Denver Catholic

2 APRIL 28-MAY 11, 2018 | DENVER CATHOLIC Archbishop's Page Archbishop's Column Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila PHOTO OF THE WEEK ARCHBISHOP'S SCHEDULE APR. 29: Confi rmation Mass, Most Precious Blood Catholic Church, Denver (2 p.m.) MAY 2: Confi rmation Mass, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Brighton (6 p.m.) MAY 6: Confi rmation Mass, Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver (12:30 p.m.) MAY 8: Confi rmation Mass, St. Frances Cabrini, Littleton (7 p.m.) MAY 9: Confi rmation Mass, Church of the Ascension, Montbello (7 p.m.) MAY 10: Confi rmation Mass, St. Michael the Archangel, Aurora (6 p.m.) @ArchbishopDen Apr. 20 Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 Denver Catholic (USPS 557-020) is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January. Denver Catholic is printed by Prairie Mountain Publishing, LLC in Boulder. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $50 a year in Colorado; $57 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $57 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $63 air; Canada, $70 air. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or email circulation@archden.org. CIRCULATION: denvercatholic.org/circulation Editor AARON LAMBERT Business Manager MICHAEL O'NEILL In February, fi rst grade students at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School sent letters to Pope Francis to show-oƒ their newly learned penmanship skills. On April 13, the school received a letter in response (pictured) from the Vatican on behalf of the pope. "A little Catholic school in Denver, Colorado, many thousands of miles away from the Vatican, actually had an impact on the pope," said Blessed Sacrament principal Dr. Carla Dire Cap- stick. "To know he responded is very impactful [in] our Blessed Sacrament community." PHOTO BY BRANDON ORTEGA Reject mediocrity, strive for holiness "H oliness is the most attractive face of the Church," Pope Francis says in his new apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate. How true that is! Think of, for example, how Mother Teresa drew people all over the world to her ministry because of her holy love for the sick and dying. The Holy Father's new document is meant "to re-propose the call to holiness in a practical way for our time." The world needs saints, and this apostolic exhortation encourages every person to respond to that need. He begins by insisting that being holy "does not require being a bishop, a priest or a religious. We are fre- quently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary aƒ airs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case." Instead, Pope Francis describes holiness as simple and within reach. "We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing wit- ness in everything we do, wherever we fi nd ourselves," he explains. The Holy Father's call should sound familiar to those of us in the Archdiocese of Denver, since it echoes the challenge Saint John Paul II gave to the young people at World Youth Day in Denver 25 years ago and at subsequent gatherings. His message to the youth prepar- ing for the Cologne gathering exem- plifi es this challenge. "Dear young people, the Church needs genuine witnesses for the new evangelization: men and women whose lives have been transformed by meeting with Jesus, men and women who are capa- ble of communicating this experience to others. The Church needs saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity." In Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis also brings home the unique and divinely planned impact of saints. "Each saint is a mission, planned by the Father to refl ect and embody, at a specifi c moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel," he writes. Holiness is also simple, the Pope explains. The "Father's plan is Christ, and ourselves in him. In the end, it is Christ who loves in us, for 'holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the full.'" And when our hearts are fi lled with charity, we see the world and others with diƒ erent eyes. We are able to see holiness as attainable for great sinners, for the weak and vulnerable; it is not reserved to "the righteous" alone, as the Pharisees of Jesus' day believed. Pope Francis also rightfully emphasizes that our charity cannot be selectively applied. For instance, he urges believers to consistently defend human life, noting that the human dignity of an unborn child and a refugee are the same. My fellow bishop and friend, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, makes an excellent observation in his April 13 column that I can also a™ rm from my decades of pro-life activity. He writes, "I have rarely, if ever, encountered Catholics who only take seriously the lives of the unborn. When I encounter pro-life people in this country, I notice that they are also the people running parish food pantries, giving sandwiches to the homeless even while they are praying at abortion clinics, adopting foster children, and caring for their neighbors. In my experience, com- mitment to protecting the dignity of the unborn spills over into the rest of our lives …" This is exactly the kind of consistent charity that Pope Francis is encouraging in Gaudete et Exsultate. Pope Francis' exhortation also contains other gems, like his exam- ination of the Beatitudes as the pathway of holiness, and a section on prayer being the indispensable fuel that infl ames our hearts with love for Christ and others. There is much to unpack in Gaudete et Exsultate, which is a letter written to the Church with love and intended to help us grow in holiness. I pray that every Catholic will take to heart the challenge of becoming a saint, relying on God's grace to achieve what is otherwise impossible. To quote one of Pope Francis' favorite theologians, León Bloy, when all is said and done, "the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint." The execution of 83 year old Walter Moody yesterday, 30 yrs after the crime, who posed no threat to society in jail, is a failure to uphold the dignity of every person. Society should be promoting forgiveness & conversion, not violence. +sja

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