Visiting in Rome with Pope Francis was a revelation

   
    You traveled to Rome several weeks ago. Can you recap your trip?
    I went to Rome for three reasons, and it was providential that all three coincided within the same week. I am the bishop moderator of the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI), which provides continuing education and formation for priests through a program called “Good Leaders, Good Shepherds.” CLI also offers a similar program for bishops.  I was joined by Mr. Matthew Manion, who is the president of CLI, and Father Bill Dickinson, who is vice president. We met separately with the cardinal prefects and the staffs of two Vatican congregations – the Congregation for Clergy and the Congregation for Bishops. We shared information with them on what we were doing and offered our services as an institute to help them in their own work in Rome of forming priests or bishops. The cardinal prefects were very appreciative, and they felt this was something they and other bishops’ conferences around the world might want to model.

The second reason I went to Rome was to attend the celebrations that marked the closing of the official investigation by the Diocese of Rome into the life of Cardinal Francis Xavier Van Thuan – the former Archbishop of Saigon. Thousands of documents supporting his cause have been submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Cardinal Van Thuan was heroic in living his life of faith. He spent many years in solitary confinement and suffered persecution in a Vietnamese prison, and yet he persevered in faith and even converted some of his guards. His story is incredibly significant to the church. I got to know Cardinal Van Thuan and his sister after I attended a Marian celebration in Carthage, Mo., in the mid-1990s. I invited him in 1996 to come to New Orleans to speak to the Vietnamese community and Notre Dame Seminary, and we presented him with an honorary doctorate. After he was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he wrote me a letter, which I still cherish. He said, “I just want to let you know that I’ve been named a cardinal, and you should know that one of your alumni from Notre Dame Seminary is now in the College of Cardinals.” And he wished me God’s blessings. It’s really a great story.
    The other reason I went to Rome was to get an update from Cardinal Angelo Amato, who is the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and his staff about the beatification cause of our own Venerable Mother Henriette Delille. The panel of doctors associated with the congregation have examined the unexplained healing that could lead to Mother Henriette’s beatification, but they still have some questions that need to be answered in order for the doctors to assert that there is no medical explanation for the healing. We’re still hopeful, and we still certainly very much believe in the holiness of Mother Henriette. The doctors have to go through hundreds of pages of information and then render a judgment.
    All this leads me to mention that I, along with the Sisters of the Holy Family and, in particular, Sister Eva Regina Martin, want to once again place this holy woman before us as a model and as a servant of God. We are encouraging those who find themselves in difficult health situations and who would need a miracle to ask Mother Henriette to pray with them and to pray for them. Perhaps, through her intercession, God may grant that miracle of recovery. When we talk about this as Catholics, we always want to be very careful in saying that if a miracle takes place, it is not any particular saint or Henriette Delille who performs the miracle. It is God who performs the miracle. But we do ask saints or those moving toward sainthood to pray with us and to pray for us before a loving and faithful God that he would grant our request. This is an opportunity to ask the people who are particularly devoted to Mother Henriette and who seem to need a miraculous healing to come forward with their story.
    Did you have a chance to meet with Pope Francis?
    I did – several times – both formally and informally. I was able to concelebrate Mass with him one morning at the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Every morning he invites different departments of the Vatican to join him for Mass, and the bishops who are in Rome are invited to concelebrate with him. At the end of the Mass, he came out of the chapel and met each of us individually. I also stayed in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, which is where the pope lives and has his meals. One day, as I was coming into the dining room for breakfast, he was leaving and he stopped to say hello to me and the people I was with. He was so warm and inviting. He spoke a little bit of English and Italian. I think he understands English a little more than he is comfortable speaking it.
    I also had the opportunity to see him at the Mass for Vocations that he celebrated at St. Peter’s Basilica, which was attended by seminarians and women and men who are studying for religious life. At the end the Mass, after he unvested, he decided to walk over to a group of about 30 bishops. It was all so informal. I also got to meet him more formally at the audience for Cardinal Van Thuan. I pledged to him the greetings of the people of Archdiocese of New Orleans and our commitment to pray for him as the successor of Peter. He asked me to extend to the people of God in the archdiocese his appreciation for that prayerful support and also asked me to impart his apostolic blessing on the people of the archdiocese.
    What did you think about Pope Francis’ messages at World Youth Day in Brazil?
    He was magnificent. He obviously has the love and respect of our young people, and he loves them. One of the most significant things he told them was that as they left World Youth Day to go back home, they needed to make a stir in the church – to make some noise and go out to the streets and tell other people about Jesus.
    He made some news on the plane trip home.
    What I admire about Pope Francis is that he never dodges a question. He is transparent. He always holds up the teaching of the church, and he answers difficult questions in a very pastoral way that also teaches. He was asked questions about those who are in second marriages and what can be done. He said that was a question that needs to be discussed by the cardinals to see what it is the church can do to reach out to those who are divorced and remarried.
    The other issue that received a lot of attention was the question he answered on homosexuality. He was clear in supporting church teaching. He also said we have to be kind, accepting and prayerful toward people who have a homosexual orientation. We should not treat them disrespectfully, and we need to find a way to dialogue with them and to pray with them in order to see how the church can be of assistance.
    Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].