THE FRANCIS EFFECT AND CATHOLIC EDUCATION (title slide)

Transcription

1 THE FRANCIS EFFECT AND CATHOLIC EDUCATION (title slide) (Slide 2)I had the happy opportunity to be present in St. Peter s Square the night that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was announced as the successor to Pope Benedict X VI. (Slide 3) There were four things about that moment that remain in my memory with brilliant clarity: (Slide 4) 1) he is a Jesuit - who ever would have imagined that a Jesuit would be chosen to serve as Pope. Hell, we re barely acknowledged by some as Catholic, let alone orthodox! The next morning I submitted a reflection to our Jesuit blog site entitled: A Jesuit Pope...and the Devil is Wearing Longjohns! But Jesuit he is. And that is a source of immense consolation to me and to most of my fellow Jesuits because it dramatically puts the lie to the perception that the Society of Jesus is at odds with the Church. 2) he took the name Francis - perhaps the most emblematic person, apart from Jesus himself, in the history of the Catholic Church of the commitment to the service of the poor and disenfranchised of the world is Francis of Assisi. The fact that Bergoglio chose this name was the first indication of a new vision for the papacy. 3) he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter s without any of the rich trappings of his new status, neither the rich cope, the mozetta, nor the Prada shoes. He appeared in a simple white cassock. This was the second indication of a significant change. 4) he asked the assembled faithful to pray for him before he bestowed his apostolic blessing. It still gives me chills when I remember that moment. St. Peter s Square was charged with the electricity of faith and spiritual energy as the hundreds of thousands of people prayed over the inclined figure of Pope Francis in devout silence. It was awesome! The days that followed Francis election delivered new and stunning evidence that this papacy would be like none other of recent memory. His decision to eschew the papal limousine in favour of the bishops bus to travel back to Casa Marta, and a simple Ford Focus to make his way around Rome, to remain in Casa Marta rather than move into the papal apartments, to return to his hotel to pay his own bill, (Slide 5) to step out into the streets to interact with people in a personal and direct way, (Slide 6)to celebrate Holy Thursday in a youth prison and to wash the feet of prisoners who were not uniformly white, male and Catholic, to reach out to (Slide 7) children, (Slide 8) the handicapped, (Slide 9) the disfigured, the dislocated, and so on. (Slide 10) For me one of the more significant moments happened the day after his election when he visited, as was custom, the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. He first went to pray in front of the icon of Mary, Protectress of Rome, the practice of many of his predecessors. This was a favourite prayer site of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and so held double import for Francis. He then moved to the altar where

2 Ignatius celebrated his first mass as a newly ordained priest and prayed there briefly. When he emerged from that side altar, the head of the Dominican community that serves the church, known as a Penitentiary Church because of its focus on the ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, asked Francis to address the assembled Dominicans. His answer was stunning. I have three words for you: mercy, mercy, mercy. The people need it. With these words Francis expressed what would very obviously become the recurring theme of his preaching and ministry as Pope: the mercy of God shared with us and through us with the world at large. In fact, as you know, he recently declared that 2016 would be a Jubilee Year, a Holy Year of Mercy. All of these things manifest an understanding of the mission of the Church that is refreshing, challenging, enlightening, and evocative. Francis is leading the Church by his own example in a new direction, or at least in a new way of expressing the longunderstood, but often underplayed mission of the Church to serve, as Jesus served, the poor, the fragile, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the naked, the lonely, the sinful. In a reflection during his early days as Pope he described his sense of the Church as a field hospital, out there in the trenches caring for the wounded. He expressed his desire that the Church should be out in the streets. W hat happens when you go out into the streets? he asked. You run the risk of an accident. Further to this, in Evangelii Gaudium, he expands on the idea. (Slide 11) "I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," Imagine that: a Pope who is more interested in serving the world than in protecting the Church. That s different. A Pope who is less concerned about orthodoxy and more concerned about fidelity to the Gospel call to compassion. That s different. A Pope who cares more about bringing people into the community of the Church than shutting out the unworthy. That s different. A Pope who wants action rather than piety. That s different. If I were to attempt to sum up Francis vision of the Church I would use three words, in shameless imitation of his own style of speaking: Mercy, Joy, and Action. I have already alluded to his focus on mercy as a key element of his papacy. It is highlighted not only by his statements but also by his actions. Statement: (Slide 12) Communion is not a reward for the perfect, but a remedy for the sick. Statement: (Slide 13) I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber but rather an encounter with the Lord s mercy which spurs us on to do our best. Action: having lunch with gay and transgendered prisoners in Naples. Action: his first visit outside of Rome was to the refugees on the island of Lampadusa.

3 Pope Francis is not afraid in the least to break out of the restraints of a stilted and stifling protocol to engage those whom others have preferred to keep out of sight, out of mind, or out of the Church. (Slide 14) It is a constant refrain in his preaching and teaching, whether at the Sunday Angelis in St. Peter s Square, or in his addresses to various assemblies of the faithful, or in his morning reflection in the chapel of Casa Marta. God never tires of granting us forgiveness. God wants us to turn to him for forgiveness and to call upon his mercy without fear. The Church should be a place of sanctuary and solace for the wounded, the disillusioned, and the disheartened. The Church should seek out those who are alienated and who have distanced themselves in order to welcome them back into the embrace of the faith and the support of the community. (Slide 15) His personal actions express these same teachings in dramatic fashion. Wherever he goes, he reaches out to those whom others disregard or reject, especially the handicapped, the disfigured, and the poor. Heedless of his own security, he opens himself to direct engagement with the people and embraces warmly all who come to him. He is especially gentle and welcoming to children and youth. Enjoy with me this poignant moment in St. Peter s Square as Pope Francis addresses the assembly, speaking about family. (Slide 16) Notice his ease, openness and gentle acceptance of the boy. As St. Ignatius says in the Spiritual Exercises, Love is shown more in deeds than in words. It is this compassionate, open and welcoming spirit that Pope Francis wishes to impart to the whole Church as an experience of the compassionate and merciful love that God has for us. (Slide 17) The second theme is joy. All that Francis does he does with a smile. He exemplifies the joy that he has invited the Church to display to the world. In Naples, a student said to him, We youth live for Pope Bergoglio! When Francis challenged that, the youth said, For Pope Francis. And then Francis replied, "Not even for Pope Francis. (Slide 18) We live for the joy of being believers, for the joy that Jesus Christ gives us, for the joy of having hope, for the joy of being courageous, for the joy of not throwing ourselves down. We live for that!" We live for the joy of being believers. What a remarkable statement! Joy is not something that is normally associated with Catholics. I can tell you as a priest that I rarely see smiles on the faces of people in Church, especially when they are coming up for communion. I offer them the Body of Christ with a smile because I am sharing a truly awesome gift with them. And rarely do I get a smile in return. People look so stern and serious and even disapproving. It s like they find no joy in their faith. I don t

4 get it. I thought we had received the Good News. Is it common for people to frown when they get good news? Not really. So why do we Catholics always look like we carry the weight of the world on our shoulders? Maybe it s because we really don t believe it or we don t think it applies to us, or we re convinced there s been some sort of cruel mistake and we re all going to go to hell anyway. Francis says to us in his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course, he says, that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. Francis constant, unvarying message is that we are infinitely loved, that God never tires of offering us forgiveness, that God s love takes no heed of the exterior characteristics of our human nature but reads our heart for the depth of our identity as beloved images of himself, who is love personified. This, in the mind of Francis, is a bedrock foundation for our life as Christians that removes any anxiety, uncertainty, or fear. We can live in the freedom of God s children with confidence, hope, and, most importantly, joy. Francis begins his apostolic exhortation with a simple declaration: (Slide 19) a The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. The encounter with Jesus is the very substance of our faith and the source of our joy, because the person we encounter is the one who has risen from the dead. The joy comes from the realization that the power of God s love is greater than anything else that exists, even death, even sin. It is not a superficial happiness or pleasure, but a deeply rooted peace that comprehends the full import of the Resurrection, the victory of God over evil. From this flows the confidence that allows us to face all the challenges and struggles, all the sufferings and sorrows of life because we know that none of these is greater than or more powerful than the love of God, which never abandons us. When we who profess faith in the Resurrection live our lives in sadness or without joy we in fact deny the Resurrection because we declare by our demeanour that life is too difficult, too onerous, too sad, too hopeless for even God to help us. As Francis says, we are living Lent without Easter. But Easter is the reality. Lent is merely a time in which to prepare ourselves to enter fully into the joy of Easter. We are Easter people, we live in the Resurrection. And that needs to be the f undamental focus of our life. The third theme that I wish to explore is Action. (Slide 20) In his hastily arranged encounter with the youth of Argentina during the World Youth Day in Rio in 2013, Pope Francis began his comments with: Let me tell you what I hope will be the outcome of World Youth Day: I hope there will be noise. Here there will be noise, I m quite sure. Here in Rio there will be plenty of noise, no doubt about that. But I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses, I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in

5 on ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made for going out... if they don t, they become an NGO, and the Church cannot be an NGO. May the bishops and priests forgive me if some of you create a bit of confusion afterwards. I hope there will be noise. Interesting comment. In fact, in Spanish, the word that Francis used is lio, which translates best as a racket or a row, or even a mess. I hope there will be a racket. I want you to make a mess. Again Francis returns to one of his favourite images, the Church out in the streets. Essentially he was telling these kids to get out there and raise a ruckus, create a commotion, stir things up. He s challenging young people to take the initiative to get the Church moving forward and to resist those things that hold it back. For a Jesuit this is immediately reminiscent of the earliest Jesuits, the first companions, who decided to take their ministry into the streets, to preach in the piazzas and on the street corners in Rome, to bring the Gospel to the people, rather than wait for the people to come to the Church. (Slide 21) Francis wants action. He wants the Church to move out of the comfortable confines of its buildings and to engage the world on its own turf, to enter into the hurly-burly of everyday life, and the messiness of human existence, to be out in the streets. But that means confronting the confusion and commotion of life. It would be nice if everything were neat, tidy, black-and-white, strictly conforming to the norms and rules, and easily managed. But life isn t like that. There is a lot of grey in this world and there is a lot of ambiguity, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of conflicting values, and a lot of circumstances that do not admit to easy answers and packaged solutions. You only have to hear confessions for a short time to realize that. So if the Church is going to deal with that messiness it cannot respond by the book unless that book is the Gospel. Rules and regulations do not necessarily bring order to the messiness. The only response that the Church can properly bring to the mess is to proclaim Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the God-man who embraces our human frailty and messiness and consecrates it by uniting it with his own divinity. In the Spiritual Exercises, with which Francis has prayed his entire Jesuit life, St. Ignatius offers a contemplation of the Trinity gazing upon the world and seeing the mess that humanity had made of things. Realizing that things were only going to get worse, the Trinity decides that the only way to help humanity get back on track is to enter into the fray, to send the Son to become human and to give his life to save us from our waywardness. God took action, not in the form of an imperious imposition of rules and commands, but in the form of servant leadership, emptying himself, sharing the pain and suffering, accepting the messiness and the uncertainty, and offering a challenging and life-giving alternative. (Slide 22)

6 These three themes, then, being at the centre of the mission of Pope Francis, and therefore of the Church, become of necessity the principal themes of the mission of Catholic education, as an embodiment of the mission of the Church under the leadership of the Pope. Let me just for a brief moment emphasize that point. Catholic education exists to serve the mission of the Church, which is the proclamation of the Gospel. There is no other reason for its existence. It is the only thing that distinguishes Catholic education from any other form of education. And that mission must be firmly established at the core of Catholic education, and not be simply some peripheral adjunct. From the highest levels of leadership to the classrooms and playgrounds and cafeterias the mission of the Church must guide, inform, and inspire the work of Catholic education. And so, taking the lead from Pope Francis, Catholic education has the mandate to direct its efforts by these same priorities. This has implications for Trustees, Superintendents, Program Coordinators, Principals, Teachers, Support Staff, and students. At every level, the organic whole that is Catholic education, in all its various parts and expressions, must explore ways of becoming more merciful, more joyful, more active in promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since I am speaking to Trustees at this moment, allow me to pose a few questions to you about your leadership in this great enterprise of Catholic Education. Is the compassionate love of Jesus Christ evident in the way you conduct yourself as a Trustee, in your interactions with your fellow Trustees, in your interaction with the board staff, the school staff, the students and parents, or is it all about politics and personal agendas? Do people see in you a reflection of Christ, who came to serve not to be served, or is your priority self-promotion? When you discuss thorny issues, do you consciously strive to incorporate a Gospel vision into your reflections and decisionmaking, or are you more interested in being politically correct or in winning the argument? When allocating the limited funds that you have at your disposal, do you give primacy to the care of the poorest, least advantaged members of the community or are you more attentive to the powerful and the influential? Does your leadership promote a sense of belonging to all members of the community, with a special care for those who are most marginalized, alienated, disillusioned, or are you more interested in supporting factions and special-interest groups that seek to divide and control? Your answers to these questions will probably fall somewhere into the space between the extremes. Not surprising. But if you are to fulfill your responsibility of Catholic leadership, then your efforts must be directed at moving more and more toward the Christ-centred, Gospel-informed end of the spectrum and become less and less motivated by selfish or narrow interests. You have been and will continue to be tested by difficult issues emerging from unions, from church hierarchy, from interest groups, from public opinion. Your leadership will be judged by the quality of your responses to these issues. Only those responses that reflect the compassion, the joy and the active love of Christ can be considered acceptable. Anything less is inadequate.

7 So consider how you act and how you decide both individually and as a Board of Trustees. In the conscious desire to exercise the apostolic leadership to which you are called, delegated to you from the Church itself, strive to be people of mercy, joy, and action, so that the school boards you lead may follow your example and incorporate these same values into their efforts to direct the work of the schools as they seek to form and educate the children entrusted to you. That is, after all, what this is all about. I leave the last word to Pope Francis as he addresses an assembly of students. Slide 23