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  New Year, New U.S. Saints

Only six years after Mother Marianne Cope was beatified, the New York-bred collaborator of St Damien deVeuster on Hawaii's Molokai leper colony has cleared the final hurdle to sainthood.

Officials of Blessed Marianne's Syracuse-based cause relayed word that the cardinal-members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had affirmed that a second inexplicable healing attributed to the intercession of the Franciscan nun (1838-1918) was, indeed, miraculous. Following the initial judgment of its medical board, the full dicastery's vote to recommend canonization marked the last deliberative part of the sainthood process.

A decree of the miracle's authenticity will now be presented to Pope Benedict at his next audience with the Congregation's prefect, Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB, which is expected to take place within weeks. Once the pontiff's pro forma approval of the finding is granted, Cope's canonization date would then be announced by the Pope at a subsequent consistory of the cardinals resident in Rome.

Also expected in the impending batch of miracle decrees is the long-awaited final step to sainthood for the "Lily of the Mohawks," Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-80).

Beatified in 1980, the convert and catechist of Mohawk-Algonquin roots enjoys a particularly intense devotion among Native American Catholics, and is likewise regarded as a patroness of ecology and the care of the environment. Though Kateri's cult extends far beyond her home-turf, like Mother Marianne, she can be considered a New Yorker, having been born near present-day Auriesville (home of Martyrs Shrine).

Since his 2005 election, Benedict has already canonized two heroes from current-day US territory: the French-born Indiana foundress Mother Theodore Guerin in 2006, and the Belgian-born Father Damien -- now a Hawaiian folk hero -- who's revered worldwide as a particular patron for HIV/AIDS sufferers and the marginalized in general.

While six American saints have been elevated on the basis of individual causes since the "Mother of Immigrants" Frances Xavier Cabrini in 1946, never have two been canonized at once.

 

U.S. Bishops Annual General Assembly
The USCCB is presenting full coverage of the annual U.S. Bishop's assembly (Nov 14th - 16th).  See link top of right hand column.

The site gives you agenda's, text of speeches, streaming & tweeting. I just watched Bishop Lori brief the bishops on religious liberty issues and it was informative, well delivered with passion and very  interesting. As an aside, Bishop Lori stated that the struggle for religous freedom would fall to bishops and priests and the laity.  Perhaps, deacons are off the hook on this one!

Below is the Presedtial Adress (State of th U.S.Church) gien by Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York

Presidential Address

Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York

General Meeting - November 14, 2011

"Love for Jesus and His Church must be the passion of our lives!"
My brother bishops:it is with that stunningly simple exhortation of Blessed Pope John II that I begin my remarks to you this morning.
"Love for Jesus and His Church must be the passion of our lives!"
You and I have as our sacred duty, arising from our intimate sacramental union with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to love, cherish, care for, protect, unite in truth, love, and faith . . .to shepherd . . .His Church.
You and I believe with all our heart and soul that Christ and His Church are one.
That truth has been passed on to us from our predecessors, the apostles, especially St. Paul, who learned that equation on the Road to Damascus, who teaches so tenderly that the Church is the bride of Christ, that the Church is the body of Christ, that Christ and His Church are one.
That truth has been defended by bishops before us, sometimes and yet even today, at the cost of "dungeon, fire, and sword."
That truth -- that He, Christ, and she, His Church, are one -- moistens our eyes and puts a lump in our throat as we whisper with De Lubac, "For what would I ever know of Him, without her?"
Each year we return to this premier see of John Carroll to gather as brothers in service to Him and to her.We do business, follow the agenda, vote on documents, renew priorities and hear information reports.
But, one thing we can't help but remember, one lesson we knew before we got off the plane, train, or car, something we hardly needed to come to this venerable archdiocese to learn, is that "love for Jesus and His Church must be the passion of our lives!"
Perhaps, brethren, our most pressing pastoral challenge today is to reclaim that truth, to restore the luster, the credibility, the beauty of the Church "ever ancient, ever new," renewing her as the face of Jesus, just as He is the face of God.Maybe our most urgent pastoral priority is to lead our people to see, meet, hear and embrace anew Jesus in and through His Church.
Because, as the chilling statistics we cannot ignore tell us, fewer and fewer of our beloved people -- to say nothing about those outside the household of the faith -- are convinced that Jesus and His Church are one.As Father Ronald Rolheiser wonders, we may be living in a post-ecclesial era, as people seem to prefer
a King but not the kingdom,
a shepherd with no flock,
to believe without belonging,
a spiritual family with God as my father, as long as I'm
the only child,
"spirituality" without religion
faith without the faithful
Christ without His Church.
So they drift from her, get mad at the Church, grow lax, join another, or just give it all up.
If this does not cause us pastors to shudder, I do not know what will.
The reasons are multiple and well-rehearsed, and we need to take them seriously.
We are quick to add that good news about the Church abounds as well, with evidence galore that the majority of God's People hold fast to the revealed wisdom that Christ and His Church are one, with particularly refreshing news that young people, new converts, and new arrivals, are still magnetized by that truth, so clear to many of us only three months ago in Madrid, or six months ago at the Easter Vigil, or daily in the wonderfully deep and radiant faith of Catholic immigrants who are still a most welcome -- -- while sadly harassed -- -- gift to the Church and the land we love.
But a pressing challenge to us it remains . . . to renew the appeal of the Church, and the Catholic conviction that Christ and His Church are one.
Next year, which we eagerly anticipate as a Year of Faith, marks a half-century since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which showed us how the Church summons the world foreward, not backward.
Our world would often have us believe that culture is light years ahead of a languishing, moribund Church.
But, of course, we realize the opposite is the case:the Church invites the world to a fresh, original place, not a musty or outdated one.It is always a risk for the world to hear the Church, for she dares the world to "cast out to the deep," to foster and protect the inviolable dignity of the human person and human life; to acknowledge the truth about life ingrained in reason and nature; to protect marriage and family; to embrace those suffering and struggling; to prefer service to selfishness; and never to stifle the liberty to quench the deep down thirst for the divine that the poets, philosophers, and peasants of the earth know to be what really makes us genuinely human.
The Church loves God's world like His only begotten Son did.She says yes to everything that is good, decent, honorable and ennobling about the world, and only says no when the world itself negates the dignity of the human person . . .and, as Father Robert Barron reminds us, "saying 'no' to a 'no' results in a 'yes '!"
To invite our own beloved people, and the world itself, to see Jesus and His Church as one is, of course, the task of the New Evangelization.Pope Benedict will undoubtedly speak to us about this during our nearing ad limina visits, and we eagerly anticipate as well next autumn's Synod on the New Evangelization.Jesus first called fishermen and then transformed them into shepherds. The New Evangelization prompts us to reclaim the role of fishermen. Perhaps we should begin to carry fishing poles instead of croziers.
Two simple observations might be timely as we as successors of the apostles embrace this urgent task of inviting our people and our world to see Jesus and His Church as one.
First, we resist the temptation to approach the Church as merely a system of organizational energy and support that requires maintenance.
As the Holy Father remarked just recently in his homeland of Germany, "Many see only the outward form of the Church.This makes the Church appear as merely one of the many organizations within a democratic society, whose criteria and laws are then applied to . . .evaluating and dealing, with such a complex entity of the 'Church'."
The Church we passionately love is hardly some cumbersome, outmoded club of sticklers, with a medieval bureaucracy, silly human rules on fancy letterhead, one more movement rife with squabbles, opinions, and disagreement.
The Church is Jesus -- teaching, healing, saving, serving, inviting; Jesus often "bruised, derided, cursed, defiled."
The Church is a communio, a supernatural family.Most of us, praise God, are born into it, as we are into our human families.So, the Church is in our spiritual DNA.The Church is our home, our family.
In the Power and the Glory, when the young girl asks him why he just doesn't renounce his Catholic faith, the un-named "Whisky Priest" replies:
"That's impossible!There's no way!It's out of my power."
Graham Greene narrates:"The child listened intently. She then said, 'Oh, I see, like a birthmark'."
To use a Catholic word, Bingo!Our Church is like a birthmark.Founded by Christ, the Church had her beginning at Pentecost, but her origin is from the Trinity.Yes, her beginning is in history, as was the incarnation, but her origin is outside of time.
Our urgent task to reclaim "love of Jesus and His Church as the passion of our lives" summons us not into ourselves but to Our Lord.Jesus prefers prophets, not programs; saints, not solutions; conversion of hearts, not calls to action; prayer, not protests: Verbum Dei rather than our verbage.
God calls us to be His children, saved by our oldest brother, Jesus, in a supernatural family called the Church.
Now, and here's number two: since we are a spiritual family, we should hardly be surprised that the Church has troubles, problems . . . to use the talk-show vocabulary, that our supernatural family has some "dysfunction."
As Dorothy Day remarked: "The Church is the radiant bride of Christ; but her members at times act more like the scarlet woman of Babylon."
It might seem, brother bishops, that the world wants us to forget every Church-teaching except for the one truth our culture is exuberantly eager to embrace and trumpet:the sinfulness of her members!That's the one Catholic doctrine to which society bows its head and genuflects with crusading devotion!
We profess it, too.With contrition and deep regret, we acknowledge that the members of the Church -- starting with us -- are sinners!
One big difference:we who believe in Jesus Christ and His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church interpret the sinfulness of her members not as a reason to dismiss the Church or her eternal truths, but to embrace her all the more!The sinfulness of the members of the Church reminds us precisely how much we need the Church.The sinfulness of her members is never an excuse, but a plea, to place ourselves at His wounded side on Calvary from which flows the sacramental life of the Church.
Like Him, she, too, has wounds. Instead of running from them, or hiding them, or denying them, she may be best showing them, like He did that first Easter night.
As Monsignor John Tracy Ellis used to introduce his courses on Church history, "Ladies and gentlemen, be prepared to discover that the Mystical Body of Christ has a lot of warts."
And we passionately love our bride with wrinkles, warts, and wounds all the more.
We bishops repent as well.At least twice a day -- at Mass, and at compline -- we ask Divine mercy.Often do we approach the Sacrament of Penance.
One thing both sides of the Catholic ideological spectrum at last agree upon is the answer to this question:who's to blame for people getting mad at or leaving the Church?Their unanimous answer?
. . . nice to meet you!We're the cause, they never tire of telling us.
Less shrill voices might comfort us by assuring us that's not true.Nice to hear . . .
But we are still sincere in often praying "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."
As Gregory the Great observed fifteen centuries ago: "the Church is fittingly pictured as dawn . . . dawn only hints that night is over. It does not reveal the full radiance of the day. While it indeed dispels the darkness and welcomes the light, it presents both of them . . . so does the Church."
Bishops, thanks for listening.
I look out at shepherds, fishermen, leaders, friends.
I look out at 300 brothers each of whom has a ring on his finger, because we're spoken for, we're married.
Our episcopal consecration has configured us so intimately to Jesus that He shares with us His bride, the Church.
There's nothing we enjoy doing more than helping our people, and everybody else, get to know Him and her better.That's our job description.
Because . . . "Love for Jesus and His Church is the passion of our lives!"

 

2012 National Prayer Vigil for Life Homilies

Link to Homilies on the USCB's site

Homily of CardinalDaniel DiNardo

6:30 pm, Sunday, January 22, 2012

Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Homily of Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan

7:30 a.m., Monday, January 23, 2012

Closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

 

Meeting with Young People
Pope Benedict's words in his "Meeting the Young People" on his  Apostolic journey to Lebanon, Sept 15th, 2012.

“You have a special place in my heart and in the whole Church, because the Church is always young! The Church trusts you. She counts on you! Be young in the Church! Be young with the Church! The Church needs your enthusiasm and your creativity! Youth is the time when we aspire to great ideals, when we study and train for our future work. All this is important and it takes time. Seek beauty and strive for goodness! Bear witness to the grandeur and the dignity of your body which “is for the Lord” (1 Cor 6:13b). Be thoughtful, upright and pure of heart! In the words of Blessed John Paul II, I say to you: “Do not be afraid! Open the doors of your minds and hearts to Christ!” An encounter with Jesus “gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” In Christ you will find the strength and courage to advance along the paths of life, and to overcome difficulties and suffering. In him you will find the source of joy. Christ says to you, "My peace I give to you!" (Jn 14:27). This is the true revolution brought by Christ: that of love....

Bring the love of Christ to everyone! How? By turning unreservedly to God the Father, who is the measure of everything that is right, true and good. Meditate on God’s word! Discover how relevant and real the Gospel can be. Pray! Prayer and the sacraments are the sure and effective means to be a Christian and to live “rooted and built up in Christ, and established in the faith” (Col 2:7). The Year of Faith, which is about to begin, will be a time to rediscover the treasure of the faith which you received at Baptism. You can grow in knowledge and understanding of this treasure by studying the Catechism, so that your faith can be both living and lived. You will then become witnesses to others of the love of Christ. In him, all men and women are our brothers and sisters. The universal brotherhood which he inaugurated on the cross lights up in a resplendent and challenging way the revolution of love. “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:35). This is the legacy of Jesus and the sign of the Christian. This is the true revolution of love!

Christ asks you, then, to do as he did: to be completely open to others, even if they belong to a different cultural, religious or national group. Making space for them, respecting them, being good to them, making them ever more rich in humanity and firm in the peace of the Lord. I know that many among you take part in various activities sponsored by parishes, schools, movements and associations. It is a fine thing to be engaged with and for others. Experiencing together moments of friendship and joy enables us to resist the onset of division, which must always be rejected! Brotherhood is a foretaste of heaven! The vocation of Christ’s disciples is to be “leaven” in the lump, as Saint Paul says: “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal 5:9). Be heralds of the Gospel of life and life’s authentic values. Courageously resist everything opposed to life: abortion, violence, rejection of and contempt for others, injustice and war. In this way you will spread peace all around you. Are not “peacemakers” those whom in the end we admire the most? Is it not a world of peace that, deep down, we want for ourselves and for others? My peace I give to you! (Jn 14:27), Jesus says. He overcame evil not with more evil, but by taking evil upon himself and destroying it completely on the cross through a love lived to the very end. Truly discovering God’s forgiveness and mercy always enables us to begin a new life. It is not easy to forgive. But God’s forgiveness grants the power of conversion, and the joy of being able to forgive in turn. Forgiveness and reconciliation are the paths of peace; they open up a future.

Dear friends, a number of you are surely asking in a more or less conscious way: What is it that God expects of me? What is his plan for me? Wouldn’t I like to proclaim to the world the grandeur of his love in the priesthood, in the consecrated life or in marriage? Might not Christ be calling me to follow him more closely? Think about these questions with confidence and trust. Take time to reflect on them and ask for enlightenment. Respond to his invitation by offering yourselves daily to the Lord, for he calls you to be his friends. Strive to follow Christ wholeheartedly and generously, for out of love he redeemed us and gave his life for each one of us. You will come to know inconceivable joy and fulfillment! To answer Christ’s call to each of us: that is the secret of true peace.”

--Pope Benedict XVI
Meeting with Young People
Apostolic Journey to Lebanon
Bkerké
15 September 2012