Articles by Rebecca Ryskind Teti
The Pope Among The Secularists
Jul 20, 2010 / 00:00 am“Human beings of the third millennium want an authentic, full life; they need truth, profound freedom, love freely given. Even in the deserts of the secularized world, man's soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”With these words at a Vespers ceremony for the feast of Saints Peter & Paul at the close of last month, Pope Benedict XVI announced the creation of the Pontifical Council for Evangelization. The new dicastery’s mission? To reverse the rapid secularization of Christian or once-Christian nations. In the Pope’s words, the new Council will focus on countries with strong Christian traditions which are experiencing an “eclipse of the sense of God.” You could call it a crusade, I suppose, but this would be to miss the nature and tone of the Pope’s project. He is not asking the world to relinquish the distinction between Church & state, but to rediscover the fullness of the human person, in every dimension – a fullness that is ultimately to be found in Christ. As the Holy Father put it to reporters on his way to Fatima last Spring, “the presence of secularism is something normal, but the separation and the opposition between secularism and a culture of faith is something anomalous and must be transcended. The great challenge of the present moment is for the two to come together, and in this way to discover their true identity.”If we want to know how Benedict plans to engage the secularists, we can gather clues from his meeting with a group of scientists and artists during that same trip to Fatima. Intellectually fearless, the Pope did not scruple to admit that the Church herself has things to learn. “Much still needs to be learned about the form in which the Church takes her place in the world, helping society to understand that the proclamation of truth is a service which she offers to society,” he said. Later he added, “The Church, in her adherence to the eternal character of truth, is in the process of learning how to live with respect for other “truths” and for the truth of others. Through this respect, open to dialogue, new doors can be opened to the transmission of truth.”In other words, while the Church can never compromise the truths of faith, which are God-given, she has to seek afresh in each generation and for each culture how best to articulate those truths. Moreover, the Church seeks to be enriched by everything noble in the culture or cultures in which she operates. The Pope challenged his audience to adopt that same attitude of openness. “Given the reality of cultural diversity, people need not only to accept the existence of the culture of others, but also to aspire to be enriched by it and to offer to it whatever they possess that is good, true and beautiful.”In other words, the Church is eager to embrace whatever Science and the Arts have to offer that is true, good and beautiful, but secularists ought to be equally unafraid of what the Church has to offer. The instinct to horde one’s discoveries and create closed little intellectual enclaves is anti-intellectual and unworthy of those seeking truth in freedom.Making the challenge a little more explicit he says, “Do not be afraid to approach the first and last source of beauty, to enter into dialogue with believers, with those who, like yourselves, consider that they are pilgrims in this world and in history towards infinite Beauty!” I love our pontiff for being able politely to tell a room full of artists and scientists that they might not be the most open-minded people of our time.The sense of God may be eclipsed in our culture, but the creation of this new Pontifical Council for Evangelization is a sign of the Holy Father’s confidence that an eclipse is merely a shadow that passes. The light is there all along.
Uncle Tom’s Children
Jul 6, 2010 / 00:00 amFearing heavy-handed moralism, I have spent my adult life avoiding Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The Sacred Heart at BWI
Jun 8, 2010 / 00:00 amTo close the Year of the Priest, the pope is hosting an “encounter” with priests from all over the world in Rome at the end of this week.
Roses For Pentecost
May 25, 2010 / 00:00 amLast week I took a personal day and visited Franciscan Monastery. It is a sweet little refuge tucked away not far from where I live. You’ll find it in the same neighborhood of our nation’s capital as the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Catholic University and the John Paul II Cultural Center.
On Being Moderately Happy
May 11, 2010 / 00:00 amLet’s play word association. Here’s the word: temperance.What words or images came to mind?Cold. Crabby. Rules. Diets. Restrictions.If you thought of a pinched old lady scowling and pounding a rolling pin into her fist at the thought of anyone having fun, you’re probably not alone.Americans who know the word at all are likely to connect it with the Temperance movement, which succeeded in banning the demon rum and other spirits.The Constitution’s Temperance amendment was blissfully temporary. However, the negative connotation of the word has endured.And it is a pity, because temperance is the cardinal virtue which makes it possible to enjoy life.There is a virtue for every human action and situation – a habit of the heart and mind that helps us navigate the narrow path between defect on the one hand and excess on the other.Temperance, or moderation if you prefer, (and I do think it’s a nicer word) is the virtue which governs pleasure. It regulates our use of the good things life has to offer in such a way that they truly contribute to our good.Without moderation, we can’t really enjoy ourselves, or at least not for long. Without moderation, we cannot enjoy the perfect joy of liberty and we will certainly experience unpleasant consequences.Now think about brownies, which is probably a more pleasant thought experiment. But if you are allergic to chocolate, think of strawberry ice cream.One brownie is delicious…maybe even two. At some point, however, there is a diminishing return on the pleasure of eating a brownie. We feel sick. We enter sugar shock. We get fat. These negative consequences are the result of excess.Another result of excess is the despoiling of our ability to truly enjoy a feast day such as Christmas, Easter or the Solemnity of St. Joseph.When we dine luxuriously every day, or when we always have dessert, it’s hard to make a holiday meal stand out as special. This is part of the reason why the Church observes a cycle of fasts and feasts. This side of heaven, a never-ending feast becomes deeply boring.Conversely, it is also a defect to be so abstemious that we can never permit ourselves a genuine pleasure on a fitting occasion. A brownie really is not “sinfully” delicious, unless we are eating it in gluttony or in defiance of Mama’s wishes. If the moment is right, it’s just delicious and not at all sinful.Joy is the most attractive quality of a Christian. Of course, the deepest joy always springs from having the Spirit dwelling within our souls and having confidence in Christ’s mercy.But it’s not just the afterlife that Christians are meant to enjoy. This life, even with its crosses and seasons of sorrow, is meant to be enjoyed. Life is for living, we might say.In "The Virtue Driven Life," Fr. Benedict Groeschel says that we’re even meant to try to enjoy our daily tasks rather than resenting them.“If you go to the supermarket, enjoy it. Don’t make it a drudgery. Talk to the cashier….Try to get to know people and make your passage through life more pleasurable.”He adds: “If you are a private person and find it …somewhat difficult to speak to strangers, at least smile.”The inability to enjoy life when we are not in the midst of genuine tragedy is worth examining.Are we depressed and in need of medical help?When we’re unhappy we often fall into a lack of moderation. We worry about our jobs, our marriages or our kids. Rather than dig deep within ourselves to identify the problem and address it in healthy fashion, we turn to food, sex, wine or TV. That is when it is time that we put down the chips or the remote control and go have a heart-to-heart with the spouse or the boss.Perhaps we’re simply indulging the pleasures so much and so often we’ve made life boring for ourselves. In that case prayer and voluntary mortification can do wonders in restoring a sense of happiness and the ability to enjoy life again.Moderate pleasures, it turns out, are the only kind there are.
Truth Whispers and is Heard
Apr 27, 2010 / 00:00 am“Ten men who whisper the truth speak louder than a hundred million who lie.”
God Hung among Thieves
Mar 30, 2010 / 00:00 am“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.”Christ’s censure of crimes against innocence could not be stronger. Rightly therefore are we repulsed by crimes of abuse, and never more so than when they are committed by priests, called to be signs of Christ in the world.Light is the best disinfectant, so in the long run the cycle of investigation, exposure, confession, reparation and reform that the Church has been undergoing in different countries is part of the continual conversion and renewal that each Christian, and the Church as a whole, must undergo on the way to Christ.The Holy Father has called for fair criticism and scrutiny of the Church as the only way forward –and he is certainly receiving the scrutiny portion, if not the fairness. As Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York said to his flock after Mass on Palm Sunday:“No one has been more vigorous in cleansing the Church of the effects of this sickening sin than the man we now call Pope Benedict XVI. The dramatic progress that the Catholic Church in the United States has made — documented again just last week by the report made by independent forensic auditors — could never have happened without the insistence and support of the very man now being daily crowned with thorns by groundless innuendo.” Maybe fairness is too much to ask in the face of this kind of crime, which engenders such pain. Each time a clerical abuse case is exposed, we’re traumatized all over again, and it is hard to keep a clear head against the tide of emotions: compassion for the wronged; disgust with abusers; anger at their abettors, and simultaneously with opportunists who seize on suffering to advance personal agendas; shame, sorrow. These and other feelings can threaten to overwhelm our faith. But that is not the whole or even the most important part of the truth, and the spirit urging us to believe that evil is stronger than good and bad priests more numerous than good ones is not the Holy one. The truth is that there is no safer place for children in the world than the Catholic Church. The crisis that now appears to engulf us is a small piece of the plague of child abuse that afflicts every facet of Western culture today. “Why” is the topic of a different column. For now, I can’t help but think there is some providential significance in the fact that these matters are coming to a head during Holy Week, when the Church celebrates once again the mystery of redemption.That repentance and renewal are always necessary is a humiliating but perpetual reality for us Christians. Isn’t Judas a bishop’s name? Isn’t Peter? As Fr. Ronald Rolheiser writes: “To be a member of the church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul because the church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves.”If we want to penetrate the mystery of Christ’s love, we could do no better than to allow ourselves to feel the full burden of shame, disgust and pain at abuse and our seeming helplessness to make things right. If we reflect that God, purest and holiest, in compassion for all of us sinners, deliberately chose to associate himself with all of us and our self-induced messes, then perhaps we can better understand how much we are in need of a Savior, and how beautiful is that Savior’s love. It is the one thing that has the power to lift us out of the ugliness of sin and into the glory of holiness. The beauty of our faith is precisely that it is not a faith in the sinlessness of men, but in the power of the one, true God to sanctify us all. We have his promise that the Church he founded would never fail, even when its members do. He awaits us in the sacraments; no matter how broken the instruments imparting them are, precisely in order that he would be with us always. That is his gift to us, no less now than on that first morning of the Resurrection.
Don’t Be Misled
Mar 16, 2010 / 00:00 amTwo big stories in the news this week have been woefully misreported.
The Light Is On For You
Mar 2, 2010 / 00:00 amLast Sunday more than 1100 people who will be baptized or confirmed as Catholics at Easter in our archdiocese gathered for the “rite of the elect.” Dioceses all around the country welcome a steady stream of converts every year.Is there anything more beautiful than a soul discovering that he or she is truly loved by God –and responding to that love by coming to the fullness of faith? The Church is keen for converts because she wishes to bring everyone into the fullest possible relationship with God. But she is also eager for “re-verts” –anxious that those who for whatever reason have fallen away from practicing their faith may come home.That’s why a beautiful initiative which began originally in my hometown of Washington, D.C. has spread to dioceses across the United States.The Light Is On For You began in 2007 as an effort to bring Catholics back to the sacrament of Reconciliation –and “home” for Easter. The concept is simple. During Lent, every parish in the Archdiocese of Washington is open for Confessions and Eucharistic adoration from 6:30 until 8:00 pm each Wednesday in addition to its normal confession schedule.The word isn’t left to parish bulletins and pulpit announcements, however. Billboards, signs on buses, and radio ads invite everyone to come. Once they arrive, they’ll find a short, informative brochure reminding them of the benefits of the sacrament and step-by-step coaching on how to make a good Confession. The initiative has proved so successful and popular with both clergy and the faithful that word has spread and the program is not only in its fourth year in the Archdiocese of Washington, it has expanded into other dioceses as well. This year the neighboring dioceses of Arlington and Baltimore are also participating, as are the dioceses of Boston, Springfield, Baton Rouge. In all, they total about 20 American dioceses as well as some in Canada too! Other dioceses not formally participating in the “The Light Is On For You” are instituting similar programs to make confession more accessible for the faithful. The bishop of Allentown has asked every parish to add two hours of confessions to its weekly schedule during Lent. New York’s Young Adult ministry is sponsoring “24 hours of Confession” at parishes throughout the Archdiocese on March 6-7.I spoke with a pastor in Washington who has come to love this Lenten initiative after initial skepticism. “I admit I thought the bishop was wasting my time,” he said. “I didn’t expect anyone to come. But I tell you what, I have had some of the most beautiful experiences of my priesthood on the Wednesdays of Lent these past few years. People come back to the faith who have been away 20, 30 years or more. It’s powerful.”In an interview with his diocesan paper, Archbishop Wuerl attributed the success of the program to our real need to be forgiven.“…at the heart of the response is the realization we do need to hear from God that we're forgiven. Deep in our hearts, we may be sorry, but there is something intrinsic to our human nature that calls out to hear the words, 'You are forgiven.' That is what Confession is all about.”Another pastor I spoke with said a major lesson for him has been that many people stay away from Church for no greater reason than that no one invites them back. “I give the Archbishop a great deal of credit for inviting people back.” Of course, Confession isn’t only for the long time gone; the Church encourages frequent reception of the sacrament for everyone. Archbishop Wuerl writes, “the deepest spiritual joy each of us can sense is the freedom from whatever would separate us from God and the restoration of our friendship with so loving and merciful a a father.”Let’s all come home for Easter…and bring some others with us. Maybe they are only waiting to be asked.
George Washington Among The Catholics
Feb 16, 2010 / 00:00 amThe mattress sales of Washington’s Birthday may have passed, but as his actual birthday isn’t until February 22, we still have time to recall specific reasons we as Catholics have to be grateful to George Washington.
What Do We Mean By Civility?
Feb 2, 2010 / 00:00 amEveryone’s talking about civility these days, but like the weather, no one does anything about it.
Martin Luther King Jr., American
Jan 19, 2010 / 00:00 amIn observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, our local public radio station has played lengthy excerpts from his speeches all weekend.The most famous addresses were all included, but what caught me in the throat was when King told an audience about his little daughter Yolanda’s desperate desire to go to a local amusement park frequently advertised on television and highway billboards. His policy had been to demur and re-direct the conversation whenever she asked, but one evening she pleaded so directly that he had no choice but to sit her on his lap and explain that she could not go to Fun Town because of the color of her skin.As the tears welled up in his daughter’s eyes, King told the audience he didn’t want this terrible news to embitter her, so he was swift to tell her three things: that she was every bit as good as the children allowed into Fun Town; that segregationists were deeply misled people; and that not all white persons thought that way –indeed, many were working at that moment so that some day she would be able to go to Fun Town.The incident found its way in to King’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin commented on at a prayer breakfast over the weekend. The same thought struck the Congressman that struck me as I listened: namely, the nobility of King’s response to the injustice he experienced. As Ryan observed, “How difficult it is, in a large nation of 300 million, to avoid the temptation of living in a little subculture! Differences of race, power, culture, money, status honor diversity but also threaten to tear society into factions.”King, of course, was not Catholic, but he seemed to live by the principle in Catholic social teaching known as “solidarity” instinctively. The Venerable John Paul II defined solidarity as “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples.”In other words, the just man looks for what the business seminars call “win-win” situations. He doesn’t look to exploit the poor, soak the rich, or “stick it to the man.” Class animosity, no less than racial prejudice (and the political demagoguery that seeks to stir it up), is sinful because it violates justice. It succumbs to the very “us” versus “them” mentality that King taught his little daughter to reject.Injured by racial prejudice, King nevertheless would not do his many white counterparts the injustice of failing to acknowledge their good will. Even to his enemies he extended a certain empathy, calling them not wicked but “misled.” King consciously patterned the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” after another famous prisoner: the Apostle Paul. In his speech over the weekend, Congressman Ryan remarked, “From the title and style of that [letter], we see that he believed in the Good News Paul preached about Jesus. He believed that peaceful social reform was rooted in God’s love – not just for Greek or Jew, man or woman, slave or free, as Paul says…but in His love for all people, everywhere, for all time.”The love of God for each human person is the foundation of solidarity, the social expression of charity. It’s a good virtue to renew when we remember Martin Luther King, who gave his life for the cause not only of racial equality, but for a re-dedication to the principle that “all men are created equal.” He wanted his children to grow up in peace, and for his persecutors no longer to be misled.
Happy New Year of Salvation!
Jan 5, 2010 / 00:00 amThe turn of the calendar seems to have inspired more than the usual number of lists and retrospectives this year, being as it was the end of a decade (if you are not a calendar purist). Best movies, best gadgets, best-dressed starlets of the decade: anything imaginable has has been assembled into a top ten list in the past week. 2009 and the decade it concluded did not seem to make anyone’s superlative list, however. Pundits at both poles of the political and cultural spectrum waxed melancholy on the end of a “low, dishonest,” “grubby” or “worst” decade. One popular blogger, not putting too fine a point on it, entitled his year-end retrospective, “God D--- the Naughts.”
Christmas Day in the Morning
Dec 15, 2009 / 00:00 amIf you have kids to shop for this season, chances are you’ve been tempted by all the eye candy in the book stores. You know: the story of Christ’s birth, now with new and hard-to-resist illustrations (children’s books are the last acceptable venue for beautiful and representational art it seems); re-tellings of favorite Christmas tales and legends; the annual efforts, many not very successful, to enter a new story into the canon.
Joyful, Joyful: An Advent Dare
Dec 1, 2009 / 00:00 amI dare you to celebrate Christmas this year. I'm not referring to marching on city hall to ensure the town Nativity Scene stays up, in spite of the best efforts of your local grinches. I don’t mean indulging your inner contrarian by responding to the clerks’ “Happy Holidays,” with a decidedly old-school “Merry Christmas!” I’m not even speaking of praying your way through Advent. Nor am I speaking of simplifying your celebration by focusing on worship and family togetherness instead of piles of presents.By all means do those things! Wear your “Jesus is the reason for the season” buttons, use Madonna & Child stamps on your Christmas cards, light your Advent wreaths, decorate those Jesse Trees, bring on the “kneeling Santas,” give to Toys for Tots and other drives for the needy, never pass one of those red kettles by, go to Mass a few extra times during the week, pray the St. Andrew Advent novena. Those are noble and worthy things to do. But if you really want to be radical… enjoy Advent & Christmas.Have you noticed how few people seem able to?It’s the third day of Advent. How many Christian Scrooges have you already heard complain that there is too much to do? How many times have you heard them say that they are stressed out and overwhelmed by all the preparations? (How many times have you said that yourself already? Be honest.)How many columns have you read so far trotting out the annual denunciation of Christmas excess and commercialization? Yes, of course, let go of rituals that have run their course for your family. There’s no reason to run ourselves ragged just for show, or to break budgets on useless gew-gaws for people with no real connection to us. That’s not letting go of Christmas, but of our own vanity. By all means, good riddance!Certainly commercialization, materialism, consumerism and excess are blots on our holy celebration and must be resisted. But doesn’t it strike you as a bit sour for Christians –who presumably know better than others what there is to celebrate this time of year – to respond to every external expression of the inner joy of this season with whining about how hard all that decorating and wrapping and cooking are? Is the cure for consumerism really surly criticism of everyone elses' way of doing things? Is the witness we wish to give an increasingly secular age that deep down Christmas is a pain in the neck (or even lower) that no one ever gets right? How about spreading a little cheer this year for a change?Surely there is some part of the Advent preparation season we do enjoy. Why not talk about that and why it gives us pleasure instead of ticking off the onerous list of chores we have to accomplish by Christmas Eve? Perhaps the key to living a successful Advent isn’t dropping all the bothersome chores we don’t have time for, like writing out personal greetings on cards, decorating, homemade baking, choosing and wrapping gifts. Perhaps it is calling to mind and heart the reason we do those things. And perhaps the key to living a successful Advent is done by doing those we choose to do with love and a sense of humor. Our continuing economic downturn has afforded us all a window into how unstable financial security is. The only trustworthy hope is found in Christ…and He has come. Indeed, through the liturgy, which makes the events of salvation history present to us anew, He is coming again –and to us! Soon the graces that flooded the shepherds of Bethlehem will be ours. Is that not Good News, wonderful news, glorious news, enough to lighten any burden and cheer any heart?Perhaps the consumerists among us would be more apt to mend their ways if believers gave them the witness of a joy that transcended the material instead of an annual chiding?So here’s an Advent challenge: this season, don’t utter one complaining word about Christmas. Instead, to the world that “needs a little Christmas, right this very minute,” let’s show ‘em how it’s done.
Celebrating Christ the King
Nov 17, 2009 / 00:00 amThere’s a homily I don’t want to hear this Sunday. It will be the Solemnity of Christ the King, and while I mean no offense to the many faithful, generous men who serve me and my family as pastors (some of whom are marvelous preachers), I don’t think I can bear another sermon on the close of the liturgical year and the coming of Christ both at Christmas and again in glory at the end of days.
What is meant by Christian unity?
Nov 3, 2009 / 00:00 amRecently, when the Vatican announced a means by which members of the worldwide Anglican communion could be received into communion once again with the Catholic church and still retain some of their traditional prayers and practices, a surprising number of Christians, including Catholics, met this hopeful news with skepticism or even bitterness. “Rome goes fishing in Anglican pond” read one secular headline, implying there was something untoward about extending a hand of friendship to fellow Christians separated centuries ago when Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church in England. Certain usual suspects were quoted in the media opining that the Pope was just trying to stuff the Church full of members who would not agitate for womens' ordination and the recognition of contraception and same-sex marriage as moral goods.I understand why the secular media make everything seem like a power struggle, but reading such responses, I wonder what we Christians mean when we speak of ecumenism? Do we mean merely that all those who profess themselves Christians “get along?”Or do we mean what Christ meant in his “high priestly prayer” before his arrest? In John 17, which are to me the most precious words of scripture because they are the only time Christ prays explicitly for you and me, Jesus prays to his Father in heaven: “I pray not only for them [the apostles], but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”What does he ask for? He doesn't ask for the queen of virtues: Charity. Neither does he ask for a civilization of justice and love. Nor does he intercede for any other grace that he undoubtedly wants for us. He prayed that Christians would be one.He prayed that for a particular reason, which he reveals in his prayer: “that they may all be one, Father... that the world may believe that you sent me.”In other words, Christian unity is meant to be the sign par excellence by which unbelievers recognize Jesus as Savior. Is it any accident that the world has increasingly lost its faith as Christians have become more and more content over the centuries to split into a greater number of factions and churches?Restoring Christian unity is a painstaking and delicate task. Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and other Christians have dogmatic disagreements we can’t simply gloss over. We can neither crush consciences nor pretend these differences don’t matter. Faux unity won’t change anything. Pope Benedict XVI teaches that, ultimately, unity isn’t something we build at all, but a grace God gives us when we’re ready. The task of preparing for unity is a matter of each professing Christian becoming a true man or woman of prayer, as true a disciple of Christ Jesus as possible. As we each grow closer to Christ, he himself will draw us into union with him, doctrinal differences will give way to Truth, and ancient wounds between the Christian churches will be healed. Is that not what we see happening in part before our eyes when thousands of Anglicans now contemplate re-joining their ancient Mother? Is that not beautiful and hopeful?The head of the Traditional Anglican Union certainly received the Vatican gesture for what it was, declaring, “We are profoundly moved by the generosity of the Holy Father,” and calling it an act of “great goodness.”I doubt it is an accident that this news was announced so close to the month of November, the month that opens with the back-to-back feasts which express our union with all Christians who have gone before us across the barriers of time and space. The Saints preceded us into heaven and intercede for us there. The holy souls need our fraternal prayer and sacrifice before they can join the saints in glory, which is why we dedicate an entire month to praying for them.As we live these profound expressions of the communion of saints, it is also a good time to recall the importance of restoring communion among the various churches. At God’s pace, but with our prayer and willing effort, we can obey Christ’s call to Christians to be One so that others too will know Him and join us at the ultimate feast of All Saints in eternity.
We Don’t Have To Be Sweet To Be Saints
Oct 20, 2009 / 00:00 amWhile she lived, I never liked Mother Teresa. Twice I had opportunity to meet her and passed it by.