January 27, 1973
The bishop was late.
Of course, he was almost always late.
His diocese was huge, with few paved roads.
In 1973, a “highway” in his almost 7,000-square-mile section of Chile was a thing of hallucinations and fantasy. (We’ll return to his late arrival in about 400 words. First, some background.)
Ordained a priest in 1944, Carlos Gonzalez was named Bishop of Talca in 1967; a child of the countryside and without pretensions, he served the people of a diocese that was as expansive as it was remote for just shy of thirty years.
While my experience of him was fleeting, two of his most profound pastoral acts forever imprinted themselves – and him – in my heart and mind and soul.
Almost as soon as Pope Paul VI approved the ordination of married men to serve as “permanent deacons” (to preach, baptize, officiate at marriages, but not celebrate Mass or hear confessions), Bishop Gonzalez began training married deacons to serve throughout the priest-short diocese.
As, I suspect, with many of the things he did, there was, of course, a twist.
Men – and their families – being considered for this ministry quickly discovered they had a house guest.
Candidates for the diaconate and priesthood must be “viri probati” – “men of proven virtue.”
And the bishop has his own unique response to that requirement. A man of the countryside (the campo), he’d unroll his sleeping bag in a corner of the candidate’s home and move in with the family. For a week.
The best way to know a man’s real character, the bishop reasoned, was to see how he treated and lived with his wife and children.
Wow!
The bishop’s second mindblower came with his decision to ordain a man whose father died while he – the future priest – was still in late grade school. Forced by these circumstances to become the primary breadwinner for his mother and younger siblings, he apprenticed himself to Talca’s plomeros - plumbers. Decades later and by happenstance (or Divine Intervention), he met Bishop Gonzalez and described his still persistent – despite extremely limited education - desire to be a priest.
Not a problem for Bishop Gonzalez.
He arranged a team of tutors who, over time, provided the plumber with all the practical “advanced theological education” he might need to serve the People of God.
One restriction.
He was ordained to serve the two or three blocks-wide – north, south, east and west and all the corners – neighborhood of the home he still shared with his mother, whom he continued to support as a plumber, and the plomeros of Talca.
I still smile at that wondrous response to “the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
We met for the first time in the bishop’s pastoral office; I was being “presented” by the pastor of the “way, way beyond nowhere” parish that was my first “assignment” in Chile.
At the end of the “audience” – that’s what the pastor called it, Bishop Gonzalez grabbed me by my left elbow, allowing the pastor to walk out first, and whispered, “We’ve put Padre X (He’s long dead but, I won’t use his name.) there in Hualane because that’s where he can do the least harm.”
Alright!
Thanks for the warning!
Turned out Padre X was half-a-dozen-face-cards-short-of-a-full-deck. He had burned out long, long ago. In those days, however, a missioner was expected to die with his boots on and still fightin’ the good fight.
On the bumpy ride back to Hualane, Father X startled me with a statement and a question: “The bishop is coming for Confirmation the Sunday after next. Would you take charge?”
January 27, 1973!
Trouble! “With a capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with…” (Sorry. Got carried away for a second.)
January 27, 1973!
Dating to St. Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386 CE) and his “catechism” – literally a series of “how to” instructions for newly baptized Christians – and affirmed by the Council of Trent (1545-1563 CE), the Sacrament of Confirmation has a place in the traditions of the Roman and Anglican/Episcopalian Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Churches. In Eastern Christianity (Orthodox Churches) it is called “chrismation” – a reference to the oil “chrism” used in some sacraments – and administered immediately after baptism. In the West, it is sometimes referred to as the Sacrament of Christian Adulthood or maturity or coming of age.
Cyril of Jerusalem referred to the Sacrament as the one in which Christians become “soldiers” in the army of Jesus Christ. And that tradition – soldier – endures today. But…
July 27, 1973…
Was the date of the Paris Peace Accord, officially “ending” the War in Vietnam.
At least in theory, it marked the first day in decades without a major war somewhere in the world.
There I was waiting for the bishop to arrive.
We were already on more-than-friendly terms after his subtle elbow tug and I was going to use that to my advantage. Escorting him to a back entrance of the church and not giving him time to put on his vestments, I told him, “Oye, chico. Ven aca!” - “Hey, kid. Come with me!”
As I showed him the sanctuary, I explained: “The Parish Peace Accord is being signed today. It’s the first worldwide day of peace in years and I don’t want you to tell these people they are being confirmed as ‘soldiers of Jesus Christ.’”
Bishop Gonzalez stood frozen in place. Not by my words. By the sight of the sanctuary, filled with saddles, picks, hoes, sewing machines, textbooks and school desks, every type of instrument used to tend the grape vines just yards away. All the instruments and stuff of everyday life in this isolated Chilean countryside parish.
“I want you to tell them they are being confirmed as workers, laborers building the Kingdom of God and His Justice,” I ordered – or as much as a twenty-eight-year-old seminarian can order any bishop, even the affable Bishop of Talca.
Mass, the bishop’s sermon (during which he captured some but not all of my ideas) and the Rite of Confirmation continued normally. As we washed his hands (water and lemon juice were the traditional cleansing elements for the chrism oil), Bishop Gonzalez stared at me with a look that read “I didn’t do a very good job, did I?” Then, he sat on the steps to the altar and spoke about everything in the sanctuary, especially the old, well-worn woman’s sidesaddle like the one used by his mother when he was just a kid in the campo.
He spoke of his parents and grandparents, of the holiness of the people’s labor, of the sacredness of calloused hands from which the stains will never wash out and wearied bodies; the vocation of every man and woman to build the Kingdom of God and His Justice. He spoke of the strength and holiness of God’s overlooked and forgotten people.
Sitting there, speaking of the examples of his parents and grandparents, of the campesinos and obreros with their eternally labor-stained hands, this perpetually late bishop gave loving and respectful expression to the Gospel and the Church and Her teachings:
“The dignity of others is to be respected in all circumstances, not because that dignity is something we have invented or imagined, but because human beings possess an intrinsic worth superior to that of material objects and contingent situations. This requires that they be treated differently. That every human being possesses an inalienable dignity is a truth that corresponds to human nature apart from all cultural change. For this reason, human beings have the same inviolable dignity in every age of history and no one can consider himself or herself authorized by particular situations to deny this conviction or to act against it.”
Pope Francis. (Fratelli Tutti. On Fraternity and Social Friendship. October 2, 2020)
“The amount a worker receives must be sufficient, in proportion to available funds, to allow him and his family a standard of living consistent with human dignity.”
Pope John XXIII. (Pacem in Terris. Peace On Earth. April 11, 1963)
"The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice, particularly today, require that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner".
Pope Benedict XVI. (Caritas in Veritate. Charity in Truth. June 29, 2009)
"Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter."
Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. (Dignitas Infinita. On Human Dignity. April 2, 2024)
“If we look upon the dignity of the human person in the light of divinely revealed truth, we cannot help but esteem it far more highly; for men are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, they are by grace the children and friends of God and heirs of eternal glory.”
Pope John XXVII. (Pacem In Terris. Peace on Earth. April 11, 1963)
“Human beings too are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life and happiness, and endowed with unique dignity.”
Pope Francis. (Laudato Si. On Care for Our Common Home. May 24, 2015)
There, surrounded by school desks, saddles and farm tools older than he was, the perpetually late bishop echoed Jesus:
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13)