BALTIMORE — The mission of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
is as timely now as 100 years ago when the conference was founded as a
"wise and Spirit-filled response to the immense suffering and
displacement" caused by World War I, the Vatican secretary of state said
Nov. 12.
"The church in your country seeks to bring not only material
assistance but also the spiritual balm of healing, comfort and hope to new
waves of migrants and refugees who come knocking on America's door,"
Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.
He made the remarks in his homily at a Mass celebrating the
USCCB's centenary in Baltimore on the eve of the bishops' fall general
assembly.
As it developed from its formation as the National Catholic War
Council to the present-day USCCB, the conference has never wavered "in
that commitment to Christian charity" and "has proved to be an
effective means for coordinating the pastoral outreach and evangelical witness
of the church in America," the cardinal said.
The 62-year-old Italian cardinal was the celebrant of the Mass at
the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. A career Vatican diplomat, the cardinal is Pope Francis' top aide both
for internal church matters as well as for relations with governments and
international organizations.
Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori welcomed the cardinal, his
fellow archbishops and bishops, priests, religious men and women, laity and
seminarians to "America's first cathedral," built between 1806 and
1821. The Baltimore basilica was the first Catholic church to be constructed in
United States after the adoption of the new Constitution.
The basilica, filled to capacity, was a fitting setting to
celebrate the USCCB's centenary, a landmark in the history of the U.S. Catholic
Church.
Archbishop Lori was among the dozen or more concelebrants on the
altar, who included Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president
of the USCCB, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United
States. The rest of the U.S. bishops filled several of the basilica's front pews.
Before Mass, the bishops gathered for an afternoon workshop for
presentations on the history of the USCCB by New York Cardinal Timothy M.
Dolan, head of a task force on the centenary observance; Bishop Earl A. Boyea
of Lansing, Michigan; and retired Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane,
Washington. Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Skylstad are both former USCCB
presidents.
Outside the basilica, children from various Catholic schools in
the Baltimore Archdiocese lined the steps to greet people arriving for Mass.
Below the steps a few protesters held placards or placed them on the sidewalk,
calling on the U.S. bishops to embrace pacifism.
"There is no such animal as a 'Just War,'" said one
sign quoting Benjamin Joseph Salmon (1889–1932), a prominent Catholic
conscientious objector and outspoken critic of the Catholic Church's just-war
theory. "1000+ U.S. Catholics have died in vain in Iraq and
Afghanistan," read another.
In his homily, Cardinal Parolin drew on the day's Gospel reading
from Chapter 25 of the Gospel of St. Matthew describing how "the wise
virgins filled their lamps with oil in preparation for the coming of the
bridegroom."
He used the symbolism of the oil "to reflect with you on
some of the present-day opportunities and challenges facing your conference at
the dawn of its second century."
"That oil is also spiritual joy, the joy of the Gospel — 'Evangelii gaudium' — that the church is called to
proclaim before the world," the cardinal said. "Ultimately, it is a
joy grounded in our hope in the Lord's victory over death and the promise of
our own resurrection."
"In an age increasingly marked by secularization,
materialism and a coarsening of human relations," he said, "an
essential aspect of your task as pastors of the church in America is to propose
that hope, in season and out of season, trusting in its power to attract minds
and hearts to the truth of Christ.
He remarked that U.S. Catholic community with its "vast
network" of parishes and educational, health care and charitable
institutions "is challenged to propose in an ever more vital way the
wisdom of the Gospel, which alone brings true joy and satisfies the deepest
longings of the human heart."
He held up the USCCB's convocation in Orlando, Fla., and the
ongoing preparations for the Fifth National Encuentro in 2018 as examples of
the conference's "far-sighted initiatives aimed at encouraging dialogue
and cooperation at every level" in the life of the U.S. church.
"In this way, you are seeking to foster that heightened
sense of missionary discipleship that Pope Francis considers the heart of the
new evangelization," Cardinal Parolin said.
In the century before the founding of the bishops' conference,
"the great challenge facing the church in this country was to foster
communion in an immigrant church, to integrate a diversity of peoples,
languages and cultures in the one faith, and to inculcate a sense of
responsible citizenship and concern for the common good."
Today, he continued, "the urgent need to welcome and
integrate new waves of immigrants continues unabated. At the same time, the
Catholic community is called, under your guidance, to work for an ever more
just and inclusive society by dispelling the shadows of polarization,
divisiveness and societal breakdown by the pure light of the Gospel."
He said the USCCB has made many "responsible
contributions" to the discussion "of important social issues and
political debates, above all when these involve the defense of moral values and
the rights of the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable and those who have no
voice."
The U.S. church has made an "outstanding witness" to
defending the right to life of the unborn, "but also, in more recent times
... to ensure due protection for the family and access to affordable health
care."
"You have done this not only by engaging in policy debates
in your own country, but also by assisting international processes of dialogue
and peacemaking, and by providing much-needed humanitarian aid to peoples beset
by war and civil conflict," he said.
"In this process of accompaniment, may you continue to
exercise your prophetic office by bringing the balm of mercy to discussions
that all too often take refuge in policies and statistics, while ignoring the
faces and needs of real people."
At a dinner that evening with the U.S. bishops, Cardinal Parolin
told them Pope Francis sent his "cordial good wishes for this
anniversary" and he recalled the pontiff's "message of
encouragement" to them during their meeting last year at the Vatican.
He quoted the pope, who said that the great challenge that the
Catholic Church faces is "to create a culture of encounter, which
encourages individuals and groups to share the richness of our traditions and
experiences, to break down walls and to build bridges. The church in America,
as elsewhere, is called to 'go out' from its comfort zone and to be a leaven of
communion. Communion among ourselves, with our fellow Christians, and with all
who seek a future of hope."
"It is my hope and prayer that this anniversary will
strengthen your communion and common resolve in rising to this challenge,"
Cardinal Parolin said.