 |
|
|
Machebeuf’s Gospel zeal at work in new evangelization, bishop says
By John Gleason
Pioneers who settled the West were by their nature courageous, hearty people who traveled to unknown and sometimes wild territories to bring civilization to an untamed land. Pioneer settlers created the first farms and ranches, while pioneer traders laid the foundation for trade and commerce—and pioneer missionaries brought the word of God.
On April 5 a crowd of 100 people gathered in Bonfils Hall of the John Paul II Center in south Denver to hear about Colorado’s pioneer bishop as the 2010-2011 Archbishop’s Lecture Series concluded with the presentation, “The Legacy of Bishop Machebeuf.” The talk was given by Bishop Joseph F. Martino, retired bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., who now teaches Church history at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.
Bishop Martino told the audience the life of Bishop Machebeuf in Denver and other dioceses has been well documented.
“Perhaps in the future some scholar will discover more on this point or that point of his life, but I want to concentrate on what we know already about him,” he said.
Three years after his ordination in 1836, Father Machebeuf arrived in Ohio where he did parish work in the Diocese of Cincinnati. Later he traveled to New Mexico in where he served as pastor in Albuquerque and Santa Fe from 1853 to 1860 before being sent to Colorado. He was named bishop in 1868 and died in 1889 at the age of 76. During his time, Catholics in Colorado climbed from a few thousand to 50,000.
In 1860 there were two priests in Colorado. By the time Bishop Machebeuf died there were 64. At the time of his death there were 54 churches, 53 chapels and 85 mission stations. From the first religious sisters he had recruited, there were 168 caring for the sick in 11 Catholic hospitals, teaching in nine academies for young ladies and 16 parish schools. In all, 4,028 students were receiving formal education in Catholic schools.
Bishop Martino drew a chuckle from the audience when he said that Colorado’s first bishop was “constitutionally incapable of inactivity.”
“What does this tell us about evangelization in our day?” Bishop Martino asked. “The Church is a living entity, not a museum. …Our mission is to learn from the past and cooperate fully with God’s grace, his great commission—to announce the good news of Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Martino said the Church’s missionary task also means that we continually renew ourselves to Christ and bring the good news to those who practice the faith, those who have lapsed from it and those who do not share it.
“Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI insist on referring to our current missionary efforts as the ‘new evangelization,’” he said, “but there is nothing new about the good news of Christ. He has already revealed all truth to us and done everything necessary to redeem us.”
The “newness,” Bishop Martino said, comes in the form of ardor, method and expression. Ardor, he explained, is the need to rediscover the soul of evangelization. Regarding methods, he noted that channels are now open to us that didn’t exist before. For expression, Bishop Martino posed the question: What are the particular hungers of our hearts in the new century?
“I believe that our age is very troubled and thirsts in particular for good news,” Bishop Martino said. “In (Christ), we will overcome sin and death. This is not mere optimism, this is our faith.”
It was spreading the Gospel—the good news—that Bishop Machebeuf was concerned about and, according to Bishop Martino, if he was a success at establishing parishes and schools, it was because he wanted his people to hear the good news.
“Machebeuf wanted people to meet Jesus Christ in and through the bishop and the Church,” Bishop Martino said, “even if he had to travel many, many miles to bring Jesus Christ solely to a small band of Catholic gold and silver miners.”
Jack DeLine, a parishioner at St. Louis Parish in Englewood, was one of the attendees at the lecture.
“The key to the new evangelization is to have the same spirit that Bishop Machebeuf had to not be afraid,” he said. “He traveled to the mountain passes and mining towns all over the state of Colorado. Why not do the same thing today?”
Another member of the audience was Bishop Machebeuf High School Principal Jessie Skipwith, who was taken with the correlation of the hardships faced in the 1860s and the work that needs to be done in the Archdiocese of Denver today.
“We’re living out (Machebeuf’s) legacy,” he said, “reaching kids where they are across various social media, from all social economic groups and cultural backgrounds. We’re living out the new evangelization.”
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||