“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. IfI, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed yourfeet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have givenyou a model to follow, so that as I have done for you,you should also do” (John 13:12-15).

I. Prologue1. The Church Sharing! A beautiful couplet of twowords that are indispensable to, inseparable from,and incomplete without each other.

2. In my first pastoral letter, The Church Alive!, Ireflected with you, the faithful of the Church ofPittsburgh, on how of all the titles of the Church,none is more profound and all-encompassing thanthe Church being the Body of Christ.

3. Before His Ascension into heaven, Jesus com-missioned, entrusted, and emboldened His disciplesto “go and make disciples of all nations, … until theend of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). In doing so,and until the end of time, Jesus remains with us inHis Body, the Church.

4. In this pastoral letter, The Church Sharing!, I askyou, my faithful sisters and brothers, to join me inreflecting upon how we can best support each otherin the name of, and with the heart of, Christ in thesedifficult times of economic duress.

II. Whatever You Do for These LeastOnes, You Do for Me5. How imperative that the Church, as the Body ofChrist, be The Church Sharing. After all, sharing is adivine activity, an action of Jesus Himself.

6. By His incarnation, by becoming like us in allthings but sin, Jesus didn’t simply share in our humannature. By His incarnation, Jesus shared divinity, Hisdivinity with us, so that we, you and I, could becomemore like Him, more like the image God the Fatherhad created us to be, more to the dream and the goalthat the Holy Spirit hungers to make possible in us.

7. By His teaching, Jesus shared with us the GoodNews, the Gospel, of how deep, wide and forever isGod’s love for us. Throughout the hundreds, even thou-sands of years before the birth of His Son in the littletown of Bethlehem, God, through the patriarchs, kingsand prophets, through the leaders of His chosen people,throughout the Old Testament, God revealed himself tothe human race with unconditional love. It took sendingHis only Son in human form to teach the message once

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and for all. The completion and fulfillment of God’s rev-elation is seen in the person of Jesus Christ.

8. By His actions, through His miracles, by Hiscompassion, in His listening, by way of His chal-lenges, Jesus shared the powerful model of a faith notsimply spoken, but a faith genuinely lived; not sim-ply a word spoken from the heavens, but the DivineWord made Flesh:

9. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him” (John 1:1–3).

10. By His suffering, death and rising from thedead, Jesus shared the promise of life without end toall who would believe.

11. Sharing, then, truly is a divine activity, anaction of Jesus Himself. Through and in Christ, Godshares Himself with us. We are drawn into the verylife of God, which is Love itself.

12. When I was a youngster growing up a halfcentury ago in Ambridge, I would take exceptionwhen people assumed that, as an only child of mybeloved parents, I was spoiled. I resented the stereo-type that “an only child” didn’t know how to share.As a matter of fact, nothing could be further from thetruth. My parents were strict. I knew it then! I appre-ciate it now! My parents were people of the Church.They learned from the Church the lesson of sharing.Together with the Church, they taught me that lessonwell. It was the same lesson that Jesus taught His dis-ciples. It was the same lesson that His disciples hand-ed down through the millennia to us:

13. “I ask you, how can God’s love survive in onewho has enough of this world’s goods, yet clos-

es his heart to another in need? Little children,let us love in deed and in truth and not merelytalk about it” (1 John 3:17–18).

14. Wasn’t that the point of Jesus’ lesson to His dis-ciples when He taught:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me,ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35–36).

15. And when asked:

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feedyou,

or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome

you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit

you?” (Matthew 25:37–38)

16. Then Jesus answered:

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for oneof these least ones, you did for me” (Matthew25:40).

17. The Church, our Church, The Church Sharing—is described so beautifully in the Acts of the Apostles:

“The community of believers were of one heartand one mind. None of them claimed anythingas his own; rather, everything was held in com-mon. With power the apostles bore witness tothe resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and greatrespect was paid to them all; nor was there any-one needy among them, for all who ownedproperty or houses sold them and donated the

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proceeds. They used to lay them at the feet ofthe apostles to be distributed to everyoneaccording to his need” (Acts 4:32–35).

18. And then, Saint Luke continues:

“Throughout all Judea, Galilee, andSamaria, the church was atpeace. It was being built upand was making steadyprogress in the fear of theLord; at the same time itenjoyed the increasedconsolation of theHoly Spirit” (Acts9:31).

19. We can never forgetthat the Diocese ofPittsburgh, as is the casewith all local Churches,was born from the soil ofthe early Church, theChurch reaching out toserve those in need.

III. Facing “HardTimes”20. When I think of theDiocese of Pittsburgh, Ithink of a Church sharing,reaching out to servethose who are in need.This is the nature of theChurch of Pittsburgh in allsix counties of ourDiocese. It is neighbor-hoods, churches and schools that care for those inneed without asking questions, without asking any-thing in return. It is about us making history now aswe have done in the past.

21. A long time ago—nearly 80 years ago, during thefirst years of the Great Depression—people inPittsburgh were out of work, kids were going hungry,the elderly were being forgotten. It was a time whenhope had almost disappeared, and men and women

viewed their world with quiet desperation asall the old certainties were falling apart:

the job at the mill, food on the table,a decent place to live, a plan for

the future. All these good thingsthat only a few years before

had been the expectationwhen a person faced a newday were no longer there.They held onto their faithin God, but it was hard tohave faith in anythingelse.

22. And then cameanother tragedy in aPittsburgh communitythat seemed to have noheart for any moretragedies. On July 24,1931, just an hour aftereveryone had gone tosleep, fire broke out at ahome for the needy elder-ly people operated by theLittle Sisters of the Pooron Penn Avenue inLawrenceville. Forty-nineof the elderly poor wouldbe killed by that fire,another 175 injured.

23. The city was shocked by the horror of it all. In toomany ways, it summed up the tragedy of theDepression itself. Innocent victims consumed bysomething that they didn’t understand, couldn’t con-

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“He poured water into a basin and began to washthe disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel

around his waist” (John 13:5).

trol, hadn’t caused. The bodies of those who diedwere taken away for burial by relatives. All, that is,except for eight victims, who lay in the morgue,unknown and unclaimed. This had been a home forthe aged poor, after all, and it shouldn’t be surprisingthat some were without anyone, not even someone tobury the dead. Homeless folkswith nowhere else to go, theyhad been forgotten outside thewalls of their last shelter.

24. Bishop Hugh Boyle, thesixth Bishop of Pittsburgh,stepped in. He brought theirbodies to Saint Paul Cathedralwhere he would preside attheir funeral Mass. And thensomething amazing happened.

25. At that Mass on August 3,in the midst of the Depression,eight homeless and poor folk,whose past was known only toGod, were remembered by oneof the largest crowds ever togather at Saint Paul Cathedral.The people of the city filledevery pew. They spilled outonto the sidewalks and streets.Catholics and Protestants,Christians and non-Christians,believers and non-believers,they had come together to paywhat respects they could to the remains of eighthuman beings lying in donated caskets. It was as if thecity itself was coming together to come to terms withits grief over the fire and, perhaps even more so, tocome to terms with the Depression itself.

26. The story does not end there. A week after thefuneral, Bishop Boyle went on the radio—the first

Pittsburgh bishop to do so—to ask for help. The LittleSisters of the Poor and those whom they served werehomeless. It may have seemed a fool’s errand at atime when so many had nothing to even care for theirown. But the bishop asked for donations to build anew home for the Sisters and those they served. He

said they would need$300,000 to rebuild. Withinthree months, the people ofPittsburgh contributed that,and more.

27. Like our ancestors of thisstory many decades ago, weare facing hard times in themonths ahead, maybe even inthe years ahead. No one reallyknows how long and that ispart of the worry itself. Whatjobs will be lost? How highwill the unemployment rateclimb? Knowing that behindevery percentage point thereare thousands of human sto-ries, how many more will losetheir homes? We know thepoor that we have with usnow—their fears, their needs,their desperation. How manymore will be among us tomor-row? Will hard times meanthat hope is hard to come by aswell? These are the kinds of

questions we go to sleep with each night and wakewith each morning.

28. But then I remember those crowds eight decadesago filling Saint Paul Cathedral to honor the eightunknown poor. I think of people who had so littlethemselves, giving pennies, nickels and dimes torebuild a home so that the Little Sisters of the Poor

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“You and I, all of us, need to be reminded of our need toshare in this important action

of Jesus, in this important activity of the Church. As we continue to be inspired by the Scriptures,

this is an obligation, not an optional interest.”

could care for those in need. I think of Pittsburgh—people of every race, color and creed—reaching outto those who need help. And I realize and I take hopein the knowledge that this is the Pittsburgh as truetoday as it was those many years ago—a Churchpoised to help those in need, The Church Sharing.

29. This is the Pittsburgh I know and love. This is thePittsburgh you know and love.

30. The time will come when economic experts willbetter understand what caused our current problems.They will devise long-term solutions. But in the hereand now, we have to turn toward each other—to findout what we can give and what we need. This is notthe time to struggle alone. This is a communal chal-lenge we face together, not alone.

31. We know that our faith is lived in and throughothers. We are all connected in grace. We neverknow who will touch us and whom we will touch.None of us knows when we get up in the morningexactly what the day will bring. But one thing can becertain. Each day is a time of grace, and grace will beencountered in the people with whom we will sharethat day.

32. When we talk about sharing—a divine activitythat is an action of Jesus Himself and of His Body, theChurch—we are not being simply sentimental. Realsharing is that glimpse of the divine love that existsfrom our Creator and through His Son, the Wordmade Flesh in our Church, in our lives and in ourworld. People are God’s tender mercy in our lives,our chance to live out—and experience—His sharing.

33. Yes, sharing is a divine activity, an action ofJesus Himself. And not for Jesus alone: For His Body,the Church, and for you and me as an important partof the Church. Not an option, but a necessity! Thistheology derives from our Baptism—when we died

with Christ to be reborn as children of God. Christgave His life, which resulted in the glory of theResurrection. The divine activity of sharing mirrorsthe glory of the Resurrection, when death is trans-formed into life.

34. Hard times are here. We, the Church ofPittsburgh, are called to be The Church Sharing, justlike Bishop Boyle and the generous “angels” of theChurch of Pittsburgh and beyond back in 1931. Weare called to be a community that cares. There are nobarriers here, no conditional love. Because we areThe Church Alive—The Church Alive in Pittsburgh.

IV. A Church with a History of Sharing35. Our diocese has been a vibrant force in this com-munity since the first Holy Mass was celebrated atthe Point of the Three Rivers on April 17, 1754. Inevery generation, the Church of Pittsburgh hasresponded to the needs of the community. Waves ofimmigrants have been welcomed, new parishesestablished, schools and orphanages built, hospitalsfounded. The Church remembers the words of ourSavior: Be attentive to “the signs of the times”(Matthew 16:3). The Church of Pittsburgh is aChurch Sharing.

36. The Church of Pittsburgh has always been afriend—very often the only friend—to those in need.In 1910, Archbishop Regis Canevin organized themany private Catholic works under the name of the“Conference of Catholic Charities.” It included theLittle Sisters of the Poor who cared for the indigentand aged, the Roselia Foundling Society, the Homefor Working Girls, Saint Paul Orphanage, and manymore. The Church of Pittsburgh is a Church Sharing.

37. At that time, Catholic Charities served 1,200families. They were names received from other char-ities, kind business people and even newspaperreporters who would tell the tale of a family in trou-

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ble. Nearly 100 years later, Catholic Charities servesmore than 80,000 people each year, supplyingeverything from free health care for the poor, to help-ing with gas bills to keep a home heated. The Churchof Pittsburgh is a Church Sharing.

38. The struggles today are cause for worry. But theyare also our way to seek out and live God’s will forus in our own day.

39. When I embraced my responsibilities as yourBishop a year and a half ago, I could never have imag-ined that I would be writing a pastoral letter focusedon the moral, spiritual and practical dimensions of aneconomic crisis whose length and depth have yet to befully realized, yet to be fully understood. The econom-ic crisis didn’t seem a possibility then, let alone a real-ity. Less than a year and half ago, few observers fore-saw the precipitous declines we have witnessed. TheChurch as a whole, and individual bishops like me,are not economic specialists. But the Church in herfaith and rich tradition of 2,000 years is an expert inhumanity and the human and divine act of sharing.

40. We live in a time when no forecast is certain.We do fear that unemployment could reach levelswe have not seen in decades or more. We do fearthat more people will lose their homes, their savingsand their pensions. We do fear a significant increasein the demand for basic needs assistance. We do fearthe rise of the unemployment rate in Pittsburgh, upsharply from a year ago. We do fear the loss of thebasic necessities of life, with food banks challengedto serve longer lines of families at their door.

41. Pastors in our Diocese tell me of more and morefamilies coming to our churches, looking for help inpaying rent, in meeting the gas and electric bills, orin getting food. Catholic Charities, the charitable armof our Diocese, last fall had already exhausted itsbudget for emergency assistance for individuals and

families when they were only half way through thefiscal year. However, when I called for a special col-lection from you last December to help restore, atleast in part, the resources they use to help familieson the brink, you responded very generously.

42. We who live in the Greater Pittsburgh regionand western Pennsylvania are no strangers to eco-nomic struggle. Indeed, people in our area have beendealing with serious economic circumstances for thelast 40 years. The loss of jobs in basic industries likesteel lowered our incomes, drove up poverty rates,and hollowed out the populations of our towns alongour rivers. My home town of Ambridge was one ofthose casualties, as well as the neighboring commu-nities. During that time, when I was serving atQuigley Catholic High School, I saw firsthand theeffects of an economic downturn in the lives of mystudents. They faced great hardships in family life.People were compelled to move away to find work.Our population stagnated and became increasinglygray. As we know all too well, these are the humanconsequences behind the economic statistics.

43. During those times, we didn’t lose sight of the tollon our neighbors, coworkers and family membersalike. Nor can we lose sight of that toll today. We alsoknow that people recovered from the economic devas-tation that confronted this region. With faith and deter-mination, the community, the city of Pittsburgh andsome of our local towns rebounded to build newopportunities and restore jobs and a measure of pros-perity to our region. Most of all, we came to knowagain that coming together, working together, being apeople of faith together, and sharing together canrestore hope in the most seemingly hopeless times.

V. “Our Brothers’ and Sisters’ Keepers”44. A time of serious economic crisis also calls for atime of spiritual reflection. It is a time to recognize theways in which our Faith challenges us to act, to share

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not only when those around us are suffering, but as weare suffering too! Faith—looking for and recognizingour need for God—is so necessary for all of us affectedby our economic situation. Faith in God leads to hope,even when hope is hard to find.

45. In his beautiful encyclical of 1991,Centesimus Annus, the late Pope JohnPaul II stated: “Sacred Scripturecontinually speaks to us of anactive commitment to our neigh-bor and demands of us ashared responsibility for all ofhumanity” (51). In the life ofFaith, we are obliged to beattentive to the needs of ourneighbor, to be sure. Yet,Scripture not only encour-ages this divine activity ofsharing, but demands it.And not only for the careof our neighbor, but alsofor the well-being of thehuman family itself.

46. In his World Day ofPeace Message beginningthe calendar year of 2009,Pope Benedict XVI wrotethat we must have “theclear recognition that weall share in a single divineplan: we are called toform one family in whichall—individuals, peoplesand nations—model theirbehavior according to theprinciples of fraternity and responsibility” (2).

47. When we bishops of the United States gatheredin Baltimore last fall for our semiannual meeting, we

expressed support for all people being hurt by the cur-rent economic crisis, using words rooted in the Bookof Genesis: “We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keep-ers” (cf., Genesis 4:9). In that passage, the Law wasreceived by Moses on Mount Sinai resounding with

the Divine command to be responsible forone another—to share with one another.

The God of Israel encourages Hispeople to “be holy, for I, the Lord

your God, am holy” (Leviticus19:2). In describing Himself,

the Lord emphasizes that he isOne “who executes justicefor the orphan and widow,and befriends the alien,feeding and clothing them.So you too must befriendthe alien” (Deuteronomy10:1819). “You shall loveyour neighbor as yourself.I am the Lord” (Leviticus19:18).

48. God profoundly andat the same time simplymakes the point: Share.For sharing is a divineactivity. Sharing is theaction of Jesus.Responsibility for otherpersons, then, is stretchedfar beyond our own sib-lings, family, religion,even our own neighbor-hood, city or nation.Echoing that tradition,Jesus asks: “If you love

those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (Luke6:32) Love must reach out to everyone we meet onour journey through life. It must include sharing withanyone with whom we share the pilgrimage of life.

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“Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’Jesus answered him, ‘Unless I wash you, you will

have no inheritance with me’” (John 13:8).

49. In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, PopeBenedict more than mused on a summation of theteaching of Jesus on love as a lived experience in ourlives and for its importance in the world today. Heunfolds this understanding of love as “first and fore-most a responsibility of eachindividual member of the faith-ful” (20). The Holy Father alsonotes that love of neighbor,grounded in love of God is “aresponsibility for the entireecclesial community at everylevel” (20), a responsibility ofthe Church to share.

50. In terms that clearly reflectthe teaching of Jesus on theimportance of “discipleshiplove” that goes beyond expecta-tions, the Holy Father remindsus that “we are dealing withhuman beings, and humanbeings always need somethingmore than technically propercare. They need humanity.They need heartfelt concern”(31). Whether we act as individ-uals or as faith-filled and faithfulmembers of the family of theChurch, we must be recognizedby our “heartfelt concern” andour sharing of “the richness of … humanity” (31).

51. The point that Pope Benedict makes so clearabout us as individuals in the Church, he also makesclear about leaders of society as well. He does soagain in his World Day Message for Peace 2009,when he writes: “If the poor are to be given priority,there has to be enough room for an ethical approachto economics on the part of those active in publicoffice and an ethical approach to participation capa-

ble of harnessing the contributions of civil society atlocal and international levels” (12).

52. Clearly, as the Church shares with all, it alsoinvites the society-at-large to share in efforts working

together to meet the needs ofthe needy.

VI. Solidarity53. Once again, we see abeautiful example of this kindof sharing in our own dio-cese’s history. In the heart ofthe Depression of the 1930’s,Father James Cox, a priest ofthe Diocese of Pittsburgh sta-tioned at Old Saint PatrickParish in the Strip District,found his church full of peopleneeding help every day, peo-ple looking for food and all thenecessities of life. These hard-working folks had nothing left,their lives in ruins from an eco-nomic disaster they couldnever understand.

54. So Father Cox, who wasalready well known for hisradio preaching, began a freesoup kitchen, as did many pas-

tors and religious leaders, Catholic and Protestantalike. Father Cox went further. He soon organizedfree haircuts, free shoe repairs, free medical services.He had a distribution center that shared milk fornutrition, coal for heating, and food for survival forfamilies in need. Soon, the vacant lots around SaintPatrick Church were vacant no more! The poor cameto live in ramshackle shacks, close to Father Cox! Ina scant four years, it was estimated that Father Coxdistributed over two million meals, a half million

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“You and I can’t retreat into ourselves. ... You and I can’t holdback from others. You and I can’t

be held back from others. Youand I have to be servants. You and

I have to be served. You and Ican’t refuse to help. You and Ican’t refuse to accept help.”

food baskets, and 40,000 free haircuts. This was theChurch as the Body of Christ, sharing in the divineactivity, an action of Jesus Himself.

55. This action of the Church, guided by the HolySpirit, has been reflected upon throughout the courseof our 2,000-year history as a Church. In the latenineteenth century, Pope Leo XIII in his 1891encyclical Rerum Novarum, reflected on theChurch’s sharing in the divine activity of Jesus at atime when laboring men and women were facedwith difficult working conditions in the emergingindustrial world. Popes since Leo XIII have led theChurch to bring forth from her storehouse a set ofCatholic social teachings which, despite their diversi-ty of topics, always center on the dignity of thehuman person, created in the image and likeness ofGod. At the heart of this teaching is the moral andtheological virtue of solidarity and a preferential, fun-damental and essential option for the poor—a divineactivity, an action of Jesus Himself in and through HisBody, the Church.

56. You and I, all of us, need to be reminded of ourneed to share in this important action of Jesus, in thisimportant activity of the Church. As we continue tobe inspired by the Scriptures, this is an obligation,not an optional interest. As Saint James said in hisepistle: “If a brother has nothing to wear and no foodfor the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go inpeace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not givethem the necessities of the body, what good is that?So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, isdead” (2:1517).

57. Sharing with each other is more than a vaguefeeling of compassion for the less fortunate. Sharingis a frame of mind and heart which recognizes thatwe all need each other. Sharing finds its foundationin doing what Jesus did when He walked the earthand what He continues to do through the Church.

Sharing finds its moral outreach in a commitment tothe common good. As Pope John Paul explained inhis encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis:

58. “In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to gobeyond itself, to take on the specificallyChristian dimension of total gratuity, forgivenessand reconciliation. One’s neighbor is then notonly a human being with his or her own rightsand a fundamental equality with everyone else,but becomes the living image of God the Father,redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ andplaced under the permanent action of the HolySpirit. One’s neighbor must therefore be loved,even if an enemy, with the same love withwhich the Lord loves him or her. … At thatpoint, awareness of the common fatherhood ofGod, of the brotherhood of all in Christ—’chil-dren in the Son’—and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit will bring to ourvision of the world a new criterion for interpret-ing it. Beyond human and natural bonds,already so close and strong, there is discerned inthe light of faith a new model of the unity of thehuman race, which must ultimately inspire oursolidarity. This supreme model of unity … iswhat we Christians mean by the word ‘com-munion.’” (40).

59. As Pope Benedict said on the occasion of thetwenty-second World Youth Day in Australia, it isimportant for us to exercise solidarity with all thehuman family, being “creative in charity, perseveringin your commitments, and brave in your initiatives,”so that each of us can offer a “contribution to thebuilding up of the ‘civilization of love.’ The horizonof love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!” (8).

60. When we as the Church commit ourselves tosharing with the suffering, we can anticipate that newcreation where “the old state of things is gone” (2

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Corinthians 5:17). The “old state of things” is a worldof exaggerated individualism and consumerism gonewild. It also often—and sadly—exists side by side witha purely secularist view of the human person andhuman society in general. And so importantly, and incontradiction to this secularism, is the Gospel of Life,the respect of all life from the first moment of concep-tion to the last breath of natural death.

61. In that “old state of things,” the individual isencouraged to think of himself or herself as a totallyself-reliant, self-determining “rugged individual,”competing against others in the modern world’squest for personal wealth, power and prestige. Bycontrast, the follower of Christ sees the world as theplace to share, recognizing in each person the veryface of Christ. When we meet Christ in the other,Christ calls us out of our isolated selves. When wemeet Christ in the other, Christ extends our hand toother members of the human family who deserve thehelp we are obliged to offer. When we meet Christ inthe other, He gently opens the hands of the recipientsto receiving help and by so doing increases their owndignity, not diminishing it.

62. To share is to imitate the compassion of JesusHimself, who encourages us instead to be “rich inwhat matters to God” (Luke 12:21). Sharing with thepoor, then, is not a social virtue alone. It is nothingshort of continuing the work of Jesus Himself. It is,pure and simple, embracing the same trust that Jesusgave to His disciples shortly before His Ascensionand continue His work of growing His Church.

VII. We Must Give … We Must Receive63. Recently, I had the humbling experience of join-ing our seminarians as we served steak dinners to anumber of guests who came to the Jubilee SoupKitchen in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. So many ofour guests that day commented that it was the firsttime in their lives that they had eaten steak. Their dig-

nity that day, by their own admission, was increased!So was the dignity of our seminarians! So was my dig-nity as Bishop! In our action, we met Christ. In ouraction, those served also met Christ.

64. During the Great Depression, a soup kitchenhad been set up at the Chancery on South CraigStreet in Oakland by Bishop Boyle, who lived nextdoor near the Cathedral. The story is told that thebishop’s mother was visiting her son one day.Looking out the chancery window, she noticedsomething and called to her son, “Hughie, there’s apoor old man out there who has had two mealsalready and is back in line for a third!” Bishop Boylereplied, “I had no idea the food was that good. I amgoing to get some myself!”

65. Each year during the traditional season of Lent,every follower of Jesus is invited by Him to do threespecific actions. Sharing is recognized, along withprayer and fasting, as a very important means to pre-pare for the Risen Lord. Sharing is an essential obli-gation of Christian life not only during Lent but24/7/365. When we give, we can’t ask how much istoo much. Nor can we ask if someone has gotten inline too many times.

66. Early in the Acts of the Apostles we see that thedeacons were charged with making certain that theneeds of those in need were being addressed.Sharing finds expression today in giving attention tothe common good, in a preferential option for thepoor, and in promoting the rights of people not onlyto the bare necessities of life, but also to their right tofull dignity as intended by God the Father and theCreator of all. A sense of solidarity, the promotion ofsocial justice, and a commitment to sharing, eachand all are seen in both our individual acts and in ourcollective efforts as Church. These acts of sharing arenew forms of almsgiving that the Holy Spirit hasgiven to us through the Church.

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67. As we together face serious economic troublesand suffering, I invite you, the faithful of the Churchof Pittsburgh, to join me to consider almsgiving, toshare from the bottom of our hearts and to reach outto the needs of the needy.

68. Give generously to Catholic Charities. Give gen-erously to your parish and allthat it supports. Give generous-ly to the Saint Vincent de PaulSociety and all the Catholicagencies that are doing suchgood. Give generously to allsocial services regardless ofreligious affiliation or no reli-gious affiliation that are doinggood in our community. Givegenerously of your time. Givegenerously of your talent. Givegenerously of your treasure, for“where your treasure is, therealso will your heart be”(Matthew 6:21).

69. It is not my intention toshare with you some plati-tudes. It is not my intention topaint any rosy pictures about aless materialistic world. Thesetimes we face are rough. Weare in this together as individu-als and as Church. To say thatwe are in this together is to recognize our under-standing of what the Church is, what it means to beChurch, and what it means to say that sharing is adivine activity, the action of Jesus Himself continuedin His Body, the Church.

70. We are the Church of Pittsburgh together inChrist. Every parish, every Church-related institutionand, most important, every Catholic is an integral

part of this Church of Pittsburgh. I hope that no oneof you is tempted to try to get through these hardtimes alone. Through the sacrament of Baptism weare one people, and we are all in this together, as theBody of Christ.

71. You and I are called to be servants. You and I arecalled to extend the hand ofservice as the hand of JesusHimself to anyone who is inneed, to every person wholives in our “world”—no mat-ter his or her faith, or no faithat all. Caring for every need,sharing in response—this iswhat we find in every cornerof the six counties of ourDiocese. It is who we are.

72. You and I must facethese hard times together inChrist. In a very real way, itmeans that you and I can’tretreat into ourselves. You andI can’t expect to find all theanswers on our own. You andI can’t expect those in need tobe able to get along withoutus. You and I can’t hold backfrom others. You and I can’t beheld back from others. Youand I have to be servants. You

and I have to be served. You and I can’t refuse tohelp. You and I can’t refuse to accept help. Howimportant for us to remember what Jesus did at theLast Supper when He donned an apron and washedthe feet of His disciples. And when done, Jesuscharged them and us:

73. “Do you realize what I have done for you? Youcall me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for

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“I invite you, the faithful of the Church of Pittsburgh,

to join me to consider almsgiving,to share from the bottom of ourhearts and to reach out to the

needs of the needy.”

indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master andteacher, have washed your feet, you ought towash one another’s feet. I have given you amodel to follow, so that as I have done for you,you should also do” (John 13:12-15).

VIII. Epilogue74. There is a story about Pope John Paul II that wasaired during the silver jubilee of his electionto the papacy. Perhaps it was sharedbefore that special event, but it wason that auspicious occasion thatI heard it for the first time.

75. On his first trip back tohis homeland of Polandfollowing his election,Pope John Paul facedmany challenges, perhapsthe greatest being the cal-culated resistance againsthis visit by theCommunists who heldpolitical power at thetime and who were fool-ish enough to think thatthey could hold powerover Christ and the Pope,the Vicar of Christ onearth.

76. But the one challenge that snuck up on JohnPaul, the challenge that he didn’t see coming until itwas actually upon him, occurred as he was beingdriven to the airport to fly back to Rome. It was theend of his first pilgrimage to his homeland.

77. He was with a good friend in the car. He quick-ly came down with a heavy dose of “homesickness.”He realized he was leaving his “former” home to goback to his new “home” in Rome. John Paul was

uncharacteristically quiet in the car. He said nary aword to his friend. His friend knew why. When hisfriend turned to John Paul, the friend saw the symp-toms of the homesickness—tears rolling down thePope’s cheeks. When he got out of the car, the Popeclimbed the stairs to the plane, never looking backwith the tears still gently lining his face.

78. Later the Pope would reflect on thosetears borne out of love for his people.

But in those tears, he would recallthe many tears of people all over

the world, and not just inPoland, who needed him—to be the Vicar of Christ, tobe Christ’s voice, to beChrist’s hands, to beChrist’s heart, and to chal-lenge the Church as theBody of Christ to do andbe the same.

79. It can be said thathumanity’s greatesthope—and greatest fear—is that Jesus meant exactlywhat He said. He saidthat we must love Godand show that love to ourneighbor.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, andall the angels with him, he will sit upon his glo-rious throne, and all the nations will be assem-bled before him. And he will separate them onefrom another, as a shepherd separates the sheepfrom the goats. He will place the sheep on hisright and the goats on his left. Then the king willsay to those on his right, ‘Come, you who areblessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom pre-pared for you from the foundation of the world.

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“I have given you a model to follow,so that as I have done for you,

you should also do’” (John 13:15).

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I wasthirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger andyou welcomed me, naked and you clothed me,ill and you cared for me, in prison and you vis-ited me’” (Matthew 25:31–36).

80. Remember how they responded, those goodpeople. They looked around, stunned. They had nomemory of doing such things.

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feedyou, or thirsty and give you drink? When did wesee you a stranger and welcome you, or nakedand clothe you? When did we see you ill or inprison, and visit you?” (Matthew 25:37–39)

81. The point of Jesus’ teaching?

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for oneof these least ones, you did for me” (Matthew25:37–39).

82. My sisters and brothers of the Church ofPittsburgh and beyond, look around with me. Look

into the eyes of everyone whom you meet. These arepeople whose tears are looking for the compassion-ate and sharing response of Jesus through you,through me.

83. Join with me in sharing, a divine activity, theaction of Jesus Himself through His Body the Church.And when we are bold enough and caring enough tolook into the eyes of those in need, may we treatthem as if they are Christ; may we treat them as if weare Christ—in and through The Church Sharing!

Grateful for our belief that “Nothing is Impossiblewith God,” I am

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend David A. ZubikBishop of Pittsburgh

February 25, 2009Ash Wednesday

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1. Bishop Zubik describes The Church Sharing! as“a beautiful couplet of two words that are indis-pensable to, inseparable from, and incompletewithout each other” (1). What does it mean to bea sharing Church?

2. The bishop mentions the Ascension of Christtwice during his pastoral letter. The Catechism ofthe Catholic Church teaches that in the Ascension“Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes usinto the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we, themembers of his Body, may live in the hope of oneday being with him for ever” (666). How does theAscension of Christ inspire you to serve?

3. Christ’s ministry can be understood as an act ofsharing, Bishop Zubik suggests. “Sharing is adivine activity,” he writes, “an action of JesusHimself” (5). What has Christ shared himself withyou? How can that sharing help you serve others?

4. In describing the diocese’s response to the GreatDepression, the bishop reminds us thatPittsburgh and its people have weathered similarcrises with deep devotion to God and care foreach other. “This is the Pittsburgh I know andlove,” he writes. “This is the Pittsburgh youknow and love” (29). What do the stories of serv-ice he tells have to teach us today? How canthey help us meet the struggles we face?

5. The bishop notes that one of the most disturbingaspects of the economic crisis is that its “lengthand depth have yet to be fully realized, yet to befully understood” (39). How can our faith helpus to cope with the uncertainty that we face as aChurch? How can we deal with the fears thatmany of us have for our jobs, pensions, andfutures?

6. Drawing on the words of Saint Paul, Bishop Zubiknotes that “the old state of things”—particularlythe climate of economic selfishness and con-sumerism that has characterized recent Americansociety—“is gone” (60). How could this momentbe a blessing for the Church? In what ways doesit ask us to change our own lives? How can webe “rich in what matters to God” (Luke 12:21)?

7. Bishop Zubik urges us to meet the demands oftoday together. We can’t retreat into ourselves, hewrites. “You and I can’t expect to find all theanswers on our own. You and I can’t expect thosein need to be able to get along without us” (72).How can we learn to share? What are the barriersto helping others? How can we break through theisolation that surrounds us to serve each other?

8. Sometimes it is more difficult to ask for helpwhen we need it than to give help to others.“You and I have to be servants,” the bishopteaches. “You and I have to be served. You andI can’t refuse to help. You and I can’t refuse toaccept help” (72). What can be difficult aboutasking for help? How can we learn to accept theassistance of others with grace and humility?

9. “It can be said that humanity’s greatest hope—andgreatest fear—is that Jesus meant exactly what Hesaid. He said that we must love God and show thatlove to our neighbor,” the bishop writes (79). Whois our neighbor? How can we be “our brothers’and sisters’ keepers” (cf., Genesis 4:9)?

10. Bishop Zubik ends his letter by calling us to findways to share: “I invite you, the faithful of theChurch of Pittsburgh, to join me to consider almsgiv-ing, to share from the bottom of our hearts and toreach out to the needs of the needy” (67). What arepractical ways that we can share with each other?

Questions for Discussion