There’s a lot of brokenness in our world. Many people are frightened or disillusioned by events on the world stage—and even closer, by the serious problems facing our nation, our state and our local communities.

The list is long: abortion and end-of-life issues, racism, poverty, sexual abuse, inadequate (or non existent) healthcare, drug addiction, gun violence, irrational fear of immigrants (nativism),intolerance in many different forms, and more. All are offenses against human dignity and basic civil rights. All demand that Christians, and all people of good will, stand up and respond to the injustice and inequality experienced by far too many of our sisters and brothers throughout the world and close to home. 

All of these issues—and the demand for meaningful responses—confronted the American bishops during their annual fall meeting in Baltimore last November. As the bishops discussed each issue, it became increasingly clear that the Church’s view of all these challenging problems is shaped by its understanding of the human person (Christian anthropology) and of the role that society should play in ensuring human rights and dignity (Catholic social teaching).

Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson listened carefully to the presentations and discussions on all these issues. He took notes and began to organize his thinking on these challenging matters. During the meeting, even as the discussions were taking place, he conceived the idea of some form of “pastoral message” which would allow him to share his thoughts with the people of central and southern Indiana. In the weeks and months following the November bishops’ meeting this message took shape undergoing several different drafts. The Archbishop asked several Church leaders to review his message and offer suggestions. Adjustments were made and in just two months Archbishop Thompson’s Message was ready to be shared.

The result is: We Are One in Christ: A Pastoral Message To the Clergy, Religious and Faithful People of Central and Southern Indiana On Fundamentals of Christian Anthropology. It’s a powerful message that makes the Church’s teaching perfectly clear. 

“I take this opportunity to share some fundamental principles of Christian anthropology and Catholic social teaching that should be taken into consideration when responding to critical social issues,” Archbishop Thompson says. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Indiana bishops’ 2015 pastoral letter, Poverty at the Crossroads: The Church’s Response to Poverty in Indiana, as his primary references, the Archbishop briefly explains how all of the critical social issues we face today can be addressed by an appreciation for the the dignity of the human person as revealed by Jesus Christ and by a reverence for all God’s creation. 

According to We Are One in Christ:

The first key principle of Catholic social teaching is respect for the dignity of each and every human person—regardless of race, sex, nationality, economic or social status, educational background, political affiliation or sexual orientation—as created in the  image and likeness of God. All are equal in dignity. No one is “better” than anyone else. All deserve respect. All share basic human rights. No one is exempt from the responsibility to support and assist fellow human beings—whether they are from the same family/community or they are strangers who are foreign to us in some way. Every human person, as created in the image of God, is a member of God’s family. For Christians, this also means that we are sisters and brothers of Christ and each other.

Archbishop Thompson’s Message concludes that all offenses against individuals and people’s stem from the same fundamental misunderstanding. Once again, “No one is “better” thananyoneelse. All deserve respect. All share basic human rights.In fact, as the pastoral message makes clear:

All sins against the dignity of persons, including the taking of a human life, rape, racism, sexism, nativism and homophobia, are violations of this fundamental principle. We can (and sometimes must) disapprove of the behavior of others, but we may never belittle, disrespect or abuse others simply because of our differences, no matter how serious.

Intolerance and the abuse of persons and their God-given rights are manifestations of evil, including the sins of individuals and of society. All are the work of the Evil One who strives to scatter what God has gathered and to divide what God has united through the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

This Lent let’s take the opportunity to read, discuss and pray about the issues that Archbishop Thompson raises in We Are One in Christ. Let’s also keep in mind the advice given recently by Pope Francis to all who long for peace in our world. “While prayer is always an effective resolution, more can be done,” Pope Francis said, explaining that each person “can concretely say no to violence to the extent that it depends on him or herself. Because victories obtained with violence are false victories, while working for peace does good for all!”

Forty years ago today, I asked this beautiful woman to be my Valentine, and she said yes. A few months later, I asked her to marry me and she said yes once again—making me the luckiest and happiest man in the world! 

Four decades later, I love her more than ever. She is my friend and counselor, my steady support, my inspiration and my love. 

Ash Wednesday reminds us that in the last decades of our life, many physical things will age, weaken and ultimately fail. But I know without any doubt that our love will grow stronger and ultimately prevail. 

Love is stronger than death, and hope springs eternal. 

Happy Valentine’s Day, Sharon. I love you—forever. 

 Did you ever meet Father Noah Casey? It’s a silly question. Everyone knew Father Noah. If you met him once in passing, he was your lifelong friend. 

Noah and I were roommates in graduate school. The first day we moved into Eigemann Hall, a high rise graduate dorm at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, Noah introduced himself to everyone in the building. Everyone knew him—and loved him—from the first. (I was an introvert and therefore more of an acquired taste.)

I had a similar experience years before during our first year at Saint Meinrad College. It seemed like we no sooner said hello and I was immediately part of his very large extended family. (He was Joe in those days—before taking the name Noah when he entered the Benedictine community at Saint Meinrad.) His Mother, Marie Casey, died when he was very young leaving young Joe in the care of his father (Joe, Sr.), his grandparents and scores of aunts, uncles and cousins. The more family, the better, Noah believed his whole life.

Father Noah was an Irish storyteller and an Irish tenor. I used to laugh until my sides ached when he would tell his funny stories. And I cried like a baby when he sang those heartbreaking Irish songs.

“Earthy” is a good word for Noah. He loved to eat, to celebrate, to be with ordinary folks. But “spiritual” is an even better word. Noah had a rich, full spiritual life centered in prayer and in his personal relationship to Jesus, His mother, Mary, and of course St. Joseph, Joe Casey’s patron saint.

The combination of earthiness and spirituality made him a good confessor and a wise counselor. I didn’t always follow his advice, but I sure appreciated it!

His homilies were inspired by the same down-to-earth yet otherworldly quality. Sometimes he would burst into song—in the middle of the homily! What better way to get our attention! What better way to lift our spirits and to raise our minds and hearts to God!

Noah’s mother and her sister both succumbed to cancer. Noah never got over their loss. That’s why it was something of a blessing (in one of God’s mysterious ways) when Noah joined them as a cancer victim. He was not as young as they were, but he was still too young (in his mid 60s).

He left behind a very large family—folks related to by blood, by friendship and by faith.

May the road rise to meet him. And may all the angels and saints welcome Father Noah to their humble but heavenly home.

The Church is beautiful but compromised. 

During the most intense time of the media’s coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal, a very wise Franciscan observed,

“If you find a perfect church, join it. But remember that as soon as you join it, that church will no longer be perfect. No church is perfect whose members are imperfect, sinful people like all of us.”

Bishop Robert Barron makes a similar point by quoting from an address by Pope Benedict XVI to members of the papal household in 2010 at the end of a particularly difficult and painful year.

“The face of the Church is stained with dust, and this is how we have seen it. Her garment is torn—by the sins of priests”  (Pope Benedict XVI).

According to Bishop Barron in Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism, “Wise Words from the Bishop of Rome Concerning the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal,” the pope was using an image of the Church proposed by the twelfth century mystic Hildegard of Bingen who had a vision.

“She saw an incomparably beautiful woman stretching from earth to heaven, clothed in luminous vestments. But the woman’s radiant face was covered in dust, her vesture was ripped on one side, and her shoes were blackened. Then the mystic heard a voice from heaven announcing that this was a vision of the Church, beautiful but compromised.”

Beautiful but compromised is the mystic’s vision of the Church. It is also an apt image of all forms of sexual abuse—taking something that is pure and beautiful in itself and corrupting it, making it ugly and torn, “covered in dust.”

The Church is not the only place where sex abuse occurs (in fact it’s everywhere that you care to look) but in clergy sex abuse the ugliness is magnified in direct proportion to the expectations of purity and trustworthiness that we have for priests and bishops who were ordained to take the place of Jesus among us.

It is horrible, inexcusable and unforgivable when a family member or coach or any trusted adult abuses a child, but when the predator is a priest, it is all those things intensified to the point of pure evil. Satan is at work here, violating two sacred things (the innocence of the child and the holiness of the priest). What God intends to be beautiful is stained by selfishness and sin.

What’s the answer? To forgive the unforgivable is the first step. Hatred and vengeance intensify the wounds allowing them to fester and making healing impossible. But forgiveness is not enough. There must also be vigilance—“zero tolerance” for behavior that cooperates with the devil’s efforts to corrupt the innocence and holiness of God’s children.

Never again should the sin of sexual abuse be hidden, minimized or excused no matter who the perpetrators are. Never again should the Church or society tolerate behavior that is intolerable.

We are all beautiful but compromised. We are all people intended by God to be perfect, but sadly, we are not. Let’s ask God to forgive us all the unforgivable things we have said and done. Let’s also forgive others—while refusing to tolerate others’ intolerable attitudes and behavior especially toward our children.