Franciscan at Home

And Preparing for the Baptism of the Child

Archbishop Kurtz explains how "The Blessing of the Child in the Womb,” approved on 8 December 2011 by the Congregation for Divine Worship for use in the United States of America, can be a pastoral moment of first evangelization of the child and of new evangelization of the family.

"The Blessing of the Child in the Womb” was approved on 8 December 2011 by the Congregation for Divine Worship for use in the United States of America. This blessing is a pastoral moment of first evangelization of the child and new evangelization of the family. Warmly extending the love of Christ to families as they prepare for the birth of their child, this sacred gesture is both a positive and hope-filled way to announce to society the great gift of human life as well as a gracious invitation for the parents to begin steps for the baptism of their child, once born.

In this address given to the recent Synod for the New Evangelization and the Transmission of the Christian Faith, Pedro Ossandón, Auxiliary Bishop of Chile, calls us to a new awakening of our awareness of the Holy Spirit working in our own lives and in the Church for the handing on of the Faith. This, he says, is the key to the new evangelisation.

Our beloved Blessed John Paul II wrote appreciatively of the gift of the Second Vatican Council, fruit of the action of the Spirit, of our indebtedness to this Council, and of the necessary examination of conscience we must undertake concerning its reception. He also left us a vision: “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: this is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.”[i] The Pope here was inviting us to a new spirituality. This, I believe, is the challenge of the present moment: to rebuild and to reignite our communities throughout the world in the life of the Holy Spirit in a way that lays solid foundations for the New Evangelisation.

In baptism the Holy Spirit calls us to sanctity[ii]. He makes His dwelling in our hearts, not as a mere place of passive residence, but as the best place from which to move us to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. So we are to recognise the Spirit as the Teacher of the interior life and the Teacher of evangelisation who helps us discover and walk the journey of faith, both personally and as the Church of God.[iii] From within ourselves, therefore, through the indwelling of the holy Spirit, should spring that mystical life that every Christian ought to cultivate in order to give, in the very heart of society, an eloquent testimony of his faith, shining like a light in the midst of the world.

Do you want to be a saint – really? If one billion Catholics were really trying to be saints, wouldn’t the world be a rather different place? But what about us? Sometimes I think we’re afraid to be saints. Our image of them can be unreal, as if they were perfect from start to finish. Some seem sanctimonious, the kind of people who offer everyone improving advice, or are simperingly pious, or levitate while in trances, or live in a cave wearing animal skins. Glorious eccentrics, these Catholic saints, but not really the sorts of people you’d want your daughter to marry!

If the way some of the saints lived here on earth does not appeal, our image of how they live in heaven might be equally unappetising. Sitting on clouds, staring at God, singing hymns is not going to attract moderns who treasure individuality, variety and entertainment so highly.

Then there’s the problem that saints are expected to live exemplary lives. Like the young St Augustine who said “Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet”, we might want to be holy by the time we’re old, but in the meantime we live a middling good and banally bad life. We’re weak and there are many distractions, and who wants penance in a consumer culture? Who’s up for virginity, missions and martyrdom in a postmodern world where nothing’s worth living for, let alone dying for? Who wants plenary indulgences when indulgence of a rather different sort is the order of the day?

Decimos al final del Credo, ‘Creo en el Espíritu Santo, la santa Iglesia Católica, la comunión de los santos…’ Esta ‘comunión de los santos’ es un misterio de mucha importancia en nuestra fe.

Y, sin embargo, nuestra fe en ese misterio puede pasar desapercibida ‘así nomás’. Decimos, ‘…el Espíritu Santo, la santa Iglesia Católica, la comunión de los santos, el perdón de los pecados…’ ¿Permitimos que aquellas frases del Credo se deslicen inadvertidas porque nos acostumbramos a ellas?

Debemos de tener en mente el misterio de la comunión de los santos y recordar que vivimos esa comunión muy especialmente en la Misa. Cuando llegamos al momento de la gran Plegaria Eucarística y nos invitan a ‘levantar el corazón’, eso significa que vamos místicamente al cielo. Por la liturgia de la Iglesia, el Espíritu Santo nos recuerda a todos la verdad acerca de Jesús. Y en la Misa somos levantados místicamente al cielo y allí estamos con el Señor, con María, la Reina de todos los Santos, con José, con todos los Apóstoles, con los mártires, y los ángeles. Nos levantan para estar con todos los santos.

Juan cuenta la historia de esta forma:

Hubo una boda en Canaán. María asistió como invitada. También estuvo presente Jesús, su Hijo. También estaban sus primeros discípulos. María se dio cuenta que se estaba acabando el vino, lo cual era una vergüenza tremenda para los anfitriones de la boda. Al ir con su Hijo, María le dijo con sencillez: ‘No tienen vino’.

Imagina a Jesús que la queda mirando profundamente, diciéndole con un pequeño suspiro: ‘¿Qué tengo yo contigo, mujer? Todavía no ha llegado mi hora.’ Lo mejor estaba por suceder. La respuesta de María. No dijo nada.

Ella encontró a los que servían el vino. Señaló a su Hijo. Dijo: ‘Hagan lo que Él les diga.’

With affection, great joy, and sincere admiration, I greet each of you! The Church thanks you for dedicating time and part of your lives to Christian education. You have clearly understood that Christian education is the best investment in the future that we can make today. It is without doubt the Holy Spirit who drives forward this fundamental work in the life of the Church and the world.

The need for Christian education is heightened in a situation like ours with insufficiently evangelized adults and young Christians, frequently separated from the practice of their faith, who on occasion abandon that Faith, with important shortcomings in Christian initiation, and with children, in growing numbers, who have not reached religious awakening. Dedicate yourselves to it apostolically with evangelical zeal; respond with a type of education that makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ joyfully present, in whom is revealed the truth of God and man inseparable from each other since the Incarnation.

There is an urgent need today to promote education with a religious depth that leads to a real and effective meeting with, and experience of, the living God, following in His way of life and in His engagement with mankind. It is necessary to provide an unambiguous Christian teaching, fully integrating the essential elements of faith and Christian morality, clear in the presentation of the living substance of the Gospel and of Christian life or morality.

Let us never succumb to the temptation to reduce Christian education to a vague religious awareness or a mere anodyne introduction to a series of values or ideals that do not reach the depths of the heart of man, incapable of newly conforming him to the will of God. Never, amongst us, should education be reduced to a blurred announcement of Jesus Christ that represents something other than Jesus himself in person (that which has been called ‘the cause of Jesus’, or an ideal together with some attractive values).

Everyone who is baptized and lives in the grace of Jesus Christ is called to holiness. That is one of our greatest privileges. In contrast to the world around us, our vision extends beyond death to the joy and glory which the Lord is prepared to share with us.

One of the great mysteries of our life in Christ and in the Catholic Church is that Jesus calls some men and some women to help Him love and care for His people. Priests have a special role in this and in the life of the Church and in the lives and hearts of God’s faithful. It is a wonderful thing when young people can begin to grasp something of this mystery and open their hearts to the grace of God.

During my years working with young men who may be called to the priesthood, I have learned that interaction with priests can be very helpful for them. They see priests as models. They learn that priests are normal people just as they are. They see priests having fun. And they see priests praying and loving the Lord and the people whom they serve. They see a life worth living.

They may also see that priests are not perfect. I tell them that one day they will look in the mirror and realize that they are not perfect either. This is part of the wonder. God chooses men who are not perfect and calls them to help love and care for his people.

I would like to focus on the great theme of spiritual fatherhood. The fathers of the Church, especially St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Documents of Vatican II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, and especially Pastores Gregis all speak of spiritual fatherhood. The documents do so most especially for bishops. Bishops are to know their priests as sons, brothers, and friends (LG 28). The bishop, ‘acting as father, brother and friend to all…will stand beside everyone as the living image of Christ’ (PG 4). Priests are to ‘exercise the most excellent and necessary office of father and teacher among the People of God’ (PO 9).

While the Sacred Scriptures and Church documents speak so clearly and beautifully about fatherhood, we must recognize as formators of future priests the times in which we live. Over the past forty years we have seen the understanding and concept of fatherhood come under attack both culturally and theologically. David Blankenhorn in his book, Fatherless America, addresses the cultural problem and refers to it as one ‘of the most urgent’ of our times. Many of the young men who are preparing for the priesthood have not experienced being fathered through Christian virtues and thus may not have a good understanding of fatherhood. As bishops and priests we must honestly confront the way our own spiritual fatherhood has been possibly compromised or defined by the spirit of the day. We must examine our lives and ask ourselves am I more a ‘spiritual buddy’ to the faithful rather than a ‘spiritual father’? Have we adopted a false sense of privacy by which we do not confront, discipline or visit with our spiritual children? Do we abandon our spiritual children by defining our call to the priesthood as a 9-5 profession, with an attitude of don’t call me after hours? These attitudes prevent us from acting as true spiritual fathers.

Furthermore, another cultural influence present today is the confusion around the truth, dignity and meaning of human sexuality and intimacy. Some of our seminarians, as well as some priests and bishops, are influenced by the secular view of sexuality, which is hedonistic and nihilistic, and completely counter to the intention of God.

Few people have written more strikingly on our love for the Church than Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna. He has graciously given us permission to print the text of a talk he gave on this topic during the Youth Festival organised by the Community of Saint John during World Youth Day in Paris in 1997.

Let us thank the Lord for this warm atmosphere!

I wish to speak to your for a little while, as long as the heat permits, about what gathers us, or rather, the One who gathers us, in Paris for World Youth Day. I wish to speak to you about the Church. It is thanks to her that you are here and I can truly say: the Church is, with Jesus, my first love. Since my youth I have had the joy of finding in the Church a place where I was happy, and I still am. We always love to speak of the one we love. I love the Church immensely. And I would like to speak with you…yet is always difficult to say why one loves.

“¿Hace esto seguido?”, me preguntaron la otra noche. “Unas setenta veces por año,” contesté para asombro de mi interlocutor. El tema de la plática fue el Sacramento de la Confirmación. De hecho, en cualquier año, puede haber más de cien Confirmaciones en toda la Diócesis. Estoy agradecido con Mons. Daniel Cronin, Arzobispo Emérito de Hartford, quien me ayuda generosamente en confirmar a lo largo y ancho del Condado de Fairfield. También reitero mis gracias para con el Obispo Mons. William McCormick y con el recién fallecido Obispo Mons. Daniel Hart, así como con un gran número de sacerdotes quienes han administrado la Confirmación en la Diócesis de Bridgeport, a lo largo de los años.

Qué gozo y privilegio es compartir este sacramento tan grande con tantos jóvenes. Al nivel meramente social, la Confirmación es una oportunidad para visitar con nuestros hermanos sacerdotes, diáconos y dirigentes laicales. También me permite estar con un gran número de parroquianos y visitantes. Al entrar en las iglesias llenas con tanta gente – papás, abuelos, padrinos, y amistades – me encuentro en la compañía de muchos que están buscando lo mejor para los jóvenes a quienes estoy por confirmar.

Es también para mí una oportunidad para compartir el Evangelio no solo con los confirmandi (del Latín “los que están por confirmarse”), sino con los que ya han sido confirmados, tal vez hace muchos años. Después de la Misa y de la Confirmación, visito con los recién confirmados y con sus papás y padrinos. En esas ocasiones, los jóvenes me piden que bendiga algunos objetos religiosos y me dicen (al preguntarles yo) si le van a los Mets, los Yanquis, los Red Sox, u algún otro equipo deportivo. Muchos me cuentan de sus escuelas o de algún talento especial en música, drama o deportes. A menudo piden mis oraciones para algún ser querido enfermo y moribundo o por alguna otra intención especial. De vez en cuando, los fieles me recuerdan de algún intercambio de correspondencia, elogian a sus sacerdotes o me hacen alguna pregunta – todo con las cámaras sacando fotos sin parar. ¡Es caos organizado, pero es divertido!

La Confirmación también me da la oportunidad para dar las gracias a los directores de la educación religiosa, los directores de escuela, los catequistas, ministros juveniles y otras personas que trabajan con tanta diligencia para formar a nuestros jóvenes en la fe y en las verdades y valores que fluyen de la fe. La suya no es tarea fácil. Somos bendecidos con gente joven maravillosa, talentosa e idealista. Sin embargo, éstos jóvenes suelen llevar vidas extremadamente ocupadas, a menudo con poco tiempo dedicado para la educación religiosa y la misa dominical. Qué nos guste o no, a más y más temprana edad, también enfrentan mucha presión para involucrarse en comportamientos destructivos como el sexo prematrimonial, el consumo de alcohol, y droga ilícita. Estos comportamientos son contrarios tanto al Evangelio como al buen sentido común. Nuestros catequistas y ministros juveniles aprenden y abrazan la fe para superar estas amenazas a su amistad con Dios y a su dignidad, y para mantenerlos en un camino de integridad y discipulado.