Talk 6
Homily - Stockton, California
Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha
November 11, 1998
St. Leo the Great, Pope
The reason that Leo, living in the middle of the 5th century, was such a great pope was not that he was an eminent pastor and preacher; or that he was such a strong defender of Roman primacy; or that he effectively combated the heresies of his day, Pelagianism and Manichaeism; or that his writing on Christ's two natures in one person was adopted almost verbatim by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD; or that many of his prayers are still in our present Sacramentary; or that he saved Rome from marauding Huns and Vandals. The reason that Pope Leo is called Great is that he was able to achieve, with the support of many clerics and lay people, a solidarity within the Church which is still considered quite remarkable to this very day.
Solidarity - working together to achieve a common goal. I have proposed to you earlier today that the solidarity of bishop and priests and religious and lay leaders, especially you Serrans, working together to produce a positive climate for vocations is the key for a future full of hope. You have to share a common vision of a strong and vital diocese that generates life for its people. You have to overcome differences in approaches and pastoral styles, in culture and age, and ecclesiologies, so that you can work together to tap all the vocations that are present in your midst. You have to want a growing number of seminarians so that you will have an increasing number of priests. You have to want to invite young people to think about priesthood and vowed lives of service to the Church. You have to give personal support, sometimes over a long period of time, to those who are discerning the call from the Lord. You have to make them feel welcome in their diocese, and personally supported -- otherwise you will lose many of them.
Solidarity means that you priests are determined to support one another and be friends with one another in this diocese. It means you are glad to be here, to be working together, with all your differences. Solidarity means you are one with the bishop despite his weaknesses. It means that you invite your people to pray for vocations, for the well being of the diocese, and it means you invite them to join you in vocation ministry -- to invite and nurture and encourage vocations when they surface -- and they will surface when young people sense your solidarity with them and with the whole Church.
Young people today have an instinct about solidarity in a diocese or the lack of it. They know when priests are working together or just going their own ways. They know when the local church is united around its bishop and with the successor of Peter. They know when their desire for community and prayer and Catholic identity will be supported in a diocese or not. They will not commit themselves in numbers until they sense solidarity in a diocese. And when they do -- when all these positive conditions coalesce for them -- then many of them will respond positively to an invitation when it is addressed to them personally.
The difference between dioceses and religious communities who are rich in vocations and those who are not is the degree of common vision and solidarity which is shared by bishop and priests and religious and lay people in a particular diocese or religious community.
Pope Leo the Great knew he had to have his bishops and priests and key lay leaders with him if he was going to be able to hold the Church together in an age of disintegration and division. He knew that he had to share his vision of the future viability of the Church with his people. He knew that together they had to achieve a high degree of solidarity in order to preserve the unity of the Church and provide for her future strength. He worked tirelessly with his bishops and priests and lay leaders to create a spirit of unity throughout the Church to achieve this dream.
I submit to you tonight, that if you priests and religious and lay leaders will work with your bishop to achieve the solidarity which is necessary to have an effective vocation ministry in this diocese, you will be amazed at the vocations which will surface in your midst. Everyone has to pay a price to achieve solidarity -- but it is worth the small personal costs when you consider the cumulative results.
Our solidarity always depends on a process of personal cleansing and the removal of many barriers. When we are ready to work together for vocations, the Lord blesses our ministry abundantly. I know this from personal experience in the Archdiocese of Omaha. It can be the same here in the Stockton diocese if you will work at solidarity.
Isaiah 6: "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. "See", he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged".
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying "Whom shall I send" Who will go for us?" "Here I am", I said; "Send me".
