Bishop Solis calls Utah Catholics to be 'visible witnesses of God's presence'

Friday, Sep. 29, 2017

DRAPER — Bishop Oscar A. Solis explained his vision for the Diocese of Salt Lake City to more than 500 Catholics from throughout Utah during the Sept. 23 Pastoral Congress, held at the Skaggs Catholic Center.

“I envision a Catholic Church in the Diocese of Salt Lake City that is very much alive and demonstrates our fundamental vocation as ardent believers in God and disciples of Christ,” said Bishop Solis, who was installed in March as the 10th Bishop of the diocese. “As your new shepherd of our local Church I invite you to rediscover the glow of our faith and the ardor of believers in Jesus, so we become visible witnesses of God’s presence in us and among us.”

Everyone in the diocese – priests, vowed religious and the laity – “must pull ourselves together to embark on a spiritual journey of renewal to bring about a season of springtime in our personal life and the life of our faith community,” the bishop said. 

A faith renewal and spiritual rebirth can lead to missionary disciples who create a vibrant Church, Bishop Solis said. Toward this end, his pastoral priorities are faith formation, religious and priestly vocations, Catholic identity as it is expressed in the Eucharist and in cultural diversity; social justice, including an emphasis on the culture of life and marriage; and interfaith dialog. 

He quoted Pope Francis: “It is not enough to say we are Christians. We must live the faith, not only with our words, but with our actions.”

To achieve these goals, the diocese must help others encounter Christ in their personal life and in the community, and witness God’s joy and mercy to one another, Bishop Solis said.

He invited everyone to undertake this mission and join him “in pursuing a spiritual rebirth and renewal of our faith through our mission of evangelization,” he said. “Our hope is that our renewed effort will usher in that spiritual rebirth in our faith and a springtime in our Church. … This is a blessed moment in the Diocese of Salt Lake City; a special time of grace to establish vibrant worshipping parish communities renewed in faith and hope. Join your heart and hands as one faith family, and together let us build God’s kingdom of love, joy and peace in our midst.” 

The theme of evangelization, including how to address those who have left the Church and those who claim no religion or are agnostic, was addressed by the other two keynote speakers at the Pastoral Congress, Fr. Jorge Presmanes and Fr. Wayne Cavalier, both Dominican priests from the Congar Institute, a ministry of the Southern Dominican Province that provides resources for the formation of lay pastoral leaders.

Understanding culture is essential to evangelization efforts, Fr. Presmanes said, using the example of shaking hands: If one person extends his hand, the other person must understand they are meant to take it as a way of greeting. In  cultures that don’t share this gesture, the effort toward goodwill is lost because it is not understood.

Culture is how people relate to and communicate with each other, and how they understand God, he said, so the starting point of evangelization must be where people are and their culture.

While “God calls all human beings to faith, to make the world a community of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit, it is always particular, because it is only within our culture, within our language, within our world that we live, that God can speak to us,” he said. 

Still, at its core evangelization is “the proclamation that you are infinitely loved by God as you are,” Fr. Presmanes said. “If we can tell others that, we are evangelizers par excellence. … The goal of evangelization is to proclaim the Good News, and that Good News is transformative to those who hear it, and we are transformed by our encounter with those who hear it.” 

One of the aspects of evangelization that Fr. Cavalier discussed at length was the qualities needed in the evangelizer: He or she must be humble, merciful, repentant, joyful and have a social justice mindset, he said.

Of these qualities, humility is essential, he said. Unless Catholics recognize that they are sinners before God, “we cannot have the right relationship with God that is required for us to be missionary disciples,” he said.

Catholics must be merciful as the Father is merciful, and repentant so that they can be reconciled to God, he added. 

Catholics should be joyful “because the gift the Jesus Christ has given us has freed us,” he said. “There is no burden now. God has given us God’s own heart and so we have all that we need. We don’t have to grasp on to anything. We are free to be the people that God means us to be.” 

Social justice can’t be separate from being a missionary disciple because to encounter others Catholics must go to where they are – even if it is on society’s periphery – and understand their circumstances. If those circumstances aren’t conducive to human life and the dignity of the person, Catholics must work to change society to address those ills, Fr. Cavalier said. 

“The Church – us, the anointed Body of Christ – is the continued incarnation of God’s love in this world,” he pointed out. 

During the Pastoral Congress, numerous workshops were offered. Popular tracks were human formation, with topics such as conflict resolution and healing and forgiveness; and youth and young adult ministry, which was standing room  only, said Susan Northway, the diocese’s director of religious education, who organized the event.