The Holy Father’s theme was largely that of Church unity, especially in regard to the waves of immigrants coming to our country. I thought his words were inspiring, so I am copying them here in their entirety for your review.

DISCORSO DEL SANTO PADRE

Dear Brother Bishops,

I greet all of you with fraternal affection in the Lord. Our meeting today concludes the series of quinquennial visits of the Bishops of the United States of America ad limina Apostolorum. As you know, over these past six months I have wished to reflect with you and your Brother Bishops on a number of pressing spiritual and cultural challenges facing the Church in your country as it takes up the task of the new evangelization.

I am particularly pleased that this, our final meeting, takes place in the presence of the Bishops of the various Eastern Churches present in the United States, since you and your faithful embody in a unique way the ethnic, cultural and spiritual richness of the American Catholic community, past and present. Historically, the Church in America has struggled to recognize and incorporate this diversity, and has succeeded, not without difficulty, in forging a communion in Christ and in the apostolic faith which mirrors the catholicity which is an indefectible mark of the Church. In this communion, which finds its source and model in the mystery of the Triune God (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), unity and diversity are constantly reconciled and enhanced, as a sign and sacrament of the ultimate vocation and destiny of the entire human family.

Throughout our meetings, you and your Brother Bishops have spoken insistently of the importance of preserving, fostering and advancing this gift of Catholic unity as an essential condition for the fulfillment of the Church’s mission in your country. In this concluding talk, I would like simply to touch on two specific points which have recurred in our discussions and which, with you, I consider crucial for the exercise of your ministry of guiding Christ’s flock forward amid the difficulties and opportunities of the present moment.

I would begin by praising your unremitting efforts, in the best traditions of the Church in America, to respond to the ongoing phenomenon of immigration in your country. The Catholic community in the United States continues, with great generosity, to welcome waves of new immigrants, to provide them with pastoral care and charitable assistance, and to support ways of regularizing their situation, especially with regard to the unification of families. A particular sign of this is the long-standing commitment of the American Bishops to immigration reform. This is clearly a difficult and complex issue from the civil and political, as well as the social and economic, but above all from the human point of view. It is thus of profound concern to the Church, since it involves ensuring the just treatment and the defense of the human dignity of immigrants.

In our day too, the Church in America is called to embrace, incorporate and cultivate the rich patrimony of faith and culture present in America’s many immigrant groups, including not only those of your own rites, but also the swelling numbers of Hispanic, Asian and African Catholics. The demanding pastoral task of fostering a communion of cultures within your local Churches must be considered of particular importance in the exercise of your ministry at the service of unity (cf. Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, 63). This diaconia of communion entails more than simply respecting linguistic diversity, promoting sound traditions, and providing much-needed social programs and services. It also calls for a commitment to ongoing preaching, catechesis and pastoral activity aimed at inspiring in all the faithful a deeper sense of their communion in the apostolic faith and their responsibility for the Church’s mission in the United States. Nor can the significance of this challenge be underestimated: the immense promise and the vibrant energies of a new generation of Catholics are waiting to be tapped for the renewal of the Church’s life and the rebuilding of the fabric of American society.

This commitment to fostering Catholic unity is necessary not only for meeting the positive challenges of the new evangelization but also countering the forces of disgregation within the Church which increasingly represent a grave obstacle to her mission in the United States. I appreciate the efforts being made to encourage the faithful, individually and in the variety of ecclesial associations, to move forward together, speaking with one voice in addressing the urgent problems of the present moment. Here I would repeat the heartfelt plea that I made to America’s Catholics during my Pastoral Visit: “We can only move forward if we turn our gaze together to Christ” and thus embrace “that true spiritual renewal desired by the Council, a renewal which can only strengthen the Church in that holiness and unity indispensable for the effective proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world” (Homily in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, 19 April 2008).

In our conversations, many of you have spoken of your concern to build ever stronger relationships of friendship, cooperation and trust with your priests. At the present time, too, I urge you to remain particularly close to the men and women in your local Churches who are committed to following Christ ever more perfectly by generously embracing the evangelical counsels. I wish to reaffirm my deep gratitude for the example of fidelity and self-sacrifice given by many consecrated women in your country, and to join them in praying that this moment of discernment will bear abundant spiritual fruit for the revitalization and strengthening of their communities in fidelity to Christ and the Church, as well as to their founding charisms. The urgent need in our own time for credible and attractive witnesses to the redemptive and transformative power of the Gospel makes it essential to recapture a sense of the sublime dignity and beauty of the consecrated life, to pray for religious vocations and to promote them actively, while strengthening existing channels for communication and cooperation, especially through the work of the Vicar or Delegate for Religious in each Diocese.

Dear Brother Bishops, it is my hope that the Year of Faith which will open on 12 October this year, the fiftieth anniversary of the convening of the Second Vatican Council, will awaken a desire on the part of the entire Catholic community in America to reappropriate with joy and gratitude the priceless treasure of our faith. With the progressive weakening of traditional Christian values, and the threat of a season in which our fidelity to the Gospel may cost us dearly, the truth of Christ needs not only to be understood, articulated and defended, but to be proposed joyfully and confidently as the key to authentic human fulfillment and to the welfare of society as a whole.

Now, at the conclusion of these meetings, I willingly join all of you in thanking Almighty God for the signs of new vitality and hope with which he has blessed the Church in the United States of America. At the same time I ask him to confirm you and your Brother Bishops in your delicate mission of guiding the Catholic community in your country in the ways of unity, truth and charity as it faces the challenges of the future. In the words of the ancient prayer, let us ask the Lord to direct our hearts and those of our people, that the flock may never fail in obedience to its shepherds, nor the shepherds in the care of the flock (cf. Sacramentarium Veronense, Missa de natale Episcoporum). With great affection I commend you, and the clergy, religious and lay faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, to the loving intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States, and I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the Lord.

The Holy Father is calling the bishops to preach and unify. His use of the word diaconia no doubt has a theological meaning, but I am taking it to signify also that he sees as essential the bishops’ own diaconate service to the people of God. In that way, by association, we deacons are being called to dedicate ourselves to fostering unity within the Church by our preaching and active ministries. This is certainly a challenging task in today’s political and economic times.

I think it is interesting too that the Pope ties this in to the lives of our women religious. He acknowledges the bishops’ focus on a closer brotherhood between them and their priests (and I hope their deacons!) and he moves beyond that indicating an appreciation for our consecrated women.

May we meet the challenges he sets for us.

As St. John reminds us often in his letters and in his writing of the Gospel, we are adopted sons and daughters of God, sharing in the very life of God. This is who we now are; what will be has not yet been revealed, but we know that if we are faithful, we will see God face to face and be transformed by his love. This is a great source of our hope.

A second reason is as we heard in today’s Gospel reading at Mass. Jesus will come again in glory. Yes, he comes. Our earliest Christian ancestors eagerly looked forward to the second coming of Jesus, and lived as if he were to return within their lifetimes. This was a source of great joy for them, and spurred them on in their evangelistic zeal. We today, some two thousand years later, are also to live as if Jesus might return soon, indeed as if he may return at any moment. His second coming in glory is a enduring source of our Christian hope and joy.

Let us live with the hope that is continually born anew in our lives, a hope that impels us in our relationships with others and in our understanding of humankind. We are to be a hopeful people. We are to see in each other a sign of hope and in that way respect the dignity of each man or woman, regardless of their circumstances.

If we are faithful and live in love, the hope which is ours will come to fruition. Thanks be to God.

Human trafficking, i.e., the deceitful or violent movement of human beings from place to place rendering them for all intents and purposes slaves, is a huge problem aroung the world. Estimates are that about 800,000 people are victims every year. Yes, nearly a million on a yearly basis.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in the World, has put “… at the service of the fight against human trafficking all our network of religious in the world.” In other words, all of us deacons, priests, bishops and professed religious men and women are being called to prevent the scourge of human trafficking. It is happening right here in this country.

The Vatican also held a conference not long ago on this topic. The final declaration of that event read: “the problem is becoming more dramatic and real, and is the second most lucrative international crime, illegal trade after weapons.”

Let us at least keep all of this in mind and in our prayers. Let us also raise the awareness of others to this very real attack on human dignity and life.

Read more at: www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=31560&lan=eng

May he rest in peace.

Audio (in two parts): 6th Sunday of Easter – Part One

6th Sunday of Easter – Part Two

Text:

6^th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B

May 12/13, 2012

Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1Jn 4: 7-10; Jn 15: 9-17

 Love, Forgiveness and Life. To give one of these to someone will require we give all three. If we want to love, we will need to forgive others and embrace life as it is. If we want to forgive, we will need to live by loving as Jesus loved. If we want to live fully, we will need to love and forgive freely.

St. John tells us today in the 2nd reading that to love is to expiate sin – to forgive, and our Lord tells us in the Gospel that if we are to have life – life as his friends, life in its fullness, we must give that life away, give it to another; we must even love at times to the point of death.

We, who have first been loved, forgiven and gifted with life by God, must now give it all away to others if we are to have eternal life with God in heaven. We must let go of what we have been given in order to find it again.

We cannot love it we do not forgive. We cannot forgive if we do not put our needs aside so that someone else may live. We cannot live if we do not forgive from the heart and in that way love one another.

Now, who in your life has loved you in that way? Forgiven you over and over again? Who has given you life? Who has come closest to God in loving you, forgiving you and giving you life? Whose day is it today? Yes, for most of us (though certainly not all) it has been our mothers who have most clearly loved us, forgiven us, and gifted us with life. That is why Pope John Paul I, Papa Luciani as we called him during his papacy in 1978, described God’s love as a mother’s love for her children. His comment caused quite a stir back then, but his point was clear: God is our Father, but the love of a mother for her children is often the closest earthly reflection of God’s love for us will we ever find. It is a love that is pure, enduring and total.

We must never forget our mothers’ love. We must never forget our moms, who they are, where they are, what they have done for us. We must honor them every day, not just on Mother’s Day.

Thank you to all of you out there who are mothers, and for the most noble of all vocations in life, and for living out your vocation so well.

As I was taught in diaconate formation, when I preach I must try to preach to the entire assembly, not just a segment of it and I suspect that some of you were not fortunate to have experienced the love of a mother during your childhood. Your mother may have died when you were young. Your mother may have been physically or mentally ill and unable to love and forgive. If this is true, these are wounds that run deep and can be renewed on days like today when we honor our moms.

My father’s mom died when he was but three years old. I listen to my patients at Gundersen and hear many stories of people who believe their mothers never loved them or forgave them for something.

If for some reason these things have been true in your life, then today is a special day you, a day in which you are left with an opportunity to forgive and love and give new life to your mother.

I watched a movie a few weeks ago. I know several of you saw it also because as I was waiting for the 7 o’clock show, a half-dozen or more of you were exiting the 4:50 showing. The movie was entitled October Baby, a remarkably well-done film that depicted a young woman, Hannah, who learns that her premature birth and subsequent medical problems were due to her being an abortion survivor. Her mother had attempted to abort her and her twin brother, and although her brother died, she survived. She was quickly adopted by another couple who loved her and sustained her life. In this movie, you see played out the beauty of the gift of life, the tremendous power of forgiveness, and the enduring influence of love. Hannah came to see that her life had value. It was a life she could embrace, not reject, and that with her life she could choose to forgive. She came to realize that in embracing her life and in forgiving her mother she could love as God would love.

Jesus has shown us that the greatest act of love possible is the willingness to forgive one another to the point of death, forgiving so that others might live. That is what his life was all about: loving us so completely, forgiving us so totally, that we would have life which endures for eternity.

Do we really want to have such life, and have it to the full? Then let us forgive each other; let us forgive from the heart. This is not easy. It can be the work of a lifetime. Sometimes we forgive in increments, little by little, given our human frailties, but forgive we must! This will be a test of our character. It will require the development of virtue. It will grow with practice, but practice we must! Everyday!

Do we really want to forgive from the heart? If we do, let us embrace life as it unfolds before us, with all its imperfections and uncertainties. Have you ever thought of that: To really forgive, we must embrace life, not reject it? Those who refuse to at least try to forgive reject life; they reject their history; they reject the people who come into their lives. To embrace life requires great courage, great faith. Talk to couples who practice Natural Family Planning and you will see that courage and that faith, that openness to human life. If we embrace life, then God can work his will in us by freeing us to love.

Hannah, in the movie October Baby, discovered that to truly love and be loved, she had to embrace her life as it had unfolded, as it was given her, with all its tragedy, imperfections and limitations. She couldn’t reject those who had been put into her life. She couldn’t reject them; she could forgive them and love them. Her love consisted in offering forgiveness. In loving and forgiving in this way, she embraced the life, she embraced it fully.

Her story is a reflection of the life of Jesus, who commanded us to love in this way.

Take a look: www.fatherdamien.com

Bishop Frederick Baraga, the first bishop of Marquette, Michigan, born in modern-day Slovenia on June 6, 1797 and dying in Marquette on January 19, 1868, and

Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth who was born in the United States on March 26, 1901 and died in the U.S. on May 18, 1927.

Bishop Baraga is a well-know missionary to the upper Great Lakes region, especially in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This is no doubt a great day for the diocese of Marquette!

I know nothing of Sr. Miriam, but I intend to do a little research and post some more on her later.

Congratulations, Diocese of Marquette and the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth!