Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Pope's first full day in US

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis has completed the first full day of his Apostolic visit to the United States, in ‎the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. The schedule of the Holy Father’s public engagements for ‎Wednesday included the official welcome ceremony on the south lawn of the White House, a meeting ‎with the Catholic bishops of the United States in St. Matthew’s cathedral, and Mass at the Basilica of the ‎National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, on the campus of the Catholic University of America. ‎

Three different occasions, with three very different audiences, and three vastly different central points ‎of focus: how did Pope Francis manage to tie them all together and stay “on message” while doing justice ‎to the particular nature and peculiar scope of each?‎ The short answer to that very complex and multifaceted question is that he remembered his training in ‎Jesuit religious life and drew on the great Catholic tradition of communication, which speaks at once to ‎those inside the Church (ad intra), and those outside the Church’s visible boundaries (ad extra).‎

If, in his address to the bishops, he warned that, “Harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue ‎of a Pastor,” he also proved in his own body  and with his own tongue – the body and the tongue of the ‎universal Pastor of the Universal Church – and ‘harsh and divisive’ is not synonymous with, ‘frank and ‎fearless’, especially when, at the White House, he reiterated his intention, “[T]o celebrate and support ‎the institutions of marriage and the family at this, a critical moment in the history of our civilization,” and ‎made his own, the US bishops’ clarion call to rally in defense of religious freedom. “[A]ll are called to be ‎vigilant,” he said, “precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that ‎would threaten or compromise it,” for religious freedom, “remains one of America’s most precious ‎possessions.”‎

At the same time, “American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and ‎inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust ‎discrimination,” and our legitimate concern in this regard cannot keep us from working concretely toward ‎adequate and equitable solutions to real problems that press upon us with increasing urgency – problems ‎like those created by years and decades of failure to care for the created order over which God has set us ‎as stewards.‎

We have said since before this visit began, that Pope Francis’ purpose in coming is to engage and ‎encourage, to listen and to challenge – and yes – in both the etymological and the colloquial sense,  to ‎provoke everyone. ‎What we saw on Wednesday in Washington, DC, was a Pastor at work – and the work he was about was ‎the work of exploding the binary thought patterns that dominate our contemporary culture: he captures ‎and commands our careful attention and at the same time he unleashes our pent-up moral imagination; ‎this son of Ignatius shows us that, in order to seek God in all things, we must be prepared to let God ‎reveal Himself to us.‎

The example he held up for us and for the whole Church and all the world, was that of an 18th century ‎Franciscan priest, who was both brilliant scholar and missionary adventurer: Junipero Serra, OFM, who ‎founded the first nine of the great chain of 21 missions in California, from San Diego to San Francisco. ‎‎“Father Serra had a motto which inspired his life and work,” recalled Pope Francis in his homily, “a saying ‎by which helived his life: siempre adelante!  Keep moving forward!” Pope Francis went on to say, “For [St. ‎Junipero Serra], this was the way to continue experiencing the joy of the Gospel, to keep his heart from ‎growing numb, from being anesthetized.  He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting.  He ‎kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting.  He kept going forward to the end of his life.  ‎Today, like him, may we be able to say: Forward!  Let’s keep moving forward!”‎  This forward progress is toward a definite goal, the achievement of which is assured to the Church, and it ‎is a progress in continuity with the unbroken way that has been cut and forged by God’s holy ones ‎throughout all time and into eternity. “We are indebted to a tradition,” said Pope Francis, “[to] a chain of ‎witnesses who have made it possible for the good news of the Gospel to be, in every generation, both ‎‎‘good’ and ‘news’.”‎

Pope Francis has been shaking things up, as they say: so much so, that a leading English-language journal ‎recently wondered with cheeky frankness, “Is the Pope Catholic?” On Wednesday, in Washington, DC, ‎the public thinking, advocacy and witness that Pope Francis conducted bore the mark of Catholicity in ‎both its capital and lower-case acceptions.‎

What to expect on Thursday, when the Holy Father will again make history when he addresses a joint ‎meeting of the US Congress before going on to bless the St. Patrick’s parish soup kitchen and meet with ‎the needy who find refuge and sustenance there? More of the same: yesterday, today, and ever. Do not ‎expect it to get old.‎

(from Vatican Radio)



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