How will new ambassador affect U.S. government-Vatican relationship?

Late Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama announced a number of ambassador nominees, including Ken Hackett, retired Catholic Relief Services president, as the 10th U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Ken Hackett pictured in 2012 during
consistory in Rome
CNS photo

The post has been vacant since Miguel Diaz resigned it in November 2012.

From President Obama:

"It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come."

Hackett has a strong history of humanitarian efforts and is very well respected within the Church. (You can read about his background at Catholic News Service.) Early responses to his nomination seem positive:

"I cannot think of a better choice. He will represent President Barack Obama and the administration's interests to the Holy See and bring the concerns and hopes of the Holy See to the president. He knows the Church and is trusted and respected by all. 

"Ken Hackett is a loyal American and a man of deep faith and commitment to the Catholic Church. He knows what it means to serve in his long career with Catholic Relief Services through which he served the poor around the world with distinction. I saw firsthand the many gifts he will bring now to his service of the United States," said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CRS.

"Ken Hackett has responded to a Gospel imperative with his entire career. His direction of the Catholic Church's outreach to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and unsheltered of the world has blended administrative acumen with genuine compassion in a unique and exemplary way," said Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, University of Notre Dame's president. 

"[Hackett] has so many skills applicable to this job. He has traveled all over the world and worked with [Vatican representatives], bishops and general consuls in all those places, and he has dealt successfully with plenty of sticky situations," said Bishop Denis J. Madden, Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, a former Catholic Relief Services board member.  

"His nomination gives a signal of President Obama's openness to good relations with the Church," said a U.S. Catholic leader close to Hackett.

With all the stresses and threats to religious freedom that the Catholic Church faces in the U.S. today, hopefully this nomination is a step in the right direction. How do you see Hackett's nomination affecting the U.S. government's relationship with the Church?

Sources:

• "Obama nominates retired CRS president as U.S. ambassador to Vatican," Catholic News Service
• "Obama names former head of Catholic Relief Services as new U.S. ambassador to Holy See," Vatican Insider

Don’t forget the #FaithfultoLife celebration with Pope Francis!

Tomorrow begins Faithful to Life, the Vatican’s two-day celebration of Blessed John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life"). Together, as one Church, Pope Francis calls us to witness to the dignity and value of all human life, especially the weak and defenseless.

From the Year of Faith website:

Pope Francis greets girl while
meeting disabled at Vatican
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"This gathering in Rome on June 15 and 16 is so very important. It will offer the opportunity for the faithful from around the world to gather with the Holy Father in a communal witness to the sacred value of all life: The lives of the aged, the lives of the sick, the lives of the dying, the lives of the unborn, the lives of the physically and mentally challenged, and the lives of all those who suffer. In addition, this event will offer the occasion to celebrate, affirm, and encourage all those who so tenderly and with self-abandonment follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd by tending to the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of those who are aged, disabled, ill, unborn, homebound, dying or who suffer in any way."

But it's not just in Rome! Our Sunday Visitor started a grassroots campaign to bring the celebration to you. Visit osv.com/FaithfultoLife to find ideas on how to spread the word and resources for studying the encyclical. From tweeting with the #FaithfultoLife hashtag to reading Archbishop J. Michael Miller's commentary on the encyclical, there are plenty of ways to get involved.

Join the celebration!

Jennifer Rey is the web editor of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing.

For Father’s Day: 5 tips for dads, a virtual retreat and more!

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In anticipation of Father's Day this weekend, Our Sunday Visitor would like to take the opportunity to thank fathers and encourage them in their vital vocation. Fathers play such an important role in the lives of their children. They are, as one of this week's stories from OSV Newsweekly said, the "first models of the Faith."

The story by Scott Alessi stresses the large influence a father's faith life has on his children and provides five helpful tips for Catholic dads:

1. Make time for your kids: Your children know your time is valuable, and just taking a few hours out of your busy schedule to be with them will show them how important and loved they are.
2. Be a loving husband: Being a good parent also requires having a strong marriage, so sometimes a dad needs to take time away from the kids for a date night with his wife.
3. Don’t fear intimacy: Being masculine doesn't mean you can’t be intimate with your family. Dads can still be a strong leader in the home while also being loving and nurturing.
4. Let your kids see you make mistakes: Children can learn a lot from seeing that their fathers aren't perfect. It is OK to show your flaws and say you're sorry, and it can provide an opportunity for the whole family to go to confession.
5. Ask for help: The best way to know what the family needs from their dad is just to ask. Fulfilling their needs shows strong leadership, but asking for their input conveys a sense of humility as well.

As we celebrate fathers this weekend, here are some other helpful resources:

A Prayer for Fathers

God our Father, we give you thanks and praise for fathers young and old. We pray for young fathers, newly embracing their vocation; May they find the courage and perseverance to balance work, family, and faith in joy and sacrifice. We pray for our own fathers who have supported and challenged us; May they continue to lead in strong and gentle ways. We remember fathers around the world whose children are lost or suffering; May they know that the God of compassion walks with them in their sorrow. We pray for men who are not fathers but still mentor and guide us with fatherly love and advice. We remember fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their love. Amen.

• From BustedHalo.com, a virtual Father's Day retreat for both fathers and their children
• In Scripture and Church teaching: "What it means to call God 'Father'"
• A behind-the-scenes look at a 30-day challenge for building healthy father-daughter relationships
• Why involved, committed Catholic dads influence kids' faith lives
• How Mary and Joseph exemplify faith for dads
• Prayer card with "A Prayer for Fathers"
• More resources

Jennifer Rey is the web editor of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing.

Law and love in Catholicism

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church is my quick, go-to reference for clarity on Catholic teaching, whether simply for personal reflection or for sharing with a broader audience. But I've never actually read it cover to cover. I've studied large chunks of it in classes, and growing up I read various versions of the Baltimore Catechism in their entirety, but not the "CCC." I simply flip through the index at the back, find the right paragraph, nod with satisfaction and move on.

But one day — inspired by a family friend who converted to Catholicism after reading all 2,865 paragraphs of Catholic goodness — I decided to begin reading the entire Catechism.

When I read the first paragraph, I could have kicked myself for not taking this approach sooner. It puts everything into context. Every teaching of the Church comes back to this fundamental idea of Catholicism: sharing in the life of God.

That first paragraph reads:

"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life."

Two main thoughts struck me in reading this passage. First, the Church begins its summary of beliefs with a deliberate focus on our relationship with God, on the intimate sharing in God’s very being. The Catechism could have started in many different ways, but our relationship with God was deemed important enough to be placed first.

Second, it is so important to have a rounded understanding of Catholic doctrine. If we don't consider the whole picture, different pieces can look distorted. Perspective can change in realizing that every teaching brings us back to this relationship: to knowing, loving and serving God.

Relationship is key in God's plan of salvation. However, the teachings are also important, as they are an extension of that relationship. They reveal God to us. They lead us to him. As Jesus says in today's Gospel: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill" (Mt 5:17).

How have you maintained that balance of law and love in your perusal of Catholicism?

Jennifer Rey is the web editor of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing.

Fighting the ‘noonday devil’

One of the seven deadly sins, sloth is more than simply laziness, wrote Msgr. Charles Pope in a post for the Archdiocese of Washington blog.

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Expanding on themes discussed last month in his column in OSV Newsweekly, Msgr. Pope said sloth can manifest itself in a variety of ways.

Msgr. Pope first defines sloth as: "sorrow or aversion to the good things that God offers." He then details three of its faces:

• Workaholism: Devoting oneself entirely to one’s career and thus becoming “too busy” for spiritual activities
• Laziness: Being stuck in boredom or a “kind of tiredness” and unable to bring oneself to engage in spiritual activities
• Discouragement (a.k.a., the “five-year itch”): Losing interest after the “newness and thrill have worn off” and moving on to the next excitement instead of valuing the gifts God has given

From Msgr. Pope:

"Beware of sloth, beware of the noonday devil. See it for what it is; name it; know its moves. Understand too, that the noonday devil manifests for only a time. If one will persevere through the midday hours of life and the Christian walk, one will also find that the noonday devil eventually departs, as one settles in to a proper and steady rhythm of the Christian walk or vocation."

Reading this piece from Msgr. Pope brought to mind two compelling and challenging questions that two priests raised recently at different events. The first: "Are you bored with life?" The second: "What is dead in you?" These are difficult questions, but in challenging ourselves to pray and really look inside ourselves for the answers, we can move toward a "[s]low, steady and organic growth" and defeat the noonday devil of sloth.


Suggested resources:

• "Why sloth is so sinful" by Msgr. Charles Pope
• "Sloth sneaks up when we're too busy to notice" by Mary Eberstadt
• "In Focus: The Seven Deadly Sins"
• Running Hard, Finishing Strong: 7 Steps to Building Momentum in Your Spiritual Life by Rick Sarkisian, Ph.D.

Jennifer Rey is the web editor of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing.