January 5, 2003

Trying to second-guess the direction of the economy in these troubled times has me reading the newsletter from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The Federal Reserve Bank steps back from current problems to ask about their source, and their most recent letter assessed the contribution of basic infrastructure to economic growth. Infrastructure is what is taken for granted—roads, water system, energy and telecommunications—as one charts market fluctuations. There would be no economic activity at all without the infrastructure that makes commercial exchange possible. The Chicago Fed makes the case that we haven’t invested sufficiently in economic infrastructure and that, therefore, the economic recovery is more uncertain than it would be had we done so.

Can we compare difficulties in the economy to difficulties in the handing on of the faith and the growth of the Church? It might be helpful to ask if some of our problems in Church life and activities can be traced to a neglect of the Catholic infrastructure. Prof. Scott Appleby of Notre Dame University recently pointed out that, “no previous generation of American Catholics inherited so little of the content and sensibility of the faith from their parents, as have today’s Catholic youth. ...The boomers are handing down to their children a commitment to the principle of religious choice and a legacy of privatized views on religion.” Prof. Appleby added, “...older Catholics must be restored to, and younger Catholic introduced to, a sense of Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life.”

Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life presupposes that the Church is not just a set of ideas but also a way of living. The sense that the Church can shape people’s lives through her teaching and guidance and discipline is weakened today and sometimes contested in principle. The infrastructure of Catholic life—surrender to Jesus Christ in his body, the Church—cannot be taken for granted. This surrender depends on God’s grace moving Catholics to ever greater generosity. In the Archdiocese, the rhetoric around “sharing” and the programs designed to make us evangelizers and stewards have as their long range goal the strengthening of the Catholic infrastructure.

At the beginning of this new year, I want to thank the many Catholics who are actively involved in strengthening our common life. The bishops, priests and deacons are key to the infrastructure of the Archdiocese, as are all those involved in pastoral ministry. Religious women and men quietly build up the life of prayer which benefits us even when we are unaware of it. Teachers and benefactors, maintenance personnel and sports directors, the devoted men and women in the Pastoral Center and in other administrative centers around the Archdiocese, those serving the poor through Catholic Charities and its various institutions and agencies are often taken for granted until something goes amiss. Married couples and their children, families who lose a parent or close relative, benefactors and volunteers of all kinds and for all causes, those working for justice and for the protection of human life in all its stages, hospital and hospice workers, Catholics who each day say their prayers and go to work, Catholics who keep cities and towns safe and well governed, Catholics whose contributions will go unnoticed except by God create in various ways the infrastructure of Catholic community. Many things are possible, because they and their faith can be taken for granted. When things go wrong or are not working, it is often because explicit attention has not been given in time to strengthening each person and the many activities which define our life together.

At the beginning of each new year, the Pope reminds the Church that we cannot take peace for granted and that working toward a peaceful world is part of the Catholic way of life. The year 2003 marks the 40th anniversary of Blessed Pope John XXIII’s letter, “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth). In 1963, Pope John wrote, “the pattern of peace ... cannot be separated from issues of moral principle. The question of peace cannot be separated from the question of human dignity and human rights...In the end, peace is not essentially about structures but about people.”

In 1963, the threat to world peace was the Cold War between free countries and communist countries. The great threat to world peace 40 years later is well-organized international terrorism. The immediate threat to world peace at the beginning of 2003 is the danger of hostilities with Iraq. While it is morally clear that people and governments have a right to defend themselves against terrorists, the connection between the Iraqi government and world terrorism is not completely clear at this time. Working for peace now means condemning terrorism while praying for our enemies, seeing them as people and not abstractions. Working for peace also means bringing moral principles to bear on the question of a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.

We can invest time and prayer and effort in working for peace now because generations of Catholics have invested themselves and their prayer and work in building up the Church here. The Christ whom the Church preaches and worships is the King of Peace in every age. To his protection and kindness, we confide our lives in the new year.