Milwaukee Catholic Herald – October 26, 2006

Effective ministry requires
people filled with hope

Bishop Kicanas cites challenges ordained, lay ministers face

By Sam Lucero
Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS — In the midst of a changing and challenging world, church leaders, ordained and non-ordained, are called to continue sharing and teaching the Good News of Jesus. This was the message Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas delivered during a keynote address at “Tending the Lord’s Vineyard,” a gathering for church leaders Oct. 21 at the Cousins Center.

Bishop Kicanas, bishop of the Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., and a priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Chicago, used anecdotes from his 11 years as a bishop and 39 years as a priest to issue three challenges for those in ministry: to work in communion; to build a just society, and to maintain a spiritual center.

“You are the rainbows that give us hope. More than anything I want to express my gratitude for your willingness to share your gifts and talents,” Bishop Kicanas told the assembly of about 300 people.

Bishop Kicanas chaired the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee on lay ministry which, with the bishops’ committee on the laity, wrote “Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry,” a document on the formation of lay ministers, in 2005.

Alluding to the upcoming Feast of All Saints Nov. 1, Bishop Kicanas noted that “all those countless men and women who have gone before us, some recognized and many not recognized … have inspired others to follow Christ.”

“It’s in that company of the saints that we gather today, that we march and walk every day of our lives as a church, that inspires us with a conviction that Christ is still present among us today,” he said. “We are not a church without hope.”

Church in third millennium

According to Bishop Kicanas, the third millennium is marked by technological and scientific advancements while at the same time being plagued by senseless violence.

“It’s into this incredibly advanced world, and yet so primitive at times, that we are called to minister,” he said.

Citing a study by Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at The Catholic University of America, Bishop Kicanas said that ministers face a church in the third millennium where more of its members turn to their conscience, rather than church doctrine, to make moral decisions.

“In the next few years, there will be one-third fewer Catholics who are deeply committed to their faith,” he said. “Catholics will continue to give less credence to church teaching and more to their own personal judgment. And even though they identify themselves as Catholics, will go to church less often.

“The great challenge is to know how to teach and persuade and engage this new generation,” added Bishop Kicanas. “For us as ministers in the church, it’s a very challenging time. But it’s not a time of hopelessness.”

Working in communion

In order to carry out the mission of Christ with hope, Bishop Kicanas said that priests, deacons, religious and laity must work in communion.

“In the Catholic Church, the priest plays an important and irreplaceable role. We cannot be the Catholic Church without the ordained priesthood,” he said. “But the priest is not the church. Nor is the priest totally responsible for the mission of Christ. That has been entrusted to the body of Christ.”

Bishop Kicanas quoted Cardinal Avery Dulles as saying, “Our times do not allow for rivalry in the church between clergy and laity. It’s only by our working in communion that we will be able to realize the mission of Christ.”

Building a just society

The second challenge for ministers in the new millennium is to build a just society and to pass on the faith.

The bishop offered his personal experiences of ministering to undocumented workers along the U.S.-Mexican border. During a fact-finding mission with other religious leaders, he spoke with men and women who were making the journey north.

Bishop Kicanas said he listened to their stories of fear and suffering, and a hope for a better life for their children.

“We watched as countless vans filled with men, women and children were driving by. I broke down and cried as I gave a blessing to some of them,” he said.

Around the world, Catholic ministers reach out to the oppressed, and it is through this outreach that the church will model Christ, said the bishop.

“We are responsible to help build a just world,” he said. “It’s marvelous to see the work of the church in these places, where the number of Catholics is small. The church is doing marvelous work to build a just society.”

Maintaining a spiritual center

Finally, said Bishop Kicanas, ministers are called to maintain a spiritual center.

“The heart of what we are called to do is … follow in the steps of Christ, strive to live as Christ, (and) witness Christ. There has to be the spiritual center, grounding who we are and what we do,” he said.

The Catholic Church possesses a “rich treasure of spiritual teaching” found in “schools of spirituality” such as Benedictine, Franciscan and Ignatian spirituality, he explained. “All of these great schools of spirituality … call us, encourage us to embrace Christ.”

Common among all of these schools of spirituality are “three simple messages,” said Bishop Kicanas: to seek silence, emptiness and gratitude.

He encouraged his audience to turn to these schools of spirituality to build their spiritual center.

“As we seek a spiritual center in our lives, I hope that we will seek silence, seek emptiness, seek gratitude,” he said. “Those are at the heart of the spiritual journey.”

In conclusion, Bishop Kicanas told the church leaders that the challenge facing them is immense, “but we are called and embraced by God. We have an incredibly important task, to be the saints of this third millennium. So don’t tire. We need you.”