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FROM THE EDITOR
Why
We Do What We Do
Hope in the Jubilee Year and Beyond
(Jan./Feb. 2000)
BY MICHAEL S. ROSE
SINCE THE YEAR 2000 is
"a year of the Lord’s favor" (Tertio
Millennio Adveniente), it may well be the one in
which the Church in the U.S. "turns a
corner"—from the bureaucratic to the spiritual;
from rampant infidelity to pervasive faithfulness; from
the profane to the sacred; from idiosyncrasy to
catholicity. We are already witnessing new signs of hope
amid a damaged and fractured Church.
In his book Christendom
Awake: On Re-energizing the Church in Culture, Father
Aidan Nichols, O.P., attests that the Church is being
revived by a renaissance of doctrine in catechesis and
preaching; a "re-enchanting" of the liturgy; a
recovery of metaphysics; the "resacralizing" of
art and architecture; and a recovery of a Catholic
understanding of Scripture. Many others—the Holy
Father included—hold out great hope for the newest
Christian century. Youngstown’s Bishop Thomas J.
Tobin, for instance, predicted in a late-20th
century newspaper column (reprinted in the July/August,
1999 issue of SCR) that the Church of the 21st
century will be characterized by a rediscovery of a sense
of the sacred; a clarified vision of
vocations—"a renewal of those calls, each
according to its proper state"; a renewed emphasis
on the basic doctrines of our faith; an increased
awareness of our catholicity; a lessening of bureaucracy
and administrative structures; and a rebirth of apostolic
simplicity based on the Scriptures.
It is significant then
that this century is ushered in with a Great Jubilee,
unlike all others. For the Church, wrote Pope John Paul
II in his 1994 apostolic letter on preparing for the
third millennium, the jubilee year is "a year of
reconciliation between disputing parties, a year of
manifold conversions." The joy of every jubilee is
above all, one based on "the joy of
conversion." The Holy Father prophesied that the
Great Jubilee of the year 2000 will be "greater than
any other." It only stands to reason then that the
"joy of conversion" during this Jubilee of
jubilee years will far surpass the joy occasioned by all
previous jubilees.
Conversion
We will soon embark on the fifth year of our press
apostolate. Perhaps it is a fitting time to address our
own mission, which is one centered on conversion to
Christ. St. Catherine Review does not in any way
consider itself to be an "enemy" or
"foe" to the pastors of the Church, least of
all to the bishops. We must, however, continue to
conscientiously exercise our right and duty to make the
truth known. We admit it: SCR fittingly deserves its
reputation as being critical of certain areas of Catholic
life, especially where scandal and injustice are
involved. But we are critical not only to reinforce in
stalwart Catholics their own sense of
indignation—this is sometimes fruitful—but,
more important, we are seeking the conversion of our
Catholic leaders to their duty to abide by the authority
of the Church, to proclaim the Gospel unadulterated, and
ultimately to lead souls to Christ. Consequently, we take
pains to carefully and objectively bring forth evidence,
to state "just the facts," in the manner of
old-time journalism.
Why, one may ask, are we
seeking conversion of Church leaders in this particular
manner? Because the sheep follow the shepherd. As we have
stated before, bringing about this conversion involves
the cross and crucifixion for both the convert and for
the one who seeks and pleads for such conversion. Only
after we embrace the cross will we restore the wild
orthodoxy that leads man’s searching heart to the
one, true God.
Certainly it is our hope
and prayer that these critiques are not written in vain.
In fact, one of the primary tenets of our work is based
on these words from St. Francis de Sales: "To speak
commendably against the vices of another, it is necessary
that we should have in view the profit of the person
spoken of or of those to whom we speak." And so, we
pray the Review is profitable in both these ways.
Charity
More and more Catholics are discovering the divide
between orthodoxy and paradoxy is not one which separates
the Church from the "world," but one which
pervades the Catholic Church herself. Yet, one can no
longer be a bonafide Catholic and remain a partisan. One
must be prepared not only to "die for the
truth," but furthermore, to die for the enemy of the
truth. In short, we must "love our enemies,"
and love them to death. That is, we must love them with
Christ’s very own love. Such is the genesis of our
motto which appears on the cover beneath the title. Veritatem
facientes in caritate: Furthering the truth through
charity. It is a matter of charity to bring the truth to
others. "It is an act of charity to cry out against
the wolf when he is among the sheep, wherever he
is," wrote St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction
to the Devout Life. It is through this charity that
we seek justice—ultimately, we hope, a justice
steeped in mercy. To this end we ask our readers to pray
not only for those who write, edit, and produce the Review
(we need it!), but also for those who are taken to task,
especially those who are commissioned to shepherd the
souls of the faithful through the instrument of the
Church. We hope our newly adopted "mission
statement" (see opposite page) fully reflects our
sincere desire to "further the truth through
charity," to bring about conversion—especially
in this year of the Great Jubilee.
[ St. Catherine Review ]
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