Over the past half-century the Catholic approach to mission has shifted dramatically. Today's Catholic missionaries continue to proclaim the Good News, but most do so in a far more open and respectful encounter and dialogue with the cultures and people they engage. Their witness invites people to a more subtle-and at the same time more profound-"conversion."
The 20TH Century, punctuated by the reforms of Vatican II, has offered hope to the Catholics who would like to see the church renew it's democratic spirit. But what would "a democratic Catholicism" look like? It would not, could not, look like our modern political process. And not just anyone could run for office. But why not?
All you Priests, Seminanians, and those considering the ordained life out there may want to sit down, put your feet up, and take a deep breath before you read any further. The results of our special survey, "What do you want in a priest?" are in. More than 800 readers and other Catholics weighed in with their opinions, and many of their wish lists make the Easter Vigil look short in comparison.
In these latter years of the 20th century, matters related to "letting go" or not letting go have attained great prominence. The slogans can be as confusing as they are diverse: right to life; right to privacy; death with dignity; physician-assisted suicide; euthanasia; palliative care. Scarcely a week goes by without some development in the debate over what must be done or not done for the dying.
The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God.-Jewish Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man's Quest for God (Hudson River, 1981)
"For too long we've had a preferential option for mediocrity in the priesthood," laments Father Robert Barron, assistant professor of systematic theology at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. "Teilhard de Chardin said the priest calls down fire on the earth," says Barron. That's a far cry from "organizer of ministries," which is one of the dull-as-dishwater descriptions Barron remembers from his seminarian days. "Who's going to be lit on fire by a term like that?" he fumes.
One night in 1967, Marcelino Ramos entered the United States illegally in the trunk of a car. Crammed with him as the smuggler's car crossed the border without incident from Tijuana, Mexico were his wife, María, his 7-year-old son, Humberto, and his 5-year-old daughter, Rosa. It is the heat that Humberto, now the assistant director of Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, most remembers.
"I always tell people that I am a wetback, not from swimming the river but because I was wet with sweat."
In its best moments Catholicism is the happiest of the major world religions. It is permeated by the reverent joy of Christmas night, the exultant joy of Easter morn, the gentle joy of First Communion, the satisfied joy of grammar school graduation, the hopeful joy of a funeral Mass, the confident joy of a May crowning. Catholicism is shaped by the happiness of hymns like "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," "Adeste Fideles," the "Exultet," and "Bring Flowers of the Fairest."
This is a test. Please concentrate. What name pops up when you think: Catholic Church and science? OK, try another. The Catholic Church and literature; what's your first association? The church and women's equality; what's the topic? Think about the church and trials; what institution springs to mind?
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