This new year of 1997 presents us in the faith community with a monumental challenge as we strive to fulfill the Gospel mandate to care for the poor and needy in our midst, in light of dwindling governmental and private sector resources, and in the face of the largely uncharted course set by the new welfare reform legislation and by the rise of managed care.
I am particularly concerned about both the short-term and long-range effects of the proposed welfare reform. This new legislation has, in effect, removed the social safety net that has been the cornerstone of our nation's social policy since the days of the Great Depression. The reform has established punitive restrictions and time limits on benefits without providing the support systems -- like job training, adequate and affordable day care, and, above all, the availability of jobs -- that are indispensable for enabling people to move from dependency to self-sufficiency.
As we seek to address the challenges these new realities pose for us, it is imperative that we in the faith community seek to do so within the framework of our Church's social teaching, which flows from the Scriptures and the Church's reflection on God's revelation down through the course of the centuries.
Three principles
This teaching, I would suggest, gives rise to three fundamental principles that must be applied to our particular life situation, no matter in what particular social, cultural or political position in life we find ourselves. These principles can be summarized as follows:
Connection to times
This belief in the transcendent dignity of the human person and in the spectrum of rights and responsibilities each person possesses, precisely because he or she is human (which is at the very heart of our Church's social teaching) is indeed most timely in light of the grave and spreading tendency in our day to reduce the human person to the level of a thing, a pawn of economic or political interest, a commodity, a unit of production or a mere instrument for the purpose of scientific or medical progress.
It should be noted, furthermore, that this conviction about the dignity of the human person cannot be understood in terms of purely materialistic or atheistic constructs. Rather, this dignity must be perceived in the light of a destiny that surpasses the limits of this world, and that is ultimately rooted in our relationship with God.
Moreover, this understanding of our mission and ministry as sons and daughters of God should impel us -- individually and collectively -- to be more passionate in our defense of human rights and human dignity; more determined in our quest for racial justice and social equality; more enthusiastic in promoting our causes; more resolute in our attempt to establish genuine community; and more humane in our ministry of healing and reconciliation.
Vision and action
It is also apparent that this mission we have as Christians, rooted as it is in our relationship with a living God and in our solidarity with our own brothers and sisters in the human family, should be the motivating, animating and sustaining influence in all of our efforts to respond to human need.
For it is only with this vision that the maintenance of a daycare center, the care of the elderly, the placement of a child, the service to the unwed mother, the rehabilitation of the addict or the alcoholic, the outreach to the poor, the creation of affordable housing or the participation in a public policy network or advocacy coalition make any sense.
It is only with this vision, therefore, that these programs and services can be raised from the level of the impersonal, the indifferent, the self-serving, the paternalistic or the condescending to the level of the transcendental wherein our life and ministry truly become effective signs of the compassionate love of God and a living testimony to our fundamental Christian belief that all men and women are brothers and sisters in the Lord, bound together by a unity that demands justice and charity.
Unique call
In short, what I am attempting to say is that we in the Church must rejoice in and appreciate that unique call we have to be living instruments of the Lord's healing and liberating mercy and love in a world and society that desperately need such.
We are part of a person-centered tradition that extends from the call of the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures to care for the poor, the alien, the orphan and widow...to St. James' exposition on the nature of selfless love, given to the early Christian community...to 20th-century icons like Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Cardinal Bernardin, who made a vocation of demonstrating the congruence of our Catholic vision and belief with service to the poor and the oppressed.
Social advocacy
Traditionally, as a Church, we have tended to fulfill this mission through the direct programs and services we provide for the poor, vulnerable, disadvantaged, as well as the emotionally and spiritually impoverished. While this thrust must continue to be part and parcel of our ministry -- indeed perhaps more so than ever before -- given the developments that are taking place in welfare reform and managed care wherein some people inevitably will fall through the cracks, so to speak, it is also imperative that we be bearers of the prophetic tradition of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
We must be in the forefront of social advocacy: that is, standing with the poor, the powerless, the oppressed and disadvantaged in their hour of need, and not merely be content with applying band-aids to deep wounds or with helping people to better adjust to their suffering.
We must insist, therefore, upon governmental programs and policies that respect the dignity and worth of all of our citizens, and ensure that people be allowed to enjoy at least the basic standards of health and welfare and that children especially not be penalized for the failures of their parents.
Catholic role
During this new year, it is critically important that we monitor closely the impact of the new federal welfare legislation and our own state's response to it, and strive to call attention to the plight of those who may be impacted negatively by these dramatic changes.
It is also urgent that we strengthen the linkage that should exist between our Catholic Charity agencies and our local parish communities. That would provide a genuine partnership between our practitioners and our parishioners, who represent an enormous untapped potential to serve as volunteers, thus filling the gap created by a cutback in fiscal resources, as well as serving as the foundation for a vital grassroots network advocating for public policy initiatives and programs that are truly in accord with the Church's social teaching.
For 150 years, the people of our Diocese have reflected God's healing and reconciling love for all of humanity through a variety of health, education and social services. May we, in this Diocesan Jubilee Year, meet the challenges of our day with the same spirit of caring and selfless concern as our noble ancestors of the faith.