St. Peter’s humanity, boldness are a lesson to us all

    Monday, Jan. 23, was the first official day for your ad limina visit to Rome along with 21 other bishops from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. You were the principal celebrant of the opening Mass at the Tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica. What was that experience like?
    I was privileged to preside. It was an honor to lead the bishops and it also was humbling to be able to kneel at St. Peter’s tomb and lead the bishops in prayer. We celebrated the Mass at the Chair of St. Peter. I’ve preached on St. Peter so many times. It would be wonderful to have seen a personality profile of Peter. The readings spoke eloquently about his strengths. The first reading spoke of his being in prison and his willingness to be persecuted for what he believed. It was his profession of faith – another opportunity for Peter to be bold. And then I contrasted that boldness with the other very real part of who Peter was – the other side of this man, who was very weak. He was a person who spoke before he thought. Jesus famously told him, “Get behind me because you are tempting me.” He was the one who denied Jesus. To  reflect on his weaknesses does not minimize his goodness, holiness or strength. He was strong and weak at the same time. That was his humanity. And yet,  somehow Jesus chose him, knowing his strengths and his weaknesses, to found the church and be the first shepherd of the church.
    Is there a lesson there?
    My point to my brother bishops was, “Are we not the same?” Through all that he experienced, Peter learned humility and meekness. We must do the same. God shows us our weakness, our failures and our sins. God can use both goodness and darkness to lead his people. I called on us to renew our vocation. Just as Jesus called Peter to put out into the deep and take a leap of faith, so we are called to do the same. As we stood at the altar, I invited all of us to pray for ourselves as shepherds, but more importantly for the people we are called to serve in the dioceses entrusted to our pastoral care. In a special way, we prayed for our brother priests and our coworkers in ministry. The Mass was an opportunity for us to pray for others whom we serve, to thank God for Peter and to pray for ourselves.
    Did Sunday’s Gospel come to mind when Peter immediately left his nets to follow Jesus?
    Yes. When Peter left his nets and said “yes,” he had no idea of what that would bring about. That was a leap of faith, but an even greater leap of faith occurred when Jesus asked him, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter said, “You are the Messiah.”
    Did bishops gather for a preliminary meeting on Sunday, Jan. 22?
    Yes. We got together for quite some time to go over the schedule for the next 10 days. We met the people at the North American College who will be facilitating our visit. And then we talked about each Vatican congregation that we will be visiting and discussed the questions we would want to ask and the insights we would want to share. Archbishop Hughes, Bishop Fabre and I will be meeting with the Holy Father on Thursday (Jan. 26) at 11:30 a.m., and we talked about the things we wanted to discuss with him. It was very productive.
    Have you had any meetings yet with a Vatican congregation?
    We met Monday morning with the Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who is the head of the Congregation for Bishops and the former archbishop of Quebec. That was a very positive meeting. He went over with us the importance of choosing bishops and of proposing names to the Holy Father. Cardinal Ouellet asked us to be very prayerful, discerning and careful when we submit names to the Holy See of potential bishops. He called us to integrity. He used the word “discernment” many times. These are not just decisions; this is asking God to enlighten and bless us that we can make decisions according to God’s will. He also talked about the very important topic of religious liberty, especially with the very disappointing decision in Washington last Friday that mandates the church to provide contraceptives and sterilization in its health insurance policies for employees.
    What can you say about the Obama administration decision?
    First of all, it’s very disappointing. As bishops, we believed that the president and the members of his staff would be more understanding, and at least study the matter. The fact that they’re not even willing to study it is a grave disappointment to us. We really believe this is against the Constitution. A person has the right to conscience and to say he will or will not act in such a way when it comes to morality. The government is not supposed to be our moral teacher. We have to continue to dialogue, but we have to proclaim very strongly that this country was founded on freedom – founded on peace, justice, liberty, freedom and freedom of conscience – and the government cannot tell us how we have to live our moral lives. Unfortunately, I think this will be a public challenge for all of us. As bishops, we can’t stand back and let this go unnoticed. We’re ready for a healthy discussion and a very enlightening argument about this.
    Did anything else happen on your first day?
    Tonight we went to the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Miguel Diaz. He was out of town, but his wife and his staff were there. They gave us some insight into how they deal with diplomatic and political situations with the people at the Holy See and how they work with the Secretariat of State. On Tuesday (Jan. 24), we’re going to see the person in charge of the Blessed John Paul II exhibit to talk about the possibility of it coming to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Do you have a date for visiting the Congregation for the Causes of Saints?

That is next Monday (Jan. 30). I spoke with someone from the office today and they are looking forward to visiting with us and talking about the cause of Henriette Delille.