Catholic News 2

IMAGE: CNS photo/Chaz Muth

By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Isaiah Burroughs, a 20-year-old student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, gets an idea in his head, he follows through with it pretty much immediately.

When he was praying in the university chapel during a freshman retreat last year, Burroughs, who was raised Baptist, said he realized becoming Catholic was something "I really wanted to do and I had to do."

The next day he talked to a priest on campus about joining the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and the next Easter he was confirmed -- a day he said he "couldn't stop smiling." He'd had a countdown on his phone for a month leading up to it.

Burroughs didn't leave the RCIA program behind after he finished it, but instead came back the next year to help as one of its volunteers.

Anthony Carona, a seminarian at Theological College, who helps lead Catholic University's RCIA program, said Burroughs "encapsulates the evangelical nature of the church" because he was drawn to the church by "evangelical methods" -- through friends and campus ministry -- and is giving back by now helping others who want to take this step.

Carona was not at all surprised to find out Burroughs was selected to be one of the delegates the Archdiocese of Washington is sending to the "Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America" July 1-4 in Orlando, Florida.

The convocation, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is an invitation-only event meant to give the 3,000 participants expected to attend a better understanding of what it means to be missionary disciples in today's world through workshop presentations, keynote addresses and prayer.

"It's such an honor to be invited ... I'm really excited about it," Burroughs told Catholic News Service May 2 in a break between his final exams and during a time he said he was drinking a lot of coffee and making sure he set aside enough time to pray.

Although he is a new Catholic, Burroughs fits the bill of a convocation delegate because as he put it: "I'm really passionate about evangelization and being able to discuss efforts with people from across the country."

He also hopes to come away from the gathering with new ideas about how to bring people into the church and to help the university and the archdiocese rebuild the church.

The idea of evangelizing, which might seem daunting to some Catholics, makes perfect sense to Burroughs, who views it as having "authentic friendships" with people -- sitting with them, figuring out "where they are in their faith journey and walking with them to bring them closer to Christ."

That connection is key, he said, noting that people will listen more to someone they are close to and who cares about them.

He also thinks the church can learn more about evangelizing by taking cues from young people. "I feel like my generation thinks more outside the box," he said. "We see the world in a different light."

His quick advice for the Catholic Church's evangelization efforts? "Make people feel welcome. Young people always want to feel welcome."

Burroughs, from Fort Washington, Maryland, was just finishing up his sophomore year when he spoke with CNS. Originally working toward a degree in politics, he is now a theology major, but he thinks the two could work hand in hand.

When asked if he sees himself as a politician or a theologian, he said he hoped to combine the two by promoting faith in politics, but he's also open to "wherever God's calling me."

His two years in college have already given him a large dose of politics. During his freshman year, he noticed the local seat with Washington's Advisory Neighborhood Commission had been vacant for five years. Not surprisingly, he decided to run for the spot and after winning he became one of the youngest public officials in the District of Columbia -- adding monthly meetings to his already full schedule.

The summer before his sophomore year he was selected to be a page at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland where he helped behind the scenes and got to meet plenty of political leaders.

Whatever his next step will be, Burroughs is convinced it needs to be rooted in prayer.

Right now, he said, whenever he prays he just wants to grow more in his faith -- "to read a saint biography or watch a Bishop Barron video," referring to YouTube commentaries on faith and culture by Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles.

"I feel God is calling me to do more than I could in politics," he said, but he's also convinced it won't happen automatically "if you don't have that strong faith life."

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Contributing to this story was Chaz Muth.

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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Copyright © 2017 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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Austin, Texas, May 11, 2017 / 12:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic groups have welcomed the Texas House of Representatives’ passage Wednesday of a bill that would provide conscience protections for groups and individuals involved in the foster care system.

“When this becomes law, Catholic Charities will be able to bring our expertise and resources to the aid of some of our most desperate and needy children,” said Sara Ramirez, CEO for Catholic Charities of Central Texas.

“We are willing to return to the field and work side-by-side with all people of good will so that no child is further traumatized by an inadequate foster care system,” she said in a statement from the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.

The 93-49 vote on May 10, largely along party lines, sends the bill to the Senate, where a similar version has been stalled in committee, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The bill would allow organizations and individuals in Texas’ foster care system who have sincerely held religious beliefs to remove themselves from actions that would directly violate their faith.

Its multiple applications would allow groups to avoid helping a minor obtain an abortion or providing foster services, including child placement, to same-sex couples.

Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference, supported the bill.

“We look forward to a swift approval by the Senate and the Governor’s signature, as this is a critical element of the foster care system reform,” she said.

Cynthia Colbert, CEO of Catholic Charities Houston, said the conscience protections will “enable pastors to encourage loving families to be part of a caring network for these children” and will allow faith-based providers to be involved with Texas family protection service “without worrying that potential lawsuits will take limited resources away from the people we should be helping.”

Bill sponsor State Rep. James Frank, a Republican from Wichita Falls, said the bill aimed “to give quick, clear certainty to providers so they can take care of children instead of fighting lawsuits.”

“We need everyone to the table to help with the foster care situation,” he said.

Bill opponents have characterized it as a license to discriminate that would favor Christian beliefs over others. They objected that it would allow foster parents the right to deny contraceptives and abortion or medical care like vaccines to their children if these are against their religious beliefs.

Rep. Mary Gonzalez objected to the bill, saying tax dollars “should never be used to discriminate against any Texan.”

In other states and the District of Columbia, long-serving Catholic adoption agencies have been shut down by laws against sexual orientation discrimination or new requirements in state funding that would have required them to place children with same-sex couples.

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IMAGE: CNS/L'Osservatore Romano

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Without waiting for some well-researched, detailed plan with action items and measurable goals, Catholics in Quebec must go out and share the Gospel, Pope Francis told the bishops of the province.

Meeting the 29 bishops of Quebec May 11, Pope Francis said, "You've got to go, and it's going to be messy," according to Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, former president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The two-hour meeting was the second the Quebec bishops had with Pope Francis during their "ad limina" visit to Rome to pray at the tombs of the apostles and to discuss the situation of their dioceses with the pope and Vatican officials.

The Quebec bishops also had met with the pope for three hours May 5 at an evening meeting that included the prefects or secretaries of the Vatican offices for bishops, clergy, religious, laity and family, Catholic education and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Pope Francis hosted a similar meeting with curial officials and the bishops of Chile during their "ad limina" visit in February.

The bishops have been in Italy almost three weeks because their two-week "ad limina" pilgrimage was preceded by a weeklong retreat. Although it has been 10 years since the bishops had made an "ad limina," Archbishop Durocher said his "heart is torn" because so many people back home are suffering the effects of severe flooding.

Returning to the conversations with the pope and Vatican officials, Archbishop Durocher told Catholic News Service that Quebec has gone from being "one of the most homogenously Catholics societies to one of the most secularized societies."

Pope Francis "realizes we're not alone in that" and mentioned similar situations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and parts of Spain, the archbishop said.

Before the great changes in Quebec in the 1960s, he said, the Catholic Church and its religious orders operated almost all the schools and hospitals -- there was not even a provincial government department of education. The church was "omnipresent and omni-invasive," the archbishop said.

Sensitivity to the benefits of church-state separation and a Catholic-inspired push to strengthen civil society combined with secularism have led to a situation, he said, where the church is pushed almost completely out of most people's lives.

Evangelization and the need for full involvement by lay Catholics in the church's mission were the key concerns of the pope during both meetings, Archbishop Durocher said. Evangelization also is a priority for the bishops, he said, and they all are working on ways to implement a document they published in February 2016, "The Missionary Shift of Christian Communities."

Pope Francis, he said, urged the bishops to start immediately and be creative, even without detailed plans and even knowing that some of what they try will fail.

"It fits in with what I've told priests when I've said, 'We're going to try this' or 'We're going to try that' and they say, 'We tried that before and it didn't work,'" the archbishop said. His response is a hockey reference: "You don't score every time you shoot on goal," and if you stop trying after three failures, you might as well put away your skates.

Archbishop Durocher said he left the meeting with Pope Francis convinced that "in Quebec we are not about rebuilding what was there in the '40s and '50s. It was a style of church that is, as far as I'm concerned, dead and does not need to be resurrected. What needs to be resurrected is faith in Jesus Christ."

The church must be at the service of the Gospel and the people of the province, he said. It makes no sense, for example, to rebuild hospitals and schools when the government is providing health care and education, he said. The church must meet unmet needs and preach the Gospel to a population that mostly considers God and faith to be unimportant.

Pope Francis' responses to the bishops' questions and his comments on what they shared emphasized the need to step out, to listen to people, to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the church and to promote the "full blossoming" of laypeople's involvement in the church and its mission, Archbishop Durocher said.

The role of women in the church, he said, was discussed "in the context of where is the Spirit pushing the church." Pope Francis told them it is "vital" that more women be involved, including in decision making, "but the problem is that we cannot reduce it just to a question of function" -- offices they can and cannot hold -- although that is important, too.

"He was very clear that we need to bring the voice of women into the responsibility structures of the church," the archbishop said.

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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Copyright © 2017 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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