Given the choice, most people would prefer to stay close to their homes and families: yet every day, thousands of people worldwide are faced with the heart-wrenching decision to leave their loved ones and migrate. Lack of economic opportunity to provide for their families, due in part to U.S.-promoted global economic policies, drives much of the migration to the United States and other countries where jobs may be found. Meanwhile, conflict, violence, persecution and environmental degradation have resulted in the forced migration of millions who become refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs). To ensure “a place to call home” for all our sisters and brothers, we must work to address the root causes of displacement around the globe, as well as treat economic and forced migrants in the U.S. and abroad with humanity and dignity. Because we are commanded in scripture to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger, we call on Congress to act on the following legislative initiatives:

Immigration Reform

As people of faith who witness the human consequences of our broken immigration system, we understand that the United States needs immigration reform now more than ever. We urge Congress to enact humane, equitable immigration reform this year that:

• Allows undocumented immigrants and their families to earn lawful permanent residency upon the satisfaction of reasonable criteria and eventually pursue citizenship
• Expands legal avenues of entry for families who are separated and for those who seek work
• Aligns border policies and internal enforcement policies with humanitarian values and due process protections

Separated families, exploited workers, and broken communities cannot wait any longer for Congress to fix our broken immigration system. We urge all members to make immigration reform a priority.

Root Causes of Migration – Jubilee Act

We urge Congress to enact the Jubilee Act, which would expand debt cancellation and provide a framework for responsible lending to poor countries. In order to fight global poverty and address the push factors behind economic migration, people of faith from around the world achieved Jubilee debt cancellation for many of the world’s poorest countries in 1999 and 2005. The Jubilee Act (HR 4405) will broaden and deepen debt cancellation. This would allow countries to invest more in education, health care, and public infrastructure, thus reducing the number of people forced to seek economic opportunities away from home.

Assist Forcibly Displaced Persons [For Appropriator Visits]

We urge Congress to provide adequate funds for life-saving assistance to refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in fiscal year 2011, such as:

• Helping Refugees in the United States: Provide $987.9 million for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services. ORR helps refugees, asylees, and victims of torture and human trafficking find employment, learn English, and begin new lives in the U.S.
• Assisting Refugees Overseas: Provide $2.31 billion for Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) through the U.S. State Department. These funds help refugees in camps and urban situations across the world find safety, nourishment, and protection.
• Assisting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): Provide $1.6 billion for International Disaster Assistance (IDA), administered by USAID. These funds provide urgently-needed assistance and protection to forcibly displaced people in over 62 countries – including Sudan, Haiti, and Sri Lanka.
• Supporting displaced Haitians:  Provide funding for the displaced population of Haiti as part of a $3 billion assistance package for use over the next two years, to meet the immediate and long-term needs in Haiti for relief, reconstruction and development following the devastating earthquake.

Immigrants come to this country primarily because they feel that this country offers better financial opportunities then their own. Immigrants come from all over but the focus tends to be on Mexico and Central America. This of course is because we share a border with Mexico and the issues of economic disparity between that Central America and our own is significant. The recent surge of violence in that area has destabilized the situation further.

The Catholic Church in America shares this social concern. We are further impacted by the very fact that a majority of immigrants into this country tend to be members of our faith. For the church however this concern is identified with our governing social principle of promoting the God given dignity of all humanity. This principle calls us to be attentive to the suffering and destruction of all life because by faith we believe that God is the author of life. This Catholic principle informs us on the position we as Catholics take on abortion, torture and the death penalty. The recent encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI reinforces this point, “Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”

In the case of immigration the Church is being attentive to a particular human community that is unfortunately forced to emigrate for basic economic opportunities. There is a very real suffering that is happening in our nation primarily with the plight of the immigrants themeselves but also by others who are affected by their presence. As the Church develops its position it will evaluate the related issues including the legitimate concerns of national security and the domestic economic impact resulting from immigration flows. The founding principle of faith that directs this position however will be the dignity of the human person.  The Catholic Church will address the immigrant community who suffers in a very real way from violations to their dignity and sometimes life.  As the social document Strangers No Longer puts it: “We the bishops of Mexico and the United States seek to awaken our people to the mysterious presence of the crucified and risen Lord in the person of the migrant and to renew in them the values of the Kingdom of God that he proclaimed.”

The issue of immigration is an issue about a real population whose circumstances brought them into this country. Many of us are aware of the presence of immigrants in our midst. We witness them working in factories or in any number of low income jobs such as restaurant kitchen staff, construction day laborers or house cleaning services. When we become more observant we may even see them in areas where house cleaners or day laborers wait for odd jobs. We may also become aware of their presence with us when we take public transportation and then we may even see them or their families attending the same schools and church that our families attends. We then also read about their tragic stories in the newspapers when we read of migrants who are beaten, killed or rounded up and deported. We follow their migrating patterns into the desert of the southwest and find out about the atrocious smuggling conditions that many of them go through. Passionist spirituality sees the face of the suffering Christ in those who suffer insults, marginalization and physical abuse. In a Long Island newspaper a man and his children were shown grieving the violent loss of their wife and mother. We Passionist are trained to witness the pain of Jesus’ passion in contemporary experiences such as these.

As a Catholic religious community we are called to be in solidarity with all who suffer. Solidarity in turn calls us to be really present to a population that is marginalized in our society. In the coming week I hope to share at least two ministry experiences that our Passionist communities have in the United States with the immigrant community.

The Catholic Church also recognizes the value of the family as the primary unit of society and the Church defends the integrity of the family time and time again. With the immigrant community we sympathies with the difficulty they face in having their families split up as they immigrate into our nation or in being deported from the families that they have made here in the U.S. We are called to alleviate the situation so that the ever important family unit can stay intact whenever possible.  

As American Catholics we recognize the legitimate issues with regards to national security and the domestic economy. We certainly also walk with those who also suffer from unemployment and current economic distress. The suffering of one does not compete for attention against the suffering of another. Our legislative path will not be to opt for one suffering group over another. Instead we must approach this issue with an aim of promoting true reconciliation. In advocating for policies that address the real affects of suffering we are challenged to pursue a social analysis that examines the authentic root causes of the suffering we are ministering to. Adopting policies based on erroneous perceptions does not offer any redemptive quality to the suffering that either the immigrant or unemployed community faces. Nor does it offer a real solution.

• Joshua 5: 9-12. The feast of Passover is celebrated on the plains of Jericho. The Israelites eat the produce of the Promised Land, and the manna ceases.
• 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21. “The old order has passed away; now all is new.” Christ who never sinned became “sin” that we might become the very holiness of God.
• Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32. The parable of the prodigal son, the story of a father’s forgiveness and a brother’s anger.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The theme with the lectionary readings for this week is reconciliation. Immediately after reading these Scripture passages I began to reflect on the book “The Shack” by William Young. As I was reading this book I recalled how I had to pause once I became aware of the crime that became the central issue for the main character. Mack (the main character) is a father who experiences the kidnapping and violent murder of his youngest daughter. As a father of a liitle girl myself I considered this experience to be unforgivable. The rest of the book was a mystical journey for Mack to forgive the unforgivable. This was a powerful narrative and to be sure I was moved and challenged by the journey that Mack had with the Holy Trinity. But could I take this same journey with God? I would like to hope so, but in my heart I remain very much challenged with regards to this dimension of reconciliation.

In the first reading we are told about how God reconciles with the Israelites who have entered the promise land in a place called “Gilgal”. In the second reading Paul tells us that “we are ambassadors for Christ” whose mission “was reconciling the world to Himself.” The parable of the prodigal son is a challenging portrayal of paternal forgiveness.  We Christians know that we are called to forgive and to promote reconciliation with each other. Yet while we can accept this dimension of our Christian calling in theory, there comes a point where we ask the question that Peter poses to Jesus, “How often must I forgive my brother?”

Christian eschatology, the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God in our midst, is theologically understood in the “already but not yet” formula. Jesus declared that through him the Kingdom of God is already present, but with his ascension we also understand that the culmination of the Kingdom of God will happen sometime in the future. In Romans 8 Paul asserts that “all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now” and in this week’s second reading Paul also reminds us that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation.” Christian theology teaches us that in the Divine timeline the Kingdom of God began with Christ and we continue living in this transitional phase until the moment that the Kingdom of God is fully established in our midst, a moment we also call the second coming of Christ. What Paul is reminding us in the second reading is that during this transitional phase we are called to be ambassadors in our society for the values and principles of the Kingdom of God. An essential dimension of this is our obligation to end the social cycle of violence by promoting reconciliation in our world.

We are imperfect ambassadors in this transitional phase. Radical forgiveness and reconciliation is a Christian value that will challenge us in the same way that it challenged the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. But what is just as important as the fact the father forgave his youngest son is that the father also goes out to the field to consult and journey with the older son to have him understand this challenging level of reconciliation. “The Shack” demonstrates this same point at a deeper and more intimate level when Mack journeys with each member of Holy Trinity.

In our world and in our society there will be events and incidence that will challenge our ability to forgive members of the human family that hurt us or our society. Our Christian commitment is to allow ourselves to be challenged and try in whatever capacity to at least comprehend our call to promote reconciliation between God and all humanity. There will be times that we fail and at the moment maybe we simply cannot forgive and instead we go out to the field in anger, but we are called to allow ourselves to be open to God during these challenging moments.

Now some may say, “well that is all fine and well in a parable or in a fictional book but where is this value reflected in real life?” I recall asking that very same question as I finished reading “the Shack”. That following week a gunman shot all the girls at an Amish school in Pennsylvania. To my absolute amazement the Amish community, in an act of social reconciliation, forgave the gunman.

Based on this one could legitimately ask, “What can the Passionist contribute to the social issues of our time separate from what the universal Church already proclaims?”

The Passionist, like so many other religious communities of the Church, contributes to the social teachings of our Church in two ways. On the one hand we have a specific spiritual perspective that is based on the charism that we have from our founder. This lens can often offer us a deeper perspective on any social issue in that it places the issue within the specific Christian spirituality that is the hallmark of our community. In the case of the Passionist community we reflect on issues from the perspective of Christ’s suffering and Passion. The Passionist Constitutions explain this spiritual perspective in this way:

We are aware that the Passion of Christ continues in this world until He comes in glory; therefore we share in the joys and sorrows of our contemporaries as we journey through life toward our Father. We wish to share in the distress of all, especially those who are poor and neglected; we seek to offer them comfort and to relieve the burden of their sorrow. The power of the Cross, which is the wisdom of God, gives us strength to discern and remove the causes of human suffering.   

Our spirituality looks at social issues from the perspective of redemptive suffering. Our devotion to the Passion constantly reminds us that the social Passion that Jesus suffered was not in vain. Coupled with the Resurrection we know that through the power of God the suffering of humanity can be redeemed if we journey with God and place all our suffering within the framework of establishing the Kingdom of God. Through the mystery of incarnation Jesus took on our suffering. Obviously we know that does not mean that suffering has been eliminated. Instead it means that God continues to walk with us in our suffering. This has been recently expressed by Pope Benedict XVI 2007 encyclical titled Spe Salvi:

Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and blood—as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus’s Passion. Hence in all human suffering we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio is present in all suffering, the consolation of God’s compassionate love—and so the star of hope rises.      

Our spiritual focus then is to examine all social issues from the vantage point of redemptive suffering. We identify with the very real suffering that is happening. We then reflect on how we can find meaning in the midst of this real experience of suffering. This search for meaning will call us to reevaluate the national and global policies that are affecting the suffering community that we are walking with. We then advocate redeeming society from these negative social or economic policies in a way that can heal the social wounds that they are directly or indirectly causing.   

The second way that the Passionist contributes to the Catholic social position is through our direct ministries of service. We are called to be in solidarity with the human community that is suffering. That call to solidarity means that we are expected to have a real ministry of presence and service to the community that is suffering. Since suffering can be experienced in so many different ways, our lay and vowed community can serve this mission through any variety of programs. When we advocate and promote social positions of our Church it is important for us that we do not raise these principles and positions from a theoretical framework. So we raise the real ministry experience of our international community who serves the population whose suffering we are addressing at the moment.

In the next few weeks we will be sharing our spirituality and ministerial experiences over the issue of immigration. Afterwards we will continue addressing other Catholic social issues but always from these two ways. We will share from the spiritual reflection of our charism and from the ministry experience of our communities.

Catholic teaching has a long and rich tradition in defending the right to migrate. Based on the life and teachings of Jesus, the Church’s teaching has provided the basis for the development of basic principles regarding the right to migrate for those attempting to exercise their God-given human rights. Catholic teaching also states that the root causes of migration–poverty, injustice, religious intolerance, armed conflicts–must be addressed so that migrants can remain in their homeland and support their families.

In modern times, this teaching has developed extensively in response to the worldwide phenomenon of migration. Pope Pius XII reaffirms the Church’s commitment to caring for pilgrims, aliens, exiles, and migrants of every kind in his apostolic constitution Exsul Familia, affirming that all peoples have the right to conditions worthy of human life and, if these conditions are not present, the right to migrate. “Then–according to the teachings of [the encyclical] Rerum Novarum–the right of the family to a [life worthy of human dignity] is recognized. When this happens, migration attains its natural scope as experience often shows.”

While recognizing the right of the sovereign state to control its borders, Exsul Familia also establishes that this right is not absolute, stating that the needs of immigrants must be measured against the needs of the receiving countries:

Since land everywhere offers the possibility of supporting a large number of people, the sovereignty of the State, although it must be respected, cannot be exaggerated to the point that access to this land is, for inadequate or unjustified reasons, denied to needy and decent people from other nations, provided of course, that the public wealth, considered very carefully, does not forbid this.

In his landmark encyclical Pacem in Terris, Blessed Pope John XXIII expands the right to migrate as well as the right to not have to migrate: “Every human being has the right to freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own country; and, when there are just reasons for it, the right to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there.” Pope John XXIII placed limits on immigration, however, when there are “just reasons for it.” Nevertheless, he stressed the obligation of sovereign states to promote the universal good where possible, including an obligation to accommodate migration flows. For more powerful nations, a stronger obligation exists.

The Church also has recognized the plight of refugees and asylum seekers who flee persecution. In his encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Pope John Paul II refers to the world’s refugee crisis as “the festering of a wound.” In his 1990 Lenten message, Pope John Paul II lists the rights of refugees, including the right to be reunited with their families and the right to a dignified occupation and just wage. The right to asylum must never be denied when people’s lives are truly threatened in their homeland.

Pope John Paul II also addresses the more controversial topic of undocumented migration and the undocumented migrant. In his 1995 message for World Migration Day, he notes that such migrants are used by developed nations as a source of labor. Ultimately, the pope says, elimination of global underdevelopment is the antidote to illegal immigration. Ecclesia in America, which focuses on the Church in North and South America, reiterates the rights of migrants and their families and the respect for human dignity “even in cases of non-legal immigration.”

Both of our episcopal conferences have echoed the rich tradition of church teachings with regard to migration. Five principles emerge from such teachings, which guide the Church’s view on migration issues.

I. Persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland.
All persons have the right to find in their own countries the economic, political, and social opportunities to live in dignity and achieve a full life through the use of their God-given gifts. In this context, work that provides a just, living wage is a basic human need.

II. Persons have the right to migrate to support themselves and their families.
The Church recognizes that all the goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right.

III. Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders.
The Church recognizes the right of sovereign nations to control their territories but rejects such control when it is exerted merely for the purpose of acquiring additional wealth. More powerful economic nations, which have the ability to protect and feed their residents, have a stronger obligation to accommodate migration flows.

IV. Refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection.
Those who flee wars and persecution should be protected by the global community. This requires, at a minimum, that migrants have a right to claim refugee status without incarceration and to have their claims fully considered by a competent authority.

V. The human dignity and human rights of undocumented migrants should be respected.
Regardless of their legal status, migrants, like all persons, possess inherent human dignity that should be respected. Often they are subject to punitive laws and harsh treatment from enforcement officers from both receiving and transit countries. Government policies that respect the basic human rights of the undocumented are necessary.

The Church recognizes the right of a sovereign state to control its borders in furtherance of the common good. It also recognizes the right of human persons to migrate so that they can realize their God-given rights. These teachings complement each other. While the sovereign state may impose reasonable limits on immigration, the common good is not served when the basic human rights of the individual are violated. In the current condition of the world, in which global poverty and persecution are rampant, the presumption is that persons must migrate in order to support and protect themselves and that nations who are able to receive them should do so whenever possible. It is through this lens that we assess the current migration reality between the United States and Mexico.

The word of God and the Catholic social teaching it inspires illuminate an understanding–one that is ultimately full of hope–that recognizes the lights and shadows that are a part of the ethical, social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of migrations between our two countries. The word of God and Catholic social teaching also bring to light the causes that give rise to migrations, as well as the consequences that they have on the communities of origin and destination.

These lights and shadows are seen in faith as part of the dynamics of creation and grace on the one hand, and of sin and death on the other, that form the backdrop of all salvation history.

Old Testament
Even in the harsh stories of migration, God is present, revealing himself. Abraham stepped out in faith to respond to God’s call (Gn 12:1). He and Sarah extended bounteous hospitality to three strangers who were actually a manifestation of the Lord, and this became a paradigm for the response to strangers of Abraham’s descendants. The grace of God even broke through situations of sin in the forced migration of the children of Jacob: Joseph, sold into slavery, eventually became the savior of his family (Gn 37:45)–a type of Jesus, who, betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver, saves the human family.

The key events in the history of the Chosen People of enslavement by the Egyptians and of liberation by God led to commandments regarding strangers (Ex 23:9; Lv 19:33). Israel’s conduct with the stranger is both an imitation of God and the primary, specific Old Testament manifestation of the great commandment to love one’s neighbor: “For the Lord, your God, is the . . . Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes, who executes justice for the orphan and widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you, too, must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt” (Dt 10:17-19). For the Israelites, these injunctions were not only personal exhortations: the welcome and care of the alien were structured into their gleaning and tithing laws (Lv 19:9-10; Dt 14:28-29).

New Testament
Recalling the migration of the Chosen People from Egypt, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph themselves were refugees in Egypt: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Mt 2:15). From this account the Holy Family has become a figure with whom Christian migrants and refugees throughout the ages can identify, giving them hope and courage in hard times.

St. Matthew also describes the mysterious presence of Jesus in the migrants who frequently lack food and drink and are detained in prison (Mt 25:35-36). The “Son of Man” who “comes in his glory” (Mt 25:31) will judge his followers by the way they respond to those in such need: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).

The Risen Christ commanded his apostles to go to all nations to preach his message and to draw all people through faith and baptism into the life of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Mt 28:16-20). The Risen Christ sealed this command through the sending of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-21). The triumph of grace in the Resurrection of Christ plants hope in the hearts of all believers, and the Spirit works in the Church to unite all peoples of all races and cultures into the one family of God (Eph 2:17-20).

The Holy Spirit has been present throughout the history of the Church to work against injustice, division, and oppression and to bring about respect for individual human rights, unity of races and cultures, and the incorporation of the marginalized into full life in the Church. In modern times, one of the ways this work of the Spirit has been manifested is through Catholic social teaching, in particular the teachings on human dignity and the principle of solidarity.

• Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15. God calls Moses and reveals himself as “I AM”, from the burning bush.
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12. The exodus of Israel out of Egypt, through the desert, toward the Promised Land, “happened… as an example… [and] a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.”
• Luke 13: 1-9. The mystery of human events and the justice of God are typified in the fig tree.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The parable of the fig tree offers us an interesting point with regard to Divine justice. The fig tree is barren and unproductive. The owner represents a fairly typical social response to members of society that seem unproductive and worthless. From his perspective the barren fig tree should be cut down, “why should it exhaust the soil.” I think this phrase is very interesting itself. Consider the argument used for the poor and low-income communities in our society. Generalities are thrown out there that deem this population as being unproductive and with no visible social worth. Arguments based on these generalities are used against social programs for these communities: “Why should they continue being a drain on our society?”

But Jesus plays the role of the pastoral gardener. His role in this parable is similar to performing social analysis and nurturing the environment that up to this point is keeping the tree barren. The gardener is nothing less than a community organizer whose organization is the Kingdom of God. Jesus the gardener recognizes the negative environmental influences that have contributed to the barren quality of the fig tree. He addresses that limited environment in order to give the tree every opportunity to blossom into a productive member of the Kingdom of God. The element of personal responsibility is not lost on the image of the fig tree however since the gardener accepts that if under these changed environmental circumstances the fig tree still remains barren then it must accept the consequence of its inaction. The point of the parable is that the justice of Christ will accept this judgment once the negative environmental elements are addressed.

It is important to notice the issues that gave rise to this parable. Certain Galileans were judged to be great sinners because of the forms of natural (the collapse of the tower) and social (Pilate’s atrocity) suffering they endured. Jesus points out very clearly that God’s justice is not reflected in the way people suffer. Jesus also emphasizes twice that the inactive judgment by those who witness such suffering will lead them to a similar fate. We have recently witnessed a number of natural disasters in Haiti and Chile and social atrocities in Palestine and Somalia. Our role in following the good gardener is not to judge and dismiss the people who suffer but to analyze and address the negative social and environmental situations so that all people can have every opportunity to be productive members of a society that is based on the common good.

The first two readings emphasize this point even further. In the first reading God reveals his justice to Moses who will be His appointed agent for the liberation of the oppressed Hebrews. But in Corinthians we hear Paul offer us a symbolic interpretation of this historical liberation moment. Paul is warning the early Christians that they are living in the midst of this liberation moment. We, like the early Christians, are also living in the moment of liberation. We are called to liberate the world from social injustice and heal our society from natural disasters as part of our role of being gardeners for the Kingdom of God. Paul tells all of us who accept the responsibility of following Christ that we cannot accept a false sense of spiritual or social security that leads us away from the moral responsibilities we owe God and each other. Our Christian witness to the social and natural suffering in our days is not to stand by and cast judgments but to engage in solidarity with all who suffer and to cultivate the social and environmental landscape so that all our suffering brothers and sisters may have the opportunity to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.

• Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18. By a covenant God renewed the promise to Abram (Abraham) of many descendants and their own land.
• Philippians 3:17-4:1. We eagerly await the coming of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will then give a new form to our lowly body.
• Luke 9:28-36. At Jesus’ transformation, Moses and Elijah appear and speak with him of his “exodus”.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

In the fourth Chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans St. Paul offers a wonderful perspective on the faith and hope that Abraham had when God made his covenant with him:

He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was, “Thus shall your descendants be.”

The readings today reflect the Christian spirituality of hoping against hope. In Genesis, Abraham accepts this promise that God makes with him in faith and he does so until his dying day since even then his only son, Isaac, never possesses the Promised Land as his own. In the second reading Paul, who at this time is mindful of his own impending death, instructs the early Christian community to place their hopes not in the tangible goods of this world whose “God is their stomach and their glory is in their “shame.”” Instead Paul tells them to place their hope in their “citizenship” in heaven and in Jesus Christ who “will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.”

And then we finally come to the Gospel passage where immediately sandwiched between the first and second affirmation of His own passion and death Jesus is transfigured with Moses and Elijah in the presence of the apostolic pillars of the early church. In this instance Peter, James and John are shown the transfigured glory that is to come and they placed their hope and faith in this new covenant even though they could neither comprehend it in the moment nor easily accept that negative social ramifications that is accompanied with following the transfigured Christ.

Like Abraham, Paul, and the first Apostles we too are called to hope against hope. We are called to place our hope not in the tangible and social dimensions of our reality but in a mystical and unseen purpose that transcends these social dimensions. This message from Scripture is all the more vital for us who are living in these difficult times. We have placed our hopes in economic and political ideologies that have unraveled. Here in the United States and throughout the western world we have become complacent with a certain lifestyle that is no longer sustainable. Even now, as we are struggling with the economic and social challenges of our time, are solutions are still based in the hope of bringing back a social model that was comfortable for many of us. But this is not the hope that Scripture is offering us.

Our hope is in a cosmological vision that transcends our reality but which also dictates our reality. The reason our former lifestyle is no longer feasible is because it was never sustainable. The principles of Catholic social teachings are calling us to envision a hope of a transfigured world where the love of God is visibly expressed through the deepening of our relationship and concern for one another and for the dignity of creation itself. In the Encyclical Spe Salvi Pope Benedict XVI tells us that: “Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too.”

Let us take some time to reflect on the readings and to consider the Christian message of hoping against hope in relationship to shared concern for all living things and in light of the social, economic and environmental situation we are facing. I also encourage any Catholic who would like to deepen their understanding of Christian hope to download or purchase the Encyclical Spe Salvi and to meditate on the pastoral message that Pope Benedict XVI is offering us in this encyclical letter.

Lent is a major event in the annual life of the Christian community. It is a time when many people want to do something “more.” Churches overflow on Ash Wednesday. Attendance at daily Mass increases. Parishioners are generally more inclined to participate in retreats or missions during the Lenten season. Restaurants often adapt their menus to accommodate the Catholic practice of abstinence. Church fish fries are a defining feature of Lent for many school kids and their parents.

Lent 4.5 is a program of conversion which educates Catholic communities on issues of sustainability and social justice from a faith perspective, inspiring them to take practical steps in caring for God’s creation by using only their fair share of the Earth’s resources. It offers a faith-based response to the injustice, inequity and devastation of creation caused by rampant consumerism. It honors the good intentions Christians have to do something extra during Lent and directs the focus toward a conversion of heart that is concerned about environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritually fulfillment. Caring for creation and living more simply are an essential part of faith for those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus today.

Why 4.5?

Through a measuring tool called Global Footprint, we are able to assess the impact of various lifestyles upon the Earth. It is a complex process, but a simple formula. At present, there are approximately 6.5 billion humans alive on the planet. If we divide the planet evenly so that each of us receives a fair-share, every person would be entitled to 4.5 acres.

From that 4.5 acres each of us would have to find the wherewithal to cultivate our food, the space and materials to construct our home, the energy to heat and cool it, the water for our lawn and toilets, a place to dispose of our wastes, the timber or plastic to put together our furniture, the fibers to produce our clothes, the metals to manufacture our appliances and cars, the petroleum for our transportation, and anything needed to make our gadgets and stuff. 4.5 acres would be each person’s fair-share.

The Global Footprint accounting tool enables us to measure how much the productive land and sea of the planet is used by any given segment of a population. We can use it to calculate how many acres it takes to support the lifestyle of an individual, an industry or a country. According to 2009 data (www.footprintnetwork.org), Africans living in Tanzania need 2.6 acres to support their average lifestyle, while the portion of the planet used by someone living in the Egypt is 3.5 acres. Iraq needs 3.3 acres; Saudi Arabia requires 8.6 acres. The average person in India only takes 1.9 acres, while those living in Columbia ask for 7.4 acres to sustain their lifestyle. The Japanese come in at 10.2 acres; France 11.4 acres; Italy 12.2 acres; Mexico calls for 8.0 acres; and Canada demands 14.2 acres. In the United States of America it takes a staggering 22.3 acres to support our average lifestyle.

Regardless of our personal habits of consumption, anyone who lives in the United States benefits from the infrastructures, food choices, travel options, medical advantages and conveniences of a standard of living that demands 22.3 acres of the Earth. If our fair share is 4.5 acres of the planet’s resources that means others must do with less so we can maintain our level of affluence. This disparity gives an entirely new meaning to the Biblical admonition: “Thou shalt not steal.”

For a long time, many wanted to believe that justice meant working to lift others up to our standard of living. We now know that is impossible, given the spatial restrictions and limited resources of the Earth. Estimates suggest that it would take four or five planets to accomplish that elevation in lifestyles. And of course, we only have one. There are not another four Earth-like planets anywhere in sight.

We have a huge global problem. We Catholics in the affluent United States have a faith problem. Anyone who follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ cannot remain distant or indifferent to the consumption habits of our country. How can we share our planet with another 6.5 billion human beings in a way that enables all of us to live with dignity? Specifically, how can our observance of Lent 2010 make a direct response to global poverty and manifest our Catholic position on justice for all human beings? “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation,” advised Pope Benedict in his 2010 World Day Peace message.

One reason the environment is in serious peril and many of the planet’s eco-systems are near collapse is due to the habitual and daily choices we humans make. For the most part, we think of the Earth not as a sacred endowment, but as pre-manufactured material. God’s creation is typically treated as a resource for our consumption or a place to toss our waste. This consumer mentality drives our economy and personal lives. Given the prevailing mindset in our country, we are seemingly willing to exhaust the Earth’s resources and deprive future generations in order to satisfy our ravenous desires.

In this materialistic culture everything is designed to make us consumers. Lent 4.5 tries to be honest with what Jesus said about simplicity. It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Lent 4.5 offers Christians practical ways to be different from this greedy consumer society. Simplicity does not mean moving to a cave or eating berries. Living simply means setting limits that reflect our faith values by taking only what we need – not hoarding or taking in excess. Good stewardship of God’s creation results in a life that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich.

Lent 4.5 is a new program initiated and designed by the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center. You can learn more about Lent 4.5 and download the material by going to http://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/lent45/.

“I invite all believers to raise a fervent prayer to God, the all-powerful Creator and the Father of mercies, so that all men and women may take to heart the urgent appeal: If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.” – Pope Benedict XVI, 2010 World Day of Peace

It is traditional in the Catholic faith to celebrate mass in remembrance of the dead after one month has passed. Today throughout Haiti, at 7 am, in what is left of the parishes of Port au Prince, this mass will be celebrated for the estimated 200,000 dead from the earthquake. In addition to these masses, President Preval has declared today to be a day of national fast, and the beginning of three days of national mourning. We are participating in this act of solidarity by offering mass at 7 am at Titayin, together with Bishop Dumas, at the burial place of the indigent and unknown dead from the earthquake. We ourselves have buried about 2,500 people there in the last 30 days.

After weeks of frenetic activity, we are returning to a state of equilibrium. Our hospital had become a trauma MASH unit, as had all other medical centers in Port au Prince that are still standing. We were able to offer about 30 surgeries a day at four sites (two in our hospital, one on our hospital grounds in a tent, and one at the St. Camillus Hospital, which we staffed for the emergency.) Many of these, sadly, were amputations – sometimes two for the same adult or child. 

To give an idea of the size of the problem, it is likely there are about 20,000 people now who have been amputated or who have orthopedic hardware screwed through their skin to the bone. Port au Prince has about 20 Haitian orthopedic surgeons, and visiting teams to Haiti will soon leave. All 20,000 need to be followed closely for removal of hardware, control of infection, reevaluation of the amputation, and of course for artificial limbs and rehabilitation. Obviously 20 surgeones will not be able to handle this load. We have worked closely with the St. Camillus Hospital so as to return our St. Damien Hospital to a pediatric center and to have a growing center for adults at St. Camillus. We hope tobgether to be able to keep good tabs on the patients we have operated on, and hoep to be able to provide well for them in the future. 

In collaboration with the Papal Nuncio, the president of the Haitian bishops conference, the local CARITAS office and the Italian Protezione Civile, we are setting up seven positions in the provinces, (especially since about 30% of the population has abandoned the capital) to be able to help enable access for these people to a medical system. We can do our best to follow a certain number patients from these sites, return them to Port au Prince for needed attention- by helicopter or land,- and use these points as well for large distributions of food and educational materials for schools. We hope to continue to partner with St. Camillus and the Haitian bishops to strengthen a similar response within Port au Prince as well.

At Francisville, we are making a center for production of artificial limbs. Gena Hergaty hosted a meeting two days ago of30 non-governmental organizations at our St. Germaine program, to determine the best collaboration for all those eager to invest in rehabilitation and physical therapy.

On the home front, Erin Kloos has made an exceptional recovery after being dug out of our crumbled Fr. Wasson Center. The funeral of her brother Ryan will be later this month in Phoenix. Fr. Craig Hightower celebrated the funeral of Molly Hightower, concelebrated by Fr. Phil Cleary. I hope I can arrange to leave Haiti for a few weeks at the end of February to see my father, and to visit both families for mass in their homes. 

We offered mass last Saturday for Molly and Ryan on top of the rubble of the Fr. Wasson Center on an altar made of fallen block, using chant and incense to honor Molly and Ryan and all who died in the earthquake, and to show our faith and hope, and determination to rebuild and continue our life giving mission.

 The Fr. Wasson Center is being cleared by heavy government equipment, and we will rebuild a central administration center on the site, with a metal instead of cement framework, which are fast becoming popular here. We will also make an artistic monument to stand prominently on the corner, by a famous Haitian artist, dedicating the new center to Ryan and Molly and honoring all the victims of the earthquake.

In Tabarre our three areas of destruction were the perimeter walls, the tower, and the chapel. The Italian Protezzione Civile is clearing the debris, reinforcing the tower, rebuilding the chapel and rebuilding the walls. Additional internal, non-structural damage to the hospital is being repaired by the Italian companies that made the initial installations (especially the central oxygen supply). The new maternity and neonatal program, born of necessity during the traumatic days following the quake, is following a good and logical course, and the rest of the hospital is returning to normal. 

Our surgical capacity will still be challenged as we tend to many postoperative children and new traumas. The cancer center got quite a boost, thanks to Sister Judy, as it is now a partner with the Danny Thomas Children’s Cancer Hospital in the USA. This will bring quite a help for development, diagnostic, training, material and medicines.

The St. Helene orphanage in Kenscoff was largely spared, but we were glad to see so much charitable activity on the part of the children, coming to the hospital to visit injured children and distributing food and supplies in the tent cities.

The Family Services team has been very attentive to vulnerable children in the tent cities and has elaborated a good plan for continued involvement. Future reports will be given on all these points I mention in this summary by the people involved.

We are still gathering the names of those who have died or disappeared in the rubble. We hope soon that Daniela, our temporary home correspondent, will be able to make a memorial page on the NPH website. We are very much struck with sorrow by the deaths of our colleagues or deaths in their families.

The St. Luke program has been valiant and tireless, and we suffered the loss of some staff and directors. We also suffered the loss of one third of our 18 street schools. We will resume school in tents, as soon as we have enough, and thanks to Artists for Peace and Justice, we are studying all aspects of rebuilding.

Everywhere around us there are huge social problems: woundedness, homlessness and hunger. There are wounded, homeless and hungry among our 800 employees (all programs combined, including St. Luke). This is made more dreadful by the advance of the rainy season. We had our first rain yesterday.

In a separate letter over the next few days, I will outline the investment we hope to make in addressing these three social problems and the rebuilding and advance of our own programs.

For today, please join us in mourning. Join us in prayers for the dead, for the living, for the future.

Thank you and God bless you.

Fr. Rick Frechette