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Pro Life Stewardship - written by Father Jim Whalen - Priests for Life Canada Newsletter - 2005 Issue 3

PRO-LIFE STEWARDSHIP by Fr. Jim Whalen Priests for Life Newsletter Issue 3 - 2005 Fr. Jim Whalen, who was one of the greatest Canadian advocates for life.died suddenly on Sunday, February 24, 2008, at the age of 68.while conducting a Pro-Life Parish Mission in Thorold, ON   Stewardship is not an option for pro-life disciples. It is a necessity. It means responding to a personal call to “choose life” and imitate Christ, no matter what the cost. Catholics have a duty to be stewards of human life - Jesus did not hesitate to carry out His mission and expects no less from his followers: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly...” (Jn 10:10). Living as a pro-life steward means collaborating with God in His work of creation and cooperating with God in His work of redemption. A pro-life Christian steward is one who recognizes, receives, and respects God’s gifts of life thankfully - taking care, cherishing them in a responsible and accountable manner, sharing them in love and justice with others, and returning them with increase to the ‘Giver of Life’. A pro-life steward recognizes God as the origin of life, the giver of freedom, and the source of all they have, are, and will be. Once human beings have accepted their lives as gifts, the Spirit can use them as instruments to spread the ‘Gospel of Life’. It is difficult to be a pro-life steward in the ‘Culture of Death’ society that surrounds and suffocates us. The contraceptive mentality we live in is due largely to the strong influences of materialism, relativism, hedonism, individualism, and consumerism. There is a strong tendency to marginalize faith, confining it to hearts and homes, excluding it from the media and marketplace, from where policy is often formed, where many acquire their view of life and its meaning. There is a lack of charity, a lack of love, and a selfishness which pervades our world. There are extreme disparities in wealth and power that hinder unity and communion. There is a need for solidarity and contributive justice, for the measurement of productivity by fulfillment of basic needs, employment levels, patterns of discrimination, and a sense of community. There is a persistence of religious conflicts and divisions. There is a need for mercy, forgiveness, and truth, Stewardship of life, the Lord’s way, is not about comfortable living, feeling good, or pleasant experiences. It means surrendering ourselves through grace and choice.   It is not an illusion. It is not cheap grace. It is real. It is costly. It is demanding.    We become stewards of life by grace, starting with our Baptism, which makes us into a royal priesthood and members of God’s family. This means sharing in the priestly work of Jesus and acting on His behalf. This means imitating Him. “For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things for Him, making peace by the blood of His Cross” (Col 1:19-20). It means putting aside the desire for possession, control and domination. It means seeking grace because it confers true liberation and eternal life. It also means the condemnation of sin and reparation: living a life of grace, reaching out, and accepting the call to greater conversion. It means accepting the divine mandate given to our first parents: “Be fertile and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). We are challenged to work, to cultivate, and to care for the gifts of creation, for life, and all living things. This is fundamental to our human vocation and necessary for human happiness and fulfillment. Vatican II emphasizes our task - the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life: “From the moment of its conception, life must be guarded with the greatest care...” (Gaudium et Spes, #51). The principle of stewardship applies to all believers. In this age of unbelief we are asked to follow Christ, step by step, in the service of human life: “Each one of you has received a special grace, so, like good stewards responsible for all these different graces of God, put yourselves at the service of others” (1 Pet 4:10). We must give to God all that is due to Him. We must in charity and justice give to human persons all that is due to them. This means not only giving of ourselves and embracing pro-life discipleship whole-heartedly and cheerfully, but also in realizing our responsibility, we must also give the full amount for which we are accountable. “I will demand an account of every man’s life from his fellowmen” (Gen 9:5). As stewards our first and foremost responsibility is to give ourselves - our lives. Jesus made this very clear: “Whoever shall save his life [live for self], shall lose it, but whoever shall lose his life [live for Christ and neighbour] for My sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it [in following Christ]” (Mk 8:34-35). Pro-life stewardship means giving priority to God and our neighbor. The Holy Scriptures point us in the right direction: - Loving God and others ( Deut 6:5). - Be found faithful (l Cor 4:2). - Choose Life (Deut 30:19). - Pray constantly (1 Thess 5:17). - To Evangelize (Mt 28:19:20). - Seek justice (Zeph 2:3). - Put self on the altar of sacrifice (Rom l2:1). - Be holy (l Thess 4:3). - Resist and oppose evil to the point of shedding blood (Heb 12:4). - Be forgiving (Eph 4:32). - Imitate Mary’s Fiat (Lk l:38). After Jesus, it is Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen and Mother of the Americas, Mother of Life, Star of the New Evangelization, Patroness of Life, who, by her example, teaches the meaning of stewardship. The essential elements are found in her life. She responded generously, creatively, and prudently to God’s call and gifts. She understood her role as handmaid in terms of service and fidelity. As Mother she was the first Protectrix of Jesus in the womb, and this continued on into infancy, childhood, and then adulthood - until the agony of Christ’s Passion and Death (Jn 19:25). As ‘Mother of the Church’ (Pope Paul VI, Discourse, 1964), Mary’s stewardship is articulated in the Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). She is “clearly the Mother of the members of Christ” (#53). She is invoked in the Church under these titles: Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatix (#62). Pope John Paul II explained her role in Redemptoris Mater: “Mary is one of the first who believed and precisely with her faith, as Spouse and Mother, she wishes to act upon all those who entrust themselves to her as children” (#46). The pro-life disciple is called to share all he or she possesses as gifts and blessings with others for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Good stewards of life live with joy and gratitude for what they have received, living in communion with Christ and the Spirit and strive through diligence and hard work to multiply these blessings so as to offer them back to the Father. They have come to realize and understand their personal responsibility: “To each individual a manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (l Cor 12:7). Pro-life stewardship is a position of trustworthiness and faithfulness. In many cases it is a matter of life or death choices. Of necessity, it implies competence and commitment to God and our neighbours. It involves proper use of initiative, talents, and abilities. It also means hard work and tremendous efforts. At times it includes taking appropriate risks courageously. It means accepting a sense of responsibility for one’s personal development: spiritual dimension, discipleship, etc.; for relationships within the family, the workplace and the wider community: follow the ‘Golden Rule’; for certain entrusted material, financial possessions, and resources: keeping promises, fulfilling expectations, loyalty, integrity, etc. Catholics advocate that pro-life stewardship be Trinitarian, Eucharistic, Scriptural, Marian, and Magisterial. It means giving thanks to God for the gifts received and sharing them with others, “leading to works of charity and mutual help, as well as to missionary activity and to different forms of Christian witness” (Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis, #6). It means living the fundamental pattern of stewards: “Serve one another through love..., bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal 5:13; 6:2). It means service of life by doing all for Jesus, through Mary, by doing all with Jesus and Mary (True Devotion, St Louis de Montfort).     Pro-life stewards are called to share the life of the Blessed Trinity: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations: baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). Pro-life disciples model their lives on their Master, Jesus Christ, who said: “I have come not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). + NOTES: Information & Research Stewardship, a Disciple’s Response, U.S.C.C.C.B. Publishing, 10th Anniversary Edition, Washington, DC, No. 5-465, 80 pp.   To be a Christian Steward, Summary U.S. Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on Stewardship, U.S.C.C.C.B. Publishing, No 568-2, 16 pp. Go and Make Disciples, Evangelization Strategy, U.S. Catholic Bishops, No. 5-475, 104 pp. Principles for Life, Robert Boyd, 1995, Chapter 12, Stewardship, pp. 109-114. +

Pope John Paul II said

 Pope John Paul II said :

“A particular problem of conscience can arise in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of authorized abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on. Such cases are not infrequent. It is a fact that while in some parts of the world there continue to be campaigns to introduce laws favouring abortion, often supported by powerful international organizations, in other nations-particularly those which have already experienced the bitter fruits of such permissive legislation-there are growing signs of a rethinking in this matter. In a case like the one just mentioned, when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.” (Evangelium Vitae, 73).

Beatification of Servant of God John Paul II

from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (January 14, 2011)
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9518


An original pencil rendering of Pope John Paul II
by Paula Maloney of Osgoode Ontario

Pope John Paul II Beatification

Excerpt of Decree for John Paul II's Beatification

"Sign of the Depth of Faith and Invitation to a Fully Christian Life"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 14, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is an excerpt of the decree written by the Congregation for Saints' Causes regarding the beatification of Servant of God John Paul II, published today by Vatican Radio. The prefect of the saints' causes dicastery is Cardinal Angelo Amato.

The full text can be found on ZENIT's Web page: www.zenit.org/article-31459?l=english

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Beatification: Sign of the depth of faith and invitation to a fully Christian life

The proclamation of a Saint or of a Blessed by the Church is the fruit of putting together various aspects regarding a specific Person. First, it is an act which says something important in the life of the Church herself. It is linked to a "cult," i.e. to the memory of the person, to his full acknowledgment of him in the awareness of the ecclesial community, of the country, of the Universal Church in various countries, continents and cultures. Another aspect is the awareness that the "presentation on the altars" will be an important sign of the depth of the faith, of the diffusion of faith in the path of life of that person, and that this sign will become an invitation, a stimulus for us all towards a Christian life ever more profound and full. Finally, thesine qua non condition is the holiness of the person's life, verified during the precise and formal canonical proceedings. All this provides the material for the decision of the Successor of Peter, of the Pope in view of the proclamation of a Blessed or of a Saint, of the cult in the context of the ecclesial community and of its liturgy.
John Paul II's pontificate was an eloquent and clear sign, not only for Catholics, but also for world public opinion, for people of all color and creed. The world's reaction to his lifestyle, to the development of his apostolic mission, to the way he bore his suffering, to the decision to continue his Petrine mission to the end as willed by divine Providence, and finally, the reaction to his death, the popularity of the acclamation "Saint right now!" which someone made on the day of his funerals, all this has its solid foundation in the experience of having met with the person who was the Pope. The faithful have felt, have experienced that he is "God's man," who really sees the concrete steps and the mechanisms of contemporary world "in God," in God's perspective, with the eyes of a mystic who looks up to God only. He was clearly a man of prayer: so much so that it is from the dynamism of his personal union with God, from the permanent listening to what God wants to say in a concrete situation, that the whole of "Pope John Paul II's activity" flowed. Those who were closest to him have been able to see that, prior to his meetings with his guests, with Heads of State, with Church high officials or ordinary citizens, John Paul II would recollect himself in prayer according to the intentions of the guests and of the meeting that was to come.

1. Karol Wojtyla's contribution to Vatican II Council

After Vatican II, during the pontificates of Paul VI and of John Paul II, the manner of presentation, and thus of self-presentation of the papacy, has become quite expressive. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of John Paul II, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs published in 2004 a book entitled "Go Forth in the Whole World." Giancarlo Zizola, a "vaticanist," remarked on the fact that "the papacy has conquered its citizenship in the realm of public visibility, breaking away from the siege of worship marginalisation where it had been kept by decree of secular society, in the name of a militant vision of the liberal tenet of Separation of Church and State" (p. 17). A German historian, Jesuit Klaus Schatz, speaking of Paul VI and of John Paul II, underlined the meaning of the "papacy on the way" -- thus in conformity with Vatican II -- more in the manner of a missionary movement than as a static pole of unity. Schatz refers to the manner of interpreting the papal mission as a challenge to "confirm the brothers in the faith" (Luke 22:32), in a way tied to structural authority, but with a strong spiritual and charismatic hint, in link with the personal credibility and rooted in God himself.

Let us pause a moment to consider Vatican II. The young archbishop of Cracow was one of the most active Council Fathers. He made a significant contribution to the "Scheme XIII" which was to become the Pastoral Constitution of the Council "Gaudium et Spes" on the Church in the Modern World, and to the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium." Thanks to his studies abroad, bishop Wojtyla had a concrete experience of evangelisation and of the mission of the Church, in Western Europe or in other continents, but above all of totalitarian atheism in Poland and in the other countries of the "Soviet Block." He brought all this experience to the Council debates, which were certainly not like drawing-room conversations, extremely courteous but void of contents. Here was a substantial and decisive effort to insert the Gospel's dynamism into the conciliar enthusiasm rooted on the conviction that Christianity is capable of furnishing a "soul" to the development of modernity and to the reality of the social and cultural world.

All this was to be of use in preparing for the future responsibilities of the Successor of Peter. As John Paul II said, he already had in his mind his first encyclical, "Redemptor Hominis," and brought it to Rome from Cracow. All he had to do in Rome was to write down all these ideas. In this encyclical, there is a wide invitation to humankind to rediscover the reality of Redemption in Christ: "Man (…) remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer 'fully reveals man to himself.' [...] man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly 'expressed' and, in a way, is newly created. [...] The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly -- and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being -- he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself (No. 10). [...]

"This union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery. From the mystery is born 'the new man,' called to become a partaker of God's life, and newly created in Christ for the fullness of grace and truth. [...] Man is transformed inwardly by this power as the source of a new life that does not disappear and pass away but lasts to eternal life. [...] This life, which the Father has promised and offered to each man in Jesus Christ (…) is in a way the fulfilment of the 'destiny' that God has prepared for him from eternity. This 'divine destiny' is advancing, in spite of all the enigmas, the unsolved riddles, the twists and turns of 'human destiny' in the world of time. Indeed, while all this, in spite of all the riches of life in time, necessarily and inevitably leads to the frontier of death and the goal of the destruction of the human body, beyond that goal we see Christ. 'I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me ... shall never die'" (No. 18).
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On ZENIT's Web page:

Full text of decree: www.zenit.org/article-31459?l=english