Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Earthquakes

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, has brought forth an outpouring of concern and generosity. The numbers of those who were killed remain uncertain; the physical devastation of the city is clear in the many pictures transmitted by television. It looks like the cities of Europe that were destroyed by incessant bombing during the Second World War.

The Catholic Church around the world and here at home continues to express her solidarity with the people of Haiti in prayer and in sending massive amounts of emergency help. Catholic Relief Services, the overseas extension of what Catholic Charities does in each diocese, had a network of over 300 personnel in Haiti when the quake struck. They knew the place and the people and they are trained to bring help where it is most needed. They set to work immediately.

The Holy See’s contributions to Haitian relief are being funneled through the Catholic Relief Services of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference. The U.S. military is working in close cooperation with CRS, because our military forces now control the airport, the roads and the means of communication. The U.S. military presence is preventing chaos in a situation where the local government has ceased to function. In the immediate emergency situation, aid is going where it is needed; the future of Haiti will, of course, have to be worked out by those who live and work there.

Many Haitians live and work outside of Haiti. There are two parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago where Haitians celebrate the Eucharist and meet each Sunday. There is a Haitian priest incardinated in the archdiocese, Haitian deacons and many faithful. The earthquake has killed some of their relatives in Haiti. Along with special Masses and prayers, the Catholics of the archdiocese have contributed to the Haitian relief efforts through their support of the Annual Catholic Appeal, part of which funds our regular contribution to the Catholic Relief Services. Our parishes have also taken up special collections to support CRS’ earthquake relief efforts. (For more on the local response to the earthquake see Pages 14-15).

Help is also needed for Haitians who have become refugees from the destruction of their country. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has agreed to take in 30 flights of children from Haiti that are scheduled to arrive in Chicago over the next several weeks, and the state agency has asked Maryville and other children’s homes to help care for these boys and girls. The U.S. government has also agreed to allow Haitians who were living in the United States when the earthquake struck to remain here for at least 18 months. Right now, there is little to go home to.

When the earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, I was in Turkey making a weeklong private pilgrimage to the sites of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Writing from his exile on the small island of Patmos off the coast of what was the Province of Asia in the Roman Empire, St. John instructed the Christians in seven cities about his vision of the persecutions and natural calamities that mark the end times; he praised their fidelity and corrected their faults (Revelation, chapters 1-3).

Most of these seven cities of the Apocalypse are in ruins because they were destroyed again and again by earthquake. Sometimes they were rebuilt in the same place, but eventually they were abandoned because of conquest, change in the flow of a riverbed or some other natural disaster. Earthquakes have shaped human habitation and history around the globe and over the centuries, creating tragedy and suffering in every generation. Our response to them, however, can bring moral good out of physical evil.

The vision of the Apocalypse is a constant challenge to all who search for the fullness of meaning in God’s revelation. Visiting the ruins of these ancient cities brings home the force of the words of Scripture, as is always the case when visiting biblical sites. Each day I read again, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rv 3:22),” and I prayed that we might hear what the same Spirit says today to the church of Chicago.

An earthquake of a political order seems to have been set off by the recent upset election of a Republican senator in the State of Massachusetts. Whatever happens next, the bishops of the United States remain committed to health care reform that will help everyone to be cared for and assure that no one will be deliberately killed. Both the Senate and the House Bill extend health care by mandating that pre-existing health conditions cannot be used to refuse insurance, by extending benefits to pregnant mothers and by many other good provisions for caring for people sometimes now neglected.

However, neither proposed bill has solved the problem of affordability in adequate fashion, and neither includes legal immigrants in the proposed national health plans. Neither bill provides adequate conscience protection for health care workers. The House bill protects the consciences of taxpayers by keeping in place the present law against using federal tax money to fund abortion or insurance plans that cover abortion; the Senate bill, which is a legal Rube Goldberg invention, fails to do this, despite President Obama’s clear promise that federal taxes will not be used to pay for abortions.

A health care reform bill without adequate protection of personal conscience would be an earthquake in our legal and political life. The laws of the United States have protected conscientious objectors in many areas of life. To remove that protection in health care now would bring us closer to despotism. It seems strange that some legislators who most protest against the church’s “imposing” her ideas on others are the very ones who are willing to impose their own private morality on everyone else.

The Spirit who guided the churches of Asia Minor 2,000 years ago speaks to us still in the teaching of the church, itself informed by reason and the Word of God. We should be free to follow that teaching, personally and communally in our institutions. Those who have an ear, let them hear, in their head and in their heart.
 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

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