Pallium Primer

Tomorrow, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, four U.S. archbishops will be in Rome to participate in the Pallium Mass. Each of them -- along with all archbishops appointed in the past year all around the world -- will receive a Pallium from Pope Benedict XVI.

So what is the Pallium?

One man with over 25 years of experience wearing one, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, explains on

his blog:

It is a circular band about 2" wide, worn about the neck and having two pendants--one hanging down in front and one behind. It is worn over the chasuble at Mass. Every February two lambs are blessed each year and their white wool is used to make the Pallium. The wool is presented to the Pope, and Sisters then make the Pallium for the new Archbishops. ... The new Palliums are solemnly blessed on the eve of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and are kept in a special silver-gilt container in front of the Main Altar in St. Peter's Basilica.

The four U.S. archbishops who are receiving this special sign of their office are:

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller

Archbishop of San Antonio

Age 54

Ordained a priest June 22, 1984

Previously served as auxiliary bishop of Chicago (2003-10)

Currently youngest archbishop in USA

Archbishop Jose Gomez

Archbishop of Los Angeles

Age 59

Ordained a priest August 15, 1978

Previously served as auxiliary bishop of Denver (2001-04), archbishop of San Antonio (2005-10), coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles (2010-11)

First Latino appointed to a U.S. diocese traditionally headed by a cardinal

Archbishop Paul Stagg Coakley

Archbishop of Oklahoma City

Age 56

Ordained a priest May 21, 1983

Previously served as bishop of Salina, Kansas (2004-10)

Fourth archbishop of Oklahoma City

Archbishop James Peter Sartain

Archbishop of Seattle

Age 59

Ordained a priest July 15, 1978

Previously served as bishop of Little Rock (2000-06), bishop of Joliet (2006-10)

All three bishops heading dioceses in the state of Washington (Seattle, Yakima, Spokane) retired and were succeeded between June 2010 and April 2011.

The presence of Archbishop Gomez on this list raises another detail about the Pallium, that even an archbishop who's previously served as an archbishop in another diocese receives a new Pallium with his new assignment. The U.S. Church saw this recently with Archbishop Timothy Dolan's 2009 appointment to New York. Archbishop Dolan had previously served as archbishop of Milwaukee.

Hat tip to David Cheney, Doug Weller.

The Choice to End All Choices

If there is a prize in the game of semantics, it should go to the word CHOICE. And if you need someone to collect the prize for abusing the word, I offer those who promote what is deemed the choice to die. The patron of the movement, which is now enshrined into law in the states of Washington and Oregon, is the late Dr. Jack Kervorkian, the pathologist who once helped people die in the back of a 1968 van that he converted into a death machine. Curiously, when he himself passed on a few weeks ago, it was in a clean bed in a hospital where he had been ill. No Volkswagen van for Dr. Death.

Words develop emotional dimensions, which is why the right-to-die Hemlock Society, named for Socrates’ suicide juice of choice, is now called Compassion and Choices. Giving people the choice to die has a nicer ring to it than giving people the right to kill themselves or giving them the license to kill others. Those working for the freedom of choice to die, however, are working for the choice to end all choices.

With modern medicine, people live longer lives and take longer to die. Dying is a commonplace and responsible medical professionals have developed the modern day hospice movement and palliative care programs to address it. Palliative care offers a comprehensive care approach for those with potentially fatal illnesses, such as heart failure, rheumatoid arthritis, emphysema and cancer. It involves curing and comforting. If cure becomes less likely, for example, with end-stage cancers, end-stage heart failure and end-stage renal failure, it can lead to hospice care with its emphasis on comfort when cure seems out of the question.

When I was a reporter covering the hospice movement, I learned that people have two fears when confronting end of life: pain and isolation. Hospice and palliative care address them both. Advances in medications mean pain can be controlled. Medical staff can handle that. Dealing with fear of isolation lies in the hands of the rest of us. It is a call to the community to surround the dying and chronically ill with emotional support, prayer and the message that every moment of their lives has value to us. Every life has dignity at every stage.

Hospice and palliative care programs rely on family and volunteers for the team that provides medical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual care. They work to enable a meaningful life right now. They believe that life has meaning whether you’re on the job, in your lounge chair, or nodding off in bed.

It is no secret that people who are seriously and/or chronically ill can become depressed and feel they want to die. The answer is not "Here, let me help you.” It is to express compassion, to send the message that they’re not alone and that others walk with them.

Such support calls for selfless friends and relatives who know how to sit patiently and quietly and when to call others for help. Those who opt to help another live life as much as possible instead of ending it with a deadly medical cocktail respect life at every stage. They recognize the slippery slope where taking a life of someone who wants to die moves easily into taking the life of someone you want to die. Where taking the life of someone with little beneficial time left slides into taking the life of someone whose life you think has no benefit no matter how long they live. One can quickly arrogate to oneself the role of God.

The dying deserve choices in everything from choice of care to choice of where to receive it. Other choices may involve whether to pray or sit quietly. Whether to have visitors. Whether to see a spiritual guide. Whether to have apple sauce or ice cream. Whether to call an old friend. Whether to increase pain medication.

Caring involves sharing – everything from a funny story about the grandkids, the latest news report, who was at church in the morning and who called last night. It might even involve sharing a beer, though not one laced with hemlock or its modern equivalent.

Choices provide a sense of control and we all like to keep our options open. But when a choice eliminates every other choice thereafter, it’s really not a choice at all.

Never Has So Much Harm Been Done By So Few

Media reaction to the John Jay Report on “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests. 1950-2010” has centered on what the New York Times deemed the “Woodstock defense,” that is, blaming the libertine spirit of the bohemian music and peace meeting in 1969.

Let it be known that any insult to the hallowed Woodstock days puts gray-haired hippies up in arms. We wore the peace sign, sang “Kumbaya My Lord” to simplistic guitar music and cheered on peacenik confreres who disrupted the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. But the only thing most of us violated was good taste. (Orange shag carpeting anyone?)

Unfortunately by arguing about Woodstock, many miss the gist of the report, which is that the number of cases of child sexual abuse by clerics declined dramatically starting in the mid-80s. Cases dropped as education in seminaries increased and as dioceses began to implement safe environment plans and protocols for interaction between adults and children. It also helped that some priests in well publicized abuse cases wound up doing time. The John Jay report notes that as abuse went into decline in American society, statistics show that the numbers of abusers dropped more quickly in the church than elsewhere. Educating priests-in-training and volunteers and teachers on the job, and publicizing crimes by priests who went to jail were dramatic wake-up calls, even for people who didn’t recognize criminal behavior instinctively.

Last year in the U.S. Catholic Church of 68.2 million members, there were seven credible accusations of abuse of a minor by a priest. There should not be any, and punishment for abusers should be swift. Even in the worst days of abuse, however, it was an estimated four percent of priests who abused. Obviously there should have been no abuse, but it is unfair to ignore the fact that abusers constituted a small percentage of priests. When it comes to abusers smearing the reputations of dedicated, clean-living clerics, never has so much damage been done by so few.

The John Jay report rightly criticized the church’s lack of transparency and pointed out that when the church dealt with an abuser, it kept its actions a secret. It is understandable, given the ignorance about sex abuse in society until the very late 20th century. Just a couple decades ago, and even perhaps more recently, if one parent discovered the other sexually abusing a child at home (where most abuse happens), he or she didn’t discuss it at the PTA or go to the police. They might have tried to get spiritual or emotional help secretly for the perpetrator and the victim, though the crime is so shameful as to be paralyzing. A bishop told me a few years ago that one of the scandals in this matter was that bishops weren’t even speaking with one another. No one at a bishops’ meeting was apt to ask: “Hey Joe, any of your priests abuse kids?”

The silence is broken now. This is good. People, including well-trained children, speak up and speak out. Bishops notify the police when there is a credible accusation. Children are taught to tell parents and teachers when someone’s familiarity makes then uncomfortable. Everyone knows that “Keep your hands to yourself” has meaning even after kindergarten.

The gray-haired hippies, who are now retiring from proper jobs in areas such as education, law, medicine, and public service, agree. They reflect nostalgically on Woodstock. They look wistful when they hear the strains of “Where have all the flowers gone?” and they smile for “Puff, the magic dragon.” The Catholic hippies might even hum the sing-songy “Sons of God, hear his holy Word….” Woodstock evokes memories of wise or unwise passion. It doesn’t, however, equate to sexual abuse of a child.

Sexual abuse of a child is an intolerable aberration for which there is no excuse. For those who ever thought it was not harmful or even, incredibly, thought it was acceptable, education and prison time sent a message. But it had nothing to do with wearing love beads and tie-dyed shirts.

Grasping the Causes and Context

When the bishops gathered in Dallas in 2002 to approve the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, part of their response/commitment in dealing with the issue of clergy sexual abuse was to commission two studies to help the Church better understand what happened, what went wrong and how best to respond.

The reports became the task of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who, along with their expertise in conducting such research, had no prior affiliation with the Catholic Church. In 2004, they issued the Nature and Scope Study. Yesterday, May 18, they issued the second study, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.

The release of the report generated a great deal of media attention (as a study of this issue unprecedented in any organization should have), and as often the case, the nuances of the findings didn't always make it into the final stories, let alone the headlines.

For instance, a number of stories have reported that the study blames the 1960s or the sexual revolution for the sex abuse crisis. That was the headline of two otherwise fine pieces on the report by the Philadelphia Inquirer and National Public Radio. (Please do, click through and read their stories.)

More precise would be that the report found no single cause underlying clergy sexual abuse or the huge spike in numbers of decades ago, although it does explore trend lines in social upheaval as well as human formation in seminary. This is reflected in the leads of stories from Catholic News Service, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press and the New York Times.

One misconception that seems prevalent in the wake of the report is the notion that the bishops are somehow passing blame or minimizing the crisis. The statement from Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, USCCB chair of Protection of Children and Young People, makes it very clear where the bishops stand:

We have a position of zero tolerance of any cleric who would sexually abuse a child. This position must remain in effect, for as the late John Paul II declared, there can be no place in the priesthood for anyone who would abuse a child. Such a position protects children. But, it also protects the tens of thousands of priests who have suffered greatly in this crisis, all the while quietly serving with honor and self-sacrifice every day of their lives.

The study cautions against complacency. There is no room for fatigue or feeling that people have heard enough when it comes to efforts to protect children. The leadership of the bishops is needed now more than ever, particularly by encouraging and supporting those tasked with the responsibility of implementing the Charter in our dioceses, parishes and schools.

The researchers also stress that the sexual abuse of children exists throughout our country and our world. This problem is a human problem. Our Church is committed to be part of the solution. The very fear that abuse would ever recur in the Church compels us to take whatever action is needed to see that it does not arise again. At the same time, we stand ready to build partnerships with leaders in the civic community to rally the entire adult world to put an end to this societal scourge.

We welcome the study and its public release today. In view of its findings and recommendations, the bishops will thoroughly and carefully review our response to the sexual abuse crisis and make whatever adjustments are needed to help us build on the progress we have made. ...

Finally, as individual bishops and our Conference leadership have done, I once again apologize fully and without hesitation for the harm and the suffering caused when some priests took advantage of their moral authority and abused innocent children in a criminal way. It is also important to recall what Pope Benedict XVI said to us bishops about our response to the crisis during his visit to the United States in 2008: “as the President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was ‘sometimes very badly handled.’” The shame of failing our people will remain with us for a long time. It should. Its sting can keep us resolute in our commitments and humble so as to never forget the insight we came to nearly a decade ago in Dallas. We cannot do any of this on our own.

John Paul II: A Pope for Workers

The following is an essay by John Carr, Executive Director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

From his native Poland to the ends of the earth, John Paul insisted that work is not a burden or penalty, but “expresses the human vocation to service and solidarity” (March 19, 1997). He long maintained that “Human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question” (Laborem Exercens #3).

In his powerful encyclical On Human Work, John Paul II reaffirmed the right to employment, to just wages and to choose to join a union. He called for a priority of labor over capital. He taught us:

· “The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can the society attain social peace” (Centesimus Annus #43).

· “A just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly. It is not the only means of checking, but it is a particularly important one and, in a sense, the key means” (LE # 19).

· Workers have “the right to establish professional associations,” and trade unions have “the Church's defense and approval” (CA #7). “The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive” (CA #15). Unions have a role, “not only in negotiating contracts, but also as 'places' where workers can express themselves. They serve the development of an authentic culture of work and help workers to share in a fully human way in the life of their place of employment” (CA #15). “The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type [Unions] are an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies” (LE #20).

In his vision, unions help workers not simply “get more” for their work, but “be more,” more effective voices on their own behalf, more active participants in economic life and greater contributors to the common good of society.

Pope John Paul looked at economic life from the bottom-up. How do economic choices touch the “least of these” (Matthew 25: 31-46)? In an age of growing globalization, Pope John Paul insisted that all economic life should be measured by how it protects the lives, dignity and rights of workers and the vulnerable. At a time when workers were often treated as commodities, he stood up for their dignity and rights in the shipyards of Poland, the maquiladoras of America, the sweatshops of the Far East and the villages of Africa.

John Paul II, The Pilgrim Pope Who Inspired A Generation

Pope John Paul II keeps filling stadiums and squares years after his death. On April 2, 70,000 Mexicans filled up the Estadio Azteca (the massive soccer stadium in Mexico City) to pay tribute to the beloved pope who visited the country five times. After all, Mexicans don’t forget that his first pastoral visit as a pope in January 1979 was to Mexico, after a stop in the Dominican Republic. And that it was there, in front of their Virgencita de Guadalupe, that he consecrated his pontificate to her and decided that he had to be a pilgrim pope.

In 1999, John Paul II also promulgated the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a feast day of the Church in all the Americas and referred to her as the “Star of the First and the New Evangelization.”

At the recent tribute in Mexico City, the multitude chanted and cheered every time famous phrases from John Paul’s visits were repeated or projected on the screen. Phrases such as “México siempre fiel” (Mexico, always faithful), “Me voy pero no me voy” (I am leaving but I am not leaving [you]), and “Mexico sabe bailar, pero también sabe rezar, y más que todo gritar” (Mexico knows how to dance, but also knows how to pray and above else how to shout.) The man knew how to work a crowd!

It seems everybody has an anecdote to tell about John Paul II. This is a testimony to the impact that the globe-trotting, long-reigning, charismatic pope from Poland had on the lives of so many, particularly those of my generation who grew up not knowing any other pope but him.

In 1989, I was a young journalism student who traveled to Rome to participate at a university congress. I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica. After a beautiful and awe inspiring liturgy, I ran to position myself on the side alley that leads to the sacristy, through which the pope would process out. I was a woman with a mission: to take a picture of the pope as close as possible. As he turned around the corner imparting his blessings left and right, I prepared to shoot as soon as he turned my way. Then, something happened. Through the camera’s lens, I saw him looking directly at me. I lowered the camera and, for a split second, our eyes crossed. He moved on but I was still paralyzed, and ended up not taking the treasured picture. I remember his gaze as if it were yesterday. His eyes irradiated a profound peace but, at the same time, they projected a playful smile, as if telling me “Be good now.” The pope’s eyes captivated me and they opened in me a curiosity about him and what he had to say.

As a journalism student, I was also fascinated by John Paul’s II interaction with media. He knew of the power of media to evangelize and did not hesitate to cultivate a relationship with them. He was, in the words of Sister Mary Ann Walsh, RSM “made for TV.”

His love for youth, and the way he was able to connect with them were absolutely remarkable too. My husband was a young pilgrim at WYD 1993 in Denver. He often tells me how special it was for him. “No matter how close or far away you were to the stage, you felt like he was talking personally to you,” he says. Of all the pope’s messages he especially remembers his “Do not be afraid!” words of encouragement that meant so much at that stage in his life.

It is difficult to summarize all that John Paul II did and meant to us: his tireless defense of human life and dignity; the way in which he made the Gospel and himself present to the people of every continent and nation; his profound thought about mankind and what troubles it today. In the end, his message was always the same: Christ is the answer!

Perhaps seasoned journalist John Thavis summed it up well in his obituary for the former pope: “Pope John Paul II was a voice of conscience for the world and a modern-day apostle for his church. To both roles he brought a philosopher's intellect, a pilgrim's spiritual intensity and an actor's flair for the dramatic. That combination made him one of the most forceful moral leaders of the modern age.”

No matter what, however, let us remember that the man who canonized more saints that all of his predecessors combined is being declared now “blessed” by the Church not because of his accomplishments, political influence or management style, but because of the sanctity of his life.
His words and actions inspired a generation to open wide the doors to Christ. He made us question ourselves and invited us to lead better lives, to make room for Christ and invite others to do the same.

On May 1, John Paul II will fill St. Peter’s Square again. With all the pilgrims, our heart is chanting in the distance: “¡Juan Pablo Segundo, te quiso, te quiere, todo el mundo!” (John Paul II, we loved, we still love, you).
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First published as the April "Entre Amigos" column, the monthly Latino opinion piece from USCCB Media Relations

What Makes a Convert?

First published in the Huffington Post:

Easter is exciting in the Catholic Church as parishes across the United States welcome tens of thousands into their ranks through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. Some are not quite newcomers, since they really have been inactive Catholics, sometimes called lapsed Catholics. Many fell away from the practice of the faith or cut short their sacramental life at baptism or First Communion. Others entering the church join Catholicism as already baptized persons from other Christian traditions, such as the Episcopal, Lutheran or Baptist churches. Still others have been atheists with no religious background or have come from a non-Christian tradition, such as Judaism or Islam.

What makes this both exciting and intriguing is that each one has a story of conversion, a mysterious enough touching of a heart, mind and soul to prompt a radical change in a life.

What makes a convert?

Sometimes it is an experience that might make another turn from God. Take the Georgia woman, a native of Cameroon. Her nine-year-old son drowned last summer at a day camp. A Catholic community reached out with comfort. One member even paid for the child’s funeral. Identifying with the immense sorrow at the death of a child, men and women extended themselves to another, not of their religion nor even their country, and they sparked a seed of faith. They didn’t set out to convert another or be examples of good Christians, but their human reaction drew an inconsolable woman to the consolation of the Catholic faith and she learned a lesson of Easter, that in death, life is not ended but changed. Her child’s life was changed and so too was her own.

Sometimes conversion occurs over coffee. That’s what happened in St. Paul, Minnesota, when a 43-year-old former Marine crossed paths with a 79-year-old retired three-star Army general and heart surgeon. Their bonds as military men led to questioning what made each other tick. The younger, a man of science who described himself as an atheist, had lots of questions, and the general had answers that drew his friend into the church.

Some stories have a modern twist. A Maryland man who was a strong Pentecostal found Catholicism through Facebook, and chats online eventually led him to the Catholic Church. He said he found himself looking for a more disciplined structure in a spiritual community. He finished his RCIA program with a priest in Indonesia while working as a volunteer at a Catholic school there.

In Texas a Planned Parenthood clinic director changed when she held the ultrasound probe during an abortion procedure and watched on a monitor as the baby tried to get away. The experience led her to become one with a pro-life coalition group that prayed outside the clinic and had offices down the street. Abandoned by her pro-choice associates she found support with the coalition, who helped her navigate a search for a new job, broken friendships and legal problems with Planned Parenthood. She and her family are set to join the Church this Easter.

Some are drawn by what lies at the heart of Catholicism, the Eucharist. That’s what attracted a worker at Washington’s Georgetown University, who went to Mass at the college with friends. Another Washingtonian, a molecular biologist with a degree in Biblical languages, found the seeds of his belief in teachings on the Eucharist in the New Testament.

Some stories are dramatic; others as commonplace as a conversion can be. Some convert because of a love interest and want to share the same faith. Others have watched their spouse and children head to Mass and now want more oneness with them. Some simply have been thinking about it for a long time.

It’s long been known that faith is caught more than taught. Certainly many people preach the faith without intending to do so, just by the quality of their own lives, as they live human lives in very human ways.

The mystery of Easter that celebrates Jesus rising from the dead is heralded in churches by flowers that come from bulbs and seeds that once looked lifeless. It has a mystical aura about it. So do men and women committing their whole lives to an unseen God, whose presence is so real. That’s exciting. Some mysteries you can never grow tired of.