Earlier this year, the Most Rev. Joseph J. Tyson, bishop of Yakima, sat with Cross Catholic Outreach for an interview about Catholic social teaching and integral human development. His remarks have been edited for clarity. Watch the full interview with Bishop Tyson at CrossCatholic.org/interviews.
Cross Catholic Outreach: Bishop Tyson, we’re so blessed you are one of eight Catholic bishops to serve on the board of Cross Catholic Outreach. You first wrote an endorsement letter for our ministry in 2012, and 13 years later, you answered the call to join our Board of Directors. Bishops are busy. Why did you say yes to that invitation?
Bishop Tyson: My predecessor, Bishop Carlos Sevilla, was very involved. After he retired, I think he got on the travel circuit and told the [Cross Catholic Outreach] story. So, I would attribute everything I know about [Cross Catholic Outreach], my own willingness to say yes, and my endorsement back to his ministry.
Cross Catholic Outreach: In the Gospel, Jesus talks about the fact that the poor are always going to be with us. In Catholic theology, everyone is called to share their blessings with those in need. We see that in the Acts of the Apostles. Talk about the fact that this is not really a choice for Christians, but a duty to help the poor.
Bishop Tyson: It’s a relationship. Yes, the poor need us to live the Gospel, and we need them to get to heaven — so it’s a relationship. It’s one thing. The poor we will always have, and we always have the need to reach out to the poor if we want to be saved.
Cross Catholic Outreach: Back in the 1960s, Pope Paul VI had an encyclical, Populorum Progressio, and there was this phrase he used, “integral humanism.” The Church has developed this now into a phrase called “integral human development.” Talk about this whole package of the human person. Why is that so important?
Bishop Tyson: Integral human development is key in our outreach. God takes on our humanity in Jesus. I think that’s the first icon — the incarnation — and that’s one thing. God is fully human, Jesus is fully human, fully divine. In a certain sense, it’s from that icon that we understand integral human development. It’s that we want all of the person to flourish, not just biologically through food, but spiritually through a relationship with God, emotionally through relationships with themselves and each other, and socially through their community.
Cross Catholic Outreach: Pope Leo talks about these ideas in Dilexi te; this is an exhortation that came out last year. There is a preferential option for the poor in Catholic teaching. What would you say to the average Catholic — why is it important to roll up your sleeves and dig into and read some of these documents?
Bishop Tyson: When we engage with the Church’s basic teaching documents, some of which are morally binding, we put on the lens of Christ. We see through the lens of Christ, the lens of the Church. That means we view all of life, not just the political and the social, through the lens of Christ. I think that is the cutting-edge leadership challenge we are facing as bishops: helping people read life, the world, including the richness of political and social networking and popular culture, through the lens of Christ, not the lens of politics.
Cross Catholic Outreach: We’re talking about Pope Leo XIV, who took his name after Pope Leo XIII, who’s famous for another encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which criticizes the excesses of capitalism and socialism. In the Church, we look to the saints as role models. What are some of the Catholic saints you draw inspiration from?
Bishop Tyson: I think chief among them would be Saint Francis of Assisi. We just came off of a Holy Father Pope Francis who took his name and much of his inspiration from St. Francis of Assisi. There is continuity between John Paul II, Benedict, Francis and Leo. St. Francis is a key pivotal saint for our age. If you look at this encyclical Laudato si’, that’s the first two words of a prayer. Laudato si’ is basically a Lectio Divina on the gift of creation. We must be immersed in the spirituality and prayer of the saint to flourish in addressing difficult questions around the environment, injustice and poverty, and in the integral human development we just talked about earlier.
