The mission of the Catholic Church will continue to be centered on
Christ and Catholics must open up their hearts to receive a “spiritual
pacemaker” from the Holy Spirit, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told
delegates at a ministry conference on Friday.
As keynote speaker for the seventh annual University of Dallas
Ministry Council Conference, Cardinal Rodriguez said: “The mission of
the church is the mission of Jesus. All of us need to have a heart test
because many times we are ill of cardiac insufficiency or missionary
insufficiency.
“What happens to one who has cardiac insufficiency? He gets a little
devise, a pacemaker,” he said. “We have to ask the Holy Spirit to give
us a spiritual pacemaker so that our hearts will beat like St Paul and
go forth and evangelize. Woe on me if I don’t preach the Gospel.”
Cardinal Rodriguez, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, said that the Pope
who has asked for a “poor church” continues to inspire millions around
the world, particularly because of his humble nature that he hopes his
priests will follow.
He said that the Pope is pushing that ideal of Vatican II to
emphasize that a hierarchy in the Church is about the people of God and
that clergy are the only ones to administer the sacraments, but that
they work with the laity to carry out Christ’s mission of service.
“The hierarchy has no purpose in itself and for itself, but only in
reference and subordination to the community,” he said. “Only from the
perspective from someone crucified by the powers of this world is it
possible to explain the authority of the church.
“The hierarchy is a ministry, and a service and this is one of the
ideas of Pope Francis that is spreading all around the world,” he said.
“We are here to serve. Authority and hierarchy in the church is a
service that requires lowering ourselves to the condition of servants.”
Cardinal Rodriguez talked about the growth of the Catholic Church in
Africa, Asia and Latin America and said the reality of church’s
continual shifting away from a Eurocentric and Italian concentration. He
also noted that the new evangelization allows the church to define
itself again.
“We once more become the church as proclaimer, servant and
Samaritan,” he said. “The church receives the mission to proclaim and to
spread among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God. If the
church has a mission at all, it is to manifest the deeds of Jesus. The
church has never been her own goal. Salvation comes from Jesus, not the
church.”
He said the Church also has to lead the way when it comes to righting injustices and inequality.
“We need to build up a new evangelization … to build up a culture of
the good Samaritan — making our own culture of the good Samaritan before
the neighbor in need, feeling the pain of the oppressed, getting close
to them and freeing them. Without this commitment, all religiousness is
not true.”
And, he said, that Catholics need to be more joyful, like St Paul, in proclaiming the Gospel.
At a news conference, the cardinal said that Pope Francis continues
to show what he would like for the world to see of the Catholic Church
by being candid and humble and continuing to acknowledge the need for
improvements in the church, while denouncing economic and social
inequities and calling for policies to improve human dignity.
He also said that in the coming years the laity’s stature among
Vatican offices could rise in importance to the level afforded that of
bishops, clergy and religious.
Cardinal Rodriguez is the chairman of the Council of Cardinals that
is advising Pope Francis on the reform of the Roman Curia.
The
international group has been informally dubbed the “Group of Eight” or
“G-8.”
The group of cardinals from six continents will meet once more in
December and again in February to continue advising the pope on numerous
matters, particularly reform the Roman Curia, the offices at the
Vatican, and the Vatican’s finances, among other areas.