Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, OP, blesses Campbell Keen in Christ the King Chapel’s gathering space at St. Ambrose University in Davenport following Mass April 26. Her parents are Meghan and Justin Keen. Campbell will be baptized into the Catholic Church in the chapel this coming weekend.
By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — British Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, OP, was in his San Francisco hotel room and decided to get out of bed and check over his talk for the “From A(mbrose) to (Gen.) Z” conference at St. Ambrose University the next day. At that point, he realized he had had written a speech about a different topic.
“To my horror, the talk was (to be) on hope for the young. I had to rewrite my lecture!” he told the crowd April 24 in the Rogalski Center.
The cardinal’s keynote addressed “How Can We Give Hope to the Young.” He mixed his talk about the young with humor and kept the crowd engaged.
“How do we give hope to the young today,” he asked. “The future belongs to them. There is reason for hope.” He noted that we need to listen to our youth in addition to them listening to us.
Despite the violence, war, threats to ecology and more — “there is a need for hope.” Cardinal Radcliffe noted he receives a lot of hope from youths in his work. But he also noted we need to know how to receive those calls of hope.
“I have been to many difficult places (Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Ukraine, Jerusalem…). I have gone there to give hope. But I am the one who receives hope,” he said.
“The foundation of all Christian hope is the Eucharist,” asserted the cardinal. “It is the sacrament of hope.”
He shared stories of his travels to Rwanda in 1993. “I saw terrible things. I wept. But two kids came to console me, hopping on their one leg (having lost the other to violence).”
Going to the Dominican house at that point, he said he had nothing to say. “When you see violence like that, all easy words are drained out of you. And then I remembered something I could do. Jesus said, ‘do this in memory of me.’’’ Reflecting on those words from the Last Supper, Cardinal Radcliffe said, “Isn’t it odd? Isn’t it wonderful? Every Sunday we gather for the sacrament of hope.”
Four reasons for hope
Cardinal Radcliffe acknowledged reasons why Catholics might be pessimistic. The Church has gone through scandals. Some see the Mass as boring. Some priests give “dreadful” homilies or music is dreary. “We get bored.”
But there is hope. “How do we give hope to you and the young?” asked the Dominican prelate. He offered four reasons for hope.
First are the “‘little things.’ Do small acts of kindness and it will open the way of the Lord’s harvest,” Cardinal Radcliffe said.
Second is to study. “The Catholic Church gives hope through understanding,” he said. “We learn to read faces. I’m looking at yours, and you may be looking at mine. I think the foundation of all Christian ministry is to learn to read faces and see the vulnerability. The humanity. The loneliness. A hunger that is in every human being.”
He encouraged people to study any way they can. It can be in higher education. But also through Bible studies, group sharing and more.
Third is to give and receive the gift of music. “It could be any of the arts. I know there are three choirs here at St. Ambrose,” the cardinal said. “I did my homework!”
“When Jesus concluded the Last Supper and went on his way to face death, the last thing they did was to sing. They sang songs. Is that a way to face death?” he asked.
Music is a way to express hope of eternal life, he said. “In song, all the ugliness and disharmony are taken up into God’s own harmony.”
“We need musicians, composers who give us hope. Who gives the young hope? Hope is what is beyond our words,” the cardinal said.
Fourth is to remain. No matter what happens in life, God remains. Cardinal Radcliffe said people may be tempted to leave the Catholic Church. God remains, even when we are in despair.
The cardinal reminded the gathering to remain faithful to their friends. “Jesus said, ‘I call you my friends.’”
“So the foundation of all is hope in the Eucharist,” Cardinal Radcliffe said. “Be open to these four (points): to find small acts of kindness, study and never give up believing that we might have meaning, have music and art as ways that reach beyond our words and be faithful when we are tempted to go away.”
The evening ended with a Question and Answer session and time for prayer.
Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, OP, prays before opening a Question and Answer session April 24 at St. Ambrose University’s Rogalski Center. He was the main speaker for the university’s “From A(mbrose) to (Gen.) Z: Resourcing the Tradition in Response to Contemporary Concerns in the Church” held April 24-26.
Homily
On April 26, Cardinal Radcliffe gave the homily during Mass in Christ the King Chapel. Father Dale Mallory, chaplain, presided at the Mass.
The cardinal said a shepherd calls his sheep by name. “The Lord calls us each by name. Not just a label. Our name is a sign that we belong and we are at home with God.”
“We need to know each other by name. My name is Timothy,” he told those in attendance at Mass.
He told of Father Greg Boyle who works in Los Angeles with former gang members. “He learned their names. Not their gang name. Not what their mother’s called them when they were bad. He addressed them by their name.”
The cardinal joked that at times his mother had to go down the list of names of his siblings before she got his right. “Still, I knew she loved me and I was safe.”
The cardinal said if we want to be alive, we need to take risks and be willing to be hurt. “Touch the imagination of the young. Invite them to a dangerous journey. We need to be adventurous ourselves.”
