Benedict XVI is going to go down in history as a very real hero. Hero? Yes, indeed. Tradition is such a powerful force in the life of the Catholic Church that it takes extraordinary courage to go against it and Benedict did that last month when he announced that he would be resigning as the 265th Bishop of Rome. There were only three other resignations in the 2,000 year history of the Church and in each of those situations it was brought about by very special circumstances. Benedict, with a clear mind and in relatively good health, announced that it was time for a younger person to take over. Today, the Petrine Office is vacant. The cardinals have gathered and I am sure that within the next week or ten days we will see an elderly cardinal walk in out into that magnificent balcony of St. Peter’s and tell the excited crowd of several hundred thousand, “Habemus Papam!” – we have a pope.
Who will it be and, more importantly, what kind of Supreme Pontiff will he be? Most commentators say that there are only two possible directions for the new pope to take. He could reach back and recommit himself to tradition and continue doing, and in the same manner, that which has been going on for the last 30 or 40 years, the slow de-emphasizing of the Second Vatican Council. Or that new pope, blessed with the grace of the office, could recommit himself to the work of the 2,500 bishops of the Second Vatican Council and triumphantly announce that the Church is recommitting itself in an explosive manner to its missionary nature, that it will present the message of Jesus Christ with all of its joy and triumph in a way that will be unencumbered by the barnacles of time but will be pristine, pure, clean and precise. And with that, there will be that which recent popes have called for and pleaded for but were not able to see themselves free to do – move the Church forward to a world that is awaiting it and desperately needs it.
May God bless the new pope, whoever he is.
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For the most part, Americans are rather forward looking. They are optimistic and ready to take on the future. That is a good trait but it comes at a cost. As a nation, most of us are not overly interested in history. Here I pass up the temptation to use that tired, hackneyed expression about who is going to repeat it, but you know what I mean. One thing that most Americans are not familiar with is the history of organized labor. It is a great story of courage, heroism, some violence and, for a while, a period of triumph…but only for a while.
Labor has been in the news quite a bit of late but almost always in a negative light. Dues paying members have dropped dramatically over the last 25 years and the only area where successful organizing has been occurring is in the public sector unions. Realizing that, the opponents of organized labor have moved effectively to undercut and, if possible, break the backs of the public sector unions. For the last two years, we have seen a number of states move to block organizing efforts by their employees, cancel pensions, cut back benefits and blame the working people for the economic problems that these states face. I am saddened by the fact that while all this is going on the voice of the Church has been strangely silent.
First in Germany and then across Europe and the United States, the Roman Catholic Church espoused the cause of the working people and stood staunchly beside them as they struggled in the face of overwhelming odds. Although Leo XIII strongly supported workers rights to organize in 1899, American workers did not get that legal right until 1935 with the passage of the Wagner Act. Following the passage of that act, labor unions grew enormously in this country. Secretaries of Labor in the Democratic Administration were staunch supporters and bishops and priests became very public in their endorsement of working people’s right to better their economic condition. Things were going wonderfully well and then labor made a terrible mistake from which it has not yet recovered.
More on that tomorrow.
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July 8th, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
One of the things we know about the Incarnation (namely that God stepped in to the human story, and assumed a human nature) was that it made it possible for HIm to completely enter the human experience. In reverse order, of course, it enables us to identify with the awesome reality that through Jesus we can be one with God. St. Paul would describe that “I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me”.
If Jesus experiences everything human other than sin, today’s gospel demonstrates an awesome but painful sharing in the human spirit. Jesus is rejected in His home town! He comes back to Nazareth the talk of Galilee. Crowds followed Him elsewhere, but not in the hometown. His fellow villagers had heard the great stories of His power and miracles, but this was the kid that carried those 2×4′s from Joseph’s workshop. This was the kid that they remembered seeing carrying those 2×4′s down the street to build a new house. It was just too much for them. Therefore, in the absence of faith, our Lord chose to do virtually nothing among His relatives and in his home town beyond a few minor good deeds.
Two tremendous facts jump out at us from this excerpt. First, how a strong faith makes God’s actions within our lives more easily accomplished. Secondly, and perhaps more striking in a day to day basis, is the need to be able to handle rejection. We have all had it. We know its pain, but we use the example of Jesus to keep moving forward. It’s easy to move forward effectively in the face of adulation and praise, but an awesome challenge in the face of disbelief and rejection. Our Lord has given us the example.
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Sister Mary Gloria
I am continuing a series on Catholic Sisters, nuns with whom I have had the pleasure and honor of working with here in Central Texas. I have been taking selections from different religious communities and what they have in common is extraordinary faith, talent, competence and generosity. They are a blessing to Central Texas and to the Universal Church.
Today, I call your attention to the wonderful work of Sister Mary Gloria Mar, FMA. That means that she is a Salesian Sister of St. John Bosco.
Inmy opinion, Sister Gloria is a great sign of hope in today’s Church. One of the great causes of sadness in my own life is that as the Church has been restricted and slowed down by internal conflicts over the last 30 or 40 years, as Catholics have started to identify themselves as liberal or conservative, and we became too internalized and concerned about the problems in our own parishes and dioceses. And while the missionary thrust, which flows from the very nature of the Church itself, has not been eliminated, it has certainly slowed down. Sister Gloria is a sign that we are beginning to make a turn.
Sister Gloria and her Salesian Sisters are really building up a program of lay missioners to bring the message of Jesus Christ to different parts of the planet, especially poor places, such as Haiti, the Sudan and Ethiopia through a program called VIDES (Volunteers In Development, Education, Solidarity). It thrills me that the leadership is being generated right here in little ole Austin, Texas. Sister Gloria has over the last few years sent at least 200 young people into challenging situations in 40 countries. They are real missionaries and certainly very real Christian heroes. I thank God for the VIDES volunteers, for the Salesians and for Sister Gloria.
I feel a little awkward in only being able to post the stories of six or eight of these great nuns, but it is important that we realize that each of them symbolizes the hundreds and even the thousands who are behind them expanding and continuing their work.
If you know anybody who would like to volunteer or for more information, please contact Sister Gloria at director@vides.us, 2109 East Second Street, Austin, Texas 78702, (512) 320-1913.
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Recently, I was endeavoring to say a few words about what we call natural virtues, the ordinary habits that we need to form in order to enable us to do the right thing more easily even in the face of temptation. There are four of them: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. I have already touched on prudence and justice. Both of those are vitally important for living a good moral life but the same can be true of the last two – fortitude and temperance.
Fortitude is a moral virtue. It disposes the individual to firmness in difficulties and courage in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens a person’s resolve in the face of temptation and helps us to overcome obstacles in our moral life. We all know friends and acquaintances who are all over the lot on this one. But heroes abound. Remember that heroic man you know who, although faced with many difficulties, moved steadily ahead on the basis of his faith in Jesus Christ and his knowledge of what Jesus Christ was calling him to do and to be. All of us know such people. The saints had great fortitude in that natural virtue and it gave them courage in their everyday dealings with the world around them.
Temperance is a virtue that helps those who develop it to moderate the attraction of pleasures and provides a balance in the greater goods. Happily, there are wonderful people around us who have developed temperance to a high degree, but as a nation, we really need to get a lot of work done in this area. When you see the agonizing destructiveness of the drug trade, the broken lives and families of alcoholics, and the fact that as a nation we have a tremendous problem with obesity then you can see that this is one we have to really begin to work harder on as individuals, as families and as a nation.
We do not receive temperance as a gift falling from the sky. It is achieved by practice, practice, practice. Look ahead today and make plans to exercise the virtue of temperance in a very specific manner within the next 14 hours.
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Most of my adult life has been involved with trying to help people. It is not a personal sacrifice. I was well provided for in the process. It did give me countless opportunities to see the generosity that is present in our society.
I have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of men who worked tirelessly to improve the living situations of people who were sick, poor, vulnerable or simply misunderstood. May God bless them for it.
But my great love has been to see the extraordinary vision, dedication and courage of women in the social sphere. Such heroic women first appear in the Old Testament and can be seen in the New Testament providing help and solace in the early Church, and that has continued throughout the last 2,000 years. Now I want to spotlight a few heroic women who are accomplishing wonders and they are accomplishing it without the resources that are so often available to their male counterparts.
Today I want to tell you about an exciting program called Mary’s Pence. Mary’s Pence is the name of a wonderful self-help organization brought into existence by women whose goal is to fund programs led by women who are changing lives or women in vulnerable positions. While small in terms of Peter’s Pence, Mary’s Pence is much more focused on one of the great worldwide problems – the oppression and subjugation of women, the lack of economic power in proportion to their numbers and their contributions to society. Mary’s Pence is still small, but I feel very confident that before another 20 years has gone by we will see that Mary’s Pence has grown into an important social vehicle contributing to a more just society.
The national director is Katherine Wojtan, Mary’s Pence, 1000 Richmond Terrace G-304, Staten Island, NY 10304, (718) 720-8040, and their website is http://www.maryspence.org/
God bless Mary’s Pence.
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I have been out of high school for 61 years. When that chapter is more than a half century behind you, you don’t expect to be seeing news about one of the kids from high school but the other day I just did.
Last week the Houston Chronicle ran a wonderful story about David McNerney, like me, a member of the St. Thomas High School Class of 1949. Back then, he was quiet, almost shy, and liked by everyone. The story in the Chronicle was about the fact that back in March of 1967, during the Vietnam War, McNerney’s A Company was ambushed by the Vietcong. The officers were the first to die leaving David, a staff sergeant, in charge. The radios were damaged. They were cut off and encircled by a more powerful group. McNerney was wounded early on but refused evacuation. He continued to work the line directing his men. They held out but thirty-three would die. For this he was awarded the Cox Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest award.
Sergeant McNerney is now in the last stages of lung cancer and his “boys,” as he called them, wanted to do something special for him. He asked that they convene at the Vietnamese Veterans Memorial and lay a wreath at panel 16E where the majority of those 33 soldiers names were engraved. For the 50 survivors it will be a time to say thank you to a tough sergeant who made the difference in their lives.
Bullets may not be flying but we all are challenged to stand up from time to time. Let’s pray that we have half the courage that David did.
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I get amused when people talk about “worshipping” the saints. If your daughter were seriously ill, would you ask your living mother to pray for her recovery? Of course you would. Would you ask your grandmother, who’s deceased, but knows what’s going on down here to pray for her? Why not?
As Catholics, we simply extend that to include more people, with greater time lapses between their death and the present problem that we have. Let’s take a positive view of the human tendency towards imitating heros. It’s a good thing if the hero or model is a good, generous, and faithful person. Other people trying to imitate this person generate goodness into the next generation.
Ultimately we need to become what we can become. Our models, our heros and heroines, cannot transform us. They can give us a little extra motivation to move ourselves along in the right direction. We could use few more saints these days!
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Was it a mistake to put our policeman into patrol cars? Two generations ago, most people knew the neighborhood police officer. He was helpful and protective. You could see him, his smile, and you knew his first name was Mike. Moving to patrol cars was probably necessary, but it has changed that relationship. Now when people think of cops, they see a spinning red light and find themselves pulling over to the curb. It’s efficient, yes- but impersonal.
If we are going to have the type of cooperation required between the general public and officers we need to rediscover the sense of trust and friendship that once existed. It will not be easy. Police at all levels must receive improved training and community relations and the general public must be moved to understand that we sorely need these brave men and women who risk their lives to maintain peace and safety in our cities and towns. Working together, we can return safety and order to our lives.
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Comments (1) 
Benedict XVI is going to go down in history as a very real hero. Hero? Yes, indeed. Tradition is such a powerful force in the life of the Catholic Church that it takes extraordinary courage to go against it and Benedict did that last month when he announced that he would be resigning as the 265th Bishop of Rome. There were only three other resignations in the 2,000 year history of the Church and in each of those situations it was brought about by very special circumstances. Benedict, with a clear mind and in relatively good health, announced that it was time for a younger person to take over. Today, the Petrine Office is vacant. The cardinals have gathered and I am sure that within the next week or ten days we will see an elderly cardinal walk in out into that magnificent balcony of St. Peter’s and tell the excited crowd of several hundred thousand, “Habemus Papam!” – we have a pope.
Themocracy