May 14, 2006

With the deadline for the Cardinal’s Appeal extended for the Archdiocese well into June, we have already exceeded our goal with $68,665. This is almost twice the sum raised five years ago. Have you done your part? Contributions may now be made toward the Archdiocese’s Bicentennial Campaign which is now under way. Hard as it may be to believe, this used to be an “aided parish,” but now we have moved from being the recipient of charity to a benefactor of the Archdiocese’s many works for the poor and the propagation of the Faith.

This response to the Appeal shows a mature sense of what Catholicism means. In times of moral and financial scandal, prudent people have been cautious in their philanthropy. But not to promote legitimate works of charity only hurts the care of the sick and poor, and the education of the young. A Catholic belongs to the Body of Christ. This is not “Father Rutler’s parish” or “Cardinal Egan’s archdiocese” or “Pope Benedict’s church.” This is the Holy Catholic Church. The clergy come and go but Christ remains, the same forever. In some places, the diocesan charitable appeal no longer mentions the bishop, because of dismay at the handling of ecclesiastical affairs. That courts a Donatist or Protestant sense of the Church. We have been given a great gift in Pope Benedict XVI who draws unprecedented throngs to hear his singularly eloquent proclamation of the Gospel. May this now filter down to the local level.

In the 18th century the cluelessness of the French bishops helped cause the Revolution of 1789. But soon there sprung up heroic figures who inspired the unprecedented missionary growth of the next century. We already have many bishops who speak with clear voices and are not silent. Some have visited our own parish recently. Cardinal Archbishops like Dulles and Arinze and Schönborn and Pell have graced our sanctuary. A singularly prophetic voice among the English-speaking Cardinals has been Pell of Sydney, Australia. In a recent speech in Florida to Legatus, an organization of Catholic CEOs for whom I used to be national chaplain, Cardinal George Pell spoke out on the challenge of Islam to Christian civilization. The voice of this Oxford-trained historian was both charitable and unyielding in his warnings. The text of his remarks can be found at www.sydney.catholic.org.au/Archbishop/Addresses.shtml.

Once on a trip with this same Legatus organization, I offered the first Mass ever celebrated in Cliveden House, the center of Lady Astor’s social set which in the 1930s underestimated the threat of the Nazis and counseled appeasement. Churchill was unique in his warning, and at Cliveden he was mocked. Today we blush at the many who remained silent, but we also revere the heroes who spoke the truth. For every bureaucratic drone resembling Mr. Slope in Trollope’s Barchester Towers, there is a priestly priest who reminds us of what the Catholic Church really is.



Fr. George W. Rutler