Greta Haussmann

The real reason that I am experiencing this “papal withdrawal” is because there was such a joyous attitude in our nation and on our campus as we prepared for the Apostolic Visit of Pope Francis. People couldn’t stop talking about all of the beautiful words and actions of the Pope, people were in awe of our Holy Father, and they wanted nothing more than to meet him. People were desperately trying to learn more about the Holy Father and the Catholic Church — there was a sense of renewal happening all around me.

It is disappointing to admit that this joyous attitude that Pope Francis’s visit elicited is slowly fading. We are falling back into our monotonous routines and mundane habits. We are allowing ourselves to forget the grace and joy that we were so blessed to experience a few short weeks ago. It is important for all of us to remember that Pope Francis did not come to elicit momentary emotions; rather he came to renew our spirits so that in turn we can renew the Church and share in the mission of the New Evangelization.

In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis calls us to live the joy of the gospel daily: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”

Whether waiting for Pope Francis motorcade to drive by or waiting for class to start, remember that you are called to be the joy of the Gospel. Let us all learn from Pope Francis’s apostolic visit that we are all fitted to proclaim the New Evangelization with our very lives.

— Greta Haussmann is a junior at The Catholic University of America majoring in theology and religious studies, and media studies.

John Grabowski

However, the narrative that he is not interested in family is belied by the Holy Father’s own actions. Consider the current Pope’s ministry in reference to Saint John Paul II, a man whom Pope Francis himself called the “pope of the family” at the Mass of his canonization. At the beginning of Saint John Paul II’s pontificate he called the 1980 Synod on family, which led to his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio. At the beginning of Pope Francis’s pontificate he called two synods on family (last year’s Extraordinary Synod and this year’s Ordinary Synod). Since last December he has been devoting his weekly general audiences to an extended catechesis on family. He has chosen to signal his dedication to the family by fulfilling Pope Benedict XVI’s commitment to attend the World Meeting of Families this September in Philadelphia. Presumably the Pope’s catechesis and the input he receives from the Synod fathers will shape a forthcoming document (perhaps another Apostolic Exhortation) on family. These are not the actions of a man who is uninterested in the family or the Church’s ministry to it.

What is significant in Pope Francis’s pontificate is the way in which he has put the Church’s ministry to families in the context of the New Evangelization. In Evangelii gaudium (no. 3) he invited all Christians to a renewed encounter with the person of Christ. He then encouraged all the members of the Church to become “missionary disciples” and to actively share their faith: “The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each and every one of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization” (EG, no. 120). It is here that we find the big picture of Pope Francis’s vision for these events (both the World Meeting and the synods). In them he seeks to bring together the Church’s ministry to family with his programmatic emphasis on the New Evangelization. Christian families are called to be not just objects of the Church’s evangelizing mission, but active subjects and participants in it.

When the reporting on the Pope’s visit or the upcoming Synod fixates on particular issues, it might be helpful to keep this “big picture” in mind — the Holy Father certainly will.

— John S. Grabowski is an associate professor of moral theology/ethics at The Catholic University of America School of Theology and Religious Studies. Grabowski and his wife are one of two American member couples of the Pontifical Council for the Family. They will be participating in the World Meeting of Families. Grabowski has recently been appointed by Pope Francis as an expert (adiutor) of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops in Rome this October.

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.

Linda Plitt Donaldson

This explains much of the resonance of Pope Francis with social workers. People who are called to social work often have eyes, ears, and hearts that are already open, to some degree, to people who are poor, marginalized, and suffering. And, if social workers allow themselves to be vulnerable in these encounters (and not to hide behind a particular expertise or position of privilege), their hearts can be further broadened, and they can be transformed by these experiences.

Pope Francis speaks about the mutuality in our relationship with people who are poor. “In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that people’s value is not measured by their possession or how much money they have in the bank.”

“In their difficulties, [the poor] know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. . . . We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voices to their causes. . . .” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198).  Social work students will attest that the best teachers in their programs were the people they served in their field placements.

If we open ourselves to be transformed by these encounters, we can move to a place of true solidarity, where we feel in our hearts that our brokenness is bound with the brokenness of those we encounter. And we may gain the courage to take the challenge that Pope Francis and the gospel so plainly set before us — that is, “working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor” (EG, 188). Then we can honestly examine, for ourselves and for our country, the richest country in the world:

·         What are we doing to address the structural causes of poverty for the 45 million people and 20% of children who live in poverty, and the additional 14.7 million people who live in near poverty or between 100 and 125% of the federal poverty level.

·         What are we doing about the growing income inequality and stagnant wages that keep families mired in poverty? Today, 1.7 million more children live in low-income working families than during the Great Recession.

·         What are we doing about the racism in society where families of color disproportionately live in poverty; where black children are four times more likely than white children to live in poverty; where people of color are over-represented in our prison system; and where communities of color experience years of neglect, disinvestment, oppression, and cycles of hopelessness that can create conditions for violence (and peace), as exemplified by the social unrest in Baltimore only two months ago?

·         What are we doing about the cost of housing that is causing a larger share of American families to pay more than half of their paycheck on rent and utilities, and that is making it more difficult for low-income families and people who are homeless to find a place to live?

These are just some of the structural causes of human suffering (poverty, inequality, stagnant wages, racism, housing costs) that make manifest some of the daily struggles social workers encounter here in the United States, such as homelessness, addiction, depression, child abuse and neglect, and violence. Pope Francis invites us to touch these wounds so that we may be transformed by them and strengthened to stand with our brothers and sisters who are poor, to seek structural change, and to cultivate “habits of solidarity” that ultimately “restore to the poor what belongs to them” (EG, 189).

—    Linda Plitt Donaldson is an associate professor in The Catholic University of America National Catholic School of Social Service.

John Garvey

But who is to effect it? Given the scope of the problem, one might think Pope Francis would call on governments, the EU, or the United Nations. But instead Pope Francis addresses the poor and underprivileged:

“What can I do as a craftsman, a street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden worker, if I don’t even enjoy workers’ rights? What can I do, a farmwife, a native woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the domination of the big corporations? What can I do from my little home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I daily meet with discrimination and marginalization? . . . A lot! They can do a lot. You, the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can do, and are doing, a lot.”

The call for the small, daily, and concrete action of the individual has been a hallmark of Francis’s papacy. In his general audiences Pope Francis has been known to give homework assignments: Look up the day of your baptism so you can celebrate it; memorize the beatitudes. In his recent encyclical Laudato Si’ he offered several concrete steps any person could take to care for and appreciate creation: Say grace before and after meals (227); wear warmer clothes instead of turning up the heat (211). It’s the kind of practical advice your dad might give you.

It’s also the kind of practical advice that removes any excuse we might have for inaction. No matter the scope of the problem — whether it’s environmental degradation, human trafficking, or poverty — there is some small step we can take to contribute to its solution. And that small step often requires a conversion of heart from love of self to love of God and neighbor.

Pope Francis’s pragmatism is also not without principle. It has theological roots. As he reminded us in his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,

We may be sure that none of our acts of love will be lost, nor any of our acts of sincere concern for others. No single act of love for God will be lost, no generous effort is meaningless, no painful endurance is wasted. All of these encircle our world like a vital force. (279)

This certainty arises from our faith that God can and does act in every situation and does so through our small and insufficient efforts. As St. Paul reminds us, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7).

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