Columnists

  • We can fly

    My 21-year-old daughter, a college student studying abroad called from her destination, and shared her first view and impression of Europe.

    “I was sipping my coffee and eating a croissant as the plane approached London,” she whispered to me over the phone quickly, “we were not allowed to land right away so we were circling the city. The sun was just coming up over Big Ben and London Bridge in a slight fog. I felt like I was in Peter Pan!”

    Peter Pan. Wasn’t I just reading “Peter Pan” to this precious girl? Wasn’t she, just a moment ago, snuggled up by my side in her Pooh Bear pajamas and looking at the Walt Disney Golden Book as I shared about Wendy and Michael and John Darling? My darling. My sweet, sweet girl. Think of a wonderful thought … any merry little thought … off you go … you can fly. And — sniff — she did.

    Caroline didn’t leave home to go to school like many children do at age 5 to investigate kindergarten. She stayed at home eight years past five as we explored homeschooling and she burst into a studious little pupil. She taught herself to read when she was three and threw herself into every book she could find. She was my kitchen buddy, my reading buddy, my planting-flowers-along-the-front-walkway buddy. She was interested in anything and everything and was my happy little shadow. It seemed like Caroline’s childhood would go on forever. And now — just like that — she was all grown up and on the other side of the world.

    When Caroline boarded the plane last weekend she had been fighting a virus. She sounded sniffly, and I was nervous with her traveling so far for the very first time since she was feeling so under the weather. But she insisted on keeping her plane date, seeing as doing otherwise would have necessitated that she travel alone instead of with her college group.

    And so, I prayed and waited for that “S” sign for Skype at the bottom of my computer tab to signal to me that a message was waiting, and that she had made it to London, and then Ireland safely. As I waited, and checked … and rechecked, I poured my own coffee and piddled about the kitchen.

    My thoughts turned to her high school years, which, I reminded myself, were not unlike the present, when I waited for her to phone or text to let me know she had safely made it across town. And now she was across the world.

    Finally, the “S” sign with the red “1,” signifying one message, danced on my computer screen. Caroline had arrived. Not just in London, but in Ireland, which was her final destination for study. I could breathe again.

    It hit me then, this whole “life is a journey” thing.

    Figuratively and sometimes, quite literally, life is definitely a journey and a bittersweet one, as we say goodbye, say hello and say goodbye, over and over. Sometimes we plan these journeys — like Caroline did. And sometimes — let’s face it — they simply come upon us.

    In 2005 I found myself on a journey I did not want. I was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkins lymphoma to be exact. It was just two weeks after the birth of my ninth baby when I discovered the hard lump on my collarbone — and days after my youngest brother was killed in a car accident.

    At the moment my surgeon brother-in-law handed me a bag of bagels, hugged me and said, “I’m sorry it’s cancer,” not only did I fully and totally understand Jonah not wanting to go to Ninevah, but I would have run away myself if I’d have had a place to go. The belly of a whale didn’t even sound so bad.

    And yet, through the journey of cancer, one I might even characterize as traveling “through the valley of death,” I learned so much. I learned how to trust. I was forced to strip myself of pride. I found a faith deeper than the theoretical one I had before and thought was real. I learned how to receive instead of give, which is harder than one might think. And, I basically, through suffering, found God.

    Trips tend to do that — show us things we never have seen before then wonder where they were all along. They open our eyes.

    Caroline is learning a new culture, new people, new food and new ideas. I learned a new culture, new people, even new food, and yes, new ideas from my unwanted journey as well.

    These journeys of life, good or bad, planned or not, are always opportunities for this, and for finding truth, beauty, goodness and God.

    We all have to let go — it is the nature of life. Can we reach heaven unless we die? Can a plant grow unless there is demise of a seed? Can we really move forward if we refuse to move our feet and stay firmly where we are?

    How frequently have we, in our lives, lamented the ending of one thing, only to see that it is the beautiful beginning of another?

    Today, I just want to encourage you to look at the changes occurring in your own life, good or bad, chosen or unchosen, and to watch very carefully for God’s hand in those things. Be open. Trust. Have faith.

    Please, please, don’t be afraid to move forward. Life may not be a Disney story where we can travel to Never Never Land and stay young forever. But with God’s help, we can learn to embrace every single journey. We can fly. Now be off!

    Posted on February 1, 2012, to:

  • Serve as Jesus serves

    5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Mk 1:29-39

    The Book of Job is the source of this weekend’s first reading. This book furnishes few details about the identity of Job.

    It nonetheless is one of the great literary works in the Old Testament, and one of the best remembered if not always exactly remembered.

    Misreading Job has led to a phrase that has gone into English common speech, the “patience of Job.” Clearly, Job was not always so patient with God.

    For instance, in this weekend’s reading, Job vents his impatience. He asks if life on earth is not in reality drudgery. Each human being, Job writes, is a slave. Personally, Job says he has been assigned “months of misery.” “I shall not see happiness again,” he writes drearily.

    St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians provides the second reading.

    The same source has given earlier weekend liturgies this winter their second readings. In this passage from First Corinthians, Paul insists that he was free to accept the call to be an Apostle or to spurn the call. He chose to accept the call.

    So, he proclaims the Good News. He explains the identity, and mission, of Jesus. It is an act of service, and of love, given for people who otherwise would not know Jesus. Paul sees nothing as more important than bringing people to the knowledge of Christ and to loving Christ.

    For its final reading, the Church offers us, from St. Mark’s Gospel, the story of the Lord’s curing of Peter’s mother-in-law.

    The story’s point is clear. Merely by touching her hand, Jesus cured the woman. She was so fully cured, in fact, that she immediately rose from her sickbed and began to wait on Jesus and the disciples. She was healthy again, but she used her health to care for others.

    Lest it appear that this woman simply resumed routine domestic chores, it should be noted that the verb used by Mark in this reference is the same verb used to describe the ministry of the angels while Jesus was in the desert, an event soon to be told. For Christians, serving others, even in their physical needs, is holy and a product of union with Christ.

    (This miracle long has fascinated Christians. Indeed, in the ruins of Capernaum is a site pious pilgrims identified many centuries ago as the place where the house of Peter’s mother-in-law stood.)

    The story continues. Jesus heals the sick and drives demons away. Then, alone, Jesus went to a distant place to pray. Simon and the others pursue Jesus, longing to be near the Lord, needing the Lord.

    When at last they find Jesus, the Lord reminds them that the messianic role is to reach all people.

    Reflection

    The Church continues to introduce us to Jesus, the Lord, the Son of God, with all the power thus implied. In this Liturgy of the Word further puts before us the images of Job, the Apostle Paul, Peter’s mother-in-law and the Apostles accompanying Jesus.

    Paul very obviously gave his life to the vocation to which Jesus called him, that of being an Apostle, of being the bearer to people of the Lord’s message and mercy. It was the mission of all the Apostles, as Jesus told them. It is the mission of Christians.

    Peter’s mother-in-law, cured by Jesus, did not simply return to life as usual, but, as Mark’s use of a particular verb shows, she served others, as Jesus served.

    Job brings to mind who and what we are, limited human beings, whose limitations at times may test our best intentions. Amid this reality, the Lord is our strength and our model. The Apostles knew that there is no other model and none with greater strength and power than the Lord.

    Posted on February 1, 2012, to:

  • Unprecedented attack on our religious liberty

    On Friday, January 20th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

    This alarming mandate not only negatively impacts the Catholic Church in the United States directly, it also strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty of all citizens of any faith.

    Our Founding Fathers recognized the innate right to religious liberty when they enshrined this right as our first freedom in the Bill of Rights. The author of the First Amendment, James Madison, wrote: “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” Thomas Jefferson wrote: “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.”

    We as Americans cherish our religious liberty, which includes freedom of conscience. The mandate from HHS is an unprecedented attack on this liberty since it coerces religious institutions and citizens to pay for actions that violate our moral teachings and religious beliefs.

    We cannot and we will not comply with this unjust federal order. We cannot and we will not accept this egregious affront to our religious liberty.

    For institutions and individuals that have on moral grounds not provided these illicit “services” before, HHS extended the deadline for compliance with its mandate to August 1, 2013, in effect, giving us one year to prepare to violate our consciences, which we cannot and will not do. Instead, we need to do all we can in the coming months to correct this terrible wrong. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is actively exploring options for litigation and legislative proposals to remedy this injustice.

    The implications of this mandate for the Catholic Church in the United States, including our diocese, our Catholic health care institutions, our Catholic colleges and universities, and our Catholic Charities are grave. This injustice also negatively affects other religious institutions and people of faith who share our moral beliefs on these issues. Many who do not share our beliefs also object to the HHS rules, recognizing that they are a violation of religious freedom and the rights of conscience.

    Some have noted that HHS included a religious exemption in the new mandate. But to be eligible for this exemption, an organization must meet four strict criteria, including the requirement that it both hire and serve primarily people of its own faith. Catholic schools and hospitals would have to eject their non-Catholic employees, students and patients to qualify for the exemption. Catholic Charities and other Catholic social service agencies would have to eject their non-Catholic employees and provide help primarily to Catholics. As some have noted, Jesus and his apostles would not have been “religious enough” for this exemption, since they healed and served people of different faiths.

    In the aftermath of the HHS ruling on January 20th, I and many of my brother bishops have spoken out forcefully against the unjust mandate, against this unconscionable decision of the Obama Administration. On January 20th, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, wrote:

    “I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic community can muster. For me there is no other fundamental issue as important as this one as we enter into the Presidential and Congressional campaigns. Every candidate must be pressed to declare his-her position on all of the fundamental life issues, especially the role of government to determine what conscience decision must be followed: either the person’s own moral and conscience decision, or that dictated/enforced by the Federal government.”

    Indeed, we must focus our energies in the coming months on fighting this unjust mandate and defending our religious liberty. I exhort all, our priests, deacons, religious, and laity to be engaged on this issue. We need to defend our cherished rights and resist violations of our first freedom. We must hold firm and be courageous in this matter. I am indeed grateful for the strong public stance taken by the presidents of the Catholic colleges and universities in our diocese as well as that taken by our Catholic health care leaders. We must be united in our defense of the religious liberty granted us by God and protected in our nation’s Constitution.

    Just a couple days before the announcement of the HHS decision, Pope Benedict XVI, in an ad limina address to Bishops of the United States, spoke about his worry that religious liberty in the United States is being weakened. He called it the “most cherished of American freedoms.” The Holy Father said:

    “Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience. Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society.”

    As a community of faith, we must commit ourselves to prayer and sacrifice so that truth and justice may prevail and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing. With God, nothing is impossible. I also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

    May the Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us in this battle!

    Most Reverend Kevin C. Rhoades

    Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

    Posted on February 1, 2012, to:

  • St. Paul preached and baptized converts

    Where is Crete where St. Paul’s ship was caught in a hurricane?

    St. Paul was continuing his journey by ship from Jerusalem to Rome when he encountered a hurricane and unexpectedly had to land at the Greek island of Crete (or Kriti). Crete is the largest of the Greek islands in the eastern Mediterranean Sea southeast of mainland Greece. Crete is famous for its ancient Minoan civilization (300-2100 B.C.) and its ancient paintings and ruins are very interesting to see.

    O. Meinardus says that St. Paul’s ship anchored at Fair Havens in Crete about the end of the first week of October, AD 61. Here the ship stayed for possibly three weeks waiting for the wind to change. Fair Havens (or Kaloi Limenes) is the name of a small village, a bay and a group of islets on the southern coast of Crete.

    In 1851 Captain Spratt anchored his paddle steamer where St. Paul’s ship had sought shelter. On a ridge over the bay Spratt found the ruins of a Greek chapel dedicated to St. Paul, perhaps marking the very spot where Paul himself used to preach to the natives of Crete.

    Today the existing white chapel, commemorating St. Paul’s arrival on Crete, is situated on the brow of the hill overlooking the bay. It is built upon the site of the former church. A few yards to the west of the church is the traditional cave where St. Paul stayed. This cave is marked by a very tall cross. There are houses in Fair Havens scattered around the bay.

    Another town of Crete is called Phoenix (modern Loutro) and is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Loutro was a better harbor for waiting out the winter. The people of Loutro maintain that St. Paul visited their town. Today there is a little chapel of St. Paul and a spring of St. Paul between the coastal towns of Loutro and Aglia Roumeli. This chapel commemorates the site where St. Paul baptized his first Cretan converts. A service is held in this chapel each year on June 29, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul.

    St. Paul’s companion Titus became the first bishop of Crete. There is an epistle of St. Paul to Titus in the New Testament.

    At Gortyna, the capital of Crete during the Roman period when St. Paul lived, you can see the ruins of the Church of St. Titus, which dates from the 4th century A.D. Tradition says St. Paul appointed St. Titus the bishop of Crete on the site of this church. In this church you can see the beautiful shrine of St. Titus. At Herakleion on Crete you can visit the large Cathedral of St. Titus and see a beautiful large icon of St. Paul.

    Posted on January 25, 2012, to:

  • The consecrated life

    Blessed John Paul II wrote: “The consecrated life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit.”

    This coming week, we give thanks in a special way for the gift of consecrated life as we celebrate the World Day for Consecrated Life. This celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. On this day, forty days after Christmas, we remember the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple. This feast is also called Candlemas Day since it is the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world. It is an appropriate day to celebrate consecrated life in the Church since consecrated men and women are called to reflect the light of Christ to all people.

    We often speak of those in consecrated life as men and women religious. They are those who are consecrated to God by the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. They are religious sisters, brothers, and priests who have answered the Lord’s call to serve him with an undivided heart. Most belong to religious congregations and are active in various apostolates of the Church, according to the charisms of their communities. Some live a cloistered life, devoted to prayer and contemplation.

    Consecrated life is truly a gift to the Church. I think of the religious sisters who taught me through twelve years of Catholic education back home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. I will be forever grateful for their excellent teaching and especially for their beautiful witness of the faith. One of my favorite sisters, who taught me at Lebanon Catholic High School, recently wrote to me that she has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Please remember her in your prayers. She is a beautiful woman of faith who had a very positive influence on my life and my vocation. I am sure that many who are reading this column have had similar experiences of wonderful religious sisters, brothers, and priests who helped them in their lives in a multitude of ways.

    We are very blessed by the large presence of consecrated men and women in our diocese.

    We have over 200 Holy Cross priests and brothers in our diocese, serving at the University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, and in parish, health care, and educational ministries. The U.S. Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross (priests and brothers) and the Midwest province of the Brothers of Holy Cross are headquartered here in our diocese. We have nearly 200 Sisters of the Holy Cross in our diocese. The Sisters of the Holy Cross, who sponsor Saint Mary’s College, also have their provincial house here and are active in various apostolates.

    We have over 70 Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration in our diocese. Their provincial motherhouse is in Mishawaka where we are blessed to have a Chapel of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The Sisters of Saint Francis sponsor the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne and are quite active in health care and educational apostolates. The corporate offices for the Sisters’ health care system, the Franciscan Alliance, is also headquartered in Mishawaka.

    We have over 70 Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ in our diocese. Their provincial motherhouse is in Donaldson. The Poor Handmaids sponsor Ancilla College and they are also active in health care and social outreach ministries.

    The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Victory have their provincial motherhouse in Huntington. We have over 80 “Victory Noll Sisters” who are involved in the mission of catechesis and pastoral renewal. Archbishop John Noll was instrumental in their founding and locating in our diocese.

    Many of the religious sisters, brothers, and priests mentioned above are now retired from active ministry, but not retired from religious life. They continue to bear witness to Christ and to serve the Church through their prayers, sacrifices, and witness of faith.

    In Fort Wayne, we also have two new communities of consecrated men and women, the Franciscan Brothers Minor and the Franciscan Sisters Minor. As new communities, they are not yet “religious institutes,” but are “public associations of the faithful,” according to canon law. The brothers strive to live the original Rule of Saint Francis according to the Capuchin reform. The sisters are discerning a contemplative life according to the Rule of Saint Clare.

    We have many other religious men and women serving or living in our diocese (some as students at our Catholic universities) who belong to congregations that are not headquartered in our diocese. The men belong to the following religious institutes: the Friars Minor Capuchins, the Friars Minor Conventuals, the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Order of Friars Minor, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Society of Divine Word, and the Society of Jesus. The women belong to the following religious institutes: Adrian Dominicans, Congregation of Saint Joseph, Daughters of Divine Charity, Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, Dominican Sisters of Peace, Felician Sisters, Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Handmaids of the Most Holy Trinity, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Saint Agnes, Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, and Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

    Let us remember all these men and women religious in a special way in our prayers on February 2nd. They are a blessing to the Church. Let us intensify our prayers for vocations to the consecrated life. We definitely need more religious sisters, brothers, and priests, just as we need more diocesan priests. We need these witnesses of what Pope John Paul called “the radicalism of the Gospel.” Living the evangelical counsels, they are a sign to all of us of our call to follow Christ and to conform our existence to him. They follow Christ in a special way and give their lives in the service of God and his Church. The Church needs men and women who devote themselves totally to God and to others out of love for God.

    We are all called to holiness. Consecrated men and women remind us of this call. They follow a specific path to holiness through their profession of the evangelical counsels. How many saints of the Church were consecrated men and women religious! Just think of some of some of the more recently canonized saints like Holy Cross Brother, Saint Andre Bessette, and Indiana’s own Saint, Mother Theodore Guerin. Later this year, we will see the canonization of another American religious, Mother Marianne Cope, who served the lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. And, of course, there is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom I pray will also soon be canonized. May these saints pray for us and for an increase of vocations to the consecrated life in the Church!

    Posted on January 25, 2012, to: