The Ministry of Justice and Charity is a Task Agreeable to the Catholic Church
Looking back at my time as pastor of St. Peter in North St. Paul, an obvious highlight of those years was the building of a new church and the renovation of the existing church. We went through a deliberative process and strong consensus emerged to build a new church - particularly to build a more traditional style church. Not everyone was happy though with this decision, particularly the money that would be spent on this project when there exists many who are poor and in need in the United States and globally. My response to those concerns was to emphasize that the Catholic Church is always about the “both/and” - we have historically built beautiful churches in which we worship the living God and weserve the poor marginalized - because as Catholics we know that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and in the poor.
In June of 2007, we broke ground on the new worship space at St. Peter. That same month I traveled to Paraguay with Fr. Patrick Quinn and the youth minister of the parish to establish a partnership with the Franciscans who have done critical work of educating and ministering to the material needs of the poor in Paraguay. Paraguay is the second poorest county in South America and I was struck both by the pervasiveness of the poverty of this country and the warmth and joy of the people. Now, 15 years later, the partnership between the St. Peter and the Franciscan mission in Paraguay is still flourishing. I am so grateful to the good people of St. Peter for sustaining this mission of serving Christ in the poor, learning along the way that this work is the essence of the Gospel.
The last ten years at Our Lady of Lourdes have been busy, full, and for many, fulfilling, including for me as your pastor. Our emphasis on aesthetics and beauty can be seen in the renovation of our parish campus and the interior renovation of our historic church. So many have been an important part of this work, including generous donors, parishioners who advised or who helped execute the renovations, and the sacred artists and artisans who used their God-given gifts to create beautiful art which inspires us in worshiping God. I think too, with a grateful heart, to all those who maintain and tend to the beautiful grounds of the parish and the upkeep of the church.
At the same time, the last ten years have also marked a period where the Lourdes community has done extensive outreach to those on the margins - supporting important ministries and partnerships, including the Tijuana mission, Abria, and John Paul II Catholic School. I thank all of those who have been a part of this outreach, including Julie Ditter for her excellent leadership as Chair of our Justice and Charity Committee. My sincere hope is that this outreach will be sustained and deepened, as it was at St. Peter. I also hope as Julie reboots the Justice and Charity Committee during the pastorate of Fr. John Bauer, new parishioners, including young parishioners, will join this important committee and further its critical work.
In an outstanding encyclical, “God is Love,” Pope Benedict XVI said that the ministry of charity and justice is as integral to the life and mission of the Church as proclaiming the Gospel and celebrating the sacraments. This is a remarkable statement that has not gotten nearly enough traction among Catholics. He goes on to trace the deep historical roots of the Catholic Church’s outreach to the poor and marginalized and concludes that this is an opus proprium - a task agreeable to the Church. As Catholics celebrate Corpus Christi and the great gift of the Eucharist - the body and blood of our Savior, I am also reminded of another excellent encyclical - John Paul II’s Ecclesia de Eucharistia, wherein he calls Catholics both to recover a sense of “Eucharistic amazement” and also to live a “Eucharistic life” - a life marked by generous service to the poor and marginalized.
It is up to all of us and each of us to discern our place in the ongoing ministry of charity and justice that is integral to the life of the Catholic Church and will remain always as a task agreeable to her.