As war ravages Ukraine, the country cannot be divided among religious confessions but must be united behind « mother Ukraine, » Pope Francis said.
« Jewish Ukraine, Christian Ukraine, Orthodox Ukraine » are not as important as Ukraine as a whole, the pope told members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religions during a meeting at the Vatican Jan. 25.
« I thank you for your unity, for me this is a great thing, like the children of a family » that are dispersed, « but when the mother is ill, they are all together, » he told them. « It is an example in the face of so much superficiality that we see in our culture today. »
The delegation, composed of leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities, was in Rome Jan. 24-26. In addition to their audience with the pope, they met with officials from the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Dicastery for Communication. Representatives from the council also were scheduled to join Francis at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for vespers to close the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
After apologizing for being a « slave to time » and needing to get to his weekly general audience, Francis put aside his prepared remarks and spoke off the cuff to the religious leaders, expressing his closeness to those working for peace in Ukraine.
« I am close to you and I regularly receive envoys from President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, » the pope said. « I am in dialogue with representatives of the Ukrainian people, and this leads me to hear you and pray. »
The pope also shared how at 11 years old he learned to serve the Byzantine-rite liturgy from a Ukrainian priest in Argentina. « From that moment my sympathy for Ukraine has grown, » he said.
The delegation included Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church; Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv; representatives of the country’s Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Lutheran churches; leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish and Muslim communities; and representatives of the Bible Society, which is interdenominational.
“Go into the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
The Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle
When we realize that the letters of St. Paul predated the four gospels and were in circulation as they were being composed by the evangelists, we see the profound influence he had on the formation of the entire New Testament and the early church.
Paul appears to have received his whole Christology all at once from his conversion experience. His encounter with a light so bright it blinded him reminds us of the transfiguration of Jesus witnessed by Peter, James and John. Paul claims to have seen Jesus in glory, a total shock to him because he was convinced that Jesus was a blasphemer. Instead, here was the crucified one, standing at the throne of God. What Paul realized was that the person he had been persecuting was none other than the Christ.
From this encounter, Paul is appointed an Apostle, sent by Jesus to the gentile world. By his own assessment, he is the least of the Apostles, “untimely” called because he was a persecutor of the church, but equal in authority to the Twelve. He is destined to extend the mystery of Jesus Christ beyond its Jewish roots into the non-Jewish world, a mission that at first was resisted by the Jerusalem church led by James, Peter and others.
From deep reflection on his encounter on the road to Damascus, Paul understood the mystery of Christ dwelling in every baptized person and emerging when they live the pattern of his death and resurrection —the Paschal Mystery. This is the most basic idea of Christian formation and spirituality. Paul understood baptism and the Eucharist as how we are incorporated into the body and blood of Christ, sent to extend his redemptive presence and mission in history to the whole world.
Paul’s preaching and pastoral founding of the first faith communities beyond Asia Minor into the Mediterranean basin became the basis for the young church that survived the destruction of Jerusalem and Temple in 70 CE. He affirms that the Holy Spirit of Jesus was alive and active in the great diaspora, extending the Gospel universally, to the “ends of the earth.”
Paul rides the waves and storms of history as a profoundly controversial figure. He opens an originally Jewish movement to the gentile world, moves the early Council of Jerusalem to affirm faith in Jesus as sufficient for universal salvation. His letters contain the groundwork for all subsequent theologies of Jesus as fulfilling the promise made to Israel. He preaches his redemptive death as fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. He proclaims Jesus as the new Adam, the pioneer of a New Creation and the model for our destiny as heirs with him to divine life.
Paul’s role was so preeminent, some have even called him the “Founder of Christianity,” though we know from his own words his total dependence and devotion to the Christ who had saved him and loved him beyond his comprehension.
His message to us on this feast of his conversion is that we are also meant to experience what he experienced. Somewhere, somehow in our own life journeys, we all will find ourselves on the road to Damascus, and the same Jesus will take hold of us with love and show us who he is and who we really are. All of life is a preparation for this and the direction our lives will take because of it. This is our path to wholeness, the meaning of our baptism and the answer to every prayer we pray, for it is our destiny.
The Word of God, which heals and raises people up, is meant for everyone, Pope Francis said.
Jesus « wants to reach those far away, he wants to heal the sick, he wants to save sinners, he wants to gather the lost sheep and lift up those whose hearts are weary and oppressed, » the pope said.
« Jesus ‘reaches out’ to tell us that God’s mercy is for everyone, » he said in his homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 22, the church’s celebration of Sunday of the Word of God.
During the Mass, the pope also formally installed seven men and women in the ministry of catechist and three others in the ministry of lector. Francis gave each of the lectors a Bible and the catechists a crucifix.
In his homily, the pope said the Lord invites everyone to conversion and invites his disciples to actively « spread the light of the word » to everyone.
Jesus is « always on the move, on his way to others, » the pope said. « On no occasion in his public life does he give us the idea that he is a stationary teacher, a professor seated on a chair; on the contrary, we see him as an itinerant, we see him as a pilgrim, traveling through towns and villages, encountering faces and their stories. »
Jesus preaches in places where there are « people plunged into darkness: foreigners, pagans, women and men from various regions and cultures, » showing that his word « is not only destined for the righteous of Israel, but for all. »
« Moreover, if salvation is destined for all, even the most distant and lost, then the proclamation of the Word must become the main priority of the ecclesial community, as it was for Jesus, » he said.
« May it not happen that we profess a God with an expansive heart yet become a church with a closed heart — this, I dare say, would be a curse, » he said. « May it not happen that we preach salvation for all yet make the way to receive it impractical; may it not happen that we recognize we are called to proclaim the kingdom yet neglect the Word, losing ourselves in so many secondary activities or discussions. »
« Place your life under the Word of God, » he said. « All of us, even the pastors of the church, are under the authority of the Word of God. Not under our own tastes, tendencies and preferences. »
The word of God « molds us, converts us and calls us to be united in the one church of Christ, » so the faithful must ask themselves, « Where does my life find direction »? « From the many ‘words’ I hear, from ideologies, or from the word of God that guides and purifies me? »
When people recognize God’s presence and make room for his word, « you will change your outlook on life. »
After the Mass, the pope prayed the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square. Before the prayer, he said that following Jesus is a journey that requires leaving the status quo behind.
« What must we leave behind? Our vices and our sins, certainly, which are like anchors that hold us at bay and prevent us from setting sail, » he said, but also those things that keep one from « living fully, for example, fear, selfish calculations, the guarantees that come from staying safe, just getting by. »
He asked people to reflect on « what are the material things, ways of thinking, attitudes I need to leave behind so as to truly say ‘yes' » like Mary and to follow Jesus better. « We will always find that we are better. »
The social media landscape doesn’t lend itself well to the practice of humility. At the height of its influence in the 20th century, the legacy press landscape also traded in the inflation of egos. Yet Catholic authors sometimes said or did things that pierced that bubble of ego — and often in jarring ways. At the height of their literary success, authors like Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Graham Greene and Flannery O’Connor reflected on themselves as sinners in need of grace.
Evelyn Waugh
Waugh’s first marriage collapsed in 1929. This crisis left its mark on his satirical 1930 novel Vile Bodies, which he wrote as his own life unraveled. A year after his divorce, he was received into the Catholic Church. His conversion was an unsentimental affair. In Waugh’s estimation, the Catholic Church held the fullness of the truth, therefore it was reasonable to revere it — and that was that.
When Waugh (1903-1966) appeared in a 1960 BBC television interview, he told reporter John Freeman that in the late 1920s he was « as near an atheist as one could be. » Freeman asked Waugh to speak of the greatest gift he’d received from Catholicism. Was it tranquility or perhaps peace of mind? « It isn’t a lucky dip that you get something out of, » Waugh responded. « It’s simply admitting the existence of God or dependence on God or contact with God — the fact that everything good in the world depends on him. It isn’t a sort of added amenity of the welfare state that you say, ‘Well, to all this, having made a good income, now I’ll have a little icing on top of religion.’ It’s the essence of the whole thing. »
Waugh’s temperament was sometimes as extraordinary as his writing. He was often a cruel curmudgeon, a prickly snob; he dabbled in fascistic politics and he was mercurial. If there’s truth to the trope of upper-class British fathers preferring their pet dogs over their children, Waugh took pains to embody that truth. He wasn’t much better with adults. When novelist and friend Nancy Mitford introduced Waugh to her publisher in 1950, Waugh shocked them with his rude behavior. « How can you behave so badly — and you a Catholic, » Mitford exclaimed. « You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic, » Waugh responded. « Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being. »
Waugh is funny in both his literature and his letters. In his fiction, humor serves to make the harsh truths of a fallen world more bearable. There’s also humor in how he recognizes his own fallen nature. That humor, however, doesn’t dull the knife that cuts away at everything that veils sin. In his 1934 novel A Handful of Dust, that veil is made of fame, privilege, power, class and socialite culture. Waugh tears the veil away in a scene that can’t be forgotten. A mother who pursues a romantic affair with an awful man called John — who bears the same name as her young son — receives news that « John » had suffered a terrible accident. As it slowly dawns on her that the victim is her little boy and not her lover, her initial reaction is to thank God in relief — before bursting into tears. The horrible scene is compelling because it’s so authentically human.
Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark (1918-2006), a generation younger than Waugh, enjoyed his support. Spark’s conversion to Catholicism in 1954 made her sympathetic, as did the fact that her own writings were also funny, cruel and engaged with faith. Her 1959 novel Memento Mori explores a community of elderly Londoners subject to cryptic phone calls. A man rings to remind them that they must die. The anonymous caller is politely stating a fact of life. Most of the victims react with indignation or paranoia. A retired penal reform activist demands that the culprit be found and flogged.
Only one character takes the call in stride. Charmian Piper is Catholic and senile. She enjoys a moment of visionary clarity when she receives the call. She tells the caller that reflecting on her death is an exercise she’s done for decades. Here’s a memorable fictional character who, in a world where self-importance and personal survival dominate, attributes less import to her earthly existence.
Spark’s father was Jewish, her mother was Anglican and she attended a Presbyterian school. Like Waugh, her conversion to Catholicism wasn’t emotional. She began reading the works of Cardinal John Henry Newman and, as she shared in a television interview, she « just drifted into » Catholicism.
« Largely I’m still a Catholic, because I can’t believe in anything else, » she said. « I’d often like to, but I can’t.” The interviewer asked her if she was satisfied with her religion. « No, » she said, smiling. « Perhaps the truth isn’t satisfying. » Spark certainly wasn’t satisfied with the church’s views on birth control — which she supported staunchly. Spark speaks of subjecting her will to examination in light of a truth that is greater than herself — even when it’s unsatisfying to do so and even if it doesn’t transform her views.
Graham Greene
In the vanguard of British authors who converted to Catholicism also stood Greene (1904-1991), the author of The Power and the Glory. In 1953, Greene got himself chastised in a pastoral letter from the Holy Office, the predecessor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was admonished for engaging in « odd and paradoxical » writing and for « troubling the spirit of calm that should prevail in a Christian. »
In that sense, he wasn’t any different from Waugh, Spark or — across the Atlantic — Flannery O’Connor. Greene’s protagonist was a nameless, indigent priest seeking to escape persecution and death during anti-Catholic purges in Mexico. It takes special skill to create such a memorable character without even giving him a name. The priest was a drinker, he had broken the vow of celibacy and struggled to forgive his enemies. Yet moral failure was the vehicle through which he traveled toward humility and grace.
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The protagonist reflects on his life as a young priest: « What an unbearable creature he must have been in those days — and yet in those days he had been comparatively innocent … Then, in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone: now in his corruption he had learnt.”
Every author, to varying degrees, writes fiction based on personal experience. When creating the « whisky priest » of The Power and the Glory, Greene was no exception. Greene was a thoughtful and tortured Catholic, a serial and selfish adulterer engaged in colorful sexual escapades, eventually a Catholic agnostic who avoided Communion for three decades and a man dealing with mental illness. Few authors struggled to map out and comprehend grace as persistently as he did.
Flannery O’Connor
O’Connor (1925-1964) was among the few. Burdened by a debilitating illness, tending to peacocks on her family farm and writing for diocesan publications, O’Connor embraced what is sometimes called a « mean grace. » She did, after all, publish a short story, « A Good Man is Hard to Find, » in which a grandmother and her entire family are brutally massacred by escaped convicts. The grandmother, a hypocrite, talks the Christian talk, but only embraces a Christ-like love for the man about to kill her in the moment before she is murdered. « She would have been a good woman…if it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life » — some of the most haunting words in the literary canon.
But it’s another character, Ruby Turpin from « Revelation, » a story written months before O’Connor’s death, where the author’s search for grace is most striking. Mrs. Turpin, a self-satisfied middle-class bigot of the highest order, faces the vision of a God who makes the poor and the scorned become the first and the « decent » ones of the middle class the last. Mrs. Turpin embodied the racist and classist impulses of the American south in the decades of racial segregation — impulses that ran deep and far.
O’Connor must have come across many Mrs. Turpins in her day. And to what degree did she see herself reflected in the character she had created — fallen and facing grace that was hard to bear? On May 20, 1964, in her last weeks of life, she wrote to her friend and playwright Maryat Lee about checking into Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for transfusions and treatment. On the threshold of death, she signed one of her last letters as « Mrs. Turpin. »
These 20th century Catholic authors often wrote with striking cruelty, but also with bravery. They took a scalpel to the satiny fabrics of society, while never forgetting that they were part of that society, too.
Stars and planets swoop across a black backdrop, the stars gradually spinning into the faint shape of an enormous eye. A middle-aged C.S. Lewis, played by award-winning actor Max McLean, sits in his comfortable study. A bottle of Port wine rests on a buffet table. A small model of a lion perches on a stack of books. Lewis greets the audience, then dives straight into pondering the origins of the universe.
So opens McLean’s latest play about the beloved Christian apologist, « C.S. Lewis on Stage: Further Up & Further In. » The 90-minute, one-man play was written and performed by McLean and produced by Fellowship for Performing Arts, or FPA, a New York City production company that creates drama from a Christian worldview. McLean, who has already adapted several of Lewis’ works for the stage, is FPA’s founder and artistic director. « Further Up & Further In » debuted in Dallas in October and will appear in cities across the U.S. through April 2023.
There are two possible explanations for the universe, Lewis tells the audience. The materialist explanation, which says matter is all that exists and can account for everything that happens, and the religious explanation, which says the universe was created by a being outside the material world. Lewis staunchly favors the latter. But as a former atheist, he takes the possibility of materialism seriously.
Those familiar with Lewis’ work will recognize this opening monologue from the pages of Mere Christianity, Lewis’ best-selling book based on his radio addresses during World War II. In fact, devotees of Lewis could play a game while watching the play: Who can identify the most references to Lewis’ oeuvre? Even the images splashed across the backdrop are recognizable. Here is the modest kitchen in The Kilns, the Oxford home where Lewis lived with his older brother, Warnie. Here are the grounds of Magdalene College, where Lewis taught medieval and Renaissance literature.
The play is a standalone sequel to McLean’s previous production, « C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert, » which recounts Lewis’ conversion to Christianity. « The Most Reluctant Convert » was so well received as a play, McLean turned it into a movie released in 2021. The movie is available to watch on Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming services.
« Further Up & Further In » picks up where « The Most Reluctant Convert » ended. The play aims to tell the story of how Lewis went from a respected but little-known scholar at Oxford University to one of the most beloved Christian thinkers of the 20th century. If that storyline is a bit thin, the play more than makes up for it by the uncanny performance of McLean as Lewis and the absolute delight of hearing Lewis’ words performed onstage.
« Further Up & Further In » is less an origin story and more a drama of ideas. And no wonder, since in writing the play, McLean drew directly from Lewis’ work, including bestsellers like The Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity and God in the Dock. At one point Lewis looks up from his desk to tell the audience what has become a famous quote: « Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. » At another point, he articulates the popular liar, lunatic or Lord argument. And in a particularly tender scene, Lewis recounts a passage about Jill and Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis says he doesn’t think the Narnia books will amount to much, and the audience laughs).
Lewis relates how the popularity of The Problem of Pain, his slim book about evil as an objection to the existence of a benevolent God, led to his invitation to speak about Christianity on the BBC during World War II in a series of addresses unoriginally titled « Broadcast Talks » (the title gets another laugh — despite the seriousness of Lewis’ work, the play is not without his quintessential humor). To listen to a recording of an original Broadcast Talk is to realize how exceptional McLean’s performance really is. McLean embodies Lewis, from the lulling accent down to the three-piece suit.
Much of the play centers around Lewis’ correspondence with an earnest skeptic who admires Lewis’ work but can’t quite share his belief in God, let alone Jesus. Lewis tenderly reads each of the skeptic’s letters out loud. If real, why wouldn’t God’s existence be clearer, asks the skeptic? The same kinds of questions might rattle around the minds of some in the audience. When Lewis answers in his thoughtful, logical way, it’s as if we too are in his Oxford study discussing the origins of the universe over a glass of fine Port.
But Lewis does not merely respond to the skeptic with rational arguments. He shows us all what it’s like to embark on the journey of faith — a journey of challenge and joy that asymptotically approaches God. This journey is as much about our choosing God as God choosing us, says Lewis. And it often begins with a longing for something that cannot be found this side of heaven.
This desire is like « the scent of a flower we have not found » and « the echo of a tune we have not heard, » says Lewis in a line straight from The Weight of Glory. That flower, that tune — that heavenly realm — is more wonderful than all the stars in all the galaxies that spin behind Lewis’s head. It’s waiting for us if we, like Lewis, are willing to journey further up and further in. That’s the real challenge, the invitation, of McLean’s play.
Xavier University of Louisiana, which for decades has placed the most African American graduates into medical schools across the country each year, will open a College of Medicine in a partnership with Ochsner Health, executives of Xavier and Ochsner announced Jan. 17.
The new medical school, expected to open within four to five years, has as its primary goals building a pipeline of African American doctors for a health-care field in which people of color are underrepresented and extending the founding mission of St. Katharine Drexel « to promote a more just and humane society, » said Xavier President Reynold Verret.
« Our work with Ochsner and other partners who hold close to their hearts a vision of healing a broken world is a testament to Xavier’s mission, » Verret said, recalling how St. Katharine and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament educated teachers more than 100 years ago to branch out and teach in African American and Native American communities.
St. Katharine established Xavier University of Louisiana in 1925. It is today the U.S.’s only Catholic HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities founded before the 1964 Civil Rights Act).
« It’s very exciting because we are basically moving in what we are expected to do in being of service, » Verret said. « We have been evaluating how we should be of service and what we should do. Our dedication to preparing more Black health care professionals in our fight against health inequity is our answer to the call of our nation’s critical need and makes (the sisters’) legacy proud. »
Dr. Leonardo Seoane, executive vice president and chief academic officer of Ochsner Health, said the partnership with Xavier extends an excellent working relationship between the two. The first cohort of 37 Xavier students graduated in 2022 from a new Xavier-Ochsner Physician Assistant Program.
« The Physician Assistant Program has gone great and really speaks to the trust and the bond between Ochsner and Xavier, » Seoane said. « We graduated our first class last year, and we at Ochsner hired 17 of those 37 graduates, so it’s fulfilling its mission. »
Xavier has produced more African American students who go on to earn medical degrees and doctorates in the health sciences than any other college or university in the country.
According to a Human Resources for Health analysis, African Americans comprise about 5% of the nation’s physicians while accounting for 13% of the U.S. population. Hispanic Americans comprise 6% of the country’s physicians while accounting for 19% of the population.
« Xavier has the distinction of putting more African Americans into medical school that go on to finish medical school than any other university in the United States, » Seoane said. « They have held that distinction for many years, and it’s not a big university. People connote Xavier with excellence in science, technology and math degrees, and they have lived their mission to promote justice and promote diversity, especially in the sciences. It is truly a privilege to work with Xavier.
« You take Ochsner as a premier academic medical center and you take Xavier with its excellence in STEM education and its reputation for living their mission and you put that together, and it really will address a crisis, » he said.
Seoane anticipates the medical school opening within four to five years with an estimated first-year enrollment of 50 students. He said the College of Medicine needs to receive accreditation from both the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and from the Liaison Committee of Medical Education.
« Our timeline is four to five years to take in the first students in the freshman class, » Seoane said. « If you look at all the new medical schools that have started in the U.S., they all seem to start at around 50 students. »
When it opens, the Xavier College of Medicine will be the fourth medical school in Louisiana. The others are the LSU Schools of Medicine in New Orleans and Shreveport, and Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.
« Remember, the next step after medical school is residency and then potentially a fellowship, depending on if you want to specialize, » Seoane said. « We have 31 accredited residencies and fellowships already at Ochsner, and we’re building new ones. For Ochsner and the community, it’s a huge win. With our partnership with Xavier and its new College of Medicine, we’ll have medical students who will feed into our residency and fellowship programs.
« If you look at the statistics, we talk a lot about the 70% rule — which says that 70% of doctors practice medicine within 70 miles of where they did their last residency or fellowship. So, this absolutely will equate to more doctors in Louisiana. »
By 2034, Seoane said there is expected to be a shortage of about 64,000 physicians in the U.S., « but, of course, that is worse in the South and in rural areas. »
Verret said talks are underway about the location of a new facility for the medical school.
« There probably will be a need for building a space where the medical school will be, » Verret said. « It is our joint expectation that we will do something in the city of New Orleans. We have some physical space on campus that we will be looking at, but right now the plans are not set. »Verret said the announcement was the culmination of many years of dreams and evaluation by the university’s board of directors.
« There’s been a lot of positive encouragement, » he said. « Really what (students, faculty and alumni) have told us is that if you can do this well, it should be done. We have a mission of service, which goes back to our beginnings. What are we called to do to be of service and to be relevant for the future and for our community, both here and nationwide. The mission has never changed — to contribute to a more just and humane society. »
