Our Bicentennial and the visit of our Holy Father

By Cardinal Justin Rigali

Saint Ambrose (340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church, wrote: “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” It is true that our Lord gave to all the Apostles what we call the “mission mandate” to preach His message to the ends of the earth: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). However, to Saint Peter, Jesus gave a primacy not only of honor but also of jurisdiction. Saint Cyprian of Carthage (died 258), in the early life of the Church, gave a very clear commentary on the place of Peter and his successors in the Church of Christ: “The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven . . . ’ (Matt. 16:18–19). On him (Peter) he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep (John 21:17), and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair (cathedra), and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was (i.e., apostles), but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair” (The Unity of the Catholic Church, 4). This is why we rejoice in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI in our country in this coming week. Saint Peter died but the office and mission of Peter lives in all the Popes who have succeeded him and he lives today in Pope Benedict XVI.

However, using a bit of poetic license, we might also say: “Where the Church is, there is Peter.” This is a reality through the presence of the bishops throughout the world, who are constituted as a college in union with the Pope, just as the apostles were given their mandate as a college, in union with Peter as their Head. I mention this aspect of the Church and the Papacy this week, after dwelling exclusively on the role of service of the Successor of Peter last week, because our own local Church of Philadelphia, along with the other dioceses founded in 1808, celebrates its Bicentennial at this time. In fact, one of the reasons our Holy Father is making his visit to our country is so that he can celebrate with us and with the archdioceses of Baltimore, from which we were all founded: New York, Boston, Louisville and Philadelphia.

The establishment of dioceses

Either through the clear chronicle of the New Testament, through our historical knowledge or by written and oral tradition, we know that the Apostles, after Pentecost, took up their mission mandate with great zeal and courage and began to fulfill the command of Jesus to carry His message to the ends of the earth. Since the apostles were constituted as a college, as I have mentioned, they did not go forth as mere individuals preaching the Gospel but as those who were truly sent, having been given authority and a mandate to preach and teach by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is clear, again as I have already mentioned, that they did this with Peter as their Head. Now it is a basic principle of good order and authority that there must be a clear division of responsibilities and jurisdiction if a mission is to be carried out. Otherwise, there would be confusion, which would ultimately lead to the mission itself suffering and, in this case, the Gospel not being preached effectively to all nations.

Just as we said that Peter died but the office of Peter does not die, so it is with the Apostles. The Apostles died but their office does not die. This is because the Church of Jesus Christ has been established to last until the end of time. Jesus told His Apostles, just after giving them His mission mandate: “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Concerning this, the Second Vatican Council teaches in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: “In order to fulfill such exalted functions, the apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the holy Spirit coming down upon them (see Acts 1:8;2:4; John 20:22-23), and, by the imposition of hands (see 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:607) they passed on to their collaborators the gift of the Spirit, which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration” (Lumen Gentium, 21). Since the office of apostle is constituted not only as a sacrament but also as one which empowers him who receives it with what we call jurisdiction, as it did with the apostles, the office of bishop is intimately united with the pastoral care of a particular portion of the Lord’s vineyard.

From the earliest times, the Popes sent forth bishops to preach and teach the faith of Jesus Christ and granted them responsibility for the pastoral care of the faithful within specific regions. This was done in order to fulfil the mission mandate, which began with Peter and the Apostles. As different portions of the world were either discovered or were in need of pastors because of their development, the Church has always responded with zeal by sending forth pastors to those regions. In doing so, for good order, she also assigned responsibility for particular portions of the vineyard to certain pastors, whose regions were called dioceses. The word diocese comes to us from a Latin word, which was used within the Roman Empire to indicate certain areas of jurisdiction and authority and this word came from a Greek word meaning administration.

The Popes and Philadelphia

Although the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholics, it was not until 1789 that the Catholic hierarchy was established with the appointment of John Carroll as the first Bishop of Baltimore, which comprised all the original thirteen colonies. In April of 1808, four new dioceses were established; Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Bardstown, Kentucky (now known as the Archdiocese of Louisville). In this we see nothing other than the Church constantly seeking to fulfill her mission mandate. In assigning responsibility for this portion of the Lord’s vineyard to the first bishops of these dioceses, Philadelphia included, the Church was manifesting the will of Jesus that the Gospel be preached to the ends of the earth. Saint Paul writes: “How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent” (Romans 10:14-15)?

Part of the remarkable “story” of the Church is that she is ever young! She constantly renews herself with new members. In the Middle Ages, when the Church was flourishing in Europe, no one could have imagined the persecutions of the French Revolution for example or the loss of practically all of England and much of Northern Europe to the Church. However, it could also have never been imagined that the Church would find new, fresh soil in what would come to be known as the New World, where the faith would be preached and find such a firm foundation and such fruitful results. This is why our Holy Father, at the beginning of his Pontificate, almost exactly three years ago was able to say: “The Church is alive! And the Church is young! She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way to the future. She is alive because Christ is alive, because He is truly risen” (Homily, Mass for the Inauguration of the Pontificate, 24 April 2005). This is why any student of history does not become discouraged. We sometimes limit ourselves to our own particular place and time in history and if events seem to be discouraging, we are tempted to lose heart. This is not the message of Jesus and this is not the message of the history of the Church in Philadelphia! This was not the thought of Pope Pius VII when he established our diocese in 1808. This was not the thought of our pioneer priests, who led lonely, arduous lives in order to bring the Gospel to the far reaches of our then far-flung diocese, which initially included all of Pennsylvania, Delaware and the southern half of New Jersey. Most especially, it was not the thought of the Religious men and women and members of the lay faithful, who have worked so hard to build up the Kingdom in this part of the Lord’s vineyard. All of this began with a Pope fulfilling the mission of Jesus and entrusting a portion of the world to the pioneers who preached the Gospel and brought the sacraments to what has become a vast local Church.

If you were to visit Old Saint Joseph’s Church, Willings Alley, the oldest parish in the City of Philadelphia, you will behold a remarkable sight. At the entrance to the Church is a plaque, which reminds us that when the parish was founded, it was the only place in the entire English-speaking world where the Sacrifice of the Mass could be celebrated legally! This was due to the anti-Catholic laws of the British Empire and the religious freedom given to William Penn’s “noble experiment.”

How far we have come.

In 1975, when Monsignor James F. Connelly wrote the Preface to The History of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which he had edited at the request of one of my predecessors, Cardinal John Krol, he wrote words which aptly sum up our thoughts this week: “We have told this story to prod the memories of the Catholics of the presently thriving Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Remember your humble beginnings! Remember the sacrifices made for you! Lock step with all the other citizens of the City of Brotherly Love as we reach for the City of God.”

April 10, 2008