Year of Prayer for Priestly Vocations, Eucharistic revival highlight upcoming priorities for local Church, shepherd says
DETROIT — Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said the Archdiocese of Detroit “is on the right track” in becoming a more evangelism-minded Church five years since the publication of his pastoral letter Unleash the Gospel.
The archbishop summed up the efforts the archdiocese has undertaken in the years since Synod 16 during the Pentecost Vigil on June 4 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, where the archbishop’s homily has become an informal “State of the Union” address for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
“It was over five and a half years ago that we celebrated the synod,” Archbishop Vigneron said during his homily, “and I give God thanks that the graces of the synod are still alive, still vibrant in the life of our archdiocese.”
Months after the 2016 archdiocese-wide synod at the Westin Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit, the archbishop released a pastoral letter, Unleash the Gospel, as a blueprint for the archdiocese's efforts to create a “band of joyful missionary disciples,” including reforms for parishes and schools, efforts to bolster individuals' and families' faith lives, and reorganizing the curia and Archdiocesan Central Services to place an emphasis on “mission over maintenance.”
The three-day synod gathering was full of prayer, discernment and discussion about what the Church needs to do to spread the Gospel in the 21st century, a process Archbishop Vigneron said is very much in line with Pope Francis’ vision of a synodal Church.
“As Pope Francis says, part of who we are as the Church is to be on mission,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “This grace is bearing much good fruit in our archdiocese. One of the things I’m really grateful to God for is I have received word from the cardinal in Rome who is in charge of the universal synod, to say that our own synodal path is very much what the Holy Father has in mind and hopes for in all churches throughout the world.”
It was during the 2014 Pentecost Vigil when Archbishop Vigneron asked the local Church to pray for a “new Pentecost,” with the Holy Spirit inspiring the faithful to be bold in proclaiming Jesus Christ as the savior of the world, just as the apostles did when they left the Upper Room after the Holy Spirit descended upon them.
Since then, the archbishop has used the Pentecost celebration as a chance to update the faithful on measures to make the Church more missionary, from the releasing of the pastoral letter to the creation of Families of Parishes last year, and now with the Year of Prayer for Priestly Vocations.
“I can attest we who work in the curia and the Central Services of the archdiocese have kept our focus on the synod,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “We have asked ourselves day in and day out this question, ‘How are we serving the mandate of the synod? How are we supporting the synod?’
“We had taken great effort and made great strides to see the services we offer in the curia are focused on helping parishes be missionary communities, alive with a zeal for the Gospel,” Archbishop Vigneron added.
On the parochial level, Archbishop Vigneron, in his role as a “steward of the graces of Synod 16,” said he’s pleased with the progress parishes have made in implementing Unleash the Gospel, despite unforeseen challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the realignment of parishes resources with Families of Parishes.
“I do not think we have succumbed to what seemed a danger; that the synod might just be one more program done for a short time and then put on the shelf,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “It forms a way for us to integrate new initiatives, such as the Eucharistic revival that all the dioceses of the United States are engaged in. It forms the context for us to think about and engage in our prayer for priestly vocations.
“I can, in my responsibility as a steward, say that we have changed our DNA, and it continues to change,” the archbishop exclaimed.
But as the Church takes up new initiatives, such as participating in the national Eucharistic revival or engaging in a Year of Prayer for Priestly Vocations, all of it is done in with the same spirit that was present during Synod 16, he added.
“Of
course, there remains much more to be done, and that is one the principal gifts
offered to us who keep this vigil tonight,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “This
liturgy is imitating Our Lady and the disciples who were in the Upper Room with her. We are asking anew for the power of the Holy Spirit, the fire of the
Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
The Pentecost Vigil featured a reading from Genesis of the Tower of Babel, when God confused the language of man and caused them to scatter.
When the apostles came out of the Upper Room speaking many languages after the Holy Spirit descended upon them, they were correcting the confusion of Babel, speaking the same language — the language of the Gospel.
“We call upon the Holy Spirit to help us speak one language,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “It’d be great if it’d be all one (verbal language) — I don’t know, you pick the language we might want to choose — but that’s not what this story is all about. The language we all need to speak is the language of the Gospel; the whole people of God needs to speak of Christ.”
Other readings from the liturgy, from Moses promising the Israelites God would make them a holy nation, to Ezekiel asking if God can bring dry bones to life, and the Lord promising the prophet Joel to “pour out His spirit upon all flesh,” culminate in a similar theme that was announced in the Gospel according to John: The world thirsts for God.
“Everyone thirsts for eternal life. Everyone is born thirsting for meaning. Everyone is born thirsting for peace. Everyone is born thirsting to be loved and to be able to love,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “And the Holy Spirit is the only water that can quench that thirst.”
Pentecost marks the end of the Easter season, and the beginning of Ordinary Time. But in a year of praying for priestly vocations and of preaching the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it is also a time for new beginnings.
Hours after Archbishop Vigneron led the faithful in a Holy Hour to pray for an increase in priestly vocations, and weeks before he will lead a Eucharistic procession from the cathedral to Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Archbishop Vigneron said he is giving God thanks ahead of time for all the graces God is about to bestow upon Detroit.
“We give God thanks and praise for what the Holy Spirit has accomplished since that first Pentecost and has done in every new day of Pentecost since then,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “So we follow the example of the great boast as a priest to serve in this diocese, Blessed Solanus, and we give God thanks ahead of time for what (God) will do to help us live in inspiration to the call, the summons of Synod 16.
“This day, this Pentecost, is the day the Lord had made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.”
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