Last month, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated two important anniversaries—his 85th birthday (April 16) and the 7th anniversary of his election to the See of St. Peter (April 19). As always, the Holy Father observed these great occasions with quiet dignity and genuine human warmth. Throughout his many years of pastoral service, Joseph Ratzinger has shown himself to be a great teacher and a good steward of the many gifts and responsibilities entrusted to his care.

Joseph Ratzinger was born on Holy Saturday and baptized the same day. As the pope recalled in his birthday homily, “On the day I was born, thanks to my parents, I was also reborn with the water of the Spirit. The day I was baptized … was Easter Saturday. At the time it was still customary to hold the Easter vigil in the morning, followed by the darkness of Easter Saturday without a Hallelujah. This singular paradox, this anticipation of light in a day of darkness, can almost be seen as an image of the history of our own times. On the one hand there is the silence of God and His absence, yet the resurrection of Christ contains an anticipation of God’s ‘yes’. We live in this anticipation, through the silence of God we hear His words, and through the darkness of His absence we glimpse His light. The anticipation of the resurrection in the midst of evolving history indicates the path we must follow and helps us to continue the journey”.

Pope Benedict’s journey through life has been a distinctive blend of gifts and responsibilities. The son of a policeman who was outspoken in his opposition to Hitler and the Nazis, the young Joseph Ratzinger was introverted, intellectual and deeply religious. He bitterly resented being forced to participate in Hitler’s war, and he ended up abandoning his post in the German army. Only the Allies’ victory and the subsequent breakdown of military power saved him from death, the customary fate of deserters.

Ordained a priest the same day as his older brother, Georg, he pursued a teaching career and participated in the Second Vatican Council as a peritus or advisor to the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich-Friezing. He became a strong advocate for change, but he insisted that all changes be in continuity with what the Church has always taught as opposed to a radical departure from traditional teaching and practice.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, befriended the young German and recognized him to be a great teacher and a good steward of his many gifts and talents. In due time, the Polish pope called then-Cardinal Ratzinger to Rome to serve as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This new assignment forced the Cardinal to leave his beloved homeland and to serve in a very difficult, but extremely important, position as the steward or guardian of orthodox teaching throughout the Universal Church. As always, Cardinal Ratzinger worked hard and took his stewardship responsibilities seriously.

Fortunately, he did not take himself too seriously but remained a gentle and humble servant of the Church’s faith. He continued to be a great teacher and pastor throughout his many years as a member of the Roman Curia, and in spite of false caricatures of him as the Grand Inquisitor or “God’s Rottweiler” the Cardinal from Bavaria maintained his gentle smile and his warm sense of humor.

After Pope John Paul II died, Cardinal Ratzinger was eager to retire, to return to Bavaria to read, to write, to walk and to pray. It was not to be. The Cardinal electors meeting in the papal conclave, prompted by the Holy Spirit, chose 78 year old Joseph Ratzinger—an old man by his own reckoning—to serve as St. Peter’s successor and to carry on the work which he helped begin many years earlier at the Second Vatican Council.

During his 85th birthday homily, the Holy Father said, “I am in the final stage of my life journey and I do not know what awaits me. However, I do know that the light of God exists, that He rose again, that His light is stronger than all darkness, that the goodness of God is stronger than all the evil in this world. This helps me to continue with confidence. This helps us to continue, and I would like to thank everyone who, through their faith, continually makes me aware of God’s yes.”

All of us should thank God for the countless times that Joseph Ratzinger has said ‘yes’ to God’s call. May he continue to be an exemplary teacher and pastor and a good steward of all God’s gifts!

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.” (1 Cor 15:1-8)

St. Paul believed that it was of “first importance” to remind the Church of Corinth (and all of us) that there were actual eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our faith is not a matter of speculation. We have the testimony of eyewitnesses to assure us that this life-changing event really happened.

The New Testament provides vivid descriptions of Paul’s encounter with the risen Lord and his subsequent conversion to Christianity. Without Paul’s eyewitness testimony and his tireless efforts to proclaim the Gospel, our understanding of Jesus’ teaching would be greatly diminished. Paul’s collected writings and his frequent journeys throughout the Mediterranean region provide an intense, personal witness to the risen Lord.

As head of the Apostles, Peter was the first person to inspect the empty tomb. Although St. John’s Gospel tells us that Peter and “the other disciple” were the first witnesses to the Resurrection, they really didn’t understand what it meant (Jn 20:9). They didn’t have to fully understand. They simply had to believe—and to declare their love for the Lord.

The first person to encounter the risen Lord face-to-face was Mary Magdalene. She was one of several women who did not abandon Jesus in the hour of His passion and death (cf. Mt 27:56, 61; Mk 15:40). Among this group of dedicated women, the place of honor goes to His mother, Mary, the first Christian disciple and the preeminent witness to everything that happened during his brief time on earth.

Mary’s witness to the risen Christ began when the angel Gabriel first confronted her with the great mystery that was to be the history of our salvation. Her humble and obedient acceptance of God’s will made Mary the first Christian disciple. It also made her the first evangelist, the first person enabled by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truth of our salvation in Christ.

One of the most popular scenes in the Gospel is the appearance of Jesus to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were downcast and disheartened. They left Jerusalem following the horrible events of Christ’s passion and death and headed home. They knew that the tomb where Jesus had been buried was found to be empty, but they assumed that was the result of foul play.

Why didn’t they recognize the “stranger” they met along the road who walked with them? St. Luke simply says “their eyes were prevented from recognizing him” (Lk 24:16), but similar stories of the risen Lord’s appearances suggest to us that he was changed—transformed—and, as a result, was not immediately recognizable even by those who had been his closest friends and companions.

One of the original witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus was Thomas the Apostle. We all know the “doubting Thomas” story. Thomas was absent when Jesus first appeared to the apostles. He refused to believe that the Lord had risen until he could see for himself. Thomas’s wish was granted, but Jesus admonished him saying, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (Jn 20:29)

The Lord was speaking to each of us. We have not seen Jesus with our own eyes, but we believe. We have not touched the nail marks in his hands and feet or the wound in his pierced side. Yet we are called to be eyewitnesses to his death and resurrection. We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and, so, we are called to be evangelists who proclaim the Good News of our salvation in Christ.

This Easter season let’s set aside all doubt and hesitation. Let’s proclaim the risen Lord boldly and without fear as good stewards of the gift of faith entrusted to our care.

A selfish faith would be an unreal faith. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into the dynamic of love that finds its source in the Eucharist, discovers true joy and becomes capable in turn of living according to the logic of this gift. True faith is illumined by love and leads towards love….God is not isolation, but glorious and joyful love, spreading outwards and radiant with light.
– Pope Benedict XVI

The Church gives us the season of Lent as a means to guide us in our search for lasting happiness. Far from being a dark and dreary penitential season, Lent is truly a time of joy-filled anticipation. It is intended to ready us for “the glorious and joyful love” that is still to come at Easter time.

The Lenten practices that are required of us during this holy season—prayer, fasting and almsgiving—are meant to strengthen us. As an athlete prepares for the events that will win him or her the crown of victory, we Christians discipline our minds, hearts and bodies in anticipation of the Lord’s victory over sin and death. We steel ours souls in anticipation of the ecstasy to come—the exultant, overwhelming joy of Easter.

Why is Lent necessary? Why not simply bask in the Easter sun that we know dawned for us—once and for all—more than two thousand years ago? Why deny ourselves the good things that we enjoy all year round when Christ has given us everything we could hope for?

Lent is a time of self-denial. It is necessary to remind us that we are still called to repent, to change our ways of thinking and acting so that we can believe in, and be transformed by, the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ. Lent is needed to keep us spiritually fit. Lenten observances prepare us for the evangelizing mission that the Risen Lord gave to us, his disciples, just before he ascended into heaven to sit at his father’s right hand. Lent prepares us for the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes as a consequence of the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.

We need Lent because we never want to take for granted “the glorious and joyful love, spreading outwards and radiant with light” that the Holy Father tells us is God’s gift of himself freely given to us through Jesus’ supreme sacrifice on the Cross. We need Lent for the same reason that we need the sacrament of Penance. We are sinners who need to be cleansed and healed before we are truly able to experience God’s forgiveness in the holy Eucharist and in the Easter mystery.

What are the three main disciplines we are called to observe during Lent? Prayer, fasting and almsgiving (generous sharing).

The Church urges us to pray more fervently during Lent. She invites us to come to know, love and serve our Savior more intimately and more completely. We Christians believe that the fullness of joy comes in communion with God. Prayer now helps to prepare us for the intense joy of Easter and the eternal happiness of heaven. Prayer also helps us to learn patience, perseverance and the ability to accept suffering in whatever forms it takes. We are called to follow Jesus, and his way leads through bitter suffering and cruel death to Easter joy.

The Church asks us to fast and abstain during Lent. She reminds us, in the words of Pope Benedict, that “a selfish faith would be an unreal faith.” To be genuinely happy, we must first learn to be unselfish, to deny ourselves and live for God and for all our sisters and brothers. The things we deny ourselves during Lent are sacramentals. They remind us of, and help prepare us for, the much larger sacrifices that are required of us as disciples and martyrs called to witness to the Way of the Cross.

Finally, the Church challenges us to be generous stewards of all God’s gifts. Stewardship is not seasonal. It places demands on us all year long (and our whole lives long). But the tradition of Lenten almsgiving provides us with an opportunity to practice the virtue of stewardship and to make a conscious effort to share with others the gifts of time, talent and money that God has so generously given to us. Stewardship is a virtue that has to be put into practice—one generous act at a time!

Do you want to be happy? Pray, fast and give to others. Do you want to find perfect joy? Journey through Lent to Easter and your joy will be complete!

Next week (February 8-10), O’Meara, Ferguson, Whelan, and Conway, Inc. will host a symposium in San Antonio, Texas, on the topic, “Determining Actionable Solutions for Catholic Education.” At the O’Meara Ferguson symposium, participants will discuss how integrating finance, development, planning, and operations can help revitalize Catholic schools.

The phrase “actionable solutions” reflects a growing awareness that it is no longer helpful simply to identify what the challenges are. Solutions must be found—and implemented!

This same sentiment was expressed in research conducted by three Catholic University of America scholars who studied “critical factors that face Catholic schools today.” The foreword to the publication, Weathering the Storm: Moving Catholic Schools Forward by Leonard DeFiore, John J. Convey, and Merylann J. Schuttloffel says it all: There will be no more prizes for predicting rain; only for building arks.

Weathering the Storm offers practical suggestions for “ark building.” After calling attention to significant research dating from the 1960s and 70s through the present day, the authors summarize the evidence this way: “In sum, Catholic schools appear to produce a unique set of important outcomes that neither other Church programs nor secular institutions can duplicate. Thus, the praise heaped upon Catholic schools, as well as the value attached to them, is well-merited.” This is the low-key, scholarly way of saying Catholic schools are incredibly unique and invaluable resources for our Church and for society!

The challenges are clear also. The decline in Catholic school enrollment, which began in the 1960s, continues unabated. The total number of Catholic schools has also declined steadily since the 1970s. “The data are disheartening,” the authors say. Since 1970, more than 4000 Catholic schools have closed; more than 1400 since 2000. According to Weathering the Storm, “The dioceses with the largest number of closings are: Chicago, Detroit, Newark and Brooklyn each with over 40 school closings, and Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, St. Louis and Cleveland, each with over 30 school closings.”

The decline in enrollment is exacerbated by the economic recessions of the past decade, which the authors say “have had powerful effects on the ability of families to afford rising tuitions and the ability of dioceses and parishes to provide adequate support.” Competition provided by the rapidly growing number of charter schools is also a growing challenge, the authors say.

According to Weathering the Storm, the primary challenges facing Catholic schools today are: 1) the increasing number of Catholic school closings and the negative, downward momentum this creates, 2) the continuing decline in enrollment, and 3) the growing gap between parents’ desire to send their children to Catholic schools and these schools’ affordability and availability.

St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has announced a multi-year initiative called Alive in Christ that is designed to address these challenges head-on. Noting that Catholic schools in St. Louis, like most other dioceses throughout the United States, have experienced a 40-year decline, Archbishop Carlson says that he does not believe further decline is inevitable. “Growth is possible,” the Archbishop says. “It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight, but with the help of God’s grace we can grow our schools in three key areas: Catholic identity, enrollment and finances.”

O’Meara Ferguson is committed to “ark building”— to helping the Catholic Church identify actionable solutions that will offer lasting, systematic temporal health to enable her to more fully focus on her Apostolic mission. The five solutions proposed by O’Meara Ferguson are: 1) stewardship—an awareness of our giftedness and a commitment to sharing, 2) subsidiarity—the principle that what is best done locally should remain there, 3) mission—a deep and abiding sense of the Church’s educational and evangelical mission, 4) instrumentality—the commitment to observing “best practices” while remaining open to the Holy Spirit, and 5) engagement—the active involvement of all—pastors, school personnel, parents and laity.

Once a school’s leaders are confident in the expression of their school’s mission, and once they have developed an ambitious but achievable vision for the future, then they can begin to address the school’s enrollment and financial concerns. In fact, basic financial issues like spending priorities, revenue enhancement, and tuition assistance can only be adequately addressed in light of the school’s Catholic identity as it is integrated into all aspects of the school’s life.

The Church in the United States has been blessed with the gift of Catholic education. Let’s be good stewards of this gift. Let’s make sure that our schools truly are Alive in Christ so that we can effectively hand-on our Catholic faith to future generations.

In a recent speech to bishops from the state of New York who were making the visit to Rome that is required of each bishop every five years, Pope Benedict XVI returned to two of the themes that dominated his visit to the United States in 2008: the sexual abuse crisis and the new evangelization. The pope’s speech was the first of five major addresses that he will give as the American bishops journey in 15 regional groups to Rome ad limina apostolorum (to the threshold of the apostles).

Concerning the sex abuse scandal, which has recently spread to several European countries, the Holy Father once again committed the Church Universal to “exacting standards” of transparency and decisive action to ensure the safety of our children and to deal with allegations of abuse as they arise. “It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge that affects every level of society,” the pope said.

Pope Benedict’s second theme was “the urgency and demands of a new evangelization.” The pope said that during the coming months he plans to offer “a number of reflections” on this topic for the bishops’ consideration as they lead their dioceses in today’s “dramatically changing social and religious landscape.”

“Many of you have shared with me your concern about the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society. I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes.”

The Holy Father has often spoken about the serious negative consequences of secularization, and the consequent “dictatorship of relativism,” that dismisses God’s central role in human history and that undermines the importance of ethics in all human affairs, especially social, economic and governmental policy. In his first address to the American bishops making their ad limina visits, Pope Benedict made a direct connection between increasing secularization and the breakdown of the “cultural and moral foundations” that are the bedrock of human society.

What can the bishops do in response to the grave challenges facing our Church and human society as a whole? The Holy Father says the bishops must “exercise the prophetic dimension of [their] episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth and offering a word of hope capable of opening minds and hearts to the truth that sets us free.”

As Pope Benedict has taught consistently throughout his pontificate, and from his earliest days as a pastor and teacher, “the truth that sets us free” is not an ideology. It is a person, Jesus Christ, the meaning of the world and of our individual lives. He alone can free us from the dictatorship of relativism and from every other form of tyranny known to humankind.

“Immersed in this [increasingly secularized] culture, believers are daily beset by the objections, the troubling questions and the cynicism of a society that seems to have lost its roots, by a world in which the love of God has grown cold in so many hearts,” the pope observes speaking to his brother bishops. “Evangelization thus appears not simply a task to be undertaken ad extra; we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization.”

Bishops must first rekindle the flame of Christ’s love in their hearts. They must engage in genuine spiritual renewal. Only then can they successfully lead God’s people in the kind of “searching, critical and on-going self assessment and conversion in light of Christ’s truth” that alone can set us free. As Pope Benedict makes clear, “Only through such interior renewal will we be able to discern and meet the spiritual needs of our age with the ageless truth of the Gospel.”

The truth that sets us free is Jesus. We find Him by opening our hearts to the fire of His love and by allowing His Gospel to govern our lives and to shape social, economic and political structures.

Let us be good stewards of His truth and His love. Let us proclaim Him boldly and unapologetically in the New Year and always.

Clearly, it is only through God’s generosity that man, the beggar, who receives a wealth of divine gifts, is yet able to offer something to God as well; that God makes it possible for us to accept His gifts by making us capable of becoming givers ourselves in His regard. – Pope Benedict XVI

During the Advent and Christmas seasons, we give and receive many gifts. Advent is a time of preparation, a time of joyful hope and confident expectation. Hope is a gift—an especially precious gift during times of uncertainty and despair. Joy is also a gift. It gladdens our weary hearts and allows us to let go of life’s many burdens, if only for a moment.

We have gifts to share with others because God has been generous to us. He has given us life. All that we possess (our material and spiritual gifts) first came to us because God loves us, because He freely shares with us His life (grace) and the fruits of His labor (creation). We have gifts to share with others because God first shared these gifts with us.

Pope Benedict reminds us that God is love. Divine love does not exist only for itself. “By nature,” the Holy Father says, God’s love “wants to pour itself out.” This is the Christmas story. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. (Jn) God’s love could not contain itself. It overflowed and became incarnate. God so loved us that He became one with us.

This is the mystery—and the profound joy—of Christmas. Christ, the Son of God, “stepped outside the framework of His divinity, took flesh and became man” the pope says, “not merely to confirm the world in its worldliness” but to effect a profound change, to transform the world, and each one of us, by the power of His love.

When we celebrate Advent, we look forward in hope. And when Christmas comes, we discover that our hope has been transformed. It has become love incarnate.

We have gifts to share with one another because Christ has given Himself to us. We have the power to give back to God “with increase” because God has invited us to be the stewards of His bounty and to nurture all His gifts and grow them out of gratitude for His love.

The danger is that we will neglect the gifts we have received from God and that we will become complacent and fail to share them with others. This is the tendency to worldliness that Jesus has warned against (Jn17:16). It is the temptation to regard all our gifts and possessions as rightfully ours—not gifts at all but the results of our own efforts, our own exclusive property.

Miserly, self-centeredness is the spirit of Scrooge; it is not the spirit of Christmas. The God who loves us gives generously without measuring what we deserve. He does not hold back. He shares freely out of an abundance of love.

To be like Him, we must let go of what we think we own. We must give until it liberates us from the weight of the world. We must share until it connects us with each other and with God.

Yes, the exchange between us and God is unequal. We could never hope to return to Him in equal measure all that He has given to us. That’s why the Lord challenges us to proportionate giving. And it’s why He invites us to give sacrificially as a sign that we know how blessed we are and how much we have to share with others.

Pope Benedict says that “the Church owes her whole being to this unequal exchange.” We have nothing of our own to give this Christmas. We have only what Christ has first given to us—inviting us to take care of, and share, the gifts He has given us out of love.

This Advent let’s treasure the gift of hope and share it generously with all who are tempted to despair. And when Christmas comes, let’s not hold anything back. Let’s spread joy and love and peace with great generosity—as though we had much more of these precious gifts than we knew what to do with!

God gives us more than we can ever give back in return. May His generosity inspire us to celebrate this holy season with an outpouring of God’s unending love.

Robert Morneau is the Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is also the pastor of one of his diocese’s largest parishes, a Packers fan (some might say fanatic), and an inspiring poet and preacher. He shares all these gifts—with warm humor and keen insight—whenever he speaks on stewardship at diocesan, regional and international conferences.

If Bishop Morneau is listed as a speaker at a conference you’re thinking about attending, do whatever is necessary to get there. You will come away deeply satisfied by the power of his message, by his evident spirituality and by laughter, which truly is the best medicine for the physical and spiritual ills that beset us all.

At the annual meeting of the International Stewardship Council held in Orlando last month, Bishop Morneau told the more than 1200 participants that we have two choices in life. We can be grateful for all that God has given us, or we can be perpetually dissatisfied.

“Perpetual dissatisfaction describes my golf game,” the bishop said. “It’s what our society encourages. My dissatisfaction prompts me to buy a new set of golf clubs, and to tell myself that these will make me happy. Instead of being grateful for what I have (a perfectly good set of slightly used clubs), I want more. Will the new clubs improve my game? Perhaps. Will they make me a happy man? Never.”

Gratitude is the path we should choose if we want to be fully satisfied as human beings. Why? Because saying thank you to God, to family members and friends and to all those who have sacrificed so much to obtain our freedom and prosperity as citizens of this great nation is the only effective way to shake off the perpetual dissatisfaction that weighs us down as individuals and as a society.

Gratitude is the soul of stewardship. The solution to our alienation, anxiety and unhappiness as human beings is to be grateful for what we have as opposed to coveting what our neighbors have. Two of the Ten Commandments affirm this truth. Desiring what others’ have (a neighbor’s spouse or material possessions) leads to profound unhappiness—often to serious sin and tragic consequences.

On the other hand, awareness of God’s abundant blessings changes our whole attitude toward life. The ability to accept what we have, to say thank you from the heart, brings healing and hope. We no longer live as slaves to desire but as free women and men who thank God for his goodness and love.

As Bishop Morneau reminded his audience at the International Stewardship Conference last month, the primary task of stewardship education is to help people recognize their gifts with a grateful heart so that they can cultivate them responsibly and share them generously with others.

Bishop Morneau was one of the authors of the American bishops’ 1992 pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response. This pastoral letter speaks of three —convictions or principles that are at the heart of Christian stewardship. The first conviction is that stewardship is not impulsive or short-lived. It is carefully considered, deliberately chosen and lived day-in and day-out in the concrete circumstances of our lives. Stewardship is serious business. It is a way of life that is only undertaken by mature men and women who can accept the risks and who are willing to pay the price.

The second conviction is that stewardship requires a radical change of attitude and lifestyle. It is not something that can be accomplished once and for all, but requires a lifelong —commitment. And what is committed is not something incidental or extra. Stewardship demands a total commitment—heart and mind, body and soul, intentions and actions. Indeed, the bishops say, stewardship means committing one’s very self to the Lord!

The third conviction of the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter is that “Stewardship is an expression of Christian discipleship with the power to change how we understand and live our lives”. It is not enough to make a conscious —decision to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to make a total commitment of ourselves to a new way of life. We must actually change. Above all, we must live differently and make new choices about developing and sharing all the gifts God has given us.

November is gratitude month. It’s the time of year when we celebrate the distinctively American feast of Thanksgiving.

This year, let’s follow Bishop Morneau’s advice and choose gratitude rather than perpetual dissatisfaction. This Thanksgiving—and throughout the holiday season—let’s choose to be content with what we have instead of coveting what our neighbors have.

Where God is, there lies the future. What this means is that we must restore God to our horizon, the God who is so often absent but of whom we have such great need. (Pope Benedict XVI)

Secularism attempts to convince us that we have no need of God. With our own intelligence, and with the power made possible by science and technology, we are told that human beings are capable of taking care of themselves. We can rule the world—the entire universe really—simply by exercising our own wills.

Never mind the fact that history shows beyond all doubt that we are incapable of ruling ourselves let alone the world around us. Never mind the indisputable evidence that chaos and disorder are the inevitable result of human will run riot. As Pope Benedict reminds us repeatedly, we must restore God to His rightful place as Lord of the universe and as the Divine Master whose will alone brings prosperity, peace and true humanity to our world.

As Christians, we must join with other faith-filled people, especially Jews and Muslims, in speaking out against the secular view of the world. We must restore God to our horizon, as the Holy Father says, not simply because we are pious or sentimental about our religious beliefs, but because we are stewards of a worldview (and a way of life) that places God at the center of everything. This is the meaning of the first commandment: You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Unless God come first—in our personal lives and in society—everything is disordered. We need God because he is our Creator, the meaning of our lives (and our world), and the ultimate goal of all existence. A future without God is a future without hope.

During the last presidential election, we heard a lot about hope. Sadly, the past few years have given us precious little to be hopeful about. The fault is not with individuals or political parties—although it’s tempting to accuse both democrats and republicans of failing to lead us into a hope-filled future. The real problem is that we have divorced hope from its roots in faith (and charity). We have convinced ourselves that we are capable of generating our own hope-filled future. As a society, we no longer recognize our need for God.

In sacred scripture we are repeatedly shown that God created us to be faithful stewards of all things visible and invisible. As stewards, we are called to serve faithfully the one who made us all. We are challenged to discover and do God’s will. There is a plan for human life and for the stewardship of all creation. Our charge is not to run things independently—by our own will and by our own power—but “to serve the Lord with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds.” (cf. Mt 22:37-40)

The secular worldview which has insinuated itself into all our political, economic and cultural discussions today dismisses our need for God. At best, religious faith is accepted as an option for those who wish to practice it. It is an individual choice not a fundamental ingredient in our social or cultural self-understanding. God is absent because we have turned our backs to him. His plan for us and for our world is ignored because we have decided to go our own ways.

During a recent television interview Pope Benedict XVI said, “You may ask me: But, does God exist? And if He exists does He really concern Himself with us? Can we reach Him?” The Holy Father’s answer is a resounding and unqualified “Yes!” Although God may appear to be hidden or absent, He is truly with us. “We must rediscover our capacity to perceive God, a capacity that exists within us,” the pope says because “where God is there lies the future.”

So much time and energy is wasted, so many people are defeated and discouraged, and so many lives are lost because our leaders in government, education, health care, social service and the arts insist on following the secular way. That way is a dead end. It leads to chaos and disorder, to a future without God, a future without hope.

As stewards of all creation, we are called to restore God to our horizon and follow the divine plan. God is our future, the source of all our hope. Let us find him, and follow him, now.

Some estimates suggest that a majority of those who identify themselves as Catholic (54 to 77 percent) do not attend Sunday Mass each week. How is it possible to call yourself a Catholic but ignore the most fundamental expression of what it means to be a Catholic—the obligation to attend Sunday Mass?

For us Catholics, Sunday Mass is not optional. It is an essential requirement for all of us, and the Church teaches that unless we have a serious reason, there is simply no excuse for missing Mass on the Lord’s Day. If through our own fault we miss Mass on Sunday, we are committing a serious sin. We should not receive holy Communion until we have gone to confession.

So Catholics who do not attend Mass regularly are not practicing their faith. But are they still Catholic? In other words, are they bad Catholics (serious sinners, who have violated their responsibility to practice the faith), or have they lost the right to call themselves Catholic?

Once a Christian has been baptized and has confessed his or her faith, he or she becomes a Catholic, a member of the community of believers, the Church. In other words, a Catholic is not a solitary individual. A Catholic is a member of the community of faith, a Christian who follows Jesus Christ in communion with all those (living and dead) who make up the one Body of Christ.

There is only one Church. In spite of the fact that the Body of Christ has been wounded by division, we Catholics believe that the Church remains one. In spite of the fact that her members are sinners, we believe that the Church remains holy. Although dispersed throughout the world, taking on the appearance of many different cultures (and diverse rites and rituals), the Church remains catholic or universal. Finally, the Church is apostolic—faithful to the teaching of the apostles dating back 2,000 years to the first Pentecost. Once we join the community of faith that is the Church, we become Catholic. It’s part of our fundamental identity as persons.

So what does it mean to be Catholic? To be authentically Catholic means to be an active member of the Body of Christ, to be faithful to the teaching and practice of the Church, and to be engaged personally in a relationship with Jesus Christ that involves spiritual growth and responsible stewardship of all God’s gifts.

In other words, to be fully Catholic we must be actively engaged in the life of the Church—especially by our participation in the Sunday Eucharist, our reception of the sacraments, our commitment to prayer and growth in holiness, our fellowship with other Christians and our involvement in the Church’s outreach to others through ministries of evangelization and social justice.

To be active Catholics, we must be present at Mass each Sunday. And we must take seriously the Church’s teaching on matters of faith and morals—living them as best we can in our daily lives, at home, at work, and in the public arena. That’s the minimum.

So what about our family members and friends who no longer practice their faith? Have they lost the right to call themselves Catholics?

Those who deliberately, publicly or defiantly refuse to follow Church teaching separate themselves from the community of faith in a radical way. We pray for them and urge them to repent and to return to full communion with the Church. Fortunately, formal excommunication is rare. It is limited to very specific actions that are outlined in Canon Law (see #s 1364-1389). Those who drift away for whatever reasons (and are, therefore, called inactive or fallen away) also separate themselves from the Church, often unconsciously. But they remain Catholics. We pray for them, too, and we invite them to “come home” as soon as possible. We miss them and we care for them.

What does it mean to be Catholic? In the simplest possible terms it means belonging to the community of the baptized, the Church. What does it mean to be a good Catholic? It means being present, especially at the Sunday Eucharist. It means being engaged in the Catholic way of life through prayer and the sacraments, through efforts to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church, through a commitment to reach out to others by sharing our faith (evangelization) and serving those who are in need of our help through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

We are called to be good stewards of our Catholic identity—by nurturing our faith and by sharing it generously with others.

The comedian Oliver Hardy was known to wrinkle his nose, purse his lips and proclaim to his partner, Stan Laurel, “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!”

If Laurel and Hardy were with us today, they might offer similar observations about the current debt crisis in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately the current crisis is no laughing matter. Too much is at stake, and as this article went to press, the matter was still unresolved. Congress and the president may yet pull a rabbit out of the nation’s hat, but the process for getting there will not have been encouraging.

While our elected officials play politics, people are suffering; jobs are not being created; genuine health care reform eludes us. Real leadership—of a bipartisan nature—is nowhere to be found. A nice mess, indeed.

The Catholic Church has important insights to contribute to this discussion.

We begin with basic moral principles—the dignity of human persons, the common good, the value of work and the importance of family life as the foundation of human society. We add to the Church’s teaching on social and economic justice a profound insight into stewardship as a way of life.

What does stewardship have to say to the current debate in Washington?

Everything.

All that we have as individuals, families, communities and as a nation has been given to us by God to nurture, develop and share generously with others out of gratitude to God and out of a sense of responsibility for one another and for the world in which we live and work.

We are stewards—not owners—of the material and spiritual gifts that we have received. Our job as stewards is to take care of—and share—the bountiful gifts God has entrusted to our care. We must do our work responsibly because we will be held accountable for the result!

As stewards, we should not spend more than we earn. Responsible efforts to balance the federal budget are good stewardship. They promote the common good.

As stewards, we should have a particular concern for the poor and for families who are struggling to find work and to support themselves in an uncertain economy. Cuts in spending should not be callous or insensitive to the real needs of suffering people. Deficit reduction does not have to be mean-spirited or uncaring. Let’s help each other get back on our feet and become self-supporting, productive members of society.

As stewards, we recognize that good health is a gift from God to be treasured and protected. Access to affordable, life-affirming health care remains an urgent national priority.

We recognize that the rising costs of Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs need to be addressed, but we urge that the needs of the poor, working families and vulnerable people be protected. Cost-cutting proposals should not simply shift health care costs from the federal government to the states or directly to beneficiaries. Such measures could leave more elderly, working families and poor people without the assurance of adequate and affordable health care.

As stewards, we should work together collaboratively. Ideological warfare does not serve the common good. We can—and do—have differences of opinion about solutions to our nation’s economic problems.

But unless we can work together for the common good, we run the risk of making a bad situation worse. Good stewardship requires unity and solidarity. This is never easy, but it is essential that our elected officials find common ground and refuse to give in to the increasingly discordant voices of chaos and disunity that are all around us today.

As stewards, we believe that all proposals effecting our economy should be reviewed in light of their impact on ordinary citizens—especially the poor and marginalized members of our community. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church teaches: “Just, efficient and effective public financing will … encourage employment growth, … sustain business and non-profit activities,” and help guarantee “systems of social insurance and protection that are designed above all to protect the weakest members of society.”

Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement last spring:

“The Catholic bishops of the United States stand ready to work with leaders of both parties for a budget that reduces future deficits, protects poor and vulnerable people, advances the common good, and promotes human life and dignity.

“The debate on the federal budget FY 2012 will raise important and substantive issues for discussion, and at the same time raise serious concerns about how budget proposals meet the criterion of adequately protecting poor and vulnerable people.

“The moral measure of this budget debate is not which party wins or which powerful interests prevail, but rather how those who are jobless, hungry, homeless or poor are treated. Their voices are too often missing in these debates, but they have the most compelling moral claim on our consciences and our common resources.”

Authentic economic, political and moral leadership are needed now more than ever—for the common good and for the sake of the individuals, families and communities in all regions of the United States.

Let’s pray that our elected officials in Washington can truly come together as responsible stewards of all our nation’s gifts.