There were 467 new priestly ordinations in the U.S. last year, and Boston's seminary had to turn away applicants.

In his Holy Thursday homily at St. Peter’s Basilica on April 5, Pope Benedict XVI denounced calls from some Catholics for optional celibacy among priests and for women’s ordination. The pope said that “true renewal” comes only through the “joy of faith” and “radicalism of obedience.”

And renewal is coming. After the 2002 scandal about sexual abuse by clergy, progressive Catholics were predicting the end of the celibate male priesthood in books like “Full Pews and Empty Altars” and “The Death of Priesthood.” Yet today the number of priestly ordinations is steadily increasing.

A new seminary is to be built near Charlotte, N.C., and the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has expanded its facilities to accommodate the surge in priestly candidates. Boston’s Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley recently told the National Catholic Register that when he arrived in 2003 to lead that archdiocese he was advised to close the seminary. Now there are 70 men in Boston studying to be priests, and the seminary has had to turn away candidates for lack of space.

According to the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics, there were more than 5,000 more Catholic priests world-wide in 2009 than there were in 1999. This is welcome news for a growing Catholic population that has suffered through a real shortage of priests.

The situation in the U.S. is still tenuous. The number of American Catholics has grown to 77.7 million, up from 50 million in 1980. But the priest-to-parishioner ratio has changed for the worse. In 1965, there was one priest for every 780 American parishioners. By 1985, there was one priest for every 900 Catholics, and by 2011 there was one for every 2,000. In dioceses where there are few ordinations, such as New York’s Rochester and Albany, people know this shortage well.

Still, the future is encouraging. There were 467 new priestly ordinations in the U.S. last year, according to a survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, up from 442 a decade ago.

While some of the highest numbers of new priests are in the Catholic-majority cities of Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia, ordinations in Washington, D.C. (18 last year) and Chicago (26) also are booming. The biggest gains are not only in traditional Catholic strongholds. In Lincoln, Neb., Catholics constitute only 16% of the population yet have some of the strongest numbers of ordinations. In 2011, there were 10 men ordained as priests in Lincoln.

What explains the trend? Nearly 20 years ago, Archbishop Elden Curtiss, then leader of the Omaha, Neb., diocese, suggested that when dioceses are unambiguous and allow a minimum of dissent about the male, celibate priesthood, more candidates answer the call to the priesthood. Our preliminary research on the correlates of priestly ordinations reveals that the dioceses with the largest numbers of new priests are led by courageous bishops with faithful and inspirational vocations offices.

Leadership and adherence to church doctrine certainly distinguish the bishop of Lincoln, the Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz. He made national news in 1996 when he stated that members of dissident Catholic groups including Call to Action and Catholics for Choice had automatically excommunicated themselves from the church.

Cardinal Francis George, the longtime leader of the Chicago archdiocese, once gave a homily that startled the faithful by pronouncing liberal Catholicism “an exhausted project . . . parasitical on a substance that no longer exists.” Declaring that Catholics are at a “turning point” in the life of the church in this country, the cardinal concluded that the bishops must stand as a “reality check for the apostolic faith.”

Such forthright defense of the faith and doctrine stands in clear contrast to the emphasis of an earlier generation of Catholic theologians and historians. Many boomer priests and scholars were shaped by what they believed was an “unfulfilled promise” of Vatican II to embrace modernity. Claiming that the only salvation for the church would be to ordain women, remove the celibacy requirement and empower the laity, theologians such as Paul Lakeland, a Fairfield University professor and former Jesuit priest, have demanded that much of the teaching authority of the bishops and priests be transferred to the laity.

This aging generation of progressives continues to lobby church leaders to change Catholic teachings on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and women’s ordination. But it is being replaced by younger men and women who are attracted to the church because of the very timelessness of its teachings.

They are attracted to the philosophy, the art, the literature and the theology that make Catholicism countercultural. They are drawn to the beauty of the liturgy and the church’s commitment to the dignity of the individual. They want to be contributors to that commitment—alongside faithful and courageous bishops who ask them to make sacrifices. It is time for Catholics to celebrate their arrival.

link to original article:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577335290865863450.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Seminarians from the Josephinum Pontifical College, dressed in full regalia of a black cassock, a traditional red sash, and armed with a rosary,pray in front of an abortion facility.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 12, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Seminarians from the only Pontifical College in the U.S. have an awe-inspiring approach for confronting abortion head-on. Dressed in full regalia of a black cassock, a traditional red sash, and armed with a rosary, the seminarians descend in a powerful show of force every Saturday on a local abortion facility to confront with prayer what the seminary’s rector calls the “poison of abortion.”

Father James Wehner, rector of the Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, says he believes that seminarians need to “see visibly the forces of evil at work, and respond with an act of faith in which prayer becomes the greater force.”

“American culture is a blessing, but it is also poisoned,” he said. “The clergy, particularly priests, need to be able to confront that poison, not run away and hide from it. That means we have to confront it head-on.”The Josephinum encourages its seminarians to pray at one of two nearby abortion facilities every Saturday. The young future priests alternate every week between each facility. Once each semester, the entire community, including priests, faculty, and staff — nearly 200 people — descend upon one of the abortion centers for an all-out prayer invasion. Fr. Wehner personally leads these prayer crusades.

“We are there to pray. I am teaching our men to be men of prayer and to lead other people in prayer. That is our primary and first responsibility,” he told LifeSiteNews.com.
The young seminarians are taught to consider their prayer as a spiritual challenge to unjust laws that strip away the lives of the most vulnerable, and morally destroys the lives of others who participate in the gruesome business of killing human life in the womb.

“The point of all of this is that wherever man is suffering — in this case, an unborn child, a woman who is having the abortion, those who are facilitating the abortion — the Church has to be present to these people, primarily by prayer,” said Fr. Wehner.

Fr. Wehner explained to LifeSiteNews that the “overall theology that we are promoting with the seminarians is the New Evangelization, [which] moves us into the promotion of an authentic humanism and a culture of life.”“The New Evangelization means that wherever we find a new situation — good or bad — the Church must be able to be present in that situation…and the Church is an expert in humanity. So, when man or society finds itself sick, the Church needs to be present.”

“So, if we are killing the unborn, the Church needs to be present.”

“For too long, I think, we Catholics turned in on ourselves. We were comfortable in our ghetto neighborhoods to the point where we became intimidated by others who are very vocal. Now we need to open our mouths.”

Fr. Wehner pointed out that the high percentages of Catholics contracepting reveals the failure of leaders in the Church to pass on authentic Catholic teaching. “It’s not enough to say ‘well, that’s wrong,’” he said, “but you need to be able to explain why.”

“We are training our future priests to convincingly and catechetically bring to our people the Gospel in a way that people can receive it and understand it so that their lives can be changed by it.”
“We are forming new evangelizers. These [will be] priests who not only know the Gospel, but who will be able to teach it and articulate it to people who live in a pluralistic society.”

Since Fr. Wehner became the rector of the Josephinum in 2009, the enrollment has shot up by 53 percent. There are now 180 seminarians who are being trained to fearlessly engage the culture. They are being trained to be what the Josephinum calls “renaissance men” who can draw from the culture all that is consistent with the Gospel of Life.Seminarians from the Josephinum attended the recent March for Life in Washington, with more then 80% of their community participating.

“This is just one manifestation of what we are going to be seeing in the next generation of priests,” said Fr. Wehner. “Every generation makes a contribution to the Church. I am very excited and very enthusiastic about what the next generation of priests is going to bring to Catholics in the United States.”

link to original article : http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/u.s.-seminary-confronts-abortion-mill-head-on-through-weekly-prayer-invasio

"Pope Benedict XVI presided over a solemn liturgy at the Altar of the Cathedra in St Peter’s basilica in suffrage of the Cardinals and Bishops who have died in the past twelve months."

On November 3, Pope Benedict XVI presided at an annual Mass for the bishops who have died in the past year, and remarked in his homily that only in Christ does the world find hope for triumph over death and evil.

As we remember the deceased in prayer, the Pope said, “we are always surprised and overwhelmed by a God Who came so close to us as not to pause even before the abyss of death.” In the Sacrifice of Christ, he said, “The abyss of death is filled with another even greater abyss, the love of God.”

Pope Benedict said in his homily that the entire world was changed forever in the course of the three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. He explained:

Without the Cross of Christ, all the energy of nature is impotent before the negative force of sin. A beneficial power greater than that which commands the cycles of nature is needed, a Good greater than that of creation itself: a Love which proceeds from God’s very heart and which, while revealing the ultimate meaning of creation, renews it and orients it towards its original and ultimate goal.

link to original article : http://www.catholicculture.org/news/hea+dlines/index.cfm?storyid=12252

By Genevieve Pollock WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 5, 2011 (Zenit.org). - Priests in general are among the happiest members of society, says Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, and contrary to secular opinion, most embrace celibacy as a positive aspect of their vocation.

A National Opinion Research Center recently conducted poll of 27,000 Americans found that clergy in general were the most satisfied and happiest of all Americans.

These were some of the conclusions outlined by Monsignor Rossetti in his book, “Why Priests Are Happy” (Ave Maria Press), which will be released Wednesday.

The author, who is currently serving as associate dean for seminary and ministerial programs at The Catholic University of America, also wrote “Born of the Eucharist,” “The Joy of Priesthood,” and “When the Lion Roars.”

As a licensed psychologist, Monsignor Rossetti previously worked as president and CEO of Saint Luke’s Institute, a treatment and education center for clergy and religious.

The author surveyed 2,500 priests, and made discoveries that modern society might find surprising.

In this interview with ZENIT, he explained some of these findings, including the correlation between a priest’s happiness and his relationship with God and others, and the signs of hope for the future of the priesthood.

ZENIT: Your research showed a conclusion that the public might find surprising: Priests are among the happiest people in the country. Why do we not hear about this happiness more often?

Monsignor Rossetti: There have been a number of studies in the United States over the last few years with exactly the same findings: About 90% of priests report that they are happy. In my study, it was 92.4%.

In a similar study, when the National Opinion Research Center recently conducted its scientific poll of 27,000 Americans, they found that clergy in general were the most satisfied and happiest of all Americans. This is especially remarkable since over 50% of Americans report being unhappy with their jobs.

But this consistent and astounding finding of priestly happiness remains a secret.

Why? First of all, good news doesn’t make the news. Tragedies and scandals fill our front pages but the faces of our many happy priests do not.

Second, and just as important, the secularization of our culture breeds a kind of negativism toward organized religion. There is a secular belief among some today that practicing the faith must be constraining and joyless.

Some modern thinkers suggest that the only way to true human happiness is to be freed from the constraints of religion. They see religion as repressive of one’s true human freedom and humanity. Thus, using this logic, being a priest must be the unhappiest life of all.

Therefore, to hear that priests are among the happiest people in the country is met with disbelief.

The fact of priestly happiness is a fundamental and powerful challenge to the modern secular mind.

But for us Christians, it only confirms the truths of our faith. Jesus prayed, “That my joy might be yours, and your joy might be complete.”

Joy is one of the unmistakable fruits of the Holy Spirit.

To be truly and fully Christian is to know God’s gift of joy. The secular mind searches for this joy, but it is looking in the wrong place.It only makes sense that those men who have dedicated their lives in the service of God and others in the Catholic faith as priests would be slowly and gently filled by God with an inner happiness and joy.

Jesus promised us his joy and it is demonstrably true.

Link to full article on Zenit.org - http://www.zenit.org/article-33600?l=english

Mauro Cardinal Piacenza

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, has called upon priests to be radically countercultural as they fight in the “Church’s real field of battle”: “the secret landscape of man’s spirit.”

“In the face of a world anemic of prayer and adoration, the priest is, in the first place, the man of prayer, of adoration, of worship, of the celebration of the Holy Mysteries,” Cardinal Piacenza told the priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “In the face of a world submerged in consumer, pansexual messages, attacked by error, presented in the most seductive aspects, the priest must speak of God and of eternal realities and, to be able to do so with credibility, he must be a passionate believer, as well as ‘clean!’”

Cardinal Piacenza continued:

“The priest must accept the impression of being in the midst of people as one who starts from a logic and speaks a language that is different from that of others: “do not conform yourselves to the mentality of this world” (Romans 12:12). He is not like “others.” What people expect from him is, in fact, that he not be “like others.”“No more precious gift can be given to a community than a priest according to the heart of Christ,” he added. “The hope of the world consists in being able to count, also for the future, on the love of limpid, strong and merciful, free and meek, generous and faithful priestly hearts.”

Read Full Article:
http://www.zenit.org/article-33592?l=english

These ordained men merely want to be better servants by promoting ongoing spiritual, theological and pastoral formation among themselves in a fraternal setting and context, under the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of the Clergy and Mother of Priests.

Fidelity to the Magisterium, obedience to the Roman Pontiff and reverent in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy seeks to fulfill the mandate of the Second Vatican Council (PO, #8) to support their brothers in ordained ministry so to better serve the spiritual needs of the people entrusted to their pastoral care.

Associations of priests and deacons are encouraged by Pastores Dabo Vobis and the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests as well as canon law. The purpose of these is not to be in competition with the hierarchy or laity. Groups of clergy are meant to support one another as ordained brothers and to encourage each other to be faithful, loyal sons of the Church.

Therefore, the Confraternity enthusiastically welcomes the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal in English and promises to faithfully follow the rubrics while celebrating Holy Mass with proper reverence and devotion. The CCC is totally committed to preserving patrimony while implementing the adaptations our leaders (the Pope and Bishops). Through monthly local gatherings clergy pray in common before the Blessed Sacrament and avail themselves of spiritual direction, confession and sacerdotal fraternity, hence ongoing formation is achieved. Annual conferences and retreats and quinquennial pilgrimages to Rome (joining the ACCC and BCCC) complete the program.

Open to any priest, deacon or seminarian in good standing of the Latin or Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, the CCC is one means to promote fraternity and fidelity while fostering a desire for holiness in themselves and in their people is what the CCC is all about.

Contact:
Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

http://www.catholic-clergy.org

PA, 17053 US
Fr. John Trigilio – President,
717-957-2662

Looking back, 58-year-old Fr. Steve Gallagher can’t even remember, because the call he’ll never forget that day came from a higher authority, so to speak.

“One day I received an emergency call and was running lights and siren to it. En route to the call, the phone in my patrol car rang – it was Alaska calling,” he said.

Gallagher answered, “Officer Gallagher.” It was not his dispatcher, but a priest from Haines, Alaska. “Hi, Steve. What is that screaming in the background?”

Gallagher responded politely but in a Joe-Friday-firmly manner, “It’s my siren and I’m in a situation right now; call me back in 20 minutes.”

The clergyman did as the cop requested, and they discussed Gallagher’s inquiry about replacing his bulletproof vest with the liturgical vestments of ordained life. Thus began the final leg of Gallagher’s response to the most important call of his life – the Catholic priesthood.

Four years in Hales Corners
Fast forward to the weekend of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2011 – also the weekend of the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Gallagher’s faith journey, which began in the Pacific Northwest, was also being followed closely in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He had spent the last four years at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Franklin, earning his master’s of divinity degree. As part of his formation, he spent three months in fall 2010 as a deacon at St. Jerome Parish, Oconomowoc.

In Fr. Gallagher’s words, “nothing short of a miracle” took place on Saturday, April 30, 2011, when he was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward J. Burns for the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska – where he will be one of nine priests ministering in a geographic area the size of Florida. The ordination and his Mass of Thanksgiving the next day were celebrated at St. Michael Parish, Olympia, Wash., with Catholics from the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Milwaukee and Oconomowoc present. St. Michael was chosen by Fr. Gallagher, in part, because of Molly. She attended the parish grade school for nine years, and received her first Communion through the parish.

How can a priest be a dad?
Molly, his 22-year-old daughter, was front and center, along with Fr. Gallagher’s 90-year-old mother, Mary Helen.
A daughter? How can a Roman Catholic priest have a daughter? Molly, a junior at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, hears that question often. “They ask questions like, ‘Is your mom still alive? How are you here?’ I like that one,” she said.

Molly is part of a small fraternity of Catholics whose biological fathers are priests in the Roman Catholic Church, and she is overjoyed about it. The marriage of Gallagher and Molly’s mom ended with a civil divorce in 1994. Gallagher requested and received an annulment from the Catholic Church. The annulment was granted because the church had determined that the Gallaghers’ marriage was not sacramental.
According to Fr. Knoebel, vice rector at Sacred Heart, it’s not uncommon for seminarians at Sacred Heart to have been married and divorced, however, “They are not even considered as possible students unless they request and are granted an annulment.”

Sacred Heart, known nationwide for its program for second-career candidates for the priesthood, also has older seminarians who are widowers or men who have never been married, noted Fr. Knoebel.

First call came during elementary school
The annulment process took about a year, and at the time, Gallagher had no idea that a divorced man could become a priest. Many years later, a priest told him during confession — something that opened the door for Gallagher to pursue a dream he first dreamt in 1962.

The first whisper of the call to the priesthood came when Gallagher was in elementary school on a religious retreat in his hometown of Port Angeles, Wash. Gallagher spent four years at a high school run by the Benedictines of St. Martin’s. The call still remained unanswered after graduation in 1971.

He tried a variety of jobs over the next several years, including tug boat worker, logger and finally a police officer in Port Angeles, where he stayed for nearly 10 years. The whispers of the call, however, started getting louder, and he went back to St. Martin’s Abbey. Gallagher became a novice monk, but after 18 months of discernment, opted instead for roll call at the Olympia Police Department.  Fr. Gallagher said his faith journey was much like his days as a traffic cop. “Like other police officers all over the world, we do not like to direct traffic. We know how hard it is to get someone’s attention and make them go in a direction other than the one they have chosen. Imagine how much harder it was for God to give direction to me – not because I didn’t want to go in the direction he had chosen – but because I thought I was driving, “ he said.

His next detour was the longest. For 21 years, Gallagher protected and served the citizens of Olympia, in spite of a bout with cancer.

‘Cutting edge police officer’ connects with people
His former partner and longtime friend, Police Chief Jim Pryde of Gladstone, Ore., is proud of his friend’s accomplishments. “I know his heart and his gifts. Steve was a cutting edge police officer, meaning he understood the importance of relationships and connecting with people,” Pryde said.

Gallagher’s personnel file offers evidence of his compassionate nature. For example, the mother of a child seriously injured in a bicycle-car accident wrote, “What particularly struck me was that when Steve walked into the emergency room and realized I was (the boy’s) mother, he fixed his gaze upon me and really searched for signs of peace or troubling in me, and gently, yet with a firm sense that he could handle my answer no matter how I responded…. I was amazed at his presence of mind, empathy, and compassion….”

Cited as ‘Officer of the Year’
In 1992, Gallagher was honored as the Olympia Officer of the Year, particularly for his work with children. His chief of police cited him for outstanding service in Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), noting he also “volunteered his off-duty time to help troubled kids and their families deal with the loss of loved ones, sexual/physical abuse, and anger control.”

One of Fr. Gallagher’s former classmates, a seminarian for the Salvatorian order, Michael Hopper, said, “He’s always been protecting and serving people. First as a police officer, now he’s taking it to the next level.” Hopper also noted that seminarians could guess what Gallagher did in his former career, even if Gallagher never said a word about it. Hopper explained that Gallagher often put his cop skills to work at the seminary itself, making sure doors were locked and the building was secure, or intervening as a peacemaker if students got into a heated dispute.

Milwaukee area resident Trish Szalacinski and a friend drove more than 2,000 miles to witness Fr. Gallagher’s ordination. As receptionist at Sacred Heart for three years, she got to know him through his gregarious personality and not-so-subtle sense of humor.

“There were many times when I was on the phone, trying to be professional, and Steve would come up to me and make silly faces to try to get me to laugh,” she said.

Szalacinski said that sense of humor will complement Gallagher’s experience as a police officer. “He’s seen the world for what it is,” she said. “He’ll make a wonderful priest taking care of people on all sides of the flock.”

Special place in heart for men, women in blue
With his appointment as associate pastor at Holy Name Parish, Ketchikan, Alaska, Fr. Gallagher has completed the police-to-priest transition. Even though his police work is behind him, he has a place in his heart for his brothers and sisters in blue. He’s hoping that his faith journey might be an inspiration to other officers to deepen their relationships with Jesus Christ.  Fr. Gallagher knows that while there are other cops who have made the same transition he did, the vast majority of Catholic lawmen will not go from getting confessions of suspects to hearing confessions of sinners. Nevertheless, he reminds all Catholic cops, whether on the job or retired, of the importance of using spiritual weapons of prayer and receiving the sacraments to complement their calling to protect and serve.  Fr. Gallagher’s ready to help. He said for those with questions or who want to see how they can “Catholic-up” in their law enforcement lives, he can be reached at Fr.SteveGallagherinAlaska@gmail.com.

“Stay connected or re-connect to your faith,” he said. “There’s a lot of evil out there that cops have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and we’ve got the best partner to team up with. When the Lord says, ‘Come, follow me,’ there is no desperation; it is simply hope. Be not afraid.”

Written by Eric Szatkowski, Special to your Catholic Herald

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and across the world,

Easter morning brings us news that is ancient yet ever new: Christ is risen! The echo of this event, which issued forth from Jerusalem twenty centuries ago, continues to resound in the Church, deep in whose heart lives the vibrant faith of Mary, Mother of Jesus, the faith of Mary Magdalene and the other women who first discovered the empty tomb, and the faith of Peter and the other Apostles.

Right down to our own time – even in these days of advanced communications technology – the faith of Christians is based on that same news, on the testimony of those sisters and brothers who saw firstly the stone that had been rolled away from the empty tomb and then the mysterious messengers who testified that Jesus, the Crucified, was risen. And then Jesus himself, the Lord and Master, living and tangible, appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and finally to all eleven, gathered in the Upper Room (cf. Mk 16:9-14).

The resurrection of Christ is not the fruit of speculation or mystical experience: it is an event which, while it surpasses history, nevertheless happens at a precise moment in history and leaves an indelible mark upon it. The light which dazzled the guards keeping watch over Jesus’ tomb has traversed time and space. It is a different kind of light, a divine light, that has rent asunder the darkness of death and has brought to the world the splendour of God, the splendour of Truth and Goodness.

Just as the sun’s rays in springtime cause the buds on the branches of the trees to sprout and open up, so the radiance that streams forth from Christ’s resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope, to every expectation, wish and plan. Hence the entire cosmos is rejoicing today, caught up in the springtime of humanity, which gives voice to creation’s silent hymn of praise. The Easter Alleluia, resounding in the Church as she makes her pilgrim way through the world, expresses the silent exultation of the universe and above all the longing of every human soul that is sincerely open to God, giving thanks to him for his infinite goodness, beauty and truth.“In your resurrection, O Christ, let heaven and earth rejoice.” To this summons to praise, which arises today from the heart of the Church, the “heavens” respond fully: the hosts of angels, saints and blessed souls join with one voice in our exultant song. In heaven all is peace and gladness. But alas, it is not so on earth! Here, in this world of ours, the Easter alleluia still contrasts with the cries and laments that arise from so many painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence. Yet it was for this that Christ died and rose again! He died on account of sin, including ours today, he rose for the redemption of history, including our own. So my message today is intended for everyone, and, as a prophetic proclamation, it is intended especially for peoples and communities who are undergoing a time of suffering, that the Risen Christ may open up for them the path of freedom, justice and peace.

May the Land which was the first to be flooded by the light of the Risen One rejoice. May the splendour of Christ reach the peoples of the Middle East, so that the light of peace and of human dignity may overcome the darkness of division, hate and violence. In the current conflict in Libya, may diplomacy and dialogue take the place of arms and may those who suffer as a result of the conflict be given access to humanitarian aid. In the countries of northern Africa and the Middle East, may all citizens, especially young people, work to promote the common good and to build a society where poverty is defeated and every political choice is inspired by respect for the human person. May help come from all sides to those fleeing conflict and to refugees from various African countries who have been obliged to leave all that is dear to them; may people of good will open their hearts to welcome them, so that the pressing needs of so many brothers and sisters will be met with a concerted response in a spirit of solidarity; and may our words of comfort and appreciation reach all those who make such generous efforts and offer an exemplary witness in this regard.

May peaceful coexistence be restored among the peoples of Ivory Coast, where there is an urgent need to tread the path of reconciliation and pardon, in order to heal the deep wounds caused by the recent violence. May Japan find consolation and hope as it faces the dramatic consequences of the recent earthquake, along with other countries that in recent months have been tested by natural disasters which have sown pain and anguish.

May heaven and earth rejoice at the witness of those who suffer opposition and even persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. May the proclamation of his victorious resurrection deepen their courage and trust.

Dear brothers and sisters! The risen Christ is journeying ahead of us towards the new heavens and the new earth (cf. Rev 21:1), in which we shall all finally live as one family, as sons of the same Father. He is with us until the end of time. Let us walk behind him, in this wounded world, singing Alleluia. In our hearts there is joy and sorrow, on our faces there are smiles and tears. Such is our earthly reality. But Christ is risen, he is alive and he walks with us. For this reason we sing and we walk, faithfully carrying out our task in this world with our gaze fixed on heaven.

Happy Easter to all of you!

At the heart of this morning’s liturgy is the blessing of the holy oils – the oil for anointing catechumens, the oil for anointing the sick, and the chrism for the great sacraments that confer the Holy Spirit: confirmation, priestly ordination, episcopal ordination. In the sacraments the Lord touches us through the elements of creation. The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul. Bread and wine are fruits of the earth and work of human hands. The Lord chose them to be bearers of his presence. Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit and at the same time it points us towards Christ: the word “Christ” (Messiah) means “the anointed one”. The humanity of Jesus, by virtue of the Son’s union with the Father, is brought into communion with the Holy Spirit and is thus “anointed” in a unique way, penetrated by the Holy Spirit. What happened symbolically to the kings and priests of the Old Testament when they were instituted into their ministry by the anointing with oil, takes place in Jesus in all its reality: his humanity is penetrated by the power of the Holy Spirit. He opens our humanity for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The more we are united to Christ, the more we are filled with his Spirit, with the Holy Spirit. We are called “Christians”: “anointed ones” – people who belong to Christ and hence have a share in his anointing, being touched by his Spirit. I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian, said Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Let us allow these holy oils, which are consecrated at this time, to remind us of the task that is implicit in the word “Christian”, let us pray that, increasingly, we may not only be called Christian but may actually be such.

In today’s liturgy, three oils are blessed, as I mentioned earlier. They express three essential dimensions of the Christian life on which we may now reflect. First, there is the oil of catechumens. This oil indicates a first way of being touched by Christ and by his Spirit – an inner touch, by which the Lord draws people close to himself. Through this first anointing, which takes place even prior to baptism, our gaze is turned towards people who are journeying towards Christ – people who are searching for faith, searching for God. The oil of catechumens tells us that it is not only we who seek God: God himself is searching for us. The fact that he himself was made man and came down into the depths of human existence, even into the darkness of death, shows us how much God loves his creature, man. Driven by love, God has set out towards us. “Seeking me, you sat down weary … let such labour not be in vain!”, we pray in the Dies Irae. God is searching for me. Do I want to recognize him? Do I want to be known by him, found by him? God loves us. He comes to meet the unrest of our hearts, the unrest of our questioning and seeking, with the unrest of his own heart, which leads him to accomplish the ultimate for us. That restlessness for God, that journeying towards him, so as to know and love him better, must not be extinguished in us. In this sense we should always remain catechumens. “Constantly seek his face”, says one of the Psalms (105:4). Saint Augustine comments as follows: God is so great as to surpass infinitely all our knowing and all our being. Knowledge of God is never exhausted. For all eternity, with ever increasing joy, we can always continue to seek him, so as to know him and love him more and more. “Our heart is restless until it rests in you”, said Saint Augustine at the beginning of his Confessions. Yes, man is restless, because whatever is finite is too little. But are we truly restless for him? Have we perhaps become resigned to his absence, do we not seek to be self-sufficient? Let us not allow our humanity to be diminished in this way! Let us remain constantly on a journey towards him, longing for him, always open to receive new knowledge and love!

Then there is the oil for anointing the sick. Arrayed before us is a host of suffering people: those who hunger and thirst, victims of violence in every continent, the sick with all their sufferings, their hopes and their moments without hope, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the broken-hearted. Regarding the first mission on which Jesus sent the disciples, Saint Luke tells us: “he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal” (9:2). Healing is one of the fundamental tasks entrusted by Jesus to the Church, following the example that he gave as he travelled throughout the land healing the sick. To be sure, the Church’s principal task is to proclaim the Kingdom of God. But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: “bind up the broken-hearted”, we heard in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah (61:1). The proclamation of God’s Kingdom, of God’s unlimited goodness, must first of all bring healing to broken hearts. By nature, man is a being in relation. But if the fundamental relationship, the relationship with God, is disturbed, then all the rest is disturbed as well. If our relationship with God is disturbed, if the fundamental orientation of our being is awry, we cannot truly be healed in body and soul. For this reason, the first and fundamental healing takes place in our encounter with Christ who reconciles us to God and mends our broken hearts. But over and above this central task, the Church’s essential mission also includes the specific healing of sickness and suffering. The oil for anointing the sick is the visible sacramental expression of this mission. Since apostolic times, the healing vocation has matured in the Church, and so too has loving solicitude for those who are distressed in body and soul. This is also the occasion to say thank you to those sisters and brothers throughout the world who bring healing and love to the sick, irrespective of their status or religious affiliation. From Elizabeth of Hungary, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Camillus of Lellis to Mother Teresa – to recall but a few names – we see, lighting up the world, a radiant procession of helpers streaming forth from God’s love for the suffering and the sick. For this we thank the Lord at this moment. For this we thank all those who, by virtue of their faith and love, place themselves alongside the suffering, thereby bearing definitive witness to the goodness of God himself. The oil for anointing the sick is a sign of this oil of the goodness of heart that these people bring – together with their professional competence – to the suffering. Even without speaking of Christ, they make him manifest.

In third place, finally, is the most noble of the ecclesial oils, the chrism, a mixture of olive oil and aromatic vegetable oils. It is the oil used for anointing priests and kings, in continuity with the great Old Testament traditions of anointing. In the Church this oil serves chiefly for the anointing of confirmation and ordination. Today’s liturgy links this oil with the promise of the prophet Isaiah: “You shall be called the priests of the Lord, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God” (61:6). The prophet makes reference here to the momentous words of commission and promise that God had addressed to Israel on Sinai: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). In and for the vast world, which was largely ignorant of God, Israel had to be as it were a shrine of God for all peoples, exercising a priestly function vis-à-vis the world. It had to bring the world to God, to open it up to him. In his great baptismal catechesis, Saint Peter applied this privilege and this commission of Israel to the entire community of the baptized, proclaiming: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people” (1 Pet 2:9f.) Baptism and confirmation are an initiation into this people of God that spans the world; the anointing that takes place in baptism and confirmation is an anointing that confers this priestly ministry towards mankind. Christians are a priestly people for the world. Christians should make the living God visible to the world, they should bear witness to him and lead people towards him. When we speak of this task in which we share by virtue of our baptism, it is no reason to boast. It poses a question to us that makes us both joyful and anxious: are we truly God’s shrine in and for the world? Do we open up the pathway to God for others or do we rather conceal it? Have not we – the people of God – become to a large extent a people of unbelief and distance from God? Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ? We have reason to cry out at this time to God: “Do not allow us to become a ‘non-people’! Make us recognize you again! Truly, you have anointed us with your love, you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon us. Grant that the power of your Spirit may become newly effective in us, so that we may bear joyful witness to your message!

For all the shame we feel over our failings, we must not forget that today too there are radiant examples of faith, people who give hope to the world through their faith and love. When Pope John Paul II is beatified on 1 May, we shall think of him, with hearts full of thankfulness, as a great witness to God and to Jesus Christ in our day, as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Alongside him, we think of the many people he beatified and canonized, who give us the certainty that even today God’s promise and commission do not fall on deaf ears.

I turn finally to you, dear brothers in the priestly ministry. Holy Thursday is in a special way our day. At the hour of the last Supper, the Lord instituted the new Testament priesthood. “Sanctify them in the truth” (Jn 17:17), he prayed to the Father, for the Apostles and for priests of all times. With great gratitude for the vocation and with humility for all our shortcomings, we renew at this hour our “yes” to the Lord’s call: yes, I want to be intimately united to the Lord Jesus, in self-denial, driven on by the love of Christ. Amen.

For reasons that will become obvious, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the parable of the farmer walking down a rural road who came across a tiny sparrow, lying along side the road on his back, with his little feet up in the air.

“What are you doing?” said the farmer to the sparrow. “I heard that the sky is falling and I want to do my best to hold it up,” responded the little bird. “That’s ridiculous,” declared the farmer. “First of all, the sky isn’t falling . . . And secondly, even if it is, your tiny feet won’t help very much.” “Well,” said the sparrow with determination, “One does what one can.”I feel a bit like the sparrow these days, bombarded as I am with the daily reports about the decline and fall of the Catholic Church. “The sky is falling,” reports seem to confirm.

“Catholic weddings drop 71 percent in R.I.” announces one local headline, with the story not bothering at all to document a similar decline in weddings in other denominations and across the nation. A letter from an individual in New York, sent to all the bishops of the United States, proclaims that “No intelligent Catholic can deny that there is a serious crisis in faith and morals in the Church. The lack of faith being shown here is frightening.” To document his argument, the letter writer points to the planned gathering of religious leaders in Assisi in October, “where false gods will be invoked,” and the fact that some priests fail to genuflect during the consecration at the Mass.

A letter from a friend in Pittsburgh laments the development of a Church that is peopled by, “a large contingent of secretive, sometimes power-hungry, reactionary cardinals and bishops; and a lower clergy increasingly enamored with its own exalted position who with many in the hierarchy are regressing to a former triumphal, controlling, irrelevant, pietistic, fundamentalist state.”

Another letter writer, this time local, understandably upset over reports of sexual abuse in the Church, insists: “The deluge is waiting to happen. Act, for the love of God. Act, because it is the right thing to do. Act, because you know that you should and you must.”

Jamie Manson, a writer for the National Catholic Reporter, . . .  criticizes the recent appearance of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York on 60 Minutes. Referring to the Archbishop as a “Shrill Scold,” the author suggests that he should stop laughing so much and “visit more often the world of women called to holy orders, gay couples in loving, committed relationships, laicized men who were forced to choose between love and ministry, and impoverished pregnant women.” [His laughter] “echoes off the walls of a rapidly emptying church,” she wails, sounding a bit like a shrill scold herself.

Now, I don’t think I’m at all naïve about these things. I stay in close contact with the news – international, national, local and ecclesial; I interact regularly with the secular media; I meet frequently with consultative groups in the Diocese who share freely their experiences and expertise; At the office I hear everyday from all sorts of folks who love me or hate me, folks with good and bad news; In the fall I hosted a series of listening sessions with laity from around the Diocese; and I visit with people in our parishes all the time for liturgical and pastoral events. In other words, I think I know what’s going on.

Does the Church have huge challenges and problems? Of course! Have the leaders of the Church, including priests and bishops, too frequently failed to keep their commitments and serve the people well? You bet! And should the Church seek more effective ways of communicating, educating and responding to contemporary issues and the ever-changing needs of our time? Absolutely!

But, is the sky falling and the Catholic Church about to fold? I don’t think so. The vision of the Church I see is far different than that of the letter-writers and authors cited above.

I see a Church in which the vast majority of priests are good and sincere men who work very hard, conscientiously and generously, to serve the Lord Jesus and His people.

I see a Church in which most of our parishes are strong and vibrant; parishes that are filled every Sunday with good and faithful people who assemble to hear the Word of God, to receive the Holy Eucharist, and to thank God for the many gifts and blessings they’ve received.

I see a Church in which thousands of individuals, women and men, young and old, assist the Church either as paid professionals or volunteers in diverse fields such as Catholic education, religious education, youth ministry, Catholic Scouting, parish leadership and liturgical ministries.

I see a Church that has dedicated lay organizations – such as the Knights of Columbus, the Daughters of Isabella, the Saint Vincent de Paul Societies and many others – which invest lots of time, talent and money to do great, but often unseen things, in service to our Church and community.

I see a Church that’s not at all afraid to wade into the turbulent waters of intense public debate and bring the truth of the Gospel to issues such as health-care reform, immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.

I see a Church that provides outstanding social services – supporting nursing homes and food pantries, helping refugees get settled in their new homes, teaching immigrants to speak English, providing heating assistance for families, and opening shelters for homeless folks during dark, cold winter nights.

I see a Church that’s determined in its defense of human life, with brave and hardy individuals praying in front of abortion clinics on frigid January mornings, generously providing for the needs of single moms, and testifying on behalf of holy matrimony in the halls of the State House.

I see a Church in which scores of remarkable young people spend their vacation time travelling to Jamaica and other Central American countries ministering to impoverished, handicapped children who will never have the material blessings that they themselves have.

You see, in the Catholic Church there are so many good people; so many good things that happen everyday. This is just a snapshot of the Church I see, and no doubt I’ve missed other parts of the beautiful mosaic. To those I haven’t mentioned, I apologize, but thank you too, for your dedication and truly good work.

A famous theologian wrote this assessment about the Church: “People look upon the Church and say, ‘She is about to die. Soon her very name will disappear. There will be no more Christians; they have had their day.’”

Now it’s instructive to note that this rather dour prediction came not from the scribes of the National Catholic Reporter or the New York Times. This description of a dying Church was referenced by St. Augustine, 1600 years ago – a rather compelling reminder, I think, that the Church in every age has known its struggles and failures.

Does the Catholic Church of today have challenges, problems and failures? You bet. But I love this Church, I’m enormously proud of this Church, and despite my own limitations, imperfections and sins I’m going to work very hard to support its mission and ministry for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Why? Well simply because “one does what one can.”