EVANS ARCHIVES
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Jesus invites us to bring hope, vision to fulfillment
By George Evans
Deceber 16, 2011
     One of the things our church does very well is to pick and arrange the scripture readings for our daily and Sunday Masses. This is particularly true in Advent, my favorite liturgical season. That may be because I love Isaiah. The Advent liturgy is full of Isaiah.
Isaiah invites us to “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” (Is 2:3)
    And what happens if we climb the mountain and get instructed? “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” (Is 2:4)
Isaiah’s hope is the hope of all mankind — no more war, peace and tranquility.
    Isaiah foretells the coming of the Messiah, “a sprout from the stump of Jesse” (Is 11:1) and what shall he be like? “He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted ... Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (Is 11:4-5)
    And because of his affinity for the poor and his rule of justice, we shall one day even have a transformation of nature as pictured in some of the most beautiful language in all of Scripture:
    “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. (Is 11:6-8)
    As we long for the coming of this idyllic time, we are slapped in the face with the reality that its celebration is only weeks away in the birth of the Christ child.
The waiting and longing so wistful in Isaiah and the hope so brilliantly captured in his magnificent prose, will be satisfied and realized in the mystery of Christmas when God enters our world in a new and dramatic way in the person of his son, Jesus.
    But we know from Christmases past this only occurs if we open ourselves completely to Jesus and conform our life and our values to his life and his values.
    It does not work if our effort is half hearted. It does not work if we are afraid to let him touch us, not only from the crib which is easy, but also form the cross which is much more difficult.
    Isaiah tells us what we need to do to bring to fruition his idyllic dream. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God.” (Is 61:1-2)
    Jesus adopts Isaiah’s formulation at the beginning of his public ministry when he reads this very Scripture in the synagogue in Nazareth and having done so proclaims “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. (Lk 4:21)
    Jesus sets out from Nazareth, no longer the Christmas baby in the crib but a mature man with the task of following his father’s will wherever that leads him. He brings glad tidings to the poor; he heals the brokenhearted and proclaims liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.
    He commissions us to follow his lead. He taught us what is necessary to participate in the salvation he won for us at such a great price.
    He left us the Eucharist to have the strength and courage to do so. He accepted Isaiah’s vision, adopted it as his own, fulfilled it and brought it to full completion in his death and resurrection.
    Our church has done a masterful job in setting forth in our Advent readings Isaiah’s hope and vision.
    Jesus came and brought that hope and vision to fulfillment. He invites us to do the same in our own time and in our own particular circumstances. There is no better time than Advent and Christmas to start.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Book, DVD offer rich resources on Eucharist
By George Evans
October 28, 2011
     In this Year of the Eucharist, I join in the chorus by bringing two remarkable theological pieces to your attention, one a DVD and the other a new book.
     The DVD, simply entitled “Eucharist,” is a presentation by Father Robert Barron and his Word on Fire ministry. The book, “Our One Great Act of Fidelity” with subtitle “Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist,” is written by Father Ron Rolheiser.
     Anyone serious about responding to the American bishops call for a renewal of eucharistic spirituality could find no better place to go than these two works. With Christmas around the corner, I can’t imagine a better present for someone serious about their faith and desirous of knowing and experiencing more about this central mystery of our Catholic faith.
     The gifted Father Barron, who many see as the successor to Bishop Fulton Sheen as effective TV presenter, in a three-part, approximately 90 minute DVD, dwells in his appealing fashion on three aspects of the Eucharist: Sacred Banquet, Sacrifice and Real Presence.
     Combining his training in systematic theology and biblical scholarship with his compelling and understandable presentation style, great knowledge of art and literature and personal faith and holiness, “Eucharist” brings to the viewer captivating knowledge of the three aspects of the Eucharist addressed and a rich spiritual experience in the viewing.
     The understanding of meal and sacrifice as a both/and reality in Eucharist rather than as an either/or choice is clearly presented.
     Father Barron traces the biblical basis in both the Old and New Testaments of the meal and sacrifice aspects of Eucharist beginning with the Genesis story and culminating in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with the institution of the sacrament.
     The use of art helps him immensely in capturing the historical development of both aspects and adds a richness that greatly assists the catechesis.
     His treatment of the Real Presence is insightful and compelling for the person of faith. He begins with the wonderful quote of one of his favorite writers, Flannery O’Connor, who said in response to a complimentary comment by a writer friend at a Manhattan cocktail party about the Catholic understanding of Christ’s symbolic presence in the Eucharist, “ If      it’s symbolic then the hell with it.”
Father Barron traces in detail the scriptural basis of the doctrine in John Chapter 6 when      Jesus tells his followers he is the Bread of Life and when they murmured about this being a hard teaching he didn’t back down or soften his language but rather made it more specific, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” (Jn 6:53).
     Even though many left because of this teaching, Jesus institutionalized it for us at the Last Supper when he “took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying. This is my body, which will be given you; do this is memory of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-20).
     It is this creative word of God which makes the Eeucharistic presence real just as his word raised Lazarus from the dead and healed multitudes.
     Father Barron reiterates Thomas Aquinas’s theology of transubstantiation explaining the eucharistic mystery in terms of substance (reality) and accidents (appearances). The appearance of the bread and wine remains the same while the reality of the bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ by the words of consecration It is the faith of the believer in the creative word of God that makes the doctrine of the real presence come to life. Father Barron’s presentation energizes the faith of believers.
     Father Rolheiser’s book is a wonderful complement to Father Barron’s DVD. His is the approach of the spiritual theologian compared to the systematic theologian. His book is very personal, short with short chapters, beautifully written in the Rolheiser fashion and very moving.
     Within the confines of this column, I can only mention several aspects of the Eucharist which he treats in addition to those dealt with by Father Barron. I hope they will lead you to read the entire book which is a joy.
     The Eucharist for Father Rolheiser is meant to be an intensification of our unity within the Body of Christ. We are meant to be transformed along with the bread and wine into the Body and Blood Of Christ, a reality understood by St. Augustine so that he would say to the adult convert on his First Communion “Receive what you are.”
     The Eucharist tries, first of all, to change us so we become what we receive, one body, one community, one heart, and one spirit.”(p.38) It has the power to take us beyond the differences and divisions of personality, ideology, gender, ethnicity, social status, privatized agenda, and jealousy. It can rescue us from our loneliness, dysfunction and disunity (pp. 36-40).
     Father Rolheiser points out in some of his best language, the service aspect of the Eucharist. He reminds us in John’s account of the Last Supper the words of institution found in each of the Synoptic Gospels are replaced with the ultimate self effacing act of service, washing another’s feet.
     This is the Gospel account the church chooses to use every Holy Thursday. “It specifies what the Eucharist is in fact meant to do —namely, to lead us out of church and into the humble service of others” (p.66).
     The call to service is also a call to justice in the Eucharist.
     The Eucharist is not a private devotional prayer, but is rather a communal act of worship that, among other things calls us to go forth and live out in the world what we celebrate inside of a church: the non-importance of social distinction, the special place God gives to the tears and blood of the poor, and the nonnegotiable challenge from God to each of us to work at changing the conditions that cause tears and blood (p.76).
     Father Rolheiser’s deep spirituality, compassion and sensitivity seen frequently in his columns in this newspaper are evident in his book in his masterful prose which at times is almost poetry. I have only touched on a fragment of his reflections on the Eucharist. Together with Fr. Barron’s treatment they create a priceless collection for our exploration.
I close with a final excerpt from Father Rolheiser’s book.
     The Eucharist is both an invitation that invites us and a grace that empowers us to service. And what it invites us to do is to replace distrust with hospitality, pride with humility, and self-interest with self-effacement so as to reverse the world’s order of things - wherein the rich get served by the poor and where the first priority is always to keep one’s pride intact and one’s self-interest protected.
     The Eucharist invites us to step down from pride, away from self-interest, to turn the mantle of privilege into the apron of service, so as to help reverse the world’s order of things wherein pride, status, and self-interest are forever the straws that stir the drink (p.67).
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Hopefully, financial difficulties will make us better
By George Evans
September 16, 2011
    One of the things I do in my job as a pastoral minister at St. Richard is serve as the parish liaison to the St. Richard Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. As a member of the conference I serve as the spiritual advisor of the conference.
Recently I attended the annual national meeting of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in     Dallas. It was a great meeting that renewed and nurtured me and opened new vistas and insights for my work as a Vincentian, parish employee and person trying to grow in faith and love. I share some of this with you.
    As you may know, Vincentians make home visits in pairs to families who have asked for assistance. Typically such requests are for food and/orassistance with utilities, rent or furniture.
    With the worsening financial situation in this country, apparently many conferences are very low on or out of funds to offer material help to those in need. (Fortunately we are not that bad off at this time at St. Richard, although we are always in need of funds.)
    A speaker brought home the wonderful truth such realities may be a temporary blessing in disguise or at least a chance to enhance further our ministry to the poor as envisioned by our patron, St. Vincent de Paul, and the founder of the society, Frederic Ozanam.
    Sometimes it takes really hard times to realize God’s providence and our legitimate need for and reliance on God for what we need for ourselves and to help others. The speaker suggested lack of funding could have the salutary effect of emphasizing the other things we bring to the poor.
    The lack of funding can be an invitation to growth. We can grow our ministry of helping with food, rent, utilities, as well as any other need detected in a home visit by expanding our ministry of presence. We can still make home visits and be with people even though we have no, or very limited, money to help on that visit.
    We grow with the client in our dependence on God. We grow our ministry of presence with the client by more empathy with his/her plight, in prayer, in conversation, in holiness, one individual to another. We grow in creative referrals we may not have thought of before, perhaps even in systemic life changes that emerge from and are the fruit of our ministry of presence.
    Having less ability for a quick fix with a check for utilities, we may accomplish more over the long haul with further developing a relationship which enriches both parties. And we know because this is God’s work the money will ultimately be there to keep the lights on.
    In fact, we need both money and presence to properly serve the poor. I think the 15 or so active members in our St. Richard conference do both ministries (helping and being present to our clients) well. Perhaps the financial downturn calls all conferences to do both better.
    The speaker used an example of good emerging from a very difficult situation we have all experienced. Think of the incredible development of lay people in our church due in part to the wrenching and scary priest shortage that has befallen us over the last several decades.
    We discovered our baptismal dignity and calling to be priest, prophet and servant in a new and fuller way that may not have occurred when “Father” was there to do everything for us and make all our decisions for us.
    As we see vocations beginning to increase, we look forward to an ever richer sacramental life having been shaped and formed in our rightful and correct place in the church that Jesus founded and left to us for our care and development with our priests and bishops.
    Would this have ever been possible in the same way without the painful and stretching experience of priest shortage.
    In God’s providence, I see good coming out now from the priest shortage which is on its way to correction and in the current funding problems in many St. Vincent de Paul conferences which too will be resolved.
    If we listen to the poor more and if we are broke and can’t offer a quick fix, will it not be easier to see them as Jesus and treat them accordingly which is the Vincentian purpose and goal.
    In God’s providence don’t we find the money if we become holy and humble ourselves and ask for it in prayer and solicitation when necessary. Being able to help with a checkbook gives us power and power can, unless carefully used, vitiate a relationship and the ability to be in communion with the person we are trying to help.
    Hopefully these times of financial difficulties will leave us better Vincentians, better Catholics and better members of Christ’s body.
    Having been chastised by financial downturns and priest shortages and purified and made holy by God’s providence and grace what a glorious new day and even new Jerusalem we have to look forward to when all the needs of the poor are met with both deep relationships and adequate funds and all the needs of our spiritual life are met with a mature and transformed laity and an abundance of wonderful priests.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Planning begins for Catholic Day at Capitol
By George Evans
July 22, 2011
     I served as chairman of the Catholic Charities Committee for the Catholic Day at the Capitol in January 2011. It was an honor and exhilarating experience to be a part of such a great successful undertaking.
     I’ve agreed to head up the Diocese of Jackson effort again with the huge help of the committee including Ben Russell and the other capable Charities staff in Jackson and working with the Biloxi diocese.
     It’s been six months since that first Catholic Day at the Capitol and is now six months before the second annual Catholic Day at the Capitol. Your Catholic Charities Committee has met several times. It’s time to look back and see what a great start we had and to look forward to plan an even better second year.
     This newspaper gave good coverage of the event in January and captured the excitement of a first time happening. We can now report we had 104 participants who actually came to Jackson, heard excellent speakers on important issues such as mental health, education and advocacy techniques, celebrated the Eucharist with the bishops of Jackson and Biloxi, had lunch and walked to the Capitol to meet with legislators and talk about the chosen issues.
     Participants came from 19 different counties in Mississippi including a significant representation from the Diocese of Biloxi including the Gulf Coast and Hattiesburg areas. It was great for us in the Jackson diocese to work with our friends from the Biloxi diocese in a common effort to help the people of our state.
     To have Ed Legrand, executive director of the Mississippi State Department of Mental Health, Delbert Hosemann, Secretary of State, as well as Bishops Joseph Latino and Roger Morin and others address the morning session in the St. Peter Cathedral Center was special. It’s even more special to report the two issues primarily supported in the visits with legislators at the Capitol, education and mental health funding, were successfully addressed.
     In partnership with numerous other mental health advocates, participants in the Catholic Day at the Capitol were successful in getting a level of funding that was needed to maintain current levels of mental health services. This was of particular importance to our own Catholic Charities operation which depends on such funding for critical mental health programs it conducts.
     In conjunction with many other groups and individuals the participants’ efforts also helped to reduce education funding cuts at an extremely challenging time for state funding.
     As was the case last year, we plan to have several convocations this year in conjunction with the Biloxi diocese to gather input on issues of importance and continue to promote attendance at the Catholic Day at the Capitol in January 2012. We look forward to hosting the event again this year, to strengthen our bond with our Coast brothers and sisters and to inspire more members of our Catholic community to give voice to the voiceless.
     Having learned some lessons from our first effort, particularly concerning scheduling meetings with individual legislators and some other housekeeping details, we look forward to making the next Catholic Day at the Capitol even larger and better. The response to the first day at the Capitol was overwhelmingly positive and we want to keep building on that momentum.
     There will be numerous elections between now and next January and numerous issues of import emerging between now and then. Whatever your opinion may be of the Tea Party movement, it is undeniable that grassroots involvement has a mighty impact on the politics of the day.
     The Catholic Day at the Capitol is our opportunity as a faith community to express our position on the issues chosen to be most important and meaningful to us. An appropriate Catholic voice is encouraged by our bishops.
     Please begin to plan now to participate. Specific dates and further information will be forthcoming concerning convocations, the Catholic Day at the Capitol itself in January 2012, and other matters that develop. It will be great to work with you again to bring a Catholic voice to the issues chosen.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘Raise debt ceiling to avoid chaos’
By George Evans
June 24, 2011
     The stalemate on the federal budget continues. Democrats and Republicans play chicken like James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” as the deadline for raising the debt ceiling inches closer and closer.     Everyone admits true disaster lurks on the horizon if the U.S. Treasury defaults on its obligations which could happen if the debt ceiling is not increased.
    Republicans say no go unless there are substantial spending cuts without tax increases. Democrats say the spending cuts sought are unacceptable and we need tax increases on the wealthy and super wealthy.
    The Catholic bishops urge both parties not to unfairly make cuts in programs at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.
    I do not pretend to be an economist. I think I have a pretty good knowledge of Catholic Social Teachings. With that said I offer the following.
    The debt ceiling has to be raised to avoid total chaos. With the time then available serious discussions with some compromise and much less politics than usual must take place. The reality of reducing spending, the deficit and the debt must be acknowledged.     Ending the Bush tax cuts and returning to something similar to what existed during the Clinton administration is imperative as unpopular as that may be to some, but remember the economy and the balanced budget at the time.
    Serious reform of Medicare from a cost and quality of services standpoint must be accomplished. This may be present already in Obamacare but opinions on this certainly vary.
    Quit the foolishness and get the hard numbers on Medicare costs and act accordingly. Don’t worry about the insurance companies but rather be concerned about the taxpayers and the quality of services to the elderly who rely on Medicare. The insurance companies will manage as they always have.
    It is time to take a realistic look at Social Security. Common sense tells us the ages for benefit recipients must be changed upward. Life expectancy has increased more than 10 years since the system was designed.
    Without disturbing what is currently in place for those already receiving benefits, delaying benefits for those currently 55 (or whatever age is actuarially appropriate) to whatever age makes the program fiscally sound may well be what is necessary.
    An alternative may be to simply raise Social Security taxes which would be harder politically and perhaps less attractive from an economic standpoint. Regardless, it needs to be addressed.
    Military spending must be part of the serious discussion. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years have contributed significantly to the worsening of the national debt and deficit. They are apparently winding down and there should be a concomitant reduction in military spending.
    Then we must control military spending by our foreign policy and conceding the job of the military is our national security and serving democracy without endangering our own fiscal stability with wars that do neither.
    Many other areas of less portent should also be reviewed critically including outrageous subsidies of ethanol production to the benefit of the few at a cost to the many. Sen. John McCain was correct on this one and he lost and we will all suffer.
    This is just one of many examples of special interests being served at the cost of increased deficits. A united front on behalf of the common good can counteract the special interests across the board with leadership from both parties and the Administration which to date has been absent.
    As Catholics our bishops have repeatedly implored the Congress and the Administration not to try to solve the problems on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. Programs meeting basic needs like food, housing, clothing, health care and education should be preserved or be reduced the least because of their position of priority.
    In a humane society, much less a Christian society, human needs and the protection of life from the womb to the tomb must trump tax breaks and special interests.
Catholic Social Teachings and the Gospel make it clear the common good and the solidarity which springs from our all being made in the image and likeness of God are the values which each of us must bring to bear on our personal and political decisions in this time of turmoil, necessity and suffering.
    It is undeniable that over the last 30 years the economic benefit has primarily flowed to the rich and very rich in this country. “Already, the nation’s top 1 percent of taxpayers earn nearly a quarter (23.5 percent) of the nation’s total income. And within that, a 10th of one percent (0.1) earn 6 percent of this total” America, 10/25/10, page 4, “Can a democracy long stand with this type of economic inequity?”
    Extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of America’s highest earners removes $700 billion over 10 years which could go to reduce the debt. Should this step at least be taken even if the other tax cuts are left in place?
    To those who argue we are too heavily taxed already (and none of us like to pay taxes), Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, former president of Catholic Charities USA and currently head of Loyola University in New Orleans’ Jesuit Social Research Institute, points out in the spring issue of the institute’s Just South Quarterly that for the latest year data is available (2008) the average total U.S. (combined federal, state and local) income tax rate as a percentage of gross domestic product was only 26.2 percent — 25th among the 27 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
    When asked, “Are we overtaxed as a nation?” he responded, “The facts don’t support the rhetoric of the tax cutters.”
    The positions and arguments on taxes and spending are myriad and complex. We all know something needs to be done and quickly. Hopefully we will do that which is best for our country and its people and not just the wealthy, privileged, and powerful.
    Our Catholic faith teaches us service of the common good is what is required of all of us for we are all one, like it or not, in that fantastic embrace of the God who made us all and loves us all.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘Are we not the luckiest of people’
By George Evans
April 29, 2011
    Every year when the Easter Vigil comes to an end about 10 p.m., I breathe a sigh of relief. I have made it through another Lent and particularly through another Holy Week. I never quite fulfill completely my intentions of daily Mass and little to no alcohol and no impatience with family and friends. But I did try.
    I got through the challenge of Holy Week, my favorite but most troublesome week of the year. There is no way to be faithful to the liturgy of that week and not struggle with our sinfulness and our selfishness juxtaposed against the total outpouring of unlimited love and sacrifice and suffering of Jesus.
    To ponder scourging, countless insults and abuse, and finally crucifixion of him who loves us and saves us makes us want to turn away and escape to a TV sitcom or ball game. But look on his face we must if we are to be faithful.
    Finally Jesus gives up the ghost on that cross of salvation and returns to the embrace of his Father and our comfort level returns because we know the story is about to improve.     He will be raised and the vigil is at hand.
    The readings set the historical stage beginning with the creation story and culminating with Magdalene’s discovery of the rolled back stone and being told by the angel to go and tell the disciples “He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
    And we feel like we need to run with Mary Magdelene and the “other Mary” to spread the word for our faith has again been rewarded as it is each year as the story unfolds.
    The church with great wisdom continues to support us and uplift us with the joy, satisfaction and fulfillment of the Resurrection during the next week which is now upon us.
    We relish the story of Mary Magdalene being confronted by Jesus who she thinks is the gardener until he directly calls her by name, “Mary”, which causes her to cling to him until he stops her and tells her to go to the disciples and tell them “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
    How special is that. His Father is our Father; his God is our God. Can we even grasp that?
    In two different Gospels, Matthew and John, Mary is sent to the disciples to announce the Resurrection. Thus her appellation of apostle to the apostles. And we know we are now challenged to do what Mary did — go and tell others about the resurrection and all that means about Jesus and his life, about his Father and our Father.
    The next story is one of the most appealing in the Gospels because it is so easy for us to identify with it. The two men on the road to Emmaus are absorbed with the events of Holy Week and astounded by the news of Jesus being alive.
    Are we not still astounded by this same news. Do we not need our faith in the resurrection affirmed by the Gospel stories and post Good Friday appearances of Jesus. Do we deserve to be scolded by Jesus as were the Emmaus travelers for not recognizing in the Scriptures all that refers to Jesus and his resurrection. And don’t we recognize him in ever new ways in the breaking of the bread.
    Cleopas and his friend, after finally recognizing Jesus and being touched by him, changed their journey from Emmaus back to Jerusalem to share their story with the disciples. The great joy of the post Easter Scriptures in the Masses of this week are their call to us to meet the resurrected Lord once again in his person, in the Scriptures and in the Breaking of the Bread and having done so to go take him to all we meet at home, at work, in the streets and in service to the poor and vulnerable.
    Cleopas and his friend changed their direction to share with the disciples in Jerusalem their exuberance and sheer joy from their meeting with the risen Lord. Can we do any less?
    Peter and the other disciples, empowered by Jesus’ appearances and ultimately the coming of the Holy Spirit, lost their fear and trembling of Holy Week and their absolute abandonment of Jesus in his time of need.
    They spread the story of his life, death, Resurrection and service everywhere they went. Holy Week and Easter week make the same demands on us. To the extent we shrink from the task, we fail to capture the deep sorrow and compassion and love of the former and the overwhelming joy and fulfillment of the latter.
    He did die for us and is risen. We know that in faith and in the testimony of many. Are we not the luckiest of people? But we are only if we act upon it.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘I have learned, it’s OK to ask for help’
By George Evans
February 18, 2011
     In late December I had shoulder surgery to remove an infected prosthesis implanted some three and a half years earlier as part of shoulder joint replacement of an arthritic joint. I have completed six weeks of IV antibiotic therapy which seems to have overcome the infection.
     After observation for four to six weeks, it is hoped another surgery can replace the removed prosthesis to restore meaningful use of my right arm and shoulder. We shall see.
     I write this not to detail my medical condition but to share what has become a spiritual experience of what Richard Rohr calls “The Naked Now.”
     For years, actually for all my life for all practical purposes, except for occasional ups and downs that we all experience, I have prided myself on my independence and control of my situation.
     Good things came almost as a matter of course — great childhood, great education, wonderful wife and children, and now grandchildren, rewarding job and income, comfortable relationship with God and self. It’s not hard to be independent and in control when all goes well.
     When you can’t button your shirt or put on your own socks and shoes or drive a car or do a hundred other things you take for granted, then reality strikes in a new way. You are no longer independent but dependent.
     What a hard thing. How galling to ask for help with your coat or to awkwardly brush your teeth with your left hand. The temptation to depression rears its head as time goes by and improvement is not immediate.
     Then your wife ties your shoes for the hundreth time and dries your back after a sponge bath and you realize this is what the countless homilies and spiritual reading have been telling you about the gentle touch and presence of Jesus.
     Gospel humility is experienced in the very dependence that is required and seemed so onerous without the loving touch of the caregiver, be it spouse or other. You let go at least for a moment and contemplate with mind and body God’s presence just for you (Rohr’s “The Naked Now”) in the hands of your gracious caregiver.
     You know when it’s your turn you will be up to the task because you have experienced his presence through the hands of another person.
     As I have lived through my own acceptance of help with a new sense of gratitude and peace and union with both spouse and God, the blessing of suffering and dependence has further enriched whatever helping ministry I am involved with at the time.
     We make home visits in St. Vincent de Paul when people call us and ask for help. I now know better how tough it is to ask for assistance and I know how critical it is to respond as St. Vincent has always taught us with non judgmental spirit and love and concern for the person asking.
     We frequently forget the only Christ many people may see is him they see in us if we come with his Spirit and his compassion and demeanor.
     I have learned, hard as it is at times, that it’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK not to be in control and leave that to another. It’s OK to trust another and essential to trust the God of our salvation. I have learned that some pain and suffering, though never desired, unites us to that of Jesus.
     After all, our icon is a crucified outlaw in the eyes of the world. Should we not expect to bear some small measure of that heavy cross? Should we not embrace our own cross of dependence as well as our chance to reach out when someone needs to be dependent on us? The former should help us do a better job with the latter..
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Register for Day at Capitol
By George Evans
December 17, 2010
     Part of what I do in my job at St. Richard is to participate in and promote outreach programs both in and out of the parish. I have a wonderful boss and pastor, Father Mike O’Brien, who encourages this.     This column is a little different. It is dedicated to one such undertaking.
     About a year or more ago, I was invited to serve on the Poverty Task Force (PTF) of Jackson Catholic Charities which was created in response to the call of Catholic Charities USA to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent by the year 2020.
    After several meetings we decided we might make some small contribution to this herculean task by sponsoring a Catholic Day at the Capitol to have people address one or more issues before the Legislature which impact poverty. Hopefully this could develop into an annual event. Eventually I was appointed PTF chair.
    To promote this undertaking a series of convocations were held around the diocese on a deanery basis to elicit the thoughts of attendees about the poverty issues in their areas. That process has now been completed and the PTF is working to finalize the two issues to address.
    The format of the Day at the Capitol, which has been scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, will consist of arrival at the Cathedral of St. Peter at 10 a.m., briefings on the issues to be discussed with legislators, Mass with Bishop Joseph Latino and Bishop Roger Morin of the Biloxi diocese who has agreed to join us, lunch and a walk to the Capitol where the individuals will meet with their own legislators in both House and Senate.
    These meetings will have been prearranged by Ben Russell of the Catholic Charities staff who works as a lobbyist at the Legislature. After these meetings the participants will return to St. Peter’s for debriefing, refreshments and return home.
    The entire purpose of the event is to give Catholics an organized opportunity to meet with their legislators and to make known to them their concerns about two issues and bring to bear the Catholic position on those issues based on Catholic social teachings and the positions of the American bishops.
    The two issues which will be addressed concern the best funding possible for public education and mental health services in our state in light of the budget crunch of which we are all aware.
    The bishops’ positions and clear and easy talking points will be made know to all who register in advance of the Day at the Capitol and will be stressed at the briefing and training on Jan. 26.
    The evidence is irrefutable poverty is directly related to the quality and quantity of education received. Reducing poverty without question is related to keeping children in school and providing them with learning that will allow them to maximize their education and prepare them to provide for themselves and their families as adults. This would prevent the ranks of the impoverished from increasing to the benefit of all of us.
    It is also abundantly clear inadequate mental health services exacerbates homelessness, joblessness, crime, poverty and hopelessness. Again, we all suffer economically and spiritually as those who are mentally ill end up either in jail, ill prepared community hospitals, or Smith Park in Jackson, across the street from St. Peter’s, or its local equivalent wherever you live.
    For years all the popes, particularly since John XXIII, have called for the laity to become involved in the town square and the legislative halls. Benedict XVI and the U.S. Catholic bishops have repeatedly urged our involvement, the U.S. bishops reminding us most recently in their document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” that “In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.”
    The Day at the Capitol offers a small beginning step in fulfilling that moral obligation. The PTF invites you and urges you to participate.
    Because the individual meetings with legislators will have to be arranged in advance, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR EACH PARTICIPANT TO REGISTER TO ATTEND THE DAY AT THE CAPITOL ON OR BEFORE JAN. 12, 2011.
    Registration can be completed electronically at the Catholic Charities website. A registration form on the website can be filled out and sent back electronically. Be sure to include residential address with ZIP code so proper legislators can be contacted.
    Those who may not have computer availability should contact Ben Russell at Catholic Charities Jackson, 200 N. Congress St., Suite 100, Jackson, MS 39201, phone 601-326-3785 to have a paper registration form sent to them. Early registration will help Ben immensely in making arrangements with the legislators.
    Again, the ABSOLUTE DEADLINE IS Jan. 12, 2011. If you have any questions contact Ben Russell. We hope many of you can join us for a great day of prayer and worship, work for the common good, and rewarding Catholic fellowship.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘It’s time again to shrink gap between rich, poor’
By George Evans
November 19, 2010
     If you read this column with any regularity, you have frequently heard me refer to the Catholic social teaching principle of “promoting the common good.”
    More importantly, you have heard every pope from Benedict XIII in 1891 in his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (“On Capital and Labor”) to Benedict XVI in 2009 in his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” (“Love in Truth”) consistently call us to adopt this principle as a way of life.
    Whatever service of the common good means in its totality and its particulars, it must mean some kind of sharing of the goods of this life given to us as stewards by the God of us all.
    It must mean though private property is a right, it carries with it, in the words of the encyclicals, a social mortgage creating a lien in the name of the common good. There are moral limitations on the hoarding of wealth to the detriment of those in need.
    It must mean we move forward as humanity, not backward, in providing those things basic to decent human existence such as food, housing, education, health care, clothing, security, etc.
    How do we measure up then when we look at where we are in this country today compared to where we have been? In some ways it seems we have come a long way.     Most everyone has indoor plumbing and electricity and refrigerators. Cell phones and autos seem to be reasonably available. Not many children have to walk to school (although that may not be an actual improvement).
    Does that then mean we have served the common good in our communal life as a nation and as Catholics? Not necessarily.
    The concentration of wealth in the United States now approaches the same level as it did in 1928 at the time of the Great Depression when the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation’s total income.
    Father John Rausch in a recent column in Mississippi Catholic (Oct. 15) tellingly points out the following:
    During the era of prosperity following WWII — with the GI Bill of Rights, rising wages and union power — the top 1 percent received only 8 to 9 percent of the national income by the late 1970s.
    We frequently think of this period as being one of, if not the greatest, period in American history. A strong and vibrant middle class emerged and the national wealth was shared by a greater percentage of the people of the country.
    It would seem the common good was better served than it had been previously and the gap between rich and poor narrowed to the benefit of all concerned. But what has happened more recently? Father Rausch continues with the striking reality of today.
    However, in the past 30 years stagnant wages caused by dismantling workers’ bargaining power, globalization, deregulation and privatization together with tax breaks for the wealthy moved the richest 1 percent back to 23.5 percent of the national income.     Too much concentration for the wealthy means too little purchasing power for the rest to buy what the economy is capable of producing, i.e. less demand means fewer new jobs.
    We are today during our current great recession approaching percentage wise a similar disparity of wealth that existed at the time of the great depression. In another Mississippi Catholic column (May 20, 2005) Father Ron Rolheiser makes the same point as Father Rausch.
    The gap between the rich and the poor is in fact widening, not narrowing. It’s widening worldwide, between nations, and it’s widening inside of virtually every culture. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are being left ever further behind. Almost all the economic boom of the last 20 years has sent its windfall straight to the top, benefiting those who already have the most.
    Is it not clear we are all in this economic situation together? As a country we either rise or fall together.
    God made it clear as early as the Cain and Abel story, that, yes, we are our brother’s keeper. Jesus tells us simply to love one another. This is a personal call to each of us.
    It is also an institutional call to our new Congress and our sitting president. The recent election suggests they should be more ready to listen to us if we make credible demands for fear of being turned out of office.
    It’s time to tell them to again shrink the gap between rich and poor as we did after WWII. The blue print has already been laid out for us.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Faith helps us see poor as taking place of Jesus
By George Evans
October 8, 2010
     I write this on Sept. 27, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) who was perhaps the greatest advocate for the poor in the church of his day. Vincent founded the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) in 1625 and along with St. Louise de Marillac founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633.
    The service of these religious orders for the poor and otherwise is legendary. This year is the 350th anniversary of the deaths of these two great saints.
    What is truly compelling about St. Vincent’s message is both its ongoing relevance for today and its challenging nature. For example, in one of his letters he writes:
    Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor.
    Do we not often find the poor “rough and unrefined” today and have difficulty with their “external appearances” when we first meet them? If we are truly going to serve them as did Vincent and Louise, don’t we have to suck it up, get beyond the appearances and focus on the fundamental fact in Genesis that they, like us, are made in the image and likeness of God.
    We say we believe that and we pay tribute to the fact there is that touch of the divine in each of us — yet it is so hard, or it seems to be, to act accordingly.
    So we frequently take the easy way out — not to deny the poor are special and deserve our special recognition and help as espoused by our bishops in their concept of the preferential option for the poor — but rather to act as the rich man in a recent Sunday Gospel to ignore the poor man (Lazarus) at his door.
    It is much easier for me (and most of us I suspect) to sin by indifference and ignoring a problem than actually choosing not to help after seeing hurt and suffering in the face of the poor. It is in omission rather than commission that most of us fall short as deftly pointed out by Bishop Joseph Latino in his homily on this Gospel that I was fortunate to recently hear.
    Perhaps the latter part of the quote above from St. Vincent’s letter points the way to overcome this difficulty. If we ever saw the poor as taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor, then certainly our actions would be different. We would not ignore the Son of God, or would we, as most of the people of his day did.
    How do we avoid the same mistake? St. Vincent gives us the answer. It takes the light of faith to see the poor taking the place of the Son of God. In our rationalistic and materialistic world this is challenging, though the message is clear and direct.
    And the message is absolutely consistent with what Scripture tells us about Jesus, the Son of God, as Vincent continues to point out in his letter:
    Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. Jesus went so far as to say he would consider every deed that either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor.
    Without a direct cite in his letter, Vincent is obviously proclaiming to his audience the message of the judgment scene in Matthew 25. For it is in feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty, in clothing the naked and visiting the imprisoned and reaching out to all the “least brothers of mine” that Jesus is served.
    It is then this simple enduring truth Vincent called his followers to 350 years ago that remains so profound today and yet so challenging. It takes the “light of faith” to make it a reality.
    But is that such an unrealistic demand on those of us who ascribe to being followers of Christ? Does not the very appellation of Christian mean we see things in the “light of faith”?
    Does that not mean Vincent’s legacy of seeing the poor as taking the place of the Son of God challenge us to act accordingly and fortuitously be blessed in judgment as in Matthew 25? It is a comfort to be reminded God surely loves the poor and also loves those who love the poor.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Pay for national defense with some prudence
By George Evans
September 10, 2010
     As I write this Glen Beck and Al Sharpton are conducting conflicting mass meetings in Washington.
    Beck is demeaning the Obama administration for ruining the country and asking for loyal Americans to rally to take it back.
    Sharpton is demeaning Beck and his tea party followers for this crusade in general and particularly for staging it on the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s iconic March on Washington and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
    It is yet again another example of the gridlock and divisive political debate and discourse in our country where reason, decency and legitimate persuasion have been abandoned by most everyone involved in favor of swashbuckling attacks, innuendo, half-truths and prejudices.
    It is therefore heartening to see an exception to this pattern in the beginning debate on military spending and the military budget. For the first time in ages, people who normally might be expected to be on the opposite side of an issue are coming together to address a problem of enormous scale and importance.
    Clearly national defense is extremely important to every American. It must be a leading priority for our national government. Paying for it therefore is essential.
    Paying for it with some prudence in light of other legitimate national concerns such as the economy and unemployment, transportation, education, health care, etc., is becoming the question.
    It is reassuring when liberal Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass) and conservative Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) issued a joint statement on July 6 calling for “substantial reductions in the projected level of American military spending as part of future deficit reduction efforts.”
    Some facts cited by these strange bedfellows in support of their statement are as follows:
    1. The Pentagon budget for 2010 is $693 billion — more than all other discretionary U.S. spending programs combined.
    2. Even without the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military spending still amounts to over 42 percent of total U.S. spending.
    3. American military spending makes up approximately 44 percent of all such expenditures worldwide.
    Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also joined in the debate. In a May speech at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., he said the attacks of 9/11 had “opened a gusher of defense spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade, not counting supplemental appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . . .
    “Given America’s difficult economic circumstance and perilous fiscal condition, military spending on things large and small can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny. The gusher has been turned off, and will stay off for a good period of time.”
    What I find comforting about this issue is that congressmen from both sides of the aisle and the leading member of the Administration concerning military affairs are bringing the issue front and center for upcoming budget consideration without the usual rancor, finger-pointing, posturing and even name-calling with which we have become inundated in recent political actions.
    Like everyone else, I want a secure United States and have no idea where the exact line should be drawn. But there seems to be a growing consensus that cuts are in order when the Secretary of Defense talks about excessive capabilities as he did in a speech to the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition noting U.S. capabilities far outweigh those of the rest of the world.
    For instance, “The Navy can carry twice as many aircraft at sea as the rest of the world combined, and it has 57 nuclear-powered attack and cruise missile submarines, also more than the rest of the world combined.”
    In addition to the welcome change in the tone of the debate from the recent norm, as Catholics who must consider the common good in our approach to political and economic issues, it is comforting that David Robinson, executive director of Pax Christi USA, part of a worldwide Catholic peace organization, welcomes this new attention to downsizing the military.
    He points out deficit reduction measures normally fall hardest “on the poor and vulnerable, and people hurting now are going to be hurt further if military spending is not folded into the deficit reduction debate. By introducing defense spending — which I would argue is the real culprit behind deficit spending — poor people will take less of a hit.”
    Whether you agree with Robinson or not, it’s refreshing to have a topic of importance discussed and put on the table in a promising way which can perhaps have an impact of the way other issues are addressed.

Avoid wasteland, embrace God, in hope, faith
By George Evans
July 9, 2010
    Several months ago, I devoted this column to the question of increasing secularization in the West and Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to address it in his pontificate including numerous references to it in his encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (“In Charity and Truth”).
    I raised the question of a particular manifestation of this reality in the     United States with the story of a dinner Carol and I had in New Orleans on a Friday in Lent with only one fish entree on the menu.
    I noticed with great interest, therefore, an article in the July 1 Clarion-Ledger which pointed out before starting his vacation at Castel Gandolfo the pope continued his efforts to address the problem of increasing secularization in Europe with new initiatives.
    Among other things it stated, Pope Benedict XVI tapped a trusted Italian, Msgr. Rino Fisichella, to head the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, a new Vatican department designed to reinvigorate Christianity in the parts of the world where it is falling by the wayside ....
    Benedict announced the creation of the new evangelization office earlier that week, saying it would promote Christianity in countries where the church has long existed “but which are living a progressive secularization of society and a sort of eclipse of the sense of God.”
    As a European steeped in centuries marked by the flowering of Christianity and Roman Catholicism, the pope is obviously heart sick with trends of empty churches, rampant divorces, abortions, and heterosexual and homosexual lifestyles tearing at the heart of marriage and family life.
    And though he knows the clerical sexual abuse scandal is making the situation worse and more painful, he also knows the problem is much deeper than the hurt of that scandal. It is a fundamental problem of faith, the lack of belief in God and the lack of the felt need for God in order to make sense out of life.
    It is the modern Westerners rejection of afterlife as a challenging reality and prospect replaced by comfort with the belief that man alone controls his destiny for the 60 to 90 years he has and then all ends.
    Benedict is fighting with all he has to try to turn this around. His 2010 travel itinerary targets the West — Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Britain and Spain. His latest encyclical, though addressed to the whole world, has particular direction to the secular West and even more to his beloved Europe because the secularization there is even greater than in the United States and Canada.
    Commentators on the European scene now talk about assisted suicide being generally accepted and as routine as hospice care would be in the U.S. Jack Kevorkian would not even be noticed there.
    To show how far the pendulum has swung, I share a report from England which shows where things are.
    A man’s wife was terminally ill with cancer though death was at least some short time off in the future. She scheduled an appointment to end her life, which was readily accepted.     The husband declared that he loved his wife so much he couldn’t bear to live without her and though he had no life threatening condition, he decided to schedule his own death simultaneously with his wife. Both died together apparently with the adulation of those who knew of the proceedings.
    This example shows where we have come in the West with our lack of respect for life and our lack of belief in a God who is involved with our lives. There is no limit on what can occur if we lose the sense of the transcendent Other and, for the Christian, his son Jesus.
    There is no purpose for any of us other than to control the time given us in the way we determine best and to end it in a way and at a time we choose best without regard to anything or anyone else. There is no need to serve others as we have always been taught by Jesus, when the relationship with him is no longer at our core.
    Have we progressed to the same point as Europe apparently has in a secularization that divorces human life from everything that is not measurable, pleasurable, consumable and controllable?
    Have we succeeded in making a mockery of the last judgment scene in Matthew 25 when the sheep and goats are separated based on feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty?
    Is there time left to avoid the wasteland of consumerism and secularization and embrace one another and God in hope and faith.
    Benedict has taken an institutional step in that regard with his recent action and appointment. We need to do the same in our small way daily step by step.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘Ask to see, then just do it’
By George Evans
June 11, 2010
    One of the most fascinating characters in the New Testament is Bartimaeus, “a blind man, the son of Timaeus” (Mk 10:46). The story of Bartimaeus and his miraculous cure by Jesus was recently the Gospel (Mk 10:46-52) in a weekday liturgy. Every time I hear it some different thoughts come to mind.
    Bartimaeus is a blind man sitting on the side of the road begging for alms. He obviously was aware of some of the stories circulating about Jesus and his miraculous cures for when he hears a crowd approaching and learns it is Jesus coming, he immediately cries out “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
    Many in the crowd had no idea who Jesus was and they try to hush Bartimaeus as we might a noisy child who was causing a commotion.
    But Bartimaeus, who had probably been cast aside and ignored most of his life because of his blindness and poverty, refused to be hushed and kept calling out all the more, “”Son of David, have pity on me.” This got Jesus’ attention and he said, “Call him.”
    The crowd immediately changed and encouraged Bartimaeus to get up “Jesus is calling you.” He is now somewhat their hero because he has been recognized and they want to be identified with him. Does that sound familiar to us? How often have we done the same.
    Bartimaeus “throws aside his cloak” reminiscent of the stripping of those being baptized in the early church, symbolizing their renunciation of their old way of life. Mark is suggesting to us this is the path to our conversion as well as Bartimaeus’, to cast aside whatever imprisons us in ego and prevents our surrender to Jesus of Nazareth.
    And then Jesus asks him “What do you want me to do for you?”
    At first doesn’t that seem a little silly for Jesus to ask a blind man who had been calling him Son of David what do you want me to do for you? Isn’t it obvious Bartimaeus wanted to see, to have Jesus cure his blindness?
    Is Jesus playing a game with Bartimaeus, or is he teaching Bartimaeus and us that God always beckons us but never compels us. It’s necessary for us to identify our desire clearly. It’s necessary for Bartimaeus to articulate his desire to see which is in turn an articulation of his faith in Jesus which evokes Jesus’ response: “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
    We then must do the same. Whatever it is or however it presents, we must tell Jesus we want to see, we want to surrender to that relationship with him which frees us from all slavery and darkness and fear and depression.
    We must continue to shout, as did Bartimaeus, and not be quieted by those who would subdue us. We must be ready to respond to Jesus when he asks us what we want him to do for us. And we must no longer block him from asking or, more accurately, we must no longer have our ears closed by whatever it is that personally prevents us from hearing him.
    We must be willing to ask to see all that Jesus is and brings to us and be willing to hear him when he responds. And though God can sometimes be slow (at least in our minds) we must continue to shout as did Bartimaeus over and over again.
    Bartimaeus received his wish, his sight, and “followed him on the way.” Bartimeaus became a disciple with all that entails. It is not easy to follow “on the way.” Yet when we “see” we have no choice but to follow him on the way.
    In my early life I thought this was really true just for priests, sisters and brothers. Vatican II clarified that it’s really true for us as well as lay women and men. And that can be scary but also so invigorating.
    And we do have his assurance he will always be with us even to the end of time. What more could we ask for. I guess we just need to ask to see, and then just do it.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Are we plodding along like
disciples headed to Emmaus?
By George Evans
April 30, 2010
     One of the great things about the Easter season is the wonderful Gospel stories on the Sundays after Easter.
     I can identify with the disciples on the road to Emmaus who are grief stricken and totally oblivious to the presence of their friend even after he carefully leads them through the Scriptures that reveal him as the Christ.
     I have been oblivious to the Christ although I am familiar with those Scriptures and I assume that would apply to many of you as well. I have experienced, as did the disciples, Jesus in the breaking of the bread as I assume is true of many of you as well.
     Are we not plodding along as the disciples headed to Emmaus were?      Instead of us wondering why couldn’t those clowns recognize Jesus during their journey isn’t it appropriate to rejoice in the gift of the Eucharist and recognize him in it as they did and then go tell someone about it as they did?
     Perhaps the Gospel of doubting Thomas is the Easter story you best identify with. I certainly do. I’m not so sure I would not have liked to have seen his wounds and touched him to be sure this was the same Jesus I had grown to know and love.
     In our less pretentious moments can we really criticize Thomas for his unbelief until being reassured, or don’t we have to acknowledge that there too goes us at least sometimes? Should we not thank him for showing us the doubt we sometimes experience is capable of being overcome by opening ourselves in prayer to this Jesus of the resurrection and allow him to touch us in our unbelief and change it to belief?
     The great Gospel from the Third Sunday of Easter in John 21 may be your favorite. It’s certainly one of mine. This is the fascinating breakfast invitation from Jesus to Peter and the others.
     First, he fills their net with fish after they had been unsuccessful fishing all night. Then he fixes them breakfast using a charcoal fire reminiscent of the charcoal fire in the courtyard during Peter’s recent tripartite denial of Jesus before he was crucified.
     And finally he gives Peter his chance to unburden his tortured soul for having denied the one he had come to love and had left everything to follow. Have we not all experienced similar forgiveness when we have turned our back on him?
     The scene changes from the breaking of the bread to Jesus’ direct confrontation with Peter. ”Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
     Then this is repeated two more times with Peter becoming distressed the third time perhaps remembering his denial three times.
     Have we not all told Jesus that we love him? And isn’t that easy to say? And then Jesus hits us as he did Peter by following up each profanation of love by Peter with the commission to “feed my lambs and tend my sheep.”
     It is not enough to profess love, as necessary as that is. It must be followed by action. Get out there and tell them who I am and take care of them as I have taken care of you and all the others as you have seen me do.
     That commission is ours as well as Peter’s. We have to get out of the church building and into the streets as Peter and the disciples had to get out of the Temple and into the streets as well they did.
     Recently, with the help of scripture scholars familiar with the original Greek of John’s Gospel, I have been directed to a new fascinating insight into the interchange between Jesus and Peter.
     John uses two different Greek words both translated “love” when Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?” The first two times when Jesus poses the question to Peter, the Greek word used for love is “agapan” which means selflessly, unconditionally, endlessly.
     Peter’s response uses the Greek word for love, “philein,” which means I love you Lord but with a love of deep friendship of the type I have always had for you (before the Crucifixion).
     Perhaps this is yet another reason that Jesus asks Peter even the third time “Do you love me?” But this time the Greek word for love used by John in the question is “philein,” the same word Peter had been using in his previous responses.
     Do you love me in the old way, as Lord and deep and abiding friend, but not yet a love of “agapan,” a love that is selfless, unconditional and endless?
     Jesus reaches out to Peter and takes him where he is at that time. Do you love me as Lord and deep and abiding friend? And after getting on the same page with Peter, with the same word in question and response, Jesus then forecasts his life of service and his death which will require of Peter “agapan,” the unconditional and totally unselfish love Jesus was seeking in his first questions.
     Jesus seeks “agapan” from us just as he did from Peter. It’s reassuring to me that he took Peter where he was and let him grow to “agapan.” I suppose as we develop our friendship love of Jesus, particularly in service as did Peter, we grow toward “agapan.” Perhaps that will be fully realized for most of us only as part of our own death experience after our own life of service.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via emial)

Lack of fish could signal culture’s demise
By George Evans
March 26, 2010
    Most of us are aware of the secularization of Western Europe and the demise of the dominant Christian culture which has existed since Charlemagne. For Catholics, this is particularly noteworthy in the former bastions of Catholic influence and culture in Italy and France and to a lesser extent in Germany and Spain.
    If you have been fortunate enough to travel to Italy and France you don’t need me to remind you of the Sunday Masses at the gorgeous cathedrals such as Chartres where a handful of American tourists and a few quiet old women dominate the congregation. The same could be said of many other of the most beautiful churches in Italy and France.
    Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly made it clear a major thrust of his pontificate will be to renew the Catholic culture of Western Europe that has declined and, more importantly, to energize the weakened Catholic faith and presence in every day life.
    His encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” is, among many other things, a clarion call to his fellow western Europeans to the truth and beauty of their Catholic heritage and an attempt to engage them in involvement with the myriad problems facing contemporary women and men.
    He seeks to bring them back to the transforming values and strengths of the church of their youth and of their fathers. Time will tell if his efforts and those of others will turn the tide.
    The question for us closer to home is whether the same thing is happening in the United States and particularly within Catholic Christianity. We hear and read Sunday church attendance in Catholic and main line Protestant churches is down significantly, particularly if the impact of new Hispanic attendance in Catholic churches is subtracted.
    Even the more fundamental mega churches have recently experienced decreases after a period of great growth. Are we headed for a repeat of the secularization of Western Europe? I don’t know, but recently I had an experience which brought all of this to mind and is responsible for this column.
    My wife Carol and I recently spent a delightful threeday weekend in New Orleans. A friend had provided us his condominium in the warehouse district and we combined visits to the new theater at the WWII Museum, to lunch with the homeless at the Ozanam Inn, a St. Vincent de Paul sponsored facility that sleeps 96 homeless men a night, to a great children’s clothing store on Magazine Street for a purchase for the grandchildren and just visiting churches and other sites with great memories. And we ate as can only be done in New Orleans.
    I could write a column on the food and some wonderful people we shared one evening meal with but that would divert too far from the topic at hand — secularization.
    On the Friday night of our visit, Carol and I made a reservation and ate for the first time at an upscale restaurant which came highly recommended. Because there were 35,000 orthopedic surgeons in town for a convention, we had to wait in a delightful bar with excellent refreshment and engaging patrons also waiting for their tables.
    As we surveyed the menu my eyes scanned the 10-12 entrees for fish, it being a Lenten Friday. There was one fish entree. I scanned the 8-10 appetizer selections and the sole fish choice there was squid in some sort of risotto or something similar.
    Continuing my search, I spied a gumbo but, alas, it was chicken and andouile gumbo and therefore not on our diet for the evening.
    The wait staff at the restaurant was superb as they shared tables and covered for one another. In a very pleasant and engaging manner I expressed my surprise about the lack of fish dishes on a Friday during Lent.
    The response was a quizzical look at first of non- understanding. I don’t think my comment about Friday in Lent registered in the most Catholic city in the Southeast.
    I explained gently our selections were limited by our religious practices and I had been coming to New Orleans for 60 years and had never run into this situation and further that I normally ordered fish in New Orleans because it’s usually so good and prepared so well.
    The wait staff seemed genuinely intrigued by the conversation. I don’t believe either were Catholic nor from New Orleans and imbued with its history and Catholic culture. We had some wonderful banter about the issue and I asked them to make sure there wasn’t a pot of seafood gumbo stored away somewhere in the kitchen since my heart had been set on a good bowl. There was none.
    It was certainly too late to excuse ourselves and go elsewhere and the wait staff was so engaging that would have been ugly, so I let myself be talked into the squid appetizer and Carol and I each ordered the only fish dish, flounder with a wonderful sauce the name of which I cannot remember.
    The squid was still squid like a thick rubber band but the sauce and risotto were excellent. The flounder was world class and the wine was delightful. The meal turned out to be great.
    I told the waitress and the assistant manager who got in on the conversation I was going to do a column and send them a copy and I will do that. They were superb and the meal turned out fine.
    But I shall never forget my surprise at the menu reflecting an absence of that old cultural Catholicism that I have experienced so many times in the more than 60 years I have visited New Orleans.
    I don’t know if this is an isolated instance of no recognition of the Lenten abstinence, or whether it is an early sign of the demise of Catholic culture in one of its paramount reservoirs. I sure hope it’s the former and not the latter.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Have you heard too much Good News?
By George Evans
February 26, 2010
     In March of 2010 we celebrate the anniversaries of two deaths of distinction, one 30 years ago and one 20 years ago. Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was gunned down while celebrating the Eucharist in a hospital chapel on March 24, 1980. Sister Thea     Bowman succumbed after a long battle with cancer on March 30, 1990.
    Both deaths will be commemorated in March by celebrations in El Salvador for Archbishop Romero, and in the United States including Canton, Miss., for Sister Thea.
    What does this have to do with our Lenten spirituality? The church put before us on the first Friday of Lent the magnificent reading from Is 58:1-9a which sets the tone for a proper Lenten experience and which is so well exemplified in the splendid, though different, examples of Archbishop Romero and Sister Thea.
    Isaiah brings God’s message to the people of Israel about the true manner of fasting. It is far more than bowing one’s head like a reed and lying in sackcloth and ashes (v 5).
    “This, rather, is the fasting I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.” (v 6-7).
    Isaiah castigates his people who have become ritualistic and cold in their worship, devotions and religious practices. He cries out “full-throated and unsparingly” in his criticisms.
    The passage clearly unites seeking justice with doing charity, they walk hand in hand.     Giving up sweets or, even booze is not enough. We are called, like Archbishop Romero and Sister Thea, to the prophetic role of Isaiah even though there are many who do not want to hear this message and wish to silence us.
    Oscar Romero captured Isaiah’s message. He spoke truth to power in a time of great trial in El Salvador. In the midst of a civil war, when tens of thousands of innocent Salvadoran civilians were being murdered, Romero was a voice for the voiceless to the chagrin of the powerful including many churchmen.
    He was a person of faith who denounced human rights abuses, advocated for the poor and never lost hope for a future of peace with justice. As he felt more and more pressure from those in power whom he challenged and as he became more aware of the personal danger facing him, (strikingly like Jesus as he turned toward Jerusalem) he passionately proclaimed, “If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadoran people.”
    He will be dead 30 years on March 24. We should pause and honor him and, more importantly, emulate him. That is prophetic Lenten practice.
    Sister Thea grew from her Holy Child Jesus Canton parochial education into a woman of great strength, learning and influence as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
    She brought to the American church the special gifts of African American music and culture and through her very special life force she spread the Gospel by capturing the hearts and souls of those she met, lectured to and sang for.
    She would ask “Do you know anyone who has heard too much Good News?” She would then, through exuberance, talent and prophetic proclamation in the best tradition of Isaiah, bring on more Good News.
    Like Archbishop Romero, though her life was not ended by an assassin’s bullet, Sister Thea gave everything in spellbinding speeches bringing her creativity and spontaneity to bear with overwhelming effect, particularly in her last years as she was dying from painful bone cancer which made her light shine even more brightly.
    Sister Thea died on March 30, 1990. We should pause and honor her and, more importantly, emulate her. That is prophetic Lenten practice.
    A wonderful series of events will take place in Canton on the week- end of March 20-21 at Holy Child Jesus and Sacred Heart churches. Please watch for details of the scheduled events as they are announced and plan to attend and be touched by her wonderful spirit.     It will make for an even better Easter.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Start new year with a bang, read ‘Caritas in Veritate’
By George Evans
January 22, 2010
     As I write this we are still fairly close to the start of the New Year so I take the liberty of making a suggestion of a gift to give yourself to get the year started with a serious bang.
    Get a copy of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), then allocate seven hours, one for the introduction and conclusion and one for each of the six chapters and read it slowly and prayerfully over the course of two weeks, never more than a chapter in any one setting. Then take a break for a couple of weeks and do it again.
    I realize this sounds strange but I make this recommendation based on my recent experience in trying to teach this document. I have had the privilege and pleasure for 35 years of teaching from time to time in an adult Sunday school class called Timely Topics held between the two Sunday Masses at St. Richard.
    Over the years my topics have ranged from scripture studies to Christology to the Commandments as baptized by the Sermon on the Mount, to social justice themes and many other topics too numerous to list.
    Some classes have been tougher to teach than others. Some have been taught better than others. All have been rewarding and gratifying to me.
    But none have ever challenged me like “Caritas in Veritate.” And thus I recommend it to you for a serious read.
    This is not a typical encyclical written in that Roman style that frequently makes you cry for it to be over. This is the work of a recognized and accomplished theologian who as pope brings great intellect and learning to the table and fashions them into a pastoral vision for the future.
    This is a challenging work and thus the suggestion of a slow and thoughtful read for no more than an hour at a time. This is not a Grisham novel and though engrossing, it’s not a page turner.
    I was allocated two sessions to work through this 80-page work. You would think that’s not that tough of an assignment. Because of the richness and depth of the encyclical, I did little more than scratch the surface.
    Pope Benedict, in a traditional Vatican approach, starts off to update the great encyclical of 40 years earlier of Paul VI, “Populorum Progressio” (“On the Development of Peoples”).
    Much has changed in the world in 40 years and Benedict, in paying tribute to his predecessor’s significant contribution, traces not only the advancements and changes in economic, political and technological developments during that period but also brings to bear the desperate need for human and familial development so the person of today is not relegated to the junk heap of a technological automaton with no inner life to match the development in economics, politics, and production.
    Benedict weaves his theme of charity in truth through the situation of modern man functioning in the complexities of a worldwide economy that features both capitalism with its good and bad and socialism with its pros and cons.
    He sees the complexities of modern man struggling to keep the family at the center of all development and the difficulties of maintaining the dignity of the human person as inviolate from the womb to the tomb in the face of scientific pressure and political opportunism.
    He explains the struggles of balancing the rights and duties of workers and developers so poor countries can progress but not at the loss of what is best in their cultures.
In language close to mystical he challenges us all (as he also did in his New Year’s Day message) to preserve and properly develop the environment for the good of each other and the generations to come.
    The scope of what Benedict treats in what is in fact a short work, is what made the task of teaching his message so challenging, but at the same time what makes the document so compelling.
    Benedict tells us faith and reason can co-exist, that mind boggling technological and communication advances can co-exist with human development in the truest sense of charity in truth, that environmental preservation and commercial development can co-exist peacefully and that labor and management can both prosper if human dignity is always respected as a paradigm and the common good always trumps greed and narcissism.
    Benedict, to the consternation of many who only see myopically in black and white terms, espouses a both/and mentality rather than an either/or mentality without in any way compromising his own orthodoxy.
    He is able to do this, I believe, because he sees charity/truth as welded together in the hands of the Creator/Father and exemplified in the life of the Redeemer/Son.
    He refuses to accept the relentless pressure of consumerism and materialism that would reduce man to narrow, often sterile, categories in politics, economics, faith, learning and development.
    This probably is why trying to teach the encyclical was so difficult,
and certainly impossible in two sessions, and yet why partaking in its richness was still so fulfilling. Give it a try and see what you think.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Eucharist: Greatest act of thanksgiving
By George Evans
November 27, 2009
     As I sit down to write this column on the Friday before Thanksgiving my thoughts rather naturally turn to all the things for which I have to be thankful. I have a wonderful wife, two great grown children, a fine son-in-law, and two splendid grandchildren.
    My health is reasonably good, particularly after losing a great deal of weight, a good second career under the aegis of a great pastor, Father Mike O’Brien, and the chance to write a column for this paper every month.
    I am financially stable in a troubled financial time when so many are hurting and threatened. I am thankful for my Catholic faith and for the God of Scripture who loves me in spite of my many shortcomings.
    I love this country and cherish its call to individual liberty and freedom formulated in a framework of justice for all. I am captivated again and again by the Thanksgiving story of the pilgrims and their relationship with the Native Americans before the later abuses and disenfranchisement in the name of the white man’s destiny.
    I am enthralled by the success stories of our immigrant forefathers as they made their way up the ladder of social, political and financial success building this country brick by brick as they ultimately prospered to the benefit of all.
    But I also have other thoughts today stimulated by the two readings from today’s liturgy and the succinct 90-second homily by Father Mike.
    The first reading from 1 Maccabees tells us how Judas Maccabees and his brothers restored the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been defiled by the Gentiles, frequently with the collaboration of the Jerusalem priesthood.
    Heathen sacrifice had been offered, thereby desecrating the temple, so a new altar was built and proper sacrifices according to the law were offered and the dedication of the altar was celebrated for eight days. It was necessary to clean out the trash and to build anew before true worship could be restored.
    In the Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus entered the temple and drove out the money changers and changed it from a den of thieves back to a house of prayer. Jesus also needed to clean out the temple, to get rid of the trash before he could properly teach and form his people.
    Both readings remind us we must always be ready to purify our churches, our homes, our families, ourselves when we allow trash to creep in and adversely affect us or our worshiping community. Father Mike deftly planted this theme in his homily.
    At this time of Thanksgiving might it not also be a good time to examine what in our own lives needs to be purified, what in our family life needs to be cleaned up, what battles in our parishes need to be resolved, what relationships that have been soiled need to be reconciled. At a time of increasingly shrill allegations from all sides on the political matters of the day, be they health care, immigration, environment or just about anything else you choose to bring up, would it not serve a good purpose to clear away the mess and listen to each other with some civility after taking the time to learn what the other is really saying and maybe its basis rather than what some website spins as its caricature of what is being said or done.
    Would we not have a better chance of success in promoting the common good if we put aside for a moment whether we are Republican or Democrat, Fox news or MSNBC devotee, conservative or liberal Catholic or knee jerk forwarder of the emails of the spin doctors of all of the above, and turn instead to the message of the Jesus of the Gospels and his believing church.
    Is it not in the great act of Thanksgiving, which is the Eucharist, that we get to the bottom of what we should be about not only now at Thanksgiving but at all times of the year.
    If we offer ourselves with the definitive offer made in the Paschal Mystery as celebrated in the Eucharist and eat and drink deeply of his body and blood, are we not then ready, cleansed to the core, to enter in charity and truth into real conversation with each other to try and solve at least some of the perplexing problems of our day for the benefit of all.
    Thanksgiving is about goodly helpings of turkey and dressing and all the wonderful trimmings. But it is also about cleaning out and purifying the temples of our worship and our bodies so that we can share deeply with family and friends and perhaps even begin the tough difficult process of talking to one another in a civil, thoughtful and informed manner to solve some of the great problems of our day.
That would even help us get ready in the proper way for Christmas.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

Few take you to next level of development
By George Evans
October 23, 2009
     Most of us choose life over death. Most of us prefer weddings to funerals. Most of us would rather have sun than rain.
     I am certainly with the majority regarding these things, but recently had an experience at a funeral that was uplifting, fulfilling and gratifying and brought home to me and my wife, Carol, how blessed we are to be Catholic and to have known some truly great men who are also priests.
     In this Year for the Priests, this was particularly satisfying, and so I impose a personal reflection.
     We traveled to the funeral with heavy heart and sense of loss for a man who had meant much to both of us for over 40 years.
     Carol had worked for him before we were married and he just became part of our marriage as friend, mentor, advisor and priest. He was 82 and had been sick for some time and we had planned to visit him in two weeks to say our good-byes before his impending death.
     Being a prudent planner I had acquired two frequent flyer tickets. But our friend was called home two weeks early and we scrambled to change our flight schedule. So much for best laid plans.
     Some men (and women) touch people in special ways so that they are never the same again. Sometimes you know you are in the presence of someone special.
     This describes our friend and gradually as the visitation unfolded and remembrances were shared, the specialness of this priest manifested itself and our heavy hearts and sense of loss were replaced by a sense of gratitude and joy and peace for having known him and having been touched and influenced by him.
     Few people take you to the next level in your own development. We are fortunate if we know two or three in a life time and truly blessed to know five or six.
     I am blessed and this man was one of them and apparently he had that same impact on many who were present as they told stories of how he had influenced them by a great zest for life, a huge laugh, captivating smile, compelling humility, disarming compassion and wisdom and insight that simply got you to do things that you may never have considered except he suggested it.
     Many Protestants have commented positively to me about a certain feeling associated with Catholic funerals. I think in many ways our liturgy is at its best as we return a friend or beloved to the one who has first loved us and touched us with a spark of his divinity as he created us in his image and likeness.
     From the placement by the family of the pall on the casket, through the readings reminding us where we have come from and where we are going and the music somehow calling us to the sensual experience of the New Jerusalem we are uplifted to an embrace of the departed as real as any in life and an embrace by our God energized by the celebration of his Son’s Paschal Mystery.
     Our friend’s funeral certainly did not disappoint. To the contrary it captured all that is best in the Catholic funeral liturgy. The prelude by a flutist set a wonderful tone of peace, for this was truly a peaceful man.
     The readings culminated with Matthew 25 and seldom if ever did a man feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty more fully and, perhaps more importantly, turn more people on to do the same with a spirit of acceptance of the poor and their innate dignity resulting in service with great love and compassion and without a hint of judgmental arrogance.
     And this is why this funeral was so special. The people there knew the kind of man who was being celebrated. We had been affected by him and our lives had been different because he had been a part of them.
     Because of who he was and how he lived, the impact on those he touched frequently meant that the road taken was truly the road less traveled and frequently a road with lots of thickets but always one of deep and ultimate joy and peace because it is the road that leads to the New Jerusalem about which we read and sing.
     Good bye good friend and priest. We look forward to continuing the journey with you down the road you pointed out to us and ask you to stay with us for strength and wisdom.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.Contact him via email)

‘Educate our children, ourselves in godliness’
By George Evans
September 25, 2009
By George Evans
    Every September, when school really gets started, after the August beginning, I am struck by the awesome responsibility parents have in deciding where to send their children to school. I am thankful in a way the responsibility is no longer mine, but yet wistful over the joy and sense of purpose I remember when the decision was mine and my wife, Carol’s.
    This was brought home to me again dramatically on Saturday, Sept. 19, (the date I am writing this column) when my “Living with Christ” daily devotional with lectionary readings contained the following meditation from one of the great thinkers and preachers of our Catholic heritage, St. John Chrysostom:
    When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving,
to be generous, to love others, to regard this present age as nothing,
we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within
them. This, then, is our task: to educate both ourselves and our children
in godliness; otherwise what answer will we have before Christ’s
judgment seat?
    Judgment scenes always captivate me, and I presume that’s why reading John Chrysostom induced me to change the topic of this column from what I had intended to write to the burning question he raises “What answer will we have before Christ’s judgment seat?”
    Furthermore, it preserves my previous topic for next month’s column, alleviating the need for a panic prayer for inspiration.
    In two sentences John Chrysostom says more than whole books I have seen on parenting. Admittedly, my views may not resonate well with everyone as to what is important, but who can take issue with our obligation “to instill virtue in their (our children’s) souls, and reveal the image of God within them.”
    Is there anything more important we can give them? The ancient Greeks and the Christian Gospels are in agreement about the paramount place of virtue in the lives of meaningful and holy people.
    And what better gift can we give to our children than to “reveal the image of God within them.” If we are successful in doing this would not the risk of suicide significantly abate?
If they accept and understand that the image of God is within them, would not the propensity toward drugs and promiscuity at least be reduced?
    Would not the current hot topic of “bullying” find a ready solution if we had revealed such an image in them which would obviously translate into their relationship with peers and friends.
    The question then becomes how do we best teach our children to be good, forgiving, generous, loving, virtuous and understanding of being in the image of God.
John Chrysostom says we must educate ourselves (first) and then them in godliness. We teach them these things by having these things within ourselves and living them and doing them daily so our children can see them, hear them, feel them and experience them deep within their very being.
    We experience our own godliness (accepting the image of God within us) and we pass it on to them as we do everything else in words, deeds, actions and lots of hugs and encouragement, as well as the necessary time outs and loving discipline.
Finally, when they are of age, we choose schools, where available, that reflect and support all of the above things we have done and hold to be dear.
    We choose schools that reflect our values, Catholic values, that help translate Chrysostom’s magnificent vision for our children into reality. We demand these schools do that very thing including academic excellence, substantive Catholic catechesis, realistic moral training and nurturing and tenderness that meld children into godliness.
    Since our children spend huge amounts of time at school, we need a partner in not only supporting, but enhancing the values we have taught and inculcated from day one. Just as schools teach reading, math, science, art, athletics etc. in ways generally beyond our competence so we entrust to them, with our help and involvement, their teaching and hopefully reinforcement of faith, values, beliefs and godliness we hold sacred as Catholics.
    Each of us must choose how to complete the task John Chrysostom presents to us “to educate both ourselves and our children in godliness” in order to best answer to Christ. I have focused primarily on our children in this column.
    I believe Catholic schools, where available, can help us tremendously in this task and also, at least tangentially, help educate ourselves in godliness as well. That’s not a bad two for one value.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via email)

Pope’s newest encyclical `a good read’
By George Evans
August 21, 2009
By George Evans
    If you are an adult Catholic and have not as yet read Pope Benedict’s recent encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), you owe it to yourself to get it and read it.
    It’s hard to imagine any teaching more pertinent to contemporary Catholic life in the midst of worldwide recession, financial crisis, rampant secularism and materialism and frequent personal emptiness.
    It’s a shame it couldn’t be required reading and study for Congress before the renewed consideration of health care reform and a score of other issues. The same would be true for state legislatures.
    “Caritas in Veritate” is not a political document in the sense the pope is attempting to shore up anyone’s political agenda. He is not. Nor does he focus on specific systems of economics.
    Rather, his is a penetrating analysis of moral issues and the theological foundation of culture but within the context of the present global economic crisis.
    He certainly builds on the solid foundation of papal social encyclicals from Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” (“On capital and labor”) to Paul VI’s “Populorum Progressio” (“the Progress of Peoples” — an entire chapter is devoted to this) to John Paul II’s “Centessimus Annus,” (“The Hundredth Year”) documents from Vatican II and a plethora of other sources.
    He calls us to be just and moral persons for only then can we build just and moral systems including, for example, health care systems.
    It would be brainless on my part to try to review this entire encyclical in this column. It rather lends itself to a three to six week study/discussion format to begin to do it justice.
    In addition to being pope, Benedict XVI is a serious theologian and profound thinker apart from his magesterium position. I will thus simply point out, by adopting for the most part a succinct review by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), seven component points of     Catholic social teaching touched on by the encyclical with excerpts from it with paragraph notations.
    Hopefully this will lead you deeper into the encyclical’s treatment of topics including charity, truth, economic development, technology and human development.
On sacredness, dignity of human person
    A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. (15)
On rights, responsibilities
    Individual rights, when detached from a framework of duties which grants them their full meaning, can run wild, leading to an escalation of demands which is effectively unlimited and indiscriminate.... Duties thereby reinforce rights and call for their defense and promotion as a task to be undertaken in the service of the common good. (43)
On common good
    Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good.... It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their goods within it. To desire the “common good” and strive towards it “is a requirement of justice and charity.” (57)
On subsidiarity
    A particular manifestation of charity and a guiding criterion for fraternal cooperation between believers and non-believers is undoubtedly the “principle of subsidiarity,” an expression of inalienable human freedom.
    Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person.... Such assistance is offered when individuals or groups are unable to accomplish something on their own, and it is always designed to achieve their emancipation, because it fosters freedom and participation through assumption of responsibility.
    Subsidiarity respects personal dignity by recognizing in the person a subject who is always capable of giving something to others. (57)
On solidarity, one human family
    The development of peoples depends, above all, on a recognition the human race is a single family working together in true communion, not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side by side. (53)
On option for poor
    Hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man’s table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI. “Feed the hungry” (cf. Mt. 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal church, as she responds to the teachings of her founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods. Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet. (27)
On environmental stewardship
    Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from “our relationship to the natural environment.” The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. (48)
    These excerpts on points from Catholic social teaching merely skim the surface of this remarkable document in the short space allotted me and certainly do not do it justice in breath or scope.
    I hope the column somehow strikes a chord enough to encourage you to read what the pope is saying to us in an extraordinary and thought provoking way. Our times certainly need us not only to read “Catitas in Veritate” but also to act upon it.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

‘Catholic position on health care necessary’
By George Evans
July 24, 2009
    What are we as a nation going to do about our health care system? At this writing it’s still up in the air. Most everyone I talk to or read agrees the present system has significant problems.
    With more than 46 million Americans uninsured and the number increasing daily with more persons unemployed and more employers unable to provide coverage for their employees, we are at the crisis point.
    With the primary or only care available for the uninsured being the hospital emergency department (the most expensive primary care in the system) the problem of cost is exacerbated and spread among all of us.     The uninsured historically wait until a minor illness has become a serious illness before seeking care further burdening the system.
    An early primary care intervention, such as antibiotic therapy, if available, could perhaps prevent an extremely costly and uncompensated ICU (intensive care unit) admission later through the emergency department for pneumonia.
    Some think the system is absolutely broken, can’t be repaired and needs to be thrown out and recreated from scratch. The new creation could range all the way from a governmental single payer system resembling Medicare for everyone to a fine tuning of the present system to reward cost containment and measurable quality improvement tied to results not procedures.
    If you are following the debate in Washington you know if anything passes in this Congress, it will probably be some kind of combination program that covers those currently uninsured, allows those satisfied with what they have to keep it and some payment system that attempts to reward providers financially for quality outcomes rather than the number of procedures.
    Obviously there would be further governmental involvement, particularly on behalf of the currently uninsured, which will also obviously have to be paid for by some kind of sharing of the cost among providers, employers, insurers, insureds and possibly the currently uninsured on some kind of sliding scale basis.
    The myriad possibilities of which changes are best, if any, and how to afford them boggles the mind. Hopefully, if legislation emerges, the best Washington has to offer will come to bear on the product not some slip shod patch work political product to appease the warring factions for the sake of simply getting a health care bill.
    Is there a Catholic position on any of this? The bishops have frequently spoken of the rights of all people to access to health care based on their dignity as human beings similar to the right to education.
    The Catholic Health Association (CHA), which includes 60 Catholic health care systems that, on average, admit one in six patients nationwide each year, is working with all the interested parties on health care reform and indicates “they will push for measures that will sustain principles of human dignity and justice, and extend coverage to the nation’s poor and vulnerable.”
    CHA is not supporting a particular legislative model but “will evaluate each alternative in terms of its potential to deliver cost-effective, quality care to everyone who needs it.”
Catholic Charities USA is partnering with the Catholic Health Association “to amplify our collective voice to let Congress know health care reform cannot wait.
    Health care is a central component of Catholic Charities USA’s work to reduce poverty in America. It has adopted the Catholic Health Association’s Vision for U.S. Health Care with the following principles for reforming the health care system:
    — Available and accessible to everyone, paying special attention to the poor and vulnerable;
    — Health and prevention oriented, with the goal of enhancing the health status of communities;
    — Sufficiently and fairly financed;
    — Transparent and consensus-driven, in allocation of resources, and organized for cost-effective care and administration;
    — Patient centered, and designed to address and protect health needs at all stages of life, from conception to natural death; and
    — Safe, effective and designed to deliver the greatest possible quality.
    It seems to me then there is a Catholic position that health care reform is necessary and that, among other things, the poor and vulnerable must be accounted for in that reform.
    As in most things the devil is in the details and neither the bishops, the Catholic Health Association or Catholic Charities USA present the details but rather offer principles that the details should capture.
    We should all contact our senators and representatives to urge them to adopt a plan that incorporates those principles with the most reasonable funding possible.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

‘So half truths, gossip, innuendo reign supreme’
By George Evans
June 26, 2009
     Recently my wife, Carol, and I rented the movie “Doubt.” We had missed it during its short run in the Jackson area movie houses (not unusual for a movie of its type). I was not enthralled with the idea of watching it but settled in for an engaging and fulfilling evening of great entertainment and thought provoking doubt.
     The acting was superb and the story and touch brought to the production was beguiling and seductive in the best sense of the word. The question of doubt about the possibility of pedophilia by the priest of the story vs. the motive and character of the rigid if not plain mean nun of the story captivated this old cradle Catholic who lived through the time in question.
     One of the issues raised in the movie continues to be germane today. The priest, feeling very wronged by the accusations and rumors spread by the nun, preaches a homily capturing the damage done by gossip, innuendo, and half truths.
     He tells the story of a lady who takes a feather pillow to the roof top of the building in which she lives and cuts it with a sharp knife so that the innumerable feathers float wide and far throughout the town blown hither and thither by the wind in all directions. There is no way the feathers could ever be collected.
So likewise with gossip, innuendo and half truths. Once set in motion and spread about there is no way the adverse effects can ever be undone.
     I had heard this story in sermons (before we had homilies) on several occasions as a youngster growing up in Vicksburg preached with a great Irish brogue and then reemphasized by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in religion classes.
It scared me because the sin could not be repaired, the gossip could not be fixed because like the feathers you could not know or find everyone that had been reached. And you had to make reparation for your sins, and that was why this was so scary because I knew I could never make reparation.
     To his day I try to hedge gossip or half truths because unleashed, I know it can never be fully undone.
     How does this apply to our contemporary world of electronic communication? I think the greatest evil with the internet today is the fact that most users have never heard this sermon or one like it or if heard it has never registered.
     And the same is true with the talking head news programs and the news media in general. Unless there is an attack, whether founded or unfounded, we don’t seem to be satisfied. Even civility seems to have become suspect as weakness. To allow the other opinion to be expressed without interruption is almost unheard of.
     So half truths, gossip and innuendo reign supreme. There is little or no effort to find common ground so that progress can be made to solve problems. Just as in “Doubt” there seems to be no real attempt to communicate, to seek common ground.
     It doesn’t matter which side of the political spectrum you are on. On any given night, Fox News and MSNBC go at one another and anyone they don’t agree with like two pit bulls not fed for a week. Ratings seem to trump everything else.
     The discussions in our church between “liberals” and “conservatives” is almost as bad, and the Catholic “stuff” on the Internet frequently makes me want to cry due to its mean spirited and vulgar characterizations of the positions of the other side and the gossip and half truths about the presenters of those positions on the other side.
     Once the feathers of disdain and distrust are floated about for long enough, it truly becomes difficult if not impossible to gather them back into a pillow of care and concern for the good of all as called for in the Gospel and by our church if we will just listen.
     The same ugliness pervades not only the halls of Congress on both sides of the isle but also the Legislature of Mississippi where at the time of this writing we still don’t have a budget and as a result people are scared to death about their jobs, their health care and their financial security.
     The feathers of gossip, innuendo and half truths about Medicaid funding, stimulus money and surpluses have already necessitated the call of a special session to the financial detriment of us all.
     As is true in so many cases, Scripture again give us the best answer to these problems. As quoted in the United States “Catechism of the Catholic Church” for adults at page 434; “Always be ready to give an explanation (of your faith) to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence” (1Pt 3:15-16).
     What if we gave our reasons for our positions with gentleness and reverence instead of rancor and half truths. We might even convince the other side occasionally. We certainly wouldn’t have the feather problem depicted in the sermon in “Doubt.”
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

‘Is silence golden or plain yellow?’
By George Evans
May 29, 2009
     During a recent meeting at St. Richard, one of the staff members brought up a quote she had seen on a church sign and shared it with us. The quote struck me like a sledge hammer and captures in a concise sentence so much I, and I am sure many of you, struggle with in trying to live out the gospel message and the teachings of our church, particularly in the area of social justice. “SOMETIMES SILENCE IS GOLDEN AND SOMETIMES IT’S JUST PLAIN YELLOW.”
    When to speak out and when to shut up can be perplexing. This is particularly true when one is in a position of authority or respect such as a minister, teacher, doctor or political leader. Prudence often dictates silence when emotions run high and saying most anything will only add fuel to the fire raging all about.
    Silence may be golden in such a situation and allow the fire to burn out of its own accord and create an atmosphere where thoughtful comment has a better chance of being appreciated for its worth and not deprecated for its having been said.
On the other hand, there are times and situations when silence is just plain yellow and the consequences are disastrous. To paraphrase the famous quote of anti-Nazi pastor Martin Neimoller:
    First the Nazis came for the Jews, but I wasn’t Jewish so I remained silent. Then they came for the Communists, but I wasn’t a Communist so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I wasn’t a trade unionist so I remained silent. Then they came for the Roman Catholics, but I was a Protestant so I said nothing ... then they came for the Protestant clergy, and there was no one left to speak out.
    In retrospect at least the silence in face of the Nazi onslaught is a classic example of “plain yellow” versus “golden.” How could they sit by and not say anything is the question frequently asked. How could a Christian nation, half Catholic, be so yellow?
    Even the pope of the time, Pius XII, has been vilified by some for not condemning the Nazi menace directly and unequivocally and yet lauded by others for quiet behind the scenes work saving significant numbers of Jews. Was his silence golden or plain yellow. You can certainly find support in the literature for either position.
    Nearer to home and closer in time was the reaction of “good” Christians and “good” Catholics to the events during the Civil Rights struggle.
    Many churchmen remained silent to protect themselves and their churches from the social ostracism which was sure to follow any forthright protest against the segregated system espoused, frequently religiously, by the mainstream thought of the day.
    The blatant violence and even lynchings were met by silence for the most part by the “good” people of the day for years on end.
    Speaking out against the evils of segregation and racism had its price which frequently included a bloody head and a stint in jail or rejection for you and your children by those who were your friends. Was silence then prudent and golden or plain yellow?
    What about today? The litany of social concerns, which by gospel values are moral concerns, is long and complex. Do we remain silent or do we confront the evils of our day — abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, death penalty, sexual abuse by priest or parent, torture, lousy education to the detriment of children, lousy criminal justice system to the detriment of the poor, diminishing or absent health care to the detriment of everyone, unregulated capitalism to the detriment of the common good, nuclear peril, environmental meltdown. And the list could go on and on.
    And if we speak to some issues and ignore the others, have we been golden or yellow? If we complain and even curse the evil, but fail to speak out in our churches, legislatures (both state and federal) and to and with our children are we golden or yellow?
    If we are exclusive and not inclusive as was the Jesus of the Gospels are we golden or yellow? We have to answer these questions with honesty and humility. The answers may cause us some pain.
    The Lectionary readings of the last weeks since Easter have frequently described St. Paul’s sufferings and travail because of his faithfulness to the Gospel. We should expect nothing less. IS SILENCE GOLDEN OR PLAIN YELLOW? SOMETIMES IT’S EVEN BLOOD RED.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Pause, reflect before slashing out
By George Evans
April 24, 2009
     As a lawyer for 36 years before assuming my position as pastoral minister at St. Richard, I heard more than my fair share of “lawyer jokes” depicting the worse in the profession. Most centered around greed, grandiloquence, and more greed.
Some were trite. Some were funny. Some were just plain ugly. Some recent events have added substance to the jokes considering the indictments and jail sentences involving lawyers and others.
    As I have been able to reinvigorate my previous theological training during my two and a half years in my new position, I have reflected on not only the shortcomings in my prior profession but also on the many honorable, honest and hard working lawyers who do serve many people in times of great need and often for modest fees or salaries.
    Like with most things in life there are bad and good lawyers as well as doctors, teachers, secretaries, plumbers, and even priests.
    The first reading in the Lectionary for April 24 (Acts 5: 34-42) is a great example of a lawyer’s wisdom at its best. The apostles had been boldly preaching the risen Lord and working wonders of all kinds.
    People were responding favorably so the apostles were brought in and admonished and threatened by the Sanhedrin to stop preaching. The threats were ignored and the preaching continued. The apostles were again brought in before the Sanhedrin and the high priest castigated them for disobeying the previous admonitions.
Peter boldly proclaims, “We must obey God rather than men” and preaches to them a short kerygmatic homily about Jesus having been crucified and raised from the dead. (Acts 5:29-32)
    As you might imagine considering everything that had recently occurred, the Sanhedrin “became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.” (Acts 5:33)
Enter Gamaliel, “a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin, a teacher of the law respected by all the people” (Acts 5:34) and he defuses the situation with great wisdom. Gamaliel says stop and think for a minute, don’t act too quickly.
    Remember the various people who have appeared, including Theudas and Judas the Galilean, claiming to be somebody important with large numbers of followers. But after they perished their followers scattered and nothing more came of them.
    So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. They were persuaded by him. (Acts 5:38-39)
    Gamaliel makes a brilliant closing argument full of wisdom. You are all excited and mad and want to crack heads. But if these guys are of God, you want to stop them whatever you do. If they are not then they will die out on their own because there will be nothing to sustain them.
    We frequently face the same situation. If we are faithful to the Gospel nothing can snuff out our impact in our families, at work, in our communities. If we fudge on the Gospel, then we will die quietly away and melt gently into our secular society with ease and without confrontation.
    Gamaliel, perhaps we should call him the “good lawyer” of the Acts of the Apostles teaches us the wisdom of stepping back at times and allowing God to work in us and in those around us even though our first instinct may be to lash out and even put them to death as was the case with the Sanhedrin.
    Is not Gamaliel in this instance a Jesus follower evidencing inclusion rather than exclusion, an adherent of letting the Spirit work if it really is the Spirit at work as was and is the case with many saints, and a wise man to the rescue as was Jesus with the woman taken in adultery?
    Perhaps his wisdom beckons to us in our time of stridency and attack dog mentality. Perhaps we should pause and reflect a moment before slashing out. At the very least, perhaps we can remember his wisdom the next time we hear a really bad lawyer joke.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

‘Somehow he loves us up Calvary hill’
By George Evans
April 3, 2009
     In the frenetic world in which we live, is it not a blessing to have a reprieve from the busyness, anxiety and sheer stress of our daily lives to drink deeply from the ancient pageantry our liturgy sets before us in Holy
Week.
    Jesus had spent time preparing his disciples about his need to go to Jerusalem. Frequently, when he talked of his fate — suffering, death and Resurrection — they weren’t sure they wanted him to go there and I suppose they weren’t sure they really wanted to go with him, but they went as we must go.
    Perhaps some, despite everything he had taught them, still felt that maybe finally he was going to Jerusalem to manifest himself as the triumphant Messiah so many longed for.
And didn’t the week start off that way. He rode into town on a donkey, and the crowd responded as if it were St. Patrick’s Day in Jackson or Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Hosannas rang out.
    Can we not, and have we not many times, imagined ourselves riding in with him to the tumultuos greeting of the crowd. And the pageantry continues with the preparation for celebrating the feast recalling their ancient delivery from slavery and foretelling our ultimate delivery from sin and busyness and anxiety and stress.
    Next we are focused on the upper room, a special place just for those truly close to one another like a 25th or 50th wedding anniversary party in a private room at a favorite restaurant with family and closest friends.
    Intimacy is the setting and expectancy is the mood. There is food and drink and devastating love. And, remarkably, he washes their feet and explains to them he has given them “a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 14:15)
    And he gives them his ultimate gift and us as well, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:24) The pageant then continues with its dark side as Judas (whatever he was thinking) takes the dipped morsel from Jesus and leaves at once to do his dirty business. (Jn 14:30)
    From the upper room we go to the garden and we see Jesus suffer the agony of deep human fear and foreboding of what is about to happen and the crushing abandonment of those closest to him who could not watch and pray with him.
    Perhaps we experience how many times we have abandoned him and left him alone.     And he gets arrested like a common criminal and is dragged around and mistreated by crude and miserable soldiers, a “bored with it all” Pilate and a cunning and manipulating group of religious leaders be they priests, elders, scribes — the whole Sanhedrin. His truth and openess had frightened them and now was their turn. Perhaps we remember when we have gotten our pound of flesh.
    And then he is tortured, scourged, beaten and abused with a crown. He loses his last chance at dignity when Barabbas, a true outlaw, is chosen over him for freedom. He has gone from abandonment to rejection and now must carry a physical cross as well.
    Somehow he loves us up Calvary hill to hang on a cross until his lungs simply cannot function and he gives himself totally back to the Father. But first he teaches us one last time, in his love for the good thief and his cry to his Father for forgiveness of those who had tortured and crucified him, how we must love and forgive.
    At once he gives us hope for our sinful selves and scares us at the same time with a demand for total forgiveness which challenges everything in our culture.
    The women at the cross (apparently all the men had been frightened away) take charge and later with the help of Joseph of Arimathea have him laid in a tomb. Sadness covers them all and each of us as the pageant continues. Our hope is gone and we had not done enough to save him and so we are miserable and unhappy until Sunday morning.
    But just as we had ridden in with him on Palm Sunday, we now walk with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Mt 28: 1) to the tomb and he was not there “for he has been raised just as he said.” (Mt 28: 6)
    And so we run with Mary to tell the others and all are so scared and confused that it takes the Lord himself to come to them for them to believe. And until we truly meet him is it not the same for us? Until we surrender to his pursuit of us and join him in embracing the Father’s will, are we not still scared and confused and anxious and stressed?
    But we have the assurance of the Resurrection. So with the Apostle Paul we know we are not the worst of fools. If the tomb had not been empty, what a mess.
    The pageantry of our liturgy thus brings us home renewed to take on our frenetic world on Easter Monday with new energy and strength grounded in the
remarkable events of Holy Week. We tremble a little with the enormity of the task but we take comfort in the realization that it is he who moves in us if we let him and it is he who takes our hand and leads us to touch all those who need our touch, whomever or wherever they may be.
HAPPY HOLY WEEK.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Fight for justice while proceeding in love
By George Evans
February 27, 2009
     It is hard for me to believe this is the 20th article in this series on Catholic social teaching. I finish this series appropriately with some reflections on the magnificent first encyclical of our present pope, Benedict XVI.
    It has been a relatively short journey from the scriptural basis of Catholic social teaching beginning with Gn 1:27 “God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” through the care shown by God for the poor in Exodus and Leviticus requiring his people to leave the edges of the fields for the poor and the alien, through the challenges of the prophets with their mantra “The quality of faith is judged by the quality of justice in the land which is judged by how the poor and vulnerable are faring” and Micah’s priceless proclamation “You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Mi 6:8)
    Then we wove our way through the New Testament beginning with Jesus’ inaugural address in Lk 4:18-19 when he defined his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
    We traced Jesus’ ministry of compassion to all the have-nots of his day and time and realized one out of 10 verses in the synoptic Gospels and one out of seven in Luke address the theme of the rich and the poor.
    And we concluded our New Testament scriptural basis for Catholic social teaching with the definitive teaching of Jesus about salvation itself:
    Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. (Mt 25:34-36)
    Having toured the scriptural foundation for Catholic social teaching, we next turned to the “modern” social encyclicals beginning with the monumental “Rerum Novarum” of Pope Leo XIII in which he addressed the new problems in society brought about by the industrial revolution and the forces of capital and labor which it produced.
    Leo confronted the abuses of both unregulated capitalism and communism, supported the rights of laborers to unionize and faced squarely problems still facing us today about the just distribution of wealth to serve the common good and the concept of a just wage.
    “Rerum Novarum” had an enormous impact on the development of both secular and ecclesial society and was followed by a series of social encyclicals which addressed the particular problems of their times and have in fact formed what has come to be known as Catholic social teaching.
    We cannot review all of the encyclicals discussed in previous articles but suffice it to say that the following principles have come to be identified with them as Catholic social teaching:
    1. The innate dignity of the human person
    2. Preferential option for the poor and vulnerable.
    3. Family, community, and the common good.
    4. Rights and responsibilities.
    5. Dignity of work and economic justice.
    6. Global solidarity.
    7. Subsidiarity.
    8. Caring for God’s creation.
    9. Promotion of peace.
    These principles are woven throughout the great modern social encyclicals we have reviewed and for our purposes culminate in Pope Benedict’s beautiful “Deus Caritas Est” (“God is Love.”)
    Benedict reminds us the radical form of material communion in Acts where everything was shared in common could not be preserved as the church grew, “But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.” (Par. 20)
    He goes on to complete the circle in describing a complete Catholic:
    As the years went by and the church spread further afield, the exercise of charity became established as one of her essential activities, along with the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the word: love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. The church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the sacraments and the Word. (Par. 22)
    Though he leaves to politics “the just ordering of society” and does not impose on the church replacement of the state, “Yet at the same time she (church) cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.” (Par. 28)
    He finally reminds us, and do we not perhaps need this more now than ever, that “Love will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the state so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love.” (Par. 28)
    He reminds us then of our obligation to fight for justice while proceeding in a service of love. If we just did that would our world not be soon transformed. This truly would Complete the Circle.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

‘Gospel of Life’ address evil, sinfulness
By George Evans
January 30, 2009
     As we enter the home stretch in our consideration of major documents forming modern Catholic social teaching, we come face to face with Pope John Paul II’s “The Gospel of Life,” his comprehensive treatment of the subject from the standpoint of the sacredness of human life.
     In this major work (189 pages in the book version I have) JP II, as he is affectionately known, rallies against “the culture of death” and urges a “new culture of human life” that affirms the dignity and inviolability of all human life.
     He writes this in 1995 in response to a multitude of threats to life he considers to be rampant at the dawn of the third millennium, to give voice to several key themes of his papacy and to affirm the “Consistent Ethic of Life” developed by the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago.
     “The Gospel of Life” addresses the evil and sinfulness of myriad attacks on life in beautiful, passionate and compelling language we are not used to reading in papal encyclicals. The pope pours his soul as well as his enormous intellect into this document.      “In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale.”(#3)
In turning to the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” from Vatican II, he makes his own the following credo to life:
     Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed.
     They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practice them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator. (#27)
     In one long sentence the whole of Catholic social teaching is summarized. If we apply the contents of this sentence to our own private morality and then to the public policy of our country, I think we blanch on both fronts. Take the time to prayerfully reflect on each clause and see if you agree.
     John Paul II discusses the threats to life to include murder, war, genocide, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, unjust distribution of resources, scandalous arms trade, reckless tampering with the world’s ecological balance, the criminal spread of drugs, and the profound crisis of culture. (#s10-11).
     For the first time, to my knowledge, in a papal encyclical he condemns the use of the death penalty “except in cases of absolute necessity”: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent. (#56)
     Pope John Paul II, though directly confronting the evils of the culture of death we have reviewed in summary fashion, brings his most passionate condemnation to bear on the taking of innocent life particularly of the unborn and of those two young or too old or incompetent to defend themselves.
     The absolute inviolability of innocent human life is a moral truth clearly taught by sacred Scripture, constantly upheld in the church’s tradition and consistently proposed by her Magisterium.... Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors and in communion with the bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always greatly immoral. (#57)
This condemnation obviously applies to abortion but also to embryonic destruction and euthanasia. (#s 63, 64, 65)
     As Catholics we are called upon to uphold these fundamental principles of “The Gospel of Life.” Many will find some or all of this challenging as they will the teachings on poverty, torture, war, death penalty and the other issues we have touched on from “The Gospel of Life.”
     Yet we are called to nothing less. We can never under any circumstance take the life of the unborn nor can we ignore the well being of the child once born. We can never directly take the life of the elderly, nor can we ignore them in their suffering or loneliness.
     Our bishops have recently specifically called upon us to oppose proposed federal legislation known as FOCA, the “Freedom of Choice Act.”
     The act would, in summary, do away with the limited restraints on abortion which have been enacted in many states such as parental involvement and conscience clauses protecting physician, nurses and hospitals and other restrictions which have been upheld under Roe vs. Wade.
     Please contact your representative and senators and ask them to oppose FOCA. It needs to be defeated pursuant to “The Gospel of Life.” Pray that it never sees the light of day at a time so many issues face the Congress and president. We must be prepared to oppose it if it does.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Work deserves our advocacy efforts
By George Evans
December 19 , 2008
     Christmas is just around the corner. Decorations have been up at least since Thanksgiving. “The Nutcracker” has been performed thousands of times and “A Christmas Carol” is dutifully making its holiday stand.
    But the economic news is still bad. Merchants complain about reduced spending while whole segments of the economy are being bailed out – banks, brokerage houses, automobile companies, mortgage companies and even insurance companies.
    “BUT,” unemployment continues to skyrocket, another 500,000 jobs lost in November alone. And now we are talking about not only the poor lo sing their jobs but the middle class also.
    We wait for a new administration and hope fresh bodies and minds can make a difference. Maybe a massive public works project on the scale of the interstate highway system, or perhaps, even several such projects can make a difference. We hope they can without indebting our children and grandchildren forever.
    We hope the auto industry can learn to be efficient and make attractive autos so the bleeding in jobs in that critical industry can be stopped.
    As Christians, and particularly as Catholics because of our Catholic social teachings, we ache with all who have suffered loss including ourselves. But we especially ache for those who have lost their jobs and those who have not had one in some time.
    It is difficult and heart breaking not to be able to buy children Christmas presents. It is devastating to lose a house to foreclosure and not be able to provide food for your family because you no longer have a job. This is the plight of thousands of Americans.
    Work is not only how one supports his/her family. Work has both spiritual and psychological impact. Pope John Paul II in an important encyclical writtern early in his papacy “Laborem Exercens” (“On Human Work”), on the 90th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum” (On Capital and Labor”), sets the framework of the importance of work in man’s life:
    The church finds in the very first pages of the Book of Genesis the source of her conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth. An analysis of these texts makes us aware they express – sometimes in an archaic way of manifesting thought – the fundamental truths about man, in the context of the mystery of creation itself....
    Man is the image of God partly through the mandate received from his Creator to subdue, to dominate, the earth. In carrying out this mandate, man, every human being, reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe. (Par. 4)
Pope John Paul II reflects on work within his review of and tribute to Pope Leo XIII’s     “Rerum Novarum” on its 90th anniversary. He affirms the dignity of work and places work at the center of the social question addressed by Leo XIII and developed in the social encylicals over the intervening 90 years and now clearly and succinctly further developed by him in the areas of just renumeration, the relationship of employer and employee, social benefits for workers, including
health care, pensions and work environment.
    But, he goes beyond this to specifically address the spirituality of work raising it to the level of sharing in the activity of creation and developing that activity:
    The word of God’s revelation is profoundly marked by the fundamental truth that man, created in the image of God, shares by his work in the activity of the Creator and that, within the limits of his own human capabilities, man in a sense continues to develop that activity, and perfects it as he advances further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in the whole of creation. (Par. 25)
Finally Pope John Paul II honors work by describing Christ as “the man of work” (Par. 26).     This was the carpenter of Nazareth who had an appreciation and respect for human work and who belonged to the “working world.” Pope John Paul II elevates work to participating in salvation itself.
    By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity.(Par. 27)
    So now as we near the celebration of the birth of him who has brought us hope and salvation we pray for and hope those now without work quickly find it again so both the financial, creative and spiritual aspects of it can be a reality in their lives and their families’ lives.
    And, importantly, that we do whatever we can to support those policies, both private and governmental, which return people to work as quickly and effectively as possible.
    If work is a value as we say it is, then it deserves our advocacy efforts to help it become a reality. If working is a participation in the salvation wrought by him whose birthday we celebrate – what a Christmas gift to give him by helping those without work to have it again or for the first time as the case may be.
    MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Life issues must be dealt with honestly
By George Evans
November 28, 2008
     As I write this, Thanksgiving is a week away and Advent is 10 days in the future.
We have just experienced a national election of incredible impact. A black man has been elected to the presidency to be inaugurated in January 2009. Proposition 8 passed in California doing away with same sex marriage and setting off an enormous protest.
    A counter protest is building as I write this column. Law suits have been filed and others are probably forthcoming. The economy is in free fall. Unemployment is skyrocketing and 401(k) funds are disappearing as if written in invisible ink. Socia l service agencies cry out for help as demands escalate and resources are threatened.
    President-elect Barack Obama faces enough problems for the next four presidents. Between wars, economic collapse, energy crises, environmental threats, educational morass, social/cultural/religious chasms and divisions and a health care mess, just to name some of the challenges, it will take all of his ability with the help of a lot of talented people from across this country and from every political persuasion to right the ship of state windblown in a turbulence few of us, if any, have ever experienced.
    There has got to be a good dose of good will and kindness and deprecation of self on behalf of the common good from all of us if we are to succeed in this moment of severe trial.
    This column has obviously departed from the basic format of the last year and a half where tenets of Catholic social teachings were examined from a scriptural and encyclical stand point. But, in fact, are not all of the insights hopefully gleaned in our prior considerations on point for the great task ahead of us as a nation?
    Isn’t it necessary for each of us to recognize the rights of others but also to accept our responsibilities as well as Leo XIII called for in “Rerum Novarum” (“On Capital and Labor”).
    Isn’t it obvious that a certain discipline is necessary, with an eye to the common good, in allocating the billions we are at this point simply throwing at the economy.
    Unless we are all served by the federal largess in the fairest way possible the cracks in the system will continue to widen and become more destructive and the divisions lamented in all the social encyclicals will further magnify.
    Unless the life issues are dealt with honestly, the social/cultural/religious fissures will increasingly plague other efforts. The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) has got to be tabled, hopefully, or defeated, if necessary, since the evidence on when life begins is irrefutable.     There is a person in the womb from the
beginning under any meaningful definition.
    Concomitantly, the other life issues such as education, health care, environment, child welfare must be embraced by those who are pro-life in order to maintain credibility. Unless there is the seamless garment of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Pope John Paul II, respecting life and all it means from womb to tomb, we will be condemned to meaningless harangues and name calling.
    So what’s left for us to be thankful for or hopeful for as we approach Thanksgiving and Advent? We still have the Lord’s promise that he will be with us all days till the end of the earth.
    We still live in the greatest country on earth even with all of its problems. We are basically safe and secure and still have Social Security even though our 401(k)s may have taken a beating.
    We have the incredible ability as a nation to elect a black man with his strengths and weaknesses and regardless of whether or not you were a supporter, to the most powerful office in the world less than 50 years after the existence of total and complete segregation and discrimination in our beloved South. That is something.
    We have the American spirit which, at its best, has no peer. We have all of this for which to be thankful. As Catholics and Christians we also have the assurances of our church based on Scripture and tradition that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses is still our God and has sent his Son not only to save us from our own sin and folly but to give us a model as to how to live.
    We have the wonderful season of Advent to be filled with hope, not only for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas but for the coming of the Lord of history at the Parousia.
    As we sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” we also proclaim as in Revelation “Come Lord Jesus” That’s a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be hopeful about.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Liberate yourself by liberating others
By George Evans
October 31, 2008
     In our journey to Complete the Circle through prayer, sacrament and service, we have spent significant time looking first at the scriptural basis for what has come to be known as Modern Catholic Social Teaching beginning with the 1891 Encyclical, “Rerum Novarum.”
    We followed with a study of the social encyclicals which followed and in the last column considered Pope Paul VI’s apostolic letter, “A Call to Action,” which was directed specifically to the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace instead of the whole church as were all the encyclicals.
    Today the development of Catholic Social Teaching takes the form of a statement of the Synod of Bishops issued in 1971 and entitled “Justice in the World.” It is of particular importance since it is the first major example of post-Vatican II episcopal collegiality and reflects a forceful, concrete, and realistic refinement of previous papal pronouncements.
Vatican II in its dogmatic “Constitution on the Church” stressed the need for more collegiality and six years after the council the synod was convoked to continue Pope Paul     VI’s burning interest in the subject of justice in the world.
Bishops from around the world gathered in Rome to reflect on the topic picked by Pope Paul VI: “the mission of the People of God to further justice in the world.”
    The document produced reflects the pope’s particular interest in justice (“If you want Peace, work for Justice”) and his keen interest in the church in the “developing nations.”
    The document further illustrates the powerful influence of native leadership of the churches of Africa, Asia, and Latin America who had taken their collegial seats in a new and more prominent way.
    The synod concludes its introduction after scrutinizing the “signs of the times” as called for by Pope John XXIII as follows:
    Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation. (Par. 6)
    The bishops speak directly to the paradox of the enormous technological and communication forces working toward a unified world society on the one hand and on the other “the forces of division and antagonism seem today to be increasing in strength.” (Par. 9)
    The bishops lament the arms race, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small public or private controlling group, and the failure of economic growth to reach underdeveloped areas and pockets of poverty in wealthier areas.
    “These stifling oppressions constantly give rise to great numbers of ‘marginal’ persons, ill-fed, inhumanly housed, illiterate and deprived of political power as well as of the suitable means of acquiring responsibility and moral dignity.”(Par. 10)
    The bishops call us to “be prepared to take on new functions and new duties in every sector of human activity and especially in the sector of world society, if justice is really to be put into practice.(Par. 20)
    Some examples cited for attention are mistreatment of migrants, persecution of refugees, oppression of the rights of individuals, torture of political prisoners, abortion and other attacks on life.
    THE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING REALIZATION IS THAT THE EXACT SAME LITANY OF SINS AGAINST JUSTICE REMAIN UNABATED TODAY 37 YEARS AFTER THE BISHOPS’ PLEA.
    The bishops remind us “in the Old Testament God reveals himself to us as the liberator of the oppressed and the defender of the poor, demanding from people faith in him and justice towards one’s neighbor. (Par. 30)
    Further, they remind us “Christ lived his life in the world as a total giving of himself to God for the salvation and liberation of people. In his preaching he proclaimed the fatherhood of God towards all people and the intervention of God’s justice on behalf of the needy and the oppressed. (Par. 31)
    When will the time ever be right for us to embrace what the bishops and the Scriptures call us to do. Is it not now? We have federal and state elections in a few days. We have the state Legislature back in town in two months. We have “Why Catholic” going on in many parishes in the diocese.
    We have the increasing demands of expanding poverty exacerbated by the financial disasters of the last weeks. NOW IS THE TIME for us finally to join in the liberation of the poor and oppressed and experience the liberation of ourselves found only in liberating others.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Laity need to act in social, political arena, popes say
By George Evans
September 26 , 2008
     Pope Paul VI turns from the international development emphasis on which he focused in his 1967 encyclical, “The Development of Peoples” (“Populorum Progressio”), as discussed in the last column, to a direct call to each Christian to do his/her part in the renewal of the temporal order. He does this in his 1971 Apostolic Letter, “A Call to Action” (“Octogesima Adveniens”).
    In this series on Catholic social teachings, this is the first Roman document discussed which is not an encyclical addressed to the whole church and the world but rather, on its face, addressed to a particular person.
    In this case the addressee is Cardinal Maurice Roy, president of the Council of the Laity and of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace on the 80th anniversary of the encyclical. “On the Condition of the Working Class” (“Rerum Novarun”). Nonetheless, “A Call to Action” is meant for all of us and is an important addition to the growing body of formal Catholic social teachings forming the progeny of “Rerum Novarum.”
    The letter is both a celebration of the 80th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum” and a call to Cardinal Roy as the head of a new pontifical commission established only recently by Pope Paul VI to stress again the need of the laity to act in the social and political arena.
    It is to all Christians that we address a fresh and insistent CALL TO ACTION. If the role of the hierarchy is to teach and to interpret authentically the norms of morality to be followed in this matter, it belongs to the LAITY, without waiting passively for orders and directives, to take the initiatives freely and to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the community in which they live....
    It is not enough to recall principles, state intentions, point to crying injustice and utter prophetic denunciations; these words will lack real weight unless they are accompanied for each individual by a livelier awareness of personal responsibility and by EFFECTIVE ACTION. (Par. 48)
    Paul VI specifically adds politics and political action to the agenda of the social encyclicals. In our election year this message is in lock step with the American bishops call for Faithful Citizenship.
    It is not permissible to sit on the sidelines despite how difficult some decisions may be. We are called to observe, judge and act as emphasized over and over in Catholic social teachings. Paul VI puts it this way in “A Call to Action”:
    To take politics seriously at its different levels – local, regional, national and worldwide – is to affirm the duty of man, of every man, to recognize the concrete reality and the value of the freedom of choice that is offered to him to seek to bring about both the good of the city and of the nation and of mankind. (Par. 46)
    If politics and economics are so important that popes write encyclicals and apostolic letters repeatedly to urge involvement, it behooves us to heed this CALL TO ACTION. We must register to vote if we have not already done so. We must vote based on knowledge of the candidates and an informed conscience.
    And then, for the hardest part, we must hold those elected accountable by a focused and well planned advocacy position based on the social teachings of our church and the Scriptures and tradition on which they are based.
    It does no good to vote, even if our candidate wins, and then ignore what happens until the next campaign begins in four years. We cannot bring about the good of the city, the nation and mankind as challenged to do by Pope Paul VI and in different words by our American bishops in their current plea in “Faithful Citizenship” unless we are willing to advocate for those things which our church teaches and Jesus epitomized.
    Paul VI reminds us of a good place to start to make sure we are headed in the right direction: “It is too easy to throw back on others responsibility for injustice, if at the same time one does not realize how each one shares in it personally, and how personal conversion is needed first.”
    In light of what has happened in our own country and in the world in the last several weeks concerning financial markets and potential cataclysmic events for the lives of ordinary people, our church's call to action is more urgent than ever.
And it’s a call that reminds us that the immigrant (Par. 17), the environment (Par. 21), workers (Par. 14) and the poor, handicapped, maladjusted and those on the fringe of society (Par. 15) cannot be left behind.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Peace depends upon justice everywhere
By George Evans
August 22 , 2008
     When Pope Paul VI wrote his encyclical, “Populorum Progressio” (“The Development of Peoples”) in 1967, Vatican Council II had only recently ended and the enormously important “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” was still filtering down through the ranks of clergy and lay persons with its message continuing the development of Catholic social teachings from the days of Leo XIII and “Rerum Novarum.”
     If the mantra of “The Church in the Modern World” could be “Have I made myself a neighbor to every person without exception?” as I suggested in the last column, then perhaps the mantra of “The Development of Peoples” could be “Have rich nations made themselves neighbor and friend of poor nations?”
     Paul VI takes Catholic social teachings from the treatment of the struggle between rich and poor classes as first targeted by Leo XIII to encompass the conflict between rich and poor nations.
    “The Development of Peoples” is the first encyclical devoted entirely to the international development issue. Paul VI was the first pope to visit Latin America and Africa before becoming pope and after election traveled to Palestine and India and the United States to address the United Nations.
     He witnessed and sensed the disparities between the rich and poor nations as new nations were birthed on the remains of colonial collapse. He speaks to the challenge of development:
     Extreme disparity between nations in economic, social and educational levels provokes jealousy and discord, often putting peace in jeopardy.... Our charity toward the poor, of whom there are countless numbers in the world has to become more solicitous, more effective, more generous....
     For peace is not simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day toward the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men. (Par. 76)
     Pope Paul VI castigates both individuals and nations for avarice and finds avarice to be the most blatant form of moral underdevelopment.
     Neither individuals nor nations should regard the possession of more and more goods as the ultimate objective. When this happens, men harden their hearts, shut out others from their minds and gather together solely for reasons of self interest rather than out of friendship; dissension and disunity follow soon after. (Par. 19)
     Have we in our time not seen this domestically and internationally. Were not the savagery of Hitler’s Nazism and Stalin’s Communism and their ultimate failure not related to a misplaced exclusive self interest to the detriment of the common good and no sense “of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men.”
     As the disparity between rich and poor in America continues to escalate precipitously, do we not risk this same ” most blatant form of moral underdevelopment” as our avarice and self interest drives our every political decision both at the state and the federal level.
    “Are you better off now than four years ago?” is not the question that Catholics in touch with our social tradition should ask. I would think Pope Paul VI and Pope John XXIII would rather ask this question: Have we made progress toward the goal expressed in Par. 4 in    “The Church in the Modern World” and quoted in Par. 20 in “On the Development of Peoples”:
     God intended the earth and everything in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should flow fairly to all.
     Until our society is redeemed, or, better said, until we accept our redemption, the tireless diatribe of this election cycle will continue unabated. Until we acknowledge the simple fact from Genesis that we are our brother’s keeper and accept the teaching of Pope Paul VI in “On the Development of Peoples” that “No one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life” can we hope for anything better.
     Politicians tell us what they think we want to hear in order to get us to vote for them. I submit to you they appeal to our selfish interest because that’s what the polls tell them we want to hear.
     In a Christian nation that is not what the Gospels say they should think. For us Catholics it’s not what our church and our Catholic social teachings say either. As Pope Paul VI reminds us: “If you want peace, work for justice.”
     What would the political discussion be if we all let the candidates know we want peace everywhere based on justice everywhere instead of small concessions to our own self interests.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

If need is human, we cannot ignore it
By George Evans
July 11 , 2008
     When I read the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (“Gaudium et Spes,”) in 1965 shortly after it was promulgated, I remember my spirit soaring. This was the final document promulgated by the Second Vatican Council.
It engendered in me and countless other lay men and lay women, as well as priests and religious, a hopefulness and exuberance that built upon the joy and excitement that had first filled me and millions two years earlier in 1963 with the first Vatican II document, the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.”
    What an opening and closing. As a devoted Atlanta Braves fan it was like having Greg Maddux start and John Smoltz close while both were in their prime.
    A revised, holy, meaningful and participatory liturgy in my own language and an ecumenical council document with a pastoral rather than dogmatic tone addressed by 2,300 bishops to the world and formally promulgated by Pope Paul VI.
    Short of “de fide” proclamations, which are extremely rare and usually addressed to a narrow doctrinal point, such as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a teaching by an ecumenical council promulgated by the pope, commands the highest respect among us and demands the greatest adherence from those of us who claim to be Catholics.
    The excitement of the council from the front page coverage of The New York Times to the weekly coverage in the Catholic press of all persuasions, culminated with a bang with the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.” But other hugely important documents and teachings fell between the two mammoth book ends.
    Many consider the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” to be the single most important document of Vatican II because of its emphasis on the church as the People of God, on the collegiality between pope and bishops, on the church as sacrament, on the laity and the related common priesthood of the faithful and on the universal call of all to holiness.
    This in no way deprecating the hierarchical nature of the church, the value and witness of the religious life and the important role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the economy of salvation.
    Likewise, the impact of the “Decree on Ecumenism” in energizing a new and vibrant ecumenical movement and the “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation” “in further promoting the serious reading and studying of Scripture by Catholics, both lay and clerical, were signal contributions of Vatican II of enormous and enduring importance. But in so far as Catholic social teaching is concerned, the council’s singular contribution is the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.”
    Because it emanates from an ecumenical council, many consider this the single most important document in the church’s social tradition even when considering the many excellent papal encyclicals. Its opening sentences capture the enormous reach of the church’s concern for the modern world and in language imbued with pastoral sensitivity worthy of gospel teaching.
    The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.
    In the clearest, almost poetic, language we are called to embrace and engage the world and all those in it, especially the poor and afflicted. Because we are Christ’s followers the concerns of others are by necessity our concerns.
    Our duty is not conditioned on anything. We are not free to pick and choose which concerns we think worthy. If they are human concerns, then they are our concerns whether we want them to be or not. It matters not if the question involves the need for housing, food, clothing, education, health care, employment, kindness or love.
    If the need is human, our church tells us, faithful to the gospel message, those needs are our needs. We do not have the luxury, if we are Catholic, to ignore them.
    The document reminds us, as did Pope John XXIII, that as church we have the duty to scrutinize the signs of the times and to interpret them in the light of the Gospel. (Par.4).     And having so scrutinized we must then act.
    In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception, and of actively helping him when he comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by all, a foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child born of an unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not commit, or a hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the voice of the Lord, “As long as you did it for one of these the least of my brethren, you did it for me.” (Mt 25:40)(Par 27)
    What a paragraph for an examination of conscience. The mantra could be: “Have I made myself a neighbor to every person without exception?” and the particulars could follow from that depending on whatever familial, social or political contact we had during the day. I think it would bring me to my knees daily in awe.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Do we pick, choose among papal teachings?
By George Evans
April 25, 2008
     As I write this article, Pope Benedict XVI has landed in Washington and begun his five-day visit in the United States. My deadline does not allow me to comment on what he has to say to us as Americans.
     Based on his two encyclicals to date, I trust his words will be pastoral, scholarly and challenging. I know Pope John XXIII would be happy he has come to the United States to speak directly to its people.
     I say this because John XXIII followed “Mater et Magistra” (“Mother and Teacher”) just two years later with another blockbuster encyclical, “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace on Earth”), breaking with papal tradition to address “all people of good will” as well as ecclesiastical prelates and Catholic faithful, the normal addressees.
     The time is 1963, the first year of Vatican II. “Peace on Earth” is written soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world tested on the brink of nuclear disaster, and shortly after the Berlin Wall was erected in the summer of 1962, compounding Cold War tensions.
     Blessed Pope John wrote to a world aware of the dangers of nuclear war and brought to it a message with a tone of optimism and the development of a philosophy of rights, which made a significant impression on Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
     His message is that peace can only come about if the social order set down by God is fully observed and man can know this order by reason and the natural law tradition. “Peace will be an empty sounding word unless it is founded on the order which this present document has outlined in confident hope: an order founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom.” (Par 167)
     Pope John delineates the rights necessary to be acknowledged to include life, worthy standard of living, religion and conscience, right to work and a just and sufficient wage, private property, education, political rights and the right to emigrate and immigrate. (Par 11-27)
     Duties include the necessity to acknowledge and respect the rights of others, to collaborate mutually and to act for others responsibly (Par 30-39). “It is not enough, for example, to acknowledge and respect every man’s right to the means of subsistence if we do not strive to the best of our ability for a sufficient supply of what is necessary for his sustenance.” (Par 32)
     With striking resonance, 45 years later for our current world, Pope John states: First among the rules governing the relations between states is that of truth. This calls, above all, for the elimination of every trace of racism, and the consequent recognition of the principle that all states are by nature equal in dignities.
     “Each of them accordingly is vested with the right to existence, to self-development, to the means fitting to its attainment, and to be the one primarily responsible for this self-development. Add to that the right of each to its good name, to the respect which is its due. (Par 86)
     And, again with striking relevance for today, he writes about immigration and the common good, particularly as to political refugees: Now among the rights of a human person there must be included that by which a man may enter a political community where he hopes he can more fittingly provide a future for himself and his dependents. Wherefore, as far as the common good rightly understood permits, it is the duty of that state to accept such immigrants and to help to integrate them into itself as new members.
     Wherefore, on this occasion, we publicly approve and commend every undertaking, founded on the principles of human solidarity and Christian charity, which aims at making migration of persons from one country to another less painful. (Par 106-07)
     The pope urges the world, as an essential condition to build a peaceful planet, to respect the dignity of every man and the universal, inviolable and inalienable rights which stem from that dignity, and strongly endorses the United Nations in its efforts to accomplish that herculean task. (Par 142) This struggle continues today in a world torn asunder in too many places.
     Finally, he addresses the arms race, in full swing in 1963 and unabated today, and the deterrence argument, issuing a challenge, still directed to us today; “Justice, then, right reason, and consideration for human dignity and life urgently demand the arms race should cease; the stockpiles which exist in various countries should be reduced equally and simultaneously by the parties concerned; nuclear weapons should be banned; and finally all come to an agreement on a fitting program of disarmament, employing mutual and effective controls. (Par 112)
     Have we made any true progress in this regard in 45 years? Some say peace is a utopian dream. Nonetheless it is our Catholic teaching, based on the message of peace in the Gospels and promulgated not only by John XXIII but also Pope Benedict XVI.
     Many tend to pick and choose the papal teachings to adopt. There can be no doubt what “Pacem in Terris” teaches and Benedict XVI and John Paul II’s positions on the war in Iraq.
     The question is do we choose to adopt them as our own.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Solidarity binds all in common family
By George Evans
March 28, 2008
    (Before continuing our review of the modern Catholic social encyclicals, I again urge everyone in the closing days of the legislative session, to advocate based on Catholic social teachings those issues still before the Legislature, particularly the proper funding and administration of Medicaid so that all eligible persons may be properly served. The papal writer we focus on today, the beloved Pope John XXIII would urge us to do nothing less.)
    The year is 1961 and this elderly “interim” pope who will soon call Vatican Council II first writes another monumental social encyclical in the tradition of Leo XIII (“Rerum Novarum”) and Pius XI (“Quadragesimo Anno”). “Mater et Magistra” on Christianity and Social Progress was written 70 years after “Rerum Novarum” and 30 years after “Quadragesimo     Anno” with perfect Roman Catholic symmetry and historical awareness.
John XXIII begins his encyclical reviewing and confirming the significant contributions made by Leo XIII and Pius XI: the right to private property, the right of workers to organize, the right to a living wage, the value of private initiative, just remuneration for work, the social function of private property, the role of the state in creating a just social order, the need for cooperation between capital and labor for the benefit of the common good and the role of God and the church in all of this.
    Pope John notes in the intervening years since 1931 “the economic scene has undergone a radical transformation, both in the internal structure of the various states and in their relations with one another.” (Par. 46)
    Since “Quadragesimo Anno” the world had both suffered through and survived World War II, experienced the destructiveness of the atomic bomb, the conquest of outer space, television and an explosion in communications and transportation. Great improvements had developed in many countries in social insurance and social security, in basic education, and political independence as the colonial world was replaced in Asia and Africa.
    Pope John XXIII sees the need for his encyclical particularly to address the growing disparity not between capital and labor as was the case with Leo XIII, but between agriculture and industry and services.
    Nearly every country, is faced with this fundamental problem: What can be done to reduce the disproportion in productive efficiency between agriculture on the one hand, and industry and services on the other; and to ensure agricultural living standards approximate as closely as possible those enjoyed by city dwellers who draw their resources either from industry or from the services in which they are engaged. (Par. 125)
    Pope John internationalizes the applicability of Catholic social teachings to the post colonial Third World countries where the abject poverty of the rural agricultural worker calls for remedies “such as roads; transportation; means of communication; drinking water; housing; health services; elementary, technical and professional education; religious and recreational facilities; and the supply of modern installations and furnishings for the farm residence.” (par. 127)
    These things and social insurance, social security and appropriate price protection can only be achieved by cooperation of all involved — farm workers, cooperatives, credit banks and political systems. For the common good to be served wealthy nations need to participate:
    The solidarity which binds all men together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalance persists.(Par. 157)
    Pope John’s fervent cry in 1961 remains as relevant and compelling today as then. At a recent seminar in Jackson, Bread for the World informed us currently 850 million people suffer from hunger, 1 billion people live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day, 1.1 billion people have no access to clean water and sewers and 9.7 million people die before their fifth birthday in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS has reduced the life expectancy to less than 40 years.
    Pope John called for lay Catholics to take the lead in transforming society by personal charity and advocacy in the service of the world’s poor. A simple but perfect opportunity is at hand by supporting Senate Bill 2433 pending in Congress. Known as the “Global Poverty Act” which seeks an increase of $5 billion in all international aid programs known as Poverty Focused Development Assistance (PFDA). This would increase U.S. spending for all PFDA from half of one percent to approximately three-fourths of one percent of the approximate $3 trillion U.S. budget.
    Contact your senators and ask them to support SB 2433 — what an easy yet meaningful way to respond to Pope John XXIII’s call.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Time for advocacy now, contact your legislators
By George Evans
February 22, 2008
     Bishop Joseph Latino has not written a papal encyclical. But he has written a series of thoughtful and insightful articles for Mississippi Catholic and The Clarion Ledger related to Catholic social teachings and advocacy issues touched by those teachings, particularly insofar as children are concerned.
     Because the Legislature is now in session and will be gone by the end of March, I depart for one month from continuing the study of the Catholic social encyclicals as such and, rather, apply what we already know from them and Bishop Latino’s call for our involvement.
     The fact is there are HUGE issues presently facing the Mississippi Legislature (not to mention the Congress) which impact all of us but particularly the poor, the sick, the mentally ill, the immigrants, the children. As part of my job, I have tried to monitor the issues most affecting those in need – the Biblical widows, orphans and aliens of our day.
     We know as of Dec. 31, 2007, approximately 50,000 persons, mostly children, have been removed from Medicaid rolls since January 2005 and the overwhelming impression is that the requirement of face-to-face meetings for recertification, a significant cause of the reduction, (instead of recertification by mail which was the requirement prior to April 2005 in Mississippi and remains the procedure in all but two or three other states) will continue.
     The result will be no doctor care for children not on the rolls, and their minor illnesses will become major until they land in emergency rooms where they can receive free care – the most expensive to providers and the rest of us who ultimately pay in increased costs passed along in the system.
     The mental health centers are desperately underfunded. Persons reasonably treated on an outpatient basis relatively near their homes will go untreated until their illness (frequently because they are not on their medicine any longer) reaches catastrophic levels requiring acute emergency management at huge costs and greater chance of injury to self, family or others.
     The tobacco tax issue has apparently been hidden behind the study of the appointed Tax Study Commission. Who knows when and what will ever come of that.
The implementation of the federal court settlement regarding foster care is apparently bogged down as if in quicksand. It will take a return to federal court for implementation to become meaningful. Meanwhile the overburdened system creaks along at best, and children continue to suffer.
     A plethora of extremely tough, some would say vindictive, immigration laws have been proposed. Whether they become law is uncertain, but the spirit of many is reminiscent of the worst days of the 1950s and ‘60s.
     The question is where is the Christian advocacy effort on these and the many other questions in the public domain. Where is the Catholic advocacy effort called for in all of the encyclicals and by our own Bishop Latino and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in it’s recent document, “Faithful Citizenship.” If it’s there it’s not apparent. Catholic Charities beats the drum but with little response. I send information to a significant list serve but with little response.
     Bishop Latino stands tall but with little response from what I have seen. Are we that oblivious to the common good? Are we unable to translate the dramatic picture of Matthew 25 of salvation being dependent on how we respond to the poor into our consciousness because of our narcissistic and materialistic culture into which we have all been compromised.
     America magazine in its 2/4/08 issue reports:
     With income inequality in the United States hitting ever higher levels, it nonetheless comes as a jolt to learn the share of after-tax income going to the wealthiest 1 percent of households has reached its highest point since the start of the Great Depression. ... The gap between the richest Americans and all others has grown wider than at any other time since at least 1929 . ... The situation is not helped by tax cuts that have primarily benefited the highest income households.
     Do we ignore this reality? Or, are we numb because we benefit. Or, more likely, are we just too busy as were the priest and Levite who passed the Samaritan on the side of the road. Regardless, we have an economy with many of the disparities that prompted Pope Pius XI to write “Quadragesimo Anno” in 1931 as discussed in my last article in this paper and which cries out for our voice to turn it around.
     I think it important for each of us, as hard as it may be, to accept the fact that, as Catholics, action is not optional but mandatory like prayer and the sacraments. Father Ron Rolheiser in the Mississippi Catholic of 2/15/08 in his brilliant fashion captures the challenge:
     Jesus and justice – rarely do we bring them together as the Gospels do.
     Somehow we find it hard to bring together the Jesus who is so uncompromising in the area of private prayer and integrity, who says we delude ourselves if we think we are following him but are not praying or keeping the commandments, with the Jesus who tells us unequivocally that at the last judgment there will only be one test as to whether we will go to heaven or not, namely, how we re-sponded to the poor during our lifetime.
     The Jesus who invites us into personal piety and church doctrine is the same Jesus who tells us nobody will get to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.
     In our world today, responding to the poor requires not only personal charity but also issue advocacy in the conference rooms of business and in the halls of government both state and federal. The time for advocacy is now. Contact your legislators by phone, letter or email and let them hear from you on this issue.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

We cannot reconstruct social order from sidelines
By George Evans
January 25, 2008
      In this critically important election year (federal) and legislative year (state), it behooves us to continue our journey down the path of Catholic social teachings with the magnificent encyclical of Pope Pius XI, “Quadragesimo Anno,” (“The Reconstruction of the Social Order”).
      Written on the 40th anniversary of Leo XII’s monumental “Rerum Novarum” (“On the Condition of Labor”), Pius XI describes the enormous impact that encyclical has had in the intervening 40 years.
      Particularly, he notes a true Catholic social science has arisen and inundated Catholic study groups, seminaries, auxiliaries and even legislative halls and courts of justice. (Par. 20-21) “Working class” and other “lower classes” have been helped by some balancing of the economic power between capital and labor and by laws and programs for their benefit. (Par. 28)
      The impact of “On the Condition of Labor” has been pervasive: “Leo’s encyclical has proved itself the ‘Magna Charta’ upon which all Christian activity in the social field ought to be based, as on a foundation.” (Par. 39)
      True to the continuing mantra of Leo and all Catholic social teaching, “Observe, Judge and Act,” Pius XI after due praise and reaffirmation of Leo’s principles and reminder that all teachings come from the Gospels, applies those teachings to the world and time of 1931.
      Industrialization had continued to develop and had begun its spread to the Far East, a devastating and soul wrenching and spirit depleting world war had been fought in Christian Europe, and a world wide depression gripped everyone, but particularly the laborer and the “huge army of rural wage workers.”(Par. 34)
      But, Pius XI points out, the riches of industrialization “are not rightly distributed and equitably made available to the various classes of the people.” (Par. 60) He thus issues a new clarion call that the common good of all society be kept inviolate (Par. 57):
      To each, therefore, must be given his own share of goods, and the distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is laboring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the un-numbered property less, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice.
      Pius recognizes the state must do its proper part in bringing this to fruition when necessary. He roundly criticizes “individualism” as identified with unrestricted capitalism and “collectivism” as identified with communism and socialism as both violating the natural law and ultimately the common good.
      He reserves particularly strong criticism for Communism which had experienced enormous growth and influence since Leo XIII. Its tenets of unrelenting class warfare and absolute extermination of private ownership he found repulsive to God’s plan of creation, natural law and the teachings of the church and Leo XIII.
      Economic systems must be developed so that women and children are not abused in the work world (Par. 71) and that a just wage should be paid — enough to support a family with one wage earner. (Par. 71)
      But the right of private property must remain inviolate and its use must conform, at the same time, to the common good as well as the individual good. Pointedly, “A person’s superfluous income, that is, income which he does not need to sustain life fittingly and with dignity, is not left wholly to his own free determination.” (Par. 50) The scriptural demand to serve the common good must remain the ultimate restraint on unbridled individualism.
      What then, if anything, does Pius XI call us to today? Our circumstances 77 years later certainly differ from 1931 as they do from 1891, the time of Leo XIII. I submit Pius XI’s call to reconstruct the social order is no less urgent and, perhaps may even be more so, now than then.
      He called for the church of his day to be involved in that reconstruction. We need to be also. He called for the egregious disparities in wealth to be addressed by both the private sector and the state as necessary.
      The need today is no less great with 37 million and 1 of 5 children below the poverty level in America, the richest country in the world and with 47 million without health insurance.       And world wide 25,000 die every day from hunger; 500 million live every day in hunger; and 2.5 billion exist on $400 or less per year.
      It is crucial we not only accept, but embrace, the call of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI to conform ourselves personally to the gospel values which inspired their two encyclicals, commit ourselves to the common good as well as our own individual betterment, and become actively involved in the community and legislative work at both the state and federal level.
      We cannot reconstruct the social order if we sit on the sidelines and curse the darkness as the world goes by. We can only make a difference to serve the common good and answer the call of the Scriptures and our church if we venture forth in prayerful and informed involvement and advocacy.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

`Rerum Novarum’ still speaks to us today
By George Evans
November 30, 2007
      It is doubtful Pope Leo XIII envisioned the impact his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” would have on the future of Catholic social teachings. Now 116 years later it is still considered the foundational document of “our best kept secret.”
     It set the pattern for all the great social encyclicals which followed – Observe (read the signs of the times), Judge based on the Scriptures we have previously discussed in some detail and other church teaching, and suggest Action based on the observation and judgment.
     “The Condition of Labor” was needed because the church observed the desperate plight of and the terrible exploitation and poverty of European and North American workers at the end of the 19th century.
     The industrial revolution created the concentration of masses in cities to work in factories in a way unknown before in history. Concomitantly, there emerged a concentration of wealth in the hands of a relatively few in an extreme example of unbridled capitalism.
     The protections and restraints we know today simply did not exist. There was no balance between labor and capital. Power and prestige was almost solely in the hands of capital.
     Working conditions were horrible from sanitation to excessive hours for men, women and even children. Excessive wealth of the few trumped grinding poverty of the masses.      Exploitation of workers was the rule rather than the exception.
Leo XIII stepped into the fray knowing the difficulties involved in resolving the relative rights and duties of the rich and the poor, of capitol and labor.
     We clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class . . . Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition . . . The hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.(Par.3)
     Though calling for reform in working conditions and wages and asserting that the common good is the end of civil society, Pope Leo strongly defends the right to private property against the onslaught of socialism which was becoming more pronounced at that time.
     “Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.” (Par. 6) Man and the family precede the state and the principle of private ownership is pre-eminently in conformity with human nature. (Par. 11-12)
     It is the use of private property without respect for the dignity of the person of the worker that is the danger. “To misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers – that is truly shameful and inhuman.” (Par. 20)
     Justice demands the worker have time for his religious duties and “he be not led away to neglect his home and family, or to squander his earnings.” (Par. 20) The worker has the duty to work well, not to harm the property of the employer, to refrain from violence and rioting, to be thrifty. (Par. 20)
     The employer on the other hand is faced with this obligation:
     His great and principal duty is to give every one what is just. Doubtless, before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered: but wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this – that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. (Par. 20)
     Long before the idea of a just wage was raised in Congress during the recent debate over an increase in the minimum wage, Leo XIII argued for it, as he did for the need to care for the poor, for the value of family, and the right to join workers associations, the precursor of modern day unions.
     By the use of gospel principles the church can help reconcile classes and help head off the burgeoning class strife which unfortunately continued to manifest itself in this country throughout the early part of the 20th century.
     The concepts contained in “Rerum Novarum” are still applicable to our situation these many years later. Class strife between the haves and the have nots is still rampant today.      The fact the working poor collapse under the financial stress of the first serious illness, major car repair or other serious unusual expense raises the question of how just our wages are today.
     The increasing disparity between rich and poor over the last 20 years raises for our time as well as Pope Leo’s time whether wealth is properly serving the common good as well as the individual good and benefit.
     This encyclical still speaks to us today in the early 21st century as well as it courageously did to the late 19th century. We still need to observe, judge, and act with the vision of the Scriptures and “Rerum Novarum.”
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

From beginning church cared for those in need
By George Evans
October 26, 2007
      As we begin the transition of Catholic social teachings from the Scriptures to the modern Catholic encyclicals beginning with Leo XIll and “Rerun Novarum,” we pause for a quick look at the development in the earliest church communities as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
     From the very beginning the church emphasized the absolute necessity of caring for those in need: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44-5)
     This radical form of community life recognized the Gospel in its purest form. Pope Benedict tells us in “Deus Caritas Est,” In these words, St. Luke provides a kind of definition of the church, whose constitutive elements include fidelity to the “teaching of the Apostles,” “communion,” “the breaking of the bread” and “prayer"(Acts 2:42).
     As the church grew, this radical form of material communion could not in fact be preserved. “But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.” (Deus Carita Est, paragraph 20).
     An early practical adaptation is seen in Acts 6:1-6 when a problem arose when Hellenists claimed their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
     The office of deacon was created to meet the problem allowing the Apostles to continue in the ministry of prayer (Eucharist and liturgy) and the ministry of the word (preaching) while still solving the physical needs of the community. The church made sure the needs of the poor were met from its inception.
     Pope Benedict bridges the years from the Acts of the Apostles to Leo XIII and 1891 in “Deus Caritas Est” as follows.
     As the years went by and the church spread further afield, the exercise of charity became established as one of her essential activities, along with the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the word: love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel.
     The church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the sacraments and the word. (Paragraph 22)
     What then changes in 1891 with “Rerum Novarum” that we designate it as the beginning of modern Catholic social teachings. What had happened in the world that led the church to begin to emphasize justice and social policy as well as its documented emphasis from the beginning on charity.
     For centuries through the Middle Ages most people lived and died in small rural agrarian societies where the needs of most were known and taken care of on the local level without the need for much more. Charity in the purest sense was all that was needed to satisfy the Gospel imperative of responding to the common good.
     But with the advance of new modes of transportation and particularly with the growth of cities in the 19th century due to the industrial revolution and the concentration of capital and labor new problems requiring new responses from the church and its members became necessary.
     Simple charity, though still needed then and now, was no longer adequate standing by itself. Toward the end of the 19th ccntury the tenants of Marxism added to this reality – the poor, it was said, need not charity but justice.
     The industrial revolution in Europe and North America led to the rupture of the old social order. The combination of a class of great wealth from an extreme concentration of capital and a class of salaried workers created a new social phenomenon – and a new issue of capital versus labor.
     The modern Catholic encyclicals originally grew out of that issue and have continued to address it and its progeny since 1891. Pope Benedict described the setting for “Rerum Novarum” as follows:
     Capital and the means of production were now the new source of power which, concentrated in the hands of a few) led to the suppression of the rights of the working classes, against which they had to rebel. (Paragraph 26)
     In the finest tradition of what has become one of the mantras of Catholic social teaching – OBSERVE JUDGE, ACT – Pope Leo XIll wrote “Rerum Novarum” in 1891 in response to a request of the hierarchy of England, Ireland, and the United States.
     It had profound influence on the development of modern Catholic social teaching and major impact on the growing batle between capital and labor. That is where we shall begin next time.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)

Catholic social teaching completes circle of prayer
By George Evans
August 31 , 2007
     On our journey to properly place Catholic social teachings in the framework of a Catholic life of prayer, worship, sacrament and service, we now arrive at the New Testament, and particularly the Gospels, as completing the Scriptural basis of Catholic social teachings.
     I trust the journey through the Law, the Prophets and a touch of Wisdom has prepared the way for Jesus and his amazing history changing appearance in this world and in our personal life of salvation.
     It is he, the Lord, who completes the circle of full Catholic life by his life and it is he who definitively outlines the parameters for Catholic social teachings in the Gospels.
     In what I and others before me have come to call his inaugural address in Luke 4:16-21, Jesus bursts upon the public scene and sets forth his vision for his ministry, similarly to what any new president would do in his first inaugural address. He has withstood the temptation in the desert and is filled with the Holy Spirit after 40 days with his Father.
     He starts his ministry appropriately in Nazareth in the synagogue and with Isaiah and a passage we studied in the last column. He tells those assembled as they wait to see what this man is about the following:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to bring
glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me
to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, and to
proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord....
Today this scripture passage
is fulfilled in your hearing.

     In his opening salvo, Jesus tells them and us what he is about and therefore what we must be about: to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.
     How then could there ever be a question about the place of service and advocacy in the daily life of Catholics or any Christian. How could Catholic social teachings be “Our Best      Kept Secret.” It’s in Jesus’ inaugural address in its seminal form.
     Matthew brings us the same message in his chapter 11. John the Baptist in prison has heard about Jesus’s works and sends his disciples to ask him “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (Mt 11:3). In other words, are you the long awaited Messiah?
     Jesus defines himself as the Messiah by telling John that he is fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesy because he knew John knew Isaiah and would understand: Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” (Mt 11:4-6)
     Service and compassion are not only a constitutive part of Jesus’ mission. They are definitional. He defines himself to John and tells him who he is by his acts of compassion and healing and mercy and justice.
     This is the Father’s will for me. I have come to pour myself out for all the poor and wretched who are in most need as well as for the small minority of his day who were comfortable. We shall explore this further in the next column as to who specifically are the poor and wretched.
     For us today perhaps the succinct challenge is the haunting last sentence of the above quote from Mt 11:6: “And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
     In the messy business of reaching out to the blind, deaf, poor, stroke victims, homeless, immigrants, do we take offense at Jesus by turning away and ignoring it all or attempting to satisfy what we are called to do with a modest check (compared to our income or assets). It haunts me and is a daily struggle. Perhaps our ultimate hope is that we live in such a way that Jesus takes no offense at us.
     I turn to Father Ron Rolheiser’s column in Mississippi Catholic on May 20, 2005. When talking about relating to the poor he reflects, “What Jesus asks of us is simply that we see the poor, that we do not let affluence become a narcotic that knocks out our eye sight.      Riches aren’t bad and poverty isn’t beautiful. But nobody gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.’”
     We so worry about what friends and important people think and say about us. In Luke and Matthew, Jesus in defining himself and his mission tells us what is important. Father Rohlheiser captures it with his special flair.
     We should worry not about a letter of recommendation from the rich and powerful but from the poor. How strange but beautiful this is. How in keeping with the lives of the saints.
     Next time we will see further how the Gospels develop Jesus’ ministry among the poor and oppressed and expand the foundation of Catholic social teachings.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish. Contact him via evans@saintrichard.com)