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Cardinal Francis George: The Top Reasons to be Catholic
On Tuesday, January 7th, Cardinal Francis George gave the talk that launched the first season of Young Adult Ministry’s YACHT Club Chicago. His talk was entitled The Top Reasons to Be Catholic, and after a warm, witty play with words that rivaled David Letterman’s Top Ten list, the Cardinal got right to the heart of the matter. Below are segments of his talk, and the relaxed, insightful question and answer period that followed.

With a little help from Marie Knoll, who works for the Archdiocese of Chicago, here is a Top Ten list of reasons to be Catholic…

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The Cardinal continued…
There is really only one reason to be Catholic. God wants you to be Catholic.

You can go at religion two ways. First, from below, as a dimension of human experience. Religion involves an openness to the transcendent, a sense of spirituality – as something that completes our lives. Religion is a way of getting out of our own consciousness, our own little world. Tools like meditation and prayer open us to a world larger than ourselves. Religion from below means we seek God. It’s a search we as a Church have been on since the beginning. Even secularists [those not affiliated with any religion] and atheists give themselves to something. We are created in the image and likeness of God, and we are restless to connect with the divine.

But what if God is seeking us? God then breaks into history, in search of us. That is more than spirituality – it’s faith. If God desires to be one of us, to seek us out and gather us in, and is born of a woman, the Virgin Mary, and takes on all that we have except our sinfulness, what is the response? Faith – a take on things beyond what we know from our own experience. Our own experience will never reveal Christmas, the Incarnation [God becoming flesh] that we just celebrated, or Easter, when God rises from the dead after suffering crucifixion. To believe God is in search of us is to see through the eyes of faith. Seeing with faith means believing that God will give us the grace to live and act in ways that unite us to Him on His terms, not ours.

Religion from above means that, at some point, God broke into history and showed us the way. It doesn’t make sense to believe in a God who came, was crucified, and rose from the dead, but doesn’t care about us. It’s silly to say that Jesus died on the cross so that each of us could think whatever he wants or do whatever she likes. Jesus wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble…unless He had given us a way. He did. Jesus, whom in faith we recognize as God, Lord and Savior, said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Religion from above is a response in faith to a God who reveals himself in human history. The only reason to be Catholic is because you believe in a God who did break into human history through sending His only Son, because He loved the world so much that He wants us to be with Him forever. That Son gives us a way. The way is called the Church.

Remember that when Saint Paul was moving from Jerusalem to Damascus to wipe out some of the early Christians, he was interrupted in the journey. That’s a good sign. We should be interrupted in our journey, if God is really breaking in - not just into history, but into our own lives. The worst thing that could happen to us is to get to Damascus without any incident. The huge incident for Saint Paul is that Christ appeared to him. Remember, Paul knew only the Christ that we know. He was never with Jesus before the resurrection. He didn’t walk with Him as the other apostles did. Paul knew Him only as we know Him, as the Risen Lord. That Risen Lord asked him, “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus, who died for our salvation, identified Himself with his disciples. Jesus was saying, as Paul constantly was preaching, that we are all that Body of Christ. So the only reason to be Catholic is because God has broken into history, has given us a way, Jesus, who is present to us through His Church. The only way to know Jesus from within, rather than just as a historical figure or a cultural hero up there with Napoleon and George Washington, is from within His Body, the Church. That’s where all the gifts that He died to give us are gathered. That’s where they’re available – the Sacraments, the Gospel, the immense number of gifts that He wants us to enjoy.

That’s why I’m Catholic. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be the Archbishop of Chicago. Why Be Catholic? How else are you going to know Jesus Christ from within his Body, which we call the Church. That’s the answer of faith. And that’s enough. There are many other reasons to be Catholic, as described in the top ten list, and we each have our own stories of how and why we became Catholic. We all have our own history of Grace. God does seek us; our own journeys have been interrupted. We can each tell those stories of how we came to be here – they’re very important stories. Why and how we came to Christ and the Church, and why we stayed even though it’s a burden at times - it is the reason for our joy.

I was coming out of the dentist’s office last Saturday, and a woman recognized me. I guess I was looking a little worried. She came up to me and said, “Cardinal, don’t worry. Catholics are tough.” I know that’s true. There’s a certain toughness that comes from knowing that it’s not our show, it’s God’s, and this it where God wants us to be. I’m Catholic because God wants me to be, and He wants you to be, and He wants the whole world to be. That’s a difficult claim to make in an age of religious pluralism, with a relativistic approach to things, but that’s what we believe. Being Catholic is good for us, and it’s good for the whole world. That’s why there are so many universal terms in the Liturgy and in the Gospel itself.

Question 1: If I were a Baptist, how would I respond to your answer, “God wants me to be Catholic?

Response: You would deny it! If you’re a good Baptist, I wouldn’t expect you to accept it, you can’t. The Baptists have to ask the same question: “What did Jesus intend, and what is the history?” It’s wonderful to speak with a believing Baptist: they’re disciples of the Lord who are baptized at the age that they can accept it, and they love the Lord. But I believe there is a fundamentally wrong turn. Baptists often argue that Catholics adore the Church – we simply identify Jesus with the Church, and we have to hear that criticism. They say that, however one’s only certainty about divine revelation is from Scripture. Our response is that is true, but that the Bible was written by and for the Church. The only reason we know it is the Word of God is that the Church community tells us. Jesus didn’t write a book; He left a community. Because the Holy Spirit is the life blood and soul of that community, we can recognize certain books as inspired, coming from God. The Gospel was preached for a generation before it was ever written down. Catholicism is a pre-literate religion in a sense. A religion that can’t be passed on except after the existence of a printing press is not something we trace back to the Lord. But the Lord uses all kinds of means to save all kinds of people. We’re much closer to Baptists than to Hindus, obviously. But Hindus, too, the Lord loves and thus He will find a way to save.

We say the preferred route, the one that Christ gives us and wants us to follow is the Catholic Church. Go back through history and realize where Scripture came from. Can everything depend upon Scripture? That’s just the written witness. What about the living witness? What about the life of the Martyrs, the life of the Church, the community that gathered around the altar of the Lord from Pentecost [the sending of the Holy Spirit] on? There is a curious dialogue always between the life of the Church and the witness of Holy Scripture, between the living tradition of human beings and preaching and the Church’s teaching, and the written witness, the Truth of Holy Scripture. Scripture has to be understood as the Church’s Book. You don’t read a text outside of a context. The context for the text of Sacred Scripture is the Catholic Church. We don’t read Scripture outside of the Church. There’s no private interpretation. That was what the Reformation was about. Scripture was given to you to help you on your journey, but if you’re going to say there is a definitive and normative understanding of that text, more than your own devotional reading of it, you can’t find that outside of the Church that tells you it is Sacred Scripture. So talking with the Baptists, who love the Word of God so deeply and who know it so well so very often, start with the relation between Scripture and Church.

Question 2: How do we reconcile the tensions with the Middle East with our faith and beliefs as Catholics? What should be our response? We have a universal faith and everyone, even our enemies, deserves respect; but we’re citizens of a nation under attack. Don’t we have a right to defend ourselves?

Response: We have a right to defend ourselves; and a government has an obligation to defend its citizens. We always hope to resolve issues through dialogue, not violence. There is a tension, but where are the moral imperatives? Our universal faith says every single person is loved by God and infinitely important. God will find ways (seek us out) through historical revelation and the Church. We also have nationalism, which is always a slice of the human race. At times, a nation is called to fight. Is what the nation is asking me to do in direct conflict with my faith? If it is, we get martyrs. The history of our Church is full of martyrs, because the demands of a country can be contrary to the demands of our faith. We are saved by our faith – not because we’re Americans or Iraqis or any other group. If there is a clash, you go with your faith…or you pray you have the courage to go with your faith. Better yet, pray that there won’t be a clash so you don’t have to be a hero. I’m not very heroic – I prefer to live in a society where I don’t have a clash, between the demands of being an American citizen and the demands of my following the Lord in the Catholic Church. Sometimes they do clash. We have laws that are just and laws that are unjust. Part of our job is to move people from a private religion to a public religion. We’re concerned about the common good, which demands that our unjust laws (segregation, abortion, etc.) be changed peacefully. In a democratic, pluralistic society, you have a right to do that, except in periods of war when things get clamped down usually.

But the nation also has a responsibility to defend itself. It is moral to take up arms and use violence if attacked, unless you are a total pacifist. Pacifist’ say that never under any circumstances are you permitted to take up arms. But, sometimes it is moral to go to war. It usually happens when you are responsible for others. An individual can say, “I will turn the other cheek no matter what happens to me.” But if that individual is a wife and mother with children, she doesn’t have the right to say, “I won’t defend my kids no matter what.” She has an obligation to defend her children. The government has an obligation to defend its citizens; it can’t be pacifist. If it were, we’d have anarchy – there would be violence in the streets. If you got the idea that the U.S. government won’t defend us, it loses its legitimacy.

Pacifists are a great gift to the world. I compare being pacifist to being celibate. Why are people celibate in the Church? The Church is a sign of the Kingdom. Therefore the Church, which is a sign of the way all will be in God’s Kingdom, needs some people to be celibate for the sake of the Kingdom. It’s a public witness. Most people had better not be celibate, or there wouldn’t be much future to the human race, but we need a few to remind us of the future of everybody. In the Kingdom there will neither be marriage nor giving in marriage. That’s why celibacy has always been honored in the Catholic Church, even though the way to salvation and holiness for most people is through marriage. For much the same reason, we need pacifists. God’s Kingdom is a peaceable Kingdom as the prophet Isaiah said. There will be no wars. We need a few people to remind us of what life will be like in that Kingdom; but it can’t be normative for everybody now. Pacifists should be honored, but they shouldn’t be ruling the country. There are just uses of violence and even war. One is to defend people who depend upon you. Another is to defend your country when it is unjustly attacked: the organization of the country now to take on terrorism is just in itself, although it can be unjust in the way we go about it.

You can’t let the world be controlled by organized terrorism; even the Pope says that. The Pope is not in favor of the proposed Iraqi war, but he says we have the right to defend ourselves against terrorists. In the 1990’s, we didn’t look hard enough as the terrorists got organized. Now, we have a problem, but the connection between international terrorism and the Iraqi government, I think (and I could be wrong) is not yet made. So whether or not to invade Iraq is an open question. The Just War theory says you can strike someone who is about to strike you. That principle could be used to argue that it is moral for the Iraqi government to bomb Washington, because we’re threatening Iraq right now. You can say they are not a legitimate government, but we have to show also that Iraq is an imminent danger to us and to the civilized order. Our government is convinced that is the truth and is trying to convince the world. From my perspective, the evidence is still coming in. If they do come up with evidence, we can seek to change a regime if there is a threat to peace and justice in the world. The government has the right to ask its citizens to fight to defend their country or to defend freedom. More wars have been fought to defend a nation state or in defending freedom than were ever fought in the name of Moses or Christ or Mohammed. It’s not religion that has been causing war in the last 200 years – it’s the nation state. It’s legitimate to fight for the nation and for freedom, but it’s often morally problematic and always fraught with challenges.

What is the biggest danger in going to war with Iraq now?

What we risk in invading Iraq is that this war will be interpreted as Islam versus Christianity. In the Muslim frame of reference, nation states are less important than religions. Islam is a pre-modern religion, and the nation state is a modern invention. The modern nation state was invented in the 15-1600’s, when Islam slipped out of world politics in a way. Their mind set says it is far more important that you identify yourself as a Muslim than as an Iraqi or a Syrian – those states were invented by the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War. A Muslim’s devotion is to Islam, more than to the nation state. Even though we are a secular, religiously pluralistic but predominantly Christian state, they see us as simply Christian. If this all boils down to Christianity versus Islam, there is a huge possibility of fallout. We have to expect that we will succeed militarily, and innocent people will die. If we go into Iraq, and every Muslim in the world is then told to kill Americans, there won’t be an American outside of this country safe for a long time. I don’t know if that will happen. But if you look at the morality of doing something, you need to look as widely as possible. We might find ourselves pariahs in a very hostile world, and it would make things extraordinarily difficult, even internally because our economy as it is now would certainly be weakened.

For twelve years I was in the general government of an international missionary order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. That meant that I spent 7 or 8 months of every year traveling around the world, to places that were very poor, for the most part. Sometimes I was in Communist countries, often in dictatorships. I always lived with the people and hardly ever spent a night in a hotel. Almost everywhere, I was welcome as a Catholic priest. In many places, I was suspect because I was an American. There is a huge animus against Americans, and we should recognize that. Often it’s an unfair judgment but, fair or not, we are, like any imperial power, not very well liked by many.

Question #3 (from a guidance counselor at Quigley Seminary): What advice can you give to help teenage boys accept God’s call to become a leader in the Church?

Response: It’s about call and decisions. The comparison is between revelation and faith. God breaks into history and reveals himself in historical actions. Those are witnessed to in Scripture and in the living faith of the Church. It’s God who does the acting. God reveals Himself. God sends His Son. Jesus goes to the cross freely. God acts. Then we respond in faith. So, God calls in our life, and we freely decide. You’re not going to be happy unless what you decide is consistent with God’s call. Priesthood isn’t something I decide to do on my own. It’s a call, just like a lot of other things are a call. Life is a vocation. God calls us to certain things. Sometimes very specifically, sometimes in general ways. Our happiness and holiness depends upon lining up our own decisions with what God calls us to be and to do. Your job is to help your students come to know if God has called them to ordained priesthood. Thank you for doing that.

Question #4: Regarding the above answer, there seems to be a self-righteousness. “I’m called and you’re not.”

Response: We don’t use the term “righteousness” like that. Your father was called to marry your mother. All the rest of the men she knew weren’t. Marriage is a way of grace and holiness. People are married in Christ, and Christ is involved in that. Marriage is sealed by Christ, which is why we can’t dissolve it. It’s a holy thing, a sacrament. There is nothing wrong with saying “You’re the one I love, and nobody else.” That’s the nature of love, to say, “You’re the one to whom I give my life.” God loves everybody, but some He calls into priesthood. It’s not a better way of life; it’s a different vocation than calling them to something else. The Church recognizes vocations to priesthood, or marriage, or sisterhood, consecrated life. The Church blesses those calls because it believes the discernment has been made, that this is where that person will find happiness and salvation. That means you have some criteria and certitude that this is right for that person. God loves us all, and loves us as the unique individuals that we are. There is nothing self-righteous about any of this. Answering God’s call in my way of life is humbling.

Question 5: Several years ago, President Bill Clinton was in a debate with the Republican Congress on competing health care plans and budgets, which I believe were both submitted to the American Council of Bishops for their thoughts. There was a lot of speculation about whether the Bishops would support the Republican or the Democratic plan. They ended up rejecting both plans for different reasons. The Democratic plan provided federal funding for abortion and other issues; the Republican plan did not call for universal access to health care coverage. Every four years, millions of people listen (as voters) to what you say on various issues. What is the proper role of leaders in the Catholic Church in regard to Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters?

Response: I don’t know that we have that much influence. There isn’t a Catholic voting block as such, for various reasons. The reason why political questions are fair game for comment by bishops is that politics is bounded with morality. Moral laws tell you what’s good and what’s bad, what you should do and shouldn’t do, and politics is concerned about that as well. There is an overlapping of two normative systems, and there’s always going to be tension between the two. You should try to keep the civil law in touch with the moral law, or we end up in conflict that might lead to martyrdom. In the case of political issues, some are merely practical (leashing dogs). But others touch issues of life or death, justice and peace, and warfare. Those are more than political issues: they are moral issues that religious leaders must address. You’re safe when your teaching remains at the level of principles. When you get into judgments, it’s not always so clear. Earlier, we talked of the right to legitimate self-defense. But someone could take those principles and reach a somewhat different conclusion depending on circumstances. What you can’t do is make a judgment that totally contradicts a principle.

Catholics don’t fit well politically in this country right now. There is no political party that corresponds adequately to the vision of faith the Church gives us about what the world is about, what our goal is, how we should conduct ourselves now. But, there never has been such a party, here or in any other country. A country is a human construct. Faith is a divine gift. God’s ways aren’t our ways. There is always tension. It’s been there throughout history, between society and Church, between the vision of faith and the demands of the civil society. We just hope that tensions don’t get too severe and that the separation isn’t too great. Just because there is no perfect fit between the civil society and the moral law, there is room for prudential judgment That’s why you’re not going to have a single block of everyone making the same decisions. What we all have to do as Catholics is say, “I’ll respect the principles and won’t do anything that will directly contradict them.”

Question 6: Why has the Vatican come out and said the U.S. should not go to war with Iraq when we’re trying to save those people from a brutal government?

Response: The Holy See did speak to the injustices within Iraq. A government that sacrifices its own people in order to keep itself in power is not a just government. But, since we are threatening war in the name of universal peace and justice, our decision should be checked with the only forum that is available for global opinion polling – that’s the United Nations. It’s the only voice that all the nations have. If we’re going to go into Iraq in the name of humanity, we had better check it with the United Nations. The Holy See has said that at this time, without the support of the U.N., America should not go in on its own. They are telling us not to act like an imperial power. We’re usually ill at ease with being considered an empire. That discomfort might not be a bad thing. We are acting like a totally independent power which can go to war without asking anyone else. No one else has that much power. I hope we use our power for good. I think what the Holy See is saying is to check it. Realize that the power that is threatening to go to war is not Iraq – it’s us. The Vatican is therefore telling us not to go to war. There’s a just use of force, but the evidence isn’t in yet.

Question 7: What does the Church need this generation of Catholics to do over the next forty years in Chicago, the U.S., and the world?

Response: That’s a question I should be asking you. First, you should be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ in His Body, the Church. That means living with a vision of faith, living with a generous heart, and doing everything with the Lord. A holy person is someone who lives habitually with the Lord. The only thing you do alone is sin. Everything else you can do with the Lord. What you have to do, along with every other generation of Catholics, is to have the habit of living with the Lord as a faithful disciple. Turn to the Church to tell you how to do that, because the Church tells you who Christ is – not something from our imagination, but rather someone alive in the Church.

What are the demands of this particular time? First, not losing sight of what it means to be human. The nature of the human being is now called into question in ways it never was before, because of artificial intelligence and other technical developments. We used to be the only ones who could think. Now machines can think in some fashion - at least they can calculate. That leaves us as a species with a bit of an identity crisis. Also, we used to be unable to separate love and life, so that the only way of handing on human life was through an act of human love. That’s no longer the case. We can create life in laboratories, and perhaps through cloning. You’re the first generation to experience this. What does it mean to be human? Some geniuses among you have to give some serious thinking to that. Now it’s not conquering space and time, it’s conquering the human project itself. The new frontier is in biology.

Second, you’re the first generation to grow up comfortable with the idea that the human race is one. Globalization isn’t just something for the future. It’s here, and its effects are being multiplied. What does it mean to be a citizen of the planet? Are nation states going to be considered immoral because they’re limiting? The re-working of the political order, the cultural order, the economic order, because of globalization - those are huge projects in learning to live together. What does it mean to live in a global human society? We’ll have to listen to others on this one. We’re the most successful nation state in the history of the world. When you are a success at something, you don’t want to give it up. We’ll probably be the last to give up the sovereignty associated with nationalism because we’ve done so well. A lot of the rest of the world hasn’t done it well. The nation state is a burden on them. Look at the Balkans, parts of Africa – it hasn’t helped them live. We’ll hold onto it; they won’t. If we’re going toward a more global society where nations are more relativized, we have to start listening to others. It’s time to listen intently to the “have-nots” and the poor people of the world, and those who have nothing to lose if the whole order comes down around us.

Here’s where the American media have not been as helpful as they might be. I had a conversation with a reporter during World Youth Day last August. That morning I had had a conversation with the Archbishop of Paris, who spoke of the difficulties they are having with the resurgence of nationalism in France because they feel threatened by the immigration of Islam. They’re worried about French culture being lost. Paris is surrounded by the “zone” – a very violent place. The ordinary laws of the French republic don’t run there. Then I spoke with the Archbishop of Venice, who is concerned about how to be Archbishop in a city which is, in fact, a museum. It’s filled with tourists. How do you preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a place that is flooded regularly by the Adriatic Sea? The Archbishop of Bogota was explaining why they are having a civil war in Columbia, and what’s behind the many guerilla movements there. The whole world was present that Sunday morning as we were vesting for Mass. It was World Youth Day. That’s why all the people were there. All that our media were interested in was the sex scandal. World Youth Day was seen through the only narrative they have right now. There is nothing wrong with talking about it. It was shameful, and we have to face it. But that was the only prism. They had the whole world assembled, and they don’t understand why the whole world isn’t concerned about our sex scandal. We are only one nation. We have our problems, and they’re great, but they need to be seen in a bigger context. Who is going to help the people see them, if the media don’t? The Church does, or should. Somehow, we have to find some way, either with or despite the media, to hear what the peoples of the world, particularly the poor, are telling us about ourselves, and where they want the world to go. It’s not the way we want it to go very often. If we can’t listen, we become like every other imperial power, constantly at war for the next several hundred years, until finally things collapse. You have the challenge to listen…and you’re open to it.

The young Americans in Canada were very open to it. They were eager to talk to people from other countries. We have structures that bind us in, and it’s gotten worse since September 11th. It’s harder to get into and out of the country. It’s unnerving to travel internationally now. We risk closing in on ourselves. That isn’t our destiny either as Catholics or as Americans. America has a universalistic vision too. But, all that you face, face it as disciples of Jesus Christ, living in the Church. The faith is the same everywhere. The faith I hold is the same faith I was taught here, and it’s the same faith that was proclaimed by the Apostles. Different languages, different insights, the development of doctrine – there is constant change, but the central vision of the faith that centers on the Risen Lord is always the same. It’s the faith that I learned and that I love, and that is my reason for living and being here tonight.

Question 8: What is the role of lay movements like The Voice of the Faithful from Boston, or Call to Action in the Catholic Church today?

Response: I don’t think The Voice of the Faithful has defined itself yet. Their concern is understandable – the misuse and lack of use of authority. They are one response to it that has to be respected; but we’ll see where they go when they define themselves. There is a caution. Their motto is: keep the faith, change the Church. The problem is that the Church is an article of faith. Look at the Creed- We believe in God, the Father, we believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, our Lord, we believe, in the Holy Spirit…we believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church. The nature of the Church has been given us as part of the faith. It’s not just a club or an organization or a corporation or a country that we can change at will. We can change some of it; priests don’t have to dress like this – there are a lot of things that can be changed. But you can’t change the marks of the Church. She is one Church, she is holy, even though we are sinful ourselves, she is “catholic” – she’s universal, and she is apostolic, she goes back to the apostles. Historically, you can trace it back through the bishops to the apostles. The episcopacy [the highest level of Holy Orders - bishops] is a key, visible structure - no matter how unworthy a bishop might be. The office of bishop is extremely important, but the individual who holds it is not. That’s what it means to belong to a sacramental Church. We believe in the efficacy of the sacraments, because Christ does the action. Christ baptizes. Christ offers the Mass through the priest. It’s Christ’s actions that save, not the priest’s. Christ chooses to work in space and time through a visible Church. The Voice of The Faithful has yet to move from voicing legitimate concerns to defining a program of change.

Call to Action has found a voice, but part of that voice is not consistent with the Catholic faith. You have to be discerning. Could the Church be governed differently? Sure. We have councils and all kind of things. Most of my time is spent talking to lay people about governing the Church though pastoral councils and finance councils, etc. Lay people help shape the policy. But, their work is to make the world holy, and they have to tell me how the church helps them grow holy. You know far more about the world than I do. You have to tell me what it’s about. If I don’t listen to that, I’m not a very good bishop. The Vatican Council has given us lay councils, and their use can be expanded. The only thing that can’t change is the faith, and the bishops’ job is to say, “Here’s the faith.” After that, what do we do? How do we save the world today? Where should the Church be putting her efforts? That’s for the lay people to help inform us. Part of our problem is that now the lay people helping to direct the Church are, for the most part, professional lay ministers, like those who work in the chancery office downtown. They are wonderful, dedicated people who help run the Church. So, the more important thing is to run the world according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s where the vocation of the baptized and confirmed is to be worked out.

The Voice of the Faithful feeds right into the habits of the American middle class. The American middle class runs the world through money. Now some want to run the Church the same way. You can’t do it. I’m hopeful about the Voice of the Faithful helping us to understand what Christ is calling us to as His Church in the future.

The discernment process each generation and each individual has to undergo is: What tells you what is right and what is wrong? What is good and what is bad? The instruction of your parents? Yes, though they are often echoing society and culture. Culture is the normative system that tells us how we’re supposed to act and what is important. Freedom understood as choice, is important for us, but not so important to Afghanis. They hold a different set of values. We have an American culture, and we don’t even think about it. We’re like fish swimming in water, who aren’t aware of the water. Culture is second nature. It’s what you take for granted. The culture gives you a language which gives you a world of thought. We don’t think exactly the same way in English as we do in Spanish or Greek. The faith is a culture in that sense. It tells you what’s important, what you should and should not do, etc. You’ve always got that dialogue going on between what your culture tells you and what your faith tells you. You had better be quite aware of both of them influencing you. Otherwise, you confuse the two. In this culture, like every other, there is some conflict between what our society tells us and what our faith tells us. Don’t incorporate into the life of faith things that are extraneous to it just because the culture tells you they are good. That’s the discernment that’s necessary for holiness and for discipleship, and it’s often hard to do.

It’s encouraging to find people like yourselves who are interested in sorting it out in such a way that you can find great joy in the faith and be an inspiration to me and to a lot of others. That’s picking up the challenge of the next generation.

I was part of a public conversation at Northwestern University for their 150th anniversary. Many issues were raised about the difficulty of being Catholic in this society and culture. Without recognizing it, I was saying this was a rough moment. One of the political scientists there said, “Cardinal, you should hear from me as a lay person. Faith is the joy of my life. It’s the reason I get up in the morning, and the reason I’m a husband and father, it’s the reason I’m a professor, it gives joy to my family life and everything we do. It’s the reason why I am a happy man.” I was very pleased to hear that. He’s not only a happy man. He’s a holy man. He has found the way the Lord wants him to follow in this world, and he will find his way to the next. He has the faith, and knows what it’s all about. That’s what I hope is your life. If it is, then my life will happy and holy as well.

God bless you.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Address to Young Adults
Y.A.C.H.T. Club Chicago gathering
January 7, 2003