friday night concludes with pray-
ing the Rosary and a campfire.
On Saturday, the young people have
breakfast, go to confession and work on
arts and crafts. During one retreat when
there was a 20-minute gap between the
end of camp activities and attending
Saturday afternoon Mass, a little boy
made Father Kurz’s day when he asked
the priest, “‘Why don’t we pray another
rosary?’ All the kids said, ‘OK, yeah, let’s
pray the Rosary again,’” Father Kurz
said.
Doreen Thorp is the mother of two
boys who are in third and sixth grades.
Her boys attended the Rosary Camp,
and she saw an increased interest in their
prayer life. Her third-grade son, Jack,
“invited his Catholic friends to a Rosary
party, and we prayed the Rosary and had
craft activities related to the Rosary. He
has been wanting go to church earlier so
he can pray the Rosary before Mass.”
With that experience in mind, Father
Kurz contends the children in third,
fourth and fifth grades are the most receptive to encountering Jesus.
And it’s this encounter that’s essential to facilitate and build on when it
comes to retaining that demographic
who might otherwise drift away from
the Church.
“The older they get, the more they get
wrapped up in the world,” Father Kurz
said. “The younger students are more
influenced and have an innocence and a
desire for spiritual things.”
Joseph R. LaPlante writes from
Rhode Island.
NEWS ANALYSIS
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
MARCH 15, 2015
5
MIDDLE EAST
Maronite Catholics in U.S. assist those abroad
By Susan Klemond
Like many Catholics, Anthony and
Pierrette Hazkial were shocked by news
reports about the persecution of Middle
Eastern Christians. From their families
in Lebanon, they learned more about the
estimated 1.5 million refugees who have
fled to that country to escape war and
persecution in Syria and Iraq. The 20-something couple who live in
Milwaukee and belong to the Maronite
Church wanted to help but didn’t know
how. “We don’t have pull in Washington, and we don’t have enough money to
donate ourselves to make a difference,”
Pierrette said. “A lot of people feel that
way. They are aware but didn’t know
where or how to donate.”
The Hazkials did think
of something they could do.
On Jan. 31, they held a banquet fundraiser near Chicago, and with the proceeds
donated $40,000 to Catholic
Near East Welfare Association, a papal agency that was
founded in 1926 by Pope Pius
XI and “works for, through
and with the Eastern Catholic churches to identify needs
P. Hazkial
and implement solutions,”
according to its website.
The couple’s faith led them
to support fellow Christians
with similar ancestral roots.
As Jesus was persecuted
2,000 years ago, his body, the
Church, is suffering today,
Anthony said.
“One thing that helped
Jesus endure was acts of love
along the way of the cross,”
he said. “Our effort, together
with all those who donated, A. Hazkial
was an act of love toward
Middle Eastern Christians, and we hope
it helps them persevere in their faith until the end.”
‘Part of the Church’
The current crisis in the Middle
East is especially real for the Hazkials
and members of their Eastern Catholic
church based in Lebanon. Many members are sympathetic toward refugees
entering that country and concerned
for family members living there. At the
same time, they’re making room for
Middle Eastern Christian refugees entering the United States who often join
their congregations from other Eastern
churches.
The Maronite liturgy, which includes prayers in the language spoken
by Christ, is distinct from that of the
Roman Catholic Church, but Maronite
leaders point out that the two rites —
along with the other Eastern rites of the
Catholic Church — have much in common. (Many of the estimated 220 Assyrian Christians recently held hostage by
the self-proclaimed Islamic State belong
to another Eastern Catholic rite — the
Chaldean Church. See sidebar.)
“We are part of the Catholic Church,”
said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of Our
Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles eparchy (similar to a diocese), one of two
U.S. Maronite eparchies. “We were not
something added later on. This is our
heritage. This is our life. We don’t want
to forget our brothers and sisters in the
Middle East — all the Christians in the
Middle East.”
With nearly 160,000
members in North America,
the Maronite rite possesses
a rich history, according to
clergy members. Founded
in Syria in the fifth century
by followers of St. Maron,
the church has been based
in Lebanon since the seventh
century.
The Maronite and all
Catholic churches share a
common creed, sacraments
and allegiance to the pope,
said Chorbishop Sharbel
Maroun, pastor of St. Maron Catholic Church in
Minneapolis. In January,
he was elevated to the position of chorbishop, similar
to an auxiliary bishop in the
Latin rite. He is one of five
chorbishops serving in the
Our Lady of Lebanon of Los
Angeles eparchy covering 34
western states.
Aiding refugees
As refugees, especially from neighboring Syria, have swelled Lebanon’s
population in recent years, Maronite
and other Eastern churches are helping
them, said Father Tony Massad, pastor
of St. Rafka Maronite Catholic Church
in Livonia, Michigan.
Still, many Christians have left the
Middle East, Bishop Zaidan said. “We
[must] create some kind of awareness of
the importance of the Christians in the
Middle East,” he said. “We want them to
stay there. We want to do whatever we
can to help them in any way.”
Because the majority of American
Maronites are of Lebanese descent, and
many send financial support to family
members in Lebanon, they are aware of
what’s happening there and want to do
more, Father Massad said.
CHRISTIANS IN DANGER; POPE SEEKS PRAYERS
On March 1, the day Pope Francis again spoke out
against the violence facing Christians in the Middle
East, the region celebrated the release of nearly 20
Assyrian Christians abducted by Islamic State militants
in northeastern Syria, but expressed concern that more
than 200 others remained in captivity after they were
captured during Feb. 23 attacks.
“I can confirm the release of 19 persons (17 men and
2 women) who were captured by the Islamic State in the
Khabur region,” said Father Emanuel Youkhana, who
heads the Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq. “We
pray and hope for the others to be released,” he added.
After praying the Angelus with those gathered in St.
Peter’s Square on March 1, the pope underlined his dismay over the ongoing
“dramatic” events unfolding in the area — the “violence, kidnappings and oppression to the detriment of Christians and other groups.”
He said the Church has not forgotten about the minorities and their plight
and said Catholics were “praying urgently that the intolerable brutality” they
are suffering “may end as soon as possible.”
“I ask everyone, according to their means, to work to alleviate the suffering
of all those who are afflicted, often just because of their faith,” the pontiff said.
Around the country, efforts to provide aid have included a blanket drive
and donations to orphanages, he said.
Like the Hazkials, people in the pews are
doing what they can to help their brothers and sisters in the Middle East. Parish
collections for the Middle East also have
raised much more than normal collections, according to Chorbishop Michael
Thomas, who is also vicar general for the
St. Maron of Brooklyn eparchy covering
the eastern United States, as well as pastor of Heart of Jesus Catholic Church
Maronite Rite in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Along with helping refugees in the
Middle East, Maronite congregations
are also assisting those coming to the
United States and welcoming them into
their parishes. Churches in cities seeing
the largest influx of Middle Eastern refugees, including Detroit, Houston and
Los Angeles, try to help them settle and
find jobs, Bishop Zaidan said.
Each week new families come to Our
Lady of the Cedars Maronite Catholic
Church in Houston, which has grown
from 20 families in 1990 to 700, said
pastor Father Milad Yaghi. According
to the Houston Chronicle, U.S. State
Department officials expect about 2,000
Syrian refugees to arrive in Houston this
year with as many as 10,000 by the end
of 2016.
‘What are we doing?’
The secular media and governmental
bodies are not focusing enough on the
suffering of Christians in the Middle
East, Chorbishop Thomas said.
While aid is available for members of
other religions displaced by the Islamic
State, Christians aren’t receiving as
much assistance, he said. U.S. Catholics
CNS
Milwaukee couple hold fundraiser as ‘act of love,’ while clergy
urge the faithful to help Christians suffering in war-torn region
need to pray but also go a step beyond to
help. “There are over 1 billion Catholics
in the world,” Chorbishop Thomas said.
“Have we raised our voices? What are we
doing to help Christians?”
He urged Catholics to give financial
support and ask their elected officials
to take action to end the conflict. Chorbishop Thomas recommended donating
to Catholic Near East Welfare Association or to Caritas Lebanon, part of the
Caritas International humanitarian organization.
The Hazkials donated the money they
raised to CNEWA because they wanted
to help Middle Eastern Christians, but
the event was also held because they
wanted to encourage people in the United States to continue talking about the
crisis. Planning the event while working
full-time and without a lot of help was
challenging, said the couple, who promoted the event at seven parishes during
the month before the fundraiser.
Islamic State militants have “already
set their sights on Lebanon; they have
stated that’s where they’re going to go
next,” Pierrette Hazkial said. “It keeps
getting worse, and it’s so shocking to us
that there’s nothing being done by the
international community to really stop
them, other than airstrikes.”
The Hazkials plan to visit their families in Lebanon next month. It will
be their first trip there together, but
they fear it also could be their last if
ISIS moves into the country, Anthony
said. “We hope that it’s not, but we think
that there’s a very real possibility that
this could be the last trip that we could
make safely.”
Susan Klemond writes from
Minnesota.
Don’t miss these popular
retreats, shrines & basilicas!
CANADA
Ignatius Jesuit Centre, Loyola
House Retreat and Training
Centre, 5420 Hwy 6, North,
Ontario, Canada N1H 6J2
Phone: (519)824-1250 ext 266
Fax: (519)767-0994
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website: www.loyolahouse.com
Loyola House is a world renowned
retreat centre situated on 600 acres
of beautiful and tranquil land. We
offer eight day retreats, Pilgrimages, Ecology Retreats, 40 Day Spiritual Exercises Institute, 4-Phase
Training Program, Spiritual Director Training and much more!
CALIFORNIA
Shrine of Saint Joseph,
Guardian of the Redeemer,
544 West Cliff Drive,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060-6147
Phone: (831)457-1868
Fax: (831)457-1317
Rev. Paul A. McDonnell, O.S.J.,
Provincial Superior &
Shrine Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.osjusa.org
Beautifully located across from
Santa Cruz Bay, provides a serene,
prayerful setting. Masses held daily
at 11:00am, daily confessions at
10:30am & upon request. Bookstore/Giftshop open daily. Facilities
can accommodate one-day retreats,
meetings & conferences. Guided by
the Oblates of Saint Joseph.
CONNECTICUT
St. Edmund’s Retreat,
Enders Island, PO Box 399,
Mystic, CT 06355
Phone: (860)536-0565
Fax: (860)572-7655
Rev. Thomas F.X. Hoar, SSE,
Ph.D, President
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.endersisland.com
On a private island: Mystic, CT.
Enders Island offers a peaceful,
prayerful, serene ocean setting, gardens, 1930’s mansion, good food.
We offer a Catholic B&B in Enders
House, private, directed, guided retreats, sacred art courses, hosting
groups up to 70 persons.
Code: OSV
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Basilica of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception,
400 Michigan Avenue Northeast,
Washington, DC 20017-1566
Phone: (202)526-8300
Fax: (202)526-8313
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.nationalshrine.com
Located in the nation’s capital, this
preeminent Marian shrine is dedicated to the patroness of the United
States, the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title Immaculate Conception. With over 70 chapels and oratories, this National Sanctuary of
Prayer and Pilgrimage is the largest
Catholic church in North America
and is one of the ten largest churches in the world. Pope Benedict XVI,
Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa are among those who have
graced this magnificent Basilica
that welcomes nearly one million
pilgrims annually. Open Daily with
Masses, Confessions, Devotions,
Guided Tours, Giftshop, Bookstore, Cafeteria, Free Parking and
more.
Franciscan Monastery
of the Holy Land,
1400 Quincy St., NE,
Washington, DC 20017
Phone: (202)526-6800
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.myfranciscan.org
This year, see the Holy Land, only
15 minutes from the Washington
Monument and 5 minutes from
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The stunning Franciscan Monastery of the
Holy Land in America features
replicas of significant Holy Land
Shrines, 42 acres of beautiful gardens, replicas of catacombs and a
hermitage retreat, where anyone is
welcome to book a night away from
the world. Tours: Daily 10 and 11
a.m., 1, 2, and 3 p.m. Sundays 1, 2,
and 3 p.m. Groups should make
a reservation in advance. Gift
Shop: Open daily 10 am - 4:45 p.m.
except Mondays. Retreat/Conference space available: For more
information, contact Carolyn at
202-526-6800. Pilgrimages to the
Holy Land: Visit www.holylandpilgrimages.org E-mail Fr. David
Wathen, OFM, at [email protected], or call George’s
International at 1-800-566-7499.
ILLINOIS
Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House,
420 W. County Line Rd.,
Barrington, IL 60010
Phone: (847)381-1261
Fax: (847)381-4695
Fr. Paul Macke, S.J.,
Executive Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.jesuitretreat.org
(Paid Advertisement)
Located on 80 acres of rolling
meadows and wooded countryside,
Bellarmine specializes in silent retreats for men and women adapted
from the Ignatian Exercises. Types
of retreats available: Men, Women, Directed/Private. Schedule of
retreats: days, weeks, weekends.
Schedules and brochures are available. Capacity: 72.
or Sister Ann Gill, FSJB
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cdopmuseums.org
The Diocesan Historical Museum
and Archbishop Fulton Sheen Museum features: Individual or guided
tours of the museum and St. Mary
Cathedral located just a block away,
a selection of Fulton Sheen memorabilia; and a religious gift shop.
National Shrine of
Our Lady of the Snows,
442 S. De Mazenod Dr.,
Belleville, IL 62223
Phone: (800)682-2879
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.snows.org
Located only 15 minutes from
downtown St. Louis, this Marian Shrine is one of the largest in
North America. Masses and Confessions daily. Hotel and restaurant
on grounds. Call or write for a free
brochure.
INDIANA
National Shrine of St. Jude,
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church,
3200 East 91st Street, Chicago, IL
(US 41 to 91st, west three blocks.)
Phone: (312)236-7782
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website: www.shrineofstjude.org
Founded by the Claretians in 1929,
the original shrine of devotion to
St. Jude in the U.S. Open daily 8am8pm; Sundays until 7pm; Weekly
Devotion Services each Wednesday
at 5:30pm (English) & 8pm (Spanish). Solemn Novena services at
5:30pm & 8pm on April 25th - May
3rd, 2015.
National Shrine of St Peregrine
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica
3121 West Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago, IL 60612
Phone: (773)638-5800 ext 19
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.stperegrine.org
Dedicated 1993 by Cardinal Bernardin in honor of St. Peregrine,
Servite friar and patron of those
suffering from cancer and other
serious illnesses. Healing Masses
and blessings with relic celebrated
monthly on second (Spanish) and
third (English) Saturday, 11 AM.
Peoria Diocese Historical
Museum and Archbishop
Fulton Sheen Museum,
419 NE Madison Ave.,
Peoria, IL 61603
Phone: (309)671-1550
Fax: (309)671-1595
Contact:Sister Lea Stefancova, FSJB
Diocese of Lafayette,
John XXIII Retreat Center
407 W McDonald St.,
Hartford City, IN 47348
Phone: (888)882-1391
Fax: (765)348-5819
Sr. Joetta Huelsmann,
PHJC, Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.john23rdretreatcenter.com/
Men’s Spring Retreat, April 2426. Led by Fr. Keith Hosey, Rick
Wilson, and Dave Jolliff. Continuing the theme of St. Francis with
the topic: Integrity & Community. What is our role and how do
we integrate mind, spirit and action
in the service of God? Registration: April 20. Find us on Facebook: JohnXXIIIRetreatCenter
National Our Lady of
Providence Shrine at
Providence Center,
Sisters of Providence,
1 Sisters of Providence,
St Mary-of-the-Woods, IN 47876
Phone: (812)535-2925
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ProvCenter.org
In May 1925, the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
established the National Our Lady
of Providence Shrine in the United
States. Each morning, Sisters of
Providence and others gather to
pray for the many intentions sent
daily. For information, call Sister
Jan Craven, director of shrines.
Shrine of Saint Mother
Theodore Guerin,
Sisters of Providence,
1 Sisters of Providence,
St Mary-of-the-Woods, IN 47876
Phone: (812)535-2925
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.SaintMotherTheodore.org
Saint Mother Theodore Guerin,
foundress of the Sisters of Providence, was canonized the eighth
U.S. saint in 2006. Her new shrine
is now open to the public from 7am
to 5pm daily. Group tours and pil-
grimages are welcome. Information: Contact Sister Jan Craven,
director of shrines.
The Shrine of Christ’s Passion,
10630 Wicker Ave. (US 41),
St. John, IN 46373
Phone: (219)365-6010
Toll-Free:
(855)277-SHRINE (7474)
Fax: (219)365-5236
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.shrineofchristspassion.org
Experience as never before The Passion of Christ on a beautifully landscaped half mile walking pathway
that begins with The Last Supper
and The Garden of Gethsemane.
There are 40 life-size bronze statues, each an exquisite work of art.
Magnificent Gift Shoppe.
IOWA
The Shrine of the Grotto
of the Redemption,
PO Box 376,
West Bend, IA 50597
Phone: (515)887-2371
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.westbendgrotto.com
Sacred Grotto of the Redemption,
the world’s LARGEST grotto, now
100 years old. Comprised of 9 grottoes it is sometimes called “The 8th
Wonder of the World” with semiprecious stones & 65 carrerra marble statues from Italy www.westbendgrotto.com & FACEBOOK
LOUISIANA
National Shrine
of Blessed Francis Seelos,
919 Josephine St.,
New Orleans, LA 70130
Phone: (504)525-2495
Fax: (504)581-9181
Fr. B. Miller, Executive Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.seelos.org
Located one block away from the
vibrant Magazine Street dining and
shopping corridor, this popular,
prayerful pilgrimage site to a saintly
favorite is a sanctuary of hospitality, hope and healing. Free tours;
Museum; Gift Shop and Visitor
Center. Wheelchair accessible.
MARYLAND
Basilica of the National Shrine
of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary,
Cathedral & Mulberry Streets,
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: (410)727-3565
For assistance in contacting any of these retreats, shrines or basilicas please call Donna Geese at 1-800-348-2440 x2526.
Don’t miss these popular
retreats, shrines & basilicas!
Fax: (410)539-0407
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.baltimorebasilica.org
First Catholic Cathedral built in the
United States, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe (America’s first
architect and Architect of the Capitol) under the guidance of America’s first Bishop, John Carroll.
National Shrine, Marian Shrine,
Co-Cathedral, National Historic
Landmark. Visited by Pope John
Paul II; Mother Teresa; and over 20
saints or potential saints. Reopened
in November 2006 after a major
restoration. Crypt of John Carroll
and other first bishops; Museum;
Gift Shop; and more!
National Shrine Grotto of
Our Lady of Lourdes,
16330 Grotto Rd.,
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Phone: (301)447-5318
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.msmgrotto.org
Be inspired by Our Mother Mary
at the nation’s oldest replica of the
Lourdes Shrine during Holy Week.
Full schedule of Good Friday and
Easter Sunday services. St. Bernadette’s Shoppe (open daily 10 am to
4:30 pm).
Shrine of Saint John Vianney
11555 Saint Marys Church Road
Charlotte Hall, MD 20622
Phone: (301)934-8825
Fax: (240)837-7745
E-mail:
stmary.charlottehall.md
@adwparish.org
Website:
www.stmarychurchnewport.org
America’s first shrine to the Curé of
Ars, established 1931. For decades
pilgrims flocked to this country setting, seeking inspiration from and
intercessions of Saint John. Mass
and Confessions daily. Retreats
available. Novena every year, July
27 to August 4.
MICHIGAN
The Solanus Casey Center,
1780 Mount Elliott Street,
Detroit, MI 48207
Phone: (313)579-2100
Fax: (313)579-5365
Fr. Lawrence Webber, Director
E-mail:[email protected]
Website: www.SolanusCenter.org
Award winning Solanus Casey
Center, inspired by the holiness
of Venerable Solanus Casey, is a
place of pilgrimage, healing, reconciliation and peace. A sacred space
filled with God’s grace. Thousands
visit yearly. Open daily 9am-5pm.
Closed on major holidays. www.
SolanusCenter.org 313.579.2100
MISSOURI
National Shrine of Mary,
Mother of the Church,
176 Marian Drive - Highway 5,
Lake of the Ozarks,
Laurie, MO 65038
Phone: (573)374-MARY (6279)
Fax: (573)374-0627
E-mail:
mothersshrine@shrineof
stpatrick.com
Website: www.mothershrine.org
Enjoy the sights and sounds, the
100+ flags blowing in the breeze,
the flowing fountains, and the Carillon bells. Look for friends and add
your name to the Mothers’ Wall of
Life. Open Memorial through Labor Day.
The Black Madonna of
Czestochowa Shrine
and Grottos,
100 Saint Joseph’s Hill Road,
Pacific, MO 63069
Phone: (636)938-5361
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.FranciscanCaring.org
Inspirational rock grottos built by
a single Franciscan Brother honoring Poland’s Queen of Peace and
Mercy, Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Located in the beautiful foothills of
the Ozarks, 35 miles west of downtown St. Louis. A shining example
of what one man with faith can
achieve.
The Conception Abbey Guest
Center, 37174 State Highway VV,
Conception, MO 64433
Phone: (660)944-2809
Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB, Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.conceptionabbey.org/guests
We invite you to stay in our brand
new St. Gabriel Guesthouse and
welcome your group small or large.
Whether you come for a personal
retreat, directed retreat, workshop,
or just to get away we hope that
after one visit, you’ll never be a
stranger.
NEW JERSEY
Loyola Jesuit Center,
Living as Companions of Jesus
161 James St.,
Morristown, NJ 07960
Phone: (973)539-0740
Fax: (973)898-9839
Renee R. Owens, Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.loyola.org
Staffed by Jesuit priests, lay men
and women. We have 90 private
rooms on 33 acres of lawns and
woods, plus a newly renovated
sunken garden. Well-stocked library. Quiet, prayerful environment. Groups welcome. Please visit
our website.
NEW YORK
Christ the King Retreat
House & Conference Center,
500 Brookford Rd.,
Syracuse, NY 13224
Phone: (315)446-2680
Fax: (315)446-2689
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ctkretreat.com
Offering private, directed and
preached retreats. Directed retreat
weekend July 10-12. Five or seven
day directed July 12-19. Priests’ Retreat June 22-26. Preached retreat
for religious and laity June 28 – July
3. Spiritual Directors’ Institute July
12-17. Women’s Discipleship Retreat with Dr. Anthony Gittins August 9-14.
National Shrine Basilica of
Our Lady of Fatima,
1023 Swann Rd., Lewiston, NY.
Mailing address: PO Box 167,
Youngstown, NY 14174-0167
Phone: (716)754-7489 ext 202
Fax: (716)754-9130
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.fatimashrine.com
Fifteen acres of gardens highlighted
by an awe-inspiring glass Dome
Basilica topped by a thirteen foot
statue of Our Lady of Fatima with
over 100 life size statues and a heart
shaped Rosary Pool. An oasis of
peace and prayer. Free Admission.
(NIAGARA FALLS AREA)
Center of Renewal Retreat
& Conference Center
4421 Lower River Road
(10 miles from Niagara Falls)
Stella Niagara, NY 14144
(Town of Lewiston)
Phone: (716) 754-7376
Fax: (716) 754-1223
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.center-of-renewal.org
Come to Niagara Falls; stay with
us for private, family, group retreats. Reserve now for unique
“PILGRIMAGE
RETREATWORKSHOP” based on WAY OF
ST. JAMES (el Camino de Santiago) led by internationally-known
presenter James Gehrke of Utah,
September 25-27, 2015.
OHIO
Basilica & National Shrine
of Our Lady of Consolation,
315 Clay Street,
(Paid Advertisement)
Carey, OH 43316-1498
Phone: (419)396-7107
Fax: (419)396-3355
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website: www.olcshrine.com
Established 1875. The Basilica is
always open for reflection and
prayer. Masses offered daily by the
Conventual Franciscans. Devotions every Sunday with an outdoor
rosary procession May-October.
The Shrine offers a thirty-acre park,
Cafeteria, Gift Shop and retreat
house with overnight accommodations. Individual and group pilgrimages welcomed. Your journey
to faith, hope and healing.
Sorrowful Mother Shrine
4106 State Route 269
Bellevue, OH 44811-9793
Phone: (419)483-3435
Fax: (419)483-6400
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.sorrowfulmothershrine.org
120 acres of wooded paradise,
paved walking paths and over 40
points of interest. Our gift shop
is now open! Daily Confession &
Mass. Outdoor Weekend Masses.
Cafeteria is open on Special Sundays. Visit our website for times &
dates of upcoming Special Events!
OKLAHOMA
National Shrine of
the Infant Jesus of Prague,
304 Jim Thorpe Blvd.,
PO Box 488,
Prague, OK 74864
Phone: (405)567-3080
Fax: (405)567-0364
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.shrineofinfantjesus.com
Open daily 7 am to 7 pm. Gift shop
open M-F 9 am to 4:30 pm; Sunday
10 am to 3 pm. Novena Prayers every month 17th through 25th. Pilgrimage each month on Sunday between 17th and 25th includes Mass
at 11 am.
OREGON
The Grotto, The National
Sanctuary of Our
Sorrowful Mother,
NE 85th and Sandy Blvd.,
PO Box 20008,
Portland, OR 97294-0008
Phone: (503)254-7371
Fax: (503)254-7948
Website: www.thegrotto.org
Established by Servite Friars in
1924, we’re a place of solitude,
peace, and prayer. Dramatic cliffsides, towering fir trees, sculptured
religious art, reflection ponds, set
among 62 acres of botanical gardens. Gift shop open daily. Group
tours available. Mass daily.
PENNSYLVANIA
Bethany Retreat Center,
PO Box 129
Frenchville, PA 16836
Phone: (814)263-4855
Fax: (814)263-7106
Nicole Fedder - Program Director
E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
www.bethanyretreatcenter.org
Quiet, peaceful, and prayerful setting on 140 acres. Daily Mass,
home-cooked meals, bookstore,
outdoor Labyrinth, Stations of the
Cross, Marian Grotto, and walking
paths. Retreats and personal nondirected retreats offered throughout the year. Visit website for retreat calendar.
VERMONT
Saint Anne’s Shrine,
92 St. Anne’s Rd., PO Box 280,
Isle La Motte, VT 05463
Phone: (802)928-3362
Fax: (802) 928-3305
Rev. Brian J. Cummings,
S.S.E., Spiritual Director
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.saintannesshrine.org
Nestled on the shores of Lake
Champlain. Chapel, Open-air pavilion, Gifts and Books, History
Room, Café, Picnic, Way of Cross,
Grottos, Beach. Site of Fort St.
Anne, Vermont’s oldest settlement.
Daily Devotions, Parish and overnight Group Retreats. May thru
October.
WISCONSIN
Basilica of the National Shrine
of Mary, Help of Christians
Holy Hill,
1525 Carmel Road,
Hubertus, WI 53033
Phone: (262)628-1838
Open daily. Food, guest house,
gifts. Group tours available. Call or
write for daily schedule.
St. Anthony
Spirituality Center,
300 East Fourth Street,
Marathon, WI 54448
Phone: (715)443-2236
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.sarcenter.com
June 5-7: Serenity Retreat for Recovering Alcoholics. June 21-26:
Fr. Albert Haase Preached Retreat
“The Art and Heart of the Spiritual
Life”. July 12-18: Directed Retreats.
IN FOCUS
MASS MEDIA
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
COMMUNICATIONS
MARCH 15, 2015
Examining the relationship between the Church and the press
From the First Vatican Council to
the present day, the history of the
Church and modern media has
been long and, at times, fraught
with tension.
Shutterstock
9
10
IN FO
MARCH 15, 2015
By Russell Shaw
Abraham Lincoln was no
media darling, and he knew it.
Lincoln once remarked that no
one, whether “private citizen or
president of the United States,”
could “successfully carry on a
controversy with a great newspaper and escape destruction.” And
then he added, “Unless he owns
a newspaper equally great, with
a circulation in the same neighborhood.”
Over the years, many people
have probably found reason to
share Lincoln’s jaundiced view.
Prominent and not so prominent figures in government and
politics, business and industry,
the military, sports, entertainment and the arts — all have felt
the lash of news media scourging
them for real or imagined faults.
So have figures prominent and
not so prominent in the Catholic
Church.
In recent decades, no religious institution in America has
received such prolonged, probing journalistic scrutiny as the
Church. Some of it has been excessive, even unfair, but often it’s
been beneficial, albeit painful for
Church leaders. A case in point:
the investigative reporting that
blew the lid off the sex abuse
cover-up.
And although the media and
Pope Francis have enjoyed a honeymoon up to now, suspicion
and hostility often sour the relationship between the Church
and news media elsewhere.
Why is that? Does it have to
be that way? Each side tends to
blame the other. Churchmen accuse newspeople of sensationalism and bias. Journalists say the
Church is secretive and heavyhanded in supplying information
about itself. Is it possible both
sides are right?
Seeking secrecy
A fundamental cause of tension may be failure to grasp that
journalists have to be skeptics to
do their job. On the basis of long
experience, newspeople believe
the public interest is best served
when they adopt a more or less
adversarial stance toward institutions and individuals they
cover. That includes institutions
and individuals of the Catholic
Church.
Skepticism can be carried too
far of course. But even when it’s
not, those who are its targets may
take it personally. They shouldn’t.
Besides arguably unavoidable
sources of misunderstanding
and conflict like this, a complex
variety of factors at work have
paper called L’Univers known for
its pro-papal views.
In a way, the dueling leaks
gave both sides what they wanted. Acton shaped the view of the
council held by sophisticated
secular opinion. Veuillot did the
same for loyal French and Italian
clergy and laity. But the outcome
was a confused version of Vatican I that still influences histories of the council.
Official Church thinking
about the media then had helped
set the stage for what happened at
Vatican I. In an 1832 encyclical,
Pope Gregory XVI deplored the
“monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors” spread by the press.
In 1864, Pius IX denounced “pestilential books, pamphlets and
newspapers” as “bitter enemies
of our religion.” Considering the
anti-clericalism and anti-Catholicism common in the news
organs of those times, the two
popes had a point.
Breaking the silence
Pope John XXIII convokes Vatican II in 1961, which marked a turning point in the relationship between the Church and media. CNS
been at work in the evolving relationship of news media and the
Church during the last two centuries. Here several key episodes
stand out.
The Catholic Church’s first
face-to-face encounter with media in something like their modern form occurred at the First
Vatican Council of 1869-70. Vatican I was the council that defined
the doctrine of papal infallibility
as a dogma of faith. Media interest naturally was high, and an international press corps gathered
in Rome to cover the event.
But covering the council,
journalists found, was easier said
than done. Strict secrecy was
the order of the day at the Vatican. Historian Owen Chadwick
says the people in charge took
the view that “as all proceedings
were confidential no one ought
to be told anything.”
But this was an illusion. Says
Chadwick: “The Curia did not
realize the elementary truth that
an assembly of 600 to 700 people
could not hide what it did if it
was in any way controversial.”
The breakdown of secrecy began with a young Englishman,
Lord John Acton, a well-born
liberal Catholic historian and
journalist who opposed the definition of infallibility. Using his
contacts in Roman political and
social circles and among French,
German and English bishops, he
wrote a series of “Letters from
Rome” that he sent to a contact
in Munich who edited and published them under a pseudonym.
The dispatches gave a picture of
Vatican I from the perspective of
the council minority’s most extreme wing.
Perceiving a problem, Blessed
Pope Pius IX resolved to do some
leaking of his own. He directed
that inside information about
the proceedings be fed to Louis
Veuillot, editor of a French news-
Gradually, though, a different
story took shape, with Pope Leo
XIII (1878-1903) in the lead. In
1888, he wrote that even though
demanding unconditional freedom of speech and publication as
natural rights was “quite unlawful,” these freedoms could nevertheless be tolerated.
The big breakthrough came
with Pope Pius XII (1939-1958).
A grandson of the co-founder of the Vatican newspaper
L’Osservatore Romano, he often
spoke about the news media and
praised their contributions to
society. He also recognized the
PACEM IN TERRIS
On April 11, 1963, Pope St. Joh
cal “on establishing universal p
and liberty.” Here is an excerpt
“Moreover, man has a natural right to be respected. He
has a right to his good name.
He has a right to freedom in
investigating the truth, and —
within the limits of the moral
order and the common good
— to freedom of speech and
publication, and to freedom
to pursue whatever profession
he may choose. He has the
right, also, to be accurately informed about public events.”
need for public opinion in the
Church, declaring in 1950 that
without it, “something would be
lacking,” with both clergy and laity to blame.
Against this background, it’s
no surprise that in 1963, shortly
before his death, Pope St. John
XXIII in the encyclical Pacem
in Terris (“Peace on Earth”) declared “freedom of speech and
publication” to be human rights.
One of the best surveys of
these events is “Secrecy in the
Church: A Reporter’s Case for
the Christian’s Right to Know,” a
book published in 1974 by Richard N. Ostling, an evangelical
Christian who later became religion editor of Time magazine.
Ostling saw the “outlines of a
theology of social communication” in this series of papal statements.
“Information is essential in
Satellite trucks and a riser for TV journalists are seen on the road leading to the Vatican on Feb. 12,
2013 — the day after Pope Benedict XVI announced his plan to resign the papacy. CNS photo
OCUS
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
11
hn XXIII published his encyclipeace in truth, justice, charity,
t:
modern society because it enables the citizen to understand
situations and to make responsible decisions. Access to information is justified, because it
improves individuals and the
community, but to do this information must be ethical, sensitive
to the nature of man, true, factual and objective. Sin and untruth can be caused by omission
as well as by commission. ...
“Information should not be
degraded into propaganda, appeal to man’s passions, or arouse
one group against another. Information must stop short of
harming a person’s right to good
reputation and to legitimate secrecy in his private life. Not all
information is good for all people — youth in particular should
be protected — so the common
good must be respected.”
This was roughly the point
that the Church’s official thinking about news and information
had reached by the 1960s. Then
came Vatican Council II.
Leaks in Vatican II
A year before it opened, Pope
John XXIII, addressing an audience of newspeople, spoke of the
“precious service” media would
perform by making Vatican II
widely known and understood.
He promised that reporters
would receive all the information they’d need to do that.
But when the council opened
in October 1962, that didn’t happen. The 900 journalists accredited to cover the event were provided with a large, well-equipped
pressroom near St. Peter’s Basilica where the bishops met — and
with a virtual blackout of information. A typical press bulletin
read: “Of the fathers who asked
to speak, 20 intervened this
morning, some to defend the
Bishops of the world line the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica during the opening session of the Second Vatican Council on Oct. 11, 1962.
Around 900 journalists were accredited to cover the event. CNS photo
schema, others to attack it.” Stop
the presses.
As had happened at Vatican
I, the change started with leaks.
Early in the council’s first session, the French Catholic newspaper La Croix began publishing
reports so detailed that everyone
assumed the paper had an inside
source. As indeed it did, thanks
to the directions of the French
hierarchy.
Soon the leak became a flood.
Helpful in bringing this about
were more than a dozen centers
of information and documentation established by national
hierarchies and religious institutions. Also significant in the
United States was the series of
insider reports in The New Yorker magazine by Xavier Rynne —
pseudonym of an American Redemptorist priest named Francis
X. Murphy — that reported what
was happening with a liberal
slant.
The official rules on council
information were relaxed in reaction to all this, and by the time
the second session began in October 1963, the large and growing
press corps was receiving a copious flow of detailed information
from sources both official and
unofficial.
Necessary information
Besides practicing communication, Vatican II also spoke
about it in its Decree on the
Means of Social Communication, Inter Mirifica, which was
adopted with a surprisingly large
negative vote of 503 opposed,
with 1,598 in favor. More than
objections to what the document
says, this apparently reflected
disappointment at its lack of a
forward-looking vision of media.
But the decree did call for a
more detailed treatment of the
subject after the council. That
project was taken up by a newly
established Pontifical Commission (later, Council) for Social
Communications. The result,
seven and a half years later, was
Communio et Progressio (“Communion and Progress”), a “pastoral instruction” that takes a
highly positive view of the media
and the Church’s relationship
with them.
Especially significant is what
it says about news and information, for instance, this affirmation of the public service rendered by responsible journalism:
“Modern man cannot do without
information that is full, consistent, accurate and true. ... Only
in this way can he assume a responsible and active role in his
community and be a part of its
economic, political, cultural and
religious life” (No. 34).
After considering the media
in general, the pastoral instruction then speaks about media
and the Church. Here it advocates openness — what today
would be called transparency —
in making information public:
“Since the development of public
opinion within the Church is essential [Pope Pius XII had said
that a half-century earlier], individual Catholics have the right to
all the information they need to
play their active role in the life of
the Church” (No. 119).
U.S. bishops
Back in the United States, relations between the Church and
the news media were strained at
the time the pastoral instruction
came out. Much of the conflict
focused on the bishops and their
general meetings.
Before Vatican II, bishops’
meetings in the United States
had been closed affairs attracting
little attention from the press.
But the council created unprecedented journalistic interest in
the Catholic Church. Now much
of that interest was concentrated
on the bishops as they labored
to create and operate a national
episcopal conference according
to the council’s prescriptions
while also coping with the new
phenomenon of public dissent in
the Church.
The bishops responded to the
new media interest by inviting
reporters to cover their twiceyearly general assemblies and
providing them with a pressroom and occasional briefings.
What they didn’t provide was
access to the meeting itself. Instead, they met behind closed
doors, while reporters fumed in
their pressroom or roamed the
halls seeking stray members of
the hierarchy willing to serve as
anonymous sources.
Eventually good sense prevailed, with Communio et Progressio’s strong endorsement of
openness helping produce that
result. At their meeting in November 1971, the bishops approved admitting designated
observers by a vote of 169-76 and
gave the nod to reporters by the
narrower margin of 144-106. The
new system went into effect the
following April at their spring
general meeting in Atlanta.
Richard Ostling, reporting for
Time, called the scene there “extraordinary.”
He wrote: “This had never
been permitted in the U.S., or
hardly anywhere else, in modern
times. The U.S. bishops’ move to
an open-door policy was the end
of an era in which secrecy was
virtually an unquestioned fact in
policy formulation.”
FURTHER READING
Published in 1974 by author Richard N. Ostling, “Secrecy in
the Church” remains one of the best studies on the information
policies and practices of the Catholic Church and other churches. Ostling, an evangelical Christian, was to become religion
editor of Time magazine and then chief religion writer of The
Associated Press. In the book’s introduction he writes:
“Freedom of information is part of democratic theory, and
the Catholic Church makes no claims to being a democracy.
Even so, it has a vital stake in this freedom.
“For one thing, there is a strong Christian tradition in favor of
open information. For another, Catholic philosophy traditionally puts great confidence in the reason of the individual human
being, and a closed-door culture is an admission that Church
leaders look upon Christians as children rather that as fully
responsible members of the body of Christ. ...
“The secular culture may become more open, or more secretive, and thus affect the Church, but the Church must first of all
be true to itself, to its own teachings and traditions.”
12
IN FOCUS
MARCH 15, 2015
VATICAN DOCUMENT
ON MODERN MEDIA
To mark the 20th anniversary of the post-Vatican II
pastoral instruction on social communications, Communio
et Progressio (“Communion and Progress”), the Pontifical
Council for Social Communications in early 1992 published
an updated pastoral instruction called Aetatis Novae (“A New
Era”). It still stands as the Church’s most recent comprehensive overview of modern media.
Under the heading “Media at the Service of Ecclesial
Communion,” Aetatis Novae stresses the importance of
effective internal communication in building and sustaining
community in the Church. It says, in part:
“Partly this is a matter of maintaining and enhancing the
Church’s credibility and effectiveness. But, more fundamentally, it is one of the ways of realizing in a concrete manner
the Church’s character as communion ... Among the members of the community of persons who make up the Church,
there is a radical equality in dignity and mission which arises
from baptism and underlies hierarchical structure and diversity of office and function; and this equality necessarily will
express itself in an honest and respectful sharing of information and opinions” (No. 10).
Ongoing issues
The open-door policy remained in place in the United
States for the next 20 years. For
the most part, it served reporters, bishops and the public reasonably well. But for unknown
reasons, change again set in
during the mid-1990s.
From the start, the bishops
had insisted on holding one
session of each general meeting,
usually an afternoon, behind
closed doors. Now, without explanation, more and more time
began to be devoted to secret
sessions. In Baltimore last November, a full day of the threeand-a-half day assembly of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops took place in executive
session.
So far as is known, the principal topic of the bishops’ closed-
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
Nothing better illustrates the
dangers of systematic secrecy
than the cover-up of clergy sex
abuse. That a small number
of priests were offenders had
been public knowledge since
the mid-1980s, but it wasn’t until January 2002, starting with
reports in the Boston Globe
and continuing in news media
elsewhere in the months that
followed, that the facts of the
cover-up by Church authorities
came to light.
Since then, virtually every
American diocese has taken
steps to deal with abuse and prevent it from happening again.
The bishops have promised
transparency. But the failures of
the past, shielded so long from
public knowledge by systematic
concealment, unquestionably
have done serious and lasting
harm to the Church’s credibility.
And now? In the last two
years, Pope Francis’ success
with the media has done a lot
to improve the Church’s image. Reporters like Pope Francis because he’s good copy — a
straight shooter who says interesting, sometimes controversial
things, especially when he talks
off the top of his head.
Now, though, questions are
starting to be raised. In an interview with The New York Times,
even Cardinal Francis George,
recently retired as Archbishop
of Chicago, noted the “wonderful things” the pope says but
added that he “doesn’t put them
together all the time, so you’re
left at times puzzling over what
his intention is.”
On top of that, some loyal
Catholics were dismayed by
views on divorce and homosexuality expressed at last fall’s synod. Actions seemingly intended
to manipulate news coverage
were no help. In a throwback
to the early days of Vatican II,
official bulletins reporting the
debate left out speakers’ names.
Reports submitted to the synod
office by bishops’ conferences
were withheld from the press.
The same thing was attempted
with small group reports, although the synod fathers themselves said no to that.
A committee appointed by
Pope Francis and headed by
former British government official Chris Patten currently is
studying Vatican communications. (Our Sunday Visitor’s
president and publisher, Greg
Erlandson, is a member.) It’s expected to make its recommendations later this year.
Glitches and false steps at the
synod underline a need to go
beyond structures and budgets
and tackle fundamental matters
of policy and vision regarding
news and information — not
just at the Vatican but in official Church circles everywhere.
Considering the key role played
by news and information in today’s world and today’s Church,
how the Church relates to news
media is too important to ignore.
today’s 24/7 media market, coordination between varieties of
media (print, digital, radio, etc.)
is of critical importance. All
major secular media organizations from Rupert Murdoch’s
empire to Time Warner understand this to be so.
For the Vatican, its media
empire starts with its daily
newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, founded in 1861. It also
publishes weekly editions in
seven languages. For decades,
it has published the many texts
of the pope as well as covered
both Italian domestic and foreign events. Under the stewardship of Giovanni Maria Vian, a
member of the Vatican Media
Committee, the articles — particularly in the culture section
— have grown more interesting
and topical, and the paper has
become less Italian-centric and
more international.
Vatican Radio broadcasts
in more than 40 languages in
short- and medium-range formats. It was established in 1931
with the help of Guglielmo
Marconi, often credited as the
father of the radio because of
his scientific work. The Vatican
has long been proud of its ability
to broadcast around the world,
including in countries where
Catholics are often severely
persecuted and the Church is
restricted in its presence.
The Vatican publishing
house (Libreria Editrice Vaticana or LEV) was founded in
1926. It publishes official documents as well as a wide variety
of trade books, and today it
owns three bookshops as well.
The Vatican also has a photography service and a printing
press operation capable of producing both books and newspapers.
The Vatican Internet office
is responsible for Vatican.va
and some dozens of other websites, while the Vatican TV office provides video coverage of
all significant Vatican events.
In the 21st century arrived new
media channels, including a
widely popular Pope App and a
Vatican aggregator site known
as News.va, both developed by
the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In terms
of social media, the Twitter ac-
count of Pope Francis (@Pontifex) has more than 19 million
followers.
Finally, there is the Vatican press office, headed by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.
While social media allows the
pope direct access to millions
of Catholics and non-Catholics,
the press office handles formal
media queries, press briefings
and conferences, and plays an
important facilitating role for
the world’s media during such
major Vatican events as conclaves and synods.
For any organization as
bound by tradition as the Vatican, the status quo responds
slowly to change. But for any
media organization in the 21st
century, change is the only constant. The challenge facing the
Vatican is how its vast media
efforts and the hardworking
and committed staff who serve
them will function in the multichannel, multiformat 24/7
media environment of the 21st
century.
door deliberations last fall was
the Synod of Bishops on the
family, held in Rome a month
earlier. Since the American
bishops’ views on this sometimes controversial synod were
what concerned Catholics most
wanted to know, imposing secrecy on this discussion meant
cutting off a significant portion
of the Catholic public from information it had a legitimate,
urgent interest in.
Forty-three years earlier, the
pastoral instruction on communications said secrecy in the
Church should be limited to
“matters that involve the good
name of individuals, or that
touch upon the rights of people” (Communio et Progressio,
No. 121). The USCCB, following its usual practice, gave no
explanation for its closed doors.
Illuminating issues
Russell Shaw is an OSV
contributing editor.
GREG ERLANDSON
Vatican’s vast media
The Holy See boasts many platforms — new and old
— designed to get the pope’s message to the masses
W
hile the Church’s relationship with the media
has a long and, at times, tense
history, what is often less noticed is the Vatican’s own significant and long-standing
presence in a wide variety of
communications media.
As a member of the Vatican
Media Committee appointed
by the Council of Cardinals in
2014, I have a deep appreciation
for the range and depth of the
Vatican’s media efforts, which
stretches from print and radio
to video, the Internet and social
media. It is, in fact, this extensive range of communications
efforts that prompted the cre-
ation of the media committee.
In his statement announcing
the appointment of the committee’s six “international” and
three Italian members, Cardinal George Pell of Australia
charged it with three tasks:
“The objectives are to adapt
the Holy See media to changing media consumption trends,
enhance coordination and
achieve progressively and sensitively substantial financial
savings. Building on the recent
positive experiences with initiatives such as the pope app and
the Holy Father’s Twitter account, digital channels will be
strengthened to ensure the Holy
Father’s messages reach more of
the faithful around the world,
especially young people.”
The statement makes clear
that the Vatican recognizes the
impact of the digital revolution. It also recognized that in
Greg Erlandson is OSV’s
president and publisher.
Discover St. John Paul II’s
secret to growing closer to Jesus
through the heart of Mary.
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MARCH 15, 2015
OPENING THE WORD | CARL OLSON
Finding Christ’s light
We are free to deny Jesus and to live in darkness
or proclaim his divinity and receive everlasting life
to Jerusalem to build a new
Temple. By the time of Jesus,
the Temple had been rebuilt,
but there was, once again, corruption within its walls. Darkness had been falling for quite
some time upon the chosen
oday’s readings open with people, and once again God
a description of sin and the sent a messenger. That messenworship of false gods and con- ger, the Son, was the “true light,
clude with Jesus’ words, “But which enlightens everyone ...”
whoever lives the truth comes (Jn 1:9).
to the light, so that his works
Not everyone was attracted
may be clearly seen as done in to the light, and Jesus was unGod.” The contrast between the der suspicion from the start of
extremes of darkness and light, his ministry, which is one reaidolatry and faithfulness, pride son the Pharisee, Nicodemus,
and humility, is a reminder came at night to see Jesus. In
of the possibiliJohn’s Gospel, the
ties faced by every MARCH 15, 2015
night often symperson: separation FOURTH SUNDAY bolizes the spirifrom God or shar- OF LENT
tual darkness in
ing in the very life 2 CHR 36:14-16,
which man dwells
of God.
apart from God (Jn
19-23
Such starkness
1:4-5). But Nicodeis not very popular PS 137:1-2,3,4-5,6
mus, a “ruler of the
in the current age, EPH 2:4-10
Jews” (Jn 3:1), realwhich is marked JN 3:14-21
ized his need for
by a constant outspiritual light and
pouring of both sophistry and confessed his belief that Jesus
distraction. The sophistry seeks was “a teacher who has come
to justify evils by denying the from God” (Jn 3:2). He must
reality of objective truth and have been deeply challenged by
transcendent goodness; the dis- Jesus’ declaration that “whoevtractions are many and varied, er lives the truth comes to the
distorting reality and truth in light, so that his works may be
word and image.
clearly seen as done in God.”
Chronicles presents a hisThe challenge to know, love
tory of the Davidic Kingdom and worship God had been a
(established around 1010 B.C.) constant struggle for the Jewish
rooted in a rich theological people. So how did Nicodemus
understanding of worship, the respond to it? The answer is not
Temple, and the role of the given right away, for Nicodekings, especially David and mus seems to have simply faded
Solomon. There was constant into the night; there is a sense
conflict within Israel over the in which each reader is placed
worship of gods, a conflict before Jesus in quiet darkness,
that David resolved for a while hearing the same astounding
through his steadfast loyalty to words: “Just as Moses lifted up
God and his desire to build the the serpent in the desert, so
Temple in Jerusalem. But Da- must the Son of Man be lifted
vid’s son, Solomon, after begin- up, so that everyone who bening strongly as a king, eventu- lieves in him may have eternal
ally succumbed to the worship life.”
Later, after the Crucifixof false gods, and most of the
subsequent rulers did the same. ion, we see Nicodemus again,
God sent messengers and “bringing a mixture of myrrh
prophets, but they were ig- and aloes weighing about 100
nored, and the Temple was fi- pounds” for the burial (Jn
nally destroyed and the people 19:39). He had stepped out into
taken into exile and slavery in the light, having accepted faithfulness and goodness, embracBabylon.
But, 70 years later, hope ar- ing the one who is the way, the
rived in an unusual form: truth, and the life (cf. Jn 14:6).
Cyrus, the king of Persia, acCarl E. Olson is the editor of
knowledged the true God and
Catholic World Report.
allowed the Israelites to return
FAITH
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
FEAST DAY
St. Joseph: A humble
model for all fathers
Despite playing a critical role in the life of Jesus, St. Joseph is silent in
Scripture — but it’s precisely his lack of words that speaks volumes
T
Because of his selflessness, St. Joseph was able to provide a nurturing home for Jesus. Shutterstock
By John Cavadini
One of St. Joseph’s most devoted followers, St. Peter Julian
Eymard, recommends we use
the March 19 feast of St. Joseph
as an opportunity to seal a devotion to him, saying: “I consecrate myself to you, good St.
Joseph, as my spiritual father;
I choose you to rule my soul
and to teach me the interior
life, the life hidden away with
Jesus, Mary and yourself.” St.
Peter Julian is following the
recommendation of a faithful
devotee of St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, who says, “If a
person cannot find anyone to
teach him how to pray, let him
take this glorious saint for his
guide, and he will not lose his
way.”
But what could this possibly
mean? No teaching of St. Joseph is recorded. He is silent in
Scripture.
Finding St. Joseph
The journey to find the answer to that question has been
a personal one. After years of
overlooking him, I discovered
St. Joseph later in life by, ironically, noticing he was not being
noticed. In our church, there
are side altars to the Blessed
Virgin, to the Sacred Heart
and to St. Joseph. After Mass
one Sunday, I noticed that
while the first two always had
many votive lights burning,
there were usually far fewer
before St. Joseph.
The inequity of this struck
me. After all, St. Joseph was
head of the Holy Family! True,
his wife was the Mother of
God, and his son was God Incarnate — but still, I thought,
he was the dad, responsible for
his wife and her child, whom
he had welcomed as his own,
securing their safety, earning
their livelihood. He seemed
to deserve more respect. I’m a
dad, too — was this all projection out of a moment of selfpity? Whatever the reason,
I went to light a candle at his
altar so there would at least be
one more. Thus, almost accidentally, began my devotion to
“this glorious saint.”
About A.D. 112, the martyr Ignatius of Antioch wrote:
“Mary’s virginity was hidden
from the prince of this world;
so was her giving birth; and so
was the death of the Lord. All
these three secrets, to be revealed at the appropriate time,
were brought to pass in the
deep silence of God.” Origen
of Alexandria, in the next century, commented on this passage from Ignatius, explaining
that it was primarily the presence of Joseph that preserved
these three secrets until Jesus’
“hour” had come.
Although the Annunciation
was only to Mary, it was to
Mary as betrothed to Joseph.
Faith in God
Now we are ready to see
the true depths of the mystery
of St. Joseph, who, Scripture
says, is “just.” He is not an unthinking stage prop just taking
FAITH
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
A strong father
A mosaic of St. Joseph, commissioned by Pope St. John
XXIII and placed over the
side altar in St. Peter’s Basilica
where the Blessed Sacrament
is reserved, uniquely depicts
the warmth and beauty of this
saint. In the picture, Joseph
is outside, holding the child
Jesus in his right arm. Jesus
looks about 2 years old. This
gives Joseph’s figure a look of
Dear St. Joseph, you
were an ordinary man, a
humble carpenter. But
you were a prayerful, holy
soul, the foster father of
Jesus, a model for us all.
Please guide me in my
own journey through life,
and help me be aware of
God’s specific call to me.
Help me to see that in my
own life God is calling me
to greater things for his glory. Please pray to the Blessed
Trinity for me to be granted the graces that I need most. I
pray that I can be faithful to my state of life, totally trusting
in God’s divine providence for me. St. Joseph, pray for all
who invoke your aid. If it is in God’s holy will, please grant
me (here mention your request). Amen.
Punishment of Cain
While it isn’t clear why God rejected his offering,
we can assume Cain held back his ‘first fruits’
— From “Catholic Saints Prayer Book: Moments of
Inspiration from Your Favorite Saints,” (OSV, $7.95).
immense strength, because he
manages to hold such a big,
active child in one arm with
no trouble. In his left hand,
he holds his identifying iconic
sign, the staff blooming with
the lilies of purity. He holds it a
little stiffly, as though a neighbor had chanced upon him
and asked him to pose for a
picture with his son, insisting
Joseph hold the staff, too. He
is in the middle of taking care
of his 2-year-old and someone
has asked him to pose. But he
tolerantly obliges, picks up the
baby and looks at the “camera.” His face is calm but hardly grave; rather, even though
posing for an annoying family
picture, his face seems to take
it in stride and seems to radiate
happiness. It’s a face familiar
to any dad.
Here is the hiddenness of St.
Joseph, who accepts the utterly
common lot of a dad holding his child, without fanfare,
though he is holding the Word
Incarnate, and could claim
glory and fame. Jesus does
not pay any attention to the
imaginary photographer, but
rather seems wholly delighted
with his dad, for what on St.
Joseph’s side is the continuous immolation of self-gift, is
on Jesus’ side the brilliant radiance, comfort and charity
of paternal love, that cloak of
invisibility that gives even the
Word of God a genuine childhood and keeps him hidden
from the Prince of Darkness
until it is time for him to confront him alone, armed only
with the love he had learned,
in part, from his earthly dad.
It is as though he was learning,
in a truly human way, from his
true and legal human dad, St.
15
PASTORAL ANSWERS | MSGR. CHARLES POPE
PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH
Q
Shutterstock
up space to make things look
normal. He was betrothed to
Mary, and, perhaps against his
better judgment but in obedience to a vision that tells him
the babe in Mary’s womb is
conceived by the Holy Spirit,
he took Mary into his home
as his wife, giving up his own
chance at natural paternity to
be the father of a child about
whose very existence he was
not even consulted. In other
words, the economy of the virginal conception and birth of
Jesus, and even his death, are
“hidden” in the loving generosity of St. Joseph — hidden
from the prince of this world
by the only thing he can’t see
— self-giving love — because
he doesn’t believe in it.
The generous obedience of
St. Joseph to the vision of God
is astonishing. No one asked
him how he felt about his
wife’s being consulted on an
intimate matter affecting their
whole married life, or about
raising someone else’s child
and giving up his own natural
paternity for good. But his sacrifice in generous obedience to
the will of God became a home
in this world for Jesus, his legal
son, and Mary, his wife, both
treasures of divine initiative.
This act submerges Joseph
in the profound “silence of
God,” as Ignatius calls it. St.
Paul says in Colossians, “For
you have died, and your life
is hidden with Christ in God”
(Col 3:3). There is something
intrinsically “hidden” about
the Christian life, and we see
the form of this revealed in
St. Joseph. His life, by its very
structure, cannot provide an
accounting of itself without
undoing itself. Joseph has no
one to tell his story to, and he
exercises a prudential silence
about himself. St. Peter Julian
writes: “St. Joseph stands out as
one of the great men of silence.
He observed ... the silence of fidelity in keeping strictly secret
the divine mystery of which
he was the confidant. Nothing
could make him break this secret of God.”
MARCH 15, 2015
Joseph, the dimensions of the
generosity of the Eternal One
he will later call his Father in
a wholly unique way. After all,
just like the eternal Father, Joseph “loves the Son and has
given everything over to him”
(Jn 3:35).
Model of selflessness
Here is St. Teresa again: “I
took for my patron and lord
the glorious St. Joseph, and
recommended myself earnestly to him. ... I cannot call
to mind that I have ever asked
him at any time for anything
which he has not granted.”
I believe that I can say the
same thing, though in some
cases I have had to grow up a
little in order to see it. But isn’t
that the job of a dad, to help his
kids grow up by seeing beyond
their childish concerns, even
as those concerns are warmly
received and not dismissed as
merely childish?
Devotion to St. Joseph has
shown me why he has so few,
comparatively speaking, candles at his altar. It is because he
wills it. He has always willed
his family to shine beyond
himself, deflecting attention
from himself to them. Devotion to St. Joseph means that,
as the genuine mystery of his
person is revealed to us little
by little, we grow up to accept
the form of the Christian life
as, in baptism, a hidden one, a
death to the noise of the world
and a life in the silence of God
that is nothing other than his
eternal love.
Thank you, St. Joseph!
John Cavadini is director of the
Institute for Church Life at the
University of Notre Dame.
Q
uestion: Why did the Lord
not look favorably on
Cain’s offering in Genesis 4?
— Kirk Heaton
Topeka, Kansas
A
nswer: At one level, the
answer to your question
is mysterious, since God’s approval of Abel’s sacrifice but
not Cain’s is not fully spelled
out.
However, many today go beyond puzzlement and regard
God’s action as arbitrary or
perhaps unfair. This is because
we often presume that the times
in Genesis were primitive and
next to nothing was known
about God or how the human
person was to relate to God or
worship him. But elsewhere, the
Scriptures say: “By faith Abel
offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he
was attested to be righteous”
(Heb 11:4).
So, it was “by faith” that Abel
offered a more acceptable sacrifice.
Now, faith comes by hearing.
Thus, God must have given a
word, not recorded in the Genesis account, regarding sacrifices, which Abel could hear and
heed but Cain did not, at least
wholeheartedly.
The text also indicates another matter that may be lacking in Cain’s offering. While
Abel offered the “first fruits”
(literally, the firstborn) of his
flock, it is not indicated that
Cain offered the first fruits of
his harvest. Thus, Cain erred by
not presenting first fruits, and
God did not regard his offering.
And thus, while speculative,
we can conclude that Abel’s offering was favored by God not
in a merely arbitrary way. To
some degree, it would seem
that Cain knew better and did
not offer sacrifice wholeheartedly but that Abel did. But God
does not reject Cain. He urges
Cain to learn rather than be
bitter. Sadly, as we know, Cain
gave way to bitterness and envy,
murdering his brother.
uestion: Why do priests
never have a homily on
the text that begins with Romans 1:18. And why is this part
of Romans never read at any
Mass?
— Robert Tisovich
Ely, Minnesota
A
nswer: For readers unfamiliar with the content
of Romans 1:18 (and later), the
passage amounts to a description of the wrath of God that
comes down upon the disobedient who suppress the truth
that God exists and is to be
obeyed. Their darkness and
experience of God’s wrath is
further described as an attachment to homosexual practices
and a large number of other
social ills described. The description is vivid and certainly
describes modern times.
To some degree, your first
question is answered by your
second. Priests tend to use the
readings selected by the Church
as the basis for homilies. However, your second statement is
not wholly true. While not read
on Sunday, the passage you describe is read on Tuesday of the
28th Week of Ordinary Time.
To be fair, many passages
from the Bible are not included.
Perhaps at the time the Lectionary was compiled, largely in the
1960s, the issues covered were
not as critical as they are today.
All that said, I use the passage a lot in homilies and talks.
Nothing is to prevent a priest
from referring to it. It is most
certainly a prophetic description of our times and firmly
indicates the central problem
as being the suppression of the
truth that people plainly know
in their hearts and that is set
forth in the natural law of the
“book” of creation. If the Lectionary is revised, such a passage should be more prominent.
Msgr. Charles Pope is the pastor
of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in
Washington, D.C., and writes for
the Archdiocese of Washington,
D.C., blog at blog.adw.org. Send
questions to Pastoral Answers,
Our Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll
Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750 or
to [email protected]. Letters
must be signed, but anonymity
may be requested.
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■ 31. Vocations
Franciscan Friars
of the Atonement
Franciscan Prayer,
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800-338-2620 ext. 2126
www.AtonementFriars.org
Poor Clare Nuns of Indiana
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www.poorclare.org/evansville
email:
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701-255-1520
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Richardton, ND
Benedictine priests
and brothers:
Pray and work side by side
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701-974-3315
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Crucifixion Eclipse Article
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660-944-3100
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■ 31. Vocations Cont.
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414-258-0653 ext. 155
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Passionist Nuns
Erlanger, KY
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Passion of Jesus Christ.
859-371-8568
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Pauline Fathers Monastery.
A life of contemplation of God
in solitude, liturgical prayer,
apostolic activity, and devotion
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The Poor Clares of Montana.
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ones, and the whole world!
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Sisters of St. Basil the Great
An International Order of
Byzantine Catholics.
724-438-7149
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St Andrew Abbey
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■ 32. Volunteer Opportunities
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PERSPECTIVES
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recommend the camp very highly.”
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MARCH 15, 2015
EYE ON CULTURE | TERESA TOMEO
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17
ears ago, shortly after my
husband and I returned to
the Catholic Church, we heard a
great Lenten message from our
pastor, who told parishioners
to think of the word “Bible” as
an acronym: Basic Instructions
Before Leaving Earth. It caught
our attention, and I am sure the
attention of others in the pews.
It made a lot of sense.
He explained how important it was to be in God’s word
every day so we could not only
learn more about Scripture and
our faith but also put our faith
into better practice. The word of
God, when read daily, he insisted, could help us discern and
decipher good versus evil and
truth versus fiction. He mentioned in the same presentation how reading the Bible was
for everyone, not just religious
or Scripture scholars; it was accessible and understandable for
the average Catholic. As he explained, we didn’t have to worry
about picking and choosing or
trying to summarize or understand the Scripture verses on
our own; the Church was there
to guide us.
His comments made such
an impression that my husband
and I began to set aside time
each morning before heading
off to work, usually reciting the
daily Mass readings from our
favorite Catholic devotional —
another suggestion from our
pastor. That was more than 20
years ago, and to this day, we
rarely miss our daily Scripture
and reflection time. The practice has done exactly what our
now late pastor had promised it
would do — and then some.
That’s why I’m hoping more
Catholics will follow the sage
advice of another shepherd,
Pope Francis. I have lost count
how many times since he began
his pontificate two years ago
that the Holy Father has encouraged his sheep to read Scripture
every day. Just recently, after a
Sunday Angelus message, he
encouraged Scripture reading
once again. He stressed it was
particularly important to be in
God’s word during the Lenten
season, which he referred to as
a time of “spiritual combat.”
“Always have the Gospel in
hand,” he said. “The Lenten
desert helps us to say ‘no’ to
worldliness, to the ‘idols’; it
helps us to make courageous
choices in accordance with the
Gospel and to strengthen solidarity among the brothers.”
The pope went on to show
pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s
Square on the first Sunday of
Lent just how serious he was
about Catholics taking full advantage of all we have in the
Church, saying we need God’s
word to help us through the
challenges of Lent and beyond.
He had a group of pilgrims
hand out 50,000 free copies of
a special prayer booklet entitled
“Custodisci il cuore” or “Guard
Your Heart.” The booklet contains writings on the Ten Commandments, the sacraments,
gifts of the Holy Spirit and the
corporal and spiritual works of
mercy.
“Each one of you take a
booklet and carry it with you
as a help for spiritual conversion and growth that always
starts from the heart — the
place where the match of daily
choices between good and evil
are played, between worldliness
and the Gospel, between indifference and sharing. Humanity
is in need of justice, of peace,
love, and will have it only by returning with their whole heart
to God, who is the source.”
Pope Francis reminds us
that during Lent, we are not
only crossing through a spiritual desert, but we are entering
into a spiritual combat zone; we
are not talking about a carefree
stroll here. Christ engaged in
close combat and was victorious.
If spiritual victory is our
goal, then, like Christ, we need
to be prepared for engagement.
So, man those battle stations by
picking up your best weapon:
the Bible (or, the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth).
Teresa Tomeo is the host of
“Catholic Connection,” produced
by Ave Maria Radio and heard
daily on EWTN Global Catholic
Radio and Sirius Channel 130.
18
PERSPECTIVES
MARCH 15, 2015
SPECTATOR | GREG ERLANDSON
Postcard from Ireland
SOMETHING TO SAY?
Wish to comment or respond to an editorial, article or
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address and telephone number must be included, although
anonymity may be requested.
While a more secularist population has emerged
in a country once staunchly Catholic, hope remains
A
lthough I have a Moriarty in my family tree, I’ve
never thought of myself as particularly Irish. Growing up in
Southern California, the cult of
Notre Dame and the Fighting
Irish was foreign to me. We did
have one fierce Irish pastor, but
he was better at putting the fear
of the Lord in us than a love for
Ireland.
So when I made my first trip
to Ireland to visit my daughter
who was studying there, I was
surprised at how familiar it felt.
The most striking first impression was that all the Irish looked
... so American. I kept seeing
faces that reminded me of faces
back home. Small wonder, since
more than 1 in 10 Americans
are of Irish stock. The accents I
heard reminded me of so many
priests and nuns I’ve known —
another aspect of the vast Irish
migration to America that has
spanned the past 150 years.
If the faces reminded me of
America, so also did the shops,
at least in Dublin. I think Dublin center has as many Starbucks
as New York. At one point,
there was a Starbucks north,
west, south and east of where
we stood on O’Connell Street,
and they were surrounded by a
host of other U.S. chains.
It was quite a different Ireland I saw during a quick trip
to Sligo on the country’s west
coast. Rain-soaked and perpetually under a gray sky, we
sought out the grave of William Butler Yeats, an early 20th
century Irish poet I particularly
like. Although he was a man
of the world beyond western
Ireland, he had roots in Sligo,
and the town has thoroughly
embraced his legacy. His poetry
adorns on the sides of buildings and coffee shop walls, and
he commands everything from
shelves of books to refrigerator
magnets in a local bookshop.
Yeats is buried in a simple
grave beside a small Protestant
church that had been the site of
a Catholic monastery.
As the mountain of Ben-
bulben loomed over us, its flat
peak shrouded in mist, we read
Yeats’ gravestone: “Cast a cold
eye on life, on death. Horseman
pass by!” This austere parting
verse of such a passionate and
romantic poet seems puzzling
at first, until read amid the austere beauty of its setting.
Of course, even on vacation
I was doing work of sorts, for
I was curious about the state
of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Whether out of want or
in an abundance of fervor, the
Irish have been leaving Ireland
and evangelizing the world for
centuries. At home, Catholic
Ireland was persecuted and ostracized by the British, and the
Church became a symbol of
resistance. Following independence, Church and state were
even more entwined.
But in recent decades, the
Irish Catholic Church has
fallen on hard times. Many resented the Church’s influence.
Growing economic success and
what appears to have been a
long period of poor catechesis
allowed people to wander away
from the Church. The clerical
sexual abuse crisis and the weak
response to it more recently fueled an angrier rejection.
What I saw was an indifference that was jarringly at odds
with my naïve American notion
of Ireland as a quintessentially
Catholic country. The system
of Catholic catechesis in statesupported schools seems to be
collapsing. Children are undercatechized, and parents are
under-evangelized. Vocations
have taken a terrible hit.
There are signs of hope, however. Archbishop Diarmuid
Martin of Dublin has provided
forthright leadership in confronting the abuse crisis. The
papal nuncio, an American
named Archbishop Charles
Brown, has been making his
mark as well.
The faith survives, and it is
far too early to write any sort of
obituary for Irish Catholicism.
To steal a phrase from the
Protestant Yeats, we pray it
will not be long before we once
again praise the Catholic zeal of
“the indomitable Irishry.”
Greg Erlandson is OSV’s
president and publisher.
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
OSV CROSSWORD PUZZLE
ACROSS
1 “___, Father, all things are
possible to you” (Mk 14:36)
5 Three-masted ship of the
Mediterranean
10 Bit of pond vegetation
14 Metric unit of mass
15 Cardinal Dulles
16 Apostle to the Gentiles
17 Microwave
18 Fare
19 Nordic saint, king, martyr
20 Equipment
22 South American ruminant
23 Shawls
24 Agape ___
26 Hebrew for “son of”
27 ___ works of mercy
31 They say there is no God
(Ps 53:2)
34 Greek writer of fables
35 A mark of the Church
36 “We ___ to say, Our Father
...”
37 Patron saint of young girls
38 Site of first miracle
39 A finish for Canaan
40 Crucifix
41 Backed
42 Pool addition
44 OT prophetic book
45 ___ of Christ
46 Taoist houses of worship
50 St. Juan Diego, for example
53 Drink
54 Coconut husk
55 Eighth letter of the Greek
alphabet
57 “___ instant ...”
58 Commotion
59 Broaden
60 Israeli semiautomatic
weapons
61 Type of gun
62 Mozart work
63 Lion or horse trait
DOWN
1 ___ Dei
2 Beast
3 Joseph’s prison mate
4 Agreeable
5 Patron of Australia, St. Francis ___
6 Sins
SOLUTION FROM LAST WEEK
7 Opie’s aunt,
and namesakes
8 Sea eagle
9 Dancer
Charisse
10 Ancient
Greek god
11 Refrain syllables
12 Largest of
the Marianas
13 “A” in code
21 Vacation
sites
22 Scandinavian
24 Brother of Aaron
25 Greek god of love
27 Perfume the altar
28 ___ to Emmaus
29 St. ___ de Beaupre
30 Superman can’t see through
this
31 Bank letters
32 Vow
33 Hershisher of the diamond
34 ___ in the Garden
37 Dry
38 Container for the consecrated bread
40 Gator
41 Herb of the mint family
43 King of the fairies
44 Archdiocese in Cuba
46 Chief apostle
47 Catholic actor Tony ___
48 Another time
49 Sight or taste, for example
50 Bible book about the early
Christians
51 Suit associated with riots
52 Bold competitor
53 Monk called “The Father of
English History”
55 Number of each animal
Noah took in the ark
56 Jacob was struck on this
socket (Gn 32:26)
PERSPECTIVES
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Parenting research applauded
Re: “‘No differences’ theory countered in new study”
(News Analysis, March 1).
Five blue ribbons to Father Paul Sullins for his professional, mathematical and scientific analysis of the statistical evidence for children in homes with same-sex
parents experiencing greater mental health problem
than children with opposite-sex parents. The Catholic
University professor’s use of the advanced mathematical
regression analysis removes the difficulty of presenting a
comparison of oranges to oranges!
Great that Father Sullins’ use of excellent, accurate
regression analysis is receiving due recognition. His type
of comparisons usually receive virtual silence at best.
Kudos to OSV for publicizing the important research.
— Lynn Edwards
Jefferson City, Missouri
Vaccinations
Re: “The common good”
(Spectator, Feb. 15).
A discussion of common
good from a Catholic
perspective is a good thing,
but we must keep in mind
that legislators, government agencies and vaccine
manufacturers will all have
financial gain if vaccines are
mandated and cannot be
objective in analyzing what
will actually best promote
the common good of a world
free of contagious diseases.
We must make certain that
intended actions actually
promote real common good,
because health care professionals and the government
often have an understanding of common good that is
very different from Catholic
teaching.
In the case of vaccines,
there is a great deal of evidence to demonstrate that
vaccinating more people
will not further the common good of protecting us
all from contagious diseases.
How can we say, for example, that our children are
protected when they’re vaccinated and also say that our
children are not protected
because some nonvaccinated
child can make them sick?
The only way an unvaccinated child can be a threat to a
vaccinated child is the one
way vaccine advocates claim
is impossible: if vaccination
provides no real immunity!
Vaccine-induced immunity is not permanent. A
recent analysis found that
most vaccines lose their
effectiveness after two to
10 years, and boosters last
for two years or less. Also,
individuals vaccinated with
live virus vaccines can shed
the virus for many weeks
afterward and infect the vaccinated and unvaccinated
alike.
The vaccine-induced herd
immunity that public health
officials hope to achieve by
mandating vaccinations is
a myth. Herd immunity
originally meant that people
who contracted the infections naturally protected the
population at large, because
only naturally acquired immunity lasts for a lifetime.
If we allow the government to mandate vaccines at
present, we also set precedent that allows drugs and
procedures to be mandated. — Diane Royal
via email
Archbishop Romero
Re: “Slain Archbishop
Romero to be beatified”
(News Analysis, Feb. 22).
Ever since Archbishop
Oscar Romero was assassinated in El Salvador, the
secular media has mocked
us by simply burying and
avoiding the reasons why
Archbishop Romero should
be beatified and canonized
into the Calendar of the
Saints. In addition to what
the Catholic media and
masses have done tirelessly
for the coming beatification
of Archbishop Romero, we
Catholics should continue to
push Archbishop Romero’s
sainthood cause forward so
that his Catholic blood and
virtue and example can be
remembered forever in the
Calendar of the Saints.
— Julio Nelson Ventura
Amarillo, Texas
MARCH 15, 2015
19
EDITORIAL
National Catholic journals unite:
‘Capital punishment must end’
N
ext month, the U.S. Supreme Court will
hear arguments in Glossip v. Gross, a
case out of Oklahoma that challenges
the most widely used lethal injection protocol as
being cruel and unusual punishment.
The court took up the case in January after a
year of three high-profile, problematic executions in three states. The court will likely issue
a ruling by June. Our hope is that it will hasten the end of the death penalty in the United
States.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski, of Miami, and
chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on
Domestic Justice and Human Development,
praised the decision saying, “... the use of the
death penalty
We, the editors of devalues human
life and diminishes
four Catholic
respect for human
journals — America, dignity. We bishops
continue to say, we
National Catholic
cannot teach killing
Register, National is wrong by killCatholic Reporter ing.” The chair of
the Pro-Life Acand Our Sunday
tivities committee,
Visitor — urge
Boston Cardinal
Seán O’Malley, also
the readers of our
praised the court’s
diverse publications decision to hear the
and the whole U.S. case. “Society can
protect itself in ways
Catholic commuother than the use of
nity and all people the death penalty,”
Cardinal O’Malley
of faith to stand
said. “We pray that
with us.
the Court’s review of
these protocols will
lead to the recognition that institutionalized
practices of violence against any person erode
reverence for the sanctity of every human life.
Capital punishment must end.”
We, the editors of four Catholic journals —
America, National Catholic Register, National
Catholic Reporter and Our Sunday Visitor
— urge the readers of our diverse publications
and the whole U.S. Catholic community and all
people of faith to stand with us and say, “Capital
punishment must end.”
The Catholic Church in this country has
fought against the death penalty for decades.
Pope St. John Paul II amended the universal
Catechism of the Catholic Church to include a
de facto prohibition against capital punishment.
Last year, Pope Francis called on all Catholics “to fight ... for the abolition of the death
penalty.” The practice is abhorrent and unnecessary. It is also insanely expensive as court
battles soak up resources better deployed in
preventing crime in the first place and working
toward restorative justice for those who commit
less heinous crimes.
Admirably, Florida has halted executions
until the Supreme Court rules, and Ohio Gov.
John Kasich has postponed all seven executions
in the state scheduled for 2015 pending further
study. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a
moratorium on the death penalty until he has
received and reviewed a task force’s report on
capital punishment, which he called “a flawed
system ... ineffective, unjust, and expensive.”
Both governors also cited the growing number
of death row inmates who have been exonerated
nationwide in recent years.
In a statement thanking Wolf, Philadelphia
Archbishop Charles Chaput said: “Turning
away from capital punishment does not diminish our support for the families of murder
victims. ... But killing the guilty does not honor
the dead nor does it ennoble the living. When
we take a guilty person’s life we only add to the
violence in an already violent culture and we
demean our own dignity in the process.”
Archbishop Chaput reminds us that when
considering the death penalty, we cannot forget
that it is we, acting through our government,
who are the moral agents in an execution. The
prisoner has committed his crime and has answered for it in this life just as he shall answer
for it before God. But, it is the government,
acting in our name, that orders and perpetrates
lethal injection. It is we who add to, instead of
heal, the violence.
Advocates of the death penalty often claim
that it brings closure to a victim’s family. But
advocates who walk with the families of victims, like Mercy Sister Camille D’Arienzo, tell a
different story.
“I think of mothers who attend our annual
service for Families and Friends of Murder
Victims,” a program the Mercy sisters have
sponsored for 18 years. “Asked what they want
for their children’s killers, no one asks for
the death penalty,” she said. “Their reason: ‘I
wouldn’t want another mother to suffer what I
have suffered.’ Their hearts, though broken, are
undivided in their humanity.”
The facts of the case in Oklahoma — which
echo reports from Ohio and Arizona — were
especially egregious. Last April, the drug protocol failed in the execution of Clayton Lockett.
Lockett moaned in pain before authorities suspended the execution; he would die of a heart
attack later that night. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City said at the time, “The
execution of Clayton Lockett really highlights
the brutality of the death penalty, and I hope it
leads us to consider whether we should adopt a
moratorium on the death penalty or even abolish it altogether.”
The Supreme Court has agreed with Archbishop Coakley and will consider the issue. We
join our bishops in hoping the Court will reach
the conclusion that it is time for our nation to
embody its commitment to the right-to-life by
abolishing the death penalty once and for all.
Joint editorial approved by OSV Editorial Board: Greg Erlandson, publisher; Msgr. Owen F. Campion, associate publisher; Beth McNamara, editorial director; Gretchen R. Crowe, editor
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