St. Louis, Mo., Aug 2, 2017 / 03:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Service to the poor on the peripheries of society was a theme of the 2017 Knights of Columbus States Dinner held Tuesday evening in St. Louis.
“I stand before you in deep gratitude for your love and concern for hearing the cry of the poor,” Fr. Gerard Hammond, M.M. told those in attendance at the States Dinner at the annual Knights of Columbus international convention Aug. 1.
“May we always embrace those who need our mercy and compassion.”
Fr. Hammond, a Maryknoll missionary to North Korea, received the Gaudium et Spes Award from Supreme Knight Carl Anderson at the dinner.
The award, named after Vatican II’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, is the highest honor bestowed by the Knights of Columbus and is given to persons “for their exemplary contributions to the realization of the message of faith and service in the spirit of Christ.”
St. Theresa of Calcutta was the first person to receive the award in 1992. On the award medal is an image of Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, comforting a widow and an orphan.
The Knights of Columbus is a worldwide Catholic men’s organization founded in 1882 by Fr. McGivney “to strengthen the faith of Catholic men” and to “protect their families,” in the words of Supreme Knight and CEO Carl Anderson. Since its founding it has grown into an international organization with over 1.9 million members.
This week, around 2,000 Knights from North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe meet in St. Louis for the 135th international convention. The theme of this year’s convention is “Convinced of God’s Love and Power.”
Fr. Hammond received his award for his missionary work in North Korea. He has made 50 trips into the country since 1995 to treat patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Although he is not allowed by the North Korean government to proselytize, he still tries carry out his priestly mission through serving the sick as an “apostle of peace” and to bring “hope for the voiceless.”
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, introducing Fr. Hammond at the dinner, said that in the spirit of Gaudium et Spes, Fr. Hammond “has taken upon himself the ‘griefs and anxieties’ of those who are ‘poor and afflicted,’ as he seeks to share with them, through compassionate action, the ‘joys and hopes’ of faith in Jesus Christ.”
Fr. Hammond has “exemplified the call of Pope Francis to go to the peripheries,” Archbishop Lori said.
“God’s heart has a special place for the poor, so much so that he himself ‘became poor’,” the archbishop said. “The entire history of our redemption is marked by the presence of the poor.”
Later on Tuesday evening, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop Emeritus of Krakow and former personal secretary to Pope St. John Paul II, praised the Knights for spreading the messages of mercy and the Gospel all over the world.
“The Knights of Columbus embraced the message of Divine Mercy proclaimed by the Pope from Kraków, and they proclaim this message in a world affected by various forms of injustice and violence,” he said in his remarks at the dinner.
Pope Francis has taught us to see to see “the other,” our neighbor,” as a “gift,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, said on Tuesday at the dinner.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said that the two men who passed by the wounded man were “looking to self-interest, looking to other things.” The Good Samaritan, however, “tosses aside any consideration except love of neighbor. His help and generosity is excessive.”
Furthermore, he said, Christ teaches that “there is no more boundary when it comes to ‘who are you neighbor to’?” The Knights of Columbus live this teaching out, he said, helping everyone – the immigrant, the refugee, or the Christian displaced from their home.
Cardinal DiNardo also urged those in attendance to join in solidarity with Eastern Rite Catholics who are fasting before the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. He asked Latin rite Catholics to pray and fast for persecuted Christians in the days leading up to the Assumption.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Vatican sent a message to the convention assuring those in attendance of the “good wishes” and prayers of Pope Francis.
“The Holy Father has often observed that in our own day a new world war is being fought piecemeal, as an ungodly thirst for power and domination, whether economic, political, or military, is leading to untold violence, injustice and suffering in our human family,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said in his written message delivered at the opening business session of the convention.
Pope Francis, he said, “has asked Christians everywhere, truly convinced of the infinite power of God’s love, to reject this mentality and to combat the growth of a global culture of indifference that discards the least of our brothers and sisters.”
Cardinal Parolin asked the Knights to “respond generously to this challenge” through working for the “sanctification of the world from within” in their lay vocation.
He also noted Pope Francis’ appreciation for the Knights upholding “the sanctity of marriage and the dignity and beauty of family life,” as well as the organization’s aid to persecuted Christians in the Middle East.
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Typical of homosexuals (98+ percent), he was also pro-abortion. It could frequently be comical the way he would dodge a direct question on the matter, immediately going into the other-issuses-too mode. When he once held a “listening session” of women in his diocese open to the press expecting all the usual griping about female ordination and evil patriarchy, etc…, he instead got a bunch of women speaking of their pride that the Church defended the unborn. Weakland was embarrassed and apologized to the press that so many women “not representing true women’s concerns” showed up. God have mercy on his soul.
The damage Weakland did to the archdiocese of Milwaukee and the wider Church was incalculable. He was an open dissenter and heretic long before his homosexuality was confirmed (although, let’s face it, everyone knew). His personal vindictiveness very much resembles that of Cupich. The largely admirable record of Pope John Paul II was seriously stained by allowing this monster to remain in a position of power for those many years. Archbishop Listecki likewise disgraces himself by whitewashing Weakland’s record and career with this undeserved and dishonest tribute.
That he confessed his sins is what God wants us to do. The Lord asks us for obedience or confession. We know the better path.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
John 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
1 Peter 3:21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
The Lord is merciful and remembers we are only flesh. We find our salvation in the God of Jacob, praise His holy and righteous name. Lord Jesus you have redeemed us and we are eternally grateful.
I hope that Weakland made a full and sincere confession. If he publicly repented of his very public sins, I didn’t hear about it. Even after he was fully exposed, he resorted to lies and seIf-justification and remained defiant.
If the Church is to ever renew itself, a direct reckoning with the myriad scandals that the hierarchy (e.g. Weakland) has inflicted or has allowed to be inflicted (e.g. the pre-Francis Vatican on it, must occur. The statement release by Listecki does just the opposite by lauding a man who did so much evil while his superiors, who should have stopped him quickly, neglected to do their duty.
By all accounts, Weakland was notorious prior to being named bishop of Milwaukee. While I have no special knowledge of what it was like there in 1977, it is probably safe to say that the diocese was reeling from what was unleashed on the Church and society in the wake of the 1960s. Appointing someone with a reputation like his should have been unthinkable. Allowing him to reign for twenty-five years while he busied himself very openly in every manner of heresy and destruction was inexcusable. Portraying him in positive light on his passing is an insult to all those who suffered as a result of his misdeeds.
Thank you for your insight. It is sad and yet, I also pray he repented.