The Cardinal's Column

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Finding the face of Christ:
What kind of year will 2006 be?

Cardinal George's Schedule

1. February 19: 2 p.m., Dedication Mass, St. Mary of Vernon, Indian Creek
2. February 21: 9 a.m., Address the conference on Human Dignity & Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago; 11:30 a.m., Priest Sponsors Liturgy, Quigley Preparatory Seminary; 1:30 p.m., Administrative Council Meeting, Pastoral Center
3. February 22: 4 p.m., Address the Thomas More Society, University of Chicago School of Law
4. February 23: 7 p.m., Annual Mass for College Students, Holy Name Cathedral
5. February 24: 9 a.m., Department Directors Meeting
6. February 25: 4 p.m., Mass, Vocations and Discipleship Conference, St. Patrick Church, St. Charles
7. February 26: 9:30 a.m., Sunday Mass, St. Michael Church, South Shore; 12 p.m., Knights of St. Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary Luncheon, Alsip; 4 p.m., St. Joseph Seminary Reception, Residence
8. February 27: 3 p.m., Finance Council Meeting, Catholic Charities
9. February 28: 6:30 p.m., Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, DePaul University
10. March 1: 12:10 p.m., Ash Wednesday Mass, Holy Name Cathedral; 5 p.m., Ash Wednesday Mass, Calvert House, University of Chicago
11. March 4: 7 p.m., Lenten Presentation, St. Chrysostom Episcopal Church

Cardinal's Appointments

His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George announces the following appointments:

Pastors

Rev. Leonard Dubi, from sabbatical, to be the pastor of St. Victor Parish, Calumet City, effective immediately.

Administrators

Rev. Farrell Kane, O. Carm. to be the administrator of Immaculate Conception Parish, Waukegan, while retaining his duties as pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish, Gurnee and interim episcopal vicar of Vicariate I, effective immediately.

Rev. David Jones, to be the administrator of St. Benedict the African East, West 66th Street, while retaining his duties as pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, East 47th Street, dean of Deanery VI-A and president of Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, effective immediately.

Rev. Philip Henseler, from associate pastor of St. Raymond De Penafort Parish, to be the administrator of St. Matthew Parish, Schaumburg, effective immediately.

Rev. Anthony Talarico, from director of Cardinal Stritch Retreat House, Mundelein, to be the administrator of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, North Spaulding, effective immediately.

Rev. Thomas Walsh, from resident of St. Agatha Parish, West Douglas Blvd., to be the administrator of the same, effective immediately.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

After the Year of the Eucharist in 2005, the bishops and priests of the Archdiocese have called for a Year of Evangelization in 2006. Evangelization, conversion to Christ in his Body the Church, is the constant purpose and mission of the Church; but this year a special emphasis will be put on re-thinking how this might be done in the parishes. As special events, Father Robert Barron of Mundelein Seminary will lead an Archdiocesan mission with public homilies and added opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Festival of Faith in February has as its general theme the New Evangelization. Many parishes will find their own way to implement the Archdiocesan evangelization guide, “Spreading the Holy Fire.”

A year of evangelization means a year of conversion. I have begun to add some extra time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament to my own daily schedule in order to ask God’s forgiveness for the sin of sexual abuse of minors. In this time before the Lord, I try to bring to mind, besides the many victims I have personally met and prayed with in recent years, all those who might not have yet come forward and the many more victims who are suffering silently in our society. Prayer for our own complete conversion to Christ and for the conversion of the world must become part of a year of evangelization in our homes and in the parishes.

Any initiative of the Archdiocese, especially a call to conversion, is complicated now by the notoriety surrounding the accusations against Father Dan McCormack. As most should know by now, at the end of August Father McCormack was removed from his rectory and work, questioned by the police about an accusation of molesting a minor and then set free. Because he was released by the public authorities, I assumed that he was not a danger to anyone and that, if he were restricted in his ministry and monitored, we had time to do our own investigation according to Church law. Information that was supposed to come to the Archdiocese from different sources did not come as expected but, in the very delay in investigating, there should have been enough red flags to enable me to act more quickly. Most of all, I am troubled by the specter of faces of those who might have been betrayed. I have prayed often that they find freedom from the trap of another’s sin.

Freedom from sin is what conversion brings, what evangelization promises. The sins of priests and bishops destroy the Church, and I pray that our Archdiocese will not be harmed. What happens to me in all of this is of small importance; what happens to the Archdiocese is of great importance. The Archdiocese of Chicago has addressed this sexual abuse scandal forthrightly and well from the early 1990s. Since the Dallas Charter of 2002, the promises made then have been kept here. I can still say what has been the case for years: to the best of my knowledge, no priest who has a substantiated accusation of sexual abuse of a minor at any time is in public ministry. Many people are involved in keeping this promise. They do good work, but every aspect of that work will again be subjected to review by knowledgeable people not employed by the Archdiocese. Most of all, however, the overwhelming number of priests in the parishes, working day after day and praying and living well, should not be dishonored because of the sins of a few of their number over the last 50 years.

This record is almost daily held up to scorn. A constant barrage of stories, few of which are completely free of factual error, overwhelms and shapes a public conversation that brings the entire Church into disrepute. This is, I believe, unfair. The patrimony, both spiritual and material, of this local Church has been built up carefully over many generations. My own parents and grandparents contributed to its fabric. I was raised in it and cherish it as my mother. It is not God’s will that this Archdiocese be torn apart; but God depends upon our cooperation to prevent its being harmed and to make it stronger in 2006.

The Church exists to help people see the face and hear the call of Jesus Christ, Head of the Church and Savior of the world. He turns his face to us and transforms us through the ministry of ordained priests and bishops and of others in the Church. If the sins of priests were reason enough to abandon the Church, the first followers of the Twelve Apostles would have left 2,000 years ago. This is not to minimize in any way the betrayal of God’s people and of their own sacred office by sinful priests. Doing penance for these sins will be part of my life this year and, I am sure, of other priests and bishops as well. But the Church is more than any of us, including priests and bishops; and the Church, one with Christ, commands our love and loyalty in good times and in bad.

Ten years ago, shortly before his death, Cardinal Bernardin began a Common Ground initiative because he was concerned that divisions were harming the Church. The concern at that time was for ideological divisions, most of which still persist. The sources of our divisions today seem to me even more profound, but they can be healed if the search for common ground begins with gathering around Jesus Christ, contemplating his merciful face and asking for forgiveness and healing. I certainly ask that of Christ and of all of you this year.

For 12 years, from 1974 to 1986, I visited local Churches around the world as part of my duties in my religious family, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Everywhere I went, in South America, in Asia, in Africa, in Communist countries and elsewhere, the Catholic Church was an oasis of peace and hope for troubled peoples. Only in returning to my own country have I seen a Church portrayed almost uniquely as a source of oppression and corruption. We are not that and, together around Christ, we will find the courage to live this year the evangelizing mission He gives us.

You are daily in my prayers; please keep me in yours.

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