Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Every year we come to the Solemnity of Christ the King and we give a pause and consider what the end of time will be like. Christ our King and our judge will take some role as facilitator of justice as we pass from one age to the next, and we will be given the eternal reward of our goodness, or the corresponding eternal emptiness which will simply correspond to the level of life which we have chosen to live in God in this world.

We realize that there is still time to change. This is why God gives us the gift of time, because we can change. Pope John Paul II said that the person who is most perfect in this world is the one who has changed most often. That is also why God has given us the Church, because we need a safe place to belong while we look into that change. It is not an easy thing, it most often requires the support and prayers of a loving community.

I think, sometimes, that God will deal most harshly with those who have adopted an attitude that doesn’t seek renewal alongside others, who stand in judgment of sinners rather than extending the kind of love that alone is able to break through the division of sin and its devastation, touch the hearts of those who are struggling and welcome them home. Still remembering that home is a place of change, it is often too difficult for so many to try to open that door alone.

Yesterday I had a chance to go to Manarola, Italy, one of the most beautiful places on earth, I’m thinking. (As I write this I am in Siena, another of those places.) You should Google Manarola for images of this place, one of the world heritage sites because of its unparalleled beauty. So it was Sunday, and we worked our day in the Cinque Terre around getting to Mass at 11 in Manarola.

There is only one Mass for the whole region. There was only one Sunday Mass, and 34 people attended. I suddenly began thinking about how much we consider the end times to be a time of the few faithful who will remain, and the so many who will have either given up or denied the faith when faced with one of the several deadly isms of our day — individualism, secularism, pluralism, humanism, even indifferentism (we could also include stupidism) — the so-called “sacred remnant” who will still be paying attention on the last day when the Lord calls.

Mass in Manarola reminded me of that idea. Where are all the people? It has become a nervous joke in Europe. Where has everyone gone?

It worries me that we might not be so far behind in the United States.

Well, I refuse to accept the “sacred remnant” idea. To do so would be to give into the same kind of lack of regard that so many have shown in setting aside their faith. We have to be people who continue to fight and speak up and do our best to live the values we believe so that others might look again.

As I looked around that church I wondered why it has gotten to this point? The priest seemed engaged. I don’t speak fluent Italian but I got the gist of his good homily. The music was thin, but there was a lively group of six children in the front who sat together and helped with the Mass, bringing up the gifts, offering the prayers of the faithful. All in all, it was a beautiful Mass, it just wasn’t attended.

You and I have a lot to do at the end of the day in order to make sure that more than only a few make it to the finish line. We simply can’t settle for the minimal returns of a few faithful members in the Body of Christ when the personal investment of God is so great in the hopes of yielding a fruitful return. It is not okay what is happening in our world — and, though we aren’t powerful to make any real global change, we can start with our own houses and families, and get the word out to our parish.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Greetings from Rome! It had been my plan to send you greetings aer I had the opportunity to aend Pope Francis’ audience on Wednesday morning but just realized it has to be done and submitted earlier this week. So I just walked up to St. Peter’s Piazza and took this picture. It is the best I’ve got at the moment.

It is Monday night as I write this and I wish I had more to tell you about right now. You know, you land a little tired to start with… and then you just walk. First, to St. Peter’s Piazza. Then today we went across the city through Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, a dozen churches, the Campdoglio, a dozen other churches, a tour of the Colloseum, a half dozen churches. We just ran into our seminarian, Joe Farrell, walking home from classes in one of the streets. Then a big plate of carbonara and tiramisu. Traveling is so difficult!

Tomorrow we hope to have Mass at a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica. Then, guess what? Probably a dozen more churches tomorrow. It has been quite a long time since I had a vacation, and I’m grateful that you let me get away for a few days.

But I was reading an account about how our Holy Father seems to have reached out again, literally, to someone disfigured by sickness and has spoken Christ to the world. The account that I read asked the question whether or not this could possibly just be a publicity stunt? Such things are so common today, nobody would be surprised. They said immediately – no – it was simply too real: “Charity and humility and love really are Christian ideals, and for someone in the pope’s position of power to so graphically express them is full of concrete meaning. Be like Christ: identify with the outcast. This pope’s idealism is so clearly readable in his actions that it is missing the point to call him a clever communicator. He knows that he is a living symbol and that by identifying with this man he is making the church itself grow more human.”

For some, this kind of outreach threatens what they perceive as the noble dignity of the Church. It seems that some may think that the Church needs to stay more aloof, dress up and preserve the dignity of the greatness of the Church. As if such things were actually communicated in life by things.

But it occurs to me—and this is why I’m so anxious to see him—that this Pope has begun to do and say things that haven’t been said so eloquently (simply) or profoundly (humbly) for about 2,000 years. And the One Who said them first is so evident in the one who speaks now. I pray this is true, and that we can all see a new way of life here. As one bishop told me shortly aer Francis’ election as Pope, the bishops of the Church – all of them – are challenged to reconsider many things, and to return to the roots of what all of this is about: a leadership that is Christ, nothing more, nothing less. It isn’t in the externals, or even the choice of words: it is in the action of love and the heart that lies at the root of this new evangelization.

Constantly we speak with leaders of other Christian churches – even leaders of non- Christian religions – in Virginia. Isn’t it interesting that they so commonly refer to Francis as “our Pope.”

If I get a chance, I will certainly tell him you all said hello, and that we would love for him to come and visit us in Fredericksburg.

God bless you.