THE BAPTISM of the LORD the Word Spoken by the Father at the Baptism of Jesus Is Addressed to Jesus, Not from Father Robert the Baptist Or the Crowd

For The Bulletin Of poured forth His Spirit into the earthly 10 January 2021 realm.” Here is the answer to the cry of the exiles to God: “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” But there is no mountain quaking, no violent cosmic disturbances in this rending; it is a ‘gracious gash.” The symbolism of “like a dove” is perhaps a memory of the spirit/wind of God that brooded birdlike over the face of the primeval waters at the first creation. It is also a witness to the gentle action of God that descends upon Jesus to empower Him, like the prophets, with gentle service of the poor and our humanity that is impoverished by our sinfulness.

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD The word spoken by the Father at the baptism of Jesus is addressed to Jesus, not From Father Robert the Baptist or the crowd. The voice of God John the Baptist is part of the stirring affirms Jesus as “My Son,” with memories excitement of a new beginning of the Good of Psalm 27, a royal coronation psalm, and News that Mark announces in the first verse then as “the Beloved” upon whom God’s of his gospel. He is the precursor, the one favor rests. In the humble setting of the going before Jesus to prepare His way. Jordan River, a humble man from a humble Galilean village is baptized by the humble Mark describes Jesus’ arrival from the precursor and proclaimed by God as one humble and unimportant village of Nazareth, with royal dignity. Three times in the in Galilee, in case anyone doesn’t know it. testing of faith at Mount Moriah, Abraham Although He is without sin, Jesus puts refers to Isaac as his “beloved son” as Isaac Himself in solidarity with the crowd and and he face the sacrificial knife out of with sinful humanity. He bares His human obedience to God. The cost of Jesus’ body and at this, His first public appearance, allegiance to His Father as yet hovers only chooses to go down into the waters of the as gently as a dove; in the not-too-distant Jordan to be baptized by John as a future it is the carrion crow of death that will representative of our collective guilt. As He descend upon Jesus before He is unbound in rises up, the heavens are torn open, and the the resurrection because of His obedient action of God is manifested in the descent of love of His Father. the Spirit “like a dove” and the voice addresses Jesus as “My beloved Son; with This gospel is a declaration of Who Jesus is You I am well pleased.” In the person of to Mark’s church, a statement of their self- Jesus, this is the beginning of a new age, a understanding as disciples of the new new relationship of earth and heaven, of the messianic times who are daughters and sons whole of creation and our human condition. of the Father because they are baptized into As Joel Marcus comments: “God has ripped the Spirit-filled and Beloved Son, and the heavens apart irrevocably at Jesus’ commissioned to serve in His name. baptism, never to shut them again. Through Through Mark’s gospel, those who follow this gracious gash in the universe, He has

Jesus will struggle to understand and accept experienced the actions of the Holy Spirit the implications of accepting One Who is most recently in your life? Son and Beloved, to understand what is revealed to Jesus as He rises from the waters, that humanity, despite its sinfulness, is loved with the prodigal love of God. The first human being in this gospel who professes faith in Jesus as the Son of God and recognizes the heavens torn open in the torn body of the crucified One is the Gentile centurion. We are caught up in this same struggle of faith. Baptism demanded everything of Jesus – as it does of us.

As we bring this year’s celebration of the About Liturgy: “The Work of Christmas” Christmas Season to a close with the Feast There is a brief poem by Howard Thurman of the Baptism of the Lord, the scriptures that comes to mind as the Christmas Season and our reflection upon them should raise reaches its last day. It is titled “The Work of significant questions about our Christmas” (in the Mood of Christmas and understanding of Jesus’ baptism for Him and Other Celebrations): “When the song of the for us. Here are four questions to help you angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is with your reflection: gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their Today’s feast calls to mind the day of our flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find own baptism. What do you remember or the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the what stories have you been told about the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the day you were baptized? nations, to bring peace among brothers, to make music from the heart.” In the first reading, the servant of the Lord is described as one who will “bring out It is difficult to imagine a more perfect and prisoners from confinement.” Where in concise text for this celebration. Celebrating your life are you in need of Jesus’ freeing the baptism of Jesus is more than a liturgical touch? remembrance of an historical event: like all liturgy, it binds past, present, and future In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter tells the together as one. In this case, our celebration gathered community, “God shows no reminds us of our own baptism and what partiality.” In your family, in our faith that means for us as we go about our day-to- community, or city, do you see some day lives. individuals or groups receive particular acclaim or censure due to their race, gender, or religious creed? How can you challenge these biases when you encounter them?

John the Baptist proclaims that Jesus will baptize “with the Holy Spirit.” What does this mean to you? How have you

About Water: Ubiquitous Paradox Water is one of the symbols of our faith steeped in paradox. It is, in a way, our first home – for all of us began life in our mother’s womb – yet it is for some of us our death and tomb. While it cleans ands purifies, water can also be the bearer of Dear Father Robert and Members of illness and disease. While in some places it St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, is as common as rain or the seashore, in other places it is rarely seen in nature. Thank you so much for your donation of $8,319.00. Your generosity will be passed Water is, principally for the faithful, death on to our neighbors in need. Our needs are and life simultaneously. In “Built of Living great during this pandemic: help to pay rent, Stones,” our document on Art and help to pay deposits for new rentals, help to Architecture, #68, it directs that the pay utilities, help to purchase food, clothing, baptismal font be well designed to remind us and the list goes on. of both womb and tomb, with the water itself prominent and obvious. Further, as Merry Christmas, baptism itself is the sacramental entry into Linda, Secretary for SVDP. the life of the church, it is desirable that the font and its water be located near the entry doors to the church, and indeed set “on an axis with the altar” to “symbolize the relationship between the various sacraments as well as the importance of the Eucharist within the life and faith development of the members” (BLS #69).

Water is what, sacramentally, makes us God’s people, each of us an adopted heir, baptized as priest, prophet, and king, raised Thank you to our faithful volunteer by symbolic death to new life. parishioners who have continued to come twice a month to clean both the parish hall and the sanctuary as well as the bathrooms: Carole Miller, Angela Bueno, Al Cosce, Jun Bajet, Mency Osborne, Rose

Salamanca, Reno and Thelma Benasfre, was taking place. Often, this word is used to and Steve Rojek. scare people into some kind of fearful, exclusive, or reactionary behavior, all in Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation expectation of the “end times.” But the word From the Center for Action and Contemplation “apocalyptic,” from the

Greek apokálupsis, really just means “unveiling.”

The beginning of the new year seems like a good time to pause, “pull back the veil,” and ask, “Where is this all going? What is the end goal for all of us, and—for that matter— for the cosmos itself?” Is our “late, great planet Earth” really headed toward Armageddon? In these fractious, unmoored, and disillusioned times, I can hardly think of

Week One: A Time of Unveiling more relevant concerns.

Pulling Back the Veil

No matter what is going on around us, it’s

important to remember that God keeps The future, however, is finer than any past. transforming creation into something both —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Making good and new. Instead of hurtling us of a Mind towards catastrophe, God always wants to bring us somewhere even better. A helpful If you are anything like me, there is some word here is “evolution.” God keeps part of you that was relieved to turn the creating things from the inside out, so they calendar over to 2021. The new year puts at are forever yearning, developing, growing, least some symbolic distance between and changing for the good. That might be ourselves and 2020, a year that brought so hard to see sometimes in the moment, but much chaos, heartbreak, and uncertainty to it’s nevertheless true. so many people throughout the world. I dare say that no one lived through the past year While more and more people seem to without experiencing some level of believe that that the universe has no form, disruption and loss of freedom, of health, of direction, or final purpose, as Christians, we loved ones, and especially our cherished can be confident that the final goal does notions of how things “ought” to be. have shape and meaning. The biblical symbol of the Universal and Eternal Christ The Daily Meditations theme for 2021 is “A (Alpha and Omega) stands at both ends of Time of Unveiling.” I’m convinced we are cosmic time. This assures us that the clear living in such a time—when reality is being and full trajectory of the world we know is revealed as it is. Systems of evil have an unfolding of consciousness with “all become both more brazen and banal, our creation groaning in this one great act of sense of “normal” has been upended, and yet giving birth” (Romans 8:22). Why do I think in the midst of it, God continues to invite us this is such an important image to to deeper transformation. A few weeks into remember? Frankly, because without it we the pandemic, some people even began to become very impatient with ourselves and use the word “apocalyptic” to describe what

4 others, particularly when we encounter because he needed to take some advanced setbacks (both personal and communal). English courses. Since my English classes Humans and history both grow slowly. are also a kind of formation course, it means that we do Gospel sharing and discuss current issues as a vehicle for learning grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Sharing my I noticed, from the very first lesson, that Brother Emmanuel had a passion for experience of working with people with AIDS. So, since we were constantly sharing about this, I 'God's smile' asked him after our third lesson if he could take me to the place where he works with 4 January 2021 AIDS patients. We arranged to go on the by Sr. Vicinta Javier following Saturday, when it was possible to bring visitors into the center. This was going Ministry to be my first planned encounter with people who have AIDS.

I had always heard about the existence of AIDS centers and the volunteers working there, and I had chance encounters with three or four people who I later found out were AIDS patients. So, this bright Saturday morning, as Brother picked me up on his motorbike, I didn't quite know what to expect. He was bringing along a plastic bucket, and explained that it contained chicken rice soup for the people afflicted with leprosy, who were staying in the building in front of the AIDS center. This soup was prepared daily by the sisters next It is Christmastime, and I thought my door to a hospital where the brothers work, Christmas gift to you would be a sharing of and was given to the very poor patients an experience that has been God's gift to me there. and that I believe is not mine to keep but to pass on to you, my friends. I call this story We were also to pass by an eatery whose "God's Smile." owner had offered to give Brother 20 packs of a special rolled sticky rice dish for the Brother Emmanuel* is a brother of a breakfast of the 15-20 AIDS patients in the congregation doing health work; he is a center. I found out why the number was person of small frame but with a boundless never fixed. You never knew when a patient heart. When he learned that my English would die and how many new patients classes with the novices of his congregation would be coming in to stay — too sick to had been reduced to once a week because of continue being outpatients. a time conflict with their spirituality courses, he asked if he could take my English class

We had a bit of difficulty finding the eatery, turned out that he was a convict. When it since this was the first time he would be was discovered he had AIDS, he was receiving this donation of food from them. I transferred to the center, and chained to the found out later that this was his constant bed. Beside him in the room was another experience, meeting people who had heard young man in an advanced state of the of his work, and would offer whatever they disease, calling out to his mother and father had to share. For this little breakfast eatery, to ask why he was still alive. He died the that was to share today's breakfast with the following day. patients. It is strange how one thing leads to another. Eventually, we found ourselves with a card- I think this experience has making project to help the patients do helped me understand in a something productive and creative, while earning something for their personal needs, very real way what God's or for their families. It is amazing, Brother heart is like. said, how a simple thing like making cards suddenly transformed the atmosphere of the Then it happened. As I balanced the plastic center and the spirit of the patients; they bag with the hot breakfast on my left thigh, were doing something beautiful, that people we were taking a turn in the roundabout were willing to buy, and they were earning going to the outskirts of the city where the money for it! hospital was located. I felt something like a bright warmth briefly hover us … and with I know this chain of events will continue, it a quiet understanding that God was just as how Brother first learned about the smiling at what we were doing, happy that existence of the center while reading a we were caring for his most loved children. newspaper, and got permission to work It was a very momentary experience, but it there. Since then, some women with AIDS has given me a growing and deep conviction have surfaced and asked for similar work to of how much his sons and daughters with earn money. I feel privileged that they trust AIDS mean to God. I think this experience us enough to feel safe in revealing has helped me understand in a very real way themselves to us. In society, they are what God's heart is like. invisible, made to be invisible. Discriminated against in the workplace, they The rest of the morning, we swept and cannot find employment and their children mopped the rooms of the patients who were cannot go to school. too weak to do the work. In one of the rooms I swept, a patient who had died the So much education regarding HIV/AIDS day before was still lying there, covered needs to be done with the general public. with a blanket, a bunch of green bananas on But I have been encouraged by encountering his stomach as food to accompany him on volunteers who come seeking to help these his journey through death. Brother and I "invisible" little ones of God. I know God's offered incense and a prayer, and consoled smile rests on them, and a piece of his heart his grieving young wife (who was HIV- is in their own. positive) and older sister. While we were sweeping the yard, the police came to check Wishing you a New Year blessed with God's and see if the patient had really died. It smile as you care for his little ones there

6 wherever you are, and for our battered, war- weary but amazingly tender and beautiful world.

*Name and details have been changed to protect privacy.

President-elect Joe Biden stands with his nominees for his national security team at his transition headquarters in the Queen Theater Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (CNS/Joshua Roberts, Reuters)

Sister Vicenta Javier The U.S. Constitution was established, as it Vicenta Javier is from the Philippines, and is explains in its preamble, "to form a more a member of the Religious of the perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Assumption. domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Catholic advice Two hundred and thirty-three years later, for Biden's first Pope Francis echoes that need for the "general Welfare" in his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. "At a time when everything seems to 100 days disintegrate and lose consistency, it is good for us to appeal to the 'solidity' born of the Building a common consciousness that we are responsible for the fragility of others as we strive to build a future in 2021 common future," he writes. 4 January 2021 by NCR Editorial Staff Building our common future: It's what the United States, indeed, the entire world needs Opinion right now. Doing so involves a fight against Justice the ideological curse that besets America Politics today, the idea that if individuals simply pursue their own interest, defend their own freedom, and ignore or even deny the existence of any "common" good, all boats will rise, the government will shrink as it should, and the people will be free from the shackles of imposed moral orders.

This libertarian vision — articulated by COVID-19 has tragically demonstrated why thinkers like Hayek and championed by we need a politics that concerns itself again politicians like Reagan and Thatcher — is with the common good. Confronting the not only contrary, root and branch, to pandemic by strengthening our nation's Catholic social doctrine, it is the antithesis health care system, moving ever closer to of that liberalism that shaped the American the day when health care really is a right and founding. not a privilege, is the most obvious area for common good political reform. Tax reform This ideology has created a nation where a that requires large corporations and wealthy significant percentage of Americans shun individuals to pay more, targeting the the wearing of masks as an infringement on revenue towards universal, national needs their personal freedom, despite more than like free day care and preschool, is a second. 323,000 deaths in less than a year. We need policies of inclusion, not exclusion, across all racial, financial, ethnic, educational and gender lines. Obviously, protecting our common home from the threat of climate change is the quintessence of common good politics.

And, in Biden, our nation's second Catholic president, the nation has an incoming president whose biography and political outlook is attuned to the fact that we, as a people, as a nation, must tame our selfish instincts and learn again how to look after Sun shines through a statue of Christ on a one another. He knows we must rebuild an grave marker alongside an American flag June economy that works for stakeholders and not 7, 2018, at St. Mary Catholic Cemetery in only stockholders; that government exists in Appleton, Wisconsin. (CNS/Bradley Birkholz) part to protect individual liberties and frustrate any putative majoritarian tyranny; Joe Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, an and that our Constitution's promotion of a exact year after the first COVID-19 case "more perfect union," promoting the was confirmed in the United States. In less "general welfare," and establishing "justice" than a year, more than 18 million cases have all speak to the common good, our shared been confirmed in America, millions have sense of responsibility to one another. lost their jobs, and thousands have pulled from retirement savings. The pandemic has We editors are allergic to any suggestion tragically highlighted our nation's that ours is a "Christian nation." But that inequalities, but it did not create them. As doesn't mean that we, as Catholics, can't Biden begins his presidency, he faces rising give advice to our president-elect. supremacist violence, overcrowded detention centers and prisons, racial We have inaugurated a series of essays from inequalities in schools and a crumbling prominent Catholic political and cultural health care system. leaders on what issues the Biden administration must prioritize in its first 100 days. We have invited writers to offer reflect

8 on issues such as policing, the death penalty, In lieu of flowers, Pat requested that any LGBT issues, abortion and education, memorials be made in her name to our drawing on Catholic social teaching, papal Expansion Project which she documents and teachings, and other parts of enthusiastically supported. Please continue our tradition. Those columns will begin Jan. to remember her in prayer along with her 4 at NCRonline.org and continue through family. and after the inauguration.

Joe Biden's language about the dignity of work, our shared obligations, and the Christ's human common good — all cornerstones of Catholic social doctrine — suggests a logic condition a sign of governance that will, we hope, lead to legislation worthy of that human dignity that alone gives moral credibility to any of God's love, government. In the weeks ahead, we hope the new president will do what he can to unite the country, to rebuild the economy pope says at and to inspire all Americans to embrace solidarity to build "a common future." Angelus 4 January 2021 by Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

Vatican

Patricia Honchell I will be accompanying the body of Pat Honchell to Dinuba, outside of Fresno, for a Graveside Committal Service for her immediate family on Tuesday morning, January 19th, at 11:00 a.m. Ouimet Bros. Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from Concord Funeral Chapel is serving the the library of the Apostolic Palace at the family and assisting with the arrangements. Vatican Jan. 3, 2021. "We do not know what There will be no visitation or Vigil at this 2021 holds for us, but what each one of us, time but when the pandemic has subsided, and all of us together, can do is to take care of we will celebrate a Memorial Funeral each other and of creation, our common Liturgy for her to which everyone will be home," he said. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) invited.

By taking on the frail human condition, God people who have been laid low by the showed his love for humanity and his desire lockdown or about the sick?" he asked. to share in people's joys and sufferings, "They thought only about taking a holiday Pope Francis said. for their own pleasure. This pained me greatly." During his Sunday Angelus address Jan. 3, the pope said that God made the "bold" In his main talk, the pope reflected on the decision to become human "to tell us, to tell prologue of the Gospel of St. John, in which you, that he loves us like that, in our frailty, the evangelist says that "the Word became in your frailty, right there, where we are flesh and made his dwelling among us." most ashamed, where you are most ashamed." Calling Christ "the Word," the pope explained, "means that from the beginning, "He enters into our shame, to become our God wants to communicate with us, he brother, to share the path of life," he said. wants to talk to us."

After praying the Angelus prayer and "The only-begotten son of the Father wants renewing his good wishes for the new year, to tell us about the beauty of being children Pope Francis said that Christians, without of God," the pope said. "He is 'the true light' resorting to "the mentality of fatalism or and wants to remove the darkness of evil magic," know that "things will improve to from us. He is 'the life,' who knows our lives the extent that, with God's help, we work and wants to tell us that he has always loved together for the common good, placing the them. He loves us all." weakest and most disadvantaged at the center." However, he continued, St. John's specific use of the word "flesh" instead of a more "We do not know what 2021 holds for us, "elegant" expression to define Christ's but what each one of us, and all of us humanity is meant to highlight "our human together, can do is to take care of each other condition in all its weakness, in all its and of creation, our common home," he frailty." said. "He tells us that God became fragile so he Nevertheless, he also warned of the could touch our fragility up close," the pope temptation to "take care only of our own said. "So, from the moment that the Lord interests, to continue to wage war," or to live became flesh, nothing about our life is "hedonistically, that is, seeking only to extraneous to him. There is nothing that he satisfy our own pleasure." scorns; we can share everything with him, everything." Pope Francis said he had read in a newspaper about a country, "I forget which," Moreover, the pope said that Christ didn't where people were leaving in private planes "put our humanity on like a garment that can to "flee lockdown and enjoy the holidays." be put on and taken off"; rather he "united himself forever to our humanity," suffered, "But those people, good people, did they not died, rose from the dead and ascended into think about those who stayed at home, about heaven, body and soul. the economic problems faced by many

As the Christmas season continued, Pope This year, 2020, was an annus horribilis for Francis encouraged Catholics to "pause in the entire world. We have been hit by a silence before the creche to savor the worldwide pandemic, economic collapse, to tenderness of God who came close (to us), say nothing of political chaos. It has truly who became flesh. And without fear, let's been a horrible year. invite him among us, into our homes, into our families." Such a year tests the soul of a people. Pope Francis says that a crisis makes us either better or worse; it is impossible to remain the same. In a crisis, the pope writes, "you 2020 has tested reveal your own heart: how solid it is, how merciful, how big or small." the heart and What has 2020 revealed about America? What can we learn from this year about soul of America America's heart as revealed in its health care 31 December 2020 system, economy, political system and by Thomas Reese, Religion News religion? Service Health care Most Americans think we have the best health care system in the world. We have highly trained specialists and our medical technology is unsurpassed. The courageous and enduring dedication of our doctors and nurses was one thing we could celebrate in this dark time.

However, even though we spend twice as much on health care as other developed countries, we were ill-prepared for a pandemic. Emergency medical stockpiles were inadequate. Likewise, public health Kyla Harris, 10, writes a tribute Nov. 24 to her departments were overwhelmed and grandmother Patsy Gilreath Moore, who died underfunded. at age 79 of COVID-19, at a symbolic cemetery created to remember and honor lives Hospitals had wonderful machines, but not lost to COVID-19 in the Liberty City enough of them, and were missing basic neighborhood of Miami. (AP/Lynne Sladky) necessities like personal protective equipment. They bid up prices by competing "Annus horribilis" was how Queen against one another for limited supplies Elizabeth II described the year 1992. The because there was no system for Latin phrase meaning "horrible year" cooperation. captured how the British monarch felt about 12 months of embarrassments and losses for The crisis also pointed up how much our her family. health care system is designed to benefit the

11 rich and the insured more than the poor and infection. Flattening the curve was not the uninsured. Without Obamacare, the situation solution; the curve had to be bent would have been much worse. It would have downward. been better if all the states had expanded Medicaid as authorized under the Affordable The pandemic revealed how essential many Care Act. Because of Republican poorly paid workers are. These men and opposition, 12 states have not expanded women who go out every day to care for Medicare, which especially helps the poor. others and keep us all fed also kept the Most importantly, large numbers of economy running. Americans ignored the advice of health care experts to reduce the pandemic's spread by It is a scandal that these workers, mostly wearing face masks, social distancing and people of color, risk their lives for low pay washing hands. Even before the pandemic, while the rich continue to get richer in the Americans were reluctant to change their stock market. Increasing the minimum behavior (eating habits and exercise) to wage, especially in industries that have protect their health, so it is not surprising flourished during the pandemic, should be a that they ignored the experts here. priority. Those who have benefited should also pay more taxes to pay for economic When it comes to health, Americans put relief. their faith in technology, not in personal behavior. As a result, for all our wealth and Political system expertise, our system failed miserably when President Donald Trump has been blamed compared with many other countries. for mismanagement of the pandemic and his disregard for democratic norms and institutions. But too many of our leaders have been complicit in his offenses rather than being profiles in courage. Congress, meanwhile, showed a shocking reluctance to enact relief for those devastated by the virus and the economy.

But it wasn't just the government. Our emphasis on individualism and personal autonomy have failed us in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, which called for solidarity and a common effort only government can provide. The rise of the Black Lives Matter Ventilator tubes are attached to a COVID-19 movement in response to the killing of patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical George Floyd proved we could act together Center in the Mission Hills section of Los for a higher purpose, but otherwise our Angeles Nov. 19. (AP/Jae C. Hong) unwillingness to sacrifice for the common good has not served us. Economy Early on, many authorities set up a false What we call Trumpism is a disease at choice between public health and the America's core, with a history going back to economy. The economy cannot recover until slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, the workers and consumers are safe from

Know Nothing Party and McCarthyism. community and have learned to live without Conspiracy theories are not new in America. it. Too often Americans have been seduced by leaders who appeal to their baser instincts This has been a horrible year, but we should with hatred toward the other. learn from it as we move forward. We cannot return to normal. We must become Nor have some liberal elites helped with better or we will be worse. words and actions that much of America sees as disrespectful of American values and traditions. People are not won over by someone who speaks down to them.

Conservatives believe their opponents are corrupt and evil; liberals think that their opponents are stupid. Christianity, on the other hand, teaches that people are both corrupt and stupid. We call that original sin. But Christianity also teaches us to be Thomas Reese compassionate and forgiving. We are Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese's column for supposed to love one another, even our Religion News Service, "Signs of the enemies. Times," appears regularly at National Catholic Reporter. Religion The performance of religion during this year has not been stellar. Many evangelical leaders have been more interested in supporting Trump's reelection than in preaching the gospel. Too many have also ignored health directives and put their congregations at risk of infection.

Catholic leaders have done better in observing health directives, but a few have sued when local governments have restricted the number who can gather in their churches.

The restrictions on congregational meetings have shown churches how important human contact and community are to religion. For Catholics this is especially true, because we are a church not just of the Word, but also of sacraments. It would be tragic if Catholics do not return when restrictions are lifted because they do not truly feel the absence of

standing with people as they had one last moment with their family member. The Catholics should pain, the bewilderment that this virus could be so deadly. I continue to see patients who love their had the virus during the first wave last spring who still have long-term effects that demand medical care. neighbor by This virus is real. This virus is easily transmitted to close contacts, those we love getting and live with. This virus is deadly and the vaccine I am about to receive is one step, vaccinated along with the mask I wear everywhere, to 5 January 2021 stop the spread of COVID-19. by Mary Catherine Redmond There is a sense of relief that the overwhelming fear and responsibility I have carried for more than nine months to protect the lives of the sisters with whom I live, my family, co-workers, my patients, and those whose names I will never know but met in supermarkets, as I did everything in my power to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The mask I have worn everywhere has not been to protect me. It is to protect others, to

A health care worker at Dignity Health respect their life. It is a sign of concern and Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health care for others. All I have done and been Center in Glendale, California, draws the these last nine months has everything to do COVID-19 vaccine from a vial Dec. 17, 2020. with we, and little to do with me. My actions (CNS/Reuters/Lucy Nicholson) are founded in the Catholic doctrine of love of neighbor, some I know, most I do not As I sit socially distant in a waiting room know but care for as my neighbor. with other health care workers — custodial, clerical, escort, RNs and medical providers As I wait to receive the vaccine, I sit humbly — there is a reverence as we wait for our with a heart full of gratitude for all who name to be called to receive the vaccine for spent tireless hours and worked together to COVID-19. I remember those who have create this vaccine, which has unprecedented died from this horrific virus: lives lost, efficacy to stop this virus and save lives. I sit patients I tried to protect and save, names in reverence knowing that this vaccine is not and stories I will never forget. only about protecting me. Like the mask I have worn religiously, this vaccine is about I remember patients talking to me one stopping the spread of COVID-19; it is moment and gasping for air the next, stating, about protecting others — my neighbor. "I can't breathe," only to become among the many bodies in our morgue. I remember

I have a moral obligation to receive the As we begin a new year, may we take all we vaccine and to witness to others who are have learned from 2020 — this painful yet fearful, most notably the people of color I insightful year — and act with charity and work with and serve. People in racial groups respect for another. May we accept our who have been used for medical moral responsibility and move forward experimentation in the past are justifiably as we, not me. fearful. [Mary Catherine Redmond is a Sister of the It is my moral obligation to protect and Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. witness that this is about the care of all, not She has ministered in various aspects of some. Not those chosen but all. Each person health care and is currently serving as chief who receives the vaccine, just like each physician assistant in hospital emergency person who wears a mask, stops the spread medicine, serving the underserved of New of this highly contagious and deadly disease York City.] that continues to kill overwhelming numbers of people each day. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation

It is my moral obligation to protect others, to stop this deadly disease that has traumatized so many, laid bare our humanity and exposed once again sins that we try so hard to hide: racism, economic disparity, cultural and gender intolerance, individuality at the cost of others.

This is our moment to put into action love of neighbor. Our moment to think of we, not me. Our moment to care for each other in

this year that has given us insights and Week One: A Time of Unveiling reflection in our own lives and the beliefs we live that affect the lives of so many Unveiling Christianity

others. Another way to look at “unveiling” is as a The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' sort of “recognition event,” where committees on Doctrine and on Pro-Life something we thought we knew reveals itself Activities said in a Dec. 14 statement, to be radically different than our long-held "Receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines assumptions. Our friend and CAC teacher ought to be understood as an act of charity Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault explores how toward the other members of our this is a gospel phenomenon, one that takes community. In this way, being vaccinated place repeatedly, especially for Jesus. When safely against COVID-19 should be people are attuned and awake, reality is considered an act of love of our neighbor often “unveiled” for them. Cynthia suggests and part of our moral responsibility for the that this might be a necessary step for all common good." Christians in the twenty-first century. We’ve become so used to the “story” of our faith that a veil has been pulled over our eyes and

15 we no longer experience its power to change them and God. Cynthia offers this quote our lives. She writes: from Father Bruno Barnhart:

Perhaps the most deadening aspect of our As we accompany Jesus through the Christianity . . . is that we live it with gospels, we are present at one dramatic twenty-twenty hindsight. We know the meeting after another. One person after story. We know how the plot comes out. We another experiences a mysterious power in know who the winners are. . . . The Bible Jesus that, from this moment, changes the contains the complete and divinely course of his or her life. If we are fully authorized biography of Jesus and furnishes present at the moment when we read such a the complete guide to what [we] should do narrative, we ourselves experience the to become his disciple. Everything needed liberating power of this awakening. [1] for [our] personal salvation is right there. . . .

We’re living in an era right now which some [1] Bruno Barnhart, Second Simplicity: The would call a major paradigm shift, where Inner Shape of Christianity (Paulist Press: there’s an opportunity as perhaps there 1999), 48. Bourgeault, 8–9. hasn’t been before to really open up the core questions again and ask, “What is it that we Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: mean by ‘Christianity’? What is this filter Transforming Heart and Mind—a New [or veil] that we’re looking through? Who is Perspective on Christ and His this Master that we profess and confess in Message (Shambhala: 2008), 2, 3–4, 7. our life as we call ourselves Christian?” . . . Image credit: Basket and Tree Root (detail), Photograph by Thomas When we approach the [Jesus] story with the Merton, copyright the Merton Legacy Trust attitude, “I’ve heard that already, I know and the Thomas Merton Center at what that means,” we fall asleep rather than Bellarmine University. Used with allowing ourselves to be shocked awake. . . . Permission. For all such spiritual sleepwalking bypasses that crucial first step, that moment when the Like the exposed roots of a tree, reality heart has to find its way not though external unveiled can be many things at the same conditioning but through a raw immediacy time: sharp, smooth, ugly, beautiful, painful, of presence. Only there—in “the cave of the and healing.

heart,” as the mystics are fond of calling it— does a person come in contact with his or her own direct knowingness. And only out Prayer For Our Community of this direct knowingness is sovereignty Loving God, you fill all things with a born, one’s own inner authority. fullness and hope that we can never comprehend. Thank you for leading us into a Richard here: This is what Jesus offers time where more of reality is being people through his ministry—an experience unveiled… of inner authority, powerful enough to heal them and set them free from whatever was Story From Our Community keeping them trapped. Often it seems as if Recently my 47-year-old son died by suicide. Jesus is simply “parting the veil” between The true cause of death was mental illness, substance abuse and the inability to feel

16 worth in simply existing. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations have been part of my morning routine for a few years, as I struggle to rebuild a bridge to belief. Now, these daily messages are my lifeline. If not to faith, then to hope and, most especially, to love. I can’t say that I understand how suffering provides the pathway to being one with all things in love, but they help me to stop trying to understand and start laying the paver stones. I am grateful. —Mary S.

As Jesuit

Retired Rear Adm. Margaret G. Kibben is chaplain retires, seen in a file photo. (Wikimedia Commons/United States Navy) House of WASHINGTON — With the year-end announcement that Jesuit Fr. Pat Conroy Representatives would be retiring as chaplain of the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House picks first Nancy Pelosi announced that for the first time, a woman will take over the post.

female chaplain In a Dec. 31, 2020, press release, Pelosi 5 January 2021 announced that Rear Adm. Margaret Grun by Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Kibben would replace Conroy, who has Service served as the 60th House chaplain since 2011.

Kibben, a Presbyterian minister, will be "the first woman to serve in this historic position, which has been enshrined in our Democracy since the First Congress in 1789," said Pelosi, D-California.

"Kibben brings decades of decorated experience in the military and the ministry, as a retired Rear Admiral who served as the U.S. Navy's Chief Chaplain and the chaplain of the Marine Corps. Her integrity, experience and patriotism will serve the

Congress and the country well, as she "May all members be mindful that the ministers to the needs of members," the institutions and structures of our great nation statement said. guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, The House chaplain is responsible for while others continue to struggle. May their offering a prayer at the beginning of each efforts these days guarantee that there are day when Congress is in session. The not winners and losers under new tax laws, nondenominational prayer in the House but benefits balanced and shared by all chamber is broadcast live Americans," Conroy prayed as lawmakers on HouseLive.gov and on C-SPAN. It's also considered the tax bill. archived in the Congressional Record and is part of the official rules of the House to get Back then, via Twitter, fellow Jesu it the day started. Fr. James Martin, editor at large of America, the Jesuits' national magazine, said if that Conroy, a lawyer, made headlines in April prayer is what led to the firing, "then a 2018 when then-Speaker of the House Paul Catholic Speaker of the House fired a Ryan asked for and received his resignation Catholic chaplain for praying for the poor." even though the priest made it clear that he didn't want to leave the post. Conroy rescinded his resignation following an outcry and outlasted Ryan, who said he Some speculated then that a prayer at a time would not be seeking reelection later that when politicians were weighing a tax cut year. that largely benefited the rich, an effort spearheaded by Ryan, is what set off the "The service of Fr. Pat Conroy has been a dismissal. blessing to members on both sides of the aisle," said Pelosi in announcing the retirement.

"Throughout his service, Fr. Pat fulfilled the calling of St. Ignatius of Loyola: 'for the greater glory of God.' His service has been a spiritual and moral anchor for members, grounding our institution in the values of faith and country and reminding our members of our responsibilities to our great nation and constituents. All members wish Fr. Pat well as he enjoys his well-deserved retirement from the House."

Jesuit Fr. Patrick J. Conroy, retiring chaplain In a 2017 interview with Catholic News for the U.S. House of Representatives, is Service, Conroy said part of the chaplain's pictured in a May 8, 2017, photo. Retired Rear job was to pray for the president and Adm. Margaret G. Kibben will replace him as members of Congress and that meant next House chaplain and will be the first leaving personal political views out of it. female chaplain for either chamber. (CNS/Rhina Guidos)

"Most of the people that are acquaintances or friends with me here [at the Capitol] are people that I wouldn't be friends with Looking back at otherwise, or I wouldn't hang around with otherwise, or I would only know politically 2020 in the life and be inclined not to like, or not to take an interest in," he said. of the church in With the unique nature of this job, he said, the relationships he formed were "more important than my engaging in a political the US 30 December 2020 argument or discussion." by Michael Sean Winters

Instead, he said he listened to the concerns of his unusual spiritual flock and in some cases, he helped politicians discern.

"I think it's why the chaplain's office is important. There's that person in this place who can actually be honest and actually be human, not political, because everything else here is political, everything," he told CNS.

Kibben, who entered active duty in 1986 through the Navy's Theological Student Program, took over the post Jan. 3, 2021. Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic She holds a bachelor's degree from Goucher Bishops, and other bishops from California, Hawaii and Nevada arrive to concelebrate College, a master's in divinity and a Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major while doctorate in ministry from Princeton making their "ad limina" visits in Rome Jan. Theological Seminary and a master's in 30, 2020. (CNS/Paul Haring) national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College. The dominant fact of ecclesial life in the United States the past several years has been the resistance to Pope Francis among large sections of the faithful and even the bishops. The pandemic briefly brought Catholic leaders together, but by year's end, the opposition to Francis was as strong as ever.

Yet 2020 began with that great act designed to deepen communion with the Holy Father, the ad limina visits in which all the bishops go to Rome for meetings with the pope and with the different dicasteries that help the

pope exercise his ministry. Various bishops worship to shopping made less sense and said they enjoyed the frank conversations appealing to religious liberty misrepresented with the pope, with whom they met in small church teaching entirely. groups for a couple of hours, rather than the 10-minute, one-on-one sessions at which not Sadly, the religious liberty caucus at the much was accomplished during previous ad bishops' conference is merely an arm of the limina visits. culture warriors at the Knights of Columbus and the Federalist Society. As I have noted It didn't take. Some bishops used the visits before — and it held true this year — they to put words in the pope's mouth, saying he do not preach Christ and him crucified (cf. 1 agreed with their decision to name abortion Corinthians 2:2) but James Madison and him "our preeminent priority" in the election, justified. even though the key distinction was whether or not the issue is "a" priority (with which we can all agree) or "the" priority, which is more problematic.

Some also went to Catholic News Agency anonymously to report that the pope badmouthed Jesuit Fr. James Martin, although two others, Archbishop John Wester and Bishop Steven Biegler went on the record to say the pope had done no such thing. I do not recall previous ad liminas involving these kiss-and-tells, do you?

By the time the visits were concluded in February, the coronavirus had begun to change the way the entire country went about its business and by March, the entire Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory country went into a shutdown. I was expresses thanks after employees at the pleasantly surprised that the bishops did not Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Hyattsville, rush to the offices of the Becket Fund to Maryland, surprised him Dec. 3, 2020, with a complain that the government had ordered banner and red balloons to welcome him home public Mass services suspended and prepare from the Nov. 28 consistory at the Vatican for another religious liberty battle. during which Pope Francis created 13 new cardinals. (CNS/Catholic Standard/Andrew Biraj) By May, however, the common good took

its first assault when the Minnesota bishops One bright spot this year came at the announced they would defy their governor's Knights of Columbus' expense when restrictions on worship. I will grant that not Washington Archbishop Wilton every governor or mayor implemented Gregory criticized them in no uncertain sensible regulations: Attendance caps that terms for hosting President Donald Trump treated large churches the same as tiny ones for a photo-op. The event was held at the made no sense. Still, comparing church Knights' St. John Paul II National Shrine in

Washington the day after the president's At the U.S. bishops' conference henchmen had cleared peaceful protesters meeting after the election, it did become away from St. John's Church on Lafayette worse. The leadership of the bishops' Square so that the president could pose for conference overlooked its own bylaws to the cameras holding a Bible. establish a task force on how to deal with the incoming Biden administration; Francis "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any called to congratulate President-elect Biden. Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a It is clear that on most issues, Biden will be fashion that violates our religious principles, much closer to the mind of the church than which call us to defend the rights of all was his predecessor. Yet, former people even those with whom we might Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput disagree," Gregory said of the Knights' became the public face of a campaign to hosting the president. "Saint Pope John Paul deny Communion to the president-elect with II was an ardent defender of the rights and a poorly reasoned essay at First Things. If dignity of human beings. His legacy bears you want to sum up the sad state of the U.S. vivid witness to that truth. He certainly hierarchy today consider this fact: Our would not condone the use of tear gas and president-elect, whom many bishops think is other deterrents to silence, scatter or not a "real Catholic" and who should be intimidate them for a photo opportunity in denied communion, is more likely to front of a place of worship and peace." favorably quote Francis than many bishops.

Francis evidently approved of Gregory's The U.S. bishops' conference meeting also stance, awarding him a red hat five months featured elections for committee chairs, and later. the results confirmed the degree to which the conference will remain a Francis-free I feared that some bishops would be even zone. The most illustrative contest pitted more aggressive and obnoxious during the conservative darling Bishop Thomas Daly of election cycle than they were. Detroit Spokane, Washington, against Archbishop Archbishop Allen Vigneron foolishly gave Gregory Hartmayer of Atlanta for the an opening prayer at an event for an anti- chairmanship of the Committee on abortion group at which the group Education. As one bishop told me before the announced an endorsement of Trump. There vote, "That contest will show if there is were some regrettable tweets and room for a moderate in the conference." unfortunate pastoral letters from other There isn't. Daly won 139 votes to 103. bishops. EWTN's Michael Warsaw covered himself in disgrace shilling for Trump's It has become clear that conservatives reelection but that was to be expected. organize and campaign for these committee Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, chair elections and liberals note that there is always manages to put the "lie" in not supposed to be any campaigning. Guess "outlier," endorsing a video made by a who will keep winning? ranting Wisconsin priest who claimed no Catholic could vote for Joe Biden. Still, it could have been worse, much worse.

Conscience, discernment and synodality are attributes of a church that behaves as if the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world, and at work in surprising ways. This is a thought the conservative opposition to the Holy Father cannot abide.

The problem is not that some bishops and lay Catholic leaders have discerned the situation of LGBT Catholics or divorced and remarried Catholics and reached different Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, outgoing general conclusions about how to minister to such secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic people. No, the problem is that there are Bishops, announces the results of elections some who do not think there is anything to Nov. 16, 2020, for seven new chairmen-elect discern, that they have all the answers and one chairman of various committees. needed, that discernment suggests possible (CNS screenshot) alternatives. Highly teleological, they

believe that the natural law admits no The resistance to Francis is only partially exceptions, indeed that any suggestion of rooted in his social teaching. After all, the ambiguity undermines the law. social teachings of Pope Benedict XVI and

Pope John Paul II were quite critical of the The stance is above all Kantian, quite spread-eagle capitalism embraced by the different from the approach of, say, Aquinas Republican Party so many U.S. bishops seek who believed that natural law yielded to bolster. No, the real source of the principles that need to be applied with the opposition lies in Francis' ecclesial vision, virtue of prudence to concrete situations and and that has been obvious since that it is precisely the role of conscience to the promulgation of Amoris Laetitia in 2016. make that application. Much of the early controversy surrounding Amoris Laetitia focused on the There is no excusing Francis' critics, but I footnote opening the door to the reception of confess I am also disappointed at times in holy Communion by those who were some of his episcopal allies. Just before divorced and civilly remarried. That point is Christmas, the Chicago Archdiocese still controversial to conservatives but their announced a new solar array had been hostility is more broadly grounded. installed on the campus of the diocesan

seminary at Mundelein. It has been six years Francis' teaching on the role of conscience since Francis published "Laudato Si', on in moral decision-making was consistent Care for Our Common Home," and the vast with the tradition, but conscience had not physical plant of the Chicago Archdiocese been highlighted by his immediate has only one sustainable energy feature? predecessors nor taught in any depth at most Producing less than a megawatt of seminaries. Relatedly, Francis sees electricity? Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich discernment and synodality as better has been one of Francis' strongest defenders capturing the ecclesiology of Vatican II, and in this country, but why has he not for many bishops, that ecclesiological vision demonstrated leadership converting the is disturbing. many buildings he owns — and the

archdiocese is corporation sole — to Next week, we will look at what the new sustainable energy? Why is he not leading year may portend but I confess that, looking by example? back at the year now coming to a close, it is hard to get past a deep-seated sense of Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley is a member ecclesial ennui. of the pope's kitchen cabinet, the Council of Cardinals. In his commitment to the poor throughout his life as a priest and bishop, no American cleric more closely resembles the Holy Father than O'Malley. But he is also the publisher of the Boston Pilot, which remains a hotbed of anti-Francis ideology. Regular columnists include John Paul II biographer George Weigel and Catholic University of America President John Garvey, neither of whom has distinguished Michael Sean Winters himself with any pro-Francis advocacy. In Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of May, Weigel published an attack on religion and politics for NCR. the Amazon synod in The Pilot — and O'Malley had been a synod father! I would have sacked The Pilot's editor that day.

Some of the new appointments this past year show that the winds of change are blowing even in the U.S. church: Archbishop Mitch Rozanski in St. Louis and Hartmayer in Atlanta are very promising choices. The verdict is still out on Archbishop Nelson Perez in Philadelphia and, crucially, Bishop Steven Raica of Birmingham, Alabama, ground zero for opposition to the pope, EWTN. The conference needs another 30 pro-Francis bishops and needs them soon.

In March, the Catholic Church will celebrate the eighth anniversary of the election of Francis. For too many U.S. Catholics, this pontificate remains a bit of bad weather they hope will pass. The Vatican nuncio, the president of the U.S. bishops' conference, and the pope's allies among the hierarchy need to look for new and creative ways to deepen the ecclesial communion between the church in this country and the Apostolic See.

year, a new major theme emerged, arguably the most explosive: significant upheaval at Looking ahead EWTN.

to 2021 in the We are all still trying to figure out what is going on at EWTN, the conservative Catholic media conglomerate. They life of the cancelled Gloria Purvis' "Morning Glory" and Fr. Larry Richards' "Open Line" radio shows. Purvis was the most prominent church in the US African American at EWTN and Richards Jan 6, 2021 was a lonely defender of Pope Francis on the by Michael Sean Winters otherwise hostile network. Media organizations go through shakeups all the time, but ousting two voices of sanity, including one of the few minority voices on the network, while retaining Raymond Arroyo, who shills for President Donald Trump and leads a seminar in anti-Pope Francis conspiracy theories weekly, is strange at best. At worst, it is highly sectarian.

The network announced some new shows and I shall be keeping an eye on one in particular. "EWTN News In-Depth" will be hosted by Montserrat "Montse" Alvarado, executive director at the Becket Fund for Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, Religious Liberty. I attended a conference president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic with Alvarado on overcoming polarization Bishops, celebrates Christmas Eve Mass Dec. hosted by Georgetown University's Initiative 24, 2020, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the on Catholic Social Thought and Public Angels in Los Angeles. (CNS/Victor Alemán, Life, and she is certainly capable of Angelus News) mounting an interesting television program. What will the new year bring in the life of I worry, however, that her time at Becket the church in the United States? As we has not inoculated her from the conflation of learned last year, we never know what religion and politics that is the central unforeseen events will enlighten or becloud problem at EWTN. It was telling that the all else. We can discern three major themes EWTN-owned Catholic News Agency's that will largely shape the year ahead: the (CNA) article about the new show states that relationship between the United States it will "will offer the Catholic perspective bishops and the Biden administration, the and analysis on the top stories of the week." Year of the Family, the appointments of new That is a mistake, but a telling one. EWTN bishops in some significant sees, and how offers "a" Catholic perspective, not "the" the church will continue to cope with Catholic perspective. COVID-19. Then, just before the end of the

Just as interesting was the surprise departure fact: "I didn't know then, and I still don't of J.D. Flynn, editor, and Ed Condon, know." Isn't that a strange example of good Washington bureau chief, from CNA. Flynn journalism? said he was leaving for personal and family reasons, but such departures are rarely The fact that Flynn chose such a story abrupt and are usually accompanied by an confirms something that will, overtime, turn announcement of a transition, none of which this pillar into the kind of thing at which the occurred. This week, Flynn and Condon Lord was scourged: He and Condon are not announced they are launching a new really journalists at all, they are canon platform, "The Pillar." Flynn spills a lot of lawyers, and sometimes they seem to not ink explaining how they plan to be different recognize the line between journalism and from other journalists, recounting a propaganda no matter how bright that line conversation with an archbishop "some is, as Paul Moses demonstrated brilliantly at years ago" at the hotel in Baltimore where Commonweal. the bishops' conference meets. Flynn asked Changes at a media organization, even a about the propriety of holding the meetings large and influential one, might seem like an at such a lavish venue and the archbishop odd thing to focus on when examining the brushed it off. Flynn writes: year ahead in the Catholic Church, but EWTN is not just any media organization. There is a kind of journalism which would According to its latest publicly available tax use that story to paint a one-dimensional filing, on its board sit both Archbishop José caricature of Catholic bishops, or use Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles and clericalism among bishops to diminish the president of the U.S. bishops' conference, veracity of their religious claims. There are and Archbishop Charles Chaput, former commentators who would dismiss out of Archbishop of Philadelphia. Why Gomez hand, with no research or analysis, the and Chaput have not been willing or able to possibility that an expensive hotel might arrest the anti-Francis tenor of some of the actually be the economical choice for show's programs is an important and bishops' meetings, stirring up anger, not interesting question. answers, in an effort to get clicks and attention.

There are also journalists who would never question the expense at all. And then there are those who might raise the question, but have no idea how to get the answer. We want The Pillar to be a different kind of journalism.

Excuse me for pointing out that, before he talks about the misbegotten ways other journalists might treat the key fact here — Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, "A waterfront Baltimore hotel might very president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic well be the best choice for the bishops, and Bishops, speaks Nov. 16, 2020, at the bishops' it might even be the most economical" — he conference headquarters in Washington during admits that he never investigated that key the bishops' virtual fall meeting. (CNS/Bob Roller)

Which leads to the second item that will shape the year ahead: No one should be surprised that the U.S. bishops as a body would be so friendly with the Republican Party that they have lost their moral compass. Their fixation on a single issue — abortion — has led them into the camp of Republicans that is incapable of even raising their voice against the attacks on our democracy coming from President Trump. As David Gibson, director the Center on Religion & Culture at Fordham University, tweeted: When even Paul Ryan can be stirred to speak it's all the more interesting that the Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill, associate general US Bishops have (collectively) not made a secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic peep about the threat to the Republic, which Bishops since March 1, 2016, is the new is not really a good look for a church which general secretary, elected by the bishops Nov. has not always been closely associated with 16, 2020. Burrill is pictured during a break at liberal democracy. the conference of bishops' headquarters in Washington Nov. 17, 2020, during the Not a "good look"? How it looks is the least bishops' virtual fall meeting. (CNS/Bob of it. Throughout the 20th century, U.S. Roller) bishops led the way in reducing the Catholic Church's historic antipathy to democracy, The election of a new general secretary at finally overcoming it at the Second Vatican the U.S. bishops' conference, Msgr. Jeffrey Council and in 60 years of papal teaching. Burrill, bodes well. Burrill is conservative but not crazy. But staff do not drive the Unwilling to defend democracy in the public conference, the bishops do, and I fear a square and unwilling to defend the pope at majority of them will be looking for the largest Catholic media outlet, the U.S. opportunities to clash with the Biden bishops' conference is nonetheless administration. There are a host of issues on determined to bring President-elect Joe which the stance of the incoming Biden to heel. The announcement at the end administration is far closer to that of the of this year's virtual plenary that the Catholic Church than the outgoing one, but conference was establishing an ad hoc that will not matter. In addition to the committee to deal with the incoming culture warrior bishops, too many others administration was tone deaf and also simply do not want to risk the phone calls ridiculous. Despite the desire of some and emails that standing up to the right-wing bishops for the conference to demand Biden base of the church entails. I know one be denied Communion, that decision rests bishop who, when he does anything he with the new president's new pastor, knows will ignite a firestorm among Cardinal Wilton Gregory, and he has already conservatives in his diocese, brings flowers indicated he has no plans to turn the altar and chocolates to the secretaries who answer rail into a partisan battleground. the phones at the chancery. It is a good idea. Conservative Catholics have, in their

26 complicity with Trump, squandered any but how many bishops qualify as proto- right to veto a bishop's actions by their schismatic? hostility. Which brings us to the perennial topic of The Holy Father has said that beginning on which key dioceses will receive new bishops March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, the this coming year. Bishop Michael Sheridan universal church will embark upon a year of of Colorado Springs turned 75 last March, reflection on Amoris Laetitia, the 2016 so his replacement could come at any time. apostolic exhortation he promulgated The diocese is not large, serving only about following the twin synods on the family. At 176,000 Catholics, but it is an important those synods and when the document came critical assignment because Sheridan has out, much of the focus was placed on a been a leader among the most extreme controversial footnote that opened the door abortion-only bishops, and nearby Denver is for divorced and remarried Catholics to ground zero for opposition to the pope. receive the sacraments. Having a Francis-friendly bishop down the road would help create balance in the Jesuit Fr. James Keenan organized three province. conferences for bishops and theologians to discuss the text back in 2018, following a The only metropolitan who turns 75 this very successful three-day meeting to reflect year is Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of upon the document Keenan organized with Louisville. Home to 200,000 Catholics, the Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich in 2017. I archdiocese is not large, but the province was fortunate enough to attend that first includes all of Kentucky and Tennessee. meeting, and it was so refreshing to engage Two of the bishops who are most in sync the many issues the document raises besides with Pope Francis, Bishop John Stowe of communion for the divorced and remarried. Lexington, Kentucky, and Bishop David It will be interesting to see if the bishops' Talley of Memphis, are among the conference takes up this opportunity for suffragans, although it is unlikely Talley reflection the Holy Father has provided now, would be elevated to the metropolitan see, or if, as they did five years ago, they leave given that he inherited a mess in Memphis in the reflection to others because it would be 2019. too divisive for the conference to engage. I fear that the subject will still be too hot to The bishop of one of the fastest growing handle. As I noted last week, too many cities in America, Phoenix, Bishop Thomas bishops do not think there is anything to Olmsted, does not turn 75 until January of discern, that there is no need for synodal 2022, but the nuncio should start looking discussions, that they have all the answers now. Some 1.2 million Catholics live in the they need in the catechism. diocese, and they have been led by one of the worst culture warrior bishops in the It is sad but also more than sad. The pope country. Olmsted called for a 54-day has given his fellow bishops an explicit novena for the nation last year, and among invitation. If they are unable or unwilling to the things he asked the Catholic people of meaningfully engage his request, what does Phoenix to pray for was "the rejection of all that say? It is clear that certain fringe forms of collectivism." I hope he is not conservative groups like Church Militant getting Medicare or Social Security. In any and LifeSiteNews are de facto schismatic, event, I am sure the metropolitan of the

27 region, Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, can find a suitable pastor to recommend to the nuncio. Connection —

How the church copes with COVID-19 is difficult to guess. There is so much we do with God, not know. How soon will most of us be vaccinated? How much of a financial drain has the pandemic placed on parochial and others and diocesan coffers? Has the perdurance of this virus changed the cultural contours of our society such that more people will be ourselves — receptive to religion? Or will people who have stopped going to church never return? These are vital questions, but I do not have a sustains us clue how they will shake out. 6 January 2021 by Jennibeth Sabay Those are some of the stories I will be following here at Distinctly Catholic this year. Happy Three Kings Day to one and all. Spirituality

Michael Sean Winters Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR. Sr. Jennibeth Sabay, a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres, joins a video chat with her mother and grandmother. (Provided photo)

I had a brief chat with my grandmother via video call recently. She is turning 90 years old in September. Her sweet smile greeted me. She was happy to see us, her grandchildren, even through digital means.

According to health protocols, senior citizens (60 years old and above) in the

Philippines are strictly prohibited from realized that we have difficulty at times going out at this time of the pandemic. No seeing God's presence in this challenging wonder my grandmother complained to us situation the world is facing today. But we that she has not been allowed to go out. She believe by faith that God is always with us, said, "We are like prisoners now with this never abandoning us. His love sustains us pandemic. We cannot even go to attend daily. God is in, with and among us, inviting Mass in the church." us to be hopeful, courageous and loving in this challenging time. She wakes up daily at 3 in the morning to pray and never missed a Sunday Mass I was reminded of a song that goes: before the coronavirus outbreak, despite her old age. She told me one time that she prays Our God is able for each of her grandchildren every day. She He is mighty is an inspiration to all of us. He is faithful And he never sleeps Her example taught me the importance of a He never slumbers constant connection with God — not just at He never tires of hearing our prayer these trying times, but every day of our When we are weak lives. It sustains and keeps us going on with He becomes stronger life. So rest in his love and cast all of your cares on him We are relational beings. Our relationships Do you feel that the Lord has forgotten your matter much for our survival and need? subsistence. Without them, we lose our Just remember that God is always working meaning in life. It is important to cultivate in ways you cannot see. daily our interrelationships with God, others and ourselves.

With this pandemic, we ma y face physical distancing and movement restrictions, but those will never hinder us from connecting and nurturing our relationships with God and fellow human beings.

Our relationship with God can be fostered in various ways through prayers, Scriptures, sacraments, silence, constant listening, and awareness of God's presence in our daily experiences and activities. Sr. Jennibeth Sabay (bottom row, center) participates in in a Zoom episode of a Singles Recently, I was invited to share my for Christ talk show program. (Provided photo) lockdown experience — together with other religious presenters — in a Zoom episode of Furthermore, we can stay connected with a Singles for Christ (a faith-based others, despite distance and physical community) talk show program, on the topic restrictions, keeping our relationships alive. "Where is God in this time of pandemic?" I Our simple gestures of reaching out to others, our thoughtful and caring ways, help

much in giving hope and strength to others experiencing something fully, or loving in times of crisis. somebody.

We are all in the same storm, experiencing Genuine positivity is also vital in keeping the same health threat. However, we are not ourselves healthy. It is being grounded and in the same boat. We are affected in aware that things are not going well — and different ways. That is why we need to be doing something with it instead of feeling there for one another, keeping each other in paralyzed; genuinely listening to ourselves our minds, hearts and prayers, and finding and others' concerns; and recognizing, ways to communicate and listen to others. accepting and validating negative emotions in a nonjudgmental way. It also encourages Technology has been a helpful tool in help-seeking as needed when things are keeping connected with others in this crisis. beyond our capacity. Despite constraints, it is still possible to be connected. I learned about the "positivity ratio" of at least 3:1 that helps you enter into an upward Also, we need to connect with ourselves and spiral of growth. To thrive, you need three what is happening in us in this time of crisis positive emotions for every one negative — to take care of our well-being so we can emotion. For example, if we feel upset in the keep going with hope, optimism and morning, we can actively seek at least three resilience. I remember a webinar I took positive experiences in the day that make us online about finding meaning amid the crisis feel good — like playing a sport, eating a through positive psychology to enhance favorite food, talking or greeting someone. well-being. Many activities can result in positive emotions. Many emotions and feelings arise from this challenging situation we are facing: sadness, Also, we can increase positive emotions, exhaustion, tiredness, worries, anger, like an attitude of gratitude, optimism, anxiety and oversensitivity. humor and laughter, by taking care of our physical health — and most importantly our These are normal feelings, given this relationships. unprecedented situation. Most of the time when we are faced with challenges, we ask Finally, at this time people need to be ourselves: What is the meaning of all this? compassionate with themselves and others. And we ask: When will this end? Will We are in a challenging situation and we everything be back to normal? What will need genuine positivity to keep one another happen if this crisis continues? going. We can weather this storm with a positive mindset, by acknowledging the real A speaker in the webinar quoted Joseph situation we are facing and doing something Campbell's words, "Life has no meaning. that can uplift and encourage us to continue Each of us has meaning and we bring it to living. life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer." She mentioned We need one another's support, love and ways to discover meaning in life, like care — and we can start by being good to creating a work, or accomplishing a task, ourselves. Strengthening our relationships with others and ourselves, we can overcome

30 this together. Above all, with faith and trust in God, we can go through all these storms in our life.

[Jennibeth Sabay is a junior sister of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres. Before entering the novitiate in 2016, she was a public health nurse in Cebu Provincial Health office. Currently, she assists in a program called Pastoral Care for Children-Philippines. She also serves on a vocation team and at Emilie's Home, a program for women and People vote at a polling station in Flint, children.] Michigan, during the presidential election Nov. 3, 2020. (CNS/Reuters/Shannon Stapleton) Tax and worker policies must confront the destructive

'empire of (NCR graphic/Toni-Ann Ortiz)

Editor's note: In the weeks preceding the money' inauguration of the country's second 7 January 2021 Catholic president, the National Catholic by Simone Campbell Reporter asked other Catholic politicians, activists and scholars to offer advice to President-elect Joe Biden in a series that takes its title from Pope Francis' encyclical Fratelli Tutti: "Building a Common Future."

In the countdown to the new Biden-Harris administration, Catholic social teaching has an important message of both content and process. Pope Francis in his most recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, challenges the world to engage in a new form of politics: a politics of encounter. It is this process that we at the Catholic social justice lobby

Network have been engaged in over our At St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center in Flint, almost 50-year history. It is best known Michigan, we learned of the 2014 through our seven Nuns on the exploitation of the people by the state Bus campaigns. What is this politics of government in changing the source of their encounter and how does it impact policy? drinking water in order to save a little money for the government. This resulted in Francis challenges us to develop a sense of high quantities of lead and contaminants to solidarity through encountering people who be in the tap water in the entire city. think differently from ourselves. This Consequently, all of the water pipes in the solidarity is grounded in the knowledge that city (including those in private homes) need we share a common concern for each other. to be replaced. Additionally, children have He says: permanent disabilities because of the lead contamination. A "destructive empire of Solidarity means much more than engaging money" caused destruction to this city's in sporadic acts of generosity. It means infrastructure and its people. thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the In Immokalee, Florida, we met with the appropriation of goods by a few. It also agricultural workers in the Coalition of means combatting the structural causes of Immokalee Workers' Alliance for Fair Food poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land who have banded together for years to work and housing, the denial of social and labor for just wages. The workers educated us by rights. It means confronting the destructive speaking of their efforts over many years to effects of the empire of money. get the large fast food chains and grocery stores to pay them 10 cents more per bushel. On our 2020 virtual "bus trip" in advance of A mere 10 cents made a big difference for the November election, we encountered the workers. They created a movement by many people across the country who could sharing their goals with faith communities testify to the need for a new sense of around the country. In the off-season (and solidarity that confronts the empire of pre-pandemic), the workers went to talk money. with congregations about their needs and recruited these faith communities to be part At New Labor in New Brunswick, New of their campaign. Through encounter, they Jersey, we met with low-wage workers who built a momentum that is helping create had banded together to support one another change. because they were having their wages stolen by their employers. Many were day workers These three examples demonstrate that or dishwashers in restaurants who were not employers and governments can make being paid at the end of the day or the end of choices at odds with the needs of the people. the week. They came together to help each Catholic social teaching's call to solidarity other demand their pay. In the process, they challenges us to make decisions with the discovered that some of their employers had most vulnerable in mind. We the people are it in their business plan not to pay workers called to advocate that the new their full salaries in order to increase their administration shape its policies from a profits. This is a destructive effect of the stance of solidarity with those who are too empire of money. often exploited, as well as with those who are wealthy.

I interpret this mandate as calling for ensuring safety of workers and listening to policies that care for the whole. It starts with the voices of those at the margins. the requirement to ensure wages high enough to support families and end the need Such acts of solidarity must be grounded in for so many low-wage workers to work two the act of encounter. I urge the new and three jobs to just survive. Wages need to administration to engage in a robust process be sufficient to allow workers to have a day of listening to the lived reality of our people of rest with their families as well as save for around the country. Share with the nation their futures. what you hear. It is out of this listening that we can recover the sense of solidarity and Employers that fail to provide such wages commitment to the common good. need to change their ways, and we consumers need to make sure that they do. Just tax policies, just wages, just labor The new administration can work to increase organizing are all the results of letting our wages and ensure that they are actually paid. hearts be broken open by the inequities around us. This shared broken heartedness is Governments need to have enough revenue the anchor for just legislation. I call on the to provide for the needs of their people. This Biden-Harris administration to ground its means that tax policy is a justice issue. governance in the encounter with our Many legislators, as well as ordinary people, people. This will create the opportunity to have the mistaken impression that taxes are heal our nation. a bad thing. They are not evil. Taxes are the way that we express one aspect of solidarity. Catholic social teaching calls on all of us to invest in our nation to meet the needs of our society.

The Republican 2017 federal tax bill was the antithesis of a just tax bill. It gave tremendous tax cuts to the richest people and starved the U.S. treasury, thus

undermining our government's capacity to meet the needs of those who are struggling Simone Campbell in our society. This bill exacerbated the Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell is structural causes of inequality by shifting executive director of Network Lobby for even more money to those at the top. The Catholic Social Justice. new administration needs to change this tax policy so that the government has the money it needs to address this time of crisis.

Finally, the new administration needs to stand with workers and organizers to ensure that large employers are paying fair wages, especially in the agricultural sector. This requires strengthening the labor laws,

upon in these past four years," San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy told NCR. 'You reap what "We need to begin immediately a moral and you sow': Some spiritual regeneration in the public and political realms that touches the hearts of Americans and helps us all to see through bishops decry the prism of this terrible assault on our democracy," he added, saying that the country must embrace dialogue over violence at division as it seeks to move forward.

Capitol Unlike some Catholic leaders in recent 6 January 2021 weeks who have said President Donald by Christopher White Trump's refusal to accept the election results did not pose a threat to democracy, McElroy did not mince words at identifying what he sees as the root cause of the day's events.

"We must be clear in identifying this moment as the logical trajectory of the last four years of President Trump's leadership of our country and stare in the face how we have stood by without giving greater witness to the terrible danger that leadership rooted in division brings to a democratic society."

Supporters of President Donald Trump "Today we see the face of insurrection in the demonstrate on the second floor of the U.S. United States in a way that we have never Capitol building in Washington near the witnessed in the last hundred years," said entrance to the Senate after breaching security McElroy. "It is ugly and calls us to action." defenses Jan. 6. (CNS/Reuters/Mike Theiler) Over the last six weeks, some right-wing As the U.S. Capitol was taken over by Catholics have joined forces with insurrectionists on Jan. 6 seeking to disrupt evangelicals in rejecting the election the certification of the Electoral College outcome. In December, when protestors votes to formally declare Joe Biden the rallied in Washington, D.C. calling for the winner of the presidential election, a number Supreme Court to throw out the election of Catholic bishops took to Twitter to call results, they were joined virtually by a for prayer and peace, with a few specifically disgraced former Vatican archbishop and a condemning the siege of the Capitol by a Texas Catholic bishop, along with in-person violent mob. appearances from several priests and prominent Catholic pro-life activists. "Today's events show the immensely Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New perilous pathway of division and Jersey, told NCR that the scenes of rioters polarization that our country has embarked

34 attempting to overtake the nation's capital were "not surprising."

"I'm not shocked, I'm just more saddened by what I see," said Tobin.

"It's the fruit of long and progressive polarization in American society," he said, adding that polarization trumps "faith, it trumps the rule of law and it trumps science."

He said that he was particularly disheartened that this was unfolding during a pandemic, Supporters of President Donald Trump gather at a time when the nation should be seeking in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. to come together. 6. (CNS/Reuters/Stephanie Keith)

"It shows just how bad things have gotten in Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, the United States," he said of the scenes that told NCR that "we shouldn't be surprised included Confederate flags, crosses and that when the president of the nation, who posters saying "Jesus Saves." has been consistently denying that he lost an election and has been calling for his people Tobin said that for Catholics concerned to be out there demonstrating and when he about how to move forward, that "in two has not condemned the kind of groups that millennia of trying to live the teachings of has supported him, as horrible and as Jesus, we're at our best when we're unprecedented as it is in our times, it's not concerned about the common good." all that surprising."

"It's not about me and my wish list, it's more "You reap what you sow, as we read in about what we can do together to leave this scripture," said Stowe, who also serves as world better than we found it," he said. "We Pax Christi USA board's episcopal as Catholics have a legacy that is very president. appropriate now if we want to avail ourselves of it." "We have to reflect on where we have been, what it is we stand for as a nation and how it is that we've allowed one leader to undermine so many precedents of the rule of law and go unchallenged and how do we enact our faith in a moment like this," he continued.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, said " This is not who we are as

Americans," as he condemned the violence Child, may peace, harmony, unity and unfolding in the capital. fraternity be restored in our country," wrote Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island. "The peaceful transition of power is one of "May God bless and guide America!" the hallmarks of this great nation," he continued. "In this troubling moment, we must recommit ourselves to the values and principles of our democracy and come together as one nation under God."

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas was the first to issue a statement on social media in the midst of the rioting saying "This is a time to pray for peace." By the end of the day on Wednesday, more than a dozen bishops had spoken out in their own capacity.

Several bishops retweeted a message of Supporters of President Donald Trump gather "Lord God of peace, hear our prayer" from in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington the U.S. bishops' Twitter account, Jan. 6. (CNS/Reuters/Stephanie Keith) presumably related to the day's violence. Others encouraged Catholics across the In a statement, Pax Christi USA released a nation to pray the rosary. stinging indictment of Trump's leadership, saying "The events unfolding today at the "Given the breach of the Capitol by U.S. Capitol are the result of the protestors, I'll be praying the Rosary for demagoguery of one man, President Trump, peace at 3 pm.," wrote Bishop Thomas Daly and the failure of all those — politicians, of Spokane, Washington. "Please join me." media, family, and more — who excused, "Let us pray that this one nation, under God, overlooked, dismissed or otherwise will always follow the paths of peace and encouraged the hateful and divisive rhetoric justice," wrote Bishop Edward Burns of that have defined this president’s term in Dallas. office."

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore "Those who could have and should have described the day's events in a statement as held this president accountable did just the "shocking and unlawful protests." opposite for the past four years — often with designs on advancing their own agendas — "We fervently pray for peace and for God’s and today’s ugly, shameful incidents at the protection over our country, our lawmakers, U.S. Capitol were the sad, predictable and all those in harm’s way this terrible outcome of this abdication of day," he said. responsibility," the statement said.

"Will soon be saying Holy Mass for our After the Senate and House chambers of the troubled nation. In this holy season, as we Capitol were overtaken by vigilantes, continue to observe the Birth of the Christ President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation in a live video, saying "the scenes of

36 chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America."

"This is not who we are," he said, before calling on Trump to go on national television to "demand an end to this siege." Eventually, in a video message, Trump encouraged rioters to "go home," adding that

"we have to have peace" — but not without repeating the lie that the election "was stolen from us." ALARMING Editor's Note: This story was updated at REFLECTIONS OF 6:08 p.m. Jan. 6 to include a statement from 6 January 2021 the U.S. bishops' conference. If the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, broke your heart causing you to wonder about the future of our fragile democracy, then, our future as a democratic people is affirmed. Indifference would be complicity; outrage is the measure of our solidarity. Suddenly, our political differences faded as we witnessed

the violence enabled by some of Christopher White those charged to defend and Christopher White is NCR national protect our Constitution. correspondent. His email address is [email protected]. The Interfaith Peace Project condemns the actions of the right- wing extremists who would subvert our American way of Government for their own misguided and twisted ideologies. They and their actions do not represent America and, hopefully, their influence in the future of our society will fade in light of their hateful deeds and spiteful rhetoric. The people of the United States are waking up to a new day dedicated to liberty and justice for all. The violence of the few reminds us of the vision of the many. We have learned some things:

must never happen again. We The right to vote and free exercise pledge to move forward in our thereof insures our future as a free quest for a more just and equable people. The stranglehold of society. prejudice is breaking as more and more people are exercising their Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P. right and duty to vote. With the Board of Directors of The Interfaith Peace Project We are realizing how important it is to elect people with some sense of integrity. Never again can we elect a President whose rhetoric is Editorial: inflammatory and whose behavior is threatening to the well-being of so many described as "minorities." Catholics need Decency, humility, and dedication to a cause greater than the self to confess their are crucial.

No matter the political differences, complicity in the we have a responsibility to recognize the dignity of everyone. We can no longer tolerate failed coup prejudice, inequality, and 7 January 2021 governmental indifference when by NCR Editorial Staff peoples' rights and dignity are compromised by self-seeking, greedy, insensitive governmental leaders.

Finally, those charged with governmental power have a duty to act justly in the interest of all people. Political office should not and cannot be seen as a personal privilege for selfish and expedient advancement. Police officers in Washington stand guard 6 January 2021, as supporters of President As America prepares for a new Donald Trump gather in front of the U.S. Administration, we pause to reflect Capitol. (CNS/Leah Millis, Reuters) on how precarious our American experiment is. Religious, cultural, There is plenty of blame to go around after and political leaders must always yesterday's shameful storming of the U.S. have the courage to speak out Capitol by a right-wing mob trying to stop against the maleficence we have the formal counting of the Electoral College witnessed the last four years. This

38 vote for the legally elected next president of beginning — and some Catholics have the United States. remained silent, or worse, cheered it along, including some bishops, priests, a few Clearly, the current resident of the White sisters, right-wing Catholic media and too House who for months has repeatedly and many people in the pro-life movement. deliberately lied about nonexistent election fraud, and who, even as Confederate-flag We're talking to wielding thugs strolled throughout the you CatholicVote.org, Attorney General Capitol, is guilty of inciting violence in William Barr and other Catholics in the his morning speech on the Ellipse. Later in Trump administration, Amy Coney the day, he would express "love" for what Barrett, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bill can only be described as domestic terrorists. Donohue of the Catholic League, rogue prolifer Abby Johnson. Sadly, the list goes And of course the more than 100 House on. Republicans and more than a dozen GOP senators who had planned to object to the And what about the everyday Catholics — Electoral College results yesterday — some 50% of them — who voted for Trump including those who later changed their this year, after four years of incompetence, minds, and, let's be honest, pretty much racist dog whistles and assaults on every Republican except Sen. Mitt Romney democratic norms? Not all were at the — will be remembered for laying the fire "protest" in Washington, but many have that eventually burst in flames. supported organizations that fanned the flames. Too many Catholic voters were Even Vice President Mike Pence and content to cozy up to Trump in exchange for almost-ex-Senate Majority Leader Mitch tax breaks, or Supreme Court judges, or McConnell, who tried to do the right thing subsidies for Catholic schools. by giving reasonable speeches in the morning, cannot erase the past four years of Many of these folks have been shaped by propping up Trump and contributing to the right-wing Catholic media, whether rogue climate that fanned the frenzy. priests on Twitter, websites such as Church Militant or LifeSiteNews, or the Catholic But also among those with some culpability media conglomerate the Eternal Word for yesterday's failed insurrection are more Television Network (EWTN). The latter, than a few leaders in our church. Catholic with its veneer of respectability, has apologists for Trump have blood on their misinformed millions of Catholics hands. worldwide with its biased news and opinion shows. EWTN anchor Raymond Arroyo, Many Americans expressed shock as they who moonlights on Laura Ingraham's show watched the violent mob smash glass and "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News, where scale the walls while members of Congress he is freed from the EWTN's alleged cowered under desks or rushed to secure respectability, deserves singling out. bunkers. It must stop. If the church is to live up to the We were not surprised. teachings of its founder, and if it is ever to This is the culmination of what this be a witness to the culture, it cannot, must presidency has been about from the not, be a part of what happened at our

39 nation's Capitol. There must be no white But the insurrectionists and the right- Catholic nationalism. And a pro-life wingers, including Catholics, who have movement that embraces white nationalism encouraged them are not all we are. is not a true pro-life movement. Period. In less than two weeks, our nation's second While some prelates have spoken out all Catholic president — a decent man — will along, the bishops' conference, as a body, take over and begin the long, arduous task of must publicly confess and atone for its rebuilding our democracy. Catholics need to complicity in empowering the president and get on board to help, not hinder, that the Republican Party in this violence and in process. denigrating the Democratic Party. The U.S. bishops could start by disbanding that ad hoc, adversarial committee on President- elect Joe Biden, and use its various Three kings resources to re-shift how we discuss what it means to be pro-life Catholics. A pro-life movement unwilling to exclaim “Black lives and a tyrant matter” is not a pro-life movement. 8 January 2021 by Colleen Gibson Sackcloth and ashes should not be out of the question, but it will take more than a confession. Social Justice

Our religious leaders, many of whom perpetuate the very white supremacy that led to yesterday’s coup, must begin the long, hard work of trying to rebuild a political culture of trust and unity. That cannot be done with hyper-partisanship and an intense focus on only one issue.

The temptation to cozy up to power is real, and some still refuse to let go. Some are trying to put a false antifa spin on yesterday's coup; others are moving too quickly to "put this behind us."

A frequent refrain in the aftermath has been that "we are better than this." In some ways, that is false. This is part of who we are — it has always been part of who we are — and A broken window is seen in the U.S. Capitol Trump has emboldened and legitimized it in during a joint session of Congress in ways that are frankly terrifying. Washington Jan. 7 after lawmakers reconvened to certify the Electoral College votes of the 2020 presidential election. (CNS/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Every Wednesday for the last four years, Emerging from the meeting, I took a I've gathered with a group of women to moment to glance at my phone. To my reflect on Scripture and to pray for our surprise, news alerts, not about the counting world. We pray for our neighborhood, our of the Electoral College votes, but about the country, our friends, our families and our storming of the U.S. Capitol, lit up the world. We share the journey, and this past screen. Wednesday, Jan. 6, was no different. Suddenly, the Epiphany story was a little Even though the Catholics in our group had more real ... the journey more treacherous ... marked Epiphany the Sunday before, any the need for truth and peace all the more cultural Christian, adherent to the 12 days of pressing. Christmas, or parent of children in our local public schools — which close for Three A tyrant saw a threat to his power. Filled Kings Day — knew that, in fact, Wednesday with fear, he brought fright to the whole the sixth was Epiphany. country. He stoked fear and incited violence. The king could not stand the truth and so he After reading Matthew's account of the wise sought to rout it out. But the truth would not men's journey, our small group listened to yield; it had come into this world in the form the words of Jan Richardson's Epiphany of a child and, vulnerable as it might be, the blessing, "For Those Who Have Far to truth embodied in the child would persevere, Travel." Sitting in peaceful reflection on the in ways both paradoxical and puzzling to past year and the gift and challenge of the our concept of power. journey, we were united in our diversity. Old and young, black and white, women of This new king — a prince of peace — all different backgrounds, we shared the would reject violence and injustice. His movements of God in our lives. This week, power greater than that of any politician was that meant sharing how the pandemic bore (and is) found in steadfast, boundless love with it tragedy and grace; what promise the that urges reconciliation, humility and vaccine brought; why peace was as righteousness. His love, like a star in the important as that the electoral votes be night, draws all who can see and invites counted; and the hard-learned fact that the everyone to see with new eyes the promise isolation of the last few months had as much of the truth he offers. to reveal to us about other people as it did about ourselves. On the floor of the Senate Wednesday night, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey Listening to one of our elder members share, pointed to the deadly flaw and sadistic (and I felt my phone begin to buzz. With a swift seditious) shift in thinking as he declared movement of my thumb down its side, I how people had been duped into choosing stilled the device so I could be attentive to Trump over truth. This sycophantic shift her sharing. What a blessing to journey was punctuated by the events on together like the wise men, she reflected, to Wednesday. They gave us a moment for be attentive, be surprised and discover the pause many moments too late. truth and where it leads us. Yet to quote the statement from Pax Christi Wednesday was like any other Wednesday USA, "Maybe today's events will serve as a until it wasn't. moment of conversion for some; maybe this

moment may serve to give pause to the surge of a movement. It felt more like a bad worst impulses of our national character. dream come to life. This moment was the Only time will tell. The words and actions of culmination of many predictions, the our elected leaders moving forward will tell revelation of the destructive power of the tale of what impact today's events have." distrust, white supremacy and conspiracy theories. The result of hubris and hatred In the words of Chicago Archbishop Blase weaponized in the name of a tyrant. Cupich, "What has been unfolding at the Capitol today should shock the conscience As the space in front of the Capitol filled of any patriotic American and any faithful with people, this "last gasp" knocked the Catholic. The eyes of the world look on in wind out of me. All I could think of were the horror as we suffer this national disgrace. tragic last words of Eric Garner, "I can't breathe," and the thousands of people "For many months we have witnessed the suffering from COVID-19 in the United deliberate erosion of the norms of our States who are literally gasping for breath. system of government." That erosion has In an age when we are hypersensitive to taken the sacred right of peaceful protest and signs and symptoms, what happened desecrated it by introducing violence. Wednesday is less of a "last gasp" and more a mind-blowing reminder of the division in "May God's love suffuse our political life our country and the violence, hatred and together," Cupich continues, "reminding all destruction that are startlingly apparent in Americans that politics is the peaceful our body politic. resolution of conflicting points of view. This is our tradition as a democratic nation — As we journey forward, the soul of the and we undermine it at our own peril." nation hangs in the balance. No president will save us, no single politician can set us Watching to the breaking news coverage, I straight. The journey that lies ahead is ours struggled to hold on to the prayerful peace to undertake. It means facing racism head of my normal Wednesday. As rioters carried on, holding people accountable, and seeking myriad flags up the U.S. Capitol steps reconciliation. Each step has its cost, the without any intervention, a commentator invaluable price of truth. Charting our tried to reassure the audience at home. "This course will surely push us to our limits, but is a last gasp," she said as more and more the work of finding our direction requires individuals ascended the steps. I am sure the such effort. phrase was meant as a reassurance, implying that this was a worrisome but passing Together, we can find our way. E Pluribus moment — the end of days, weeks, months Unum. and years of unrest. If we can see the light, we have no other The phrase, though, wedged itself in with options. This is where we've arrived amid the fading peace within me: One. Last. the darkness of our times. Now it is our turn Gasp. to open our eyes, follow the light, and return to the soul of our country by another way. This moment wasn't a blip on the screen. In a year filled with tragedy, it didn't feel like [A Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, the period at the end of sentence or the last Colleen Gibson is the author of the

42 blog Wandering in Wonder and has been published in various periodicals, including America, Commonweal and Give Us This Day. She currently serves as coordinator of services at the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Center in Camden, New Jersey.]

8 January 2021 Notice During the Covid-19

Outbreak ©

In solidarity, we at the Interfaith RECOVERY Peace Project stand together in these times of heart break and by Thomas P. Bonacci, upset. Some of you may have lost C.P. friends or family members. Some of you may have lost your job and As the United States your income; some may be begins the process of healing and working overtime to help with the recovery, we pause to listen to the crisis. Some of you may be home voices of the poets who can touch and alone and some may be trying our hearts, challenge our behavior, to figure out a new way to live. and transform our spirits. Please let us know how we can help. If you would like a phone After four years of appointment with any of us, give relentless assault on the us a call.You may call or email indigenous, the poor, the migrant, Tom at: and anyone perceived as "other", we need to recover our vision as a Tom Bonacci people, rededicating ourselves to [email protected] the time-honored principles 925-787- 9279 recognizing the dignity of every person.

Pope Francis invites us to learn wisdom from the indigenous who are friends of the Earth, living in the mutuality of life with reverence and respect.

Hear now the voice of Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States (appointed June 2019). A member

43 of the Muskoke/Creek Nation, her on this road of life amazed at what poems help us in our endeavor to we can do together. Again, Joy heal and recover. Consider these Harjo says it best when she writes: powerful verses from her poem, "For Calling the Spirit Back from The quantum physicists Wandering the Earth in Its Human have it right; they are Feet": beginning to think like Indians: everything Call your spirit back. It may be is connected dynamically at caught in corners and creases of an intimate level. shame, judgment, and human abuse. Talking with the Sun

You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return. Speak to it as you would to a Justice Corner by Carolyn Krantz, beloved child. Pastoral Associate I have been reflecting on how much I miss Welcome your spirit back from its “in church” ritual. YouTube provides a nice wandering. It may return in pieces, attempt, but cannot substitute for the in tatters. Gather them together. connectedness that comes from worshiping They will be happy to be found with fellow believers. Ritual creates a after being lost for so long. connectivity. It is the connective tissue that makes us realize our reason for being in the We will now look back over these world. It lets us know that every step has past four years realizing the need meaning. It changes the ordinary meaning to "call our spirit back" so we may of time. Clock time is not ritual time. Ritual be a people of justice and liberty time takes us into the world of mystery for all. We will remember who we where past and future connect, where are as a people who desire to heaven and earth come together, where we repent of the sins of our past meet those gone before us as if they were generations who too easily present today. It places us in a milieu of accommodated their prejudices hope. and fears. We will realize our own indifference and complicity need The passage from Isaiah 42:1-7in today's not be the end of the story for "we readings speaks to this point. The Word will be happy to be found after affirms that we are chosen. God is pleased being lost for so long." with us. We are called to bring forth justice, “not by crying out, or making our voice We no longer need to heard in the streets,” but by the lives we make enemies to live in peace. lead, by our awareness of the value of We no longer need to destroy the human life in everything we do. Natural World to live in harmony. We no longer need to live in fear There is a tenderness in this passage: “A for we have one another as bruised reed He shall not break and a companions. Let us walk together smoldering wick he shall not quench.” Have

44 you felt bruised lately? Or that your light, connectivity. They knew the scriptures. the fire that is in you, seems “smoldering?” They affirmed that God is with His chosen. The pandemic has done that to all of us. Yet The Israelites wandered forty years in the the passage goes on to confirm that God will desert, we only have to wander two years in send His Spirit to bring justice and right. this pandemic. Sometimes in the darkness we don't see that. It is hard to remain As I look at the memorials the TV flashes connected on YouTube, but it is a taste, a before us, I see lives that speak of justice, hint of the great ritual to come when we can lives filled with love and giving. In the gather together again to celebrate His love midst of death, this is the “victory of justice” for us. We must keep imagining. The time which the Lord continues to form and we are of Justice and Healing is close. He grasps witnesses of it. This is His covenant which our hand, pulls us from the waters and we celebrate. He will bring us out of proclaims, “You are my beloved Sons and darkness into His light because He is a Daughters.” tender and merciful God. Parish Perspective by In prayer together let us ask that He grasp us Peter Degl’Innocenti, Pastoral Associate by the hand and lead us through these Recognition coming months, through the “baptism of Many of the world’s greatest events that fire” called the pandemic. Let us listen to change the lives and course of humanity can the Spirit for in that Spirit we are all find at least one person saying, “What the baptized. There will be a victory of justice “heck” just happened?” At the baptism of when we come together to celebrate our the Lord it was probably John himself who oneness as a people, a people of many either uttered those words or wondered cultures who travel toward freedom together. about them in his mind and heart. So take a “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn moment now to ponder what actually from on high will break upon us, to give happened when Jesus was baptized. Think light to those in darkness and in the shadow about why a sinless Jesus went to John, who of death, to guide our feet into the way of got his marching orders from God the Father peace.” (Luke 1:78-79) (just as Jesus did), to undergo a rite of repentance and forgiveness of sin? It’s a We need to imagine stepping into that other broad question with an even broader scope time, a time of mystery, a time where of possible answers. Since we have the same beginning and end meet, where “justice and Holy Spirit within us as Jesus and John did, peace shall kiss.” At the beginning of John's we can engage in a little theological Gospel it says, “In the beginning was the discussion. Here is one way a difficult task Word.” This is the Word made flesh in us, can find an answer. the people of the covenant, a people bound together by the ritual of the Eucharist, by Back when I was in high school on the Christ's death and rising, by the death and gymnastics team I was attempting to do “hip life of all believers. It will come. We only Circles” on the pommel horse to no avail. need to image it, paint it, write poetry about The coach nonchalantly said, “Go back to it, sense it in every holy life around us, in the move just before the hip circle, that’s every effort we make to love one another. where the answer to your problem is.” Sure enough, it was. Whatever comes before an Both Jesus and John the Baptist saw that event will speak volumes about the event

45 itself. Thus, we start at the ending of Jesus’ baptism and work backwards!

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Pleased.” Recognition is the final outcome of Jesus’ baptism. It’s more than a mere announcement of Jesus’ identity. God could have done that anytime, so why now? God recognizes Jesus as son because a part of God, His Holy Spirit, has descended upon Jesus and stayed with him. Why did the Holy Spirit descend? Because the heavens were opened-up to allow its descent. What caused the heavens to open up? Jesus’ rise from the water. That is the critical moment in baptism. When anyone rises from being submerged in water, even someone whose identity you know, you lose a clear image of that person until most all of the water has fallen away. In that blurry moment God has chosen to recognize the unseen human as his divine son. When we come out of the waters of baptism, no matter how little the amount of water may be, God recognizes us as his divine sinless child. For that, God opens the heavens to us as any father would open the door to his house for a son or daughter. God also gifts us with the Holy Spirit to abide in us at the moment of baptism. He becomes a living part of us. Sinlessness, the Holy Spirit, and recognition are all gifts given to us at the one moment of baptism. These gifts had a price attached to them. Not payable by anyone of us. The price was charged to the life of Jesus. From that moment on he knew he would have to pay dearly on the cross.

Jesus was always able to say from birth, “My Father in heaven,” but from his baptism on; all the baptized can say proudly, “Our Father who art in heaven…” Amen.

FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

Priests, Prophets, Kings Loving Father, Empower us to seek your kingdom at our Baptism we were anointed of justice and peace. in Christ’s name When the light of our faith wavers, to be priests, prophets, and kings. and our white garments become stained Our mission is his. and torn, Help us to worship you, Lord God, cleanse us and renew your Spirit within us. and to offer our whole lives to you. Guide us each day along the way of your Son Embolden us to share your love so that we, your beloved children, and salvation. may be pleasing to you in all that we do. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Sunday, January 10, 2021 Our Mission

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 55:1–11; Isaiah 12:2–3, 4bcd, 5–6; Our Baptism immerses us into the life of Christ, into 1 John 5:1–9; Mark 1:7–11 or Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7; Psalm his earthly ministry, his sacrificial death, and his union with 29:1–2, 3ac–4, 3b, 9–10; Acts 10:34–38; Mark 1:7–11. Jesus, God the Father. As members of Christ’s body, we ask our- in his humanity, had to discern how to best offer his life to selves, “What is my mission? For what good work has God’s God. He drew inspiration from the promises God had made Spirit descended upon me?” Perhaps God is calling us to to Israel and, through Israel, to all people—promises of spend time with someone who is struggling. Perhaps our prosperity, justice, and peace. Jesus may have especially mission is to change an unhealthy work environment. Our identified with the mysterious servant spoken of by the mission might be to address injustice in our community. In prophet Isaiah. This servant bravely brings God’s salvation all these ways and more, we, God’s beloved children, par- to everyone. As John the Baptist urged people to prepare for ticipate in the mission of Christ. In fulfilling our mission we, the next stage of salvation, his words would have resonated too, will hear God declare that he is well pleased with us. with Jesus, who was baptized as a sign of his commitment to the mission that was taking shape within him. This Week and Beyond The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time The Gospel of Mark During Ordinary Time this year we will hear most often Since it contains very little teaching and few parables, the from the Gospel of Mark. However, the Gospel passage for Gospel of Mark is the shortest and most fast-paced of our the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time is always from John. four Gospel accounts. It is also the darkest. The shadow of Matthew, Mark, and Luke present Jesus’ identity through the the cross looms from the first chapter as we hear Jesus begin lens of his ministry, but John’s focus is mostly on Jesus’ iden- his ministry right after John the Baptist has been arrested tity as God’s divine Son. (1:14). Jesus’ first miracle is casting out a demon, a symbol of The Christmas season is filled with feast days that high- the evil he must confront (1:21–26). Chapter 2 consists light Jesus’ divinity. The passages from John’s Gospel that entirely of stories in which people challenge Jesus and object we hear on the Second Sundays in Ordinary Time transition to his or his disciples’ actions. By chapter 3 people are us from an emphasis on Jesus’ identity to his public ministry. already plotting his death (3:6). As the Gospel continues, As we accompany Jesus in his ministry, today’s passage Jesus will face opposition from his family, the villagers of his reminds us to stop and spend time with the Lord so as to hometown, and his disciples. discover and rediscover all that he is. The portrait of Jesus that emerges from this threatening narrative is a Jesus who struggles and suffers. He is the mes- Gospel/Ignatian Contemplation siah, but he is a suffering messiah. “Suffering messiah” is a Popularized by St. Ignatius of Loyola, Gospel contemplation is contradiction, an oxymoron. No one expected the messiah, a way to pray with the Scriptures. It works best with passages God’s chosen one, to suffer and be killed. Christians today in which there is some action, such as a healing. Because are so familiar with the story of Jesus’ passion and death that Mark’s Gospel is filled with short passages in which people are we forget how shocking it was, how horrible and horrifying. doing something, it is well suited for Gospel contemplation. St. Mark reminds us. To begin, read the passage you have chosen several As we move through the Gospel of Mark and hear how times. Note the people, setting, and any dialogue. Let the Jesus is challenged, misunderstood, ridiculed, and physically scene take ever clearer shape in your mind. Then imagine attacked, we’re reminded that true discipleship has costs. that you are there, in the story. You might be one of Jesus’ Seeking the reign of God brings us into opposition with oth- disciples, a person in the crowd, or someone who seeks heal- ers who either don’t understand how we’re trying to live or ing. Notice who is with you, what you say and do, and, most who downright reject the kingdom of God that we seek. Jesus especially, how you interact with Jesus and how he interacts knows this. He has been through it. He now stands with us as with you. Gospel contemplation is one way to meet our Lord we continue striving for his kingdom, confronting evil in all in our sacred texts. It might be helpful for those who are its forms until at last he raises us up to life with him in his hesitant to try it to remember that the Gospels were written kingdom forever. so that we, like generations before us, may encounter Christ and find salvation in him.

© 2020 Liturgy Training Publications. 800-933-1800. Written by Edrianne Ezell. Illustrated by Kate Cosgrove. Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, revised edition. Permission to publish granted by the Archdiocese of Chicago on April 10, 2020.

ST. AGNES SCHOOL INVITES YOU TO KINDER INFORMATION NIGHT

If your child will be 5 by September 1, 2021, we invite you to attend our Kindergarten Information Night.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13 7 – 8:30 P.M. (via Zoom)

For more than 50 years, St. Agnes has helped nurture the hearts and minds of thousands of children. Many of our current students are children or grandchildren of our former students. We offer a caring environment that values self-worth and a culture that promotes religious, academic, social, physical, and emotional growth. St. Agnes School is fully accredited by the Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

We cordially invite you to join us where the magic begins—in kindergarten.

Come meet our kindergarten teacher and principal, learn about our school and program, and have your questions answered.

To RSVP, please contact the school office at 689-3990 or [email protected] so we can provide you with the Zoom link. We look forward to meeting you and sharing our story.

ST. AGNES SCHOOL PRESCHOOL –8TH GRADE 3886 Chestnut Ave., Concord, CA 94519 925-689-3990 stagnesconcord.com