Many of CUA’s students were positioned behind the bike rack fencing in standing room sections along the short parade route. They had been waiting under bright blue skies since the morning. And the moment did not disappoint. The Pontiff who wears sensible shoes and urges his followers to care for the poor and the environment was in their presence.

“I tried to prepare spiritually for this day. But it didn’t really hit me until the moment that he rode past and waved to us,” said Claudia Seckinger, a junior psychology major from Vero Beach, Fla. “That is something that will live in my heart. To see the Holy Father up close and to attend a papal Mass is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

“It was amazing. It was the highlight of my life,” said Shannon Edgar, a sophomore politics major from Pittsburgh, who was standing in section D, a prime location to view the arrival of the Popemobile.

The Pope’s visit to Catholic University and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to celebrate Mass and canonize Blessed Junipero Serra took months of planning. Excitement had been building on campus since April when it was officially announced that Pope Francis would be coming.

“I was here when Pope Francis was elected in March 2013. I remember the bells ringing on campus,” said Jacob Maclin, a senior mechanical engineering student from Cleveland, Ohio. “I had heard stories of when Pope Benedict XVI visited CUA in 2008, and I never imagined this new pope would visit before I graduated. This means so much to me. I’ve gone to Catholic school all my life. This is beyond exciting.”

It took 1,000 volunteers to prepare the campus to welcome 25,000 pilgrims from across the nation. Cecilia Cicone, a senior theology student from Newark, Del., was one of more than 500 students who were part of that volunteer squad. “It was so cool to be involved in the distribution of Holy Eucharist as a Communion escort, which is the whole reason we celebrate Mass. My dad saw me on national TV as I stood with a Deacon. He took a picture of the screen and texted it to me.”

Shelby Kestler, a senior politics major from Baltimore, was also a student volunteer. “I feel so lucky. I saw the Holy Father during my semester in Rome and now I got to see him again on his first trip to the United States,” she said. “We are The Catholic University of America. I don’t know where else I could get these opportunities. In May, I will celebrate my graduation in the very spot where Pope Francis celebrated Mass. We are pretty lucky.”

Father Eric de la Pena

Huge Papal events like Wednesday’s Canonization Mass on the Eastern Portico of the Basilica, overlooking CUA’s lawn, can make the Holy Father seem more of a big time celebrity, and less of a messenger of Christ. Surely, everyone who comes wants to get a closer glimpse of him or a handshake if possible and even a Papal-selfie if ever allowed. Cameras will keep on clicking until the Pope is gone. While these gestures of excitement can be expected for a Papal event, the real challenge to everyone is the internalization of his words, during and after his visit. When all has been said and done and the campus eventually returns to its normal course, how many would really remember and care to practice what they heard the Pope preach? Pope Francis travels the globe not to promote himself, but to present Christ to the world.

Like St. Peter, Pope Francis had to leave behind his personal agenda in order to follow Christ’s, especially after he assumed the Petrine Ministry. There’s a beautiful tradition in the Church of the pope taking a new name at the time of his election. It symbolizes the new role that the pope undertakes in serving the Body of Christ. In the Gospel, we see Jesus changing the name of Simon, which means reed in Hebrew—a grass that easily bends and sways with the wind—to Peter, a name that signifies rock—something solid, upon which one can securely build a house. For Simon to become Peter, he had to leave behind everything to follow Christ. Peter’s personal wisdom and prudence are no longer enough. He must rely upon the grace which God provides as Christ indicated, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Mt. 16:17). Let us therefore, heed the Pope’s message and keep it fresh in our hearts and minds as proof that we have not only welcomed him to our campus but also in our hearts.

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

Father Eric de la Pena

Since the Holy Father is also scheduled to arrive here shortly, the volunteers found another motivation to generously serve the community. This year’s day of service was named “Serve with Francis Day.” It is indeed a fitting gift to the Holy Father who has the noble title of Servus servorum Dei, that is, the “Servant of the Servants of God.” This designation is certainly more than just a nice appellation added to the already long list of honorific titles given to the pope. It truly denotes his position in the Church – that is that the Pope is here to serve all of God’s people. He is to live the words of Christ in the Gospel, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:26–28).

Pope Francis has certainly taken the role of serving God’s people to heart very seriously. As “the slave,” he prefers not to live in the luxurious Apostolic Palace but at the modest Santa Marta Guest House of the Vatican where he can dine with the rest of the Vatican employees and visitors. This pope’s Holy Thursday foot washing service is not just a symbolic gesture. Pope Francis has truly sought out the lost and outcast. This year he washed the feet of prisoners in Rome’s Rebibbia prison. Last year he washed the feed of the elderly and disabled at a rehabilitation facility. In 2013 he washed the feet of twelve young people at juvenile detention center.

Pope Francis also has a reputation of making surprise personal calls to troubled folks who could use his fatherly advice – like the one he made to a pregnant unwed mother in Italy and another one in Spain to a struggling homosexual. The stories of Pope Francis placing himself at the feet of God’s people goes on and on.

As we get closer to meeting the Pope next week, let us pay close attention not only to his words, but to his great example as well. If there’s anything constant in his message, it is his call to exercise mercy and compassion. Our world needs to halt its self-destructive path fueled by self-centeredness and lack of concern before it is too late. Pope Francis challenges us now to have that kind of magnanimity of heart which can say with St. Peter, “What I have, I give you.”

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

Father Eric de la Pena

We certainly live at an interesting time in the life of the Church in this country. The emerging religious landscape poses a challenge to those who still look to the Church for the proclamation of the faith. I also think that Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to the United States in a couple of weeks will force the American Church to ask, “Why still believe?”

Pope Francis’ vision of reviving the Church can help us a lot in making sense of how to practice the faith today. In Evangelii Gaudium, the Pope cautioned us to be careful in how we communicate the Gospel to others. He said that there is an “imbalance” when we speak “more about law than about grace, more about the church than about Christ, more about the pope than about God’s word.” In short, the Gospel we proclaim must embody the reality of God’s love which is revealed to us in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It is in the experience of Divine goodness and love,  that is grace, that people are drawn back to the practice of faith, more than by any Church law or dogma. It is this “hook” which Christ gave to Peter and to us that will bring others back to the practice of faith and the fold of the Church.

I think it is providential that when the Pope comes to CUA, he will also canonize one of the first men to evangelize the country. Blessed Junipero Serra, a Franciscan missionary from Spain, was known for his tireless preaching of the Gospel to the Native Americans. His work in California successfully established the first nine Spanish missions from San Diego to Sonoma which covered a vast area of 700 miles. Moreover, Blessed Junipero was credited for protecting the natives from the abuses of the Spanish Conquistadors. He was a true father to them, not only in preaching the faith, but also in caring for their wellbeing and in generously sharing his life with them.

We truly owe it to ourselves to make our Faith alive and relevant in the public sphere like the early Church. We do this by making known to others not only the content of our Creed but more importantly why we believe it. Pope Francis and Blessed Junipero are great examples for us as we engage in the New Evangelization.

At The Catholic University of America, we seek to learn from their example. As we prepare for the canonization of Blessed Junipero Serra, we are planning special opportunities for the community to venerate a first-class relic of Serra as a way to bring greater appreciation to our future saint. There will be veneration of the relic at Caldwell Chapel on September 15 and 22 after the 5:10 pm mass.

On our campus, we are also taking up Pope Francis’s message to return to the central message of the Gospel. The Office of Campus Ministry has a wonderful program of faith-sharing groups called RENEW. The groups foster evangelization among our students through weekly reflection on the Gospel—like the early Christians who came together in small groups in what were known as house churches. It is a great way for our students to become more committed to the faith by regularly pondering God’s Word together. It creates deep bonds of friendship and faith in the process.

May all our efforts to share the Catholic faith contribute to the new evangelization that we have been called to do.

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

John Garvey

The virtue that we need around the first of October is constancy.  In After Virtue the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre described it as the “reaffirmation in deed rather than in word” of the narrative unity of one’s life. To put it another way, it’s choosing concrete actions that reflect who you are and what you are about.  Choosing those actions has a formative affect. They shape us into the people we strive to be.

It was an important virtue for Jane Austen.  Take Elizabeth Bennett, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice.  When the “conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly” Mr. Collins proposes to her, she refuses despite pressure from her mother, and the knowledge that the marriage would ensure her family’s financial security.  It would be impossible, she says, for her to do otherwise.  That’s because Lizzie knows her own character, and knows that to find happiness in marriage she must respect and esteem her partner for life.

It’s not just a virtue for love stories.  Constancy is for all of our stories.  As MacIntyre observed, if you want to answer the question, “what should I do?” in a particular situation, you need to consider, “of what sort of story . . . do I find myself a part?”  When the alarm goes off at 6 a.m., constancy is the virtue that gets you out of bed in time for Mass, because you are Christian striving to grow in holiness.  It’s the virtue that keeps you in the library when your friends call it a night, because you are student whose goal is to excel in your field.  It is the virtue that gives you the conviction to opt-out of the hookup culture, because you are child of God made for love far greater than that.

Pope Francis is a good contemporary teacher of constancy. Worthy goals, the pope often reminds us, are not enough. We need to continually choose concrete means to achieve them. When, for example, he spoke about human trafficking in his message for the World Day of Peace this year, he reminded us that all people are children of God. That means we must “recognize in every other person a brother or sister in our human family.” But Francis didn’t stop there. He called for concrete acts of fraternity: Avoid buying goods produced through exploitation. Smile at a stranger on the street.

Francis’s point is simple: If we call ourselves Christians, we must affirm that fact in our actions. This is constancy.

As we prepare to welcome Pope Francis to the United States and to our campus in less than three weeks, the Archdiocese of Washington has challenged us to Walk with Francis by making concrete commitments to pray, serve, and act.

There are myriad ways to do this. Pray daily for the Holy Father, commit to reading a psalm a day. We can pray. Visit the elderly in your community, support a worthy charity. We can serve. Stand up for important truths like the dignity of the human person and basic goods such as family life and religious freedom. We can act.

The important thing is to make a specific commitment, and to keep it.

— John Garvey is President of The Catholic University of America. A version of these remarks was originally given at The Catholic University of America’s Mass of the Holy Spirit, September 3, 2015.

Father Eric de la Pena

Moments of retreats are truly unique and graced encounters. They allow us to step out of the mundane, to refocus our attention on the essential things in life that often get sidelined because of our many preoccupations. Retreats are moments when we can re-prioritize our relationships both vertical — toward God — and horizontal — toward others. This has been the experience of our freshmen, and it is also the kind of experience that we foster in all the other retreats that we provide in Campus Ministry throughout the year.

Next year, another kind of retreat is being called for by Pope Francis. This one involves a pilgrimage for all the youth of the world. The 14th World Youth Day (WYD) will take place next year, during the Year of Mercy, July 25 – August 1. Pope Francis will lead this big gathering in Krakow, Poland. Providentially, the Shrine of Divine Mercy happens to be in the same city and that will allow many of the young pilgrims to visit the shrine and become acquainted with its beautiful message. Our university will take part in this pilgrimage as we have in the past. We will begin the pilgrimage in Rome and Assisi before proceeding to Krakow to join Catholic youth gathered there from around the world. I pray that moments like these — retreats, prayers, and pilgrimages — will keep us ever inspired and focused on the good work we have already begun.

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

Father Eric de la Pena

Peter must have felt something like this in his encounter with Jesus. He was just beginning to understand and enjoy his friend’s company. The three years of being together on the road with Jesus with his band of apostles must have supplied Peter many good memories to cherish. But like any good party or vacation, even the time spent with Jesus had to end, and Peter had to move on with a new task. He was to lead the flock that Jesus entrusted to him.  It must have been a big change from Jesus taking care of everything for them. Now, as Jesus warned Peter, someone else would even tie a belt around him and take him to where he does not want to go. Ministry is not doing only those things that we enjoy, but doing what we are supposed to do.

Perhaps Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio felt a similar pain when he was elected to the See of Peter. As the leader of a billion Catholics worldwide, he no longer is free to leisurely roam his favorite streets of Buenos Aires, to visit the poor and ordinary folks who became his friends there, to take a more leisurely time for solitude and prayer. Like Peter, he has to go where he does not wish to go because he is keenly aware of a calling and a mission from God. Since he assumed the Petrine Office, Pope Francis has spent minimal time in the Papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo. Most of his summers have been spent working for long hours at the Vatican and living at the modest home of the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta’s guest house. Yet, Pope Francis seems to joyfully take on this yoke. He truly images a father who works hard out of love for his children.

As we all return to class and regular work this week the example of Pope Francis can inspire us. His dedication to his ministry calls us to see that God’s purpose and will is embedded in the daily fulfillment of our tasks. The student ministers whom we trained last week in the Office of Campus Ministry display that kind of enthusiasm as well as they prepare to share the joy of the Gospel not just through words, but also through the programs they will run and the personal encounters they will have with everyone they serve. If we can all acquire this gentle loving spirit of submission to God’s will, then we too can keep on smiling like Pope Francis despite the strains that we find in the duties of every day.

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

John Garvey

The jubilee year, which will begin on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), will be a special time for the Church to “to be a credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This, Pope Francis says, is particularly important today because the “practice of mercy is waning in the wider culture. In some cases the word seems to have dropped out of use.” There seems to be “no room for mercy” in the modern world.

But it’s not just the practice of offering mercy that we have lost. It’s also the practice of asking for it.

Our apologies are often not apologies at all.  We say we apologize if we offended—without acknowledging that what we said or did was in fact an offense. We characterize misdeeds as “mistakes” or “poor decisions.”  More often than not, we don’t apologize at all.  Instead we let things blow over.  Maybe we go out of our way to be kind to the person we have wronged.  But rarely do we say, “I was wrong for having done X.  I am sorry for it, and I ask your forgiveness.”

But offering mercy and asking for mercy go hand in hand.

First, to honestly admit guilt to another requires me to admit guilt to myself.  And when I am conscious of my own failings it’s easier to forgive the failings of others. When the scribes and the Pharisees considered their own sins, they abandoned their plan to stone the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 8:5).

Second, when we ask for forgiveness, we create the opportunity for mercy.  And once we have experienced mercy, we are more likely to believe it is possible and to ask for it.  There is a wonderful scene in the classic children’s story The Wind in the Willows where Mole ignores his friend Rat’s advice and consequently overturns Rat’s boat, ruining his picnic lunch.  The poor guilty Mole exclaims, “Ratty, my generous friend!  I am very sorry indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct  . . . Will you overlook it this once and forgive me, and let things go on as before?”

It is a moment of suspense and vulnerability.  Mole has put the fate of their friendship in Rat’s hands and can only wait for his judgment.  Rat’s reply is unanticipated generosity: “That’s all right, bless you!”  Forgiveness is experienced as a wonderful and undeserved gift.

Confession is a wonderful place to begin asking for mercy.  And during the Jubilee Year of Mercy Pope Francis has commended frequent reception of this sacrament.  On a practical level confession teaches us how to make a good apology. It offers us, as Pope Francis says, the opportunity “to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with [our] own hands.” Once we have experienced God’s mercy we can be credible witnesses of mercy, professing and living it.

— John Garvey is President of The Catholic University of America.

Father Eric de la Pena

Of course, this lake played a significant part in the life of the apostles who were mostly fishermen.  In fact, there is a fish in that lake that has been named after St. Peter, who once fished there. It was also on this lake that the disciples witnessed some of the awesome miracles of Christ: the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus walking over the water, and the calming of the storm. On this lake, Christ used the elements of creation to reveal himself to his disciples as the Son of God. It really is quite amazing to ponder how God uses all of nature to teach us about God.

In the Franciscan mindset, nature is the starting point of God’s revelation. St. Bonaventure calls creation the “vestiges of God” or simply the thumbprint of God. We cannot contemplate the goodness and pleasure that we find in nature without arriving at the Maker who designed it. Indeed, a certain respect and awe overtakes us whenever we realize the origin and purpose of the visible world. But this due reverence for God’s creation has often been trampled by human greed and contempt. We have seen enough forest devastation, animal abuse and global pollution in our life time to illustrate the point.

Pope Francis’ recent encyclical Laudato Si’ calls us back to our senses when he addressed the important issue of ecology. Unless we become responsible stewards of creation, Pope Francis warns, we will find ourselves regretting how much we have lost because we neglected to care for Mother Earth:

“We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world.” (161)

What can we do? Fortunately, we still have time to make the necessary remedies to our ecological problems. As the saying goes, “Charity begins at home,” so also is the work of repairing the environment. It begins with us. We simply cannot demand a clean surrounding, without first cleaning our own. At the same time, the enormous task of caring for the integrity of creation is more than just an individual homework assignment or a solitary concern. It requires a united effort from all sides.

In Campus Ministry we try to inculcate these important values in our student leaders and volunteers. One way of doing this is through service. During our Service Days in August and September, our students will be doing trash removal at sites across the city and on our own campus. The work may seem insignificant in the face of an enormous ecological crisis. But this is where conversion of heart truly begins. As Pope Francis insists:

“We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore our sense of self-esteem; they can enable us to live more fully and to feel that life on earth is worthwhile.” (212)

— Father Eric de la Pena, O.F.M. Conv., is an associate chaplain for faith development at The Catholic University of America.

John Garvey

Why? Every day, multiple times each day, the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated in churches around the world. At the Basilica alone Mass is said six times a day — seven on Sundays. Faithful Christians pray in their own homes and quietly do their best to follow Christ each day. What is it about the pope that attracts the attention of millions, believers and atheists alike? Martin Luther put the question more forcefully to Pope Leo X almost 500 years ago:

“If all who are in the Church are priests by what character are those, whom we now call priests, to be distinguished from the laity? . . . Holy Scripture makes no distinction between them, except that those, who are now boastfully called popes, bishops, and lords, it calls ministers, servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in the ministry of the Word, for teaching the faith of Christ”

Reams have been written about the scriptural roots of the papacy, the need for a teaching authority in the Church. I won’t add to that here. I’d like, instead, to consider the purpose of such a visible head of the Church. Luther does have a point. Since Christians are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9), they all, as Luther puts it, “are worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, and to teach one another mutually the things which are of God.” Why is the Pope’s example so meaningful to so many people?

To better understand the visibility of the Church, Pope Francis has pointed to the visibility of its founder:

“To understand the relationship, in the Church, between her visible and spiritual reality, there is no other way but to look to Christ, whose Body is the Church . . . Even in Christ, in fact, through the mystery of the Incarnation, we recognize a human nature and a divine nature, united in the same person in a wonderful and indissoluble way. This applies in a similar manner to the Church. Just as in Christ, human nature serves the divine in accordance with the fulfillment of Salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible reality serve the spiritual reality of the Church.”

Christ uses his visible humanity to save us as humans, and human beings are made of soul and body. We learn through our senses: We need to hear the good news. We need to taste and see. We need to touch Christ’s pierced hands and side. Christ did not simply preach the Beatitudes and leave. He taught all of our senses by the example of his life and death.

We still need that example. That’s why we need the saints. As Pope Benedict XVI observed, “The true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated.” The Pope too can be a visible sign of God’s love for us. Of course, the pope’s visibility means he can also be a cause of great scandal. That has at times been the case in the history of the papacy. All the more reason to celebrate the visit of a faithful servant of the servants of God.

— John Garvey is President of The Catholic University of America.