Cardinal Burke is prefect of the Sacred Tribunal of the
Apostolic Signatura and the Vatican's most senior serving American official. He
wrote the article (extracted here) for the English edition of L'Osservatore
Romano in his capacity as President of the Advisory Board of the Dignitatis
Humanae Institute.
During a recent visit to the United States, I was
repeatedly impressed by how deeply Pope Francis has penetrated the national
conversation on a whole range of issues. His special gift of expressing direct
care for each and all has resonated strongly with many in my homeland.
At the same time, I noted a certain questioning about
whether Pope Francis has altered or is about to alter the Church’s teaching …
Clearly, the words and actions of the Holy Father require, on our part, a
fitting tool of interpretation, if we are to understand correctly what he
intends to teach... Pope Francis is exercising strongly his gift for drawing
near to all people of good will. It is said that when he manifests his care for
a single person, as he does so generously whenever the occasion presents
itself, all understand that he has the same care for each of them.
With regard to his manner of addressing the critical
issues, the Holy Father himself has described his approach, when he stated: “We
cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of
contraceptive methods…. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was
reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk
about them in a context. The teaching of the Church, for that matter, is clear
and I am a son of the Church, but it is not necessary to talk about these
issues all the time” The Holy Father wants, first, to convey his love of all
people so that his teaching on the critical moral questions may be received in
that context. But his approach cannot change the duty of the Church and her
shepherds to teach clearly and insistently about the most fundamental moral
questions of our time…
[Pope Francis] addressed the Dignitatis Humanae Institute
at our Fifth Anniversary Papal Audience. Exhorting the assembled politicians,
the Holy Father warned of a modern-day “throwaway culture” which threatens “to
become the dominant mentality”. He went on to identify those who suffer most
from such a culture, declaring: “The victims of such a culture are precisely
the weakest and most fragile human beings — the unborn, the poorest people,
sick elderly people, gravely disabled people… who are in danger of being ‘thrown
out’, expelled from a machine that must be efficient at all costs. This false
model of man and society embodies a practical atheism, de facto negating the
Word of God that says: ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our
likeness’”…
Surely, persons whose hearts are hardened against the
truth will read something very different into the approach of Pope Francis,
claiming that, in fact, he intends to abandon certain teachings of the Church
which our totally secularized culture rejects. Their false praise of the Holy
Father’s approach mocks the fact that he is the Successor of Saint Peter,
totally grounded in the Beatitudes, and that, therefore, with humble trust in
God alone, he rejects the acceptance and praise of the world.
It is not that the Holy Father is not clear in his
opposition to abortion and euthanasia, or in his support of marriage as the
indissoluble, faithful and procreative union of one man and one woman. Rather
he concentrates his attention on inviting all to nurture an intimate relationship,
indeed communion, with Christ, within which the non-negotiable truths,
inscribed by God upon every human heart, become ever more evident and are
generously embraced…
The Pontificate of Pope Francis should therefore be seen
as a radical call to redouble our efforts for the new evangelization. Radical
in the sense that, in our dialogue with others and with the world, we must
start with the beginning, Christ’s call to life in Him. This call of Christ is
the good news of God’s love and mercy which our world so badly longs for. At
the same time, as Simeon foretold to Our Blessed Mother when Our Lord was
presented in the temple, it is also “a sign that will be contradicted” (Lk
2:34), in every age and particularly in our “post-Christian” society. This is because
the proclamation of Jesus Christ can never be authentic without the
proclamation of his Cross. Pope Francis reminded us of this most eloquently in
his homily to the cardinal electors on the afternoon following his election:
When we journey without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, when we
profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord, we are
worldly: we may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the
Lord. My wish is that all of us, after these days of grace, will have the
courage, yes, the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord’s
Cross; to build the Church on the Lord’s blood which was poured out on the
Cross; and to profess the one glory: Christ crucified. And in this way, the Church
will go forward (Homily of Pope Francis, 14 March 2013).
In the face of a galloping de-Christianisation in the
West, the new evangelization, as Pope Francis underlines, must be clearly
grounded in Christ crucified who alone can overcome the world for the sake of
its salvation.
- Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke
Evangelization Challenge This Week
Invite a friend, neighbor or family member long away from
the Church or whose participation has been put “on hold” to attend five
Catholics Come Home sessions at Good Shepherd starting Tuesday, April 29 at
7:00 p.m.
Stewardship
“I will put my spirit in you that you may live.” With
those words, God speaks to us through the prophet Ezekiel in the first reading
for this Fifth Sunday in Lent. In fact, all of the readings for this Sunday
reflect the importance of the Spirit living within us.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, the second reading,
asks us to understand that the spirit dwells within us, and that is what is
important; not our flesh or our bodies, but what God has placed in us — the
Holy Spirit. What is important is that Spirit, for that is truly the key to
truth and life.
Of course, in the Gospel story of Jesus raising Lazarus
from the dead, this idea of body and spirit is reinforced. As our Lenten
journeys continue, we need to continue to acknowledge the presence of Christ
and the Spirit within us, and strive to fulfill that manifestation.
Furthermore, we need to connect a key part of the Lazarus story with our own
lives. Just as Jesus tells them in that story to “Take away the stone,” the
Lord is commanding us to remove the stones in our lives; the obstacles that
prevent our spirits to live in Him and with Him. It is time to roll our
personal stones back and to pursue stewardship and discipleship as a way of
life. 
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