The mission "of the Catholic Church is to find out who we are by finding out who Jesus Christ is," said Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago.

This mission can be best accomplished, said George, by a cooperative sharing of Church duties in the Americas.

Church leaders must use the skills and resources of other Church members throughout the Catholic community, he said. According to George, this is "ecclesial communion."

"No church exists alone. All exist together under the leadership of the [pope] in Rome," he said.

George said Church leaders and followers, in order to evangelize for the new millennium, must recognize "our unity in Christ, community within ourselves and solidarity among our peoples."

Solidarity can only be reached if Church members overcome certain personal obstacles, such as social and personal sins, he said.

"A change of attitudes needs to happen for a solidarity of human cultures," he said. "We [the Catholic Church] need to find a new method … in order to be new evangelizers."

"There are always seeds of God's work in every culture," George said, noting that human solidarity occurs with the sharing of religious convictions among all cultures. "The Church, besides being the word of Christ … is also the sign of unity of the human race."

Cardinal George's lecture was part of back-to-back conferences held on campus this week inspired by and related to Ecclesia in America and to Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution on Catholic higher education.

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