New Orleans archbishop heads to Vatican for twice-a-decade visit
Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Bishop Shelton Fabre flew to Rome on Friday to join 20 other regional Catholic bishops for a once-every-five-years series of face-to-face meetings with the pope and Vatican bureaucrats to brief them on conditions in their local churches. The so-called “ad limina” visits are the global church’s management technique for maintaining regular formal contact with its far-flung outposts.
View full sizeNew Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond holds a copy of a detailed report on the Archdiocese of New Orleans that will be presented to the Pope in Rome. Normally, every five years, Catholic bishops report to Rome in geographic groups. This year, United States bishops report.
However, Pope Benedict XVI has fallen behind schedule, so the Americans’ last report was actually seven years ago.
Each report is a chance for local bishops to brief the Vatican on local conditions, to answer questions, and to hear Vatican concerns, Aymond said.
In addition, bishops meet individually and in small groups with Benedict himself to answer his questions about their churches and get a sense of what is on his mind.
“I’m quite sure he’ll ask us about evangelization; I know that’s very much on his mind,” Aymond said.
Evangelization in this context means reaching out to the unchurched, or to former Catholics to re-establish bonds with them.
Benedict, a German and the product of a highly secularized Western Europe, undertook his papacy in 2005 concerned about the retreat of Christianity from parts of the industrialized West.
In the United States, a 2007 report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that Catholicism’s retention rate of about 68 percent of its childhood members is comparable or better than other religious groups — but because of the church’s sheer size, ex-Catholics, if gathered in a single church, would be the second-largest denomination in the country, with about 30 million members.
View full sizeThe report is a chance for local bishops to brief the Vatican on local conditions, to answer questions, and to hear Vatican concerns. Aymond said Benedict might also ask bishops to update him on tensions between the church and the Obama administration over the administration’s requirement that the church must offer its employees health insurance that provides birth control and reproductive services that violate Catholic teaching.
Catholic and evangelical communities have protested the requirement. But Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services reaffirmed that all but a narrow range of employers must offer the coverage, although they were granted a year’s delay.
“And I’m sure he’ll ask about our rebuilding after Katrina,” Aymond said.
Aymond said visiting bishops are also expected to make special visits to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul — “ad limina” means “to the thresholds” — to offer prayers for souls in their care.
Aymond said this is his third ad limina visit since becoming a bishop in 1997. He and Fabre will be accompanied by former Archbishop Alfred Hughes, he said.
Each of the bishops or archbishops in charge of local dioceses in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky will have already sent ahead of him a comprehensive report on every phase of Catholic life in his regional church.
In Aymond’s case, that’s a 173-page document describing the church’s charitable work, education efforts, search for vocations and other topics — as well as the surrounding cultural and political environment in southeastern Louisiana.
The New Orleans report, for instance, sketches the region’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the tumultuous closure of nearly three dozen parishes afterward and the effects of the BP Gulf oil spill in 2010.
It also tries to brief Vatican administrators on life in New Orleans in other ways.
It notes, for example, the continuing federal prosecutions of local public officials and the post-Katrina police trials; the familiar, although temporary, excesses of Mardi Gras; and even the cohabitation rates of 35 percent to 40 percent of Catholic couples who present themselves for marriage.
It is thick with other statistical data as well. It reports that since 2004, the median age of New Orleans priests has risen from 54 to 56 — and that in the same period, average Sunday Mass attendance has dropped from 179,000 to 112,000. And it notes that the Catholic population is now estimated at 486,000, not far below the pre-Katrina population of 488,000.
Aymond said he will use the Rome trip to check on two pieces of New Orleans business.
One will be a briefing on the progress toward canonization of Mother Henriette Delille, the 19th-century New Orleans African-American woman who devoted herself to ministering to slaves and who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family.
In addition, Aymond said he will consult about the Vatican’s interest in locating a John Paul II exhibit in New Orleans. The former St. Henry church Uptown and the Old Ursulines Convent were once considered possible sites, but are now off the table, he said.
The archdiocese is in talks with the city about another site possibility, but nothing has been decided, he said.
Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
View full sizeNew Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond holds a copy of a detailed report on the Archdiocese of New Orleans that will be presented to the Pope in Rome. However, Pope Benedict XVI has fallen behind schedule, so the Americans’ last report was actually seven years ago.
Each report is a chance for local bishops to brief the Vatican on local conditions, to answer questions, and to hear Vatican concerns, Aymond said.
In addition, bishops meet individually and in small groups with Benedict himself to answer his questions about their churches and get a sense of what is on his mind.
“I’m quite sure he’ll ask us about evangelization; I know that’s very much on his mind,” Aymond said.
Evangelization in this context means reaching out to the unchurched, or to former Catholics to re-establish bonds with them.
Benedict, a German and the product of a highly secularized Western Europe, undertook his papacy in 2005 concerned about the retreat of Christianity from parts of the industrialized West.
In the United States, a 2007 report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that Catholicism’s retention rate of about 68 percent of its childhood members is comparable or better than other religious groups — but because of the church’s sheer size, ex-Catholics, if gathered in a single church, would be the second-largest denomination in the country, with about 30 million members.
View full sizeThe report is a chance for local bishops to brief the Vatican on local conditions, to answer questions, and to hear Vatican concerns. Catholic and evangelical communities have protested the requirement. But Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services reaffirmed that all but a narrow range of employers must offer the coverage, although they were granted a year’s delay.
“And I’m sure he’ll ask about our rebuilding after Katrina,” Aymond said.
Aymond said visiting bishops are also expected to make special visits to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul — “ad limina” means “to the thresholds” — to offer prayers for souls in their care.
Aymond said this is his third ad limina visit since becoming a bishop in 1997. He and Fabre will be accompanied by former Archbishop Alfred Hughes, he said.
Each of the bishops or archbishops in charge of local dioceses in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky will have already sent ahead of him a comprehensive report on every phase of Catholic life in his regional church.
In Aymond’s case, that’s a 173-page document describing the church’s charitable work, education efforts, search for vocations and other topics — as well as the surrounding cultural and political environment in southeastern Louisiana.
The New Orleans report, for instance, sketches the region’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the tumultuous closure of nearly three dozen parishes afterward and the effects of the BP Gulf oil spill in 2010.
It also tries to brief Vatican administrators on life in New Orleans in other ways.
It notes, for example, the continuing federal prosecutions of local public officials and the post-Katrina police trials; the familiar, although temporary, excesses of Mardi Gras; and even the cohabitation rates of 35 percent to 40 percent of Catholic couples who present themselves for marriage.
It is thick with other statistical data as well. It reports that since 2004, the median age of New Orleans priests has risen from 54 to 56 — and that in the same period, average Sunday Mass attendance has dropped from 179,000 to 112,000. And it notes that the Catholic population is now estimated at 486,000, not far below the pre-Katrina population of 488,000.
Aymond said he will use the Rome trip to check on two pieces of New Orleans business.
One will be a briefing on the progress toward canonization of Mother Henriette Delille, the 19th-century New Orleans African-American woman who devoted herself to ministering to slaves and who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family.
In addition, Aymond said he will consult about the Vatican’s interest in locating a John Paul II exhibit in New Orleans. The former St. Henry church Uptown and the Old Ursulines Convent were once considered possible sites, but are now off the table, he said.
The archdiocese is in talks with the city about another site possibility, but nothing has been decided, he said.
Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
No comments:
Post a Comment