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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY
Catechesis on St. Bridget of Sweden





Pope Benedict XVI said today that the role of women in the Church is equally important as that of ordained priesthood, without overlapping it, for the spiritual growth of the community, as he discussed the life and legacy of St. Bridget of Sweden, one of the co-patrons of Europe, at the General Audience.

Moreover, often they are the “driving force” and “spiritual centre” of the family, the domestic Church, he said in his catechesis.

After his plurilingual greetings to the pilgrims present, the Holy Father called on the international community to quickly provide relief following a disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and severe floods in Benin.

The Holy Father assured the people of Asia and Africa that he was praying for them and urged global donors to provide the necessary relief aid to “alleviate the suffering of those affected by such devastation”.

Here is how he synthesized the catechesis in English:

Our catechesis today is on Saint Bridget of Sweden. Born in 1303, she grew up steeped in the faith. She and her husband had eight children, and dedicated themselves with great fervour to the spiritual life and their children’s Christian formation.

Bridget was the driving force behind her and her husband’s "conjugal sanctity", and became a model for many women through the ages of how to be the spiritual centre of the family.

Following her husband’s death, Bridget renounced further marriage in order to deepen her union with the Lord, through prayer, penance and works of charity. She gave away her possessions and lived in a monastery.

In her prayer, she experienced many intense mystical experiences. In 1349, she made a pilgrimage to Rome, to obtain Papal approval for a religious order of both men and women which she intended to found, and, while in Rome, she lived a life of intense apostolic prayer and activity.

Bridget died in 1373, and was canonized 18 years later. She is a significant reminder of a united Western Christendom, a powerful example of feminine sanctity, and was proclaimed co-Patroness of Europe by the Venerable John Paul II, during the Great Jubilee.

May her intercession help unite all Christians, and draw the people of Europe to an ever greater appreciation of their unique and invaluable Christian heritage.

I am pleased to welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present today. In particular, I extend greetings to the Bridgetine Sisters here for their General Chapter. Upon all of you, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.










Here is a full translation of today's catechesis:




Dear brothers and sisters,

During the fervent eve of the Great Jubilee of 2000, the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II proclaimed St. Bridget of Sweden a co-patron for all Europe.

This morning, I wish to present her figure, her message, and the reasons why this holy woman has much to teach us - even today - to the Church and the world.

We know quite well the events of the life of St. Bridget, because her spiritual fathers published her biography to promote the cause for her canonization shortly after her death in 1373.

Bridget was born 70 years earlier, in 1303, in Finster, Sweden, a northern European nation that had, three centuries earlier, welcomed the Christian faith with the same enthusiasm that our saint received it from her parents - who were very pious and belonged to a noble family close to the reigning royal house.

We can distinguish two periods in the life of the saint. The first was characterized by her status as a happily married woman. Her husband was Ulf, governor of an important district in the kingdom of Sweden. Their marriage lasted 28 years, until Ulf's death.

They had eight children, of whom the second-born, Karin, is also venerated as a saint. This is an eloquent sign of Bridget's commitment in educating her own children.

Moreover, her pedagogical wisdom was appreciated to the point that King Magnus of Sweden called her to the court for a certain time in order to introduce his young wife, Blanche of Namur, to Swedish culture.

Bridget, under the spiritual guidance of a gifted religious who initiated her in the study of Scriptures, exercised a very positive influence on her own family which, thanks to her presence, became a true 'domestic church'.

Together with her husband, she took up the rule of the Third Franciscan Order. She generously practised works of charity towards the indigent and founded a hospital.

With his wife, Ulf learned to improve his own character and progress in Christian living. Returning from a long pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1341, which they undertook with their family, the spouses decided to live in continence. Shortly after, however, Ulf's earthly existence ended in the peace of a monastery to which he had retired.

This first part of Bridget's life helps us to appreciate what we can call today an authentic 'conjugal spirituality': Together, Christian spouses can follow a path of holiness, sustained by the grace of the Sacrament of matrimony.

It is not uncommon, as it happened in the life of Bridget and Ulf, that it is the woman who, with her religious sensibility, her delicacy and kindness, succeeds in making her husband follow the path of faith.

I think with appreciation of so many women who, day after day, even today illumine their families with their personal witness to Christian life. May the Spirit of the Lord inspire holiness in Christian spouses even today, to show the world the beauty of matrimony lived according to the values of the Gospel: love, kindness, reciprocal aid, fecundity in the generation and education of their children, openness and solidarity with the world, participation in the life of the Church.

When Bridget was widowed, the second phase of her life began. She renounced prospects of another marriage to deepen her union with the Lord through prayer, penitence and charitable works. Thus, even Christian widows can find in this saint a model to follow.

Bridget, on her husband's death, gave away her own possessions to the poor. And although she never acceded to religious consecration, she settled at the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra.

Here, she begin to have divine revelations which accompanied her for the rest of her life. She dictated these visions to her confessors who translated them from Swedish to Latin and compiled them into eight books entitled Revelations. To this was added a supplement called Revelationes extravagantes (Supplementary REvelations)

St. Bridget's Revelations present a very varied content and style. At times, they are presented as dialogues among the Divine Persons, the Virgin, the saints and even demons - dialogs in which Bridget intervenes. At other times, they describe a particular vision; and in still others, what the Virgin Mary revealed to her about the life and mysteries of her Son.

The value of St. Bridget's Revelations, sometimes the object of doubts, was defined by the Venerable John Paul II in the letter Spes aedificandi: "Recognizing the holiness of Bridget, the Church, without making a pronouncement on individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience" (No. 5).

Indeed, reading these Revelations, we are interpellated on many important topics. For example, a frequent recurrence is the description, with rather realistic details, of the Passion of Christ, towards which Bridget always had a special devotion, contemplating in it God's infinite love for men.

On the lips of the Lord who speaks to her, she daringly puts these moving words: "O my friends, I love my sheep so tenderly that if it were possible, I would die as many times for each of them the same death that I suffered for the redemption of all" (Revelationes, Libro i, c. 59).

Even the painful maternity of Mary, her Mediatrix and Mother of mercy, is a subject that often recurs in Bridget's Revelations. Receiving these charisms, Bridget was aware that she was the recipient of a gift showing great favor from the Lord:

"My daughter," we read in the first book of Revelations, "I chose you for myself, love me with all your heart... more than everything that exists in the world" (c 1).

Moreover, Bridget knew quite well - she was convinced of this - that every charism is destined to edify the Church. Precisely because of this, not a few of her Revelations were addressed - in the form of sometimes severe admonitions - to the believers in her time, including religious and political authorities, that they might live their Christian life consistently.

But she always did this with respect and full faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church, particularly that of the Successor of Peter.

In 1349, Bridget left Sweden for always when she went to Rome on a pilgrimage. Not only did she intend to take part in the Jubilee of 1350, but she also wanted to get the Pope's approval for the Rule of a religious order that she intended to found, dedicated to the Holy Savior, and composed of both monks and nuns under the direction of an abbess.

Indeed, the great Christian tradition has always recognized a woman's particular dignity, and - always with the example of Mary, Queen of Apostles - her own place in the Church, which without overlapping that of the ordained priesthood, is equally important for the spiritual growth of the community.
Moreover, the collaboration of consecrated men and women, with respect to their specific vocations, has taken on great importance in today's world.

In Rome, with her daughter Karin, Bridget dedicated herself to a life of intense apostolate and prayer. From Rome, she went forth on pilgrimages to the various Italian shrines, particularly Assisi, hometown of St. Francis, for whom she had always nurtured a great devotion.

Finally, in 1371, the crowning achievement of her greatest desire: a trip to the Holy Land, in the company of her spiritual children, a group she called 'friends of God'.

At that time, the Popes lived in Avignon, far from Rome. Bridget called on them desperately to return to the See of Peter in the Eternal City. But she died in 1373, before Pope Gregory XI could finally return to Rome.

She was temporarily interred in the Roman church of San Lorenzo in Panisperma, but in 1374, her children Birger and Karin brought her back to Sweden, to the monastery of Vadstena, seat of the order that she had founded, and which soon underwent a remarkable expansion. And in 1391, Pope Boniface IX canonized her.

Bridget's holiness, characterized by a multiplicity of gifts and experiences that I wished to recall in this brief spiritual biography, made her an eminent figure in the history of Europe.

A native of Scandinavia, St. Bridget bears witness to how Christianity had profoundly permeated the life of all the peoples of the continent.

In declaring her a co-patron of Europe, Pope John Paul II expressed the wish that the saint - born in the 14th century when Western Christianity had not yet healed from its divisions - may intercede effectively before God to obtain the long-awaited grace of full unity among all Christians.

For this same intention, which is very much in our heart, and so that Europe may always nourish herself from her Christian roots, let us pray, dear brothers and sisters, invoking the powerful intercession of St. Bridget of Sweden, faithful disciple of God and co-patron of Europe.

Thank you for your attention.











Pope praises women who give
Christian inspiration to their families

By Cindy Wooden



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 27 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI praised the millions of Catholic women in the world who inspire their husbands and children to live truly Christian lives.

At his weekly general audience Oct. 27, the Pope said he wanted to recognize "the many women who, day after day, enlighten their families with their witness of Christian life."

"May the Spirit of the Lord raise up holy Christian spouses today to show the world the beauty of marriage lived according to the Gospel values: love, tenderness, mutual help, fruitfulness in generating and educating children, openness and solidarity with the world, and participation in the life of the Church," he said.

The Pope's remarks about women in the Church and in family life were part of his catechesis about the life and influence of St. Bridget of Sweden, who lived in the 14th century.

Bridget and her husband, Ulf, were the parents of eight children and were models of "an authentic conjugal spirituality," the Pope said.

"Often, as happened in the life of St. Bridget and Ulf, it is the woman who, with her religious sensitivity, delicacy and sweetness, is able to make her husband mature in the faith journey," he said.

After Ulf died, Bridget sold her possessions and dedicated her life to prayer and good works, which makes her a model for Christian widows, the pope said.

St. Bridget also received divine revelations, many of which were addressed, "even in the form of harsh admonitions, to believers in her time, including religious and political authorities so that they would correctly live their Christian life," Pope Benedict said.

But, he said, she always shared the revelations "with an attitude of respect and full fidelity to the magisterium of the church, particularly to the successor of the Apostle Peter," Pope Urban V, whom she urged to return to Rome at a time when the papacy was based in Avignon, France.

Pope Benedict said that St. Bridget, founder of the Bridgetine Sisters, had hoped to establish a monastic order with branches for both men and women.

"This should not surprise us: In the Middle Ages, there were monastic foundations with a male and female branch that followed the same monastic rule under the direction of an abbess. In fact, the great Christian tradition recognizes that women have their own dignity and -- following the example of Mary, queen of the Apostles -- their own place in the church, which without involving ordained priesthood, is just as importance for the spiritual growth of the Church," he said.

At the end of the audience, Pope Benedict offered his prayers for the people of Indonesia, suffering the effects of an earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruption; and for the people of Benin, thousands of whom were left homeless because of flooding.



Sidelights of today's GA
Translated from the 10/28/10 issue of


The gratitude of Sulmona
for the Pope's visit

A 'change of mentality' from 'resignation to hope', from lamenting misfortune to rolling up one's sleeves: These are 'the new, exciting adn encouraging perpectives', resulting from the Pope's visit to Sulmona last July 4, according to Mons. Angelo Spina, Bishop of Sulmona, who came to the audience yesterday with 1,000 pilgrims from the diocese, "above all to give thanks to the Holy Father".

Mons. Spina says that his people "have advanced up one step in facing serious problems like unemployment and the consequences of the April 2009 earthquake. There is no longer a climate of resignation, passivity and discouragement of people who think they cannot do anything".

He says that the important elements of this 'gust of fresh air' that the Pope brought to Sulmona "are the full rediscovery of the Word of God and the Eucharist, which concretizes the commitment to charity and solidarity".


A spiritual bouquet
from the youth of Brno

Another 'special fruit' from a papal visit was brought to St. Peter's Square by 60 young people from the Czech Republic city of Brno.

A year after the Pope's visit to their land, they brought him a parchment 'certifying the 3,776 hours of Eucharistic Adoration' that they offered for the Pope's intentions.


Bridgetine sisters present
for the catechesis on their founder

"The Christian roots of Europe and ecumenism are the bases, which will never be out of fashion, of the Bridgetine Order," said Abbess General Mother Tekla Famiglietti, who was present along with officials and members of the order at the Wednesday audience.

They have been holding their annual general meeting in Rome. "Our work confirms the relevance of the Bridgetine ecumenical spirit", she said.


Followers of newly-beatified
Suor Alfonsa Clerici

Equally relevant today is the educational and charitable charism of Blessed Alfonsa Clerici, the 19th-century nun from Vercelli who was beatified last Saturday.

Present at the Wednesday audience were Archbishop Masseroni of Vercelli, the Superior of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, which was Blessed Alfonsa's order, and the postulator of her cause for sainthood, who accompanied a group of pilgrims celebrating the event.


Moscow Cathedral Choir
performs for Benedict XVI

The new choir of the Catholic cathedral of Moscow performed for Benedict XVI at the GA yesterday.

"We are in Rome for the first time," said choir director Ludmila Mesnikovich, "but we hope that we shall soon be able to welcome the Pope to Moscow. We are all awaiting his visit".

The choir members said that "the patrimony of sacred music opens new horizons in the ecumenical dialog".


US 'wounded warriors'
on pilgrimage

Also attending yesterday's audience were some represetantives of the Wounded Warriors, an organization of American soldiers who have been seriously wounded and often mutilated or heavily disabled during their service in Iraq. Along with their families, they are in Rome for a 'spiritual pilgrimage'.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/10/2010 00:22]
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1974 and 2012: From Paul VI to Benedict XVI -
Two Synodal assemblies on evangelization

by UMBERTO FOLENA

October 27, 2010

The circle is closed. After 38 years, at the end of a journey of surprising consistency, the Church returns to a point of departure.
Not a defect, but an advantage.

The next General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod will be on "New evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith".

In 1974, the bishops of the world held their third Synodal general assembly on a near-identical theme: "Evangelization in the modern world". [NB: The Bishops' Synod was established by Vatican-II as a vehicle for collegial decisions in the Church.]

Thus, the Church returns to the essential - the center of the faith - with more insight, much more aware of the problem than before.

The number of observant Catholics in the Western world has fallen drastically, and various storms have shaken the barque of Peter. But the navigation through 38 years of synodal assemblies has been consistent and has touched at all the essential 'ports' of the faith and of pastoral work: catechesis (1977); family (1980); laity (1097); the priesthood (1990); religious orders (1994); bishops (2001); the Eucharist (2005); and the Word of God (2008).

Thus, the Word - heard, accepted and studied in catecheses, lived and witnessed to by families, laymen, priests, religious and bishops, all united around the Eucharist. It has been a logical route, touching on the major elements stresed by Vatican II.

[It would have been helpful to include the list of special Synodal assemblies as well.]

Looking back, there have been quite a few surprises. In the 1974 assembly, the moderators were Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Cracow, the then Archbishop fo Marseilles Roger Etchegaray, and Argentine Archbishop Pironio of Mar De Plata, who would be leading players in the Church during the next few decades.

Paul VI's post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi from 1975 had the unspoken premise that evangelization should always be 'new', because the context in which it is done is undergoing perennial changes.

Drawing from the assembly's propositions, Paul VI wrote that "the rupture between the Gospel and culture is without a doubt the tragedy of our time, as it has been in other times". We might add, other times in the past, as well as other times in the future.

He underscored "situations of de-Christianization... for multitudes who have been baptized but who nwo live completely outside Christian life". And he adds some concents of extraordinary relevance: "One must note in the heart of this contemporary world a phenomenon which is becoming almost like its most surprising characteristic: secularism".

He distinguishes secularism from secularization, describing 'true secularism' as a concept of the world in which the world is 'self-explanatory' without the need to refer to God, who becomes in this sense, superfluous and cumbersome.

"Such secularism, in setting forth the power and primacy of man, ends up with having no use for God and ultimately negating God". One seems to be reading Benedict XVI, underscoring yet again the close link between the two Popes. [After all, Paul VI made Joseph Ratzinger cardinal before he turned 50, a rare honor for a theologian who had been an academic professor for a quarter century before being named Archbishop of one of Europe's largest and most prestigious dioceses.]

New forms of atheism, a man-centered atheism, no longer abstract and metaphysical but pragmatic, programmatic and militant - Paul VI continued - would follow from such secularism:

"This atheistic secularism is proposed to us everyday under the most diverse forms - the civiliztion of consumerism, hedonism elevated to be the supreme value, the will to power and dominance, discrimination of every kind".

And so, the circle closes. Today, we know so much more of secularism. We have experienced the inhumanity of this secularism that excludes God from its horizon, replacing him with ideologies or consumer goods ot pure and simple power.

The circle closes, and we begin anew.

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NCRegister's Jerusalem correspondent wraps up the new controversy between the Vatican and Israel. I am glad the auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem acknowledges the lack of balance in the Synodal assembly's final message... What is troubling is that the lack of balance had a two-fold reason: open partisanship among many of the Middle Eastern bishops against Israel, and a concomitant cowardice in using equally strong language against Islamic injustices in the Middle East.


The new controversy with Israel:
A Jerusalem bishop says final Synodal
message should have been more balanced

by MICHELE CHABIN

10/27/2010


JERUSALEM — Vatican-Israeli relations, which were already strained in recent years over property-tax issues, the Palestinians and the Holocaust, may have received a further blow at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops meeting this past week at the Vatican.

During the Oct. 23 closing press conference of the bishops’ gathering, which examined problems Christians face in the Middle East, the predominantly Arab bishops released a statement expressing solidarity with Middle East Christians, whose numbers have plummeted due to widespread emigration.

Under the section dedicated to relations with Jews, the synod message warned against inappropriate use of the words of the Bible. It said that “recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable.” It was generally interpreted to refer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[But 'theological positions' could just as well refer to Muslim fundamentalists' use of the Koran to justify their violent actions. In any case, the state of Israel has not used the Bible to justify its political actions. \

However, what the Israeli reactions so far have not mentioned is the extremist violent actions and tendencies of ultra-orthodox Jews who have been the most militantly rabid defenders of building Jewish communities in the West Bank on what is, for all intents and purposes, Palestinian territory. Such West Bank settlements are both morally and legally unjustified. New construction in East Jerusalem is different - pobably questionable as to its propriety, given Palestine's open desire to claim it as their capital - but legally justified, since Israel did after all win back all of Jerusalem from Jordan in the first Arab-Israeli war.]]


In his own elaboration of the passage, Bishop Cyril Bustros of the Greek Melkite Eparchy of Newton, Mass., convener of the synod’s drafting committee, said at the press briefing, “For us Christians, you can no longer speak of a land promised to the Jewish people.”

The coming of Christ, Bishop Bustros said, showed that Jews “are no longer the preferred people, the chosen people; all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.”

What the bishops wanted to say, in Bishop Bustros’s view, is that the theme of the Promised Land can’t be used “to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the expatriation of Palestinians.”
[Bustros is obviously offering his revisionist version of history, and that is falsification, which is a sin, and un-Christian!]

Palestinian officials lauded the statement, which censured Israel’s “occupation.” Israelis, meanwhile, said the synod — or at least some of its bishops — refused to acknowledge Jewish rights to the Holy Land, and that it was “hijacked” by Church officials with anti-Israel sentiments.

Although the synod statement did condemn terrorism and expressed solidarity with the suffering of the Iraqi Christians, it did not censure the government of a single Muslim country, even Iraq.

Instead, the bishops evaluated “the social situation and the public security in all our countries” in the Middle East, and took account “of the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the whole region, especially on the Palestinians who are suffering the consequences of the Israeli occupation.”

The statement criticized Israeli military checkpoints and the separation barrier it built to prevent terrorists from entering Israel, but which also severely limits Palestinians’ freedom of movement. It mentioned, too, Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on security grounds and the ongoing conflict’s “disturbance of socio-economic life” on Palestinian livelihoods.

The bishops said they reflected “on the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live,” but also expressed anxiety about “unilateral initiatives” that threaten Jerusalem’s “composition” and put at risk its “demographic balance,” an apparent reference to Israel’s continued determination to build in the eastern part of the city, which Israel captured after Jordan attacked it in 1967.


Both Israelis and Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be part of their respective capitals.

“With all this in mind, we see that a just and lasting peace is the only salvation for everyone and for the good of the region and its peoples,” the statement said.

Saeb Erakat, the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, said that President Mahmoud Abbas “welcomed” the statement’s conclusions.

Erakat interpreted the synod’s statement to mean that Israel cannot use the biblical concept of a Promised Land of chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or Israeli territorial claims. He considers the statement to be “a clear message to the government of Israel that it may not claim that Jerusalem is an exclusively Israeli city.”

Erakat asserted that Israel “has imposed a legal regime aimed at ethnically cleansing the city of its indigenous Christian and Muslim population,” a claim Israel flatly denies.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the synod — which examined the reasons Christians feel so vulnerable in the Middle East — “had become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda.”


The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Oct. 25 that the final message of the Synod of Bishops reflected the opinion of the synod itself, while the remarks by Bishop Bustros were to be considered his personal opinion.

Father Lombardi told reporters the final message was “the only approved written text” issued by the synod.

“There is a great richness and variety of contributions offered by the synod fathers that, however, should not be considered as the voice of the synod in its entirety,” he said in the statement.

Ayalon said his government is “especially appalled” at Bishop Bustros’s language during the press conference. He called on the Holy See to distance itself from the comments, which he called “a libel against the Jewish people and the state of Israel.”

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, the only Jew invited to address the synod in his capacity of Jerusalem-based adviser to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, said the bishops appeared to lack the courage needed to address challenges of intolerance and extremism in the Muslim countries in which they reside, “and rather chose to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict their first focus.”

Rosen, who was awarded a papal knighthood in 2005, said Bishop Bustross’ words “reflect either shocking ignorance or insubordination in relation to the Catholic Church’s teaching on Jews and Judaism flowing from the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate.”

The Second Vatican Council, Rosen said, “affirms the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, which is inextricably bound up with the land of Israel.”

The Vatican has had full diplomatic relations with Israel since 1994. The Church gained legal status there in 1997. During the Palestinian uprising, the Vatican defended Israeli rights to live without the threat of terrorism and the Palestinians’ right to a homeland.

Bishop William Shomali, the auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem, said that the concluding statement “could have been more balanced,” but stressed that it was “a positive statement from a religious point of view” toward the Jewish people.

“It underscores the importance of inter-religious dialogue and the importance of our common values, and especially the Old Testament,” Bishop Shomali said.

The statement, he said, condemns both anti-Semitism and religious extremism. Bishop Shomali said Israelis should not have been shocked by the statement’s wording on “the occupation.”

“This has been the Vatican’s stance throughout the occupation,” he said. “The Church believes in the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. This is nothing new.”

Even so, “the paragraph on the occupation was long and might have led to an imbalance,” Bishop Shomali acknowledged. “We should have mentioned that in Israel there is complete religious freedom, and that there are many Israeli people working for peace and who help Palestinians.”

Said Bishop Shomali, “This would have balanced the negative statements.”


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Joseph Ratzinger's Collected Works:
Presenting the first volume
of the Italian edition

Adapted and translated from the 10/28/10 issue of



Yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, Oct. 27, the Italian edition of the first volume in the Opera Omnia (Collected Works) of Joseph Ratzinger was formally presented at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See.


The book was highlighted in the entrance to the Vatican booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair earlier this month.

The volume, translated to Italian by Ingrid Stampa, who has previously translated other works of Joseph Ratzinger from German to Italian, and edited by Pierluca Azzardo, professor of political science at the Catholic University of Milan, is La teologia della liturgia: La fondazione sacramentale dell'esistenza Cristiana (The Theology of Liturgy: The sacramental foundation of Christian existence), published by the Vatican publishing house (849 pp, 55 euro).

With Ambassador Antonio Zanardi Landi as host, the presentors were Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who wrote the preface to the Italian edition of this volume; Gianni Letta, undersecretary of the Italian Prime Minister's cabinet; Christian Schaller, deputy director of the Regensburg-based Institut Benedikt XVI, publishers of the series; and Lucetta Scaraffia, professor at Rome's La Sapienza University and regular contributor to L'Osservatore Romano.

Also presented was an accompanying booklet, Joseph Ratzinger. Opera omnia. Invito alla lettura (An invitation to read Joseph Ratzinger's Complete Works), written by Azzardo, and containing essays by Letta and Scaraffia.

We publish here the address given by Cardinal Bertone, and excerpts from Letta and Scaraffia's essays for the booklet. [I will start with translating Bertone's presentation.]



Liturgy as keystone
by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Translated from the 10/28/10 issue of


The Holy Father, in his preface to the German edition - in the first of three volumes from the Complete Works that have been published since 2008 [four actually, according to the Herder catalog and the website of the Institut Benedikt XVI - see Addendum below], wrote: "When, after some hesitation, I decided to agree to the plan of re-publishing all my works, it was clear to me that the order of publication should be according to the priorities followed by the Second Vatican Council, and that therefore, it should begin with my writings on liturgy".

Here, then, offered to us by the author himself, is the first key for us to intelligently approach the reading - which is fascinating and able to engage not just the reader's mind but also his heart - of this first substantial volume which we have in our hands.

I think that the citation I made is one of those confidences to which the Pope has accustomed us after five years, and that we should absolutely not under-estimate it if we wish to grasp not only the line of development of his theological thinking, as the author of numerous writings, but also of the Petrine service to which he was called, in the way he has been carrying it out.

All this, in fact, reminds me of the first address that Benedict XVI made to the Roman Curia in 2005, during the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings.

It was a wide-ranging and detailed discourse, in which the Pontiff wished to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of Vatican-II on December 8, 1965.

In this context, he did not hesitate to pose some questions courageously: "What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done?"

Urgent questions which were followed by the observation that "No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult."

But those questions and the conclusion that came with it did not lead to recriminations nor lamentations - they raised more questions and gave voice to the need to offer a synthesis, perhaps still rather embryonic, of the many difficulties consequently experienced by the Church in these past four decades.

Let us listen to more of what the Pope said: "Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult? Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or - as we would say today - on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other".

I have recalled that December 2005 address above all because in it, the Pope highlighted that with respect to the Council, such a confrontation is still going on, and with his usual transparency, simplicity and clarity, what it is that distinguishes these two hermeneutics, so that they can be understood not just by scholars but by the general public.

Thus, it is by recalling those questions and observations that we can better understand the significance of this first volume of his Opera omnia, and can better grasp fully his decision to follow the order of discussions at Vatican II in the publication of his complete works.

To recognize and affirm that there is, on the one hand, a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture, and on the other hand, a hermeneutic of reform which urges "renewal in continuity of the one subject-Church that the Lord has given us", is decisive as a key for reading The Theology of Liturgy.

Here in fact, we see the use of that approach which, still using the Pope's words, "If we interpret and implement it (Vatican II) guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church".

In my opinion, that explains the perspective of this first and fundamental volume of the Opera Omnia: it aims to help the Church in a great renewal which is possible only if "she loves the Beloved", as liturgy teaches us, a love which bears fruit in our day to day life.

I wish to add, as the second part of my intervention - that this help to the Church has been given during his whole life of study and research by Professor then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and now Benedict XVI. A task that has produced more than a hundred books and more than 600 articles. All this will be found in the entire 16-volume set of the Opera Omnia.

This volume on liturgy contains all his writings on liturgy from 1964 to 2004. The texts attest not only to the work of the scholar but also casts light on the admirable generosity with which Prof. Ratzinger shared the fruit of his studies with a public that is truly vast and heterogeneous.

The vastness and variety of the interventions, resulting from both his theological study and his pastoral service, suggests a further consideration: We must acknowledge the efforts that have been made by the principal custodians of the Opera Omnia - the Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Mueller, Rudolf Voderhelzer and Christian Schaller.

They have had to work hard to bring us all the published works of an author who has played a leading role in the theology of the last 50 years. An author who has also developed his own way of presenting his studies: while digging deeply into the past, he applies the knowledge in a significant and original way to the concerns of contemporary man. Thus, a way of thinking that is always linked to life and its actual problems.

We know that Joseph Ratzinger's theological method always starts from a serious and acute Biblical analysis, then goes through the Fathers of the Church - of whom he has profound knowledge - to arrive at a reflection in terms of systematic theology.

This rigorous method never becomes a 'cage' for his thoughts, but it represents a guarantee that he will offer original words that illumine the present.

In this respect, i wish to cite just one example from the volume that we are presenting this evening. I cite textually: "For nascent Christianity, the confrontation with Gnosis meant the decisive encounter that would determine her own identity".

From this synthetic statement on the history of the early Church, comes this stimulating affirmation on the present: "Even today, gnosticism has come back to exercise its fascination in many ways: the religions of the Far East carry in themselves the same fundamental structure". And he adds: "The Creator positively wills that the creature exists as something good before him".

Thus, the Creator. not as someone who descends to us from the infinite, but rather one who invites man to discover his own originality so that he can give God "an answer of freedom and love".

In this significant 'sample', we see the characteristic feature of Benedict XVI's Magisterium, which is a continuous appeal to man so that he may acknowledge and accept his calling to the fullness of life, in truth and in charity. Freedom and love have their basis in the capacity of man himself to use his reason well.

Thus the reader of this book, The Theology of Liturgy, is offered, with clarity and surprising luminosity, the image of man who can address his Creator and say: "Come to us Lord, come to each of us, and come in our time - visible, historical and always new."




A refresher:
The volumes in GESAMMELTE SCHRIFTEN

NB: The volumes in green are those that have already been published in German.

1. Volk und Haus Gottes in Augustins Lehre von der Kirche
Die Dissertation und weitere Studien zu Augustinus von Hippo
(The People and the House of God in Augustine's Teachings on the Church:
Dissertation and further studies on Augustine of Hippo)

2. [Das Offenbarungsverständnis und die Geschichtstheologie Bonaventuras
Die ungekürzte Habilitationsschrift und weitere Bonaventura-Studien

(Revelation and St. BonAVenture's Theology of History:
The unabridged Habilitation dissertation and other studies on Bonaventure)
Published Sept. 2009

3. Der Gott des Glaubens und der Gott der Philosophen
Die wechselseitige Verwiesenheit von fides und ratio
(The God of Faith and the God of Philosophers: The reciprocal relationship between faith and reason)

4. Einführung in das Christentum
Bekenntnis – Taufe – Nachfolge
(Introduction to Christianity: Profession of Faith - Baptism - Discipleship)

5. Herkunft und Bestimmung
Schöpfung – Anthropologie – Mariologie
(Origin and Destiny: Creation - Anthropology- Mariology)

6. Jesus von Nazareth
Spirituelle Christologie
(Jesus of Nazareth: Spiritual Christology)

7. Zur Theologie des Konzils
Texte zum II. Vatikanum
(On the Thology of the Councl: Texts on Vatican II)

8. Zeichen unter den Völkern
Schriften zur Ekklesiologie und Ökumene

(Signs among Peoples: Writings on Ecclesiology and Ecumenism)
Published in 2 volumes June 2009

9. Offenbarung – Schrift – Tradition
Hermeneutik und Theologische Prinzipienlehre
(Revelation - Scripture - Tradition: Lessons on hermeneutic and theological principles)

10. Auferstehung und Ewiges Leben
Beiträge zur Eschatologie
(The Resurrection and Eternal Life: Essays on eschatology)

11. Theologie der Liturgie
Die sakramentale Begründung christlicher Existenz

(The Theology of Liturgy: The sacramental foundation of Christian existence)
Published October 2008 - First volume of the collection to be published
at the express request of the Holy Father


12. Künder des Wortes und Diener eurer Freude
Zur Theologie und Spiritualität des Ordo

(Announcers of the Word and Servants of your Joy: The theology and spirituality of the Ordo)
Published Sept. 2010

12. Im Gespräch mit der Zeit
Interviews – Stellungnahmen – Einsprüche
(In Conversation with the Times: Interviews - Positions - Objections)

14. Predigten zum Kirchenjahr
Meditationen, Gebete, Betrachtungen
(Homilies for the Liturgical Year - Meditations, Prayers, Observations)

15. Aus meinem Leben
Autobiographische Texte
(My Life: Autobiographical Texts)

16. Bibliographie und Gesamt-Register
(Bibliography and Complete Index)


Mons. Mueller presented the Pope with Volumes 8-1 and 8-2 of the German edition last June.


The theologian who
speaks to everyone

by Lucetta Scaraffia
Translated from the 10/28/10 issue of


Does it make sense that a person who is devoid of any theological preparation as I am should occupy herself with the Complete Works of one of the most important theologians of our time,Joseph Ratzinger? Although I say it with some trepidation, I answer: Yes, without a doubt.

All his work, in fact, is addressed not just to the narrow community of experts and specialists but to all his contemporaries - believers and non-believers alike - because it is born from the questions that our time demands answers to.

They are essays and books written with all of us in mind, we who are contemporaries of this great theologian who can analyze our time and find the answers that Christian culture can and should find.

They are texts written in a language that is limpid and clear, and therefore, understandable even to those who are not familiar with these fields, but who are drawn into reading them because they discover answers to questions that have always been avoided or that are addressed confusedly.

Ratzinger's words are like a clear and patient light, making us think of what Blessed John Henry Newman called the 'kindly light'. A light that leads the readers to find clarity about the fundamental questions of life presented in the way that we perceive them today.

Certainly, much of it is accounted for by the fact that for years, he was a professor, accustomed to making young minds listen to him, and who, according to all who witnessed or experienced his teaching, was an excellent professor.

Thus, the publication of the Complete Works of Joseph Ratzinger, represents an operation of great importance on the cultural level, not just on the religious. If only because it brings forth a specific trait of our present Pope - an intellectual of great depth, a man who, on the theological level, has reflected profoundly on the function of the Church and faith in his time, a sage who seeks to understand in depth the world in which he lives.

Certainly, a Pope like him was necessary at this historical moment, and it is hard not to acknowledge this. Modernity, in fact, is above all, a crisis of sense and reason, a cultural rupture that begins from the way it perceives man himself.

It no longer suffices that the Catholic Church keeps its role as the faithful custodian of tradition. A further step was needed, a leap in lucidity in order to find the way to explain to the contemporary world the patrimony of tradition, and to do this, it required an intellectual that the world could understand completely.

The works of Ratzinger are, first of all, the story of this process of understanding, and above all, the search for a Christian response that is appropriate and sufficient for a world that is modern and secularized.

They are also proof that at a time of religious crisis as severe as that we are undergoing, it is important that he who is the visible leader of the Church unites in himself the qualities of a pastor as well as an intellectual, theologian and wise man.

Through his Opera omnia, we have a way to understand his thinking, and understanding this, his choices and his actions as Pontiff become clear to us, accustomed by now to living in a cultural atmosphere that ignores truth and therefore does not even seek it.

Love for the Church, and therefore defense of it, constitute a basic characteristic of the second part of his life, starting from 1977, first as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, and then from 1982, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Love of the Church, which has never led him to a defensive closing up, as many love to think, especially journalists. Love which is also revealed in his openness to questions and doubts, that he has always considered as positive occasions for growth.

On the fruitfulness of doubt as being necessary in the search for truth, Ratzinger has written intense and beautiful words in this work: "The threat of uncertainty weighs down on the believer, and in moments of temptation, suddenly sees the fragility of everything flash before his eyes, everything that normally appears so obvious to him".

But, "just as we have recognized that a believer does not live without problems (to his faith), but is contantly threatened by the risk of precipitating into the void, so we also recognize the mutual intertwining of human destinies, such that we see that even the non-believer does not live a life completely closed in on itself".

A discovery of the fruitfulness of doubt that can lead to encounter: "And why cannot doubt, which preserves the believer and the non-believer from being closed in on his own isolationism, become the vehicle itself for communication?"

Is this the rigid defender of the Church and of orthodoxy who is ready to condemn every doubt, as Joseph Ratzinger has often been depicted, before and after he was elected Pope? Reading his works allows the dissipation of so many cliches and to make interesting discoveries.

"Nothing can become right if we are not right with God", Ratzinger reminds us in his magisterial and touching commendtary on the 'Our Father'. Only by stopping to listen to Jesus and understand him can we find the true answers to the problems posed by the world today.

Precisely because of this, as he clearly explains in the Introduction, the first volume of the Opera omnia to be published is teh 11th in the series, which collects all his writings on liturgy: "First of all, God. Starting with liturgy tells us this"
- a statement that clearly shows how all of Ratzinger's work should be considered a service to God and the Church, rather than an exercise of personal intellect and culture.

An intellectual effort offered to God, as he himself explains with limpid clarity: "I have never sought to create my own system, my own personal theology. Rather, I have simply sought to think with the faith of the Church, and this means, above all, thinking with the great thinkers of the faith".

His principal work on liturgy, The spirit of liturgy, ties in from its very title to the analogous work of Romano Guardini wno, as Ratzinger writes in the preface, "contributed in an essential way to the rediscovery of liturgy in all its beauty, in its hidden riches and its importance throughout the centuries as the vivifying center of the Church and as the center of Christian life".

He goes on: "For Guardini as for me, it is not a question of dwelling on discussions or inquiries of a scientific naturte, but oof offering an aid to understanding the faith and for the correct exercise of its fundamental form of expression in the liturgy".

These are statements that reveal the sense of the theological work of Ratzinger, how he places himself in continuity with tradition, in the service of the Church, rather than aiming for scientific and academic fame. Statements that also underscore his ties to Guardini, whom he openly vindicates in a singular and specific manner within the body of the work.

This bond, which translates into the drive to continue his work, is evident in all of Ratzinger's writings, in all his intellectual work. Starting with attraction towards the questions of the present, as Guardini wrote: "Our time is given to each of us as the terrain on which we must stand and proposed to us as a task to work on".

And then, in the choice of contemporary language, a very clear language, which goes direct to the heart of things. A language which, as I have pointed out, is never difficult, but seeks to communicate what he wants to say in the easiest way possible.

A language which is never self-referential, which never indulges in the jargon which is so widespread in contemporary Catholic culture alienating it completely from the laity, and which therefore does not inspire reflection and true personal involvement.

In the language of Ratzinger and Benedict XVI, there are never any faults of this kind, no platitudes or ideas taken for granted, nor ones that have been repeated so often as to have lost all their value.

The question of language is fundamental in order to touch the heart of the believer, but above all, to make oneself heard by the rest of the world, a problem that the Church today can resolve by following the example of the Pope.

Ratzinger does not limit himself only to searching for the most understandable way of communicating, but, continuing the work of Guardini, he has sought to restitute to Catholics that intellectual dignity that they seem to have lost, to the point that many educated Catholics are rather ashamed to be Catholics, thinking that their intellectual life is a thing apart from their being believers.

Roman Guardini had completely overturned this point of view, writing, on the ocntrary, that being Catholic allows a point of view that is richer in confrontation with reality, with history, with thought itself, because "every true and real believer represents a living judgment of the world", especially in that he also represents a viewpoint that is not of this world.

The Catholic world view, he wrote, is "the look that the Church has on the world, on faith, from the point of view of the living Christ and the fullness of his transcendence".

We have proof of this even in the way Ratzinger faces the problems that biotechnology poses to our world today, of which he grasps the profound sense, which is an effort to remedy human weakness, to rescue the human being from his finitude.

It is not news that today, in all religions and philosophical systems, man is perceived as a fallen being, condemned to his finitude, for whom redemption means "liberation from such finitude, which is the true weight that hangs over our being".

To a world that seeks to free itself from such finitude with the instruments of technoscience, which sees any dependency as the worst humiliation and thus negates religious faith in the name of total individual autonomy - divine worship responds by showing what is the true way of redemption, the only one by which man can be saved.

Precisely because of this, liturgy has been at the center of Ratzinger's work, at its heart, because "adoration, the right modality of worship, of relationship with God, is constitutive of the right human existence in the world".



Mr. Letta's contribution contains information about a little-known intervention that Cardinal Ratzinger made in a diocesan convention in Italy in 2001, in which his warnings about, in effect, 'Godless globalization', turned out to be quite prophetic..


A basis for political choices
by Gianni Letta
Cabinet Undersecretary
Italian Council of Ministers

Translated from the 10/28/10 issue of


An image immediately renders the significance and importance that not only the world of culture and the scientific community acknowledge in the thinking of Benedict XVI, namely:

In Westminster Hall, the prestigious venue within the world's oldest Parliament, the theologian Pope addressed the entire ruling classes of the United Kingdom who had come to listen to him on his recent trip to Britain.

In the preface of the general editor of the German edition of Joseph Ratzinger's Opera omnia, the Bishop of Regensburg, Mons. Gerhard Mueller, notes that the relationship between faith and reason is at the center of the Pope's thinking.

But the affirmation of the necessary interdependency between reason and religion in Joseph Ratzinger irrigates and brings vitality not only to the field of theological studies but also to other fields of human thought and behavior, and not least, to political action that aspires to the realization of the common good.

In fact, when the Pope invites us not to do without the collaboraiton of faith and reason in the public sphere, he speaks to us of a religion that renounces any intention to impose its dominance but neither does it wish to withdraw, wrongly, from contributing to the good of the entire nation.

In this sense, a passage of his address at Westminster Hall is illuminating:

The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation.

According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles.


This link between the world of faith adnd the world of reason is one of the major threads that run through Volume XI of Joseph Ratzinger's Opera omnia, The Theology of Liturgy.

But precisely because of this reaching for totality, along with his passion for man, for every man, that characterizes the thought and actions of Joseph Ratzinger, even in this volume, the great theologian never fails, whenever the occasion arises, to reflect on the question of the correct transposition of faith into public life.

I will limit myself to one example. In 2001, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was invited to attend the celebration of a diocesan Eucharistic Congress in Benevento and to reflect on the three key words that were the themes of the meeting: Eucharist, communion and solidarity.

For Cardinal Ratzinger, it was important to show how mistaken was the idea that had ripened in the circles of early socialism, for whom 'solidarity' was to be the new, rational and truly effective response to the social problem, primarily because it was opposed to caritas, the Christian idea of love.

Instead, Ratzinger wrote, "At the origin of solidarity - that idea of mutual guarantee for each other, of the healthy for the sick, the rich for the poor, the continents of the North for the South, in the awareness of reciprocal responsibility - is the recognition of the equal and absolute dignity of everyone, whose unshakable basis nonetheless is the recognition that God himself lovingly created every man in his image and likeness".

When the bond between the Creator and his creature is obscured, he said, that which ultimately legitimizes the idea of human dignity disappears. And without it, correct civilian coexistence is cut off from the spring at which it drinks, and a democratic system loses the keystone that supports it.

He concluded: "If globalization in the field of technology and economics is not accompanied by a new openness of the consciousness towards God before whom we are all responsible, then it will end in catastrophe".

What he sasid in 2001 was truly prophetic, if one thinks of the gigantic financial crisis that almost 10 years later would have such tragic consequnces on the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people on the entire planet.

We have now come to analyze such questions of the greatest relevance, and along with these, once more, the theme of the indispensable harmony between faith and reason, and the dangers that come from a social theory and practice that do not take God into account.

Thus, the profound conviction of this great theologian that "it is not enough to transmit technical capacity, rational knowledge and theories or even practices with a determined political structures. All this is useless, in fact, ultimately dangerous, unless the spiritual forces are called forth that give sense to these techniques and structures and enable their responsible use".

This appeal of Joseph Ratzinger in 2001 echoed in the words pronounced by Benedict XVI in Westminster Hall, in his invitation to all men of good will to accept the 'corrective' role that religion can play with reason in facing the great challenges posed by our time.
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Thursday, October 28, 30th Week in Ordinary Time
Portraits from THE APOSTLES series by El Greco.
Saints SIMON and JUDE, Apostles
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on Oct. 11, 2006 to these Apostles.
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20061011...
As very little is known of them, the Holy Father's catechesis is valuable for his reflections on the little that the Bible tells us about Simon 'the Zealot' and Jude Thaddeus. Particularly beautiful are his comments on the Letter in the New Testament that is attributed to Jude Thaddeus (the surname distinguishes him from Judas Iscariot), and on the meaning of Simon's 'zealotry' in the context of his faith in God.
Readings from today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/102810.shtml



OR today.

Illustration: St Bridget, in a 14th-century French miniature.
At the General Audience, the Pope speaks on St. Bridget of Sweden
'Women have a special dignity and an important place in the Church'
He also appeals for international aid to Indonesia and Burundi during their current emergencies

Other papal stories in this issue: Three features in connection with the presentation of the Italian edition of The Theology of Liturgy, first volume in Joseph Ratzinger'e Collected Works that has been translated from the original German; and the text ofthe Pope's reflection on the late German Lutheran theologian turned Catholic, Erik Peterson, delivered Monday to participants in an international symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death. Page 1 international news: Spain's housing industry has a debt of 320 billion euros; North Korea asks the South for food aid in exchange for facilitating visits between separated family members; UN official in the Middle East denounces destruction of Palestinian olive groves by extremist Israeli colonists on the West Bank. NB: The OR has so far not reported a single line about the Israeli protest to statements in the final Synodal message from the Middle East bishops and the inflammatory addenda made by a US-based Greek Melkite bishop.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Brazilian bishops from Northeast Sector VI on ad limina visit. Address In Portuguese.

- Mons. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Bishop of Limburg (Germany)

- Participants at the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Address in English.



Upcoming papal liturgies:

Thursday, Nov. 4
11:30 St. Peter's Basilica
Mass at the Altar of Peter's Chair
Concelebration with members of the College of Cardinals to remember
the cardinals and bishops who died in the past 12 months

Saturday, Nov. 20
10:30 St. Peter's Basilica
Ordinary Public Consistory
to create 24 new cardinals

[Strange that the program does not include the Consistory Mass
the following day, Nov. 21, on the Feast of Christ the King
]



The Vatican released the text of the message from the Pontifical Council
for Inter-Religious Dialog to all the Hindus of the world on
the occasion of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.

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How trendy 'liturgists' tried to stop
my Mass being performed for the Pope

By James MacMillan

October 27th, 2010



The Mass in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

Writing music for the recent visit of the Pope to the UK was one of the most exhilarating but strangest experiences of my life. I was initially contacted by Archbishop Mario Conti, on behalf of the Scottish Bishops who had decided they wanted a new setting of the Mass in English for the huge celebration in Bellahouston Park.

Also, it was to be the new English translation of the Mass which will be introduced, more generally, in the Catholic anglosphere next year some time. In the wake of this, the Bishops of England and Wales came on board so that the new setting would be used at the Beatification Mass at Cofton Park too.

There was not much time. A meeting was called in Glasgow where a group of clergy in charge of planning the papal visit and liturgical music for Bellahouston spoke with me and outlined the task at hand. I had to start quickly and, more or less, deliver immediately! This I did, after using my church choir as guinea pigs for the first drafts. Then the problems began.

Unknown to me the new setting was taken to a “committee” which has controlled the development of liturgical music in Scotland for some time. Their agenda is to pursue the 1970s Americanised solution to the post-Conciliar vernacular liturgy, to the exclusion of more “traditional” possibilities.

They have been known for their hostility to Gregorian chant, for example, but have reluctantly had to get in line since the arrival of Benedict XVI. They also have a commitment to the kind of cod-Celticness that owes more to the soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings and Braveheart, than anything remotely authentic.

There has also been a suspicion of professionals with this committee, and many serious musicians in the Church in Scotland have felt excluded from their decisions and processes, or have chosen not to become involved in territory which is felt to be hostile.

It became clear that my new setting had not gone down well with this group. The music was felt to be “not pastoral enough” and there were complaints (yes, complaints!) that it needed a competent organist. The director of music for Bellahouston, a priest and amateur composer, whose baby is this committee, was also informing all who would listen, that the music was “un-singable” and “not fit for purpose”. There seemed to be ongoing attempts to have the new setting dropped from the papal liturgy in Glasgow.

However, spokespeople for the Scottish Church had already been talking to the press about my new setting, and the English were gearing up to use the music as well, at the Birmingham Mass. Any retraction of the new setting was going to fly in the face of the Bishops’ wishes and result in an almighty media car crash, which would not just be humiliating for me, but for the Scottish Church too.

Fly-on-the-wall reports from the committee meeting confirmed that there was general anxiety of the consequences if the English went ahead with the setting at Cofton Park, and the Scots dropped it or reduced it drastically for Glasgow.

When word of this reached me and my publishers (who had negotiated with Church representatives in Glasgow) we were astonished. There had been no mention of a “committee” which was to pass judgement, aesthetical, liturgical or musical, on the Mass that had been requested by the Bishops.

An almighty row erupted behind the scenes. The men who had met me hastily in Glasgow to initiate the whole thing now seemed to be backtracking. The Bishops didn’t know anything about it – until we raised it with them. Obviously, not having heard the music, they were in a quandary.

What if the “liturgists” were right? What if the new music couldn’t be sung by ordinary people? What if the organ accompaniment was, in fact, a concerto for organ? What if the pastoral concerns of God’s people had been totally ignored by this elitist composer? MacMillan might know how to write operas and symphonies, but congregational music was totally different. (I have, in fact, written simple music for Catholic congregations for the last 30 years).

But they had put their faith in me, knowing what I had done for the Church so far, and they were to continue in that faith. I was contacted, separately, by four members of the Scottish hierarchy, directly or indirectly. The one who phoned me allayed my fears and confirmed their full support. Another met me on occasions to communicate the trust and goodwill of the Conference.

Only one of them seemed to have fallen to the subterfuge of the ideologues, and he sent me an upsetting letter. It was similar to another from the original meeting who blamed me for manipulating the media and using the whole episode as an exercise in self-glorification. I

n all their years of facilitating the commission of new music, Boosey and Hawkes [music publishers] had never dealt with such rudeness and shoddy behaviour. They were deeply shocked; and I was embarrassed because of how my Church was being seen by my professional representatives and colleagues.

I had dealt with all of them in good faith from day one. I worked professionally, delivering the music in days and continued to offer the Church my services to see the project through to a fruitful conclusion.

To further allay any bad feeling, I waived my fee. I love the Church and was determined that the papal visit should be a success. It was!

Now we wait for the various Bishops’ Conferences to ratify the new translation [of the Missal]. Then my publishers hope to get the music out and about the parishes of the English-speaking world. It is a relief that it will now not be known as “The Mass the Scots wouldn’t sing!”

In retrospect, it does seem a sad business, and I can’t quite get to the bottom of all the shenanigans which nearly scuppered the new Mass setting. I had to pinch myself on occasions when I was being accused of obscurantism. Were they right?

But I rehearsed the work on many occasions with ordinary people in the pews in various parishes. They all picked the music up gradually. Not all parishes in Scotland could introduce the setting, I suppose. It requires competence in the accompanist and music leader.

But this was a papal Mass – it had to be special. I can also imagine it being used enthusiastically in many countries around the world. There is a different “sound” to the new setting, which perhaps owes something to my love of chant, traditional hymnody and authentic folk music, and nothing at all to the St Louis Jesuits and all the other dumbed-down, sentimental bubble-gum music which has been shoved down our throats for the last few decades in the Catholic Church. And therein might lie the problem…



James MacMillan is a Scottish composer whose symphonies, concertos, operas, sacred music and many orchestral and instrumental works are strongly influenced by his Catholic faith. His St John Passion was premiered by Sir Colin Davis and the LSO in 2008; his specially commissioned congregational Mass was performed when Pope Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal Newman during his visit to Britain in September. He and his wife are lay Dominicans and live in Glasgow. He also blogs at jamesmacmillaninscotland.com.


Damian Thompson comments on the above:

The enemies of traditional Catholic
worship are starting to panic


October 27th, 2010

I’m so glad that James MacMillan has used his Telegraph blog to reveal some of the bullying and skulduggery of Scottish Catholic liturgists who wanted (but failed) to stop the Pope hearing his specially composed English Mass at Bellahouston.

The story sits neatly with my post about Bishop Kieran Conry’s snide attack on Martin Baker, the director of music at Westminster Cathedral. The bishop suggested that Mr Baker went out on a limb by arranging for the papal Mass at Westminster to be sung in Latin; but, as Baker told the Catholic Herald, he did so with the full backing of Archbishop Nichols and the Pope. +Kieran, by the way, is furious that his criticism of the Cathedral Mass came to light.

There’s a liturgical culture war going on here and, for the first time in 40 years, the liberals sense that they’re on the losing side. Bishop Conry makes it sound as if the casus belli is the use of Latin, and indeed he’s been very thorough indeed in discouraging the use of the ancient language in his diocese of Arundel and Brighton.

Also, I gather that certain bishops are putting pressure on seminary directors not to teach their students too much Latin. A few years ago, they needn’t have worried: seminarians didn’t want to learn it.

Now the students don’t wait for permission from their seminary to teach themselves the venerable prayers (and, when no one is looking, the rubrics of the older form of the Roman Rite). This is causing dismay verging on panic among the more hardline soixante-huitards of the Magic Circle.

But this is about more than Latin: James MacMillan’s Mass for Blessed John Henry Newman is in English, using the revised translation of the Mass that will come into wider use next year. I wonder if that fact contributed to the foul treatment he and his publishers received at the hands of Scottish “liturgists”, whose preferred style of worship makes a Pentecostal tabernacle look like Brompton Oratory.

Taken as a whole, the bishops of Britain are officially committed to supporting the new translation but privately divided on its merits. Although I sometimes give the impression that the Magic Circle is uniformly liberal, the truth is that it reflects a liturgical spectrum ranging all the way from horrified opposition to the conservative reforms of “Ratzinger” to mild and ineffectual acquiescence.

In many dioceses, the more solemn and accurate English translation will be introduced reluctantly – and I’ll be very surprised if Lefty priests who, ahem, forget to say the new words face much in the way of discipline.

Those who do refuse to use the new English Missal can expect hearty support from the Tabletista “ministers” who crowd around them on the sanctuary and (in their imaginations) co-consecrate the Host.

It’s tempting for me to fall into the trap of over-simplifying the situation. But “culture war” is a fair term for what is going on. Back in the 1980s, the American sociologist James Davison Hunter argued that the liberal-conservative battles would be fought within rather than between religions.

At the time, the Catholic Church in this country was so totally under the sway of Archbishop Derek Worlock’s followers, and traditionalists so bitter and marginalised, that there was no war to speak of. That has changed, and one of the people who is changing it is a lay Catholic who, 20 years ago, would have been a most unlikely champion of conservative tradition, James MacMillan



Earlier, Thompson referred to another kind of fallout from the papal visit:

BBC gave the Pope an easy ride,
says Rowan Williams spokesman


October 26th, 2010

The (London) Times’s paywall is mysteriously down, so I nipped behind it and found a blog post from my former colleague the Rev George Pitcher, now the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for Public Affairs. Writes George:

I confess to having been bemused by the media treatment of the Pope here in October [sic].

If British society is post-Christian you could have fooled me. He enjoyed comprehensive and largely unmediated and uncritical reportage in the British media. The BBC was especially reverential – wall-to-wall coverage, with little or no challenge in the studio from the usual pundits and antagonists.

There may be good reason for that; the Beeb will have been conscious of Roman Catholicism’s minority status in the UK and its responsibilities to religious diversity.

More cynically, it was an easy hit – the BBC may feel it can have a go at the Pope in future and point to the free ride it gave him when he visited, should anyone claim undue victimisation. But the point still holds: The Pope’s visit was recorded as an unqualified success.


Is that what Dr Williams thinks, too, George?

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An extraordinary visit
Benedict XVI's trip to the United Kingdom
recalled by the Archbishop of Westminster

by Mons. Vincent Nichols
Translated from the August-September 2010 issue of



As soon as Pope Benedict's apostolic trip to the United Kingdom came to an end, we started to receive messages of joy and gratitude from everywhere in the world.

It was well known that for us in Great Britain, it was a visit of particular importance and encouragement, but also an event of worldwide significance. And indeed, we got messages from the farthest places, from Bangladesh, Buenos Aires, Peru and New Zealand simply to share our joy.

Many congratulated those who took part in preparing the visit, but we are all aware that the real success was the effect of incessant prayer.

Obviously, it was necesssary to organize all the events, great and small, but the effect of touching the hearts of millions belongs to quite a different order of things: the order of grace as the outcome of unending prayer for the Holy Father by the entire Church.

An indelible memory of the visit is the intensity and spontaneous expression of love and joy with which the Pope was greeted. I had the privilege of going through the streets of London with the Pope. And there were more than 200,000 people on Saturday evening [enroute to the prayer at Hyde Park], not to mention the great crowds present the day before [for the Pope's visit to Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall].

There was a continuous explosion of joy and enthusiasm as the Holy Father passed through. Faces were radiant and hearts inspired by his presence. It was the same on that first extraordinary day of his visit in Scotland.

The more formal moments were distinguished by the same atmosphere. Her Majesty the Queen, who had issued the official invitation for the Pope to visit the United Kingdom for this state visit, was radiant. The political leaders who came to the Archbishop's Palce to meet him were all smiles afterwards.

But above all, I will never forget the warmth of the reception for him in that most solemn of places, Westminister Hall, by an extraordinary gathering of representatives of British social and political life.

It was surprising to see the applause and the smiles which accompanied the Holy Father throughout his long and slow procession up the length of the Great Hall.

And if the welcome for the Holy Father and the reactions he inspired were truly splendid, equally memorable were the message and example that he himself conveyed, and which deserve our most careful consideration.

The Pope came to sustain and reinforce the place occupied by faith in God in our pluralistic society. He came to underscore the richness of our Christian traditions and the danger of minimizing and marginalizing these.

I believe his message has been heard. I believe that the regular folk understood the importance of his words. I believe that all who were gathered in Westminster Hall were sincerely struck by the depth and precision of his discourse.

The Pope had presented the crucial question in the following terms: "If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident".

He went on to analyze the role of faith and reason, which is to furnish a solid ethical basis for political decisions. He said clearly: "Religion... is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation". An argument that everyone should reflect upon with great attention.

I believe that the Holy Father has offered a truly significant contribution to our history, to the way in which we speak and with which we occupy ourselves about our future.

In his farewell address, the Prime Minister had extremely warm words for the Holy Father. =He called the visit 'a great honor for our nation'. He assured the Pope that "faith is part of the fabric of our nation. It always has been and always will be", adding, "You have challenged the entire nation to pause and reflect".

The visit will have many consequences in the long run. There will most probably be closer collaboration between the Holy See and our government in facing some of the great problems of the world: poverty, the lack of primary instruction, care of the environment, and the battle against diseases.

We too have much to learn from the visit. I think the Holy Father has taught us how to present our faith to a society that is so complex. We should learn to do what he did in a way that is careful and consistent.

He was kind and courteous to all he met. He was sincere. He was respectful of all those he spoke with, acknowledging our concerns as well as our gains. He spoke with clarity and good sense, without fear of confronting thorny issues, rather treating them with attention and sensitivity.

He did not dwell on the exigencies of religious belief, but acknowledged how reason and faith can be integrated and correct each other. He has offered us a model that we must follow. The Holy Father intervened in many of the fundamental fields of dialog to which we ought to commit ourselves.

He spent time to pray and talk with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. They prayed together, and together they addressed their bishops and the great assembly in Westminster Abbey.

The Holy Father met with important representatives of other faiths and religions - who are leaders in their respective societies as well as spiritual leaders.

He met with ministrants, cleaners and cooks; with policemen and employees; with teachers and religious men and women.

He presented himself with an open heart and conquered the hearts of everyone. The motto chosen for the visit could not have been more appropriate: 'Heart speaks unto heart'.

I believe he also showed us what should be at the heart of the Christian witness that we bear. In his homily at Westminster Cathedral, he said that we must, first of all, bear witness to the beauty of holiness.

In my opinion, it was largely the beauty of the liturgical celebrations during the visit that made it so fascinating. The moments of silence that characterized each of them were so pure!

Who could ever forget the intensity of silence among the 80,000 gathered in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at Hyde Park? That silence was golden, beautiful and profoundly fulfilling.

The Pope also said that we should bear witness to the goodness and the attractiveness of the faith - to 'the splendor of truth'. It is an approach that is so different from that which understands truth as something to be presented in a forced and rigid manner! Truth has its own fascination.

Thirdly, he asked us to bear witness to "the joy and the freedom that arise from a relationship with Christ". Obviously, joy and freedom come from the experience of being forgiven and healed, an experience that we undergo most clearly through the sacraments of the Church. The Blood of Christ is our salvation and the source of our freedom and joy.

The climax of the visit was, of course, the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. The ceremony in Cofton park was stupendous. All those who had learned to love Blessed John Henry through his writings, his poetry or his ministry as a parish priest, were overcome with joy at this event. And now we have an English parish priest who is Blessed. What a privilege and source of inspiration!

We thank God for the miracle of this extraordinary visit. We look forward to the months and years ahead, during which we shall assimilate the graces and the teachings from this marvelous apostolic visit.






Here's a concrete - and bright - pastoral spin-off from the papal visit. The news item dates from two weeks ago, but I came across it because tomorrow's isue of the OR carries an item about the planned Night of Light:


Window light campaign intended to
‘reclaim’ Halloween as a Christian holiday




London, Oct 14, 2010 (CNA).- In an international effort to “reclaim” Halloween as a “joyful” Christian celebration, a founder of a U.K.-based Catholic community has asked Christians to place a light in their window on Oct. 31 as a sign of their faith.

Damian Stayne, founder of the community Cor et Lumen Christi (Heart and Light of Christ), said the “Night of Light” initiative will take place on the vigil of the Feast of All Saints, when Catholics celebrate “the glory of God in His saints, the victory of light over darkness in the lives of God's holy ones in heaven.” Jesus is the “Light of the World” by whom the saints lived and became a beacon to their generation, he explained.

Sayne said that in many countries, prayer gatherings and children’s celebrations are being organized and participants are encouraged to place a light in their window in order to “visibly witness to neighbors and friends.”

This will show passersby that their household is Christian and that Christ is their light, organizers said. They suggested participants in the “Night of Light” also attend a vigil Mass for the Feast of All Saints, spend a night adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, or provide treats and fun for children by lighting a bonfire or dressing up as saints.

“Everyone is called by Jesus to live out this vocation - to be the ‘light of the world’ for others today,” Sayne continued.

The “Night of Light” event has taken place before, but this year it has established a partnership with the Home Mission Desk of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (CBEW). Organizers are presenting it as a follow-up activity for the papal visit to the U.K.

Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, chair of the CBEW’s Department for Evangelization and Catechesis, said Halloween is now the biggest commercial festival after Christmas and Easter and Christians need a reminder of its true nature.

“The celebration of feast days is an important part of our Catholic culture. On the evening of 31st October why not do something to make your faith respectfully seen and heard? Light a candle or display publicly another kind of light, for example, perhaps alongside an image of Christ.”

The bishop suggested this could be a “powerful way” to show Christians’ hope in “someone other than ourselves.”

“The light will provoke questions and is a way that people can be signposted to goodness. I encourage everyone to participate,” Bishop Conry commente

[A welcome positive contribution from Bishop Conry after he pubicly criticized the papal Mass held in Westminster Cathedral on Sept.18 for 'using too much Latin'. He obviously has no interest in following Benedict's liturgies, in which the prayers in the Canon of the Mass are always said in Latin now.]

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Today, there's an 'overload' of post-visit developments... Here's another:

First 'Catholic-Humanist
dialogue' held in London


October 27, 2010


The first of a series of 'Catholic-Humanist dialogues' took place last night between the Central London Humanist Group, part of the Protest the Pope coalition, and Catholic Voices, which was created to put the Church’s case during the papal visit.

Some 14 Humanists and eight members of the Catholic Voices speakers’ team met in a room in Commonwealth Hall in Bloomsbury for two hours of discussions on contentious issues.

Catholic Voices patron Fr Christopher Jamison and its coordinators, Austen Ivereigh and Jack Valero, put the Church’s case on Aids/condoms, faith schools, and same-sex adoption. A frank exchange of views then took place, aiming at clarifying areas of disagreement.

Among the humanists present was Alan Palmer, chair of the Central London Humanist Group; Josh Kutchinsky, a British Humanist Association trustee; and Paul Sims, news editor of New Humanist magazine.

One member of the humanist team and one member of the Catholic team were delegated to summarise the views of the other side, in order to ensure that both sides listened carefully to each other’s views. The group then enjoyed further discussions in a pub.

The meeting was agreed following the raucous Conway Hall debate on September 1, organised by the British Humanist Association. Both the Central London Humanists and Catholic Voices were keen to organise a smaller, more respectful meeting.

Further meetings are now being planned.

Jack Valero said: “This has been an unexpected fruit of the papal visit – sitting round the table with people who were protesting the Pope to clarify where we agree and disagree. The atmosphere was respecful and attentive, but there was no attempt to suppress real differences. Everyone felt afterwards that they had learned from the experience.”

Austen Ivereigh said: “We are currently making plans to extend and expand the Catholic Voices project. After Tuesday night we think that this kind of exchange should be part of what we do in the future.”

A comment from

Oct. 28, 2010

Protect the Pope welcomes this excellent initiative from Catholic Voices and encourages future dialogue as an important way of challenging the ignorance and prejudice about the Catholic faith and Catholics in our society. Well done Jack Valero and Austen Iveriegh.

However, Protect the Pope has a number of questions:
- Who has appointed Catholic Voices to represent the Catholic Church in this dialogue?
- How are they accountable to Catholics in this country about these dialogues?
- How are Catholic Voices going to enable their fellow Catholics to have access to what is exactly said at these ‘dialogues’?
- These questions are in no way intended to challenge the credibility of Catholic Voices in this dialogue, but are a genuine attempt to understand this important fruit of the papal visit.


However, the Catholic Voices blog that was started two weeks before the papal visit has been inactive since Oct. when it posted this message:
Monitor takes a holiday

Oct. 1, 2010

The reporting on the UK papal visit now all but over, Monitor is taking time out to ponder its function and future. Judging by the many emails we have received, the demand for it to continue monitoring press reporting of the Church, pointing up the good, the bad, the marvellous and the mythical -- and offering expert briefings on key points -- is very great.

We are certain to be back, once plans for the future of Catholic Voices are more clearly defined. Comments and suggestions to info@catholicvoices.org.uk are, as always, very welcome.



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God must find a place in the public sphere,
Pope tells bishops of northeast Brazil


Oc,, 28, 2010

A social and political system that does not protect life and human dignity is based on a "false and illusory" right. Christians therefore, have the right - and duty - to use their electoral vote to defend the common good.



This was Pope Benedict XVI 's message Thursday morning to a group of bishops from Northeast Brazil, who are in Rome on their ad limina visit.

The Pope also called for freedom of Catholic religious education in State schools and the defence of religious symbols in public life.

“Christ the Redeemer, with open arms, which dominates the Bay of Guanabara in Rio de Janeiro, is the truest symbol of the soul of Brazil”, said the Pope,

However, he said, if the faith of the Brazilian people is "a sign of hope for the present and the future of the country”, there are "shadows" cast by forces that want to spread values that are morally unacceptable and offensive to the sacred nature of the human being. And thus, pastors "have a serious duty to pronounce moral judgments" on political issues.

Even so, he said “any human right, be it political, economic or social that does not comprise the vehement defence of the right to life from conception to natural death is completely false and illusory (see Christifideles laici, 38). As part of efforts in favour of the weakest and most defenseless, who is more defenseless than an unborn child or a sick person in a vegetative or terminal state?".

“When political projects include aspects, overt or covert, such as the decriminalization of abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal - that is truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person - has betrayed its origins. Therefore, dear Brother Bishops, to defend life 'we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform to this world'."

Pastors should remind all citizens of the right, which is also a duty, “to freely use their vote to promote the common good ", he said.

The Pope also reiterated that, God must "find a place in the public sphere, in the cultural, social, economic and particularly the political sphere."

"I join my voice to yours in an appeal on behalf of religious education, and more specifically the teaching of pluralistic and confessional religion in public state schools”.

Pope Benedict XVI defended the presence of religious symbols in public life which is both "a reminder of man's transcendence and a guarantee of respect." These signs, the Pope concluded, take on a "special value" in Brazil, "where the Catholic religion is an integral part of its history".



It is always useful to remember that Brazil is the world's largest Catholic nation. The large green area on the map in the lower right panel is the northeast region that covers the vast Amazonia province.


Pope says bishops must educate
faithful to vote against abortion

By Cindy Wooden





VATICAN CITY, Oct. 28 (CNS) -- Bishops must guide their faithful to use their vote to oppose efforts to legalize abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Brazil.

"Dear brother bishops, to defend life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking," the Pope said Oct. 28 during a meeting with bishops from northeast Brazil.

The bishops were making their once-every-five-years ad limina visits to report on the status of their dioceses.

Pope Benedict did not mention the fact that Brazilians were to vote Oct. 31 in a presidential election, but said he wanted to discuss with the bishops their obligation to give their faithful the information and moral guidance they need to ensure their political decisions contribute to the true good of humanity.

Both of Brazil's presidential candidates, Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra, have said they oppose lifting restrictions on abortion, but Brazil's anti-abortion laws still have been a recurrent theme in the campaign.

Pope Benedict told the Brazilian bishops that while direct involvement in politics is the responsibility of the laity, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it, pastors have a serious duty to make moral judgments even in political matters."

Certain actions and political policies, such as abortion and euthanasia, are "intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity" and cannot be justified for any reason, the Pope said.

While some may claim they support abortion or euthanasia to defend the weak and the poor, "who is more helpless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or terminal state?" he said.

"When political positions openly or covertly include plans to decriminalize abortion and euthanasia, the democratic ideal -- which is truly democratic only when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person -- is betrayed at its foundations," Pope Benedict told the bishops.

Bishops and priests have an obligation to help Catholic laity live in a way that that is faithful to the Gospel in every aspect of their lives, including their political choices, he said. "This also means that in certain cases, pastors should remind all citizens of their right and duty to use their vote to promote the common good," the Pope said.


Here is a full transalation of the Pope's address, which was delivered in Portuguese:


Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"(2 Cor 1,2).

I wish first of all to thank you for your zeal and dedication to Christ and his Church which is growing in Northeast Region 5. Reading your reports, I have been able to consider the problems of religious and pastoral character, besides the human and social, that you have to measure up against daily.

The overview has its shadows as well as signs of hope, as Dom Xavier Gilles referred to in the greeting he addressed to me, expressing sentiments in your behalf and those of your people.

As you know, in my successive meetings with the various regions of the national conference of Brazilian bishops, I have underscored the various fields and respective agencies of the multiform evangelizing and pastoral service of the Church in your vast nation.

Today, I wish to talk to you about how the Church, in her mission of fertilizing and providing ferment to human society with the Gospel, teaches man about his dignity as a child of God. and his vocation of unity with all men, and the exigencies of justice and social peace arising from it, in accordance with divine wisdom.

Meanwhile,
the immediate duty to work for a just social order is properly that of the lay faithful who, as free and responsible citizens, are committed to contribute to the right configuration of social life, with respect for its legitimate autonomy and for the natural moral order (cfr Deus caritas est, No. 29).

Your duty as bishops, along with your clergy, is measured in terms of what you contribute to purify reason and to awaken the moral forces necessary to construct a just and fraternal society.

However, whenever the fundamental rights of persons or the salvation of souls so requires, pastors have the grave duty of making a moral judgment, even in political matters
(cf Gaudium et spes, 76).

In making such judgments, pastors should take into account the absolute value of those moral precepts which declare morally unacceptable the choice of a specific action which is intrinsically evil and incompatible with the dignity of human beings. Such a choice cannot be justified by any supposed good end, intention, consequence or circumstance.

Thus, any defense of political, economc and social rights would be totally falee and illusory if it does not include an energetic defense of the right to life from conception to natural death
(cf. Christifideles laici, 38).

In the perspective of a commitment in behalf of the weakest and the most defenseless, who is more helpless than an unborn baby or a patient in a vegetative or terminal state? When political plans contemplate, overtly or covertly, the decriminalization of abortion or of euthanasia, the democratic ideal - which is truly democratic only when it recognizes and protects the dignity of every human being - is betrayed to its foundations (cf. Evangelium vitæ, 74).

That is why, dear brothers in the episcopate, in defending life, "we should not fear opposition or unpopularity, rejecting any compromise and ambiguity that would make us conform to the mentality of this world" (ibidem, 82).

Besides, in order to better help the lay faithful to live their Christian and socio-political commitment in a united and consistent manner - as I told you in Aparecida - "what is needed is a social catechesis and adequate formation in the social doctrine of the Church, for which the Compendium of the Social Dotrine of the Church will be very useful" (Opening address to the V General Conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops, 3).

This also means that on certain occasions, the pastors should themselves remind all citizens of their right - which is also a duty - to freely use their own vote to promote the common good (cf. Gaudium et spes, 75).

On this point, politics and faith converge. Faith has, without a doubt, the specific nature of an encpunter with the living God who opens new horizons beyond the field of human reason.

"Indeed, without the corrective provided by religion, even reason can fall pray to distortions, which happens when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied partially, without taking full account of the dignity of the human being"
(Apostolic trip to the United Kingdom, Meeting with civilian society, 9/17/10).

A society can only be build by respecting, promoting and tirelessly teaching the transcendent nature of the human being. Thus, God should "have a place even in the public sphere, specifically in the cultura, social, economic and especially political dimensions" (Caritas in veritate, 56).

Therefore, dear brothers, I join my voice to yours in a vibrant appeal for religious education, and more specifically, for confessional and plural religious instruction in the state-run public schools.

I also wish to remind you that the presence of religious sumbols in public life is at the same time a reminder of the transcendency of man and a guarantee of respect for him. They have a particular value for Brazil in that the CAtholic religion is an integral part of her history.

How can we not think at this time of the image of Jesus Christ withis arms extended over Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, which represents the hospitality and love with which Brazil has always opened her arms to persecuted and needy men and women coming from all parts of the world?

It has been with the presence of Jesus in Brazilian life that they have been harmoniously integrated into society, contributing to enrichment of the culture, to economci growth and to the spirit of fraternity and freedom.

Dear brothers, I entrust to the Mother of God and ours, whom you invoke in Brazil as Our Lady of Aparecida, the wishes of the Catholic Church in the Terra da Santa Cruz
[Land of the Holy Cross, northeast region of Brazil] and of all men of good will in defense of the values of human life and its transcendency, along with the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of the men and women of the eccclesiastical province of Maranhão. I entrust everyone to her maternal protection, and I impart my Apostolic Blessing to you and to your people.


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In his blog today, Andrea Tornielli reports the absurd stretches that the MSM - and other civilian agencies, such as police investigators - will make in order to link the Pope's name to any emerging or potential scandal... And he carries the exercise to its reductio ad absurdum...


That 'cardinal's button' found
with a corpse in a church attic

Translated from

Oct. 28, 2010

Dear friends, for some days now, there have been surrealistic news reports on the case of Elisa Claps, a young woman from Potenza (capital of the Basilicata region in southern Italy] who was killed in 1993 and whose body was only discovered recently in the attic of a church.

Indeed, attention has been called to a thick police report (600 pages) that has particularly dwelt on one of the objects reportedly found near the body: a red button.

The report claims that it appears to be from a cardinal's garment, especially since it would certainly not have come from the cassock of don Mimi Sabia, the parish priest of the Church of the Trinity who died in 2008.

"Given the fact that the button appears to have come from a priest's garment, because of its particular shade of red", the report says, "and granted that the color of the cloth has not changed over time [apparently, it is a cloth-covered button], the button could well have come from a cardinal's habit". [As if red cloth-covered buttons could only come from a cardinal's habit!]

The Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, reading that it could be a cardinal's button, promptly reconstructed which cardinals had visited Potenza in recent years, and discovered that Cardinal Ratzinger had come to Potenza 20 days after the killing. The next cardinal's visit was two years later, with Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, and next, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray in 1997.

The newspaper argued: "if the body had been there since September 12, 1993 [when the murder happened]... that button would have fallen off in the attic before the killing. But the last cardinal's visit before then foes back to 1981", when Cardinals Giovanni Benelli and Anastasio Ballestrero visited some communities truck by an earthquake.

And that is the way in which Cardinal Ratzinger's name has come up in these news reports which have the effect of associating him with the crime!

Last night, in the program Chi l'ha visto [Who saw it] on Rai-3, they even showed a video of the cardinal, now Pope, when he received a literary prize in Potenza, which was the reason for his visit on October 3, 1993, 20 days after Claps had disappeared and was presumed killed.

"It is obvious", said the program host Federica Sciarelli, "that a cardinal would have no reason to go to the attic of a church, and we apologize that we have associated the Pope to this episode".

Nonetheless, the association has been made.

No one appears to have thought that the button could already have been there before the body was hidden in the attic. Just as no one has seemed to consider that the button, even if it appears to be a 'cardinal-type' button, could have come from some other garment, such as a carnival version of a cardinal's habit!...

But there it is! The big news was that Cardinal Ratzinger was in that church 20 days after the murder!

Allow me to suggest other investigative trails which might shed light on some Italian crime mysteries.... The Aldo Moro case: a terrorist from the German gang Baader Meinhof observed that less than a year before the late Prime Minister was abducted [and subsequently killed by Brigata Rossa terrorists] Joseph Ratzinger was in Rome, the city from which the late Prime Minister was abducted... The Bologna massacre: The terrorist bomb exploded in the waiting room of the city's train station. How many times has Cardinal Ratzinger passed through that same station?... The asassination attempt on John Paul II: Wasn't Cardinal Ratzinger at the scene of the crime, St. Peter's Square, four years earlier for the consistory at which he was created cardinal?... The homicide-suicide of a Swiss Guard officer*: That night, Ratzinger was in his home near the Vatican, a few hundred meters from the crime scene... We could go on infinitely... And who knows what someone like Dan Brown might contribute to these scenarios?

*In this case, I actually saw a sickeningly vicious story dredged by someone from cyber-sewers in the early months of Benedict XVI's Pontificate, that alleged his involvement in the Swiss Guard's homicide-suicide, in a convoluted scenario of intrigue and cover-up that dwarfs any diabolical plot Dan Brown has yet dreamed of!

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Last Oct. 22, on page 150 of this thread, I prefaced my posting of commentary by John Allen and Sandro Magister on Benedict XVI's choices for cardinals to name in his third consistory with the following:

Two Vaticanistas have posted their respective commentaries on the new cardinals named by Benedict XVI, but there is really little to say since the nominations speak for themselves:
- The Pope has a certain number of elector seats to fill (20);
- He has a certain number of Curial heads deserving of a red hat personally and by virtue of their positions, and
- For the remaining ten, he chose the most senior of the diocesan bishops that could be accommodated on this list, without violating the rule of not having two cardinal-electors from the same diocese.

The only choices on which the Pope exercised his full discretion, unhemmed by regulatory consdedrations, was in the over-80 prelates, and even here, except for the unheralded Spanish bishop who had worked with him on the Catechism for the Catholic Church, the Vaticanistas with the right contacts predicted 3 out of 4.

In the face of such obvious facts, speculation about why the 20 electors were named and not others, or what the Pope intended by his choices, is really idle and moot!


Well, I am glad that Bruno Mastroianni makes the general observation in his blog today - except that he goes beyond the topic of the consistory itself to the more general subject of distraction from the essential, which is not a fault anyone can attribute to Benedict XVI.


The uselessness of speculating
on the Pope's choices for cardinal

Translated from

Oct. 28, 2010

Last week, the news came of the November consistory in which Benedict XVI will name 24 new cardinals - promptly unleashing prognostications, analyses and considerations that were typically profane. Some even pointed out possible 'papabili' among them. [An exercise I truly find in poor taste, as well as distasteful, uncalled-for, morbid and absolutely inconsiderate of the reigning Pope - who seems to be doing very well, including the state of his health, thank God!]

Come now, let's be serious! How is it possible that after so many experiences piled up, after so many episodes in the life of the Church (and the very Pontificate of Benedict XVI), that have belied the media's flat-out and most 'horizontal' arguments, some commentators can still be tempted to interpret the Conclave news through criteria that have proven so inappropriate [DIM=8pt][and wrong]?

But this is a narrative that has been going on for some time. A pity! Because it distracts us from the important things.

For instance, last week, while the media indulged in various pseudo-political elucubrations about the new cardinals, they did not see fit to take note of the ongoing Special Synodal Assembly for the Middle East.

And yet, the assembly was discussing relations among Jews, Muslims and Christians, of dialog and peace, of political and religious freedom and coexistence. In short, the issues that for decades (or rather, for centuries) the future of a large part of the world depends.

But we should not be surprised. Bsaically, it is simply the nth spisode illustrating the fate to which this Pope seems destined: He works very hard on the things that really matter, while around him, attention is dispersed on relative trivia.

In a world afflicted by the extreme desire to draw attention (often placed before any other interest), the 'Ratzinger style', rather than a solitary fate he must 'endure', appears more and more an example to emulate.

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Benedict XVI sees science
as a place of dialog
between man and God




28 OCT 2010 (RV) - “The positive outcome of twenty-first century science will surely depend in large measure on the scientist’s ability to search for truth and apply discoveries in a way that goes hand in hand with the search for what is just and good”.



This was Pope Benedict XVI’s message to 80 scientists gathered in the Clementine Hall, Thursday, for the launching of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ Plenary Assembly on “The Scientific Legacy of the Twentieth Century’...

Here is the full text of his address:

Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to greet all of you here present as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences gathers for its Plenary Session to reflect on ‘The Scientific Legacy of the Twentieth Century’.

I greet in particular Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Academy. I also take this opportunity to recall with affection and gratitude Professor Nicola Cabibbo, your late president. With all of you, I prayerfully commend his noble soul to God the Father of mercies.

The history of science in the twentieth century is one of undoubted achievement and major advances. Unfortunately, the popular image of twentieth-century science is sometimes characterized otherwise, in two extreme ways.

On the one hand, science is posited by some as a panacea, proven by its notable achievements in the last century. Its innumerable advances were in fact so encompassing and so rapid that they seemed to confirm the point of view that science might answer all the questions of man’s existence, and even of his highest aspirations.

On the other hand, there are those who fear science and who distance themselves from it, because of sobering developments such as the construction and terrifying use of nuclear weapons.

Science, of course, is not defined by either of these extremes. Its task was and remains a patient yet passionate search for the truth about the cosmos, about nature and about the constitution of the human being.

In this search, there have been many successes and failures, triumphs and setbacks. The developments of science have been both uplifting, as when the complexity of nature and its phenomena were discovered, exceeding our expectations, and humbling, as when some of the theories we thought might have explained those phenomena once and for all proved only partial.

Nonetheless, even provisional results constitute a real contribution to unveiling the correspondence between the intellect and natural realities, on which later generations may build further.

The progress made in scientific knowledge in the twentieth century, in all its various disciplines, has led to a greatly improved awareness of the place that man and this planet occupy in the universe.

In all sciences, the common denominator continues to be the notion of experimentation as an organized method for observing nature. In the last century, man certainly made more progress – if not always in his knowledge of himself and of God, then certainly in his knowledge of the macro- and microcosms – than in the entire previous history of humanity.

Our meeting here today, dear friends, is a proof of the Church’s esteem for ongoing scientific research and of her gratitude for scientific endeavour, which she both encourages and benefits from.

In our own day, scientists themselves appreciate more and more the need to be open to philosophy if they are to discover the logical and epistemological foundation for their methodology and their conclusions.

For her part,
the Church is convinced that scientific activity ultimately benefits from the recognition of man’s spiritual dimension and his quest for ultimate answers that allow for the acknowledgement of a world existing independently from us, which we do not fully understand and which we can only comprehend in so far as we grasp its inherent logic.

Scientists do not create the world; they learn about it and attempt to imitate it, following the laws and intelligibility that nature manifests to us.

The scientist’s experience as a human being is therefore that of perceiving a constant, a law, a logos that he has not created but that he has instead observed: in fact, it leads us to admit the existence of an all-powerful Reason, which is other than that of man, and which sustains the world.

This is the meeting point between the natural sciences and religion. As a result, science becomes a place of dialogue, a meeting between man and nature and, potentially, even between man and his Creator.


As we look to the twenty-first century, I would like to propose two thoughts for further reflection.

First, as increasing accomplishments of the sciences deepen our wonder of the complexity of nature, the need for an interdisciplinary approach tied with philosophical reflection leading to a synthesis is more and more perceived.

Secondly, scientific achievement in this new century should always be informed by the imperatives of fraternity and peace, helping to solve the great problems of humanity, and directing everyone’s efforts towards the true good of man and the integral development of the peoples of the world.

The positive outcome of twenty-first century science will surely depend in large measure on the scientist’s ability to search for truth and apply discoveries in a way that goes hand in hand with the search for what is just and good.

With these sentiments, I invite you to direct your gaze toward Christ, the uncreated Wisdom, and to recognize in His face, the Logos of the Creator of all things. Renewing my good wishes for your work, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.




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Friday, Oct. 20, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Right photo, 19th-cent engraving showing the miracle of the oil lamps.
ST. NARCISSUS OF JERUSALEM (b ca 99, d 216), Bishop, Hermit and Confessor
Born around 99 AD, the Greek-born Narcissus was consecrated the 30th Bishop of Jerusalem around 180 and was known for his holiness.
In 196, he presided at a council of the bishops of Palestine which decided that Easter was to be celebrated on a Sunday and not on
the day of the Jewish passover. Some thought him too rigid in imposing discipline and despite his age, a detractor accused him of
a serious crime, which his flock did not believe. Thinking he could not serve under a cloud, he retired to be a hermit in the desert.
He was gone for so long people believed he had died. But after he was cleared of the accusation, he came back more zealous than
ever. He was said to have worked many miracles. The one most told is how he changed water to oil for the holy lamps on a Holy Saturday
when the deacon forgot to fill the lamps. In advanced age, he begged God to send him a younger man who could help him run the diocese.
The future St. Alexander of Cappadocia came and stayed with him till he died. It is said he was praying on his knees when he died.
Readings for today's Mass:

www.usccb.org/nab/readings/102910.shtml


OR today.

Benedict XVI to the Brazilian bishops of Northeast Sector-5 on ad limina visit:
'Right to life and the common good are common ground for faith and politics'
Other papal stories: The Pope addressed the annual plenary session of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences (right photo); European Union summit opening today in Brussels faces German demand to amend the Lisbon Treaty governing the EU that would withhold voting rights from EU countries who repeatedly violate financial standards; a report that Russia is ready to help NATO forces in Afghanistan with helicopters and pilot training; Benin floods affect 55 out of 77 towns including the capital city of Cotonou which is completely flooded, and hundreds of thousands have been made homeless.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Mons. Giovanni d’Aniello, Apostolic Nuncio for Thailand and Cambodia, and Apostolic Delegate to Myanmar and Laos

- 6 Brazilian bishops from Northeast Sector-V on ad-limina visit, individually

- Participants in an international conference sponsored by the Fondazione Romano Guardini of Berlin.

And in the afternoon, with

- 6 more Brazilian bishops from Northeast Sector-V, individually.

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Pope Benedict XVI to visit Croatia
in the first half of 2011, officials say




ZAGREB, Croatia, Oct. 29 (AP) — Croatian church and government officials say Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Roman Catholic bastion in the Balkans for the first time next year.

Zagreb archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanic said Friday the Pope has accepted the country's invitation and will come "most probably in the first half of the next year."

Bozanic says the Pontiff is set to stay in the capital of Zagreb for a weekend.



President Ivo Josipovic {shown above on his visit to the Vatican last Oct. 9), says the visit will boost the country's bid to join the European Union.

Eight in 10 Croats are Catholic and the church still has a strong influence. Some recent surveys show, however, that the number of people practicing the faith is falling.

Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited Croatia three times.


When Josipovic was in Rome three weeks ago, APCOM reported this:

...There was no mention in the Holy See note, of a possible trip next year by Benedict XVI to Croatia.

But the question was raised to the Pope by a newsman who was present during the photo opportunity this morning, and the Pope replied: "Probably!"...



Croatia would become the Pope's second known foreign trip in 2011. He will be attending World Youth Day in Mardid in August next year.


has since confirmed the story on all of its language services today:


Pope Benedict XVI will visit Croatia in 2011. The Pope will travel to Zagreb in the first half of next year and will stop to pray at the tomb of Blessed Luigi Stepinac.

The Papal visit was announced after the October 29 meeting of Archbishop Srakić Marin, President of the Croatian Bishops' Conference and His Eminence Cardinal Josip Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb with His Excellency Mr. Ivo Josipovic, President of the Republic of Croatia, the Office of the President
.
Pope John Paul, visited Croatia three times since it proclaimed independence from communist Yugoslavia in 1991. More than 90 percent of Croatia's 4.4 million people are Catholics.


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THE POPE'S TRIP TO SPAIN
NEXT MONTH: AT A GLANCE



Two churches await the Pope
by Laura Daniele
Translated from




The Pope will be travelling more than 4,000 kms within 36 hours when he visits Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona on November 6 and 7.

These are two very vital dioceses for the Church in Spain which have not been paralyzed by the frenetic process of secularization assailing the Spanish Church, a phenomenon underscored by a cultural and social environment that is increasingly less Christian, and politically, markedly secular.




The Archbishop of Santiago, Julian Barrio, told ABC that the Church in Galicia [region where Santiago is located], "is not immune to the contamination brought about by the culture of our time and which undermines our Christian roots. The virtual disappearance of Christian criteria is a reality that also means the loss of theological references".

Despite these difficult times, in which the median age of the clergy (67) is an indicator, and that it has only 600 priests to minister tgo its 1,073 parishes, the Church of Santiago enjoys an advantage among the other local churches in Spain: Santiago continues to be one of the principal pilgrimage destinations for the faithful from around the world.

"There is no way to quantify the spiritual wealth that comes from the penitence of the faithful - the number of confessions that are heard in all languages is remarkable, and a precious experience," the archbishop said. "The four daily Masses at the cathedral are always full."

Aware of the enormous possibilities for evangelization offered by this great Catholic shrine, famous since the Middle Ages, Mons. Barrio has been advocating further promotion and revitalization of the 'Jacobean tradition".

"This year", he said, "this commitment has shown marked progress. Not only are we setting historical records in the number of pilgrims who have come - half a million in August alone - but it has ths golden distinction of the Pope's visit, with a Mass to be held at teh Palaza del Obradoiro [fronting the cathedral housing the tomb of the Apostle}.




Likewise, the Archdiocese of Barcelona has not spared any efforts to 'reconstitute' what was once 'a very Catholic society' in what is now Spain's most secular city.

Josep Miró i Ardèvol, president of E-Christians and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said that the proximity of Barcelona to highly-secular France "has made it more difficult for the Church in Barcelona, which despite this, continues to have a percentage of observant Catholics much higher than other regions in Spain (between 16-18% of those who identify themselves as Catholic)."

He adds that even the Catholic schools of the diocese have the highest enrolment in Spain, and that charitable work is carried out actively through a consolidated network of Caritas organizations at the parish level.

Moreover, the number of clergy, as well as the median age, is much better than that of Santiago. The diocese has 485 priests for its 214 parishes, and the median age of its priests is 57.

Barcelona's most emblematic chrch, the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, which Benedict XVI will consecrate on Nov. 7, plays a major role ine vangelization, according to the Archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach.

"The beauty of Gaudi's church fascinates the Pope, who believes that contemplation of the church by the millions of tourists who visit it each year has the potential to bring them closer to the supreme Beauty that God is", the cardinal said.





Pope’s visit to Compostela
expected to draw 200,000



Unfortunately, CNA does not support its headline at all within the story itself...


Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Oct 28, 2010 (CNA) - Spanish Archbishop Julian Barrio of Santiago de Compostela said this week that he is “very satisfied” with the preparations for Pope Benedict's upcoming visit to the city. He noted that it will likely be many years before a Pontiff returns to the region.

“It’s true that His Holiness John Paul II was in Santiago in 1982 during his apostolic visit to Spain and for World Youth Day in 1989,” he recalled during comments after meeting with officials organizing the visit.

However, he continued, this will be “the first time” that a Pope “expressly comes to participate in a Holy Year, as Benedict XVI will do.”

“I hope there will be many more times, Lord willing, but it is likely that many years will pass before a Pope will be able to come to participate in an event like this,” the archbishop said.

Pope Benedict will visit Santiago de Compostela on Nov. 6.

The archbishop went on to say the Pope’s visit to Santiago during the Holy Year of St. James is of “great importance and transcendence, not only for the city, but for all of Galicia and Spain and the many people who will follow the broadcast on television and radio beyond the ocean.”

While Santiago has significance for Spain and Europe, the archbishop said, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit will highlight the city’s “universal dimension.”

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Pope to visit Croatia
With the Pope set to visit Croatia in the first half of 2011, we're almost certainly going to be hearing even more about Medjugorje in the days and weeks leading up to the visit, especially given that in June thousands will be there to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the alleged apparitions.





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Major move expected on Medjugorje front - Pope & Croatia
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Reported by Croatia media sources is the news that the Vatican has already arrived at a solution that recognises the importance of Medjugorje to the Church and that the tree bearing good fruit in abundance is to be protected.

Currently the bishop of the Mostar-Duvno diocese is in Rome and on the table for discussion is the partition of his diocese which could see the parish of Medjugorje come under a new bishopric. Apparently a decision has been reached and an announcement is anticipated later this year.

However, such a move would not be an endorsement of the claimed apparitions but could be seen as a possible step forward to Medjugorje being granted international shrine status by the Holy See.

• The diocese of Mostar-Duvno was formed on July 5, 1881 – 100 years before Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje on June 24, 1981 • The seat of the bishopric is in the Cathedral of Mary the Mother of the Church! • The first two bishops of the Mostar-Duvno diocese were Franciscans and they were in charge of the diocese for 61 years!

crownofstars.blogspot.com/2010/03/major-move-expected-on-medjugorje-fr...

In a recent post (Removed a day later) this well informed Medjugorje watcher said that the above move is expected either before the end of this year or in the first few months of 2011. We'll see.
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Pope Benedict provides foreword
for 18-CD dramatized reading of
the Catholic New Testament

by Joseph Pronechen

10/29/2010

Two years in the making, “Truth & Life: Dramatized Audio Bible, New Testament” brings together more than 70 actors, over 20 audio engineers and 100 media-development experts across three continents who amassed 10,000 production hours for this first-ever Catholic edition of the New Testament.

Listeners will hear every word from Matthew through Revelation dramatized by world-renowned actors like Neal McDonough as Jesus, Julia Ormond as Mary, Stacy Keach as John, Blair Underwood, Michael York, Kristen Bell, and John Rhys-Davies.

This extraordinary 18-CD, 22-hour New Testament is endorsed by the Vatican, bears the imprimatur of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and has a special foreword by Pope Benedict XVI.

The project is close to the hearts of co-producers Carl Amari and Raymond Arroyo who had long wanted to create a Catholic audio version of the Bible.

“There was a huge void in this market,” says Arroyo, director and lead anchor of EWTNews, host of “The World Over” and best-selling author. “There was no dramatized multivoiced version of the Bible. For the largest religious community … it needed to be rectified.”

Arroyo points out that the available single-voiced versions “put you to sleep.” The narrator of one he heard was clearly not an actor; the result was boring.

“This is the problem: no life, no passion, no zeal, no urgency and immediacy to it,” explains Arroyo.

That helped inspire this project’s focus: Situate the Scriptures in the present moment and make listeners feel part of it.

Amari was of like mind. He grew up listening to those dull-narrator versions. Although as Catholics, he and his wife read the Bible almost every night with their young sons, he felt he really didn’t know it well enough.

“When the kids asked questions — what does this or that mean? — I didn’t understand the word as much as I should,” admits Amari. He thought others might have the same problem.

As founder and president of Falcon Picture Group, which produces and distributes family-friendly audio/video/DVD products, and with 30 years experience in radio drama and film, Amari had the solution.

“I know how powerful radio drama is when you listen to shows like ‘The Lone Ranger’ or ‘Gunsmoke,’ with music, sound effects and actors good at their trade,” he says. “It gives you the you-are-there feeling. I wanted to apply that to the Bible.

“I decided that it might be powerful to get great actors who do not read the Bible, but perform the word as a radio drama and do not to deviate from the Scripture. It would be a great way to learn and understand the word by performing it and putting music and sound effects to it.”

Both producers realize the powerful position audio holds. Arroyo explains: “Audio is a totally immersive experience because it allows the imagination to kick in.”

Amari knows this firsthand. “That canvas in the listener’s mind is boundless,” he says. “No movie screen can hold that picture. Your theater of the imagination is bigger than that screen they can put it on. That’s why I wanted to produce the New Testament in audio media.”

Both pointed out the Bible began as an oral tradition, handed down word by word to people. And this audio will be in that vein.

The Scripture is something “to be felt and heard,” Arroyo says. “I think of mothers and fathers bringing their kids to school in the morning, commuters on a long drive, people running errands brought into this present moment that is now and yesterday at the same time — the eternal nature of the word contained within.”

Amari agrees: “This audio (approach) puts you there; it transports the listeners through time to these events as if they’re a witness to them.”

The producers commend the actors for their talent and commitment to the project.

Amari explains that their director, Brenda Noel, is a Bible scholar who guided the actors well. Everyone wanted the “take” was most accurate to that section of Scripture.

“When you spend a lot of time or effort, you don’t compromise in any way,” says Amari. For example, “Just how did John say these words? Impossible to know. But if you know the Scriptures as our director does and also have theologians on the phone helping the actors, you get an accurate sense.”

Veteran actor Stacy Keach found this approach most helpful in his role as John the Apostle.

“I was very apprehensive at first,” Keach explains, “because John in the Book of John is a little different than John in Revelation. There’s a difference in tone. I was concerned about that and did a lot of research. I reconciled it because the director guided me through the process.

“Rather than being pessimistic, nihilistic and negative in the Book of Revelation, she suggested all these images John brings forth are products of awe, amazement. That was very helpful to me. It’s not so much a doomsday testament as it is a recognition of the miraculous nature of God’s works. Rather than creating fear, it’s more the miracle of the future.”

Keach, who felt honored to be a part of this project, realized John was Jesus’s best friend and therefore “tried to create an intimacy in the Book of John in terms of humility, in terms of being that close to Jesus.” His aim was for his performance to be personal.

A weekly churchgoer, Keach found his own faith impacted: “Anytime you are able to take the Scripture and learn more about it from just reading it (in terms of research) and any kind of historical probe … when you do that it rubs off. It really does strengthen your faith. It did mine. I’m always pleasantly surprised by how deeply religious the disciples were, particularly John — his commitment and his devotion, his faith is inspiring. He was a great role model for me.”

No liberties were taken with Scripture. This version is a word-for-word rendition of the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition.

“This particular edition has always resonated with so many biblical scholars both for its readability and for its ‘proclaimability,’” explains Arroyo, adding that he finds the Vatican seems to have a preference for this translation.

Amari points out another unique element. The music is scored to each scene by a composer, and the sound effects are created by foley artists. Music and sound effects help the listener get a better understanding of the words.

“That’s paramount to what we wanted to do with this project,” he says. “When you hear these scenes, you understand. It removes a lot of the question marks.”

By putting in these efforts, Arroyo believes “God creeps in and blesses it.” And because of the Holy Spirit, inspirations and things they didn’t originally intend blended in ways they couldn’t have anticipated.

For example, he points to nuanced performances, like McDonough’s Jesus, which had a mournful, tender approach. Or how the music’s Marian theme reappears.

Arroyo believes the approach and artistry will draw people to it because it “truly is Truth and Life.”

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Fr. Lombardi's briefing today on the Pope's two-city trip to Spain next week finally disclosed some details on the where and when of the Holy Father's meeting with Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero on Nov.7, which although confirmed since a few weeks ago, has never been mentioned in the programs released for the Pope's stay in Barcelona.

Airport meeting with Zapatero
before Pope heads back to Rome


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 29 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will briefly meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero at Barcelona airport at the end of a planned two-day visit next weekend, the Vatican said Friday.

The Pope will visit Santiago de Compostela on November 6 and Barcelona on November 7, where he will celebrate the consecration Mass of the Sagrada Familia cathedral [It is not a cathedral - the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona is the city's medieval cathedral, in the Barrio Gotico of Barcelona's historic center] designed by modernist architect Antoni Gaudi.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the trip was a "pastoral visit" that had no official political nature.

The Pope's next trip to Spain in August 2011 for World Youth Day in Madrid will include more formal discussions with state representatives, Lombardi told a press conference.

Zapatero had an audience with Benedict at the Vatican on June 10, a month before his Socialist government passed a more liberal abortion law in Spain.

The law has been heavily criticised by organisations within the Roman Catholic Church, including the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The president of the Academy, Mons. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula [who is a Spaniard], denounced the law as "absolutely insane."

Lombardi said the Christian family may be one of Benedict's "themes" during the homily at the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.

Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority since being elected pontiff in 2005.

Critics have questioned the cost of the Pope's trip but Lombardi it was not "extravagant," particularly because there was no need to build stands in either Santiago or Barcelona.

Lombardi told journalists he was aware that the cost of the Pope's trips was a sensitive issue because of the financial crisis.

But he said the Vatican was not "throwing money out of the window" and stressed the positive spiritual and moral consequences of the trips. [Not to mention the unprecedented historic nature of both occasions for the visit!]

The papal visit to Barcelona will cost around 700,000 euros (974,000 dollars) and will generate close to 30 million euros from the large numbers of pilgrims and tourists expected to attend, according to organisors.





Traditional pilgrim rituals await
the Pope in Santiago de Compostela

By Carol Glatz



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 29 (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI heads to Spain Nov. 6-7, he will follow some of the traditional rituals that pilgrims engage in when visiting the popular pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela.

It will be his first time to the ancient pilgrimage city and to Barcelona where he will consecrate the partially completed Church of the Sagrada Familia, or Holy Family.

"He's very happy to go (to Compostela) because it's something he has wanted very much," said the Vatican's chief spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, during a press briefing Oct. 29.

Before becoming Pope, "he and his brother also once talked about them going together, but it never happened," said Father Lombardi.

Though he will not have walked the miles of roadsides and pathways other Compostela pilgrims travel when going on foot or by horse, the Pope will still carry out some of the traditional pilgrimage rituals at the cathedral.

The Pope will enter through the cathedral's Holy Door, which was opened at the start of the year. The feast of St. James, July 25, fell on a Sunday this year, making 2010 a holy year.

Tradition holds that the remains of the apostle St. James the Greater -- Santiago in Spanish -- are buried in the city's cathedral. The Pope will head to the crypt and pray at the apostle's tomb and he will embrace a statue of St. James, another pilgrim tradition.

Finally, the Pope will incense the cathedral in an unusual method particular to the Santiago church.

A giant incense burner, about the size of an adult human being, hangs from a rope wrapped around a double pulley in front of the main altar. At special pilgrim Masses and events, the incense burner is swung across the church in a trajectory similar to that of a trapeze performer in a circus.

The burner is called a "botafumeiro" in Galician, the Spanish dialect spoken in Santiago de Compostela, and it means "smoke thrower."

In medieval times, its function was not just liturgical. It was also filled with perfumes to deodorize the smells from the hordes of sweating and unwashed pilgrims who went straight to the cathedral after days on the road.

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A CHRISTMAS GIFT
ONE MONTH EARLY



In less than a month Ignatius Press will be publishing a book by a fairly well-known man that is sure to get some attention: Light Of The World The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times, the third book-length interview by German journalist Peter Seewald of Pope Benedict XVI.

The first two interviews, Salt of the Earth, and God and the World, took place before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope; Seewald is also the author of Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait. Light of the World is wide-ranging and unprecedented:

Never has a Pope, in a book-length interview, dealt so directly with such wide-ranging and controversial issues as Pope Benedict XVI does in Light of the World. Taken from a recent week-long series of interviews with veteran journalist Peter Seewald, this book tackles head-on some of the greatest issues facing the world of our time. Seewald poses such forthright questions to Pope Benedict as:

•What caused the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
•Was there a "cover up"?
•Have you considered resigning?
•Does affirming the goodness of the human body mean a plea for "better sex"?
•Can there be a genuine dialogue with Islam?
•Should the Church rethink Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, women priests, contraception, and same-sex relationships?
•Holy Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics?
•Is there a schism in the Catholic Church?
•Should there be a Third Vatican Council?
•Is there any hope for Christian unity?
•Is Christianity the only truth?
•Can the Pope really speak for Jesus Christ?
•How can the Pope claim to be "infallible"?
•Is there a "dictatorship of relativism" today?

Twice before, these two men held wide-ranging discussions, which became the best-selling books Salt of the Earth and God and the World. Then, Seewald's discussion partner was Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's chief doctrinal office.

Now, Joseph Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the world's over one billion Catholics. Though Seewald now interviews the Pope himself, the journalist "pulls no punches", posing some of the thorniest questions any Pope has had to address.

Believers and unbelievers will be fascinated to hear Benedict's thoughtful, straightforward and thought-provoking replies. This is no stern preachment or ponderous theological tract, but a lively, fast-paced, challenging, even entertaining exchange.

The Foreword to Light of the World was written by George Weigel, whose new book, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, is available through Ignatius Press.


Of the thousands of literally ravishing photographs that are available of Pope Benedict XVI, why do book publishers always manage to choose the most 'pedestrian' [for lack of a more appropriate word to characterize their oh-so-undistinguished picks!] for their covers??? GRRRR!!!!


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/10/2010 23:35]
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