Anarchist Priest to Speak in Archdiocese of Portland at Ecumenical of Ministries of Oregon Church

Catholic priest-reformer Helmut Schuller brings message to Portland

The Rev. Helmut Schuller, controversial within the Catholic Church because of his support for reform, comes to Portland Aug. 4. (Austrian Priests' Initiative ) 
VOCAL This "reform" means women priests, married Roman rite clergy, same sex everything, etc. abortion if it is considered "woman health".  Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon is not good for the Archdiocese of Portland to belong to.

Welcome in Oregon

By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian

A controversial Catholic priest who was banned from speaking in a Catholic Church in Boston last month will speak at a Protestant church in Portland on Sunday, Aug. 4.  The Rev. Helmut Schuller of Austria, a reformer concerned about the shortage of ordained Catholic clergy, will talk about possible solutions from 2 to 4 p.m. at Central Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. A free-will offering will be collected.

Schuller, who was vicar general for Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn from 1995 to 1999, was dismissed because his views were at odds with church authorities. The Vatican stripped Schuller of his title of "monsignor" in 2012.  He is pastor now of a small rural parish near Vienna. He was a founder of the Austrian Priests' Initiative and their 2011 "Call to Disobedience."

Schuller and members of the priests' initiative oppose the consolidation of parishes, support a greater sacramental role for lay people and advocate new thinking on remarried Catholics and same sex couples. The reformers favor the ordination of women and married men and increased transparency within the hierarchy of the church.

"Priests are losing the chance to walk with members of their communities through their daily lives," Schuller said in an interview this week in the National Catholic Reporter. "This is about more than compassion. It is about companionship and solidarity with laypeople."

He called for "a new teaching model on sexual relations" to guide pastoral care of Catholic couples.
"Our teaching should concentrate on the quality of relationships, not the form," Schuller said. "Rather than condemn remarried Catholics or same-sex couples, we should be asking: How are they living in relationship? Are they respecting one another's dignity? We have to respect that people want to live together, that they feel responsible for one another and that they care for one another."

In the United States, the Catholic Church is coping with an ongoing shortage of priests and parish closures, even as the number of Catholic believers grows. Figures from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University show that

• The number of priests in the U.S. has declined from 58,632  in 1965 to 38,964  in 2012.

• Meanwhile, the number of Catholics in the U.S. has grown from 45 million to 66 million  in the same period.

• U.S. Catholic parishes numbered more than 19,000  in 2000 and, after a decade, had declined to fewer than 17,800.  

In the Archdiocese of Portland, the Most Rev. Alexander K. Sample, the archbishop of western Oregon's 415,725  Catholics, ordained eight men to the priesthood June 8. As of June 26, 11  of the archdiocese's 124  parishes shared a priest, according to Bud Bunce, a spokesman for the archdiocese. Four parishes have priest moderators who preside over Masses and celebrate the sacraments while someone else, often a trained lay person, oversees other pastoral duties within the parish.

Schuller's first U.S. speaking tour began July 16 in New York City, where 250 people turned out to hear him speak in Judson Memorial Church, a historic Protestant church in Greenwich Village.

The following night in Boston, where Cardinal Sean O'Malley had barred Schuller from speaking at St. Susanna Parish, more than 500 people gathered to hear him at a nearby Unitarian Universalist Church. A spokesman for O'Malley told the Boston Globe that it is archdiocesan policy to ban speakers from Catholic sites if their views are "contrary" to official church teaching.

The only remaining Catholic setting for Schuller's tour was Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. A spokesman for the archdiocese said the priest would not be allowed to speak at a parish or in an archdiocesan setting. Chestnut Hill College is a Catholic school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph. About 350 people squeezed into the room to hear Schuller's speech on campus on July 19.

Archbishop Sample did not wish to comment on Schuller's visit to Portland, Bunce said.

Schuller's speaking tour, called "The Catholic Tipping Point," is sponsored by several Catholic reform groups, including Call to Action, CORPUS, Voice of the Faithful and the Women's Ordination Conference.
The Northwest chapter of Call to Action, which has invited other Catholic reformers to speak in Portland, invited Schuller to speak at Central Lutheran Church, their ordinary meeting place. While organizers expect mostly lay Catholics to attend Schuller's lecture, they are inviting Catholic priests to meet with him informally, according to Nancy Barrett-Dennehy. 
Schuller will speak in Seattle at 7 p.m. on Aug. 5  at First United Methodist Church, 180 Denny Way.
-- Nancy Haught

The Pope with a Chotki

This striking photograph from WYD shows Pope Francis clearly wearing a chotki around his wrist—something I can’t recall seeing with any other pope.
What’a chotki?  It’s a kind of “prayer rope,” similar to the rosary, used by the Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholics.
From Wikipedia: 

When praying, the user normally holds the prayer rope in the left hand, leaving the right hand free to make the Sign of the Cross. When not in use, the prayer rope is traditionally wrapped around the left wrist so that it continues to remind one to pray without ceasing. If this is impractical, it may be placed in the (left) pocket, but should not be hung around the neck or suspended from the belt. The reason for this is humility: one should not be ostentatious or conspicuous in displaying the prayer rope for others to see.

During their tonsure (religious profession),^[4]Eastern Orthodox monks and nuns receive a prayer rope, with the words:
Accept, O brother (sister) (name), the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17) in the everlasting Jesus prayer by which you should have the name of the Lord in your soul, your thoughts, and your heart, saying always: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

Orthodoxy regards the prayer rope as the sword of the Spirit, because prayer which is heartfelt and inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit is a weapon that defeats the Devil.

Among some Orthodox monastics (and occasionally other faithful), the canonical hours and preparation for Holy Communion may be replaced by praying the Jesus Prayer a specified number of times dependent on the service being replaced. In this way prayers can still be said even if the service books are for some reason unavailable or the person is not literate or otherwise unable to recite the service; the prayer rope becomes a very practical tool in such cases, simply for keeping count of the prayers said. However, among some monastics - hesychasts, for example – this replacement is the norm.

The history of the prayer rope goes back to the origins of Christian monasticism itself. When monks began going into the deserts of Egypt, it was their custom to pray the entire 150 Psalms every day. However, because some of the monks were unable to read, they would either have to memorize the psalms or perform other prayers and prostrations in their stead.

Thus the tradition of saying 150 (or more) Jesus Prayers every day began.
The western Rosary is sometimes said to have the same initial origin.

The invention of the prayer rope is attributed to Saint Pachomius in the fourth century as an aid for illiterate monks to accomplish a consistent number of prayers and prostrations in their cells.

Previously, monks would count their prayers by casting pebbles into a bowl, but this was cumbersome, and could not be easily carried about when outside the cell. The use of the rope made it possible to pray the Jesus Prayer unceasingly, whether inside the cell or out, in accordance with Saint Paul‘s injunction to “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).

It is said that the method of tying the prayer rope had its origins from the Father of Orthodox Monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great. He started by tying a leather rope with a simple knot for every time he prayed Kyrie Eleison (“Lord have Mercy”), but the Devil would come and untie the knots to throw off his count. He then devised a way—inspired by a vision he had of the Theotokos—of tying the knots so that the knots themselves would constantly make the sign of the cross. This is why prayer ropes today are still tied using knots that each contain seven little crosses being tied over and over. The Devil could not untie it because the Devil is vanquished by the Sign of the Cross.

Among other things, I think this shows the pontiff’s affinity for the Eastern rite churches. He used to regularly concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with Ukrainian Greek Catholics and this year took the historic step of having the Ecumenical Patriarch attend his papal installation—the first time that’s been done in a thousand years.

Thank you for this article.
 Deacon Greg Kandra

‘Heads should roll’: Pro-life leaders react to U.S. Bishops agency’s funding of abortion giant PSI

"Somebody has to get fired over this,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). “We fight groups like PSI all over the world and now we find our own church funds them. It's disgusting and for one I am bone-weary of these types of revelations. Heads should roll."

‘Heads should roll’: Pro-life leaders react to U.S. Bishops agency’s funding of abortion giant PSI

by Patrick B. Craine

BALTIMORE, Maryland, July 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life leaders are expressing outrage after LifeSiteNews.com revealed Thursday that the U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is funding a leading abortion-marketing firm.

Catholic Relief Services is distributing a two-year $2.7 million grant to Population Services International (PSI), which networks and trains local providers throughout the developing world to offer “safe abortion.”
"Somebody has to get fired over this,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). “We fight groups like PSI all over the world and now we find our own church funds them. It's disgusting and for one I am bone-weary of these types of revelations. Heads should roll."

Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International, said he finds it “incomprehensible” that an organization like PSI was deemed worthy of Catholic funds.

PSI’s “primary mission has always been to promote contraception, abortifacient drugs, condoms, and even surgical abortion,” he said. “Like many other population control groups in the mid-1990s, they started to rebrand their mission as being about 'health', using more positive language and adding malaria-prevention programs to their portfolio. But this should not confuse anyone as to their purpose.”

Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said the news was “not surprising.” “Catholic Relief Services has historically been advocates, although not publicly – behind the scenes – advocates of population control in the Third World,” she charged.

Brown’s point was echoed by Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, who said CRS implicates itself in population control by the very fact that it receives over two thirds of its funding from USAID.

“CRS knows very well what the principal purpose of USAID is. And it tries to, in various ways, to massage that purpose, and avoid being implicated in the purpose of population control,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they know who’s paying their salaries, and that’s why the money goes to CARE, that’s why the money goes to PSI, that’s why the money goes back and forth to other population control agencies, because that’s what their masters in the federal government demand of them.”

“This (CRS Catholic Relief Services is not an agency of the institutional Catholic Church. This is a separate aid agency, which, because it receives two thirds of its funding from the U.S. government, is Catholic in name only,” he added. “No man can serve two masters.”

The grant

The $2.7 million grant to PSI is part of a Global Fund-backed project run by CRS in Guinea to combat malaria. The funds are disbursed over the two years of the project’s initial phase, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013.

When LifeSiteNews questioned CRS about the grant, they initially claimed PSI had merely acted as a vendor by selling them mosquito nets, but when presented with more information, the Catholic agency acknowledged that the abortion giant is taking a decidedly more active role.

“To be clear, now that we have had more time to talk with staff involved in the project, the money did not go specifically to purchase the nets but rather to implement other parts of the grant which is focused on distributing 3 million nets and making sure they are properly used to save thousands of lives by preventing malaria,” Michael Hill, CRS’ Senior Writer, told LifeSiteNews on Thursday.
PSI, he said, is leading the project’s mass media marketing campaign as well as “training and overseeing community health workers” and “community organizations.”

Though the Catholic agency stressed that PSI’s role was restricted only to malaria prevention, concern over the grant is heightened by the fact that PSI describes its work on malaria as “deeply intertwined” with its “reproductive health” agenda.

“Reproductive, maternal and child health and malaria are all deeply intertwined, affecting poor and vulnerable populations in rural areas together,” the organization wrote in a program description [link] for a USAID-funded project in Madagascar running from 2008-2013.

“Success (or failure) in one area, such as malaria, can free up resources to focus on other areas, or drag down progress.”  (Fungible Fundin

Integrating these programs, they add, “offer[s] many opportunities to reach target audiences.”
As LifeSiteNews reported Thursday, PSI’s “reproductive health” agenda is heavily abortion-focused. On its own webpage, the firm explains that it “works to increase access to WHO-approved medical abortion drugs,” and mentions its provision of medical abortions in Cambodia and Nepal, noting that in Cambodia it launched the country’s “first safe medical abortion drug, known as Medabon.”

The firm markets a “safe abort kit” in India as a part of a project that aimed to “facilitate … over 200,000 safe abortions using medical abortions” from 2008-2013 by focusing “both on the demand and supply side” of the medical abortion market.

At a “maternal health” conference in Tanzania on January 16, 2013, a PSI employee delivered a talk titled “Creating the misoprostol market”. (See video here.)

Numerous job ads are accessible online showing PSI seeking to fill various roles in its campaign for globally-accessible abortion. Among them is one seeking a candidate with “clinical proficiency [in] surgical and medication abortion.”

For more evidence of PSI’s work in the abortion industry view Thursday’s LSN report.

CRS willing to go to ‘third level of hell’, just not the tenth
LifeSiteNews initially began investigating CRS’ relationship with PSI because the Catholic agency’s IRS filings for 2012 showed that they had given PSI a grant of $9,588 for “agriculture.”

But it turns out that CRS has a history of working with PSI going back at least over a decade. A page on the website of the Centers for Disease Control describes a safe water initiative in Madagascar, with an implementation date of April 2000, that CRS partnered on with PSI and CARE. On PSI’s website, CRS is listed as a partner in Zambia, Haiti, and Guinea. According to PSI’s webpage on Guinea, CRS partnered with them on a measles vaccination program there during 2009.

CRS has defended similar grants in the past, such as its multi-million dollar annual donations to the pro-abortion group CARE, by arguing that the funds are given only for projects in line with Catholic teaching and are not fungible because of the way the grant agreements are established.

But the Catholic agency has also said that it would never give a dime to Planned Parenthood. “We would never partner with Planned Parenthood,” communications director John Rivera told LifeSiteNews last year. “We’ve given this a lot of consideration, and there’s a threshold in terms of what the focus of an agency is, and the preponderance of their work.”

In Thursday’s report, Michael Hichborn, director of American Life League’s Defend the Faith Project, said that CRS, in funding PSI, “might as well be funding Planned Parenthood.”

Judie Brown, ALL’s president, slammed the funding policy. “If you read Dante, there’s the ten levels of hell,” she said. By the policy’s logic, she said, “CRS is willing to go to the first, second, and third level of hell. They’re just not willing to go to all the way to the tenth.”

“The underlying philosophical bent of all of those organizations is ridding the world of poor people,” she added. “It’s just that they’re pecking order of how they get that done is a little bit different. The underlying philosophy is exactly the same.”

“CRS should not be collaborating with any of the population control agencies funded by USAID, which means all of the agencies that receive money for ‘family planning,’ ‘reproductive health,’ and ‘population stabilization,’” said Mosher. “They are not as well known as Planned Parenthood, obviously, but they are all cut from the same cloth.”

John Smeaton, chief executive of the UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said CRS’s claims that their multi-million dollar grants to groups like CARE and PSI are not supporting their evil actions are utterly false.

“Firstly, CARE and PSI's knowledge that, year after year, CRS will give them millions of dollars for ostensibly ethical projects enables them to budget and plan ahead for their unethical activities,” he said. “Secondly, receiving millions from CRS helps whitewash their reputations in the wider world and entrenches their presence in the countries where they operate.”
“Lastly, there are legions of pro-life/pro-family Catholic initiatives which desperately need funding, such as MaterCare International, the Billings Ovulation Method and Culture of Life Africa,” he added. “CRS' millions for CARE and PSI should be given to them instead."

A plea to the U.S. Bishops

According to Brown, the problems at CRS are “something that we’ve tried to call attention to the bishops for a long time.”

“The longer the bishops remain in denial, the more obvious this population control aspect of CRS is going to become. Because they have nothing to lose, they have nothing to fear,” she cautioned.
In her view, the issues are so deep that an attempt at reform simply wouldn’t be enough. “What has to happen is that the USCCCB itself has to dismantle this organization completely,” she said. Unfortunately, she added, “I just don’t see that happening.”

Mosher urged action from individual bishops in their dioceses. “What we need in the United States is for a number of bishops to … say that until these problems with CRS are cleared up, they will not be taking a collection for CRS,” he said. “They will be encouraging Catholics in the U.S. to give to authentic Catholic charities.”

“If you sup with the devil, you need a long spoon,” said Mosher, but “there is no spoon long enough to sup with this particular devil.”

“This particular devil is in the business of destroying human life and any agency that’s supposed to be Catholic must not have anything to do with that agenda.”

Contact info:
Cardinal Robert Sarah
Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"
Palazzo San Pio X
V-00120 Vatican City State
Phone: +39-06-69889411
Fax: +39-06-69887301 or +39-06-69887311
E-mail: corunum@corunum.va
Find contact information for all U.S. Bishops here.
Readers may also comment on Catholic Relief Services’ Facebook page.

Communion. A relfection by Archbishop Alexander Sample.

Most Rev. Alexander Sample Archbishop of Portland Since receiving the pallium from the hands of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, on June 29, I have been asked more times than I can count what the moment meant for me. Both before and since traveling to Rome to receive the pallium I have reflected deeply on that question. What is the essential symbolism of that simple woolen band that I now wear on my shoulders at solemn Mass? The word that keeps coming back to me again and again is “communion.” The pallium, which is given to metropolitan archbishops from all around the world as a symbol of their jurisdiction, is much more about communion and service than about power and authority. It is about communion with Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Trinity, communion with brothers and sisters in the Church throughout the world, and of course communion with the successor to St. Peter and head of the college of bishops, the Pope. As I lined up to process into the magnificent Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, I was standing between an archbishop from Bolivia and another from the Fiji Islands, and across from me in the procession was an archbishop from Nigeria. Here we were, new archbishops from all over the world, and yet we were one — we were in communion with each other in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. And walking in procession behind us was the successor to St. Peter, as the choir sang the “Tu es Petrus” — “you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” One of the great gifts that the Second Vatican Council gave to the Church was a renewed emphasis on an ecclesiology of communio. This means that we understand the Church as a communion of believers, diverse in culture and experience, yet completely united in the bonds of faith, hope and love. This theology of communion flows from our understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ, so eloquently described by St. Paul the Apostle. We are many and individual members of the Body of Christ, but we form a unity and our place in the Body is at the service of that unity. The dictionary defines the Latin term communio as “communion” or “mutual participation.” I particularly like this second meaning. We participate with one another in the communion of the Church, and there is a mutuality to our communion, so that we complement and in a real way help and serve one another. This is so important to the vitality and effectiveness of the Church’s mission to proclaim and witness to the Gospel. The reception of the pallium was not at all about me as an individual person. It was about the communion of the Archbishop of Portland, and through him the whole Church in the Province of Portland (Oregon, Montana and Idaho) with the universal Church, visibly represented by the Pope. It was about our unity with the rest of the Church and our oneness of faith under the guidance of the chief shepherd of the universal Church, Pope Francis. This spirit of communio is something that we must also experience and faithfully live here in our own local archdiocesan Church in western Oregon. What is experienced on a universal level in the Church throughout the world is also reflected in our communion of faith, hope and love in the Archdiocese of Portland. Under the pastoral care, loving guidance and governance of the local shepherd, namely your Archbishop, we must be people of communion, a people of unity for the sake of the mission entrusted to us by Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, we do not see beyond the boundaries and lived experience of our own local parish communities. They become the whole of our Church experience, and our sense of communion with the rest of the archdiocesan and universal Church is diminished or even disappears. But we are Catholics, not congregationalists. Without this profound sense of communion with the rest of the Church, especially with our bishop and the Holy Father, we risk becoming a closed local community that can even stray from an authentic understanding of teachings of Christ and the sacred Tradition that has been handed on to us across 2,000 years from the Apostles themselves. As I now shoulder the pallium, it is my profound hope and prayer that together we will be able to build among us a greater and more profound communion of faith, hope and love as a local Church in western Oregon. Jesus once said that “every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” (Matthew 12:25) May we come to not just profess but also live what we say in the Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

Humor at St. Peter's expense.

Karl Rahner, Hans Kung and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger all die on the same day, and go to meet St. Peter to know their fate. 

St. Peter approaches the three of them, and tells them that he will interview each of them to discuss their views on various issues.

He then points at Rahner and says "Karl! In my office..." After 4 hours, the door opens, and Rahner comes stumbling out of St. Peter's office. He is highly distraught, and is mumbling things like "Oh God, that was the hardest thing I've ever done! How could I have been so wrong! So sorry...never knew..." He stumbles off into Heaven, a testament to the mercy of Our God.

St. Peter follows him out, and sticks his finger in Kung's direction and "Hans! You're next..." After 8 hours, the door opens, and Kung comes out, barely able to stand. He is near collapse with weakness and a crushed spirit. He, too, is mumbling things like "Oh God, that was the hardest thing I've ever done! How could I have been so wrong! So sorry...never knew..." He stumbles off into Heaven, a testament to the mercy of Our God.

Lastly, St. Peter, emerging from his office, says to Cardinal Ratzinger, "Joseph, your turn." TWELVE HOURS LATER, St. Peter stumbles out the door, apparently exhausted, saying, "Oh God, that's the hardest thing I've ever done..."




By the way,

The pearly gates is an informal name for the gateway to Heaven according to some Christian denominations. It is inspired by the description of the New Jerusalem in Book of Revelation 21:21. 
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl.^[1]

The image of the gates in popular culture is a set of large, white or wrought-iron gates in the clouds, guarded by Saint Peter (the keeper of the "keys to the kingdom"). Those not fit to enter heaven are denied entrance at the gates, and descend into Hell.^[2]

Pope Francis Tidbit from Reader

from Tiago,

I lived in Argentina from 2007 to 2010. Most of porteños (VOCAL those who live in the port city) are not believers but everyone knew who Bergoglio (now renamed as Francis) was and even though his dispute against the government he was respected by everyone.

I trust in his intentions in reforming the church, and I am positive he has the strength and the intelligence to do in spite of his age.

Good luck Francis! 



Pope Francis's general prayer intention for July 2013 is "That World Youth Day in Brazil may encourage all young Christians to become disciples and missionaries of the Gospel."

And It Begins: Tribunal Director – Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon

This post is VOCAL's take on the Year of Faith in the Archdiocese of Portland under our new Archbishop.  For decades the "Years of Alinsky" have driven this Archdiocese.  Priests that have lost their way had been leading us and some still do.

Laity has the task of asking questions of those that are paid by our collection plate monies regarding the errors that they encounter.  No longer can we just "wait and see".  As in the secular world around us, we can see how that attitude has served the people.  Souls are most important.

For the time is, that judgment should begin at the house of God. And if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the gospel of God?     I Peter 4:17  Douay-Rheims Bible

  
TRIBUNAL DIRECTOR

Law, FT Employee

Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (Portland, OR)

Tribunal Director

The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon is looking for an experienced Tribunal Director with a thorough knowledge of the principles and practices of Canon Law. Applicants must be familiar with Church documents related to canon law, Tribunal procedures in first and second instance, and be able to conduct theological/pastoral analysis as well as prepare and present accurate and concise reports and recommendations.

Candidates must have a licentiate (JCL) in Canon Law. Minimum 2-4 years’ experience in similar position, including supervisory responsibilities, or any equivalent combination of education and experience which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the above described essential functions. Practicing Catholic with a valid driver’s license required. Bilingual in Spanish preferred.

Religious and clergy interested in applying must have the consent of their diocese or superior prior to submitting their application. Pay range is $62K to 72K DOE. Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume or curriculum vitae to hr@archdpdx.org detailing how their education and work experience makes them the ideal candidate.

From the Archdiocese Website:

The ministry of the Tribunal is varied. We work with those preparing to marry, as well as those seeking healing and release from a marriage that did not prove to be lasting, in which a partnership did not take place as the Church understands it. We provide research on a number of issues within Church law, and we provide education and support to priests, parish ministers, and other members of our wider Church community. 

Downtown Chapel/St. Andre Bessette Church - "The Wages of Mismanagement".

VOCAL DELETED AT PRIESTS REQUEST

Archbishop Sample and the pallium.

Archbishop Sample and the other Archbishops receiving their pallium from Pope Francis give us their reflections in this CNS article.  Archbishop Jackels (VOCAL Last #1 pick for Archbishop) has his reflections in bold as well as our Archbishops. 

Of the 34 recipients of the pallium, four were Americans: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco; Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis; Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland; and Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa.

We'll be happy to have Archbishop Sample back in Oregon leading his sheep and herding his goats towards Heaven

Archbishops reflect on the meaning of the pallium

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Making a pilgrimage to Rome with members of their flock, 34 archbishops named in the past year knelt before Pope Francis and received woolen bands symbolizing both their unity with him and their charge as shepherds of a local church.

At the beginning of a Mass June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pope bestowed the pallium, a woolen band worn around the shoulders, on archbishops from 19 countries. They included: U.S. Archbishops Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco; Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis; Alexander K. Sample of Portand, Ore.; and Michael O. Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa; and U.S.-born Archbishop Gintaras Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Each year on the Jan. 21 feast of St. Agnes, the pope blesses two lambs raised by Trappist monks outside Rome. Benedictine nuns at the Monastery of St. Cecilia in Rome use wool from the blessed lambs to make the palliums, which are kept by St. Peter's tomb until the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

The palliums are about 3 inches wide and have a 14-inch strip hanging down the front and the back. The strips are finished with black silk, almost like the hooves of the sheep the archbishop is symbolically carrying over his shoulders.

Archbishop Jackels, one of the first bishops appointed by Pope Francis, told Catholic News Service, "To be quite honest, I was kind of hoping that maybe he would send the pallium by way of FedEx and say, 'Save the money and give it to the poor.'"

"I love Rome, but it's a hassle to travel and to be away from the archdiocese since I've only been there a month," he said. However, the story of the blessed lambs and the nuns making the pallium and having all the archbishops come to Rome once a year to receive it underlines its importance.

"This notion of the lambs' wool being placed over the shoulders of an archbishop is reminiscent of Jesus, the good shepherd, carrying the sheep back to the fold," he said. It reminded him of Pope Francis' talk to nuncios a week earlier about the qualities they should look for when suggesting candidates for him to name as bishops: "someone who is patient, gentle, merciful, like that image of the Good Shepherd carrying his sheep."

Archbishop Jackels said that in receiving the pallium he would pray that he would be more patient, gentle and merciful.

Being Catholic in the United States today often means being countercultural, especially on themes related to "the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person," he said.

At the same time, he said, he was thinking about Vietnamese Archbishop Francois Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, who the Vatican said would receive his pallium in Vietnam, and what it means to live in a situation where church-state relations are particularly delicate.

Archbishop Cordileone said receiving the pallium is "a tremendous honor and I'm very humbled, recognizing my unworthiness. It is not an honor to exalt someone, but is a sign of communion."

The bond with St. Peter and with his successor, the pope, is emphasized by the Vatican keeping the pallium near St. Peter's tomb, he said. "It's a very poignant sign of the communion we share -- the bishops throughout the world with the head of the College of Bishops, the pope, going all the way back to the time of the Apostles."

Archbishop Tobin said he was "a little dazed" kneeling in front of the pope; "all I could stammer out in Spanish was, 'You can count on us.'"

As archbishop of Indianapolis, he said he tries to help the pope in his mission of unity by "trying to keep our people connected" to one another, but especially to the needs of Catholics around the world.

"A disturbing thing I find returning to the United States," after years of service as the head of the Redemptorists and then as secretary of the Vatican congregation for religious, "is just how forgetful the news media is of the world beyond America's shores or beyond the latest scandal of a movie star, politician or priest."

"By keeping our people connected with the Holy Father and with the center of the Catholic Church, we're also being connected with the world," he said.

Archbishop Sample said kneeling in front of the pope was "one of the most incredible feelings I have ever had in my life," a moment of "profound communion" with the pope and with the universal church.

The pallium reminded him that he has been called to take up the Lord's yoke, "a burden that is heavy in one sense, but light because the Lord gives us the strength to carry it."

Pope Francis told the archbishops that they are called to be a "servant of unity," and Archbishop Sample said building communion was a priority when he was bishop of Marquette, Mich., and is still a priority now that he is in Portland. "There is a lot to celebrate in our diversity, especially our cultural diversity, but we are one, we're catholic -- that's what it means to be Catholic, to be one universal church united in mission."

U.S.-born Archbishop Grusas told CNS that receiving the pallium from the pope is a reminder that the archbishop is "placed in charge of the herd, but they aren't yours, they are entrusted to you."

The 51-year-old archbishop said the pallium ceremony also is "a symbol of our unity with the pope and of the universality of the church. We all tend to focus on our parish, our diocese, our nation, but the pallium emphasizes our direct tie with the pope."

In fact, before the archbishops received their pallium, they publically recited an oath of fidelity and obedience to the church and to the pope.

Receiving the pallium on the feast of the martyred Sts. Peter and Paul also carries a message, the Lithuanian archbishop said. The shepherds are called to give their lives for their sheep, either with the shedding of their blood in times of persecution or by "going out into a society that isn't very receptive, a society that tries to isolate you and limit your ability to proclaim your views."

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Contributing to this story was Francis X. Rocca in Rome.

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