CCHD benefits programs here in Diocese of Sioux City

Nov. 15, 2007

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We give thanks and praise to God, source of all good things, for the many blessings He pours out upon us. As we look forward next week to the celebration of our national holiday of Thanksgiving, we should remember that God gives us so much, not only for our own good, but also for the good of all. How can we extend the blessings He has given us to be good for others?

In the Mass readings for this Thirty-Third Sunday, we hear again of the justice of God. For justice to flourish, we must have two levels of commitment. Socially, we must be attentive to all our needs, especially of the least among us. We must have the courage and solidarity to respond with self-sacrificing compassion and generosity to the reality of poverty, especially moral poverty, as often as we find it. As long as we await the return of our Lord in glory, there will always be human need, and so there will always be the absolute demand to work for justice: by charity in the face of poverty, and by action to mitigate the sources of poverty.

Spiritually, however, justice surpasses both charity and action. Just as the "wages of sin is death," justice is the fruit of a society overcoming sin. For an individual, there is no greater sin than pride: placing one's own will above God's will. For our society, pride takes the form of defining who is human and who is not; in other words, of thinking that the sovereignty of the people extends to the moral realm. Moral truth is part of the beneficent gift of God to all, a universal blessing like sun and rain and the productivity of the earth. Moral truth is objective, universal, and knowable by the light of reason: it "waters the heart of the just" like rain on a field of corn. To seek true justice, we must have the courage and dedication to our Lord to defend moral truth on behalf of all our brothers and sisters. We must live it ourselves with great integrity, and we must advocate it ceaselessly in the face of the prideful rejection of it by the world we live in.

The great moral challenge of our day is dehumanization. We are asked constantly to believe that the suffering of someone else doesn't matter. We are supposed to accept as meaningless (and therefore as unobjectionable) the suffering of the unborn slain in the womb, or of the very ill hastening their own deaths, or of the elderly abandoned to loneliness, or of the immigrant starving for work and food, or of the homeless, the destitute, the prisoner, the disabled. It doesn't matter, we are told; they're not us, not human like us, they don't count.

Christ's suffering on the Cross proves that this is not true. He suffered for us, so that we need not bear that burden. In His Passion, all human suffering is embraced and purged of death. In Him, all suffering is elevated and made a potential means of sanctification. There can be no meaningless suffering.

The Church teaches that we should practice charity in the face of immediate suffering, and right action to mitigate the historical causes of suffering, and holiness of life in every way to mitigate sin itself. The Church also acts on her own teachings: first, through her people placed in the religious and secular world as leaven, giving a humble example to others, as St. Paul says of himself in this week's reading; and second, through pious societies and associations dedicated to these means of transforming the world.

At all the Masses this weekend, we will take up a special collection for Catholic Campaign for Human Development. CCHD is one of these associations of the Church. It is the active arm of the Church in the United States to redress the historical causes of poverty, physical and moral. Last year, the generosity of the faithful made available more than 11 million dollars for community organizations and programs. Two of the organizations awarded grants are active within our own diocese. One, Iowa CCI, is a grass-roots organization advocating family-friendly and environmentally responsible agricultural and business practices. The other, Immigrants' Rights Network of Iowa and Nebraska, seeks to support and protect immigrant families and to integrate them into the local community. Furthermore, 25% of the donations of our parishioners remain in the Diocese of Sioux City. We use this money to help meet the needs of our Hispanic and Vietnamese Catholic communities throughout the diocese.

CCHD does not replace the charity of direct, individual response to immediate needs. Nor can it accomplish transformation of the world apart from our collective efforts to live as holy followers of Christ, to live His life within us. But as one part of our three-fold response to the reality of poverty among us, the work of CCHD is good and useful. It is a worthy means of extending to many others the blessings which God has given to us so generously. I ask each of you to support this collection, especially with your prayers, and also with your means. Please consider whether you might contribute the equivalent of one day's wage, or at least one hour's wage, for this cause.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ plow up the stoniness of our selfish hearts, so that we may all share more fully in His holy, eternal, perfect life, and be means of conversion for our neighbors to love Him also. May He bless you still more abundantly with every good thing, and give you joy in your life with Him. Please pray for me and for all the leaders of our Church, as we look forward to next week's consistory in Rome and the coming of Advent!

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City