Articles by Bishop James D. Conley
In need of your prayers
Jan 16, 2014 / 00:00 amDemocracy depends on sound moral judgment. Of course, that’s true for any political system: good laws are made by good people, by men and women with a well-formed moral sensibility: a sense of justice, and of obligation to fellow citizens.The idea of democracy is that laws can be made by all of us, that the collective judgment of citizens is sufficient for a nation to rule itself rightly. The Founding Fathers of our country believed in that idea: they were dedicated to the notion that people could be smart enough, and virtuous enough, to govern themselves.But the Founding Fathers understood that self-governance could only work when each citizen took seriously the obligation to form his conscience, to hold fast to the unchanging moral truths of natural law.“Our Constitution was made only for a moral… people,” wrote John Adams, our second President, “it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”In short, the Founding Fathers knew that the American experiment depended on the reasonable, prudent conscience of the people.I believe our nation is a great nation. We have been the agents of great good across the globe. But we also permit great travesties: the violation of religious liberty, the sexual degradation of women and children, the dismantling of the family. Our national conscience is eroding, and when that happens, our democracy is can be used as a tool for injustice, for oppression, and for greed.The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “when he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.” Today, it seems that our nation hears God speaking ever less clearly.The greatest travesty permitted in our country is the surgical and chemical abortion of more than 1 million children every year. Together we mourn those children. But Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that children are not the only victims of abortion. “There are two victims in every abortion,” Mother Teresa wrote, “a dead baby and a dead conscience.”If the American conscience is deadening, we can look to the millions of children killed by abortion for the reason. If we treat each other with more injustice, more violence, and more vulgarity than ever before, we can know that our tolerance for abortion is at the root. “We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred,” Mother Teresa said. “If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other?”Abortion has begun to erode our national conscience, and with it, our democracy itself. But it is not too late for us to stem the tide.When we pray for an end to abortion, or offer penances, or March for Life, we awaken the dormant voice of conscience in our culture. When we witness to human dignity, and offer ourselves to the cause, we call forth the divine guidance offered to each one of us. When we work to build a culture of life, we also build a national culture of sanctity: strong, free, and just.If we want greatness for our nation, we will work together to end the unspeakable shame of abortion. We will speak from our hearts for those who cannot speak at all.This month, more than 200 students, a record number from the Diocese of Lincoln, will travel to the March for Life to pray for end to abortion.On Jan. 18, a novena for life will begin in our diocese (click here for more info).On Jan. 25, I’ll walk in the Nebraska Walk for Life, at 10 a.m., at the State Capitol (click here for more info).On Monday, Jan. 20, at 8 p.m., I’ll join UNL and Pius X students in a candlelight vigil at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility. And every Tuesday, at 8:15 a.m., I pray the rosary at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility.Please join me at these events, or in prayer. Please pray with me for an end to abortion, for justice, and for a revitalization of our national conscience. The unborn depend on your prayers. And so does our nation.Posted with permission from Southern Nebraska Register, official publication of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb.
The conclusion of the Year of Faith
Nov 22, 2013 / 00:00 amOn Sunday, November 24th, Pope Francis will conclude what Pope Benedict XVI began. With a Mass celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis will call to a close the Church’s Year of Faith.The Holy Father will end the Year of Faith with an invitation, and with a reminder. He will invite all Catholics to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and he will remind them that Christ’s disciples must always be evangelists.Last week, Pope Francis sent a message to dozens of North and South American bishops, meeting in Mexico City to discuss the new evangelization. "You have been converted into disciples of the Lord," he told them. "And every disciple is at the same time a missionary."We’re made for Christ, who is the answer to every human question. And we’re graced, daily, with opportunities to become his disciples. We become disciples in baptism, and confirmation, and in the Eucharist. We become disciples through ordination, or marriage, or religious consecration. We become disciples when we teach our children the faith, when we study Scripture together, when we pray together, when we worship together, when we love one another and when we forgive one another.Disciples know and love Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ is knowing the meaning of our own existence—knowing that we’re made for life-giving love. We’re made to go beyond ourselves. We’re Christians, and therefore missionaries. Our mission is simple: we’re to bring Jesus Christ to those who suffer without his love, his mercy, and without his peace.As the Year of Faith ends, all of us must ask whether we really are missionaries—whether we preach Christ, crucified and resurrected, to the world. Last week, Pope Francis said that to serve Christ "we must dare to leave our own communities and travel to the existential peripheries that need to feel God’s closeness."It is easy to spend time among those who wish to be disciples of Christ. To become complacent in patterns of Catholic culture and life which can be comforting, but exclusionary. It’s easier, for all of us, to spend our time with those who think as we do, and act as we do.It is much more difficult to leave the comfortable, the familiar, and the ordinary to pursue the periphery. We’re scared, sometimes. And Satan convinces us that we can preach the Gospel without ever mentioning Jesus Christ. We hope that our piety, or our smile, or our kind word, will point to Jesus Christ by itself.Christians should always be kind. But the truth is that we cannot preach the Gospel without proclaiming Jesus Christ by name.Only our decisions—to enter relationships with those who need Christ, and to point them to him—will call others to conversion.Pope Francis told us last week that, "the treasure of faith is not for personal use. It is to be given, to be spread, and thus it will grow. Make known the name of Jesus."To be disciples is to make known the name of Jesus. Let all of us make him known throughout the world.
Peace among Dragons
Sep 9, 2013 / 00:00 amThere is a legend, ancient and beautiful, about a Syrian monk living in the desert in the fifth century. The monk’s name was Simeon Stylites. He was the son of shepherds. He encountered Christianity at the age of 13, and when he was 18, Simeon left his family to join a company of desert monks. The early monks of the desert, living in Syria, and Egypt, and Arabia, are known in Christian history as the Desert Fathers. They were converts, often, who encountered Christianity and fled from society to pray in solitude. They were ascetics and mystics, scholars and poets. They were, many of them, saints.The prayers and monastic life of Syrians were the incubators of Christian spirituality. Simeon Stylites lived for a time among them. He lived simply, spending his time reading Scripture, praying, and fasting. He became known for wisdom, and prudence, and extraordinary judgment. People from across the Middle East came to seek his wisdom.But Simeon wanted only to pray. So he moved from the monastery to the top of a tall pillar, hewn from a cliff, on which he lived in solitude for thirty years. He saw visitors each day, and offered them spiritual counsel.The legend says that one day a fierce dragon approached Simeon, ready to attack. But Simeon noticed that the dragon was blind. That his rage was borne in the confusion of his blindness—the dragon struck at what he neither knew nor understood. Simeon could not defend himself from a rage like that. Defense would only provoke. And so he spoke to the dragon. He spoke truth, boldly, and with compassion. He promised that the dragon could find peace.Simeon’s words calmed the dragon. And, through his prayer, the dragon was cured of blindness.More than a fifteen hundred years after Simeon’s death, Syria seems to be fighting blind dragons again. The country is mired in chaos—besieged by outbursts of thuggish assaults and corruption beyond the rules of war. Syria is besotted with violence. And like Simeon’s blind dragon, the rage seems borne in blindness—the combatants lash out without reason or explanation, angry at factors far beyond their control.Christians and other religious minorities are bearing the brunt of Syria’s violence. Opposition groups are rounding up Christians, kidnapping them, and slaughtering them. When the government retaliates, Christian neighborhoods are often destroyed. The attacks on Christians are unprovoked—but the rage of Syria’s dragons, in the government and among the opposition, seems to know no bounds.I am not a politician, or a military strategist. I am only a pastor. But I know that we cannot solve the violence of Syria with more violence. The country’s problems are real, and interminable. Real people are suffering. Over 100,000 have been killed in recent months. And a solution must be found.But to choose sides in a conflict where no side can be trusted is unreasonable. Neither dictators nor thugs masquerading as democratic reformers should be our partners. Adding to the violence in Syria escalates a war with very little hope of resolution, with no clear goals and no definition of victory. Battling with blind dragons rarely leads to peace. Instead, we must find a way to offer words of peace to the warring factions of Syria. We must speak the truth boldly, and with conviction. We must work for real solutions. We must insist on an end to the systematic persecution of Christians, and to violent attacks on women, children, and minorities.Today, Catholics around the world are joining Pope Francis in prayer and fasting for Syria. Our prayer effects real change. May our prayer, and yours, calm the blind, raging, intemperate dragons of Syria. May our prayer bring real and lasting peace.
Let them be born in wonder
Aug 22, 2013 / 00:00 am"Wonder is the beginning of knowledge," said Professor John Senior, "the reverent fear that beauty strikes within us."Professor Senior built his life around wonder – he reveled in the mysteries of this universe, and in the Mystery – that of God himself – to which our world points. Professor Senior believed that if each of us took the opportunity to really look at the world around us – to marvel at nature, at humanity, at our own creation, and at God, we would be filled with curiosity, with delight, and with an eagerness to learn, to understand, and to know the world that the Lord has created. "Each creature is a mirror of its Maker," he said, "we need only look!"Professor Senior was one of my teachers at the University of Kansas. He co-directed the Integrated Humanities Program (IHP), in which I was a student in the 1970s. And because Professor Senior, and his colleagues, believed that all mysteries would point to the mystery of God, their classes eventually pointed me to the Catholic faith.Through the "witness" of my professors at a secular university, I came to know truth, to know Jesus Christ, and to know the beauty and goodness of the Catholic Church.The schools of the Diocese of Lincoln will begin this week and next. And my prayer is that through them, our students will come to know and to love and to serve Jesus Christ. That prayer depends on grace – but it also depends on each of us.Jean Jacques Rousseau, the enlightenment philosopher whose views shape our contemporary view of education, reflected accurately that formation must respect the whole person if it is to be effective. In "Emile," his work on education, he noted that by schooling "we have made an active and thinking being." However, he said, "It remains for us, in order to complete the man, only to make a loving and feeling being – that is to say, to perfect reason by sentiment."Rousseau was correct – education must include formation in love, in intuition, and in empathy. But Christians know that reason cannot really be perfected by sentiment. Reason must be perfected by grace. This was the great failure of Rousseau’s understanding of education.Education is derived from the Latin words ex ducere, which means: "to draw from" or "to lead out." This is precisely what education is – drawing from students their potential, their innate sense of the world’s order, and, ultimately drawing forth from students their destiny – which is eternity in heaven with God.Every student is made for holiness, made to become a saint. Our schools must lead and draw out from students a sense of their own call to holiness, and a sense of the grace that renews their minds. Our schools must draw from baptized students the potential of their baptism: the potential to love as God himself loves. Our educational mission goes far beyond conveying factual knowledge of history, science, literature, or even of the faith. Our schools are not information delivery systems. Our educational mission begins and ends with our potential for holiness.For teachers, principals, pastors, and administrators, this means that our schools must be focused always on salvation. They must work to instill wonder. It isn’t enough for our schools to teach facts about Catholicism – instead our schools must be authentically Catholic places.I’m proud that in the schools of the Diocese of Lincoln, all subjects are taught from the perspective of faith. Science, history, literature, music and mathematics can all point to God. They can all be cornerstones of Catholic intellectual life and Catholic culture.I’m proud too, of our parents. Parents are the primary educators of children, the first teachers of their children. They entrust some components of education to our schools, with whom they are partners. But if schools are authentically Catholic places, it is because the homes of our students are places of prayer, of open conversation, and of lives lived in discipleship to Jesus Christ.Schools have the ability to transform lives, and cultures. My life was transformed through my studies at the University of Kansas. When Socrates set up a school in a Greek marketplace, he transformed Western culture forever. Our schools, too, can transform lives, and culture. I pray that all of us – parents, teachers, and students – will work together so that salvation in Jesus Christ is the lasting lesson we teach.Reprinted with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Lincoln.
Freedom, fasting, and the courage to be ‘set apart’
Jun 27, 2013 / 00:00 amHoliness means being "set apart." The Church’s holiness comes not from us, but from God, who has set us apart through faith and baptism. God says to us, what he said to the ancient Israelites: "You shall be holy, for I am holy."When God’s people start living like everyone else, there is trouble in store. The loss of holiness, and the embrace of a worldly lifestyle, can cause us to lose our freedom and come under oppression.We see this pattern in the Old Testament: God lets affliction come upon Israel, when they choose to live like the other nations. These same pagan peoples become God’s instruments of chastisement, taking away the freedom his chosen people have abused.The Lord takes no pleasure in the oppression of his people. But he permits it, to call us back to faithfulness. Moses makes this clear in the book of Deuteronomy: "Because you did not serve the Lord your God … therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you."God’s character has not changed, and neither have our temptations. It is easy for us to forget that we have been set apart for God’s sacred purpose.But the warnings of Moses and the other prophets are not obsolete. If the Church does not serve God, she risks becoming captive to hostile powers.We know what it looks like when the Church forgets her holiness: Daily discipleship gives way to rote weekly churchgoing. Tough demands of the Gospel are ignored. Prayer, fasting, and penance are bypassed. Christ’s holy Church becomes indistinguishable from the world.This, I suspect, is the deeper cause of the many present threats to religious freedom in America. When Catholics spend six days of each week living like everyone else, we find that our right to practice our faith in everyday life starts to come under threat and even disappear. The prophets tell us that this is no coincidence.Last summer, the Church in America held its first "Fortnight for Freedom" – a two-week period of prayer, fasting, and public action, in response to grave threats facing the Church and the nation.Those dangers are still with us, and so we are renewing our efforts with a second Fortnight from June 21 to July 4, 2013.The worst of these ongoing threats to religious freedom is the Obama administration’s contraception mandate. As of Aug. 1, business owners and many religious ministries will face massive fines if they refuse to provide services that violate our faith and the natural moral law. Every citizen’s rights are in jeopardy if this mandate stands.We are also alarmed by the push to redefine marriage, a move that will inevitably conflict with religious believers’ rights. Some Catholic adoption and foster care agencies have already been forced to close, rather than compromise the truth about marriage and the family.Similarly, my brother bishops and I are concerned about anti-immigration measures that could restrict the Church’s ministry, by penalizing those who provide charitable help to illegal immigrants.God does not want these afflictions to come upon the Church. But he may choose to allow them, if we choose worldliness over holiness and fidelity.Prayer, fasting, and penance are the first things to disappear, when God’s Church decides to live just like the rest of the world. We must restore these practices, if we are serious about defending religious freedom.Fasting is a powerful means by which God sanctifies his people and delivers them from oppression. Everyone who is able should practice it to some extent especially during the Fortnight for Freedom – particularly on Fridays, the Church’s traditional day of penance.Fasting means taking only one meal over the course of the day, together with two smaller "collations" which add up to less than a full meal. This is often combined with abstinence from meat, and a preference for simple fare over elaborate or costly items.On the two Fridays of the Fortnight for Freedom, June 21 and 28, Catholics nationwide are urged to fast and abstain from meat. I will be fasting and eating a meatless diet on those days, and I hope all Catholics and people of good will in southern Nebraska will join me.This is a modest sacrifice, but a very meaningful one, especially when undertaken in a spirit of prayerful humility. Through fasting, God’s Church shows her willingness to be what God calls her to be: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people." (1 Peter 2:9)To further punctuate the seriousness of the threats to our religious freedom, I will be issuing a letter about this threat to be read at all Masses during the Fortnight. And I will urge my brother priests to preach on the threat as well.This second Fortnight comes at a decisive time, for the Church and the country. As we offer our public witness to our neighbors, we will present our prayer and fasting to God. By our sacrifice, we affirm before him that we will use our freedom rightly – to walk in the Lord’s ways, and do his holy will.Reprinted with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Lincoln.
Abortion and contraception consequences on display in Gosnell’s “house of horrors”
May 1, 2013 / 00:00 amOur news outlets are not known for their squeamish attitude toward violence. On the contrary, reporters are often criticized for fixating on violence, exploiting it as fodder for the 24-hour news cycle. We rarely see journalists shying away from a gruesome case. Yet, the media has been reluctant to cover the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell – a Philadelphia abortionist accused of committing unspeakable crimes at his “Women’s Medical Center.” Already indicted by a grand jury, Gosnell is on trial for running a “house of horrors,” where hundreds of infants were born alive and beheaded with scissors. The testimony against him includes some of the most shocking statements ever made in an American courtroom. His former aides speak of infants whose hands and feet were kept in jars, and their bodies flushed down toilets, after they were delivered alive and decapitated.Somehow, this story went largely unnoticed by mainstream reporters. One would expect a murderous doctor, running a “clinic” reminiscent of Auschwitz, to face a media blitz and a burst of public outrage. Instead, Gosnell’s trial has been treated as a low-key, local story. Pro-life advocates took up the task of publicizing it, using social media to make up for news outlets’ silence.I suspect journalists would rather ignore what happened at Gosnell’s “Medical Center.” The case raises too many disturbing questions – about the mentality behind abortion, and our culture’s troubling attitude toward human life. For instance, most “pro-choice” partisans dismiss the idea that abortion leads to infanticide. They distance themselves from thinkers like Princeton’s professor Peter Singer – who defends the killing of newborns, and the “right” to abortion, on the same philosophical basis.But Gosnell’s trial shows the difficulty of separating abortion from infanticide, in theory and in practice. Indeed, there is a hideous logical consistency in Gosnell’s career. He started off killing children in the womb, and ended up killing them after birth. At some point, the distinction between abortion and infanticide must have struck him as a mere technicality, just a matter of geography.Most abortion advocates are, thankfully, not so logical. Most of them find Gosnell’s actions appalling. Yet they have no valid or compelling grounds on which to condemn his particular methods of abortion as wrong.Indeed, on the level of moral principles, infanticide and abortion are equivalent. Kermit Gosnell took the abortion mentality to its logical conclusion.This is a hard fact, with disturbing implications. It is an inconvenient fact for journalists, and many members of their audience, to face. This partly explains their reluctance to cover Gosnell’s trial, since it directly raises the question of abortion and its relationship to infanticide. But the link between infanticide and abortion is not the only issue raised by this case. There is also the larger question of how human life is regarded, in a culture where contraception is widespread and abortion becomes “backup birth control.” After all, most women who seek an abortion are on some form of birth control. Kermit Gosnell’s actions are the logical outcome of the abortion mentality. But they are also, in a deeper sense, the result of what Blessed John Paul II called the “contraceptive mentality.” Many people wrongly believe contraception prevents abortion. This is not borne out by statistics, or by careful thinking about the issues. Research shows that contraception leads to riskier behavior, more unplanned pregnancies, and consequently, more abortion. When contraception fails – as it inevitably does – couples are tempted to eliminate the “unwanted” life.Kermit Gosnell looked at these “unwanted” lives, and saw burdens placed upon women. He was more ruthless than most, in his efforts to eliminate these living “burdens.” Most people do not share Gosnell’s ruthlessness. But many in our society seem to share his attitude: that human life is sometimes an inconvenient and unnecessary burden, rather than a sacred gift from God. This is the “contraceptive mentality” that Blessed John Paul II saw as a root cause of abortion. When we see any human life as a troublesome burden we must manage, rather than a sacred gift entrusted to our care, there is a temptation to get rid of the burden by any means necessary.The Gosnell case suggests that our society’s view of human life is deeply wrong. It suggests that a culture of contraception cannot avoid becoming a “culture of death” – in which some lives are seen not as gifts, but as burdens.Our media outlets thrive on provocation and controversy, but they shrink from life’s deeper questions. They shy away from suggesting that abortion might lead to infanticide. They don’t dare to ask whether the “contraceptive mentality” makes us callous toward life.The popular media will not take the risk of raising these more fundamental questions by publicizing Gosnell’s trial. That is why we must raise awareness of this case, to help the world see the consequences of contraception and abortion.Reprinted with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Lincoln.
From the manger, God shows us that 'small is beautiful'
Jan 3, 2013 / 00:00 am"Even if God exists," the world wonders, "how can he be close to us? Can our lives be significant to God? Does he really love us?"According to polls most Americans believe, for the most part, in God. But for many, God is a distant and impersonal force – a concept more than a person. For many, the idea of a personal God is foreign and in some ways uncomfortable. Modern man, having lived in a culture devoid of love, is skeptical of a God who loves him.Tragedies, like the unspeakable violence in Connecticut last week, serve as evidence to many that God is not real or that he does not love us. The brutal murder of children speaks to a kind of evil few of us can imagine. Many people, understandably, doubt that a God of total love could tolerate the existence of such evil.Despite skepticism, most of us still celebrate Christmas exchanging gifts and spending time with loved ones. But the Gospel proclamation that God is with us – that he has come into our midst as a child – is not always at the center of our Christmas celebration. It is easier to believe in family, or good will, or peace; than it is to believe in a God who loves us enough to become like us.Christmas declares that our world is not insignificant. Christmas declares that we are worth being loved. Christmas affirms that God walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ; that he loves us enough to become like us, to suffer, and to die. Christmas affirms that God has a plan and that even the humblest and lowliest of things have great meaning in the eyes of the Lord. The modern scientific skeptics are wrong to suppose that God must be more distant than the depths of time and space.God’s love is beyond measure. It is beyond the confines of time and space. And in the eyes of God, small things, simple things, are beautiful. That is why the maker of the farthest galaxies reaches out to us with the hand of a newborn child.Rather than degrading God, the incarnation raised this world to an exalted height. Despite the existence of unimaginable and unspeakable evil in this world, God is love. In fact, it is because of evil, because of the horrible consequences of our sin, that God came into this world, as a small child, as one like us, to redeem the evil of this world into the goodness of himself.Through the incarnation, Christ shows us the true value and dignity of everyday life. Christ shows the possibility of overcoming the sin that leads to tragedies like the murders in Connecticut.Unable to find lodging and laid in a feeding-trough, the Lord reveals the hidden glory of our quite often mundane lives. God’s transcendent goodness and beauty are not far-off abstractions. The one who has faith, and an open heart, can find them everywhere.Christmas challenges those who believe that God is far from us. But it also challenges believers, whose lives may not reflect the closeness of God and the greatness of small things. We must learn to see things as God does. To him, nothing is insignificant and no one is forgotten.Like the shepherds on Christmas night, we are called to find the miraculous amid the ordinary. The greatest mystery, God’s love for us, always lies hidden in plain sight.Nothing is ordinary when seen in light of the Incarnation. When a stable becomes God’s throne, and shepherds are summoned there by angels, nothing is normal anymore. Everything, in a secret and hidden way, is touched by God’s glory.The Lord who lay in a manger now awaits us in other "ordinary" places: in our daily work, in our neighbors, in the poor. Grace is there – and everywhere else. As the Anglican poet W.H. Auden wrote, in his Christmas poem "For the Time Being:" The Exceptional is always usual / And the Usual exceptional.In our doubting age, many people will continue to see God as distant or absent. Some will argue for our ultimate insignificance, based on the smallness of our planet and the shortness of our earthly lives.But Christmas shows us the truth. We are small, but greatly loved by God. Our world is flawed, but not beyond redemption. And Christ has lowered himself to our level in order to raise us up to his, for all eternity.For this, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came into the world. As we come with awe before this mystery on Christmas, let us resolve to find the beauty in all that is small and humble – as God once chose to be, for our sake.Reprinted with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, official newspaper for the diocese of Lincoln.
Now is the time to act on the HHS mandate
Aug 16, 2012 / 00:00 amIn 1620, as many of us know, the Mayflower pilgrims came to the Americas to practice their religion freely and to seek a brighter future.Shortly thereafter, beginning in the 1630s, recently arrived British and Irish Catholics flocked to the colony of Maryland for much the same reason, to practice their religion freely.By the 1670s, European Jews were moving to Charleston, S.C., where the state constitution guaranteed religious liberty for “Jews, heathens, and dissenters.”In recent years, nearly 40,000 people have annually applied for asylum in the United States, many seeking protection from religious persecution.The United States has a long and proud history as a safe haven for religious liberty. I pray that this country will continue that noble history. But earlier this month, religious liberty in the United States suffered a serious blow.On Aug. 1, the so-called HHS contraceptive mandate took affect for most employers in the United States. Although the mandate does not yet affect Catholic churches or institutions due to a one-year grace period, Catholic business owners are now required to provide contraception, sterilization, and quite possibly abortion coverage in their employee insurance plans. Neither religious obligation nor the dictates of conscience are legally respected by this policy.In anticipation of the mandate, many Catholic business owners have asked me how they should respond to the new law. Some have expressed concern about the penalties imposed upon their business and employees for violating the law, which could easily amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.Individual Catholics, too, have asked whether they can morally participate in insurance programs that now offer contraception and sterilization.This week, the ethicists of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, led by Dr. John Haas, have outlined four possible responses to the HHS mandate:The first is to comply and assent willingly to the law. Dr. Haas rightly explains that Catholics have an obligation to oppose unjust laws. Merely assenting to a law that mitigates religious freedom and supports the evil of contraception runs counter to Catholic moral teaching. This response is morally unacceptable and constitutes “formal cooperation” in sin.The second and third options are to either provide morally acceptable insurance coverage or to drop all insurance coverage for their employees. Both of these options would leave employers subject to considerable fines by the government, fines that could easily run close to 1 million dollars annually, depending on the number of employees in the business. Additionally, in justice, providing no coverage would require an increase in salary to employees to compensate for the added costs. Although these options are morally licit, they would be impractical. The potential financial harm would put many livelihoods in total jeopardy.The fourth option, Haas suggests, is for employers to comply temporarily, and under protest, while using every legal means of recourse against these unjust laws. This option, “compliance under duress,” would not constitute immoral compliance with law—but real opposition to the HHS mandate must be registered. In 2014, when health care law changes again to provide health care exchanges, employers would need to drop morally objectionable coverage.Unless Catholics continue to fight in the courtroom, in the voting booth, and on our knees in prayer, religious liberty in the United States will quickly erode and fade into the annals of our history. Now is the time to protect the legacy that began the American experiment. Now is the time to bring religious freedom to the forefront of the American legal system once more.To read Dr. Haas’ entire ethical reflection on the responses to the HHS mandate go to: http://www.ncbcenter.org/document.doc?id=450&erid=0. Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.
Free to love — chastely
Jun 7, 2012 / 00:00 amIn March, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of U.S. bishops that our culture needs to discover “an integrated, consistent and uplifting vision of human sexuality.” Without it, he said, American culture will face “grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.”In response to the Holy Father’s message, I spent a very enjoyable evening last week talking about human sexuality...in a bar.Not every bishop can say that.The setting was Theology on Tap, a monthly gathering for young adult Catholics held at Katie Mullen’s, a fantastic Irish pub on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.The speaker was Eve Tushnet, a 33-year-old from Washington, D.C., who openly talks about her homosexual attraction.Eve is also a Catholic and is committed to living her life according to the teachings of the Church—which means she chooses to live chastely. She was invited to Denver to share what it is like to live in a way few attempt and even fewer discuss.There are, of course, many people — Catholic and non-Catholic — who are attracted to members of the same sex; the numbers are not negligible. Like Eve, there are many other Catholics with same-sex attraction who are earnestly committed to living in conformity with the Gospel — which can mean a life of unique difficulty.Few Catholics are able to speak about an issue so personal as reconciling sexual identity with faith. But Eve did so artfully — she spoke clearly, honestly and with the kind of vulnerability that should be commonplace in a Christian community. She offered a genuine insight into the challenges that chaste, faithful, same-sex attracted Catholics face — and those challenges are not insignificant. Eve spoke about sublimating her sexual desires for women into expressions of love that are in harmony with Church teaching. She has tried to understand the Church’s teaching on same-sex attraction — that engaging in homosexual acts is outside of God’s plan for sexuality. Eve was clear that same-sex-attracted Catholics face challenges that single laypeople or clerics do not face in living chastely. All of us should be sensitive to that.But Eve also offered insights into the virtue of chastity that are profoundly meaningful for all Catholics. She offered three key practices essential to living a life of chastity: developing authentic friendships, a dedication to hospitality and service, and a real commitment to an active prayer life.Authentic friendships are key to the Christian life and are particularly key to cultivating the virtue of chastity. Friendships give us support in living a life of fidelity to Jesus Christ. But friendships also allow us to love — to speak from our heart to another. We are created for love — and friendships are a school and forum for love. Real love, expressed between friends, is an opportunity to pour out the love God has given us — but in a context that helps us to grow in virtue and holiness.Hospitality and service are similar. Chastity, in marriage or in the single life, means that our sexuality is ordered and we are not enslaved by our passions. When our lives are ordered we are freer for others—we are free to practice the hospitality of Jesus Christ’s disciples. So committing to hospitality and service to others sets us free to truly love in a chaste and self-giving way.Finally, Eve stressed the need for a life of prayer. Prayer is a place where we can pour out our love for God and be loved deeply by him. Prayer is the means by which we can know our God, and ourselves, and ask him for grace. Chastity requires that we be set free by Jesus Christ — which happens in prayer. Knowing God and submitting ourselves to him is always the key to freedom.The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that chastity allows us to make a “gift of the person.” It continues: “Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God’s fidelity and loving kindness.” This was at the heart of Eve’s talk — and is the witness of her life.“The Christian understanding of sexuality” reflected Pope Benedict XVI, “is a source of genuine freedom, happiness and the fulfillment of our fundamental and innate human vocation to love.”The Lord has done great things in Eve Tushnet’s life — he has allowed her to become a witness to our universal vocation of love. He is waiting to do great things in each of our lives as well. He is waiting to set us free to love. Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.
Let us conquer injustice by our fasting, penance and sacrifice
Mar 29, 2012 / 00:00 amLent is the period of time when we remember in a particular way the suffering of Jesus Christ—his passion and his death. We look forward to his Resurrection, but in Lent we work hard to identify with the suffering that Jesus Christ endured for our sins. We do penance, fast and give alms to become more like the God who was led to a cross out of love for us.Jesus Christ died to conquer death—and in Lent we remember that we are called to share in his passion, death and resurrection.This year, the Church has needed no reminder that Lent is a time to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ. On Jan. 20, a month before Lent began, President Barack Obama announced to the United States that Catholic institutions would be required to fully fund their employees’ use of contraception. Though unconstitutional, this plan has not been modified. Despite claims to the contrary, the Department of Health and Human Services has been unrelenting in wholesale persecution of Catholic institutions in the United States.This Lent, the Church is keenly aware of what it is to suffer.Over the past few months, Catholics have been mocked, marginalized and calumniated. Catholics, who revere the Blessed Mother above all saints, and who revere motherhood above all vocations, have been accused of hating women. Catholics, who believe firmly in the importance of religious tolerance, have been condemned as bigots and hatemongers. Catholics, who believe in the incredible beauty of human sexuality, have been miscast as hopelessly ignorant and out of touch.This Lent, we can understand the passion of Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ was born in a manger, in humility. He was mocked and misunderstood throughout his ministry. And, willingly, “he was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, like one from whom you turn your face.” Jesus Christ was outcast and rejected, and ultimately, “like a lamb, (he was) led to slaughter.”This is the reason we should rejoice at the persecution Catholics now face in the United States—because in persecution we become more like Jesus Christ. In persecution we become holy. In suffering persecution and offering our suffering to Jesus Christ, we have the chance for victory.We should oppose threats to our religious liberty by every just means—by supporting legislation that protects our religious freedom and by making our voice heard. We should continue to advocate for the liberty of Americans, of humankind, to live in accord with our religious beliefs.But if we want to be like Jesus Christ, we should realize that the power of sound argument pales in comparison to the power of our spiritual sacrifices—of our prayers and of our fasting. The persecution of Catholics in America is the result of sin—and offering penance, in union with Christ’s death on the cross, liberates us from that sin. We should pray, fast and sacrifice because these actions inspire the conversion of our own hearts and the conversion of others—and conversion, not force, argument or coercion, will end the injustices Catholics are facing.Many bishops in the United States are asking Catholics to fast for an end to religious persecution, on Friday, March 30. I will be fasting that day. I invite you to join me. Offer your suffering for the restoration of religious liberty in America. Offer your fast for a conversion of mind in the United States of America.Jesus Christ conquered death in humility, suffering and obedience. May we conquer injustice by striving to do the same.Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.
Ivy-League monks
Mar 1, 2012 / 00:00 amThe University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, offers a course quite different from typical college offerings.In this course, there are no tests and no papers. But there is plenty of homework.Students have a dress code. They must wake up at 5:30 a.m. And they can’t eat late-night dorm-room pizza.The course is intended as an immersion into the monastic experience—a chance for students to gain insight into the life of a monk. The Associated Press reported on the class a couple of weeks ago. The professor claims to have experience in the Buddhist and Catholic monastic traditions. At its heart, according to the report, the course exposes students to a disciplined life—including fasting—in order to teach them to be aware of the world around them. One student in the class reported that disciplines like fasting helped her “to really listen to myself and focus on my needs and feelings.”The class seems to miss the point. A monk’s life is not about merely observing difficult rules or getting in touch with one’s needs and feelings. Instead, monastic life is intended to bring people into deep union with Jesus Christ. The same is true of our own spiritual disciplines—especially the fasting and penances we undertake during Lent.Fasting does not exist to test our willpower or strength. Fasting is not intended to help us become more self-focused. Instead, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that fasting is intended to help us experience “a conversion of the heart; an interior conversion.” When we deny ourselves, we do so to share in the self-denial of Jesus Christ—to practice loving the world as he loves it.We’re changed through fasting if we offer our suffering to Jesus Christ and ask him to transform us in his image—and our changed hearts change the hearts of others. In 2009, Pope Benedict reflected that: “fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves.”Fasting also teaches us to rely upon the grace of Jesus Christ. Most of us can skip a meal here or there with no real problem. But when we voluntarily deny ourselves something good, like food, or something we enjoy, like dessert, it’s easier to be less charitable, less kind, grumpy and less open to the people around us. When we’re fasting, we’re more aware of how little we’re in control of our own lives. If we want to fast and also be kind to our friends and family, we need to ask Jesus Christ for that grace. And the more we ask Jesus Christ for grace, the more we become aware that we always need his grace if we are to love as God loves.Too often we approach Lent like the “monastic” students at the University of Pennsylvania. We undertake the disciplines of Lent as a test—to see how strong we are. Or we look forward to the fasting of Lent because we’d like to lose some weight. We look for immediate and tangible benefits to fasting for ourselves and therefore miss the deep spiritual meaning of our self-sacrifice.The students at the University of Pennsylvania are learning discipline, perhaps, and that’s not a bad thing. Certainly, they’re learning to have order in their lives. But until they see Jesus Christ at the center of their discipline, they won’t understand the self-sacrificing spirit of a monk. Let us, therefore, be encouraged by the words of a man who did understand the soul of monastic life, the fifth-century bishop St. Peter Chrysologus: “Fasting” he wrote, “is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself.”May God bless your discipline of Lent.Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.
The new evangelization
Dec 15, 2011 / 00:00 amBlessed John Paul II was a thoughtful man. When he spoke, or wrote, he chose each word carefully. In 1999, he wrote a reflection, called “Ecclesia in America” on the Church in the Americas. He chose the first word as a message to each of us.The first point of “Ecclesia in America,” John Paul’s message to us, is simple: “Rejoice!”This word was chosen after a series of meetings and visits to America.In some ways, it encapsulates the feelings of the late Holy Father for the American Church. John Paul II saw on our continent a history of Christian identity—of a people who continue to believe in God, to worship regularly, and to care for the poor in a spirit of Christian charity.We should rejoice at the state of Christianity in America. In our land we worship freely, more than 90 percent of people share our belief in God, and the Church has an active presence in the fabric of American culture and society.We have much to rejoice about. But John Paul II reflected that we also have much work to do.American religious identity is a perplexing phenomenon. The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God. Seventy-six percent of Americans profess to be Christians. Yet far fewer worship regularly in a Church or religious community. And, when presented with the basic tenets of Christianity, only a small percentage of Americans profess to believe them.Around the year 1800, the German philosopher Georg Hegel said that “Christians waste on heaven the energies destined for earth.” By this, he meant that Christianity should only focus on the temporal needs of the world—on social justice, the needs of the poor or on the acquisition of wealth and power. Too many American Christians seem to have accepted Hegel’s admonishment—in many American churches today, the language of Christianity is used to espouse a materialist and consumerist philosophy. Too many Christians in America have forgotten about eternity. This is the reason why Protestant theologian J.J. Packer has observed that Christianity in America is “3,000 miles wide, and only a half-inch deep.”The key, said Blessed John Paul II, to a deeper faith among Americans, is the witness of Christians living as Christ lived, and proclaiming the kingdom of God. Our responsibility to our brothers and sisters, to our fellow Americans, is to share with them the encounter we have had with Jesus Christ. Each of us who have been touched by Christ—who have accepted his Word, and who follow after him—should witness to others what it means to truly encounter, in Jesus Christ, the Living God. Indeed, Pope Paul VI stated, in 1975, that “it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn.”Evangelization is not always easy. Some of us feel unequipped or unprepared. Few of us know where to start. Many of us do not know what the people need to receive the Gospel. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI told the bishops of the United States that “What is needed ... at this time in the history of the Church in America, is a renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have been wounded, and to bring strength to those who are languishing.”The pope has called us to evangelization which finds, which frees, and which heals—evangelization rooted in love. Soon we will have an opportunity to evangelize in our parishes in a very simple way. From Dec. 18 to Jan. 9 a group called Catholics Come Home will run a national television advertising campaign encouraging Catholics to return to worship at their parishes. In every city in America those who no longer practice our faith will be invited to encounter Jesus Christ in the Church. Some 250 million Americans will be invited to join us at Mass this Christmas season.We can be evangelists by also inviting our friends to join us as we worship God. We can evangelize by welcoming those who “come home” to our parishes. And we can proclaim God’s kingdom by sharing with others the reasons why we worship—by sharing our encounter with the Living God. During this opportunity, provided by Catholics Come Home, let us commit ourselves to proclaiming God’s kingdom in our lives—with our witness and also with our words.On Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, we lit the rose candle on the Advent wreath. This is the “Gaudete” candle. The “Rejoice!” candle. This week is the Church’s week of rejoicing in the impending arrival of Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice together. And let us invite others to know the great joy that fills us with a spirit of rejoicing.Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.
Courage: Speaking the truth in love
Sep 29, 2011 / 00:00 amThe Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus. They brought him a woman who had been caught in adultery, and stood her alone in front of a crowd. They told Jesus that she was a sinner, and that she should be stoned. They waited for him to trip up—to ignore her sinfulness, or to treat her contemptuously. Either could be used against him.
The good about Girl Scouting, and a caution
Jun 2, 2011 / 00:00 amFor many Catholics, Scouting is one of the best memories of childhood — and for good reason. It’s a time of fun, friendship and adventure. That was certainly my own Boy Scout experience.At its best, Scouting forms the young person in a spirit of service. It creates a sense of duty to the wider community. It also builds character and cultivates civic virtue.So it’s no surprise that many Catholic parishes sponsor Boy and Girl Scout troops. And they’ve done so, with great results, for decades. Plus, when it comes to the Girl Scouts, who can argue with the best cookies in the world?Over the past year though, a growing number of Catholic parents and youth ministers have shared a concern with me. And it deserves some discussion.Their unease involves the Girl Scouts, and especially the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).Youth ministers are quick to note that Scouting’s structure allows for a lot of autonomy. Girls make up local troops. Troops make up councils. And nationwide councils make up Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA). GSUSA and a few other large organizations make up WAGGGS. Each local council or troop determines what’s appropriate for its specific needs. Each troop leader decides what members see. Nonetheless, what happens at the international and national levels of Scouting has an important trickle-down effect. This is exactly why “pro-choice” organizations have worked to develop connections with the Scouting movement. Parents would be wise to spend some serious time browsing the WAGGGS (www.wagggsworld.org) and GSUSA websites, following the links they find there, and examining for themselves how these organizations deal with sexuality, “choice” and reproductive issues. It may be a sobering experience.As one youth minister recently wrote:“It’s hard to imagine that a girl who remains involved with Girl Scouts into young adulthood won’t eventually learn of the connections her organization has with ‘pro-choice’, pro-contraception and ‘reproductive freedom’ groups. Having been influenced by GSUSA, she’ll be more receptive to this agenda. And if she was introduced to GSUSA through her parents and her local parish, then that will inevitably create contradictions between her Catholic faith and her Scouting experience.”The many good things offered by Girl Scouting in Colorado deserve praise from the Catholic community. Scouting and the Church have always had, and hopefully will continue to have for many years, a very positive relationship.But parents, as the primary educators of their children, have every right to insist that their beliefs, especially their moral and religious beliefs, be respected — not undermined — by the organizations to which they entrust their children. Parents need to remain alert to the content of their daughters’ activities. And Catholics involved in the Girl Scouting movement should make it clear to leadership that Scouting is only a means to an end — the proper formation of young character.It’s not an end in itself; and should Scouting ever fail in that proper formation, other groups can be found or formed to take its place.Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register.