By John Cooper
Guest Column
(The following column, edited with permission, appeared May 2 in the e-newsletter of St. Anthony Parish in Davenport, six days before Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope and took the name Leo XIV.)
Saturday at our Fishers of Men parish men’s group meeting, James, who is homeless, joined us. He grabbed a plate of food and joined our circle of fellowship. As we made our way around the table, sharing our thoughts on the Road to Emmaus Easter story from Luke’s Gospel, James, in a hushed voice, said, “I have been struggling, but I think I’m getting better.”
I couldn’t help thinking that Pope Francis, who had been laid to rest hours earlier (April 21), was smiling in heaven with how our men’s group embraced James. Parishioner Patrick Logan recently donated a lithograph portrait of Pope Leo XIII that he inherited from his brother, the late Father John Logan of the Peoria (Illinois) Diocese who was passionate about social justice.
Pope Leo, who served from 1878–1903, was a visionary leader who bridged tradition and modernity. He laid the groundwork of modern Catholic social teaching in his landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed the impact of industrialization on the dignity of the worker. Patrick felt that our McAnthony Window ministry, which provides a free breakfast to people in need, would be the place to hang the portrait. We are displaying it in the Mazzuchelli Building, where our patrons eat and receive support through our ministry of presence and self-improvement classes.
We placed Pope Leo’s portrait opposite one of Pope Francis in recognition of the latter’s advocacy for the most vulnerable. These two popes (bookends of modernity) attempted to guide the Church through periods of change. In responding to the peak of modernity in the 1800s, Pope Leo XIII addressed the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution and the rise of secularism, capitalism, socialism and nation-states.
Pope Francis embraced a world searching for meaning and connection. He addressed a world resisting radical interconnectedness and in need of collaboration as a global community. He responded to a world torn by digital integration and fragmentation. Francis took a pastoral approach in his papacy to build solidarity with everyone, especially those on the peripheries of society. He strived for a spiritual awakening that went beyond people to include care for all of God’s creation, as best reflected in his groundbreaking encyclical, Laudato Si.
These two popes shared the common message that we can’t bury our heads in the sand. I often get irritated when someone from another parish says that St. Anthony’s, by virtue of its downtown location, is uniquely positioned to help those in need. That way of thinking is hogwash, an excuse to avoid the demands of our faith.
McAnthony Window isn’t just part of the mission here at St. Anthony’s; it is our mission, which Jesus gave Peter, the first pope, when he said, “Feed my sheep (John 21:17).” Popes Leo and Francis called us in new ways to stop navel-gazing or, as Francis said, stop being “sourpusses” and focus outwardly with the joy of Easter on our faces.
These popes reminded us that we don’t live our faith for ourselves. Every parish, regardless of location, should have as its core mission to serve those in need of charity and justice. The needs might differ but the demands of charity and justice remain. In Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo said, “Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings … has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God’s providence, for the benefit of others” (no. 19).
Jesus used harsh language to address the self-righteous, inward-focused or hypocritical people of his time. In his encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis captured the heart of his instruction for the Church when he said, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security” (no. 49).
At McAnthony Window, we follow Pope Francis’s instructions: “I want a mess. I want people to go out! I want the Church to go out into the streets! I want us to defend ourselves against everything that is worldliness, insulation, comfort, clericalism, being shut-in on ourselves …The parishes, the schools, the institutions exist to go out!” (World Youth Day, Rio de Janeiro, July 2013).
Thank God for the witness of these two popes and for people like our visitor James, who give the Fishers of Men — and our parish — and the rest of the faithful the opportunity to embrace the suffering flesh of Christ (in the world) with a can-do Easter smile.
(John Cooper, St. Anthony Parish’s pastoral associate and business manager, is also a deacon candidate.)
