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Feb. 15, 2007 |
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Churches must take leadership
on the streets |
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Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan |
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Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan |
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Herald
of Hope is a weekly column started by
former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland
in the Catholic Herald and written by
the bishops of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. |
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My pastoral duties as your archbishop extend to the 10 counties of southeastern Wisconsin. From Kenosha to Sheboygan, from Lake Geneva and Delavan to Ripon and Fond du Lac – it’s our beloved acreage of the vineyard of the Lord.
You will understand, I hope, my particular care for the city of Milwaukee. It is my “see” (from the Latin word, sede, chair) city, the place of my cathedra, my chair, as your pastor. It is our largest concentration of people, parishes, schools, and charitable outreach, and its health has a huge impact on the rest of the vast archdiocese I am proud to call home. What Governor Doyle recently said about the whole state applies as well to our entire 10-county archdiocese: “As the city of Milwaukee goes, so goes the state.”
I am concerned about our city. Thank God, I’m hardly alone. Our mayor, political leaders, law enforcement officials, school superintendents, civic and business leaders, pastors, and most importantly, our people, our citizens, are worried as well. In fact, there seems to be a refreshing sense of unity and purpose, a spirit of solidarity, among Milwaukee citizens, arising from this common anxiety.
What do we worry about? Violence, crime, drugs, guns, racism, unemployment, housing, struggling schools, flight from neighborhoods, poverty, homelessness, broken families, forgotten children … need I go on? The litany of woes is updated daily as we listen, watch, and hear about a city that is not as safe, secure, and successful as we would like it to be.
Not that our legitimate anxiety makes us prophets of doom. We are rightly grateful for so many wonderful signs of growth and progress in our city, and cherish the heritage that has made Milwaukee one of America’s great urban areas. But, we still worry, don’t we? And, rightly so.
As is clear from such histories as those of Fr. Steven Avella and John Gurda, from the opening days of our city, the church has been a source of unity, help, hope and leadership in Milwaukee.
And we want to be that now!
As I set goals and priorities for the future with our priests, pastoral leaders, and committed Catholics, I want the church again to be this source of unity, help, hope, and leadership for our city. We sure do not claim to have all the answers, but we want to be part of finding them.
This is hardly a hobby, or just a nice idea. It is a sacred duty in justice for those of us who take Jesus seriously. Just last Sunday, during our Gospel at Mass, we heard our Lord bless the hungry, poor, marginalized, forgotten, struggling and searching. They’re here today with us in our city.
Mayor Barrett knows this. For the last two years he has approached us pastors to declare a Sunday in May a day of fervent prayer for an end to violence in our city. He tells us the churches must take leadership on the streets. Prayer must be accompanied by action from the community of believers.
Recently, I accepted an invitation from the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, William Andrekopoulos, to attend a meeting, and show support for a promising initiative to curb violence in our city schools. The guests heard charismatic words from Robert Woodson, a neighborhood leader whose four-decade campaign to reclaim the streets of Philadelphia from gangs, guns, drugs, and blood has been stunningly successful, and who is now taking his efforts to the perilous halls of inner-city schools. Guess where this savvy veteran of human horrors told us we had to start?
“Start with the spirit!” he charged us. “It’s basically a spiritual problem. If a young man knows he’s created by and loved by God, he won’t shoot himself up with heroin, and he won’t shoot a classmate in the gym!”
That man is a prophet!
The church, the archdiocese, cannot “fiddle while Milwaukee burns.” We must provide unity, help, hope, and leadership.
How? I’m far from an expert or some guru on urban problems. I am a bit more conversant in how the church can partner with so many other thoughtful and concerned citizens of Milwaukee to “do something.”
For one, let’s accent the spiritual. Bob Woodson is right: we’re talking about a crisis of the spirit. We are not animals; we are thinking, reflective children of God, called to virtue, love, and responsibility. That’s hardly just a “Catholic doctrine;” it’s at the heart of what every Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Unitarian, Christian, and thoughtful person of no particular faith holds normative.
When I visited the Dominican Center for Women, for instance, right smack-dab in the neediest, most dangerous block of our city, I heard women tell me how they had no hope – and no home, job, food, or family – but found it with Dominican sisters who welcomed them, loved them, listened to them, prayed with them, and helped them recover their dignity as a daughter of God. They leave with a high school degree, and sometimes even a rebuilt home, but it all began with a recovery of spirit.
When I ask MacCanon Brown at Repairers of the Breach how I can help – and hold my breath worried she’ll ask me for a big check! – she says, “Archbishop, ask your people to pray. The homeless, lost people who come to us freezing, still have their faith, and we have to keep that strong.”
Yes, faith has everything to do with it; a restoration of spirit is a priority, and, if this city cannot look to the church to lead there, we have really let them down.
Two, I want us as a church to strengthen what we already do well. It’s not that the church has abandoned the city. You know better: our soup kitchens, shelters, counseling services, job placement centers, housing, parishes, schools, adult education programs, youth outreach, child care centers, health clinics and hospitals, services to elders, our volunteers, twinning between parishes, and prison ministries are excellent, respected, and valued. We’re not starting from scratch.
When I want to roll up my sleeves and get to work, I go to St. Ben’s kitchen, or Cathedral Center for Women and Children, or All Saints Parish, or Messmer Prep, or House of Peace, and am in awe of the devotion of those great people. To strengthen what we already do, to organize it, coordinate it, support it and publicize it, is a second goal.
Three, what the church has done best since its founder’s last words on earth to “Go teach” is educate. People on the front lines tell me the best thing we as a church can do for our city is to keep providing our schools, expand them, open more! Many of our wonderful programs in our beloved city treat the symptoms; our schools treat the causes. Every child who leaves one of our Catholic grade schools or high schools becomes part of the solution, not the problem.
To strengthen, expand, and even improve our Catholic schools must be a priority! You tell us this! We better listen!
Monday I announced that Messmer High School and Messmer Prep would now take over administration of our Catholic Urban Academies — immediately at St. Leo and possibly at St. Rose. That is but the start. I want a daring dream of new schools, schools offering 6 a.m. – 6 p.m., 11-months-a-year education, a possible vocational trade school, summer programs run by a church that has done it so well, and scholarships to Catholic high schools, colleges and universities for Latino, Asian, and African-American kids.
This takes money. But remember the bumper sticker that says, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Thank God we have the Parental Choice Program. But we require even more. That’s why we are on the exciting brink of launching a capital campaign throughout the archdiocese which has as one of its major goals to strengthen and expand our schools, a proven antibiotic to all that is poisoning the city we love.
Four, we as a church need to be on the forefront of prison reform. We belong to a church founded by a man executed as a criminal. Sociologists tell us that most crimes are committed by people who were in jail, and that our prisons, far from reforming, harden these inmates. To work with prisoners and their families, and to be there for them when they leave to facilitate their re-entry to society as responsible citizens, must be a priority for us as a church.
Ninety eight percent of all those in prisons will be released and returned to society. After they have served their time, we need them to return to our communities as whole people who will help and not hurt.
There’s a lot more I dream about, but I will conclude here. Believe me, I do not have all the answers, nor does the church. We have enough of our own internal problems to deal with, prompting some people to legitimately say, “You can’t even keep your own house in order.” We are working on repairing our own house.
But we hear echoing in our hearts the call of the Master, “Do not be afraid! Cast out to the deep! You are the light of the world.”
We are at our best, as St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, when we give, serve, love and hope, when we are instruments of peace, not victims of doubt cynicism, and fear. As he began his ministry to the poor, Francis looked at those who would join him in repairing the church and said, “Brothers, let us begin. For up to now we have done so little.”
We realize the truth of the words of Pope John Paul II, that “people today learn more from witness than from words.”
All around us we hear, “Somebody has to do something about our city!”
So many of you have. You inspire me. The church is on your side. Look to us for unity, help, hope, and leadership. We are with you.
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