MADISON St. Pope Paul VI received long-overdue and richly deserved appreciation for his “courage, wisdom and prophetic witness” to the Church when Pope Francis canonized him and six other prominent Catholics as saints on Oct. 14 in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. St. Paul VI’s sainthood serves as a testament to the steadily evolving reassessment of this overlooked pontiff, now considered “the first modern pope,” who led the Church reforms in Vatican II in 1965; influenced the theology of popes who followed; and laid the foundation for modern Church movements, such as the New Evangelization.
Those were some insights about St. Paul VI’s growing legacy from Father Paul Manning, diocesan vicar for evangelization and St. Paul’s executive director, and Julie Burkey, adjunct professor of pastoral theology at the School of Theology at Seton Hall University, South Orange, Oct. 16, during a talk on the new saint at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. They spoke on the brilliance of St. Paul VI — once considered lacking charisma, a strong leadership style and vision — and also suggested ways that Catholics can put his teachings into practice today — part of celebrations in the Diocese of St. Paul VI and St. Oscar Romero, also canonized on Oct. 14.
“St. Paul VI’s words [in his writings and teachings] are there in the words of St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. He coupled dialogue with the crystal-clear teachings of the Church,” Father Manning said. “So much that came after St. Paul VI is based on his teachings. Without him, there wouldn’t be a St. John Paul, Benedict or Francis. We are appreciating St. Paul VI more now than when he was here on earth. Maybe in the future, we will be calling him ‘St. Paul the Great,’ ” the priest said.
Among St. Paul VI admirers is Pope Benedict, who described his pontificate as “almost superhuman.” St. Paul VI continued Vatican II after the death of St. Pope John XXIII, who had convened the council. During the sessions, he prevented major rifts among its often-partisan participants by promoting healthy dialogue, especially with those at the extremes of the issues. The documents of Vatican II provided teachings and insights on a wide array of topics, including Scripture, the Blessed Mother, interfaith relations, the missions and evangelization. The council emphasized “the universal call to holiness — for Catholics to practice their faith on a daily basis,” Burkey said.
In 1965, St. Paul VI had the “prophetic courage” to issue “Humanae Vitae” or “Of Human Life.” The papal letter re-affirmed the Church’s teaching against artificial contraception and for sexuality to be reserved for marriage, the traditional family life and Respect for Life in the midst of the changing mores of the sexual revolution at that time. Years later, it provided inspiration for “The Theology of the Body,” St. John Paul’s teachings about marriage and sexuality, said Father Manning.
St. John Paul also found inspiration for his promotion of the New Evangelization in St. Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation from 1975, “Evangelii Nuntiandi” or “Proclaiming the Gospel.” The document calls on everyone in the Church to evangelize by “going out into the whole world and preaching the Gospel to every creature,” said Burkey. “Evangelization proclaims that in Jesus Christ, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy,” said Burkey, quoting the document, which states the faithful can spread the Gospel in various ways, including preaching, catechetical instruction, mass media, the sacraments and person to person.
In 2013, many of the concepts about evangelization found in “Evangelii Nuntiandi” found their way in to Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” or “Joy of the Gospel.” Both documents speak of evangelization as an essential mission of the Church. Father Manning said.
For so many years, St. Paul VI has gone under-appreciated for three distinct reasons. They were: his papacy was sandwiched between two dynamic and charismatic pontiffs: St. John XXIII and St. John Paul; he was most remembered for “Humanae Vitae,” a divisive document then, which critics assailed for re-affirming the Church’s so-called “oppressive teachings” on sexuality that were not staying in step with the loosening morals of the sexual revolution; and he had no constituency within the Church to promote his ideas or greatness, Father Manning said.
The lecture on St. Paul VI ended on Oct. 14 with a question-and-answer and dialogue session between Father Manning and Burkey and the audience. In attendance were students of the diocesan Certificate for Catholic Evangelization (CCE) program, taught by instructors, who include the two speakers that night.
One of the CCE students here on Oct. 16, Mary Romance of Assumption Parish in Morristown, expressed surprise to learn that St. Paul VI “laid the foundation [for many theological ideas and movements in the Church] that we have today,” which among other things, have enabled us Catholics to “build our own tools for evangelization.”
ROME Joyous celebrations to commemorate the canonization of El Salvadorian martyr St. Archbishop Oscar Romero rang out from Catholics of the Diocese from both sides of the Atlantic — from at least two priests, who attended the canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 14 and from the presenters at various events around the Church of Paterson who urged the faithful to carry on the saint’s celebrated legacy of promoting justice for the poor.
During the Oct. 14 Mass, Pope Francis canonized St. Oscar Romero and six other saints, including St. Pope Paul VI, in St. Peter’s Square. Witnessing the canonization were two priests of the Diocese: Father Raimundo Rivera, administrator of Our Lady of Victories and Our Lady of Lourdes parishes in Paterson, and Father Cesar Jaramillo, a graduate student in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The canonization hit home with both clergy. Father Rivera grew up in El Salvador, met Romero as a young man and suffered the loss of several family members during his home country’s civil war in the 1980s. Before the Mass, Father Jaramillo met the new saint’s youngest brother, Gaspar, and the Rivas family, whose matriarch had been miraculously cured of an incurable illness through the saint’s intercession. Before the ceremony, Father Jaramillo accompanied Gaspar and the Rivas family when they met the Pope at the Vatican.
“The liturgy was solemn and beautiful,” said Father Jaramillo, who previously had visited St. Romero’s tomb in El Salvador, while on a mission trip with some of his Gregorian University classmates. “The emotion of the faithful, who had come from all corners of the world to witness this historic moment, was palpable. In his homily, the Holy Father exhorted all of us to follow the example of the seven new saints who made a radical choice to follow Christ with an undivided heart and to serve him in their neighbor,” the priest said.
The diocesan Hispanic Ministry presented a celebration in Spanish of St. Romero at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson. The event included a dramatization of the saint’s life and murder; a talk by Father Rivera about El Salvador’s political climate at the time of the saint’s death in 1980; and an exploration of the Catholic social teaching that inspired the saint by Ivannia Vega-McTighe, diocesan coordinator for the Office of Catechesis and Hispanic Ministry.
“The celebration at the Cathedral left the people who attended inspired to continue the work of St. Romero. They now see his legacy as not of the past but one that moves us to act today. People left with hope that they can make a difference — what it means to be Catholic,” Vega-McTighe said.
Before the canonization, Father Jaramillo waited with Gasper Romero and Cecilia and Alejandro Rivas and their children to greet Pope Francis. “With great joy and pride in his eyes,” Gaspar recounted stories about the heroic life of his older brother and his “prophetic voice in the midst of a very turbulent civil war in the country,” Father Jaramillo said.
“Likewise, Cecilia and Alejandro Rivas were wearing their emotions on their sleeves. It was beautiful to see tears running down Alejandro’s face, as he told me the story of how his wife, Cecilia, had been miraculously cured through the intercession of St. Romero. After her doctors had given her a death sentence due to major complications following the birth of their last child, she made an inexplicable recovery” said Father Jaramillo, who noted that Pope Francis handed Gasper and the Rivas each a rosary. “It was a good reminder for me, as a priest, that even in the midst of these challenging times for our Church, God continues to raise up holy men and women in order that we may be inspired to radically live out our universal call to holiness, so beautifully reflected in the fact that among the seven new saints we have a pope, a bishop, two priests, two nuns and one young layman,” the priest said.
In the Diocese, Maricela Quintana, an adjunct professor at the College of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, gave a talk in Spanish about the saint and his increasing outspokenness against the government after the assassination of a friend, Vega-McTighe said.
On Oct. 20, Hispanics gathered at the cathedral for a multi-media celebration of St. Romero. Carlos Solis of Our Lady of Victories, a professional actor, wrote the script and acted out both parts of his play about the saint. Father Rivera, who once was an altar server at a Mass that St. Romero celebrated in El Salvador, spoke about the politics of the country then ruled by a government that killed its own people. The event included music by the choir at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown, and a talk by Vega-McTighe about St. Romero’s commitment to social justice.
“St. Romero’s ministry was rooted in Catholic social teaching. He was the voice for the voiceless, who stood up when he saw corruption and oppression, and would be telling us now to get out there to help people, who are suffering,” Vega-McTighe said.