The 5th Annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

With all the Papal related events going on The 5th Annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast has slipped before the radar of most of us. It was held yesterday (Friday) in Washington DC at the Washington Hilton. It was covered (tape delay) by EWTN. There was a huge gathering. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City was the keynote speaker. Other speakers included Michael Novak & Marcus Grodi. Sens. John McCain, Barak Obama & Hilary Clinton were all invited to attend. Only Sen. McCain showed up. Other political guests included Sen Bob Casey Jr. (PA), Sen. Sam Brownback (KA), ex-Sen. Rick Santorum(PA) & Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Several Bishops were also in attendance.

President Bush spoke at the gathering. He had plenty of praise for Papa Benedetto in his talk. Here is a video with the part of his speech where he praised the Pope:

Here is a transcript of the complete speech (part on video hilited):

Thank you for the gracious welcome. Austin, thanks for your kind introduction. Thanks for giving me this unusual speaking opportunity. I understand that this program builds up to another speech. It's not every day you get to be the warm-up act to the Holy Father. I'm honored to be here. I do thank Austin for his leadership for the Catholic Prayer Breakfast. I thank the Board of Directors for having me. I thank Archbishop Gomez, tejano, for being here. And I want to thank Bishop Finn, members of the clergy. Thank you for serving our country. Thank you for being men of faith.

I'm proud to be here with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts. He's always looking for a free breakfast. Proud to be here with members of the United States Senate and Congress. Thank you all for being here. Solicitor General Paul Clement is with us today. Members of my administration, members of the Diplomatic Corps and distinguished guests.

This has been a joyous week. It's been a joyous time for Catholics -- and it wasn't such a bad week for Methodists, either. The excitement was just palpable. The streets were lined with people that were so thrilled that the Holy Father was here. And it was such a privilege to welcome this good man to the United States.

For those of you on the South Lawn -- who saw the South Lawn ceremony live, it was -- what an unbelievable -- it was just such a special moment. And it was a special moment to be able to visit with the Holy Father in the Oval Office. He is a humble servant of God. He is a brilliant professor. He is a warm and generous soul.

He is courageous in the defense of fundamental truths. His Holiness believes that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man, woman and child on Earth. He understands that every person has value, or to use his words, "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, [and] each of us is necessary."

The Holy Father strongly believes that to whom much is given much is required -- and he is a messenger of God's call to love our neighbors as we'd like to be loved ourselves.

I've seen how American Catholics are guided by these truths. One of the blessings of being the President is I get to see firsthand how people are motivated by the fundamental truths articulated by the Holy Father. I've watched you live out the Gospel through countless acts of compassion and courage. I've joined with you in striving to heed the Scriptures' noble calling: to see God's image in all mankind, and to uphold the dignity of each human being on Earth.

Together, over the nearly seven and a half years we've worked to uphold the dignity of human life. Over the last -- over the last years, my administration has put a stop to U.S. tax dollars funding foreign groups that perform or promote abortions. We've worked together to protect unborn victims of violence, and to end the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. We have stood fast in our belief that promising medical advances can co-exist with ethical medical practices. Last November, scientists discovered a way to reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. This is a significant breakthrough, because science -- scientists have found a path that can lead beyond the divisive debates of the past -- and extend the healing potential of medicine without destroying human life.

Together, we've worked to strengthen America's lifelines of learning -- including our nation's Catholic schools. The Catholic Church has a proud educational tradition dating back centuries, and one of the Holy Father's priorities has been maintaining this tradition in the United States. Today, America's Catholic schools serve thousands of students -- both Catholic and non-Catholic -- in some of our nation's poorest neighborhoods. They help minority students narrow the achievement gap. They prepare children for lives of character and purpose and success. And yet these schools are closing at an alarming rate: nearly 1,200 Catholic schools have shut their doors since the year 2000.

In my State of the Union address this January, I proposed a new $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids. And the reason I did so is because I want to help low-income children in underperforming public schools be able to attend a private or parochial school of their choice. I am concerned about the loss of a major national asset, and that is the decline of Catholic schools, particularly in inner-city America. And to this end, next week we're having a White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools. And the purpose of the summit is to highlight the lack of educational options facing low-income urban students. And we're going to bring together educators and clergy and philanthropists and business leaders, all aiming to urge there to be reasonable legislation out of Congress and practical solutions to save these schools -- and more importantly, to save the children.

And some of the people trying to save America's Catholic schools are here at this prayer breakfast, and I can't thank you enough for your efforts.

Together, we've worked to foster a culture of tolerance and peace. We believe that religion should be a source of understanding and grace -- not a source of extremism and violence. On his visit and throughout his time as the Holy Father, the Pope has worked to foster inter-religious dialogue, and to heal the wounds of religious conflict. I strongly support the Pope's call for religious freedom around the world. I share his concern for Christians in the Middle East, and his desire to see a peaceful and independent Lebanon. I respect his scholarship, which demonstrates that faith and reason can co-exist. And I join him in praying for a world at peace, where Christians and Muslims and Jews, believers and non-believers, can live side by side. And I thank all of you here who work to make this hopeful vision a reality.

Together, we've worked to bring comfort to troubled souls. We believe that where hearts are burdened by destitution and disease and despair, we must answer with hope and love and faith. We know that [no] government program can answer the call like our armies of compassion can -- but we also know that government programs can support, and must support, their work. And so I've been a strong believer in faith-based and community based effort to bring healing and hope to people who wonder whether or not there's a bright tomorrow.

I don't know if you really realize this, but in 2006, 3,000 direct federal grants totaling more than $2 billion were made to faith-based organizations -- including many Catholic organizations. And the reason why is because Catholic organizations provide shelter to the homeless in very effective and loving ways. They tutor at-risk youth. They help children of prisoners, while at the same time they work tirelessly to help prisoners get back on their feet. These groups seek out our society's most vulnerable and fulfill Christ's promise that "the last shall be first."

Abroad, Catholic organizations are a vital part, an integral part of our effort to fight hunger and disease from Latin America to the continent of Africa. In these places, Catholic groups have a hand in what some call the "Lazarus Effect," where whole communities that once lay dying are brought back to life.

Oftentimes people ask me, why is it that you're so focused on helping the hungry and diseased in strange parts of the world? My answer is, we're a wealthy enough nation to take care of people at home and to help those abroad; it is in our moral interests that when we find people suffering that we do all we can do to help ease the burden; it's in our national interests -- and it's in our national interests that we defeat the ideologues of hate with an ideology of hope.

During these -- as President I've seen some of the great wonders of compassion as a result of our Catholic citizens. I've seen them here in Washington, with the Little Sisters of the Poor. Laura and I had the honor of visiting with the Little Sisters and, you know, I was struck by how hard they worked to ask [for] money to care for the old and sick, so that the old and sick don't have to beg for money.

I've seen these wonders of Catholic love on the Gulf Coast. I'm struck by the Catholic educators that in the face of unprecedented disaster worked night and day to provide good and stable schools for the children, and provide comfort for, you know, people that were just wondering whether or not there was going to be a good tomorrow. I've seen wonders on the Sea of Galilee during my recent trip to the Middle East. On a recent visit my guides were joyful Catholic nuns who preserve the holy sites for all mankind -- even as they struggle with the dangers to the region's Christian minority.

I've seen these wonders in Africa, in an emergency -- in a hospital supported by PEPFAR. In February, I saw a 9-year-old girl who is HIV-positive, who had lost both her parents to AIDS. And for the last year, Catholic Relief Services had been paying for the girl to receive treatment at the clinic. I want to tell you what her grandmother said: "As a Muslim, I never imagined that a Catholic group would help me like that." She went on to say, "I am so grateful to the American people." And I am grateful for those who provide love and compassion in America and around the world.

This is a prayer breakfast. And this is a perfect place for me to say how much I appreciate the prayers of the people for me and Laura. I can't thank our fellow citizens enough for taking time out of their lives to lift us up for prayer. I have finally begun to understand the story of the calm and the rough seas -- and I believe -- I believe in my heart of hearts that it's because of the prayers of my fellow citizens.

And today with the trust in the Lord's wisdom and goodness, I offer prayers of my own: for each gathered in the room, for the safety and success of the Holy Father's visit, and for God's continued blessings on our great land. Thank you.

I wish I could include Bishop Finn's talk. He built on what the Holy Father said over the past few days as well as over the past 3 years of his pontificate. If I find a transcript or video I will add it.

____________

Update: 22 April 2008, 2:33 AM The Kansa City Diocese has posted Bishop Finn's speech. The document is a PDF. Fortunately Fr. Z has it posted on his blog so I can copy & paste rather than type it out. (Emphasis based on KC Diocese copy)

Keynote Address—National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

A Celebration of the Visit of Pope Benedict XVI To the United States

Washington, DC

April 18, 2008

These days – this extraordinary week – we are living in the heart of the Church. “Ubi Petrus; Ibi Ecclesia” Where Peter is, There is the Church. The Vicar of Jesus Christ is living and moving in our midst, in our country, and the talk around this breakfast table is rightfully about Pope Benedict XVI.

Though the venues are crowded and the security and waiting lines are significant, the response to the opportunity to see the Pope is nearly universal. One person told me, “It was electric to see the Holy Father and be in the crowd with him!”

Yes, The Holy Spirit works through this man, the Successor to Peter, in an extraordinary way. With you, I pray that his visit will have its full Providential impact as a moment of New Evangelization in our country.

What does Pope Benedict XVI, as Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, bring to the United States and the United Nations? In the weeks and months ahead we will reread his words and understand his purpose more fully. But as I finalized these thoughts last week, I wanted to prepare for the visit of the Holy Father by taking a few cues from his writings and Papal ministry; not to anticipate what he might say, but rather to see what he has already been saying to us. How will the Pope convey the presence of Jesus Christ – the Way, the Truth, and the Life, in the space of these days?

The Pope is Vicar of Christ, the Way

In two encyclicals Pope Benedict has laid down reflections on Charity and Hope. In these letters the Pope brings the Petrine charism to bear on that which may be seen as a “Way,” in Christ for our progress as a nation and world.

In Deus Caritas Est, God is Love, his encyclical on Christian love, he notes the substantive experience of Judaism and Christianity, and some other religions as well: God made man as the effusion of His love, and His relationship with His creatures is one of love. The fact that God is author of life and love signals man’s infinite value and requires respect for individual human life from its beginning until its natural end. As important as the individual is, man’s ultimate meaning is discovered in relationship. God’s plan for humanity is revealed in the complementary fashioning and pairing of the man and the woman and their vocation to bear and nurture children.

Pope Benedict recently chose this theme of the family to guide his reflections for the 2008 New Year’s World Day of Peace. Starting from the primacy of the family as the necessary unit of society, the Holy Father notes that this Way of love and mutual responsibility is fundamental to human nature. It cannot be ignored or set aside without obscuring the truth about man, and weakening the very foundations of peace. [1]

Again and again Pope Benedict has stressed that when the revelation of this extraordinary love is experienced, it changes us – it makes possible a response, and this response is so significant as to constitute a new “way of life.” It is an interior way, and according to the Pope, this interior Way is manifested in at least two regards: First – we receive it interiorly as a law written on our human heart; and second – we live it or pass it on to society from within, as a leaven.[2]

In Spe Salvi, on Christian Hope, Pope Benedict looks at the substance of our faith, the most significant article being perhaps that Jesus Christ died, rose from the dead, and opened for us a path to eternal life. The Pope explains that this positive reality: that we have a future – an eternal future because of the Resurrection – is so powerful, that it is not just “informative,” but “performative.” It changes us from within and empowers us to act or perform differently.[3]

The pastoral visit of the Pope is a work of evangelization which flows from the experience of Jesus Christ which is capable of changing the way the world and our country “does business.” As Vicar of “Christ the Way” he addresses the meaning and dignity of the human person, the integrity and centrality of the family, the principles of justice, the value of peace, and the necessity of religious freedom, all through the lens of Christian love and hope.

His method is simple. He comes as an agent of quiet, interior transformation, looking for every tiny sign of hope, and knowing that the Gospel itself has power to save from within.

Pope Benedict XVI is the Vicar of Christ, the Truth

Our country’s primordial Declaration of Independence announces “self-evident” truths. But is it not clear that the very notion of objective and transcendent truth has lost its foundational place in our American culture? As the Vicar of “Jesus Christ the Truth,” Pope Benedict XVI comes with a well-established reputation as a teacher of doctrine, to a world which tends to be doctrineless and, indeed, antagonistic to doctrine.

The system of education in the United States, for example, has been deeply influenced over the last half-century by John Dewey’s rejection of the whole notion of liberal arts. His pragmatic “learn by doing” creed dismisses the discipline of academic subjects, the systematic study of art and literature, and even the use of classic books. Dewey argues that traditional notions of human nature, of the structure and process of democracy, and of the nature of truth itself have, in his words, retarded human progress and all must be reworked.[4]

The result of this wholesale suspicion and ultimate rejection of the substantive canon of human learning, which has been so widely embraced in both public and private schools, is that our schools are oriented almost exclusively toward measurable “outcomes,” instead of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual formation of the student.

In the legal sphere, our society has been similarly crippled by a neglect of the fundamental texts on which our country was founded. As the United States crossed into the 20th century, the dean of Harvard Law, Christopher Langdell posited a kind of Darwinism in jurisprudence whereby law must evolve. In a methodological shift, he recommended that students look at judges’ decisions rather than the Constitution. This case-law approach became prominent under Roscoe Pound, who served as Professor in four different law schools and Dean at both Harvard and Nebraska, influencing a whole generation of jurists. He promoted a sociological legal science, and helped to institutionalize a positivistic approach which displaced legal interpretation. The new goal: to directly shape the development of society.[5]

Within the Church itself, too often the important writings of the Second Vatican Council have been incompletely read or misappropriated. “The Spirit of Vatican II,” has been invoked as justification for both the neglect of tradition, as well as a creative evolution of liturgy and pastoral practice. In his letter accompanying the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, on the use of the 1962 Roman Liturgy, Pope Benedict recalls the “hopes and confusion” that followed the Council, and the hurtful “deformations of the liturgy” that took place when “celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal.”

The Holy Father comes before the world as herald of an immutable and transcendent reality. He dares to say, “There are truths. There is right and wrong, and it is written indelibly in the heart of man.” As Vicar of “Christ the Truth” he is charged to represent the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever. The truth of Jesus Christ is offered in the Way of love: not seeking to impose the Church’s faith upon others, but at the same time, not allowing God and Christ to be left aside.[6]

If we, in the structures of our institutions and spheres of influence: schools, the courts and political life, journalism and communication, science, economy, and culture have been inclined to neglect or reject the cumulative wisdom of our human experience and the fundamental tenets of the natural law, in favor of an arbitrary and evolving set of choices, the Pope’s presence and words will offer us a grounding in principles of faith and human reason, and inspiration for embracing truth anew.

At the Mass of his inauguration three years ago, Pope Benedict reflected on his ministry as Chief Shepherd who, like St. Peter, is commanded by Christ to “Feed my sheep.” The Pope insisted “Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s Word, …”[7] Accompanied by the power of the promised Holy Spirit, and speaking in the person of Jesus Christ, he will confirm the Church in the faith and desire to move the world toward the Father.

He is Vicar of Christ the Life

Some may be inclined to dismiss the challenges of the Catholic Pope to the world as inflexible or intolerant. They will perhaps urge him to be open-minded. Maybe they will lecture him on “civility” – very popular these days.

As successor to Peter, he is “rock,” and he is a living rock. He is Vicar of “Christ the Life.” At the Mass of his inauguration, the new Pope greeted the millions who were listening throughout the world, “The Church is alive! The Church is alive and we are seeing it… The Church is alive because Christ is alive, because He is truly risen.”

Time and again the Holy Father has shown a burning desire for unity: among Catholics, among Christians, between religions. But he does not wish merely to “make mankind happier by bringing religions together.” He offers rather an authentic ecumenism: which rests in the New Covenant established in the living and life-giving blood of Jesus Christ; and which alone perfectly fulfills the eternally valid covenant of Abraham.[8] In whatever words he shares with us these days, the Pope will represent to Catholics, to other Christians, to the Jewish people and to all men and women, “believers and non-believers alike,” a living and life-changing proclamation.

When Pope Benedict preached to the young people of the world in Cologne in 2005, he described the salvation event, Christ’s death and resurrection, as something so powerful that it could be compared to “inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being.” It is this victory of Christ, the Pope said, “the intimate explosion of good conquering evil, that triggers off the series of transformations that little by little will change the world.”[9]

It is fair to say that this conviction of the Pope is a helpful key for us in understanding his message. The Pope is full of hope because this change, which is “built into” the encounter with the living Christ, has already begun. The explosion has occurred and its saving effects are intended to fill the world. We must dare to hope that the presence of the Vicar of Christ these days in our country will be a vehicle for authentic moral conversion in individual hearts and for our culture.

Friends: these days, this extraordinary week, we are living in the heart of the Church. Where Peter is – There is the Church. Let us pray for the Shepherd and for the flock: that these will be days when the joy and power of the Risen Lord is released on the world, as the Vicar of Jesus Christ – the Way, the Truth, and the Life, comes to confirm us in our faith.

__________________

[1]Pope Benedict XVI, World Peace Day Message, January 1, 2008. no. 4

[2]Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est. no. 31

[3]Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, no. 2

[4]Henry T. Edmundson, John Dewey and the Decline of American Education. ISI: Wilmington, 2006. p. 7.

[5]David Barton, Original Intent. Wallbuilders:Aledo, 2005. p. 228)

[6]Deus Caritas Est, no. 31

[7]Pope Benedict XVI, Mass for the Inauguration of the Pontificate, April 24, 2005. St. Peter’s Square cf. Stephen Pinnentel, “The Master Key: Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Covenant.” Homiletic and Pastoral Review. Oct., 2007. Pp. 16-20.

[8]Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at Cologne-Marienfield, XX WYD, August 21, 2005.