By Mary McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 7/31/03)

WOODBRIDGE — If asked to explain your faith, could you do so in words that a person of another faith could understand? If asked "Why is the Church against abortion?" or "Why does the Church disapprove of contraception?" could you clearly explain the reasons in an understandable way?

The staffs of Project Rachel and Gabriel Project of the Diocese of Arlington face this challenge every day. When mothers in crisis pregnancy situations, pregnant mothers looking for help, and the mothers and fathers of babies who have been aborted call the crisis pregnancy and Project Rachel hotlines, the staff must be ready to assure the people on the other end of the phone line there is help available to them without scaring them away or speaking in terms they don’t understand.

Gerri Laird, director of Project Rachel and Gabriel Project, has found help through the words of Father Richard Hogan of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Hogan "takes the Holy Father’s ‘Theology of the Body’ and ‘Theology of the Family’ and puts them into everyday language," Laird said. "We can use the language the Holy Father gave us. He has given us the language to address all these issues."

Father Hogan, an historian and author, introduced a group of about 25 people to the "Lingo of JPII" last week at Our Lady of Angels Parish in Woodbridge. The people came from a number of diocesan parishes, coming from as far as Colonial Beach, and from the neighboring Archdiocese of Washington.

Father Hogan’s first topic of the morning recalled the events of 1978 and the election of John Paul II to the papacy. He gave a summary of the resume of the pope and his accomplishments over the last 25 years. During that time, the pope has: issued a new Catechism for the first time since the 1566 Council of Trent, issued a new Code of Canon Law for the first time since 1917, is in the process of revising the liturgy of the sacraments for the first time since the Second Vatican Council and added the five luminous mysteries to the rosary.

Even before he was pope, Karol Wojtyla was influential. He had a large amount of influence during the Second Vatican Council when he was a newly ordained bishop. He helped write Gaudium et Spes and contributed significantly to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Father Hogan said he is chiefly responsible for influencing Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae in 1968, and is also credited with being a major force in the collapse of communism in Russia.

"Except for Peter, I think it’s safe to say there’s never been a pope so influential," said Father Hogan. However, he added, "What is really significant, what will last longer than anything, is his theology: how and why the Church teaches certain things."

Father Hogan described the "crisis in catechetics." Before the council, Catholic students were taught catechetics through the classic Augustinian and Thomist theologies. They memorized and recited the Baltimore Catechism. Through this teaching style, Father Hogan explained, students received a very strong teaching of the faith, but they found it difficult to explain their faith to people outside of Catholicism. They would first have to teach people the language of the Catechism before they could teach the faith and ideas held within it.

Post Vatican II religion books are easier to understand, Father Hogan said, but they don’t teach the faith as clear as the Baltimore Catechism.

According to Hogan, Pope John Paul II’s teachings are the perfect medium between teaching the faith and using every day language.

The pope begins many of his teachings on the same premise, "we are reflections of God." Father Hogan explained, "We, through our bodies, make God visible; we can see God in ourselves and in others."

Beginning this way is a treatise used daily by Project Rachel and Gabriel Project staff, the "Theology of the Body." Stemming from the premise of being created by God in his image and seeing God in others, "Theology of the Body" teaches respect for oneself and other people. It teaches that the body is sacred and holy, and, as Father Hogan explained, "God likes us just the way we are. God created us just the way we are."

Father Hogan also explained the Holy Father’s "Theology of the Family." God invited man to "increase and multiply." Through the Passion of Christ, God revealed to man how to love.

Father Hogan defined love as "a choice based on knowledge of mind that is self giving; this choice is permanent and life giving." He said, "If you don’t adhere to the entire definition, it’s not love. If you’re not loving, you’re only using."

This love and respect should not only be seen in others, but also in oneself. People shape themselves by what they do. For this reason, Father Hogan explained, the people calling the crisis hotlines are devastated by sins they’ve committed. "Women who have had abortions look back and see what they’ve done and have a hard time believing that God still loves them," he said.

This is where Laird and the rest of her staff step in and help these men and women face the sins that have been committed and move on. "This is the time to bring the word dignity back," Laird said at the workshop. She said she finds herself saying almost every day, "You deserve better. You’re entitled to your dignity and respect."

Laird said, "There are great opportunities for evangelization if we put our feelings aside and just listen. Focus on her [the mother]. If we can get through to her dignity — we all want dignity — she is special — she deserves better. If they connect with their dignity, they will realize the person in them deserves that dignity. We have to save the mother before we can save the child."

Following the five-hour seminar, those who attended crowded around Father Hogan and Laird to continue asking questions and thanking them for their eloquent words.

"I’ve seen a lot of pieces of the puzzle," said Cathy Bliss, a parishioner of Our Lady of Angels Parish, "[Father Hogan] really showed what the big picture should look like. He filled in gaping holes and showed how to communicate the beauty of the faith."

Donna Stanislaw, a youth minister at St. John Parish in Warrenton, left the seminar ready to put the Holy Father’s teachings to work. "I think a lot of times, I encounter youths who are cynical, and adults who’ve fallen away, and many times when you want to share truth they thing you are imposing religion upon them," she said. "When I encounter someone who may be offended, its good to know John Paul put it in a language that can be embraced by anyone. He has made the faith attractive to other people by using a universal language."