The Valley Catholic November 5, 2013 | Page 15

The Valley Catholic Commentary ‘Having the familiar disappear can grieve the heart.’ We have heard snippets of an interview Pope Francis did for Jesuit publications in which he suggested we should not always emphasize abortion, gay marriage and contraception. The whole interview, however, is remarkable for its candor and includes a range of thoughts that give a sense of how Francis intends to color his papacy: • On why our pastoral focus needs to be on healing, not on reiterating certain moral concerns: “I see clearly the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask an injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the levels of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds… “During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge.  By saying this, I said what the Catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but Spirituality 15 By Father Ron Rolheiser Pope Francis: In his own words God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person. “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ “I also consider the situation of a woman with a failed marriage and who also had an abortion. This woman remarries and is now happy and has five children. That abortion in her past weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would like to move forward in her Christian life. What is the confessor to do?   “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I have been reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in context. The teaching of A poor Church for the poor… By Gregory R. Kepferle “Oh, how I would like a poor church, and for the poor.” Since proclaiming these words, Pope Francis continues to inspire through his simplicity, humility, humor and candor. The message is not new. From Jesus’ declaration that he was called to bring good news to the poor, the emphasis on justice for the poor is proclaimed throughout the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. As Pope Francis noted, “The proclamation of the Gospel is destined primarily to the poor, to those who often lack the essentials for a decent life. The good news is first announced to them, that God loves them before all others and comes to visit them through acts of charity the disciples of Christ carry out in his name.” This message has been echoed throughout the Church’s teachings and through its ministries of Catholic charities, Catholic education, and Catholic health care. As the Pope notes, it is not an abstract care for the poor, but a concrete and practical witness by giving voice to the cry of the poor and by touching those in poverty and on the margins of society through direct compassionate service. What feels new is not the message, but the messenger. Pope Francis doesn’t merely proclaim, he lives the message, whether by driving a less expensive car or by washing the feet of young November 5, 2013 detainees, including women and undocumented immigrants. Pope Francis also challenges the moral framework of the economic and political structures that keep people in poverty. In speaking to a group of ambassadors, he said, “I encourage the financial experts and the political leaders of your countries to consider the words of St. John Chrysostom: ‘Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life. It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs.’” Perhaps today, especially in Silicon Valley, we are like that rich young man in Mark’s Gospel (22) who had kept all the commandments and wanted to know what else he needed to do to obtain eternal life. “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’”  There are 330,000 people living in poverty here in our own diocese -Santa Clara County. Catholic Charities reaches 41,000 of them and needs help through volunteers, contributions and advocacy. Many of our parishes have active social concerns, outreach committees, Ladies of Charity or St. Vincent de Paul Societies that can benefit from volunteers and contributions. Pope Francis is showing us a way we can be a Church of the poor and for the poor. I invite each of us to consider how we can follow that call. • Gregory Kepferle is CEO of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. the Church is clear and I am a son of the Church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.” • On women in the Church: “Women are asking deep questions that must be addressed. We must investigate further the role of women in the Church. The challenge today is to think about the specific place of women in those places where the authority of the Church is exercised for various areas of the Church.” • On what it means to think with the church: “All the faithful, considered as a whole, are infallible in matters of belief, and the people display this infallibility in believing, through a supernatural sense of the faith of all the people walking together. This is what I understand today as ‘thinking with the Church.’ We should not even think, therefore, that ‘thinking with the Church’ means only thinking with the hierarchy of the Church.” • On manifesting wide Catholicity: “This Church is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people. We must not reduce the bosom of the universal Church to a nest protecting mediocrity.” • On the temptation to defensively “circle the wagons” in face of growing secularity: “If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to open up new areas to God. Those who look for disciplinarian solutions, who long for exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists -- they have a static and inner-directed view of things.” • Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com. Letters to the Editor • Human trafficking Editor: Bishop McGrath, the Diocese of San Jose and The Valley Catholic are to be commended for bringing attention to the tragedy o f human trafficking. Lisa Thompson, Salvation Army Liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking, urges us not to forget the “demand” side of that evil business. That means preventing sex trafficking by taking on pornography, specifically Internet porn. Angela Lu writes that “the continued demand by men to buy women and the role Internet pornography plays in that demand” need to be addressed. Pornography destroys lives and families and can lead to sex trafficking. Porn is a serious problem, even within our parishes. Yet, fighting porn is not a popular cause. A new group that educates junior and senior high and college students about porn is Fight the New Drug at www.fightthenewdrug.org. Let us work and pray that someday sexual exploitation and human trafficking are things of the past. 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