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Franciscan Values Help Our Mission as Catholics

October 7, 2024

“We Christians are all responsible for the Church’s mission…Everyone. That is why we need to walk together, taking the path of synodality.” - Pope Francis Prayer Intention for October 2024

Every year at the beginning of October, we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who embodied the values of caring for creation and solidarity with the poor. As we move about our day in a world scarred by violent conflicts, environmental crises, and persistent poverty, these Franciscans values can help the compass of our lives as Christians and our mission as Catholics. In the spirit of the saint from Assisi, Pope Francis two papal encyclicals Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti remind us we are all as brothers and sisters called to respond to the connected cry of the earth and the poor in caring for our common home and creating a new economy.  Pope Francis says “Today a new economy inspired by Francis of Assisi can and must become an economy of friendship with the earth and an economy of peace. It is a question of transforming an economy that kills into a ‘Francesco economy’ of life.”

At the end of September, Pope Francis spoke compellingly about the Francesco Economy and the Catholic Church mission of integral human development to support popular movements worldwide struggling for basic human rights of equitable access to trabajo (work), techo (shelter) and tierra (land) for all. He linked this message to his monthly papal prayer intention for October calling all Catholics to take co-responsibility for the Church’s mission. “Let us pray that the Church continue to sustain a synodal lifestyle in every way, as a sign of co-responsibility, promoting the participation, communion, and mission shared by all.”  By this Pope said he means“What all of us need to do is to witness with our lives. Everyone contributes what they know how to do best.”

This October, the 2024 session of the Synod in Rome was preceded by two days of spiritual retreat. At the retreat all participants received a “special gift” which was very symbolic of this “sharing responsibility for the mission of the Church.” The “special gift” consisted of a box of chocolates contained in a hand-sewn bag, a sign of solidarity in the Church’s mission promoting integral human development throughout the world. The gifts came from projects initiated by Catholic communities in Venezuela which promote the local economy by training people who have difficulties in accessing the labor market and who have been severely impacted by climate and political crises. The chocolates are made by the Kharis Cocoa Workshop School that teaches young persons a trade to become entrepreneurs in chocolate production. The bags containing the chocolates were handmade by women from the Costruyendo Futuro (bulding the future) initiative. In this way youth and women in Venezuela all the participants gathered in the synod were connected in the shared responsibility for the mission of the Church. For more information on ways people from around the world are participating in the synod and the church mission of integral human development, please go to the Vatican website www.humandevelopment.va.

These synod gifts were more than simple tokens; they are inspiring reminders that even in the face of immense adversity, together we can build and nourish communities of hope. The spirit of St. Francis calls us to reflect on our own response to the challenges of our time: How are we being co-responsible for the care of creation, and compassion with the poor?

In Hawaii, we have many examples of how parishioners are carrying out this co-responsibility with their lives by simply sharing what they do best. At St. Ann’s in Windward, Oahu, parish committees involved in serving with the homelessness collaborated at the September Parish Stewardship Volunteer Day collaborated with the Institute for Human Services-IHS to put lotions, shampoo/conditioners and body wash into hundreds of hygiene kits that they were shared with women in and coming out of prison. The kits were also distributed by peer-support specialists (formerly incarcerated persons) to homeless/houseless persons in Honolulu in collaboration with IHS outreach health teams helping get folks off the streets and into transitional housing and vital social services.  This is only one example of persons working/ walking together in a synodal way, taking co-responsibility for the Church’s mission in action witnessing to Christ through caring for others, especially the most vulnerable.

During the first week of the Synod Pope Francis’ personally visited Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary for peace, a reminder that prayer is action. In these difficult times, the Pope has called all to join in global prayer and fasting for peace, as deadly violence continues to devastate communities worldwide. Our prayers, when united with acts of caring, help build the peace and justice that the world, our common home, so desperately needs. In his October prayer intention video, Pope Francis concludes with the following appeal: “Brothers and sisters, let us resume our ecclesial journey together in the mission of the Church with an eye to the world, for the Christian community is always at the service of humanity, to proclaim the joy of the Gospel to all. We need it, especially in this dramatic hour of our history, as the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to ravage entire peoples and nations.” Mahalo.