Advancing the Kingdom

Congratulations to the International Catholic Migration Commission for having been in existence for seventy-five years! Among the donors of the National Catholic Community Foundation are supporters of international organizations like ICMC. It is a privilege to highlight it here. Since our expulsion from the Garden of Eden migration and its boons and banes have been persistent realities in our long history. Whether voluntary or forced, migration has been caused by both natural and manmade disasters including floods, droughts, famine, wars, persecution, etc. In recent centuries some migratory movements have been inter-national such as the Irish escaping the potato famine in the 19th century, the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ coming to the United States in 1979, and refugees of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Other movements have been intra-national, such as the relocation of millions within Russia during the Stalin era, or the voluntary move of thousands of African Americans from…

Although it appeared on coins as early as the Civil War, it was during the Eisenhower administration that Congress, by unanimous consent, approved ‘In God We Trust’ as an official national motto.  One might ask that if it were proposed today would the motto attract such support. Are we a faithful nation and how can our faith be described? Is it merely an observance of cultural traditions, a fuzzy awareness of ethics? If transcendental, is it more spiritual than religious, more personal than creedal? Does theology continue to be its guide? Or, has theology been supplanted by sociology, humanitarianism – or Artificial Intelligence? Has our faith in God been misplaced and is now invested in ourselves as we aspire to construct some secular utopia – one agnostic of the eternal absolutes and based on the false grounds of relativism? Is the much-noted decline in our participation in organized religion over…

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon us because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s poor” (Lk 4:14-19) Standing in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus with unusual authority read these lines from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He then announced to the startled congregation: ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This fulfillment continues today, but perhaps in a way not foreseen by Isaiah, but certainly one inspired by the Christ’s message of liberation. Countless women and children are being liberated from the scourge known as human trafficking. Human trafficking, a form of slavery, is said to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Through…

Even in the aura of the mind-boggling technology which purports to enhance our ‘quality of life’, pessimism pervades. Violence, addiction, civil and international unrest, the decline of the family, moral decadence all contribute to the sense that our way of life is deteriorating. Some wonder if, like ancient Rome, the civilization we know is falling. These folk can take heart and learn about something that is rising. Scripture is replete with imagery of ‘rising’. God tells Abram: “Arise, walk through the land”; Proverbs states: “A righteous man fall seven times and rises again”; Isaiah says: “Arise, shine, for your light has come”; the Book of Numbers predicts: “A star rising out of Jacob”. Of course, our Lord rises from the dead.  Interestingly, the verb ‘to orient’ – as in ‘to face toward’ – comes from the Latin oriens meaning ‘rising’. (The sun rises in the east, hence the root for…

“A people without understanding comes to ruin”. These are the words of the prophet Hosea who, addressing the Israelites in the northern kingdom in the eighth century before the Assyrian capture of Samaria, admonished them for their willful ignorance of the commands of God.Though addressed to a specific people at a specific place, the prophet’s oracular warning is just as relevant today for the global community as it was for the Israelites then. Ten years ago this NCCF column reported on the work of Fr. George McLean, OMI, who in 1983 founded the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP). Fr. McLean has since departed this world, but the seed he had planted has beautifully blossomed. The NCCF column likened Fr. McLean’s vision to that of the English Benedictine, Bede Griffiths (d.1993) whose 1954 autobiography, The Golden String contained insights later echoed in Vatican II documents. He wrote: “The…

Inasmuch as this is the last article before Christmas and before the end of the year, it is ‘right and just’ to take this opportunity to acknowledge the generosity and commitment of all those responsible for the ongoing success of NCCF and its ministry of philanthropy. The number of those involved continues to grow and, like St. Paul’s image of the body of the Church (1 Cor: 12), includes a variety of members each of whom contributes to the advance of the Kingdom in a special way. Foremost among these are our trustees who meet monthly to act on the distribution requests and assure that our decisions are consonant with the Catholic faith.  Their work is facilitated by the indispensable supervision of our Comptroller who keeps us in good stead with the government. Without the work of our web manager we would be severely handicapped. Of course, it is the…

“The spirit of charity never fails”. This declaration which appeared on a religious organization’s website that recently crossed our screen raises a question. Will the spirit of charity ever fail? Can it? Proclaimed at least as early and the Pentateuchal and prophetic passages in the Hebrew bible and reinforced by the teachings of Christ in the New Testament, it enjoins us to care for the socially marginalized, the widows, orphans, aliens and the poor. Even so, as welfare becomes increasingly institutionalized, will it supplant this ancient force? Will succor be delivered without the human touch? Will it be adequate? The referenced website is that of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in New York (SCNY.org).  Most of us know that the first congregation of women religious in the United Staes was founded by Eilzabeth Ann Seton in 1809 in Maryland. (This year…

“This day you will be with me in Dismas House”. Though not the same as those uttered by Jesus to the ‘good thief’ in Luke’s Gospel, these words surely ring with great hope for those fortunate to hear them. The criminal on the cross next to Jesus asked to be remembered by him when he entered his kingdom. Jesus’ well known reply was: “This day you will be with me in Paradise”. Although unidentified in the narrative, according to tradition the name of the repentant convict is Dismas. Appropriately, Saint Dismas is now the patron saint of prisoners. It is not surprising, therefore, that for over thirty years a beacon of hope for former prisoners in the Worcester area of Massachusetts has been a vibrant community called the Dismas House.  As its website states, Dismas House provides several critical and otherwise unavailable services for men recovering and rebuilding their lives…

What would readers consider to be the most ancient of virtues? Perhaps many would suggest it is the virtue of hospitality.  The word virtue shares the same root as the word ‘virility’ which among other things implies courage, the courage to reach out to another. Certainly, hospitality qualifies as a virtue. Scripture contains famous examples of hospitality or of reaching out. Abraham welcomed the three angelic visitors. Boaz received the migrant Ruth in his home. The widow Zarepheth cared for homeless Elijah. More fundamentally, the original act of hospitality would be God’s creation of mankind and his invitation to dwell in paradise. In the New Testament Jesus reaches out to the forgotten and ignored. In the early years of the Church a driving force for evangelization was the practice of Christians to open their homes to those considered inferior elements of society.  One may wonder if today the virtue of…

Readers who see this photo and learn about its setting cannot help but be inspired by the message it conveys. On the surface it appears to be a classroom where an older instructor is teaching the solfege scale degrees to a young student. The reality is much more profound. The Archdiocese of Bukavu is situated in the Democratic Republic of Congo just west of the border with Rwanda. For thirty years the area has been plagued by the ravages of wars, wars which have resulted in repeated humanitarian crises involving mass displacement, civilian casualties, and frustrated development. It is an environment in which hope and sanity are hard to come by. They can be found, though, in the Archdiocese of Bukavu where this photo was recently taken.   Daniel Rugamika is the Director of the School of Music and Arts of Pueri Cantores of the Resurrection in the Archdiocese. In…

The University Crest of the second largest Catholic University in the United States bears this inscription. As its 15,000 plus student body will attest, the school exemplifies the phrase’s translation: A Christian education perfects the soul. What is the second largest Catholic University? No, it is not the one in Indiana, or the one in Washington, D.C. In this regard, the Holy Cross Fathers and the Jesuits step aside for the Vincentian Fathers who founded St. John’s University in 1870 in Brooklyn, New York. Their mission was to provide the youth of the city with a Catholic intellectual and moral education. As its website explains (www.stjohns.edu) , the school grew and – following the charism of St. Vincent de Paul –  educated its students  with a focus on social justice, charity and service. In 1954 it relocated to its current site in Queens, New York.The university now comprises five undergraduate…

“But I, brothers, could not address you as ‘spiritual people’, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians brings to mind Vagabond Missions  (www.vagabondmissions.com) which was started in 2007 in Steubenville, Ohio and now has ‘teams of missionaries’ serving in nine cities: Steubenville, Wichita, Baton Rouge, Greenville (NC), Mobile, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Its purpose is to engage young adult Catholics willing to serve as volunteer ‘missionaries’ in the cause of evangelizing inner-city high school students who have had little or no exposure to Christianity let alone to Catholicism. These urban youth typically are teens from low-income families and historically underserved, marginalized racial and ethnic populations. As its website states: “As Jesus was a vagabond during his earthly ministry, wandering to the margins of…