February 25, 2025 // Bishop

Bishop Answers Audience Questions at Rekindle the Fire

Todays Catholic

As he does each year to close out the annual Rekindle the Fire men’s conference, Bishop Rhoades took to the stage on Saturday, February 22, at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Expo Hall to answer questions from the men in the audience. This year, he took questions on a wide variety of topics, including immigration, LGBTQ issues, vocations, sainthood, and others.

The questions were moderated by the conference’s emcees – Father Brian Isenbarger, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Garrett, and Father Jay Horning, pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church in Wabash.

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Father Brian Isenbarger: The first question, Bishop: How should faithful Catholics understand the Church’s position on illegal immigration and the balance between the right to national protection and control of borders versus an imperative to help and care for immigrants in need?

Bishop Rhoades: Wow, that’s a good question. I’ve spoken on this topic quite a bit. I’ve written about it. And I think the first thing to understand is, in all of our teachings and all the areas of public policy and law, the Church, the bishops, we always look to the teachings of Our Lord and the teachings of the Church. We look at Scripture. And the Church has a very, very long history from the beginning of caring for the stranger among us. Because right in the parable of the Last Judgment, Our Lord said, “This is how we will be judged. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,” for example.

And so, we always have special care for those who are migrants, those who are refugees. Of course, there are millions of refugees in the world today. It’s a huge crisis, as you know. Western Europe is facing huge migration, and the United States, of course. At the same time, we hold that a nation has a right to control its borders. We believe that it should be done legally, but also that nations should be generous, especially wealthier nations, to welcome the immigrant who is coming because they are in need. Some are fleeing political violence, some are fleeing religious persecution, some are fleeing dire poverty – there are all kinds of reasons for migration. And there are a lot of internally displaced people in the world.

As a member of the board of Catholic Relief Services, I’ve been to several countries like Ethiopia, where there was the severe famine, and I was in Gaza, Palestine, El Salvador, other places, and I’ve seen the work of the Church, especially the Church in the United States through CRS, all of its work in international relief, and also in helping people to build a livelihood in their home country so that they can support themselves and their families. … So that’s really important for us to understand. A lot of migrants don’t want to leave their countries, but they leave out of desperation. …

Now, how many people can a nation accommodate well without causing social disruption in their own country? We have to be careful, whether it’s a country in Europe or the United States. The position of the Church is that we should be generous, we should be open to receiving migrants and refugees, and we do not condone illegal immigration. We also support things like guest worker programs, etc., because we need a lot of the immigrants who are here, especially in the areas of agriculture and other places where our economy actually depends a lot upon immigrants.

Now, remember, refugees are fleeing because of danger. And that’s where our Catholic Charities comes in. Whereas Catholic Relief Services is the overseas relief program of the U.S. bishops, Catholic Charities USA is our internal organization to care for the poor, and most dioceses have their own local Catholic Charities that are independent.

Our Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend is supported by our diocese. So, in different dioceses, there are different services that Catholic Charities provides, depending upon the needs of each diocese. For many decades, one of the biggest programs of our local Catholic Charities has been the resettlement of refugees. And we’ve done it very successfully, especially in Fort Wayne. As you may know, we’ve resettled a few thousand Burmese through the last few decades.

The resettlement is supported by funds from the U.S. government. The funds that we receive from the government for resettlement do not fully pay for the cost. So there was controversy, you may have seen my statement, of those who claim that the Catholic Church is making money on all of this. That’s totally false. Totally false. We receive millions of dollars, but it doesn’t cover the cost when you think about what we’re doing.

The refugees who come here are often waiting many years in refugee camps, and many of them are families. We had the Afghan refugees. These were Afghanis who were supporting the U.S. in Afghanistan during the war. And of course, when the Taliban retook control after the United States left, their lives were in danger. So they were kind of on more of a fast track for refugee status. So, the U.S. government contracts with other organizations to do the work of refugee resettlement. And probably the biggest organization that they contract with is Catholic Charities, in many different dioceses, including our own.

We’ve also expanded our refugee services to South Bend, and that was beginning to grow. Because, again, the U.S. government is looking for places that can accommodate an influx of refugees. That means there is an availability of jobs, an availability of housing – all of those things. And that’s what we do in Catholic Charities. We get housing for the people, we help them to find jobs, we teach English – and we have a fantastic staff. These refugees have already been in a process for a number of years to get refugee status. They’re waiting. There’s a background check that the government does; we do not do that.

All of this has been supported by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Now, the present situation is challenging because the present administration has put a freeze on the acceptance of refugees. So, we’re in a really difficult spot, because we have people waiting to come over, and really, my heart goes out to them because they’ve been waiting for years, and they got approved but now they can’t come. We’re hoping that they will be allowed to come. … So, we’re hoping that this will be able to continue. …

The last part of their question: Yes, there is an imperative to help and care for immigrants in need, and yet at the same time, we’re not for open borders. We believe that there needs to be orderly and lawful procedures and processes to receive migrants and refugees, those seeking asylum, for example. Some of the controversy between Biden and Trump was that, under the Biden administration, a lot of these people were seeking asylum, and they came into the United States and were allowed to stay here before their case was processed. And the Trump administration is saying no to that. And a lot of those who are here seeking asylum are being deported. Then there’s the whole issue of undocumented immigrants. … It’s a complex issue, because we’re talking about various categories of people when we talk about our immigrants and our refugees. But it’s important to make those distinctions.

The other thing is the human rights of the immigrants. Some of our centers in the South, where immigrants have crossed over, we have Catholic dioceses, Catholic Charities, and other Catholic organizations who provide humanitarian aid to migrants. And they’re not looking at whether they’re legal or illegal, whether they’re documented or not. And some have accused the Church, mainly in Texas, Arizona, and California, of promoting illegal immigration. And again, that’s not true. If someone who comes to one of these centers is hungry, we’re going to give them a meal. That’s our Christian faith! We shelter the homeless, we give food to the hungry. And yet, this all gets politicized. But we’re talking about human beings.

Another priority of ours is family unity, that families should not be divided – parents from their children, or spouses from each other. We put such high value on the family. And also, keep in mind, there are a lot of unaccompanied minors who come to the United States, who come across the world unaccompanied. Are we just going to let those minors fend for themselves and not give them food or not give them shelter? Of course not. That’s the Gospel mandate.

Father Jay Horning: The next question relates to the family. Someone asks, how do we still show we love our kids when they identify as LGBTQ and they think we don’t care about them because we don’t support their life choices?

Bishop Rhoades: That’s hard. Obviously, we always love our children. If some of them have same-sex attraction, or gender dysphoria, or any of these issues, we always still love them. Always. We don’t kick them out of the house, we don’t reject them. It’s always truth and love. But it would also be wrong to affirm a lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of our faith.

For example, marriage is between one man and one woman. We cannot, as Catholics in the Church, condone same-sex marriage. Our position right now in the United States is a minority position. We’ll be accused of being bigots for not accepting same-sex marriage. However, someone who enters a same-sex marriage is not thereby condemned by us. No, we continue to love them, and we hope and pray that they would learn or grow in a way that they understand better and accept the Church’s teaching and the teaching of Christ about marriage.

But then, how in each particular situation do you manage this? I know young people, for example, who identify as LGBTQ in some way and who may know the Church’s teaching and feel that the Church cares and loves them, and therefore they don’t leave the Church even though they’re living a lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of the Church. They don’t feel rejected. There are others who, even if we show love and compassion, because we don’t accept the conduct, the behavior, they automatically feel or assume that we’re rejecting them. And we have to try to convince them that no, this is not a rejection. We want them. We love them, we care about them, and we want their salvation.

So, it’s hard, because sometimes there’s nothing you can do. They won’t feel that, or they won’t believe in Catholicism unless we change our teaching, and those are hard cases. Those are very hard cases. But in those cases, I would say it’s not the Church rejecting them, it’s them rejecting the Church. And again, I always think there’s a possibility. I’ve entered into many conversations with people who identify as LGBTQ, and in some cases, it’s very cordial. In some cases, there can be anger toward the Church. And some can be a bit militant in pushing to have the teaching of the Church changed. But as a bishop, and really as a Catholic, I believe in what the Church teaches. And I can’t, in my conscience, affirm something that I do not believe is true.

At the same time, I’m not going to condemn the person. I’ll condemn the sin, but not the person. I’ll always try to help them. And I’ll tell them, you’re always welcome to come to the Church, to participate in Church activities, Bible studies, etc. Of course, it’s different when it comes to sacramental participation, etc., because one has to be in a state of grace.

Father Isenbarger: Our next question has to do more with the spiritual life. What advice would you give to a recent convert discerning his vocation, and what can we do to avoid being drawn into the secular and political culture beyond going to Mass and prayer?

Bishop Rhoades: Very good question. Well, regarding discernment, I would say, first of all, be living the Catholic faith, becoming immersed in the life of a parish, in a life of prayer, sacramental participation, and then to bring the question of one’s vocation to the priest. Don’t rush it, because sometimes recent converts have a lot of enthusiasm, but they need to first really continue to live a strong Catholic life, and then be open to the call of God, the call of the Holy Spirit, to whatever vocation – marriage, priesthood, religious life, as a brother, or whichever. As far as getting caught up in the secular, yeah, I mean, that’s for all of us, whether one’s a recent convert or not. I do know people who are so caught up in the secular and the political to the point where they’re filled with anxiety, they can be drawn into ideologies that are antithetical to the faith. I’ve seen that happen where they’re maybe getting angry in a sinful way. We need to have our life rooted in Christ. And He desires our love and wants to give us His peace.

Around us, there’s a lot of that stuff going on, and we have to work hard in our work of evangelization also of the culture. But at the same time, we have to be concerned about our own souls and not be drawn into things that can be damaging to our souls. And we have to care about our families. So, I think we should be careful about the use of social media and just spending too much time getting caught up in all these different things that one begins losing the peace that the Lord desires for us. And one can begin doing damage not only to himself but even to the family, because they’re getting too caught up in the secular and the political controversies, whatever it might be. I think we have to fast a little bit from social media and not believe everything that we hear or see, like the lies that have been said about the Church. I get concerned. I think to myself, how many people are going to believe that the Catholic Church is making money – or Catholic Charities is making money – on its refugee service. I mean, things like that, when I see false things, that’s why I have to respond. I will respond. You have to be careful that we don’t just take everything we read or see or hear in the news as gospel truth.

So, keep the spiritual life as the priority. Be Catholic first – be Christian first – before being a Democrat or Republican or independent, whatever it might be. We judge things according to the criteria of the Gospel, the criteria of the Ten Commandments, and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Father Horning: What do you consider the greatest enemy to Catholic men’s piety today?

Bishop Rhoades: Pornography is a huge issue. It’s an evident epidemic. So I think that is harmful. It can lead to addiction to pornography. But I think men who struggle need to seek help, because it also does harm our relationship with the Lord. But one should never despair. One must always turn to our merciful Father with repentance. There is hope out there.

I would say some of the other things I was talking about: Getting caught up in ideologies can also harm piety. If we find that we’re standing for truths and then missing the biggest truths, we’re in trouble. For example, I’m going to talk in the homily because the Gospel is about loving our enemies, probably the hardest teaching Jesus ever gave. So in a sense, we have to always – and I’m speaking for myself as well – keep things in the proper perspective and not succumb to the temptation of either becoming one who doesn’t care or of becoming Pharisaical.

Father Isenbarger: This person says, “I agree we need more priests, but I also believe that we need more women in consecrated life.” What is our diocese doing to help promote this way of life among young women in our schools?

Bishop Rhoades: Good question. I mean, we’re doing better with priestly vocations than vocations to religious life, whether it was especially sisters but also religious brothers – though we’ve seen a little uptick in the number of religious brothers, which I’ve been happy to see, up at Notre Dame and the Congregation of Holy Cross. But with religious sisters, it’s still a trickle, I would say, just a few each year.

I think that one of the challenges is a lot of our young women don’t know about this vocation because they’ve not experienced it. When I was in grade school, my grade school had 24 nuns teaching. I only had one grade that I didn’t have a teacher who was a religious sister. So it was natural for young women to think about becoming a sister. They got to know religious sisters.

One of the things that I’ve been focusing on is getting religious sisters into our schools to visit. Because I’ve also asked religious congregations to send sisters to teach in our schools, but that’s been difficult. We have a few, the Sisters of St. Francis at St. Matthew Cathedral School and at Marian High School. But a lot of our priests ask for sisters for their schools, and I do, too. And I’ve been working on that. …

Father Horning: I kind of want to follow up to that real quick. As a roomful of men, how can they encourage their daughters or sisters to consider that as a vocation?

Bishop Rhoades: I’m glad you mentioned that. I know Catholic families where they do talk to their daughters about considering religious life. So, I encourage all of you to do that. Or you can take them to places where they can meet sisters. That’s another good thing. We have the motherhouse, for example, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Mishawaka, and they’re always welcoming. Also, you can encourage your daughters or sisters to attend a retreat that the sisters are having, and then they get to spend a few days there and see the life of the sisters, their life of prayer, and the various apostolates that they’re engaged in – usually education and health care.

Father Horning: This is more of a catechetical question. Does a person need to be a baptized, practicing Catholic in good standing in order to become a canonized saint?

Bishop Rhoades: Yes. I will add one thing. It’s a new thing where the Church doesn’t canonize them, but Pope Francis has recognized some of the martyrs from other Christian denominations, and their names are in the Roman Martyrology. They are not canonized saints of the Catholic Church, but they’re honored because they gave their lives for Christ. That’s a new thing. Specifically, the Libyan martyrs. Remember when ISIS killed all of those men – they were in those orange jumpsuits on the shore, and they killed all those Coptic Christians? They are now in the Catholic martyrology. They’re not recognized as Catholic saints, but they are honored by the Catholic Church for dying for Christ.

Father Horning: Are there any particular cases ongoing, maybe in our diocese, that we could pray and seek the canonization of?

Bishop Rhoades: Brother Columba O’Neill. I’m working on this with Father Mark Gurtner. Rome already knows about it. We had a religious brother who was a cobbler at Notre Dame back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He died in 1923. He was from the coal regions of Pennsylvania, just like I was. That’s not why I pursued this, by the way. … But as I read about his life, he had a problem with his leg. I forget what it was, polio or something. So he really struggled. And he felt called to religious life. He learned how to fix shoes and make shoes from an early age. They were very poor coal miners, but because of his health, he couldn’t work in the mines. So, he worked as a cobbler.

He traveled across the United States, again, this is the late 1800s, looking to join a religious order. He was welcomed by the Holy Cross Congregation, and he went through his formation, and he became a Holy Cross brother. … Most of his life, he worked at Notre Dame and had a shoe shop. And he fixed the shoes for the students and the priests, but also people from South Bend would come. He had this great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – tremendous devotion – and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And he would make badges, Sacred Heart badges – some of you who are older may remember those. People would talk to him, and they would ask him for his prayers. … And then the miracles began, and unexplainable healings. Then word of this spread beyond South Bend, throughout the Midwest. We have a few thousand letters, and I’ve read many of them, in the archives of the Holy Cross Brothers of Notre Dame, of people testifying to how the prayers of Brother Columba, helped them.

His life is very interesting. … But his holiness, he was very simple, very helpful. He showed all the virtues of the Christian life. He was admired by the other religious brothers in the community. They spoke of him, about his holiness. And also I read the homily from his funeral, all the thousands of people who came to view his body and to his funeral. And so there’s a lot of testimony. It’s a little more challenging because it’s not a recent case. We have no one alive to give testimony. So, this is a different kind of case than other canonization causes, so it’s going to take a while. They won’t count the miracles that took place back then. In order for beatification, you need a current miracle through his intercession. And we’re not even at that point yet. You wouldn’t believe all that’s involved in the process of canonization. It’s a lot of work, and we’re working on that in the diocese, and we’ll be sending all that material to the Vatican. As I said, they’ve already done the preliminary stuff, they’ve already given me the green light to move forward. And now we’re doing all the documentary evidence.

Father Isenbarger: Bishop, who are some of your favorite saints?

Bishop Rhoades: John Paul II, my hero; John the Apostle, my confirmation saint; Mother Teresa, who I was privileged to meet several times; Juan Diego, because I was ordained a bishop on his feast day, so I have a special devotion to him.

And then as far as bishop saints, besides St. John, who was obviously a bishop, who was an apostle, I’m also inspired by St. Charles Borromeo and St. John Neumann, who was the bishop of Philadelphia.

Father Horning: This is a little more outside of the box, but what are your thoughts on AI?

Bishop Rhoades: I’m a novice about AI, but I think from what I’ve read and seen, I mean, there’s tremendous potential with artificial intelligence, but there have to be ethical boundaries and guidelines. Like any area of technology, how is it used? Is it used for good, or is it used for bad, for evil? And I think we have to be very careful about AI. I think, always, we have to keep in mind the dignity of the human person. I don’t think any technology can replace a human person with a soul. Therefore, there needs to be boundaries and ethical criteria for what happens in the development of AI. And it’s pretty rapid development, as you know.

Father Isenbarger: Bishop, how long does it take to become a priest, and what are some qualities you look for in a young man who might wish to enter seminary?

 

Bishop Rhoades: I’ll do the second part first. First of all, we want good men. In other words, we need those who are mature, who have already reached a level of human and spiritual maturity, who already manifest the theological virtues – faith, hope, and charity – but also human virtues – honesty, integrity, chastity, temperance. So we’re looking for good men, good Catholic men. We don’t just accept anyone.

Now, recognizing that everyone still needs to grow, but they at least need to have reached a certain threshold to be ready to enter the seminary. So, I think those are some of the basic materials. Also, the ability to complete the academic studies in philosophy and theology.

How many years depends on whether they are just coming out of high school or whether they already graduated from college. If someone is just coming out of high school, it was eight years, four years of college, and four years of theology. That’s recently been changed, because the Church is now mandating what’s called a propaedeutic year, so it would be nine years in those cases. But the other thing is we are now no longer allowed to ordain them as deacons after their third year of theology. They can only be ordained deacons when they’ve completed seminary. That means after their four years of theology. And then, they must be in a parish for six to 12 months. Now that’s worldwide, that’s not just the United States; that came from the Vatican. … We have to look at each individual and their background and see where they’re at.

Father Horning: We’re getting ready to prepare and celebrate the Sacrament of Mass. What advice would you give to men to prepare ourselves better for Mass in order to be better leaders of our families?

Bishop Rhoades: Focus, focus, focus. I would say, first of all, it’s good to come to Mass early. I find it very difficult to enter into prayer if I’m arriving at the last minute. It’s good to try to get there five or 10 minutes earlier so one can kind of calm one’s mind. A few of you probably struggle with that, but it really does help that one is able to really listen and pray what the priest is saying in the prayers and also doing the responses.

It also helps to read the Sunday readings sometime in the week prior to Sunday Mass, to already be reflecting and meditating on the word of God before Sunday. That’s another real help. But I do think getting to Mass early does help – five or 10 minutes, so you have some private prayer where you can just speak to the Lord and ask him to clear your mind so that you can really be attentive to the liturgy and to the prayers and to try to focus.

If you find yourself distracted, which always can happen, it’s very normal, very natural, just try to refocus. Don’t beat yourselves up because of that. Now, if you begin getting distracted when the bishop is preaching, that’s another problem.

I’ll just say what I like to do, if I were attending Mass. I don’t get to attend much; I’m always the celebrant, but when I go in, I like to kneel in adoration at the beginning, just as a sign of respect and reverence to the Lord. And I’ll kneel there for a few minutes, but then I like to sit down to just kind of relax my mind and my body, so that I can really focus.

In different parts of the Mass, we recognize our unworthiness. From the very beginning, with the penitential, right, we confess to Almighty God. We need to be praying these from our heart, recognizing, yeah, I am a sinner, Lord; I need your mercy. It’s important to admit that, because without humility, there is no holiness. Without humility, there is no holiness. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord. … And right before we receive Communion, what are we singing? We’re singing, “Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Again, an expression of humility, recognizing our sinfulness. And then when the priest raises the host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world, blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,” we say the words of the centurion and say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” So that attitude of humility and faith, as we go up to Communion, to really be focused on receiving the Lord, to be focused on how one approaches to make an act of reverence and receive the Lord and then go back to the pew. And I like to close my eyes, because it helps me to pray that I’m not distracted as much. Hopefully that’s helpful.