Serra International Convention
Genoa, Italy
Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha, USA
July 4, 1995
Episcopal Advisor for Serra International
Homily - Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit
SERRA AND THE HOLY SPIRIT: OUR INSPIRATION AND ENERGY AND
MANDATE COME FROM CHRIST THROUGH HIS SPIRIT
The promise of Jesus and 2000 years of experience assure us that the Holy Spirit is the source and cause of unity in the universal Church. It is this unifying presence that allows the Church to remain one after all these centuries despite many forces which militate against unity. No human organization can permanently withstand the pressures of division which constantly tear at its core. Only the Church, with her apostolic leadership and her dependency on the presence and power of the Spirit, can survive the centrifugal forces which inevitably weaken every human institution. The Holy Spirit binds us together as Church everywhere in the world -- this is our experience and the cause of our assurance and our hope for the future.
We of Serra must rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit of necessity because our special mission is support for vocations to ordained priesthood and vowed religious life. There can be no candidates and no valid ministry in the Church without the inspiration of the Spirit. This is the reason the world cannot understand our purpose or the cause of our optimism because it does not know the Spirit. The media constantly applies the test of human standards and models to our enterprise. Lifelong commitments, perpetual chastity, celibacy, and a total dedication of ministry to others are questioned and challenged by most modern philosophies and cultures. The forces of change and restructuring in society are applied insistently to priesthood and religious life. How can we spend our energies supporting a dying cause? Priesthood and religious life must change if they are to survive, if we are to remain a sacramental Church which is culturally relevant. The Church is called upon to relinquish her tradition and her doctrinal assertions. Temporary commitments are proposed as solutions to present and projected shortages, as well as married priests and female priests and homosexual priests who are not required to remain perpetually chaste.
Fidelity to our apostolic mandate Talk
However, the Church will not accept the judgements of the world or the speculations of liberal Catholics who speak only for themselves. The Church will remain faithful to her apostolic mandate by continuing to nurture and call candidates to a male, celibate priesthood and to vowed religious life. Otherwise, the Church would be working against the Spirit which is a contradiction in terms. And Serra must not resist the Spirit by deviating from its charter to support the vocations He inspires. We are and must continue to be, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "the vocation arm of the Church" which promotes candidates to priesthood and religious life as the Church defines these vocations. We must never lose hope or be dissuaded from our course by those who propose a different agenda for us, and for priestly ministry in the Church.
We should take heart by what is happening in certain dioceses and religious communities throughout the world which are experiencing increasing numbers of candidates. There is remarkable similarity in the reasons which are given for these successes: unswerving allegiance to the Pope and the magisterial teaching of the Church; adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in parishes, with an emphasis on praying for vocations; a strong effort by a significant number of priests and religious who extend themselves to help young men and women remain open to the Lord's will in their lives; and a growing number of laity who support vocation ministry.
Young people everywhere in our world give evidence that they want to be Church with Pope John Paul. They want to know what the Church teaches through her magisterium. They want to be part of the unity of the Church and not caught up in dissent and disunity. They are willing to listen to the call to priesthood and religious life and lay ministry in the Church, and they want to be supported by people in their response to that call.
Young people do not want to commit themselves to dioceses or communities which permit or simply ignore dissent from Church doctrine. They do not want to be associated with people who are angry with the Church's leadership or reject magisterial teaching. They do not want to be battered by agendas which are not the Church's, and radical movements which disparage their desire to be priests or religious or loyal lay leaders in the Church.
The presence and guidance of the Spirit
This response by our youth is a strong sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. This gives us hope for priesthood and religious life and lay leadership now and in the future. This is the source of the growing strength of Serra, this Holy Spirit Who is active in our midst. If we rely on the Spirit and His gifts in our ministry on behalf of vocations -- if we remain loyal to the magisterial teaching of the Church regarding ministry -- if we refuse to be moved off track by the prophets of doom and those people who have their own agendas for the Church -- then we will be in the vanguard of a vocation renaissance in the third millennium of the Church that will see the renewal and revitalization of ordained priesthood and vowed religious life everywhere in the world.
The source and cause of this revival, this new resurgence of vocations in the life of the Church which has begun already in Africa and Asia, is the Holy Spirit Who is Christ's continuing gift to the Church -- Christ's gift to each one of us personally -- Christ's gift to Serra. And we shall be successful in our ministry, my friends, not because the world understands our efforts and marks our course, but because it is the Spirit Who urges us and inspires us and leads us on. This is the reason we never lose hope in our mission even when others are tempted to do so. The Holy Spirit is determined to replenish the ranks of priests and vowed religious in the Church. He has inspired Serra International to be an instrument of His call.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Veni - Come, Holy Spirit, Come - We of Serra need to experience Your presence and power in our midst as we move the vocation agenda of the Church throughout the world. Only You can make it happen. Come, Holy Spirit, Come.
