U.S. bishops react
Pope’s words ‘encouraging’
By DENNIS SADOWSKI
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON – Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas and bishops from across the country left their April 16 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI feeling more hopeful and optimistic about their work and the future of the U.S. Catholic Church.
From the issue of the clergy sex abuse scandal to challenges posed by an increasingly secular society, bishops contacted by Catholic News Service said the Pope’s message of hope grounded in deeper prayer, renewal and strong leadership is one that they can take back to their home dioceses.
For Bishop Kicanas, the bottom line is that “we be men of prayer ourselves.”
“He was very encouraging to the bishops, very pastoral in reminding us that it’s really about holiness and the need for a bishop to be on a spiritual journey himself,” Bishop Kicanas said.
“I think he was challenging us in expressing the feeling that all of us have in regard to the sexual abuse issue in terms of shame and that he was in tune with what we’re doing in terms of providing a safe environment for children,” Bishop Kicanas said.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles called attention to the fact that the Pope addressed the clergy abuse scandal for the third time in two days during the address, meaning it was an issue of great concern to him.
“I think we need to hear that,” he said. “He needed to bring it up and needed to speak to the American Catholic community. I think that’s very important. We’ve got to recognize the crisis and, more important, to take steps to make sure it never happens again.”
Despite efforts to implement the norms for clergy behavior and the reporting of abuse cases that were developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas in 2002, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta said Pope Benedict acknowledged that much work remains for local bishops, especially in promoting healing for abuse victims and the need to ensure safe environments for children and families.
“I thought (the Pope’s address) was absolutely a splendid and clear summons to the body of bishops to continue the work that we are doing, to expand it to work with men and women in other venues of the nation to protect children, and is really an endorsement of the work we have done thus far,” said Archbishop Gregory, former president of the USCCB.
The theme of hope has been a hallmark of Pope Benedict’s papacy almost since the day of his election three years ago. Bishops hearing his address at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington said they felt encouraged by the Pope’s support for their work despite the many challenges stemming from the abuse scandal.
“The whole idea is that the Holy Father is challenging us to be optimistic and hopeful and not to let secularism and rationalism keep us from having hope,” said Bishop Sam G. Jacobs of Houma-Thibodaux, La. “We have a message of hope and we have a message that can transform the world. We need to keep hearing that message even if the rest of the world doesn’t hear it.”
Pope to U.N.: ‘Rights apply to everyone’
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) – Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Pope Benedict XVI insisted that human rights cannot be limited or rewritten on the basis of national interests or majority rule.
Neither government nor religion has a right to change or limit human rights, because those rights flow from the dignity of each person created in God’s image, the Pope said on April 18.
He also said the role of religions is not to dictate government policy, but to help officials strive to find the truth, including the truth about the dignity of all people even if their religious views are different.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the Pope and met privately with him before the address.
“Your Holiness, in so many ways, our mission unites us with yours,” he said.
The Pope paid tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 60 years ago, saying that the document – proclaiming the equality of all people, the basic right to life and to freedom, liberty of conscience and the free practice of religion – was the result of “a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions.”
“The rights recognized and expounded in the declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high point of God’s creative design for the world and for history,” the Pope said.
“They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations,” he said.
Bush told: ‘Let truth guide you’
WASHINGTON -- Pope Benedict XVI, meeting at the White House with President George W. Bush, said it was important to preserve the traditional role of religion in American political and social life.
Religious values helped forge “the soul of the nation” and should continue to inspire Americans as they face complex political and ethical issues today, he said.
The Pope spoke on his 81st birthday at a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, where he was warmly welcomed by Bush and thousands of cheering well-wishers. It was the Pontiff’s first official encounter after arriving in Washington the day before.
Bush greeted the Pope with the Latin phrase “Pax tecum” (“Peace be with you”), and said the entire country was moved and honored to have the Pope spend “this special day” with them.
Speaking in English, the Pope said he had come to the United States “as a friend, a preacher of the Gospel and one with great respect for this vast pluralistic society.”
The Pope said Americans have always understood freedom as not just a gift but as a summons to responsibility. Preserving freedom calls for virtue, self-discipline, a sense of sacrifice for the common good and responsibility for the less fortunate, he said.
“It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate,” he said, adding:
“Democracy can only flourish, as your Founding Fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation.”
‘Move on,’ says Pope
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged the Catholic Church in the United States to move past divisions and scandal toward a “new sense of unity and purpose.”
Celebrating Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 19 with bishops, priests, religious and seminarians, the Pope again addressed the damage and suffering caused by the clerical sex abuse scandal and called for a time of purification and healing.
He said it was time to “put aside all anger and contention” inside the Church and embark on a fresh mission of evangelization in society.
The Pope was celebrating the third anniversary of his election, and he arrived to congratulations from New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan and an ovation from the 3,000 people who packed the cathedral. Many of them held aloft cameras or even stood on pews for a glimpse of the Pontiff.
Pope gets gift
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. bishops presented Pope Benedict XVI with a birthday gift from Catholics across the country – a check for $870,000 to support his charitable works.
At the end of a vespers service at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, presented him with the check without specifying how the money had been collected.