When Pope Benedict XVI announced he was abdicating the papacy, the speculation immediately began about the qualifications of the next pope. Many, of course, have strong opinions.
Earlier this month a coalition called “A Minnesota Without Poverty” convened an anti-poverty conference involving some 40 non-profit advocacy groups to collaborate, reinvigorate and bring fruition to the recommendations of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020, issued in 2009.
During the 2012 election season, the Church actively supported a number of issue-oriented ballot referenda initiatives around the country. Most of them failed to pass.
Since the Minnesota marriage amendment was placed on the ballot last year, and even before that, the Catholic Church in Minnesota has been educating Catholics about what marriage is, why it is important and the challenges all of society will likely face if it is redefined.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Labor Day statement, “Placing Work and Workers at the Center of Economic Life” declares that the cure to our current crisis is a “national economic renewal that places working people and their families at the center of economic life.”
Like all vocations, which it surely is, marriage is demanding and requires self-mastery if it is to blossom into the full image of God’s love for his church. It also requires an acknowledgment that marriage is not ours to define, but rather a gift to receive and to cherish as it has been given by God.
