Feast of St. Andrew

December 1, 2011

November 30, 2011

Feast of St. Andrew

Last July 28th marked the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Stanley Rother, the diocesan priest from Oklahoma who inspired Goods of Conscience. Recently his cause for sainthood has advanced to Servant of God. He would be the first U.S. born male saint. His story of a shepherd who died for his flock in Santiago Atitlán is humbly heroic. Please devote time this Advent to offer this prayer for his cause and remember Goods of Conscience in your intention.

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, in every generation you raise up men and women heroic in love and service. You have blessed your Church with the life of Stanley Rother, priest, missionary and martyr. Through his prayer, his preaching and his pastoral love, you revealed Your love and Your presence with us as Shepherd. If it be your will, may he be proclaimed by the universal Church as martyr and saint, living now in your presence and interceding for us all. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Since last March, when I delivered a paper on the subject at the University of Notre Dame, I have been more and more devoted to the work of writing a theology of sustainability toward an encyclical. Last month I met with Archbishop Dolan, who, among other things, brought the proposal for the encyclical to the Holy Father on his ad limina visit. He mentioned during the audience that blending “eco-sustainability and social-sustainability” is our uniquely Catholic take on the issue.

Of the four principles of Goods of Conscience: individuality, common good, subsidiarity and preferential option for the poor, the Archbishop singled out subsidiarity as a lesson he recently learned in Haiti through the head of CRS who said, “we needed to heed our own principles in our quest to help others. Specifically, after the earthquake Haiti needed food. We sent down food in abundance but in doing so we erased their capability of providing food for themselves. We potentially left them worse than they were in the beginning.” The silent approach of poverty into America is a prophetic moment to move into a new era of doing the good by making it ourselves. Goods of Conscience offers unique message of a permanent solution.

Stay tuned for good news.

Fr. Andrew O’Connor