Spirituality and stress along the Gulf Coast - What priestly identity is and is not - Catholic investors urge action against human trafficking at World Cup - Crossing the "Jericho Road" willingly in modern communities

July 1, 2010

Recognizing a dying person's spiritual needs - The workings of one diocese's small presbyterate - The relationship of ministerial and lay priesthood - Priests and married couples: partners for the church's well-being

In this edition:
1. North American to head Vatican bishops congregation.
2. Essential relationship: ministerial priesthood, lay priesthood.
3. Unique pastoral letter looks inside a presbyterate.
4. Pope draws parallels between celibacy and marriage.
5. The partnership of priests and married couples.
6. Current quotes to ponder:
a) ethical basics for the economy;
b) misunderstanding priesthood at its root.
7. Responding to a dying person's spiritual needs.
8. Lessons of the Gulf oil spill.

1. North American to Head Vatican Bishops Congregation

Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec City, Quebec, is the new prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops. The Vatican announced June 30 that the Canadian cardinal is to head the office that oversees the papal process of selecting bishops for the world's Latin-rite dioceses.

This is the first time a North American cardinal has been placed in charge of the powerful congregation, Catholic News Service reported. In his new role the cardinal succeeds 76-year old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. Cardinal Ouellet also will serve in Rome as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Pierre Morissette, commented that Cardinal Ouellet will be "greatly assisted" in his new role "by his ability to communicate in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as by his post-graduate academic formation in both philosophy and theology."

The cardinal brings to his new role "an extensive knowledge of the church today, and a deep appreciation of its challenges and opportunities in the contemporary world," said Bishop Morissette.

Cardinal Ouellet spoke about some of these challenges and opportunities in a spring 2008 speech to the Catholic Media Convention held in Toronto, Ontario. He said, "The greatest challenge facing the church at the beginning of the new millennium is the task that has always been entrusted to her: evangelization."

What the "new evangelization" means, he said, is "to dare once again and with the humility of the small grain to leave up to God the when and how it will grow." In other words, he said, "large realities begin in humility."

God both "transcends culture" and "meets us in our culture," Cardinal Ouellet told the convention of North American Catholic communicators. He commented that evangelization grows stronger "when it considers seriously the people to whom it is addressed, using their language, signs and symbols, and answering the questions they ask, thus actually touching their daily lives."

Cardinal Ouellet pointed out that "the New Testament shows the church's deep respect for the context in which the Gospel is preached." For example, "Paul's letters pay careful attention to the prevailing atmosphere of each distinctive community," he said.

At the same time, the cardinal noted, "the Gospel also helps us recognize our own need to be evangelized. As the people of God immersed in the world, often tempted by our own false idols, we too need to examine the way we pray, celebrate and proclaim the Gospel."

Within the church, "mutual esteem, reverence and harmony" ought to exist alongside "all legitimate diversity," Cardinal Ouellet said. He expressed a conviction that "the ties which unite the faithful together are stronger than those which separate them." Thus, he said, "Let there be unity in what is necessary, freedom in what is doubtful and charity in everything."

The devastating effects of joylessness, described as a form of poverty, also were examined in his speech. "The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries," he said.

This problem, as Cardinal Ouellet outlined it, has much to do with the "art of living." He said the problem is that "the inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice -- all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world."

The cardinal told the Catholic communicators that "this is precisely why we are in need of a new evangelization: If the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But this art is not the object of a science -- this art can only be communicated by one who has life, he who is the Gospel personified."

2. An Essential Relationship: Ministerial and Lay Priesthood

"There is a fundamental, ordered relationship between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood. These two priesthoods are in fact two expressions of the one priesthood of Jesus Christ," H. Richard McCord Jr. said April 21 when he addressed a convocation of the priests of the Pittsburgh Diocese. McCord is executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

Vatican Council II "intended to highlight the significance and indeed the necessity of a truly mutual ecclesial relationship between priests and laity," he said, citing the council's Constitution on the Church. It becomes clear, he observed, that priests and laity "share in the one priesthood of Christ because they serve the one mission which Christ accomplishes through his church."

The relationship of priests and laity "sharing in the one priesthood of Christ" ought to be "dynamic, creative and alive with possibility," McCord said.

He called attention to a statement in the Constitution on the Church explaining that "though they differ essentially and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated; each in its own way shares in the one priesthood of Christ."

The role relationships fulfill in a person's self-understanding was accented by McCord. "Relationships are essential to knowing who we are," he said.

McCord added that "no one is a priest only for himself or by himself. Rather, he exists and is continually formed in relationships -- with God, with self, with the church, with other priests and deacons, with his bishop, with laity, with his family and friends."

To understand their own "priestly identity more fully," McCord encouraged his audience of priests to ponder how that identity places them "in ecclesial relationships to others." He said, "In and through these relationships your understanding of priestly identity, your growth in ministry and spirituality are unfolding and being shaped."

McCord's speech explored five ways -- five "languages" -- to describe how the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood work together. One of these five ways is "the language of different gifts and parts within one and the same body."

By definition, a Christian community is "a gifted community," called to witness and serve by "identifying, releasing and coordinating" all the gifts "that the Holy Spirit has given its members," according to McCord. He said, "The two complementary priesthoods -- of the lay faithful and of the ordained -- operate on the fuel provided by the diversity of gifts and roles present in the one body."

St. Paul made clear (1 Cor 12) that the rich diversity of gifts given by the Spirit to the members of the body of Christ "comes from the same Lord and is meant to build up his body, the church." Paul also emphasized "that all parts of the body are necessary, yet are distinct from one another and not interchangeable," McCord said.

"The language of collaboration in ministry" is among other ways of describing how the ministerial priesthood and the priesthood of the faithful work together. However, collaboration is accompanied by challenges, he indicated.

McCord noted, for example, that the "human condition being what it is, we should expect that there will occasionally be feelings of competition or displacement between priests and lay ministers." However, he proposed, "these can be remedied without discounting either lay or ordained ministry as such."

Yes, problems may exist "when any two individuals or groups attempt to collaborate," McCord told the Pittsburgh priests. "Facing them honestly is always the first step," he said.

Priests and lay ministers today often are seen to be "doing very similar things, e.g., teaching a Bible class or doing sacramental preparation." But this "does not necessarily mean that one is usurping the other's proper duties or aspiring to be what he or she is not," McCord said. Typically, "lay ministers are doing what their baptism empowers them to do," he explained.

If tensions sometimes are witnessed, it nonetheless can be expected that "there will be many good examples of collaboration in which the gifts, responsibilities and roles of lay and ordained ministers work in harmony -- each enhancing the other," McCord said.

Surveys have shown, he pointed out, "that parishioners see lay ministry not as competing with but as expanding what they already receive in the ministries of the ordained." For example, parishioners may say: "Before Father hired the youth minister we were able to have only a certain limited program. But now, with a youth minister, we have that program and so much more."

McCord called that "just one small example of how in everyday circumstances we can see how the two priesthoods function for a greater good." (McCord's speech appeared in the July 1 edition of Origins, CNS Documentary Service)

3. Unique Pastoral Letter Offers View Inside a Presbyterate

The bishop and the nine priests of the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska, issued a pastoral letter jointly June 6 to mark the end of the church's Year for Priests. Perhaps incidentally, though perhaps not so incidentally, their joint pastoral letter offered a glimpse inside the workings of a presbyterate that is few in numbers.

"This pastoral letter is unique in that it not only comes from me, your bishop, but it is a pastoral letter to you from all the priests active in the Diocese of Juneau, our local church," Bishop Edward Burns of Juneau explained in the pastoral letter's Introduction.

Bishop Burns said he invited the diocese's nine priests to join him in writing the pastoral letter, which is titled "Strengthening the Church Through a Strong and Holy Presbyterate." They worked together on the pastoral letter during a recent, annual priests' retreat.

As a group, Bishop Burns said, the members of the Juneau presbyterate "formulated an outline, discussed its contents and prayed for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in bringing forth this message." Each member of the presbyterate "had the responsibility of drafting a section of this pastoral letter, and we all participated in the editing process," the bishop added.

The bishop and priests of Juneau noted in their pastoral letter that "the presbyterates of most dioceses include dozens, and even hundreds, of priests." In comparison with others, they are a small group. But they "know one another very well as friends and brothers," they said.

The pastoral letter noted that Juneau's priests "often gather as a presbyterate around the bishop's dining room table." And, "although we are scattered among the communities of southeast Alaska, we gather by telephone with the bishop each Monday morning for a short sharing of news and experience, and to pray the Liturgy of the Hours," the letter said.

The pastoral letter discussed many dimensions of a priest's life. A priest is called and empowered to exercise an "outward authority with the interior attitude of Christ himself" and "to do so in a spirit of total, sacrificial self-giving as a servant of Christ's people," the letter said. The Christ-like approach expected of priests "as spiritual fathers and shepherds is in stark contrast with the ways that our people often experience leadership in other areas of their lives," it added.

So often, the leadership people see in the world around them "reflects in some way an assertion of power by the leaders in ways that highlight their dominance over other members of the community." However, according to the Juneau presbyterate, "it is precisely because of the tremendous power and authority that he is called to exercise on behalf of Christ that the approach of a priest to his ministry must reject such attitudes of dominance. Like Jesus himself, we are called to embrace a sacrificial servanthood."

The bishop and priests of Juneau pledged to the people of the diocese that "we will be there for you as you have been there for us. This is our commitment." Having noted the crises of these times, particularly the sexual abuse crisis, the presbyterate said:

"We are all called to serve God in his church in this time of crisis. Somehow, God in his infinite plan has called us to serve his church at this time in history, during the joys and challenges of today."

4. Pope Draws Parallels Between Celibacy and Marriage

One might suspect that a priest's commitment to remain unmarried would become the object of less criticism at a time when fewer lay people themselves are choosing to get married, Pope Benedict XVI suggested during a June 10 vigil service with some 10,000 priests assembled in Rome for the conclusion of the church's Year for Priests. However, he told the international gathering, a priest's "yes" to celibacy actually resembles a spouse's "yes" to marriage, not the "no" of people whose "no" to marriage reflects some form of disdain for the institution.

A priest from Slovakia posed the question about celibacy, saying he has been "stunned to read so much worldly criticism of this gift." In part of his impromptu response to the priest, Pope Benedict said that "in a certain sense, this continuous criticism against celibacy may surprise in a time when it is becoming increasingly fashionable not to get married." However, he continued, "this not-getting-married is something totally, fundamentally different from celibacy."

The pope then pointed to an avoidance of marriage in today's society that "is based on a will to live only for oneself, of not accepting any definitive tie, of having the life of every moment in full autonomy, of deciding at any time what to do, what to take from life." Therefore, one is talking about "a 'no' to the bond, a 'no' to definitiveness" in order "to have life for oneself alone."

Celibacy, on the other hand, "is just the opposite" of such a stance, Pope Benedict said. Celibacy "is a definitive 'yes.'"

Choosing celibacy means letting "oneself be taken in the hand of God, giving oneself into the hands of the Lord, into his 'I.' And therefore, it is an act of loyalty and trust, an act that also implies the fidelity of marriage," said the pope.

Celibacy is nothing like the choice of an "autonomy that accepts no obligations, which will not enter into a bond," the pope told the priests. He called celibacy a "definitive 'yes' that supposes, confirms the definitive 'yes' of marriage."

The pope next spoke of marriage in highly praiseworthy terms, saying that were it to disappear, "the root of our culture will be destroyed." And he said that "celibacy confirms the 'yes' of marriage with its 'yes' to the future world." Celibacy becomes "a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world," he said.

5. The Partnership of Ministerial Priests and Married Couples

The relationship of marriage and the ministerial priesthood - a frequent theme for Pope Benedict XVI -- was discussed by Father Thomas Vandenberg in a speech June 25 in Cincinnati to the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers. "There are two social sacraments of the church, orders and matrimony, and both are absolutely necessary for the health of the church," said Father Vandenberg, a priest of the Seattle Archdiocese known as a long-time Marriage Encounter leader and author of "Matrimony, a Sign for Our Time."

Father Vandenberg told participants in the NACFLM convention that matrimony is "a call, a vocation, from God through the church that asks a couple: 'Will you spend your love of each other for us?' 'Will you allow us to look to you as a sign of how we are to love one another in the church?'"

To the couples in his audience, the priest said: "You want me as a priest to spend my life for you, right? After all, that's my call from God and the church. We understand that. Why can't I, in the name of all of God's people, ask you, call you, invite you to spend your love for us? It's not just between the two of you. When you marry in the Catholic Church, you let the people of God in on your love. We have to change the way we look at the sacrament of matrimony. Your marriage is for you. The sacrament is for us."

Sacramentally married couples "bring something of Jesus' love into our lives," Father Vandenberg said. Their "presence is a grace."

Holy orders and matrimony, as the church's social sacraments, "are both necessary for the healthy life of the church. Each emphasizes a dimension of Christ's love that is crucial if the church is to be a true sacrament of Christ to the world," said Father Vandenberg. He explained:

-- "Sacramental couples have a depth of love for each other that is profound. There is no other human relationship quite like it. There is nothing superficial or artificial about it."

-- "Priests have a love for the church that is all embracing. It is truly inclusive."

-- Thus, "these two dimensions of love together mirror and make real in the church the depth and breadth of Christ's love."

Father Vandenberg stated that together, "as partners, as the social sacraments of the church," priesthood and matrimony "call the whole church to a depth and breadth of love as the sacrament of Christ for the world."

6. Current Quotes to Ponder

Ethical Basics for the Economy: "It is now widely acknowledged that underlying the banking crisis was the gradual erosion of the duty of service to society. A market mentality which focused relentlessly on the search for ever greater and quicker profits, exploiting to the full the regulatory opportunities available, allowed many to lend and deal recklessly. In doing so, they connived of course with the eager willingness of so many to borrow beyond their means. New regulatory structures of themselves will not solve the underlying problem, which is about the purpose of banks and financial institutions: In the end, are they there just to make money or to serve society? A key part of the change needed is to forge a cultural consensus in the financial sector that its license to operate depends on a clear and demonstrable commitment to service. Of course, profits have to be made if an efficient and thriving financial sector is in fact to serve society. But the ethical judgment, which has to be transmitted right through the organizations concerned, is that profit must only be a means to this end and not an end in itself. We have a long way to go to achieve this." (Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, England, writing June 20 in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper)

Misunderstanding Priesthood at Its Root: "The priesthood can never be a means of achieving security in life or of acquiring a position in society. Anyone who aspires to the priesthood to enhance his own prestige and power has misunderstood the meaning of this ministry at its root. Anyone who wishes above all to achieve an ambition of his own, to attain success for himself, will always be a slave to himself and to public opinion. In order to be esteemed, he must flatter, he must say what people want to hear; he will have to adapt to changing fashions and opinions, and will thus deprive himself of the vital relationship with truth, reducing himself to condemning tomorrow what he had praised today. A man who plans his life in this manner, a priest who sees his ministry in these terms, does not truly love God and others but only himself and, paradoxically, ends by losing himself. The priesthood, let us always remember, is based on having the courage to say 'yes' to another will, in the awareness that we are growing every day, that precisely by conforming to God's will, by 'immersing ourselves' in this will, not only will our own originality not be obliterated, but on the contrary, we will penetrate ever more deeply into the truth of our being and our ministry." (From the June 20 homily by Pope Benedict XVI for the ordination of 14 new priests of the Rome Diocese)

7. Responding to a Dying Person's Spiritual Needs

"One of the most important and valuable things we can do for a person is to care for them in the final stages of their life," according to "A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Care of the Dying Person," released June 25 by the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. The guide is directed to health-care personnel, but many of its insights could prove helpful to caregivers of all kinds. (The guide is found online at www.catholic-ew.org.uk/; click on "Publications").

Dealing with a wide range of ethical, medical and pastoral-care issues related to care for the dying person, the guide was commissioned by the Health Care Reference Group of the British conference of bishops. The guide aims to help health-care personnel identify patients' spiritual needs and feel confident in their ability to serve those needs.

Responding to the spiritual needs of dying people is not the responsibility solely of chaplains and pastoral-care staff members, the guide insists. It says: "In some way, everyone who is involved in the care of a patient has something to give. But many staff working with patients approaching the end of their life might feel ill-equipped to respond to such spiritual needs; indeed, they might not always recognize them."

If death is reduced to a clinical event and managed "only through a series of standard procedures, then we do not deal with it well either clinically or humanly," the guide cautions. It says that when death is viewed only "as a medical failure, then we fail to understand that the real gift of medicine is not just a science but a wisdom: how to live life to the full, of which dying is a part." The guide advises that this approach to death "requires a sense of the wholeness of the person and the wholeness of a life."

The guide states: "Whether we have a religious belief or not, we can recognize that the human person is more than the sum of their physical parts. Indeed, if we only focus on the illness, consciously or unconsciously, then we distort, instrumentalize and thereby devalue a life."

According to the guide, it is important that caregivers -

-- Remember that each person experiences "pain, suffering, loss, regret in a very personal way. No two people are the same, and so our needs and the way that we express them will be different."

-- Remember that "relatives and friends will also be affected by what is happening and are likely to be suffering in their own way. They may also exhibit signs of spiritual distress and therefore need support too."

-- Make time to serve the dying. Caregivers "need to have time -- time for the person dying, time for the family and friends, time for the carers to care rather than perform procedures."

The guide encourages caregivers to "explore something of the reality and meaning of death from the perspective of 'mystery.'" Approaching death in this way does not "make it obscure." Instead, the guide says, this perspective allows caregivers to begin to recognize that death "is an event which discloses more about us, our relationships and our history than can be captured in any one category. It opens us to something of the depth of being human."

To approach death itself and the dying person within a perspective of mystery does not imply "that we stop thinking, reflecting, acting and trying to understand the experience we are participating in," the guide explains. What it does mean is that death is recognized as "something which is so charged with meaning that we can never exhaust it."

8. Lessons of the Gulf Oil Spill

What is striking about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico "is the sense of powerlessness and delay in finding a solution to this disaster -- faced by one of the largest and most technologically advanced oil multinationals in the world, but also by the most powerful country on earth," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, said June 19. The realities surrounding the BP oil spill should serve to prompt humility within the human family, he suggested.

The facts of the matter seem incredible, said Father Lombardi. "This is not the eruption of a volcano, but a relatively small, man-made hole in the seabed. Yet, in two months, expert scientists and technicians, leaders in their field, have failed to plug it," he observed.

Lessons regarding prudence and care in the use of natural resources should be drawn from the oil spill, along with a lesson in humility, he said. And while he acknowledged that technology will continue to advance its capabilities, Father Lombardi wondered what will be done if "more complex processes get out of hand, such as those affecting the energy hidden in the heart of matter" or in processes involving the formation of life.

In a June 18 statement of solidarity with all those harmed by the Gulf oil spill, the U.S. Catholic bishops said that in a special way, in these "difficult economic times," they were "mindful of those who have lost their jobs and income" as a result of the disaster. The bishops said:

"We pray first and foremost for those who died in the initial explosion and for the grieving members of their families. We express our prayerful support as well for the families and individuals whose lives and livelihoods have been so negatively impacted by the oil that daily contaminates water, beaches and God's creation in the Gulf Coast area."

They prayed also, the bishops said, "for our government leaders and for the industry leaders and experts who are working to cap the leak and repair this damage. May God give them wisdom and strength in this trying hour, and may he move them to seek lasting solutions benefitting the common good of our society."