|
Phoenix Catholics encounter pope during U.S. visit
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
May 1, 2008
Nearly everywhere Pope Benedict XVI went during his six-day trip to the East Coast last month, someone from the Phoenix Diocese was there, being inspired by his message of hope.
“It wasn’t about us seeing him. It was about him seeing us — knowing that there are faithful out here and the Church will grow strong,” said Gloria Romero, a parishioner at St. Anne in Gilbert, of the Holy Father’s first trip to the United States April 15-20.
Romero, along with her husband, teenage daughter and nearly 100 other local Catholics from various parishes, saw Pope Benedict both in Washington, D.C. and in New York.
They joined thousands of onlookers on Pennsylvania Avenue April 16. That’s where they got their first glimpse of the pope as he addressed the country from the White House lawn.
“On this, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity,” the pope said before his private meeting with President George W. Bush.
He said they should live as brothers and sisters “in the same house and around that same table which God’s bounty has set for all His children.”
Local Catholics later encountered Pope Benedict as he approached the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Inside, the Holy Father joined the nation’s bishops, including Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, for evening prayer.
The Church’s supreme leader then addressed the bishops, asking how they “can best fulfill the call to ‘make all things new in Christ, our hope.’”
Secular influences can lead to Catholics saying one thing during Mass and then doing the opposite throughout the week, the pope explained.
“Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel,” the pope said.
Therefore, he added, bishops should continue to offer parishioners thorough formation in the Church’s moral teaching. They should also be active in the public square and in prayer and adoration.
That will help to “speak and act in persona Christi,” the pope said.
He also encouraged the bishops and their communities to continue to welcome immigrants — “to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new homes.”
Sitting among his brother bishops, Bishop Olmsted listened intently.
He once served in the Roman Curia alongside then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The bishop said he has always known the pontiff “as a gentle person with a deep life of prayer, a keen intellect, clarity of expression and peaceful courage.”
The bishop, who later joined in celebrating the pope’s first U.S. Mass, thinks U.S. Catholics witnessed these gifts during the papal visit.
First U.S. Mass
Local Catholics were also among the 45,000 who greeted the pope at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. He rounded the field in his popemobile before ascending the altar deep in center field.
“Who can deny that the present moment is a crossroads, not only for the Church in America but also for society as a whole?” the pope said during his homily.
The family is drawing closer together and becoming more interdependent, he said.
“Yet at the same time we see clear signs of a disturbing breakdown in the very foundations of society,” such as alienation, anger and a weakening moral sense, the pope added.
He also touched on the pain the Church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors.
“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the pope said. He stressed the continual need to foster healing and protect children.
Pope addresses special groups
The pope gathered with several victims of clergy sexual abuse from the Archdiocese of Boston during a private meeting. He heard personal accounts of their pain and disconnect from the Church, prayed with them and offered words of hope.
Jean Sokol, director of the diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection in Phoenix, called the meeting “very significant” because it marked the first time a pope met with abuse victims.
“I have heard from several victims/survivors and their statements were very positive,” Sokol said. “However, they will continue to look toward the Vatican and the U.S. bishops to take swift, transparent and appropriate action when reports are made.”
Before heading to New York, the pope addressed hundreds of Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America. MaryBeth Mueller, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Phoenix Diocese, was among them.
Pope Benedict affirmed that education is integral to the Church and should be accessible to all, she said.
Intellectual charity, the pope said, “calls the educator to recognize that the profound responsibility to lead the young to truth is nothing less than an act of love.”
“He singled us out to encourage, affirm and motivate,” Mueller said. “He made each of us feel very important in our roles in the Church and we return with even more conviction and motivation to educate and evangelize.”
Pope visits New York
Phoenix Catholics followed the pope to New York, singing and dancing for several hours while the pontiff addressed the United Nations.
He said that human rights are increasingly becoming the language of international relations and their promotion is an effective strategy for eliminating inequality.
“Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace,” the pope explained.
Fr. Bud Pelletier, vicar of stewardship, and Fr. David Sanfilippo, vicar general, joined other priests at St. Patrick Cathedral April 19. That’s where Pope Benedict celebrated Mass for priests, deacons and members of religious orders.
The pontiff hoped they would lead the faithful to “a renewed sense of unity and purpose” so that the “Church in America will know a new springtime in the Spirit, and point the way to that other, greater city, the new Jerusalem, whose light is the Lamb.”
Later that evening, young Phoenix Catholics, including a dozen teens traveling with Scottsdale’s St. Maria Goretti Parish youth group, joined 25,000 of their peers for a rally at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers.
Local Catholic recording artist Matt Maher, a music minister at St. Timothy Parish in Mesa, was among the musical talents featured during the rally.
The pope recognized that the teens have a sense of generosity, service and fairness. He warned them about things that can cloud truth, explaining that Nazism “banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good.”
“Truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us,” the pope said adding that ultimately, the truth is Jesus.
Pope Benedict spent his final day in the United States offering a prayer service at Ground Zero and celebrating Mass at Yankee Stadium.
At the site where the World Trade Center once stood, the pope, surrounded by families of some of the victims, asked for their healing and healing for those who still suffer from injury or illness as a result of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all,” the pope prayed.
A handful of Phoenix Catholics joined Pope Benedict for Mass at Yankee Stadium April 20, his last public appearance before returning to Rome.
|
