Light Shining out of Darkness

Your conference will spend time in serious study on the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New, as expressed in the sacred liturgy, in sacred art and architecture, and in pastoral ministry. This is an important topic, and I expect this conference will prove elucidating. I remember during my days in the seminary reading two very important books on the liturgy that dealt with this topic, both by Father Louis Bouyer: Liturgical Piety and The Meaning of Sacred Scripture.² As a convert to the Catholic faith, I was always struck by the link between the Temple and sacrifice in the Old Testament, and the New Testament understanding of sacrifice. The proper understanding of this link, as well as the distinctions, is essential to a true understanding of the nature, essence and meaning of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; these truths will be explored over the coming days.

Discussions and debates about the sacred liturgy can be rather contentious at times, but we are among friends, and so tonight I would like to address my remarks in a somewhat generic way on something that is near and dear to all of our hearts, namely, our particular period in the history of the Church, and the future of the liturgical movement in the life of the Church.

It was February 11, 2013, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, when Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the office of the Roman Pontiff, the first such resignation in nearly 600 years. He made this announcement in the Sala del Concistoro, the large loggia in the Apostolic Palace, in which the tapestries of Raphael hang. It is a beautiful room. The resignation speech of Pope Benedict was, itself, beautiful—spoken in perfect Latin with a serenity of spirit that we have come to love in Pope Benedict. And for those of us who admire the beauty of the Benedictine pontificate, the moment was profoundly moving.

On March 13, Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis, and he hit the ground running. I am grateful for his witness as a bishop and as a pastor—he is evangelical, pastoral, and faithful to the teachings of the Church. Lumen Fidei—from which the title of this talk is derived—and Evangelii Gaudium have been influential in my own episcopal ministry and an inspiration to me in my preaching.³

But for many people, the 20 months since the resignation of Pope Benedict have been a time of challenging transition. Pope Benedict was a close friend and collaborator with St. John Paul II—the continuity between their pontificates was constantly evident—beginning with his memorable homily to begin the 2005 conclave, in which combatting the “dictatorship of relativism” became the clarion call for the cardinal electors.

Pope Francis is an Argentine. He had never worked in the Roman Curia; he is the first pope from a religious institute in 167 years, and the first pope in history from the Society of Jesus. He is a man with particular strengths and particular challenges, and his background as a Latin American and as a religious, also give him particular strengths and particular challenges.

For many, the personal and administrative style of the Holy Father has been an adjustment, and for some they have been a challenge. The question of rupture or continuity has been discussed.

The media, of course, has portrayed Pope Francis as a crusader of heterodoxy—as the quiet hero of the liberal left. News reports—and pop culture periodicals and figures like Rolling Stone and Jon Stewart—predict that Francis will undermine the deposit of faith in favor of false notions of pastoral care or accommodation to the troubling mores of modernity.

The Holy Father will never consider betraying the deposit of faith. I believe, as you do, that the Pope Francis is a loyal son of the Church. I believe that his fidelity to the faith will be manifested in the whole of his pontificate. But I recognize that for many, his unfamiliar style and emphases, and his portrayal in the media, have led...