Central Americans fleeing violence can’t return home yet, bishops warn

Washington D.C., May 23, 2017 / 03:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Leading U.S. bishops have expressed serious concerns with President Donald Trump’s reported budget proposals for the 2018 fiscal year, noting among other fears that the proposals would de… […]

Washington D.C., Sep 4, 2017 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In their 2017 statement for Labor Day, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stressed a properly ordered understanding of work, which prioritizes the worker and the family.

This vision of work must ensure safe working conditions, show solidarity with those in poverty, and seek to emphasize the dignity of the worker rather than solely economic gain, the statement emphasized.

“Economic stresses contribute to a decline in marriage rates, increases in births outside of two-parent households, and child poverty,” said Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development at the U.S. bishops’ conference.

He called for legal safeguards to protect workers’ rights and defend against exploitation.

However, “(l)egal protections cannot solve all problems when the culture itself must also change,” he said, and these changes must extend beyond politics, and aim to recover the understanding of work as “a cooperation with God’s creative power.”

The bishop expressed concern that despite a growing economy, there is still a “stagnant or … decreasing [wage] for the vast majority of people” and that the newly generated wealth is only going to a small percentage of people.  

“The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment  for everyone,” said the bishop, repeating the words of Benedict XVI in Caritas in veritate.

That encyclical has also been echoed by Pope Francis, the bishop noted, pointing to Francis’ challenge “to confront a twisted understanding of the purposes of labor which does not recognize talents as gifts from God.”

“With such a mindset, it becomes possible to improperly justify economic and societal injustices,” he added, and warned that “merit” can be used to unjustly excuse inequality in the work place.

“The poor person is considered undeserving and therefore to blame. And if poverty is the fault of the poor, the rich are exonerated from doing anything,” said the bishop, repeating the words of Pope Francis.

Seeing wealth as the basis for right or wrong, Bishop Dewane said, opposes the message of the Gospel and aligns itself to the opinions of Job’s friends, who saw Job’s misfortune as the result of his sin.

Pope Francis has said that this view contradicts God’s “gaze of love” which is best reflected in the parable of the Prodigal Son, whose father “thinks no son deserves the acorns that are for the pigs,” even when the son has failed.

However, this potential crisis is also an opportunity to regain the true nature of work, Bishop Dewane said, highlighting the importance of legal protections, unions, and rest.

He said laws should be ordered to protect compensation in wage and injuries, worksite safety, easy access to information on workers’ legal rights, and the right to unionize.

“Migrants and refugees should receive careful consideration,  including the conditions that allow for dignified work and protections against trafficking,” he said, also giving special attention to closing the wage gap between sexes.

Unions must regain the voice of the unheard and be a line of defense for the vulnerable, especially the foreigners and the discarded, he said.

“Thus, the union should resist the temptation of ‘becoming too similar to the institutions and powers that it should instead criticize,’” said the bishop, quoting a statement to the Italian trade unions issued by the Holy Father last month.

Additionally, he said, the whole wellbeing of the worker, including their family life, should be promoted, respecting a proper amount of rest necessary for recovery and a parent’s bonding with their children.

A properly ordered understanding of work is crucial, the bishop said, “not only to understanding our work, but also to coming to know God himself.”

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CNA Staff, Mar 9, 2021 / 05:48 pm (CNA).- Following a nearly year-long sabbatical to attend to his mental health, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln explained his experience with depression, seeking help, and his return to his duties as a bishop.

According to Prime Matters, the bishop discussed engagement with mental health in a Zoom interview with Dr. James Link, a Catholic psychologist based in North Dakota.

Link said it is a difficult moment for a person to realize when they require external help with mental health and began the conversation asking the bishop when he decided the time was right to tackle depression.

“What was the pivotal moment where you felt, ‘This is more than I can manage?’ he asked.

Conley said the struggle did not happen all at once, and, instead, he spent about a year-and-a-half trying to soldier through this difficult time.

While his relationship with his family has always been strong and supportive, his father was a WWII veteran and a “self-made man,” he said noting that his sister and he were instilled with a can-do attitude. He said this is how he first encountered the struggle with mental health – “to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

As the McCarrick and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury scandals arose in 2018, he said a “sort of pall fell over the Church.” He then encountered local difficulties – having to remove some priests, undergo investigations into the diocese, close school parishes, and grieve the death of a young priest.

“Because I’m the bishop, I felt like I had to fix all these problems – I was praying, of course – but it was all wearing me down. I took all that pressure and stress upon myself,” he said.

“During the Second Vatican Council, when things were really uncertain in the Church and in the world, Pope St. John XXIII at night would pray, ‘Lord, it’s your Church, I’m going to bed!’ I would always advise people to do the same, but I wasn’t doing it myself. I wasn’t sleeping – and you can only go so long without sleeping. So I decided that I needed to find out what was going on.”

In March 2019, he was diagnosed with major depression disorder at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and soon began counseling and medication. However, he said, trying to pursue help on top of his episcopal duties only further deteriorated his mental state.

Finally, Conely discussed the problems with a familiar group of bishops: Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, and Bishop James Wall of Gallup. He was then convicted to take a break.

“We talked about it, and they convinced me to go talk to the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who was present for the meeting. He was wonderful about it. I told him everything … and he said, ‘You need to take a break.’ He was very positive and supportive.”

“So it was really my closest friends – I mentioned some of them, and there was another priest I had talked to a lot – who encouraged me to seek professional help.”

Over the 11-month sabbatical, Conley attended sessions with a Catholic psychotherapist, his spiritual director, a CMA psychologist, and a medical doctor. Additionally, he said, he regularly engaged in exercise, such as golf and hikes, and social interactions with very close friends.

“[My friends] live in Phoenix, and I was at their home about three nights each week. Just sitting down at the table and having dinner with a great Catholic family was so therapeutic,” he said. 

“They have great, healthy kids and are very involved at Ville de Marie, a K-through-12 Catholic school that Luke’s parents helped to found. That kept me grounded, and I always looked forward to that,” he further added.

Since Conley returned to his office Nov. 13, 2020, the bishop has continued to pursue self-care practices and make changes in his life to maintain his mental health. He said, when he returned, there was a line out the front door of people with a to-do list.

He said he has been practicing saying “no” to more things and managing his time better. He said he is trying to keep office hours from 10 am to 3 pm so as not to over exhaust himself.

“Right now, I don’t have the energy that I had a couple of years ago. I can’t take on as much as I used to, nor do I want to take on as much as I used to,” he said.

“What this experience of mental illness has taught me is that life is too short to fill every day up from morning to night, even when we’re filling the day up with good things. So, really, finding the right balance – a healthy balance – is an art. I’m still working on the exercise piece.”

The bishop said it is important to be aware of the activities that drain his energy and the roles of a bishop that are life-giving and fulfilling. He said while administrative tasks like emails are tiresome, his spiritual commitment to the community provides him with energy.

“Yesterday, for instance, was a great day. We started Catholic Schools Week, and I went down to a K-12 school in Nebraska City. We had an all-school Mass with adoration and a Eucharistic procession. They managed to fit all the students in the gym, 6 feet apart, and for the procession I took the Blessed Sacrament to the door of each classroom. The students stayed in the room, but they all got down on their knees for the Blessed Sacrament. That was a very beautiful, life-giving event for me,” he said.

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