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Archbishop Chaput speaks:
Houston, Texas, Aug 19, 2014 / 05:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-
The Church in the U.S. should not and cannot ignore the ever-increasing
Latino population, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said
Saturday, because they are the future of the Church in America.
Before launching into his full Aug. 16 address to the Catholic
Association of Latino Leaders national conference in Houston, the
archbishop paused to remember and to pray for the young undocumented
immigrants on the southern border who “are stuck in an ugly kind of
limbo.”
“There’s simply no excuse for the suffering of children
and families,” he said. “I hope each of us will find time today to pray
for the young people caught in our immigration mess, and also for the
officials who need to deal with this reality quickly and humanely.”
CALL is a national organization dedicated to the growth and spiritual
formation of the Latino leaders of the U.S. in their knowledge and
understanding of the faith.
Continuing his talk, Archbishop
Chaput noted that one of the biggest challenges facing the Church in
America is creating a just and wholesome society in the face of an
increasingly secular culture. But changes in culture, he said, must
begin with patterning one's heart and personal life after Christ.
“If we really want God to renew the Church, then we need to act like
it. We need to take the Gospel seriously. And that means we need to
live it as a guide to our daily behavior and choices – without excuses.”
But this challenge is not new to the Church, and history often repeats itself, the Archbishop noted.
“Sometimes the best way to move forward as a culture is to look back
first,” he said, illustrating his point with a story about the Cathars,
followers of a dualistic heresy that flourished in the 12th century.
“That can sound harmless to modern ears,” he said. “But their beliefs
had deeply destructive implications for the fabric of medieval society.”
Cathars believed that all matter or anything with a human influence was
evil and corrupt. They rejected marriage, family life, government, and
the Church, and ultimately believed the human race should stop
reproducing in order to be free of the corruption of created matter.
Although their beliefs may sound outlandish, Cathars drew in many
followers because of their zeal and simplicity, which threatened the
Church and the political order of the day.
Even though the
Albigensian Crusade was led to wipe out the Cathars, they were difficult
to eliminate completely until one man, Giovanni di Pietro di
Bernardone, had a conversion and became known as Francis of Assisi.
The purity, simplicity and zeal of St. Francis and his religious
brothers soon surpassed the influence of the Cathars, and the entire
Church experienced a revival.
“Francis and his brothers in faith
were then — and they remain today — a confirmation of how God renews the
Church through a kind of gentle rebellion against the world; an
uprising of personal holiness; a radical commitment to Christian
poverty, chastity and obedience in service to the Church and the poor,”
Archbishop Chaput said. (Read more.)
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