By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY | James Murphy
The men's Emmaus groups of St. Martha and St. Rose of Lima churches presented Archbishop Thomas Wenski with this painting as a gift. The image is one of 20 that will be featured in a book called "Pray the Rosary." Pictured here, from left: John Monteleon of St. Martha's men's Emmaus, artist Pietro Rapisarda, Archbishop Wenski and Father Wilfredo Contreras, St. Martha's pastor. The parishes' women's Emmaus groups also presented the archbishop with a gift certificate to Harley Davidson.
MIAMI SHORES | Archbishop Thomas Wenski was asked to speak on social justice to the St. Martha, St. Rose of Lima men's and women's Emmaus groups. And he did. But first came evangelizing.
Here, briefly, is what he said in his Oct. 6 talk:
Christ formed relationships first. Only after his apostles became his friends and were willing to follow him anywhere did he them about the cross.
In the same way, Emmaus sets people on fire because of the encounter with a person. As Benedict XVI said, Christianity is not about an idea, a philosophy, a moral ideal; it is about a person. Pope Francis is similarly extending an invitation to this encounter with Jesus.
Just as Jesus did not start with the cross, so we also should not. When people come to love Jesus, they will embrace the cross. And we must not be dissuaded that now everyone accepts. Jesus wasn't.
The teaching of the Church on social justice, from Leo XIII to Pope Francis, can be summarized in a simple sentence: "No human being is a problem." All of us are made in the image and likeness of God.
Thinking a person is the problem invites us to find a solution. That solution, as the 20th century shows, can lead to a "Final Solution." The Church is therefore Political with a Capital P -- hopefully above politics and never partisan.
The Church is condemned on some issues by the political right, on other issues by the political left. But across the board -- on immigration, euthanasia, abortion, prisoners -- it maintains the same underlying principle: the person is not the problem.
Prisoners, most of whom are where they are because of poverty, drug addiction, or even stupidity, are entangled in a problem, but they are not a problem.
Nor are old people a problem. Euthanasia, signed into law in California by a former Jesuit seminarian, exploits people's feelings of worthlessness and depression when they are most vulnerable.
Migrants present a problem that should be addressed, but they must be embraced as brothers and sisters, not as a problem.
The archbishop talked also about the Synod on the Family. He said the actual synod is about loneliness in society.
He spoke about his experience when initially assigned as bishop in Orlando, debriefing high-schoolers returning from a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
They brought back strong impressions of the poverty of the people, but also of at their happiness. The kids they met had a community of relationships.
Archbishop Wenski talked about the struggle of faith in present-day culture. Previously, Catholics could count on a Catholic "exoskeleton," a culture that people breathed and swam in, which protected the community and guaranteed the young would return to the faith once they formed families of their own.
That exoskeleton is now gone, he said. What is required now is backbone.
