The Church and Her members are not paralyzed: No!

If you were to believe the mass media hysteria over the Church being "popeless" and read some well-intentioned facebook and twitter posts, along with more than a few not so well-intentioned comments, you would think the Catholic Church is in worldwide paralysis.  No, not even close.  How misunderstood the Church truly is.  The Catholic Church is alive and well and while we indeed paused today to watch Pope Benedict, now the Pope Emeritus, leave the Vatican, dramatically flying off in a white helicopter to Castel Gondolfo, she thrives, she excels, she grows, she continues to be the Body of Christ.  Today across the globe, the Catholic Church fed more hungry people, ministered to more marginalized people, educated more young people, prayed for more souls, both on earth and in purgatory, visited men & women in prison, and worshipped God in the prayer par excellence, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!!  Today, the Catholic Church was open, and active and at work about the business of God's work on Earth, just like she is every day of the year.  Yes, it was a different day.  Yes, it was ok to pause and watch as the Pope said farewell.  Yes, it was another historic day among many, many historic days for Holy Mother Church!

I can attest to this just bringing it back to a local level.  First of all, we remember that we are indeed in Lent's third week.  Mass attendance is high, Reconciliation Services are being offered across the Archdiocese and Lenten retreats are in full swing or being planned for the remaining weeks of Lent.  And yes, just like the last many Lenten seasons, RCIA programs are preapring another record breaking number of Catechumens and Candidates to become new Catholics at the Easter vigil.  Across this globe, even with the Pope now properly retired, the Catholic Church will soon welcome tens of thousands of new members.  Indeed, the Church is not paralyzed.

Staying local I marveled this week just at home at my parish, Most Holy Trinity, the sheer number of meetings and ministries that remarkably went forward.  I guess the media missed it that we at MHT were moving forward this week.  Just tonight we were busy with an active training and social for our amazing altar servers while 3 other events were taking place.  Just last night, I ventured north to the Rayburn Prison with 2 diaconate candidates to minister at the prison.  The men knew all about the events about the Pope, still they came to pray and share the Gospel and receive Communion!  I guess they did not get the message that we should be paralyzed.

We Catholics that allow the world to get us in a tizzy should recall that the secular media, the entertainment industry, politicians of all stripes and just downright nasty folk have been coming after Holy Mother Church for 2 milenia now; announcement: SHE still stands!  Even when we, the indivdual members of the Body do her damage by our own failings and sin; SHE still stands.

Now our collective focus must be on the Church, the future and soon a new Vicar on Earth in the next Pope.  And our focus remains on Jesus Christ, as Benedict said, He who must be the centre of your(our)life!    I'm going to borrow a phrase I saw last night from a local Catholic Priest that sums it up:
We may be Popeless, but we are not Hopeless!!