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Bishop Blair writes
A New Pentecost in our time |
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Written by Angela Kessler
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Thursday, 03 November 2005 |
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A few weeks ago I invited the former pastors of recently closed parishes to meet with me. For about two hours we discussed various aspects of the closing of parishes and its aftermath. There are, understandably, some individuals who remain angry, hurt or alienated in some way. On the other hand, many parishes have been successful in welcoming and receiving into their community former members of closed parishes. That is as it should be, since we are all one family of Catholic Faith in the 19 counties of this local Church of the Diocese of Toledo.
Several pastors also reported that at least some people in the diocese have the impression that there will be a second round of parish closings. I think it is important for me to dispel that impression.
The whole point of developing and implementing a comprehensive plan, as we did, was so that parishes would not have to live with a cloud of uncertainty overshadowing them. Now that the closings have been made, I believe that the diocese is in a much better position to provide pastoral care in the future, notwithstanding fewer priests.
Does this mean that no parish will ever close in the future No one can make such an absolute promise. Parishes have been created and closed throughout the history of the diocese. The situation of a few parishes announced for closing is still being studied. But as your Bishop it is not part of my thinking that we should have another round of parish closings. It is my hope that all our existing parishes will now grow and thrive. More parishes may have to share a priest in the future, as our plan envisions, but sharing a priest is not the same as closing.
How does a parish grow and thrivePart of the answer involves a challenge that today is much bigger than any one parish or diocese or even our entire country.
I am thinking of the great challenge of evangelization, that is, the challenge we have as believers to share our faith in Christ with others and to invite their participation in the life of the Church. For the Bishops of the United States, evangelization means bringing the good news of Jesus Christ into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself. Once you and I are converted to Christ - remember that the Gospel is a call to lifelong conversion - we then will want our neighbor to be blessed with a similar conversion of mind and heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. We will want to reach out to others, to share with them the good news of our faith.
At my installation homily as your Bishop two years ago I quoted the First Letter of St. John: Beloved, what we have heard, and seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched - the Word of life - we proclaim now to you, so that you may have fellowship with us, that our joy may be complete. If we are in love with Christ the Bridegroom and the Church his bride, we will want others to have fellowship with us, as St. John says, not a mere human fellowship, but one that is divine because it is centered on Christ.
Over 40 years ago Blessed Pope John XXIII envisioned the Second Vatican Council as a new Pentecost in our time. Pentecost was the day on which the Holy Spirit first came down upon the Church with power in the form of tongues of flame. The apostles, locked in the upper room out of fear, were emboldened to go out and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth as Jesus had commanded them. Perceptive people like Pope John XXIII, already in the late 1950s, sensed that great changes were overtaking the world and that the Church needed to be prepared, though I doubt he could have imagined the extent or pace of those changes.
When I was a boy in the 1950s and early 1960s, if you were Catholic, chances were very strong that you sent your children to Catholic school, went to Mass every Sunday, and were catechized by the Baltimore Catechism. The number of practicing Catholics in our country was so great that the Church had no need to go to the people; the people came to the Church. There were many converts to Catholicism, especially at the time of marriage. When it came to spreading the Catholic Faith, most Catholics only thought of far-away mission lands.
All of this has changed. It is now become equally urgent to bring the Catholic Faith to our own backyard, among our family, neighbors, friends, in the workplace, community, our schools and nation. Our country is filled with people who have no church or have drifted away from church or who are alienated from church. Unchurched persons in the United States number about 80 million; inactive Catholics at least 20 million. What an unimagined challenge when the Second Vatican Council first met in the early 1960s.
Within the Church, a sense of Catholic identity that was once taken for granted has been greatly weakened. Meatless Fridays, the rosary and benediction, wearing the scapular, traditions surrounding Christmas, Lent and Easter, not to mention the strength of family life and moral teachings - these things are in many cases not even known, much less practiced, by a great number of today's Catholics. All these things were expressions of a strong and coherent identity, a Catholic life lived according to Gospel, and for millions of people nothing has really replaced that sense of identity.
For a parish or the Church as a whole to grow and thrive, the challenge is for each and every practicing Catholic to understand and live what Blessed Pope John XXIII foresaw: the need for a new Pentecost, to realize that being Catholic also means being evangelical, a missionary, a witness for the faith. Jesus says Go and make disciples of all the nations. St. Paul exclaims, Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel. And St. Peter writes: Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever ready to reply, but speak gently and respectfully.
Evangelization is something we will be hearing more about in the future. I hope these few introductory reflections will be of help as together we seek to live our faith.
+ Most Reverend Leonard P. Blair
Bishop of Toledo
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