Columnists

  • 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:

  • Jesus rescues us from sin and points the way to holiness

    4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Mk 1:21-28

    The Book of Deuteronomy furnishes the first reading for this weekend. Deuteronomy appears in modern Bibles as the fifth book in sequence in the Old Testament. It is one of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, all of them attributed to Moses.

    In this reading, Moses addresses the chosen people, whom he has led, with God’s help, from Egypt where they were enslaved. He promises that God will send prophets, with whom the people can relate. If anyone presumes to take the role of prophet upon himself or herself, without having been called by God, then this imposter will die.

    God will take care of His people.

    St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians is the source of the second reading. From the earliest days of Christianity, virginity has been treasured. Christians have never been forbidden to marry, although all Christians are bound to be chaste, according to their state in life. However, over the centuries, Christians have chosen lifelong virginity for religious reasons.

    Corinth, in the first century, was a city notorious for its outrageous immorality. It was a busy commercial center. Visitors often availed themselves of the pleasures of the flesh provided in Corinth. Indeed, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and carnal desire, was the city’s special deity.

    Paul sees virginity as a powerful Christian witness, and from a more pragmatic point of view, he thinks that Christians not obligated by marriage and parenthood can devote their whole time to God’s service.

    St. Mark’s Gospel is the source of the third reading. It is an interesting story, the first of four references to exorcisms.

    First, Mark again reveals the identity of Jesus. While Judaism has never required weekly attendance by Jews at synagogue services, going to synagogue to pray together, and to learn the teachings of the Torah, was definitely a high value for Jews during the time of Jesus, as indeed it is even among Jews today.

    That Jesus went to the synagogue, and on the Sabbath at that, reveals the ongoing gift of salvation offered by God to the chosen people. Jesus fulfilled and culminated this long process of mercy and life.

    Then, Jesus spoke with authority, and the people realized this.

    The most dramatic moment came when a man “with an unclean spirit” appeared. This man recognized Jesus as the “Holy One of God,” affirming that Jesus has the power to do anything.

    Exercising nothing less than divine power, Jesus orders the unclean spirit to leave the man, and the unclean spirit obeys.

    Again, the people are amazed. No devil can overcome the power of God.

    Reflection

    Thanks be to God, few people today would say that they, or great numbers of people, are “possessed by the devil,” although the Church still teaches that such possessions occur.

    Still, sin is real. Evil is real. All sin, and sin is the mark of the devil’s involvement to some extent at least in any person’s spiritual life.

    An unfortunate mark of these irreligious times is that fewer and fewer people have any sense of sin. Few think of themselves as sinners. They succumb to the age-old tactic of rationalization, abetted by this culture’s increasing rejection of any transcendent religious principle, taught by any religious authority.

    The contemporaries of Jesus had a strong sense of sin. They saw personal sin, and society’s sin, as the root of all heartache and injustice. They knew that humans, and human communities, easily may be prey for temptation.

    Jesus, the Son of God, in the words of Mark, rescues people from sin, forgiving them for sins committed, and pointing the way to holiness.

    Resisting sin, nevertheless, requires personal resolve, a determination equal to that urged by Paul in his message to the Corinthians.

    Posted on January 25, 2012, to:

  • Fifty-fifth anniversary of Priestly Ordination

    In a few days I will observe 55 years as a priest. The ordination in my seminary in those years took place on Feb. 2, 1957, the day the Church commemorates that moment when Mary brought her Child to the temple in observance of the Jewish law.

    I am struck about how I remember almost every moment of that cold and snowy day. After a lifetime it remains so clear, etched in my memory forever. My parents. My sisters. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross. My brother priests who prostrated themselves on the sanctuary floor as a sign of offering everything.

    I have never felt worthy of the gift of the priesthood, but still I reflect on the years with profound joy and gratitude.

    More and more these days my prayer is turning to thanksgiving, thanksgiving to God for what happened that day through the laying on of hands by the unforgettable Cardinal Cushing. Thanksgiving also for the gift of Episcopal orders, which took place on another Feast of Our Lady — Feb. 11, the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes.

    As the anniversary approaches, I find coming to mind the words of two extraordinary popes, with whom I have served. The first expression clarifies the priestly vocation, and the second gives light for the future.

    The great day for the pope

    While at lunch with Pope John Paul II and other bishops at our “ad limina” visit, I said to him, “Holy Father, do you have a word for our priests?” His response was immediate.

    “Tell your priests,” he said, “the great day for the pope was not the day when he became a bishop or a pope, but the day he was ordained a priest and could say Mass for the people.”

    “… could say Mass for the people.” This expression is filled with light and grace and theological content. It is also marked by humility, for it makes clear the gift of Holy Orders is not primarily for the priest himself, but for the people.

    The priest, acting in the person of Christ, is fittingly called to make the only life that he will ever live as a gift for the people, who through his words — which are the words of Christ — are joined to the sacrifice of Christ.

    This truth is expressed repeatedly during the ritual of ordination; for example, when the bishop hands the candidate the chalice filled with wine and the paten, he says: “understand what you are doing, imitate what you handle and model your life on the Lord’s cross.”

    Only in this context can we begin to understand why the Church has for hundreds of years required the gift of celibacy for the priest. It is fitting that before the priest can offer the Eucharist, he must offer himself — body and soul.

    Pope Benedict XVI

    I also find myself considering these words of “the Professor Pope,” as he once called himself, an extraordinary theologian and pastor — Pope Benedict XVI.

    On his pilgrimage to this country, he was interviewed on the airplane. In answer to a question about the great scandal that had fallen on the Church, he said, “It is more important to have good priests than to have many priests.” As he has done many times during his pontificate; for example, in his homily at the conclusion of the Year for Priests, with 15,000 priests concelebrating with him in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI made clear that the future must be marked by careful discernment before a man is ordained to the priesthood. In my years as bishop, I prayed every day for an increase to the priesthood and consecrated life. Many years ago, I began to add to this prayer asking God to send more candidates for the priesthood and that only men of good quality be accepted and ordained. This reflects the teaching of the Church for centuries.

    “The life of the celibate priest, which engages the whole man so totally and so delicately, excludes in fact those of insufficient psycho-physical and moral balance. Nor should anyone pretend that grace supplies for the defects of nature in such a man.” — Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter on Priestly Celibacy, 1967.

    Retirement, like any stage of life, is an invitation to closer union with Christ. I have been helping on weekdays and Sundays in parishes in both offering Mass “for the people,” as John Paul II would say, and also hearing confessions with my brother priests. What has caught my eye especially is the fidelity of those priests with whom I have worked these past 26 years. They have served with humility and courage through the dark days. May God bless them all.

    I will give thanks on my anniversary for many things — for my parents, the main instrument of my vocation; my three dear sisters; for the gift of priesthood and I will give thanks for the 26 years I have been privileged to spend with you.

    Please pray for me that I may live out these years with increased fidelity and increased devotion to Christ our Savior and to His people.

    Posted on January 25, 2012, to:

  • Seminary visits and March for Life

    This weekend I am traveling east for a number of engagements. On Thursday, January 19th, I will be traveling to the Pontifical College Josephinum, one of the seminaries where our diocese sends men for their priestly formation. It is a good opportunity not only to meet with the seminary rector and formation team about the progress of our seminarians, but also to meet individually with the eight young men from our diocese who are studying for the priesthood at the Josephinum, to discuss their spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation as well as their ongoing vocational discernment.

    On Friday, I will celebrate the community Mass at the Josephinum. I noticed that the Gospel that day recounts Jesus’ appointment of the twelve apostles. Our Lord sums up the duties of the Twelve in two simple phrases: “to be with him” and “that he might send them forth.” For priests and future priests, these are important words to contemplate. I intend to speak to the seminarians about their call “to be with Jesus,” to live in friendship and communion with him. This is at the very heart of the vocation to the priesthood. Only one who lives in intimate friendship with Christ can truly proclaim him to others.

    What the Church needs most in her priests is that we be men of God, men in friendship with Christ. Only then are we able to be good priests for our people. In my homily, I will encourage the seminarians to see their time in the seminary as like the time the apostles spent with Jesus, learning from him, being with him, before being sent out on mission. For priests and seminarians, indeed for all of us, there are beautiful forms of prayer that nourish our friendship with Jesus and our life in Him: daily Holy Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharistic adoration, lectio divina, and the holy rosary.

    I will leave the Josephinum on Friday and drive to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in my former diocese, to celebrate the Sanctity of Life Mass, a commitment I made quite some time ago, for the Order of Malta. This esteemed order, linked to the Holy See, has been a religious Order since the year 1113, when it was recognized by Pope Paschal II. It continues to follow its original principles — the defense of the Catholic faith and service to those who suffer.

    At the Mass for the Order of Malta, which is also open to all, I will speak about the sanctity of life, offering some reflections on the Genesis story of Cain and Abel. Blessed John Paul II, in his great encyclical The Gospel of Life, wrote about this story of the first murder and said that this page of the Book of Genesis is “a page rewritten daily, with inexorable and degrading frequency, in the book of human history.” It is a page rewritten daily here in the United States of America where there is an average of 42 homicides each day and over 3,000 abortions each day.

    We can learn so much today from the story of Cain and Abel. Human life is sacred. The blood of Abel cried out to God. The blood of the innocent continues to cry out today, the innocent victims of abortion, infanticide, homicide, war, and terrorism. Violence against human life continues in the millions who suffer from hunger and poverty, from human trafficking and drug trafficking, and a vast array of other threats to the dignity of human life.

    When God asked Cain “where is your brother Abel?” Cain tried to cover up his crime with a lie. He said “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to that question is “yes, we are.” Whether our brother or sister is a tiny baby in the mother’s womb or a child suffering from malnutrition in Africa, a teenager who has been drawn into a drug addiction or an elderly and lonely person in a nursing home, we are called to recognize each person as our brother or sister. God entrusts us to one another. And God entrusts to us women who have had abortions, women who suffer such deep wounds, psychological and spiritual problems, resulting from the abortion of their babies. We are called to reach out to them with the love and mercy of Jesus.

    After the Mass in Lancaster, I will head to Washington, D.C., for the weekend activities of the annual March for Life. I am looking forward to Mass on Sunday with the hundreds of people, mostly youth, from our diocese who will join me for a 3:00 PM Mass at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington. Sunday, January 22nd, is the 39th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in which a whole segment of our human family became excluded from the protection of the law and from the recognition that all people are created equal.

    For the past 39 years, pre-born human beings have been unprotected and over 50 million unborn children have been legally killed in our nation. The culture of death prevailed as the Supreme Court committed our nation to an irrational determination of who counts as a human being, according to location, within or outside the womb. The Supreme Court insisted on calling unborn human life “potential human life,” as if passage through the birth canal turns a potential human being into an actual human being! Who of us would say that we were not yet persons when we lived in our mothers’ wombs?

    At our diocesan Mass in Washington, I will reflect on the words of Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Each of us individually is called to continual conversion, which is necessary for growth in holiness. Repentance or conversion is something deeply personal. And it is a life-long task. We all know areas of our life which need reform. We are truly blessed as Catholics with the gift of the sacrament of Reconciliation which makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion and restores us to God’s grace.

    Conversion also has a social and communal dimension. On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we think of the repentance and conversion needed in our nation for the legal killing of so many millions of unborn children. Our country needs a metanoia, a change of mentality, one that recognizes the value and inviolability of human life and that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral.

    I look forward to participating again in the March for Life on Monday, January 23rd. Many busloads of people are coming from our diocese to participate. Prior to the March, I will be concelebrating the Youth Mass at the Verizon Center in downtown D.C.

    After the March, I will continue on to Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, to visit our nine diocesan seminarians studying there. As at the Josephinum, I will meet with the seminary rector as well as individually with our young men about their growth in priestly formation. I will also have the opportunity to celebrate Holy Mass for the Mount community on Tuesday, January 24th, the Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, an exemplary priest and bishop.

    I intend to speak to the community at Mount Saint Mary’s about the priestly virtues of Saint Francis de Sales as an example for us today. In his day, Francis’ task was the re-evangelization of the diocese of Geneva after the Protestant Reformation. He was quite successful in reviving Catholicism in the region. Thousands converted to the Catholic faith.

    Our task today is the new evangelization within a culture of increasing secularism and relativism. The Church needs priests to be men of prayer like Saint Francis de Sales, men devoted to the Holy Eucharist, imbued with the spirit of pastoral charity, and intellectually prepared to proclaim and defend the Catholic faith. We need priests, like Saint Francis de Sales, who have a missionary spirit and pastoral zeal for the mission of the new evangelization.

    Please pray for our priests and seminarians, and for Bishop D’Arcy and me. And, especially this weekend, please pray for a new culture of life in our nation and throughout the world. May the Blessed Virgin Mary and Blessed John Paul II intercede for us that we will always be strong in our defense of the sanctity of human life!

    Posted on January 18, 2012, to: