When the Church Gets Sick…

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has been constantly repeating what seems to be his special concern. This is when the Church gets sick. What does he mean?

In a brief note in Spanish he sent to the bishops of Argentina a couple of weeks after his inauguration as Pope, he said that the Church gets sick, “se enferma” in Spanish, when she remains preoccupied within herself, too self-referencial, “referencias personales”. His advice was for the bishops to go to the fringes, the margins, of society, “a las periferias existenciales”, where evangelization should take place. Everyone knows where these fringes are.

To those who are timid and afraid he said, “don’t be afraid to make mistakes.” He explains this by comparing church leaders to travelers who meet accidents along the way, saying it is normal.

Then he ends his brief note by referring to what he calls the thrill or joy of evangelizing, and humbly concludes, “Please pray for me”.  I was very touched when holding my two hands firmly last May 25 he said, “Reze por mi”, “Pray for me”.

This and the statements above are loaded and should be personally heavy on our conscience as bishops and priests, especially now on mine.

I wrote last week’s column, ‘Social Conscience based on shalom’, as my personal reflection on my way home from Rome. I do feel that one of the symptoms of the Church’s sickness today is a numbed conscience (“konsyensyang gikobalan).
As self-diagnosis I need to ask questions.

How do I/we sharpen this social conscience?  How do we    conscienticize
ourselves? What stifles and numbs our conscience? When talking or reflecting on evangelization, what is our focus, our priorities? Are these the fringes, the peripheries, the margins, of society? Where are the poor? Who are the poor? Why are they poor?