Good Shepherd Sunday

PRAYER FOR AUTHENTIC VOCATION

Creator of the Universe, God of the Nations,
Your people are longing to hear your word.
Send labourers into your harvest -
women and men on fire with your love:
Dedicated single people -
who incarnate your presence
in their daily lives,
whose availability enables them
to respond to a diversity of needs.
Married couples -
whose relationships serve as a sign
of your fidelity to your people,
whose love overflows
to their children and neighbours.
Ordained Ministers -
who gather the prayers and longing
of your people
who serve as a channel of your presence
through the sacraments.
Religious sisters, brothers, and priests -
whose life in community foreshadows
our eternal unity in Christ,
whose service brings your life to the world.
May each of us respond with courage and generosity
to our particular vocations, and may the Church recognize
the Spirit's call to men and women of good will,
trusting in your abundance to answer all our needs.
Amen.

English and Welsh Bishops speak

The following statement was issued by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales on 22 April 2010.

Child abuse in the Catholic Church has been such a focus of public attention recently, that we, the Bishops of England and Wales, wish to address this issue directly and unambiguously.

Catholics are members of a single universal body. These terrible crimes, and the inadequate response by some church leaders, grieve us all.

Our first thoughts are for all who have suffered from the horror of these crimes, which inflict such severe and lasting wounds. They are uppermost in our prayer. The distress we feel at what has happened is nothing in comparison with the suffering of those who have been abused.

The criminal offences committed by some priests and religious are a profound scandal. They bring deep shame to the whole church. But shame is not enough. The abuse of children is a grievous sin against God. Therefore we focus not on shame but on our sorrow for these sins. They are the personal sins of only a very few. But we are bound together in the Body of Christ and, therefore, their sins touch us all.

We express our heartfelt apology and deep sorrow to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed. We ask their pardon, and the pardon of God for these terrible deeds done in our midst. There can be no excuses.

Furthermore, we recognise the failings of some Bishops and Religious leaders in handling these matters. These, too, are aspects of this tragedy which we deeply regret and for which we apologise. The procedures now in place in our countries highlight what should have been done straightaway in the past. Full co-operation with statutory bodies is essential.

Now, we believe, is a time for deep prayer of reparation and atonement. We invite Catholics in England and Wales to make the four Fridays in May 2010 special days of prayer. Even when we are lost for words, we can place ourselves in silent prayer. We invite Catholics on these days to come before the Blessed Sacrament in our parishes to pray to God for healing, forgiveness and a renewed dedication. We pray for all who have suffered abuse; for those who mishandled these matters and added to the suffering of those affected. From this prayer we do not exclude those who have committed these sins of abuse. They have a journey of repentance and atonement to make.

We pray also for Pope Benedict, whose wise and courageous leadership is so important for the Church at this time.

In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past. We are committed to continuing the work of safeguarding, and are determined to maintain openness and transparency, in close co-operation with the statutory authorities in our countries. We thank the thousands who give generously of their time and effort to the Church's safeguarding work in our parishes and dioceses.

We commit ourselves afresh to the service of children, young people and the vulnerable in our communities. We have faith and hope in the future. The Catholic Church abounds in people, both laity, religious and clergy, of great dedication, energy and generosity who serve in parishes, schools, youth ventures and the care of elderly people. We also thank them. The Holy Spirit guides us to sorrow and repentance, to a firm determination to better ways, and to a renewal of love and generosity towards all in need.

An interesting article from our local daily newspaper

The abuse crisis is rightly in the news and the Church and its leaders must take firm and decisive action to do all possible to provide acknowledgement and justice to those who have been harmed in any way by those in ministry. Today this article apperared in our local town newspaper.

ARRESTING IDEA TO COLLAR PONTIFF IS SERIOUSLY FLAWED.
Michael Coren, QMI Agency. Niagara Falls Review, Monday 19th April 2010.

Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Stalin and Mao. Some of the all time great comedy duo acts. Now we have Hitchens and Dawkins. The critics love them. This from the Daily Atheist: “Upper class twits with all the arrogance and pomposity that years of in-bred priviledge and expensive private education can provide, these two jokers are guaranteed to give you laugh after laugh, even when they’ve done the same routine for years.”

Richard Dawkins is the straight man. Wandering around like some aged uncle searching for lost marbles, he stares out into the distance as the plebs read his books and think them so terribly clever. Unfortunately, the serious reviewers think them embarrassingly facile.

Christopher Hitchens is the comic relief. “I say, I say, I say,” he says to his buddy Dawkins. “My dog’s got no nose.” Really, replies Dick, that must be the fault of organised chrisitianity because we know the Pope used to cut the noses off dogs as a sacrifice to the Virgin Mary – and on and on and on. “No, no,” shouts Hitchens, “You’re supposed to ask me how it smells and I say awful.”

But the money also rolls in for Hitchens, who seems terribly concerned when young people are abused by Catholic priests, but oddly indifferent when Palestinian or Iraqi children are blown apart by rockets.

Now the guy’s have promised to arrest the Pope when he visits Britain because of his crimes against humanity. They mean the abuse scandal in which between 1.5 and 4% of priests molested mostly adolescent boys three decades ago. Pope Benedict has been tireless, in his words, in “cleansing the filth out of the Church,” but why let truth and justice get in the way of another Hitchens and Dawkins show.

To apply their logic, we would need to do alot of arresting. The vast majority of sexual abuse occurs in the family. The next highest amount comes from teachers. These two groups account for more than 75% of all charges, compared to less than 2% for the Church. Next are sports coaches, with some horribly infamous cases in hockey. Secular youth groups such a Scouts also experience abuse, as do synagogues, mosques and Protestant churches.

In fact, a Catholic church today is arguably the safest place for a young person to be. The reason evangelical atheists and fundamentalist anti-catholics like the Hitchens and Dawkins act won’t be consistent in their arresting fantasies is partly because they are hippocrites, but also because, they implicitly know that the Church is special. They expect more of it because it is righteous, right and godly.

Well said boys, well said

Quote of the day

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed human history. It enters history... as an explosion of light, light which illuminates the darkness, light which allows us to see reality as it is, light which enables us to discern the good from what is evil. Darkness already begins to be dispelled even when only one single flicker of light appears. Even one single flicker of light can be the beginning of hope within any darkness.

We remember in our prayers this evening all those for whom darkness seems impossible to overcome, for whom darkness seems unbearable and without hope. We remember those for whom the darkness of their past still haunts them. We remember those whose torment and anxiety tears away at their will to live....

As a Christian community we are called to be light in the world. We are called to be with those for whom darkness is excruciating and who see no future, no hope. Woe to a Church which hides and destroys light in people’s hearts. Woe to a Church which prevents the light of Christ from appearing as it should.

Resurrection means that death has been definitively conquered. Jesus Christ entered into his passion and death freely out of love for us. His death was the ultimate expression of his giving of himself. Christ’s death lovingly opens the door which leads to resurrection and new life. It is love that transforms death definitively. That explosion of light which is the Resurrection tells us and reminds us even in the darkest days that there is always a future beyond darkness....

In our days there is so much scrutiny and examination of the Church. There are exposés of the failings of the Church; there is questioning of the role of the Church in society in the past and in whatever our future may be. The role of the Church is being examined under a microscope and from every possible direction. The spotlight of media and public opinion is focused on the failures and the betrayals of Church leaders and a damaging culture which has grown up in the Church.

I am not criticising the media for that. That is their job. In doing their job some will feel the media have been unfriendly to the Church, even unfair; others will welcome and recognise valid criticism, from whatever angle it comes, even if it comes from people patently unfavourable to the Church. We have to remember that the truth will set the Church free, even if the truth is hard to digest.

Identifying the failures of the Church may, however, be the easier task. There will be some who will hope that such exposure will mortally would an organization which they consider has gone irreparably astray. But what of those who love the Church? How do we overcome our disgust and shame for the sins of Christians?

The sins of the Church can well be exposed by the spotlight of the media; but the Church will be converted, renewed and reformed only when it allows the light of Christ to inspire it and guide it. It is the light of Christ which will show the real significance of the darkness that has slipped into our lives.

The light of Christ will expose the sins of Christians but the light of Christ does not abandon us naked and alone in the exposure of our shame and sin. The light of Christ heals, it leads; there is no way we can switch off or dim that part of the light that exposes the sad realities of the past; there is no way we should switch off or dim the light that can open the path to a new future. No generation is too sophisticated not to need the light of Christ; no generation is too sophisticated not to be able to comprehend that light and what it can bring to society....

The tomb signifies a place of death. The Resurrection brings new light. The spirit gathers us as children of the light, prepared with all our weaknesses to ensure that the message of Jesus Christ is not just transmitted abstractly to the next generation, but that the next generation will be a generation inspired by the light of Christ.

The message of the Resurrection comes to us at a moment of darkness. The message of the Resurrection comes to as a message of hope that the darkness will not prevail.

Christ is truly risen. Let us go out into life filled with joyful hope.”
--Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
Homily at the Easter Vigil
3 April 2010

Chrism Mass Homily, Bishop John Hine.

by Bishop John Hine
at Saint George's Cathedral, Southwark
on Wednesday, 31st March 2010


In these challenging times for the church, times of shame, of apologies, of great hurt, it is particularly poignant that we priests are gathered together to renew our commitment to our calling. I don’t know about you, my fellow priests, but I guess that most of us, priests and people, over the last few weeks have suffered great waves of different emotions, perhaps of anger, or of shame, perhaps disgust. For myself at times I have just felt very lost.

The justified anger of the voices of the abused leave me with a sense that all those many years of priestly ministry are now somehow tainted. How could this have happened? Where do we go from here?

When I prayed about what I should say to you today, I got this overwhelming sense that we simply have to pick ourselves up and start again, but not in our own strength. The image that came into my mind was that of the prophet Elijah, running away, in despair, lying down under the furze bush and saying ‘I have had enough – I want to give up’.

But we all know what happened next – the angel of the Lord fed him, not once but twice and strengthened him for the journey ahead and he picked himself up and travelled on to Horeb, the mountain of God, where he had a new encounter with God.

That feeding of Elijah is seen as a prefiguring of the Eucharist. Tomorrow evening we will all be celebrating the Last Supper in our parishes. How can that be a new start for us, in the sort of way that being fed was a new start for Elijah?

In 2004 Pope John Paul the second said something very simple to the priests of the world “At the Last Supper we were born as priests”.

At other times he elaborated on this “the Eucharistic sacrifice is the centre and root of the whole priestly life” (JP 2 ’93); “The Eucharist is the raison d’etre of the priesthood’ (JP2 Dominicae Cenae).

So it is absolutely right that we should be gathered here around the table of the Eucharist humbly renewing our commitment as his ministers and praying to be ‘born’ again as priests.

I am going to mention two aspects of the Mass, that strike me as being particularly pertinent to our circumstances today - Covenant and Sacrifice.

First, Covenant: ‘This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant’.

The Eucharist reminds us that we are people of the new covenant. And that God is always faithful to his covenant. We struggle to be faithful. We do not wish just to be fair-weather friends, faithful to our commitment only when things are fine and easy. We are called to be faithful in the difficult times. Jesus Christ was faithful to death, death on a Cross. He strengthens us in our weakness with the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.

The Mass is the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross offered for the salvation of the world. Sacrifice and suffering go together.

Let us think about sacrifice in our own lives for a moment
“Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” 1 Peter 2:21.

We recognise this in our people – the amount of daily sacrifice for each other that goes on in their families and in their homes.

“My brothers, I implore you by God’s mercy to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance” Rom 12 1.

So there is no following of Christ unless that notion of sacrifice is firmly embedded in our spirituality, and perhaps particularly as priests, with that great privilege of standing at the altar offering the sacrifice of the Mass for all people, that notion of self-giving is absolutely core.

There is undoubtedly a great deal of sacrifice already in your lives as you minister unselfishly to your people - a priest’s life can be extremely demanding. It is good to recognise this, but perhaps, not just to recognise it, but to value it, to take a positive grasp of it – this is who we are as priests offering Mass daily at the altar, trying to offer ourselves with the sacrifice of Jesus who was sometimes acclaimed but who was also despised and rejected on his journey to Calvary.

Have these thoughts in mind as we renew our priestly commitment. As we do so you will find now that these themes I have talked about, the centrality of the Eucharist, covenant fidelity and sacrifice, are very much to the fore in the wording of our promises.