The other day, we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, patron of all missionary activity in the Catholic Church. Reflecting on his heroic life in bringing the message of salvation to India and other parts of Asia got me thinking about this extraordinary group of men, the Jesuits. The Society of Jesus, founded in the 16th century by a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius of Loyola, the Society would become one of the largest and strongest religious communities within the Church. I have always been fascinated by the Society and have tremendous respect for them because they have done so much wonderful work.
When you think about Jesuits the first thing you think about is education. They have always been solidly committed to extraordinary high standards of education for their priests and for those that they taught in their many schools around the world. We tend to think about the Jesuits as university professors. Thousands of them are and in this country alone, they own 27 colleges and universities. Can you imagine that? A group of individuals developing 27 universities! But back to the trenches.
They are also heroic and effective missionaries in the most remote and difficult parts of the world. Whether it be the swamps of Bangladesh or the jungles of Brazil, the Jesuits are there. When the Jesuits are there, the Church is planted firmly and when that gets done, Jesus of Nazareth is there.
I think that part of the genius of the Jesuit missionary experience is that when they go into a country or into a culture they really insert themselves into that culture totally and completely. They become one with that culture, absorb and live the history of the area, and they learn to think the way that the people there think. A great example of this, of course, was the wonderful Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). He was the first Jesuit to go to China. If his example would have been followed, the Church would be much more stronger there today. Ricci learned Chinese, celebrated their liturgy in Chinese, became a master of Chinese culture and philosophy and reached the Chinese people in a way that they could really understand. Tragically, he was a little ahead of schedule and his approach received a negative evaluation by the Vatican and the use of the language of the people would not reappear until the 1960’s. His work did not continue but he is a marvelous example to missionaries all over the world.

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As the country was being established in the last two decades of the 18th century, statistics were not easily at hand. I have read that there were possibly as few as 25,000 Roman Catholics in the 13 colonies and certainly no more than 50,000. Now a fast jump to 2012.

Statistics on some aspects of the Church are still far from perfect but what we have is awesome. The Church itself counts about 65 million Catholics and, at the same time, admits that many millions have become formally inactive (however, I am willing to bet that most of them would call for a priest if they thought that the end was at hand!). There are nearly 195 dioceses served by 430 bishops and 41,406 priests in 1,500 parishes, 55,000 religious women accomplish extraordinary work over the vast areas of activities that are provided in Catholic health care and other ministries. Naturally, while these numbers are impressive, they are nothing compared to the millions of dedicated lay men and women who work at every level in the Church. More accurately, they ARE the Church.

Who would not be impressed by 7,000 elementary and high schools? Education is tremendously expensive and while the schools operated under Roman Catholic auspices have contracted somewhat, it is still a magnificent accomplishment. Let’s hear it for Catholic schools!

What really impresses me, however, is earlier generations were burdened with tremendous poverty throughout the 19th century. They would bring into existence no less than 230 colleges and universities. Some might argue that maybe there should have been fewer but there is no arguing about the enormity of the project.

In my own diocese, and around the state and in other parts of the country, I have had the opportunity to visit or to work with a sizable number of these institutions of higher education. However, I would like to talk about several of them individually as I have been closely associated with them and to which I am greatly indebted. I will talk about St. Edward’s University in Austin, the University of St. Thomas in Houston and, if we have time, the three Catholic colleges established in San Antonio. That is St. Mary’s University, Our Lady of the Lake and Incarnate Word. On, I can’t forget Dallas. The University of Dallas is the newest of the Catholic colleges and they have been very successful.

More on all of them later.

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Ever since the bitter struggle over raising this country’s debt ceiling, there has been an enormous amount of verbiage expressed over the 1% and the 99% as to who possesses the wealth of this country. It is referred to so frequently that it seems to have almost lost its meaning.

It doesn’t matter whether the figures are actually accurate. Do 1% of the people have the vast majority of wealth and the 99% get along with the remainder? Don’t get tied up on the math! There can be no doubt that there is an extraordinary concentration of wealth and therefore power in the hands of a very small portion of the American population. This situation existed throughout the 19th century but began to change when economic and social reforms were enacted in the 1930’s and for nearly half a century there was dramatic improvement in regards to the distribution of wealth in the United States. Regretfully, for the last twenty years we have been sliding back into that 19th century format which leaves such a sizable portion of the country in dire straits, desperately poor and terribly vulnerable while the wealthy 1% increased not only their wealth but the power that naturally comes with that wealth.

Whenever a political and economic system concentrates power and wealth in the hands of a small minority, it guarantees the existence of a permanent underclass whose members live without capacities of decent living, whether it be employment, housing, proper education and health care. In our democratic society, massive programs have been developed to respond to each one of these pressing needs, but the fact is that the concentration of wealth creates these problems and no amount or number of do-good organizations or programs are going to change that until there is a more equitable distribution of our nation’s economic production.

Regretfully, the history of the human family does not reflect many situations where the wealthy segment of a population freely steps forward to share its vast wealth with those who are in need. This usually does not happen at all and when it does, it is often brought about by a violent revolution. I thank God that our country has developed a system where we could develop a more equitable means of sharing the benefits of our extraordinary economic system, but in the summer of 2012, the scene is grim.

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Do you remember what it was like to be a little kid? I do and it was wonderful. In those endless years before kindergarten, we are as free and can be. Once we hit school, life became burdensome in the extreme, loaded with responsibilities and schedules. But at least we had the afternoon and the weekends. And oh, the summertime – the good, ole summertime! After breakfast, we headed out the front door in bare feet that soon toughened up so that we didn’t need shoes at all. We would report in for lunch and then, of course, be back inside in time for the children’s radio programs around 5:00 p.m. What a life and it was yours, oh blessed child.

Is that the situation today? I hope that it is. This society is so concerned about productivity and achievement that things have become much more difficult. The schools pile on homework that requires a good portion of the evening hours. Social goals call for extraordinary extra activity, whether it be for sports, dance, music or whatever. These are all wonderful things and in some ways make us better persons, but I feel that playing is an important part of growing up. What about after we are grown? I think that it is also important that we be able to play in our middle and later years, to laugh, to spend endless hours talking to our friends. Incidentally, I don’t consider watching television a very playful activity except maybe with a lot of friends during the World Series. Television demands passivity and real play requires activity both of our bodies, our minds and our hearts.

“Hello, Mrs. Brady. Can George come out and play?”

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What is all that yelling about? It is caused by that group of elementary school kids who have just broken free of the confines of daily classes. They take their shoes off and those blessed to be able to do so are headed out to go swimming and fishing or to play ball. I hope that they have a wonderful three months before the grind starts up again.

There are two other groups of graduates as well. Let’s take a look at them. See that gang of 18 year olds? They are not so exuberant. I am talking about those who just graduated from high school and who are finding that their efforts to get into the college of their choice are difficult indeed. Many of them are not laughing. Look beyond them and you can see a second group that is not laughing. They have just graduated from college. They have accomplished a great deal and should be celebrating. They have 16 years of education behind them but the next step, meaningful employment in terms of their education and training, is not all that certain.

Congratulations to all three groups but the two latter groups deserve our prayers, encouragement and help
May God Continue to Bless the 2012 Graduates!

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For good or for ill, seminary education is fairly standard around the world. The basic courses – four years of undergraduate work with a major in philosophy and the second four years is in the various forms of theology as well as other ecclesiastical subjects – things that need to be known by someone who is going to function in a parish or most other priestly roles. Their curriculum may be the same but priests differ dramatically in different periods of time. I don’t know if that is true of the whole world but it is certainly true of the United States. Priests who started in the seminary in the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s were profoundly influenced by the ‘60’s, the chaos of that period and the awesome hope generated by the Second Vatican Council. They would later be dubbed as “Vatican II priests.” Sometimes that expression was a compliment, sometimes it was derogatory depending on the frame of reference of the speaker.

There are always exceptions and no description fits everything or everyone, but the Vatican II priests were optimistic about the Church’s mission to the world. They were vitally concerned about bringing the message of Jesus Christ into the failing human structures of day-to-day living and society. The bishops of that period reflected the same thing. It is very interesting to look at the list of the subjects upon which the bishops spoke out in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. They were working for peace, for freedom for everyone, for a more just societies, for concern for the poor and the vulnerable. The episcopal statements coming out of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops today are overwhelmingly “in-house” being concerned about churchy issues and they reflect a dramatic withdrawal from the mode of operation of the last generation. Both groups are bishops, both groups are faithful to the Gospel but they are very different. Will the frame of reference turn again in the near future?

Only God knows.

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Like any responsible citizen, I try to follow developments in both Austin and Washington, D.C. Our elected officials have tremendous power over our lives. We don’t always see it on a day-by-day basis but if you watch the situation long enough, you can see that the decisions made at the state and national levels have important effects on all of us.

Shouldn’t we be grateful about the fact that in both capitals the majority of those who control the purse strings are terribly worried about the future of our children and our grandchildren? “We must protect them from debt. We must guarantee their future. We must make sure that they will have a better life than we did.” All commendable goals.

The key to achieving those goals is employment and employment is tied in with education, education, education. While those lawmakers fret constantly and rightly about indebtedness, all over this country they have taken an axe to the education budgets with a vengeance. The majority of American school kids have not been competing effectively against their counterparts in other developed countries. That current fact is regrettable but will worsen yet more if our educational standards continue to slide in the wrong direction.

According to the Project on Student Debt, 2010 college graduates – 9.1% of whom are unemployed – owe an average of $25,250. The unemployment rate of those who end their education at high school is twice that of college graduates. Shouldn’t these facts frighten us as a nation?

Who is thinking?

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Throughout the history of our nation, college education has been out of the reach for most of our young people. After the Second World War, however, the GI Bill changed that to a great extent and the federal government sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to school in appreciation for their services during the war. During that same period, endowments for scholarships greatly increased and so we now were able to see a large number of our high school graduates able to get through college. There is always, of course, the possibility of staying at home and spreading your education out over five or six years while working to pay for ongoing costs.

Behind these facts was the attitude that all of these wonderful junior colleges scattered across the country were picking up the slack and enabled determined young students to get into a local school, not a great one, but a real one, and get a couple of years of college behind them. Once they did that, it was often easier to get into a mainline college as a junior. Yet now another threat appears on our horizon – soaring costs.

From 1999 to 2009, tuition in public two-year colleges increased 71% while the median family income DECLINED by 4.9% adjusted for inflation. This study is from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. These facts are truly sad. As Americans, we idealize that this is a land of almost equal opportunity but, of course, it really isn’t. Those who are committed to an evermore just society and level playing field for high school graduates need to take a look at this and see what can be done to salvage this situation.

Let’s go to college.

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Yesterday, I mentioned the importance of the great work done by retreat houses throughout this country. In some limited ways, they are a substitute for the enormous school system that was such a great source of strength to the Church over the last 150 years. That system is still very much with us but not as large as it used to be. When a child is born, or when an adult enters the Church training or formation, education has to take place. Retreat houses, scattered as they are all over the country, are a great resource in accomplishing this end. Today, I want to talk about the wonderful reality of Eagle’s Wings retreat center located in the ranch country a few miles west of Burnet.

A wonderful couple owned some beautiful ranch country and became conscious of the fact that there was no facility within a 100 or 150 miles that would provide programs for Catholic youth of that broad area. They approached the Diocese of Austin and were willing to give a large amount of land to the Diocese, but would expect the Diocese to make a commitment to building a retreat facility for youth. Diocesan leadership did not feel that it could assume this responsibility at that time and turned the generous offer down. What to do?

Mr. and Mrs. Haffner talked to a few men and women about their dream and soon perceived a solid mood of support for that dream. Talking to people with good backgrounds in finance, engineering and construction, they soon had a solid support group they had developed by themselves and without diocesan commitment and support. Jump ahead five years and guess where we are? Mr. and Mrs. Haffner, with that support team from the beginning, and later the enlistment of help from many others, have brought about what for me is the most beautiful retreat house that I have ever seen. Made of solid stone construction, they now have five beautiful buildings and are on their way to building two more. Young people come in groups from the Dioceses of San Angelo and San Antonio and, of course, Austin. The facility, with a continued fine leadership, has become an extraordinary source of faith and enhancement of Catholic living in that area.

I am extremely proud of Eagle’s Wings youth retreat facility but I am even happier about what it represents for me – that lay people are more and more advancing to leadership in every position of the Church and although they would like to have ecclesiastical support, they have proven time after time that they can get great things done without it.

Onward through the fog.

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Congratulations to St. Gabriel’s Catholic School in Southwest Austin. It is the first school in Texas to provide cyberbullying training for the entire middle school.

Modern communications technology is wonderful.  The Internet and other electronic media are a big part of our lives, especially the lives of students.  While there have been many positive uses of this new media, it has regretfully also become a vehicle for social cruelty in spreading hatred and intolerance based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or other parts of people’s identities in lives.

Now comes the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith with a wonderful program to help offset the negative sides of electronic media and social cruelty.

CyberALLY is a half-day or full-day training for middle and high school age youth that increases awareness about the unique impact of cyberbullying, provides strategies for young people to respond effectively to these attacks and fosters an increased culture of ease/safety ally behavior and respect for differences among the youth.

Studies show that over 5 million young people have been the targets of cyberbullying in our country and more than 3 million have themselves bullied others on-line!

What is an ally?  An ally is someone who speaks out on behalf of someone else who is being attacked or takes actions against cyberbullying.  All of us should respond to the challenge to become cyberallies.

Congratulations again to St. Gabriel’s Catholic School.  You are leading the way.

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