Diplomatic Corps - Tracy Moran

God Has Used This Sinner
One of the toughest commandos in the army of Christ the King is a humble 83-year-old priest.

The Catholic Church is going through Her most serious crisis in 2,000 years," says Jesuit Father John Hardon. Coming from this learned 83-year-old, such a statement must be accepted for all its stark, terrible truth. Listen to this wise man, whom Mother Teresa called "the holiest priest" she knew. His eyesight may be dimming, his hearing fading, but his wisdom and his gift for teaching the Faith remain vibrant. For decades he has worked doing what he humbly calls "odd jobs for the Vatican." Don't be fooled. His marching orders, direct from the Holy Father, are monumental: restore the Faith, strengthen it where it's weak and promote Eucharistic adoration. He carries out his task well-aware of what he is up against — a Church under attack by the media, which teaches people to separate their conscience from God, and by government.

"The media tells us each person's mind is his or her own and final judge of what is true," he says. "Each person's will is the final judge of what is good. I, not God, choose what I want. And God can mind His own Divine Business." The state, too, seeks to destroy the Faith, says Father Hardon, who unhesitatingly says that "one of the most harmful Marxist nations in the world today is the U.S. We are becoming a godless nation."

"Who is replacing God? The state is telling us what to believe. The greatest challenge the Church faces is the widespread paganization of one once-Christian country after another. So many in power do not want anyone to tell the state what is true, what is false, what is sin. In one nation after another, innocent unborn human life is being destroyed. There is strong, widespread opposition to the most fundamental principles of the Natural Law."

This conflict, he adds, is nothing new, having begun with Christ's condemnation by Pontius Pilate. "Pilate made the Apostle's Creed to remind us for all time that the powers of evil use the state to undermine the Church's divine right to teach the truth." Despite these dire circumstances, Father Hardon knows that "the Church will thrive."

"Her strength is twofold," he explains. "First, for the mind, the Catholic Church is in possession of the truth. And second, Her faith in the presence of Jesus Christ on earth in the Holy Eucharist. The Church will survive only where there are still bishops, priests, religious and laity who believe that Jesus Christ is on earth in the Blessed Sacrament, because without Him, there wouldn't be a Christianity. He said He would be with us all days. He alone is the One Who can save us from the chaos in which a country like ours has found itself."

Father Hardon, whose office is at Assumption Grotto in Detroit, has devoted his priestly life to teaching and writing about the Faith. In recent years, he's created a home study course that will train a group of lay people known as Marian Catechists to teach the Faith to others. "That's what we need in the U.S.," he says, "beginning with mothers and fathers teaching their children."

He's also the executive editor of The Catholic Faith magazine, and he's published more than five million words, including one of Doubleday's bestsellers, his 1975 The Catholic Catechism, which the Holy See ordered him to write. "Paul VI wanted a Catholic catechism for the U.S.," explains Father Hardon. "The U.S. Catholic theologians just could not agree on what is the Catholic Faith." He spent three years writing it, then sent the manuscript to Rome, where it was analyzed for six months. "I'm sure even the semicolons are orthodox," he quips.

A close friend of Father Hardon's, Daniel Burns, calls Father "one of the Church's greatest treasures. He's a rare individual who can combine deep, ironclad theology with deep spirituality," says Burns, who considers Father Hardon his spiritual father.

Over the last several years, 37-year-old Burns has accompanied Father on numerous trips, assisting him with the rigors of international travel. In September, Burns journeyed with Father Hardon to Calcutta for Mother Teresa's funeral. Before the funeral, Burns presented Father with a new pair of black Rockports to replace his 15-year-old shoes. "But he decided not to wear the new ones," Burns recounts with a chuckle. "He said they were a bit ostentatious, too shiny."

For nearly 25 years, Father Hardon has taught theology to the Missionaries of Charity. "Father Hardon would give them the great theological training from the top," Burns says, "and Mother Teresa would show what it meant to do service to the poor from the bottom up." After working so closely with Mother for nearly a quarter century, Father has some keen insights about her that could be applied to Father Hardon himself.

"Mother Teresa can teach us three things," he says. "We need heroic believers in Jesus Christ in the world today. We need living martyrs. Two, she recognized that there is extreme poverty, physical poverty, in nations that need the practice of Christian charity. We must give and give and give, even as Christ practiced charity and taught us, and to give even from our necessities. Three, I believe her single, deepest influence was her great, deep faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. She believed that Jesus is on earth."

As for his own greatest accomplishment, Father says "only God knows. But let me tell you what I think," he says. "I believe that God has used this sinner to preserve the Faith."

"Through my writing and speaking, I think I've helped to preserve and strengthen the faith of hundreds of thousands. I ask our Lord for millions."

He is gratified to see so many Catholics keep the Faith intact, especially when faced with the widespread opposition to it in today's world. "I don't hesitate to say they are living the lives of martyrs."

"My great hope for the future is seeing so many lay Catholics who have preserved the Faith in spite of the demonic pressure on the truth in our day. Their zeal in sharing this Faith with others is surely the promise of Christ's love as we enter the 21st century. Our Marian Catechists are just the sort of devoted lay evangelists the world so desperately needs.

"Above all, we must pray to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, asking Him to fulfill the promise made by His apostle, St. Paul, Where sin has abounded, there grace will even more abound.' The 21st century will be the most glorious in the history of Christianity, on one condition: We must spend ourselves in sharing with others what we believe, that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Without Him, there is no happiness, either here on earth or in that blessed eternity, where He is waiting for us."

To learn more about the Marian Catechists, write: Michael Breslin, 57610 Apple Lane, New Hudson, MI 48165.