Father James Martin on meeting our moral heroes

During her keynote address at the Outreach conference, Kerry Robinson, the president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities USA, shared stories about those whom she called her “moral heroes.” These were people whose moral lives and moral decisions inspired her.

I really liked that phrase, which I had never heard before. It is weightier than a “hero” (which could mean anyone you looked up to: a basketball player, an astronaut, a writer) and focuses on the virtues of a person’s life. It isn’t as dramatic as saying someone is or was a “saint,” which raises all sorts of questions among Catholics. A Jesuit friend recently told me how he was scolded by a parishioner for calling the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a saint in a homily because Dr. King is neither Catholic nor canonized. (I still think he’s a saint.)

One of the great joys of my Jesuit life has been coming to know many moral heroes. I’ve met them all along the way, ever since I entered the Jesuit novitiate in August 1988. None of them are perfect people; some of them are even a bit, well, odd. I met a man who, after seeing a vision of St. Francis of Assisi, worked with street gangs in Chicago wearing a religious habit made of blue jeans patches. I met a Catholic sister in Nairobi who set up, in essence, a village for Sudanese refugees with nowhere else to go because, she asked, “Who else would take care of them?” And I’ve met Jesuits who quietly do their good work, say not a bad word about anyone and are the soul of humility. All these are “moral heroes.”

I’ve known some real saints, too. I would say that of all the people I have ever met, the New Testament scholar Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., could most easily qualify as a saint. That is, you could start a “cause” for his canonization and probably see it go quite far. Dan was hardworking, prayerful, faithful, helpful and unfailingly kind.

When I look around the church today, I see quite a few moral heroes, even saints. I think Pope Francis was a saint. Pope Leo is a moral hero. The anti-death penalty activist Helen Prejean, C.S.J., is a friend and another one of my moral heroes. A few years ago, I shared with her how frustrating it was to have so many people oppose the L.G.B.T.Q. ministry I participated in and to feel, in essence, a great deal of persecution. “Well, you lucky dog!” she laughed. “I think there’s something in the Gospels about that!”

This week for the finale of our second season of “The Spiritual Life” podcast, I was able to speak with another moral hero: my Jesuit brother Greg Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries. There is a way that he speaks that simply gets right to the point: God is about love, mercy and compassion. What more do you need to know really—about God or about Father Boyle? He makes me proud to be a Jesuit, a

Catholic, a Christian, a person. And he makes me want to be a better one of all those things, like every moral hero. I know you’ll enjoy our conversation.