The Spirit of Unity with God and the Signs of Unity in the Church

The evening before the Church celebrated Pentecost, I returned from a visit to Poland preceded by participation in the Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals from May 21 to May 24. Each Pentecost Sunday, the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, where they had been instructed to wait by Jesus before he ascended to the Father. The Holy Spirit, the divine Person who is the love between the Father and the Son, makes us one with God and one with one another in the Church. The Holy Spirit, in making us holy, warms our hearts and brings courage to our souls. The love that overcomes the Church in the coming of the Holy Spirit lifts us out of our separation from God and from one another and destroys our sinfulness.

The Holy Spirit seemed to me to be acting during the Consistory of Cardinals because there was a remarkable unity of desire among those taking part in the Consistory. Cardinals from all over the globe said that the way to judge any ministry or activity or organization of the Church is to ask how this activity contributes to the holiness of God’s people. That is a rather broad standard of judgment, but it provides a prism for looking at all we do in parishes, institutions, the Pastoral Center, homes and movements, jobs and professions. The fact that it was brought up from all areas of the world means we should bring it up here and ask the question of all we are doing in the Archdiocese.

Holiness is unity with God; but the Cardinals also considered unity among ourselves in the Church. The Eucharist, because it is Christ’s own self-sacrifice made present in our time, creates and signifies our unity. But there are also structures in the Church which are given us to preserve our unity in Christ. The office of the successor of Peter, the Petrine ministry, calls us out of our provincialisms into universal ecclesial communion. The Cardinals were grateful to our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, for the way he has exercised the papal ministry for over 20 years, uniting the Church and bringing her mission in extraordinary ways to the entire world. The collegiality of the bishops, with and under the successor of Peter, is also a way of expressing our unity, as is the Synod of Bishops held regularly every three years in Rome. There were some criticisms of the methodology of the Roman Synod of Bishops and of the relation between the Roman Curia and residential bishops, and there will probably be further discussion about how to strengthen these structures designed to foster unity.

The unity of all those who recognize Jesus as Lord was also a desire expressed by the Cardinals. Full commitment to the ecumenical movement, to fraternity with the Jewish people and to interfaith dialogue was accompanied by some discussion about greater “realism” in these endeavors. A call for a “practical” understanding of what the Church should do in evangelizing was voiced by Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles and seconded by many others. We are discussing the practicalities of evangelization in the Archdiocese as the Disciples in Mission small groups finish their program next Lent.

The unity of the human race as such is destroyed when people cannot live in peace, and the Cardinals also prayed for peace in the Holy Land and in those parts of Africa which are divided by civil wars. Africa is being forgotten in a post-Cold War world, because it is no longer of great strategic importance to either East or West. The Cardinals pointed out that unity is not possible if there is neither justice nor peace among peoples.

A three-day meeting is not enough time to pursue topics in depth, but the Consistory gave the Cardinals a chance to get to know each other a bit better and to discover what is of importance to us. The holiness of God’s people and our unity among ourselves were the themes behind much of what was said. The sense that the Church should be “the sign of the unity of the human race”, as the Second Vatican Council taught, seems secure in the hearts and minds of the Cardinals.

Upon my return to Chicago, there was much discussion of an incident which could disturb our unity as a local Church. A sports league had narrowly voted not to admit teams from St. Sabina, a predominantly African-American parish, to play with teams from the southwest side and southwest suburbs. The reason given was fear for the safety of white children in a black neighborhood. The fear, of course, goes both ways. African-Americans have more reason to fear being unwelcome in white neighborhoods than vice versa. Concern for safety and fear of violence are legitimate fears; but the words are, as we all know, often code words to mask racism. Whether “fear” is being used to excuse racism in this incident is a judgment that should be made only when one knows the people involved. Racism, of course, prevents our being holy because it separates us from one another and therefore from God. Fear also prevents our progress in holiness, because it means we do not trust God’s providence.

I have every confidence that the parish priests, who are committed to a Church and society free of racism and who know their own people, will resolve this very well. The goal is to have sporting leagues, especially any that bear the name “Catholic”, open to all races so that friendships can be formed across racial and cultural lines. This will happen, with the sure pastoral guidance of the priests. When it happens, we will also have to develop trust among African-American children who might now feel rejected. Sister Anita Baird, director of the Archdiocesan Office of Racial Justice, has already beautifully apologized to them; but it is always the children who get chewed up in these disputes. In the meantime, it is helpful, even for the sake of our own advance in holiness, if we avoid calling one another names. God bless you.