NATIONAL CATHOLIC COMMITTEE ON SCOUTING®
Excerpts from a presentation by Bishop Francis A. Quinn
at the Prayer Breakfast on April 10, 2002

 

I suggest new Beatitudes for Scouting:
Blessed is the troop where the young persons are loved authentically, i.e.,
where the leaders genuinely want what's best for the youth.
Blessed is the troop where children grow up and grown-ups do not act like
children. (Theodore Adams ).
Blessed are those leaders who really listen to what their scouts have to say
-not only listen but actually ~
Blessed are leaders who know how to comfort, for they shall possess a scout's
devotion.
Blessed are the leaders who are never shocked, for they shall receive
confidence.
Blessed are the leaders who answer simply the startling questions, for they
shall always be trusted.

 

The greatest gift leaders can give to the troop is the love they show to
their own family.
The strongest thing a leader can do is to be gentle. Strength is not to be
confused with machismo or aggressiveness. Their leaders will best serve
scouts if they see in them compassion.
Leaders should be open to failure. Weakness and human failures honestly dealt
with are often the most effective sources of love and learning in minors.
Leaders can help present to their scouts the delicate lesson of how they
should relate to male and female figures when the young are not learning this
at home.
The scouts will be impressed by what their leaders are, not what their
leaders lecture them.
All evidence of love is important for parents, but there is no substitute for
the direct expression of love in cuddling and embracing a child. One young
father has said, "I never knew what James Joyce meant when he wrote: '1
desire to press into my arms the loveliness which has not yet come into the
world, , until I sat cradling my newborn baby in my arms." But for the scout
leader that love must be shown without physical expression, nor for
fulfilling the leader's own emotional needs.
And then there are suggestions coming from the young scouts themselves:
1. First, don't spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not to have all that
I ask for. I'm only testing you.
Don't be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it. It lets me know where I
stand.
Don't use force with me. It teaches me that power is all that counts.
Don't correct me in front of people. I'll take much more notice if you talk
quietly with me in private.
Don't tax my honesty too much. I am easily frightened into telling lies:
Don't ever think that it is beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An
honest apology makes me feel surprisingly warm toward you.
2. And Ten Scout Commandments:
1st Commandment: Be patient enough to obey. You will be giving orders
yourself one day.
2nd Commandment: Think twice before joining a gang. Choose your companions
carefully. You become what they are.
3rd Commandment: Turn away from racial prejudice. Each of our parents or
great grandparents or us was an immigrant.
4th Commandment: Get to church regularly. The Creator gives you a week. Give
the Creator back an hour.
5th Commandment: Don't show off when driving. If you want to race, go to
Indianapolis or Daytona.
6th Commandment: Use the beautiful gift of sex as God intended. Try not to be
puzzled by it. Do not be afraid of it. Do not be obsessed with it.
7th Commandment: Choose a date that would make a good mate. (That is, choose
for your dates someone you would be willing to spend your whole life with as
a spouse.
8th Commandment: Avoid "following the crowd." Be an engine, not a caboose.
9th Commandment: Stop and think before you drink. (Or, as the current version
would be: Show some class, keep off the grass.)
l0th Commandment: The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be
loved in return.

 

We are in a difficult time. But the Church today is in a situation more
authentic to Jesus Christ. He was misrepresented, dismissed as irrelevant.
The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners. "Glass
shines brightest when it's broken."
Reflect to your charges Jesus Christ as though He were living in this part of
the world in our time. It is April 11, 2002. President Bush has sent out a
proclamation that the whole nation should be enrolled in a census. And so
Mary and Joseph travel to Tucson to comply with the law. There is no room in
the motels, so Jesus is born homeless in a garage, in an obscure village
named Yuma. "The birds have nests and the foxes have holes, but the Son of
Man has not a place to lay His head."
A while after His birth, because the Child is considered a menace to those in
authority, Jesus, Mary and Joseph are obliged to flee like undocumented
aliens, across borders, into Nogales, Mexico.
When it is safe again, the Holy Family return to their home in Chicago, not
on the Lake shore, but in Cabrini Greens. The young boy eventually attends
Nazareth Junior High School, and encounters all the experiences of today. He
finds He has to just say no to hashish and other drugs in the school yard.
He has to learn how to relate to women. There is something special about Him.
Mary Magdalene, in the Rock opera, "Jesus Christ Superstar," sings, "I don't
know how to love Him." Grown to manhood, this Jesus is an itinerant preacher.
There is a sense of power and self-possession about Him. As He talks to a
group of people in Mall of America, young children cluster around Him
spontaneously. They know there is someone very lovable here.
We come across Jesus addressing a large crowd at Madison Square Garden. He
is talking about people whom we may look on as different: African-Americans,
Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Germans, Irish and English. He is saying
these are My brothers and sisters. These are all children of your heavenly
Father.
On the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jesus is approached by
reporters and asked if He is a Democrat or a Republican. And His response is,
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that
are God's."
He multiplies loaves and fishes at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Locker.
This Jesus has power like no one else. He meets a man with AIDS at the Mayo
Clinic, and cures him. As with the leper in the Gospel, Jesus does not just
cure him. The Gospel says He reaches out, touches him and cures him. That
would be like us embracing someone with AIDS today. There is no outcast in
Jesus’ world. He embraces everyone. And can you imagine how that leper must
have felt? This was probably the first time that anyone had touched him
lovingly and tenderly since he was a baby.
From the Rockies, Jesus looks down on the major cities and weeps. To the
street gangs in the cities, Jesus says, "He who takes up the weapon will die
by the weapon."
He weeps at the breakdown of family life. But, at the same time, Jesus
reaches out in compassion to the divorced and separated. "The bruised reed I
will not break, and the smoking flax I will not
quench."
Jesus has some hard sayings. He's understanding, but He has some very
difficult rules. We are tempted to turn away and no longer walk with Him.
Even though many of His teachings ate demands and challenges we do not like
to hear, I know that we will not, at 3 o ' clock some Friday afternoon, take
Him outside the gates of the city to Huntsville, Texas, and execute Him. We
are weak and we sin, but we love Him. That's why you are a scout.
OUR FATHER
Who art in heaven
Where it's quieter than it is at scout meetings
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
But meanwhile Thy leaders need help.
Give us this day our ration of wisdom And forgive us our weaknesses
As we forgive those of our scouts.
Lead us not into vexation
But deliver us from despair .
For thine are the Tiger Cub, the Tenderfoot, and the Eagle.
Now and forever. Amen. (Variation on Dolores Curran)