Rome: The Church Up Close - Day 7
On Sunday, our final day, the 'Church up Close' seminar group met up at Holy Cross University in Rome for Mass next door in the chapel of St Apollinare, attached to a larger basilica. The churches and university are under the prelature of Opus Dei and the university's School of Church Communications organises the seminar for foreign journalists who cover the Catholic Church every two years. On this particular course, everybody was Catholic, but past courses have involved journalists from the secular press and at least one Muslim media specialist from Pakistan. There is significant funding from 'Our Sunday Visitor', a huge Catholic publishing company in the United States which is the official distributor of the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Its president, Jason Shanks, took part in the seminar and a highlight was when his baby son was blessed by Pope Francis during Wednesday's papal audience. Jason was also touched how course participants helped carry the baby and his pushchair up and down the multiple staircases in the Vatican museums!
This was an intimate Sunday Mass where Fr John Wauck, our seminar chair from the university, asked God to help us do our job as journalists better. In the centuries' old church we were told that we are living stones of today's Church. It was appropriate that in the context of the issue of women in the Church being raised throughout the week the central figures in the fifteenth century fresco behind the altar were the Madonna and child. We were a diverse group, with two journalists from the Philippines very concerned for the victims of the latest typhoon to hit their country, and those from the United States concerned about the rift in their country over the sexual abuse revelations. Our sign of peace was warm and the sense of Church community strong as we prepared to walk to the Sunday Angelus in St Peter's Square before returning to our home countries.
The second reading at Mass was from St James, that faith without good works is dead. In the last few days we heard about Vatican work with migrants from Fr Michael Czerby SJ of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. It was just one of many initiatives the Church sponsors - and what about the Church's huge Caritas network - to reach out to the vulnerable. And the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of education and health care in the world.
It was Sunday's Gospel reading that was picked up by Pope Francis during his Angelus reflection. He was some distance off at a window but we could see him clearly on the large screens. Just as Jesus asks his disciples, 'Who do you say I am?" the same question can be asked of all of us. Pope Francis said the profession of faith in Jesus Christ cannot stop at words, "but must be authenticated by concrete choices and gestures, by a life sealed with the love of God and neighbour." Pope Francis gave a crucifix to every person present to mark the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrated on 14 September. "The crucifix is the sign of the love of God, who in Jesus gave his life for us," he said before distribution. "I invite you to accept this gift and place it in your homes, in your children's rooms, or that of your grandparents." The Holy Father thanked religious sisters, poor people, and refugees who distributed the gift and they received refreshments afterwards.
So, during this week we have learnt that the Vatican of Pope Francis is open to the wider world and reading the 'Signs of the Times'. Climate Change, Peace and Human Trafficking are amongst those global concerns being addressed. On Sunday he sent the following message to his millions of twitter followers: "Let us deal with climate change through international cooperation: each person's choices have repercussions on the life of everyone." We heard the British diplomat to the Holy See describe it as "one of the most influential soft power networks in the world". Laudato Si is hugely respected. During the week we saw Pope Francis attack the 'blasphemous' Mafia during visit to Sicily to honour a murdered priest, and around 100,000 people turned out in the Sicilian sunshine. We noted tremendous admiration for Pope Francis and loyalty, although there are clearly small conservative groups within the Church who are not willing to support him or his mission for the common good and our common home.
During our week in Rome it has also been clear that the sex abuse scandal is growing faster than the Church can contain it. Pope Francis suspended priests in Spain and Chile and has said that "no effort to beg pardon and seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient." He has called for a meeting of the church's top officials in February to address the scandal. A bombshell report about sex abuse in Germany was leaked to the press and the territory of sexual abuse crime was expanded to religious sisters when a nun in India reported being raped by a bishop. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who was in Rome this week to discuss allegations against Theodore McCarrick, is the bishop of one of our journalists. This is increasingly feeling like a watershed moment for the Church, especially when our young people have an antipathy to anything fake and hypocritical. Action on sexual abuse must be decisive and it was gratifying to witness humility in the face of criticisms and to hear that the Church has dedicated professionals, such as Rev Prof Hans Zollner SJ of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, to support a substantial response and effective safeguarding measures.
So, goodbye balmy summer weather, umbrella pines, authentic limoncello, grace before all meals and the visibility of clergy and religious in clerical dress on Rome's streets. I am still rather confused by the structure and reforms of the Roman Curia and it was interesting to hear two speakers ask, 'What exactly is a Dicastery?' There was a widespread realisation that clericialism is a problem, though fear of the structural changes being suggested to tackle it. I would like to see more women in positions of authority, although it was good to see the press office of the Holy See headed by two lay people and one is a woman.
My presence was representing the media desk of the Columban Missionary Society in Britain, and I was delighted to see the Holy See paying attention to grassroots missionary work in such countries as Pakistan and Dr Congo. The Vatican Secretariat of State works closely with organisations of the United Nations, and is very serious about delegitimising nuclear weapons and bringing real security through meeting basic human needs for water, food and peace, and restabilising the global climate.
That Sunday evening, some of us paid a final visit to St Peter's Square. As night fell and crowds departed, homeless people become more visible under the columns of the colonnades. It is good to know that Pope Francis has expanded initiatives such as help with meals, toilets, showers, haircuts, medical care and a laundry service. A dormitory is nearby. Pope Francis has made people on the margins of society a central focus of his papacy. There was constant underlining that religious values have an important place in the public arena, and Catholic journalists play an important role in highlighting them.
LINKS
Rome: Church Up Close Day 6
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35638
Rome: Church Up Close Day 5
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35631
Rome: Church Up Close Day 4
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35627
Rome: Church Up Close Day 3
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35622
Rome: Church Up Close Day 2
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35615
Rome: Church Up Close Day 1
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35607