Cardinal Mildred?

One of our friars here at St. Bonaventure sometimes teases our volunteer receptionist, Mildred, that she would make a great Cardinal. Mildred is a founding member of our 51 year old parish. She embodies many of the qualities that characterized what were known as the “holy widows” of the early Church. Mildred is dedicated to her family, friends and parish. Often, after a day’s work answering phones and welcoming guests at our parish’s Ministry Centre, she returns after dinner to host a bereavement group or participate in some other programme. She’s also one of those thoughtful women who remembers every significant event in your life and always manages to find a card to suit the occasion.  Many parishioners have mentioned how surprised and touched they were to receive one of her notes at challenging times, when they needed a kind word or some prayers.

A good pastor needs to have some wise men and women to consult from time to time and get some honest feedback. Mildred has been and continues to be a good source of wisdom for me. What is remarkable is her ability to communicate honest criticism in a way that doesn’t elicit a defensive reaction in me. That’s a gift. Trust me!

My purpose here is not to canonize Mildred. She has her faults and limitations. However I do mean to highlight the importance of wise women in the life of the Church and especially their impact on the Church’s leadership. Women and men complement one another and their gifts are necessary for the full and effective living out of humanity.  During my work as a formation director for the Franciscans I would remind our young candidates and friars that they absolutely need to have healthy intimate relationships with both men and women.  Sometimes when I spoke of “intimate relationships” some of the guys would nervously squirm in their seats.  “Grow up!” I would yell at them.  True intimacy is about being able to be your true self with people and to allow them to speak the truth to you.  That’s essential for a healthy religious life and it’s equally essential for healthy Church leadership.

Over the last few months there have been “rumours” coming out of the Vatican that Pope is planning to make important appointments of women to key Vatican positions.  A hint of things to come has been B16’s positioning of Sister Enrica Rosanna at the Congregation for Religious.  (A congregation is the Vatican term for a Department or Ministry that looks after a particular issue. In this case it oversees the world’s various religious orders.)  Sr. Rosanna had been appointed “Under-Secretary” for that congregation under Pope John Paul II. However some in the Vatican administration were uncomfortable with a woman being in a position of authority over priests and so a “co” under-secretary was appointed who was a priest.  Since the election of B16 as the Vicar of Peter this “co” has been moved on to other pastures and Sr. Enrica has been affirmed in her role, of her own right.  Other such appointments are supposedly in the works. This is truly a hopeful sign for our Church.

In the next few days at St. Peter’s Basilica there will be a long procession of men taking part in the “consistory” when the Pope will make them Cardinals. They will form part of a core group of advisors to the Holy Father.  Most Cardinals are bishops, some are priest and some have been lay men. There is really no reason that a woman could not be a Cardinal as well. There is no necessary link between the advisory role of the Cardinal and  Holy Orders. Certainly there are plenty of women in the Church with valuable gifts of insight, wisdom and leadership.  B16 seems to be quite aware of that. Who knows… maybe one day there may be a Cardinal Mildred!

New Confessional unveiled

Here’s something new that has been suggested as a response to the shortage of priests.

St. Anthony, the Paduans and B16

This week our friary hosted some guests from Il Messagero di S. Antonio, Padova, Italy.  Friars Danilo Salezze, the Director General of the Messegero, Friar Mario Conte, the Director of Marketing and Mr. Massimo Maggio.  Our friends were among us to coordinate the efforts to promote The Messenger in Canada.

 Il Messagero, or The Messenger, is the publishing ministry of our Conventual Franciscan Friars in Padua, Italy. There we publish editions of the “Messenger” in 6 different languages, with different editoral content. The Messagero also publishes books, including those of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.

 It’s always a great joy to have our guests from Padua among us. They bring such excitement and dynamism with them. They work very hard because they believe they are blessed with an amazing legacy; that of St. Anthony.

Many people see St. Anthony of Padua (or Lisboa) as the saint who finds lost articles. He is so much more. He was actually much more involved as a defender of the poor and the marginalized. He was outspoken in his fight against social injustice and worked for healing and reconciliation in the Paduan society of his time.  The friars characterize his legacy as being that of “Gospel & Charity”; both must go hand-in-hand.

In fact the friars in Padua, through the donations received at the Messenger of St. Anthony, fund many amazing projects around the world. They build schools, fund clinics, care for people with HIV/AIDS. They do this in far away places and through the local Canadian office they support local charities such as the St. Clare Inn (Shelter & Care for Homeless women), St. Francis Table, St. Paul’s Breakfast Club and many more.

After a crazy week of meetings and discussions… mostly in Italian… (which I don’t speak very well) our friars are finally on the way back to Italy where a very special occasion awaits them. Friar Danile and Mr. Maggio are going to Rome to visit with Pope Benedict XVI and present him with a special edition of a book they have published.  Joseph & Chico is the story of the pope’s life from the perspective of his cat named Chico. 

Find out more about The Messenger and all the good work they do by visiting http://www.saintanthonyofpadua.net/portale/home.asp

New approach to Abortion

Cardinal Keith O’Brien and Cardinal Cormac Murhpy-O’Connor, respectively Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland and England/Wales issued an open letter on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act which liberalized abortion.

What’s especially interesting about this letter is the positive and respectful tone of the letter. The Bishops, while respecting the idea of “women’s choice” challenge the community to reflect if people really are making a free choice when they are constrained by their economic situation, by career pressure or family stresses.

Key to their remarks is the call to work “achievable” changes to the abortion laws in the U.K.  I remember having a conversation with Jim Hughes at the Campaign Life Coalition about such “achievable goals”.  For the coalition it’s an “all or nothing” fight.  The goal is to ban all abortions… nothing else will do. They reject the notion of “achievable goals.” I think this is a short-sighted vision which leads to inaction and many more abortions.

The advances in prenatal care are keenly observed by our citizens. Babies are viable at an earlier and earlier age. It makes sense to take advantage on this awareness and work collaboratively for some time-limits on abortion.  As the bishops state:

“While upholding the principle of the sacredness of human life, it is both licit and important for those in public life who oppose abortion on principle to work and vote for achievable incremental improvement to what is an unjust law.”

Canada’s bishops would do well to reject the hostile tactics of other groups and rather build bridges with women and men of goodwill, intent on working towards achievable goals.

Why pray for the dead?

A protestant friend of mine remarked that he was surprised that Catholic parents allow their children to participate in Halloween. Ugh… “Get a life!” I felt like saying. This was the second time that day that someone had mentioned this to me. The first time was by a parishioner who was a convert and mentioned that she new of a Catholic family that boycotted Halloween and held an alternative party that did not focus on the occult.

I don’t think we need to be that fundamentalist in our approach. If we tried to avoid everything in the world that had pagan origins… there would be very little left in the world.  What some would say were the origins of Halloween, festivals of Autumn and of the dead were “baptised” by the Christian communities to reflect their new belief systems.  Halloween went from being about the damned to being a commemoration of the All Hallows Eve… remembering our sisters and brothers who are part of the Communion of Saints.

The Communion of Saints is itself a stumbling block for some people. They don’t understand it.  Some are also confused by our praying for the dead. Their fate is sealed at the time of death, is it not?

We believe that all of us who were baptised in Christ form the Body of Christ… and this membership in Christ is eternal.  We are forever interconnected. When we celebrate the Eucharist we have a glimpse of this Communion we share with Christ and all the members of His Body. We are present to one another in a unique way.  A traditional Byzantine image is that during the liturgy we transported into heaven at the throne of God and join the Angels and Saints… our deceased brothers and sisters in worship of the one God.  It makes sense then, that in times of trial, we would ask these friends of ours, the saints to pray for us.  We ask people here on earth to pray for us. Why can’t we ask those in heaven to pray for us?

This leads to the topic of praying for those who have died, especially during this month of November. What are we doing when we pray for them?  They are in heaven or in hell, right? Are we trying to change God’s mind? What happens when people die and meet God is a mystery. We do know that we are accountable for the way we have lived our life. We also know that God is Love. God’s mercy knows no bounds. When we pray for someone who has died we are accompanying them with our love. We offer our prayers to support them whatever they may be experiencing and however they need our prayer. Prayering for the dead is a form of loving presence to them.

One of the notions that we have in relation to this process of coming into God’s presence is that of Purgatory. People often think of it as a form of detention centre that people go to before they can be admitted into heaven. In fact it is not a “punitive” concept but rather, true to its name, one of deep cleansing.

One of my teachers, Bob Wicks, explained it in similar words to these. When we die, we carry with us all of the accomplishments, honours, victories, qualities we feel earn us a place in heaven.  We come before the pearly gates our hands full… of ourselves.  God patiently looks upon us with love and waits… God waits until we begin to get tired and one by one put down all the things we are carrying. Then, when our hands are empty can God embrace us and welcome us home. That’s what purgatory is about.

During this month of November let us pray for our deceased family and friends. May they have the grace to open their arms to God’s loving embrace.