BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

GENERAL AUDIENCE, 9/29/10
Catechesis on
St. Matilda of Hackeborn





The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis today to St, Matilda of Hackeborn, a 13th-century German Cistercian nun. This how he summarized the catechesis in English:

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In our catechesis today, we focus on the life of Saint Matilda of Hackeborn, one of several important thirteenth-century figures of the convent of Helfta in Saxony.

Entering there at an early age, Matilda was formed in an intensely spiritual and intellectual atmosphere founded upon Sacred Scripture, the liturgy, and the patristic tradition.

This climate, along with the gift of divine illumination that she received through her mystical contemplation, enabled her to compose numerous prayers and be of counsel and consolation to many.

Distinguished by her humility and intelligence, and by the intensity with which she lived her relationship with God and the saints, Matilda became the director of the convent’s novices, its choir, and its school. In this way she also became the spiritual guide of Saint Gertrude the Great, another important figure of Germanic monasticism.

Dear friends, Saint Matilda’s life of prayer, guided by Sacred Scripture and nourished by the Holy Eucharist, led her to an intimate union with Christ, expressed in her devotion to his Sacred Heart. May we too grow in that devotion, through the power of her intercession.

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Later, he also reminded the faithful that today (9/29) is the feast day of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and that the Feast of the Guardian Angels follows on Friday, Oct. 2; and to the Slovakian-speaking people, that October will be another Marian month.

He ended with an appeal, delievred in English, in behalf of the victims of severe flooding in Nigeria.

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My thoughts also turn to the grave humanitarian crisis which has recently struck Northern Nigeria, where some two million people have been forced to flee their homes because of severe flooding. To all those affected I express my spiritual closeness and I assure them of my prayers.

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Here is a full translation of the catechesis:

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Dear brothers and sisters,

Today I wish to speak of St. Mathilde of Hackeborn, one of the great figures of the monastery of Helfta, who lived in the 13th century.

Her fellow sister, St. Gertrude the Great, in the sixth book of the work Liber specialis gratiae (The book of special grace), which narrates the special graces God had given St. Mathilda, states: "What we have written is little compared to what we have omitted. We publish these only for the glory of God and for the use of our fellowmen, because it seems unjust to keep silent over so many graces that Mathilda received from God, not so much for herself, in our opinion, but for us and those who will come after us" (Mechthild von Hackeborn, Liber specialis gratiae, VI, 1).

This work was edited by St. Gertrude and by another nun at Helfta and has a singular story. Mathilda, at age 50, had gone through a grave spiritual crisis, in addition to physical sufferinga. In this condition, she confided to two nun friends the singular graces with which God had guided her since infancy, but she did not know that her friends took notes of everything she said.

When she learned of it later, she was profoundly anguished and disturbed. But the Lord reassured her, making her understand that whatever had been written was for the glory of God and the advantage of others (cfr ibid., II,25; V,20). Thus, this work is the principal source from which we draw information on the life and spirituality of our saint.

With her, we are introduced to the famuily of the Baron of Hackeborn, one of the noblest, richest and most powerful barons of Thuringia, related to the Emperor Frederick II. And with her, we enter the monastery of Helfta in the most glorious period of its history.

The Baron had already given the monastery one daughter, Gertrude of Hackeborn (1231/1232 - 1291/1292), endowed with an outstanding personality, abbess for forty years, who was able to give a specific imprint on the spirituality of the convent, bringing it to extraordinary flowering as a center of mysticism and culture, and a school for scientific and theological formation.

Gertrude offered her nuns an elevated intellectual instruction which allowed them to cultivate a spirituality based on Sacred Scripture, on liturgy, on patristic literature, on the Cistercian Rule and spirituality, particularly following St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Guillaume de St-Thierry.

She was a true teacher, exemplary in everything, in evangelical radicalness as well as in apostolic zeal. Mathilde, since her childhood, accepted and enjoyed the spiritual and cultural atmosphere created by her sister, later offering her own personal imprint.

Mathilde was born in 1241 or 1242 in the castle of Helfta - she was the baron's third daughter. At age 7, she went with her mother to visit her sister Gertrude in the monastery of Rodersdorf, becoming fascinated with that environment that she wanted so ardently to become part of it.

She entered it as a schoolgirl, and in 1258, she became a nun, having transferred meanwhile to the monastery of Helfta, within the Hackeborn properties. She distinguished herself with her humility, fervor, amiablity, clarity and innocence of life, the familiarity and intensity of one who lives inrelation with God, the Virgin Mary and the saints.

She was endowed with great natural and spiritual qualities, such as "science, intelligence, knowledge of human letters, and a voice of wonderful sweetness - everything made her suitable to be a true treasure in every aspect for the convent" (Ibid., Proemio).

Thus, 'God's nightingale' - as she came to be called - became at an early age, director of the convent school, director of the choir, and mistress of novices, services that she carried out with talent and tireless zeal, not only for the good of the nuns, but of whoever wished to draw from her wisdom and goodness

Enlightened by the divine gift of mystic contemplation, Mathilde composed numerous prayers. She was a teacher faithful to doctrine and of great humility, a counselor, a comforter, a guide to discernment. We read that "she distributed doctrine in such abundance as had never been seen in the convent, and alas!, we feared that we would nevere again see anything like it".

The sisters gathered around her to listen to the Word of God as if she were a preacher. She was refuge and comfort to everyone, and by singular grace of God, she could freely unveil the secrets of the heart of each one.

Many persons, not just in the convent, but even strangers, both religious and secular, who came from afar, attested that this holy virgin had liberated them from their sufferings and that they had never felt more comforted than when they were with her. Moreover, she composed and taught so many prayers that if compiled, they would exceed the volume of a psaltery!" (ibid.)

In 1261, a five=year-old girl named Gertrude came to the convent. She was entrusted to the care of Mathilde, who had barely turned 20. She educated her and guided her spiritual life, and she eventually became not just an excellent disciple but a confidante.

In 1271 or 1272, the convent also welcomed Mathilde of Magdeburg. Thus, the convent had four great women - two Gertrudes and two Mathildes - who were the glory of Germanic monasticism.

Throughout her long life in the convent, Mathile was afflicted with continuous and intense sufferings, to which she added the very harsh penances that she chose to carry out for the conversion of sinners. This way she took part in the passion of our Lord to the end of her life (cfr ibid., VI, 2).

Prayer and contemplation were the humus vitale of her existence - in which the revelations, her teachings, her service to her fellowmen, her journey in faith and love, had their roots and their context.

In the first book of Liber specialis gratiae, the editors recount the confidences of Mathilde, according to the feasts of the Lord, of the saints, and particularly, of the Blessed Virgin. The enthusiasm with which this nun lived the Liturgy in its various components - even the simplest - and applied it to the daily life of the nuns was impressive.

Some images, expressions and applications are sometimes remote from our sensibilities, but if one considers her monastic life and her mission as teacher and choir director, then one can deduce her singular capacity to educate and form others, helping her sisters to live intensely every moment of monastic life,

In liturgical prayer, Mathilde gave particularly attention to the canonical hours, to the celebration of Holy Mass, and especially to Holy Communion. She was often rapt in ecstasy, in a profound intimacy with the Lord in his most ardent Heart, in a kind of stupendous dialog in which she asked for interior illumination, even as she interceded in special ways for her community and her fellow sisters.

At the center of her meditations were the mysteries of Christ to which the Virgin Mary always commends to us as a way to sacntity: "If you desire true holiness, be near my Son - he is holiness itself which sanctifies everything" (Ibid., I,40). In her intimacy with God, the whole world, the Church, benefactors, sinners, were present. For her, heaven and earth were joined.

Her visions, her teachings, the events of her existence are described in terms that evoke liturgical and biblical language, reflecting her own profound knowledge of Sacred Scripture, which was her daily bread.

She referred to it all the time, whether in appreciating the biblical texts read in the liturgy or in drawing from it symbols, expressions, passages, images, personages.

She loved the Gospel especially: "The words of the Gospel were for her a marvelous nourishment and inspired in her heart sentiments of such sweetness that often, out of enthusiasm, she was unable to finish the reading... The way she read the words was so fervent that she inspired devotion in everyone. Likewise, when she sang in the choir, she was completely absorbed in God, transported with such ardor that sometimes, she manifested her sentiments with gestures... Other times, when she was rapt in ecstasy, she would not respond when she was addressed or touched, and it was always difficult for her to recover her sense of exterior things" (Ibid., VI, 1).

In one of her visions, it was Jesus himself who recommended the Gospel. Opening up the wound of his heart, he said: "Consider how immense my love is: If you want to know it well, you will find no other place where it is expressed more clearly than in the Gospel. No one has ever heard stronger and more tender sentiments than these: As my Father loved me, so I have loved you (Joan. XV, 9)" (Ibid., I,22).

Dear friends, personal and liturgical prayer, especially the Liturgy odf the Hours and the Holy Mass are the roots of the siritual experience of St. Mathilde of Hackeborn. Letting hereself be guided by Sacred Scripture and nourished by the Eucharistic bread, she undertook a journey of intimate union with the Lord, always in full fidelity to the Church.

This is also, for us, a strong invitation to intensify our friendship with Christ, especially through daily prayer and attentive, faithful adn active participation in Holy Mass. Liturgy is a great school for spirituality.

Her disciple Gertrude desscribes in intense terms the last moments of the life of St. Mathilde of Hackeborn, which were very difficult, but illuminated by the presence of the Most Blessed Trinity, of the Lord, of the Virgin Mary, of all the saints, as well as her blood sister Gertrude.

When the time first came for the Lord to call him to her, she asked him to let her live longer in suffering in order to save souls, and Jesus agreed to this further sign of love.

Mathilde was 58. The last stage of her life was characterized by eight years of severe illness. Her work and her fame for holiness had become widely known. When her final hour came, "the God of majesty... the only sweetness of the soul that she loved... sang to her: Venite vos, benedicti Patris mei - Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father. come and receive the Kingdom". And he took her to his glory" (Ibid., VI,8).

St. Mathilde of Hackeborn entrusts us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Virgin Mary. She invites us to render praise to the Son with the Heart of his mother, and to render praise to Mary with the Heart of her Son: "I greet you, most vnerated Virgin, in that sweetest dew diffused in you from the heart of the Most Blessed Trinity. I greet you in the glory and the joy of your eternal happiness, you who of all the creatures of heaven and earth were chosen even before the creation of the world! Amen." (Ibid., I, 45).

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Pope says attention to liturgy
is a path to relationship with God
By Sarah Delaney


VATICAN CITY, Sept. 29 (CNS) -- Describing the exemplary life of a 13th-century German nun, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the importance of liturgy in building a close relationship with God.

The Pope illustrated the virtues of St. Matilda of Hackeborn during his weekly general audience Sept. 29 with several thousand pilgrims and well-wishers gathered in a sunny St. Peter's Square.

St. Matilda was one of several strong and influential women who lived at the convent of Helfta, in the Saxony region of the Pope's native Germany, he said.

St. Matilda, a mystic whose lovely voice led her to become the leader of the convent's choir, progressed in spiritual understanding through the formal prayers of the Church, the Pope said.

"Dear friends, the personal and liturgical prayers, especially the Liturgy of the Hours and holy Mass, are the roots of the spiritual experience of St. Matilda of Hackeborn," Pope Benedict said. "By letting herself be guided by the sacred Scriptures and nourished by the bread of holy Communion, she followed a path of intimate union with the Lord," he said.

Her example, he said, can teach contemporary Christians to "intensify our friendship with the Lord, especially through daily prayer and attentive, faithful and active participation in the Mass."

St. Matilda was born in 1241 or 1242 to a noble family whose eldest daughter already served as abbess at the Helfta convent, he said. Fascinated by her elder sister and the atmosphere of the convent, the young Matilda decided early on that she wanted to follow a life of contemplation and service to God, Pope Benedict said.

She soon came became known as an intensely spiritual and intellectual figure who was able to understand and console her spiritual sisters when they were troubled. Her devotion to mystical contemplation also led to her "gift of divine illumination," the Pope said.

She was appointed the leader not only of the choir, but also of the convent's novices and its school. St. Matilda's ability to "live the liturgy in all of its components, even the most simple, and incorporate them into the daily monastic life was remarkable" and her knowledge of Scripture very profound, the Pope said.

St. Matilda became the spiritual guide of St. Gertrude the Great, another important figure of Germanic monasticism, the Pope said.

St. Matilda died at age 58 after eight years of a painful illness, an experience that allowed her to "live in suffering for the salvation of others," the Pope said.

St. Matilda should be an example of devotion to Christ, he said, encouraging Catholics to "grow, too, in that devotion through the power of her intercession."

Pope Benedict arrived for the audience by helicopter from his summer villa at Castel Gandolfo and returned to the villa afterward. He was scheduled to return to daily life in the Apostolic Palace on Thursday, Sept. 30.




Sorry for an extra-late start today. I was called away to attend to an emergency problem in the lab, and I was unable to get to a PC until I got home tonight. It's always difficult to make up after several hours offline because of all the catching up first on what's been going on before I can even begin to think what to post.

Thursday, Sept. 30, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. JEROME (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus) (b Dalmatia 345, d Bethlehem 420), Priest, Writer, Mystic, Doctor of the Church
St. Augustine said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known." And Jerome's own most famous saying is "To be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ". He is best-known for translating the Scriptures into Latin, the earliest standard edition of the Bible which came to be known as the Vulgate. More than a millennium later, the Council of Trent ordered a new and corrected edition as the authentic text to be used in the Church. A modern scholar has said, "No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work." Nor better prepared in his time. After early schooling in Dalmatia, he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, spending several years in each place, with the very best teachers. He then traveled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ's life with an outpouring of devotion. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance and study. Finally he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. He was above all a Scripture scholar. He also wrote commentaries which are still a great source of scriptural inspiration. He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monks, bishops and Popes.
On September 30 in the year 420, Jerome died in Bethlehem. His remains are buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
Readings for today's Mass:

OR today.

At the General Audience, the Pope highlights St. Mathilda of Hackeborn whose life demonstrated
'Liturgy as the great school of spirituality'
He also calls for international humanitarian assistance to millions of flood victims in northern Nigeria.
Other Page 1 items: Japan faces serious emergency as China blocks exports of so-called 'rare earths', 17 chemical elements indispensable to the manufacture of high-tech items involving superconductors, microwaves, electronic optics. China has 97% of the world's known deposits of these rare earths. The FAO urges city gardens producing food as it predicts that in 15 years, most populations on earth will be urban. Five million Afghan children unable to go to school because of uncertain security conditions.


THE POPE'S DAY

Before leaving Castel Gandolfo to return to residence at the Vatican, the Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples

- Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity

- Prof. Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, with
- Mons. Vincenzo Paglia, Bishop of Terni-Narni-Amelia

= Mons. Mieczysław 'Mietek' Mokrzycki, Archbishop of Lviv of the Latins (Ukraine)

I wouldn't waste one second on CNN except that this review by Greg Erlandson at least puts on record what their 'special' on the Pope was all about. And Erlandson is far too charitable to speak of a 'missed opportunity' as if CNN still had any journalistic integrity left...


CNN's missed opportunity
By GREG ERLANDSON


The CNN Report, “What the Pope Knew,” was as bad as the sneak previews suggested. It was a messy patchwork of ominous music, endless photos of a solemn Pope Benedict, one-sided commentary and truly sad interviews with victims who recounted shameful incidents of abuse and then were coaxed to link them to Pope Benedict.

If mega-lawyer Jeffrey Anderson should have gotten co-authorship rights for his role in The New York Times exposes of last March (as Ken Woodward opined), then he should have been listed as a producer on this show. His documents, his clients and his agenda dominated: And that agenda is simply to lay the groundwork for a legal case against the Vatican.

The CNN special report, reported with particular unctuousness by Gary Tuchman, stitched together several reports of priest abusers to infer that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was somehow guilty of obstruction of justice.

At each turn in the story, CNN avoided shedding real light on the incidents, but instead used generalizations and innuendo to suggest that Ratzinger was insensitive to the plight of the victims. For editorial commentary, the report relied heavily on independent journalist David Gibson. Unfortunately, even though Gibson is first quoted as saying that Cardinal Ratzinger is neither hero nor villain, in the rest of the show he seems to tilt rather decisively to the latter. [This confirms my continuing aversion to this one-man anti-Benedict hack commando, who has parlayed his astute decision to publish an instant 'biography' of Benedict XVI shortly after the 2005 Conclave into a calling card as the US media's dependable anti-Benedict ammo provider, along with Thomas Reese and John Allen (who always hedges any favorable statement he makes with all kinds of 'on the other hand...' to show his 'objectivity').]

Perhaps the most obvious example of CNN’s bias was how it concluded its report on the Murphy case (which was already reviewed extensively in this blog). After neglecting to report on the diocesan investigation of Murphy – approved by the Vatican – that had taken place, it suggests that the Vatican had been unduly deferential to Murphy in telling then-Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland to drop the trial and look for another way to remove him from active ministry.

The archbishop did the Vatican’s bidding on Aug. 18, the report said, concluding that Murphy would remain a priest “for the rest of his life.” What it did not say explicitly, and what underlined the Vatican’s decision to find a way other than the trial to deal with him, was that Murphy died three days later.

There are many people who should be embarrassed by this show, most particularly Fr. Tom Reese, S.J., who allowed himself to be portrayed as the kind of priest that Cardinal Ratzinger really wanted to pursue rather than pedophiles, an accusation that ignores the cardinal’s track record and his job description, and an inference that cannot be backed up by the facts.

Most compelling about the special were the conversations with the victims. To hear them describe their shame, to see their anger all these years later at what priests did to them, is to be reminded yet again that terrible crimes were done and many lives were damaged, even ruined. That fact no one can deny.

It is unfortunate that, even in the television wasteland of weekend evening cable, CNN did not see fit to make a real contribution to a better understanding of the crisis. [But that was never their intention, given the ultra-secular liberal agenda of the network and its staff. I haven't checked to see what kind of viewership this program had, but I doubt it gave CNN the audience bump it needs to get if off the ratings basement where it has languished for the past five years at least!]

It would have helped, for example, if Tuchman had shed light on the Church’s own understanding of canon law regarding ordination, the priesthood and sexual abuse violations.

CNN could also have talked at greater length with bishops like Archbishop Weakland and Bishop John Cummins of Oakland to find out why they found it so hard to supervise abuser priests with the authority they always possessed.

And Tuchman might have documented the many changes the Church has made to safeguard children and root out dangerous priests, while putting it all within a larger context: How society has grown in its understanding of the crime of sexual abuse, and how other organizations, like the Church, have been improving their safeguards as well, often looking to the Church for advice on how to do this.

If CNN had been less focused on bolstering a lawyer’s self-serving efforts to build a case and had sought to update the public’s understanding of a scandal, it might have actually performed a service, instead of tarnishing its own fading reputation for solid reporting.


Again, Erlandson is too charitable to have any positive expectations of CNN...

Yesterday, there was a long rebuttal of the CNN program on
catholicexchange.com/2010/09/29/134754/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicex+%28Catholic+Exc...
I will post it later when I have the time to annotate, generally a must for me on occasions like this.

The Pius Wars, continued


Sept. 29, 2010

Some years ago, I was invited to address a seminar at the Palace of Westminster for members of the House of Lords and House of Commons interested in Catholic social doctrine. The seminar was advertised in the daily schedules of both houses of Parliament and by 11 a.m. a dozen or so peers and MPs (members of Parliament) had gathered in a conference room.

As Lord Alton of Liverpool was introducing me, a gray head thrust itself inside the door to see what was afoot. Alas, before I could seize the microphone and say, “Do come in, Dr. Paisley, and see what the Whore of Babylon is up to,” David Alton finished his introduction and invited me to begin my presentation— for which, alas, the Rev. Ian Paisley did not tarry.

It was something of a disappointment, for I was eager to get to grips with the old anti-Catholic firebrand from Northern Ireland. An exchange of polemics is unlikely now, though, for Dr. Paisley is so far gone in respectability as to have been raised to the peerage as Lord Bannside.

Yet a few embers of anti-Catholic bigotry still smolder within his lordship’s breast: during Pope Benedict’s recent visit to the United Kingdom, Dr. Paisley told the Telegraph that “I don’t want his blessing” and then claimed, absurdly, that “I just got a notice from their website that if you pay 25 pounds and go to Mass today, you’ll get out of purgatory quicker.”

Still, there’s something a bit ragged, a bit shopworn, about Ian Paisley’s complaints these days. He’s engaged in anti-Catholic bombast for so long that whatever notes he manages to coax from his tarnished trumpet sound muted and flat: a matter of going through the motions for the sake of auld lang syne (if an Ulsterman like Paisley will permit me the reference).

The serious anti-Catholic antics prior to the Pope’s pilgrimage to Scotland and England came, not from Ian Paisley, but from “new atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Fry, their allies in the British media (generally vicious in the run-up to Benedict’s arrival), and their legal show-pony, Geoffrey Robinson, Q.C., a transplanted Australian seeking to export the joys of American liability law to the U.K., as a base from which to plunder the Vatican of what he imagines to be its Croesus-like wealth. [A country cousin of Jeffrey Anderson in the USA!]

These people came unglued in anticipation of the Pope’s arrival: Dawkins & Co. originally proposed having the Pope arrested as an abettor of child-rape, and the op-ed pages were filled with raucous anti-Catholic blather for weeks before Benedict XVI set foot in the United Kingdom.

In the event, of course, it all came a cropper, to use a local phrase. As a courageous Scottish bishop, Philip Tartaglia, put it to me during the visit, “the Pope’s grace and intelligence” won the day, to the point where even the BBC — which had disgraced itself with forays into the Paisleyan fever swamps of anti-Catholicism in recent months — was providing reasonably balanced, and occasionally even positive, coverage of papal events in Glasgow and London.

The hyper-secularist chattering classes had had their innings; the people turned out in droves anyway, to be with the Bishop of Rome and to give him the kind of cordial and respectful welcome first extended to him on his arrival by the ever-impressive Queen Elizabeth II.

By the time Benedict left, even Prime Minister David Cameron, not previously noted for his enthusiasm about Joseph Ratzinger, was telling the Pope that he had given all Britons important things to think about.

Benedict XVI’s success in the U.K. challenges the often-supine British hierarchy to be as humanly compelling and intellectually forceful as the Pope.

If the bishops of the U.K. gather their nerve, they may eventually recognize that the new atheists are in danger of becoming Paisley 2.0: people so perfervid, so over-the-top, in their antipathies as to be dismissed as fundamentally unserious. [Let's hope the bishops of Scotland, England and Wales have learned a lesson from the visit - that it is not beneath them to be in communion with the Vicar of Christ, as many of them appear to have demonstrated all these years. They should be guided by their flock's example, to begin with. Thank God their 'spirit of Vatican II' animus to Catholic orthodoxy -at least in terms of respect for the Pope - has not apparently gained complete ground among the faithful.]

The virulence of the new atheists’ pre-papal visit commentary suggests they may fear this fate for themselves. In which case, to use another local phrase, it’s time to put in the boot.





Vatican has online photo album
of the Pope's visit to the UK



It turns out that the pictures taken inside the Birmingham Oratory which I posted here earlier this week come from a valuable service that L'Osservatore Romano has launched after the visit. The image on the homepage is probably the iconic image for the historic occasion.

The link is
www.photovat.com/PHOTOVAT/VIAGGI%20BENEDETTO/UK2010WEB/UK...
and provides dozens of photos at each of the events, including unscheduled ones. We have to live with the unsightly 'watermarks', of course (I wish they could have used a more discreet mark such as the one they use on the image that distinguishes the site's homepage), but unmarked images for the scheduled events should be available soon (if they aren't already) on the regular Vatican webpage dedicated to the UK visit.

One of the items from yesterday that I must catch up on...

Truth, proclamation and authenticity
of life in the digital age


29 Sept 2010 (RV) - On the Feast Day of St. Gabriel the Archangel, the messenger of God and patron Saint of communications workers, the Vatican has revealed the theme chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for World Communcations Day 2011: "Truth, proclamation and authenticity of life in the digital age".

This theme, according to a Vatican communiqué, is to be understood as focusing on the human person who is at the heart of all communicative processes.

Even in an age that is largely dominated, and at times conditioned, by new technologies, the value of personal witness remains essential. To approach the truth and to take on the task of sharing it requires the “guarantee” of an authenticity of life from those who work in the media, and especially from Catholic journalists; an authenticity of life that is no less required in a digital age.

Technology, on its own, cannot establish or enhance a communicator’s credibility, nor can it serve as a source of the values which guide communication. The truth must remain the firm and unchanging point of reference of new media and the digital world, opening up new horizons of information and knowledge. Ideally, it is the pursuit of truth which constitutes the fundamental objective of all those who work in the media.

The full text of the message for the 45th World Communications Day will be released on 24 January 2011, the feast of Saint Francis De Sales, patron of journalists.

Benedict XVI to lead
a worldwide prayer vigil for life
on November 27

Sept. 29, 2010

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On Saturday, November 27th at St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a “Vigil for All Nascent Human Life” coinciding with first vespers of the First Sunday of Advent.

The Holy Father has also requested that “all Diocesan Bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements.”

The vigil will be offered to “thank the Lord for his total self-giving to the world and for his Incarnation which gave every human life its real worth and dignity” and to “invoke the Lord’s protection over every human being called into existence.”

An outline for the Vigil was provided from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the Pontifical Council for the Family. Given the importance of the Holy Father’s request, the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship and the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities have collaborated in developing Vigil prayer aids for dioceses and parishes.

Acknowledging that in the U.S. the Vigil falls on “Thanksgiving Weekend” and that many parishes have complicated Mass schedules on Saturday evenings, the USCCB will provide four different options:

Full Option One: Evening Prayer, Rosary and Benediction
Full Option Two: Marian Procession, Rosary, Evening Prayer and Benediction
Simplified Option One: Evening Prayer and Benediction (no Rosary)
Simplified Option Two: Marian Procession, Rosary and Benediction (no Evening Prayer).

Each of these options will have a worship aid in three formats: Microsoft Word (formatted with images), MS Word (text-only), and Microsoft Publisher. A Rubric will also be also provided for priests and liturgy directors. These program templates are easily customized for local use.

We are grateful to dioceses that have already made plans to celebrate this special Vigil in union with our Holy Father and the Church all around the world. For those still considering how their parishes and organizations might participate, we hope these materials will be helpful.

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The chairman of the Catholic bishops’s committee on pro-life activities, Cardinal Daniel DeNardo, has also issued a statement for October, celebrated by US bishops since the 1970s as Respect Life Month.

It notes, among other things, that “In many areas of public policy, the rift continues to widen between the moral principles expressed by a majority of Americans and the actions of government".

Bidding farewell to Castel Gandolfo staff:
Pope urges knowing the Bible
and cites St. Jerome
Translated from the 10/1/10 issue if





Yesterday afternoon, the Holy Father met with the staff of the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo to thank them and bid farewell after his longest summer sojourn so far in the papal summer reicdence (July 7-Sept. 30).

He returned to the Vatican this afternoon after a busy morning. Here is a translation of his remarks to his Castel Gandolfo family:

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Dear brothers and sisters:

Before leaving Castel Gandolfo at the end of the season, I am happy to welcome you for this farewell gathering, which gives me the opportunity to express to each of you my sincere gratitude for the work that you do and to congratulate you, particularly, for the spirit that inspires your service.

I thank the Director [of the Pontifical Villas], Dottore Saverio Petrillo, for the kind words that he addressed to me in your behalf.

On this occasion, it is my pleasure to renew my appreciation for the competence and extreme care that you, dear Director, along with all the staff, dedicate to the care of the Apostolic Palace and the Pontifical Villas.

May the Lord recompense each of you with abundant celestial gifts, and watch over you and your families. I have always felt your closeness and I thank you for this.

Continue, dear friends, to offer daily testimony of your faith, above all by obediently heeding the Word of God. Today, in the liturgy, we celebrate three exalted messengers of this Word which enlightens, orients, defends, comforts, and helps us: the holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, sent by God, with specific missions at particularly moments in the history of salvation.

Every Christian is called on to welcome the Word of truth that the Lord has communicated to us, and to live it every day, with simplicty and joy.

In the course of centuries the Church has known splendid figures of faithful disciples of Christ who assiduously and lovingly nourished themselves on Sacred Scripture, placing their utmost fidelity in it.

Tomorrow, we will remember St. Jerome, a Father of the Church who placed the Bible in the center of his life. He translated the original texts into Latin and wrote commentaries on it.

This eminent Doctor of the Church said that "to be ignorant of Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ" (Prologue, Commentary on Isaiah). Therefore, it is necessary that every Christian lives in contact and in permanent dialog with the Word of God, given to us in Sacred Scripture, which we must read not as words of the past, but as a living Word that is addressed to us and is relevant today.

Dearest ones, I assure of constant remembrance in my prayers, that each one may know and assimilate the Word of God ever more profoundly, as the stimulus and spring of Christian life in all situations and for all persons.

The Virgin Mary is a model of this obedient heeding: Learn from her. May the Lord grant you joyful and holy days, and may the Holy Spirit enrich your families with his gifts.

As a sign of my friendship, I impart from the heart to each of you and the persons dear to you a special Apostolic Blessing.

---

A wonderful feature in the Catholic Herald, and i hoep they will continue soliciting and posting such accounts...

Close encounters of the papal kind:
Stories from the faithful

Sept. 30, 2010

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Jo-Anne Rowney, journalist:

As I stood waiting for the Holy Father I remembered my friend’s advice, “Don’t cry,” he said. “You know what you’re like.”

I was preparing to greet the Pope, scrambling among the others for a place. There was nervous laughter and excited chatter, then deafening silence.

“I can see his foot,” someone whispered. Peering over heads to see, I spotted the famous red shoes stepping from the car. My heart stopped, and I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement. Time seemed to slow down as I waited for the Pope to come into view.

Then I spotted him, a few feet away, nodding and smiling at us all. In that moment, despite my friend’s warning, tears blurred my vision – the momentous nature of the occasion, the whole papal visit, came to me in that second.

The Pope had come to reaffirm our faith; my faith. I was struck that I could reach out and touch the successor of Peter, this humble and gentle man who exuded so much warmth. My heart was bursting, overcome with love for this frail figure.

Photos were taken in a flurry of clicking, and as quickly as they’d marked his entrance, I glimpsed the red shoes walking away marking his exit.

It was only the next day at Cofton that I finally understood my emotional epiphany. As we sang as one, I felt connected. Part of something beyond comprehension, the Pope had given me ­– no, us – hope. I’d never been so proud to be a Catholic.

Jo-Anne Rowney covered the visit online for the Westminster diocese.


Niamh Moloney, whose sign, “We love you Papa more than beans on toast”, attracted a stream of television cameras:


We are just three normal young people. Brendon is 19 and Rachel is 21 and I am 25. The day the Pope arrived we went out and bought some permanent markers and some old pieces of cardboard and decorated them with messages such as the famous “We love the Pope more than beans on toast”. We had no idea that pictures of us would go around the world.

We had been disheartened by the media in the week before the visit and we just wanted to make some joyful noise for the Holy Father. We only wanted the Holy Father to see our signs and know that the young people in England loved him. We wanted to witness to the faith.

We had the time of our lives following the Holy Father around and talking to hundreds of people who laughed at our signs. We had some incredibly moving conversations with people who were from all sorts of different backgrounds.

We were outside the nuncio’s residence in Wimbledon one morning and a young man going for a morning run stopped to get a glimpse of the Pope. He was an atheist but spoke of how he agreed with the Pope and had been truly touched by his words.

Following the visit we have all been inspired to witness to our faith all the time with joy. We are incredibly grateful to God that our little wacky message of love for the Holy Father was seen by millions.

Many people have written to us and we are grateful we inspired people with our joy so for us only one question remains: Did we inspire the Pope to try a plate of beans on toast?

Niamh Moloney is a diocesan youth officer at the Northampton Youth Ministry Office.


Rachel Obordo, student:

Amid the negativity of protesters and demonstrations, what I experienced in the piazza of Westminster Cathedral was a clear expression of unity by the young people of the Church.

The sight of hundreds flooding towards the Cathedral to catch even just a glimpse of His Holiness is perhaps an image more associated with the modern-day celebrity culture.

However, what initially struck me was the enthusiasm and love expressed by the crowd at the utterance of the phrase “young friends”. That is not to say, however, that periods of silent reverence were scarce during the Mass.

It was the Holy Father’s intention to speak to the hearts of the Catholic faith, just as Blessed John Henry Newman endeavoured to do during his life. This message, realised in the joy and profound devotion I witnessed, is one that will have been received and carried in the hearts of the faithful throughout Britain and the world.

If there is one thing in particular to take from that day, it is that the faith of the young members of the Church is very much alive and thriving. I therefore have no reservations in believing that the future of the Church is in capable hands.

Rachel Obordo is a theology student at the University of St Andrews



Toby Guise, whose sign, “Drop the Filioque!”, was picked up first by Fox News:

I went to the Mall primarily out of historical and cultural interest rather than with any clearly defined spiritual expectations. The atmosphere there was certainly one of high expectation, even though many like me were essentially sight-seeing.

But when the Pope appeared there was a definite shift in atmosphere. It was not immediate but a sense of elation infused the crowd, which began to move down the Mall in a kind of joyful mass jog.

I was personally overwhelmed by love for Pope Benedict and the desire to communicate this to him. I raised my palm towards him and shouted greetings of welcome and of blessing. His face absolutely radiated peace and love.

Coming to the end of the Mall, I was concerned at the possibility of a crush but the dynamic among the crowd prevented this. As it dispersed, people were highly energised and sharing their excitement with each other.

It was an important encounter as even while I continue to reject many of the historical claims and canons of the Catholic Church, I do now accept it as a real and functioning spiritual hierarchy and highly value the Pope’s presence as the most significant Christian voice in Europe.



Claz Gomez, blogger:

Awesome. And I don’t mean that in the trendy sense of the word. It was truly… awesome.

In one fell swoop of a visit, thousands and thousands of us were brought to our knees as we watched our beautiful Pope Benedict XVI, a pilgrim from Rome, expose the awesomeness of our Lord God.

Few words can describe the effect the visit had on me. I was there at all the major pastoral events, to capture it all through today’s online social media tools.

I shall never forget the profound moments that particularly affected me, the rapturous, joyful waving of the Vatican, Scottish and Irish flags at Bellahouston, the silent and peaceful way our countries’ youth reverently adored our Lord Jesus Christ at Hyde Park, and the blessed moment a truly holy man was beatified – a man of our land, a man of God, Cardinal John Henry Newman. These moments I shall treasure forever.

Today, I express great happiness at the enthusiasm we are experiencing in these countries: I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears, the working of the Holy Spirit through the “Benedict bounce”.

Young Catholics are filtering back to our Church, and discovering there’s more to our faith than attendance at Sunday Mass – as evidenced at Saturday night’s Catholic Underground London.

It is all thanks to God, the organisers, and the successor of St Peter, our beloved Pope, Benedict XVI. And no one can argue against the awesomeness of that.

Claz Gomez blogged, tweeted and recorded the papal visit as Pilgrim Claz.


John Begley, resident at St Peter’s:

Obviously there was a lot of excitement beforehand. He was only here for an hour, and when he arrived he went straight to the chapel and said a few prayers. He exchanged gifts with the Sisters – he gave a lovely mosaic of St Peter, while they gave him a beautiful embroidered chasuble.

He gave a short address, pointing out that we had a lot in common. He emphasised not the problems of old age, which we are all aware of, but the blessings.

Everybody was absolutely thrilled. He was warm and friendly and greeted everyone with enthusiasm. On television he gives the impression of being a distant, academic figure, but what struck everyone was the warmth of his personality.

He transmitted it in a quiet and humble way, with a little bow of his head when he spoke to you. And he had a seraphic smile. I’m 84, a year older than him. You felt you had something in common, because he’s an old man himself, so there was a rapport there. He’s left a wonderful memory for all of us.

John Begley is a resident at St Peter’s Residence for older people in Vauxhall, south London.

---

At last, here's an excellent resource that clears up all the legal obfuscation raised by secular lawyers and Benedict-bashers about the supposed 'criminal responsibility' of the Church hierarchy in the matter of sex abuses committed by some priests. And it comes from a Jewish lawyer. one of the most prominent liberal voices in America, who has no vested interest at all in defending the Pope or the Church, but simply speaks objectively as a lawyer.

MSM has always presented the issue on the cavalier assumption that crimes were committed by bishops and officials at the Vatican regarding their management of the 'scandal' - a point of view that is clearly represented by the interviewer here, to whose every mustaken and dogged assumption lawyer Alan Dershowitz says NO! or That's wrong!



Dershowitz set to defend the Pope
in debate with Geoffrey Robertson
Interview by Tony Jones
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast 30/09/2010


Prominent US lawyer Alan Dershowitz joins Lateline ahead of his 'Festival of Dangerous Ideas' debate against human rights lawyer Geoffery Robertson QC, who is arguing that the Pope should be held accountable for the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

Transcript:

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Our guest, Alan Dershowitz is one of the foremost lawyers and jurists in the United States. He's defended some of the most high-profile clients in recent history, including Claus von Bulow, Mike Tyson and O.J. Simpson.

He's a distinguished defender of civil liberties, a widely-read commentator on the Arab-Israel conflict and a vocal supporter of Israel. He's been widely published in magazines and newspapers. He's the author of 27 works of fiction and non-fiction.

Well he's in Australia this week for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House where he'll debate the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC.

He (Robertson) is making the case, as we said earlier, that Pope Benedict should be held accountable for the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in multiple countries and that Church cover-ups have protected the perpetrators.

Well, Robertson argues the widespread or systematic abuse of children is a crime against humanity and so the Pope should be indicted by the International Criminal Court to make his defence against the charges before the world.

[I am omitting the opening questions which have to do with Hollywood star Tony Curtis who died today at age 85. As a 13-year0-old, Dershowitz attended a Jewish summer camp at which the pre-Hollywood Curtis was a camp counselor.]


TONY JONES: Are you happy to add Pope Benedict to the list of high-profile people you've defended, if only in a mock trial?
Yes. I think Pope Benedict has probably done more to protect young children since becoming Pope than any previous Pope.

It's a very complicated matter and it has to be obviously seen in context. I don't think it's right for non-Catholics to get deeply involved in the governance of the Church.

It relates to issues of separation of Church and State. I think it would be a terrible mistake to put the Pope on trial.

But it's a bit odd, isn't it, importing a very famous Jewish lawyer to defend the Pope?
I'm very comfortable doing that. We had a mock trial at Harvard a few years ago where I defended Jesus.

I've also defended in mock trials Abraham for the attempted murder of his son Isaac. I've defended other fictional characters in history.

Now here is a real person, but we're going it in a moot court context. I think it's ...

I presume you got Jesus acquitted.
It was a hung jury.

You don't say. As you say yourself, you have been very critical of the Catholic Church in the past, including cardinals for blaming everything, including the Church's sex scandal, on the Jews.
Look, there are terrible people in any institution, and there are some very bad cardinals. I actually sued Cardinal Glemp, the primate of the Polish church for virulent anti-Semitism. He blamed the Russian Revolution and alcoholism on the Jews. And a cardinal from Honduras blamed the sex scandal on the Jews.

But the Pope hasn't done that. He's blamed the scandal on the Church itself, on bishops, on priests, he's sought forgiveness, he's taken steps to change everything.

And I think today, being a young Catholic altar boy is a very safe place to be - not in the 1970s and '80s, but today the Church has taken real responsibility and is looking forward.

Well, Geoffrey Robertson QC is certainly a bit of a stirrer, but he's deadly serious about this and the way he sets out his case. In the book - you've read the book - The case of the Pope. And I just wonder is there any merit at all - as a lawyer, do you see any merit at all in the case that he's making?
No, I don't. I think that there is merit to the concerns about how extensive the abuses were within the Church.

By the way, there have been comparable abuses in other religious institutions, in schools, parental abuse of children. It's a very widespread problem. We're beginning to come to grips with it and understand it. It is one of the most under-reported crimes in history, child abuse. It's also an over-reported crime. There are people who are falsely accused.

And I'm very concerned that Geoffrey Robertson, who's a great lawyer, is a little insensitive to the rights of priests and others falsely accused, and there have been many such cases as well. There has to be a balance struck.

Let's start with his basic proposition that the widespread or systematic sexual abuse of children is a crime against humanity - that's the way he puts it. And so, he says covering it up, incidentally, and protecting the perpetrators also amounts to a criminal offence. This is the basis of it, he says in international law.
Well he's wrong. International law deals with war crimes, it deals with systematic efforts by governments to do what happened, for example, in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, in Darfur and Cambodia.

This is not in any way related to that. And I think - I'm afraid to call this a war crime or some kind of international crime - it will water down the very important concept of crimes against humanity.

This is not a crime against humanity, this is a series of crimes by individual priests and others throughout the world and failures by institutions to come to grips with it quickly enough. But it's very different from systematic attempts to use rape or murder as a genocidal - part of a genocidal program.

What about the cover-up part of it? It may not be a crime against humanity, but it's presumably a crime in most countries.
It's not. It's a crime in very few countries to fail to report a crime. It's called a felony. It's almost never prosecuted.

The crime occurs when you take explicit steps to try to prevent law enforcement from finding the criminals, and there are some priests who did that, who pushed people from parish to parish.

And they should be prosecuted, but there's no evidence that that came from the very top and that was in any way attributable to the Pope.

In defence of the Vatican you've written that there are important Church traditions that made it difficult for the Church to move quickly and aggressively in response to complaints of abuse. What are those traditions, as you see it?
Well one of them is obviously confidentiality. The confidentiality of the priest's penitent relationship is very crucial to the Church. Now, Geoffrey Robertson doesn't like that, but as non-Catholic - we're both non-Catholics - we've no right to tell the Church how to conduct its business.

It's also a Church that believes very strongly in rehabilitation, reconciliation, forgiveness and ultimately leaving it to God to judge. And third, it's a Church that moves very, very slowly.

It's the old story of when Mao was once asked, "Was the French revolution a success?" He said, "Well, it's too early to tell."

And the Church deals in issues not by years or even by decades, but by centuries and millennia.

And to expect the Church to move as quickly as other more facile institutions is to misunderstand the nature of the Catholic Church.

But does the confidentiality issue, for example, allow cardinals or archbishops to believe that they're above the law?
No.

That the law of the land is separate to the law that they will impose upon a priest that's perpetrated a sexual abuse of a child?
No, there a separate magisteria. The magisteria of the Church, the magisteria of the Government. The Government should prosecute crimes, the Church should do what churches do: try to reconcile, try to create circumstances for forgiveness, defrocking, laitisation, if necessary.

The Church should do what it does, the Government should do what it does; neither should interfere with the other. That's the secret of liberty: keeping Church and State separate. And I'm worried that Geoffrey Robertson would merge the two together.

But isn't this what the Church did? And for example, take this idea of forgiveness you've mentioned. It's a noble tradition, obviously, but surely it doesn't rule out punishment under the law.
No.

I mean, forgiveness, presumably, in the Church's eyes is something you can only get from God, but it doesn't rule out punishment, and yet, that's what happened in many, many, manycases. [One must dare Tony Jones to enumerate these 'cases'!]
And largely it was the fault of law enforcement. Law enforcement had no barriers to going in and aggressively prosecuting these crimes. And many prosecutors just refused to do it.

They may have been afraid of the Church, they may have been afraid of their constituents, but you don't blame the Church when law enforcement fails to prosecute.

When you had bishops or cardinals, if there were any, who took efforts, took steps to get priests from one jurisdiction into another, that would be criminal conduct.

Now, Geoffrey Robertson's contention is that when the Pope was still Cardinal Ratzinger and head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ...
Which used to be the called The Holy Office of the Inquisition.

Indeed. Indeed it did. In any event, from 1981 to 2005 he was head of that office... Now, Robertson's contention is that he protected abusers through the Church's canon law and that he ignored the victims.
I don't think that's right. I think that many people who know him very well think he that he had a real wake-up call when he took that job and he saw how extensive the abuse was within the Church and throughout society, and he took steps, took steps that a churchman should be taking, steps to try to rid the Church of people, he changed the rules as to reporting these things to civil society and I think on balance he did a fairly commendable job.

But let's assume for purposes of argument that he didn't. There's a big difference between criticising the Cardinal for what he should have done and saying that what he did was criminal.

What about the canon law though, because you've written in defence of the canon law. You've said for example it provides for scrupulous methods of proof and you talk about a long tradition of internal due process.
That's right.

Now, is it not the case that canon law was used to supplant actual criminal law in many of these cases? And perhaps that idea seeped right up to the very highest levels of the Vatican.
But that's not the fault of the Church. Their job is to apply canon law; the secular society's job is to apply civil and criminal law. If there was a failure to apply the criminal law, it was a failure by law enforcement officials.

You can't blame the Church for applying canon law. That's what they do. That's what they're supposed to do.

But don't you want to see all the evidence of the cases that actually passed through the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at that time in order to make a judgment as to whether there's been any cover ups, and of course, that evidence is not available?
Well it is available through depositions; much of it has become available in American lawsuits - not the confidential communications between priest and penitent, because they're protected by law, but other forms of evidence have become widely available, and it shows a mixed picture.

And some - and the Pope has criticised priests who have engaged in cover-ups. So, the issue is not: did priests - at every level, did people within the hierarchy of the Church do wrong things? They did. Priests abused, bishops and cardinals didn't take sufficient action.

The question is: can you put that at the doorstep of then Cardinal Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict? And I don't think you can.

Is that because we don't have the evidence or because you believe the evidence is not there, or because you just believe he's completely innocent of any wrongdoing at all?
The evidence that I've seen - I've seen letters, I've seen correspondence, shows to me that the evidence is not there. I would not have any objections to opening up files. I've been urging the Vatican for example to open up its files on the Holocaust and Pope Pious XII.

I think transparency is essential. Now, it's hard for outsiders to tell the Church to be transparent if that includes revealing confidences between priest and penitent. But anything that's not so privileged or protected, it's in the interests of the Church.

And the Pope has said this: truth is its own virtue. The truth should come out.

Let's move to this issue of sovereignty, because you write that the Catholic Church, like Orthodox Judaism, believes that matters affecting the faithful should generally be dealt with within the Church without recourse to secular authorities. It sounds like you're defending that tradition and that tradition does seem to be at odds with giving evidence to police, for example, secular authorities.
But that's now changed and the Pope has issued very direct orders that all Catholic priests and bishops must comply with the law of the land and when the law has reporting requirements, those reporting requirements have to be satisfied.

By the way, this is true of non-Church institutions. My children went to a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There was an abusive teacher and the principals didn't report and there was an investigation at the school and they were fined.

This is a common problem - when institutions try to protect their members because think that there are two sides to the story and they also wanna make sure that their members are getting fair and due process.

Geoffrey Robertson puts it this way: he says the Holy Sea may deserve respect for offering the prospect of redemption to sinners, but it must be made clear in law that the Pope does so as a spiritual advisor and not as an immune sovereign. So he's actually challenging the immunity that the Pope would claim to international criminal prosecution. Do you think he's got any case there at all?
I don't, because I think what we're seeing is a trend away from sovereign immunity. Look, the President of the US, Bill Clinton, was not given sovereign immunity by the courts of the US, a nine-to-nothing decision in a consensual sexual matter with a woman who was in here - above the age of consent, and he was required to answer all questions. I think sovereign immunity is a red herring today.

The International Criminal Court doesn't recognise sovereign immunity, and generally sovereign immunity should not be recognised when crime is involved.

But could you ever imagine anyone in the ICC taking up the challenge to formulate an indictment against the Pope?
Only if they wanted to see the end of the ICC. It would not - the ICC would not survive the indictment of the Pope on the evidence that Geoffrey Robertson has presented, and that's why I think it's a misguided idea.

[The remaining questions are about Dershowitz's involvement in OJ Simpson's trial for murder, in which Dershoqitz answers: "I'm not O.J. Simpson's friend, nor do I defend his conduct. It was my job to defend him in a court of law.... I defended him because it was a death penalty case." .]

Vatican confirms papal
audience for Sarkozy
By Nibin Thomas

29 September 2010


The Pope and Pres. Sarkozy outside the Élysée Palace in Paris in 2008.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Pope Benedict during his trip to Italy in October, the Vatican has confirmed. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has said the meeting is scheduled for October 8.

One of the issues expected to feature during the meeting is France’s crackdown on and deportation of thousands of the country’s Roma and Gypsy populations.

In July this year Mr Sarkozy announced that he had asked his interior minister to “put an end to the wild squatting and
 camping of the Roma”, linking the community to crime, prostitution and child exploitation.

The French President’s comments led to the Holy Father himself addressing French pilgrims about the need to “accommodate legitimate human diversities, just as Jesus came to assemble men from all nations and speaking every language”.

This was seen as a rebuke of the French administration’s policies, which was also being criticised by the European Union and human rights groups.

Soon after, Alain Minc, an adviser to President Sarkozy, attacked the Pontiff, saying: “Anyone can say anything about the Roma situation, but not a German Pope. John Paul II perhaps, but not him.” The French daily La Croix reported that the Vatican was unhappy about the comments. ['Unhappy'? What an understatemen!.Minc's statement is so anti-German and revoltingly jingoistic - yet Sarkozy did not even issue an apology to the Pope for what Minc said!]

The meeting with the Pope is being interpreted as an attempt by Mr Sarkozy to improve his approval rating among French Catholics, which has fallen drastically over the last year.


I'm two days late on this item from ROME REPORTS which a number of media outlets have picked up without further elaboration:

Benedict XVI to travel
to Santo Domingo next year?

September 28, 2010


According to the bishops of the Dominican Republic, the Pope will travel to the island in 2011. It would be the second trip of Benedict XVI to Latin America, having visited Brazil in 2007.

The main reason for this visit would be the 500th anniversary of the founding of the first diocese in America, for which the Pope has declared 2011 as the Jubilee Year.



In fact, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, visited Benedict XVI last May 21, at which time he presumably invited him to visit the country.

A few months after Reyna returned from Rome, the diocese of La Vega, the oldest of the island, began to prepare the place that could accommodate the Pope during his visit.

If confirmed, will be the fourth time a Pope visits the island. John Paul II visited on three occasions. The last was in 1992 when it celebrated the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America.


On the other hand, this trip within Italy - but to a foreign country - is confirmed:


The Pope will visit
San Marino in June 2011



SAN MARINO, Sept. 30 - Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting the Republic of San Marino on June 19, 2011, according to a communication to the Foreign Ministry from the Holy See, promptly announced by state radio and TV.

It has been 28 years since a Pope came to San Marino. John Paul II was here on August 29, 1982.

Pope Benedict has met twice with the Regent Captains of San Marino - first on April 24, 2005, soon after he was elected, and then in March 2006, with a new set of leaders.

About San Marino:


The capital, Citta di San Marino, is located on Monte Titano, which looks down on the Italian countryside and the Adriatic Sea.

San Marino is a 24-square-mile enclave with 30,000 inhabitants located in the Italian peninsula on the eastern side of the Appenine mountains, about 10 kms from the Adriatic coastal city of Rimini. It is one of the European microstates along with Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and the Vatican itself.

It is also the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded in 301 by a stonecutter Marinus who fled the persecution of Diocletian..

The constitution of San Marino, enacted in 1600, is the world's oldest constitution still in effect. The country's economy mainly relies on tourism, and San Marino's culture remains Italian, mainly Emilia-Romagnan in essence.

It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to some of the more developed Italian regions, such as Lombardy and the Province of Bolzano-Bozen. San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.

Palermo all set
for the Pope's visit
from the Press Office for the Visit


PALERMO, Sept. 30 - Everything is ready to welcome the Holy Father on his pastoral visit to Palermo on Sunday, October 3, according to Mons. Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo and president of the Sicilian bishops' conference, and Mons. Mario Russotto, who is in charge of the conference's offices for the pastoral care of youth and of families, at a news conference today.

"This visit fits into the pastoral journey of the Church in Sicily", said Mons. Romeo. "Comforted by his support to encourage us as we move ahead from day to day, the Holy Father will show us the path to take".

Mons. Russotto presented the conference entitled "A courageous outlook - on education in hope", which will be held on Oct. 1-2 among 1,300 delegates from the 18 dioceses of Sicily.



The initiative was organized by the Regional Councils for the Pastoral Care of Youth and of Families, respectively, for diocesan and parish workers, and officials of movements, associations and ecclesial groups within the Church of Sicily.

"With this conference," Mons. Russotto said, "we are no longer simply talking to the youth, but having a dialog in which they will play a leading role in planning for the future with their families. We will be assisted in this by cultural, social and regional experts who live and work in Sicily".

The papal visit coordinator, Mons. Carmelo Cuttita, auxiliary bishop of Palermo, thanked the many volunteers who helped in preparing for the visit and will help during the visit.



He discussed the Saturday evening event called 'Fontane di Luce' (Fountains of Light) during which parishioners in Palermo will listen to the bishops of Sicily giving catecheses in 18 churches of Palermo on Christian teachings with respect to active citizenship, justice and the law, work, school and university, and the environment.

Eucharistic Adoration on the eve of teh Pope's visit will be held at two Palermo churches, while confessions will be heard throughout the day in one church.

The evening will end with a concert called 'Celebration of a thousand lights' at Piazza Politeama - where the Pope will meet the youth on Sunday afternoon - with performing groups participating from all over Sicily.



They reviewed the Pope's program in Palermo. It starts with Mass at the Forto Italico, at 10:30 a.m., followed by the Angelus. The Pope will then lunch with civilian bishops at the Archbishop's Palace and take his midday rest.

At 4:45. he will greet the faithful from the central balcony of the Archbishop's Palace, before proceeding to the Cathedral of Palermo for a meeting with the clergy, religious and seminarians of Sicily.

Finally, at 6 p.m., the encounter with young people and families in Piazza Politeama.

The archdiocese has also released a map showing the routes of the Popemobile during the Pope's visit, as well as the routes for buses and public transportation.


The peripheral red and blue lines are the public transport routes - the other colored lines within the periphery are the Popemobile routes.



Here is how one wire service reports the coming trip to Palermo:

Pope to visit Mafia heartland


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 1 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will make the first visit of his papacy on Sunday to Palermo in Sicily, where campaigners said Friday they hoped he would use the occasion to condemn the Mafia.

Benedict's predecessor Jean Paul II in 1995 - on the last of his five visits to the southern Italian island - attacked Mafia killings, saying "no man, no human association, no Mafia can change nor trample under foot the right to life."

"We hope that the Pope has strong words against the Mafia, in particular here in Sicily, even if the Mafia phenomenon is not only Sicilian but is spread across Italy and the world," said Father Toni Dell'Olio, of Libera, the largest anti-Mafia organisation in Italy.

He said he hoped the Pontiff would send out the message that "the Mafia and Christianity are incompatible."


I don't know why anyone should remind the Pope of what he has to say in this regard. Twice before, on his pastoral visits to Naples and to nearby Pompeii, he spoke out against gangsterism and its associated violence and corruption. The Campagna region has been dominated by the Camorra, a home-grown gang as vicious as the Mafia. However, Italy has been prey to these gang lords for more than a century, and the government and people have seemed unable to do anything against them.

Pope Benedict's travels and teachings
at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Translated from

Sept. 30, 2010


For Catholics, the most interesting event at the 62nd Frankfurt Book Fair this year will be a session called 'Travelling with the Pope' which will take place on Oct. 7 as part of the annual book fair's Forum Dialog.

The meeting will be dedicated to the worldwide publications regarding the travels of Pope Benedict XVI, at which all the Pope's 'publishers' will be present, including Fr. Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican publishing house; Burkhard Mencke, of Herder in Germany; Paul Henderson of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Martin Fergal of the Catholic Truth Society of the UK; and Gianluca Azzaro of the Catholic University of Milan.

The Vatican Publishing House Lev has launched a series dedicated to all the speeches, homilies and interviews given by Benedict XVI on his foreign visits.

Top of the line, marking the first five years of the Pontificate, is the book edited by the Pope's private secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein, Benedetto XVI Urbi et orbi. Con il Papa per le vie di Roma e del Mondo.

Herder, which wanted a 'true' picture of the Pope, commissioned Gaenswein to choose the photographs and provide captions and brief texts to illustrate Benedict XVI's pontificate through his activities at the Vatican and on his travels.

It was translated to Italian and published by LEV, then went on to win the 2010 Premio Capri-San Michele for best book in the category of 'Images and Truth'.

On receiving the award in Anacapri last weekend, the Pope's secretary says that he wished to underscore the great intellectual courage of Benedict XVI which is best manifested during his travels abroad.

Other books highlighted in the Vatican stand this year at the world's largest book fair include publications by the newly-reopened Vatican Apostolic Library, with Volume I of its history, considered a landmark volume, new publications from the Vatican Museums, and the latest from LEV itself, centered around the first volume in Italian of Joseph Ratzinger's Collected Works.



Addenda:

An earlier note by Paolo Rodari on his blog also said that a news release from the LEV has confirmed that the interview book to be published by Peter Seewald for Herder and LEV before the end of the year will be entitled 'Light of the world'.

LEV adds that the book will be presented pre-publication at the Frankfurt Book Fair along with Volume II of JESUS OF NAZARETH to be published in spring of 2011.

On the Frankfurt Book Fair site itself, a second event to follow the Forum Dialog session on 'Travelling with the Pope' is scheduled for the JON-II presentation.

Friday, Oct. 1, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
FEAST OF ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX




Since Therese was born in the latter part of the 19th century, many photographs exist showing the saint from her childhood to her death.
ST. THERESE DE LISIEUX (France, 1873-1897), Carmelite nun, Doctor of the Church, 'Little Flower of Jesus'
One of the most popular saints around the world, Therese Martin is by far the youngest Doctor of the Church, only the third woman to earn this title after Teresa of Avila and Caterina of Siena, and the only one of the 34 Doctors of the Church to have written only a single work, her History of a Soul, published one year after her death, and which became one of the most influential Christian books as the world entered the 20th century. A hundred years after her death, John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, for the impact of her teaching on spirituality on the life of the Church. Her story was quite simple - she was the last of nine children born to middle-class parents (Zelie Guerin and Louis Martin, who were beatified last year). Always sickly, she entered the Carmelite convent at age 15, where she decided that doing simple ordinary things well, along with prayer and knowing how to endure pain and suffering (including 'dark nights of the soul'), were the way to God. In the last three years of her life, at the request of her sisters (two of them became Carmelite nuns too) and her superior, she wrote the story of her life and called it the "Little Way'. A bad case of tuberculosis caught in 1895 flared up in 1897 and led to her death. Because of her posthumous autobiography, her cult became worldwide almost immediately. She was beatified in 1922, canonized in 1925, and because she had wanted to be a missionary, she was declared co-patron of the missions along with St. Francis Xavier. On her deathbed she said, "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth".
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/100110.shtml


The only papal story in today's OR is the account of his Wednesday afternoon farewell to the staff of the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo on the eve of his return to the Vatican yesterday. Page 1 stories: The US Congress passes a law that would authorize the Commerce Department to impose sanctions on trade with China if the latter continues to undervalue its currency in order to get a larger share of the export market. The Taliban scorn the Afghan government's offer to negotiate a modus vivendi as nothing but theatrics. In the inside pages, the text of the speech delivered by Mons. Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican 'foreign minister'. to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 29, in which he said that promotion of human rights is the ultimate objective of international diplomacy; an essay on why it was necessary to have a sovereign state, however minuscule, as the visible symbol of the Pontiff's sovereignty and freedom of action - lack of this status had hampered Benedict XV in his efforts to bring the First World War to an end, because the government of Italy was able to thwart him in many ways in order to deny him any credit if his efforts succeeded; an essay by Timothy Verdon on an exhibit of 20th century Sicilian art in Palermo to coincide with the Pope's visit.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- The Bishop of Manaus, Brazil and six of his auxiliary bishops, first group from Northeast Sector-I now making
their ad limina visit.

At 6 p.m. today, a concert at Aula Paolo VI in honour of the Holy Father offered by ENI, Italy's national oil
and gas company. The Orchestra and Choir of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and pianist Andrea Lucchesini,
conducted by Neeme Jarvi were to perform music by Haydn, Part and Beethoven.


POPE'S PRAYER INTENTIONS
FOR OCTOBER 2010

---

General intention:
"That Catholic universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel,
it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason"

Missionary intention:
"That World Mission Day may afford an occasion for understanding that the task of proclaiming
Christ is an absolutely necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of
humanity."

---

The Pope and
our national conversation
Translated from

10/01/2010


Spain's Deputy PM meeting with Cardinal Bertone last week; at right, Zapatero at the Vatican last June 10.

[Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa)]De La Vega is happy, and so is [Prime Minister Jose Luis] Zapatero. Benedict XVI will have a brief meeting with the Prime Minister in Barcelona on November 7. Well and good, even if there is really nothing to discuss between them. One suspects that this is simply a photo opportunity.

Normally, the head of government of the host country greets the Pope when he steps on his territory [which Zapatero is not doing: in Santiago, the Crown Prince Felipe will greet him; in Barcelona where he arrives at night, there is no official welcome ceremony.]

Zapatero's government, now at its lowest point in terms of its political fortunes, has decided that the new Law on Religious Freedom is not a priority at all. And chose the recent meeting between De la Vega and Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone as the occasion to announce this.

But let us not deceive ourselves - there is no change in the cultural trend. This is the same government that has pursued social engineering and new 'rights'. It's just that right now, it is not in its interests to open up a new battlefront.

If Zapatero wishes some counsel in all this, someone should ask him to read the discourse given by Benedict XVI to Britain's civilian society in Westminster Hall last Sept. 17. Especially the line in which the Pope says: "Religion is not a problem that legislators must solve, but a vital contribution to the national debate".

Because there is the crux of the problem. Zapatero starts from the assumption that religion, especially Catholicism, is a problem that politics must solve. he sees it as a problem because it presents itself as a critical interlocutor who poses inconvenient questions. because it does not accept that it should be restricted to the sacristy and to personal conscience. Rather, Catholics have been participating actively as citizens in the great national debate.

Six years after he came to power, has Zapatero changed in any way? Unfortunately, there is no indication of this. Only that he uses an iron fist or a silken glove with the Church depending on his electoral interests.

In our complex democracies today - which face the uncertainties of the global crisis, the challenge of massive migrations, the educational emergency, social exclusion and global terrorism - the world of rational secularism and the world of faith need each other, and they should not fear to undertake a profound and continuing dialog for the good of our civilization.

This was the challenge launched by Benedict XVI to the cream of British society, and they were not just words called forth by the occasion. They are aimed at cutting through the Gordian knot of our present system of liberties at a time of great confusion and an uncertain future - when it is not enough to grease the cogs of the system, but to clarify to everyone its foundations and its sources.

At the conclusion of the Pope's visit to the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron thanked the Pope for having contributed to the national conversation in the UK by his fundamental challenge regarding the foundations of civilian life, and on the right way to organize social coexistence and protect the people's rights and freedoms.

Cameron could have said farewell to the Pope with courteous words, without having to say anything of substance. But he chose to speak as he did, thus demonstrating his political stature.

The question is: Does Zapatero have any interest at all for Benedict XVI to say something about our national conversation - which has been so impoverished and rarefied during his years in power?

That would be substance enough for his brief meeting with the Pope, beyond the smiles for the camera.

This is the most bizarre - and in many ways, most outrageous - development so far in the ongoing narrative on the consequences of sex abuses committed by some priests and the misguided cover-up by their bishops.


Man who headed Church probe
of pedophile complaints now
says Pope Benedict must resign

BRUSSELS, Oct. 1 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI should resign over the Catholic Church's priest paedophilia scandal, the head of a church-backed probe that revealed hundreds of abuse cases in Belgium said Friday.

Child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens was quoted as saying in the Flemish-language newspaper De Morgen that the Pope should take responsibility for the crisis.

"The Pope should not content himself with just expressing regret," Adriaenssens said. "He should offer his resignation."

"We should be able to say that after everything that has taken place within the Church, one person is taking responsibility," he said. "Since the problem is not just in Belgium but has spread worldwide, the Pope must set an example."

Adriaenssens released on September 10 a report by a commission he led which revealed that nearly 500 people reported abuses by priests since the 1950s and 13 victims committed suicide.

Revelations of abuse carried out by priests in Belgium, Ireland, the pope's native Germany and the United States have plunged the Catholic Church into its worst crisis in decades.

The Pope expressed sorrow and shame in a meeting with victims of clerical abuse during his four-day visit to Britain last month.

Fr. Lombardi has issued a prompt response that I have only found in the French service of Vatican Radio. Neither the Italian nor English services carry it, and I do not see it on the news agency wires yet. Something is still seriously wrong in the Vatican's communication set-up if all its various services cannot even coordinate something as important as an immediate response to an outrage committed by someone the Church in Belgium hired to carry on an independent investigation. The Vatican Radio report gives further information that the AFP report omits but is very relevant.

FR. LOMBARDI RESPONDS
Translated from the French service of


1 Oct 2010 (RV) - The actions of pedophile priests in Belgium continue to make waves. In an interview that will be published Saturday in a Flemish newspaper, the man who was asked by the Church in Belgium to head an independent commission to investigate complaints of sex abuses committed by Belgian priests, Prof. Adriaenssen, calls for the Pope to resign in order to set an example, saying words of apology and regret were not adequate.

He cites the example of two Belgian government ministers who resigned after the escape of a notorious civilian pedophile in the 1990s even if they were not his guards, citing this as an example for the Pope to follow.

Here is a transcript of the response by Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican press director:

---

First of all, I wish to express our respect for Professor Adriaenseens for the work he did as president of the commission, for the reports he has published, and also for the recommendations he made at the end of his report on the work of the Commission.

But I must say that we were a bit surprised by what we read in extracts of an interview which will be published on Saturday, because it seems, he makes a comparison between the responsibilities and authority within the universal Church and that within (civilian) isntitutions which are completely different by their nature and their organization of authority. This comparison is not valid because, in our view, one cannot compare the Pope to a state minister.

Third, the Pope has assumed all the responsibility as pastor of the Universal Church by giving a very clear line of action for confronting the problem of sexual abuses by priests. ['All the responsibility'? In no way has the Pope assumed responsibility for the crimes committed by individual priests and the procedural and moral failings of individual bishops! Nor should he!]

Not only by his words of regret and apology, which are important, but also by gestures, such as listening to some of the victims, who must be the starting point for doing justice, and with the codification of canon law norms for adjudicating the offenders, and concrete encouragement for all measures intended to prevent such crimes from recurring.

This was particularly evident during the Pope's last trip to the United Kingdom, where all three approaches were demonstrated: his apology, his meeting with the victims where he listened to and shared their suffering; and his meeting with officials who are engaged in preventing abuses and protecting children in Catholic environments. This is truly the blueprint for all future action.

The Pope should not resign. ["Le Pape ne doit pas remissioner." What kind of a statement is that - For something that's out of the question in any case! Why not, "The Papacy is a lifetime office and cannot be resigned. Any such suggestion is completely frivolous".]

He must continue to do what he does in governing the Church, by giving us the correct orientation, which becomes our responsibility to put into practice.

---

I really find Lombardi's statement weak overall... and I find the two instances of inappropriate phraseology rather unfortunate!

The 'sleeping dogs' appear to be up and about again....After that Brussels shocker, comes now a step forward in a US lawyer's obsession to get the Pope to testify on the actions of a Wisconsin priest who committed his offenses - more than 200 by one count - before 1974, when Joseph Ratzinger was a priest-professor in Regensburg... Just as there is no lack of publicity-seeking, megasettlement-obsessed shyster lawyers to have a go at suing the Pope, there will be no lack of ideologically-driven if not equally publicity-seeking judges to fall in with the shysters' designs!


US judge asks Vatican to serve
court paper to Pope
by DINESH RAMDE



MILWAUKEE, Oct. 1 (AP) — A federal U.S. judge is asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving the Pope and two other top officials with court papers that stem from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in Wisconsin.

The request is an incremental - and long shot - step in a lawsuit that accuses the officials of conspiring to keep the allegations against a Milwaukee priest quiet. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with the request.

Under similar circumstances the Vatican has made service difficult, time consuming and expensive by insisting, for example, that documentation be translated into Latin, one of the Vatican's official languages.

Mike Finnegan, the attorney representing the Chicago-based plaintiff, said Friday he's not holding out hope that the Vatican reverses course and begins to cooperate now.

"Based on what they've done in other cases, I don't expect them to do the right thing," he said. "I expect more delay and obstruction." [Very well, Finnegan! You've taken your 15 seconds of fame. I don't think it will even go a full minute!]

A message left Friday with the Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, was not immediately returned.

The lawsuit, filed in April in U.S. federal court, names as defendants Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone; the Vatican secretary of state, and his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

It claims the three men knew about allegations of sexual abuse at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf and called off internal punishment of the accused priest. The Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who died in 1998, was accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the school from 1950 to 1974.

Lena has called the lawsuit a publicity stunt with no merit, and said it rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.

The court order requesting the Vatican's cooperation was signed Sept. 24 by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa. It was released Friday by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

"The court requests the assistance described herein as necessary in the interests of justice," Randa wrote.

Plaintiffs in two other U.S. cases have also sued the Vatican under similar arguments. The three plaintiffs in the Kentucky case dismissed their case last month, and a case in Oregon is ongoing.

SNAP spokesman Arthur Budzinski called the Wisconsin court order a "hopeful sign." He said he hoped it would lead to the Pope testifying directly under oath about what he knew about Murphy's actions when, as then-Cardinal Ratzinger, he headed a powerful office that oversees the discipline of priests.


It is wrong, both ethically and journalistically, not to give a summary of the background to this case. Not to give one is to assume that it has a leg to stand on at all. Of course, the AP has a vested interest in not presenting all the relevant facts - they want the Vatican, and specifically the Pope, to 'sweat it out' since the AP writer of the above story himself says the intention to serve a process on the Pope is a 'long shot'!

In fact, the Murphy case can be summarized in seven sentences to give the relevant background that gives a just representation of facts for all concerned:

- Priest Lawrence Murphy was accused in the early 1970s of having sexually abused at least 200 boys in a school for the deaf and dumb.
- The charges were investigated and dismissed by the Milwaukee police, after which the priest went into forced retirement.
- Twenty years later, in 1994, the diocese of Milwaukee under Bishop Weakland* decides to reopen the case and asks for guidance from the CDF on how to proceed.
- In 1994, the CDF had nothing to do with the investigation of sex abuses by priests, only with disciplining priests accused and found guilty of crimes against the sacraments.
- Nonetheless, the CDF responded, through Cardinal Bertone, that the diocese could go forward with its trial but it would be difficult because the crimes had taken place more than 20 years earlier.
- Meanwhile, Fr. Murphy wrote the CDF separately to ask for dismissal of the charges because of the time lapse, because he had not offended again, and because he was sick.
- He died three months after this last correspondence and before the diocese could get started on his diocesan trial.

Every desk editor should keep a summary like this of every court case, to be appended handily to any new development, save the beat reporter the trouble of researching it all over, and keep the news outlet's presentation of the background facts consistent.

*[Weakland would make the headlines himself a few years later when he admitted that he had used church funds to pay off a homosexual lover - this has no direct relevance to the Murphy case, but it is indicative of Weakland's character, since he was among those who eventually would lay the blame for the 'inaction'
on Murphy on the CDF!]

Assuming Cardinal Bertone made Cardinal Ratzinger aware of the Murphy case in 1994-1995, what relevance does his knowledge of such second-hand facts serve, in a case filed 40 years after the crime? And isn't there a statute of limitations on sex crimes? Why is a federal court allowing a 40-year-old case to even be filed????

More important, if part of the claim is that the CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger did nothing to discipline the offending priest - in fact, "called off internal punishment of the priest" - did the judge not read the facts of the case at all? a) The diocese carried out its first internal punishment in 1974 when the priest was forced to retire. 2) Twenty years later, the CDF learns about the case for the first time, tells the diocese to proceed with the canonical trial it wants to do two decades after the crimes, and Murphy dies before the trial can begin!

This new story is a load of crap, and if the AP reporter had any integrity, he would report it properly, by seeking answers to questions that any reader with common sense might well ask! Something that the New York Times reporter who broke this faux scandal failed to do, even as she brazenly posted online all the documents provided to her by the Vatican-baiting lawyer Jeffrey Anderson. She obviously never thought some people might actually look through those documents and find that they mostly contradict the version of the story that she chose to make up!

CONCERT FOR BENEDICT
Translated from the Italian service of





Oct. 1, 2010 (RV) - Symphonic music of Haydn, the hymn to the martyrdom of St. Cecilia by Arvo Part, and the Choral Fantasy of Beethoven were the numbers performed this evening by the Orchestra and Chorus of Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and pianist Andrea Lucchesini, with Neeme Jarvi conducting, at the Aula Paolo VI in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI.



The concert was offered to the Pope by ENI, the state gas and oil company of Italy, represented by its president Roberto Poli (greeting the Pope in photo above). The occasion was to mark the ongoing restoration work carried out by ENI in the lateral exterior of St. Peter's Basilica. [ENI had previously undertaken the cleaning up of the facade of the Basilica in time for the 2000 Grand Jubilee celebrations - revealing the cream-colored stone that had been turned dark gray from centuries of dirt.]

After the concert, the Pope praised the choice of numbers which, he said, "invite us to reflect... on the place and task of faith in God's plan for the universe".

Special guests at the concert were a group of homeless wards under the care of the diocesan Caritas.







As usual, AGI's Salvatore Izzo provides us with the greater part of the Pope's remarks after the concert:


Pope jests that ENI presented
the concert to mask the noise
of restoration work
by Salvatore Izzo


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 1 (Translated from AGI) - Benedict XVI tonight expressed his gratitude to ENI for presenting a concert on the occasion of its work in cleaning up the lateral walls of St. Peter's Basilica, financed and udnertaken by Italy's state gas and oil corporation.

He did so after the concert presented by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademis di Santa Cecilia, responding to a greeting by ENI president Roberto Poli.

"After undertaking the unforgettable clean-up of the facade of St. Peter's - admired by millions of pilgrims during the Grand Jubileee of 2000 - this further great restoration effort is in full progress," the Pope observed.

"When entering the Vatican through the Arch of the Bells or the Arch of Petriano, I am very struck by the sight of the parts already done, revealign the original travertine as we have never seen it - looking almost soft and velvety.

"This too is a great work 'by orchestra', and all those who direct and execute it, with such mastery and effort, deserve to be applauded".

He jested about the fact that a concert should accompany such a demanding work of restoration: "ENI perhaps thought of offering a concert to make up for the noise that this kind of work inevitably produces". [Cleaning up the stone walls involves giant but sensitive brushes spun at high speeds to dislodge the dirt absorbed by the pores in the stone walls.]

"That is why they called on the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, that is to say, two institutions that, through their history, the quality of their art and their typically Italianate sound, represent Rome and Italy in the world's musical panorama.

"To all the orchestra and chorus members, I extend my congratulations, with the wish that you may always renew the spirit and give new life, as you did tonight, to immortal works.

"In particular, I express my great appreciation to musical director Neeme Jarvi, to pianist Andrea Lucchesini and the choirmaster Ciro Visco".

The Pope also addressed a special greeting to a group of wards in the care of the diocesan Caritas, whom, he said,"I invited to experience with us this occasion of joy".


Above, the Pope with pianist Andrea Lucchesini (left) and conductor Neeme Jarvi.


Here is the full translation of the Pope's remarks - one of his best post-concert remarks ever:

---

Vennerated Brothers,
Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear brothers and Sisters,

First of all, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to ENI, in the person of its president, Prof. Roberto Poli, who graciously introduced this concert.

For some time, ENI had been offering to organize a concert concomitant with the restoration work on the lateral aspects of St. Peter's Basilica.

After the memorable clean-up of the facade, admired by millions of pilgrims during the Jubilee of 2000, this further work is in full progress.

Entering the Vatican through the Arch of Bells or the Arch of Petrianus, one is struck - looking at the parts already restored - by the sight of the travertine as we have never seen it, almost soft and velvety.

This too is a great work 'in orchestra' and deserves applause for all who are directing the work and those who are executing it with mastery and hard work.

So ENI thought of a concert - perhaps to make up for the noises that this kind of work inevitably produces! And for this, it called on the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accadmia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, that is to say, on the two instutions that, through their history, the quality of their art, and their typically 'Italianate' sound, represent Rome and Italy in the world music scene.

To all the orchestra members and chorists, I wish to extend my congratulations, with the wish that they may always renew the spirit and give life - as they did tonight - to immortal works.

In particular, I express my sincere appreciation to musical director Neeme Jarvi, to the pianist Andrea Lucchesini, and to choirmaster Ciro Visco.

I also extend a special greeting to the group of people in the care of the diocesan Caritas whom I invited to experience with us this occasion of joy.

And now, a brief reflection on the music that we have heard: a symphony by Haydn from the so-called London symphonies, the one we know as the Surprise Symphony, or 'mit dem Paukenschlag' (with a drumroll) because of the characteristic use of tympani in the second movement; Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, a rather atypical genre in the Beethovenia output but which demonstrates in synthesis the expressive possiblities of solo, orchestral as well as choral music; and between these two, Arvo Part's 'Cecilia, Roman virgin'.

The works by Haydn and Beethoven resounded with all the wealth and power of symphonic music in the Classic and Romantic periods - in which human genius vies with nature in creativity, gives life to varied multiform harmonies, in which the human voice takes part in its language, a reflection of the great cosmic symphony.

This is particularly characteristic of the Romantic and late Romantic period, but it goes beyond - it represents a universal dimension of art, a concept of man and his place in the world.

On the other hand, Part's work, which also makes use of similar instruments - a symphonic orchestra and a choir - gives voice to another reality which does not belong to the natural world. It gives voice to the witness of faith in Christ, or in one word, martyrdom.

It is interesting that such witness is embodied by St. Cecilia herself, a martyr who is also the patron of music and bel canto.

One must therefore also congratulate those who drew up the program for this concert, because placing this work on St. Cecilia alongside the works of Haydn and Beethoven offers a contrast that is rich in meanings and which invites us to reflect.

The text about the martyrdom of the saind and the style in which it is musically interpreted seem to represent the place and the task of faith in the universe: Amidst the vital forces of nature, which are around man but also within him, faith is a different force, which corresponds to the profound expression, 'an exit from silence', as St. Ignatius of Antioch would have said.

The word of faith needs a great interior silence so we may to heed and obey a voice which is beyond the visible and the tangible. This voice also speaks through the phenomena of nature, because it is the power that created and governs the universe.

But to recognize it, one must have a humble and obedient heart - as we are also taught by the saint whose liturgical remembrance we honor today - St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

Faith follows this profound voice to where even art cannot arrive. It follows the voice along the way of witness, of offering oneself for love, as Cecilia did.

Thus, the most beautiful work of art, the masterpiece of each human being, is his authentic act of love, from the smallest one in his daily martyrdom to the extremest sacrifice. In these acts, life itself becomes song, a foretaste of that symphony that we shall all sing together in Paradise.

Once again thank you, and I wish you a good night.

---

So the announcement from San Marino yesterday was incomplete... The Pope will be visiting the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, half of whose territory lies in Italy...



Vatican says Pope's visit
to San Marino in June 2011 will also
cover the Italian part of the diocese



Vatican City, Oct 1, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Next June, Pope Benedict XVI will make an apostolic visit to the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro. The visit will not be a first by a Pope to the unique diocese which spans two nations.

The news was announced on San Marino public radio and confirmed to CNA by Fr. Ciro Benedettini of the Holy See's Press Office on Friday. Being from San Marino himself, Fr. Benedettini clarified that the visit would not only be to the Republic of San Marino, but also to the Italian part of the diocese, which includes the territory of Montefeltro.

The Holy Father will make a day trip to the diocese on June 19, 2011, spending the morning in San Marino and the afternoon in the Montefeltro area. No specific details are immediately available as the visit is still in the planning stages.

Montefeltro is a historical territory spread over several Italian provinces that border the "Most Serene Republic of San Marino". The diocese itself dates back to the 8th century.

The bishop's see is at the city of Pennabilli, on the Italian side, but the diocese has a total of three cathedrals. One, the basilica co-cathedral of San Marino is within the walls of the republic.

Sixty-nine of the parishes in the diocese are Italian while another 12 are located in San Marino, Europe's oldest republic and, along with the Vatican, one of a handful of "microstates" on the continent.

John Paul II visited the diocese in August 1982, a visit qualified as 'apostolic' rather than 'pastoral' because part of it was outside Italian territory.


Lower left map shows the seat of the Diocese in Pennabili; right map locates the San Marino-Montefeltro area on the map of Italy.





Apcom has more on the Dominican Republic story, and throws Puerto Rico into the story as a second destination but fails to support it with any other statement.


Pope to visit Dominican Republic
and Puerto Rico next year



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 1 (Translated from Apcom) - The Pope will visit the Dominican Republic next year, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Diocese of La Vega.

During the trip, the Pope will be going to Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico, according to the local press, citing sources from the episcopate. [The DR does not have a city called Puerto Rico (but it has one called Puerta Plata), so is the story referring to the neighboring island of Puerto Rico whose capital is San Juan?]

The Pope will be going to the district of Santo Cerro, and its Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. but will also visit other important historical and cultural monuments.

The local press also says that the Pope will be presiding at a Mass in La Vega to mark the founding of the diocese in 1511 by Pope Julius II.

The visit will also mark the founding anniversaries of the dioceses of Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico.

Last May, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, visiting the Vatican, officially invited the Pope who reportedly said that he intended to accept it "if his health and circumstances allow" and that such a visit was "in God's hands".

John Paul II visited the DR three times. Santo Domingo was the first foreign city he visited in January 1979. He came back in october 1894 to open the celebrations marking teh fifth centenary of the evangelization of the Ameericas, and a third time on October 9-14, 1992, to preside at the meeting of teh conference of Latin American adn Caribbean bishops.


I am really uncomfortable about the unsupported and apparently ignorant references to Puerto Rico which seems to be considered in this story as another city - and one within the DR - rather than another country altogether. (Puerto Rico is a dependent territory of the United States of America.

P.S. So I looked up reports from the DR itself about the visit and found out that the APCOM story above was a translation of a story filed by the Spanish news agency EFE from La Vega, DR, on Sept.30, But EFE also had a later story dated Oct. 1 from the Vatican as follows:

The Vatican denies visit by the Pope
to the Dominican Republic next year
by Hector Melo


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 1 (Translated from EFE) - Vatican sources told EFE today that the announced visit of Benedict XVI to the Dominican Reoublic and Puerto Rico in August 2011, made earlier by the diocese of La Vega in the DR, is 'unfounded'
.
"It doesn't make sense to say that the Pope will be visiting the Caribbean in August 2011, when the Pope will be going to Madrid for World Youth Day", the sources said.

They also underscored that this was the 'first time' anyone had ever spoken of such a trip, considering the distance from Rome, and that in 2011, the Pope will be 84.

Episcopal sources at the diocese of La Vega in the DR told EFE yesterday that the Pope would be visiting to mark the 500th anniversary of the diocese.

[The rest of the story recapitulates 'details' of the trip reported earlier.]


SO...NO VISIT TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IN AUGUST 2011....

10/2/10
P.P.S - This is a crazy story...I've traced the original report now to an item that appeared in the September 25 issue of a Dominican newspaper called El Especial, which said the information for the visit was announced by the Bishop of La Vega, Mons. Antonio Camino, in his homily on Friday, Sept. 24 at Santo Cerro, on the feast of Our Lady of Mercies, who said he was awaiting further instructions from the Apostolic Nuncio in Santo Domingo.

Additionally, the mayor of La Vega, Alexis Perez, told the newspaper reporter that construction had begun a month ago for the rooms that the Holy Fahter and his delegation would occupy during the visit. He also said that a joint church and civilian commission had been created to organize the welcome for the Holy Father.

It's not April Fool's Day, nor the Day of the Holy Innnocents (which is the Hispanic version of April Fools Day) - so how can a bishop and a whole city be so deluded or misled????

The Pope has dealt with the UK -
three cheers for the 'holy Granddad'! -
Now it's time for Sicily
Translated from

10/1/2010


Faith is not a private fact. Because truth is not a private fact. If there is a moral to be drawn from the Pope's trip to the United Kingdom, it is precisely this: The search for truth - of which faith is a part - is something that cannot be hindered.

Everyone - the devout and the atheist, Christian or secular - we all desire and need just one thing: to know the truth profoundly. When there is truth, it cannot be nullified. It can be covered, it can be mimetized, it can be camouflaged by showy artifices. But it is always there. One just has to open one's eyes to see. One simply has to listen in order to hear.

That is what happened across the Channel. Despite pedophile priests, suspected terrorist streetcleaners, the most ardent opponents of the Church getting all the headlines in the media, in the end, the image that became fixed in the public eye was simply him, Benedict XVI - 'the holy granddad', as the Sunday Times called him.

He came across because he spoke of truths, of what is elevated, of what is great, noble and sensible. In a word, he spoke of God. And was appreciated by everyone for doing so.

On October 3, Benedict XVI will be going to Palermo, where the sounds of contrariety have already been heard (some question the cost of the trip, and some have even cast shadows over the beatification process of Don Puglisi). [Pino Puglisi was a parish priest in Palermo who decided to fight the Mafia openly, urging his parishioners with the call "What if someone did something?". In 1993, a gunman walked up to him in front of his parish church and shot him pointblank. In 1999, the diocese of Palermo launched his cause for beatification.]

We can only make one appeal to the Sicilians. Please, do not waste the occasion, do not miss the true story, let PRatzinger speak when he comes to Palermo. Because no petty polemics can hold up in the face of his consistency in everything he has to say.

Saturday, Oct. 2, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Guardian Angels



The only papal story in today's OR was a belated brief note that the Holy Father has returned to the Vatican. Page 1 news: Taliban guerrillas from Pakistan target NATO troops in Afghanistan; International Labor Organization predicts that the world will see five more years of rising unemployment; and terrorist attacks killing at least 15 persons mar the 50th anniversary celebration of Nigerian independence.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)

- Five Brazilian bishops from Northeast-I sector, Group 2) on ad limina visit

At 1:30 p.m., lunch with the Curia to honor the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 83,
on the 60th anniversary of his ordination, the 50th anniversary of his service to the Holy See, and his name day.


The Vatican also released the texts of the Holy Father's letters to
- Cardinal Jozef Tomko, emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, as the Pope's
representative to the third centenary of the consecration of Minsk Cathedral in Belarus, on October 9.

- Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, as the Pope's
representative to the first millennary celebration of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes, in France, on October 11.


There really is no papal news so far, Friday night already in Rome. The online news summaries in English are still stuck on the one about the US court wanting to serve papers on the Pope, on the investigation of IOR officials, on the denial of a papal trip to the Dominican Republic, and on the story that AFP has ridiculously headlined 'Vatican rejects call for Pope's resignation', as though such a call were to be taken seriously as anything other than a grandstand play, much like the UK protestors' megalomaniac plan to arrest the Pope !

Even the main story in tomorrow's OR is the Friday evening concert for the Pope. I have just translated his full remarks - they are absolutely beautiful. Izzo's advance story last night hardly touched on the heart of the message...

The Italian papers have stories anticipating the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Palermo tomorrow, and I have to choose which ones to translate... There is another story now, added to the few that have cropped up in recent weeks, that says there will almost certainly be a new consistory on the weekend of November 20-21.