these words come from Bishop Gumbleton's THE PEACE PULPIT and his homily for Sunday Nov. 20th ... GWB, his POPPY and his BUBBA ought to read the whole homily and perhaps, especially the following words:
"I’ve spoken these words before but to me they’re so powerful, the words of Archbishop Romero when he was talking about the leaders of the church in El Salvador who had finally become identified with the poor. Not just sending things to the poor or trying to be mindful of the poor but becoming one with the poor because they were being murdered. Archbishop Romero said, “What does it mean to be a poor person in El Salvador? It means to be disappeared, to be tortured and have your body found in the streets, in the gutters.” The church in El Salvador was becoming one with the poor, because that was happening to them.
Too often, I’m afraid, we as a church do not really understand what it means to be and to carry out the kingly mission of Jesus; what it means to be a king as Jesus was and to carry out that mission. When I think about this it becomes so obvious how wrong it is that we close our churches when they exist among the poor. You know, we have a perfect example of St. Dominic’s. Yes, we closed that church, but now the archdiocese, the archbishop promises, “Well, we’ll keep a social service center there. People, the church, won’t be there, but we’ll come in once in a while and give things to the poor.” That’s not enough. We’re supposed to be identified with the poor, one with the poor.
Another example that comes to my mind where we seem to be on the wrong side, not understanding how we’re supposed to be identified with the oppressed, those treated with injustice, those treated with violence: The bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, Bishop Robert Morlino, I’ve read this recently, has joined the board of the School of the Americas. The School of the Americas, you know what that is? That’s the place where our military train military from throughout Latin America to train their leaders. This past week, Nov. 16, was the anniversary of the six Jesuits and the two women who were murdered in 1989 by graduates of the Schools of the Americas. Yet here is a bishop who is going to be on the board of that school, accepting and condoning what they’re doing as they continue to train military leaders who carry out torture just as our military carries out torture. Where would Jesus be? He would be the tortured one, the murdered one not the one who’s doing it. That’s so obvious. How could we ever miss it?
I find it very distressing, on the front page of the Michigan Catholic this week, there is a picture of a military chaplain celebrating Mass dressed in an Army uniform, dressed as one going into combat. Can you think of Jesus being dressed in a military uniform of the Roman Empire or even being a chaplain to the military of the Roman Empire, condoning what they were doing? Yet that is what we do. That is all because we haven’t understood what it means to be a king according to the way of Jesus. "
Link:
http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/peace/
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