Men in Red

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - March 24, 2006

The eyes of the Church universal and much of our region are justly on Rome today, where Pope Benedict XVI will create fifteen new cardinals. In addition to the particular duties that these fifteen priests and bishops already have and will soon assume, they will have as their primary task to give a special type of witness.

When they kneel before the Holy Father in St. Peter's Square as he places a red biretta on each of their respective crowns, Benedict will say, "Receive the red biretta as a sign of the dignity of the Cardinalate, which signifies that you must be ready to act with courage, even to the pouring out of your blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, the peace and tranquility of the people of God, and the liberty and spread of the Holy Roman Church."

The true dignity of the office of Cardinal in the Church rests with the man's commitment courageously to suffer and even to die for the good and growth of the Christian faith. A cardinal is invested with the color of the martyrs so that, like the martyrs, he may inspire all of the Christian faithful likewise to be willing to give the supreme witness that Jesus Christ is worth living for and worth dying for.

Each consistory, therefore, calls not merely a specific number of men to Rome to be dressed in scarlet regalia, but calls the whole church to remember the time when they, robed in crimson, were sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and sent out on the mission to work for the increase of the Christian faith, the peace and tranquility of the people of God and the freedom and spread of the Church.

May the Lord strengthen the fifteen new Cardinals and with them the entire Church.

The Church of the Apostles

Pope John Paul II transformed the Wednesday general papal audiences into a joyous catechetical classroom. It was there, speaking directly to crowds of ten to fifty thousand each week, that he would not only reiterate the fundamental truths of the faith, but develop and propose them in ways that would respond adequately to modern questions. It was during 129 catechetical addresses from 1979-1984 that he developed his now famous teaching on human love in the divine plan, popularly known as the theology of the body. It was there that he gave us a beautiful catechesis on the Holy Trinity. It was there, during the last couple of years of his pontificate, that he prepared and then struggled to enunciate a deep catechetical commentary on the psalms.

Pope Benedict, as a tribute to his predecessor and a sign of continuity in the petrine office, spent the first eleven months of his pontificate finishing what Pope John Paul II had prepared.

On March 15th, however, Pope Benedict began to put his own stamp on the Wednesday catechesis when he announced a new catechetical cycle on the "mystery of the relationship between Christ and the Church, considering it from the experience of the apostles in light of the mission entrusted to them."

Christ called the apostles to himself and then promised to send them out as fishers of men, to catch others for Christ and to bring them into the net of the Church within the barque of Peter. Jesus began the Church by calling not one, or two, but twelve, in order to show, as Benedict says, that he was refounding his holy people after the downfall of the twelve tribes of Israel. As with Israel, Christ was founding the Church to be not merely a group of individuals with common interests, but a true people of God.

Benedict defended the true nature of the Church as a people called to communion with Christ and with each other in Christ against two "distortions." The first is a type of "individualism," in which Christians think of Jesus exclusively as a "personal" savior without reference to the community of faith he founded. The second distortion he summarized by the slogan, "Christ yes, the Church no." It is not possible to have true faith in Christ, he commented, without trusting in what he did in founding the Church on the Apostles. It is, moreover, impossible to love Christ truly without loving what he loves, and Christ "loved the Church and gave himself up for her in order to make her holy" (Eph 5:25-26).

"Between the Son of God made man and his Church," Benedict concluded, "there is a profound, inseparable continuity, in virtue of which Christ is present today in his people.… Christ is alive in the succession of the Apostles."

For the faithful disciple, the slogan must be "Christ yes, the Church yes."

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.