Bishop Robert Barron on Pope Francis' "Amoris Laetitia"

Bishop Robert Barron on Amoris Laetitia

The following comes from Bishop Robert Barron at Word on Fire:

On a spring day about five years ago, when I was rector of Mundelein Seminary, Francis Cardinal George spoke to the assembled student body. He congratulated those proudly orthodox seminarians for their devotion to the dogmatic and moral truths proposed by the Church, but he also offered some pointed pastoral advice. He said that it is insufficient simply to drop the truth on people and then smugly walk away. Rather, he insisted, you must accompany those you have instructed, committing yourself to helping them integrate the truth that you have shared. I thought of this intervention by the late Cardinal often as I was reading Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. If I might make bold to summarize a complex 264-page document, I would say that Pope Francis wants the truths regarding marriage, sexuality, and family to be unambiguously declared, but that he also wants the Church’s ministers to reach out in mercy and compassion to those who struggle to incarnate those truths in their lives. 

In regard to the moral objectivities of marriage, the Pope is bracingly clear. He unhesitatingly puts forward the Church’s understanding that authentic marriage is between a man and a woman, who have committed themselves to one another in permanent fidelity, expressing their mutual love and openness to children, and abiding as a sacrament of Christ’s love for his Church (52, 71). He bemoans any number of threats to this ideal, including moral relativism, a pervasive cultural narcissism, the ideology of self-invention, pornography, the “throwaway” society, etc. He explicitly calls to our attention the teaching of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae regarding the essential connection between the unitive and the procreative dimensions of conjugal love (80). Moreover, he approvingly cites the consensus of the recent Synod on the Family that homosexual relationships cannot be considered even vaguely analogous to what the Church means by marriage (251). He is especially strong in his condemnation of ideologies that dictate that gender is merely a social construct and can be changed or manipulated according to our choice (56). Such moves are tantamount, he argues, to forgetting the right relationship between creature and Creator. Finally, any doubt regarding the Pope’s attitude toward the permanence of marriage is dispelled as clearly and directly as possible: “The indissolubility of marriage—‘what God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ (Mt 19:6) —should not be viewed as a ‘yoke’ imposed on humanity, but as a ‘gift’ granted to those who are joined in marriage...” (62).

In a particularly affecting section of the exhortation, Pope Francis interprets the famous hymn to love in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (90-119). Following the great missionary Apostle, he argues that love is not primarily a feeling (94), but rather a commitment of the will to do some pretty definite and challenging things: to be patient, to bear with one another, to put away envy and rivalry, ceaselessly to hope. In the tones of grandfatherly pastor, Francis instructs couples entering into marriage that love, in this dense and demanding sense of the term, must be at the heart of their relationship. I frankly think that this portion of Amoris Laetitia should be required reading for those in pre-Cana other similar marriage preparation programs in the Catholic Church. Now Francis says much more regarding the beauty and integrity of marriage, but you get my point: there is no watering down or compromising of the ideal in this text.

However, the Pope also honestly admits that many, many people fall short of the ideal, failing fully to integrate all of the dimensions of what the Church means by matrimony. What is the proper attitude to them? Like Cardinal George, the Pope has a visceral reaction against a strategy of simple condemnation, for the Church, he says, is a field hospital, designed to care precisely for the wounded (292). Accordingly, he recommends two fundamental moves. First, we can recognize, even in irregular or objectively imperfect unions, certain positive elements that participate, as it were, in the fullness of married love. Thus for example, a couple living together without benefit of marriage might be marked by mutual fidelity, deep love, the presence of children, etc. Appealing to these positive marks, the Church might, according to a “law of gradualness,” move that couple toward authentic and fully-integrated matrimony (295). This is not to say that living together is permitted or in accord with the will of God; it is to say that the Church can perhaps find a more winsome way to move people in such a situation to conversion.

The second move—and here we come to what will undoubtedly be the most controverted part of the exhortation—is to employ the Church’s classical distinction between the objective quality of a moral act and the subjective responsibility that the moral agent bears for committing that act (302). The Pope observes that many people in civil marriages following upon a divorce find themselves in a nearly impossible bind. If their second marriage has proven faithful, life-giving, and fruitful, how can they simply walk out on it without in fact incurring more sin and producing more sadness? This is, of course, not to insinuate that their second marriage is not objectively disordered, but it is to say that the pressures, difficulties, and dilemmas might mitigate their culpability.  Here is how Pope Francis applies the distinction: “Hence it is can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace” (301). Could the Church’s minister, therefore, not help such people, in the privacy of the rectory parlor or the confessional, to discern their degree of moral responsibility? Once again, this is not to embrace a breezy “anything-goes” mentality, nor to deny that a civil marriage after a divorce is objectively irregular; it is to find, perhaps, for someone in great pain, a way forward.

Will Amoris Laetitia end all debate on these matters? Hardly. But it does indeed represent a deft and impressive balancing of the many and often contradictory interventions at the two Synods on the Family. As such, it will be of great service to many suffering souls who come to the Field Hospital.

SS. Louis & Zelie Martin: Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux

The following comes from Salt and Light:

“The good Lord gave me a father and a mother more worthy of Heaven than of earth”.

These words come to us from Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Carmelite nun and youngest daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin. Their names will soon be added to the book of saints next October during the Synod on the Family. They are the first couple to be canonized together. A holy couple, their story has a modern twist.

Louis and Zélie Martin met on the Saint Leonard Bridge in Alençon, France. It was an unexpected encounter. Both had previously contemplated entering the religious life. But as it became clear neither one of them were called to a life of celibacy, they vowed to offer their future marriage to God. When Zélie saw Louis, she heard a voice tell her this man was the one God had prepared for her. This conviction deepened the more they spent time together. They got married three months later on July 13^th, 1858. Zélie was 27 years old and Louis 35.

Zélie already managed her own lacemaking business which she started at only 20 years old. She regularly received clients who needed her skillful hand to create or repair pieces of lace. She eventually opened a lacemaking factory that allowed her to take in apprentices. Her business was thriving. Apart from her leadership and goodwill, Zélie was an anxious woman. This is a character trait she attributed to her difficult childhood.

But if Zélie dealt with worry, Louis on the other hand was a gentle and patient man.  His talent lied in clock making.  He also held his own shop. Louis got into the trade starting at 19 years of age. Despite his excellent reputation, he retired from the clock making business to dedicate himself to his wife’s lacemaking factory, by becoming its client manager and bookkeeper. 

Career wasn’t everything to them. They were as much accomplices in their marriage as in their work. Both desired a holy marriage. They considered virginity to be an invaluable virtue even between husband and wife and so they practiced abstinence their first years of marriage. They had nine children, four of which died at a very young age. Louis and Zélie raised five girls, Pauline, Céline, Léonie, Marie, and Thérèse. They raised them in the faith and inspired in them charity and holiness. All of them eventually joined the Carmelites, except Léonie who joined the Sisters of the Visitation.

The Martins did face challenges, namely sickness. It started with Zélie when she was diagnosed with cancer. The pain intensified every day, without any hope of a cure, until she died at the age of 46. Through her suffering, Zélie held fast to prayer and patiently accepted God’s will and wisdom.

“If the Virgin Mary does not heal me, it is because I have done my time and that the good Lord wants me to find rest elsewhere” (last letter from Zélie to her brother Isidore Guerin, August 16^th, 1877).

Some years after the death of his wife, Louis also fell ill. He had periods of forgetfulness or hallucinations and attacks of paralysis. After several episodes, he was taken to an asylum. He stayed there three years before going back home. Despite his evident weakness, he showed great strength, patience and perseverance.

Read the rest here.

The Benedictine Option for Today

The following comes from the Catholic Exchange:

If it wasn’t clear before that the culture of the West is opposed to the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church, the recent decision to legalize “gay marriage” in the United States made it quite apparent. The decision was decades in the making and cannot solely be blamed on the homosexual agenda. It goes back to contraception and no fault divorce, both of which have eroded marriage in profound ways over the decades. For Catholics, much of it is due to dissent from Humanae Vitae by clergy and laity, as well as an abandonment of moral teaching. The question for Catholics today is: Where do we go from here? The reason we need to ask this question is because there is little doubt that we will be pushed to the fringes in the coming decades. Our moral understanding and focus on Christ means that we are in opposition to the world. Christ told us:

“I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword…” Matthew 10:34

The world has always been in opposition to the Good News. The world crucified God. The Church has been set against the world since her founding by Our Lord, and that was no different during the life of St. Benedict whose feast day we celebrate on Saturday, July 11.

St. Benedict is most widely known for his rule and as the “Father of Western Monasticism”. He lived circa 480-560 and his influence on the world was great. Even though his rule was not the first, it was the most widely used in the west for centuries. St. Benedict’s rule was comprised of several rules which could be applied to a variety of monasteries and locations. His rule’s primary emphasis was on: moderation, the integration of prayer and work, and the socialization of the monastic life.

Once monasticism was introduced to the west by St. Athanasius, it spread quickly. By the time St. Benedict composed his rule, monasteries were in Africa, France, and even Ireland. Monasticism preserved much of Europe during the Dark Ages when there was much tumult and chaos. It was through monasticism that manuscripts were preserved, as well as art, architecture, and music were developed. It was here that culture survived and lived for many years. St. Benedict could not have known how great of an impact his rule would be on the west. Blessed John Henry Newman said of him:

“St. Benedict found the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way not of science, but of nature, not as if setting about to do it, not professing to do it by any set time, or by any rare specific, or by any series of strokes, but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often till the work was done, it was not known to be doing…Silent men were observed about the country, or discovered in the forest, digging, clearing and building; and other silent men, not seen, were sitting in the cold cloister, tiring their eyes and keeping their attention on the stretch, while they painfully copied and recopied the manuscripts which they could have saved. There was no one who contended or cried out, or drew attention to what was going on, but by degrees, the woody swamp became a hermitage, a religious house, a farm, and abbey, a village, a seminary, a school of learning and a city.”

St. Benedict found himself in a world of decay and difficulty. The Roman Empire had collapsed and Barbarians were wreaking havoc throughout Europe. In response, he chose to establish small cultural centers that would profoundly impact the culture when the Zeitgeist proved to be receptive. He did not know the exact changes it would bring at the time, but slowly and deliberately, by living holy lives, the culture was changed. How devastating was the collapse of the Roman Empire? Rod Dreher points out:

Rome’s collapse meant staggering loss. People forgot how to read, how to farm, how to govern themselves, how to build houses, how to trade, and even what it had once meant to be a human being. Behind monastery walls, though, in their chapels, scriptoriums, and refectories, Benedict’s monks built lives of peace, order, and learning and spread their network throughout Western Europe.

Today

It is here that we shift to today. Once again the Church is looking at a culture in a state of decay, moral confusion, and nihilism. The West is falling into ruin once more. The societies of Europe and North America have largely abandoned Christianity in favor of secularism and now we live in a post-Christian age. As Catholics, how can we look to St. Benedict as a guide in such times? The answer is what is called the Benedict Option, which has come into usage through the work of Alisdair MacIntyre and Rod Dreher.

According to Columbia University professor, Russell Hittinge, St. Benedict taught the world of the Dark Ages: “How to live life as a whole. Not a life of worldly success so much as one of human success.” This is where our call as Catholics now lies. People have given themselves over to this age and to the pursuit of worldly success and pleasures, in doing so, they have forgotten what it means to be fully human. The culture has become so confused that even matters of nature are no longer accepted as truth. Alisdair MacIntyre paints a grim picture of the culture in his book After Virtue. Rod Dreher summarizes MacIntyre’s view:

“For MacIntyre, we too are living through a Fall of Rome-like catastrophe, one that is concealed by our liberty and prosperity. In his influential 1981 book After Virtue, MacIntyre argued that the Enlightenment’s failure to replace an expiring Christianity caused Western civilization to lose its moral coherence. Like the early medievals, we too have been cut off from our roots, and a shadow of cultural amnesia is falling across the land. The Great Forgetting is taking a particular toll on American Christianity, which is losing its young in dramatic numbers. Those who remain within churches often succumb to a potent form of feel-good relativism that sociologists have called “moralistic therapeutic deism,” which is dissolving historic Christian moral and theological orthodoxy.”

MacIntyre insists that we are now called to build, “new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained”. How is this accomplished?

Close-knit Christian Communities

We must abandon the wrong-headed rugged individualism of our age. This is especially true for Americans. The call to radical individualism and self-determination is diametrically opposed to the Gospel and the communion we enter into upon our Baptism. The Mystical Body of Christ is an organism in which we are all intimately connected with the head, who is Christ Himself. As the culture begins to more aggressively attack the Church, we need to come together in close-knit communities all focused on the same goal in Christ. Does this sound familiar?

Most of us cannot become monks. We are members of the laity and we have to provide for our families, but that does not mean that we cannot live in a quasi-communal state where we can help one another. This communal state will vary depending on the area you live and the infrastructure in place. This will become essential when people lose jobs for their faith or struggle to make ends meet. This is the call to live in authentic Christian love and community, not as separate people who just happen to come to Mass together each Sunday. Priests and laity need to be involved. In fact, priests will need to take a direct role as spiritual leaders of these communities. Yes, priest are already stretched thin, but as the Church moves to the fringes, the unfortunate by-product will be more people falling away from the Faith. The Church will get smaller for a time.

Many of the people who have already begun living the Benedict Option live in close proximity to their church or even a monastery where they can pray, attend the Liturgy, and live where a religious community is established.  Some become Oblates or Lay members, but many do not. Lay Orders are no guarantee of this community either. There must be an intentional establishment and way of life within these communities. A life that is devoted to prayer, work, humility, evangelization, and holiness in a community, rather than solely as individuals or families.

What is certain is that people will need to band together in ways they have never considered before in our lifetime. We will need to focus our days on prayer, virtue, and work as we go out into the world. Rod Dreher admits when he coined the Benedict Option through the influence of Alisdair MacIntyre’s work that he did not have a clear definition. What is obvious, however, is that we Christians need to live holy lives in community as we take the onslaught that will grow in momentum over the coming decades. We must be willing to sacrifice and take care of one another as we live and serve Christ.

Holiness

In my mind, the Benedict Option is essentially a call to holiness. It is a call to deep prayer, virtue, regular reception of the Sacraments, and self-sacrifice in a community setting. That is what St. Benedict was asking of his monks and that is just as true today for monks or members of the laity. Holiness is what the Church is calling us to and we can no longer do it in isolation. Close-knit Christian communities are nothing new and find their greatest model in the Early Church. We need to learn to live together, faults and all that we may serve Christ in hard times; that we may become holy and perfect as Our Heavenly Father is perfect. In fact, communal life can help us greatly on the path to holiness. Holiness is the whole point of the Christian life.

So, whether it is Rod Dreher’s suggestion or another, it is time for us to come together as Christians and live The Way, instead of in isolation and mediocrity. We will need one another in the coming decades. It will be through our witness and striving for holiness that others will be evangelized. The Benedict Option cannot be seen as an abandonment of the Church’s mission to bring the world to Christ. The most powerful witness is a person fully alive who is living a saintly life. St. Benedict, ora pro nobis.

“The age of casual Catholicism is over, the age of heroic Catholicism has begun. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.”  

Fr. Terence Henry, TOR, president of Franciscan University.

Pope Francis: Families are factories of hope, life and resurrection!

Pope Francis and the Synod on the Family

Taking the Devil Seriously

The following comes from God and the Machine: 

The reality of the devil was one of the hardest things for me to accept when I returned to the Church. When I made my choice to assent and submit to all the Church teaches, I knew I had a long road ahead of me. I knew that much pride and intellectual vanity and modernist funk would have to be scraped away before I could conform myself fully to the Church.

This process of death to self and the world in order to allow a new life in the Spirit to take root is not easy, and indeed it is ongoing. Each Catholic is in a different places in his or her journey. If you would have questioned me about my faith in my early 20s, I would have dismissed many key elements of Church teachings and sounded like a typical cafeteria Catholic. Faith is not a static thing. It’s organic. It has its seasons of growth and seasons where it seems to lay fallow.

And we all have those weaker moments. Not moments of disbelief, necessarily, but of weakness, of a lessening ardor, of a gentle fading of the passion for the Lord. The distractions and pressures of the world batter us and threaten to push faith to the fringes.

That’s the place where Satan wants us. When we aren’t looking, when we are distracted, when we are weak or sick in body or mind, when we have doubts: those are moments for him to do his work.

Families are organic, and thus they, too, have their cycles from fallow to fruiting. The Church is always under attack, from within and without, and the family is an image of the Church. Why think it could be any less under attack? One look around us shows a society where the meaning of marriage has collapsing. Gay marriage didn’t do it. That was just a final bullet to the head after the damage wrought by no-fault divorce and other family-destroying policies and social trends.

So when Francis speaks of the family being under attack by the Devil, he’s speaking a truth more need to hear:

 Families are the home Church where Jesus grows. He grows in the spouses’ love and in the children’s lives. For this reason, the enemy attacks the family so much. The devil does not want it. He tries to destroy it, to prevent love from becoming free. Families are the home church. But married people are sinners like everyone else, they do not want to go in faith, in its fertility, in children and the faith of their children. May the Lord bless the family, and make it strong in the face of the crisis by which the devil wants to destroy it.

We need to start acting like the devil is real and threatening, particularly in our families. The Church cannot stand without the family. One is a reflection of the other.

The problem is that we don’t like to think about demonic activity in our world, and we certainly don’t like to talk about it. When was the last time you ever heard Satan mentioned in a homily? I don’t think I ever have. The recent controversy about the Black Mass at Harvard pushed it forward and forced us to deal discuss it in the open, and we shouldn’t let that moment go to waste.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis to Charismatics: “The devil wants to destroy the family”

The following comes from Vatican Insider:

“At first I thought Renewal was a samba school,” the Pope joked and the whole stadium roared with laughter. Then he warned: “When someone thinks they are important, that’s when the plague hits.” Finally, he kneeled down as faithful prayed at the end of his speech, asking the Lord to bless him, just as Francis had asked of them to do straight after his election on 13 March 2013, from the central Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Someone is missing here, possibly the most important people: grandparents. They are the guarantors of our faith.” Francis’ words totally threw the organisers of the Charismatic Renewal Convocation (Renewal in the Spirit – RNS), who only expected four people to speak at today’s meeting at the Olympic stadium: a priest, a young boy, a married couple and a disabled person.

“Like good wine, the elderly have freedom given to them by the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said, recalling the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, where he met two elderly people, Simeon and the prophetess Anna. “The elderly are the Church’s wisdom and yet we cast them aside,” the Pope said. That elderly lady, Anna, canonized “gossip” because instead of gossiping, she went around saying that the Saviour had come. Grandmothers and grandfathers are our wisdom and strength.” “May the Lord always give us elderly people who pass onto us the memory and wisdom of the Church and the sense of joy with which Simeon and Anna greeted promises from afar,” Francis said.

Read the rest here.

Love is our mission: The family fully alive

The following comes from Archbishop Chaput:

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of making public Pope Francis’ theme for next year’s World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia:  Love is our mission: the family fully alive. The theme was inspired by the words of the early Church Father, St. Irenaeus, who said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” In like manner, the glory of men and women is their capacity to love as God loves. And rarely can that love be lived out more intimately and fruitfully than in the family. 

As we begin the “heavy lifting” to prepare for the World Meeting of Families and a possible papal visit, it’s a good moment to pause and reflect.

Every moment of every day, a mother and father are teaching and guiding each other and their children, while witnessing about their love to the world beyond their home. The structure of marriage — if lived faithfully — naturally points a man and woman outwardtoward the world, as well as inward toward one another and their children. As Augustine once said: “To be faithful in little things is a big thing.”

Simply by living their vocation, a husband and wife become the most important living cell of society. Marriage is the foundation and guarantee of the family. And the family is the foundation and guarantee of society.

It’s within the intimate community of the family that a son knows he is loved and has value.  In observing her parents, a daughter first learns basic values like loyalty, honesty and selfless concern for others, which build up the character of the wider society. Truth is always most persuasive, not when we read about it in a book or hear about it in a classroom, but when we see it incarnated in the actions of our parents.

Marriage and family safeguard our most basic sense of community, because within the family, the child grows up in a web of tightly connected rights and responsibilities to other people. It also protects our individual identity, because it surrounds the child with a mantle of privacy and personal devotion. Most of the laws concerning marriage in our culture were originally developed precisely to protect family members from the selfishness and lack of love so common in wider society.

The family is the human person’s single most important sanctuary from mistaken models of love, misguided notions of sexual relationships and destructive ideas about self‑fulfillment. All these painful things, unchecked, can be a centrifugal force pulling families apart.

Love is a counter-force. Love is the glue both for family and society. This is why love is the fundamental mission of the family. It’s why the family must be a sanctuary of love. We most easily understand love when we, ourselves, are the fruit of our parents’ tenderness. We most easily believe in fidelity when we see it modeled by our father and mother.

Read the rest here.

He'd take a bullet for her!

Pope Francis: On Feast of the Holy Family

(CNA) In his Angelus address given on the feast of the Holy Family, Pope Francis prayed especially for the approaching Synod of Bishops which will discuss pastoral challenges to the family.

“The next Synod of Bishops will address the theme of the family, and the preparatory phase has already begun some time ago. For this reason, today, (on) the feast of the Holy Family, I wish to entrust this synodal work to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, praying for families around the world,” he said on Dec. 29 in St. Peter’s Square.

Asking the crowds that packed St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding streets to join with him spiritually, Pope Francis prayed, “Holy Family of Nazareth, may the approaching Synod of Bishops make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan.”

The Pope dedicated his Angelus message to considering Jesus’ own family as an example for families everywhere. “God wanted to be born in a human family, he wanted to have a mother and a father, like us,” he explained.

“It’s an example that does much good for our families, helping them to become ever more a community of love and reconciliation, in which one experiences tenderness, mutual help, and mutual forgiveness.”

Even the Jesus’ own family, however, was not without its difficulties.

Forced to flee to Egypt to escape being killed by Herod, “Joseph, Mary, and Jesus experienced the dramatic condition of refugees, marked by fear, uncertainty, need.”

Unfortunately, Pope Francis continued, “in our day, millions of families can see themselves in this sad reality.” Refugees and immigrants do not always find “true welcome (or) respect.”

Yet “Jesus wanted to belong to a family that had experienced these difficulties,” to show that no one “is excluded from the nearness of God’s love.”

“The flight into Egypt because of Herod’s threats shows us that God is also there – there where man is in danger, there where man suffers, there where he escapes, where he experiences rejection and abandonment; but he is also where man dreams, hoping to return to his homeland in freedom, designing and choosing a life of dignity for himself and his family.”

Even in families who do not face such dramatic circumstances, “exiled persons” can be found, noted the Pontiff: “the elderly, for example, who sometimes are treated as a burdensome presence.”

“Many times I think that one sign to know how a family is doing is to see how the children and elderly are treated in it,” he said.

Pope Francis then repeated one of his oft-used instructions on family life. “Remember the three key phrases: excuse me, thank you, I’m sorry!” he exhorted the crowds, who cheered in response.

In a family that uses these words, “there is peace and joy,” he assured them.

“Repeat it with me, everyone together!” the Pope urged, “excuse me, thank you, I’m sorry.”

The Pontiff closed by greeting the many pilgrim groups who had traveled to Rome and wishing everyone a happy feast day.

Word on Fire: The Necessity of Youth Ministry

The following comes from Word on Fire:

Recently, "Bad Catholic" blogger Marc Barnes wrote a thoughtful piece on the "problem" with youth ministry within the mission and life of the Church. Today, WOF Blog contributor Fr. Damian Ference responds to Marc's critique of youth ministry and offers his own priestly perspective on this aspect of the Church's evangelical outreach. 

Last week one of my priest colleagues here at the seminary emailed me about a new essay on youth ministry. The piece was entitled, “The Problem With Youth Ministry,” written by the young, brilliant, prolific, and envy-inducing, Marc Barnes over at Bad Catholic. Barnes is almost half my age, yet I look up to him. He knows his faith, he gets the culture, he writes very well, and he’s funny. 

 

Barnes’ essay on the problem with youth ministry is provocative, which is evidenced by the many comments, likes, and re-posts of this particular work. His thesis is that, unlike the family and the apostolic priesthood, which maintain a natural authority to proclaim the Gospel to young people, youth ministers have no natural authority to do so. Barnes argues, “Youth ministry as a primary catechetical and evangelical tool only exists as a necessity if the family has failed.” Youth ministers, according to Barnes, are spiritual band-aids that are doing important work, but in a perfect Catholic world, there would be no need for youth ministers or for youth ministry as we know it.

 

Barnes is right that the home is the fundamental and original source of catechesis and evangelization – he cites the Catechism twice to ground his argument. Let me bolster the argument even more by referencing the Rites for Marriage and Baptism.

First, before a couple professes their vows at the altar in the sacrament of marriage, the priest or deacon asks them three questions. Here’s the third: “Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and His Church?” The minister needs a public confirmation from the couple that they understand that their duty as a husband and wife is to be open to bringing children into the world, and to educate those children in the Catholic faith. As Barnes notes in his essay, parents have a natural authority over their children and it is fundamentally their duty as Christian parents to hand on the Faith to their sons and daughters. 

Second, in the Rite of The Baptism of a Child, just before the Renunciation of Sin and the Profession of Faith, the priest or deacon speaks to the parents and godparents: “On your part, you must make it your constant care to bring him (her) up in the practice of the faith. See that the divine life which God gives him (her) is kept safe from the poison of sin to grow always stronger in his (her) heart.” I have always liked the tone of these words – they are pointed and serious. They make demands. Sometimes parents and godparents gulp when I deliver them. And that’s a good thing. It means that they understand their responsibilities.
Following the actual baptism, the anointing, the clothing in the white garment, and the presentation of the candle, the minister offers prayers over the mother, the father, and then the entire assembly. Here’s an important excerpt from the prayer over the father: “He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith. May they also be the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do.” This prayer supports Barnes’ argument as well. To quote Barnes, “The family consists in a natural authority, and as such, is a fundamental space in which to proclaim the Gospel.” Amen.
Barnes and I agree that the fundamental and original source of catechesis is in the home, and it comes specifically from mothers and fathers who have a natural authority over their children. Parents have a privileged role in passing on the Faith to their sons and daughters, not just in what they say, but more importantly, in what they do. Moms and dads are called by the Church to be disciples of Jesus in order to show their children how to be disciples.
So what of youth ministry? Is Barnes right that if Catholic parents simply did what they were supposed to do (as the natural communicators of the Gospel to their children) that the American model of youth ministry would have no need to exist? I don’t think so, and I’d like to suggest a few reasons why youth ministry is necessary, good, and dare I say, supernatural.
First, in this Year of Faith – a time when we’ve been asked by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to study not only the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but also the documents of the Second Vatican Council – let’s see what, if anything, the Church has to say about lay ministry, in particular, youth ministry. Lumen Gentium states that “the laity can be called in different ways to more immediate cooperation in the apostolate of the hierarchy. . . . (t)hey may, moreover, be appointed by the hierarchy to certain ecclesiastical offices which have a spiritual aim.” (LG §33) Barnes argues that only the family and the apostolic priesthood enjoy a natural authority in the proclamation of the Gospel, but Lumen Gentium seems to indicate that some lay people are indeed called to direct cooperation in the apostolate of the hierarchy. In other words, the Church extends some of its natural (or supernatural) hierarchical authority to the laity.

A shorter document from the council, The Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People (Apostolicam Actuositatem) states that “different fields of apostolic action are open to the laity” and it mentions ministry to “the young” in particular. (AA §9) Barnes is right that the apostolic priesthood contains a natural authority, but the Church insists that the laity are able to participate in that very authority through their baptismal priesthood. The Council reminds us that, “Their activity within the church communities is so necessary that without it the apostolate of the pastors will frequently be unable to offer its full effect.” (AA §10)   Youth ministers may not be clergy, but the clergy need them to help carry out their mission. 

What particular actions does the Church envision from such lay persons? Here’s a nice list: “(T)hey engage zealously in apostolic works; they attract people towards the church who had perhaps been far away from it; they ardently cooperate in the spread of the word of God, particularly by catechetical instruction; by their expert assistance they increase the efficacy of the care of souls.” (AA §10) The best youth ministers I know embody this list in their parish or campus apostolate. 

Youth ministry, when it is being what it is called be, is not out to replace the family or the apostolic priesthood – it offers humble and zealous cooperation in the Church’s saving mission which begins in the family and continues in the ecclesial community. 

Second, we must not forget that youth ministry has been around for a long time –we just didn’t call it “youth ministry.” Men and women in religious communities played the role of “youth minister” for centuries, and they were good at it. Think of all the Catholic grade schools and high schools that were once staffed almost entirely by consecrated religious. Parents wanted other faithful people to play an important role in the religious formation of their children, and they knew that religious communities could offer such help and cooperation. In other words, they looked to other faithful people to assist them in raising and forming their children. 

Do men and women religious who are not ordained to the apostolic priesthood have a “natural” authority over children? Maybe not, but surely they have some authority – it’s the authority that comes from their baptism. It may not be natural, but perhaps “super-natural” is more than sufficient. And maybe that’s what Jesus was getting at when he told the crowd, “Who are my mother and my brothers? . . . Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Third, recall Pope Francis’ words from World Youth Day 2013: “What is the best tool to catechize a young person? Another young person.” It’s true that parents are called to be the first and best teachers to their children in the ways of faith, but they can’t do it alone. Even good Catholic parents are constantly longing for other credible models who can affirm all that has be learned in the home and expand upon it. They know that they need the help of the church community to raise their children well. Children eventually come to a point in their lives where they ask, “Is everything I learned at home true?” Having credible witnesses close at hand is necessary to confirming all the good work that began in the home. Teens need to see people other than their parents living a rich life of faith to assure them that what they’ve been told is actually true. (Trust me, I’ve worked with many parents who did a fine job communicating the Gospel to their children in the home, but whose children are now very far from Christ and his Church.) 

Fourth, “LifeTeen” and “Edge” are not meant to replace the role of the family in religious education and formation. Both the middle school and the high school programs exist in order to bring teens closer to Christ and his Church, regardless of family background. My first parish assignment was a “LifeTeen” parish, and I will admit that I too approached the program with suspicion. But when I noticed that teens from very solid Catholic families were participating to grow deeper in their lives of faith, and then would reach out to minister to their peers whose faith and whose families weren’t so strong, I changed my tune. Moreover, when I witnessed a youth minister and his core staff modeling good Christian living as they often played the role of father, mother, sister, and brother to teens who needed to know that they were loved, I was reminded of the way that many religious communities took care of young people as their own throughout the history of the Church. And when teens who came from non-practicing families experienced profound conversions through their participation in youth ministry, and then were eventually able to catechize their own parents and bring them back to Jesus and his Church, I was sold. (It’s also worth noting that that same parish has eight young men studying for the apostolic priesthood in our diocesan seminarians, and not all of them come from “ideal” Catholic families.)

Finally, it’s important to remember that our world is fallen. Yes, Jesus has saved us, and yes, original sin is washed way in baptism, but the effects of original sin remain with us, even after baptism. Augustine called this reality concupiscence, and its power should not be taken lightly.   People are weak and they do stupid things, and a lot of the time they don’t even know why they do them. Often, they don’t even want to do them, but they do them anyway. I’ve never met an engaged couple that planned on getting divorced after marriage or a seminarian who hoped to leave priestly ministry after ordination, but unfortunately it happens. We ought to do everything we can to prevent it from happening, but it happens. And every time it happens, it’s sad. 

So what do you do with children who come from divorced families, or families of unwed parents, or families who don’t practice their faith, or families who get to church on Sunday but lack even the most basic understanding of Catholicism? Who is going to evangelize their children? Who is going to help parents in their Christian formation of their children? Should we leave them in the dark? Of course not. 

 

Parents are supposed to be the fundamental, original source of catechesis and evangelization to their children, but many parents fail in this responsibility. Marc Barnes is right to say that parents need to be better at parenting, to do the work that they promised to do at the altar and at the baptismal font. But as we’ve seen, even the best of parents need help from the Church in raising their children in the life of faith, and that help comes not only from those in the apostolic priesthood, but also from youth ministers, whose authority comes to them through baptism and who have been entrusted “with tasks more closely connected with the duties of pastors.” (AA §24)
The world is fallen, but ecclesia supplet.
Rev. Damian J. Ference is a priest of the diocese of Cleveland.  He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a member of the formation faculty at Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio.

Pope Francis: God calls us, urges us, to His family

The following comes from Whispers in the Loggia:

In what'll likely become another enduring image of the new Pope, Francis made his usual "tour" of St Peter's Square before this Wednesday's audience amid a rainstorm to greet the crowd estimated at 90,000.

Since his election, the new pontiff's spins in the open-topped Popemobile have come to run increasingly longer as he's adjusted into the role. On a couple occasions when the crowds have extended beyond the Piazza, the passenger's taken his jeep outside the Vatican's front yard into the Via della Conciliazione. While one of these came as a surprise on the day of Rome's annual pro-life march, an extended drive before the Pentecost Vigil shaped up as a security force's nightmare when some in the "outskirts" of the 200,000 person throng threw gifts at Francis, several of which hit their target as he went around the unsecured area beyond the Colonnade. Not until today, however, has the weather been an issue.

Having completed the series of Wednesday talks on the Creed begun by his predecessor, the Pope started with a fresh topic, below in its Vatican Radio translation.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

Last Wednesday I stressed the deep connection between the Holy Spirit and the Church. Today I would like to start some reflections on the mystery of the Church, a mystery that we all live and of which we are part. I would like to do this, using some well-known phrases taken from the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

Today the first: the Church as Family of God
In recent months, more than once I have made reference to the parable of the prodigal son, or rather of the merciful father (cf. Lk 15:11-32). The youngest son leaves the house of his father, squanders everything, and decides to return because he realizes he made a mistake, though he no longer considers himself worthy of sonship. He thinks he might be welcomed back as a servant. Instead, the father runs to meet him, embraces him, gives him back his dignity as a son, and celebrates. This parable, like others in the Gospel, shows well the design of God for humanity.

What is this God’s plan? It is to make us all the one family of his children, in which each of you feels close to Him and feels loved by Him – feels, as in the Gospel parable, the warmth of being the family of God. In this great design, the Church finds its source. [The Church is] is not an organization founded by an agreement among [a group of] persons, but - as we were reminded many times by Pope Benedict XVI - is the work of God: it was born out of the plan of love, which realises itself progressively in history. The Church is born from the desire of God to call all people into communion with Him, to His friendship, and indeed, as His children, to partake of His own divine life. The very word “Church”, from the Greek ekklesia, means “convocation”.

God calls us, urges us to escape from individualism, [from] the tendency to withdraw into ourselves, and calls us – convokes us – to be a part of His family. This convocation has its origin in creation itself. God created us in order that we might live in a relationship of deep friendship with Him, and even when sin had broken this relationship with God, with others and with creation, God did not abandon us.

The whole history of salvation is the story of God seeking man, offer[ing] humanity His love, embracing mankind. He called Abraham to be the father of a multitude, chose the people of Israel to forge an alliance that embraces all nations, and sent, in the fullness of time, His Son, that His plan of love and salvation be realised in a new and everlasting covenant with humanity. When we read the Gospels, we see that Jesus gathers around him a small community that receives His word, follows Him, shares His journey, becomes His family – and with this community, He prepares and builds His Church.

Whence, then, is the Church born? It is born from the supreme act of love on the Cross, from the pierced side of Jesus from which flow blood and water, a symbol of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. In the family of God, the Church, the lifeblood is the love of God that is realised in loving Him and others, loving all without distinction, without measure. The Church is a family that loves and is loved.

When does the Church manifest itself? We celebrated [the Church’s manifestation] two Sundays ago: the Church manifests itself when the gift of the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of the Apostles and pushes them to go out and start the journey to proclaim the Gospel, to spread the love of God.

Even today, some say, “Christ yes, the Church no,” like those who say, “I believe in God, but in priests, no.” They say, “Christ: yes. Church: no.” Nevertheless, it is the Church that brings us Christ and that brings us to God. The Church is the great family of God's children. Of course it also has the human aspects: in those who compose it, pastors and faithful, there are flaws, imperfections, sins – the Pope has his, as well: he has lots of them; but the beautiful thing is that, when we become aware that we are sinners, we find the mercy of God. God always forgives: do not forget this. God always forgives, and He receives us in His love of forgiveness and mercy. Some people say – this is beautiful – that sin is an offence against God, but it is also an opportunity: the humiliation of realising [that one is a sinner] and that there is something [exceedingly] beautiful: the mercy of God. Let us think about this.

Let us ask ourselves today: how much do I love the Church? Do I pray for her? Do I feel myself a part of the family of the Church? What do I do to make the Church a community in which everyone feels welcomed and understood, [in which] everyone feels the mercy and love of God who renews life? Faith is a gift and an act that affects us personally, but God calls us to live our faith together, as a family: as the Church.

We ask the Lord, in a special way in this Year of the faith, that our communities, the whole Church be ever more true families that live and carry the warmth of God.

Archbishop Gomez: Family is the first seminary

The following comes from the CNA:

Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said this week that Catholics need to encourage vocations to the priesthood especially in their home life.

“In this Year of Faith, we need to refocus ourselves, especially in our families, on helping men to hear this beautiful and noble calling from Jesus...the family is always the 'first seminary,'” he wrote in his Nov. 16 column for The Tidings.

The archbishop's reflections were marked by the U.S. bishops' annual fall assembly last week and by his own pastoral letter of last month, “Witness to the New World of Faith.”

Since the family is the “domestic Church,” Archbishop Gomez said that is where children first learn about the Holy Family and Christ's commandment of love. Children learn from their parents the habit of going to Mass and confession regularly.

“Ordinary family life teaches them that their faith should make a difference in how they live.”

Archbishop Gomez encouraged his parishioners to use daily family prayer to pray for priests and seminarians, thus teaching their children the beauty and value of the ordained priesthood.

He also called for practical measures of appreciation for priests, suggesting inviting priests over to spend time with one's family and thanking them after Mass for the gift of the Eucharist.

In turn, he urged priests to be good examples who will encourage young men to follow in their footsteps.

“The greatest thing a priest can do is to simply live his vocation with enthusiasm. The example of happy priests, who have strong friendships with their brother priests and good relationships with their parishioners – this is immensely inspiring and attractive.”

Archbishop Gomez also reflected on the noise of modern culture, which he said can keep young people from hearing God's call to a religious or priestly vocation.

“We need to help our children develop habits of prayer and meditation. And this begins by simply getting them to be comfortable without distractions, so they can listen to the silent voice of God in their hearts.”

“So maybe in this Year of Faith, we can ask our children to make some time each day to turn off their smart phones and their electronic games and devices. To just be quiet with God.”

The archbishop concluded by promoting Eucharistic adoration and by looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

“Through our Blessed Mother Mary, let’s remember to give thanks for our priests – who bring us the most beautiful thanksgiving of all, the holy Eucharist.”

Pope reveals next World Meeting of Families is in Philadelphia

The following comes from the CNA:

Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning at the closing Mass of the seventh World Meeting of Families that the next gathering will be held in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

"I send my warm greetings to Archbishop Charles Chaput and to the Catholics of that great city," he said as he delivered the news that the 2015 World Meeting of Families will be hosted by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.


Pope Benedict, who delivered the news in a short speech after Communion, said he is looking forward to meeting "them there along with numerous families from all around the world."


Reacting to the news, Archbishop Chaput said he is "so grateful to the Holy Father that he has chosen Philadelphia and excited that we will host the 2015 World Meeting of Families.


"It's fitting that this gathering, which celebrates the cornerstone of society, will take place in America's cradle of freedom. The Holy Father's choice is a gift to the local Church in Philadelphia and to the whole nation," he said.


The international gathering takes place every three years and brings together hundreds of thousands of people to pray, celebrate, and study marriage and family life. This year, pilgrims from 150 countries have come to Milan.


The 2012 event was held in Milan, Italy and featured a Family Fair for those who work in family ministry, a Theological and Pastoral Congress, and a series of speeches delivered by Pope Benedict to families, priests and religious, and to civil authorities.


This edition of the meeting also featured Pope Benedict meeting with all of those children who have received or will receive Confirmation in the Milan archdiocese. The youth met with the Pope in San Siro soccer stadium, in keeping with a tradition that is usually attended only by the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola.


The culmination of the gathering was the Sunday, June 3 High Mass at Milan’s Bresso Park, which was attended by almost 1 million faithful.


The theme of this year’s event was “The Family: Work and Celebration.” The Pope has focused his message on how the family is “humanity’s principal patrimony,” and through Christ, it helps ensure a “true and stable culture in favor of man.”

Fr. Robert Barron: On Biblical Family Values

Pope Benedict calls families to New Evangelization

The following comes from Zenit.org:

Families who are living for Christ are among the protagonists in the Church's mission to bring about a new evangelization, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this today before praying the midday Angelus with crowds gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

Reflecting on the passage from Philippians in today's liturgy, the Holy Father noted how the letter was written around the year 50 A.D., and therein was already a complete synthesis of the mystery of Christ: "incarnation, 'kenosis,' that is, humiliation unto death on the cross, and glorification."

"This mystery itself became one with the life of the Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter while he was in prison, awaiting a sentence of life or death," the Holy Father explained. "He writes: 'For me to live is Christ and die is gain.' It is a new sense of life, of human existence, that consists in living communion with the living Jesus Christ."

This communion, the Pontiff said, is not with a mere historical figure, "but with a man in whom God dwells personally."

"His death and resurrection are the Good News that, starting from Jerusalem, is destined to reach all people and nations, and to transform all cultures from within, opening them to the fundamental truth: God is love; he became man in Jesus and with his sacrifice he ransomed humanity from slavery to evil, giving it a trustworthy hope."

Benedict XVI proposed that today "we live in an epoch of new evangelization."

"The protagonists of this mission," he said, "are the men and women who, like St. Paul, can say: 'For me to live is Christ' -- persons, families, communities, who decide to work in the vineyard of the Lord, according to the image of this Sunday's Gospel. Humble and generous workers, who do not ask any other recompense than participating in the mission of Jesus and the Church."