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DECEMBER 18, 2008
1969-2009: Our diocese at 40 years
In 1969, Charles de Gaulle stepped down as President of France; the Concorde successfully completed its first test flight; the U.S. spacecraft “Eagle” landed on the moon; and the world’s first human heart transplant was performed in Houston, Texas.
In 1969, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower died at the age of 78; thousands of young people flocked to the Woodstock Music Festival in New York; the Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing after 141 years; and Richard M. Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States of America.
In 1969, the New York Yankees won the World Series; Mario Andretti won the Indianapolis 500; Majestic Prince won the Kentucky Derby; and the New York Jets won the Super Bowl.
In 1969, the average price of a new car was $3,278; the average price of a new home was $15,525; the average price of a gallon of gas was 35 cents, and the average income in the United States was $8,547.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI established the Diocese of Phoenix and appointed our first bishop, Edward A. McCarthy, whose installation occurred on Dec. 2 of that year.
What does all of this have to do with you and me? For starters, it gets us to thinking about history, our history, the history of persons and events that have impacted our times. It also gets us to thinking about the 40th anniversary of our diocese, not just for the sake of nostalgia, but for the present and the future.
40th anniversary of our diocese
In the long history of the Church, 40 years is only a small portion of time. Nonetheless, what has happened in the past 40 years, in the Diocese of Phoenix and beyond, is not without significance for us now and as we make plans for the future. For that reason, it is good that we celebrate our 40th anniversary with grateful hearts and with discerning minds.
Since the study of history refreshes our memory of the past and thereby attunes us to cooperate with our Savior in the present, we shall be doing a variety of things over the next 12 months to mark and to celebrate this anniversary. We began on Dec. 7 with the “Honor Your Mother” Celebration, held in downtown Phoenix; and we shall extend the commemoration through a variety of events through December 2009.
Rather than having a single large diocesan festivity, we shall incorporate the celebration of our anniversary into a number of parish and diocesan events throughout the coming year. In addition, we will be publishing our first “History of the Diocese.” It will feature historical notes on all of our parishes while offering a brief but significant synopsis of the diocese’s history as a whole. By becoming more familiar with our roots, we can start afresh with Christ as we move into the future; we can be better servants of the Gospel of Life.
What or Who shapes history
In his latest book, “Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihadism,” George Weigel reminds us that history can’t be read exclusively through the lenses of politics, economics or technology. While these realities certainly have an impact on the unfolding of history, an even greater impact comes from the vitality of cultures and the moral principles and spiritual convictions of persons engaged in shaping those cultures. With this in mind, what can we learn from the history of the Catholic Church in Arizona over the past 40 years?
We shall notice that history is not a story of ceaseless progress since we do not always advance from good to better; rather, we go both forward and backward, we make both good decisions and bad ones. In the end, history unfolds under God’s care and is ultimately shaped by His divine plan. But, as it unfolds, God respects the free will of each person, even allowing us to make choices that are wrong.
The loving God who gave human beings dominion over the rest of creation did not then withdraw and remain disinterested in history’s unfolding. He entered into time through the Fiat of the Blessed Virgin Mary; He redeemed it through His sacrificial death and Resurrection; and He continues to shape it through the Holy Spirit’s presence and with our willing cooperation.
To love or refuse to love
Johann W. Goethe contended that history, taken as a whole, is a struggle between belief and unbelief. While there is some merit to Goethe’s perspective, St. Augustine offered us an even more helpful key to unlocking history’s meaning.
For Augustine, history results from the struggle between two kinds of love: the love of God even to the point of self-sacrifice, and the love of self even to the point of denying God. Of course, the latter is not really love at all but rather a refusal to love. In an interview several years ago, then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), relying on Augustine’s view of history, offered the following insight (“Salt of the Earth,” p 282f): “History as a whole is the struggle between love and the refusal to love. This is also, in fact, something we are experiencing again today, when man’s independence is pushed to the point where he says: I don’t want to love at all, because then I make myself dependent, and that contradicts my freedom.
“Indeed, love means being dependent on something that perhaps can be taken away from me, and it therefore introduces a huge risk of suffering into my life. Hence the express or tacit refusal: Before having constantly to bear this risk, before seeing my self-determination limited, before coming to depend on something I can’t control so that I can suddenly plunge into nothingness, I would rather not have love. Whereas the decision that comes from Christ is another: Yes to love, for it alone, precisely with the risk of suffering and the risk of losing oneself, brings man to himself and makes him what he should be… I think that that is really the true drama of history. In the many opposing fronts it can ultimately be reduced to this formula: Yes or no to love.”
Living in a skeptical age that sees little meaning in suffering, and at a time when many trust scientific data more than truths of faith, taking time to remember our history is not an idle pursuit and not just a luxury for the privileged. Remembering our past helps us not only to avoid repeating mistakes of the past but also to make better decisions about the future. It helps us understand the pivotal role of faith and the importance of making a decision to love.
Copyright 2008 The Catholic Sun.
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