Throughout the two days of public deliberation, “energy” — its appearance or lack thereof — and the words that rode upon it, were what kept intruding upon my awareness as I listened and watched. Archbishop Gomez has a rather understated mien, and he runs a sedate, if tidy, meeting. But overall, the energy of the gathered bishops seemed a tad low. There were a lot of familiar words and phrases, but perhaps that was a problem: too many familiar words. The work of “journeying together” is absolutely vital for Catholic Christians, particularly in an era of new challenges to centuries-old customs and norms — and, yet, little was said about the real accompaniment that “journeying together” requires, or what that even looks like. Thus, as with many of the words we heard, the idea seemed sterile, even stale; reduced to clerical jargon rather than having meaningful action behind them. I sometimes found myself interiorly urging our spiritual teachers to do more than speak words, but to actually say something.
There were stirring moments, of course. Certainly Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the Ukrainian Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, raised the energy level in the room with his impassioned presentation on the war in Ukraine and denunciation of the “profound pathology of imperialism” by which that nation is threatened. Declaring that no one would tolerate a recolonization of the United States by the United Kingdom, and that “Blacks are never again going to be the subjects of Whites; so it is for us in Ukraine, it is liberty or death.”
As the saying goes, you could hear a pin drop. The bishops seemed spellbound. I was, too; my heart urged to prayer, my mind and soul utterly engaged.
But it was an uneven engagement as the meeting’s vigor waxed and waned. In fairness, that’s common to long conferences, but what struck me, repeatedly, was that the vivacity one would expect from a living Church only seemed to truly show itself when invited members of the laity rose to speak. And then, it surged.
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