Recently I was speaking to a bishop in another state who was lamenting the necessary dismissal of one of his seminarians because of an addiction to pornography on the Internet.

The young man was raised in a good family and was exemplary in his behavior. However, he was honest enough to tell the bishop that despite all the safeguards at the seminary regarding Internet use, he managed to bypass them, and had been viewing Internet pornography even before entering the seminary.

He admitted to the bishop that after viewing human beings as pornographic objects for so long, he was beginning to lose a sense of empathy for people. He could no longer muster as much feeling as he previously had for other human beings in difficult or tragic situations.

Addiction to pornography is reaching epidemic proportions:
• In 2006 it was a $97 billion industry worldwide, with more revenue than all the top technology companies combined.

• $13.3 billion of this revenue was in the United States.

• There are 420 million pornographic Web pages on the Internet, of which 89 percent are U.S. based.

• 40 million U.S. adults visit pornographic Web sites regularly.

• Even more disturbing, children age 12 to 17 are the largest group of consumers of online pornography. Ninety percent of 8- to 16-year-olds are estimated to have viewed porn online.

• One estimate puts the number of churchgoing men who are porn users at 50 percent. Another study found that one in six women is struggling with a porn addiction.

While Pope Benedict was in Sydney, Australia, for World Youth Day last month, those of us who stayed home celebrated the occasion with a gathering in Sidney, Ohio, of approximately 600 of our young people from Ohio and Michigan. I found it to be a very inspiring, uplifting experience.

At one point I was asked what we as a church should be doing to minister to our young people. My immediate response was simply this: The most fundamental thing we can do for our young people is to support their parents! Today, more than ever, the church needs to educate and help parents in their God-given responsibility to raise their children.

Youth programs in the diocese and parishes are extremely important. Catholic schools and after-school religious education are essential. However, as the church has always taught, as studies show and as common sense dictates, parents are the single greatest influence on their children. A youth minister in Sidney told me that many studies are made of the influences on young people today, but when young people themselves are asked, the vast majority say the biggest influence is their parents.

When I was a seminarian many years ago, amid the social and religious turmoil of the 1960s, some people rejected the New Testament’s language of spiritual warfare to describe the Christian life. Anything that hinted of combat or violence had to give way to “peace and love,” even in the spiritual realm. However, if this viewpoint were to prevail, a significant element of the New Testament would be discarded. In the end, it is always better to let God’s word challenge us, rather than thinking that the time has come for us to change the Bible to suit ourselves.

Amid all the trials and turmoil of history, including today, even in our own diocese, it is important to remember that the life of the church is not one of unruffled calm or of peace and triumph.

The peace that Christ gives is not of this world. He comes “not to bring peace, but a sword.” (Mt 10: 34) Jesus is the strong one who came to overthrow the prince of this world (Mt 12:27ff; Lk 11:18ff). The conflict which Jesus waged against Satan and the world of sin is one that will be prolonged until the end of time, both in the church and in the life of every believer. Indeed, in “the last times” the conflict is destined to grow in subtlety, brutality and intensity.

Christ is already the conqueror of the world and the Lord of history. Only when He comes again, however, will all evil be definitively cast into hell, and perfect peace reign supreme. In the meantime, those who believe in Christ are exposed to the hatred of the world (Jn 15:18-21). The church collectively endures the assaults of the powers of a sinful world in league with the evil one.

What is the impact of Pope Benedict’s pastoral visit to the United States?

By all external measures it was a great success, an inspiring and joyful event. As one who personally participated in the events in Washington, I found renewed energy and encouragement in the Holy Father’s presence among us and in his words. I am sure that the same can be said for the throngs of people who came out for the various papal events or who participated by means of television and radio.
As more than one Catholic commentator has noted, the ultimate impact of the papal visit depends on how the Catholics of the United States respond, or fail to respond, beginning on the Monday morning after the Pope returns to Rome.

The visit was ultimately not about Pope Benedict, as he would be the first to admit. He came as the Apostle Peter in our day to bear witness to Jesus Christ our Hope (the theme of the visit); to preach gospel truths about conversion and faith; and to strengthen Christ’s body and bride, the church, in bonds of unity and communion.

So the measure of the trip is not external success, but spiritual fruitfulness.

I am reminded of the parable of the Sower in the gospel. What is sown is the Word of God. Some seed falls on the path and the devil snatches it away. Some falls on rocky ground and withers in time of temptation and trial. Some falls amid the thorns and is choked by earthly cares, riches and pleasures. Finally, only at the end of the parable, does some seed fall on good ground and bear fruit.

The genius of Pope Benedict, like Pope John Paul before him, is to sow the seeds of the Gospel in a way that is appealing and at the same time uncompromising in the face of the spiritual, cultural and social challenges of our time. During his visit the Holy Father developed several themes, three of which I would like to highlight as follows.

We all know the saying, “No man is an island.” This applies to every human being and every walk of life. Years ago, when I was a deacon, I wrote the following verses of the poet T.S. Eliot in the front of my breviary (the book of the Liturgy of the Hours that the clergy are obliged to pray every day): “Even the anchorite who meditates alone / For whom the days and nights repeat the praise of God / Prays for the Church, the Body of Christ incarnate.”

The more a believer reflects on the theology and spiritual doctrine of the church, the more he or she will come to appreciate the interconnectedness of the Body of Christ and of all its visible institutions.

When a man is ordained a diocesan priest, he is not sent out as “a lone ranger” to do his own thing, but as a member of the presbyterate, with the bishop as both “father and brother” to his priests. Similarly, when I became a bishop, I was appointed and sent by the pope, who as the successor of St. Peter is the head of the college of bishops, of which I became a member. As part of a presbyterate, every priest has to be concerned about the good of the whole diocese to which he belongs, and not just his own parish. Every bishop has to be concerned about the whole church throughout the world, not just his own diocese or country.

In just a few days, Pope Benedict XVI will be making an apostolic visit to the United States. By his office — the office conferred by Jesus on St. Peter — the pope is a universal pastor and “the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 23)

This interconnectedness embraces every member of the church, not just the clergy. No individual Catholic or individual parish is an island either, self-creating or self-contained. We are all “one” at a very profound spiritual level, the visible signs of which are a common creed, worship and church order. Also included is the mutual help we are to give to one another, as reflected at this time of year in our Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA). Unity even goes beyond the grave to include the communion of saints in heaven and purgatory, as well as on earth. 

TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2008
QUEEN OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY CATHEDRAL, TOLEDO

We come together today visibly making present the local church of Toledo in its fullness: bishops, clergy, religious and laity from every part of our 19-county diocese. There are many spiritual and theological dimensions to this fullness, but ultimately they are rooted in the central mystery of the Christian faith, that is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. In the words of St. Cyprian cited by the Second Vatican Council, the Church is a “people made one with the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

The mystery of redemption consists in this: that the Father sent the Son to give us the Holy Spirit, so that through the power of the Holy Spirit we might be incorporated into Christ and so be returned to the Father. At one and the same time the Church is the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Church is always all three inseparably; one aspect to the exclusion of the others would be a distortion.

It is the Holy Spirit, from the Father, who overshadows and empowers everything that the Son accomplished in his sacred humanity as the Word made flesh. The whole mystery of our redemption, from beginning to end, is a work of the Trinity, and is accomplished “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Christ’s Paschal Mystery, that we solemnly commemorate this week, reaches its fulfillment in the birthday of the Church at Pentecost. The Catechism tells us that “the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity" (n. 738).

The signs of our times are calling us to renew our sense of this mission. In the face of social, cultural and ecclesiastical upheaval, we are awakening to the urgency of evangelization. What does this mean? Put very simply, faith is like a fire that is meant to be seen and felt. And it has to be passed on if the flame is to be kept alive. Remember what Jesus said: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing” (Lk 12:49).

Now, in the first years of the third Christian millennium, how vigorous is the light of Christ, the flame of faith, in your heart and mine, in our diocese, in our parishes and communities, our schools and homes? This fire is not for ourselves alone, but for the life of the world, its redemption, for the salvation of souls; this is our mission. Where the fire is smoldering among us, it needs a rush of air. Where the fire has gone out, it needs a new spark.