'Church changing big time,' says Cardinal Dolan

Vatican City, Mar 3, 2013 / 05:48 am

An American cardinal said Sunday that the Catholic Church is undergoing a lot of changes.

"The Church is in the business of change big time," Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said at St. Peter's Basilica during a Mass he celebrated for U.S. journalists at 10:30 a.m. local time.

He said that many journalists had been asking him if he believed the new pontiff would make changes within the Church.

"Jesus calls us first and foremost not to change structures, but to let God change us inside," he said at the Basilica's catacombs in the Hungarian Chapel.

The 63-year-old cardinal said he himself needs the changes of "conversion, repentance and spiritual renewal" to better reflect "the heart of the Gospel."

"What we're doing right now is what makes the Church live and it's more important than electing a Pope," said Cardinal Dolan during his homily. "It's a lot more important for the lives of the hundreds of millions of Catholics who went to Sunday Mass this morning."

Cardinal Dolan said it is Mass that helps Catholics understand "the very nature of the papacy."

"Saint Paul says 'I hand down to you what I myself have received'," he said. "That is the very nature of the papacy, to hand on faithfully what God told Jesus, what Jesus told his apostles and what his apostles hand on to us traditionally."

Turning to the day's Gospel reading, the cardinal explained that the people of the time were trying to understand what God was telling them when they had tragedies.

"They were trying to figure it out just like we try to figure out tragedies, sickness and suffering in our life," said the prince of the Church.

Jesus, he said, "brings us back to the basics" by stressing the need for repentance and the need to hear everyone.

"Don't always try to figure out God's will all the time, but try to figure out what God is asking you to do inside," he advised.

"It is a call to renew your life, to repentance of heart and to conversion of soul."