June 4, 2010
The Bishop's Forum
Strategic Planning to Re-energize our Diocese: And the family
by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
Part Two of Two
The family is essential for the re-energizing of the faith life in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville.
We are so blessed in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville for the depth of faith that exists here in this mostly rural diocese. The faith is as deep as the richness of the natural resources in our area. However, are we witnessing a lessening of any expression in the practices of our faith that resonate with our ultimate dependence on Almighty God, the Creator and sustainer of all life.
Allow me to give one example of what I mean.
Happily, Bishop Shea, my predecessor reinstated the age-old practice of Rogation Days in 1988 during a terrible drought. That pastoral practice seems to have been a victim of the post-modern era following Vatican Council II. He revived it, for which I am most grateful. I experienced those devotions as a farm kid. They were re-enforced in my experience at St. Meinrad Seminary when the entire student body processed from the Seminary to Monte Cassino, all in cassock and surplice. The view alone was stunning.
Rogation days were designed to pray to Almighty God to bless all our efforts to provide sustenance for the community through farming and fruitfulness of the earth.
In reality, there are few members of the urban or suburban members of our community present for this very simple but powerful religious practice — yet we all depend on the efforts of farmers and the production of the earth.
Have families lost a sense of dependency on God for our sustenance? Or have we casually assumed that we are in charge with an “ATM” mentality? When do children learn that milk does not come from cartons in the dairy section of the grocery store? Where will they learn this truth, except at home?
Even farm families have difficulty in corralling their own children for the Rogation Service, due to school or sports activities. God is the source of all life and its sustenance. Do our children grow up with that. or do they come to realize it only when natural and man-made disasters hit?
Farm kids learn hard lessons when there is too much rain or too little. They learn as well that even their best efforts fail when there is either too much rain or too little. Life experiences are like that! How do urban kids learn such a lesson, except from their parents?
It is no secret that developing family practices of the faith for the entire family is made more difficult by “broken homes” where children are torn with their allegiance and love for one or the other parent or both. They have little juvenile energy left for developing their own faith practices unless they experience it with their parents. When such practices are absent or not insisted upon, children learn that practices of the faith are less important than other activities in their young lives.
In the lives of immigrants to our nation — and we are all immigrants to our diocese no matter the year — faith was what little they had left when they arrived on our shores. (My family emigrated from Germany to the United States in the 1840s. The faith they gained through Baptism sustained them as they had little else.)
It is no different today with so many Spanish speaking immigrants in our midst. We must never forget the roots of so many of us and recognize that it was the faith that sustained our families long ago. Is your family learning to communicate with them in their own language?
Family faith development is more informal than formal parish devotions. Even more impressive than family devotions are the brief but critical expressions made by parents around the dining room table or the kitchen sink.
In these precious moments at the table or the sink the attitudes of children about matters of faith are formed.
Our parents did not tolerate criticism of the offices of priest or bishop even though they may have had personal feelings about the current priest or pastor.
In short, parents should never place on the backs of their children adult personal feelings about their church or personal problems! Those should be placed at the feet of those who can change them, not their children who are powerless to make such changes.
Lastly, parents must never demean themselves or their position as parents to lower themselves to become peers with their children.
Children do not want their parents to be their pals. They want parental love and direction even though they in their childishness or adolescents may seem to reject such parental love at the moment.
Each of us needs, indeed all families, need the intercession of the Holy Spirit:
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
V. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray!
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Next week: Summer calendar and upcoming steps in the Strategic Planning Process.