I LOVE Father Dennis: The Pope of Rathbun Street

Pope Francis addressed Congress on Thursday of last week.He is the first pope to do so. He singled out four great Americans marking anniversaries this year whom he referred
to as "men and women of good will". He acknowledged "the complexities of history and the reality of human weakness" but went on to say that "notwithstanding, these men and
women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice-some at the cost of their lives-to build a better future. These men and women
offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves" The four Americans mentioned are Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. Lincoln and King are familiar to all of us but Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton may be less familiar or unknown entirely. Pope Francis said of Dorothy Day: " In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints." He went on to say of Merton: " A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a 'pointless slaughter', another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: 'I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him;
born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self contradictory hungers'. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time
and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions." Pope Francis concluded: "Three sons
and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God. Four representatives of the American people." The complete text of the pope's address to Congress can be found online and is worth reading. Another commentary on it can be found at :
http://www.cruxnow.com/papal-visit/2015/09/24/thoughts-onpope-francis-and-his-american-fan tastic-four/

- Fr. Dennis