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.

 

In this ever-changing world, the 111 Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are constantly updating their curriculum, incorporating new knowledge, and adopting new methodologies and technologies to teach more effectively. At the same time, however, our schools are anchored in the Church’s timeless and unchanging faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is the fundamental reason Catholic schools exist.

Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est that “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical teaching or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” That person is, of course, Jesus Christ. The Catholic school difference, therefore, is not just fidelity to Catholic teaching in religion classes, access to the sacraments, and the presence of priests and religious on campus – although those are important. There is also present in each school a Catholic spirit of peace, joy and the fullness of life that comes from following the Lord. They have been radiating Christ since the first Catholic school was founded in Cincinnati with 25 female students in 1825. We now have nearly 40,000 students and are the fifth largest Catholic school network in the country! But our mission remains the same: Our schools are centers of formation as well as education.

The crucial role played by school principals, teachers and staff also has not changed. The Church has long understood that teaching is a ministry because Catholic schools exist to witness the love of God in Christ. St. John Baptist de la Salle, who founded schools for the poor in France in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, was very clear about this. In a meditation for his teachers, who were not ordained, he wrote: “In your teaching, the [children] in your charge must see by the way you teach that you are true ministers of God, full of charity and sincere in carrying out your task.”

While faith is marginalized in our culture today, Catholic school teacher-ministers and principal-ministers are rightly expected to stand as models of faith in the classroom and outside of it. And at this time of great social, political and racial division in our country, they are to witness to the Lord every day by their devotion to the common good. They are to live, as well as teach, such important Catholic truths as the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death, the importance of marriage and family, the rights and responsibilities of every individual, the option for the poor and vulnerable, the dignity of work, solidarity and care for creation.

The very nature of authentic Catholic education is the search for goodness, beauty and truth and the cultivation of wisdom and virtue under the guidance of the Church. The various arts and sciences are pathways for growing closer to God since students learn in these the endless wonders of His creation. A passion for learning is thus a passion for Jesus Himself, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Catholic schools play an important role in forming disciples to know, love and follow Jesus through this life and into the next.

All educational institutions faced an incredible pandemic-created challenge during this past school year. The performance of school administrators and faculty in keeping our schools safely open for on-site learning was remarkable. I am profoundly grateful to them, to the parents who trusted Catholic schools to keep their children safe, and to parishes which continued to support our schools. Whatever new challenges the future may bring, Catholic education will continue to be a vital ministry of the local Church as the Archdiocese of Cincinnati enters its third century.

Letter to the Clergy and Faithful of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati regarding Traditionis Custodes

Since the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum, regarding the faculty to use the Roman Missal edited by John XXIII in 1962, Pope Francis held it necessary to proceed with a reform of the above mentioned text, emending the norms of the Letter.  The Holy Father approved and ordered the promulgation of these revised norms on 16 July 2021 in Traditionis Custodes.

Attached with this letter are the norms regarding the use of the Mass from the 1962 Roman Missal for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Archbishop Schnurr has promulgated these norms effective July 19, 2021.

From the Chancery Office, Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, Archbishop of Cincinnati

Reverend Steve J. Angi, Chancellor

For the implementation norms of Traditionis Custodes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, click here.