Mary Novak serves as the Executive Director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. Mary gave this talk to a gathering of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests on June 22, 2022. Mary also serves as advisory board chair for the Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
Decenter and Transcend: A Priesthood for the Healing of our Church and World
Thank you for the kind introduction Sr. Jackie. I am sincerely grateful for the invitation to join you these days. Thank you to AUSCP’s leadership and all those whose hands came together to organize this gathering. Thank you to Sr. Michelle for the prayers we so needed today.
I am honored today to lead NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, founded by Catholic Sisters 50 years ago in the Spirit of Vatican II. NETWORK is an organization that has rarely if ever been accused of suffering from the malady of Holy Spirit Atheism (as Dan framed yesterday). Thank you AUSCP for previously honoring my predecessor, Sr. Simone Campbell, and by so doing, honoring all of the women religious whose legacy of cooperating with the Spirit of Vatican II we at NETWORK today live out of as we engage the sometimes treacherous terrains on Capitol Hill. It is so good to witness AUSCP honoring Sr. Jeannine Gramick, another Sister who has modeled the virtue of courage so essential to our Church today.
My gratitude to Dan for the land acknowledgement yesterday, and to Bishop John and Dan for masterfully laying the theological grounding for what I will be offering you today. While we did not directly collaborate, I think you will see that we did cooperate with the Holy Spirit as we each prepared for our time with you because of the deep resonances I hope you will see. Finally, Cardinal Turkson, we are looking forward to your plenary this afternoon. Thank you for your leadership in this time of real opportunity in our Church.
As I am deeply Ignatian animated and formed, I want to name that I am pivoting from the Franciscan perspective of Monday night and Tuesday to the other one out of which our Pope Francis proceeds. And so, I must begin with Jesus . . .
Appearing to the apostles in the Upper Room, our Risen Christ says “Peace be with You” and proceeds to model reconciliation in all of his encounters – from the encounter on the road to Emmaus, to that with Peter by the sea. In these post- resurrection stories, Jesus leads with listening, deep listening. This listening and reconciling is what Jesus models before he sends his disciples out, before he missions them. The Church continues this work of Christ’s peace and reconciliation in the world today.
This morning, I am going to offer an approach to you my brother priests for thinking about, and living more fully into, this mission of Christ today. I will start by exploring peacebuilding as the Church’s vocation and the need to live into that vocation in the U.S. today. I will then touch on how the synodal process has been preparing us as a Church for this mission of peacebuilding and then frame how your role as priest is critical to this vocation through some examples of peacebuilding in our Church lived out through restorative justice practices both here and abroad.