I recently came across the U. S. Bishop’s Paper, published in 1993, titled Communities of Salt and Light. It was, perhaps, not a coincidence that, within a year of George’s assignment to Joan of Arc, the Bishops published this paper on the social mission of the parish. The paper ends with the following paragraph.
The bishops continue, “In too many parishes social ministry is a task for a few, not a challenge for the entire parish community. The parishes that are leaders in this area see social ministry, not as a specialized ministry, but as an integral part of the entire parish. They weave a Catholic social mission into every aspect of parish life, worship, formation and action. Our parishes are clearly called to help people live their faith in the world, helping them to understand and act on the social dimensions of the Gospel in their everyday lives… The most challenging work for justice is not done in church committees, but in the secular world of work, family life, and citizenship.” And here we thought George was thinking about these things all by himself!
And here, I think, is where George really took the document to heart. “Pastors and Parish Priests have special responsibilities to support integral social ministry. By their preaching, participation, and priorities, they indicate what is important and what is not. They can make it clear that social justice is a mission of the whole parish, not just a preoccupation of a few. They are called to teach the authentic social doctrine of the universal church”.
The document addresses the importance of collaboration in parish life. It reads, “Committees and coordinators best serve parishes by facilitating and enabling the participation of the parish community, rather than simply doing the work on behalf of the parish. We also need to try to practice in our own parishes what we preach about justice and participation… Parish plans and priorities are expressions of justice. Just personnel policies, fair wages and equal opportunity efforts are expressions of justice - respecting and responding to the cultural and ethnic diversity of the communities we serve is an expression of justice - recognizing the contributions and welcoming the participation of all members of the parish, regardless of race, gender, ethnic background, nationality or disability, (and again, George would add sexual orientation and religion) are integral elements of parishes seeking justice.”
I was really pretty blown away when I read this 1993 U. S. Catholic Bishop’s document, Communities of Salt and Light, as it seemed to describe so well what St. Joan of Arc has accomplished with George. Little did I know as we were living the process that George was actually using the U. S. Catholic Bishops as his guide. A pretty clever guy, that George Wertin – following the bishops’ teachings so quietly, so unassumingly, that no one even noticed, not even the bishops who wrote it! Putting meat and flesh on the bones of Catholic social teaching and then breathing air into them to make us a vibrant, active, bold and strong organism. Maybe we should let the bishops know!
And now as he’s going into retirement, I’m not sure what teaching he’ll be following, but we know he’ll be studying something. And certainly he’ll be writing. George, I have an idea for you. It’s about prophetic voice. The bishops don’t mention it at all in their document. Perhaps, just maybe, it’s because they think prophetic voice is for the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith at the Vatican. But George, you could help them see it differently, after all, the doctrine is 13 years old, and as we all know, we can learn a lot in 13 years!