The Local Church

In this National Vocation Awareness Week, we take time to lift up the vocations of priesthood, consecrated life and the diaconate. There is plenty of good news to share!

Only a few weeks after the national V Encuentro gathering in Grapevine, Texas, the theme song that rocked the house, especially with all the dance movements, still resonates in my head: “Nuestra alegría está en el servicio, nuestra misión es evangelizar. Nuestra cultura es del encuentro con nuestro Dios y la humanidad; Our joy is in service, our mission is evangelization. Our culture is of encounter with our God and humanity.”

“It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” (Eph 5:12-14)

The recent announcements involving new scandal in our Church sadden me to the core of my being. Just when there seems to be light and hope, another tidal wave of scandal comes to take it away. The evil one is at the gate, and it seems he has invaded and the battle won’t end.

In 1960, the first birth control pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Since then, physicians have been using the birth control pill and a multitude of other hormonal methods packaged as injections, implants and intrauterine devices to regulate fertility and suppress women’s menstrual cycles.

During the Easter season, we are retold the stories of how the Church grew from a small band of Jewish disciples to a worldwide faith of believers. We recall how the Holy Spirit intervened in the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul to bring about a mission to the gentiles. Yes, it was on the road to Damascus that Saul encountered the risen Jesus, which led to his conversion from a Christian persecutor to an apostle.

Pope Paul VI issued “Humanae Vitae” in 1968, but I didn’t hear about birth control until I entered high school in 1972. There I heard the whispered stories of how the Holy Father was supposed to “OK” artificial contraception but lost his nerve. Some of my teachers trembled with indignation over the silliness of Pope Paul VI’s arguments. Armed with this borrowed disdain, I began to argue with my mother about birth control.

That “Humanae Vitae” was an undeniably prophetic document is obvious to me — and not just because of all that has happened since. I witnessed firsthand what it had intended to avert. For, by the time I got to college in 1970, everything had changed.