By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 4/25/02)
"Some have said that it would be better to change the time of this Congress," Archbishop Pittau said in reference to recent sexual misconduct scandals involving priests in the United States. Instead, he said, "We give thanks to the Lord for this opportunity" to reflect, to understand and to work at creating a "new vocations culture."
Over the four days of the Congress, delegates — priests, bishops, religious, deacons, vocations directors, youth ministers and young adults — from the United States and Canada listened to keynote speakers in French, English and Spanish detail serious challenges to vocation ministry while offering hope of finding new ways to attract Catholic young adults to ordained ministry and consecrated life.
Tables of delegates stretched the length of several meeting rooms in the Grand Salon of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde and Father Curtis Clark, director of the diocesan Office of Vocations, were among the delegates.
Thursday evening, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal opened the Congress by reading a letter from Pope John Paul II to the delegates. "With all my heart, I join all of you in prayer and offer my best wishes that this gathering be an occasion for even greater enthusiasm and stronger commitment for those who work in this field," Pope John Paul wrote. It was the pope who invited the bishops’ conferences of Canada and the United States to hold the Congress, which follows a 1994 Latin American Congress in Brazil and a 1997 European Congress in Rome.
Congress program chairperson Sisters of Notre Dame Sister Catherine Bertrand, executive director of the National Religious Vocations Conference (U.S.A.), explained the procedural structure of the Congress. She praised the breadth of regional diocesan input that preceded the Congress, which will aid "formulation of a pastoral plan for vocations ministry in North America."
In opening remarks on encouraging vocations to the priesthood, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Catholic Congregation for Education in Rome, said, "The Church today more than ever needs to reawaken an appreciation for the greatness and beauty of the priesthood. … The first promoters of the priesthood are priests themselves" through their example. A life of prayer, joy, humility, devotion and availability to the faithful will attract young men who will want to imitate them, Cardinal Grocholewski said.
"In the light of the current situation in the Church," Cardinal Grocholewski said, "It is the urgent task of this Congress to proclaim the specific, irreplaceable, supernatural and sublime nature of the … priesthood. Your local churches are looking to this Congress with great hope, awaiting the development of such initiatives for promoting new priestly vocations."
Sister Catherine Bertrand reported the results of regional vocations Congresses held last fall and winter in the United States and Canada. In the United States, 4,800 people participated in 122 regional Congresses, while in Canada, a total of 2,850 took part in 64 regional meetings. Each regional meeting considered three questions about vocation ministry and compiled comments according to age groups: under 30, 30-50 and 50+. According to Sister Catherine Bertrand, the results offer reason to hope about the spirituality of Catholic young adults, but they also suggest obstacles exist to vocations in terms of materialism, consumerism, secularism, lack of family support and the mandate of celibacy. Suggested actions to promote vocations included prayer, education, stronger emphasis on family life and increased witness by priests and religious.
On Friday, keynote speaker Passionist Father Donald Senior, a biblical scholar and general editor of The Bible Today, provided a biblical foundation for vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life with examples ranging from Moses and Sarah to the apostles. He said it is no accident that the "biblical symbol for describing the life of faith is that of a journey" and the journey "often involves rigor, fatigue and failure."
"Has there ever been a time in our collective memory when the need for the vocation of the priest in the Church has been more urgent?" Father Senior asked. The example of loving, consecrated life communities is also in "urgent need" in a world "filled with violence and with increasing chasms of hostility," he said.
Keynote speaker Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser posed the question, "Are we a post-Christian society?" in discussing the "present moment" in Church history. He called the Congress an "upper room," waiting experience, noting the Church is waiting for "a new Francis, a new Clare, a new Dominic." Father Rolheiser called recent scandals "probably the biggest crisis of soul that has ever hit the U.S. Church." He likened the pain and humiliation of the Church to Christ’s crucifixion, but "from that always comes new life."
"We need saints for today … saints who can bring people together," Father Rolheiser said.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, presided at the Friday evening Mass at nearby St. Patrick Basilica, the first of three Masses celebrated at area churches during the Congress. Bishop Gregory spoke about the unlikely choice of Saul as the Lord’s instrument, noting God "regularly chooses and summons the most unlikely people to accomplish His will." Vocations are not lacking in our world, Bishop Gregory said, but rather, "discernment, listening, acceptance and trust … seem to be in short supply."
On Saturday morning, keynote speaker Sister Marie Chin, president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, presented a vibrant vision for a "new social alignment" in which the Church sees and deals with an increasingly multicultural society.
As to what the Church must do to promote ordained ministry and consecrated life, Sister Marie Chin said, "Whatever strategies we employ must be geared toward a transformation of consciousness, a healing and liberating of the memory, imagination and heart … a radically different way of knowing, seeing, hearing, judging and acting."
"Following Jesus, we may well have to leave the safety and comfort of the ‘dwelling place’ of our own culture, take off our shoes, and come and see up close how people in different cultures live…." Sister Marie Chin said.
Saturday afternoon, Saint-Jean-Longueuil Bishop Jacques Berthelet, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, presided over the celebration of Mass at nearby Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, a smaller version of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
"May our Eucharist on this second day of the Continental Congress … bring about a new consciousness among all disciples of Jesus Christ of our baptismal vocation, a call to holiness…." Bishop Berthelet said in his homily.
Delegates chose from 16 afternoon workshops on Saturday. Workshop topics included promoting positive images of priesthood and religious life, the use of media in vocations promotion, parish and family life, understanding the permanent diaconate and the importance of involving the laity in vocations work.
Delegates also had the opportunity to share discussion about vocations ministry among themselves during general sessions in the Grand Salon between keynote speakers.
Keynote speaker Sister of Notre Dame Sister Mary Johnson spoke on the findings of a study, Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice on Saturday afternoon. A survey of more than 800 Catholics ages 20-39, expressed their real yearning for spirituality, Sister Mary Johnson said, but only 15 percent surveyed said they had ever been encouraged by anyone to consider a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life. Half of those surveyed who were married had married non-Catholics. The "vast majority" of young adults surveyed "are not in agreement with Church teachings on human sexuality," Sister Mary Johnson said. Incredibly, few of those surveyed had ever heard of or read the documents of Vatican Council II, she reported.
Sister Mary Johnson asked the delegates to consider, "Do young adults see us in community? … Where is social teaching in religious education? ... Do we truly stand with the materially poor?"
After Archbishop Pittau’s address on Sunday, keynote speaker Father Gilles Routhier, a professor of theology at Laval University in Quebec City, was scheduled to speak on the "conscious reflection" that must precede the North American Church’s renewed approaches to vocations ministry.
After an hour of prayer in the presence of the World Youth Day Cross in a park nearby, delegates were scheduled to attend the closing celebration of Mass at Notre-Dame Basilica in the old section of Montreal, presided by Cardinal Turcotte.
An evening banquet with closing remarks from Archbishop Pierangelo Silvano Nesti, secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, closed the Congress.
On Sunday, Sister Catherine Bertrand said, "The Congress far exceeded our expectations. At a time when there has been some very sad news in the Church, we hope we have been able to provide some good news. Our intention was to create a pastoral plan, but what has been exciting is that people have a sense of being very committed to the work."
Parish lector Peter Calzavara of Toronto said by Sunday he was "tired" because the Congress "was the most hard-working conference I’ve been to in years. We didn’t waste a minute. The general sessions were very fruitful, very valuable."
Margaret Paluch of Chicago, who has been involved in parish vocations work for 20 years, said, "After the last few months, this has been inspiring. There is a whole new rush of hope."
Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald. All rights reserved.
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