Catégorie : Vie de l’église

I made my first Communion when I was 8. I had waited long for it, was dressed up in a dress, veil and shoes, all of them white. I was ready for the big moment. Then, Msgr. Higgins gave the homily. He admired how we were

dressed, « Little princes and princesses, » and told us that it was a great day.

Then he said something I have never forgotten. He said, « Today is the least important time you will ever receive Communion. Every time after this will build on it and be fuller of grace. »

His homily also works as an Advent message that tells us: « The unknown future will bring more than we can imagine. Just keep getting readier! » That sets us off on a journey of hopeful anticipation. 

As we begin Advent, we might recall some of our most memorable experiences of anticipation. Was it waiting for the birth of a child or the day of the wedding? Perhaps something seemingly much more mundane like the

end of the school year, the moment when your date was to pick you up or meet you at the restaurant.

Waiting reminds us that, like it or not, we don’t control the universe.

At the same time, we won’t discover the new unless we are open to it. Advent anticipation adds open-ended hope to all our anticipation. We keep growing, therefore the future is both unpredictable and promising.

Sometimes, it seems that Advent is designed to be confusing. Theologians call it a time of « already and not yet. » Today’s Gospel captures that dilemma perfectly. Jesus says, « Be on the lookout! » For what? For the coming of something you can’t predict, something that will take you by surprise at the least expected moment!

Jesus consistently avoided the trap of giving details about the end times.(They were — and still are — in an unpredictable process of becoming.) Nevertheless, he offered somber hints when he described the unpredictable time to come for him.

He said it would come, « in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. » Those were precisely the hours leading up to his passion. Jesus was arrested while praying in the evening. His interrogation by the religious leaders took place after that, presumably around midnight. Cockcrow was the moment for Peter to deny knowing him. In the morning, the Sanhedrin handed him over to Pilate.

Those were the moments for which he was watching. The disciples remembered this clearly because those worst of times blossomed into the Resurrection. For what are we supposed to be watching? Although Isaiah asks God to rend the heavens, he describes God much more gently as our father, the potter, our redeemer forever. 

Today’s Psalm speaks of God the shepherd who watches over the tender vine. This leads us to sing, « Lord make us turn to you, show us your face and we shall be saved. » We realize that just knowing our God is all we need because, as Paul said, God is faithful and calls us and continually makes us capable of

communion with the Son. When we are growing, that communion also keeps growing.

The Jesuit mystic Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1957), talked about how to move in this continual journey of becoming more. He wrote: 

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally

impatient in everything to

reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip
the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being

on the way to something

unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all

progress that it is made by

passing through some stages

of instability — and that it

may take a very long time.

Sometimes we are tempted to look to the past as an ideal age: « If only I had lived in the time of Abraham or Jesus, or the days of the Latin Mass or … [fill in the blank]. » That’s not what Jesus did. He knew the treasures of his tradition, he cherished them, but he knew that time moves in only one direction, therefore what is to come, hard as it might seem to be, promises to be more than this or any moment of the past.

Our season of Advent — this year the shortest possible because Christmas falls on a Monday — invites us into hopeful anticipation. While we wait « for the revelation of our Lord, » we will need to learn to appreciate Jesus’ hours of passion and Teilhard’s disturbing « stages of instability. » We can appreciate them as hope-soaked promises in a process of growing in grace. 

Advent is the time to anticipate what we cannot yet see, and to trust that it will come. Each day’s grace will build on the last.

As world leaders convene in Dubai for the annual United Nations climate change conference, or COP28, a new advocacy group will be on hand to influence the negotiations. For the first time in its history, the conference will host a faith pavilion, where faith groups and leaders from across the religious spectrum will gather to demonstrate the pivotal role of faith communities in tackling the climate crisis.

COP28 presents the faith community with an opportune moment to come together to influence climate negotiations. Rising global temperatures and the undeniable signs of environmental distress are manifestations of our negligence. More than just harming our planet, the climate crisis jeopardizes human life. It already impacts all facets of society.

Serving on the board of trustees of Catholic Relief Services, the global aid organization, I have learned about how extreme weather events have made life nearly impossible for those living on the fringes of society. The Horn of Africa, for instance, is only starting to recover from its worst drought in 40 years, one that decimated livestock and wiped out people’s ability to earn a living.

In 2022 in Pakistan, catastrophic flooding left a third of the country under water, a calamity that the Pakistani government says links directly to climate change. In 2020, back-to-back hurricanes Eta and Iota — the most severe natural disasters to hit Central America in more than 20 years — destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families, leading to massive humanitarian needs, including forced migration. 

How predictable it is that the countries and people who are the poorest in the world and have contributed the least to the crisis are the most affected. The most vulnerable populations are again paying the price for choices made by wealthier and more powerful nations. In my work as the leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, I listen to the stories told by immigrants from various corners of the globe who are arriving at our parishes and church institutions. They come seeking refuge from situations imposed on them by others, decisions that undermine their ability to sustain themselves on their land or support their families.

The faith community, with its vast reach and moral authority, has a pivotal role to play in engendering the kind of change we need to see. Pope Francis has shown the way as a staunch advocate for the environment. In his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, and its companion document, Laudate Deum, released earlier this year, he called for a profound ecological conversion in which we align our spiritual beliefs and our actions toward the planet and each other.

The Holy Father had planned to speak at COP28 but canceled his plans due to illness. But his message on the environment will be loud and clear in Dubai. As Francis wrote in « Laudato Si’, » « Our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God. »

At COP28, world leaders, including the U.S. delegation, must listen to developing countries, which need immense help to adapt to climate change, even as they recover from the losses they have already sustained. World leaders must keep their promises to provide more financial support for these communities.

The clock is ticking. We must act soon and with unity. The COP28 summit must signify a profound transformation, ensuring support for those disproportionately affected by the climate crisis while enacting just policy changes that ensure a better future.

When our children and grandchildren look back at this moment, they will judge us by our actions and decisions. As people of faith, we must rise to the occasion, ensuring that our legacy is one of unity, pursuing shared prosperity and equality, and unwavering commitment to the preservation of our common home.

The U.S. bishops added their voice to calls for the United Nations climate summit to usher in a decisive and accelerated transition away from fossil fuels toward clean energy, describing decarbonization of global economies as « the preeminent environmental challenge faced by all nations. »

The Nov. 29 statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offered prayers for the leaders and participants, upward of 70,000, gathering in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for COP28. The latest session of the annual U.N. climate change conference opened Thursday in Dubai.

The statement was issued by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chairs of the U.S. bishops’ committees on domestic justice and human development and on international justice and peace, respectively.

Gudziak and Zaidan referenced Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum, which the pope focused on climate change. « The climate crisis is an opportunity to reconfigure international relations toward the common good » where countries and communities can work together to « achieve ‘a decisive acceleration of energy transition,’  » they wrote, quoting Laudate Deum.

« Despite the tremendous growth of renewable energy worldwide, the global economic system remains largely powered by fossil fuels. Decarbonization of the economy — through the replacement of fossil fuels with secure, reliable, affordable, and clean energy — is the preeminent environmental challenge faced by all nations, » the two bishops wrote.

The 13-day climate summit, hosted by the oil-rich UAE, is expected to see intense debates about the future of fossil fuels, while a « global stocktake » process will show nations well off track from meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Developing countries, alongside many faith-based organizations, civil society groups and climate activists, have called for nations in Dubai to commit to a full phaseout of coal, oil and gas. Burning these fuel sources releases heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that are the primary driver of climate change.

But fossil-fuel-producing countries have instead proposed a « phasedown » or phaseout of « unabated fossil fuels. » Such terminology would allow continued use and production of the carbon-emitting fuel sources alongside the development of carbon-capture-and-sequestration technologies to pull emissions from the atmosphere. So far, the technology remains expensive and hasn’t been deployed at large scale.

In their statement, Gudziak and Zaidan said they were encouraged by recent decarbonization efforts in the U.S., including those initiated through the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest-ever climate legislation. The bishops supported the legislation, which is investing upward of $300 billion to transition the nation to clean energy.

Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S., the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Still, the bishops said that any efforts to decarbonize and shift to renewable sources won’t be successful if they significantly increase energy costs for middle- and low-income citizens.

« In other words, climate goals must represent both the ‘cry of the earth’ and the ‘cry of the poor,’ and include the financial support by developed nations for adaptation, resilience, and recovery of the most vulnerable, » they wrote.

In his own statement, Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego urged COP28 to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels — estimated at $7 trillion globally — and for debt relief to be offered to economically poor nations in exchange for funding climate adaptation and resilience measures. Catholic Climate Covenant has advocated such debt-for-climate swaps with the Biden administration.

McElroy added that while the pope will no longer attend the summit due to illness, his leadership on environmental justice and in calling all nations to a stronger response on climate change « will be front and center. »

McElroy said that Francis, in Laudate Deum, « makes clear his thesis: ‘This is a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life … The whole of the created order, which is the gift of God to all of humanity, is at risk.’ « 

Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian and development organization of the U.S. bishops, will have a delegation in Dubai at the climate conference. The CRS delegation will include staff from some of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

In a statement, CRS said its team will seek to advocate for progress on climate finance — including fulfillment of long-promised $100 billion annually for developing countries’ mitigation and adaptation efforts — and for the loss and damage fund established last year at COP27 to be operationalized. Other priorities include a comprehensive framework and doubling of financing for climate adaptation and inclusion of sustainable agricultural practices.

« The climate crisis requires a global response with the United States taking a lead role in that response, » Gina Castillo, CRS policy adviser on climate change, said in a statement. « At COP28, we will be pushing United States negotiators to advance policies that address immediate needs and pave the way for a sustainable and equitable future for all. »

Pope Francis presided at his weekly audience with the public at the Vatican, but he said that he’s still unwell and asked an aide to read his remarks for him on Nov. 29, a day after canceling an overseas trip.

Francis, who will turn 87 on Dec. 17 and had part of one lung removed as a young man, coughed near the end of the hourlong audience in a Vatican auditorium as he made some final comments, then stood up from his chair on the stage to give his blessing.

With a soft voice, barely above a whisper, Francis told the public that « since I am not well, » his reading of his speech wouldn’t sound « pretty. » He then handed the printed speech to the aide.

But Francis did speak at the end of the audience, voicing his contentment over the truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas, and saying he hopes it continues « so that all the hostages are released and access necessary to permit humanitarian aid » to reach Gaza is provided.

« They lack bread, water, the people are suffering, » Francis said.

On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that doctors had asked the pope, who has a lung inflammation causing breathing problems, to skip a three-day trip to a U.N. climate conference, known as COP28, in Dubai. The trip would have begun on Dec. 1 and have seen the pontiff return to Rome on Dec. 3.

The Holy See’s announcement of the canceled trip also said that his medical condition had improved, but noted that the pope had the flu and « inflammation of the respiratory airways. »

The pontiff, who has made caring for the environment a priority of his papacy, wants in some way to participate in the discussions in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Holy See. It was unclear if Francis might read his address to the climate conference by videoconference or take part in some other form.

The Vatican said the pope had acquiesced to the doctors’ request « with great regret. »

Before the pope came onstage for the weekly audience, he met with members of Celtic, a soccer team from Glasgow, Scotland, which has strong Catholic roots.

« Excuse me, but with this cold, I cannot speak much, but I am better than yesterday, » Francis told team members.

While he let a priest read his remarks, at the end, the pope praised the « beauty of playing together. » The pontiff, an avid soccer fan from Argentina, told the players that he would greet them one by one.

« It doesn’t matter if we have won or haven’t won, » Francis told the team, which was eliminated Tuesday night from the Champions League, Europe’s elite soccer competition, after losing 2-0 to a Rome team, Lazio.

Toward the end of the Nov. 29 audience, circus performers came on stage to entertain the pope with an acrobatic act. Francis looked amused as he watched the performers, including acrobats and a juggler. He posed with the group for a photo.

« I want to say thanks for this moment of joy, » Francis said, adding that the circus expresses the human dimension of « simple joy, » and asking the audience to applaud.

Francis was hospitalized earlier this year for three days for intravenous treatment with antibiotics of what the Vatican then said was bronchitis.

The Vatican said the pontiff in his current illness was receiving antibiotics intravenously. In a televised appearance on Nov. 26, a cannula for intravenous use was visible on his right hand. A CT scan, performed at a Rome hospital on Nov. 25, had ruled out pneumonia, according to the Vatican.

Russia’s extensive drone attack on Kyiv Nov. 25 damaged the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.

Russia launched close to 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine’s capital, as Ukrainians marked Holodomor Remembrance Day, which commemorates the 7 million to 10 million victims of an artificial famine waged by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin from 1932-1933 against Ukrainians.

No fatalities were reported, but five individuals were injured.

The assault was Russia’s largest drone attack on Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s forces said 74 of the drones had been successfully eliminated. Kyiv remained under an air raid alert lasting more than six hours.

One Shahed drone was shot down in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv, beside the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ and the residence of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, or UGCC.

The debris impacted doors and shattered windows within the cathedral. A nearby multistory building sustained even greater destruction, according to the UCGG information department.

The UGCC reported that « six windows in the basement of the Patriarchal Cathedral were damaged, » as « the blast wave shattered the glass panes.

« The hardware on four cathedral doors was damaged, and door locks were torn off, » said Vasyl Bukatyuk, director of the Construction Directorate at the UGCC Patriarchate.

Bukatyuk said that Shevchuk’s residence also suffered damage.

« The hardware on three doors was affected at both the Patriarchal residence and the Patriarchal curia, » he said.

Slight damage to the cathedral facade also was documented, and fragments of varying sizes from the drone were gathered on its grounds.

« In return for gifts from St. Nicholas, we’ll be receiving unique souvenirs, » said Shevchuk.

According to the Ukrainian Institute for Religious Freedom, some 500 religious sites in Ukraine have been « wholly destroyed, damaged, or looted by the Russian military » between the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and January 2023. That number has only increased since then, according to Religion on Fire, a nongovernmental project headed by several Ukrainian religious scholars.

On July 23, Russia launched an X-22 anti-ship missile that struck the Ukrainian Orthodox Holy Transfiguration Cathedral (Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral) in the port city of Odesa. The missile directly hit the central altar, as a result of which the cathedral building and the three lower floors were partially destroyed, while the interior and icons were significantly damaged.

Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — which continues attacks begun in 2014 — Russia has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians (including 510 children) and injured some 18,500, while committing close to 113,525 documented war crimes. From 2014 to 2021, some 14,400 Ukrainians were killed and 39,000 injured in Russian attacks, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

At least 2.5 million Ukrainians have been forcibly taken to the Russian Federation, and close to 19,600 children are being held in Russian « re-education » camps, with the actual number for the latter feared to be much higher.

Currently, there are an estimated 5.1 million individuals internally displaced within Ukraine, according to the International Organization for Migration, part of the United Nations network. More than 6.2 million Ukrainians have sought safety abroad since the start of the full-scale invasion.

In a July 2023 joint report, New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights reiterated their May 2022 conclusion that Russia has violated the 1948 Genocide Convention through its atrocities in Ukraine.

An effective proclamation of the Gospel must speak with hope to the real-life problems of the poor, to the need to protect the Earth and to the ability of people of goodwill to change the social and financial systems that harm the poor and the environment, Pope Francis said.

« Ten years after the publication of Evangelii Gaudium [‘The Joy of the Gospel’], let us reaffirm that only if we listen to the often-silenced cry of the earth and of the poor can we fulfill our evangelizing mission, live the life Jesus proposes to us and contribute to solving the grave problems of humanity, » the pope wrote to a conference marking the anniversary of his first exhortation.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development organized the conference Nov. 24, the anniversary of publication of the exhortation, which was widely described as outlining Francis’ vision for his pontificate.

In his message to the conference, the pope said the proclamation of the Gospel today — like it was for the church of the first centuries — « requires of us a prophetic counter-cultural resistance to pagan, hedonistic individualism, » resistance « to a system that kills, excludes and destroys human dignity, resistance to a mentality that isolates, alienates and limits one’s inner life to one’s own interests, distances us from our neighbor and alienates us from God. »

Being a « missionary disciple, » he said, means working for the kingdom of God by struggling for justice, providing food to the hungry and working for a fair distribution of goods.

Putting the poor at the center of one’s concern, the pope wrote, « is not politics, is not sociology, is not ideology — it is purely and simply the requirement of the Gospel. »

The practical implications of that requirement could vary, depending on whether one is a government leader or a business owner, a judge or a labor union worker, he said, « but what no one can evade or excuse themselves from is the debt of love that every Christian — and I dare say, every human being — owes to the poor. »

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the dicastery, told participants that the « joy of the Gospel » comes « from the encounter with the risen Lord who, passing through the humiliation of the cross, takes upon himself the sin, weakness, miseries and poverty of the human race, so that all might share in his victory over death. »

The joy of the Gospel, the cardinal said, gives Christians and the whole church the grace, motivation and strength « to go beyond referring to its own self and move toward the margins, in order to look right at that suffering humanity often considered as mere ‘waste,’ as inevitable and acceptable ‘collateral damage,’ as ‘necessary sacrifice,’ as an ‘offering’ owed to the idols of consumption. »

Juan Grabois, founder of the Confederation of Popular Economy Workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, told the conference about how he moved away from the church in adolescence and young adulthood believing the church to be « reactionary, hypocritical, accommodating and distant from the serious social problems of my country and the world. »

Then, about 20 years ago, he heard the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future Pope Francis, give a homily supporting the rights of the « cartoneros, » the people who lived off collecting paper and other objects for recycling.

The pope, he said, has always advocated « for the poor, the excluded and the oppressed, be they individuals, groups or peoples. »

« This aspect of his personality remained when he was elected pope, » Grabois said. « Francis has continued to advocate for the poor just as before, but with more strength, with a strength that did not slacken, and his voice is heard all over the world. »

Living in a way that cares for the poor and for the Earth will mean sacrificing some material comforts, he said, « but Francis tells us that if we fulfill this Christian mandate, if we fulfill it well, we will be happy, that this is where we will find Jesus again, that this is the wellspring of faith, that this is where the joy of the Gospel is to be found. »

« He proposes that we exchange well-being for joy, » he said.

Evangelii Gaudium is a document on evangelization, but it also advances Catholic social teaching, several participants noted. It shows the inextricable bond between the church’s mission and care for the poor that goes beyond charity.

« There is nothing more anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, than the divorce between spirituality and social liberation, » Grabois said. By his words and example, Jesus taught that Christians must love their neighbor and care for the poor.

Czerny said that if one were to print out everything the pope has said and written in the past 10 years and weighed them, « I suspect that the spiritual, theological, ecclesial content is heavier than the social, » but the media tends to focus on his pronouncements on social issues without highlighting how they are connected.

Dominican Sr. Helen Alford, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, told the conference that St. John Paul II was the first pope to teach that Catholic social teaching was part of Catholic moral theology — highlighting how faith has implications for the way a believer must live and act in society and not only in one’s personal life.

« With St. John Paul, you get this idea [of social teaching] really coming into the center of the church’s evangelizing mission. And not everybody’s understood that yet, » she said. By calling his exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, she said, Francis is continuing to give a central place to the connections between faith and life, especially as they impact the poor.

Shortly before convening the synod on synodality — arguably the most important Catholic Church gathering since Vatican II — Pope Francis visited Mongolia. Mongolia? Situated precariously between Russia and China, the ancient home of Genghis Khan boasts a total of some 1,450 Catholics midst a population of 3 million.

Why on earth would an aging pope who would be welcome in many powerful nations with huge Catholic populations bother the hardship traveling to such an insignificant spot? Could he have found a smaller Catholic population anywhere in the world? (Well, yes. Vatican City’s population is just over 500, so Mongolia beats them by numbers if not by percentage, and there are a few others as well.)

Unlikely as it seems, Mongolia, with a national population less than half that of Mexico City, has a cardinal — Giorgio Marengo — the church’s youngest and a member of the synod on synodality.

What was the point? It seems that this was one more opportunity for Francis to demonstrate what he thinks it means to be a shepherd. 

Today we celebrate the « Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. » That’s a mouthful! Pope Pius XI established the feast in 1925 to recall that Christ should reign in the hearts and will of humankind. 

The readings for the day, different in each year of our three-year liturgical cycle, orient and describe the celebration better than its grandiose title.

The centerpiece today is Matthew’s scene of the judgment between sheep and goats (an unfortunate disparagement of the poor old goats who are generally smarter, albeit feistier, than sheep). Michelangelo gave us a vivid image of this scene in which Christ’s arm is raised in judgment, the saints are rising and the damned are pitifully drifting into the abyss. Such works vividly depict a fearsome last day.

Jesus’ parable offers a different interpretation of the end. In Jesus’ parable, the end is ever-present. The coming of Christ is not some future event, but an everyday occurrence and not at all like the Sistine Chapel. 

If we want artistic renditions of Matthew’s depiction of judgment, we might better read Charles Dickens or study the photography of Dorothea Lange. 

Rather than talk about an apocalyptic end, Jesus claimed that the king appears in the guise of every needy person and that we judge ourselves in our response to them. Along these lines, Diego Rivera’s painting « El Cargador de Flores » probably reflects this parable more truly than Michelangelo’s « The Last Judgment. » 

Rivera depicts a peasant on his hands and knees. His wife struggles to help him stand up under the weight of an enormous basket of flowers to take to market. 

The message for anyone who has eyes to see is that some people’s luxurious decor comes at the expense of the poor who cannot even see the beauty of what they bear on their backs.

This is where the vocation of the shepherd comes in. In a universe in which we have been given the ability to choose whether to advance the reign of God or to frustrate it, every follower of Jesus is called to be a shepherd. Every person has the ability to see what Dickens, Lange and Rivera point out, thus every one of us has a responsibility to respond.

Francis went to one of the smallest and least important churches in the world to help the rest of the world see through a different lens.

Francis’ missionary journey to Mongolia interprets the 3,000-year-old Psalm 23 with 21st-century symbolism. Francis refreshed the souls of people insignificant in the eyes of the world. That proclaimed one message to people who feel insignificant and another to those who don’t notice them. 

By making the Mongolians — and all whom they represent — more visible, Francis highlighted their right to enjoy the verdant pastures of our Earth. In the full sight of all those who disparage the small, he spread a lavish table and celebrated the Eucharist with almost every Catholic in the country.

We celebrate this Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, on the heels of the first session of the synod on synodality. The synod is calling us to learn how to journey together as church and as the people of the world. 

These two events combine to exhort us to recognize that what is truly important in our day is the life of the flower carriers — all those people burdened in a world that loves what they provide, but rarely, barely remembers that they are the ever-present representatives of Christ the King. 

When we learn to treat them as such, we will be on the right side of history — all the way to the end.

For years, I couldn’t shake the notion that St. Augustine was boring. Despite his profound influence on 1,600 years of theologians, ethicists and church leaders who’ve molded the Christian tradition, I couldn’t help but drift toward medieval mysticism or the spiritual guidance of 20th century luminaries such as Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. I routinely averted my gaze from course offerings in early Christianity, dismissing Augustine’s Confessions altogether whenever it came across my eye on the library shelves.

But Kathleen Bonnette took me on a theological journey, shedding light on how Augustine’s timeless questions continue to resonate and evolve in our modern era. Her book, (R)evolutionary Hope: A Spirituality of Encounter and Engagement in an Evolving World, weaves scholarly insights on this saint together with personal anecdotes that reflect her own evolving identity as a Catholic within the complex political landscape of the contemporary Catholic Church in the United States.

At the core of her book lies a vital narrative. Bonnette, an adult convert to Catholicism, shares her life as a theological scholar captivated by the rich intellectual tradition of the church. Simultaneously, she details her process of unlearning ingrained prejudices and attitudes around issues of race, gender, sexuality and — fundamental to all of these topics — structures of power. Shedding the hierarchical trappings that shape power within the church, Bonnette writes:

While it was Augustine’s influence that first drew me to the Catholic Church, my engagement with women religious in the work for peace and justice drew me more deeply into Catholic faith. … They expressed spiritual sensibilities that emphasized encounter and inclusion: their love was ordered, in practice, toward relationship before dogma. Through them, I learned to define Catholicism in terms of wholeness and interconnection, rather than hierarchy.

I loved this book for its pursuit of ecclesial wholeness. Bonnette defies our inclination to view the church as « a power struggle » where  » ‘our side’ wins — for the good of the church » and opts instead « to reflect Christ’s heart — a heart that is always open to encounter. » In today’s polarized political climate, this approach is more crucial than ever. Through the lens of Augustine, she masterfully delves into the potential of a Catholic imagination that challenges divisiveness. This provides a fresh perspective on spirituality and active engagement in our ever-evolving world.

While Bonette does share from her own life as she examines Augustine’s theological reflection and dialogues with contemporary figures, I found I desired a more comprehensive exploration of Bonette’s personal narrative. Everyday examples of balancing work and family life, for instance, come and go with brief detail. The book predominantly leans toward theological discussions on Augustine’s cosmology and reflections on original sin. Nevertheless, it’s evident that the book aims to deeply resonate within readers’ personal reflections through guided questions and the  stories we do glean from Bonette’s life. 

Take, for example, an anecdote she shares from her doctoral studies. After delivering a lecture on love and justice in Augustine’s theology, Bonnette advised a young woman who was both a Catholic campus minister and a lesbian. Bonnette stressed to her that the church’s institutional teachings labeling LGBTQ+ love as « intrinsically disordered » were essential eternal truths for personal flourishing. Bonette recounts the young woman’s response:

Her eyes, resigned, held the hurt of a wound torn open yet again, as she graciously but pointedly asked, « Shouldn’t our human experience have something to offer orthodoxy? »

To share this painful moment with us is a gift. We learn that this young woman’s question became a significant part of Bonette’s theological and spiritual journey. By sharing this moment with her readers, she reignited my own journey as a reader and a queer Catholic who, in my own theological studies and personal wounds, could have found myself in a similar situation to that young woman. It reminded me of the times when my experiences of love, including God’s love, were marginalized in the name of orthodoxy and truth by peers, professors and guest speakers. 

By this token, Bonette’s acknowledgment of « Augustine’s intellectual paradigm contributing to much violence, » along with her compelling reasons to counter that violence through his own words, alleviated my apprehension about delving into his theology through her lens. Where I once worried that Augustinian theology might be used to challenge my Catholic experiences and faith, I discovered in Bonette a guide who encouraged me to explore his theology with curiosity, safety and in the spirit of her own personal quest for knowledge. 

Kathleen Bonette shows how tradition can engage in meaningful dialogue with justice. When you delve into this book, especially if you’ve overlooked Augustine in the past, don’t expect to walk out with a comprehensive understanding of his theology. You will certainly gain a deeper understanding. But even more so, aspire to navigate her chapters by embracing the theological richness of your own human experiences, imperfections included, while contemplating God’s creativity. 

A person hearing God’s call to follow him does not mean that person then belongs to a special or privileged clique of the perfect or the « elected, » Pope Francis said.

« The call is never a privilege. We cannot say that we are privileged over others, » the pope said Nov. 22 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

« No, the call is for a service and God chooses one in order to reach everyone, in order to love everyone, » he said.

Francis continued his series of talks about the « zeal for evangelization, » focusing on a few themes from his 2013 apostolic exhortation, « The Joy of the Gospel. »

The theme of his talk Nov. 22 was that the Gospel and the joy of God’s love are for everyone, quoting from his exhortation that everyone has « a right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. »

The pope said, « Let us distinguish ourselves for our capacity to come out of ourselves, to overcome every limit » and bring the Good News to everyone, with an « open and expansive » attitude that « comes from Jesus, who made his presence in the world a continuous journey, aimed at reaching out to everyone, even learning from some of his encounters.

He said the Gospel according to St. Matthew details Jesus’ refusal to cure the daughter of a pagan Canaanite woman. Jesus tells her he « was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel » and that « it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. »

But the woman insisted, replying, « even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters. » This moves Jesus, who then says, « O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish, » the pope said.

This encounter with a foreign and pagan woman shows Jesus changing his mind, the pope said. « The Lord himself finds confirmation that his preaching should not be limited to the people to whom he belongs, but open to all. »

« Perhaps the greatest temptation » for Christians, the pope said, is to consider God’s call as being « a privilege. Please, don’t. »

« When God calls a person and makes a pact with some of them, » he said, it is always to elect the one in order to reach others.

The church as « catholic » or universal is also « to prevent the temptation of identifying Christianity with a culture, with an ethnicity, with a system, » he added. Christianity is not a « clique of the elected, of first class. »

« Let us not forget: God chooses some to love all, » Francis said, and « the Gospel is not just for me, it is for everyone. »