Lex Cordis Caritas - The law of the heart is Love

The Letter to Diognetus, written in the second century, is one of the earliest descriptions of how the early Christians lived. One very noteworthy passage says that Christians “marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.” Reading those lines, you might be wondering what it means for people to “expose their offspring,” since that is an expression that we do not commonly use today.

At the request of Pope Francis, the bishops of the United States gathered for a retreat from Jan. 2-8 at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. In his letter to the American bishops, the Holy Father wrote that he had suggested this retreat as “a time of seclusion, prayer and discernment.” He called for a “new ecclesial season” and for finding a way to “protect those in our care from losing hope and feeling spiritually abandoned.” In order to do so, we would first need to enter “with trust into Jesus’ prayer to the Father” and “allow him to conform our hearts to his image and help us to discover his will.”

“Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people of good will.” This is the basic message of Christmas. It is simple, yet profound; familiar, yet far from the current reality of this world.

As we began our November General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, I said to one of my fellow bishops, “Fasten your seat belt. I think we are in for a bumpy ride” (figuratively speaking). No sooner had I said that when the president of our conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, announced that he had received word from the Congregation for Bishops that no vote be taken on the proposals during the bishops’ fall meeting. The proposals included standards of accountability for bishops and the formation of a special commission composed predominantly of lay people to review complaints against bishops for violations of the standards.

The late Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, for whom I was privileged to serve as chancellor of the archdiocese and as auxiliary bishop, wrote in his book entitled, The Difference God Makes, “The world permits everything and forgives nothing. God and the Church do not permit everything but forgive everything.” This incisive statement has profound implications for us as we consider how to live as Catholics in the current crisis facing the church. The seemingly endless stream of reports of clerical sexual abuse of minors going back for decades is deeply disturbing and has caused some people to question their faith. For some, these scandals may be a stumbling block that hinders newcomers from joining the church. For those who are long-time members of the church, the current crisis may prompt questioning and doubts about their continued identification with an institution so marred by corruption.