Bishops Weekly Column Blog

 The following column appeared in the November 28, 2009 edition of The Tablet.

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

For the past three weeks, I have been traveling and attending some important meetings and would like to share with you what I have learned during this time. The first meeting was the VI World Congress on Migration sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. It was held in the Vatican offices in Rome and was attended by over 350 people, 40 of whom were bishops, as well as several cardinals. The theme of the meetings was “Five Years After the Pontifical Decree, ‘The Love of Christ Towards Migrants’.” This decree set the tone for the policy of the Church on migrants for the past five years and was the basis for the many discussions in this four-day meeting.

Migration has intensified with the new area of globalization. There are probably no countries in the world that are not affected by the issue of migration, either by immigrants entering or emigrants leaving. To see so many counties represented with people involved in migration was truly heartwarming and was a great opportunity for networking with people from all over the world.

Migration is an issue in our own country which most probably will be taken up in the next year in the U.S. Congress, especially the situation of the undocumented. Another important issue is a reform of the total immigration system that, hopefully, might conform to our Catholic understanding of migration as a social issue that needs to be addressed as part of the social doctrine of the Church.

Some of the themes treated at the meeting involved the care of immigrants in detention, the link between migration and development, the pastoral care of migrants in receiving countries, and the place of the Church in assisting immigrants to integrate into the new countries.w Many other themes were treated, but clearly the basic issues were summarized in our audience with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as he encouraged the delegates in his address to the Congress.

Pope Benedict commented on the global context in which migration is happening today, particularly in light of the global economic crisis. He also spoke about migration in its positive aspects, especially in regard to cultural exchange between peoples. As a worldwide Church, the ability of the Church to assist dialogue between various peoples is a special and necessary characteristic of our Catholic Church. The pope then spoke about a theology of welcome and hospitality, citing St. Paul who urged Christians to listen to the Word of God and imitate Christ who welcomed all people to Himself. And finally, he emphasized the key concept of Catholic social doctrine, that is the respect of the human person. When the respect for the individual is carried out, nations and people will adopt the correct policy in regard to migration and many other social issues. The meeting was well worth attending. As a member of this Pontifical Council since 2000, it was heartwarming for me to see the work progressing so well with a new president of the Council, Archbishop Antonio Vegliò, and its vice president, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto.

Unfortunately, there was not much time between the meeting in Rome and the annual U.S. Bishops’ General Meeting in Baltimore. I arrived home from Rome on Friday evening and departed for Baltimore on Saturday morning with barely enough time to repack.

The Bishops’ meeting this year centered on three major discussions: the liturgy with new translations of prayers and other texts, the document on the defense of marriage, and the discussion of the healthcare legislation currently before our federal legislators.

The liturgy somehow can be a lightning rod whenever it is discussed among the bishops. All of us are involved in the liturgy. Bishops, priests, deacons, Religious and the laity have a particular insight into what is the center of the spiritual life of the Church. Strong opinions are voiced on almost every aspect of the new translations that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) forwards to Rome for final approval. It is a fascinating process and will mean some adjustments for all in the future.

Another most important work of the Bishops was a statement on marriage and family. This statement basically has two parts: an overview of the current situation of marriage and family in our country and a theological reflection of family as a part of our faith. Unfortunately, marriage and the family need defense today. Our society is undercutting these pivotal social institutions in many different ways. Besides the issue of divorce and the breakdown of the family, the redefinition of marriage attempted in some states whereby same-sex unions become the equivalent of marriage must be addressed. If the Church would not speak about marriage and the family, who can speak authoritatively about these important issues? These natural institutions have been given supernatural value by Christ’s institution of the sacrament of marriage. When the sacramentality of marriage is understood, then some of the real problems we face today can be avoided. It is a massive job of educating our own Catholics and witnessing to a larger society of what we believe about marriage and the family. This statement is available on the USCCB website (www.usccb.org) and is well worth reading.

Finally, the Bishops discussed the issue of healthcare and the current involvement of the USCCB in trying to influence the legislation for the better. The Bishops have had a long-standing position regarding healthcare and the basic elements of any reform. The Bishops have always stood with those who have no health insurance and also have made it clear that abortion should not be funded with public monies. The principle of subsidiary that is relegation of action to the lower level of competency is always a better way than subsuming issues to a higher level of authority. This is part of the current debate in the healthcare arena. There is the federal option, more government intervention and intrusions on the individual rights of those who pay for their own health insurance. As the final debate on this issue is yet to occur in Washington, there is much advocacy that still needs to be exercised to have a workable healthcare reform that meets all the criterion of the Bishops’ policy. Whether it is migration, healthcare reform, liturgy or the defense of marriage, we see that all of these issues urge us to go beyond the present limits and to put out into the deep. A new look at these essential factors in our faith life is necessary if we will continue to make progress in making our world and Church a better place.

It is my hope that your Thanksgiving celebration was a pleasant family occasion and one that has allowed you to strengthen the bonds within your own family.

 The following column appeared in the September 5, 2009 edition of The Tablet.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As we approach this Labor Day, we celebrate not just a civil holiday, but a true spiritual reflection on human labor. Human labor is not a curse as some might interpret it. Looking back on the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise, where God’s injunction that man would earn bread by the sweat of the brow, can be for some a curse. Rather, truly understanding Genesis tells us that men and women are made the stewards of creation and that they are given the world to develop for God who is the Creator.

The responsibility of men and women to work has changed over the past two centuries. In agricultural societies, men and women worked for themselves to grow the food they needed for their family and the other necessities. Now people work for others, not for their own direct benefit, but they indirectly benefit from working for corporations, businesses and the like. Through this process of change, the dignity of labor sometimes has been lost. Communism and socialism viewed humans as tools of production, whereas the Church has constantly asserted that human beings have innate human dignity which goes beyond the work that they perform.

Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, pronounces a sentence that is heavy with meaning. He says, “The laborer is worthy of his hire,” meaning that human labor, indeed, is something to be treated with respect and prized in all circumstances. The laborer is worthy of just compensation which leads to his or her acquisition of the basic human needs: housing, clothing, food and healthcare. Truly, these are basic human rights. The battle of assertion of rights can become a contentious one. As I mentioned in last week’s article, Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” says, “The sharing of reciprocal duties is a more powerful incentive to action than the mere assertion of rights.”

Reciprocal duty in this context is the duty of employers to provide for their employees. When the principle of subsidiary cannot be applied, that is the employers are incapable of doing this, then intervention by another level, for example government, can be appropriate. This has become the core of the current healthcare debate; who should provide healthcare? Clearly for those who are uninsured, it would seem that the government has some responsibility. For those who already receive benefits, government intervention seems unnecessary.

This year, the Bishops’ Labor Day Statement, entitled The Value of Work: The Dignity of the Human Person, under the chairmanship of Bishop William Murphy from our neighboring Diocese of Rockville Centre, is available on the USCCB website, www.usccb.org. It is well worth reading, as it speaks to the current healthcare debate and other labor-related issues.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has set forth criteria for healthcare reform: “The dignity of every human being and the integral development of human society to promote human flourishing. Pope Benedict’s reflections re-affirm the teaching of Leo XIII on labor, focuses with a special emphasis on Paul VI’s passionate commitment to the Third World and the development of peoples.”

For decades, the Catholic Bishops of the United States have incorporated continuous support of genuine national healthcare reform that meets these criteria: a truly universal healthcare policy with respect for human life and dignity; access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of legal immigrants; pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism, including freedom of conscience and a variety of options; and finally controlling cost and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers. These principles are what the bishops seek in healthcare reform. The Church seeks not to endorse any particular political party, or even any piece of legislation since that is very difficult.

The legislative process, unfortunately, has become a moving target and has been highly politicized. We are not sure what healthcare reform is all about; town hall meetings have proven that. The inability of our elected officials, even our president, to clarify what healthcare reform entails is another problem. Essentially, we know that there are two basic bills, one moving through the United States Senate and the other through the House of Representatives. The Senate bill is 600 pages and the House bill is 1,000 pages. Following passage in each chamber, the bills must be brought to a conference committee that will produce from both bills one piece of legislation which then needs to be ratified by both the Senate and the House before it is signed by the president. That is not the end, however. When the regulations are written to implement the bill, we recognize that the devil is in the details.

We are in a momentous time in our history when the basic right of healthcare could be shared by all. However, we cannot risk basic ethical principles, such as the inclusion of abortion as a healthcare benefit, or the exclusion of consciences of individual medical practioners, or even institutions, not to perform procedures that are against their conscience.

Every day reminds us of the greatness of our American civil society which always has honored the dignity of human labor. When we speak of labor, we recognize that work is always an experience of putting out into the deep. Where does our work take us? Hopefully, as Christian Catholics it takes us even closer to the Kingdom of God, to the person of Jesus Christ by whose work we have been saved.

 + Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio

Below are some exerpts from the homily delivered on Sunday, May 3, 2009 at the Diocese of Brooklyn's Annual Nurses Mass held at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James in downtown Brooklyn.

Today ... we come to honor you nurses who come to this Eucharist to seek a blessing upon your life’s work and vocation. You take care of others in their most vulnerable of situations. Even today in the midst of a healthcare world with so many new technologies and procedures, many things have to stand in the way of patient contact. Clearly, it was your desire and vocation to care for those in need, to assist them, especially when they are most vulnerable.

The Second Reading today from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a good example of the connection between faith and healing. St. Peter had to defend himself before a Jewish court for the good deed he had done in the healing of a cripple. You remember the story which just preceded the passage we read this morning. The cripple reaches out to St. Peter and his companion asking for alms since he had no other way of supporting himself. St. Peter stops, looks at the man with love and says, “Gold and silver I have not, but what I have I give to you; rise and walk in the name of Jesus Christ the Risen One.” And so the miracle happens. Would that too we would have that same power at times. And yet it is not miraculous cures that are most important, but the constant attention for those who feel the desperation of chronic and incurable diseases...

There is a strong connection between faith and healing and wellness. Truly, you who are involved in the works of mercy in healthcare understand that all too well because you see it on a daily basis. If only we could announce to the world the Resurrection and its benefits in the same way that medical scientists and professionals today with great fanfare publicize their latest findings.

Today, however, we are experiencing a medical emergency in the threat of the Swine Flu epidemic or possible pandemic. We know so much more about the transmission of disease today and about viruses than we did in the great pandemic of 1918. I often listened to the stories told by my grandparents of that event. My own mother was born in 1919, just after the pandemics had subsided. The stories of faith and courage of that time were something I understood to be true examples of faith. I remember a particular man who used to come and visit my grandmother frequently to thank her for preparing the bodies of his parents for burial since no one else would dare go near them. He was left an orphan and could never forget the good deed that my grandmother performed and how she took care of him for sometime afterwards. Crisis can bring the best and the worst out of us.

We take this occasion today to pray for those in charge with managing the healthcare of our Nation and our city, that they may make the right decisions, that all of our citizens will cooperate and do what is best to contain the spread of this possible pandemic.

...All of us are called to live our lives as a vocation, you who are nurses and others in various ways. And yet, we must not forget, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, and every day to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He send us sufficient shepherds and shepherdesses to guide the flock, so that the mystery of the Resurrection can be preached in all of its glory and fullness. 

The homily below was delivered on the sixth Sunday of ordinary times, Sunday February 15^th 2009, at Our Lady of Solace Church in Brooklyn.

Last week, I was on my annual retreat. In the retreat house where I was, there was a unique holy water font with the inscription which read “Domene, si vis potes/me/mundar, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” the words of our Gospel today. What wonderful words to remember when we enter the Church and bless ourselves with holy water.

I love to watch children dipping their fingers, and sometimes hands, in holy water fonts. Children love to play with water. Perhaps that is because their Baptism was not so long ago. We need to constantly remember our own Baptism when we were made clean of original sin and became God’s very own sons and daughters.

The possibility of being made clean from leprosy and more is contracted in the Old Testament reading from Leviticus and in the Gospel of Mark.

Moses receives the command from God to expel the person with leprosy from the camp. When he sees someone coming, the leper must cry out, “unclean, unclean.” This adds only insult to injury. There seems to be no possibility of being made clean and the priests are charged with making the judgment for continued exile from the people.

By contrast, Jesus, the new Moses, is approached by a leper who in faith says, “If You will, You can make me clean.”

Jesus, moved with pity, touches him, cures him and sends him off to the priests to get a declaration of the cure, but not before the man is admonished to tell no one else of his cure. This is an almost impossible order which he does not keep. He tells everyone.

Leprosy still exists in our world today as Hanson’s Disease. In the last century there was a leper colony on the Island of Molokai in Hawaii, which still exists. Fortunately, today there are very few inhabitants on Molokai. To that leper colony was sent a young Belgian priest called Damien de Veuster, who once assigned to that colony never left.

One day as he was preaching at Mass, he said “We lepers” and the other lepers quickly understood that now he shared the fatal disease with them, a disease, without a cure at that time, which rotted limbs and extremities and disfigured faces. He will soon be canonized a Saint, not just because of the work which he did, but because of his holiness.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta one day was caring for an abandoned leper and was observed by a visitor who said, “I would not do that for all the money in the world.” To which she responded, “Neither would I.”

Where do we stand as people of faith in the face of not only the incurable diseases (eg AIDS and Cancer) of our world today, but more importantly the spiritual diseases which affect our world today? Do we believe that Jesus can still cure and make clean that which seems to be hopelessly disfigured? Are we willing to accept the conditions Jesus set for the man cured by leprosy?

Remember, he had to go to the priests and, in a sense, humble himself before them. Is this not like obligation to confess our sins to a priest?

And then be made to keep it a secret because God heals and cures whom and wherever He wills? It is not for everyone, especially for those who do not humbly ask in faith.

My dear sisters and brothers, we are invited to the banquet of the Lord which the Saints tell us is like a medicine for the soul. But do we want to become better? Do we want to become clean? The means are available for us. Penance and the Eucharist offer us the infallible means for healing and spiritual health.

May we say with faith and humility today, “Lord if you will, you can make me clean.”

The homily below was delivered on the fifth Sunday in ordinary times, Sunday, February 8^th 2009.

All monotheistic religions have had a problem in trying to reconcile the existence of God with the existence of evil and suffering.

In pre-Christian times, the Roman philosopher, Epicurious (Yes, Epicurean is not just about good food), in a very logical way and in the vein of natural religions. He attempted to analyze the problem of a good god with the existence of evil.

He reasons in this way:

1) If God wants to eliminate suffering from the world and cannot, then He is weak and not omnipotent.
2) If God does not want to eliminate evil, then He is more evil than weak.
3) If God wants to and can eliminate suffering and evil, then why does it exist?

Natural religion, as we, cannot negotiate between the goodness and Omnipotence of God. So what is the answer?

The Book of Job which we have heard in our first reading is God’s revelation in the Old Testament. The Book is 60 pages long in the Bible, yet this book offers no clear answer, but just raises more questions. The so called friends of Job who come to cheer him up in his misery, only really actually torment him in his misfortune, for they asked the wrong questions and drew erroneous conclusions.

But first, a little reminder of who Job was and his problems. His was rich, had a wife and 10 children. In one day wind blew down his house (a tent), and he lost his whole family. Thieves took away all his flocks, which were extensive. He is not only destitute and alone, but also covered with sores, sitting on a dung heap when he has to deal with the problem of evil.

The friends reason with him saying, “Suffering is a punishment from God for some evil done and so suffering is repayment.” But he was an innocent and good man. “Suffering is a means to make man wise and faithful to God, so it is a test willed by God.”

“Suffering is a correction, like medicine which God uses to make man better, so that suffering is part of God’s teaching for men.”

Job responds with faith saying: “If we receive good things from God, why not the evil?” “Naked, I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I will die.”

Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est says, “Certainly Job could complain before God about the presence of the incomprehensible and apparently unjustified suffering in the world.”

In his dialogue with God, he is offered contemplation, which only makes it worse.

The Gospel today gives us a better understanding of how God views suffering and, therefore, evil. It is Jesus, the God/man who heals and saves. First, Peter’s mother-in-law, then in the town some are cured of sickness and demonic possession. Jesus went about preaching and casting out demons.

So what do we do in the face of evil and suffering? We must act like Jesus; we try to eliminate it to the best of our ability. Jesus did not cure and heal every person in the town, or in all of the Galilee or all of Israel. But, those whom He heals saw had now a different answer to the vexing question of why does God permit evil. Jesus can dispel it, so we also can dispel evil with the help of God. As St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading, “I have become all things to all, to save at least some.” We should follow St. Paul’s example and reach out to others in their need. We cannot assist everyone, but some good we can do to some people will assist in dispelling evil in the world.

Our Eucharist today gives us the opportunity we need to join our human suffering to that of Jesus for the salvation and transformation of the world. As the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, so too do our human lives with all their problems become in God’s hands a relief to the world to dispel evil.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Homilía

V Domingo Tiempo Ordinario – B

Toda religión monoteísta ha tenido problemas tratando de reconciliar entre la existencia de Dios y la existencia de la maldad y el sufrimiento.

En tiempos PRE-Cristianos, después de que el libro de Job fuese escrito, nuestra primera lectura a la cual regresaremos, toca el tema del sufrimiento. El filosofo Romano, Epicurious, (Si, Epicúreo y no se trata solamente de buena comida) si no de una manera muy lógica y de manera en vana de una religión natural.

Me explico;

1) Si Dios quiere eliminar el sufrimiento del mundo pero no lo hace, entonces el es considerado flojo y no Omnipotente.
2) Si Dios no quiere eliminar la maldad, entonces el es mas malo que flojo.
3) Si Dios quiere y puede eliminar todo sufrimiento y maldad, entonces ¿Porque existen?

Religión natural, como la nuestra, no puede negociar lo bueno con un Dios omnipotente. Entonces; ¿Cual es la respuesta?

El libro de Job, que hemos escuchado en nuestra primera lectura de hoy es sin duda uno de los libros más controversiales del Antiguo Testamento, en el se encuentra la revelación de Dios, trata uno de los temas más discutidos y contestados: el sufrimiento humano. El libro contiene sesenta largas paginas en la biblia, sin embargo, no nos da una contestación clara, si no mas preguntas.

Los famosos llamados amigos de Job que vienen para alegrarlo en su miseria, solo terminan atormentándolo por su desgracia.

Job era un hombre rico, tenía una esposa con diez hijos. Un día un viento muy fuerte soplo sobre su tienda, la tienda se desrumbo y el no solo perdió su tienda, sino a toda su familia. Luego llegaron ladrones y le llevaron todo su rebaño. No solo estaba Job destituido y solo, si no que quedo cubierto de llagas y heridas, sentado en un montón de estierco teniendo que después negociar con el problema de la maldad.

El pueblo razono con el y dijeron; “El sufrimiento es un castigo de Dios por algo malo que hemos hecho por lo tanto el sufrimiento es el pago de nuestras deudas. A pesar de que el era un hombre inocente y bueno. El sufrimiento es un medio para hacer al hombre sabio y fiel a Dios, por lo tanto es una prueba de la voluntad de Dios.

El sufrimiento es entonces la medicina, como la medicina que Dios usa para hacer del hombre un hombre bueno, el sufrimiento es parte de la enseñanza divina para el hombre.

Job con fe responde; “Si nosotros recibimos cosas buenas de Dios, ¿Porque no las malas?” “Desnudos, venimos a este mundo del seno de nuestra madre, y desnudos moriremos.”

El Papa Benedicto XVI (dieciséis) en su carta Deus Caritas Est dijo, “Seguramente Job pudo quejarse ante Dios acerca de la presencia y de el incompresible y aparentemente escandaloso sufrimiento en el mundo.”

En su dialogo con Dios, el solo ofreció contemplación, que solo empeoro la situación.

El Evangelio hoy, nos da un mejor entendimiento de cómo Dios ve el sufrimiento y también el mal.

El Evangelio nos muestra muchas veces a Jesús aliviando el sufrimiento humano, sobre todo curando enfermedades y expulsando demonios. Y sabemos que a veces Dios sana y a veces no, y que Dios puede sanar directamente en forma milagrosa o indirectamente a través de la medicina, de los médicos y de los medicamentos. Toda sanación tiene su fuente en Dios. También puede Dios no sanar, o sanar más temprano o más tarde. Y cuando no sana o no alivia el sufrimiento, o cuando se tarda para sanar y aliviar, tenemos a nuestra disposición todas las gracias que necesitamos para llevar el sufrimiento con esperanza, para que así produzca frutos de vida eterna y de redención.

¿De redención? Así es. Nuestros sufrimientos unidos a los sufrimientos de Cristo pueden tener efecto redentor para nosotros mismos y para los demás.

Por lo tanto es Jesús, Dios y Hombre que nos sana y nos salva, primero sano a la suegra de Pedro, luego sano a muchas personas del pueblo, curándolo de las enfermedades y de las posesiones diabólicas. Si, Jesús iba predicando y expulsando demonios.

Entonces; ¿Que hacemos en cuanto al sufrimiento y la maldad? ¿Actuamos como Jesús? ¿Tratamos de eliminarlo lo mejor que podamos? Recordemos Jesús no curo a todas las personas del mundo, no sano a toda Galilea o Israel, si no las de los pueblos que el anduvo. Pero todos los que el sano, y todos los que lo vieron tenían una contestación diferente a la molesta pregunta del porque Dios permite el mal, para después desvanecerlo y luego nosotros poder disiparlo.

Hermanos; porque el sufrimiento humano es tan controversial, el Papa Juan Pablo II también tocó el tema con frecuencia, sobre todo en sus visitas a los enfermos, a quienes exhortaba a ofrecer sus sufrimientos por el bien y la santificación propia y de los demás. Y en 1984 nos escribió su Encíclica “Salvifici Doloris” sobre el tema. Allí nos dice, basado en muchos textos de la Sagrada Escritura: “Todo hombre tiene su participación en la redención. Cada uno está llamado también a participar en ese sufrimiento por medio del cual se ha llevado a cabo la redención ... Llevando a efecto la redención mediante el sufrimiento, Cristo ha elevado juntamente el sufrimiento humano a nivel de redención. Consiguientemente, todo hombre, en su sufrimiento, puede hacerse también partícipe del sufrimiento redentor de Cristo” (JP II-SD #19).

Volviendo al tema de Job, el se lamenta, reclama y llega a la desesperación, pero cree en Dios y lo invoca.

Que los seres humanos suframos, unos más otros menos, cuándo sufrimos y por qué, descansa totalmente el la Voluntad inexplicable de Dios, Dueño del mundo y Dueño nuestro. Pero sabemos, también, que Dios dirige todas sus acciones y todas sus permisiones, a nuestro mayor bien, que es la meta hacia la cual vamos: la Vida Eterna.