On Monday, September 23, the Social Ministry Institute was held at the Cardinals' Great Hall on the campus of St. Paul Seminary. The keynote speaker was Dr. Jonathan Reyes, the executive director of the U.S. bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. His address spoke to the theme of the day, "You are all witnesses."
I was free to drive in for a portion of the day, to listen to Dr. Reyes' talk and to stay for lunch. Through the kindness of Helene Paharik, who serves both the diocesan office of Human Life and Dignity, and as Associate General Secretary, I was able to meet Dr. Reyes and have some time to converse with him.
Dr. Reyes came to the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] in December. He followed John Carr, who served as executive director of the same office (under several different names) for 25 years. John retired in June 2012. He is now director of an institute at Georgetown University, dedicated to increase lay involvement in the work and implementation of Catholic social teaching. I knew John as an acquaintance, having attended for ten years the annual USCCB-hosted national Social Ministry Gathering in Washington, D.C. each February. Over the years I had also had opportunities to break bread with John, when he came to Pittsburgh for various talks.
Over the past decade, John Carr became a lightning rod for criticism from certain Catholics for allegations which ranged from association with pro-abortion groups, to leading the U.S. Catholic bishops astray, to out-and-out heterodoxy. I hasten to add I don't believe these accusations for a moment, and think that these criticisms are false, harmful, poisonous and possibly libelous.
When Dr. Reyes' appointment was announced in September 2012, it was greeted with huzzahs from the right, and fear from the left. Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter questioned Dr. Reyes' "thin resume" and lack of experience in the ways of lobbying in the hallways of Congress. Amy Sullivan, in The New Republic (who knew anyone at The New Republic cared about the Catholic Church, even to criticize it?) expressed the opinion that this appointment was signaling that the U.S. bishops would pull back from an anti-poverty agenda. On the other hand, blogger Micah Murphy cheered the appointment as "earth-shattering" and a move away from the example of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, and what he lebeled "Post-Exposure Seamless Garment Syndrome." (Do you think he likes the "seamless garment" pro-life metaphor of Cardinal Bernadin?) Another blogger, Fr. Z (John Zuhlsdorf) showed his support of Reyes and rejection of Carr by sarcastically annotating the Sullivan blogpost. Both Murphy and Zuhlsdorf implied that Carr was not orthodox in his thinking, if not out-and-out in favor of abortion.
Meeting Dr. Reyes was something other than this internet flaming. He is a charming man, disarming with his smile and admission that, yes, his appointment by the U.S. bishops was "a non-traditional" appointment. He is an historian by trade, with a Ph.D. in European history from Notre Dame. He taught at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, got into administrative posts there, and then was named to direct the $35 million budget of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. He told me that his friends on the left are skeptical of his associations with conservative Catholics; his friends on the right can't understand his hands-on advocacy of service to the poor, and founding of "Christ in the City," a ministry in Denver to bring college-age students in direct care of the poor, within a supportive Church environment.
Dr. Reyes admitted to me that he has a lot to learn about public policy and lobbying, and trusts that his staff at the USCCB can teach him a lot. But he also was frank to say that he brings a more evangelical perspective on the work of the bishops' conference, and the opportunity to bridge the divides between left and right in the church. His conversation with me was peppered with the healthy "both-and" of Catholic social thought. (For example, we Catholics both oppose abortion and euthanasia, and support pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants and healthcare for all. We oppose so-called gay marriage, and support more peace-building initiatives. We oppose war, and support a family wage and increases in the legal minimum wage.) I sensed that Dr. Reyes was not going to back down from the social justice and human life teachings of our church and our bishops. He was interested, at the same time, of deepening the Gospel-based motivation of those who work in promoting peace, justice and human life for all human beings, and being honest that (unlike the days of Great Society and War on Poverty) today government may not always be the best vehicle to carry out this work.
Dr. Reyes' talk for the Social Ministry Institute gave hits of his emphases It was more a sermon about the new moment of the Catholic Church to bring the Gospel into the world, and the furthest from a public policy snoozer. It was "evangelical" in the classical theological meaning of the word, and not in the U.S. political sense.
I enjoyed my 40 minute conversation with Dr. Reyes, and am glad that Helene Paharik made it possible to meet him. I am not shy to say that I highly admire John Carr, and the labors he did over a quarter-century with the bishops conference, and all the national and international initiatives he participated in, carrying out the Catholic Church's mandate to serve the poor and needy, to bring peace and justice and freedom to our sin-filled world. But maybe there is something to be said for some slight tacking in the practical means the church in the U.S. pursues justice and peace. My heartfelt prayers go out to Dr. Jonathan Reyes in his new position. I pray also for his highly competent staff at the Department for Justice, Peace, and Human Development, the bishops who serve on the Domestic Justice and Human Development and International Justice and Peace Committee, and all who want the Catholic Church to bring Christ's call for "liberty to captives" to life in our world.
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