In October 2012 the church will begin observing a special “Year of Faith” proclaimed by Pope Benedict to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Much more will be said about this at a later date. However, as we get ready for Lent, I would like to suggest that we start preparing ourselves now for the “Year of Faith,” so that we can enter it wholeheartedly and not ask ourselves later: “Where did it go?

A “Year of Faith” has never been more needed in our western world than now. Study after study shows not only declining religious practice, but also declining religious belief in so-called developed countries.

A recent article in USA Today reported on the growing number of Americans who “simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as ‘So what?’ ” Consider the example of a young Chicago adult identified as Catholic: “The more [he] read evolutionary psychology and neuro-psychology, the more it seemed to him, ‘We might as well be cars. That, to me, makes more sense than believing what you can’t see.’ ”

Without faith, the comparison of the human person to a car is not surprising. The Second Vatican Council taught that “once God is lost sight of, the human person is lost sight of too.” Speaking about his joyful experience of World Youth Day, Pope Benedict recently said: “If ever man’s sense of being accepted and loved by God is lost, then there is no longer any answer to the question whether to be a human being is good at all. Doubt concerning human existence becomes more and more insurmountable. Where doubt over God becomes prevalent, then doubt over humanity follows inevitably. We see today how widely this doubt is spreading. We see it in the joylessness, in the inner sadness that can be read on so many human faces today. Only faith gives me the conviction: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being, even in hard times. Faith makes one happy from deep within.” (Dec. 22, 2011)

What is at stake today is not just Sunday Mass attendance or the future of the Catholic Church and other churches in the United States or any other institutional consideration. What is at stake is our very selves as human beings, in time and in eternity.

When the Second Vatican Council met in the 1960s, the Council Fathers taught that concern about the world to come should not diminish our concern for this world. Now a half-century later, in the face of growing secularization and unbelief, we almost have to turn that statement around: concern for this world should not diminish our concern for the world to come. If, as Pope Benedict says, “faith makes one happy from deep within,” it is because we know that God’s love for us will never cease and neither will we. His love embraces us here below and gives us eternal life.

With all today’s challenges before us, I invite you to join me this Lent in re-committing ourselves to our Catholic faith, to living and practicing our faith, to growing spiritually in faith, to sharing our faith in Christ with anyone who will listen. As with my visit to see the Christmas lights, it is all too easy to keep postponing our spiritual resolutions for some indefinite time in the future. Yet, as St. Paul proclaims, “now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)

The Gospel teaches us that we are servants to whom “talents” have been entrusted by the Master. Upon His return He expects us to have made something with what we have been given. From those who have not, even the little that they do have will be taken away. Will we meet the Lord almost empty-handed? Or will the “talent” of faith we received at our baptism be multiplied 40-, 60- or a hundredfold?  Let’s not permit an eternal reward to slip through our fingers! Lent 2012 is the acceptable time.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people — the Catholic population — and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. Do not be misled by attempts to turn this into a debate about Church teaching or the morality of contraception. The issue here is religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things: first, a commitment to prayer and fasting, imploring God’s help for the restoration of our religious liberty; and second, a commitment to action on your part. Please visit www.usccb.org/conscience to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision. You can also visit our diocesan website for help: www.toledodiocese.org.

Thank you, and God bless you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Leonard P. Blair
Bishop of Toledo

For the United States this is an unprecedented attack on freedom of conscience and of religion. It prompts a troubling question as to just how far the heavy hand of government will go, despite protestations and assurances to the contrary, to impose what Pope Benedict XVI has called "powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such. … It is imperative," the pope says, "that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.”

I urge everyone in the Diocese of Toledo, beginning with the clergy, to address this issue squarely, to inform people what is at stake, to prepare them to make sacrifices for their faith, to keep our country in their prayers and to work to overturn what we bishops have called a "literally unconscionable" decision by the Obama administration.

What follows are items prepared by the United States Bishops Conference:

Bishops Vow to Fight HHS Edict - Press Release

Talking Points - Federal Contraception/Sterilization Mandate (PDF)

Backgrounder (PDF)

HHS Agenda Q & A (PDF)

Bishop Dolan speaks on HHS Mandate - Press Release with video link

The transition to a new year is always an occasion to reflect on what has been and what will be. People make resolutions, because the turn of the calendar represents a fresh beginning, filled with hope. The old year becomes a thing of memories, both good and bad, of things accomplished, but also of things still undone despite our good intentions.

For me the passing of 2011 and the arrival of 2012 was a particular moment of personal reflection as your bishop. During November, I had to send a report to the Holy See in Rome about the state of the Diocese of Toledo. All the bishops of the United States are scheduled to do this for 2012, and all of us are obliged to go to Rome for a visit “ad limina apostolorum,” which I will explain in a moment. The bishops of Ohio and Michigan will be in Rome for this purpose from Feb. 1-6.

I say that this was a particular moment of reflection for me because the report is a kind of “snapshot” of the diocese at this moment in history. It includes an overview of significant statistics and events since the last ad limina visit, which took place in April of 2004, only a few months after I became Bishop of Toledo. So in a sense this year’s report represents something of a diocesan summary for my years thus far as your bishop.

You will understand that in assembling the report I revisited in mind and spirit many of the joys and sorrows, the rewarding times and challenging times, the accomplishments and crosses, not only for me personally, but for our diocese over the last several years.

We have been through a lot since 2004. The church is living in a turbulent era, and we, her members, are pulled in every direction by competing voices, both within and without. She is rocked by the sinfulness of her all too frail members, including the clergy. But what does Jesus say? The sheep that are His always hear and recognize His voice, no matter what. So we can be absolutely confident of the church’s future and our future inasmuch as we hold fast to Christ. He warned us that the road is far from smooth, but He makes all our yokes easy and all our burdens light.

If this sounds a bit somber, I want to assure you that many joys are highlighted in the report. Great good is being accomplished at every level of church life in our 19 counties — whether by the diocese directly or by parishes, schools, Catholic institutions and by clergy, religious and laity.

I am especially grateful to God for the steady, and now growing, number of our seminarians studying for ordination as priests of the Diocese of Toledo. I think too of our joyful celebration of the diocesan centenary, which was an occasion to stir up enthusiasm and commitment for sharing our Catholic faith with other people, especially our unchurched neighbors and friends, and those even of our own families who are not practicing the faith.

I have yet to explain exactly what the ad limina visit is. It is an ancient custom that goes back at least to the time of Pope St. Leo III who died in the year 816. Later it developed into a discipline of the church. It requires bishops to make a programmed visit to Rome every five years (or sometimes longer, as is the case now — the last U.S. visit was eight years ago).

The Latin words ad limina apostolorum literally mean “to the threshold of the apostles.” This refers to the fact that foremost among the bishops’ obligations while in Rome is to make a personal visit to pray at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The bishops in our Ohio-Michigan group will offer Mass together in both of the basilicas. This is an important reminder that bishops are not business men or bureaucrats reporting to “corporate headquarters.” We are successors of the Apostles with the successor of St. Peter as our visible head. We are shepherds, and we accomplish our mission in and with the help of the communion of saints.

And that leads to the second purpose of our visit to Rome. During the ad limina visit bishops meet with the pope, either individually or in small groups. It is an opportunity for us as pastors to discuss with him the state of the church in our dioceses and in our country. At some of these meetings the pope will deliver a formal talk, which is published.

The bishops spend much of the rest of the week visiting the various offices of the Roman Curia, which assists the pope in his pastoral care of the universal church. The areas that are covered include doctrine, worship, education, clergy, religious, Christian unity and family life, among others. These various offices or dicasteries, as they are known, will have seen the pertinent section of the report that each bishop submits, of which I wrote earlier.

My one and only ad limina visit thus far was in 2004 with Blessed Pope John Paul the Great. I look forward to seeing Pope Benedict at the end of this month, and I will be sure to give him the prayerful greetings and good wishes of all the clergy, religious and laity of the Diocese of Toledo. May God be with him, and with all of us, in 2012.

As we approach Christmas 2011, it would be nice to say that peace reigns in our hearts and homes, our communities and country, our parishes and the church herself. Yet we know it is often not so. I daresay that today many souls, even in the church, are far from peaceful. Many people feel beset, besieged, and insecure in the face of the many uncertainties and threats to their economic well-being, to marriage and family, and to faith itself. A lack of inner peace leads to the impatience, anger and hostility that afflict so many people when they believe themselves to be offended, injured or thwarted in some way.

It can be argued that as long as people are people there will always be turmoil, division and strife. However, the angels were able to proclaim peace to the shepherds in Bethlehem even as King Herod was sharpening his sword to kill the newborn Messiah. It is possible to enjoy peace as a gift of God even in the midst of the raging of the world, the flesh and the devil, provided, as Pope Benedict says, that God is with us and we are with God.

For God to be with us, and we with God, we have to let our lives be guided by certain truths of faith.

The first truth is that whatever life brings, God’s providence guides and governs everything. “To those who love God all things work together unto good,” St. Paul writes. When at Christmas we hear, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will,” we should be mindful of all the terrible hardships and threats that the Holy Family were experiencing at that moment in Bethlehem. Jesus once said, “I have come to bring, not peace, but the sword.” His earthly life began with the massacre of the innocents by the sword, and His life ended with a sword thrust through His heart. Yet to those who put all their faith and hope in God as He did, Jesus promises the peace that the world cannot give. God is never far from us, and provided we stay close to Him, we will be at peace.

Another truth is that God sees all. He will be the just judge of everything that happens in life, so there’s no need for our blood pressure to soar when we witness evil and injustice or for our hearts to sink when all seems lost. At the judgment, God will bring to light the secrets of every heart and the absolute truth of everything that has ever happened in this world. Then he will give to each person what his or her conduct deserves. We are moved by the birth of the infant Jesus at Christmas, but let’s not forget what He said: “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” (Jn 9:39)

Last but not least, our lives ought to be guided by the truth of the Incarnation. By becoming man in the Person of the Son, God chose to redeem us precisely “in the flesh” with all that our mortal flesh represents. As one spiritual author put it, “The opaque, recalcitrant ‘flesh’ has become the place of God’s saving act. There, right there, amid the struggle, the weakness, the general human mess, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God understands our human “mess” firsthand. He lived and died amid the “mess” that we fallen creatures have made of life. But as St. Paul teaches, Jesus “is our peace,” precisely because he has “broken down” all the walls of separation and alienation that we have created in ourselves, among ourselves and with God. (See Eph 2:14)

As we prepare for Christmas this year, may each of us seek to create a place for God, not only in our own hearts and homes, but in our society and in our world, so that we can know peace. God is increasingly being shut out of so much of life. There is little room or time for Him in the lives of many people. Yet Christ is always looking to be born anew in human hearts, so that the joyful message of the angels at Christmas can be fulfilled: glory to God and peace on earth.

May you and your loved ones be blessed with all the peace and joy that Christmas is meant to bring.