Author Archives: Tereza Ma

Passing a farm bill in 2018’s political climate a hard row to hoe

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – For rural advocates, there were a lot of things not to like in this year’s farm bill.
For starters, there was the zeroing out the Conservation Stewardship Program, which has a $1 billion price tag. There also was a rewrite to the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program that would kick off 2 million Americas from its rolls, more than canceling out the indexing of benefits for those remaining in the program – not to mention the imposition of work requirements to qualify for the benefit.
When the House voted on the farm bill May 18, the measure’s merits were only partly considered. But what brought it down to a surprising defeat was not its content, but a vastly different subject: immigration.
Some Republicans rebelled against their outgoing House speaker, Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and voted no on the bill in a bid to force a vote on immigration bills that they charge have been stymied by House leadership.
The turn of events left James Ennis, executive director of Catholic Rural Life, sounding shell-shocked.
“It’s a surprise, but at the same time there were flaws in the bill, so it was already vulnerable,” Ennis told Catholic News Service from Wisconsin, where he was conducting Catholic Rural Life business. “Then the division within the House made it that much more divisive.”
Ennis allowed how the thumbs-down on the farm bill could serve as a catalyst for change within it.
“There’s more time for conversations with representatives who are concerned about those kinds of questions. There will be opportunities that maybe convince some to make some revisions,” he said.
“But then again, that’s what myself, Catholic Rural Life, and Catholic Charities and the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) are trying to do by getting messages out to our constituents. We’ve got this window. So let’s continue to communicate these concerns. There may be some opportunities to get some changes in this version of the farm bill. We’re about a month out. So there is some opportunity. How much is still debatable.”

A truck travels along a dirt road near a grain farm in Hesper Township, Iowa. The 2018 farm bill was defeated on the floor of the House May 18. It could back for a second vote in late June, but Catholic and other rural life advocates see a need for improvements in the measure before then. (CNS photo/Bob Roller) See WASHINGTON-LETTER-FARM-BILL May 25, 2018.

Some lawmakers are collecting signatures from their colleagues for a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on immigration bills. Among them are:
– The DREAM Act, which would let immigrants who arrived as minors without legal permission to stay in the United States and give them a path to citizenship. These immigrants are known as “Dreamers,” the recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
– The Agricultural Guestworker Act sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, that would grant temporary status for DACA recipients with renewable three-year visas and would include stronger border enforcement and legal immigration restrictions, including removing protections for immigrant farmworkers.
– The Securing America’s Future Act, which incorporates the Goodlatte bill, cuts lawful immigration by 40 percent, eliminates the ability of citizens to sponsor their siblings, parents or adult children, and offers no path to citizenship for “Dreamers.”
– The Uniting and Securing America Act, a bipartisan compromise that offers a path to citizenship, mandates security cost estimates for each mile of the U.S.-Mexico border, and funds more immigration judges and lawyers.
If the petition is successful, all four bills would be voted on, and the one receiving the most yes votes would be declared the winner. It would be then up to Senate to consider its own legislation. And President Donald Trump has already vowed a veto.
Susan Alan, associate director of the National Farm Worker Ministry, told CNS May 21 the organization was dead-set against the Goodlatte bill.
The bill, she said, would relieve employers from having to pay for transportation for guest workers or reimburse them for their costs as well as having to look for local workers to do the work, do away with the prevailing wage program based on the cost of living in different regions of the country, and take away guest workers’ right to sue for withheld wages.
“It’s reinstituting the ‘bracero’ program of the 1940s and its worst abuses. And it’s no way to treat a neighbor, and it’s no way to treat a guest worker. It would also displace more local workers,” Alan said. “The farmworker community right now is very frightened. What we see is: The more afraid, the more fearful the population is, the more exploitable it is.”
The National Farm Worker Ministry and a Washington-based group, Farmworker Justice, jointly urged members and supporters in a May 25 email to tell their congressional representative to reject the Goodlatte bill and the Securing America’s Future Act.
“There are significant improvements that need to be made to the bill,” said Andrew Jerome, a spokesman for the National Farmers Union. “We’ve been encouraging them to send it back to committee.”
Jerome’s list of improvements included more money for promotion programs that promote diverse markets for family farmers, which he called a big help “with the farm economy being where it’s at right now.” Improvements in the rural safety net and restoration of the Conservation Stewardship Program also rank high on his list.
Whether the House will send it back to committee “is another story,” he said. “They could just bring it up as is.” Jerome said he expects a new vote on a farm bill during the third week of June.
No farm bill? No problem – maybe, said Catholic Rural Life’s Ennis.
“They may pass a continuing a resolution. It depends how long that is,” he said. “The 2012 farm bill became the 2014 farm bill. That took two years to get agreement. I don’t think they don’t want to go down that road again, but that’s always a possibility because of the midterm elections.” The farm bill is supposed to have a five-year lifespan.
Ennis added, “Farmers need to know that certain programs are in place. They need some security. That’s really key. They could do a continuing resolution, kick the can down the road for another year, or pass a farm bill.”
“Maybe it’s better to wait a year,” he sighed. “Who knows their thinking?”

(Editor’s note: Bishop Joseph Kopacz sent a letter to Representative Trent Kelly in May asking him to consider an amendment to the Farm Bill in support of international food assistance programs supported by Catholic Relief Services.)

Cleaning robot to compete nationally

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JACKSON – A team of sixth-graders from St. Richard Catholic School won top honors in the state eCYBERMISSION competition, which will send them to the nationals in Washington, D.C. this summer.
Team Squeegee Feast won the state and then regional levels of the eCYBERMISSION competition – a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiative offered by the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP). The St. Richard students built “The Squage,” a working robot, to clean tables and floors in their school cafeteria.
“These kids came in after school, on weekends and during the holidays to brainstorm, problem-solve and perfect their robot,” said St. Richard Principal Jennifer David. “We are so proud of all the work they put into it and thankful to have such dedicated team leaders in Ashley and Allan Klein, who volunteer to lead this project every year.”
Students compete on state, regional, and national levels for monetary awards, with national winning teams receiving up to $9,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds, valued at maturity. Two teams from Madison St. Joseph School received state recognition for their projects.
All 20 regional winning teams move on to compete as national finalists at the National Judging and Education Event (NJ&EE). NJ&EE is an all-expenses-paid trip set for June 17-22 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Sponsored by the U.S. Army and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), eCYBERMISSION is a web-based STEM competition that is free to students and designed to help build their interest and knowledge in STEM. Students in grades six through nine are challenged with developing a solution to a real-world problem in their local community.

Schools, parishes honor Mary in May

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JACKSON – Sixth-grader Lillian Boggan places the crown on Mary’s statue during the school Mass on Wednesday, May 9. (Photo by Maureen Smith)

MADISON – St. Joseph students Gianna Altamirano and Syndi Vandevender, below, crowned Mary at the Thursday, May 10 school Mass. Fathers John Bohn and Jason Johnston also blessed junior class rings at the Mass. (Photos by Maureen Smith)

GRANADA – Tony Le, presents flowers at the May crowning at St. Peter Parish on Sunday, May 13. Children in the parish each presented flowers before Madeline Liberto placed a crown on Mary’s statue. (Photos by Michael Liberto)

All economic activity has moral dimension, doctrinal congregation says

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By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Financial and economic decisions – everything from where a family chooses to invest its savings to where a multinational corporation declares its tax residence – are ethical decisions that can be virtuous or sinful, a new Vatican document said.
“There can be no area of human action that legitimately claims to be either outside of or impermeable to ethical principles based on liberty, truth, justice and solidarity,” said the document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The text, “Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System,” was approved by Pope Francis and released May 17 at a Vatican news conference with Archbishop Luis F. Ladaria, congregation prefect, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the dicastery.
Based on principles long part of Catholic social teaching and referring frequently to the teaching of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the document insisted that every economic activity has a moral and ethical dimension.
Responding to questions, Archbishop Ladaria said it is true that Catholic moral theology has focused more on questions of sexual ethics than business ethics, but that does not mean that the economy and finance are outside the scope of Catholic moral teaching. For example, he said, over the centuries the church and the popes repeatedly have intervened to condemn usury.
Pope Francis, he said, supported the development of the document, but the idea of writing it and examining the ethical and moral implications of the current economic scene came from “the grassroots.”
“At stake is the authentic well-being of a majority of the men and women of our planet who are at risk of being ‘excluded and marginalized’ from development and true well-being while a minority, indifferent to the condition of the majority, exploits and reserves for itself substantial resources and wealth,” the document said.
The size and complexity of the global economy, it said, may lead most people to think there is nothing they can do to promote an economy of solidarity and contribute to the well-being of everyone in the world, but every financial choice a person makes – especially if they act with others – can make a difference, it said.
“For instance, the markets live thanks to the supply and demand of goods,” it said. “It becomes therefore quite evident how important a critical and responsible exercise of consumption and savings actually is.”
Even something as simple as shopping can be important, the document said. Consumers should avoid products manufactured in conditions “in which the violation of the most elementary human rights is normal.” They can avoid doing business with companies “whose ethics in fact do not know any interest other than that of the profit of their shareholders at any cost.”
Being ethical, it said, also can mean preferring to put one’s savings in investments that have been certified as socially responsible and they can join others in shareholder actions meant to promote more ethical behavior by the companies in which they invest.
In a statement distributed at the news conference, Archbishop Ladaria said that “the origin of the spread of dishonest and predatory financial practices” is a misunderstanding of who the human person is. “No longer knowing who he is and why he is in the world, he no longer knows how to act for the good” and ends up doing what seems convenient at the moment.
“The strongest economic subjects have become ‘superstars’ who hoard enormous quantities of resources, resources that are distributed less than before and are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people,” he said. “It’s incredible to think that 10 people can possess almost half of the world’s wealth, but today that is a reality!”
Cardinal Turkson told reporters, “a healthy economic system is vital to forge flourishing human relationships.”
“To help generate such healthy system, this joint document reminds us that the resources of the world are destined to serve the dignity of the human person and must be commonly available for the common good,” the cardinal said.
The document takes aim at greed, not capitalism. In fact, it praises economic systems and markets that respect human dignity and promote human freedom, creativity, production, responsibility, work and solidarity.
A healthy economy, it said, promotes all of those goods and realizes that the measure of progress is not how much money people have in the bank, but how many people are helped to live better lives.
One key to judging how well the economy works is how many decent jobs are created, the document said. But too often selfishness gets the upper hand, the rich speculate and gamble, accumulating more money but not creating more jobs.
“No profit is in fact legitimate when it falls short of the objective of the integral promotion of the human person, the universal destination of goods and the preferential option for the poor,” the document said.
“It is especially necessary to provide an ethical reflection on certain aspects of financial transactions which, when operating without the necessary anthropological and moral foundations, have not only produced manifest abuses and injustice, but also demonstrated a capacity to create systemic and worldwide economic crisis,” the document said.
The global financial crisis that began in 2007, it said, created an opportunity to review mechanisms of the economy and finance and come up with corrective regulations, but very little has been done.
In addition to the immorality of usury and tax evasion, the document signaled out other ethically problematic practices or practices that require more regulation to ensure ethical behavior: for example, executive bonus incentives based only on short-term profit; the operation of “offshore” financial bases that can facilitate tax evasion and the outflow of capital from developing countries; “the creation of stocks of credit,” like subprime mortgages, and credit default swaps; and the growth of the “shadow banking system.”

States bordering Gulf of Mexico rank at, near bottom of new index

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON – Everything gets ranked these days, from burger joints to colleges. States are no different.
But the state of some states is quite different from their counterparts.
An area called the “Gulf South” – the five states bordering the Gulf of Mexico – rank at or near the bottom of the JustSouth Index issued by the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University New Orleans. Those states are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The index, which debuted last year, looks at poverty, racial disparity and immigrant exclusion – areas that the study’s originators saw as important from the viewpoint of Catholic social teaching. The index looked at three aspects of each area before arriving at its rankings.

VARDAMAN – Hispanic workers harvest sweet potatoes in October, 2016. Bishop John Manz, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago and then chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Subcommittee on Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers, visited the community that fall as part of an effort to get a first-hand view of the issues facing immigrant workers in the region. This year's Just South Index examines these same issues throughout the nation. (Mississippi Catholic file photo)

“Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas earned spots in the bottom six rankings” overall, said the study, which was unveiled May 2 at the Capitol. This is an improvement over the first year of the rankings, when they were in the bottom four.
Florida, which had been 41st in the first index, moved up six spots to 35th. But the Sunshine State shouldn’t pat itself on the back quite yet; it finished dead last in poverty.
Louisiana finished 50th in racial disparity and 47th in immigrant exclusion; while Mississippi finished ahead of only Florida in poverty, and Texas wound up 50th in immigrant exclusion and 48th in poverty.
Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute, said: “Sadly, the Gulf South states continue to lag far behind many others in promoting integral human development for their residents, even though there are some marginal changes in one indicator or another.”
Progress, though, need not be incremental or Sisyphus-like. From last year’s index to this year’s, big leaps were not impossible. Wyoming soared from 24th to second, while Alaska moved from 28th to seventh, and Wisconsin leapt from 33rd to 16th. Likewise, Connecticut dropped from fifth to 20th, Utah slid from 17th to 33rd, and South Dakota slumped from 15th to 43rd.
The three indicators for the poverty ranking were the average income of poor households, health insurance coverage for the poor and housing affordability. For racial disparity, the indicators were public school integration, white-minority wage equity and white-minority employment equity. The immigrant exclusion indicators were immigrant youth outcomes, immigrants’ English proficiency and health insurance coverage of immigrants.
“The Gulf South has an unmistakable legacy of discrimination and marginalization toward people of color. The disproportionate advantages for white Americans in relation to persons of color in virtually every sphere of life illustrate the deep divisions that exist despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the election of the first African-American president,” the study said.
Father Kammer said May 2 the region’s legacy of slavery and racial discrimination contributes to unequal outcomes for whites and nonwhites.
Lane Windham, associate director of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, added the region “has the lowest union density” in the country. “People with union jobs make better wages,” she declared, noting the history of employers who have moved production to the nonunion South to avoid unions and to pay workers less.
Poverty remains a grinding, draining issue in the region. “In 1996, 68 of every 100 poor families received TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) benefits and in 2014, just 23 of every 100 poor families were receiving benefits,” the report said. “The maximum TANF monthly benefit for a single-parent family of three in Mississippi is $170 compared to $653 in Wisconsin and $789 in New York.”
The region also has fared poorly in adapting to growing numbers of immigrants.
“States in the Gulf South have experienced a significant influx of immigrants into their workforces in recent years and have not yet made adequate adjustments to their social, economic and political systems in order to promote justice and dignity for immigrant residents,” the report said. “In addition, the Gulf South’s treatment of immigrants is colored by a history of discrimination against Hispanics and African-Americans.”
Immigrants face other forms of discrimination as well, according to the report. “In Texas, schools districts that have experienced an influx of students with limited English proficiency have had difficulty providing effective services to students because the school finance system does not take into consideration the true costs of providing quality language services to immigrant children,” it said.
“Some businesses will attempt to reduce costs by classifying immigrants as contract, temporary, or part-time workers to avoid offering benefits,” it continued. “Not only are these practices harmful to immigrant workers and families but also are not in the long-term interest of the employer, because workers who have health insurance are more present, productive and committed to their jobs.”
On another score, “public school segregation contributes to second-class schools where quality is low and resources are scarce. Additionally, gaps in employment and earnings stemming from racial and ethnic differences embody discriminatory practices and limit the economic opportunities of people of color to the benefit of their white neighbors,” the report said, noting that after federal supervision of public-school districts was eased, more minority students were educated in schools that were predominantly minority-majority.
While the index pointed out flaws in states’ practices, it also offered policy prescriptions.
States and school districts, it said, “should increase the share of resources allocated to schools serving a large percentage of minority students. Additional funding would allow those schools to attract and retain high-quality teachers, and provide critical support services for at-risk students.”
It added, “States can create incentive housing zones in which developers could request a project-based subsidy from the state for a specified number of affordable rental units developed within the zone.”
Another relatively easy fix: expanding Medicaid.
“The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provided an option for state leaders to expand the Medicaid program, largely funded with federal dollars, to provide coverage to the poorest persons in the state,” the report said. “Nineteen states, including four in the Gulf South region, have chosen not to do so.”

(Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison)

Bishop schedule

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Thursday, May 31, 6:30 p.m. – Priestly Ordination of Deacons Aaron Williams and Nick Adam, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
Friday, Jun. 1, 12:05 p.m. – Father Aaron Williams’ first Mass, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
Friday, Jun. 1, 6 p.m. – Father Nick Adam’s first Mass, Jackson St. Richard Parish.
Sunday, Jun. 3, 9 a.m. – Confirmation, Jackson Christ the King Parish.
Sunday, Jun. 3, 1 p.m. – Confirmation, Misa en Espanol, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
Sunday, Jun. 3 – 6, USCCB Child and Youth protection Catholic leadership conference, New Orleans. (Bishop will present closing address)
Friday, Jun. 8, 6 p.m. – Ordination to diaconate of Mark Shoffner, Greenville St. Joseph Parish.
Satuday, Jun. 9, 6 p.m. – Catholic Charities’ Bishop’s Ball, Country Club of Jackson.
Satuday, Jun. 11 – 17 – USCCB Spring General Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Only public events are listed on this schedule and all events are subject to change.
Please check with the local parish for further details

New memorial advances devotion to Mary

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Bishop Joseph Kopacz

By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
The Pentecost experience, akin to the Big Bang that burst out into the universe, continues to expand and accelerate in the creative and saving power of the Holy Spirit. At the Last Supper Jesus promised that the Spirit would lead us into all truth, or a deeper knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of our faith from one generation to the next.
Recently, Pope Francis pronounced that from this day forward the Monday after Pentecost is to be celebrated as the Memorial of Mary, the Mother of the Church. Mary, whose Fiat brought about a new world for God’s plan of salvation in the Incarnation of the eternal Logos, reveals to every generation that the Holy Spirit, when alive in the hearts and minds of the faithful, will bring Jesus Christ to life, a light shining in the darkness.
Mary has many titles in the Church to express the singularity of her vocation and this latest one arises from the Pentecost moment nearly 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. Mary was assembled with the Apostles and the other disciples, 120 in total, when the Holy Spirit poured forth into their hearts and minds, creating a new day with power from on high. “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.”
So the mother of the Lord Jesus, has always been and now is formally venerated as the mother of the Church, the Body of Christ in the world. Like Mary, our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord as we treasure all these things in our hearts, holding Jesus Christ close in our daily lives.
As in many instances throughout the history of the Church, Pope Francis, as the successor of St. Peter, speaks on behalf of the Church and in this instance has formally decreed a new memorial on behalf of all of the faithful, many of whom express their love for Mary in their daily devotion. The ministry of the Holy Father, the successor of St. Peter, is to recreate and expand Pentecost when the Holy Spirit raised up St. Peter to speak on behalf of the 120 to the incredulous throngs gathered in Jerusalem for a Jewish feast.
All assembled in prayer had received the gift of the Holy Spirit, represented in the hovering tongues of flames and the strong driving wind. From this mutual encounter with their saving God in Jesus Christ, Peter, with that Galilean accent who only days before vehemently denied his Lord, now boldly evangelized about salvation in his Name to all who would listen. Recently, at a pre-synod gathering on young people, the faith and vocational discernment in Rome, a remarkable photo revealed the dynamics of a Pentecost moment. Pope Francis, in his white cassock, was pictured seated in the center of a packed hall of the faithful, representatives from many nations and regions around the world who were partaking in the pre-synod process.
There sat Francis of Rome surrounded by laity, religious and ordained. Open to the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit all were listening to a presentation, one of many that will lead to a post-synodal exhortation from Pope Francis. Like St. Peter, eventually, he will rise up from the midst of his sisters and brothers and speak to the Church and the world. The Holy Spirit has empowered Pope Francis in his Petrine ministry over the past five years in ordinary and extraordinary ways.
The Joy of the Gospel, Evangelii Guadium, is his landmark Apostolic Exhortation on evangelization, the fruit of a world-wide synodal dialogue and discernment. More recently, he gave to the Church Amoris Latitiae, the Joy of Love, a panorama of the challenges of living the gospel in marriage and family in the modern world. This exhortation emerged as the fruit of the Holy Spirit after a two year, grassroots process in the universal Church, offering a path, consolation, hope and light.
Lastly, the Pentecost moment calls us back to our center where we know that we are God’s children, brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus and temples of the Holy Spirit. I have witnessed the Holy Spirit throughout the Diocese of Jackson during the 19 celebrations of Confirmation to date. These are extraordinary moments to be sure, but they can only materialize because of the Holy Spirit’s burning presence in the hearts and minds of families and parish communities from day to day.
For some, the flame may have been as imperceptible as a pilot light waiting to be stirred into something more in God’s good time. Yet, the gift of the Church, the Body of Christ, calls us all back to our Pentecost, our birthday of the Lord, where we can renew our identity and vocation as his disciples. From that first community in Jerusalem to the many communities throughout our diocese, with Mary, Pope Francis and the newly confirmed, we pray together, Come, Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth.

Nueva fiesta dedicada a María

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Obispo Joseph Kopacz

Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz
La experiencia de Pentecostés, parecida a la gran explosión que estalló en el universo, continúa expandiéndose y acelerándose en la creatividad y fuerza salvífica del Espíritu Santo. En la Última Cena, Jesús prometió que el Espíritu nos llevaría a toda la verdad, o a profundizar en el conocimiento y la comprensión de los misterios de nuestra fe de una generación a la siguiente. Recientemente, el Papa Francisco declaró que a partir de este día el lunes después de Pentecostés se celebrará como el Memorial de María, la Madre de la Iglesia. María, cuyo mandato, trajo un nuevo mundo para el plan de salvación de Dios en el misterio de la Encarnación del Logos eterno, revela a cada generación que el Espíritu Santo cuando vive en los corazones y las mentes de los fieles, traerá a Jesucristo a la vida, una luz que brilla en la oscuridad.
María tiene muchos títulos en la Iglesia para expresar la singularidad de su vocación, y este último surge desde el momento de Pentecostés hace casi 2000 años en Jerusalén.
María estaba reunida con los apóstoles y los demás discípulos, 120 en total, cuando el Espíritu Santo se infundió en sus corazones y mentes, creando un nuevo día con poder desde lo alto. “Este es el día que el Señor ha creado, alegrémonos y regocijémonos en él.” Así que la Madre del Señor Jesús, ha sido siempre, y ahora es oficialmente venerada como Madre de la Iglesia, el Cuerpo de Cristo en el mundo.
Como María, nuestra alma proclama la grandeza del Señor y valoramos todas estas cosas en nuestros corazones, manteniendo a Jesucristo cerca en nuestra vida diaria. Como en muchos casos a lo largo de la historia de la Iglesia, el Papa Francisco, como sucesor de San Pedro, habla en nombre de la Iglesia, y en este caso ha decretado oficialmente un nuevo memorial en nombre de todos los fieles, muchos de los cuales expresan su amor por María en su devoción diaria.
El ministerio del Santo Padre, el sucesor de San Pedro, es la recreación y expansión de Pentecostés, cuando el Espíritu Santo inspiró a San Pedro para que hablara en nombre de los 120 a la incrédula multitud reunida en Jerusalén para una fiesta Judía. Todos los reunidos en oración habían recibido el don del Espíritu Santo, representado en las flotantes lenguas de fuego y el fuerte viento. A partir de este encuentro mutuo con su Dios salvador en Jesucristo, Pedro, con ese acento Galileo, quien sólo unos días antes había negado rotundamente a su Señor, ahora audazmente evangeliza acerca de la salvación en su nombre a todos los que desean escuchar. Recientemente, en una reunión Pre-Sínodo sobre los jóvenes, la fe y el discernimiento vocacional en Roma una notable foto revela la dinámica de un momento de Pentecostés.
El Papa Francisco, en su sotana blanca, fue fotografiado sentado en el centro de una sala repleta de fieles, representantes de muchos países y regiones del mundo que estaban tomando parte en el proceso Pre-Sínodo. Allí estaba sentado Francisco de Roma, rodeado de laicos, religiosos y sacerdotes. Abiertos a la sabiduría y el poder del Espíritu Santo, todos escuchaban una presentación, una de las muchas que conducirían a una exhortación post-sinodal del Papa Francisco. Como San Pedro, eventualmente, él se levantará de en medio de sus hermanos y hermanas, y le hablará a la Iglesia y al mundo.
El Espíritu Santo ha facultado al Papa Francisco en su ministerio petrino durante los últimos cinco años en forma ordinaria y extraordinaria. La Alegría del Evangelio, Evangelii Guadium, es su memorable exhortación apostólica sobre la evangelización, el fruto de un diálogo y discernimiento sinodal mundial. Más recientemente, le dio a la Iglesia el Amoris Latitiae, la Alegría del Amor, un panorama de los desafíos de vivir el Evangelio en el matrimonio y la familia en el mundo moderno. Esta exhortación emergió como el fruto del Espíritu Santo después de un período de dos años, el proceso de base en la Iglesia universal, ofreciendo un camino, consuelo, esperanza y luz.
En conclusión, el momento de Pentecostés nos llama a nuestro centro donde sabemos que somos hijos de Dios, hermanos y hermanas del Señor Jesús, y templos del Espíritu Santo. He sido testigo del Espíritu Santo en toda la Diócesis de Jackson durante las 19 celebraciones de confirmación hasta la fecha.
De seguro estos son momentos extraordinarios, pero sólo pueden materializarse a causa de la ardiente presencia del Espíritu Santo en los corazones y en las mentes de las familias y de las comunidades parroquiales día a día. Para algunos la llama puede haber sido tan imperceptible como una luz piloto a la espera de ser agitados en algo más en el tiempo bueno de Dios. Sin embargo, el don de la Iglesia, el Cuerpo de Cristo, nos llama a todos de vuelta a nuestro Pentecostés, nuestro cumpleaños del Señor, donde podemos renovar nuestra identidad y vocación como discípulos suyos. Desde esa primera comunidad en Jerusalén a muchas comunidades a lo largo de nuestra diócesis, con María, el Papa Francisco y los recientemente confirmados, oramos juntos, Ven, Espíritu Santo y renueva la faz de la tierra.