Vatican suspended canonical investigation of Detroit priest

Denver Newsroom, May 1, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Mass unemployment is a deeply unwelcome background for this year’s Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, but the Catholic celebration has lessons for everyone, regardless of job situation, according to two priests with expertise on St. Joseph and the dignity of work.

Citing the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt, devotional writer Father Donald Calloway said St. Joseph is “very empathetic” towards those suffering unemployment.

“He himself at some point would have been unemployed in the Flight to Egypt,” the priest told CNA. “They had to pack up everything and go to a foreign country with nothing. They didn’t plan on that.”

Calloway, author of the book “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father,” is an Ohio-based priest of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

He suggested that St. Joseph “at some point was surely quite concerned: how is he going to find work in a foreign country, not knowing the language, not knowing the people?”

At least 30.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last six weeks, in what is perhaps the worst unemployment situation in the country’s history, CNBC reports. Many others are working from home under coronavirus travel restrictions, while countless workers face newly dangerous workplaces where they may be at risk of contracting the coronavirus and taking it home to their families.

Father Sinclair Oubre, a labor advocate, similarly thought of the Flight into Egypt as a period of joblessness for St. Joseph—and also a period that showed an example of virtues.

“He remains focused: stay open, continue to struggle, do not get broken down. He was able to build up a livelihood for him and his family,” said Oubre. “For those who are unemployed, St. Joseph gives us a model of not allowing the difficulties of life to crush one’s spirit, but rather trusting in God’s providence, and in adding to that providence our own attitude and strong work ethic.”

Oubre is pastoral moderator of the Catholic Labor Network and the Beaumont diocese’s director of the Apostleship of the Seas, which serves seafarers and others in sea-based work.

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker was inaugurated by Pope Pius XII, who announced it on May 1, 1955 in an audience with Italian workers. To them he described St. Joseph as “the humble craftsman of Nazareth” who “not only personifies the dignity of the manual laborer with God and the Holy Church,” but is “also always the provident custodian of you and your families.”

Pius XII encouraged continued religious formation for adult workers and said it was an “atrocious slander” to charge that the Church is “an ally of capitalism against the workers.”

“She, mother and teacher of all, is always particularly solicitous for her children who find themselves in the most difficult conditions, and also in fact has validly contributed to the achievement of honest progress already achieved by various categories of workers,” the pope said.

While the Church has rejected various systems of Marxist socialism, Pius XII said, no priest or Christian can remain deaf to a cry for justice and a spirit of brotherhood. The Church cannot ignore that the worker who seeks to improve his condition but faces obstacles opposed to the “order of God” and God’s will for earthly goods.

May 1 is observed as Labor Day in many countries, though not the United States. Calloway said that at the time of the declaration, communism was a serious threat that sought to take over a longtime celebration of work.

The observance originated in the late nineteenth century in the American labor movement’s May 1 protests against excessively long workdays.

“Workers complained that these long hours were punishing on the body and left them no time to tend to family duties or to improve themselves through education,” Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Catholic Labor Network, told CNA.

Calloway reflected that most people in life are workers, whether outside or at a desk.

“They can find a model in St. Joseph the Worker,” he said. “No matter what your work is, you can bring God into it and it can be beneficial to you, your family, and society as a whole.”

Oubre said there is much to learn from reflecting upon how St. Joseph’s work nurtured and protected the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and so was a form of sanctification of the world.

“If Joseph did not do what he did, there was no way the Virgin Mary, a pregnant single maiden, could have survived in that environment,” Oubre said.

“We come to realize that the work that we do is not just for this world, but rather we can work to help build the kingdom of God,” he continued. “The work that we do cares for our family members and our children and helps build up the future generations that are there.”

Calloway warned against “ideologies of what work should be.”

“It can become enslavement. People can turn into workaholics. There’s a misunderstanding of what work is meant to be,” he said.

For him, the feast day shows the importance of family and the importance of rest, given that God spoke to St. Joseph in his dreams.

St Joseph gave dignity to work “because, as the one chosen to be the earthly father of Jesus, he taught the Son of God to do manual labor,” said Calloway. “He was entrusted with teaching the son of God a trade, to be a carpenter.”

“We’re not called to be slaves to a trade, or to find our ultimate meaning of life in our work, but to allow our work to glorify God, to build up the human community, to be a source of joy to everyone,” he continued. “The fruit of your labor is meant to be enjoyed by yourself and others, but not at the expense of harming others or depriving them of a just wage or overworking them, or having working conditions that are beyond human dignity.”

Oubre found a similar lesson, saying “our work is always at the service of our family, our community, our society, of the world itself.”

While some business owners and workers hope to see a speedy end to restrictions and business closures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Oubre warned that opening a non-essential business to make money might not be prudent. He used the example of a football stadium, excessively focused on opening in August, even if it packs people into a situation that potentially spreads a dangerous disease.

“I don’t know if that’s the most prudent decision coming out of the spirit of service, at this particular time,” he said. “That’s not something we have to do right now.”

“St. Joseph gives us that image of humble service work,” Oubre emphasized. “If we want to go back to work right now, we need to make sure that it grows out of a spirit of humility and service and promotion of the common good.”

Some of those who have jobs are protesting work conditions they believe to be dangerous. They have organized May 1 protests and walkouts at Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, FedEx and others, citing health and safety concerns during the epidemic, the news and commentary site The Intercept reports.

Oubre said these protesters too must recognize the importance of the work in a spirit of humility, service and promoting the common good.

Calloway too reflected on the dueling positions of workers objecting to coronavirus protections, while other workers are protesting to seek improved protections.

“We’re in uncharted territory,” he said. “That’s where we move into the spiritual aspect of asking St. Joseph to give us wisdom to help us know what to do in this tricky situation. Be cautious, of course, we don’t want to spread this thing. But at the same time, people have to get their jobs back. We can’t go on like this for long. We can’t sustain it.”

Calloway said no worker is meant to work in isolation and “just be selfish about his employment.”

“Work is meant to benefit himself and others,” he said. “It’s when we become stingy and selfish that we begin to hoard, and we take for ourselves gigantic salaries while your workers are getting pennies.”

St. Joseph is described as “the most just” in the New Testament, and would have been a just man in his labor as well, the priest said.

For Oubre, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker is a time to remember “invisible workers.”

“No matter how humble work may be, and how much it may be considered low-skilled, or semi-skilled, it is absolutely essential to the quality of life of the nation,” said Oubre. “No matter how society looks upon the job, it becomes a very, very important task. If that task were not done, the more respected, prestigious work can’t happen.”

The coronavirus epidemic has drawn support and recognition to the risky work of doctors and nurses. Oubre noted that housekeepers and cleaners at the hospital may go unnoticed but are critical in keeping infections down and maintaining the safety of doctors, nurses and patients, while other hospital support staff also deserve their due credit.

Grocery store checkers, too, are “literally putting their lives on the line interacting with the public” so that people can continue to feed themselves, the priest said.

“All of a sudden the checkout girl at Kroger’s is not just some high school kid we’re going to deal with, and go on. She becomes an essential person helping people fulfill their needs,” Oubre said. “She’s putting her physical health on the line, by being in a public realm, interacting with hundreds of people a day.”

Calloway noted that many people will consecrate themselves to St. Joseph on the saint’s May 1 feast day, a practice encouraged by his book.

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null / Alex Krisan via www.shutterstock.com.

St. Louis, Mo., Oct 19, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Responding to a pro-abortion ad that depicts a woman being arrested in front of her family for procuring an abortion, a national pro-life group says tha… […]

Denver, Colo., Aug 8, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Candid Camera, the show that caught video of unwitting people in bizarre situations, premiered in 1984 and is considered by most to be the birth of the reality TV genre.

Today, the genre dominates a large corner of both regular and cable programming, with entire channels dedicated to reality shows. But there’s an element of life that nearly all of these shows consistently fail to address – faith.

That was something Catholic speaker, author, and youth minister Chris Stefanick wanted to change.

“Most reality TV leaves out the most important things,” he told CNA.

“It struck me watching (reality TV chef) Anthony Bourdain’s trip to the Philippines, and Catholicism didn’t come up once,” he said. Approximately 86 percent of the country identifies as Catholic.

“I thought, man, you have to try really hard to go the Philippines and avoid Catholicism. We’re not really getting reality when we turn the TV on, so I thought, I want to show the full picture.”

That’s why, when approached by EWTN about creating a new Catholic TV show, Stefanick pitched the idea of “Real Life Catholic”, a travel documentary of sorts that involves telling the stories of people’s lives and faith in their own element.

The idea, and the name, are based off his experiences with his ministry “Real Life Catholic”, for which he as traveled extensively and met Catholics all over the US and the world. Stefanick said he felt called to share the stories of Catholics he had seen in his travels.

For the project, Stefanick partnered with film production company Lux Lab, founded by Nick Falls and John Wojtasek, two filmmakers who first met as missionaries for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

The team then started scouting locations, planning episodes, and looking for stories of faith to tell around the country for the new show.

Filming would take them all around the US and the world, including Krakow with Pope Francis and more than a million young people for World Youth Day.

Throughout the episodes, Stefanick has adventures with the Catholics he encounters, such as surfing in Hawaii, flying over cranberry bogs in Wisconsin, or walking the streets of Denver and meeting the city’s homeless. He gets his hands dirty in order to learn and showcase the Catholic culture of the particular area where he finds himself.

“It’s an incarnational going out into real life, experiencing the world of real life Catholics,” said Falls, who directed the show.

It was important, Stefanick said, to encounter Catholics and their culture in their own homes and lives, rather than talk about them from a studio. The experience has given him a new appreciation for Catholicism in his country, he said.

“A lot of the country doesn’t know just how Catholic south Louisiana is, or how amazing New Mexico is, and that it has a unique Catholic culture that is not Mexican but New Mexican.”

Stylistically, Wojtasek said it was important for him as a filmmaker that the show be as accessible as possible.

Since travel documentaries and other kinds of reality TV shows are so popular, he said he wanted the show to have a similar look and feel in order to pique people’s interest, even if they might not be Catholic.

“We wanted it to be something that someone could find and relate to, even if they came in late,” he said. “So we put those stories (of faith) within the framework of something that is very much in style and form like any other documentary or travel show or cooking show that people might want to watch and stick around for.”

“But we also don’t shy away from the deepest reality, in that we’re all made human, and we all have a spiritual component and a desire for God.”

Besides Stefanick having fun by getting out of his element, woven into every story and conversation with the people in each episode is how their Catholic faith has impacted their lives.

Through these real stories, the show tackles topics like how disabled people impact those around them, what it means to really serve the homeless, and what death with dignity means in a culture that increasingly promotes assisted suicide.

The death with dignity episode in particular “was sacred material for me,” Stefanick said, because he knew the family personally, whose wife and mother passed away within the course of two different filmings of the episode.

“To go into someone’s life and family and see how they’re coping with the death of a mom of young children, and the single dad raising the kids himself…to go into that and to see just how amazing grace is, the love, the faith, the hope that’s still there, that’s because the message of the Gospel is as real as ever,” he said.

God’s presence was felt not only on camera, but off camera as well. Wojtasek said that while he and Falls both are filmmakers by trade, they are also Catholics by faith, and God made his work and timing evident throughout the filming process.

“There’s a component of this where we recognize that there’s only so much planning we can do” before God’s timing and plans take over, he said.

For example, the last episode, which airs Aug. 8, shows Stefanick surfing in the icy-cold waters of Lake Michigan off the shores of Sheboygan, Wisc. in February, when the surrounding temperature was just 35 degrees.

On the afternoon of the shoot “it started dropping snow like crazy,” said Falls, which worried him and Wojtasek, whose film equipment isn’t waterproof.

“It was terrifying, the snow was terrifying especially for Chris, but he just had this grace that made him tackle this surfing in Lake Michigan with heavy snow falling. We couldn’t even really see through our cameras because of it, but he did it easily, the adrenaline just kind of kicked in and forced him to do it, to sacrifice for the shot,” he said.

“We were freezing, we couldn’t see, so we just had to trust we were getting the right shot,” he said. After they checked the tape, they realized the shots turned out beautifully.

“It was amazing to have the climax of our show,” he said.

Wojtasek said the show demonstrates that the universal Church is alive and active throughout the country and the world.

“To see the family of the Church has been profound, because everyone has their own story, their own journey, but we’re all pilgrims on the same road. Watching the show, what it boils down to is we’re all living life the best we can, united in this common faith,” he said.

Stefanick said the process of creating the show taught him that he needs to be more aware of the presence of God in his everyday life, and he hopes that viewers take that away from the show as well.

“It was my job as the host to put away the notes, the agenda, my email and my phone, and to pay attention to the grace of God in that moment, so that I could alert the viewer to God’s presence in the life of the person in front of me,” he said.

“And practicing that helped me a better person, and I hope people watching the show come away with that and that I continue to do that. Because life is very busy, and it’s difficult to do, but God’s calling us to find him in the moment.”

The final episode of Season 1 of “Real Life Catholic” airs Aug. 8, but episodes will be re-run on EWTN through October.

The future of the show is uncertain, depending on funding and on feedback received from viewers. The team already has plans to pitch the show to Netflix, and they have also received many invitations from the U.S. and abroad for future episodes.

Stefanick said he is encouraged by the number of people who have approached him with new ideas for episodes, because that means the show was successful at giving people a voice.

“I think of the show ‘Dirty Jobs’ and its popularity – it gave a voice to people who usually don’t have one in terms of media,” he said. “When people give me show ideas, that’s encouraging because it shows me that it successfully gives a voice. The show isn’t about me, it’s about the people that we’re highlighting.”

It’s also about reclaiming the narrative about Catholics that too often has been hijacked by secular media, who often portray Catholics as driven by guilt, or as followers of ancient and strict rules and rituals.

“The purpose was to give the average Catholic a voice and say, this is who we are, this is what we look like, it’s something beautiful, joyful, it gives us life to the full. It presents faith as something attractive, and there’s a real evangelistic power to that witness.”

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