On May 17, 2023, Cardinal Kevin Farrell visited the city of Dallas that he formerly led as bishop from 2007-2016 to accept Catholic Extension Society’s Spirit of Francis Award. He returned for only the second time to the city he still considers home since being named in 2016 to the college of Cardinals and appointed to various top Vatican positions, including leader of the newly established Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life.
Spirit of Francis Award recipients are laudable for their commitment “to reach out to the margins of society” in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis, and Catholic Extension Society founder, Father Francis Clement Kelley. Cardinal Farrell told the crowd of 300 donors, friends and acquaintances gathered at Dallas’ Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, “I thank you for this honor that I do not deserve, and I accept it in the name of all the people because you made me who I am.”
In his remarks, Cardinal Farrell also offered his reflections on the uniqueness of Pope Francis compared to his predecessors and how the priorities of his papacy are a response to the needs of our world today, faced with so many challenges and struggling with so much violence.
“The Spirit of Francis Award, to me, is something very important,” said Cardinal Farrell. “I have known many popes all the way back to Paul IV, John Paul II, Pope Benedict, and now Pope Francis. Pope Francis is a unique person.”
He elaborated, “Many of the previous popes wrote great works of theology. They spoke in a language which is basically theological. Pope John Paul II visited many parts of the world, but he also codified what the teachings of the Church were all about. Pope Benedict did exactly the same thing. He spoke about the faith that we believe in God and what that means for each one of us.”
Pope Francis, I can tell you, his mission in this Church of ours, in this life, is to teach us how to live each and every day as Christians.”
At the heart of Pope Francis’ world vision is genuine concern for all humanity beyond just Catholics and the Catholic Church. Cardinal Farrell explained, “He cares for humanity and the human race and people and human persons. And he cares for the home which we all share, which is the world we live in today. I’ve heard him talk about the suffering, the pain, the violence, the wars that go on all over the world today. And he says that the fundamental problem here is that we have forgotten how to love and how to express our concern and our understanding that all human beings are in this world together.”
Cardinal Farrell brought up the recent violence in Allen, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where a lone gunman entered a shopping mall and took the lives of eight innocent people, as an example of the breakdown in our society that he and Pope Francis are concerned about.
“We’re not going to stop the violence and the hatred that exists in our world today, in our communities today which even touched us here in a very special way in Allen, Texas. What does it take? How have we arrived to such a point of hatred in our world today, in our communities? We have a beautiful place. We have a beautiful world. We have a beautiful city. But what we don’t have is a care, a love, and an understanding for all people. And that dear brothers and sisters and dear friends is what I’ve always tried to tell you all.”
Unless we live with respect for each other, and unless we have that passion and that mercy and compassion and understanding of each other, we are going nowhere. We’re going down. I think that this is the philosophy and the theology of Francis.”
Cardinal Farrell also described Pope Francis’ priority to be close with people.
Farrell explained that he has been in the unenviable position of meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday mornings, just before the pope goes out to his weekly audience, where he greets thousands of people in St. Peter square.
He joked that on those occasions the pope “wasn’t interested in what I had to say. He was interested in going into the square.”
“It is that love, that concern for everybody that he has. That’s what the world needs today. And that’s the greatness of what he does,” Cardinal Farrell said.
Catholic Extension Society’s work, Cardinal Farrell said, is aligned with the Pope’s.
I think that the Catholic Extension Society is a part of that mission of Pope Francis. Francis cares about the universal Church. He cares about the Church everywhere.”
Catholic Extension Society, he explained, cares about strengthening the church in America, “They go about creating and promoting the Catholic church. It was founded, as Father Jack told us, in 1905. And since then, they have built 13,000 churches and institutions and schools and parish centers in this country.”
Proceeds from the dinner will benefit Catholic Extension Society’s support of the Church’s ministry in the poorest parts of Texas, a state where Catholic Extension Society has already built 2,000 church facilities, as shown in the map below. We’ve built more churches in Texas than any other state.
Catholic Extension Society has built 13,500 Churches in the United States, including 2,000 in Texas.
Please donate today and support our mission to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America.
