Poverty, Justice, and the Fight for Freedom

"Law is meant to form character, and integrity, and holiness. Law is meant to protect charity. We can measure a law by this standard. Good law leads us to choose what is good, and bad law tolerates, endorses, or celebrates evil."

Bishop James D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, NE
 Friday, 10 January 2014

Jeanne Jugan knew poverty. Her father was a fisherman, who was lost at sea when she was only 4 years old. Her mother raised eight children as a single mom. The family struggled to eat, and for a place to live, and often enough they knew real hunger, real cold, real need.
As a child, Jugan worked in the fields caring for sheep, doing hard, rough work to help support her family. Eventually she became a maid. She worked for a kind noblewoman who made sure that she had enough to eat, and a place to live. The noblewoman also made sure that Jeanne Jugan did not forget about poverty: part of her duties were to visit the sick, the poor, and the elderly, and to bring them food and money on behalf of her employer.
Jeanne Jugan’s whole life became service to the poor. She worked hard, serving families and widows with very little. She served them because, as she would say, she was a sister to the poor. She served the poor, she said, in order to serve Jesus Christ.

Eventually, Jeanne Jugan began living with and caring for poor widows. Soon other women joined her. They worked as nurses and cooks, and they lived with the poor as Christian companions. Soon, they started a new religious community, and Jugan became the foundress of The Little Sisters of the Poor.

For almost 200 years, the Little Sisters of the Poor have carried on the work of St. Jeanne Jugan. But today, federal law threatens their work. The dictates of the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act require the Sisters to either support the use of contraception or pay insurmountable fines. Their goal is only to serve the poor. But today our government is undermining that goal.

Last week, the Little Sisters of the Poor won a small victory in the fight to protect religious liberty. The Sisters have filed suit against the federal government, alleging that any participation in the contraceptive mandate violates their conscience and thus their religious freedom. Of course, they’re right. And last week, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court granted the Sisters a reprieve from the mandate while their case is decided.
In the meantime, the Justice Department has opposed the Sisters’ petition on the grounds that colluding in the provision of contraception and abortion is not a violation of the Sisters’ religious convictions.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are not political activists. They’ve not filed suit to make a statement, or to establish legal precedent. They’re working to protect the integrity of their ministry. They’re working to ensure that federal law treats them justly and fairly.
“For law to be good,” said St. Thomas Aquinas, “it should make us good… The purpose of human law is to lead men to virtue.”

Law is meant to form character, and integrity, and holiness. Law is meant to protect charity. We can measure a law by this standard. Good law leads us to choose what is good, and bad law tolerates, endorses, or celebrates evil. 

A law that requires Catholics to violate their religious conviction is not a good law. A law that requires support and endorsement for the use of contraception and abortion is an unjust law. And the Little Sisters of the Poor, whose only mission is to support elderly people living in poverty, are refusing to be led into evil by unjust laws.

This week the Church celebrates the feast of St. Raymond of Peñafort—one of the Church’s great legal minds. In a time of legal ambiguity and confusion, St. Raymond worked to ensure that the Church’s laws, and those of Europe’s nations, were just and fair. Today we face legal ambiguity and confusion. Today we need more men and women like St. Raymond of Peñafort, who work to ensure that law leads us all to virtue.

We need to join together in prayer and sacrifice for truth. We need to stand together for justice. Like St. Jeanne Jugan, and the Little Sisters of the Poor, and like St. Raymond, we need to stand together for what is good, and beautiful, and true.

Reflective Quote...

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

-Cardinal Francis George 

Three little resolutions for the New Year

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez

I hope you all had a merry Christmas with your families and friends.

I love this season of Christmas because everybody seems to have a new sense that God has given us great possibilities for our lives. And this is true! This is the beautiful reality of Christmas. Jesus comes to be with us out his deep, personal love for each one of us.

So making New Year’s Resolutions is a profoundly Christian habit. It reflects a beautiful desire to grow in our friendship with Jesus Christ. And it reflects our awareness that we are not yet the people that God wants us to be.

We know that with God’s grace and help, all things are possible. In this spirit, I want to suggest three resolutions for all of us in this coming year.

Resolution 1: Make Jesus the center of our lives.

Let’s really do it this year. Let’s wake up every morning with our mind on Jesus and let’s go to sleep each night with our mind on Jesus.

Jesus wants us to be our friend, our brother. Let’s really start relating to him as our brother. He shares in our human nature. He is like in all things but sin. We need to learn from his words and his example.

One practical way to grow in our friendship with Jesus is to try to find the time to read the Gospels — the life of Jesus.

Set aside a few minutes every day to read one passage of the Gospels. Maybe use the Gospel reading that the Church proposes for daily Mass. Always begin by making a simple prayer from your heart that will put you in the presence of God.

Ask Jesus to open his Word for you. Don’t ask what the Gospel passage says “in general” or what it might mean for other people. Ask him personally, “Lord, what are you saying to me? What do you want me to do? What in my life must I change if I want to follow your more closely?”

Try to carry that Gospel passage with you throughout the day, reflecting on it. This is the beginning of walking with Jesus in our daily lives. We begin to see what our lives look like from his perspective.

Resolution 2: Make life better for others.

God’s plan for our lives is simple and beautiful. He wants us to receive his love in Jesus and to share that love with others. By our love we change the world. We make it more like heaven. And our own road to heaven is paved with our little acts of love, charity and kindness.

We need to have a positive intention every day to serve — to make life better for someone. Love begins with those who make the most demands on us, those who challenge our selfishness.

That means love begins with those who are closest to us. In our homes. In the places where we work or go to school.

Practically speaking, we need to have more patience, more understanding with the people in our lives. Let’s give others the benefit of the doubt, accept people as they are, stop being so judgmental. Let’s give a positive tone to our conversation and avoid negative criticism.

We have to treat one another with tenderness and love. Sometimes we can change a person’s whole day just be smiling, just by listening to what they have to say.

Resolution 3: Forgive others as God forgives us.

We have to open our hearts and open our lives — and show people the love of Christ that we know. That’s what it means to share our faith. It means loving people. Caring for them. Showing them mercy. And especially forgiveness.

We don’t forgive enough. This hurts our families. This hurts our relationships. People are going to hurt us and offend us. It’s going to happen every day. But staying angry or resentful doesn’t heal anything. It just makes things hurt longer.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has said, “Jesus calls us all to follow this path: ‘Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.’ … In silence, let's all think … of a person with whom we are annoyed, with whom we are angry, someone we do not like. Let us think of that person and … let us pray for this person and let us become merciful with this person.”

This is beautiful advice for us. So let’s make a resolution — to forgive others just as God forgives us. Every time! All the time!
I wish you all a very blessed New Year! Let’s keep praying for one another in 2014!

And let’s ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help us in this coming year to grow in our relationship with her Son Jesus.

Pope Francis: Homily of Midnight Mass

Christmas Midnight Mass: Jesus is the Light who Brightens the Darkness

2013-12-25 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) 

“In this night, as the spirit of darkness enfolds the world, there takes place anew the event which always amazes and surprises us: the people who walk see a great light.”

In his homily during Christmas Midnight Mass, Pope Francis reflected on “the mystery of walking and seeing.”
Walking, he said, brings to mind the whole of salvation history, beginning with Abraham, our father in faith. “From that time on, our identity as believers has been that of a people making its pilgrim way towards the promised land. This history has always been accompanied by the Lord!” And yet, the Pope said, “on the part of the people there are times of both light and darkness, fidelity and infidelity, obedience, and rebellion; times of being a pilgrim people and times of being a people adrift.”
Pope Francis said that in our own lives, too, “there are both bright and dark moments, lights and shadows. If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk in the light; but if our heart is closed, if we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, then darkness falls within us and around us.”
But, he continued, “On this night, like a burst of brilliant light, there rings out the proclamation of the Apostle: “God's grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race.”
“The grace which was revealed in our world is Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, true man and true God . . . He came to free us from darkness and to grant us light.”
The Gospel of the Mass tells how the shepherds were the first to receive the news of Jesus’ birth. “They were the first because they were among the last, the outcast,” the Pope said. “And they were the first because they were awake, keeping watch in the night, guarding their flocks.” The Holy Father called on us to join the shepherds, to pause before the Child in silence, thanking God and praising His fidelity.
Pope Francis concluded his homily with the plea: “On this night let us share the joy of the Gospel: God loves us, he so loves us that he gave us his Son to be our brother, to be light in our darkness. To us the Lord repeats: “Do not be afraid!” (Lk 2:10). And I too repeat: Do not be afraid! Our Father is patient, he loves us, he gives us Jesus to guide us on the way which leads to the promised land. Jesus is the light who brightens the darkness. He is our peace. Amen.”

Below, please find the complete text of Pope Francis’ homily:

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis

Christmas Midnight Mass
25 December 2013
1. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1).
This prophecy of Isaiah never ceases to touch us, especially when we hear it proclaimed in the liturgy of Christmas Night. This is not simply an emotional or sentimental matter. It moves us because it states the deep reality of what we are: a people who walk, and all around us – and within us as well – there is darkness and light. In this night, as the spirit of darkness enfolds the world, there takes place anew the event which always amazes and surprises us: the people who walk see a great light. A light which makes us reflect on this mystery: the mystery of walking andseeing.

Walking. This verb makes us reflect on the course of history, that long journey which is the history of salvation, starting with Abraham, our father in faith, whom the Lord called one day to set out, to go forth from his country towards the land which he would show him. From that time on, our identity as believers has been that of a people making its pilgrim way towards the promised land. This history has always been accompanied by the Lord! He is ever faithful to his covenant and to his promises. “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jn 1:5). Yet on the part of the people there are times of both light and darkness, fidelity and infidelity, obedience, and rebellion; times of being a pilgrim people and times of being a people adrift.

In our personal history too, there are both bright and dark moments, lights and shadows. If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk in the light; but if our heart is closed, if we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, then darkness falls within us and around us. “Whoever hates his brother – writes the Apostle John – is in the darkness; he walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn2:11).

2. On this night, like a burst of brilliant light, there rings out the proclamation of the Apostle:“God's grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race”(Tit 2:11).

The grace which was revealed in our world is Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, true man and true God. He has entered our history; he has shared our journey. He came to free us from darkness and to grant us light. In him was revealed the grace, the mercy, and the tender love of the Father: Jesus is Love incarnate. He is not simply a teacher of wisdom, he is not an ideal for which we strive while knowing that we are hopelessly distant from it. He is the meaning of life and history, who has pitched his tent in our midst.

3. The shepherds were the first to see this “tent”, to receive the news of Jesus’ birth. They were the first because they were among the last, the outcast. And they were the first because they were awake, keeping watch in the night, guarding their flocks. Together with them, let us pause before the Child, let us pause in silence. Together with them, let us thank the Lord for having given Jesus to us, and with them let us raise from the depths of our hearts the praises of his fidelity: We bless you, Lord God most high, who lowered yourself for our sake. You are immense, and you made yourself small; you are rich and you made yourself poor; you are all-powerful and you made yourself vulnerable.

On this night let us share the joy of the Gospel: God loves us, he so loves us that he gave us his Son to be our brother, to be light in our darkness. To us the Lord repeats: “Do not be afraid!” (Lk 2:10). And I too repeat: Do not be afraid! Our Father is patient, he loves us, he gives us Jesus to guide us on the way which leads to the promised land. Jesus is the light who brightens the darkness. He is our peace. Amen.

Miracle Approved for Paul VI

Paul VI comes one step closer to beatification as the Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declares that the former Italian Pope’s healing of an unborn child is unexplainable

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

The Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints chaired by Dr. Patrizio Polisca, Benedict XVI and Francis’ personal doctor, has called a healing attributed to Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Paul VI, “unexplainable”. The alleged miracle will now have to be examined by theologians and cardinals before it receives the Pope’s approval. But the toughest part is over and it is expected that Montini’s beatification will take place in the next few months.



From the list of reported cases of healing which the postulator of Paul VI’s cause, Antonio Marrazzo, received, he chose one case which early clinical tests showed as “unexplainable”. Marrazzo chose this healing case some time ago. A year ago, on 20 December 2012, Benedict XVI approved the heroic virtues of Paul VI, concluding the canonical process. Only one miracle is required for beatification.



The alleged miracle Marrazzo chose to present to the commission, was the healing of an unborn child witnessed in California in the early 90s. During a woman’s pregnancy, doctors found a serious problem in the foetus which normally results in brain damage and advised the mother to abort. The woman refused and decided to go ahead with the pregnancy, trusting in the intercession of Paul V, the Pope who wrote the “Humanae Vitae” encyclical in 1968.



The child was born without any defects but only when the child reached puberty could doctors be certain of whether the child had made a full recovery without any problem. A year ago Fr. Marrazzo told Vatican Radio that “a truly extraordinary and supernatural event had occurred thanks to the intercession of Paul VI.” This healing was perfectly in line with the magisterium of Paul VI, who wrote the “Humanae Vitae” in defence of human life, but also in defence of the family because the document talks about conjugal love, not just about unborn life. This healing fits in with Montini’s way of thinking.”



The debate over the late Pope’s cause has intensified over the past year, with doctors exchanging medical opinions until yesterday’s final verdict. Speaking at a conference on Paul VI’s visit to the Holy Land last November, the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, said the former Pope’s beatification “should be relatively imminent.”

Happy Birthday Pope Francis!

His Holiness celebrates His 77th Birthday!  Ad Multos Annos!  

Pope Francis turned 77 today. This morning he celebrated Mass in the Santa Marta guesthouse with 4 homeless men, his closest collaborators and staff from the guesthouse, all of whom afterwards greeted him with a birthday song.

Those present at his morning Mass included Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, together with staff from the Santa Marta guesthouse. The congregation also included the Almoner Monsignor Konrad Krajewski who brought with him 4 homeless men who live in the streets around the Vatican. After the mass, all those present wished the Pope a happy birthday and sang greetings to him before joining him for breakfast in the Vatican guesthouse.

Today’s reading was centered on the genealogy of Jesus and the Pope used this in his homily to reflect on God’s enduring presence in our lives throughout history. He said “God wished to live out his life alongside us” and “took his surname from each of us.”

“God,” the Pope continued, “has always walked alongside his people,” beginning with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He did not want to come to redeem us without coming to live among us and share our lives. The Pope said this long list of God’s people included “saints and sinners.” The latter included “high level sinners who committed serious sins and who didn’t listen” to God’s plans for them.

Pope Francis said in addition to accompanying us in our lives our God follows us and in this way, he displays His humility, His patience and His love for us. He concluded his homily with “a Christmas wish” for all of us “to allow God to write our lives for us.”

Pope Francis celebrates his birthday with some homeless people in Santa Marta

Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast-Message from Pope

Mary's embrace showed what America-North & South-is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother's womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor

VATICAN CITY, December 11, 2013 (Zenit.org) - Pope Francis has sent a Message to the Americas to mark the Dec. 12th Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is venerated as Patroness of the American continent. The Holy Father delivered the Message during the course of his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, the eve of the feast. Below, please find the official English translation of the full text of the Message.

---

MESSAGE TO THE AMERICAS for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas. I would like to greet all my brothers and sisters on that continent, and I do so thinking of the Virgin of Tepeyac.

When Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego, her face was that of a woman of mixed blood, a mestiza, and her garments bore many symbols of the native culture. Like Jesus, Mary is close to all her sons and daughters; as a concerned mother, she accompanies them on their way through life. She shares all the joys and hopes, the sorrows and troubles of God’s People, which is made up of men and women of every race and nation.

When the image of the Virgin appeared on the tilma of Juan Diego, it was the prophecy of an embrace: Mary’s embrace of all the peoples of the vast expanses of America – the peoples who already lived there, and those who were yet to come. Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity.

That is the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and it is also my message, the message of the Church. I ask all the people of the Americas to open wide their arms, like the Virgin, with love and tenderness.

His Holiness,

Pope Francis