Catholic News 2

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By Chaz Muth

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- On a seasonably warm, drizzly Nov. 3 evening, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz drove his white Toyota Avalon up a driveway that leads to the stately Louisville home of Steve and Kathy Ford.

The couple graciously agreed to hold a fundraising event for Catholic Extension, a national organization that supports programs for mission dioceses across the U.S. and one the 70-year-old archbishop strongly backs.

He was visibly moved when he heard one of the speakers talk about a prison ministry made possible by Catholic Extension, an outreach Archbishop Kurtz sees as essential in Catholic social teaching.

Events like this one -- conducted in the Archdiocese of Louisville, which he has shepherded for the past decade -- bolstered his positive outlook for the future of the Catholic Church.

It also offered him an opportunity to reflect on the remaining days of his three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which will conclude at the end of the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 14-16.

Archbishop Kurtz was elected USCCB president in November 2013, eight months after the election of Pope Francis.

His term has been a busy one that saw a flurry of activity at the Vatican, pastoral trips to typhoon-ravaged Philippines and battle-scarred Ukraine, the Catholic Church's struggle over religious liberty issues, a resurgence of U.S. racial struggles, growing societal polarization, a refugee crisis and the 2015 U.S. visit of the profoundly popular Pope Francis.

It would go against Archbishop Kurtz's affable style to call his tenure an exhausting exercise in maintaining a dual role as prelate of an archdiocese and his nation's representative of the Catholic Church.

Instead, he told Catholic News Service that three years is the right amount of time to serve as president of the U.S. bishops' conference.

"Come the end of this plenary meeting, I'll be passing on the baton ... figuratively to whoever is elected as the next president, I will do so gladly, I will say this, because I think three years is a good portion of time," Archbishop Kurtz said during a Nov. 4 interview in the chapel at his archdiocesan chancery. "And I mean that."

Once the archbishop passes that metaphorical baton, he will leave behind six years of leadership with the U.S. bishops' conference -- his term as president and his 2010-2013 stint as vice president -- though, like other past presidents, he will remain on conference's Administrative Board for a year.

"It's a wind-down role," he said. "Be available in case you are needed. But really it's a gracious role of saying, 'I support who is the new president.'"

During his term, Archbishop Kurtz said he witnessed an exciting period for the American Catholic Church, with generous giving from U.S. Catholics in response to the devastating 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, numerous natural disasters throughout the U.S. and an openness by many to welcome the stranger in response to the refugee crisis, even when it wasn't a popular decision to do so.

The bighearted spirit of American Catholics -- to give their time, money and resources -- offers him faith in the future of the church and where it needs to be.

The highlight of his presidency, however, has to be the pope's apostolic journey to the U.S. in September 2015, Archbishop Kurtz said.

Not only did that papal visit give Americans an opportunity to forge a closeness with the celebrated Pope Francis, it allowed the pontiff to witness the faithfulness of the U.S. people, he said.

More than a year after that trip, Archbishop Kurtz met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and reiterated the positive impact it had on the American people and was gratified when the pontiff said it was fruitful for him as well.

Other highlights of his presidency include pastoral visits to the Philippines, Haiti, Ukraine, Bogota, as well as his involvement in the Synods of Bishops on the family and the Jubilee Year of Mercy, he said.

"I don't know how many highlights you can have," Archbishop Kurtz said, "but there were so many opportunities I had to interact with, not only our Holy Father, but with bishop leadership conferences throughout the world and with average people who I met, often in very difficult circumstances, who gave great hope."

It's in the archbishop's nature to project optimism, a quality that didn't elude him even when asked to respond to difficult topics such as racism, violence, polarization, economic devastation, religious persecution and the displacement of people fleeing their war-ravaged homelands.

"It's very difficult to be able to embrace a comprehensive plan that the world -- in a sense -- can come together and embrace," Archbishop Kurtz said. "Obviously the church has always said we have to in some way begin with one person at a time -- the person in front of us.

"With our bishops' conference, we're very, very conscious of the need for us to support peaceful alternatives right within the devastated areas," he said. "Whether we're talking about Syria and Iraq, or other parts of the world. It's very important for us to work with the local episcopal conferences, because they're on the scene. They know what can happen."

In an effort to welcome the stranger, offer them assistance and provide them with opportunities for a better life, Archbishop Kurtz points to the church urging the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform with laws that will not be punitive, but will cultivate the common good.

When it comes to religious liberty issues, he said the focus has to be primarily on regions in the world where there is "in-your-face persecution, where people really don't have the right to exercise their freedom of religion and -- in a sense -- take their own lives in their hands when they try to."

He said the church and the human community has not done enough to address these abominations and must collectively tackle these issues in a meaningful way.

The archbishop did say Americans probably have taken their own religious freedom for granted and that legitimate attempts to promote it in this nation are sometimes unfairly seen as an effort to discriminate.

In some cases, the church has not effectively articulated its message when it comes to issues in society that don't align with church teaching, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, Archbishop Kurtz said.

When the bishops reiterate the church's teaching that marriage is the union between one man and one woman and a union that must be open to new life, often he said it's interpreted as discriminatory toward people with same-sex attraction.

"They don't necessarily hear the need for us to respect the dignity of every person and call forth that dignity," Archbishop Kurtz said. "We have challenges in being able to present it in a new way."

The violence and racial division that's occurred in cities such as St. Louis, Chicago and Baltimore during his presidency prompted the archbishop to establish the USCCB Task Force to Promote Peace in Our Communities -- chaired by Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.

"There are examples in which people are being judged not by, as Martin Luther King Jr. had said, the content of their character, but rather by the color of their skin," Archbishop Kurtz said. "So, I thought it was important for us to join with people of goodwill in saying that the church needs to be part of a solution of creating opportunities."

The bishops' plan to write a pastoral letter on racism, and the church will actively go into communities and invite people of all ethnic backgrounds to come together in prayer and solidarity to build harmony and civility.

Though the archbishop acknowledged these actions are not the only solution to such divisive issues, he believes it is a start.

The humanitarian example of Pope Francis guided Archbishop Kurtz as he confronted each challenge throughout his presidency, which includes societal polarization, in which people vilify those with philosophical differences.

The church needs to model the mind and heart of Christ, "which is to see in the person next to you as a child of God, to be able to listen to people in a civil way, even to listen to people who may not agree with you," he said. "To do it in a way that is thoughtful and serene."

The archbishop said the church must emphasize that while everyone should be men and women of conviction, they should also have the conviction to see the goodness in the person sitting next to them.

Though Archbishop Kurtz said he looks forward to a more relaxed pace that his post-presidency should offer, he said the experience has enriched him spiritually.

"One of the benefits of being president is that you see a lot," he said. "I've had a chance truly to see the richness ... of the local churches. Whether I go to St. Cloud, Minnesota, or to Cincinnati, or to many different parts of our country, invited to be a part of their local church celebration, it gives me great insights into, not only the struggles ... but also the great signs of hope."

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Follow Chaz Muth on Twitter: @Chazmaniandevyl.

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Pope Francis on Thursday, appointed Bp. John Baptist Jung Shin-chul, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Incheon (Korea) with the titular see of Cuicul, as the Bishop of Incheon Diocese. The See was vacant after the death of Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san, on May 30, 2016.

Fr. John Baptist Jung Shin-chul was born October 22, 1964 in Incheon-si, Songrim-dong, the parish of Game Bong-dong, in the Diocese of Incheon. He studied at the Catholic University of Incheon (major seminary) from 1983 to 1991, and thereafter at Suwon Catholic University, from 1991 to 1993 (for a Master's Degree). He was ordained January 29, 1993, for the Diocese of Incheon. After ordination, he held the following positions: 1993-1994: Parish Vicar, Samjung-dong, 1994-2002: Studies for a Ph.D. in Catechesis, Catholic University of Paris, 2002-2003: Parish Vicar, Yeokgok 2 Dong, 2003-2010: Professor and later Chancellor of the Catholic University (seminary) of Incheon, 2009-2010:  Diocesan Vocations Director and since 2010: Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Incheon and the titular see of Cuicul. 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis revealed on Thursday that the search for Christian unity is one of his principle concerns, one that he prays may be shared by every baptized person. The Pope’s words came as he met in the Vatican with participants at a plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The meeting, from November 8th to 11th is exploring the theme “What model of full communion?”

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report: 

In his words to the group of ecumenical experts from across the globe, the Pope recalled the many important encounters he has had this year with leaders of other Christian communities. In particular he recalled his recent visit to Lund in Sweden to jointly preside at a Lutheran-Catholic commemoration of the start of the Protestant Reformation. That visit, he said, reminded him of the so called ‘Lund Principle’, formulated by the World Council of Churches back in 1952, which states ‘churches should act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately’.

Pope Francis stressed that Christian unity is an essential requirement of our faith, a journey of personal and community conversion to the will of Christ. He warned against three false models of communion, starting with the belief that we can achieve unity through diplomatic maneuvers or human efforts alone.

Unity, he insisted, is a gift from God and our task is to welcome that gift and make it visible to others. Rather than just a goal to be achieved, he said, we should see the search for unity as a journey that we undertake together with patience, determination, effort and commitment, knowing that all of us are sinners for whom God has infinite mercy. Remember, he said, that when we work, pray and serve the needy together, we are already united.

The second false model that he warned against was the model of uniformity. When theological, liturgical, spiritual and canonical differences are genuinely rooted in the apostolic tradition, he said, they are not a threat, but rather a treasure for the unity of the Church. Trying to suppress such differences, he warned, as happened in the past, goes against the Holy Spirit who enriches different Christians with a variety of gifts.

Finally Pope Francis cautioned against the idea of unity as ‘going back in time’ to incorporate one church into another. No one should deny their own faith history, he said, and no-one should tolerate the practice of proselytism which he called ‘a poison for the ecumenical journey’. True ecumenism, the Pope concluded, is when we focus not on our own reasons and regulations, but rather on the Word of God which requires us to listen, to receive and to witness to the world. 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday warned Christians against the temptation of a show or entertainment religion that constantly seeks novelty and revelations, comparing it to fireworks that provide us with a fleeting brightness before dying. His comments came during his Mass celebrated on Thursday morning at the Santa Marta residence.

The Pope’s reflections during his homily were inspired by the day’s reading about Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees’ question on when the Kingdom of God would come and he stressed how Christians must guard hope every day whilst waiting for the fullness of the Kingdom. Noting that Jesus told the Pharisees “the Kingdom of God is among you,” Pope Francis compared it to a small seed that is planted and grows on its own over time. He explained that God helps this seed to grow but without drawing attention to it. 

“The Kingdom of God is not a ‘show’ religion: one that is always seeking new things, revelations, messages … God spoke through Jesus Christ: this is the last Word of God. The other one is like fireworks that lit you up for a moment and then what is left behind?  Nothing. There is no growth, there is no light, there’s nothing: just an instant. And we have been tempted many times by this entertainment religion of seeking things that are extraneous to the revelation, to the meekness of the Kingdom of God that is among us and which grows. For this is not about hope, this is about the desire to have something in our hands. Our salvation comes from hope, the hope of a man who sows the seed or the woman who makes the bread, mixing yeast and flour: a hope that grows. Instead, this artificial brightness only lasts an instant and then it dies away, like fireworks: they are not needed for giving light to a house. It’s just a show.”

Asking what we should do whilst awaiting the fullness of the Kingdom of God, Pope Francis explained that we must guard and take care of our hope.

“Guard it with patience. Patience in our work, in our sufferings… Guarding it like the man who has planted a seed and who takes care of the plant, ensuring there are no weeds close to it, so it will grow. Guard our hope. And here is the question that I put to you: if the Kingdom of God is among us today, if all of us have this seed inside us, if we have the Holy Spirit there, how do I guard it? How do I discern this, how can I discern the good plant from the seed of the darnel? The Kingdom of God grows and what must we do? Guard it. Grow through hope and guard that hope. Because we have been saved through hope. And this is the thread: hope is the thread in the history of salvation. Our hope of meeting the Lord for sure.”

In conclusion, the Pope went on to describe how the Kingdom of God becomes strong through hope.

“Let us ask ourselves: Do I have hope? Or do I go ahead as best I can without knowing how to tell the good from the bad, the darnel seed, the light, the meek light of the Holy Spirit from the brightness of this artificial thing? Let us ask ourselves about our hope in this seed that is growing inside us and on how to guard our hope. The Kingdom of God is among us but we must, through rest, work, discernment, guard the hope of this Kingdom of God that grows until the time when the Lord will come and everything will be transformed. In a brief moment: everything! The world, us, everything. And as Paul said to the Christians of Thessalonica, ‘we shall be with the Lord for ever.’”

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(Vatican Radio) Millions of newborns die every year of preventable causes. In 2015, 2.7 billion newborns died within one month of their births and three-fourths of them within the first week of life. There were an equal amount of stillborn babies, leaving families with the grief of mourning a child. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched an initiative called ‘Saving One Million Babies’. Their objective is to work with interfaith networks to deliver high impact interventions, with a goal of saving the lives of a million newborn babies by 2020.

USAID has the knowledge and necessary interventions to prevent many of these deaths. By applying this knowledge to a global scale, including the low income nations where more than 90% of the deaths occur, they can increase the rate of newborn survival. Officials are present in Rome to attend the Justice and Peace Conference on Maternal and Child health and also the Rare and Neglected Tropical Diseases Conference, as well as to spread the word of their new initiative.

Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Assistant Administrator at the Bureau for Global Health in the U.S. Agency for International Development, spoke with Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni about the importance of working with interfaith networks in order to save then lives of newborns.

Listen:

In 2012, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, launched a call to action to end preventable child and maternal deaths. Pablos-Mendez emphasizes, “This happened not only because we are committed to the health of mothers and babies but because there has been an unprecedented success in saving their lives.”

In the 1960’s there were nearly 20 million deaths of children. By 1990, there were only 12.5 million deaths, despite the doubling of the population. Now there are less than 6 million deaths and this trajectory allowed the USAID to model the possibility of ending preventable child and maternal death.

A large portion of the deaths occur within the first minute, of life, the golden minute. The leading causes of death in the new born are prematurity, asphyxia and sepsis. There has been a realization that the progress in newborns has not been as successful as others, calling for a movement to focus on the newborn.

Pablos-Mendez says, “We have been doing a lot of things like working globally with partners, technical partners, the World Health Organizations, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Ally to agree on world interventions that can save the lives of new borns.”

Today in particular, they are working on the clinical settings to train nurses and health workers on resuscitation and along with many other interventions that can save the lives of new borns. Simple things like washing your hands, breast feeding, and kangaroo care, which is bringing a preemie baby skin to skin with the mom, are very powerful interventions.

USAID does clinical trials on these methods, which show that mortality can be cut by half by these simple interventions. It is estimated that in four to five years one million babies’ lives can be saved around the globe.

“We are coming to Rome to invite the Vatican to be a co-convener of an effort in the interfaith community to bring the moral authority of the religious leaders in the pulpit, in the classroom, in the communities, to galvanize social behavior change,” outlines Pablos-Mendez. He continues, “Pope Francis has been very committed to the poor and very committed to families.” 

Next year, Italy will be hosting the G7 summit, where health will be one of the priority areas. Ambassador Zappia, an advisor to Prime Minister Renzi, will convey a declaration for elevating maternal and child health in the G7 agenda. This will include support for a new global financing facility for women and children, which will be the equivalent to the global fund from last decade for Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. It will be dedicated to saving the lives of mothers and babies and involves financing from world banks so countries can be more involved.

USAID aims to deliver mass drug administration that does not require doctors or even nurses but can be provided in communities. They have reached and treated over one billion people, which has been possible due to partnerships with the United States Government, the Great Britain Government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many other NGO’s and philanthropic efforts. Additionally, the pharmaceutical industry has made a historical donation of over 12 billion dollars.

Delivering this type of aid is very much a merciful act and should be thought of in the context of the year of mercy. Pablos-Mendez agrees that this is a fitting end to the year of mercy:

“The support for these causes has been enjoyed by bi-partisan support; both the Republicans and the Democrats in Congress, the NGO’s and the faith-based organizations. Mercy is a good word and we have been using compassion as well. I think that for many in Congress, helping to save the life of poor kids in Africa, there is no political negotiation. It is pure compassion and it is the right thing, and even more so in the church.” 

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New York City, N.Y., Nov 10, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- Leah Fessler considers herself a feminist.

And the standard feminist narrative is that women can have, and indeed enjoy, casual sex without consequences – physical, emotional, or otherwise.

But when her experience with hookup culture (and that of her friends') in college failed to live up to its empowering promises and left her emotionally empty, Fessler decided to look a little deeper.

In an article written for Quartz, Fessler explains her quest to examine what it was about the prominent hookup culture, and the ill-defined, non-committal “pseudo-relationships,” at her Middlebury college campus that were making her miserable.

“Far more frequent, however, were pseudo-relationships, the mutant children of meaningless sex and loving partnerships. Two students consistently hook up with one another – and typically, only each other – for weeks, months, even years,” Fessler wrote.

“Yet per unspoken social code, neither party is permitted emotional involvement, commitment, or vulnerability. To call them exclusive would be 'clingy,' or even 'crazy.'”

These pseudo-relationships would typically follow the same cycle, she notes. She’d meet a guy she was interested in, they’d start texting, meet up in their dorms late at night to discuss their mutual interests and hobbies and families, and have sex. This would happen off and on over the course of a few months with the same guy, then the relationship of sorts would just fizzle and die. Wash, rinse repeat with the next. Fessler wrote that she experienced this with at least five men by her senior year.

She felt used and desperate for emotional intimacy. At the same time, she felt bad for being unable to reconcile the fact that she couldn’t achieve the carefree, empowering feeling that her feminists beliefs told her was possible.

Fessler decided to devote her senior thesis to this phenomenon that was taking its toll on herself and so many of her friends, who for all other intents and purposes were successful, involved, well-rounded students.

Fessler interviewed 75 male and female students and conducted more than 300 online surveys. She found that 100 percent of female interviewees and three-quarters of female survey respondents stated a clear preference for committed relationships. Only 8 percent of about 25 female respondents, who said they were in pseudo-relationships, reported being “happy” with their situation.

“The women I interviewed were eager to build connections, intimacy and trust with their sexual partners. Instead, almost all of them found themselves going along with hookups that induced overwhelming self-doubt, emotional instability and loneliness,” she wrote.

The male responses were just as complex, she adds. Most men interviewed and surveyed also preferred a committed relationship, but felt pressured to have casual sex with numerous beautiful women in order to discuss these “escapades” with their friends and boost their status in a culture where hookups are the norm.

Perhaps it’s time that casual sex ceases to be the progressive norm, and that women recognize the connection between their need for an emotionally fulfilling relationship and their sex lives, Fessler notes.

“The truth is that, for many women, there’s nothing liberating about emotionless, non-committal sex. The young women I spoke with were taking part in hookup culture because they thought that was what guys wanted, or because they hoped a casual encounter would be a stepping stone to commitment.”

“In doing this, we actually deny ourselves agency and bolster male dominance, all while convincing ourselves we’re acting like progressive feminists. But engaging in hookup culture while wholeheartedly craving love and stability was perhaps the least feminist action I, and hundreds of my peers, could take.”

Fessler’s thesis, “Can She Really ‘Play That Game, Too’?” recently became available for download and is available at her website: http://hookupmiddlebury.weebly.com/about.html

 

This article originally ran on CNA May 20, 2016.

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