The Harrowing of Hell

This icon depicts what an early Christian homily for Holy Saturday describes in text-- Jesus Christ enters into the regions of the dead (Hades in Greek, technically not "hell" as a place of punishment). There the Lord Jesus, having been crucified and buried for all humanity enters into death, having tasted death for us all, and releases the captives held in the grip of death. Jesus has conquered and we can see him grasping our first parents, Adam and Eve, by their hands and lifting them from their tombs.


Byzantine icon of the Resurrecton of the Lord Jesus Christ



In the Roman Rite's Easter Vigil there is a solemn proclamation of the Lord's resurrection at the beginning of the Liturgy called the Exsultet. It uses biblical imagery from the Old Testament to describe the fulfillment of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and the Passover in the life, passion, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus on the Third Day. It also delcares that Christ is risen and victorious.



The same early Christian homily referred to above notes that Jesus brings into the regions of the dead the weapon of victory, his own life-giving Cross. While this particular icon does not show the Cross, it does colorfully demonstrate that Jesus stands upon the crossed tombstones of our first parents as he raises them and all the emblems of death are at his feet. Moreover, other figures from the Old Testament, Saints, are shown gathering around this scene of victory -- King David, John the Baptist, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the Prophets. All who from the very beginning of time have perished without conscious hope of resurrection are now participating in the Lord's resurrection!



And this is our hope, the hope of all who have lossed loved ones, who wonder aloud to God about the realities we face in this world of violence, of disease, of hunger, of terror; all who long for an end to suffering and death; all who are preparing for the embrace of what St. Francis of Assisi called "our Sister Death."



As we Christians of all the Rites of the Catholic Church, along with our Protestant brothers and sisters, prepare to celebrate the Lord's glorious resurrection (Eastern Orthodox Easter falls on next Sunday, 19 April 2009), let us remember that Jesus has conquered death; he is the victor over sin. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is impossible for God! Sacred Scripture declares is, our liturgies celebrate it; the newly baptized profess it and we renew that profession this Easter.



Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen! We Franciscan friars join in extending to you our prayer that you and your lovedones have a very happy and even life-changing Easter.

St. Nicholas of Myra -- Model of Charity and Promoter of Justice

Today, 6 December, the Christian community throughout the world celebrates the memory of our Holy Father Nicholas, Bishop of Myra.



Having lived and served in what is today Turkey, his bones are now interred in Bari, Italy (a rather convoluted history).
St. Nicholas, the "inspiration" for what we call "Santa Claus" and in other countries "Father Christmas" or "Papa Noel", is also a model of charity and a promoter of justice.



Among the most famous of the stories of his life and ministry in 4th century Asia Minor was the rescue he performed -- quietly, behind the scenes -- of the three daughters of an older man who had fallen into financial ruin. As payment for his debt he was going to be forced to hand his three daughters over to prostitution. The holy bishop got wind of it and, under the cover of night, placed three bags of gold secretly for the older gentleman to spare his daughters.



A lesser known story about St. Nicholas was that he had been a confessor (i.e. one who confessed one's faith through persecution without having suffered martyrdom [e.g. imprisonment, torture]) during the last empire-wide persecution under Emperor Diocletian. When Constantine ascended the throne and issued his famous Edict of Milan in AD 313 it paved the way for Christians to worship freely and openly practice their faith.



However, there was also another looming issue in the Roman Empire, especially in the East, and this was the Arian heresy (the priest Arius of Alexandria basically taught a doctrine of Christ that amounted to a denial of his full divinity).



At the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in AD 325 the Council Fathers consented to a Creed (called the Nicene Creed, and later ratified at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in AD 381) that definitively address Christian faith. This is what we in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches profess at our Sunday Eucharists. They also condemned Arius and his doctrine.



According to one tradition, the holy Nicholas of Myra stood up and approached the preist Arius and then slapped him on the cheek and so condemned him! While we wouldn't find that particularly "ecumenical" and certainly not polite in our 21st century Western culture today, it is important to remember that St. Nicholas lived in a different culture, a different time and a different era in human history, even Christian history.



His charity and his justice are demonstrated in his faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, his ecumenicity with the entire Church and his pastoral foresightfulness in responding to a very unjust situation afflicting his flock that would have led one of his people to submit to trafficking in the sexual exploitation of women -- prostitution.

"Faithful Citizenship" -- Is There a Catholic Vote?

So, who are YOU voting for? Barak Obama or John McCain? Those are rather brazen questions, and quite frankly, it's none of my business!

However, whom WE vote for is all of our business, at least it will be in the end when National Election 2008 is over by late Tuesday, 4 November.

Not so long ago there used to talk of a "Catholic vote". This meant that at least a majority of US citizens who identified themselves as Catholics tended to vote in a particular way, usually Democratic.

This was not universal, but it was strong enough to gain a popular title, at least through the media. Many Democratic candidates, at least in the North, tended to foster policies which the Catholic Church supported -- outreach for the poor, support for laborers, justice for the marginalized and disenfranchized and the like. As the '60s progressed into the '70s, the Catholic Church also supported affordable housing, Civil Rights, an end to the war in Vietnam and initiatives which supported and encouraged the poor, including education and job opportunities without discrimination based on race, ethnic identity, gender and religious affiliation.

Catholics themselves had been the subjects of discrimination, especially with the arrival of the multitudes of Irish people in the mid-1800s. Subsequent European Catholic immigrants also faced a harsh "welcome", in the mines and in the mills, in the Northeast, Midatlantic and Midwest USA.

President John F. Kennedy inauguration in 1961. President Kennedy, a desendant of Irish immigrants,

was the first (and only) Catholic elected to the US presidency.

Pope Leo XIII published his socially conscious encyclical, Rerum Novarum in the 1890s to address the social ills of the late 19th century, and especially the growing specter of Marxism in Europe and beyond. Thus began the modern Catholic social teaching which would be added to by Pope Pius XI (Quadregessimum Annum), Pope Bd. John XXIII (Pacem In Terris) and Pope John Paul II (Laborens Exercens). That, and the document of the Church in the modern world at the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes) solidified the Catholic Church's engagement in modern society.


US Catholics, though, found themselves in a quandary and struggled with American identity vis-a-vis the US Supreme Court's decision on 22 January 1973 in the case of Roe v. Wade which paved the way for abortion on demand as a woman's right to privacy and her freedom of choice. As we all know, this continues to be a major significant area of concern, both for Right to Life groups and those which favor a woman's individual right to choose to have an abortion.


The US bishops, in their document Faithful Citizenship encourage Catholics to exercise their right to vote calling such involvement a moral obligation (please see picture above). They also state that each is to vote according to one's conscience.

They can be easily accessed on-line at www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCstatement.pdf for the download to this insightful document. The US bishops state that one should not vote for one issue only. At the same time the issue of life, especially for the most vulnerable persons, along with respecting human dignity of all persons from conception to natural death, are crucial. The US bishops call for attention to the issues regarding life -- abortion, euthanasia, embyonic stem cell research (and destruction of human embryoes in the process). They also point to the care for the elderly, infirm and disabled persons, responding to the needs of the poor, rights of workers, the plight of many immigrants, whether they be in this land legally or are undocumented, and the issues of peacemaking and bringing wars to an end.

A very fine video presentation that seems to attempt to address this (with rather dramatic music, by the way) is www.CatholicVote.com. It is definitely a Catholic perspsective.

The US bishops do not tell us, the Catholic electorate, HOW to vote. Rather, they do give us some rather well thought out guidelines for discerning and making responsible decisions according to one's informed conscience. Conscience, however, is NOT opinion!

Is there a "Catholic" vote? Probably not any longer. At least, not like it may have been once in the past. Nevertheless, there are Catholics -- MANY Catholics -- who vote!

Boycotting HBO -- Bill Maher bashes Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church

Preparing for the papal visit to the USA almost two weeks ago, HBO's Bill Maher made some rather negative (to say the least!) and outrageous statements about the Holy Father and the Catholic Church.


For his April 11, 2008 live broadcast, (HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher", Maher said of the Catholic Church:

"In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God's infallible wingman here on earth, lock away the kids. Which is why I'd like to tip off law enforcement to an even LARGER child-abusing religious cult. Its leader ALSO has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats! That's right, the Pope is coming to America this week, and ladies: he's single! . . .

. . . How DOES the Catholic church get away with all of their buggery? Volume, volume, volume! If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a "cult leader." If you have a billion, they call you "Pope." It's like, if you can't pay your mortgage, they call you a "deadbeat," but if you can't pay a million mortgages, you're "Bear Sterns" and we bail you out."

Someone I know decided to cancel his household subscription to HBO based on this. When he called up the satellite company to cancel the HBO subscription, the agent on the other end of the line tried to persuade him that one month of HBO equals two DVDs. He stated that wasn't the point -- it wasn't about pricing.


The agent continued and asked what the cancellation was about. He stated that he was doing so in protest over Bill Maher's caustically negative remarks about Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church in general and the pope's visit to the USA.


The agent was quiet and then commented that she agreed with his position. In fact, she noted, she had just been working one hour that day and had already received over two dozen cancellations for HBO -- all for the same reason! She further suggested that HBO would likely be hurting over this.


The man who called to cancel his subscription is a Franciscan. And he apparently became an unwitting, yet willing, participant in a movement to boycott HBO!



What do you think about this? How might you handle this situation? Boycotting can be a very powerful instrument -- via the proverbial pocketbook! -- to bring about justice.

Papal Visit Upcoming -- "Wilkommen!"

One of the expectations for the upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States of America will be to animate the faith of the Catholic community in this country. Can he do it?

Well, he certainly can try! Something I have noticed in reading and observing -- reading the Holy Father's encyclicals on love (Deus Caritas Est) and hope (Spe Salvi) as well as other speeches and documents, is that Benedict is the quintessential teacher. Having been a seminary professor in his native Germany prior to being ordained bishop in the late 1970s, he is methodical in his explanations and in his praxis.

Pope Benedict XVI apparently sees himself very much in line with his predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, whom he has declared to be "Servant of God", a title given to one who is seriously being considered for the processes of beatification and canonization. And the current pope seems to consider himself very much in tune with the spirit and original direction of Vatican Council II, begun by Bd. John XXIII and continued and concluded by his other predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI.

Without being intentially contentious (he seemed to be genuinely surprised by the violent reactions by some Muslims worldwide to his professorial presentation at the University of Ravensburg in Germany in September 2006), the Holy Father attempts to methodically present his perspective and his teaching in a rational and deliberate manner.

Yet, as the February 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has noted, Catholics in the U.S, as well as other practitioners of religion (or no religion, for that matter!) are rather fluid in their self-identification. Many Catholics eschew the notion of the Catholic Church as having an exclusive claim on being the "one true Church" and, likely from living in such a pluralistic society as ours, many have abandoned exclusive teachings by the Church.

This is especially visible among Catholics and their choices regarding sexual practice (e.g. artificial contraception and pre-marital sexual relationships). And, of course, divorce among Catholics has continued, even with pre-marital preparation (e.g. Pre-Cana courses).

A relatively small cadre of practicing Catholic young people seem intent, perhaps militantly so, on their identity as Catholic. They participate in all sorts of Catholic-oriented activities, and they number in the thousands, for sure. But, quite frankly, are they the majority of Catholic youth? It would seem not. Just look at the pews in the average Catholic parish on Sunday morning!

Allegiance to the Catholic Church as an institution in the U.S.A. has been suffering for several decades; none of this is new. It does seem to have hastened, however. Perhaps some of this can be traced to the sexual abuse crisis in the American Church which blew up in spring 2002. (By the way, the U.S. Church is not the only one to be struggling with these very issues.)

Thus, Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to arrive in our country to animate Catholics -- by promoting active practice of the Catholic Faith , especially among youth, I am sure. He is emphasizing the necessity of promoting the Culture of Life, as espoused by the Servant of God John Paul II. He will likely encourage the member nations of the U.N. and our U.S. government to work toward an end to the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, speak on behalf of persecuted Christians, seek to promote human rights, and to defend human life, especially the most vulnerable (the pre-born, the aged and the disabled).

And Pope Benedict will likely speak to Catholics to promote a Culture of Vocations among Catholic youth, as proposed by the Intercontinental Congress of Catholic Youth in Canada in 2003. Let's see how this plays out -- especially how our Catholic people here in the United States respond to his messages.

Welcome, Pope Benedict XVI! What will he find in the USA?

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to make his first papal visit to the United States of America next week, 15 April 2008. With open arms the Catholic Church, young and old, welcomes the Successor to St. Peter and Vicar of Christ to our nation!

Yet, what will he find when he arrives? He is an ardent student of current events and is not ignorant of the reality we face as Catholic Christians here in the USA. You may be aware of the recently released survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, called the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (you can find the results on-line), "The porportion of the U.S. population that identifies itself as Catholic has remained relatively stable in recent decades, but this apparent stability obscures the major changes that are taking place within American Catholicism."

The article continues, "No other major faith in the U.S. has experienced greater net losses over the last few decades as a result of changes in religious affliciation than the Catholic Church. Nearly one-third (31.4%) of U.S. adults say they were raised Catholic. Today, however, only 23.9% of adults say they are affiliated with the Catholic Church, a net loss of 7.5 percentage points. Overall, roughly one-third of those who were raised Catholic have left the church, and approximately one-in-ten American adults are former Catholics."

The survey acknowledges the tide of those who convert to Catholicism -- witness the numbers of adults who are received either as catechumens or as baptized candidates at each year's Easter Vigil. It notes that "The Landscape Survey finds that 2.6% of U.S. adults have switched their affiliation to Catholicism after bein raised in other faiths or in no faith at all."

However, it also notes that ". . . former Catholics outnumber converts to Catholicism by roughly four-to-one . . ." The survey points to the relative steady number of people who identify themselves as Catholics to immigrants -- particularly those from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Again, "The Landscape Survey finds that nearly half of all immigrants coming to the U.S. (46%) are Catholic, compared with just 21% of the native-born population."

Finally, "The vast majority (82%) of Catholic immigrants to the U.S. were born in Latin America, and most Catholic immigrants from Latin America (52% of all Catholic immigrants to the U.S.) come from just one country -- Mexico." It continues to note that, ". . . Catholics are also represented among immigrants coming to the U.S. from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and East Asia; more than one-in-four of all immigrants form these regions are Catholic."

So, this is part of the reality of the U.S. Catholic Church which our Holy Father is visiting -- those who identify themselves as Catholic and are practicing; those who identify themselves but either practice sporadically or seldom; those who no longer identify themselves as Catholic and have left altogether; and the growing immigrant Catholic populations from Latin America, East Asia and Europe.

Holy Week 2008 -- Love measured in "feet"

It is truly amazing -- to me -- how quickly this Lent has been coursing. Here in Wisconsin I think it would be fair to say that we have had a very wintry and snowy Lent! In fact, the remnants of the large snow banks are still melting, even as the Canada geese, the herons and the red-wing blackbirds and robins have been returning. Sure signs of spring in the decline of winter's fierce hold.

We can see how the earth is changing, right before our eyes. Warm breezes occasionally blow, the bright sunshine contrasts with the periodic sting of Arctic chills. The marsh in back of our friary is coming alive (perhaps a bit too noisy for the friars whose rooms face it!).

But, how have we changed? Have our penitential practices brought us closer to the Lord? Have we found ourselves becoming more loving, peaceful, kind, modest (cf. Gal. 5:22-23)? In a word, has the fruit of the Holy Spirit begun to ripen more fully in our lives? Have we been willing to let go of that grudge we have held -- and that we have even justified(!)?

The daily readings in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church this week (prior to Holy Thursday) are beacons to remind us of the Suffering Servant (so the readings from Isaiah) who is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and all that he voluntarily underwent for our salvation. Today, he allows a woman to anoint his feet! Astonishing! And, of course, he in turn will wash his disciples' feet at the Last Supper (according to the Gospel of John, chapter 13).

Greek icon of Jesus washing the Disciples' feet (cf. John 13)

There is a story about St. Francis of Assisi and his early friars. They were assiduous about reconciliation -- seeking to be reconciled as soon as a quarrel or disagreement or misunderstanding would erupt (cf. Col. 3:12-17). In one episode, two friars -- who went barefoot in those days -- had a dispute. Apparently even before St. Francis had the opportunity to reprimand them, first one and then the other, bent down to kiss the feet of the other begging forgiveness!

To live the Gospel of Jesus, really, is to have the same attitude as Jesus did (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). Is that what has been happening to us during the Lent? Is it what is happening to us this Holy Week? How about we let Jesus give us HIS attitude!

What’s With All the Killing?

Prayer Service after shooting incident in Omaha, NE

An Amish school near Lancaster, PA in 2006, Virginia Tech this past spring, and now just recently a shopping mall in Omaha, NE and a church and missionary school in Colorado Springs, CO. It seems too frequent now – deliberate shootings at innocent people. It seems there have been increasing numbers of shootings most often random.

What is happening?

Wounded victim being removed from the mall in Omaha, NE

I don’t presume to have an answer, but I’d like offer some thoughts on the matter.

First, it seems that all the assailants are, at the very least, psychologically disturbed. From the evidence I have read, they tend to be loners and disconnected from human interaction.

They seem to have found some kind of weird “connection” with people by killing them!

Perhaps the “connection” is really about power.

The individuals involved in these violent acts also seem to have no concept of how these acts hurt not only their victims, but the families of the victims and their own families!

There doesn’t seem to be any sense of conscience; hence, no remorse.

It seems to be a question of power – power over others whom they perceive at least represent those who have wronged them, excluded them, betrayed them or otherwise ignored them. It appears to be a rage that turns into a vicarious vengeance.

And it also seems to be nihilistic. There seems to be no apparent thought (who can interview someone who has committed suicide after the killings, or who has been slain?) about their future, either temporal or eternal.

There is apparently nothing for them – no hope, no apparent relationships to hold them, no reason to go on. And where, if it exists at all, does faith come into the picture?

The young man who opened fire on the horrified shoppers in Omaha and then killed himself apparently left a suicide note which concluded, “Now I’ll be famous.”

A very touching scene for me, at least, was an image of the prayer service at a local Catholic Church in which people lit candles in memory of the slain, and someone included the assailant’s name among the deceased.

Young people among horrified shoppers at mall in Omaha, NE

In this Season of Advent we read and hear the marvelous Scripture passages, especially from the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the reign of Messiah, when there will be an end to violence and peace will flourish. But we continue to see the evils of violence all around us!

Name of assailant is included among the names of the nine deceased persons at Prayer Service, Omaha, NE

What is this all about?

We Christians affirm that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and the Lord. We also claim to believe, as we profess in the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father), “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What we claim is mighty bold – we claim that we believe, in prayer and our celebration of the Sacraments, that God is establishing his kingdom among us, even in the midst of warfare, terror and violence.

We Franciscan friars say to a mad world that seems more and more nihilistic and sees no purpose for existence that life is a gift from God and precious to God, even the life of someone who commits unspeakable violence and affronts common human sensibilities with senseless rage. We struggle to focus on Jesus Christ, even when tempted to surrender to the insanity of violence or the stunning silence of apathy.

Like our founder St. Francis of Assisi, who loved Jesus as the Center of his very life, we believe and proclaim that real power comes not from doing violence against another, whether a vendetta against another or others. Yes, one may have power to take another person’s life. But for what? Death? Then what?

Instead, real power comes from God who is the Author of Life. And this power is to give life, to forgive, to renounce grudges, to seek out those who are oftentimes abandoned by society, who are “benignly neglected” because they are different or odd or just don’t “fit in” to our notions of belonging. Maybe even those who reject society because of mental illness or other affliction.

Would someone’s outreach to these loners have possibly stopped a massacre? I don’t presume to know an answer to that. And I don’t think trying to assign guilt is helpful.

Rather, it seems to me, the Christian vocation – and as a Franciscan friar and priest of the Catholic Church I particularly feel this – our life in Christ is to allow God’s grace, already within us from our baptism and confirmation, and from our reception of the Holy Eucharist, to become visible in our society.

That can readily become healing in our world. To take the Lord at his Word and believe those powerful texts of Sacred Scripture, like St. Francis and St. Clare did, and to believe that God is, indeed, effecting them in our lives – that is the hopeful message of Advent.




How can we respond as Christians to such evil? How do you think God is calling you to respond? How do you think you can bring God's hope into this world?