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Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2016 / 04:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church needs to “be on the move” to bring Christ to young people in an ever-changing world, Pope Francis’ representative to the U.S. told bishops on Monday.

“Mercy is what this country needs to heal the wounds of division after a polarizing campaign,” Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the new Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., stated in his first official address to the U.S. bishops.

The Nuncio spoke at the bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 14. He was formerly the Pope’s representative in Mexico before Pope Francis transferred him to the U.S. in April.

From the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has focused on mercy, Archbishop Pierre explained, pointing to the current Jubilee Year of Mercy which officially ends with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on the Feast of Christ the King Nov. 27, preceded by the closing of Holy Doors in dioceses around the world Nov. 20.

“We need to understand more properly this mercy of God,” the nuncio said, focusing on how the Church can better show mercy to young people who show enthusiasm and a desire for generosity.

The upcoming synod on youth and vocations can help young people “discover God’s plan for them” and help them see “that they matter” and “that they belong,” he said.

Yet many young people today are missing from the Church, he added, noting Pope Francis, when he was Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, noted a “lack of personal encounter with God” and lack of “authentic religious experience” among the youth.

“If they are not in our churches, why are they not there?” Archbishop Pierre asked.

Living in an era of rapid change and development, “many young people are affected by the sense of being in constant flux and are unable to make a permanent choice,” the archbishop noted, and this can be seen in seminaries, he added for the bishops in the audience.

Furthermore, many young people are torn between their drive to be independent adults and their desire to “belong” and be part of a “community,” the archbishop said. Many even get tattoos and body piercings which “give them a mark of identity,” he said, “because they want to belong.”

There is also a phenomenon of “prolonged adolescence” where through exposure to “modern media,” young people “lose contact with reality” and develop a “dependency upon virtual realities.”

And although youth have enthusiasm and a desire to be generous, their interior lives may “focus only on feelings and emotions” and they “often lack true spiritual formation,” the archbishop said.

What can the Church do to reach these youth?

Catholics “must decide to go to and walk with our young people: to each and everyone, from an awareness of carrying out a prophetic task,” the archbishop said. “In a changing environment, it is we who must be on the move.”

He compared the Church’s mission to Pope Francis’ vision of the Church as a field hospital. In this way, Archbishop Pierre said, it can be a “mobile unit” offering first aid and urgent care to those in need, going out to the young to bring about this encounter with God’s mercy.”

“The most important thing that a young person needs to feel saved by Christ is to experience His love and mercy directly. This is different from simply saying, ‘You are saved’,” he continued.

If Catholics “propose Jesus Christ” to young people and if they encounter Christ, they receive hope, he added.

“Living in this hope in Jesus Christ, young people discover their dreams, but we must remind them that God too has a plan and dreams for them,” he said.

“When a young person experiences the joy of the encounter with Jesus and has the grace to be taken with, or even fascinated by, these questions, in his heart he can no longer close himself to the horizon of a vocation – whether as a priest, religious, married or single person,” he said.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Carol Zimmermann

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, urged U.S. bishops Nov. 14 to pay close attention to young Catholics to both learn from them and help them to deepen their faith.

"Many young people are not allergic to the truths of the faith or to the church, but they simply don't know anything or know very little about the faith," he said, urging bishops to take steps needed to help them.

The archbishop, who addressed the bishops at the start of their fall general assembly in Baltimore, also noted that it is difficult for today's young people to live out their faith in today's modern world and they need to know they are welcome in the church.

His remarks were geared to encouraging bishops to prepare for the October 2018 Synod of Bishops, which has the theme of accompanying young people on the path of faith and in discerning their vocation, announced by the Vatican this October.

"We know that youth are critical to the life of the church," he stressed, adding that they often "find themselves at the peripheries of both the church and society. We must go out to them."

This was the archbishop's first address to an assembly of the U.S. bishops since his appointment earlier this year. He said Catholics in the U.S. were still benefiting from the pope's visit last year and from experiences from the Year of Mercy.

The archbishop, who has spent 40 years in the Vatican diplomatic corps, spent most of his 30-minute address pleading with the bishops to come to understand the young people in their dioceses, noting that they "tend to place everything in the present moment" and are often in a state of constant flux and unable to make a permanent choice.

He also noted the impact of modern technology on today's youths, saying it has made them change their ways of showing their feelings and communicating, trading "virtual closeness" for real encounters.

To truly understand where young people is not only a way to reach out to them but a way to help them discern their next steps, particularly regarding vocations, he added.

Archbishop Pierre stressed that in general they are "open, available and generous" and want authentic relationships and seek the truth. They want to be heard, he added, saying church leaders need to listen to them, following the example of Pope Francis.

The archbishop also stressed the bishops alone do not have the responsibility to help young people connect with their faith, because it is up to the whole church "to go to and walk with our young people."

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter @carolmaczim.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Rhina Guidos

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Earlier this year, as communities faced tensions, protests and violence, following a spate of shooting and killings of black men by police, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, of Louisville, Kentucky, as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked dioceses across the country to observe a day of prayer for peace.

He also wanted the bishops to look for ways they could help the suffering communities, as well as police affected by the incidents.

To that end, he appointed a special task force to explore ways of promoting peace and healing around the country and named by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta to head it.

On Nov. 14, Archbishop Gregory urged bishops gathered in Baltimore at the USCCB's fall general assembly to issue, sooner rather than later, a document on racism, given "postelection uncertainty" and that some of the tensions have only gotten worse following the presidential election.

He urged prayer, ecumenical and interfaith collaboration, dialogues, as well as parish-based and diocesan conversations and training, and providing opportunities for encounter.

In a news conference that followed his afternoon presentation and ended the first day of the bishops' assembly, Archbishop Gregory said communities that were disrupted by violence and riots after the police shootings, prompting a calling for healing from the church, are now seeing recent and highly public reactions to tensions brought about by the election results.

"It's the hope of the task force, of people of goodwill, that the demonstrations, don't turn violent," he said.

American society has the ability to express opinion on social matters through various forms of expression, including protests, but "what we pray for is that those expressions of frustrations don't provide another vehicle for violence."

Tensions had been high enough in July, when Archbishop Kurtz had said the Catholic Church needed to "walk with and help these suffering communities" that had been affected by the shootings and the riots protesting them that followed.

"I have stressed the need to look toward additional ways of nurturing an open, honest and civil dialogue on issues of race relations, restorative justice, mental health, economic opportunity, and addressing the question of pervasive gun violence," Archbishop Kurtz said at the time. He said he wanted the work of the task force to help embrace the suffering of the communities, to nurture peace and build bridges of communication and mutual aid in local communities.

The recommendations, said Archbishop Gregory, were examined before the recent elections and all the tensions and protests that have followed. The recommendations were related to race and violence issues related to the summer shootings and riots.

But Archbishop Gregory expressed hope that the church could help foster dialogue and bring healing by working with communities for a lasting peace.

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Follow Guidos on Twitter: @CNS_Rhina.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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Los Angeles, Calif., Nov 14, 2016 / 10:03 am (CNA).- Archbishop José H. Gomez called for mercy and an end to deportations during an interfaith prayer service Nov. 10 for peace, solidarity and unity at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

“In this country, we need to start building bridges and bringing people together,” he said. “We need to reach out to those who are hurting. Now is the time to build unity and heal communities, through our love for our neighbor and our care for those in need. That’s what tonight is about. Not politics. It’s about people.”

The archbishop and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti organized the prayer service as a sign of unity and solidarity amid the uncertainty and fear that has followed the Nov. 8 elections. The archbishop drew particular attention to immigrant communities.

“Tonight in America, children are afraid. Men and women are worried and anxious, thinking about where they can run and hide. This is happening tonight, in America,” the archbishop said.

“The answer is not angry words or violence in the streets. It never solves anything. It only inflames it more. We need to be people of peace, people of compassion. Love not hate. Mercy not revenge,” he added. “These are the tools to rebuild our nation and renew the American dream. Tonight we promise our brothers and sisters who are undocumented — we will never leave you alone.”

During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to undo what he called President Barack Obama’s “overreaching” executive orders. Those executive actions included protections for children of undocumented immigrants. Despite Obama’s measures, as the archbishop noted, more than two million have been deported in the last eight years.

“No one seems to care. Except that little girl or little boy who comes home at night — and he or she knows his or her father isn’t there anymore,” he said. The U.S. bishops have been calling for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system for more than 15 years.

“Let’s pray tonight, in a special way — that our leaders will find it in their hearts to make a beautiful, humanitarian gesture,” the archbishop added. “Let’s pray that they can come together, in a spirit of national unity, and agree to stop the threat of deportations — until we can fix our broken immigration system.”  

Mayor Garcetti called for solidarity among all people of faith.

“People turn to God in moments like this, he said. “The divisions of this last week, and for these past months, have in many ways torn us apart.”

While hundreds prayed in the cathedral, hundreds of Trump protestors gathered in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles for a second consecutive night. The mayor, while applauding the “new generation” for “expressing themselves,” asked that they “respect people’s property” and be more careful with where they marched.

“It’s never good to play on the freeway,” he said, referring to the Nov. 9 protestors who blocked the 101. “I hope President-elect Trump will hear our feelings, not just in this city, but in our country, and that he will seek to understand.”

The archbishop and the mayor were joined by Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi of the Ikar Jewish Community of Los Angeles, Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Reverend Najuma Smith-Pollard of the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement and Father Alexei Smith, a Melkite Greek Catholic priest who heads the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

“These are no longer ordinary times,” Rabbi Brous said. “Now it is upon all of us to respond to the millions of immigrants, to the Muslims, to the people of color, to LGBT people and people with disabilities — all of those who have been threatened by the vicious rhetoric of the past year and a half. We are with you now and every day for the next four years and far beyond that.”

This story originally ran on L.A.'s Angelus News.

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Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2016 / 11:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Concrete outreach to those in need should be the focus of the U.S. bishops going forward, as well as “respectful dialogue” with the Trump administration, the bishops’ conference president said Monday.

“United with Pope Francis, we are confident and we are hopeful, as we hear once again the echo of the words of Jesus: what you did for one of my least, you did for me,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville told the U.S. bishops.

Archbishop Kurtz is the outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, finishing a three-year term. He spoke at their general assembly in Baltimore, Maryland Nov. 14. The bishops are entering their 100th year of holding plenary gatherings.

“Whether it is protecting the child in the womb and her mother or a family seeking a better life as they migrate from another country, it is our task to think not of our own interests but of the common good,” he said. “We embrace that task with enthusiasm and enter respectful dialogue with President Donald Trump and with both houses of Congress.”

He said this dialogue would seek “concrete actions.”

“There’s been an unprecedented lack of civility and even rancor in the national elections just completed. Now we are required to move forward with respect for those in public office,” he said. “We seek the common good based on truth and charity, without imposing, but strongly proposing, as we have done for 99 years.”

The main focus of Archbishop Kurtz’s remarks was not the political elections, but the tasks facing the U.S. bishops today.

“Jesus spoke and acted in very concrete ways. Empowered by His grace, so do we,” he told the bishops.

He encouraged their outreach to pregnant mothers, to the dying, to the family “fleeing for a better life for their children,” and the inner city family “seeking opportunities and not racial profiling.” He encouraged the bishops’ outreach to those who wish to serve others with “integrity of faith.”

Bishops should work to build trust in their neighborhoods, he continued. He predicted they would find “signs of hope from unexpected places” in the future leaders born today and could draw hope from their encounters with others.

Archbishop Kurtz recounted his encounter with a refugee family in Ukraine, where he met a young eight-year-old refugee with Down Syndrome.

“He instinctively jumped into my arms, gave me a big smile and said in a language that my heart understood: ‘I love you’,” the archbishop recounted. “The lesson is obvious: we bishops and all who serve the Lord need also to open our hearts to the joy that others will give to us. Joy and love are not only to be given but also to be received.”

For the archbishop, that boy was “a trusting child of God deserving a chance,” much like many American young people.

In February, Archbishop Kurtz met with two dozen unaccompanied minors in El Paso before Pope Francis said Mass on the other side of the border.

He asked them their dreams, and they said they wanted only to work, to study and to join their family.

“Quickly I asked: ‘not also to pray?’ and without a pause they said ‘Yes, to pray to God to help’,” he recounted.

“Our nation is on thin ice when refugees are spoken of in the abstract,” Archbishop Kurtz said. “After I met the unaccompanied youth seeking reunion with their families, the issue became very clear. Surely the situations are complex but the voiceless remain anonymous unless there is a face to the voice.”

He encouraged the bishops to find in such people these “flashes of inspiration and encouragement that come to us from God.”

The archbishop listed several challenges facing the bishops: threats to the global community, especially religious persecution, and challenges within the United States, related to the dignity of the human person.

He also mentioned possible problems for American Catholics, citing “challenges to unity in truth and charity within our Church as we tirelessly announce the good news of Jesus Christ, to draw all to Christ and to walk with all toward conversion.”

Archbishop Kurtz recounted the encouragement he had received from his friend and mentor, the late Bishop emeritus David B Thompson of Charleston. He also encouraged the bishops to pay attention to one another and to remember that they are a “family, a ‘communio’ of pastors.”

“Just as a family seeks to serve each other as a prerequisite for authentic service beyond, so we do too.  If not, our pastoral hearts will be shallow and short lived with others,” he said.

He voiced gratitude to the bishops and the bishops’ conference staff

Archbishop Kurtz closed with a reflection on his episcopal motto “Hope in the Lord.”

“This is not a pie-in-the-sky hope but a hope grounded in the reality of God's grace in the midst of challenges,” he said.

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