Pastoral Letter on the Anticipated Arrival of Pope John Paul II

Pastoral Letter on the anticipated arrival
of Pope John Paul II

Every diocesan bishop must make a report of his stewardship to the Holy Father every five years. This report is made during a visit to Rome which is called the Ad Limina Visit - a journey to the threshold of the Apostles. The first time I went to Rome as Archbishop of Newark for the Ad Limina Visit was in 1988. At that time I was the senior metropolitan from our Region and so it fell to me to greet the Holy Father as he met with the bishops to give us his words of welcome and counsel. I remember preparing that brief message by thanking him for his previous visits to the United States and then hoping that one day he would find it possible to come to New Jersey. It was probably an unusual "commercial" to put into that kind of a statement and I recall that the Holy Father looked up somewhat surprised and smiled.

Since that time there has hardly been any moment in which I saw His Holiness without reminding him that we would love to see him here in New Jersey. Almost a year ago, as Chairman of our American Bishops' Committee on Aid to the Church in Eastern and Central Europe, I went to Lithuania during the Pope's visit there. I was sitting at table with a number of other bishops in the presence of the Holy Father. He looked down to my place and asked me how things were going in Newark. At the end of our brief conversation, I told him that we were still hoping that he would come some day to visit us here and this time he said, "Perhaps next year, if I go to the United Nations, I will come to Newark."

The Holy Father is a man of his word and it is with a very special rejoicing and gratitude to God that we here in this local Church welcome the visit of the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of Saint Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

A couple of weeks ago I had to be in Rome for a meeting and I saw the Holy Father very briefly. I told him that we were looking forward to his coming with great joy and anticipation. He grasped my arm and said, "Pray now that I can come and be with you all." That is the reason for his letter. I ask the whole Church of Newark to join me in prayer that this visit of the Holy Father may be a moment of grace for us all and an opportunity for us to renew our faith and our life in Jesus Christ Our Lord and in the family of the Catholic Church which He has founded on the rock of Peter.

The Lord Jesus had many options when he established His Church here on earth. He could have given it into the care of the angels and thus avoided all the limitations and risks of the human condition. He could have extablished it as a dynastic priesthood, as was the case in the the years before the birth of Christ among the people of Israel. With all the possible options that Divine Wisdom had, He decided to establish it upon the Apostles with Peter as the cornerstone. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, newly published now, reviews our faith and our doctrine clearly, concisely and in a way that every Catholic should carefully review. It presents the teaching on the Church in a beautiful summary (Nums. 748-987). I commend that section of the Catechism to you as I have already recommended that this important volume be present in every Catholic home.

In the beautiful and clear teaching on the Church as expressed in this Catechism, we are brought back to the Scriptures and the teachings of the ancient tradition. We are reminded that Christians have always taught that it was God's Will that the Church be the way to salvation for every man and woman in the world. The Catechism reminds us: "It was the Son's task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness of time," and therefore" ... the Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God promised over the ages in the Scriptures." To fulfill the Father's Will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The Church is the Kingdom of Christ already present in mystery (Catechism, #763 quoting the third paragraph of the Decree of the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen Gentium").

Just as Jesus established the Church as the instrument of salvation in our world, so too He named Simon Peter to be "the perpetual and visible source and foundations of the unity .. Of the whole company of the faithful" (882). "The Lord made Simon along, whom He named Peter, the rock of His Church. He gave him the keys of His Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock" (881). What an awesome ministry Peter had in the Church and even more awesome is this petrine ministry today in the days of John Paul II.

Saint Paul speaks of it so often when he reminds the Christians of his time how the apostles gave their whole lives to "the care of all the Churches." It is this care of all the Churches that John Paull II exercises in our time with so much dedication, devotion and perseverance. It is not easy to be a teacher in the Church today. How much more difficult it must be to be the universal teacher, the one to whom all of us should look for the truth and the light and the strength that comes from Jesus. To preach as the Scriptures tell us "in season and out of season", to proclaim the message of Jesus whether it is popular or unpopular, to propose very often what the world does not want to hear, ot raise one's voice against the overwhelming noise of the media and in our times against the voices of selfishness, of stubbornness and of private interpretation - this is the task of the Pope. I do not doubt that Pope John Paul II can hear every day the clear voice of the Apostle Paul as he gave the apostolic charge to the young Bishop Timothy. These are words which can be applied to every teacher in the Church but in a special and most personal way to the Vicar of Christ: "I charge you to preach the Word, to stay with this task whether convenient or inconvenient - correcting, reproving, appealing - constantly teaching and never losing patience. For the time will come when people will not toletate sound doctrine, but, following their own desires will surround themselves with teachers who tickle their ears. They will stop listening to the truth and wander off to fables. As for you, be steady and self-possessed; put up with hardship, perform your work as an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:2-5).

I have quoted this whole section from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy because to me it sums up the challenge and the life of Karol Wojtyla, the Successor of Saint Peter, our Pope. To him have been given the keys of the Kingdom. What an immense responsibility for the salvation of the human race and for the holiness of each one of us who belong to God's family.

Sixteen years ago when Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was chosen to be Pope, the first non-Italian in four hundred years, the world realized that a new moment had risen. His deep, truly mystic spirituality, his extraordinary brillance as a philosopher and his courageous experience of defending the faith in communistic Poland made him a man for this moment. If he had not been elected Pope, I truly believe he would have gone down in history as the leading Catholic philosopher of the century. His strength and unswering dedication to human rights and freedom played a major role in the collapse of the communist empire and gave believing men and women a chance once again to worship God as their consciences dictated.

Many of us saw him fifteen years ago on his first visit to the United States when he came to the metropolitan area. Others, especially our young people, saw him in Denver last year on his most recent journey here. The world had changed between those two visits and all throughout the globe there are questions and concerns. Pope John Paul II has continued in strength and courage to guide the flock of Christ today. We know in faith that if we listen to his voice we will be listening to the Word of the Lord.

The special joy for us here in New Jersey is that soon we will hear the voice of Peter in our own area, in our own archdiocese. As you know, the Holy Father will come to the Archdiocese of Newark the afternoon of Friday, October 21st, when he will offer mass in Giants Stadium. It is then our hope that he will return to us the following morning to make a visit to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. We look forward to these days as a very special time of grace. For 2,000 years the voice of the Lord has been heard through the voice of Peter. Saint Cyprian wrote in the fourth century: "Where Peter is, there is the Church." We know truly that all of us are the Church, each one of us being a member of God's holy family. And yet, in a special way, we have a common Father in the faith and he is the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ, Himself. As the Holy Father prepares to come to our archdiocese, I would like to invite all of us to join in prayer for him and for the life of our Church which he serves with such great zeal and courage.

It would be wonderful if we could present a gift to Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the sixteenth anniversary of his installation as Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pastor of the Church. It just happens that we will be celebrating the event on the 22nd of October when the Holy Father will be at Sacred Heart Cathedral. It would be wonderful if on that occasion we could present a gift to the Holy Father in the name of the faithful of the Archdiocese of Newark. I believe the gift he would most appreciate would be our prayers and our spiritual offerings honoring his anniversary and fostering his mission.

Traditionally, October is the month of the Holy Rosary. We know that extraordinary devotion Pope John Paul has to Our Lady, the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church. I invite you to join me in prayer for the Holy Father during October. We can do this by pledging for his intentions a certain number of prayers, rosaries, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and especially participation at daily Mass. I have sent all our pastors pledge forms that can be reproduced so that all our parishioners can make their prayer pledges for this spiritual bouquet. I ask you to return these forms to your parish Church so that the total number of Masses, prayers and visits pledged for the Pope during October 1994 can be tallied. I will have the total numbers inscribed and framed for presentation to the Holy Father during his visit to Sacred Heart Cathedral on his anniversary.

May all of us as we prepare to greet the Vicar of Christ here in our own archdiocese be filled with a spirit of love and generous faith. May his coming be truly a moment of renewal for this Church of Newark and for each of us who are its members.

I pray so hard for this and I know that you join me in this prayer. In the middle of this coming autumn may the Lord give us a second spring of grace.