homily Aug. 12inLondon. Archbishop Paglia, the Salvadoran archbishop’s cause, said ina Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of will sooncanonize him—asaint,” Italian and mygreat hopeisthatPope Francis of Romeroalive the memory isa noble task, honor St. ÓscarRomero, martyr. “Keeping year andCatholics around theworld will hopes theprocess willconcludewithina Óscar Romero’s causeforsainthoodsaidhe The archbishop officiallypromoting Blessed Archbishop Paglia Romero of Blessed Óscar ofBirthAnniversary Celebrating 100th Homily atMass

CNS documentary service speaks to us even more clearly.” shot to the heart, but now he silenced him with a single “They hood causewasobtainingrecognition that and Family. Thebiggesthurdle inthesaint John Paul IIInstitute forStudies on Marriage Academy forLife andchancellorofPontifical sainthood cause, ispresident ofthePontifical in additiontopromoting Blessed Romero’s day foragreat mission:toprepare thehearts Aug. that chosethechildborn 15, 1917,God and nonbelievers alike. On that long-ago lighttobelievers witnessthatbrings Gospel the world,remember thisshepherd forhis Salvadorothers inEl of andinotherparts Romero. Today allofushere, togetherwith ofBlessed ofthebirth ÓscarArnulfo nary w The archbishop’s homily follows. loved life. Thisisthemeaningofmartyrdom.” he loved Jesus andhisflockmore thanhe to hisfriendsonanumberofoccasions. But He wasafraid ofdying, andheconfessedthat Romero’s birth, “Romero wasnot a Superman. celebrating ofBlessed the100thanniversary ple.” Still, hetoldthecongregation inLondon Lord by giving himself completely for his peo essence ofhisholinesswasfollowing the position. But, Archbishop Paglia said, “The was assassinated because of his political Roman Curia, hadinsistedBlessed Romero leaders, includingsomewhoworked inthe said atSt. George’s Cathedral. Somechurch ing Mass, wasamartyr, Archbishop Paglia Blessed Romero, who was shot while celebrat memorate the cente the Lord tocom around thealtarof e are gathered today continued onpage 226 - - - - - contents 240 225 240 235 229 227 Homily atMass On File Datebook Speech OpeningDiocese Trying toSayGod Homily atMass Paglia by ArchbishopVincenzo Blessed ÓscarRomero Anniversary ofBirth Celebrating 100th Number 15 Volume 47 September 7,2017 by PopeFrancis Conference ontheFamily of Rome’s Pastoral by BishopDanielE.Flores Gomez by ArchbishopJoséH. Blessed ÓscarRomero Anniversary ofBirth Celebrating 100th continued from page 225 speak to us in the martyrdoms of the many Blessed Óscar Romero, the of his fellow countrymen to welcome the priests in the Middle East who have been murdered archbishop of Gospel of his Son. assassinated while celebrating Sunday Mass. San Salvador, is a martyr of hope, said Chilean Cardinal As often happens with prophets, Romero Romero was the first in this long line of heroes Ricardo Ezzati, Pope Francis’ paid with his life. His birth, his life and espe- who died for Christ in the 20th century and envoy to the celebration of cially his death were all focused on Jesus. He in the new millennium. And with him, let us the centennial of the arch- made his own the words that Paul wrote to remember all the Christians who continue bishop’s birth in El Salvador. the Romans: “What will separate us from the to bear witness to the Gospel even unto the Blessed Romero “is a true love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or shedding of their blood. martyr of hope ... a great persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril Keeping alive the memory of Romero is a martyr of hope,” said the or the sword? ... For I am convinced that nei- noble task, and my great hope is that Pope Santiago cardinal. “He is so for the continent’s poor, ther death, nor life ... nor other creature will Francis will soon canonize him — a saint! he is so for the people of El be able to separate us from the love of God” Over the years we insisted on Romero being Salvador, he is so for the hope (Rom 8:35, 39). recognized as a martyr. The essence of his of our beloved church, for all The last years of his pastoral life were guid- holiness was his following the Lord by giving who struggle for justice, rec- ed by those exact words. Pope Francis has himself completely for his people. But let’s onciliation, peace and affec- tionately call him ‘St. Romero made it clear that Romero was persecuted be realistic, Romero was not a Superman. He of America.’” even after his death with the opposition to was afraid of dying, and he confessed that to Cardinal Ezzati gave the his beatification that many persons mounted. his friends on a number of occasions. But he homily Aug. 15 at the But when May 25, 2015, finally came, loved Jesus and his flock more than he loved Salvadoran cathedral where around half a million people gathered round life. people gathered for a spe- the altar to thank the Lord for sending this This is the meaning of martyrdom. Love cial Mass. He said Blessed shepherd. And I’ll never forget the emotion for Jesus and for the poor is greater than love Romero’s “closeness to the of that day. At his tomb, just as when he was for oneself. This is the power of Romero’s poor ... led him to see, with his eyes, the injustice the alive, many spoke to him because they felt he message. A simple believer, if overwhelmed peasants were suffering.” was still with them! by love, becomes strong, unbeatable. Several Repeatedly interrupted by Today, on the centenary of his birth, we times, to shut him up he was threatened applause, the cardinal quot- remember him still. And we do so beginning with death, but Romero, following the Good ed a letter from Pope Francis with the day he entered heaven. It was on Shepherd who gave his life for his sheep, to the Salvadoran bishops on March 24, 1980, that he was assassinated at would not shut up; and when he was advised, Blessed Romero’s beatifica- the altar just after his homily and while he even by Rome, to leave the country because tion in 2015: “Those who have Archbishop Romero as was preparing the gifts at the offertory. They the threats had become more direct, he a friend in faith ... those who silenced him with a single shot to the heart, replied, “The shepherd never leaves his sheep, admire him, find in him the but now he speaks to us even more clearly. especially not when then they are in danger.” strength and encouragement His death is written in the heart of the 20th- And today Romero repeats in heaven the to build the people of God, to century church. In ages past, only two other prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper: “When I commit to a more balanced bishops met the same fate: St. Stanislaus, was with them, I protected them in your name and dignified social order.” bishop of Kraków, and St. Thomas à Becket, ... and guarded them” (Jn 17:12). Romero died “Those words by Pope Francis confirm our intuition that archbishop of Canterbury. to save his people, to save them from the vio- Blessed Romero is a saint of I myself remember the emotion of St. John lence of injustice. I believe that the verse I just hope,” the cardinal added. Paul II when he heard that Romero had been quoted was one that Romero often meditated Shortly before he was assas- assassinated. And when, at the celebration on, just as he meditated on other passages sinated in 1980, Blessed for new martyrs during the Great Jubilee of that speak of giving one’s life to protect the Romero promised that if the Year 2000, he saw that Romero’s name flock, and before he preached this message God accepted his martyr- had been left out — that’s how strong Curia to others, he preached it to himself, and he dom, he would forgive those opposition was — the pope added it, writing chose to be like Jesus, giving his life for his who would take his life, the Santiago cardinal said in his that Romero was an example of the shepherd flock. homily. who lays down his life for his flock. For this reason, he could not keep silent He also quoted Blessed And today Romero’s death continues to in the face of the injustices suffered by the Romero’s words shortly before he was murdered: ISSN 0093-609X, Origins, CNS Documentary Service, is published weekly (except biweekly during July, August and “Martyrdom is a grace from December's last week) by Catholic News Service, 3211 4th Street N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100. Copyright © 2017 God which I do not believe by Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Periodical-class postage paid at Washington, D.C. I deserve. But should God Editor, Edmond Brosnan; Associate Editor, Mary Esslinger; Director and Editor-in-Chief of CNS, Greg Erlandson. accept the sacrifice of my life, Editorial: (202) 541-3284. Circulation: (202) 541-3290. Email: [email protected]. 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226 origins powerless. He began to denounce them pub- love for everyone, especially for the poor, a licly. He did not shirk before the forces of Christianity that inspires us to give our life Cardinal Ezzati arrived Aug. 12 in San Salvador to power, and he found his power in the love that for others. take part in different activi- Christ has for the poor. It was the Gospel that Romero witnessed to a Gospel and a ties to mark the centennial led him, it was the magisterium of Vatican church that “goes out” to save everyone, no of Blessed Romero’s birth, II and of the Latin American church with its one excluded. It is the church of the Second which included a 90-mile preferential option for the poor. Those who Vatican Council that Blessed Paul VI com- pilgrimage,”Caminando were oppressing the poor did not like the pared to the good Samaritan who bends down hacia la cuna del Profeta” (“Walking toward the proph- church that Romero exemplified. Indeed, they before the hurts of today’s humanity. Romero et’s birthplace”), from San believed it to be a politicized church. is a martyr who exemplifies the church that Salvador to Ciudad Barrios, Romero chose to be faithful to the church Vatican II wanted — a martyr of the church the eastern city where the presented by the council. He became a force- of Vatican II. And Pope Francis is not just a martyr was born Aug. 15, ful witness of its love for the poor, and he gave defender of that church. 1917. his life at the altar in union with Christ himself With Romero in heaven and with Francis Ordained April 4, 1942, in — victim and priest at the same time. A nun on the chair of Peter, the church goes out Rome, the Salvadoran reli- who was at that Mass and who saw Romero of itself and becomes a good Samaritan in gious leader was appointed archbishop of San Salvador die before he raised the bread and wine to the world. We needed a Latin American pope Feb. 23, 1977, and was heaven told me, “That day I thought Romero before Romero could be raised to the honors gunned down during Mass was, like Jesus, both victim and priest.” of the altar. I remember the words that Pope in a hospital chapel March The martyr’s death that Romero suffered is Francis said to me when we met on the first 24, 1980, a day after a ser- his most precious gift to us. That gift is espe- day of his papal ministry, March 19, 2013. He mon in which he called on Salvadoran soldiers to obey cially precious in our days, and the people asked, “How is the cause of beatification of what he described as God’s know it. That’s why his testimony continues Archbishop Romero doing?” order and stop carrying out to be welcomed all over the world. Yes, dear Dear sisters and dear brothers. We cannot actions of repression. sisters and dear brothers, in a world where be disciples who act only out of habit and are self-love and self-preservation are supreme thinking only of ourselves. That is not Gospel The celebrations of the 100th values, where we protect ourselves from oth- joy. Romero reminds us of the teaching of anniversary of Blessed Óscar ers by building walls and barriers both in our Jesus that was quoted by the apostle Paul: Romero’s birth should be hearts and in our relationships, Romero’s “There is more joy in giving than in receiving” a time to reflect on what it example is a shining beacon, a light that deliv- (Acts 20:35). really means to call some- one a martyr, said Cardinal ers individuals and peoples from the darkness Indeed, martyrdom, giving one’s life for Gregorio Rosa Chávez of San of egoism. others, is the highest way to follow Jesus — Salvador. Romero is speaking to us today, and I can and the guarantee of being truly blessed. Too many people in El hear the echo of his last Sunday homily: Blessed Óscar Romero is a model of a bish- Salvador “continue to call “In the name of God and in the name of op for our times. He is an inspiration to Pope martyrs those who picked this suffering people, I beg you, I beseech Francis and to all of us Christians striving to up arms and died following you; I order you in the name of God — stop follow Jesus faithfully. an ideal” in the country’s 12-year-long civil war, the the repression.” Beato Romero — Ora pro nobis. cardinal wrote in an article ■ There is too much violence in the world, Blessed Óscar Romero — Pray for us. for L’Osservatore Romano, there is so much violence in El Salvador, where the Vatican newspaper. gangs — maras — continue to bloody the The country’s real martyrs, country. There is violence in too many coun- the cardinal said, “never tries in the world; too many wars. Hunger is Homily at Mass stained their hands with too widespread and there is too much injus- blood,” and they were “men tice to number. Ours is a world of globalized and women who strove to Celebrating 100th love God and their neigh- indifference that lets evil reap its harvest of bors.” innocent souls, young and old. There is too Anniversary of Birth The real martyrs of El much terrorist violence that sows death and Salvador are Blessed Romero, fear. Today Romero asks the whole world to of Blessed Óscar “the assassinated priests and stop the violence, stop the killing. the four U.S. women — three Dear sisters and dear brothers, we need a Romero religious and a laywoman real conversion away from fear, indifference, — whose lives were taken in December 1980,” he said, superficiality, just as Archbishop Romero was Archbishop Gomez referring to Maryknoll Sisters converted when he lived through the death Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, of Father Rutilio Grande with his two peasant Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel friends. Romero became a defender of the “One hundred years after his birth, Blessed and Jean Donovan, a lay- poor, and we too are asked to leave behind Óscar Romero still inspires us for his humility woman. a Christianity that is just habit and self-ref- and courage — for his love for the poor and In addition, he wrote, “we erence. Today, in our own world, we need a his witness of solidarity and service to oth- all have a debt that we must Gospel Christianity that knows how to witness ers, even to the point of laying down his life,”

origins 227 Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said church. In the church, we are a family trav- begin to settle as soon as pos- in an Aug. 13 homily during a Mass celebrat- eling together, brothers and sisters, moving sible. We are obliged out of ing the 100th anniversary of the birth of the through life in the company of Our Lord Jesus gratitude to God and love for the truth to redeem the mem- Salvadoran archbishop. “Our brother, Blessed Christ. ory of hundreds of anony- Óscar, had a vision for a new society — the Monseñor Romero’s life was a journey that mous martyrs, most of whom society that God wants — a society in which he walked in the company of Jesus and in were humble campesinos.” God’s gifts are shared by everyone and not only the company of his people. And he served “For us, martyr means wit- the few. We want to carry that vision forward his people with a pastor’s love, with a father’s ness,” he said. “We must walk in our own times and in our own society,” love. with them in the name of Archbishop Gomez said during the Mass at And just like the disciples going with Jesus Christ.” the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los in the boat and just like the prophet Elijah in The article by Cardinal Rosa Angeles. Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, today’s first reading, we face trials and storms Chávez was published Aug. 10 in the Italian edition of the postulator of the Salvadoran archbishop’s in our journey of discipleship. L’Osservatore Romano, but sainthood cause, said in an Aug. 12 homily in This is true in our own personal lives. And was written for the newspa- London that the biggest hurdle in the saint- then we can think about the troubles in the per’s Spanish edition, which hood cause was obtaining recognition that world. published a special issue for Blessed Romero, who was shot while celebrat- We pray especially for those who are suf- Blessed Romero’s birthday ing Mass, was a martyr. Archbishop Gomez fering violence in El Salvador today — those Aug. 15. said, “God gives each of us a mission. It is not who are living in desperate poverty through- just for bishops like Monseñor Romero. Each out Central America and Latin America, espe- Washington, D.C., resident one of us, in our own way, is called to build cially for our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. Berta Quintanilla said her toddler had always asked the kingdom of God. Blessed Óscar used to say We know that they face these same fears — about the bespectacled older that every person must be a ‘messenger’ and a like Elijah on the mountain; like the apostles man whose photo he often ‘prophet’ for God and for the kingdom of love in the boat. saw at home and sometimes and mercy that Jesus Christ came to proclaim.” But we can never forget that God calls us to at church events. The archbishop’s homily follows. come to him and he will never leave us alone “He wanted to know about in our struggles. him, who he was,” said Today we celebrate the memory of Blessed In that first reading that we heard, it was Quintanilla. Óscar Romero — a proud son of the Salvadoran difficult for the prophet Elijah to recognize Because of the violent man- ner in which he died in 1980 people and a saint of the Americas. where God was. it was difficult to explain So today we want to pray in a special way He is looking for God in all the “noise” the entire story of Blessed for the great nation of El Salvador and the and confusion in the world. The prophet Óscar Romero to young Esau Salvadoran community here in Los Angeles as Elijah faces a wind that is so strong that it rips Cruz, now 6, but little by we celebrate this important memorial. through the mountains and shatters the rocks little, Quintanilla began to One hundred years after his birth, Blessed into pieces! And there is an earthquake. And teach him: He was a bit like Jesus. “He died for us,” and Óscar Romero still inspires us for his humility then there is a fire! “he didn’t like injustice,” she and courage — for his love for the poor, and But God wants Elijah to know — and he explained to him. his witness of solidarity and service to others, wants us to know — that even in all of this Quintanilla, who was born even to the point of laying down his life. chaos, even when the world seems like it is in El Salvador, took Esau Our brother, Blessed Óscar, had a vision for falling apart, he is still with us. Aug. 15 to their Washington a new society — the society that God wants We need to listen for God. We have to have parish, the Shrine of the — a society in which God’s gifts are shared faith and confidence that he is true. We have Sacred Heart, where parish- by everyone and not only the few. We want to find the time to listen to him, and pay ioners shared cake in honor of Blessed Romero after the to carry that vision forward in our own times attention and trust in him. feast of the Assumption Mass, and in our own society. This, of course, occurred in the life of our which fell on what would So also today we want to ask this great saint. Blessed Óscar walked with his people have been the Salvadoran saint to help all of us to live with new faith, during this dark time of sorrow and fear — liv- archbishop’s 100th birthday. new hope and new love. We ask him to inter- ing and working alongside his people, sharing But praise, and even recogni- cede for us — to give us courage to continue in their struggles. tion of Romero’s holiness by his project, his “revolution of love.” And he knew that he had to entrust every- Catholics, was hard-fought, said 51-year-old Maria de la Our readings today help us to understand thing to God. We need to ask him today to Paz Amaya de Majano, who our mission as disciples. have that same confidence. We need to follow attended the Washington We have to think about our lives as a jour- his example. When we have troubles, when gathering with her husband, ney. temptations and trials come, we need to have daughter and grandson And this is the image that we have in our total confidence in God. We will know God’s — all wearing T-shirts with Gospel today. Our lives are like that journey presence and closeness in our lives even in the archbishop’s image. In her native El Salvador, it across the sea that we see the apostles making those difficult times. was once dangerous to have in the Gospel. In the Gospel, the apostles are really scared. anything with his image on We are traveling in that boat — just as The storm is powerful, and I am sure that they they were. And the “boat” of course is the were thinking that that was the end, that they

228 origins were dying. Even when they see Jesus on the In Blessed Óscar’s name, let’s keep work- water — they think he’s a ghost! ing — to build a better Los Angeles, a better it, she said, remembering the attacks on his character by And, my brothers and sisters, this can hap- America and a better world. Let us carry the other Catholics. That’s why pen to us, too. We can get so anxious about Gospel message of love and mercy, truth and it’s always been important our future or worrying about the things in our justice into every corner of our world. for her to tell the truth about lives that we can think that God is not there Let’s keep pressing for immigration reform Archbishop Romero to others for us. But he is. — to keep our families together, to give rights but also to talk about it as But our Gospel today assures us that Jesus to our workers and to open the way to make a family, she told Catholic News Service. is always with us, that he is always ready to new citizens for this great land of ours. give us his hand to help us. And on this special day, let us ask the From a young age, she taught her daughter Vilma Majano That is why St. Peter is a beautiful example patroness of El Salvador, Nuestra Señora de la about the archbishop, to for all of us today. He calls out to Jesus in faith, Paz — to watch over her children in the land counter whatever she might and Jesus says to him, “Come.” that is named for “the Savior.” hear about him from others. And, as we heard today, St. Peter was fine May she guide them to know the freedom, Now as a family living in as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus and kept justice and peace that Blessed Óscar Romero the U.S., they often light moving toward him. But the minute he looked gave his life for. candles together by an oil away, when he thought about his human limi- And let us go to our Blessed Mother. Let us portrait of Blessed Romero placed at their Washington tations and all the storms around him, he ask her to obtain for us the courage we need parish church shortly after began to sink. to trust Jesus more completely — so that we his 2015 beatification. She Then he cries out, “Lord, save me!” Then can navigate on the stormy waters of our cul- said she often asks for Blessed Jesus reached out his hand and caught him ture and lead our brothers and sisters to the Romero’s intercession in mat- and helped him keep walking. shores of eternal life. ters involving the world’s What a great lesson for each one of us, my Que viva el Beato Óscar Romero! Que youth and so that her native country can overcome vio- brothers and sisters! We need to keep our eyes viva Nuestra Señora de la Paz! Que viva El lence. She’s also teaching on Jesus Christ. Salvador! ■ her grandsons about his life, Of course, Monseñor Romero felt struggles how Romero followed Jesus’ and challenges in his ministry. But he kept example. his eyes on Jesus Christ. He asked the Lord “He was a great person who to save him and to help him so that he could Trying to Say God left everything behind, every- continue in the mission that Jesus gave him. thing, even his blood, for the poor, for those who didn’t And that is important for us, too, my broth- Bishop Flores have shoes, those who were ers and sisters. God gives each of us a mis- hungry,” and the poor who sion. It is not just for bishops like Monseñor were being attacked for the Romero. Each one of us, in our own way, is More than 200 Catholic artists attended a religious beliefs, such as her called to build the kingdom of God. June 22-24 literary gathering at the University family, Amaya said. Blessed Óscar used to say that every per- of Notre Dame in Indiana. Bishop Daniel E. As a family, they told stories son must be a “messenger” and a “proph- Flores of Brownsville, Texas, delivered a keynote about him after the Mass while remembering his sac- et” for God and for the kingdom of love and address on the first day of the gathering, whose rifices. mercy that Jesus Christ came to proclaim. theme was, “Trying to Say ‘God’: Re-enchanting “The most important way to Let us listen to his words: “Let each one the Catholic Literary Imagination.” Bishop remember Blessed Romero is of you, in your own vocation — nun, mar- Flores explored three ideas: the poverty of the to carry on his work for jus- ried person, bishop, priest, high school or Word, the provocations of the Word and the tice. But sometimes it is time university student, workman, laborer, market Word at the edge. He said, “Words are aimed to celebrate, which we did woman — each one in your own place live the at something more than provoking consump- today in the context of Mary, faith intensely and feel that in your surround- tive desire, just as embodied persons are more whom Romero referred to as the ‘ideal of the church,’” said ings you are a true microphone of God” (M. than objects of consumptive desire or objects Cinnamon Sarver, one of the Dennis, R. Golden, S. Wright, Óscar Romero: within whom consumptive desire can be pro- event’s organizers. Reflections on His Life and Writings [Orbis, voked. Surely the vocation of a Catholic writer For parishioner Quintanilla, 2000], 108). involves contending today with the aggres- it was another opportunity to This is our mission, my brothers and sive reduction of persons to objects and our help her teach her son Esau sisters. A beautiful challenge that we share words to instruments of utilitarian provoca- about another “great exam- together — all of us! To be missionary disci- tion.” He discussed deconstructionist liter- ple” of humility and holiness that the church provides. ples! To live our faith in Jesus Christ intensely! ary criticism, noting that “for many literary He was a good example of To be the “true microphone of God” — bring- critics, a literature nourished by a dogmatic peace, of faith, of love for oth- ing his word of healing, his word of justice, his religious faith is but a phase that is bound to ers, she said. word of truth — to every aspect of our lives be superseded by our current happy progres- “I hope it helps him be nice and the workings of our society. sion into intellectually uncommitted status. to others, be humble, be So also today let us ask this great saint to This amorphous critical perspective, which is good,” like Blessed Romero, help all of us to live with new faith, new hope anything but happy, is actually a mix of hos- she added. and new love. tile aversions to any claims about meaning

origins 229 in the world.” Bishop Flores added, “Yet I went to school. The rest of the story do justice to the beauty of this passage. there is another way to read the history is of occasional relevance and reflected “Do you know what amazes me about of literature. If the incarnation of the in the footnotes. Paradoxically, I do not the Incarnation?’ I continued, ‘that it Word is the intense-most signification of think many of us would trade our par- is altogether contrary to the modern the love unseen behind all that is, then ticular poverty for anything in the world; world: the presence of the infinite in the the rejection of this sign was bound to it is the indescribable richness through limits of the flesh, and the fight, the fight wind itself historically toward the cur- which the life of the Word comes to us with no quarter, against the temptations rent cultural fear that behind all that and in some way gets translated through of the devil’s excesses. You do not know is, there is nothing at all. To say it this us. how much I have meditated on the way puts in high relief where our cur- I do not doubt that a Catholic writ- temptations in the desert. ‘Take up the rent contentious edge lies.” The gathering er writes from poverty in a labor that power,’ the devil told him; that power was sponsored by Notre Dame’s Institute in the end is a response of love to the that gives the illusion of being able to for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, the Word who in his poverty has loved us. disrupt and dominate everything. But Sick Pilgrim blog, Patheos, University of Exploring this conviction animates what he maintained himself in the limits of St. Michael’s College in the University of I want to say today. In some way I wish his own flesh, in his own poverty, in Toronto, Image and Our Sunday Visitor. to encourage you by depicting some- his own death, so poor, so miserable, Bishop Flores’ keynote follows. thing of the mystery that envelops you so hard. Our age, nevertheless, show- as you write. And even if my words fall ing a face of enormous kindness, has The Poverty of the Word far short of their aim, there is, I hope, succumbed to those temptations. ‘They The Word is our most constant and grace in leaving to silence what I can- will be like gods, they will change the mysterious companion. In some way not say.2 stones into bread, and they will domi- we come together during these days to nate the world.’ ... To such an age we celebrate the poverty of the Word. And have handed over the Christ, and we do this in two principal senses. “We rejoice in the poverty not even realize it.”3 We rejoice in the poverty assumed Limitation is the world’s word for assumed by the Word when by the Word when he took flesh, and poverty. Perhaps we are quietly ashamed secondly we celebrate that poverty that he took flesh, and secondly of our poverty, and so try to hide it. The shows itself both in what we can say and world we live in strives to overcome our we celebrate that poverty in what we cannot say of him. For in limitations, our poverty. Showing a face “trying to say God” we encounter all of that shows itself both in what of enormous kindness, we want to free these poverties and more. By his poverty ourselves and others from this poverty. we can say and in what we we are made rich.1 In the midst of this comes the Word The whole Christian life is a par- cannot say of him. For in ‘try- enfleshed, who seems to say to us that ticipation in the expressiveness of the limitation is not the enemy. ing to say God’ we encoun- Word. That the church by grace both Now that is a jarring word, discon- engenders and needs artisans of words, ter all of these poverties and certing and hardly tolerable to the logic painters, sculptors, musicians and other of pervasive human wants. Perhaps more. By his poverty we are subcreators is akin to an evident truth today faith in the Christ finds its great- that flows from revelation. Popes and made rich.” est obstacle in the unthinkable thought bishops have written about it, and his- that God would renounce the power and tory testifies to it. I am not interested accept to maintain himself in the limits in mounting an effort to re-present in So, let us consider for a moment of his own flesh, in his own poverty, in narrative fashion what the tradition has the root and promise of our poverty. his own death, so poor, so miserable, said before me. I wish to speak as a pas- Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet/novel- so hard. tor who writes a bit but reads more. And ist/human rights activist describes this Much later in the novel, our fairly as a preacher who is often surprised mystery of the poverty of the Word made useless priest is visiting with an elderly after a homily that I said something I flesh in a novel he wrote a few years ago religious sister with whom he shares an had never thought before. titled La Confesión. abiding friendship and hears her utter In a certain way, this or any discourse Early in the novel a fairly impracti- the following: is an unveiling of the particular poverty cal, not to say useless, priest is having “If misery exists, Father, and the sta- of the speaker. I can only speak out of an interview with his fairly powerful tistics do not lie, it is because the dream an impoverished particularity; this is cardinal archbishop. No one reading in of the rich has contaminated the dreams not false humility, it is the metaphysi- Mexico would doubt the realism of the of the poor. At the bottom of things, pov- cal condition that we all share. We are dialogue between authority and pov- erty no longer exists, dear Father. The embodied and therefore historical crea- erty in the church. Javier Sicilia’s vision only thing that exists is wealth and mis- tures. Each of us would describe our of the poverty of Christ pulses through ery. ... Do you know why? I know well particularity differently. the novel and is here encapsulated in that you know. ... Because they have Mine begins with the fact that I spoke this fragment. It picks up with the priest been made to believe that their poverty Spanish at my grandmother’s knee and speaking quietly while the cardinal sips is a shameful disease, a wound unworthy spoke English to the television set. Then a tequila. My English translation cannot of the world. Never before has human-

230 origins ity, and here, excuse me, Father, I also the aggressive reduction of persons to was necessary for our salvation. Such a included our Holy Mother Church, spit objects and our words to instruments of beautiful few lines. Such a simple for- so much on the face of Christ, as if his utilitarian provocation. mulation, a fragment that in some way poverty were a filth, that unclean filth Our faith in the Word made flesh contains the whole.7 that they hung from the cross and which both confirms and safeguards our frag- “In the first place, man knows thereby we, as did his detractors, make fun of.”4 ile human intuition that every individ- how much God loves him, and is thereby First I want to acknowledge the sim- ual human life is a word that agonizes stirred to love him in return, and herein ple beauty of Sicilia’s use of language. in the act of being spoken, and that this lies the perfection of human salvation; Having said that, I would like to look at poor telling, so poor, so miserable, so hence the apostle says in Romans 5:8: this from a couple of different angles. hard, can be a speaking made beauti- God commends his charity toward us; First, at its most obvious sense, Sicilia ful by a love that envelops and seeks to for when as yet we were sinners ... Christ locates the denigration of the poor, and saturate it.5 died for us.”8 thus the denigration of the Christ, in the Catholics who use words with cre- Certainly the whole of the Summa contaminating influence of the “dream atively significant intentions seek to is contained in these few lines, but that of the rich,” which is in principle a kind give expression to human life’s intelli- is far less important than the fact that of limitless possibility of possession, gible speaking, doing so in the abbrevi- the whole of the salvific drama is here consumption and the overcoming of ated form of a story, a poem, a novel. simply expressed. God the Father shows human limitation. The Fathers of the Church delighted in himself in the act of manifesting the Laudato Sí makes the audacious, preaching the incarnate Word as both crucified Son, and by the Spirit we both almost apocalyptic claim that we are the bearer and the embodiment of all see and are made participating agents in witnessing the normalization of the that the Father has to say to us. They the love there displayed. Here, Thomas notion that goodness and beauty are spoke of him as the Verbum breviatum.6 expresses the Verbum abbreviatum of synonymous with utility. It’s an old the New Testament revelation. human threat, but technical prowess Put another way he shows us in and economic power make the grasping “That the church by grace worded dramatic form the Trinitarian manipulation of ourselves, our neigh- icon of the West; think of Masaccio’s both engenders and needs bor and our surroundings monstrously three-dimensional image of the Trinity achievable. The voracious advance of artisans of words, painters, painted in two dimensions. I think we “this age of usage” makes human ecol- must look at it together, not because we sculptors, musicians and ogy increasingly hostile to humanity necessarily want to make it the subject itself. other subcreators is akin to of our next essay, poem or novel, but The first sign of this hostility is the because how we see and respond to this an evident truth that flows manipulation of the poor, who on dramatic display will profoundly affect Sicilia’s telling, are being made to feel from revelation.” how we write our next essay, poem or shame while being sold a bill of goods. novel. The second sign is the devastation of the This iconic description is in fact the natural ecology. We are deeply down this The many words of the earlier cov- culmination of a contemplative bibli- road. This limitless commodification of enants are more briefly assumed into cist’s perception of the dynamic of reve- reality for purposes of provoking limit- the new; the Lord’s parables capture in lation. The drama of the Trinitarian icon less consumptive desire makes dystopi- the fragment the whole of the Gospel; in the form of the Crucified is thoroughly an fiction less and less a futuristic genre. the Lord’s Prayer conveys in just a few divine and uncompromisingly human. It appears we live in a time when words the whole mystery of prayer. And It pivots around three moments: the words, like the human body itself, are finally, the person of Christ himself, dis- appearing, the provocative insight and displayed for the sole purpose of pro- played in the act of giving himself to the the response. In some sense the drama voking consumptive desire. This aggres- Father for our sakes, both shows and is in the perception and in the inter- siveness holds powerful sway and sug- enacts what all his words to us intended pretation of the provocative appearing. gests that our cultural moment despairs to express. Yet the greater dramatic weight is in the that words, bodiliness and the whole And so it is that the progressively character, quality and direction of the of material creation, in the end, matter abbreviated expression intensifies human response to this divine provoca- much. We press into heartless service the visibility of the Word. Is this not tion. what we little value. the promise contained in the poor Thomas alludes to the intrusive This state of affairs profoundly affects human limit assumed by the Word? appearing of Christ in the citation of the life of a worker of words. Words are Our embrace, then, of the Word in his Romans 5: “While we were yet sinners, aimed at something more than provok- human particularity surely commits us Christ died for us.” We were quite unpre- ing consumptive desire, just as embod- to follow him into the mystery of the pared for this appearing. His arriving ied persons are more than objects of limitation that signifies most intensely. was not the descent of an invited guest consumptive desire or objects within nor was he made all that welcome when whom consumptive desire can be pro- The Provocations of the Word at last he came. The time, place and voked. Surely the vocation of a Catholic Question 46, Article 3, of the Tertia Pars: manner of the Word’s manifestation was writer involves contending today with Thomas asks in what sense the cross entirely hidden in the wise counsel of

origins 231 the living God. his future hangs in the balance now that Now then, faith’s character as an Thomas’ invocation of St. Paul’s text his master has decided to dismiss him. apprehended intuition, a gratuitously serves to give authoritative character- So he makes friends with the poor by, offered and accepted provocation to ization of the intrusion’s motive from illegally perhaps, reducing their debts. God’s point of view, forms the basis God’s point of view. God appears as one The parable offends someone who for the regenerative work of grace. By commending, that is to say, manifesting expects the Lord only to show us ethics. it we are made capable of responding. persuasively his love for us. This is the It makes sense to one who perceives that We rise, as it were, to the level of actual divine eros, a dramatic move to show his interest is in provoking us to see that participation in the love revealed in the himself as he is, which is equivalent to the kingdom involves an urgent desire iconic drama. showing himself in the act of love. The to avoid disaster, and friendship with It should be noted that this is exactly human drama, which is also a kind of the poor is the surest way to proceed. the point at which Catholic anthro- eros, is entwined in the divine display pology holds as paramount what later and is simply captured by Thomas in Reformation theologies will relegate to the verbs he uses: cognoscit, provoca- “Perhaps today faith in lesser importance. The response of love tur and ad diligendum. We are intended to the love offered is the salvific moment. the Christ finds its greatest to know something, to be provoked to Thus, Thomas says of the move to love something and to respond in some way. obstacle in the unthinkable God in return: “Herein lies the perfec- This provocative appearing is direct- tion of human salvation.” For Thomas, thought that God would ed to our desire; it aims radically to divert stopping at the moment of insight into our attention (which is always derivative renounce the power and the meaning of the icon, equivalent to of desire) away from what is normative the act of faith, is a tragic failure. The accept to maintain himself for us to something new, something not insight of faith is stunted in its teleology derivative from our lived experience in the limits of his own flesh, if it does not trigger within us the infu- in the world. Jean-Luc Marion presses sion of charity that loves God in return. in his own poverty, in his own into service the word anamorphosis This responsiveness is directed to the to describe this phenomenon.9 This death, so poor, so miserable, poor Christ and by immediate extension involves a jarring shift of perspective by to the neighbor. “Lord, when did we feed so hard.” which one sees, or at least glimpses, as you when you were hungry; when did God sees. Conversion precisely entails we clothe you when you were naked?”11 this radical re-visioning. As readers I do not doubt that we This entire movement constitutes active, In keeping with plain Catholic doc- have all had the experience of being willed participation in God’s own love. trine this revising shift can only happen attracted and moved to a perspectival One of the remarkable aspects of through the prior attractive grace pres- shift of some kind. It seems to me most Thomas’ account is how completely the ent in the appearing itself: “Ista attrac- great literature aims to affect our seeing. divine/human drama is enveloped in tio, ipsa est revelatio,” as St. Augustine I have on occasion been resistant to a charity. It is love which motivates the says: This attraction is itself the revela- book because the perspectival revision divine appearing; it is this love appear- tion. Thus, divine love is both the rev- proposed struck me as too aggressive or ing which itself attracts us willingly into elation and embodies its own attractive in some way persuasive in a direction the altering of our gaze. And it is love force. It makes possible our free move- I did not want to pursue. Let me just generated by the grace of faith and given ment toward it and in it: “Seduxisti me say Interview With a Vampire was too in response to God that perfects the sal- Domine, et seductus sum.”10 successful in depicting the evil of drain- vific action. For Thomas, the intellect The parables of the kingdom can ing someone’s life away as attractive. I may be the highest human faculty, but help us get a sense of the ista attractio. never finished the book. Conversely, Jim salvation is in the will inasmuch as char- In the parables, the attractive charac- Butcher’s Dresden Files fascinate me. I ity is the love we gracefully/humanly ter of the kingdom is in the very pro- enjoy them, and though I am quite sure return. posing of a viewpoint other than our there is a perspectival shift being pro- To insist on the primacy of charity own. Often the arousal of desire for the posed, I have not sensed this to be prob- in the Christian life is to open up the kingdom involves dramatic depiction lematic; quite the contrary. enormous dramatic consequences of of a viewpoint that sees what is miss- My point, though, is that as readers human agency, which in its most pris- ing. Thus the prodigal son saw some- we make decisions all the time about tine description is responsiveness to the thing made present to his mind, and it what authors are trying to show us and gift of love. The response to the divine told him what he was lacking, and this how far we are willing to let them show provocation can be immensely varied; stirred him to return home. The widow it. This experience is analogous to the to name a few, it can be sudden, subtle, saw what she no longer had, a silver work of grace implied by the Trinitarian lethargic or thwarted.12 The parable of coin, and it stirred her to search. icon in its attractive phase. Either con- the sower is not unrelated to this aspect The experience of what attracts to sciously or not, our writing will share in of a Catholic dramatic vision. God can look quite bizarre to the casual this analogous relation. And in principle Here it would be appropriate to say observer. The clever steward who seems our writing can be aligned in diverse the word hope. Because of the obstacles to scandalize the reader who only looks ways with the icon’s attractive intent human persons can encounter within for moral lessons in the parables knows even as the parables were. this dramatic vista, hope emerges as the

232 origins divinely sustained medium of life. The from a contemplative stance before the history of literature. If the incarnation of lethargic and the thwarted response poor Christ’s provocative appearing. To the Word is the intense-most significa- need not remain so. write as a Catholic is most properly to tion of the love unseen behind all that Since the Incarnation, something do just that. Our response will be differ- is, then the rejection of this sign was extraordinary has been unleashed upon ent though, because, though the poor bound to wind itself historically toward the world: It is the irruption of grace Christ is the same, our poverty before the current cultural fear that behind all in flesh. The visibility of the divine is a him now is different. that is, there is nothing at all. To say it manifestation of the divine love, a God- this way puts in high relief where our desire to be seen as love in the midst of The Word at the Edge current contentious edge lies. his creation. His appearing affects every The jarring perspectival shift contained Deconstruction is an apophati- aspect of human agency: the senses, in the act of faith and responded to in cism that cannot conceive of the Word the passions, the appetites, the intellect charity in some way transposes the beyond human wordiness. As a philo- and the will. Human creativity cannot believer and turns the disguised divine sophical, literary and cultural phenom- but be affected by being pulled into the appearing into the discernible and per- enon it is a movement that sees mean- divine expressive love. A Catholic writer vasive presence. We speak and write in ing as a pure construction of the aggres- contemplates this mystery and wonders the grace of this perspective. Herein lies sive mind; meaning, thus, is something how to extend the reach of its visibility. the nonbeliever’s great frustration with like a human institution. And like insti- I think of Bernanos’ book The us. tutions, words must be shown for what Imposter. In it he carefully lays out the they are when deconstructed: At root, human contingencies that lead to the for the deconstructionist culture, uni- second volume, Joy. The drama of the “As readers we make deci- versal claims of meaning are idolatry, appearing of grace and the drama of an aggressive kingdom that keeps its sions all the time about what refusal emerge throughout these works subjects within a controlled dominion. in expressive elegance. At the end of authors are trying to show us In that sense meaning is an extension of the second book, we see the Imposter the human power play. and how far we are willing to Cénabre struggling up a flight of stairs “Game of Thrones,” whether con- and finally admitting that he must do let them show it. This expe- ceived so or not, is a parable of decon- what he alone cannot do, he says to struction. This distrust of meaning is rience is analogous to the the distraught cook: “Will you kindly extended to the church in a particularly give me your hand, ... I fear I cannot work of grace implied by the intense way because she is perceived take a single step unassisted.” And as the paramount institution that pro- Trinitarian icon in its attrac- then the viewpoint shifts to the poor poses meaning.14 woman, chosen here to witness what tive phase. Either consciously Being an institution that is inherent- his exhausted, surrendering flesh can ly protective of the claims of significa- or not, our writing will share only intimate: tion is not the real problem though. The “She felt her arm seized with con- in this analogous relation.” problem for us is construing the institu- vulsive force. At once he began climb- tion and the meanings without relation ing the stairs, slowly, heavily, as though to their original source and final end. he were pushing a tremendous weight To the tepid believer or to the nonbe- The various versions of deconstruction with his forehead. And when, after the liever, the tradition of literature forged admit of no such original source that door had been opened, the light struck within the Catholic anamorphosis is lies behind and above both meanings his face, frozen in an anguish that was one of many strands within the larger and institutions, which is why their fruit more than human, the poor woman, in historical categorization of artistic tra- is bleakness. We, in fact, do admit of spite of her terror, could not suppress a ditions and literary history. This tradi- this source, which is why the fruit of our cry of pity.”13 tion may or may not appear remark- labor should be hope. In my limited reading, this is one of able within this historicization. In fact For the Catholic, the idolatry of the most expressive scenes in modern contemporary literary criticism seems worded meaning is a temptation as is literature. Bernanos, whom I cite here to have a vested interest in noting how the rendering of church in her tem- in exemplary fashion, is surely among it is quite unremarkable within the his- poral form as an absolute. In the case the great crafters of the story. He is a torical trajectory. of the church, her form derives from challenge for us, as are many Catholic For many literary critics, a literature the kingdom of the crucified and risen authors of the last century. His work nourished by a dogmatic religious faith Christ, just as in apophaticism meaning resonates beyond his time and place. is but a phase that is bound to be super- is derivative and relative to the Word Yet it is not possible now for us to write seded by our current happy progression beyond human speaking. Temporal as he did. into intellectually uncommitted status. meanings and ecclesial forms are nec- This should not surprise us. After This amorphous critical perspective, essary for us as vehicles toward what all, St. Ignatius did what St. Francis and which is anything but happy, is actually they both sacramentally signify. Words St. Dominic did without actually doing a mix of hostile aversions to any claims and the church house us in a forward- what they did. Bernanos wrote from the about meaning in the world. moving fashion. Their form will give particular poverty of his moment and Yet there is another way to read the way when they have served their poor

origins 233 yet noble purpose. the church and our words are at the ser- names himself from there. Thomas says somewhere in De vice of this tending toward the wedding A Catholic writer lives and works at Veritate: feast of the lamb. Thus, in Christianity, this edge of meaning, between light and “Whatever our understanding con- deconstruction is a radical purification the dark, and our witness emerges from ceives of God falls short of his repre- that relativizes in order to save. If there that place. God is beyond our saying, sentation; and thus what he is always is demolition, it is for the sake of uncov- but not beyond saying himself into us.21 remains hidden from us; and this is the ering the ground of love.19 This is the source of our hope. With John highest knowledge of him which we can It may be that the believer’s paradox of the Cross we intuit the difficulty and have in this life, that we know God to be of not being able to say God is met on promise of hearing the Word in the dark: above all that which we think of him.”15 the other side by the unbeliever’s para- “sin otra luz y guía / sino la que en el Dante says what Thomas says about dox of not being able not to say God. I corazón ardía.” unsayability when he invents the verb mean that the impulse toward significa- trasumanar in order to say that “to pass tion is a drive in us more powerful than En la noche dichosa, beyond the human cannot be signified even the sexual drive. en secreto, que nadie me veía, through words.”16 Dante never tires of ni yo miraba cosa, sin otra luz y guía squeezing out of the language the out- sino la que en el corazón ardía.22 lines of a description molded to tell us “[Christ’s] appearing affects what he cannot say, cannot remember, And with Hopkins, we intuit both the every aspect of human agen- cannot describe.17 Dante’s glorious fail- difficulty and the promise inherent in ure in describing the heavenly city, the cy: the senses, the passions, speaking the Word-Love. But we must church in her transfigured form, should in the end try to speak it: Caritas Christi the appetites, the intellect hold a privileged place in our literary urget nos.23 Not as the world warily and and theological memory.18 and the will. Human creativ- wearily speaks it, but as the Word irrupt- If Dante breathed the air of the ing in flesh spoke and speaks it. Behold, ity cannot but be affected by theological tradition that kept guard the “master of the tides,” the “Ground over the unsayability of the Godhead, being pulled into the divine of being and granite of it,” the “past all it is because the tradition held fast to / Grasp God” who has shown “a mercy expressive love. A Catholic something present in the Lord’s own that outrides.” With the poets we must announcement of the kingdom. There writer contemplates this make the arduous journey and respond is a kind of transgression, and indeed a to “Our passion-plungèd giant risen, / mystery and wonders how to kind of deconstruction, that is built into The Christ of the Father compassion- the Gospel announcement itself. Every extend the reach of its vis- ate.” positive description of the kingdom is at ibility.” the same time a negation of what the fig- I admire thee, master of the tides, ure of the world proposes as normative. Of the Yore-flood, of the year’s fall; The kingdom is not like the rich To be a true deconstructionist tend- The recurb and the recovery of the gulf’s man’s table; it is like Lazarus’ vindica- ing toward nihilism, you have to con- sides, tion. The kingdom is not about cultivat- stantly remind yourself that what you The girth of it and the wharf of it and ing relations with people who can profit naturally seek, a meaning in things, is the wall; you, it’s about being good to people who illusory. For a true nihilist to derive joy Staunching, quenching ocean of a cannot pay you back. The kingdom is from something as simple as the sweep motionable mind; not like simply fulfilling the law; it is of words that lead us to see the eagles Ground of being, and granite of it: like selling all you have and giving to as they come for Frodo and Sam, here at past all the poor. The kingdom is not like Pilate’s the end of all things, is akin to an act of Grasp God, throned behind judgment seat; it is like Christ judged infidelity to his professed first love. But Death with a sovereignty that heeds but and giving taciturn witness to the truth. such a one will repent of having been hides, bodes but abides; The transgressive character of the moved by the sense of the scene, lest With a mercy that outrides Lord’s announcement bears the marks others accuse him of having said God.20 The all of water, an ark of the Word’s scourging of the form of But most people are not true nihil- For the listener; for the lingerer with a the world as we know it. The face of ists; they are rather agnostics about the love glides that Word appeared more clear to us possibility of anything more than mere- Lower than death and the dark; when, in love, it was he who took the ly useful and thus passing signification. A vein for the visiting of the past-prayer, scourging. And this practical agnosticism is born pent in prison, In this sense, the perspectival shift of having been schooled in a culture The-last-breath penitent spirits — to God’s point of view deconstructs any of distrust. In such a culture meaning the uttermost mark absolute claims in the world. The only is utilitarian and fleeting, and why it Our passion-plungèd giant risen, absolute left is the forward-moving comes and why it leaves is lost to dark- The Christ of the Father compassionate, imprint of divine love on the form of cre- ness. Our witness involves a befriend- fetched in the storm of his strides.24 ation. It is the resurrection of the Christ ing of the dark, not by taming it, but by tending us toward the Apocalypse. Both listening to and speaking the Word as he Thank you for your kind attention.

234 origins Notes the attraction by the Father toward the Son, in order except the one burning within me.” to see the Father in him: ‘Ista revelatio, ipsa est attrac- 23 1 2 Cor 8:9. 2 Cor 5:14: “The love of Christ compels us.” tio.’ Whether this attraction is felt as gentle or violent 24 2 Javier Sicilia: La confesión: El diario de Esteban Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the changes nothing: Revelation exerts these two effects Deutschland, stanzas 32, 33. I am indebted to Ron Martorus (Debolsillo, 2016, electronic format): pos. simply because it brings itself to bear. We believe in 704: “Tal vez los lenguajes sean en realidad una Hansen for his novel Exiles: A Novel (Farrar, Straus God when we will it, clearly; but we will it only when and Giroux, 2008) for a deeper, more humane, appre- cuerda de silencios cuyos nudos son las palabras. Para we love that which we desire.” nosotros, los cristianos, el Verbo es el silencio coeterno ciation of Hopkins’ work. ■ 13 Bernanos, Joy (Pantheon Books, 1946): The final que un día, por el silencio atento de María, se articuló chapter. La Joie (Édition du groupe, Ebooks libres et en Jesús de Nazareth y nos echó a andar. El silencio gratuits) 1929 edition, p. 236: “Ayez donc la bonté de permite que la palabra de otro se haga Él en nosotros.” 3 me donner la main, dit Cénabre. Je crains de ne pou- Ibid., pos. 176: “Sabe qué me maravilla de la encar- voir faire un seul pas. / Elle se sentit saisir le bras avec nación? — continue — que es todo lo contrario del une force convulsive. Aussitôt il se mit à monter à ses mundo moderno: la presencia del infinito en los côtés, lentement, pesamment, comme s’il eût repoussé límites de la carne, y la lucha, la lucha sin cuartel, du front, à grand-peine, un poids immense. Et lorsque, Speech Opening contra las tentaciones de las desmesuras del diablo. la porte ouverte de nouveau, la lumière vint frapper No sabe cuánto he meditado en las tentaciones del ce visage pétrifié par une anxiété plus qu’humaine, desierto. ‘Asume el poder,’ le decía el diablo; ese poder si grande que fût la terreur de la pauvre fille, elle ne Diocese of que da la ilusión de trastocar y dominar todo. Pero retint pas un cri de pitié.” él se mantuvo en los límites de su propia carne, en 14 Pope Benedict, writing about 15 years before his su propia pobreza, en su propia muerte, tan pobre, election, identified with characteristic succinctness Rome’s Pastoral tan miserable, tan dura. Nuestra época, sin embargo, an important aspect of the current situation faced bajo el rostro de una enorme bondad, ha sucumbido by the church: “For the great part of the people, the a esas tentaciones. ‘Serán como dioses, cambiarán las discontent with the church has its origin in the fact Conference on the piedras en panes, dominarán el mundo.’ ... A ella le that it is an institution like so many others, and as hemos entregado a Cristo y no nos damos cuenta.” 4 such, it limits my freedom. ... The anger against the Ibid., pos. 1669: “Si la miseria existe y las estadísticas church or the disappointment that it provokes has Family no mienten es porque el sueño de los ricos ha con- a specific character, because from her is expected, taminado los sueños de los pobres. En el fondo ya no quietly, more than is expected from other mundane existela pobreza, querido padre. Lo único que existe es institutions.” Ratzinger, “La Iglesia”: in La Belleza, La Pope Francis la riqueza y la miseria. ... ¿Sabe por qué? Sé bien que Iglesia (Ediciones Encuentro, 2006, electronic format) lo sabe. ... Porque se les ha hecho creer que su pobreza pos. 204: “Para la mayor parte de la gente, el descon- es una enfermedad vergonzosa, una llaga indigna del tento frente a la Iglesia tiene su origen en que es una mundo. Nunca la humanidad, y aquí, discúlpeme, institución como tantas otras y que, como tal, limita “The current situation is gradually giv- padre, incluyo también a nuestra Santa Madre, había mi libertad. ... La ira contra la Iglesia o la desilusión escupido tanto sobre el rostro de Cristo, como si su que provoca tienen un carácter específico, porque de ing rise in all of our lives, and especially pobreza se tratara de una porquería, de esa inmunda ella se espera, calladamente, más de lo que se espera in our families, to the experience of feel- porquería que colgaron de la cruz y de la cual, como de otras instituciones mundanas.” lo hicieron sus detractores, nos burlamos.” 15 ing ‘uprooted,’” Pope Francis said June 19 5 De Veritate 2, i, ad 9m: “Quidquid intellectus noster de Ratzinger, “La Belleza” in La Belleza, La Iglesia Deo concipit, est deficiens a repraesentatione eius; et at the opening of the Diocese of Rome’s (Ediciones Encuentro, 2006, electronic format) pos. ideo quid est ipsius Dei semper nobis occultum rema- pastoral conference, which was focusing 93: “Quien cree en Dios, en el Dios que se ha mani- net; et haec est summa cognitio quam de ipso in statu festado precisamente en los semblantes alterados viae habere possumus, ut cognoscamus Deum esse on the family. Speaking at the Basilica de Cristo crucificado como amor ‘hasta el fin’ (Jn supra omne id quod cogitamus de eo.” 13:1), sabe que la belleza es verdad y que la verdad of St. John Lateran, the pope said, “An 16 Paradiso I, 70-1: “Trasumanar significar per verba / es belleza, pero en Cristo sufriente aprende también non si poría” (“Transhumanizing cannot be signified uprooted culture, an uprooted family is a que la belleza de la verdad implica ofensa, dolor y, sí, in words.”). See William Franke, Dante and the Sense también el oscuro misterio de la muerte, que sólo se family without history, without memory, of Transgression (Bloomsbury, 2013, electronic for- puede encontrar en la aceptación del dolor, y no en su mat), p. 8. indeed without roots. And when we are rechazo.” 17 William Franke, Dante, p. 52: It is through resolutely 6 See St. Cyprian of Carthage, De Dominica Oratione, not rooted, any wind can end up car- transgressing every order of presentation and repre- 28-30. A common and fruitful consideration in the rying us away. For this reason, one of sentation that Dante finally delivers his divine vision. Latin Middle Ages, drawing from Isaiah 10:23 and Most deeply understood, it is a nonvision — which, Romans 9:28. the first things we must think about as nevertheless, in its very forgetfulness casts a shadow 7 parents, as families, as pastors is the set- Bruno Forte, The Portal of Beauty, Towards a Theology of infinitely rich and nuanced images that are of Aesthetics (Eerdmans, 2008, electronic format), glimpsed in the act of disappearing. tings in which to root ourselves, where to Chapter 2: “The Word of Beauty, Thomas Aquinas”: 18 William Frankie, Dante, p. 84: Dante, too, develops “The Whole has made its home in the fragment create bonds, find roots, where to grow a poetics of failure in order not so much to deliver because the relationship of love which constitutes his final vision as to describe the impediments to his that fundamental network that allows it as purest beginning of all that is has now offered doing so. Paradoxically, the tale of his failure becomes itself in the flesh: Beauty is the arche of the Three, us to feel ‘home.’” Pope Francis has often his success, and he too sojourns indefinitely among revealed in its highest form at the hour of the aban- the dead in the poem which survives him. talked about the need for young people donment of the cross, where the suffering of the cru- 19 cified God opens the way into the depths of divine As Thomas Pfau (Minding the Modern, University of to learn from their grandparents, and communion.” Notre Dame Press, 2013) says of “modernity’s leading paradigm of knowledge,” almost in passing: “Plato (as in his speech to the pastoral conference 8 Summa Theologiae, III, 46, 3, c.: “Primo enim, per hoc indeed Coleridge himself) might have simply called homo cognoscit quantum Deus hominem diligat, et he said that if parents don’t provide this it a philosophy that no longer offers a conceptual per hoc provocatur ad eum diligendum, in quo per- or imaginative space for love — which might itself opportunity, children should “overstep” fectio humanae salutis consistit. Unde apostolus dicit, be the most salient characteristic of philosophical Rom. V, commendat suam caritatem Deus in nobis, the parents so they can learn their roots. modernity.” quoniam, cum inimici essemus, Christus pro nobis 20 Pope Francis discussed adolescence, mortuus est.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Harper-Collins e-books), Book 6, Ch. 4, “The Field of Cormallen”: which he called a time of “difficulty” and 9 Jean-Luc Marion, Givenness and Revelation, trans. “I am glad that you are here with me,’ said Frodo. Stephen Lewis (Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 64: “instability,” but also a time of “growth.” ‘Here at the end of all things, Sam.’ ‘Yes, I am with “In order to see the uncovered mysterion, it is thus you, Master,’ said Sam, laying Frodo’s wounded hand He said, “ I am often worried by the cur- necessary to pass from our spirit to the Spirit of God, gently to his breast. ‘And you’re with me. And the so as to see it as God sees it. This is nothing less than rent tendency to prematurely ‘medicalize’ journey’s finished. But after coming all that way I an overturning of intentionality: taking the intention- don’t want to give up yet. It’s not like me, somehow, if our young people,” and pointed out that al gaze of God on God, instead of claiming to retain you understand.’” our intentionality in front of the intuition of the mys- “adolescence is not a pathology.” Pope 21 See Summa Theologiae, I, 43, 5, ad. 2, where Thomas terion. I have identified elsewhere this overturning or Francis said young people “want to be transferal of intentionality as an anamorphosis.” cites Augustine (De Trin. iv, 20): “The Son is sent, whenever he is known and perceived by anyone. / [...] 10 Jer 20:7. protagonists: Let us give them room so 11 Et ideo signanter dicit Augustinus quod filius mittitur, See Mt 25 and Summa Theologiae II-II, 27, 8, c., cum a quoquam cognoscitur atque percipitur.” De they may be protagonists, guiding them where St. Thomas cites 1 Jn 4:21, on this point: “This Trinitate iv, 20, is cited frequently in I, 43. commandment we have from God, that he, who — obviously — and giving them the tools 22 St. John of the Cross, Noche Oscura, v. 3: “On the loveth God, love also his brother.” to develop all this growth.” The pope 12 blessed night, / in secret, that nobody saw me, / nor Marion, Givenness, 48: “Revelation consists only in did I anything see, / without any light and guide / spoke in Italian; a Vatican translation of

origins 235 his speech follows, copyright © 2017 by Therefore, this conversation can help us ible, palpable in every ecclesial commu- Libreria Editrice Vaticana. in this sense: a “warmup” and then it nity, with its own way of being. will be up to you to “give it all you’ve You experience the tensions of this As that priest said, “Before speaking, got.” I will divide this presentation into great city. In many of the pastoral visits I shall say a few words.” small sections. I have made a few of your daily prac- I wish to thank Cardinal Vallini for tical experiences have been presented his words, and I would like to say some- In ‘Roman’! to me: distances between home and thing that he was unable to say because To enter this theme, I wished to call the work (in some cases up to two hours it is a secret, but the pope can say it. first of the keys “In Roman”: the actual to get there); the lack of close family After the election, when they told dialect of the Romans. We often fall into ties because of having to relocate to find me that I had to go first to the Pauline the temptation of thinking or reflect- work or to be able to afford rent; living chapel and then to the balcony to greet ing on things generally, in the abstract. always “down to the last penny” to get to the people, immediately the name of Thinking about problems, about situ- the end of the month because the pace the cardinal vicar came to my mind: “I ations, about adolescents. And in this of life is more costly in and of itself (it is am the bishop; there is a vicar gener- way, without realizing it, we fall com- easier to manage in small towns); time al. …” Right away. I even felt it fond- pletely into nominalism. We would like is often insufficient for getting to know ly. And I called him. And on the other to embrace everything but we accom- neighbors where we live; the need in so side Cardinal Hummes, who was at my plish nothing. many homes to leave children all alone. side during the ballot count and who And thus we could go on listing a told me things that helped me. These large number of situations that touch two accompanied me, and from that “One of the first things we the life of our families. Therefore carry moment I said, “On the balcony with out your reflection and prayer “in must think about as parents, my vicar.” There, on the balcony. Roman,” in practice with all these con- From that moment on he has accom- as families, as pastors is the crete things, with the very real faces of panied me, and I wish to thank him. families and thinking about how you settings in which to root our- He has many virtues and also a sense can help each other to form your chil- of objectivity that has helped me many selves, where to create bonds, dren within this reality. times because at times I “fly” and he The Holy Spirit is the great initiator find roots, where to grow that helps me “land” with so much charity. I and generator of processes in our societ- thank you, your eminence, for the com- fundamental network that ies and situations. He is the great guide panionship. of transformative and salvific dynam- allows us to feel ‘home.’” But Cardinal Vallini is not retiring, ics. With him, do not be afraid to “walk” because he belongs to six congrega- through your neighborhoods and to tions and will continue to work, and it Today I invite you to think “in dia- think about how to give an impetus to is better this way because a Neapolitan lect” about this theme. And to do this the accompaniment of parents and ado- without work would be a calamity in the we have to make a considerable effort, lescents, that is, in concrete terms. dioceses ... [laughter, applause]. I would because we are called to think about like to thank him publicly for his help. our families in the context of a big city Connected Thank you! like Rome with all its wealth, opportuni- In addition to the previous one, I would And to all of you, good afternoon! ties, variety and at the same time with like to focus on another important I thank you for this opportunity all its challenges. Not to close ourselves aspect. The current situation is gradu- enabling me to begin this, your diocesan off and ignore the rest (we are always ally giving rise in all of our lives, and conference, in which you will discuss Italians), but to face reflection and even especially in our families, to the experi- an important theme for the life of our moments of prayer with a healthy and ence of feeling “uprooted.” We speak of families: to accompany parents in the stimulating realism — no abstraction, a “liquid society” — and so it is — but education of their adolescent children. no generalization, no nominalism. today I would like in this context to pres- In these days you will reflect upon sev- Family life and the education of ent to you the growing phenomenon of eral key topics that correspond in some adolescents in a great metropolis like the uprooted society. way to the places in which our being this requires particular attention at the This means people, families who are a family is played out (home, school, foundation, and we cannot take it light- gradually losing their ties, that essential social networks, the intergenerational ly. Because educating or being a family fabric so important to feeling a part of relationship, the precariousness of life is not the same thing in a small town one another, partners with others in a and family isolation). as it is in a metropolis. I am not saying common plan. It is the experience of I would like to share with you a few it is better or worse. It is simply differ- knowing that “we belong” to others “premises” that may help us in this ent. The complexity of the capital does (in the noblest sense of the term). It is reflection. Often we do not realize it, not allow for reductive summaries but important to keep in mind this climate but the spirit we reflect with is just as rather spurs us to a multifaceted way of of uprootedness, because little by little important as the content (a good ath- thinking, through which every neigh- it seeps into our gaze and especially into lete knows that the warmup counts as borhood and zone echoes in the diocese our children’s life. much as the performance that follows). and in this way the diocese can be vis- An uprooted culture, an uprooted

236 origins family is a family without history, with- have this quality of transmitting history, decided to make him eat on his own in out memory, indeed without roots. And faith, belonging. And they do it with the the kitchen, “so we can invite friends.” when we are not rooted, any wind can wisdom of those who are on the thresh- And so it was. end up carrying us away. For this reason, old, ready to leave. A few days later, he comes back from one of the first things we must think I return, I have said several times, work and he finds his child playing with about as parents, as families, as pastors to the passage of Joel (cf. 3:1): “Your a hammer, nails, wood. “What are you is the settings in which to root ourselves, old men shall dream and your young making?” — “A table.” — “Why a table?” where to create bonds, find roots, where people shall prophesy.” And you are the — “A table to eat at” — “But why?” — “So to grow that fundamental network that bridge. Nowadays we do not let grand- that when you get old, you can eat there allows us to feel “home.” parents dream, we discard them. This by yourself.” This child had understood Today social networks would seem to culture discards grandparents because intuitively where the roots were. offer us this area of “network,” of con- grandparents do not produce; this is the nection with others, and they also make “throwaway culture.” But grandparents In Motion our children feel part of a group. But the can only dream when they meet a new Educating adolescents in motion. problem that they bring because of their life; then they dream, they talk ... Adolescence is a phase of transition in very “virtuality” is that they leave us as the life of not only your children but of if “up in the air” — I have said “liquid the whole family — the whole family is society”; we can say “fizzy society” — “We often think that educa- in a transitional phase — you know it and therefore very “volatile.” There is no well and you experience it; and as such, tion is imparting knowledge, worse alienation for a person than to we must address it in its totality. feel he or she has no roots, that he or she and along the way we leave It is a phase of bridging, and for this does not belong to anyone. reason adolescents are neither here emotional illiterates and So often we demand from our nor there; they are in motion, in tran- children excessive formation in cer- young people with countless sit. They are not children (and they do tain fields that we consider important not want to be treated as such), and incomplete plans because for their future. We make them study they are not adults (but they want to be a number of things so they may give they have found no one to treated as such, especially at the level their “best.” But we do not give the same of privileges). They are experiencing teach them how to ‘do.’ We importance to the fact that they know precisely this tension, first of all within their land, their roots. We deprive them have concentrated education themselves and then with those who of knowing the great people and the surround them.1 on the head, overlooking the saints who engendered us. I know you They always seek confrontation; have a workshop dedicated to intergen- heart and hands. This too is they question, dispute everything; they erational dialogue, to the area of grand- look for answers. And at times, they do a form of social fragmenta- parents. not listen to the answers, and they ask I know it might be repetitive, but I tion.” another question before the parents say feel it as something the Holy Spirit has the answer. They pass through these imprinted on my heart: In order that our various states of mind and their fami- young people may have visions, may be But think of Simeon, think about lies with them. “dreamers,” may face the future with that chatterbox Anna who went from However, allow me to tell you that boldness and courage, it is necessary one place to another saying, “It is that it is a precious time in the life of your that they listen to the prophetic dreams one! It is that one!” This is beautiful; this children. A difficult time, yes. A time of of their fathers (cf. Jl 3:1). If we want is beautiful. They are the grandparents changes and of instability, yes. A phase our children to be formed and prepared who dream and they give children [the that presents great risks, no doubt. But for the future, it is not only by learning sense of] belonging that they need. above all, it is a time of growth for them languages (to give an example) that they I would like that in this intergen- and for the entire family. will succeed. It is necessary that they be erational workshop you undertake an Adolescence is not a pathology, and connected, that they know their roots. examination of conscience on this. To we cannot address it as though it were. Only in this way will they be able to fly find the concrete history in grandpar- A child who experiences his or her ado- high; otherwise they will be captured by ents. And not to leave them aside. I do lescence (as difficult as it may be for the visions of others. not know if I have recounted this once, the parents) is a child with a future and And I return to this, I am obsessed but a memory of a story that one of my hope. I am often worried by the current perhaps but ... parents must make two grandmothers told me comes to my tendency to prematurely “medicalize” space for their children to speak to their mind. our young people. It seems that every- grandparents. Many times the grandfa- Once upon a time there was a wid- thing is resolved by medicalizing, or ther or the grandmother is in a retire- owed grandfather in a family. He lived controlling everything with the slogan ment home, and they do not go to visit with the family but he had aged and “make the most of your time,” and in them. They must speak [to them]. Even when they ate, some soup would fall this way young people’s agenda is worse by overstepping parents but taking roots from his mouth or some saliva, and he than that of a senior manager. from their grandparents. Grandparents would get a bit soiled. And the father Therefore, I insist: Adolescence is not

origins 237 a pathology that we must combat. It is Let us offer them broad goals, great the various languages that build us as a normal, natural part of growing up, challenges, and let us help them to persons. That means teaching our young of the life of our young people. Where accomplish them, to reach their goals. people to integrate all that they are and there is life there is movement; where Let us not leave them on their own. that they do. We might call it socio-inte- there is movement, there are changes, Thus, let us challenge them more than grated alphabetizing, which is educa- seeking, uncertainty; there is hope, joy they challenge us. tion based on the intellect (the head), and also anguish and desolation. Let us not allow them to receive that feelings (the heart) and actions (the Let us correctly frame our discern- “dizzying sensation” from others who hands). This will offer our young people ment within the foreseeable fundamen- do nothing but put their lives at risk: Let the opportunity for harmonious growth tal processes. There are margins that are us give it to them ourselves but the right not only at the personal but at the same necessary to be aware of so as not to be dizziness that satisfies this desire to time the social level. It is essential to cre- alarmed, not to be careless, nor to be move, to go forward. We see many par- ate places where social fragmentation is negligent, but to know how to accompa- ishes that have the capacity to “capture” not the dominant framework. ny and help [young people] to grow. Not adolescents. “These three days of holi- To this end, it is important to teach everything is insignificant, but neither day, let us go to the mountains, let us them to think what they feel and do, to does everything have equal importance. do something ... or let us go whitewash feel what they think and do, and to do For this reason, it is important to dis- that school in a poor neighborhood that what they think and feel, that is, inte- cern which battles are to be fought and needs it.” Make them protagonists of grating the three languages. A dyna- which are not. In this matter it is very something. mism of ability placed at the service of helpful to listen to couples with expe- the person and of society. This will help rience, who, although they can never enable our young people to feel active give us a recipe, can help us with their “We find many adolescent and as protagonists in their growth pro- testimony to know this or that margin cesses, and will also lead them to feel parents, many. Adults who or range of behavior. called to participate in the building of Our young people seek to be and do not want to be adults and the community. want to feel they are — logically — pro- They want to be protagonists: Let us want to play at being ado- tagonists. They do not at all like to feel give them room so they may be pro- commanded or to respond to “orders” lescents forever. This ‘mar- tagonists, guiding them — obviously — coming from the adult world (they fol- and giving them the tools to develop ginalization’ can augment a low their “accomplices’” rules of the all this growth. For this I believe that game). They seek that complicit auton- natural tendency that young the harmonious integration of different omy that lets them feel “they are in con- spheres of knowledge — of the mind, people have to isolate them- trol of themselves.” And here we have the heart and the hands — will help to pay attention to uncles and aunts, selves or to stop their growth them to build their character. especially those who have no children We often think that education is processes for lack of com- or who are not married. imparting knowledge, and along the I learned my first bad words from a parison. There is competition way we leave emotional illiterates and “spinster” uncle [laughter]. In order to young people with countless incom- but no comparison.” gain the favor of their nephews or niec- plete plans because they have found no es, they often do not do the right thing. one to teach them how to “do.” We have There was the uncle who used to sneak- This calls for finding educators capa- concentrated education on the head, ily give us cigarettes ... things of those ble of committing themselves to young overlooking the heart and hands. This times. And nowadays ... I am not saying people’s growth. It calls for educators too is a form of social fragmentation. they are bad, but one has to be careful. spurred by love and by the passion to At the Vatican, when the guards take In this search for autonomy that make grow in them the life of the Spirit their leave, I receive them one by one, young people want, we can find a good of Jesus, to show that being Christian those who are leaving. The day before opportunity, especially for schools, demands courage and is a beautiful yesterday, I received six [of them]. One parishes and ecclesial movements. To thing. by one. “What are you doing, what will encourage activities that put them to To educate today’s adolescents we you do?” I thank them for their service. the test, that make them feel like protag- cannot continue to use a merely scho- And one of them said this to me: “I am onists. They need this. Let us help them! lastic teaching model of ideas alone. It going to be a carpenter. I would like to They seek in many ways the “dizzi- is necessary to follow the pace of their be a woodworker, but I will be a carpen- ness” that makes them feel alive. So, let’s growth. It is important to help them to ter. Because my father taught me a lot give it to them! Let us encourage all that acquire self-esteem, to believe that they about this and my grandfather too.” The helps them to transform their dreams can truly succeed in all they apply them- desire to “do”: This young man was well into projects and enables them to dis- selves to. In motion. Always. educated with the language of doing, cover that all the potential they have is and his heart is good too because he a bridge, a passageway to a vocation (in Integrated Education was thinking about his father and his the broadest and most beautiful sense This process requires a simultaneous grandfather, an affectionate good heart. of the word). and integrated manner of developing Learning “how to do.” This struck me.

238 origins Yes to Adolescence, No to Competition is the theme of austerity. We are living a crisis need not weaken their relation- As the last element, it is important for us in a context of very intense consumer- ship; instead, it can improve, settle to reflect on an environmental dynamic ism. And making a connection between and mature the wine of their union. that involves everyone. It is interesting consumerism and what I have just Life together should not diminish but to observe how young people want to said: After food, medicine and clothing, increase their contentment; every new be grownups and grownups want to be which are essential for living, the high- step along the way can help couples find or have become adolescents. est spending is for beauty products, cos- new ways to happiness” (No. 232). We cannot ignore this culture, since metics. This is statistical! Cosmetics. It is To me it seems important to experi- it is air that we all breathe. Today there awful to say this. And cosmetics, which ence the education of children begin- is a sort of competition between parents used to be more about women, are now ning from this perspective as a call the and children different from that of other the same with both sexes. Lord makes to us, as family, to make this eras in which a confrontation normally After spending for basic things, the passage one of growth, in order to learn occurred between one and the other. first thing is cosmetics and then mas- to better savor the life that he gives us. Today we have passed from comparison cots (companion animals): food, veteri- This is what I thought to tell you on to competition. narian ... These are statistics. But this is this theme. There are two different dynamics of another topic, the one of pets, which I [After Cardinal Vallini’s thanks and the spirit. Our young people today find will not touch upon now: We will think the blessing:] much competition and few people to about this further ahead. Thank you. Work well. I wish you all measure themselves against. The adult But let us return to the topic of aus- the best! Go forward! world has welcomed “eternal youth” terity. As I said, we are living in a context as a paradigm and model of success. It of intense consumerism. It seems that Note 1 seems that to grow up, to mature, to age we are urged to consume consumption, “For the young the future is long, the past short. In fact, at the start of the morning, there is nothing of is a bad thing. It is synonymous with in the sense that the important thing is the day to remember, while there is everything to a frustrated or used-up life. Today it to always consume. In the past, we used hope. They are easy to deceive because of the reason mentioned; that is, because they readily hope. And seems that everything is to be masked to say to those who had this problem they are more courageous, for they are full of pas- and concealed. As if the very fact of liv- that they were addicted to shopping. sion and hope, and the former of these prevents them fearing, while the latter inspires them with ing had no meaning. Appearances, not Nowadays, this is not said anymore. confidence, for no one fears when angry, and hope aging, wearing makeup. ... I feel sorry We are all within this rhythm of con- of some advantage inspires confidence. And they are bashful” (Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii, 12:2). ■ when I see those who dye their hair. sumerism. For this reason, it is urgent to How sad it is when someone wants recover that very important and under- to give the heart a face-lift! And today, valued spiritual principle: austerity. We we use the word face-lift more than have entered an abyss of consumerism, the word heart. How painful it is when and we are induced to believe that we someone wants to erase the “wrinkles” are valued according to what we are of so many encounters, of so much joy capable of producing and consuming, and sadness! The thought of when they to what we are capable of having. advised the great Anna Magnani to get a Educating in austerity is an incom- face-lift, comes to mind. She said, “No, parable richness. It awakens genius and these wrinkles have cost me my entire creativity, generates opportunities for life; they are precious.” imagination and especially opens one In a certain sense this is one of the to teamwork, in solidarity. It opens one most dangerous, unwitting threats to others. A type of “spiritual gluttony” in the education of our adolescents: exists. That attitude of gluttons who, excluding them from their growth pro- instead of eating, devour all that sur- cesses because adults take their place. rounds them (they seem to gorge them- And we find many adolescent parents, selves as they eat). many. Adults who do not want to be I think it does us good to educate adults and want to play at being adoles- ourselves better as family about this cents forever. This “marginalization” can “gluttony” and to make room for aus- augment a natural tendency that young terity as a way to meet one another, to people have to isolate themselves or to build bridges, to open up spaces, to stop their growth processes for lack of grow with and for others. This can be comparison. There is competition but done only by one who knows how to be no comparison. austere; otherwise he or she is simply a “glutton.” Spiritual ‘Gluttony’ In Amoris Laetitia I said to you: I would not want to conclude without “The life of every family is marked by this aspect, which can be a key topic all kinds of crises, yet these are also part that intersects all the workshops that of its dramatic beauty. Couples should you will have: It is across the board. It be helped to realize that surmounting

origins 239 Periodicals datebook U.S.Postage CNS documentary service PAID Washington DC Sept. 18-21 3211 Fourth Street NE - Washington DC 20017 National Convention of Hispanic Priests. Theme: “Priests, Teacher and Pastor on the Road to the Fifth Encuentro.” Hyatt Regency Milwaukee. Milwaukee, Wis. www.ansh.org

Sept. 20-22 Interdisciplinary Symposium: “A Distinctive Vision? Catholic Higher Education 50 Years After Land O’Lakes.” On File Sponsors: St. Louis University and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los ginalized, especially toward the many Universities. St. Louis University. St. Angeles, vice president of the U.S. who are forced to leave their countries, Louis, Mo. https://goo.gl/D5qKs3 Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked as well as to promote a correct human Sept. 21-25 bishops across the country to consider and natural ecology,” the pope said, National Catholic Council for Hispanic a special collection to assist victims according to Vatican Radio. Ministry Annual Meeting. Theme: “La of Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Místeca de la Pastoral Juvenil Hispana: Coast. He suggested in an Aug. 28 let- A day after appealing for an end Evangelizar en Esta Nueva Época.” Mexican American Catholic College. San ter to bishops that the collection be to the violent persecution of the Antonio, Texas. taken during Masses the weekend of Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in https://ncchmblog.wordpress.com Sept. 2-3 or Sept. 9-10. “Our hearts and Myanmar, the Vatican announced Pope Sept. 22-24 prayers go out to the families that have Francis will visit the country in late Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Annual lost loved ones and to all who have November. After the visit Nov. 27-30 Convention. Theme: “Society and lost homes and businesses along with to the cities of Yangon and Naypyitaw Citizenship: Current Challenges for the their sense of normalcy. ... Our prayer- in Myanmar, the pope will travel on Church.” Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport. Arlington, Va. ful and financial support is urgently to Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, www.catholicscholars.org needed,” he wrote. Funds collected will the Vatican said Aug. 28. After praying support emergency aid and recovery the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in Sept. 24-27 efforts under Catholic Charities USA St. Peter’s Square Aug. 27, Pope Francis Annual Conference of the Diocesan said he was saddened by the news “of Fiscal Management Conference. and pastoral and rebuilding support Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. to the affected dioceses through the the persecution of a religious minor- Baltimore, Md. http://dfmconf.org bishops’ conference. ity, our Rohingya brothers and sisters.” News media reported violent clash- *Oct. 1-7 es Aug. 25-26 after Rohingya fighters World Congress of the Apostleship of Catholic politicians should be guid- the Sea. Sponsor: Vatican Dicastery ed by the church’s moral and social attacked 30 police stations. More than for Promoting Integral Human teachings when crafting legislation, 100 people, mostly insurgents, have Development. Kaohsiang, Taiwan. been reported killed, according to the www.vatican.va Pope Francis said. Meeting with par- ticipants in the annual meeting of BBC. Most of the Rohingya popula- *Oct. 3-5 the International Catholic Legislators tion in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have Federation of Pastoral Institutes Network Aug. 27, the pope said that been denied citizenship in Myanmar, (Federación de Institutos Pastorales) church teaching can contribute to a which is predominantly Buddhist. Annual Assembly. Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center. Chicago, Ill. more humane and just society, but About 120,000 Rohingya are trapped http://fipusa.org only if the church is allowed a voice in internally displaced person camps in answering “the great questions of near the state capital, Sittwe. A fur- *Oct. 3-6 society in our time. The laws that you ther 400,000 live in the state’s north, Invitational World Congress: “Child Dignity in the Digital World.” Sponsor: enact and apply ought to build bridges which is currently under martial law. Pontifical Gregorian University Center of dialogue between different political Ucanews.com reported Aug. 29 that in for Child Protection. Rome, Italy. perspectives, also when responding to June the Catholic Bishops’ Conference www.childdignity2017.org precise aims in order to promote great- of Myanmar suggested the pope not *signifies new entry er care for the defenseless and the mar- use the term Rohingya during his visit.

240 origins