Presidential Address to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1994)
(Part 2 of 3)
After participating in two synods in Rome, I am once again profoundly struck by the differences between this church as I know it, serving its own people and all of humanity, and the church I see reported in the news media. Like the national story I spoke of last year, on a global level there is often a prepackaged story. It is the story of an ailing pope trying to impose an outdated morality on the resistant world, a church preoccupied by sexual issues, hostile to social progress and, now, deaf to the nuances of inclusive language. It is a story of a church of confrontation, entrenched in the past and resisting the aspirations of ordinary people today. But where is the story of the pope who still does more in a week than most do in a month, of an older man who connects instantly with youth wherever he goes, of a tireless witness to respect for human life and human dignity?
While there were examples of responsible journalism, on Nightline for instance, these were more than offset by the drumbeat of a fabricated story line. That story described a myopic church imposing its outdated values on the world. I recall especially reports on National Public Radio. You will no doubt remember the classic anti-Catholic cartoons and the daily reports which trumpeted the absurdity that the church was in a dark alliance with an international fundamentalist religious front to enslave women. The true issue, of course, were the dignity of women, the value of family and the sanctity of human life. That is why the pope – and we were with him – entered the discussion with great commitment and passion. (Incidentally, the last time the Holy Father took on a moral issue with such determination a wall fell and a continent – indeed the world – changed.)
You and I have seen the real church as peacemaker.
We remember how in recent years in the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos and his attempts to thwart democracy came up against believers with rosaries, Cory Aquino, Cardinal Sin and people power.
In South Africa the successful struggle against apartheid was advanced by the nonviolent witness of believing church members working together across racial and religious lines to build a just and nonracial future for all South Africans.
In Mozambique a long, long civil war ended because Archbishop Goncalves, the community of St. Egidio in Rome and other Catholics brought the opposing parties together and forged a peace which now seems sealed in the recent free elections.
In the Middle East Catholic patriarchs have joined again and again with other religious leaders in seeking to lead their people on a peaceful path to overcome hate-filled divisions of the past. And the Holy See, through its new diplomatic links, is supporting peacemaking in the land held holy by Jew and Christian and Muslim alike.
In troubled Zaire, Archbishop Monswengo is a reconciling leader in building a new internal structure that will make for justice and keep the peace.
In Northern Ireland for decades now, Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians have worked publicly and behind the scenes to lay the foundations in friendships and in principle for the peace which is now unfolding.
In Central America our bishops are the ones both sides have trusted, seeking to bring peace in areas where the very poor still hunger for the most basic kind of justice.
Some weeks ago, when the bishops of Cuba asked for a public dialogue among all parties within their land and a dialogue between their country and ours, our conference responded with words of public support. I believe that if our own government listens to this plea, it will hasten the day of justice and peace for those in Cuba who have suffered so bitterly and so long.
