Jubilee of the World of Volunteering

On Sunday 16 May 1999, Pope St John Paul II preached at a celebration of Mass to mark the World Meeting "Reconciliation in Charity". 

 I am very pleased today to welcome you, dear brothers and sisters, who have come in such large numbers for the Day of Charity organized by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”. I am very happy to celebrate the Eucharist with you and for you, remembering all the “witnesses of charity” who in every part of the world dedicate themselves to eliminating the injustice and poverty which unfortunately still exist in so many obvious and hidden forms. I am thinking here of the countless faces of volunteer service, of those whose work is inspired by the Gospel: religious institutes and associations of Christian charity, organizations for human development and missionary service, groups involved in the civil sphere, and organizations for social, educational and cultural work. Your activities embrace every area of human life and your actions reach countless people in trouble. I express my esteem and gratitude to each of you....

How could we fail to emphasize [the] divine source of service to our brothers and sisters? Yes, love of neighbour conforms to Christ's mandate and example only if it is joined to the love of God. Jesus who gives his life for sinners is the living sign of God's goodness; at the same time, through their generous self-giving Christians enable the brothers and sisters they meet to experience the merciful and provident love of the heavenly Father. 

 The world of volunteering has many different expressions. There can be very informal occasions for volunteering (eg the person who looks out for the needs of their neighbour and might occasionally shop for them); there are those situations where people volunteer to support a one-off kind of event (eg the Olympic Games or a World Youth Day); there are situations where an individual regularly spends time supporting a small scale initiative (eg helping on a weekly soup run in an inner city). There are also situations where an individual regularly commits a period of time within a more organisational context (eg volunteering within a formally established charity or visiting in a hospital or prison). And, in some instances, there is a kind of "professionalised" volunteering (eg by way of a placement or paid employment with a charity or non-governmental organisation). 

Whilst some will involve themselves in these activities from the kind of Christian inspiration described by Pope St John Paul II, many will do so without any specifically religious intention, and this is a feature to be borne in mind when we reflect on the world of volunteering. The United Nations, for example, marks an International Day of Charity on 5th September each year, the date chosen because it is the anniversary of the death of Mother Theresa.

The invitation to the Jubilee of the World of Volunteering, to be marked 8th-9th March 2025, reflects this variety:

Volunteers from all associations, members of non-profit organizations, NGO workers and social workers are especially invited to this jubilee event.

A Vatican News report ahead of the event can be read here: 25 000 pilgrims to gather in Rome for Jubilee of Volunteers.

There is an interesting dimension to some of these volunteering opportunities. In volunteering in a hospital, for example, or in port chaplaincy and ship visiting, the volunteer brings their religious inspiration (or at least a level of commitment to human dignity) into encounter with a professional context. In their activity, the volunteer needs to achieve a competence in the practices of the relevant professional context alongside their goodwill as a volunteer. 

A hospital volunteer needs to respect the processes of a hospital ward or department (infection prevention and control, for example), develop the skills to meet with patients experiencing different medical conditions and understand how their role exists in relation to the roles of clinical staff. A ship visitor needs to respect the security and safety requirements specific to docks and ships, and to have an understanding of the circumstances of seafarers who may spend many months of the year away from home but only a few hours in each port before sailing again. Prison visiting or industrial chaplaincy equally need a volunteer to engage with a specific professional competence.

One paragraph of the Jubilee Prayer can speak particularly to the World of Volunteering:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the power of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.

Reflections on Unity

Pope Benedict XVI offered a reflection on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at his General Audience on 19th January. A full English text can be found at ZENIT's website; the Holy See's website carries the full text in Italian, and only gives in English the English summary given at the end of the Audience.

Rather than quote extracts from the Holy Father's reflection, I suggest that you read it in its entirety.

I recall that, during Pope Benedict's meeting with Christians of other confessions during his visit to Cologne in 2005, the Holy Father drew attention to the unity that already exists among Christians by virtue of their common baptism. If I recall correctly, he asked his listeners not to underestimate the significance of this alreay existing unity. Pope Benedict seems to refer to this at the beginning of his Audience address:

We are celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in which all believers in Christ are invited to join in prayer to witness the profound bond that exists among them and to invoke the gift of full communion....Vatican Council II states "[t]hese prayers in communion are, without a doubt, a very effective means to implore the grace of unity and constitute a genuine manifestation of the bonds with which Catholics remain united with the separated brethren: 'For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them' (Matthew18:20)"  ("Decree Unitatis Redintegratio," No. 8).

[Later in his address, when discussing the question of inter-communion, the Holy Father points out that Christians are still "very far" from the fullness of unity willed by Christ for his disciples.]

The Holy Father then unfolds the theme of this years Week of Prayer -  "And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42) - in a representation of four characteristics of the unity of the Church. It is interesting to summarise his development of the theme by comparing it to the last sentence of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church n.161:

The Church has but one faith, one sacramental life, one apostolic succession, one common hope and one and the same charity.

The care with which Pope Benedict expresses himself is worthy of note. Prayer for unity among Christians is not prayer for the re-unification of the Church - objectively, the Catholic Church considers her unity to have not been lost. Instead, the prayer is one for the achievement of full communion among those who are Christians. The Pope's affirmation that:

...every effort made for the building of unity between Christians passes through the deepening of fidelity to the depositum fidei which the Apostles transmit to us. Firmness in the faith is the basis of our communion, it is the basis of Christian unity.

is diplomatic, but interesting, in this context.

Another aspect of Pope Benedict's words that I would like to draw attention to is the discussion of fraternal communion. Within my own experience, there are two areas of pastoral action in which joint action with Christians of other denominations is very much taken for granted. One is hospital visiting, where certainly some NHS hospital trusts have "generic visiting" arrangments (these arrangments are supported by denomination and faith specific referral and chaplaincy arrangements). In my experience, most of the visitors who undertake the regular ward visiting are Christians, though in principle other faiths also participate. The second is ship visiting in ports, where the Apostleship of the Sea works closely with other Christian organisations. In both contexts, the way in which Christians of different denominations work alongside each other means that "more patients are visited" and "more ships are visited" as a result.

Communion with God, made flesh in fraternal communion, is translated, concretely, in social effort, in Christian charity, in justice.

This ordinary level of common action between Christians is, in my view, a more genuine expression of ecumenical activity than special services or preaching exchanges.

Three asides on evangelisation

If the Church's mission of evangelisation is carried out at different levels, should a criterion of evaluation relevant to one level of that mission be applied to an action being carried out at a different level? This is a question prompted by three situations encountered in the past week.

The General Directory for Catechesis, published by the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy in 1997, describes the process of evangelisation in nn.47-49, referring to the fuller account of its different stages given in the Vatican II decree Ad Gentes on the missionary activity of the Church:

The Church, while ever containing in herself the fullness of the means of salvation, always operates "by slow stages". (n.6) The conciliar decree Ad Gentes clarifies well the dynamic of the process of evangelization: Christian witness, dialogue and presence in charity (nn.11-12), the proclamation of the Gospel and the call to conversion (n.13), the catechumenate and Christian Initiation (n.14), the formation of the Christian communities through and by means of the sacraments and their ministers (nn.15-18). This is the dynamic for establishing and building up the Church.

First aside

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom is clearly going to operate at a number of levels from the point of view of evangelisation. In the circumstances of our country, I believe that the level of witness, dialogue and presence in charity might well have a larger significance than in Pope Benedict's visits to other countries.

In this light, it is my view that the criticisms of Archbishop Nichols being expressed at Catholic and Loving it (and perhaps elsewhere), over his reference to the delicacy of the mission that Pope Benedict has undertaken in coming to Britain, are plain wrong. Presence in charity as a level of the process of evangelisation requires a discretion appropriate to time and place, and that this should be exercised in the context of Pope Benedict's visit is not a surprise.

Is the criticism applying a criterion appropriate to primary proclamation or catechumenate to the level of presence in charity?

Second aside

This week I heard a trenchant criticism of the new English translation of the Roman Missal. This related most directly to the text of prayers such as the Opening Prayers, where the new translation is closer to the Latin, generally longer than the translation presently in use, more demanding in its grammatical structure and more sacral in its language. [We had just been comparing the Latin, present English translation and the new "Grey Book" English translation of the Opening Prayer for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time.] The criticism made was that, if the Liturgy was to be effective in evangelisation, its language should be simple and easy to understand, and so we should stick with the present translations.

However, the role of the Liturgy in the process of evangelisation is only partly at the level of primary proclamation; it is also, and perhaps more importantly, at the level of formation of the Christian community. The need to engage more fully with the text in order to understand and experience its meaning, and to have access to its essentially sacral nature, is quite appropriate to this level in the process of evangelisation.

Did this criticism apply a criterion for primary proclamation to the level of formation of the community?

Third aside

An article in the June issue of Faith Today describes the work of the Apostleship of the Sea at Teignmouth.

The ship's name - the Maria - is clearly visible on its side, and its seamen are on deck, preparing to throw ropes to the dock-hand. When a ship arrives into port there are certain formalities that have to be gone through, and waiting on the quayside are a customs officer and someone from the harbourmaster's office.

But standing there too are a couple of smiling women in high-visiblity jackets and white hard harts: and as the ship docks they wave to the sailors, and move closer so that they can chat. The men, it turns out, are Russian: one of them calls out in his native tongue. He looks astonished when one of the women on the quay answers in Russian, smiling broadly...

Oleg Kovalev, the Maria's electrical engineer, wants to say goodnight to his daughter Alina, seven. "I haven't called her for almost a week but it's nearly her bedtime so I need to do it quick", he explains. Liuba is already on the case, exchanging his Euros for sterling and explaining how to get to the shop that sells top-up cards, and is still open.

This example, does, I think give an indication of the power that presence in charity has as a part of the process of evangelisation.

Piracy and the situation of seafarers

The news of the hijacking of a large oil tanker in the Indian Ocean has brought to the attention of the media the vulnerability of seafarers to piracy. Their job already has enough hazards, so the addition of this unwelcome human hazard is particularly severe.

Piracy in this area of the world is not a new phenomenon. I recall coming across it a couple of years ago in the literature of the Apostleship of the Sea, the international Catholic agency that supports people of the sea. This page on their website gives an idea of the difficulties facing seafarers in today's world. Add piracy to this, and you have quite a hard life!

Two years ago I had an opportunity to join a port Chaplain in ship visiting. This literally involves walking onto a ship in port, introducing yourself as visiting from the Apostleship of the Sea ("Stella Maris" - Star of the Sea - must be one of the earliest and most widely recognised international brands!), and talking to crew members who you have never met before. The warmth of welcome we recieved was exceptional. The appreciation seafarers show to the work of ship visiting is quite special. On one visit, a Ukrainian crew member working on a small bulk carrier criss-crossing the English Channel showed as a video of his family, made in his home town of Odessa. Effectively, he gave two strangers the nearest thing he could to a guided tour of his home town, including an introduction to his family. He had made the video to take away with him to remind him of his home.

Often the conversation during a visit to a ship turns around practical issues like phone cards, where can we go if we do get some time on shore (increasingly rare, as even large ships can turn round in port in a matter of hours, and security concerns make it difficult for seafarers to leave their ships). When things go wrong (such as seafarers not being paid), a ship visitor can be a vital source of friendship and support in a tense or confrontational situation.