"Just Thoughts"-- A New Saint for the Americas? Beatification of Bishop Oscar Romero

Just Thoughts: A New Saint for the Americas?

On Saturday, May 23rd, a momentous event occurred that was hardly noticed by the mainstream press and media. An emissary of Pope Francis declared in the city of San Salvador the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero. This is the last step before the martyred bishop will be declared a saint. There are many people already calling him “San Romero,” Saint Oscar Romero. Pope Francis clearly chose the eve of Pentecost for this to be done, as if to announce to the world that the Universal Church henceforward would be the Church that Bishop Romero died for, it would be the Church, like Jesus 2000 years ago, with a “preferential option for the poor.”

Bishop Romero was in office only three years when El Salvador’s leader, Roberto D’Aubuisson, gave the command for the assassination. The murder was committed while Romero was saying mass: a sacrilege on top of the mortal sin of murder.

Just eight months after this, on December 2, 1980,  some of Cleveland Diocese’s  own were martyred in El Salvador: Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, lay missioner Jean Donovan, and Mayknoll Sisters Ita Forde and Maura Clarke. So our church, St. Mary’s of Painesville, and the Cleveland Diocese, with a deep commitment to the poor of Latin America, have close ties to these martyrs and saints of El Salvador.

These murders were committed because Bishop Romero and the Cleveland churchwomen were devoted to the poor and the downtrodden, and in opposition to the unjust oligarchs  and plutocrats that ran their society. Like Jesus, they paid the ultimate price. We won’t forget their sacrifice and we will continue their work.

In closing, here is a quote from Oscar Romero: “Many people would like the poor to always say that it is God’s will that they are poor. It is not God’s will for some people to have everything and others to have nothing, This cannot be of God."

Just Thoughts: Immigration

Just Thoughts: Immigration

At the end of the mass held at this year’s Celtic Festival in Painesville, Fr. Tom Johns, pastor of St. John Vianney parish in Mentor, reminded everyone of the July 12th Cleveland Diocese-sponsored “Walk for Justice” for Immigrants. He asked us to remember that the Irish ancestors of the people present were immigrants, and faced great discrimination because of their nationality and Catholicism. There is still a cultural memory of this discrimination--it is not so far in the past.

The Catholic Church in America is a church of immigrants. Catholics were relative late-comers in this country. Great waves of immigration started in the 1840s during the Irish Potato Famine and hardly decreased in the decades that followed. Greater Cleveland’s Catholic population is made up of the descendants of these immigrants: Irish, German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Croatian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Hispanic, and others. So Catholics in America should never forget the immigrants, of the past or the present. They are us.

Come to think of it, almost everyone in America comes from immigrant stock. A few of us can trace our roots back to early colonists, but most of us have much more recent American roots. It could be said that Native Americans are the only people who aren't from immigrant stock.

Why do people leave everything behind and move to a new country? Think about it: if you had a good home, a safe environment, a good job, would you move across the ocean to a place where you might not even speak the language? When people emigrate from their native land, it is often out of desperation. It must be the hardest decision.

In the new land immigrants often face daunting obstacles--discrimination, the need to quickly learn a new language, the need for the basics of life, food, shelter, safety. The need for honorable work. Sometimes they feel rejected by the new society. That brings to mind the great line from the gospels: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The Catholic immigrants, our ancestors, once rejected and discriminated against, are cornerstones of the strong and prosperous America we have today.

We as Catholic Christians must stand up for immigrants, find a just resolution to the dilemmas presented to our society by immigration. If we are successful, the immigrants will strengthen our society--and Church. We at St. Mary’s in Painesville, Ohio, have a great opportunity to work with the immigrants in our midst, and to offer our success as a model for the broader society.

Prayers for Fr. Tom Tifft

I'm not sure this photo, or any photo, can capture the essence of Fr. Thomas Tifft. A priest of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese (for about 43 years!), the priest who officiated at my daughter Julia and son-in-law Ed's wedding, fellow St. Joseph High School graduate, friend of hundreds of priests and laity. Both a man of great intellect and simplicity. Lover of sports: the Indians, Browns, and Notre Dame. An ordinary and yet extraordinary man.

We have had the great privilege to live in this man's presence and under his influence. Who could ever take his place?

Fr. Thomas Tifft, Great Priest of the Cleveland Diocese

We have heard the sad news that Fr. Tom Tifft, President and Rector of St. Mary's Seminary (at Borromeo in Wickliffe) is suddenly and gravely ill. Fr. Tifft is one of the great priests of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. He is also just a wonderful and normal man. We love him very much. His fate is in the hands of the Lord, whom he has served so well and so faithfully for over 40 years. He is a beloved priest, a beloved man, and he is in our prayers.