Fifty years after Vatican II and the Church’s slow moves to solidify, clarify and reaffirm her teaching, Pope Francis wants all the “Pentecostal energy” the Vatican has unleashed to be used, Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl says.
Wuerl’s comments were made at the beginning of the ‘Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel’ in Florida on 2 July. About 3,500 Catholic leaders including 150 bishops from around the United States were at the convocation.
“Now we are at a point where this Holy Father is saying all that energy, let’s do something with it, and people are responding and saying: I do feel my call,” Wuerl says.
“I think one of the really significant elements of this [convocation] is the vast majority of participants will be laywomen and laymen, and that speaks to what is happening in our Church. It’s the Second Vatican Council making its way … slowly but surely…but doesn’t the Church work that way?
“Think of it, when you look out into that array of people, you are going to see the face of the world, because that’s who we are in the United States: Every ethnic tradition, how many languages, how many backgrounds, how much heritage? And all there under the banner of ‘We believe in Jesus Christ’.”
Wuerl says we need to thank God for the gift of the Spirit.
“When we look … at that crowd, whether it’s when we are having the talks, at the Mass, when we are having the presentations, and you realise what holds all of us together is our faith, because people have different appreciations of everything else going on …
“In our country – economically, politically, culturally socially – it’s so diverse, but the one thing that brings us together…is the Holy Spirit.
“It’s like that Pentecost experience, …[and we need]… to hold that together,” Wuerl says.
Source
- Crux
- Cardinal Sean’s blog
- Image: The Compass
