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PAGE 4 — The Southern Cross, May 31, 1990
Share Christ With The World!
Isabella Diaz Gonzales remembers the first time she saw
a person with leprosy in her native Indonesia. She and her
brothers had gone into the woods near their home to gather
firewood; there they found William, living in a small hut,
all alone, rejected by family and friends because he had
leprosy. Isabella returned to her own home and brought
back some food for William; from that time, she began to
feel a real interest in, a deep love toward persons who suf
fered from the illness.
Isabella now works full time at the leprosarium run by
the Catholic church in Lewoleba. She knows that persons
with leprosy have a social suffering as well as a physical
one. So the first thing Isabella tries to do is to become close
to these people, to make them realize that she is concerned
for them. She tells them, “I see in you another Christ.” She
shares Christ’s love with the patients she serves at the
treatment center day after day.
On another continent, two missionary Sisters travel the
Diocese of Arusha in the African nation of Tanzania,
meeting each day with school teachers. The men and
women they see are anxious to know more about their own
Catholic faith in order that they may communicate, may
share that faith with the children they teach. Every several
days, the two Sisters can be seen packing up their few
possessions and getting ready to move on to the next
village; in that place, too, they will instruct teachers on how
to best share their faith with the Church’s future: the
young.
Father Trisollini also works with young people, but in
South Korea. He directs a center where young people come
to live after they have been released from reform schools
and, in some cases, prison. “These children have been trod
upon for a long time,” Father explains. “They do not have a
‘free’ sense of life; they express themselves with great dif
ficulty. We keep a flexible atmosphere here, just like you
would find within a family; this way these young people can
better understand and respect each other.”
There is one experience he has had with his “family” that
Father Trisollini treasures. Several of those living in the
house came to him, asking permission to form a weekly
discussion group to talk about their lives, about coping;
they had decided, however, not to touch on religious topics.
Father gave his consent, sitting in on the once-a-week
gatherings. One day, several in the group began to ask him
about God. Father quickly reminded them of their agree
ment not to talk about that particular topic, but seeing their
insistence, a discussion commenced. Within the week, all in
that group had met individually with Father; after that
week, the group became a catechetical group, with par
ticipants sharing their new-found faith with one another.
Now, Father states proudly, all those young people are bap
tized; one is in his second year in the local seminary.
Isabella, the two missionary Sisters, Father Trisollini.
All, in their own way, share Christ — His love. His
teachings, His word — with those in their world.
In their World Mission Pastoral, “To the Ends of the
Earth,” the Catholic Bishops of the United States wrote:
“Each new incarnation of the Gospel must be shared, even
if the growth of the local church is as yet modest... Chris
tian peoples and local churches will share the Gospel with
one another in various ways, from each according to its
special gifts and abilities, to each according to its needs.”
We can see evidence of that in the work of Isabella who
shares the Good News that Jesus loves each of us,
regardless of who we are. We can see that in the journeys of
the Sisters in Tanzania who share the teachings of Christ in
the Gospel so that teachers may pass on those lessons to the
young people of that Af rican nation. And finally, we can see
that in the ministry of father Trisollini in South Korea, who
shares the message of Christ, the hope He offered to all who
believe in Him, with young people who are trying to make a
fresh start.
WORLD MISSION SUNDAY
JUNE 2-3, 1990
THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH
Because we are baptized, we share in the work, the mis
sion of Isabella, the Sisters, Father Trisollini. “In
Baptism...we respond to Christ s invitation and are em
powered to join in His mission,'' write the bishops in “To
the Ends of the Earth.'
“Like the disciples, ' the bishops continue, "we must be
prepared to share what we have and to accept what others
offer us. In the simple act of sharing, we join others in their
joys and suffering and accompany them on their life's
journey.”
But how? How can we “walk” with our brothers and
sisters in Asia, Africa, parts of Latin America and the
Pacific Islands? How can we join in the day-to-day sharing
of Christ by Isabella, the two African Sisters and Father
Trisollini?
World Mission Sunday, in our diocese. June 3, offers one
such opportunity. In his message for this year's celebra
tion. Pope John Paul II stated that World Mission Sunday, a
day “dedicated to prayer, catechesis and the collection of
funds to help the Missions, reminds the whole Church of the
duty to go out to all the world to announce the Gospel.
The collection taken on World Mission Sunday is gathered
under the aegis of the Society for the Propagaion of the
Faith. Through the Society, 51 percent of the collection is
given to the poorest faith communities of the Developing
World to provide for the missionary and pastoral work of
the local churches of Asia, Africa, parts oi Latin America
and the Pacific Islands. Of the balance, 40 percent is tor
missionary work in needy areas of the United States
through the American Board of Catholic Missions, and nine
percent is for the work of the Church in the Middle East
through the Catholic Near East Welfare Association
Through your contribution to the Society for the Propaga
tion of the Faith this World Mission Sunday you are helping
to share Christ with the world. And with your contribution,
you are fulfilling, in one way, your responsibility to the
Church s mission to bring Christ’s Good News" to the ends
of the earth; ” that is a duty and a privilege you received at
Baptism.
Therefore, this World Mission Sunday, June 3, when you
are asked to contribute prayerfully and financially to the
Church’s worldwide missionary efforts through the Pro
pagation of the Faith, think about Isabella about the two
African Sisters, about Father Trisollini. Think, too, about
the countless other lay people, Religious Sisters and
Brothers, and priests who, daily, share Christ — His
message, His love, His hope. His Good News — with those
among whom they live and serve. Help facilitate that shar
ing! Pray for those men and women. And, give generously
in support of their work.
Catholic Hospitals Have An "indispensable” Role
BY TRACY EARLY
NEW YORK (CNS) — Catholic hospitals have an “in
dispensable” role in health care that could be expanded and
should not be seen as a stopgap when other health care in
stitutions fall short, Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Fran
cisco said May 20.
The need to employ increasing numbers of lay ad
ministrators for these hospitals as their sponsorship by
religious orders declines, he added, should be seen as a way
for the laity to take their proper role as participants in the
mission of the church.
But he cautioned that religious orders employing lay ad
ministrators should ensure that they not only manifest pro
fessional competence but share the values of the orders and
possess the ability to make these values felt throughout the
I lie Southern Cross
(USPS 505 680)
Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard, D.D., President
John E. Markwalter, Editor
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organization. To achieve this, he said, the orders may have
to give the laity special training.
Archbishop Quinn made his remarks in the keynote ad
dress for a May 20-25 seminar for administrators of
Catholic hospitals.
Enrolling officials from across the United States, as well
as from some foreign countries, the seminars are held each
May and September at Vincentian-run St. John’s Universi
ty in Queens, with joint sponsorship by the university and
the Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens.
Archbishop Quinn began by asserting that “there is an in
dispensable place for a Catholic institutional presence in
the world of health care,” and that the church’s task was to
“sustain and expand this institutional presence.”
He said the “substitutional theory” — seeing the church’s
role in the social sphere only as a “temporary” respon
sibility to compensate for other agencies' deficiencies —
made a false separation of the social and religious mis
sions.
“The mission to transform the world is not secondary, but
springs from the Gospel,” he said.
Archbishop Quinn said that as Jesus was “sent” to per
form his ministry, the church’s service was commissioned
and not “self-initiated” or “self-authorized.”
A primary dimension of the ministry of Jesus and the
church, he said, was to the poor — those who are literally
poor and, more broadly, those with “no recourse and no
voice.”
In our time, Archbishop Quinn said, these primary reci
pients of ministry should be the homeless, persons with
AIDS and those without health insurance.
“The cry of the poor will not be heard without the sustain
ed presence of Catholic hospitals, especially in large
metropolitan areas,” he said.
Consequently, he said, the church must maintain its
presence in the health care field despite the shortage of
religious personnel. The use of lay administrators in U.S.
Catholic hospitals, he noted, grew from 3 percent in 1965 to
57 percent in 1984 and then 70 percent in 1988.
But this growing reliance on the laity, Archbishop Quinn
said, corresponds to the call of the Second Vatican Council
for the laity to engage in the mission of the church on the
basis of their baptism and confirmation.
He also said Pope John Paul II had identified the
“newness” of the new Code of Canon Law as consisting par
ticularly of a stress on the role of the laity.
While relying increasingly on lay administrators, Arch
bishop Quinn said, steps must be taken to ensure that the
hospitals maintain their Catholic identity.
As many nations use the same colors, stripes, stars and
other elements in their flags, but create distinctive national
emblems in combining those elements, he said, so Catholic
hospitals have many elements in common with others but
relate them in a distinctive way.
Archbishop Quinn said that often there is an “overly nar
row view” of Catholic identity that sees it primarily as a
matter of refusing to do abortions and sterilizations.
“These prohibitions are not the only elements that color
the flag of the Catholic health facility,” he said.
While they are aspects of Catholic identity, he said, other
marks include such factors as working selflessly with other
hospitals rather than competitively; demonstrating special
concern for the poor and uninsured; and maintaining model
employment practices and refusing to understand death as
defeat or extinction.
Archbishop Quinn also said Catholic hospitals are distinc
tive in seeing their work as a ministry done in collaboration
with the redemptive ministry of Jesus.
They publicly identify themselves with Jesus and his
church, and their policies are guided by the church, he said.