The Field Hospital Church

John Gonzalez, a Columbian-American lay Catholic man, reflects on his call to serve, love and heal. He invites readers, especially those seeking more in the their lives, to consider their own stories and realities as they respond to today’s challenges in living a Christian-Catholic faith. John amplifies Pope Francis metaphor of the Church as a “field hospital”, a place for healing and evangelization/ accompaniment. Relying on theological reflection, social anaylsis, personal experience, the rich Catholic theological tradition including Latinx theologies, John engages the reader in imagining and hopefully choosing to work toward a life rooted in Christ, inspired by the Spirit and necessarily engaged with all peoples in love, healing, reconciliation, justice work toward lifting oppression, hope and renewal.

While John relies on his experience and his many male mentors, his chapter reflections encouraged me to give thanks for the many vowed and lay female ecclesial ministers who have embodied John’s ministry in the field hospital of our current Church. As a professor who taught many of the aspects of this text to students preparing for both ordained and lay ministries in multiple Christian traditions, I appreciated the number of useful lists and charts summarizing Catholic Social Teaching, processes of Social Analysis, methods of theological reflection and their emphasis on using these tools to form ministerial response. I think people I know who work for justice in parish settings, Catholic Charities across the nation, and St. Vincent de Paul members would find this resource a rich theological and affirming resource.

John Gonzalez, DMin, is director of Parish and Community Relations for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, and adjunct professor at St. John’s University in Queens, where he teaches courses on The Catholic Vision and Imagination, Catholic Social Teaching, and The Church in History and Tradition.