On Justice & Mercy - Sunday, July 3, 2022

Dear Friends,

I am happy to report that Fr. Chuck had a successful operation last Tuesday on his knee and is on the road to healing. Thank you so much for all the offers for assistance. Fr. Chuck is staying in a one-story home elsewhere since the bedrooms in our temporary rectory are on the second floor, and we don’t know when he will be ready for the stairs back home. We will reach out to those who offered to help once he moves back home and we have a better sense of his ongoing recovery. 

Apart from his surgery, it has been a very momentous week in our nation and within the Paulists. The Dobbs decision on June 24 did not prohibit abortion but left open its regulation to states in ways that were not allowed before. Morally, the church clearly teaches that we must recognize and protect the dignity of all life from womb to tomb. Yet this moral principle is not readily translated into laws and policies. Catholics can in good conscience disagree about the specifics of laws and enforcement mechanisms in service of the dignity of the unborn and their mothers. The church also acknowledges tragic situations where the life of mother may be at risk during pregnancy. The moral principle of double effect allows treatments for the sake of mother’s life, such as chemotherapy if the mother has cancer, even when treatments would unintendedly interrupt the development of her child. There are no easy decisions in such heartbreaking situations, which are often clouded in uncertainty.

The Scriptures explore God’s call for both justice and mercy, and it remains a perennial struggle to find a harmonious balance between these virtues in our laws and policies. When the priests gathered in June, Bishop Joe was very clear that he expects all parishes to recommit to serving mothers in need rather than dive immediately into the political fray. Fortunately, St. Austin’s has an exemplary Gabriel Project ministry. The years ahead promise to be filled with contentious legislative debates across the country, and I pray that Catholics can offer a clear, compassionate, and charitable voice to the public conversation.

This past week the Paulist Fathers were asked to leave our ministry serving The Ohio State University, effective July 31, after over 60 years at the Newman Center. The community in Columbus is very sad to receive this news, so please keep our priests and parishioners in your prayers. Our campus ministries were integral to our mission at a historical time when Catholics were expected to only attend Catholic colleges and the public university students were ignored. That is no longer the case with dioceses giving increasing attention and financial support to campus ministries. The Paulists are now called to discern new ways to reach those on the peripheries of the faith and in society, and our gospel reading today reminds us that “the harvest is abundant” (Lk 10:2). 

God bless, and have a very happy 4th of July,