BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Flying tomorrow evening! We'll be down there for a week (if the ash cloud allows, even longer ).
It will be a great experience for all of us!
We are blessed to be able to experience this wonderful Pope during our living years. I'm very much determined to show my support and affection!!





I'm green with envy but so happy for you and your family! Looking forward to your stories and photos... Didn't you once recount a beautiful experience of seeing B16 in St. Peter's Basilica and a stranger (a Spaniard, if I recall) rhapsodizing with you over him?... Springtime in Rome is a great time to be there.... HAVE TONS OF FUN and throw kisses to Papino for all of us....

TERESA

See earlier entries for today, 5/20/10, on the preceding page.






Concert for the Pope
offered by Patriarch Kirill


Vatican City, May 20, 2010 (Adapted from CNA/EWTN News) - A concert offered for Pope Benedict XVI by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow wrapped up a two-day initiative for the promotion of Russian culture and spirituality at the Holy See.

The evening concert held at the Paul VI Hall was the final item in the "Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican" observed on May 19-20, with the cooperation of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the Cultural Project of the Italian bishops' conference.







Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, head of the foreign relations department of the Moscow Patriarchate, led a Russian Orthodox delegation on a visit to Milan, Turin, Bologna and Rome starting May 16.

Representing Patriarch Kirill at the Vatican concert, Hilarion delivered the Patriarch's greetings before the concert.




The musical numbers were performed by the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Ponti Jr. (41-year-old son of Sophia Loren and the late movie producer Carlo Ponti), the Russian Synodal Choir and the Horn Ensemble of Moscow.








Vatican and Orthodox Church participants in a May 19 press conference said the 'Russia Days' represented another step in the relations between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

Metropolitan Hilarion told reporters that "there are things which cannot be transmitted either through theology or through diplomacy but that can be transmitted through the language of art... The language of music is very strong".

He said art is valuable in bringing about dialogue between cultures, as it can "liberate us from prejudices, from negative feelings toward each other that we might have inherited from the past.”

“I see many positive signs in the development of this particular type of dialogue,” the metropolitan said.

He said that the appreciation of the Orthodox Church for the current Pope, "a meeting should be held between Kirill and Benedict XVI in particular, rather than some Patriarch and some Pope."


Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks after the concert:

---

"Praise the name of the LORD! Praise, you servants of the LORD... Praise the LORD; the LORD is good! Sing to God's name; it is gracious!... O LORD, your name is forever, your renown, from age to age!"


Venerable Brothers,
Distinguished Ladied and Gentlemen,
Dear brothers and sisters:

We heard just now, in a sublime melody, the words of Psalm 135, which express very well our feelings of praise and glory to the Lord, as well as our intense joy for this moment of encounter and friendship with our dear brothers from the Patriarchate of Moscow.

On the occasion of my recent birthday and the fifth anniversary of my election to be the Successor of Peter, His Holiness Kirill I,Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias, has offered me, along with the most welcome words of his message, this extraordinary musical event, presented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the Patriarchate's department of external relations, as well as the composer of the symphony just performed for us.

My profound gratitude goes first of all to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. I address to him my most fraternal and heartfelt greeting, expressing the hope that the praise to the Lord and the commitment for progress in peace and concord among peoples may always accompany us, making us grow in the harmony of our intentions and our actions.

And I thank Metropolitan Hilarion for the greeting which he has kindly addressed to me and for his constant ecumenical commitment. I also contratulate him for his artistic creativity which we have been able to appreciate tonight.

With him, I greet the delegation of the Patriarchate of Moscow and the distinguished representatives of the government of the Russian Federation.

I greet the cardinals and bishops present, particularly Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and their dicasteries who organized the "Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality" in close collaboration with representatives of the Patriarchate.

And I greet the distinguished ambassadors, the various local authorities and all of you, dear friends, brothers and sisters - particularly the Russian communities present in Rome and Italy who took part in this moment of joy and celebration.

Music has set the seal on these events in a truly exceptional and evocative manner - the music of Russia yesterday and today, performed for us with great mastery by the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Maestro Carlo Ponti, the Synodal Choir of Moscow, and the Horn Ensemble of St. Petersburg.

I address my most sincere thanks to all the artists for the talent, engagement and passion with which they have presented some of the masterpieces of Russian musical tradition.

The soul of the Russian people - and with it, the Christian faith - is profoundly present in the works of which we heard a significant sampling today, and find extraordinary expression in the Divine Liturgy and the liturgical singing which always accompanies it.

Indeed, there is a close and original tie between Russian music and liturgical chant: It is in liturgy and of liturgy that a great part of the artistic creativity of Russian musicians takes off, giving rise to masterpieces that deserve to be better known in the West.

Today we had the joy of listening to pieces by the great Russian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries - Moussorgsky and Rimski-Korsakov, Tschaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

These composers, particularly the last, have treasured the rich musical-liturgical patrimony of Russian tradition - re-elaborating and harmonizing it with the musical experience and motifs of the West, bringing it closer to modernity. And this can be said just as well of the works of Meotropolitan Hilarion.

Thus, this music already anticipates, and in some ways realizes, the encounter, the dialog, and the synergy between East and West, as well as between tradition and modernity.

It was this unitary and harmonious vision of Europe that Venerable John Paul II had in mind when - reviving the image first suggested by Vjačeslav Ivanovič Ivanov, of the 'two lungs' that we must bring back together in order to breathe - he expressed the hope for a new awareness of the profound common cultural and religious roots of the European continent, without which Europe today is devoid of a soul and marked by a reductive and partial vision.

It was precisely in order to reflect further on this problem that a symposium was held yesterday on the topic, "Orthodox and Catholics in Europe today: The Christian roots and common cultural patriomny of East and West".

As I have stated many times, contemporary culture, particularly European, risks amnesia, forgetting and therefore abandoning the extraordinary patrimony that arose from and was inspired by the Christian faith which constituted the essential framework of European culture.

The Christian roots of Europe, in fact, are made up not just of its religious life and the testimony of so many generations of believers, but also of its inestimable cultural and artistic patrimony, the pride and precious resource of the peoples and countries in which the Christian faith, in its different expressions, has dialogued with culture and the arts, animated and inspired them, favoring and promoting human creativity and genius as never before.

Even today, these roots are alive and fruitful, in the East and the West, and can - indeed must - inspire a new humanism, a new season of authentic human progress, that can respond effectively to the numerous and often crucial challenges that our Christian communities and our societies have to face - first of all, that of secularization, which not only pushes God aside and does without him and his plan for man, but ends by negating human dignity itself in a society that is regulated only by selfish interests.

Let us return to making Europe breathe again with both lungs, to restore a soul not only to believers but to all the peoples of the continent, to promote trust and hope, rooted in the millennial experience of the Christian faith!

At this time, the consistent, generous and courageous testimony of believers must not lack, so that we may look together towards a common future in which freedom and the dignity of every man and woman are recognized as fundamental values, and an opening to the Transcendent is appropriately valued - the experience of faith as a constitutive dimension of the human ebing.

In the excerpt from Moussorgsky, entitled 'The angel proclaimed', we heard the words addressed by the angel to Mary [Magdalene], and thus, also to us: "Rejoice!" The reason for joy is clear: Christ had risen from the tomb "and has resurrected the dead".

Dear brothers and sisters, it is the joy of the risen Christ that animates, encourages and sustains us along our path of faith and Christian witness in order to offer true joy and solid hope to the world, to give valid reasons for trust to mankind and the peoples of Europe, whom I gladly entrust to the maternal and powerful intercession of the Virgin Mary.

He said the following in Russian:
I renew my thanks to Patriarch Kirill, to Metropolitan Hilarion, to the Russian delegates, the orchestra, the choirs, the organizers and all present.

He switched back to Italian for the blessing:
May the blessings of the Lord descend abundantly on all of you and those dear to you.

---

How refreshing that the Pope did not make even the faintest reference to a meeting with the Patriarch of Moscow! In fact, ever the realist, he has never expressed, much less fed, false hopes on such an event, in all his statements about relations with the Russian Orthodox Church since he became Pope!


The most interesting sidelight of the event - a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Sophia Loren, 75.
In the lower photo, Loren is with her younger son Edoardo, 36.

The London Times's Richard Owen tries for a far-fetched double-hitter with this story, but he is putting together two unrealistic speculations - what one might happen in an ideal world...


Pope’s Cyprus visit ‘may lead
to summit with Russian Orthodox Church’
by Richard Owen in Rome

May 20, 2010


There is growing speculation that the Pope’s visit to Cyprus next month for talks with Orthodox leaders could lead to a long-awaited summit between the Pontiff and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I to heal the 11th-century schism between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity.

In a move toward reconciliation* today, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the head of external affairs for the Moscow Patriarchate, delivered a message of greetings from Patriarch Kirill at a concert of Russian music in the Vatican attended by the Pope.

*[Mr. Owen, where have you been these past five years???? There have been nothing but 'moves towards reconciliation' that have unfortunately remained just 'moves' - since Russia is adamant about the Uktraine problem, its insistence that Rome is proselytizing the Orthodoz, and a new problem raised by Hilarion yesterday - theological differences - in the way of a Pope-Patriarch meeting. If overcoming the latter is going to be a condition for such a meeting, it may as well be in the 'eschatological future' as Cardinal Kasper rightly remarked afterwards!]

Chrysostomos II, the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, said this week that he hoped to arrange a summit and offered Cyprus as a possible venue. His previous attempts to arrange a papal meeting with the late Patriarch Alexei II were unsuccessful.

However, diplomats said that the death of Patriarch Alexei and the succession of Patriarch Kirill had given the reconciliation process “new impetus”.

Metropolitan Hilarion said that there were still outstanding issues between Rome and Moscow, including tensions over the role of Greek Catholics in western Ukraine. “The theological dialogue still has a long way to go,” he said. However a summit meeting was “our desire, it is a hope, and we must work for it”, he said, adding that “People and times have changed”.

The Vatican concert, the highlight of several days of “Russian culture and spirituality” in Rome, was the fruit of a meeting last September between the Pope and Metropolitan Hilarion, at which they agreed to reinforce cultural links between Catholics and Orthodox Christians as a mark of “shared Christian values”.

Metropolitan Hilarion said that an encounter between the Pope and the Patriarch “should be a historic event, not just because it is the first meeting between the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, but especially because such a meeting must be sign of the intention to move our relations forward”.

He stressed that he was referring specifically to a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict XVI. “By mentioning these two concrete people I was trying to suggest a desired deadline,” he told a press conference.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, said that a summit would show an increasingly secularised world that the Western and Eastern churches “have the same positions on moral questions”.

The concert of music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and other Russian composers also included a 23-minute work by Metropolitan Hilarion himself for chorus and orchestra called The Song of the Ascension.

It was attended by the actress Sophia Loren, whose son, Carlo Ponti Jr, shared the conducting with two Russian orchestra conductors, Sergei Peschanski and Aleksei Puzakov.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II this week called on the Orthodox faithful to stay calm during the Pope’s visit from 4-6 June and not to heed “provocative calls” for protests or demonstrations from “irresponsible elements”.

He said that the visit posed “not even the slightest danger to our faith”, and rumours that he would sign a theological agreement with the Pope were untrue. He made clear that theological dialogue remains the responsibility of the joint Catholic-Orthodox Theological Committee.

The dissident Pancyprian Orthodox Christian Movement admitted distributing leaflets criticising the clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church and accusing Cypriot bishops of ignoring it, but denied handing them out to schoolchildren.

The Pope’s trip will end with a Mass at the Eleftheria Stadium in Nicosia. During his Cyprus trip the Pope will also outline topics to be discussed at the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East planned for October.

Malta post-script:
Pope writes to prisoners


20 May 10 (RV) - Pope Benedict XVI has called on prisoners to remember the ‘inner freedom’ that comes from ‘rejoicing in the Lord’.

His words of advise and comfort are contained in a message, published today, that he wrote to prisoners in Malta during his April visit to the Mediterranean island.

In fact, the last of Pope Benedict XVI’s public events in Malta was a meeting with young people. A group of young offenders were invited to participate and contribute to the questions that were posed to the Holy Father.

The first speaker, representing young people who feel in some way marginalised by the Church, spoke of “those young people who, like me, do not fit comfortably into stereotyped roles”.

This he said “is due to various factors among them: either because we have experienced substance abuse; or because we are experiencing the misfortune of broken or dysfunctional families; or because we are of a different sexual orientation; among us are also our immigrant brothers and sisters, all of us in some way or another have encountered experiences that have estranged us from the Church”.

In his message to the men and women serving terms for offences in prison, Pope Benedict responded as follows, citing the words of St Paul, who first brought the faith to Malta:

---

Dear Friends,

I have received the message that you sent me and would like to convey to you my deep appreciation for the sentiments that you expressed and for the support of your prayers.

During this visit to the Maltese islands, I come as a Pastor to greet all the people in the name of the Lord. Be assured that I shall be especially mindful of those who suffer in any way – the sick, the elderly, the housebound, and those like yourselves who are in prison. I pray that you will draw comfort from the knowledge that you share in the condition of Saint Paul himself, who, although a prisoner, had the inner freedom to “rejoice in the Lord” (Phil 4:10), knowing that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8: 38-39).

With these sentiments, I assure you of my spiritual closeness. Invoking upon you and your loved ones the intercession of Saint Paul, Apostle of Malta, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of strength and peace in the Lord.

---

Pope receives new envoy
from Mongolia



The Holy Father received the credentials on Thursday morning of the new ambassador to the Holy See from Mongolia, H.E. Luvsantersen Orgil. Here is what the Pope said to him (address in English):

---

Your Excellency,

I am pleased to welcome you to the Vatican and to accept the Letters accrediting you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the Holy See.

I am most grateful for the greetings which you have brought from President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, and I ask you to convey to him my own prayerful good wishes for him and for all your fellow-citizens.

As your nation celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its passage to democracy, I express my confidence that the great progress made in these years will continue to bear fruit in the consolidation of a social order which promotes the common good of your citizens, while furthering their legitimate aspirations for the future.

I also take this occasion, Mr Ambassador, to express my solidarity and concern for the many individuals and families who suffered as a result of the harsh winter and the effects of last year’s torrential rains and flooding. As you have rightly observed, environmental issues, particularly those related to climate change, are global issues and need to be addressed on a global level.

As Your Excellency has noted, the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the Holy See, which took place after the great social and political changes of two decades ago, are a sign of your nation’s commitment to an enriching interchange within the wider international community.

Religion and culture, as inter-related expressions of the deepest spiritual aspirations of our common humanity, naturally serve as incentives for dialogue and cooperation between peoples in the service of peace and genuine development.

Authentic human development, in effect, needs to take into consideration every dimension of the person, and thus aspire to those higher goods which respect man’s spiritual nature and ultimate destiny (cf. Caritas in Veritate, 11).

For this reason, I wish to express my appreciation for the constant support of the Government in ensuring religious liberty. The establishment of a commission, charged with the fair application of law and with protecting the rights of conscience and free exercise of religion, stands as a recognition of the importance of religious groups within the social fabric and their potential for promoting a future of harmony and prosperity.

Mr Ambassador, I take this occasion to assure you of the desire of Mongolia’s Catholic citizens to contribute to the common good by sharing fully in the life of the nation.

The Church’s primary mission is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fidelity to the liberating message of the Gospel, she seeks also to contribute to the advancement of the entire community. It is this that inspires the efforts of the Catholic community to cooperate with the Government and with people of good will by working to overcome all kinds of social problems.

The Church is also concerned to play her proper part in the work of intellectual and human formation, above all by educating the young in the values of respect, solidarity and concern for the less fortunate. In this way, she strives to serve her Lord by showing charitable concern for the needy and for the good of the whole human family.

Mr Ambassador, I offer you my prayerful good wishes for your mission, and I assure you of the readiness of the offices of the Holy See to assist you in the fulfillment of your high responsibilities. I am confident that your representation will help to strengthen the good relations existing between the Holy See and Mongolia.

Upon you and your family, and upon all the people of your nation, I cordially invoke abundant divine blessings.

---

With the Prime Minister of Tonga

---

Today, 20 May 2010, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience Feleti Vaka'uta Sevele, prime minister of Tonga.

The prime minister subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

In the course of the cordial discussions attention focused on the process of institutional reform in Tonga, on various aspect of the archipelago's social and economic life, and on the important contribution the Catholic Church makes in various fields of human promotion.

Opinions were then exchanged on the international situation, with particular reference to the political, commercial and environmental problems which the Pacific Island States are facing in a spirit of close collaboration.

---

May 21, Friday in the 7th week of Easter

SAN CRISTOBAL MAGALLANES & 24 OTHER MEXICAN MARTYRS (d 1915-1928)
The anti-Catholic persecutions by the governments of Mexico in the early 20th
century resulted in many martyrs. Cristobal, a diocesan priest, and 24 others (
21 priests and 3 laymen) coming from eight states of Mexico were beatified in
1992 and canonized in 2000. They were all falsely accused of rebellion and
summarily executed without a trial. Born to a poor family, Cristobal was 30 when
he was ordained. After being a school chaplain, he became parish priest of his
hometown where he built schools, catechism centers, industrial shops and even
spearheaded the construction of a dam to provide electricity. He actively
evangelized pagan natives, and preached and wrote against armed rebellion.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/052110.shtml


OR today.


Papal news in this issue: The Pope's audience with the Prime Minister of Tonga, and his audiences with
the new ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates (above, left) and from Mongolia (above, right).
Page 1 international news: France and Germany disagree over proposed financial reforms for Europe;
Brazil and Turkey oppose UN sanctions against Iran; and North Korea threatens war after sinking
a South Korean ship.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna, President of the Dominican Republic, and delegation

- Participants of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Address in Italian.

- Participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Works. Address in Italian.

- Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (weekly meeting)

While it is good that America has 'scrubbed' an article that accused the Vicar of Christ of speaking against the Gospel, among other things, the magaizne, and particularly, the author of the cleaned-up article, owe the Holy Father nothing less than an apology on the pages of the magazine. See original post about this issue in the preceding page of this thread.


'America' quietly edits article
saying Pope spoke 'against the Gospel'
By Kathleen Gilbert


NEW YORK, May 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A column for the Jesuit magazine America, in which Rev. James Martin, S.J. criticized Pope Benedict XVI's pro-life and pro-family message in Portugal as "bizarre," and implied it was contrary to the Gospel, has been revised to omit the strongest language.

Martin, who serves as Culture Editor at the publication, took issue with the Pope's recent statement that abortion and same-sex marriage rank among "some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good." [Unfortunately, even this article assumes that Martin was quoting the Pope correctly, when he was not! The Holy Father never said 'same-sex marriage' in that address in Fatima - it is a term he has never even used.

Fr. Martin's intellectual dishonesty begins with his failure to quote the Pope correctly. No responsible person writes a fullblown commentary based on a misquotation.

"The equation of abortion, something that clearly is about a threat to life, with same-sex marriage, which no matter how you look at it, does not mean that anyone is going to die, is bizarre," he wrote. In a later version of the column, "bizarre" was deleted and replaced with "unhelpful at best."

Wrote the priest: "Why has same-sex marriage been equated with abortion? Are they really equivalent 'threats' to life?

"If you’re looking for a life issue with stakes as high as abortion, why not something that actually threatens life? Like war? Or the death penalty? Or the kind of poverty and destitution that lead to death? Why aren't 'abortion and war' the most 'insidious and dangerous' threats to the common good?", he continued. "The great danger is that this increasingly popular equation will seem to many as having less to do with moral equivalency and more to do with a simple dislike, or even a hatred, of gays and lesbians".

[I repeat my earlier comment that Martin's coupling of 'abortion and war' as "the most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good" is simply wrong and a logical fallacy: Because war is not and can never be an insidious threat - it is the most open and direct of all threats; in fact it goes beyond threat to cause wholesale death, injury and detruction. That is not insidious in any way!]

The final sentence, which read, "And that goes against not simply Catholic teaching, but against the Gospel," was removed from the column as of Thursday.

The Very Rev. David Ciancimino, S.J., the Provincial for the New York Province of the Jesuit order, did not respond to LifeSiteNews.com's (LSN) request for comment as of press time.

In an email sent to LSN, Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, severely criticized Martin's "intellectual laziness and dishonesty," saying the priest "nefariously misrepresents the words and intentions of the Holy Father."

"If the Holy Father's proclamation of the unchanging truth makes Father Martin uncomfortable, then it's time for Father Martin to hang up his collar," wrote Euteneuer. "How dare he misrepresent His Holiness's intent just to ingratiate himself further with the secular left, who find no sin in homosexual behavior! How dare he even imply that the Holy Father, by speaking the truth, somehow contradicts the Gospel and Catholic teaching!

"That such an offense would come from within the bowels of America Magazine is perhaps predictable, but no less infuriating."

Euteneuer pointed out that "mentioning two sins in the same sentence," i.e., abortion and same-sex "marriage," "does not imply moral equivalence." [Again, even Fr. Euteneuer takes Martin's version of what the Pope said!]

"For Father Martin to imply differently betrays either a defect in critical thinking skills or a willingness to embarrass Pope Benedict. Either way, it is truly revolting," he said.

In another portion of the article, Martin also declared that the Boston Archdiocese was acting "more wisely" than the Denver Archdiocese by distancing itself from a parish school's decision not to admit a child whose guardians were a lesbian couple.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has said that teaching the Catholic faith in its fullness "simply can’t be done if teachers need to worry about wounding the feelings of their students or about alienating students from their parents."

[P.S. As posted in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, Cardinal O'Malley of Boston has agreed with the Denver position, although he calls for a definition of policy regarding the issue.]

Italian state TV and
its anti-Benedict stance

Lella on her blog

has once again denounced Italian state TV RAI furiously for its open partisanship against Benedict XVI. On Tuesday - on no occasion in particular - RAI's premier channel apparently ran a documentary hagiography on John Paul II, as it does frequently, which is all very good. The malice is that it seems to have used that hagiography yet again to serve as a 'contrast' to Benedict XVI - whose record of handling the problem of priestly sex abuses was the topic of the Thursday program ANNOZERO, in which the program host provided a forum for two abuse victims from the United States and their attorney, two Maltese victims, and assorted other types who repeated the same unfounded stories about Cardinal RAtzinger's 'failures' as CDF prefect and referred to him in terms like 'liar', someone who 'tolerates monsters', who 'could not care less' about the issue, and perhaps worse.... Lella also mentions the fact that RAI's Vatican bureau chief replied to a letter to his blog that he had recently produced a videoclip on Benedict XVI (presumably in connection with the sex abuse issue) that RAI refused to air... The hostility of RAI to Benedict XVI is hard to justify. It has no business taking sides, if only because it is supported by a tax that all Italians pay.

ANNOZERO is the same program which ran the anti-Ratzinger BBC documentary in 2007. Although the program format does allow 'the other side' to speak, the bias and time constraints apparently work against the pro-B16 participants. Last night's program included writer Antonio Socci, who by all accounts did an excellent job of speaking up for the Pope - but was nonetheless unable to rectify the necessarily biased account of the Milwaukee case given by the US participants.

Andrea Tornielli gives his account of the program on his blog:
Translated from

May 21, 2010

Last night, Michele Santoro dedicated his program Annozero to the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests.

What attracted media attention was the long introduction he made at the start, to explain his position with RAI, which had nothing to do with the issue of the evening.

The tone of the interventions during the transmission was calm and civil, though there was potential for confrontation. Participating were Niki Vendola [the openly gay but Catholic-friendly regional governor of Puglia region], Antonio Socci (journalist), Mons. Domenico Sigalini, bishop of Palestrina; one of the victims of Don Cantini (Florentine priest, now 86, found guilty by the CDF in 2008 of sexual abuses against girls and boys and stripped of priesthood by the Pope; the complaints against him were made public by the victims in 2006, and the diocese sent on the complaints to the CDF]; and Italian journalists Marco Travaglio and Corrado Formigli, who have been following the Murphy story in Milwaukee; as well as two of the Maltese victims who had met with the Pope .

I liked the way Socci explained the novelty of Benedict XVI's attitude, who has not complained about a conspiracy against him [but even at the CDF he simply shrugged off all the media attacks on him!] nor has he used statistics as a defense, but has spoken instead of the 'terrifying' phenomenon that has imposed itself like a persecution from within the Church itself.

I would have liked to hear more from Mons. Sigalini who presented the case against Don Cantini well but could have been more incisive on the American cases [against Joseph Ratzinger].

In my opinion, two considerations were omitted which would have allowed a better evaluation of the American cases (touching because of the testimony of victims whose lives have been indelibly marked, but at the same time, too oriented towards the positions taken by the anti-Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Anderson):

First, no one brought up the fact that in the horrible case of Fr. Lawrence Murphy, who was a serial abuser of children in a Milwaukee school for deaf-mutes in the early 1970s, the CDF became involved only in the mid-1990s, and that the Milwaukee bishops had done nothing about him after police investigations in 1974 were dropped for lack of evidence. No one pointed out that the CDF did advise the diocese to go on with canonical proceedings against Murphy. And that, in the end, the diocesan proceeding came to nothing because the priest died a few weeks after the CDF recommendation.Nor was it pointed out that Murphy had lived with his mother since he was forced to retire in 1974 and had no occasion to work with children again.

These are not insignificant details, but yet, they did not emerge nor were they pointed out on the program.

Nor was it mentioned - after someone cited former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland's denunciation of the Vatican - that the archbishop himself admitted to having had a long-standing homosexual relation with a man whose silence he bought by paying him with $400,000 of diocesan funds. Weakland's offense was not pedophilia, but nonetheless, in the light of his attack against the Vatican, his own offenses are not secondary.

For his part, Formigli hammered on the usual canard that Vatican documents urged 'secrecy' on bishops, and that therefore these documents contributed to concealing the truth and covering up for the culpable.

It should have been pointed out that the Vatican documents have to do only - and obviously - with canonical proceedings, and therefore the secrecy referred to is for the protection of the victims' privacy, and that of the accused during the investigation and any subsequent canonical trial, since he has the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty.

Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that for decades, the Church seemed more concerned about not creating a public scandal and failed to give the necessary attention to the victims. But to attribute this attitude and failure of governance to documents from the Vatican is not right.

Finally, I was taken aback by what was said by one of the two victims from Malta. because I was there after they met the Pope and spoke to them. I interviewed Joseph Magro who was present last night but did not take part.

What I heard this other victim say last night was completely different from what he said in Malta, when all eight who met the Pope thanked the Church of Malta for its support and they were all enthusiastic about having met the Pope. But last night, this man said the Church has powerful lawyers and continues to protect their abusers.


Well, one must be sorry for the spineless man from Malta, who probably got more than just the roundtrip ticket to Rome for his effort. But the format of this one-hour talk shows (which, with commercials, are effectively only about 45 minutes long) militates against any meaningful or coherent discussion of any issue.

First, Annozero, in particular, crams too many participants - almost certainly by design - into these 44 minutes, which makes it impossible for any of them to present their 'case' adequately. Then, no matter how well you may have rehearsed your 'presentation' to be to be as forceful, comprehensive and concise as you can, it is bound to get pushed into oblivion with the next question or presentation, especially if the latter is more juicy or more controversial.

Political risks of
the Pope's visit to Cyprus
by Edward Pentin
(Blog entry)

Thursday, May 20, 2010


Could Pope Benedict’s visit to Cyprus next month become heavily politicized?

In an interview with Terrasanta.net, the Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See, George Poulides, said that the Pope’s June 4-6 visit will act as “a vigorous protest” against the Turkish occupation of the north of the island.

“The moral influence of the Pope is massive,” Ambassador Poulides told me last week. “His mere presence on this wounded island constitutes a vigorous protest against the injustice and the violence that the Cypriot people have undergone, namely the Turkish occupation.” [NO! That is really outright exploitation of the Pope's visit which has nothing to do with Turkish occupation of Cyprus. He is visiting the Catholics of Cyprus, a few of whom live in the Turkish-occupied part of the island which has a Muslim population. The last thing he wants to do is to exacerbate Greek vs Turk tensions.]

Cyprus has been territorially divided since Turkish troops invaded the Mediterranean island’s northern region in 1974, which later declared itself a Turkish republic in 1983.

The formal division of the country followed centuries-long tensions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots which precipitated after Cyprus won independence from Britain in 1960.

Although steps have been made towards reconciliation, the path has been fraught with difficulties.

The Pope, who will not be setting foot in northern Cyprus, will doubtless bring a message of peace and reconciliation, also because he will be concerned about the well-being of the Maronite community in the north.

Most of the island’s population are Greek Orthodox, but as Poulides points out, “the Maronite community suffers because of the Turkish occupation as much as the other Christians.”

He said they “face oppression and threats every day so that they will leave their homes, just as they [the Turks] forced hundreds of thousands of Christians and Greek-Cypriots before them.”

Poulides added that even many Turkish Cypriots don’t wish to live in the north any longer because of a prevailing atmosphere of “violence and abuse of power”.

He thinks that the Pope’s visit may, therefore, prompt the Turkish government to allow the north to decide their own future. [Another quixotic wish!]

As always, the Vatican will try to be sensitive to local concerns and prevent the papal visit from veering too much into politics. Benedict XVI will be especially keen not to upset Turkey as he sees the country as crucial to his outreach to the Islamic world. [Was there ever any risk of that to begin with? Pentin himself is injecting political color into the story! And I think it is arguable that Benedict XVI considers Turkey any more 'crucial' to his Muslim outreach than say, Saudi Arabia. Both regimes persecute Christians without any glimmer of hope for better things in the foreseeable future. If there is a Muslim country that can be singled out as potentially important to the Pope's outreach to the Muslim world, it would be Jordan, home of the 'Common Word' initiative, and which has always been friendly to its Christian population.]

Rather, the main emphasis of the apostolic visit will be pastoral, helping the local Catholic minority in the country, and boosting relations with the Orthodox. The Holy Father will also use the trip to present the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) to bishops participating in the synod on the Middle East, to be held in Rome in October.

But the Greek Cypriot government, ironically headed by an elected Communist president, understandably wants politics to take centre stage.

God willing, matters will work out best for all sides.


In northern Cyprus, Maronites work
to keep their heritage alive
By Brooke Anderson




Right, Father Andreas Katsioloudis stands in front of St. George's Church in Kormakitis. (CNS/Brooke Anderson)


KORMAKITIS, Cyprus, May 19 (CNS) -- The centuries-old Maronite Catholic community in this village in northern Cyprus is working to keep its heritage alive.

The scenery of this hillside settlement, with charming villas and lush gardens, tells the story of a once-proud and thriving community. Although the streets are empty, the maintenance of the property is impeccable -- a sign that the community still does its best to take care of what is all but a ghost town.

The 800-year-old community of about a hundred mainly elderly Cypriot Maronites remained in the occupied north of Cyprus after the 1974 Turkish invasion. Their customs, particularly their language -- a mixture of Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Syriac -- define their community, which is in danger of extinction.

"Ninety-five percent of our community from the North is now on the Greek side -- for work or study. For the young people, it's too difficult to return," said Father Andreas Katsioloudis, 72, who grew up in Kormakitis, but now lives in the southern city of Limassol and returns to the village once a week to celebrate Sunday Mass.

"We can't stay here like prisoners," he added.

Kormakitis, home to 100 of the island's 2,000 Maronite Catholics, is in one of the least-developed parts of Cyprus, has no bus services and is surrounded by abandoned Maronite villages.

Mass is offered daily at St. George's Church, but on Sundays several hundred people attend, and the village comes back to life. On Easter, church attendance typically reaches 2,000.

"The church is our strength," said Giovanni Pahita, 60, one of the youngest residents of Kormakitis. "We have nothing else. We don't have work or schools or young people."

After Mass, on Sunday afternoons, smartly dressed men and women sit at the coffee shop next door to the church, sipping tea or coffee and speaking among themselves in Cyprus Maronite Arabic, a disappearing language.

Daniel Kaufman, an adjunct professor of linguistics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, says language is one of the strongest sources of ethnic identity.

Each language, he says, "is a vehicle for an enormous amount of traditional literature which is never committed to writing."

"Improvised poetry, such as the Lebanese 'zajal' to take a local example, and epics that have been handed down for generations, simply do not survive without the language that has served as their vehicle," he says.

The Maronites of Cyprus can trace their roots back to Koura in northern Lebanon, an area best known for olive oil.

At their peak, in the mid-1500s, Maronite villages in Cyprus numbered 62 and hosted a population of 80,000, nearly matching that of the native Greek Cypriots. After the Ottoman invasion of 1871, the population dropped sharply -- to 800. In the late 1800s, under British rule, a significant number returned, and by the time Cyprus achieved independence from Britain in 1960, Cyprus had about 3,500 Maronite Catholics.

The 1974 Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation of northern Cyprus created an immediate "exchange of populations," wherein the Christians fled to the South and the Muslims to the North, regardless of the location of their ancestral homes. Those Maronites who chose to remain in the North were mainly retirees who stayed for sentimental reasons.

Since then, the Cypriot Maronites have managed to strike a delicate balance between their status as the only protected Christian community in the Muslim North, while keeping their ties with other Maronite communities, including those of southern Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria.

But even their special status would not protect them from the political reality of living in the occupied section of a divided country. To date, with the exception of Turkey, no country or company recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Pahita, a food exporter, said his job is hindered by the international boycott of the Turkish-occupied North, but he said the island's division is harder on its heritage than its economy.

"It's sad, because we have this loss of people, and we can't take care of our property. People need to come back. People need to return to the villages, and they need to study Arabic," said Pahita, whose four children all now live in southern Cyprus and Britain.

But for Father Katsioloudis, the priest living in Limassol, reviving Cyprus Maronite Arabic is only part of the struggle.

Sitting at an outdoor cafe next to the Kormakitis church, along with a handful of elderly parishioners, surrounded by empty streets and mountains, he said: "It's not only about bringing our language back. It's our history, our customs, our dancing -- all of our traditions."


What the article fails to point out is that in 2004, after 30 years, the Green Line separating the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus was opened, allowing Maronites to visit Kormakitis easily from Nicosia. A 2005 article in a local newspaper said this:

---

The surprise opening of the Green Line that divides Turkish and Greek Cypriots has punctuated a tiny revival in the trend toward decline. On the weekends, visitors come up from the prosperous Greek south, patronize the cafes and tavernas that remain shut during the week, and inject some cash into the wilting local economy.

For Maronites trekking back to their childhood idylls for the first time in 30 years, facing the Turkish Cypriot families now inhabiting their houses was a potentially traumatic experience. But despite the language barrier and mutual distrust, most Maronites had positive experiences of meeting those who now inhabit their houses.

---

The article quotes Marios Mavrides, "a Maronite historian of the community who lives and works in Nicosia but who every week makes the 20-minute car journey to the land where he was born".


Left photos show the Lebanese-born Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus Youssef Soueif.

Indeed, the website of the Maronite Archeparchy of Cyprus
www.maronitearcheparchy.org.cy/
designed by the same people responsible for the official website of the Pope's visit to Cyprus, carries a most interesting photo documentation of the Good Friday rites in Kormakitis this year, during which apparently, many young Maronites came to the little town to take part.




The rites started with a daytime Via Crucis and ended with an evening procession simulating the entombment of Christ, a ritual very similar to the 'Santo Entierro' I grew up with under the Roman Catholic tradition built into us Filipinos by 350 years of Spanish colonial rule.

John Allen has posted a really lengthy column
ncronline.org/news/autonomy-bishops-and-suing-vatican
on the Vatican's legal response to a lawsuit filed in behalf of sex abuse victims in the United States who name the Vatican as a co-respondent on the grounds that bishops and priests are employees of the Vatican. Allen also goes into the status of bishops on several levels... I don't have the time right now to read it carefully but a paragraph caught my eye in which Allen does his usual downgrading of Benedict XVI:

---

Criticism of the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases may be the most intense crisis in the papacy of Benedict XVI, but it's hardly the only one. The list is depressingly long: the Regensburg speech, the Good Friday prayer, the Holocaust-denying bishop affair, etc. [OK, that brings us to early 2009. Let's see what else he missed - the 'gaffes' and 'bloopers' he has always tut-tutted against Benedict XVI like a Boy Scout master ticking a cub's demerits: What about Wielgus and Wagner, two unhappy episcopal assignments? What about the condom flap in Africa? That's six all in all - how depressingly long indeed! Now, see why I can't just post an Allen piece as is, where is??? He leaves too many time bombs in his wake that any supported of the Pope needs to defuse!]

There's a spreading consensus at senior levels that Benedict is a great teaching pope but not a governor, and that the regime under him led by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, often doesn't have its act together. [As if John Paul II's Curia was any better!]

The corresponding tendency is to be less deferential; as one senior American prelate put it to me recently, "You think we get out of bed in the morning worrying about what Bertone thinks?"

---

Here's a simpler account:

Vatican, courts wrestle
over who controls bishops
by FRANCIS ROCCA



VATICAN CITY. May 21 (RNS) - Is Pope Benedict XVI legally responsible for the actions of U.S. Catholic bishops who mishandled cases of pedophile priests, allowing them to sexually abuse more children?

Some plaintiffs' lawyers are arguing that victims of clerical sex abuse should be able to sue the Vatican itself for damages, in large part because they say bishops are effectively employees or officials of the Holy See. The Pope appoints and disciplines bishops, they note, and he can force them to step down if he deems them unfit. [Apparently not. In canon law, the bishop has to resign for reasons of age or inability to perform his functions.]

The Vatican, meanwhile, argues that bishops are not agents of the pope. In a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit in Kentucky on Monday (May 17), Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena pointed out, among other distinctions, that bishops do not receive their salaries from Rome, nor work on Vatican property.

An advocate for American abuse victims called the Vatican's claims "disingenuous." [Who are hardly qualified to give an opinion because quite obviously, they have not even tried to research how the Church has been organized since the time of the Apostles. They should ask Cardinal Kasper, who maintained in a print debate with Cardinal Ratzinger years ago, that the local churches - i.e., the bishops who run them - take precedence over the universal Church represented by the Vatican.]

"The Church isn't some loosely-knit hippie commune with diffuse authority," said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's an ancient, rigid, crystal-clear hierarchy in which bishops ordain, transfer and supervise priests and in which the Pope selects, transfers and supervises bishops."

The question of just how much autonomy bishops exercise in matters of clerical sex abuse hinges on the interpretation of specific Vatican policies in that area.

But generally speaking, the working relationship between the bishop of Rome -- the Pope -- and the heads of the world's other 3,154 Catholic dioceses is a complex one, which cannot be easily translated into the terms of a modern corporate flow chart.

Once a bishop is assigned to lead a diocese, church law assigns him the primary authority over pastoral, educational, liturgical and administrative life there.

"The bishop exercises this authority in his own name, not as the vicar of the Pope," writes the Rev. James A. Coriden in An Introduction to Canon Law.

Yet Coriden admits that the Pope is "much more than a first among equals" in the worldwide College of Bishops.

"(The doctrine of) primacy gives the Pope the power to intervene in the life of the local church when exceptional circumstances make it necessary," Coriden writes. "In this sense it implies a `reserve power' to be used in emergency situations."

As the Rev. Thomas J. Reese notes in his book Inside the Vatican, canon law requires bishops to obtain the Vatican's permission before making certain decisions, such as selling or ceding diocesan property valued at $3 million or more.

And the Vatican does occasionally overrule bishops on a range of matters, including marriage annulments, parish closings and the approval of textbooks for religious instruction. But as Reese recounts, such interventions typically come after clergy or laity in a diocese choose to contest their bishop's actions through a lengthy appeals process.

The most routine example of Vatican supervision takes place once every five years, when every bishop must file a lengthy questionnaire and make a visit to Rome, which includes a 15-minute meeting with the pope.

In between those meetings, the vast share of a bishop's actions is left to his discretion and responsibility.

That organizational reality is consistent with the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity, which posits (as a matter of moral principle) that decisions should be made at the level closest to the people affected by them.

But the high degree of decentralization that characterizes Church administration also reflects a more mundane consideration: work flow. As the headquarters of a worldwide organization with more than 1.1 billion members, the Vatican must make do with a professional staff of fewer than 2,000 people. [The secular world does not see this at all!]

If the Church's day-to-day operations depended on decisions from Rome -- whose slowness has become a major target of the controversy over clerical sex abuse -- it seems likely that the Church itself would have long ago gone out of business.

Pope meets the President
of the Dominican Republic

May 21, 2010



The Vatican released the following communique:

---

This morning, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience Leonel Antonio Fernandez Reyna, President of the Dominican Republic.

The President subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions appreciation was expressed for the great contribution the Church makes to the development of the country, especially in the fields of education and healthcare where she particularly concerns herself with the most needy. Emphasis was then given to the importance of continuing to promote human life, from conception until natural death.

Subsequently, opinions were exchanged on the Dominican authorities' commitment to combatting the social problems that afflict the country.

Attention turned to the international and regional situation, in which context the Dominican Republic's role in organising humanitarian aid to Haiti was highlighted.

---

Pope tells Catholic laymen:
'We need authentically
Christian politicians'




VATICAN CITY, 21 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received participants in the twenty-fourth plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity who are currently meeting on the theme "Witnesses to Christ in the political community".

The Pope told them that, although the "technical formation of politicians" is not part of the Church's mission, she reserves the right to "pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls require it".

"It is up to the lay faithful to show - in their personal and family life, in social cultural and political life - that the faith enables them to read reality in a new and profound way, and to transform it", he said.

"It is also the duty of the laity to participate actively in political life, in a manner consistent with the teaching of the Church, bringing their well-founded reasoning and great ideals into the democratic debate, and into the search for a broad consensus among everyone who cares about the defence of life and freedom, the protection of truth and the good of the family, solidarity with the needy, and the vital search for the common good".

The Holy Father went on: "There is a need for authentically Christian politicians but, even more so, for lay faithful who bear witness to Christ and the Gospel in the civil and political community. This need must be reflected in the educational prospectus of the ecclesial community and requires new forms of presence and support from pastors. Christian membership of associations, ecclesial movements and new communities can be a good school for such disciples and witnesses, supported by the charismatic, community, educational and missionary resources of those groups".

The Pope explained how "the spread of a confused cultural relativism, and of a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism weakens democracy and favours the dominance of strong powers. We must recover and reinvigorate authentic political wisdom; be demanding in what concerns our own sphere of competency; make discriminating use of scientific research; face reality in all its aspects, going beyond any kind of ideological reductionism or utopian dream; show we are open to true dialogue and collaboration, bearing in mind that politics is also a complex art of equilibrium between ideals and interests, but never forgetting that the contribution of Christians can be decisive only if knowledge of faith becomes knowledge of reality, the key to judgement and transformation. What is needed is a true 'revolution of love'".

POPE MEETS WITH COUNCIL MEMBERS
FOR PONTIFICAL MISSIONARY WORKS

VATICAN CITY, 21 MAY 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican the Holy Father received participants in the ordinary assembly of the superior council of the Pontifical Missionary Works (Pontificie Opere Missionarie, POM), which is an arm of the the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

[Through the POM, the Congregation (commonly known as Propaganda Fide) directly supports local Churches around the world in carrying out the mission of announcing the Gospel through a network of children, young people, adults, families, priests and religious "committed to a true communion of prayer and solidarity through catechetical activities and missionary formation".]

Evangelisation "is an immense mission", the Pope told them, "especially in our own time in which humankind is suffering from a certain lack of reflection and wisdom, and we are seeing the spread of a humanism that excludes God. For this reason, it is urgently necessary to illuminate emerging problems with the unchanging light of the Gospel".

Preaching the Gospel "is a priceless service the Church can offer humankind on its journey through history", the Holy Father told the members of the Pontifical Missionary Works, whom he described as "an eloquent and living sign of the catholicity of the Church, which takes concrete form in the universal scope of the apostolic mission 'to the ends of the earth', and 'to the end of the age', so that no people or environment may be without the light and grace of Christ. This is the meaning, the historical trajectory, the mission and the hope of the Church", he said.

"The mission to announce the Gospel to all peoples" involves making "critical judgement on the global transformations that are bringing substantial changes to the culture of humankind. The Church, present and at work on geographical and anthropological frontiers, carries a message which enters into history as she proclaims the inalienable values of the person, announcing God's plan of salvation made visible and operational in Christ. The preaching of the Gospel is the call to freedom of the children of God, for a more just and united society".

Those who participate in Christ's mission must inevitably "face trials, contrasts and suffering because they clash with the powers of this world", said Benedict XVI, but "like the Apostle Paul...we have no arms other than the Word of Christ and His Cross".

Thus the "ad gentes" mission requires the Church and missionaries "to accept the consequences of their ministry: evangelical poverty, which gives them the freedom to preach the Gospel courageously and frankly; non-violence, by which they respond to evil with good; and willingness to give their life for the name of Christ and the love of mankind".

"It is from the Holy Spirit that the Church's announcement and apostolic ministry receive authority", the Pope said. "Evangelisation needs Christians with their arms raised to God in prayer, Christians aware that conversion to the world of Christ is not something we produce, but something given to us".

The Holy Father concluded his remarks by thanking the members of the POM for "stimulating the missionary conscience of local Churches, encouraging them to... form and send out missionaries and help the young Churches".

May 22, Saturday in the 7th week of Easter

ST. RITA DA CASCIA (Italy, 1391-1457), Mother, Widow, Augustinian nun, Mystic
Born near Perugia, Margherita Lotti always wanted to be a nun, but at 12, her family married her off to a powerful local politician who turned out to be abusive. She bore him twin sons. After 18 years of marriage, her husband was murdered. Not long after, both sons died of natural causes, and at age 36, after several attempts, she was finally accepted at the Augustinian convent in Cascia, where she would remain until she died. She lived a life of penance and prayer and was particularly devoted to the Passion of Christ. In 1451, she received a stigma on the forehead resembling those made by the crown of thorns, a wound that bled and caused her pain for the rest of her life. Because of her reputation, many came to seek her spiritual counsel. She spent the last four years of her life bedridden - it is said, sustained only the Eucharist. One day, she asked a cousin to bring her a rose from her old home. Though it was wintertime, the cousin found a single rose blooming. This became a symbol for the belief in Rita's grace to obtain the impossible. With St. Jude Thaddeus, she is considered the saint of impossible and desperate causes. After her death, many miracles were attributed to her, and her body remained incorruptible. She was beatified in 1606 but was not canonized till 1900. Her remains are venerated in the Basilica of Santa Rita in Cascia.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/052210.shtml


OR today.

Illustration: Columns and Crosses, Paul Klee, 1951.
To the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Benedict XVI urges
'Critical judgment on current cultural transformations'

Other papal stories: The Pope's meeting with the President of the Dominican Republic, his address to the annual meeting of the Pontifical Missionary Works, and the concert on Thursday evening offered to him by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, represented by Metropolitan Hilarion, 'foreign minister' for the Patriarchate of Moscow. Other Page 1 news: Obama's intended financial reforms as the stock market falls and unemployment rises in the United States; the massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak now thought to be a worse environmental disaster than Chernobyl; and a report on the first cell synthesized by US scientists as an excellent motor for cell research but not life.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with -

- H.E. Boïko Borissov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, and delegation. Address in Italian.

- H.E. Trjako Veljanoski, President of the Parliament of Macedonia, with his wife and delegation. Address in Italian

- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)

- Participants in the annual meeting of the Centesimus Annus-Pro Pontifice Foundation. Address in Italian.

Pope Benedict reiterates appeal for
ethics in finance. and human development
oriented to the universal common good

May 22, 2010




At 12:30 p.m. Saturday, the Holy Father received participants in the annual assembly of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice Foundation and their families at the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace.

Here is a translation of his address to them:

---

Cardinal Nicora,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Distinguished and dear friends,

I am happy to greet you on the occasion of the study meeting promoted by the Foundation Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice.

I greet Cardinal Attilio Nicora, Mons, Claudia Maria Celli and other prelates and priests present.

A special thought for your president, Domingo Sugranyes Bickel, whom I thank for his kind words, and to you, dear advisers and members of the Foundation who have come to visit me with your families.

I appreciate the fact that your meeting this year is focused on reflecting on the relation between 'development, progress and the common good'.

Today, more than ever, the human family can grow as a free society of free peoples if globalization is guided by solidarity and the common good, and also by relative social justice which finds in Christ and in the Church a precious source.

The crisis and difficulties which current afflict international relations, states, society and the economy, are in large measure due to the lack of trust and of adequate creative fraternal inspiration and dynamics oriented towards the common good, which can lead to authentically human relationships of friendship, solidarity and reciprocity even 'within' economic activity.

The common good is the end that gives sense to progress and development which would otherwise be limited solely to the production of material goods. These are necessary, but unless they are oriented to the common good, they end up making consumerism, waste, poverty and disequilibrium prevail - factors which are adverse to progress and development.

As I highlighted in the encyclical Caritas in veritate, one of the greatest risks in the world today is that "the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development" (No. 9).

Such an interaction, for example, appears to be too weak among governing authorities who, in the face of repeated episodes of irresponsible speculation with respect to the weaker nations, fail to act with adequate decisions to regulate finance. Politics should have primacy over finance, and ethics should orient every activity.

Without the reference point of the universal common good, one cannot say that there is a true world ethos and the corresponding will to live up to it (supported) with adequate institutions. It is therefore decisive to identify the elements of that common good to which all peoples must have access for their fulfillment as humans. And this must be not in any way whatsoever, but in an ordered, harmonious way.

Indeed, the common good is composed of many aspects: from the material, cognitive and institutional to the moral and spiritual, with these last superior to the former, and to which the former must be subordinated.

The commitment for the common good of the family of peoples, as for every society, thus involves tending to and availing of a complex of institutions which give juridical, civic, political and cultural structure to universal social life so that it takes the form of a polis, a city of man (cfr. ibid.,7).

Therefore, there must be guarantees that the economic-productive order is socially responsible and to the measure of man, with conjoint and unified action on many levels, including the international (cfr ibid, 57-67).

In the same way, consolidation of constitutional, juridical and administrative systems in countries that still do not enjoy them fully must be supported.

Alongside economic aid, therefore, there must be aid intended to reinforce the guarantees proper to a state of law, a just and efficient system of public order, in full respect of human rights, along with institutions that are truly democratic and participative (cfr. ibid.,41).

But that which is a fundamental priority, with a view to the development of the entire family of peoples, is working to recognize the true scale of benefits and values. Only with a correct hierarchy of human benefits will it be possible to understand what kind of development should be promoted.

The integral development of peoples - which is the central objective of the common universal good - is provided not only by the diffusion of entrepreneurship (cfr ibidem), of material and cognitive goods like the home and education, and of available choices.

Rather, it must be promoted specially by an increment in the good choices that are possible when there exists a notion of integral human good - when there is a telos, an end, in the light of which development is conceived and desired.

The idea of integral human development presumes precise coordinates, such as subsidiarity and solidarity, along with interdependence among the state, society and the market. In a global society, composed of many peoples and diverse religions, the common good and integral development must be achieved with the contribution of everyone.

In this, religions are decisive, especially insofar as they teach brotherhood and peace, because they educate to make room for God and to be open to the transcendent in our society that is characterized by secularization.

The exclusion of religions from the public sphere, along with religious fundamentalism on the other hand, impedes the encounter among persons and their collaboration for human progress. The life of society is impoverished of motivations, and politics takes on an oppressive and aggressive face (cfr. ibid. 56).

Dear friends, the Christian vision of development, of progress, and of the common good, as it emerges in the Social Doctrine of the Church, responds to man's most profound expectations, and your commitment to examine it deeper and to disseminate it is a valid contribution towards edifying 'the civilization of love'.

For this, I express my gratitude and my best wishes, and from the heart, I bless you all.

---

Pope calls for solidarity in world's finances,
says ethics must guide all action



VATICAN CITY, May 22 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI called Saturday for ethics and solidarity in the world's financial system, rebuking governments he said failed to act properly in the face of speculation that hurts poorer nations.

Benedict did not mention specific countries in his comments.

But he said that an "ethical interaction of conscience and intelligence" appears to be "too weak in those rulers who, faced with renewed episodes of irresponsible speculation toward weaker countries, fail to react with adequate decisions on financial governance."

The Pontiff said politics should always be predominant over finance [????] and ethics must guide all action.

"The crisis and the difficulties that international relations, states, society and the economy are currently going through," he said, "are largely due to a lack of trust and of adequate aspiration toward solidarity."

Benedict was speaking to members of the Vatican foundation Centesimus Annus, named after a 1991 encyclical by John Paul II on economics following the collapse of European communism. The foundation seeks to promote the Church's social doctrine.

Benedict said the search for common good must inform globalization and be the goal of progress and development, which would otherwise merely serve to produce material goods.

"Without a tendency toward common good, consumerism, waste, poverty and imbalance end up prevailing," the Pope said during the meeting at the Vatican.



NB: The website of the Foundation notes that on April 9th, they sent a telegram of support to the Holy Father, as follows:

---

TO HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
VATICAN CITY

GRIEVING AT UNJUST ATTACKS TO YOUR PERSON WE FEEL EVER MORE MOTIVATED BY GREAT IMPULSE RECEIVED BY ENCYCLICAL“CARITAS IN VERITATE”.

ON BEHALF OF ALL OUR MEMBERS WE PLEDGE LOYAL OBEDIENCE TO YOUR HOLINESS AND COMMITMENT TO FOLLOW YOUR GUIDANCE.

GRATEFULLY LOOKING FORWARD TO FORTHCOMING MAY 22 AUDIENCE WE REAFFIRM OUR FILIAL DEVOTION

Domingo Sugranyes, Chairman and
Massimo Gattamelata, Secretary General

---

Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice (CAPP) describes itself as "a Foundation of religion and worship" based in the State of Vatican City and governed by the Church’s Canon Law and the Civil Law of the State of Vatican City.

CAPP's specific purpose is to collaborate towards the diffusion of human, ethical, social and Christian values described in particular in the Encyclical “Centesimus Annus”, with the following areas of activity:
o Promoting informed knowledge of the social teachings of the Church and of the activity of the Holy See among qualified and socially motivated business and professional leaders;
o Promoting initiatives aimed at expanding the Church’s effective role in all sectors of contemporary society;
o Promoting fund raising activities to help support the activity of the Apostolic See.

Pope receives Bulgarian and Macedonian
delegations to mark annual feast of
of Saints Cyril and Methodius


Vatican City, May 22, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News) - Speaking to delegations from Eastern European countries in Rome in memory of the evangelizing saints of the Slavic peoples, the Holy Father observed the deep-rooted Christian tradition in the area. All Christians, he said, have the duty to maintain the link between the Word of God and their cultural identity.

The Holy Father met with civil and religious leaders from the ex-Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria separately on Saturday morning to mark the liturgical memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius (celebrated on May 24). Heads of state and Church, top ministers and cultural representatives formed the countries' delegations.

Remembering how the saintly brothers left a lasting imprint of Christianity “in the soul” of Bulgarians, the Holy Father noted that the population is still “anchored to those evangelical values, that always strengthen the identity and enrich the culture of a nation.”

He explained that the Gospel never serves to weaken what is "authentic" in a cultural tradition, but, rather, through the light of faith, "gives man the capacity to recognize the true good and helps him to realize it in his own life and in the social context."

The Bulgarian delegation was led by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.




As Bulgarians are called to witness to the Christian roots given to them by Sts. Cyril and Methodius, said Pope Benedict XVI, so too all Christians "have the duty to conserve and consolidate the intrinsic bond that exists between the Gospel and our respective cultural identities."

The Macedonian delegation was led by the President of Parliament, Trjako Veljanoski.





To the delegation from the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, the Holy Father spoke of the abundant fruits of the evangelizing saints. Noting the difficulties in the lives of these two brothers and their continued faith and love for God, the Pope said that for modern Christians, "so much more the Spirit can come to help our weakness, indicating to us new way for our actions."

Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who were brothers, brought the Gospel from Greece to the Slavic peoples in the 9th century and are especially remembered for having evangelized in the Slavonic tongue using an alphabet they creating for the language. They were proclaimed the co-patrons of Europe by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

A pilgrimage to visit and venerate the remains of St. Cyril in the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome takes place every year at this time.



Here is a translation of the address by the Holy Father to the Bulgarian delegation:

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Mr. Prime Minister,
Honorable members of the Government and distinguished authorities,
Venerated Brothers in the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church!

I am happy to be able to give a cordial welcome to each of you, honorable members of the Official Delegation, who have come to Rome on the happy occasion of the liturgical commemoration of Saints Cyril and Metodius.

Your presence, which attests to the Christian roots of the Bulgarian people, offers a propitious occasion to confirm my esteem for this dear nation and allows us to reinforce our friendship, enriched by our devotion to the two sainted brothers from Thessalonia.

Through tireless efforts at evangelization, carried out with true apostolic ardor, Saints Cyril and Methodius providentially implanted Christianity in the soul of the Bulgarian people, so that they have been anchored in evangelical values that always reinforce the identity and enrich the culture of a nation.

Indeed, the Gospel does not weaken what is authentic in various cultural traditions. On the contrary, precisely because faith in Jesus shows us the splendor of Truth, it gives man the ability to recognize true good and helps him to realize it in his own life and in the social context.

Therefore, one can rightly maintain that Saints Cyril and Metodius contributed significantly to shape the humanity and spiritual physiognomy of the Bulgarian people, inserting them into the common Christian cultural tradition.

On the road of full integration with the other European nations, Bulgaria is thus called to promote and bear witness to those Christian roots that derive from the teachings of Saints Cyril and Metodius which are more than ever relevant and necessary today.

It is called, in short, to keep the faith and to guard the precious patrimony which unites those among them - Orthodox and Catholic - who profess the faith of the Apostles and are united by a common Baptism.

As Christians, we have the duty to conserve and reinforce the intrinsic link between Gospel and our respective cultural identities. As disciples of the Lord, in reciprocal respect of the different ecclesial traditions, we are called to bear common witness of our faith in Jesus, in whose name we shall obtain salvation.

I hope from my heart that this encounter of ours may be - for all of you present, and for the ecclesial and civil entities that you represent - a motivation for ever more intense fraternal and supportive relations.

With these sentiments, I encourage the Bulgarian people to persevere in building a society based on justice and peace: For this, I assure my prayers and my spiritual nearness.

I renew to you, Mr. Prime Minister, and to each of you, my best wishes which i also extend to all the citizens of your beloved country.

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Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to the Macedonian delegation:

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Mr. President of the Parliament,
Honorable members of Parliament and distinguished authorities,
Venerated Brothers in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches!

I am happy to welcome you and to express to the Lord, giver of every grace, the joy and gratitude for this moment that sees us united in invoking the intercession of Saints Cyril and Methodius, heavenly patrons of your people and all of Europe, in the annual pilgrimage that you make to Rome to venerate the relics of St. Cyril.

My beloved predecessor, Venerable John Paul II, in the Encyclical Slavorum Apostoli, wishe to remind everyone that thanks to the teaching and the fruits of the Vatican Council II, today we can look in a new way at the work of the Brother Saints of Thessalonia, "from whom we are spearated by 11 centuries, and to read in their life and apostolic activities the contents that wise divine Providence has written, so that they can be revealed in a new fullness in our time and bear new fruit" (No. 3).

And in their time, the fruits of evangelization by Cyril and Methodius were truly abundant. They knew sufferings, privations and hostility, but they bore everything with unshakable faith and invincible hope in God. With this strength, they gave their all for the peoples entrusted to them, guarding the texts of Scripture, indispensable for the celebration of sacred Liturgy, translated by them into a paleo-Slavic language, written in a new alphabet and subsequently approved by the authorities of the Church.

In trials and in joys, they always felt themselves accompanied by God - everyday they experienced his love and that of their brothers. We too understand increasingly that when we feel loved by the Lord and we know how to respond to this love, we are wrapped in his grace and guided by it in every action and activity of ours.

With the effusion of the multiple gifts of the Holy Spirit, the more we learn to love and give ourselves to others, the more the same Spirit can come to help us in our weakness, showing us new ways to act.

According to tradition, Methodius remained faithful to the end to the words that his brother Cyril said to him before he died: "Look, brogther, we have shared the same destiny, pushing the plow through the same furrow. Now I fall on the field as my day ends. Do not abandon your activity of teaching" (ibid., No. 6).

Dear brothers and sisters, together let us lay our hands on the plow and continue to work the same furrow that God in his providence showed Saints Cyril and Methodius.

May the Lord bless your work in the service of the common good and your whole nation, and pour on her the gifts of his Spirit of unity and peace.

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Program for the Pope's visit
to Sulmona on July 4

The diocese of Sulmona-Valva has announced the program for the Joly Father's pastoral visit on Sunday, July 4, after the Vatican confirmed it to the Bishop of Sulmona-Valva, Mons. Angelo Spina.

The Pope's visit is a highlight of the jubilee year observed by the diocese to mark the 800th centenary of the birth of St. Celestine V (1209-1276), who was Pope from July-December 1794. He was born near Sulmona and died in a mountain hermitage near the city. He is known to Italians as San Pietro Celestino (Pietro was his baptismal name).

The program:

09:30 The Holy Father arrives by helicopter at a sport field in Incoronata south of Sulmona after flying over the Abbazia di Santo Spirito and the San Onofrio hermitage in Morrone.

He will then proceed by Popemobile to Piazza Garibaldi in the city center, where he will be formally welcomed by the Mayor adn the Bishop before he vests for Mass.

10:15 The Holy Fahter will preside at a Eucharistic Celebration and the Angelus.

12.30 The Holy Father will take the Popemobile to the Casa Sacerdotale, a new facility for aging and sick priests, built beside the bishop's residence.

The Pope will bless the residence which will be named for him, and then stay for lunch and a brief rest.

In the afternoon, he will meet with a group of prisoners from Sulmona jail, accompanied by their warden, personnel and chaplain.

He will then take the Popemobile to proceed to the Cathedral of San Panfilo to meet with diocesan youth.

He will return to Roem by helicopter, departing from a stadium field next to the Cathedral.



Sulmona, which also prides itself as the birthplace of the great classical Roman poet Ovid, is in the Abruzzo region. Last year, the Pope visited L'Aquila, after the Holy Week earthquake of 2009 and visited the remains of Pope Celestine V in Collemaggio, which sustained major damage during the earthquake, but the glass-walled urn survived intact. In homage, he left the pallium he wore at his Inaugural Mass in his predecessor's urn.

The diocese has been just as active in initiatives to promote the jubilee year of their native saint as it has been of the Pope's visit.



"The visit of the Holy Father in the Celestinian Jubilee Year is an spiritual event, a an event of grace for the ecclesiastical region of Abruzzo and Moliese, for the Abruzzo region, for the diocese of Sulmona-Valva, and for the city of Sulmona".

Music and dialog



22 May 10 (RV) - In his weekly editorial, Fr Federico Lombardi reflects on Catholic Orthodox relations in the light of the recent "Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture in the Vatican":

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Days ago we witnessed an important step in relations between the Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church. The concert held in Paul VI Hall, offered by Patriarch Kirill to the Holy Father and preceded by a warm message from the Patriarch to the Pope, read by Metropolitan Hilarion, went far beyond normal courtesy.

In fact, it is very clear that in the context of the European cultural landscape of today, Catholics and Orthodox have shared views on the major ethical problems because they are derived from a vision of man that is inspired by Christianity.

Metropolitan Hilarion, in his address, referred explicitly, for example, to issues relating to life and family. The Pope’s concluding speech was more wide-ranging and challenging than his usual end-of-concert addresses.

He amply developed on the theme of Europe’s Christian roots, expressed not only in religious life, but also in the “invaluable cultural and artistic heritage" of countries where the Christian faith fostered and promoted “creativity and genius as never before".

In the face of secularization that pushes us to have nothing to do with God and his project, a secularisation which "ends up denying human dignity itself", a "new humanism" needs to be proposed and developed, so Europe can return to breathe dialogue and synergy between East and West, between tradition and modernity “with both lungs".

The resounding notes of great Russian music in the Vatican was an eloquent sign of the deep harmony that has been established between the Russian Orthodox Church and Catholic Church on these crucial perspectives on. A very encouraging sign for the future.

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Addendum to Russian Concert for the Pope:
GREETING FROM PATRIARCH KIRILL I
TO POPE BENEDICT XVI
Text and photos from
the English webpage of the


The following is an English translation of the Patriarch's message, read before the concert last Thursday, May 20, by Metropolitan Hilarion, president of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations.

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Your Holiness, Dear Brother Beloved in Christ,
Your Eminences and Graces,
Dear Brothers and Sisters.
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I cordially greet Your Holiness and all the participants in the concert of Russian Orthodox music organized by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Pontifical Council for Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

For the first time in history, three remarkable teams – the Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Synodal Choir and St. Petersburg’s Horn Capella – have united in the Paul VI Hall to perform works of Russian composers.

Present in the hall are the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, bishops and priests, monastics and lay people. All this makes this concern a significant event in the history of cultural exchange between our two Churches.

Music is a special language which gives us an opportunity to communicate through hearts. Music is capable of conveying the emotional experience of the human soul and spiritual states which are impossible to describe by words.

To understand a particular people one should listen to their music. This is true not only for the Orthodox liturgical music, the best pieces of which are to be presented today, but also for the works of Russian composers written to be performed in a concert hall.

In the years of persecution against the Church and the domination of official atheism when spiritual music was inaccessible for the general public, these works, along with masterpieces of Russian literature and visual arts, served the cause of Christian preaching by carrying to the world lofty spiritual and moral ideals.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute (Ps 3-4).

These words of the psalm, which will resound today, show that music can be imbued with the spirit of prayer and intercession before God. Even secular in form, music can be spiritual in essence.

I wish God’s help to Your Holiness, to all the guests and participants in the concert.

+ KIRILL
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

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Right photo: Archbishop Hilarion with Sophia Loren and her two sons, Carlo Ponti Jr and Edoardo.

The DECR website also provides reports with photographs of Archbishop Hilarion's trip to Italy which began in Ravenna, where he celebrated the Eucharist at the Basilica of St. Apollinaire; Milan; Turin, where he venerated the Shroud and conducted a service for Russian Orthodox pilgrims; and Bologna where he met Cardinal Cafarra, before coming to Rome for the two-day 'Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality'.

While in Rome, he met with Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture; and Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. With three other prelates in his delegation, he concelebrated Divine Liturgy at St. Peter's Tomb in the Vatican on May 19.



(There are photos illustrating the other events, which i will post in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread. The website of the DECR under Hilarion, now separate from the main site of teh Moscow Patriarchate, is a very good resource for events in the Russian Orthodox Church.)

Motto for papal visit:
'One heart, one soul'

The official site for the papal visit to Cyprus has unveiled the motto and logo for the visit:




'Let us all welcome the Pope'
Originally published in Greek
O Typos ton Maroniton

May 20, 2010


Just three weeks away from the first Apostolic visit ever of the Head of the Catholic Church to Cyprus, and almost all the island is on alert. Day by day everybody realizes the importance of the person, Benedict XVI, who will visit the country for three days in June and the preparations are at their utmost.


Mons. Soueif, and Cypriot Maronite publications in Greek and English.

Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus H.E. Youssef Soueif, who is the General Coordinator on behalf of the Catholic community of Cyprus with regard to the Holy Father's visit, spoke exclussively to “T” about this historic event and its importance for Cyprus and its people. He also spoke of the progress in preparatory work and many other aspects of the visit.


Your Excellency, we are less than a month away from the firstst Apostolic Visit of a Pope to Cyprus. What are your feelings and how do you see the preparation work progressing? Is there satisfactory coordination between all parties involved?
We already are into the visit, into the event, and of course we are feeling so enthusiastic to welcome His Holiness the Pope in Cyprus. All of us, all Cyprus, the Government, the Church of Cyprus, the Catholics, all the Churches and all the communities, all of us we are glad to welcome the Pope in Cyprus.

It is an honor and really a privilege that the Pope, is coming to visit us here in our country, a small island but a very symbolic and rich country for its historical tradition of living together in a multicultural society. So we are very glad to welcome the Pope and to live these distinct days in our land.

As far as coordination and collaboration is concerned, from the beginning we started to prepare this historical event, in good coordination with the government, with the Church of Cyprus and of course within the Catholic community of Cyprus. which means both the Maronites and the Latins.

We do this in a very direct way involving all the parishes, all the priests, the monks, the nuns, the civil people, the responsible and the clergy people, and of course with everyone who expressed the will to contribute and help in this event.

I think we have done a very good job until now and I am sure that we will do even better as the time approaches. This is a very important event, an historic event, as we are also going to receive here dozens of Vatican officials, Patriarchs and Archbishops of the Catholic Church in the Middle East, and thousands of other visitors from Europe and the neighboring countries.

We know that a number of committees and hundreds of volunteers are already working on the project - on the side of the Catholic community of Cyprus of course. But we have the feeling that more are needed. How could anyone who wants to help, do it?
From the beginning we made a general announcement, a general call and invited all Cypriot Catholics, organized groups and entities to a first meeting. A lot of people came, and from that big gathering we started organizing ourselves to different committees, almost 20 committees, everyone in a specific area. And here I want to greet very warmly and I thank very deeply and personally all the committees, coordinators, members and volunteers, because without them how really we can approach and realize this whole event?

Of course we need more help, especially in the youth area. We need young people to help the visitors, to help in a very practical way, to orient them to the places, to welcome them in the human and practical way by even offering them a cup of water.

So I would like to urge everyone who wants to help, to join us. In such huge events, everything counts and has its importance, even to offer a cup of water. It is not a question of doing big things; it is a question of doing things with love and in the spirit of brotherhood and friendship.

Ordinary people, Your Excellency, wonder whether they will have the chance to see the Holy Father from a close distance and really be able to pray with him. This is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for our elderly people, for our disabled, for our youth, for our children. Will this be possible? How can ordinary people participate in the different events in June?
The Pope is coming to visit the people of God; he is coming as a pastor, as a father, as a spiritual father and the Head of the Catholic Church, and of course in his civil capacity as the Head of the Vatican State.

He is going to meet of course all the officials etc, but mainly he comes to meet, to pray and to be together with the people, the people of God. In which way? By following the nature and the steps of the celebrations.

Actually we have two big celebrations. One at Agios Maronas School where the Pope will meet mainly the Catholic community of Cyprus - without of course excluding anyone else who would like to participate. We expect to have 5000 – 6000 people there.

Secondly we have the very big event, the Mass for the Synod of the Middle East at the Eleftheria Stadium, where we expect to have 6500 people inside the stadium and many thousands outside watching the mass on the big screens.

Then we have the ecumenical celebration at Agia Kyriaki in Paphos where again we expect 3000 – 4000 people. The Mass at the Holy Cross Latin Church is specifically for the clergy and the consecrated people, and the final prayer at the Maronite Cathedral of Panayia ton Xariton will also be for limited numbers.

Unfortunately the elements of limited time and space have to be respected. However, the spaces outside the different venues will and should be full of people. So to conclude, the idea is that the Pope is coming to see and to pray and to greet all the people, all the people of God. Practical details, like entry passes, and other aspects of the procedures to be followed, will soon be announced in the parishes.

We lately witnessed a number of negative things with regard to the Pope’s visit. Articles in the press, printed material in the streets and other public places. [This refers to the protest by some ultra-radical Orthodox elements, which was first manifested during the meeting of the Mixed Commission for Theological Dialog in Paphos last fall.] On the other hand, we had the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus calling the people to welcome the Pope despite the many differences of the past. How do you comment on these? What is your perception of things?
My only comment is this: Only love can build the human being. Only love can build society. Only love can build the good relationship between churches. Only love can build a truly peaceful and successful relationship between religions, between all the humanity, between everyone. Without love, destruction comes. And of course the initiative and the announcement of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church is the expression of love, the expression of the deep and the very spiritual position of the Church welcoming the Pope of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church. It is a wonderful expression of love and of faith and of brotherhood in Jesus Christ.

Cyprus is the homeland of Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims. What do you expect to be the result of this visit with regard to inter-religious and ecumenical matters?
Such visit, such an event is an Apostolic journey. And an Apostolic journey means a journey to spread the values of spirituality, the values of the humanity, like peace and reconciliation and to strengthen the dialogue and to really make and create an atmosphere of dialogue among all the Churches and the religions.

This is not something strange in our society in Cyprus because we have a very long experience of multiculturism here. We can offer to the whole world the message of how we live together in spite of our differences, even if these are in faith and religion. Despite the differences, we have a lot of common elements. Let us see the common elements, let us see the elements which can unite us and not the elements which divide us.

So when we make a positive approach I think we get more benefit for the whole society of Cyprus and the whole society of the world in general.

The Maronites of Cyprus, through all these years of suffering, have placed all their hopes for their survival and existence on the Vatican and the Holy See. We can tell you – and we are sure you felt it also – that we are very disappointed that the Holy Father will not have the opportunity to visit our villages during his visit, understanding and respecting though the reasons why. We expect, however, that somehow our villages must be “in the heart” of this Apostolic visit. Do you have anything to say to the people on this?
I cannot say what the Pope is going to say simply because I don’t know myself. You know, we as Maronites, we are here in Cyprus since 1200 years and from the beginning of our foundation as a Church at the beginning of the 4th century, we are part of the Catholic Church. This means that always our Patriarch, our Synod, our Bishops, our people, look to the Vatican because we belong to the Catholic Church, to the Holy See and this has a strategic importance to us. Not only in Cyprus, but everywhere, because we are part of this Church.

Now with regard to what you are asking, really I am not in the position – and no one else is – to know exactly what the Pope will say or do, but I know and I am quite sure for this, as the Archbishop of the Maronites in Cyprus, that the Pope is well aware of the current situation of the Maronites in Cyprus and I hope that this will somehow come out during his stay here in Cyprus.

I am very sure that the Pope will have messages of justice, of peace, of love, of forgiveness. Yes, we are Maronites but we are also part of the big society of Cyprus and the world. We, as Maronites, will have something very nice and very symbolic in this visit. We are going to have a prayer in our liturgy, a moment when we commemorate the Pope, the Patriarch and the Archbishop. And for the first time in history this prayer will be announced when all three of them, the Pope, the Patriarch and the Archbishop will be present at the Mass at the same place.

It is a historical and symbolic moment because this kind of presence means unity, means understanding, means to be open to Cyprus in general, to be open to the society of Cyprus, even to the problem of Cyprus. And of course it also means sending a message of solidarity to the people of Cyprus.

Are there any plans or thoughts for a visit to our villages by other Vatican Officials and/or our Patriarch who will also be in Cyprus?
I don’t know the answer to your question. I know that all the ecclesiastical personalities invited by the Vatican directly or invited by us as Catholic Church here in Cyprus, are coming to participate in the Pope’s visit. So I don’t know whether there will be such an initiative. We will see. We still have lot of time for this. I will personally express of course the wish to our Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, but I cannot give you an answer now.

Finally, what message would you like to send, first to the Catholic community of Cyprus and second to the people of Cyprus in general?
I will start with the Cypriots in general. My message is very simple: Let us welcome the Pope! All of us, let us live this wonderful visit, this nice initiative of the Pope coming to our land, to our country.

Let us see it in the very deep sense, the human sense. Let us be altogether in the venues of the various events, where we can express our respect and our love to this international personality, who has a mission of course as the Head of the Catholic Church, but also has a mission for the whole humanity promoting the values of the Gospel and of the Christian faith.

He is open to dialogue in a very deep way. He is open to meeting the people and to talk to all the churches and religions, but on the very deep basis of faith and of respect and of spiritual and human values, such as peace and justice.

So, such a visit in our country will really be a very good opportunity to strengthen all these aspects in our society, because our society needs this. For three days Cyprus will be on the front pages all over the world. For three days the international community will be following the Pope’s visit in Cyprus and this fact in itself is a big benefit of course.

I am sure that both President Christofias and His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos will be very happy and glad to welcome the Holy Father in Cyprus. We also as Catholics, very obviously are glad to welcome the Pope here. All the communities are happy to do this.

May 23, PENTECOST SUNDAY

From left: 12th-century Russian icon; 16th-cent. Mt. Athos icon; illumination from the Duc du Berry's Tres Riches Heures, 1413-1416; Bernini's Holy Spirit, 1647-1653, St. Peter's Basilica; El Greco, 1596-1600; Rubens, 1619; contemporary icon.

Paintings are by Rubens, 1607, and by Murillo, 1678.
ST. FELIX da CANTALICE (Italy, 1515-1587), Capuchin, Mystic
Felix was a farmhand and shepherd until he was 28 when he finally was accepted into the Franciscan order after several failed attempts.
Three years after joining the order, he was assigned to the convent in Rome as the official beggar, a post he would carry out for 42
years until his death. He would become the first Capuchin to be canonized, the first of many Franciscans who would achieve sainthood
from the lowly position of official beggar. During his begging rounds, he shared what he had with the poor, had the gift of converting
sinners, catechized street children by teaching them simple hymns that he made up spontaneously, and came to be known as the
'apostle of Rome', and 'Brother Deo gratias' because he thanked God all the time. He became a friend of Phillip Neri, who had set up
his Rome Oratory as an agency for priests to help the poor. When Charles Borromeo sought Neri's help to revise the charter of the
Oblates, Neri referred him to Felix. He gave spiritual counsel to a fellow Franciscan who would become Pope Sixtus V. It is said
that while praying before a statue of the Madonna, she came down to let him hold the Baby Jesus in his arms, whence the most common
depiction of him. When Felix died, so many people packed the church for his funeral, that they had to cut open a door to allow an
orderly exit. Attesting to have knowledge of 18 miracles attributed to Felix while he lived, Sixtus V would have wished him canonized
by acclamation but he died before this could happen. Felix was eventually canonized in 1712. He is buried in the Capuchin church
on the Via Veneto best known for its underground ossuary, in which the skulls and bones of some 4,000 Capuchins who died between
1500-1870 have been fashioned into baroque and rococo-style adornments in five crypt chapels.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/052310.shtml


OR today.

Illustration: Pentecost, from a 12th-century Syriac evangelarium.
Addressing the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice Foundation,
the Holy Father reiterates that ethics must guide every human activity:
'Politics has primacy over finance'

Illustration: Icon of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Other papal stories in the issue: The Pope meets Bulgarian and Macedonian leaders in Rome for their annual pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Cyril to mark the May 24 liturgical feast of the brother saints who evangelized the Slavic peoples. A Page 1 feature continues the OR series on describing the observance of the major religious feasts in the Syro-Occidental tradition. Page 1 international news: Somalia presents its case to an international conference in Istanbul among African nations afflicted by civil conflicts and violence; Hilary Clinton in China to pursue strategic and economic dialog.


THE POPE'S DAY

Pentecost Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica - Homily.

'Regina caeli' at noon - After his mini-homily about Pentecost, the Holy Father reminded the faithful
that tomorrow is the Church's World Day of Prayer for China. He greeted the various pro-life movements
in Italy who gathered for their annual pro-life demonstration in St. Peter's Square.


Preparation for the Mass
of Pentecost Sunday
From the Libretto today

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“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already
kindled!”. (Lk 12:49)

These words were most visibly brought about 50 days after the
Resurrection, at Pentecost, the ancient Jewish feast which in the
Church has become the feast par excellence of the Holy Spirit:
“There appeared to them tongues as of fire... and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:3-4).

The real fire, the Holy Spirit, was brought to the earth by Christ. He did not steal it from the gods like Prometheus, according to the Greek myth, but rather made himself the mediator of the “gift of God”, obtaining it for us with the greatest act of love in history: his death on the Cross.

God wants to continue giving this “fire” to every human generation and he is naturally free to do so as and when he wishes. He is spirit,
and the Spirit “blows where he wills” (cf. Jn 3:8).

However, there is a “normal way” which God himself chose “to cast fire upon the earth”: this way is Jesus, his Only-Begotten Son, incarnate, dead and Risen. In his turn Jesus Christ constituted the Church as his Mystical Body so that she might extend his mission in history.

"Receive the Holy Spirit", the Lord said to the Apostles on the evening of the Resurrection, accompanying these words with an expressive gesture: "he breathed" on them (cf. Jn 20:22). In this way he showed that he was communicating his Spirit to them, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, in today's Solemnity, Scripture tells us once again how the community should be, how we should be in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the account which describes the event of Pentecost, the sacred Author recalls that the disciples “were all together in one place”.

This “place” was the Cenacle, the “Upper Room” where Jesus had eaten
the Last Supper with his Apostles, where he had appeared to them risen; that room which had become, so to speak, the “headquarters” of the nascent Church (cf. Acts 1:13).

The Acts of the Apostles, however, rather than insisting on the physical place, intend to point out the inner attitude of the disciples: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14).

Harmony among the disciples is thus the condition for the coming of the Holy Spirit; and a presupposition of harmony is prayer.

- From the homily by Benedict XVI
May 31, 2009

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