All Souls Day immediately follows All Saints Day in the Church calendar for good reason: Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, reaffirms our ancient faith as Catholics “in the living communion which exists between us and our brothers and sisters who are in the glory of heaven or are yet being purified after their death” (LG 51).

In other words, a spiritual union exists among the faithful on earth (sometimes called the Church Militant), the souls in purgatory (the Church Suffering) and the saints in heaven (the Church Triumphant). The Apostles Creed calls this the “communion of saints.” All the faithful departed are part of the communion of saints, as are we.

Perhaps we sense this most strongly when the litany of saints is sung at the Easter Vigil, at ordinations and at infant baptisms, giving the feeling that those canonized saints are truly there among us. However, from the earliest times our houses of worship have been filled with the presence of the saints in statues, paintings and stained glass windows. These images are like the family albums of our family of faith.

The Church has canonized only a relatively small number of those who are with God. In the first reading for the Solemnity of All Saints, St. John in the Book of Revelation shares his vision of “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue” (Rev. 7:9). Some of the readings that may be chosen for All Souls Day are reassuring about the fate of those who have gone before us. In one of them Jesus says: “And this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what He gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6:39-40).

We look to canonized saints and to saintly people we have known as models of how to conform ourselves to Christ, and we ask for their intercession with God as we face difficulties in life. At the same time, we also need the help of our fellow pilgrims here on earth and pray for the souls in purgatory. We are all united in the Body of Christ. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The communion of saints is the Church” (CCC 946).

God gave us the Church so that we have the assistance of other Christians to do together that which we cannot do alone – know and be transformed by Jesus Christ so we can follow Him back to union with the Father. Each of us has an important role in the communion of saints as we are all called to radiate the light of Christ to our dark world.

We all do that in different ways. Our archdiocesan prayer for vocations stresses that God created each of us for some definite purpose. We are at our happiest when we identify that purpose and fulfill it, using our unique gifts and talents as God intended.

At the same time, we are called to affirm and support the vocations of others. The millions of vocation prayers, as well as the support given to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology by the members of our local Church, have resulted in many new priests, deacons and lay pastoral ministers in recent years, for which I am very grateful. These individuals serve the faithful in their various ministries, and the faithful in turn sustain them with their encouragement and prayers.

We must never forget that we are all on a journey back to the God who created us and we need help along the way from our fellow members of the communion of saints.

 

 

Every month should be, in a sense, Respect Life Month. There is no time or circumstance in which respect for life is not demanded of Christians. During October, however, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) asks us to give special attention to the sanctity, dignity and rights of every human person made in the image and likeness of God.

As the USCCB website notes, “The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred, and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching.”  Thus, “life and dignity of the human person” is listed first among social justice principles because it is the basis of all the others.

In our country today we must have special concern for the unborn, who are without legal protection.  A person denied the right to life can have no other rights. Under the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, no state may prohibit abortion until “the stage subsequent to viability.” Although abortion has existed since ancient times, the Church has always recognized it for what it is: the intentional taking of the life of an innocent child.

Science has confirmed that an unborn baby is indeed a child: everything that makes a human being human is present in the earliest stages of pregnancy. It is not morally licit, therefore, to say, “I am personally opposed to abortion, but I will not impose my morality on others.” Abortion imposes death on the “other” inside the womb and is an intrinsic evil.

In Roman times, Christians rescued unwanted children left to die. Today Christians work in pregnancy centers to care for mothers and their children. A slogan often seen on billboards, signs and shirts condenses their operating principle into three words: “Love Them Both.” This love extends also to mothers who aborted their babies, have come to deeply regret it, and are in need of mercy and healing. That is being pro-life.

Respecting life does not stop at the womb. Any implication that the desire to protect life in its most fragile stages conflicts with caring for life at other stages is false. As Pope Francis wrote in his apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad):

“Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection” (GE 101).

In the almost half a century since Roe v. Wade, thousands of the faithful in our archdiocese have marched for life, lobbied legislators, assisted pregnant mothers, demonstrated outside of abortion clinics, and voted their informed conscience. I am grateful for the way they have lived their faith and made a difference.

Despite our efforts, we still live in a world that does not grant all people the respect and dignity to which they are entitled as daughters and sons of God. However, in the words of St. Teresa of Kolkata, “God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful.” Respect Life Month is an opportunity to think about how we can be ever more faithful to God’s call to respect the inviolable sacred nature of human life in all its stages and conditions.

September 17, 2021

Memorial of Saint Robert Bellarmine,

patron of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The mission of the Catholic Church, our mission, entrusted to the apostles by Jesus, is to proclaim the Good News of salvation and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20). In short, to radiate Christ.

We have a responsibility to make the best use of all the means which God has provided us to pursue this sacred mission. It is therefore appropriate to ask, are all our resources – human, physical and financial – properly ordered to missionary discipleship? Are they working in concert to continuously draw parishioners and attract new members into a more intimate relationship with Jesus? Or are they consumed by efforts to maintain the status quo and spread too thin to be truly effective?

These are the concerns that Beacons of Light, the multi-year process of comprehensive pastoral planning for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, has been addressing. After months of study and analysis, we cannot escape the conclusion that in many cases our church buildings are grossly underutilized, our priests and parish staff members are stretched to the limit, and our parishes are simply not the vibrant, evangelizing communities Catholics want and need them to be.

To help remedy this situation and be better stewards of the resources God has made available to us, parishes in the archdiocese will be grouped into “Families of Parishes” under the leadership of one pastor. After that, each Family will collaborate internally to determine the best and highest use of their shared resources to radiate the love of Christ and form a strong, vital community of evangelization and service centered on the Eucharist.

Your thoughtful feedback at this stage of the planning process would be most valuable. A draft of the Families of Parishes will be shared for public comment October 1-20 at www.BeaconsAOC.org, the website of the Beacons of Light initiative. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the information on the website, then prayerfully provide your input on this important step which will shape the future of our archdiocese.

As we continue this challenging but necessary endeavor, it is critically important that we earnestly seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we might together discern the best path forward with humility and courage. Please join me in asking for the intercession of our Blessed Mother, to whose care we have entrusted our archdiocese, that God continue to bless us with His presence and His love, as we pray:

Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother,

present our prayer of thanksgiving to your Son.

Beg from Him the graces we need to be faithful disciples

who follow Him with enthusiasm and joy.

May our witness to the love of God bear fruit

in our archdiocese, parishes, homes and hearts.

Teach us to be God’s joyful witnesses,

to radiate Christ in all we do,

so that all people might know, love and follow your Son

through this life and into the next.

Amen.

 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr

Archbishop of Cincinnati

 

Click here to download this letter.

Throughout this bicentennial year of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, I have urged members of our local Church to radiate Christ. Far more than just a slogan, this is a call to conversion and action. Articles in this issue of The Catholic Telegraph profile individuals who have answered that call in significant ways.

To radiate Christ means to be a joyful witness to the Lord, and to do so wherever and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. In some ways, this is a tall order. Fortunately, God has empowered us for this mission by baptismal grace and by the particular gifts and talents He has given each of us. God also has given us the Church so we have the love and support of other Christians to strengthen our faith and give us courage.

The examples of fellow Catholics of our archdiocese radiating Christ that you will find in this magazine, therefore, should encourage, inspire and motivate you. However, your own opportunity to witness the Lord in your sphere may be very different from theirs. We each have a unique place in the Church and in God’s creative plan.  And our local Church will only be the instrument God intends if each of us seeks the face of the Lord, is converted to Him and allows Jesus to work through us – in short, if we radiate Christ.

At the same time, the broader community the archdiocese serves will never be what God intends it to be without Christian believers being “salt and light” to our hurting world (Mt. 5:13-14). Wherever you are, Christ should be there through you. That means radiating Christ by your behavior in meeting rooms, on the construction site or while waiting tables; in the doctor’s office, in the grocery checkout line and at your bank; and in encounters with people of difference races, religions and political persuasions.

It is perhaps particularly important at this moment in American history to radiate Christ in the public square, where our national dialogue today is marked not only by radically different worldviews, but by incivility, nastiness and even destruction of property and lives. It is natural to blame our political leaders for this sad state of affairs, but we all have a role to play in making ours a more civil society by the way we treat those with whom we disagree.

This is a daily, undramatic undertaking. We can look to St. Joseph, the patron of the Church, as an exemplar of one who radiated Christ in a quiet way in his everyday life. He did so by seeking and following God’s will, as Christ did, no matter how difficult for him. “St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation,” Pope Francis wrote in his apostolic letter Patris Corde.

Before we radiate Christ, however, we must know Him. That is why in my pastoral letter, Radiate Christ, I invite you to strengthen your relationship with the Lord through prayer, an openness to God’s plan for you and frequent reception of the Eucharist as the center of your spiritual life. All of this requires the most precious commodity we have – time. Like all our gifts, however, time comes from God, and it is only right that we give some of it back to Him while getting to better know His Son.

Living in intimate relationship with Jesus Christ promises us peace, joy and the fullness of life here on earth as a taste of the life to come. And when we have that ourselves, then we can share it with others by making the decision to radiate Christ. It is my hope that we continue to focus on this mission and this challenge well beyond this bicentennial year of our archdiocese.