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CANFIELD -- Bishop David Bonnar spoke on "You've Got Mail" kicking off a new season for the First Friday Club of Greater Youngstown.
Different speakers, many with religious topics and themes, speak at the club, which meets the first Thursday of the month at Avion on the Water.
Bonnar's talk focused on his second pastoral letter, "Practicing Faith, Hope, and Love: Living the Virtues Together in Tough Times," which was mailed to all registered parishioners and also is available online. Bonnar said a pastoral letter is "an official letter a bishop writes to the faithful of his diocese and to the wider community."
Bonnar said with advances in technology, communication has been embraced by the Diocese of Youngstown.
He emphasized the need to "tell our story," from The Catholic Echo magazine and podcasts to the diocesan archives.
"When it comes to communications, Pope Francis urges a 'style of closeness,' using communications to draw us closer together in communion as the Body of Christ and as the human family. . . . Instead of just parroting ideas and tropes, Pope Francis gives us a vision for storytelling, especially telling and listening to the stories of those on the margins. And listening is a key word -- we all need to listen more with humility, to 'listen with the ear of the heart,'" Bonnar said.
Pastoral letters are similar to documents written by popes, such as an encylical, which literally means a "circular letter" sent by the Holy Father to all the dioceses and to the entire world.
The documents, encyclicals and exhortations become part of the "magisterium" -- or "teaching office" of the church.
Pastoral letters are written by bishops as well. Sometimes, bishops write these pastoral letters together, like those released through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But bishops also can write them in their own name and for the local church.
"We have had many important pastoral letters in our diocesan history. For example, my predecessor, Bishop Murry, wrote an important letter on poverty, and helped us to understand the complex realities that contribute to situational and generational poverty in our region. We continue to take up his challenge to respond, through agencies like Catholic Charities and through our personal commitment to justice," Bonnar said.
Joan Lawson, diocesan archivist, discovered that the very first pastoral letter in the diocese was released by Bishop James McFaddden on Aug. 13, 1943, less than a month after he was installed as the first bishop of Youngstown. The subject of that letter was the exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, ordering it in all churches every Friday.
Bonnar's first pastoral letter was "Testify to the Light."
"My own first pastoral letter, 'Testify to the Light,' also emphasized the importance of Eucharistic adoration in our prayer life. 'Testify to the Light' named five priorities for our diocesan Church. In addition to prayer, I asked us all to focus on healing, communication, service and being joyful witnesses," he said.
Bonnar's new pastoral letter is a "Letter for Tough Times."
" Together, we are weathering challenges in our communities, like addiction, violence, and natural and manmade disasters like the train derailment. Together as a church, we are also navigating changes to parish life, a decline in the numbers of priests, uncertain Mass attendance and graying assemblies, and financial limitations -- but also the great needs and hungers of young people," he said.
He said the cover of the pastoral letter is an image of the Holy Trinity, surrounded by the communion of saints, most prominently the Blessed Mother.
"Faith, hope and love are first gifts given to us in baptism, which help us to live God's life in our messy world. Faith, hope and love are virtues of active responsibility, trusting in a caring and active God," Bonnar said.
"St. Paul called love the greatest of virtues. But love is more than just an idea. It is a choice that usually reveals itself in an action of some kind. When I was a child, there used to be a cartoon that appeared in the daily newspaper. It was called, "Love is..." Everyday there was a sketch rendered by the artist of what love is. And every day love was something new and different. The takeaway in this for me was that love was always something more. Love simply cannot be limited."
In his pastoral letter, he concludes each chapter with goals for how people can live the virtues of faith, hope and love.
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