An Archbishop Goes Fearlessly Among the Heathen

The Archbishop goes among the savages and tells 'em what's what.
...

and he got out to tell the tale.

Archbishop Chaput, without showing the least indication of being about to burst into flame, told the assembled grey-heads at the annual LCWR meeting in Denver:

All of us who are religious share that same commitment to love and obedience – love FOR and obedience TO Jesus Christ, to the Church and to her pastors. Charles de Foucauld called obedience the “yardstick of love.” It’s a clear way we measure the fidelity and unselfishness of our hearts. I do not think it’s an accident that John XXIII had the words, “Obedience and Peace” as his papal motto. The Church belongs to Christ, the Church is His spouse and we find His peace through love and obedience to His Church, which is finally not an institution or corporation or bureaucracy, but our mother and teacher.


The kind of radical love expressed in obedience – an obedience that can make our hearts ache and bruise our vanity – is the seed of renewal in every age of the Church. I entered religious life because I wanted to be one of those seeds, because I knew my own happiness depended on it. I am sure you want to be those seeds of renewal too.

I'm sure.


This year's little get-together, featured Fr. Richard Rohr. Must have been a treat.

They're "exploring the new frontiers of religious life".