Statement of Agreement Between the Pontifical Council for Interreligous Dialogue and the Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Deacon Bob

From November 9-11 this year, in Teheran, Iran, scholars from the Vatican and the Islamic community met and examined the theme, “Religion and Society Today: Christian and Muslim Perspectives.”

At the end of the meeting, they agreed on the following statement.

1. Believers and religious communities, based on their faith in God, have a specific role to play in society, on an equal footing with other citizens.

2. Religion has an inherent social dimension that the State has the obligation to respect; therefore, also in the interest of society, it cannot be confined to the private sphere.

3. Believers are called to cooperate in the search for common good, on the basis of a sound relation between faith and reason.

4. It is necessary for Christians and Muslims as well as all believers and persons of good will, to cooperate in answering modern challenges, promoting moral values, justice and peace and protecting the family, environment and natural resources.

5. Faith, by its very nature, requires freedom. Therefore, religious freedom, as a right inherent to human dignity, must always be respected by individuals, social actors and the State. The cultural and historical background of each society which is not in contradiction with human dignity should be taken into consideration in applying this fundamental principle.

6. Education of the young generation should be based on the search for truth, spiritual values and promotion of knowledge.

http://press.catholica.va/news_services/bulletin/news/2641.php?index=2641&lang=en 

Wouldn’t it be great if these words are brought to fruition in the troubled areas of the world today, where Christians are persecuted, and where Muslims are misunderstood.

By the way, the next meeting of these groups will be in two years, this time in Rome.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“Pray, hope and don’t worry.” –St. Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM Cap.

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Evangelization via the Internet

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Deacon Bob

Bishop Ronald Herzog of the diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana delivered a message to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops today. He is a member of the USCCB Communications Committee.

The USCCB website quotes him in part as follows:

“Although social media has been around for less than 10 years, it doesn’t have the makings of a fad…. We’re being told that it is causing as fundamental a shift in communication patterns and behavior as the printing press did 500 years ago….We can choose not to enter into that cultural mindset, but we do so at great peril to the Church’s credibility and approachability in the minds of the natives, those who are growing up in this new culture. This is a new form of pastoral ministry.”

I agree.

As meager as this weblog may be, it is an attempt on my part to extend my diaconal ministry beyond the borders of parish and diocese. It is a ministry of the word, and hopefully serves as a source of information for all readers having an interest in the Catholic faith.

One of the limitations I find in keeping this blog active is I really do not know who is reading it or the responses the vast majority of you have to its contents. One can get a more immediate read on the hearer when one is teaching or preaching in a real time setting and in visual contact with the audience.

Maintaining a blog as a ministry to the Church is time consuming and at times fatiguing. You have to develop your sources of information, digest what they have to offer, and then make a prudent judgment as to its suitability for the purposes of your blog.

I always welcome feedback from my readers. I have only on one occasion had to edit or refuse to post a comment from individual readers. I encourage dialogue and challenge.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“Hatred is not a creative force. Love alone creates.” — St. Maximillian Kolbe, OFM Conv.

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Audio Homily for 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Deacon Bob

Here is Deacon Bob’s homily for this Sunday.

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Part 2

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God Works His Ways

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Deacon Bob

I received a telephone call recently from a longtime friend who said that he and his wife were almost certainly going to be spending the final years of their careers helping on an Indian reservation. Until this time they have been living a pretty middle-class life on the surface although anyone who knows them knew that their concern for the poor was central in their lives and their spirituality. They had made mission trips to Guatemala with their children in the past, and have been active in parish ministry throughout their married lives. My friend is a member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and has been for a number of years now.

When I first heard of their plans my thought was, “Gosh, that’s quite a change!” but with a moment’s reflection I realized it fits them. God is working His way in their lives.

I call it a leap of courage, a statement of faith, and an act of love.

Keep them in your prayers as they are in the process of making a final decision soon.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.” — St. John Vianney, SFO

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“No more war; no more hatred and bloodshed, but peace! God wills it!” — St. Anthony of Padua, OFM

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“If God lets you fall in some weakness, it is not to abandon you, but only to establish in you humility and make you more careful in the future.” –St. Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM Cap.

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Catholics Come Home!

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Deacon Bob

I would like to draw your attention to the link at the lower right of this page under “Good Websites” entitled Catholics Come Home . This is an excellent website dedicated to bringing back Catholics who have stopped practicing their faith. The website is superbly done, with many videos, information, and opportunities for learning.

I would challenge each of you to show this website to one of your Catholic friends who may not be active in the parish. We all know one or more.

Did you know that 90% of inactive Catholics drifted from the faith due to social influences, not doctrinal issues? Think of the implications of this especially in terms of what needs to be done to remedy this drift. I believe it implies that a social influence will draw them back, specifically a personal contact by you and me. A personal connection that leads them to discover, perhaps for the first time, that the Catholic Church has convincing answers to their questions of life. A personal connection that God will use to reawaken that mysterious pull inside them back to the Church. That pull is there; we can kindle it for God will use us as his agent.

You will be hearing more of Catholics Come Home in the future.

Posted in General Interest | 2 Comments

An Eastern Rite Catholic Archbishop’s Argument for Married Priests

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Deacon Bob

(I am posting on this, not because I am promoting married priests but because I found it an interesting argument made by an archbishop of the Melkite Rite who is in full communion with the Pope and as much Catholic as we are in the Latin Rite.

The Melkites are an Eastern Rite Catholic Church essentially located in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Mideast, although they have parishes and dioceses in other countries, including our own.)

In southern Lebanon, Melkite Archbishop George Bakhouni of Tyre says he doesn’t have trouble finding priests, and is surprised that the Latin-rite church isn’t more interested in ordaining married men to the priesthood. He argues that married priests are what kept Christianity alive in the Mideast because they did not flee difficult times in the region as many celibate priests did. He attributes that to married priests being more rooted to the area because of their families and homes. He said also that he believed ordaining married men to the priesthood is the most naturally pastoral response to everyone’s need for regular access to the sacraments.

He sees the priestly formation as being primarily oriented toward witness, not necessarily theology or oratory. To him, the important thing is these men have exemplary lives that give witness to the Gospel.

To read more, log on to: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/a-lebanese-archbishops-practical-argument-for-married-priests

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Quote for the Day

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“If the Lord at the moment of my death reproves me for being too kind to sinners, I will answer, ‘my dear Jesus, if it is a fault to be too kind to sinners, it is a fault I learned from you, for you never scolded anyone who came to you seeking mercy.'” — St. Leonard of Port Maurice, OFM

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Purification of Reason

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Deacon Bob

On October 28, the Holy Father met with a number of Brazilian bishops making their ad limina visit.  His address was in Portuguese, a language I cannot read, but excerpts of it were published in English by Fides, the information agency for the Pontifical Work of the Missions. He spoke of the need for a purification of reason and the reawakening of the forces needed to build a just and fraternal society.I wish to speak to you today about how the Church’s mission to serve as the leavening of human society through the Gospel teaches human beings their dignity as children of God, and their vocation to the unity of all mankind, whence derive the need for justice and social peace in accordance with divine wisdom…. You must contribute to the purification of reason, and to the moral awakening of the forces necessary to build a just and fraternal society. Nonetheless, when required by the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls, pastors have the binding duty to emit moral judgments, even on political themes…. It would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defense of the right to life from conception to a natural end…”

The purification of reason. I recall back in college, in philosophy classes, how we were essentially challenged to do the same, i.e., clean up our reasoning, examine our assumptions and the conclusions we were drawing, look at the objective world around us and come to know it as it is, not how we might construct it. In philosophy, we were always being taught to purify what we were thinking, advocating, purporting. We were told to do so, for in doing so, one could apprehend the metaphysical realities and be more solid citizens of the society in which we lived.

The predominance of relativism, of indifference, of individualism has left us with cluttered thinking and a breakdown in our ability to dialogue and debate in constructive ways.

Our Minnesota bishops have begun a Marriage Initiative in which they are trying to educate all Catholics about the Church’s constant teaching on the human, social and sacramental natures of marriage. Let us listen to them as they attempt to purify our reasoning about this very important topic today.

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The USCCB’s Upcoming Meeting

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Deacon Bob

The bishops of the U.S. will be meeting soon for what I believe is an annual meeting. I was surprised this morning to open Papa Luciani’s book, Illustrissimi, and find that the page that surfaced was Luciani’s letter to the Spanish governor of Milan in 1630. (Remember, these letters are fiction. Luciani wrote in the 1970s.)

The end of his letter reads:

“Let all shepherds remember: they have not been ‘set up by Christ to assume by themselves the weight of  the redeeming mission of the Church’…. In their turn, laymen must take care not to limit their co-responsibility to all-to-easy protest: they must add practical proposals, capable of being carried out; and above all they must collaborate in carrying them out. And more: They must remember that their contribution to the good of the Church must not happen in a disorderly way, but ‘under the leadership of the sacred guide,’ whose own charisma must be recognized and authenticated.

“Dialogue? The Council documents speak of it about fifty times.. It must then be effected with goodwill on both sides. The bishops must not listen only to themselves; let them consult, examine together with others, before deciding. And let the faithful speak ‘with that freedom and trust that befits the children of God and brothers in Christ….. always with truth, strength, and prudence, with reverence and charity.’….. Dialogue is useful insofar as those who participate in it have faith in it and observe its just rules.” (Albino Luciani, Illustrissimi, pg. 94)

Agreed!


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Weekend Reflection on Ministry

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Deacon Bob

It is the end of another work week.

Since ordination, that statement really doesn’t seem true. My professional job as a clinical social worker continues as it has for nearly 30 years now, but it has be transformed into an expression of diaconal ministry. I find it odd to call it a “work week”, because what had been very earth-bound has become much more than that now. The professionalism of what I do is intact and clear; but there is new energy, impetus, purpose and focus in what I do. If you were to observe my current interactions with patients and compare them with what I was doing three years ago, you would see little difference, I suspect. What has happened quite unexpectedly, and without prompting by me, is more conversation from my patients about God and faith.

Perhaps they are Google-ing me and reading this blog and have become aware of me as deacon. I strongly suspect a couple of them have, although not a one has made mention of it.

Ministry is a 24 hour reality. I am never not a deacon. I am also never not a husband. I can stop being a clinical social worker though, and I do regularly; I pull out of that role and responsibility to maintain balance. Life can still make sense when I am not “being” a social worker; it ceases to make sense, though, if I try to cease being, even for a minute,  a deacon or a husband.

Over 80% of diaconal ministry for me is in the office. Ten percent is in the parish. One hundred percent of ministry is with my wife and family. Yes, I know the math doesn’t add up, but the spiritual reality does. Let me try to explain.

Wherever I may be in ministry, whether engaged in psychotherapy with patients, preaching at Mass, visiting the sick, in the nursing homes and hospitals, offering benediction at Holy Hour, or praying the Liturgy of the Hours—- wherever I am in ministry, my wife and children are with me in spirit and in my very being. They are not often physically present with me, but they are as inseparable from me at those times as is my right arm. My wife and I are one.

Wherever I may be in ministry my parish family is with me too. From each Mass that I assist, I take them with me in my service to others and I bring them back along with all the people I have served, to the altar at the next Mass. That is why it is so important for me to assist often at Eucharist and raise the chalice to the Father in thanksgiving.

As an aside, the deacons of the Diocese of Winona made their annual retreat last week. Our far-flung diocese does not make it easy for us to gather often, but I believe I can speak for  all in saying the fraternity was so welcomed.  I stand in awe and wonder of the ministry so many of my brothers are engaged in throughout the diocese.

Finally, winter is coming. For any reader who has never experienced a Minnesota winter (unless you are from the Dakotas or Wisconsin), you may have a difficult time understanding the import of that comment. Winter is coming. I am prepared this year. Furnace is working fine. Got a brand new snow thrower too.

God bless each of you.

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