‘We must reach out as Jesus did.’ (Pope Francis)
In his first media interviews as pope, our Holy Father spoke of “reaching out as Jesus did.” He repeated this message in his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“Joy of the Gospel”) and his encyclical “Laudato Si’.” We’ve seen him walk the talk — “reaching out” everywhere he goes. During his first visit to the United States this week, we are seeing countless images of Pope Francis in Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia, embodying Christ, “reaching out” to prisoners, the homeless and immigrants. These images are well worth remembering.
We also have plenty of images of “Christ reaching out” in Hawaii, to folks of all kinds. The vivid pictures of Pope Francis’ outreach bring them to mind.
This week, Pope Francis “talked story” with prisoners at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia. Earlier this month, Ralph McCloud, the national director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, joined parishioners “talking story” with inmates at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua and visited ex-prisoners living and working with a family-run graphics business in Waipahu. And there was Maryknoll Sister Shu Chen “talking story” with leaders and staff of Windward Oahu parishes — Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, St. George, St. Ann and St. John Vianney —about engaging parishioners in “reaching out” to families affected by incarceration.
This week we saw images of Pope Francis addressing representatives at the United Nations and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, exhorting them to care for the earth as our common home. In Hawaii at vicariate meetings this month, representatives from parishes on Maui and Kauai learned how to “reach out” locally and globally to heal hunger and homelessness by having religious education and social ministry programs become involved in “One Ohana: Food and Housing for All” through Catholic Relief Services’ Lenten Rice Bowl campaign.
Two weeks before his trip, we saw Pope Francis “reaching out” on American TV at virtual town hall meetings with immigrant families on the Mexican-American border, homeless persons in Los Angeles, and Catholic school students from Chicago’s inner city neighborhoods. While back in Kakaako and Kewalo Basin, members of Hawaii’s Catholic Chuukeese community helped outreach workers relocate homeless Micronesian families to temporary shelter and permanent housing. And Catholic Charities Hawaii staff and volunteers helped families and youth in foster care not only survive but thrive after the trauma of domestic violence.
We have seen plenty of images of Pope Francis “reaching out” to families facing difficult challenges. On Oahu (and soon in Kauai) we see the Ohana Mass celebrated by families blessed with persons with disabilities. On the Big Island, we witness families from a struggling farm cooperative deliver their fall harvest to the food pantry at Sacred Heart Parish in Hawi which serves seniors, and Micronesian mothers and daughters plant breadfruit trees at Sacred Heart Parish in Pahoa, next to the HOPE Services Hawaii kupuna housing project.
A most excellent way to remember Pope Francis’ visit to the United States is to keep alive the images of “Christ reaching out” through our compassionate service to the vulnerable all around us.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
