Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

Connect

A Ministry of Service

By

Among the most challenging observations of Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez in his address to the UD Ministry Conference were his comments on the priesthood as understood by Vatican II.  Listed first among the things the Council recognized as in need of change was that “the Church is not [only] the hierarchy but [also] God’s people.”

Continuing on this theme he added that “the hierarchy has no reason to be in itself or for itself, but in reference (to) and in service to the community,” and that “the function of the hierarchy is redefined with relation to Jesus, suffering servant and not as ‘Pantocrator’ (lord and emperor of this world).” The Cardinal then added that, “the hierarchy is a ministry (diakonia= service) that demands to reduce oneself to the condition of servant. To occupy that place (weakness and poverty) fitting, truly proper of it.”

Again referring to the work of the Council, he went on to explain that “there is not a double rank of Christians among the people: lay people and clergy, essentially different. The Church as a ‘society of unequals’ disappears: consequently, there is not in Christ and the Church any inequalities’” (Lumen Gentium, 12).

Cardinal Rodríguez further stressed that, “not a single ministry can be placed above this common dignity. The clergy are not the ‘mankind of God,’ nor the lay people ‘the mankind of the world.’ That dichotomy is false. We are talking correctly, instead of clergy and lay people, we talk about community and ministries.”

Citing the Epistle to the Hebrews he noted that “in Christ there has been a change of priesthood” (Heb. 7, 12). In effect, the first characteristic of the priesthood of Jesus is that “he becomes similar in every way to mankind.”

Cardinal Rodríguez’ comments take on special significance since he is the chairman of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinal Advisers and only recently returned from the meeting of the Cardinal advisers with the Pope in October.

Becoming a Samaritan Church

By

“There was a scholar of the law* who stood up to test him and said, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ He said in reply, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ He replied to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.’ But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” Luke 10:25-29

When asked our favorite passage from Scripture, I suspect that for many of us the Parable of the Good Samaritan would be number one.  As in many of his parables, this parable had a “hook” in it, an unexpected element. The hook was the Samaritan, a member of a religious group for whom the Jewish people had great antipathy from the time of the Exile.

In the story the compassion comes not from the two Jewish religious leaders who not only pass by the wounded man but go out of their way to avoid him. It is the hated Samaritan who stops to render aid and provide for the victim’s care. The “scholar of the law” had to admit that the Samaritan, a foreigner, a stranger and an outcast, not the religious leaders, who was neighbor to the victim.  Jesus then told the young man, go and do likewise.

I repeat this story because I was struck by Cardinal Rodríguez, who in his address to the UD Ministry Conference, repeatedly referred to our becoming a Samaritan Church, a Church “with a Samaritan praxis of justice and love.”

Cardinal Rodríguez’ call to embrace the culture of the Good Samaritan reflects Pope Francis’ vision of the “Church on the periphery”, in service to the world, engaging the culture as a witness to the loving compassion of Jesus. We live in a society that tends to embrace the “culture of indifference” that would pass by the wounded person because they did not want to “get involved” or believed “it was none of my affair.”

Being a Samaritan Church is, in the words of Cardinal Rodríguez, “to make the culture of the Good Samaritan your own before the neighbor in need: to feel as our own the grief of the oppressed, approaching them and releasing them.” Without this commitment, all religiousness is false.  It is what Saint Paul told us: “if I do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13, 1-13).

Jesus is saying to us as a Samaritan Church what he said to the scholar of the law…“go and do likewise.”

Vatican II key to Franciscan renewal

By

Continuing the reflection on Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez’ address to the UD Ministry Conference, the Cardinal spoke of the Second Vatican Council as being central to and the driving force behind the renewal of the Church.

Describing the Council as a “grace-filled event,” the Cardinal called it “the central moment of contemporary history.”  He said the Council recognized that things had changed, and addressed those changes and how the Church must respond.

Recalling the words of Blessed Pope John XXIII that “The Church of Jesus Christ is the Church of all, but for the undeveloped countries, it is the Church of the poor,” Cardinal Rodriguez reminded us that the Council declared “Christ was sent by the Father to evangelize the poor. Similarly, the church encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by human misery and recognizes in those who are poor and suffering the image of her Founder.”

Vatican II, the Cardinal explained, “brought an end to the hostilities of the Church with modernity condemned by the First Vatican Council” and acknowledged that the “world is not a place of evil and sin, nor is the Church the only place of goodness and virtue.” The texts of the Council state the Church should “lay down a bridge towards the world,” and “initiate a dialogue with it.”

“The Council,” Cardinal Rodriguez recalled,  “opened up with great affection to the world, to science, progress, human values, to the collaboration between science and faith, to respect the autonomy of creation and the rights of reasoning, science and liberty.”

Pope Francis seems committed to the Council principle that the Gospel of Jesus is most effectively proclaimed through engagement with the world, rather than condemnation. History has shown that when the Church loses its missionary spirit and engages in internal competitions that effect is to obscure the Gospel rather than proclaim it.

The Holy Father has called for the Church to be on the periphery. In addressing the Latin American Bishops Conference he said: “I like saying that the position of missionary disciples is not in the center but at the periphery:  they live poised towards the peripheries… including the peripheries of eternity, in the encounter with Jesus Christ. In the preaching of the Gospel, to speak of ‘existential peripheries’ decentralizes things; as a rule, we are afraid to leave the center. The missionary disciple is someone ‘off center’: the center is Jesus Christ, who calls us and sends us forth. The disciple is sent to the existential peripheries.”

The concept of the Christian as “missionary disciple” is true to the Catholic tradition that Christianity is more than a personal relationship with God, but a relationship with God that is lived out in a relationship of loving service to others. “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God* whom he has not seen.” I John 4:19-20

A Chance to See and Hear the Super Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga

By

If you want to know where the Church reform is going to take us, then don’t miss the keynote address at the University of Dallas Ministry Conference next month.

There is great excitement over the fact that Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga will be the keynote speaker at the conference. As chairman of the eight super cardinals chosen by Pope Francis as his special advisors, he is one of the most knowledgeable leaders of the Catholic Church today.  To make it even more interesting, the cardinal will be freshly back from the summit meeting of the advisers with the Holy Father.

Although the Pope will be present, Cardinal Maradiaga will chair the first meeting of the super cardinals (dubbed the G-8 by the media) to be held at the Vatican October 1-3. While the group has not yet met, they have been in frequent contact and will bring suggestions for possible reforms of the Church made by bishops in their region.

Cardinal Rodriguez has been a frequent visitor to Dallas but this will be his first public address. He will deliver keynote addresses in both the English and Spanish sections of the conference and is expected to take questions following his address.

Pastors have been asked to send their catechists, Catholic school teachers and lay ministers to this 7th annual UD Ministry Conference, not only to hear Cardinal Maradiaga but to sharpen their skills by attending the many fine workshops being offered.

For more information go to: http://www.udallas.edu/udmc/2013/ or call 972.721.5105.