Sisters of Life Celebrate 25 Years of Pro-Life Ministry

As a reporter for news site Aleteia.org, I sometimes get to witness Catholic events that I'd love to attend even on my own time. The Sisters of Life 25th anniversary Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan and their block party afterward was one of those times. I saw many familiar faces, including Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review and Brian Caulfield of the Knights of Columbus initiative Fathers for Good, plus priests, homeschooling moms, and volunteers. In short, a good time was had by all!

Under the soaring roof of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Cardinal Timothy Dolan praised the “fresh and young religious institute” of the Sisters of Life in a Mass of Thanksgiving for the order’s 25th anniversary on June 1. And the cardinal also passed on a message from the Dominicans, who just celebrated their 800th anniversary: “Tell those kids congratulations!”

In his homily, Cardinal Dolan described the Sisters of Life as a “breath of hope” for consecrated religious life.  “A quarter century ago, we worried – we worried that consecrated religious life was in trouble,” mused the Cardinal. But flourishing new orders like the Sisters of Life are “a booster shot for all of us,” he said.

Since their founding by Cardinal John O’Connor in 1991, the Sisters of Life have grown from eight members to nearly a hundred. In addition to numerous convents and retreat centers in the greater New York area, the Sisters have also expanded to other locations in the western United States and abroad to Canada.

Going above and beyond the three traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Sisters of Life take a fourth vow to protect and embrace the sacredness of human life. The sisters assist women in crisis pregnancies by inviting them to live with the sisters in their convents, and they also provide healing retreats for those suffering from post-abortion grief. In the past 25 years, they have witnessed many “miracles of courage and love, miracles of healing,” said Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, the superior general of the order, in her remarks at the end of the anniversary Mass.

The Mass attracted men, women, and children of all ages. Rather appropriately, the noise of babies echoed throughout the hour and a half. The presence of at least nine red or scarlet skull caps indicated attendance by “more … bishops than a Notre Dame football game,” joked Cardinal Dolan.

Five of the Sisters of Life from the mission in Toronto, Canada, drove down for the event. A whole block of pews was filled by the Sisters of Life in their dark blue and white habits, and men and women from many other orders mingled throughout the congregation, including the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in their distinctive gray, hooded habits.

One man, who had attended the Mass for the institution of the order 25 years ago in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, was here again for their 25th anniversary. “I can’t believe how fast the time has gone!” he exclaimed.

The Mass was accompanied by exquisite music, thanks to the choir of the Sisters of Life, joined by several guest singers including men, women, and children. They sang Franz Schubert’s German Mass and several pieces of a cappella polyphony by master composers Tomas Luis de Victoria and Ludovico de Viadana.

At the end of Mass, Cardinal Dolan invited everyone to a four-hour block party on 51st Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, near the Sisters’ Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent. The generosity of sponsors let the sisters provide free boxed lunches, pizza, hotdogs, popcorn, ice cream, and drinks. “Feeding people is important to us,” commented one of the sisters, saying they were all “secretly Italian grandmothers.” She added, “You’ll never leave one of our events hungry.”

Vicar General Sr. Mary Elizabeth described the block party as “an occasion to celebrate what God has done over these 25 years” and a thank-you to all the co-workers and volunteers who helped “to provide for the pregnant women we serve.” The sisters didn’t want to have the event in a hotel, she added, since they would rather be “on the street, out with the people.”

There were lots of fun kids’ activities with a unique apostolic bent. Kids were encouraged to write love notes to Mary and tack them onto a large bulletin board or to pose for a picture of a mock holy card as an incentive to become the saint they were meant to be.

In the nearby Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration behind banks of shimmering candles while long lines of people waited for confession. The block party ended with outdoor Eucharistic procession and benediction.

When asked how they met the Sisters, most people at the block party responded with variations on “I’ve always known” and “always loved” them -- hardly surprising, since the Sisters have become a well-entrenched fixture of Catholic life in New York City.

Dolan was even boldly invited everyone to the 50th anniversary of the Sisters of Life to be held, he said, at Yankee Stadium “jam packed with hundreds” of Sisters of Life and the women and children helped by them. Superior General Mother Agnes Mary Donovan hardly batted an eye when she responded, grinning, “We look forward to Yankee Stadium.”

This article first appeared on Aleteia.org.

Image By Farragutful (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

A Pornographic Culture (Part I): We Are Being "Groomed" For It

I am honored to feature an incisive two-part essay on pornography by Amanda Zurface, J.C.L., the Catholic Campaign Coordinator for Covenant Eyes. Covenant Eyes is a company committed to Internet accountability and filtering, providing powerful weapons against the electronic encroachment of porn. Amanda Zurface is a licensed canon lawyer with undergraduate degrees in Catholic Theology and Social Justice. 

Our Culture is Grooming Our Appetite for Porn

We all know it’s there and probably have some idea of how we could access “it.” Yes, pornography. Although porn affects some of us more directly, there’s no doubt that porn is a problem impacting all of us, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Pornography has formed the culture we now live in - a “Pornographic Culture.” No one person can separate himself or herself from the scourge of pornography and then declare the battle won. Porn has created a culture of its own and this culture is influencing each one of us spiritually, physically, emotionally, and relationally – though to a greater or lesser extent depending on if we directly participate in the use of pornography. There are immense moral, social, and spiritual dangers.

Here’s a clear example of the Pornographic Culture in the works. The movies and television we watch, even our state and national laws, and our public schools now tell us how and what to think about in regard to our sexuality. Their main message: human sexuality has no God-given purpose. Society – the Pornographic Culture – says we can use our sexuality however we feel. And, guess what? It will have no consequences! Wrong! But, this is the message of the Pornographic Culture itself. That is, do what you want, how you want, when you want, and at the cost of the dignity of the human person, at the cost of betraying God’s design and purpose for the sexual act, at the cost of your marriage and family, your child’s innocence, your priestly or religious vows, and so on.

Author Kristen Clark, writing on the topic 5 Ways Our Culture is Grooming Your Daughter for Porn for Covenant Eyes, shares this: “Whether your daughter is seven years old or seventeen, our culture is grooming her for an appetite for pornography.”  Clark is speaking directly about our daughters, but this is also the case for all of us. Society is grooming girls and boys, men and women in a way that all of us may acquire an appetite for porn and even begins to lead us down a path of dehumanization. It may be subtle on some occasions, but it's happening and it has been happening. With every “sex scene” we innocently watch at the movie theatre to the advertisements we see in magazines and at the malls, romance novels we read, nude images we accidentally come across on social media, Clark expresses, "we are slowly becoming desensitized and our conscience and sensitivity to purity and morality is weakened and our view of sex is being watered down. We are one step closer to viewing porn as a harmless pleasure.”

The Porn Industry Unjustly Targets and Victimizes the Most Vulnerable

Pornography currently occupies over 12% of the Internet, with 25 million sites today, making $5 billion in profit a year. Those who work for the pornography industry are typically pulled into it by the promise of money that can be made easily and without an education, references, or prior experience. This industry doesn’t discriminate, and it targets the most vulnerable: the poor, the abused and marginalized, and even children. This probably doesn’t sound like the job market we’re used too, does it?

In his Pastoral Letter titled Bought with a Price, Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, explains that the porn industry's “exploitation of the weak is gravely sinful. Whether need, confusion, or alienation leads men and women to become pornographic objects, their choice to do so certainly cannot be seen as free.” It is becoming increasingly known that more of the “workers” or more appropriately, the “victims,” are younger girls, sometimes they are even children. This is another example of what a Pornographic Culture looks like. The vulnerable are taken advantage of, dehumanized, and innocence is destroyed for profit: all acts of violence.

Further, it is becoming more apparent that there are critical links between the use of pornography and the prevalence of sex trafficking. A free e-book from Covenant Eyes, called Stop the Demand: The Role of Porn in Sex Trafficking addresses the connection between pornography and human trafficking: “A key ingredient to the success of commercial sex is the belief that people—women and children especially—are sexual commodities, and Internet pornography is the ideal vehicle to teach and train this belief.” Pornography destroys the lives of those depicted in porn, as well as the intended audience. While human trafficking – a consequence of pornography - may seem like an issue that has little to zero impact on our own community, we need to think again. Our own communities may be corridors for human trafficking.

This article was originally printed in Our Northland Diocese. It is lightly edited and reprinted here with permission.

Pope-Watching: Best Posts from Francis' Visit to the U.S. & Cuba

The secular and Catholic media have been filled with reports on Pope Francis' first visit to the U.S. this past week. Here's a round-up of the best papal news.

Background

Is the Pope Catholic?: This Newsweek article deserves a prize for the name alone. In-depth look into the Pope's words and the media's spin on them.

Pope Francis arrives in the US; denies being a leftist: This article by John L. Allen Jr., a reporter respected by Catholics of all stripes, gives the Pope's response to allegations that's he's more leftist than Catholic.

Visit to Cuba

Pope Francis Goes Off-Script to Deliver Passionate Homily on Poverty: In typical Francis style, the pope speaks extemporaneously about a topic dear to his heart.

Francis Hit with Tranquilizer Dart by Swiss Guard Seconds After Speaking Off-Cuff: This hilarious satire piece by the Eye of the Tiber, the Catholic equivalent of The Onion, expresses the frustration of some Catholics -- especially Catholic bloggers and journalists -- with Pope Francis' unpredictable statements.

Visit to Washington, D.C.

Hero or Horror? Junipero Serra becomes a saint: Interesting article by CNN about the surprisingly controversial decision to canonize the founder of several Spanish missions in California during Pope Francis' visit to Washington, D.C. yesterday. Pope Francis views Fr. Serra as one of the founding fathers of the United States and a special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.

Love for Pope Brings Them to the Streets, Not Necessarily to Church: Interviews of people crowded around the Pope's parade route through D.C. show that many welcome him as a celebrity, but not as the Vicar of Christ.

White House Welcoming Ceremony for Pope Francis: Watch the whole one-hour ceremony on C-SPAN here. Or fast forward to the Pope's talk, which lasts about ten minutes.

Pope Francis Challenges Congress: This morning, Pope Francis became the first pope ever to address a joint meeting of Congress. He spoke on issues relating to immigration, capitalism, the environment, religious liberty, and the traditional family.

Upcoming Visit to New York

Papal Itinerary: This post lists all the Pope's upcoming activities in the United States, including a speech to the United Nations, an ecumenical prayer service at Ground Zero, a visit to Harlem, and Friday evening's Mass at Madison Square Garden (yours truly will be reporting on the Mass for news site Aleteia.org!).

Live Stream: For those who are not in the crowds surrounding Pope Francis, but would really like to be, live streaming coverage is available at this web site. You'll feel like you're actually there.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: Just Judge or Just Another Judge? (Part One)

This two-part post on Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court is the last in a series on this blog analyzing the family backgrounds of prominent pro-choice figures. This series, written by my husband and co-author Dr. Manny Santos, will continue on Catholictherapists.com.

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Some children dream of being superheroes. It almost doesn’t matter which one they aspire to be. The dream is an impossible one, and as such doomed from the start. Such dreams are amusing despite being impossible, and most parents find them harmless enough. A different type of dream is the impossible dream in the quixotic sense, as highlighted in the song made famous in the 1972 film Man of La Mancha. The lyrics of this famous song give us a roadmap to the life of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who by many accounts has achieved a dream that seemed impossible. 

I'll examine the following four lines of the song, showing how they pertain to Justice Sotomayor's life and choices, both the fortunate and unfortunate.

To dream the impossible dream, 

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go

Justice Sonia Sotomayor has not only broken through the glass ceiling but undoubtedly inspired countless boys and girls to rethink the impossible and continue dreaming. Presciently perhaps, the justice's mother gave her the name Sonia, an English version of the name Sophia, which means wisdom. On June 25, 1954, when she came into the world, few could have dreamt that she would one day become the first Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court (and the third woman ever to do so).

To dream the impossible dream

As a young girl, Sonia dreamed of becoming not only a lawyer but a judge, admittedly a rather uncommon aspiration for a child living in an East Bronx housing project. Yet, if we wish to understand Sonia it is first necessary that we strive to understand her mother Celina. Born in 1927, Celina Baez grew up in Lajas, a small town three hours from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although the countryside may have been idyllic, her life was not. Celina’s mother was long plagued with health problems, and died at an early age, leaving Celina (age 9) to fend for herself along with her siblings (Celina was one of five and shortly after the death of their mother, they were abandoned by their father). Celina Sotomayor, now 82, recalls that her family was so poor she and her four siblings had to share one pencil. Despite these hardships she was always driven to improve herself and at age 17 left Puerto Rico to enlist in the Women’s Army Corp, ending up in Georgia. Although her English was limited, the corps trained her as a telephone operator.

After leaving the corps, Celina met and married Juan Luis Sotomayor, and true to her nature sought and earned a high school equivalency diploma at James Monroe High School. Given her prior experience, she was able to land a job as a telephone operator at Prospect Hospital in the South Bronx. Lest you, reader, begin to think that Celina’s life of hardship and struggle had become a thing of the past it is worth noting that her husband Juan frequently sought comfort in a bottle. Although his drinking undoubtedly affected not only Celina but also her two children, his premature death at the age of 42 from a heart attack propelled Celina into the role of sole breadwinner and single mother. Undaunted by this newest obstacle in her life, the 44 year old mother of two managed to support the family whilst simultaneously pursuing her dream of becoming a nurse. She enrolled at Hostos Community College in the Bronx to become a registered nurse and after two years turned dream into reality.

Speaking about the years during which his mother balanced working full-time with being a student, Juan would later recall, “My sister’s strength was English, and mine was math. We helped her get organized because it was a big shock for her to go back to school. But she did very well.” This period, so formative in her life, was recalled by Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a 1998 appeals court awards ceremony. As quoted in the New York Times, “My mom was like no student I knew. She got home from school or work and literally immersed herself in her studies, working until midnight or beyond, only to get up again before all of us [the next day].”  Celina transmitted her determination and love of learning on to her children, stating in a matter of fact fashion that, “I always expected them to do their best.” Adversity did not seem to affect her priorities, and as her son Juan states, she saved every spare penny to pay for a Catholic school education for her children and to buy a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. “I remember the enormous financial burden that placed on my mother,” recalled Sonia.

By all accounts, Celina’s efforts paid off.  Her daughter Sonia went on to graduate as valedictorian from Cardinal Spellman High School (1972), Princeton University summa cumlLaude (1976), and Yale Law School (1979). Her son Juan earned his medical degree from NYU after attending City College, subsequently completing his specialty in Pediatrics at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse and specializing further in allergy, immunology, and pulmonology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. (For more background on Justice Sotomayor, read here.)

To fight the unbeatable foe

In a recent interview with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien asked about a plaque which hung on her door and stated, ‘Well behaved women rarely make history’ (the original phrase: ‘Well behaved women seldom make history’ has been attributed to many people, including Marilyn Monroe and Eleanor Roosevelt, but most likely was coined by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich). By her own admission, Sonia is not a well behaved woman. She describes the sign hanging from her door as, “almost a life motto.” To describe her as a fighter may sound disrespectful to some but the facts, as they say, speak for themselves. Let’s take a brief inventory of the hurdles she has had to overcome on the road to the Supreme Court, a road that in more ways than one is certainly the road less traveled.

Her first obstacle was poverty, most assuredly an impediment to achieving the American dream. Not only was Sonia poor, she came from a very distinguished and well established line of poor people. As we’ve already seen, her mother was poor, and her mother’s mother was even poorer. Her father was not only poor, but poorly educated, and as if that were not enough he was an alcoholic. How did Sonia and her brother Juan break free from the vicious cycle of being among the have-nots? The key to this was their mother. Celina placed love of education amongst the few gifts she was able to bestow upon her children, second only to the life she gave them and the faith she raised them in. Further evidence of how far Sonia has travelled comes to us from a rather unique source. Rarely do I have the opportunity to quote a gravedigger, and it would be foolish to pass up such a learned source since even Shakespeare saw fit to impart the wisdom of a gravedigger or two in Hamlet, considered by many to be his greatest work. Thus it is that we turn to Mattias Sela, a 33 year old gravedigger from Lajas, the small town from whence Sonia’s mother hailed. There lies her father now, so soon taken from his son and daughter. “It’s a point of pride for all of us because she’s risen up from the bottom,” Mattias tells us, since “not many of us do.” Gravediggers have a way with words, don’t they?

The second obstacle on the road to success was the fact that she was Puerto Rican. Sure, the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City revels in the magnificence of La Raza, but behind the bravado there is the bitter reality that Hispanics are a minority and that they lag behind whites in almost every measure of achievement. Attesting to the not so hidden bias, Albita Rivera, a supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico and president of the Women’s Caucus in the Puerto Rican House of Representatives says of Justice Sotomayor's appointment, “It changes the view that North Americans are racist and do not want us because of our color. It eliminates that obstacle.” Another testament comes to us from a woman quoted in the NY Times, Ela Betancourt, when she states, “We have to remove the stigma of West Side Story.” (Read more here.)

The third and perhaps most daunting obstacle on the road to achieving what many see as one of the most powerful positions in America was the simple fact that Sonia is a woman. When she attended Princeton, she was well aware that only three years earlier the prestigious University did not even admit women. As if to prove her worth, she graduated with honors. Her three years at Yale Law School were no less remarkable in that on more than one occasion she had to bear the scornful look of those who believed she was only there because of affirmative action. Her subsequent work as an Assistant District Attorney in New York under New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau ought to put to rest any question of her qualifications on the basis of being a woman.  Her subsequent appointments to the judiciary at successively higher levels, ultimately culminating in her nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court, should serve to silence any lingering doubts. She is not only a remarkable woman but moreover she is a remarkable person, period. The questions that remain are what might she have lost along her path to success and what impact might she have on the future of our nation.

Visit again later this week for the second half of this post.

If you enjoyed this post, we highly recommend:

• The Audacity of Being Born: Barack Hussein Obama II
• Clinton's Choice
• Free Sex: A New Right?

Catholic Kids' Book Introduces Teens to Cuban Culture and Faith Under Fire

Threats to religious liberty are nearer to us than most young people imagine, and the story of Castro's Cuba brings that lesson home in a powerful way. Born of Cuban exiles, journalist Liz Lantigua has written an eye-opening fictionalized account of a Catholic family escaping Cuba on a small raft with a mission to achieve freedom in the United States. Lantigua's book, Mission Libertad, cleverly weaves true historical details with a compelling plot and introduces readers to common Spanish words and sayings along the way.

The main character is 14-year-old Luisito, who braves a dangerous sea crossing with his parents in order to reach their relatives in America. Luisito's elderly grandmother has insisted that he carry a secret message to a priest in the United States once Luisito arrives there. The message involves Luisito in a cat-and-mouse game involving Cuban spies, FBI agents, and international smuggling.

Mission Libertad offers teens a surprising view of the United States as seen through other eyes. The desperate economic conditions of Cuba make Luisito amazingly grateful for the everyday material comforts that his U.S. cousins -- and probably most U.S. teens -- take for granted. The religious liberty that we enjoy in the United States also astounds Luisito. In Cuba, Luisito needed to be baptized in secret and he never received First Communion or Confirmation. His teachers there openly mocked and punished any show of faith in God. Luisito's story, based on historical reality, reminds U.S. readers how blessed we are to have stores stocked with food and clothing and churches with doors open to us for Mass every day of the week.

The story gently exposes its readers to the world outside their borders, a world that includes what Pope Francis has called the Church of the Poor. Teens sometimes have a tendency to focus inwards on their own problems and their own emotional roller-coasters, but they have a great capacity for idealism and service. Learning how much less other people have and how much they need our help and prayers can inspire teens to grow in compassion and virtue. Mission Libertad is a great tool for parents and teachers to help teens to see beyond themselves.

Although Catholic culture pervades the book, Mission Libertad never preaches doctrine or theology. The closest it comes to catechism is in a beautiful scene where Luisito says a heartfelt prayer on the basketball court (a setting that will resonate with most teenage boys and a few girls as well!):

"Dear God, I hope this goes in ... for my team and for my sake. Please, God, hear my prayer and, if not, let me cope with whatever happens."

Luisito's wisdom in accepting God's will no matter what happens is a good lesson for adults as well as kids. In short, Mission Libertad should be a no-fail hit for almost any Catholic teen, from the devout to the doubt-filled. Click here to order it from Pauline Books & Media.

My thanks to author Liz Lantigua for providing me with a free copy.

My Top 10 Favorite Quotes from Pope Francis (Some Will Surprise You!)

Pope Francis has proved himself to be a revolutionary, setting some hearts on fire with love and other hearts on fire with anger and dismay. After nearly every telephone call or off-the-cuff remark by Pope Francis, at least one Catholic commentator complains that Pope Francis should just stop speaking so freely. I don't see that happening any time soon.

Some of Pope Francis' most controversial comments are actually my favorites. But all of his comments display a clear-sighted vision of the problems facing people today and the immense possibility our Church has to solve those problems through grace and action. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite Francis quotes:

1. "In this day and age, unless Christians are revolutionaries, they are not Christians. They must be revolutionaries through grace!" (from The Church of Mercy). Don't be complacent. Speak up. Ask hard questions. Love difficult people. Pray and give til it hurts. Realize that you are already part of a revolutionary movement that has been sweeping the world for more than 2,000 years. People around the globe are martyred every day for their Christian faith. What are you willing to do for yours?

2.  "If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person?" (from World Youth Day 2013 press conference). The Church's teaching on sexuality conflicts sharply with modern sensibilities and continues to be radically misunderstood. People think that Church teaching lacks compassion when nothing could be farther than the truth. The Church encourages us to love and understand our gay brothers and sisters, to hear their stories and struggles without fear or judgment, and to give them the affection and acceptance they crave. Chastity is difficult for young, single people. It is even more difficult for people being asked to face a lifetime of sexual abstinence. There are homosexuals in our Church, and they need our support.

3. "God has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: ... Even the atheists, ...everyone!" (from Homily at May 22, 2013, Mass). This makes my favorite list because it caused my atheist friend to perk up his ears and take notice. Is this true, he wanted to know? Yes, especially for those who have not heard the saving news of Jesus, I explained. It's different for those who know God and still choose to turn their back on him. My clarification made my friend a bit sad. But how amazing that Pope Francis' message of love and redemption sparked the hope of being cherished by a God my friend did not even believe to exist!

4. "We think of our parents, of our grandparents and great-grandparents: they were married in conditions that were much poorer than ours .... Where did they find the strength? They found it in the certainty that the Lord was with them." (from Address to Young People in Assisi). Pope Francis' emphasis on poverty reminds us that many of us in the First World have never known and might never know real financial poverty. We fear unemployment, the perceived financial burdens of marriage and parenthood, we fear the future. But we don't realize that earlier generations had much less money and often much less fear. If we're looking for courage, we might not have to look farther than our own families.

5. "An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!" (from Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel). Who wants to be Christian if it means gloomy adherence to a set of kill-joy rules? Pope Francis' plain-spoken words tell us that Christianity is all about joy. If we've lost the joy, that's not the fault of Christianity or the Church. It's up to us to find that joy again and manifest it to others.

6. “If love needs truth, truth also needs love. Love and truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people’s day-to-day lives.” (from Lumen Fidei, or The Light of Faith). Real charity means telling the truth, even when it's hard to face. But do we tell the truth with personal warmth and a desire to help, or are we just wagging a critical finger? The truth doesn't oppress people. It ultimately frees them.

7. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love, to you we turn with trust." (from Prayer to the Holy Family). Pope Francis has requested the intercession of the Holy Family for the upcoming Extraordinary Synod on the Family, which will discuss issues such as annulment, divorce, and reception of the Eucharist by divorced and remarried Catholics. The synod's ultimate goal is not just temporary reprieve from pain but the splendor of true love as reflected by the Holy Family. Let us all trust that the Holy Family will guide the synod and any changes that result from it.

8. "This relationship between Jesus and the Father is the 'matrix' of the bond between us Christians: if we are intimately part of this 'matrix', this fiery furnace of love, then we can truly become of one single heart and one single soul among us." (from October 30, 2013, General Audience). As leader of a global flock of Catholics, Pope Francis needs to get everybody together and on board with the program. Easy as herding cats, I know. But the first step needs to be stopping the bleeding or, in this case, the fighting. Wasting our energy fighting each other results in hamstringing our ability to move forward together accomplishing great things for God. So let's try to become one single heart and one single soul, united the way God wants us to be.

9. "The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost." (from the America magazine interview). It takes a great man to descend into the darkness without getting lost. We all need to find within ourselves the strength to do that, because that is our common call in baptism -- to preach the good news to all the nations. If we want people to hear us, we need to meet them where they are. If we want to save them, we need to lead them step by step out of the darkness. As St. John Paul II told us, we need to be strong with the strength of God so that we can help one another.

10. "With this letter, I wish, as it were, to come into your homes." (from Letter to Families). Pope Francis' approach to evangelization is to focus in an intensely personal manner on one soul at a time. He wants to enter into our personal, private space and break bread with us. So does Jesus. Each one of us will have to walk through the gates of heaven alone. There's no separate entrance for bus tours, and we can't expect to achieve salvation because our pope or our priest or our next-door neighbor does. We must open the door to our homes and hearts and let Christ in. Pope Francis is more than ready to show us how.

What's your favorite Francis quote and why? Tell us in the comments!

For more great Pope Francis quotes, check out the new book The Church of Mercy, by Pope Francis, just released by Loyola Press.

Pope Francis Makes Me Ashamed

I didn't feel ashamed when he said that atheists can go to heaven. I didn't feel ashamed when he said gays are okay. But I felt ashamed when Pope Francis said this:

"We cannot become starched Christians, too polite, who speak of theology calmly over tea."

Because that's me. Substitute coffee for tea, and I would happily sit and sip a tasty beverage while chatting about theology all day long.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict didn't make me feel ashamed of myself. I could understand most of what they wrote, so I figured that made me pretty smart. I don't remember them ever saying that being smart and knowing theology just wasn't good enough. I don't remember them saying, as Pope Francis did, that we must go out and touch the poor, touch them with our own hands:

“Do you give alms?

“They tell me, ‘Yes, Father.’

“And when you give alms do you look in the eyes of the people you give them to?

'Oh, I don’t know, I don’t notice.’

“Look, he has not met the people. He threw the alms and left. When he gives the alms, does his hand touch (the hand of the poor) or does he toss the coin?”

“No, you throw the coin. And you have not touched, and if you did not touch him, you did not meet him.”

Pope Francis makes me confront the ugly fear I have of the poor, the sad and dying, the criminal -- the "other." I never wanted to practice criminal law after graduating from law school, because I didn't want to be near criminals. If I defended them and they were dissatisfied with the defense, I reasoned, they would kill me. If I prosecuted them and sent them to jail, they would have someone else kill me.

Pope Francis' courage shows me how mistaken I am in my fear. Pope Francis might have looked afraid when greeting the thousands waiting in Vatican Square to shout his name as the new pope. But he has gone to the prisons and the slums and the streets without fear.

Pope Francis has destroyed my fantasy that Jesus' call to visit those in prison applies only to those wrongly imprisoned, like political prisoners or people jailed for their Christian beliefs. Pope Francis has wrecked my certainty that I have satisfied my obligation to feed the hungry and clothe the naked by feeding my own children and clothing their nakedness. He has undermined my self-satisfaction in the amount of money we tithe. There are more people to serve. There is more work to do.

Pope Francis makes me ashamed because he makes me realize that I am not half as good a Christian as I think I am. But that is not a reason for despair. It's a call to action.