BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries today, 1/31/11.



Here are three recent commentaries from Bruno Mastroianni, whose blog I have failed to visit as regularly as I should...

Two replies to the thirst for truth:
Wikileaks and LOTW
by Bruno Mastroianni
Translated from

January 2011

The feeling that the would can be divided into two 'realities' - one mediatic, the other real - is increasingly strong. Joseph Ratzinger, who is constantly at the mercy of accusations followed by some sort of 'rehabilitation' in the media is living proof.

It is not accidental that in an era of lies and alleged scoops intended to bring shame on big names, the Pope does not just depend on the media to get to know what is happening in the world.

One of the most interesting passages in Light of the World concerns this precisely, when he is asked how he informs himself of events.

He replies that he learns a lot from his meetings with bishops who come to visit him from all over the world. He says that he finds they have 'their feet firmly on the ground' and that they allow him to learn about local situations "in a way that is more human, personal and realistic" than what he would get simply by reading or watching the news.

In this reply, one senses all the uneasiness which we all experience today with respect to contemporary systems of communication. One might say it has always been this way (and that is so): the mass media are always constrained to choose and simplify [But they do not have to! Part of the newsman's art is to be able to show the big picture accurately and comprehensibly.]

But what happens when the part of reality that the the media choose to underplay or even suppress becomes more important?

The Wikileaks phenomenon is not surprising - it represents the quintessence of that spirit of 'unmasking the shame' that is is increasingly characteristic of worldwide journalism. We must ask ourselves what is behind this obsession with 'hot' revelations.

If only because when trying to go 'behind the scenes', there is almost always nothing substantial. But this does not mean that we ought not to take seriously the 'signs' represented by leaked information. In general, they speak to us of a great thirst for things that are true, authentic, real.

It is emblematic that Benedict XVI's most recent book-length interview came out at the height of the 'news leaks' phenomenon (not limited to Assange's Wikileaks),

Both are responses to the thirst for truth in the world. But with a substantial difference: The news leaks get under the patina of conventional reporting to show what is 'behind the scenes', but stop there.

The second response, the Pope's, is not concerned with backroom cobwebs and filth, but goes straight to the heart of questions that concern man and the meaning of his life on earth.

When someone pointed out to Benedict XVI the possible risks in doing a book-length interview, the Pope simply replied with a smile. As if to say that in the face of the general defaillance (failure or dysfunction) of the dominant culture, there are two alternatives: conform and follow; or dedicate oneself without hesitation to fill the void that is created and speak of the things that truly matter.


The following are Mastroianni's recent blog entries reacting to what and how the media have chosen to report about some of the Holy Father's recent statements.


A deluge threatens the world -
and the media still opt for the trivial
Translated from

1/26/2011

So it's 'same old, same old'. Benedict XVI speaks about religious freedom in more wayt than one, and the media wax hysterical about sexual education in schools.

He speaks of the significance of human sexuality and the freedom and responsibility that go with it, and the media get back to the business of contraception. These are old tunes that have gone on for too long.

In his recent book-length interview, Benedict XVI spelled out the dangers of the degradation of human dignity by superficial sex and sex as an industry, but the media cannot go beyond prostitution, condoms and when it is proper to use them or not.

The media has looked at the Anglicans returning to Rome as a gang of traditionalists ready to invade the Catholic Church and impose their practices on her. They have looked at the Pope's recall of the excommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops as nothing better than an unmerited prize given to a Nazi lover. They have turned their obsession with pedophile priests into a dogged hunt for hidden files that could nail Benedict XVI himself with some shameful offense.

This persistent string of histrionic hysterics is not, as many in the media would say, the result of inept Vatican communications. It is something much bigger - nothing less than an assault on the very quality of being human.

And it makes the commentators and their readers into pitiful figures: while outside our insulated world, a deluge is pounding fiercely on the human condition, we persist in remaining on the threshold discussing whether it would be better to use an umbrella or a raincoat against that pounding.



What truly counts
is the search for God
Translated from

1/19/2011

Religion has to do with wars as biology has to do with racism and cultural differences have to do with internecine fighting. Namely, nothing.

It would be truly interesting to put together all the writings, addresses and messages that Benedict XVI (even before he became Pope) has said about the relationship between religion, peace and prosperity.

They would reveal that Joseph Ratzinger has always sounded the same key: only an authentic search for truth (which is synonymous to an authentic religion) can guarantee that man will not be undone by himself and his weaknesses.

Only the search for God saves man from selfishness, from partiality, from lack of interest. Thinking atheists and sophisticated agnostics should know: if one stops to seek for something that goes beyond limited human perspective, then it is easy to say one is at a dead end.

Frustrated souls will turn to producing UN resolutions, laws, regulations, provisions, etc, which give the illusion of doing something. But they will never really motivate a single person to take upon himself the problems of his peers.

In his address to the Roman Curia last month, the Pope cited Blessed John Henry Newman who, in converting to Catholicism, understood "that God and the soul, man’s spiritual identity, constitute what is genuinely real, what counts. These are much more real than objects that can be grasped".

Precisely in these days whe we see Christians ready to risk their lives just to go to Mass, perhaps even among us distracted and well-fed Westerners, the desire could come back to return to first place that which we have left for last.

Lawyer for Wisconsin accuser says
Vatican rejected service on lawsuit
By Patrick Condon


Minneapolis, Jan. 31 (AP) - The attorney for a man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf says the Vatican has refused to be served with a lawsuit over the matter.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who frequently clashes with the Catholic hierarchy over abuse allegations, said in a Sunday news release that his office tried to serve the lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other high-ranking officials at the Vatican as defendants, but that it was returned via Federal Express.

Anderson's client, listed in court papers as John Doe, is a deaf man from Illinois who alleged in his lawsuit that the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy molested him for a number of years while Murphy worked at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf. [This would have been some time in the 1950s to 1970 when Murphy was retired by the diocese after receving multiple complaints against him. At that time, neither Joseph Ratzinger nor Tarcisio Bertone
had anything to do with the Roman Curia, and did not get to Rome until 1982 in the case of RAtzinger and the 1990s in the case of Bertone....There oughta be a law against lawsuits that are frivolous by virtue of extrapolating guilt or blame to persons who were not even associated with the institution named in the suit at the time of the alleged crime!]

The lawsuit contends Pope Benedict and other Vatican officials conspired to keep quiet decades of abuse allegations against Murphy. [An outright falsehood, since Murphy was openly investigated by his diocese in the early 1970s, and even if the police could not turn up enough evidence to file any charges against Murphy, he was retired by the diocese. The charges against Murphy were public knowledge in Milwaukee since the late 1960s.]

Anderson did not return a call seeking comment Sunday but planned a Monday news conference in which he'll accuse the Vatican of "dragging out the healing of deaf victims."

Jeffrey Lena, the U.S.-based attorney for the Vatican, said in an e-mail that the lawsuit should have been served through diplomatic channels as would be done with any foreign state. He wrote that holding a news conference on such a matter "is really just a form of grandstanding by Mr. Anderson for the press and the public."

A U.S. federal judge in October asked the Vatican to cooperate in serving court papers to the Pope and two other Vatican officials, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with such requests.

Murphy, who died in 1998, has been accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the deaf school from 1950 to 1974. In 1996, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland had complained about Murphy in a letter to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the powerful Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from 1981 [February 1982!] until he became Pope in 2005. [As usual, this AP reporter is cavalier with the facts. He does not mention that Murphy was investigated in the earluy 1970s and then made to retire by the diocese. In that light, he also needs to explain Weakland's decision to go after Murphy in 1996 - more than 20 years after he had been investigated by the police and made to retire.]

That office initially ordered Weakland to hold a canonical trial against Murphy in 1997, but later changed course after a letter from the accused. The Vatican noted Murphy's advanced age, failing health and lack of further allegations. [Again, a misrepresentation of what happened. The Vatican, through Cardinal Bertone, did point out those considerations but did not stop the church tribunal which would have gone ahead with Murphy's canonical trial except that Murphy died before it could get under way - within two months of the Vatican reply to him.]

The Vatican argues it's not liable for clerical sex-abuse cases under canon law, and the church structure holds bishops - not Rome - responsible for disciplining pedophile priests.

Plaintiffs in a similar case in Oregon have sued the Vatican using a similar approach. Anderson represents clients in that proceeding as well, and on numerous occasions has expressed a desire to hold prominent Vatican leaders liable for sexual abuse by priests. [Mainly because he has visions dancing in his head of collecting megamillions from the Vatican!]

Tuesday, February 1, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Left photo: Statue of Ansgar in Hamburg.
ST. ANSGAR (Anskar, Oskar), (b France 801, d Germany 865)
Benedictine, Missionary, Bishop, 'Apostle of the North'
Ansgar was born near Amiens and educated at the Benedictine abbey of Corbie.
When the king of Denmark converted to Christianity, he volunteered to be
a missionary there, eventually going to Sweden as well. Unsettled political
conditions forced the Christian missionaries back, and Ansgar withdrew into
Germany, where he served as first Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. Later,
however, he helped to consecrate Gotbert, the first bishop of Sweden. The Church
of Sweden honors him as its apostle. He spent the last 39 years of his life
preaching the Gospel, doing charitable works, redeeming captives from barbaric
tribes and fighting the slave trade in northern Germany, while maintaining
relations as best he could in Scandinavia. He was known as an extraordinary
preacher and a humble ascetic. He is the patron saint of Denmark.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/020110.shtml

Light of the World:
Insights into a historic Papacy
by Fr. C. John McCloskey, III, STD

February 1st, 2011

A well-known American Catholic theologian not noted for his fidelity to Church teaching was a commentator for a major television network during the last papal conclave.

Just before the conclave closed its doors to begin the process of selecting the successor of St. Peter (and more immediately the successor to Pope John Paul II), he proclaimed confidently that one thing was certain–the next pope would not be Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. I think it fair to assume that the network has not offered him a contract for the next papal election.

The election of Pope Benedict following upon John Paul II’s long and historic papacy dealt the death blow to the resistance movement within the Church’s post-Vatican II efforts to misinterpret the Council as a mere surrender to secular modernity.

The most obvious product of this lengthy internal war, at least in the West, had been a massive decline in priestly vocations and concurrent rise in defections.

At least as invidious were changes at the diocesan level in selection and formation of seminarians — changes at least partly responsible for precipitating the sexual abuse of children by a small percentage of Catholic priests in the U.S. and Europe.

Although such deviant behavior has also been reported with greater frequency among Protestant ministers and indeed among public school teachers in the U.S. (not surprisingly in a sex-soaked culture that aggravates fallen human nature), the betrayal of many innocents by past diocesan cover-ups of abuse allegations has rightly drawn condemnation.

The toll for the Catholic Church has been great and just: the bankruptcy of many dioceses, resignations of bishops, and understandable mistrust by the laity of their bishops and priests that will take years to eradicate.

Pope Benedict’s gesture of meeting with victims of abuse on his many papal visits along with his constant denunciation of these crimes in his talks in Rome and most particularly a scorching letter to the hierarchy of Ireland, one of the hotbeds of clerical abuse, are already having an effect in convincing the lay faithful that disclosure of crimes and punishment of their perpetrators have replaced cover-up and faith in therapy.

But beyond the sex abuse scandals, Pope Benedict’s firm and far-seeing handling of his uniquely heavy spiritual responsibilities in the past five years validates his surely Spirit-driven election to the papacy.

He has calmly and confidently taken up the authentic interpretation of the Second Vatican Council and the New Evangelization that John Paul launched, and has even scored a smashing success at a World Youth Day in his native land. [Equally as smashing at Sydney WYD!]

Benedict’s few encyclicals have not been trumpet blasts condemning heretics right and left, as many expected, but rather gentle but strong examinations of the theological virtues and how they play out in our modern world.

However, over time what may most affect the lay faithful is the importance Pope Benedict places on the sacred liturgy.

Some refer to Benedict’s liturgical work as the “Reform of the Reform.” He had already outlined all this in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, un which he proposed making the 1962 (Tridentine) Mass more available and introducing more silence and reverence into the post-Vatican II Mass. If he succeeds, decades or centuries from now this reinvigoration of the sacred dimension of the liturgy will likely be seen as his most important pontifical accomplishment.


Pope Benedict XVI has now been the Roman pontiff for over five years; at the age of 83 he continues to make headlines with his steadfast presentation and defense of Catholic doctrine and pastoral trips abroad, most notably his recent visit to Great Britain on the occasion of the beatification of his fellow theologian, the now Blessed John Henry Newman.

By all accounts, Benedict’s sincerity, simplicity, and kindness, combined with a powerful intellect, both charmed and tamed a population that is largely pagan and atheistic and had threatened possible violence against his person.

Naturally each Pope is different, yet no Church historian or Vaticanista could have foreseen such an occurrence. Two popes in succession – one, arguably the greatest philosopher Pope and the second, the greatest theologian Pope – who both lived and suffered through the cataclysmic events of the mid-twentieth century; the first of whom played a central role in the demise of Communism, the second of whom is confronting the “dictatorship of relativism” in the depopulating West while tirelessly insisting on the importance of reason in dealing with Islamic fundamentalism.

[Thank you, Father, for being one of the rare few to articulate this in public. For more than five years now, I have been belaboring the constitutional inability of most people, even the most intelligent Catholic pundits, to imagine - much less recognize and accept - that the Church can have two great Popes one after the other, that a John Paul the Great does not in any way preclude a Benedict the Great, and that instead, the Church should celebrate the God-given grace of having two Popes whose greatness transcends the normal - extremely high - expectations and standards for Popes, especially in the contemporary world.]

The German journalist whose interviews with Benedict produced Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times, A Conversation with Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press) by now knows his interviewee very well.

The co-author of a biography on Pope Benedict, he has also twice before interviewed him at book-length in his pre-papal identity of Cardinal Ratzinger, in Salt of the Earth and God and the World. Seewald, who was then a skeptic but is now a practicing Catholic and well-known religion writer in his native Germany, poses questions that are lengthy and even provocative.

However, to clarify some of the earlier media confusion, no, this book is happily not about the morality of using condoms in certain circumstances.

In response to a question from Seewald, the Pope glancingly touched on the topic, which set off the predictable brief media frenzy, terminated when it became clear that the visible head of the Catholic Church had not belatedly embraced the sexual revolution.

What then is the book about? The headings of its three parts indicate the subject of Seewald’s questions: The Sign of the Times, The Pontificate, and Where Do We Go from Here?

In the first section Seewald asks the Pope what he felt like when he was elected:

---

A thought of a guillotine occurred to me: Now it falls down and hits you. I had been so sure that this office was not my calling but that God would grant me some peace and quiet after strenuous years. But then, I can only say, explain to my self: God’s will is apparently otherwise and something new and completely different is beginning for me. He will be with me.

---

When asked in the second part about how the Church differs from a multi-national company, Pope Benedict replies:

---

Well, we are not a production plant, we are not a for profit business. We are Church. That means a community of men standing together in faith.

The task is not to manufacture some product or to be a success at selling merchandise. Instead the task is to live the faith in an exemplary way and to proclaim it and at the same time to keep this voluntary association which cuts, across all cultures, nations and times and is not based on external interests, spiritually connected with Christ and God himself.

---

In the third part, asked about his prayer at Fatima on May 11, 2010, “May the years ahead hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the Glory of the Most Holy Trinity,” Pope Benedict replies:

---

I said the “triumph will draw closer.” This is equivalent in meaning to our praying for the coming of God’s kingdom.

The statement was not intended to express any expectation on my part that there is going to be a turnaround and that history will suddenly take on a totally different course.

The point rather was that the power of evil is restrained again and again and again and the power of God himself is shown in the Mother’s power and keeps it alive! The Church is always called upon to do what God asked of Abraham, which is to see there are enough righteous men to suppress evil and destruction.

I understood my words as a prayer that the energies of the good might regain their vigor. So you could say that the triumphs of God, the triumphs of Mary are quiet, but they are real nevertheless.

---

Light of the World has a preface by George Weigel, the biographer of John Paul II who probably knows more about the contemporary Catholic scene than any man this side of the National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen.

The book’s appendix is especially valuable, as it collects several of the most important short statements and interviews of Benedict’s pontificate, along with biographical data, curriculum vitae, and a “Brief Chronicle” of the pontificate that runs right up to his November 2010 trip to Spain.

Whatever your religious convictions or lack thereof, you will be charmed by the sincere, simple, and deep reflections on both the Church and the World by this man of God who also possesses one of the greatest intellects in the world today.

While John Paul II is indubitably “the Great” and was in a certain sense the mentor of his successor, the greatest goal of John Paul’s pontificate was left unmet — the union of all Christians. It would be a stretch for Benedict to live to 2017 [Why a stretch? OREMUS! and think of Leo XIII] the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Revolution, but given his close relationship with the autocephalous Orthodox churches and the ongoing disintegration of traditional denominational Protestantism, the pontificate of Pope Benedict could achieve giant steps towards the greatest wish of the Founder of the Church: “That all may be one!”

I would not bet against the unexpected Pope from Bavaria.

Instead, we pray... and send him all our love and best wishes...
BENEDICTUS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI!

Legion creates commission
for Maciel's accusers


ROME, JAN. 31, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The Legionaries of Christ have established an Outreach Commission as a response from the congregation to the "implications and consequences" of the conduct of their founder, Marcial Maciel.

The commission is in response to a request made in October by Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the papal delegate for the Legionaries of Christ, to establish a commission that would address "those who in some way put forward claims against the Legion."

A statement posted today on the Legion's Webpage notes that the commission will have two tasks:

"In the first place, they will listen to the people who are requesting a response from the Legionaries of Christ because of Father Marcial Maciel or in relation to him.

"Then they will write a detailed report, which they will submit to the papal delegate. With the help of his advisors, he will then make decisions about what the Legion of Christ should do in each case."

"The decree constituting the commission stated that it would deal only with cases having a direct relation to the person of Father Marcial Maciel," the noted added. "It will not intervene in cases awaiting decisions from civil or ecclesiastical courts."

Father Álvaro Corcuera, the director-general of the Legion, stated that the commission aims to "continue facing with seriousness and responsibility our recent history as regards Father Marcial Maciel's conduct and the implications and consequences it has had on some people."

"Insofar as it is humanly possible," he added, "we want to close this chapter in its more painful aspects, seek reconciliation, and allow justice and charity to prevail."

Monsignor Mario Marchesi, a personal advisor to Cardinal De Paolis, will lead the commission's work, and he will be assisted by two Legionaries: Father Florencio Sánchez, chaplain of the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, and Father Eduardo Robles-Gil, Regnum Christi section director in Mexico City.

Two external experts will also aid the commission in its work: Father Silverio Nieto Núñez, a priest from the archdiocese of Madrid, a former judge and magistrate who now directs the Civil Juridical Service of the Spanish Bishops' Conference; and Jorge Adame Goddard, a titular researcher at the UNAM Juridical Research Institute and a law professor at Pan-American University in Mexico City.

The Legion also announced today the names of the two Legionaries who will be added to the general council: Father Juan José Arrieta and Father Jesús Villagrasa.

The general council assists Father Álvaro Corcuera in the governance of the congregation, and is normally composed of four members. Cardinal De Paolis expanded the council to six.

Juan José Arrieta was born on Aug. 19, 1956, in Baracaldo, Spain. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1983. Since 2007, he has been a pastor at the parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Philip the Martyr in Rome.

Jesús Villagrasa was born in Zaragoza, Spain, on April 5, 1963. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1994. Since 1999, he has served as a metaphysics professor at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum College.

NB; The ZENIT news agency is owned and operated by the Legionaries of Christ.

Hans Kueng in Spain says
he believes in God but not in the Church:
A comparison with Joan of Arc and Erik Peterson
Translated from

February 1, 2011



Hans Kueng has once again come and gone in Spain, having received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia [a correspondence university]. An occasion for him to repeat his moth-eaten arguments: the invectives against Rome, his insistence that Benedict XVI is isolated from the faithful, and his mantra that is contrary to St Paul: Let us [the Church] adapt to the world as much as we can.

[What an irony-laden contrast to Benedict XVI's recent visit to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona, adn his coming visit to Madrid for WYD 2011!]

But on this occasion, too, he delivered a 'pearl' of significance: "I believe in God, but not in the Church". [An astounding open denial of one of the tenets in the Credo, which he, as a priest, must recite everyday when he says Mass! And of the doctrine that the Church, instituted by Christ himself, represents the mystical Body of Christ.]

Joan of Arc, before she was convicted by order of some Paris theologians said: "To me, our Lord and the Church are one". What a distance between the Maid of Orleans and the sage of Tuebingen!

To believe in the Church - which means to receive the faith, accept, assimilate and confirm it within the context of the Church, has been Christian belief from the very beginning. Among other things, because to believe otherwise, is to change one's relationship with Jesus into mere illusion, defined only by one's own tastes, sensibilities and interests.

Even all the times that the unity of his Body has been broken in history, belief in the Church has been the aspiration - open or secret - of every sincere Christian.

But not Kueng [who has long been establishing his own personal religion and trying to foist it as a 'world religion'] - and he has a perfect right to what he believes. But he should not be traipsing around the world with his decrepit list of demands to reform a Church from which he has marginalixed himself for quite some time [And which he now professes not to believe in! So why does he even bother? Just leave the Church already!]

Personally I have always thought that Hans Kueng's intellectual dimension has been over-rated, and that if it hadn't been that the secular media made him into the biggest 'cherry' on their anti-Church pie (a role he has cultivated eagerly and with personally fruitful effect), his modest theological work would be noticed only for its controversy.

Kueng has always rowed along with those who have most worked to demolish the relevance of the Church today, and that makes him useful to them.

In fact, his major effort in the past 40 years has not been his avowed desire to reform Church discipline and structures, but to drain the substance of the apostolic faith as professed and handed down without interruption by the Apostles, martyrs and Fathers of the Church.

Listening to his statements when he was in Madrid recently, I was reminded of another theologian who was much more prophetic even if he never had Kueng's mediatic success. He is the theologian Erik Peterson from Hamburg who died in 1960 [and was the subject of a beautiful discourse by Benedict XVI recently].

We can consider his trajectory as the other side of the coin. Born into German Protestantism, his fidelity to the historical tradition of Christianity led him to acutely criticize the dominant theological mentality in the Germany of the 1920s.

He felt that the cumulative weight of that opinion, unordered and itself in internal disaccord, "blocked the way to considering things as they are". With which Peterson began his path to conversion to Catholicism, as he deepened his appreciation for his Christian heritage.

Benedict XVI delivered a beautiful and very personal eulogy for Peterson last October. In that address, the Pope explained the indissoluble link between Christ and the Church, as Peterson underscored it: "Sacred Scripture is transformed - and is binding - not per se, but in the hermeneutic of the apostolic Tradition, which is how the Church keeps Scripture alive and relevant even as it interprets it".

Thus, Benedict said, Peterson left "the security of a university professor's chair for uncertainty, and remained for the rest of his life without a secure base nor a homeland, simply and truly on a journey of faith and for the faith, confident that in being on the road without a home, as it were, he was at home in a different way as he came ever closer to the celestial liturgy that he aimed for".

Thus, while other theologians sought fame, prestige and applause in trying to wound the Church, this evangelical theologian left all security, faced the accusations of his former colleagues as well as not inconsiderable ill will from his new ones, for the sake of living a humble life in Rome, the heart of the Church.

Noting that Peterson experienced the 'being a stranger to the world' that in some way is always the lot of the Christian, and felt himself alienated from both the Protestant and Catholic theological worlds, "now we know that he belonged to both, that both worlds could learn from him all the drama, the realism and the existential and human demands of theology".

Now we also know that although Kueng has traversed the opposite route from Peterson, those Protestant communities who still hold the apostolic faith as norm and guide will hardly recognize themselves in Kueng.


Kueng deserves a prayer because his ego appears to have so overwhelmed his mind and heart that one can almost say "Father, forgive him for he knows not what he is doing"... I wonder if someone is not already at work on a treatise or a book about the 'twins of 1960s Tuebingen theology' - one good and selfless, the other misguided and selfish - in whom one path led to the Papacy, the other to near-apostasy. If no one is doing so, it's high time someone did!


An earlier column by Restan - which I missed - contains his reflections on Benedict XVI's plan for an Assisi-IV next October, and is worth reading even if posted here belatedly...


Assisi 25 years later
Translated from

January 4, 2011


January 1 was a tragid day on which we saw a new mass assassination of Christians, this time in Egypt, making for big headlines in the Western press.

In these days when we wish everyone well for the new year, we cannot deny that a new historical period has opened - with incalculable consequences - in terms of a systematic violation of religious freedom in the world, especially that of Christians.

In this context, and along with his Message for the World Day of Peace, Benedict XVI surprised us with his invitation to religious leaders from around the world to a new inter-religious meeting for peace in Assisi.

His convocation in Assisi is very significant. And I think it would have been unthinkable without the bricks that the Pope has laid down, with no little effort and suffering, during his Pontificate so far: his speeches in Regensburg and Amman [one of the great secular discourses that has often been neglected or forgotten!]; his theological dialog with Judaism; his historic visit to Auschwitz and his address at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem; and of course, his tireless, lucid and valiant defense of religious freedom, most recently represented by his Message for the World Day of Peace and his denunciation of recent Christian massacres in Iraq and Egypt.

It was certainly a bad omen that the Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo described th3 Pope's condemnation of the Copt massacre in Alexandria as 'interference'. Some people have an odd idea of inter-religious dialog.

But this was the backdrop for the October meeting in Assisi that Benedict XVI plans. An audacious and transcendental initiative for him. Although in this respect, the greater part of the Western media (not to mention Spain) persists in its willful ignorance, if not ideological perversity.

He explained that it would commemorate the historic meeting first called by John Paul II in 1986, in order to solemnly renew the commitment of believers of all religions to live their own religious faith as a service to the cause of peace.

And he added this significant note: "Anyone who is on the journey towards God cannot fail to convey peace, and anyone who wants to build peace cannot fail to come closer to God".

We can recall the worldwide impact of the first World Day of Prayer for Peace, distinguished by the charism of Papa Wojtyla. It was the first time in history that such an event had occurred, and along with the expectations it had raised, there were murmurings and even outright anger in some sectors for the way in which it was carried out, denounced by some (for the most part, unjustly) as syncretism.

The fundamental certainty that true religiosity is a source of peace, and that using God to justify violence is blasphemy, inspires this new meeting. But much has changed - and for worse - in the historical context of 2011 compared to 1986.

Moreover, Benedict XVI has been fine-tuning the parameters of inter-religious dialog, and we can be sure these will be evident in how he plans the day.

In the Middle East, a campaign to exterminate the Christian communities is evident, too lightly condemned and apparently considered irrelevant by Muslim authorities in Iraq, for instance, and about which the Western governments [especially the US] who have influence in the region have hardly said - much less done - anything. Nor haVE the United Nations and other institutions of the so-called international community taken any stand on the matter at all.

Meanwhile, there are signs that raise increasing concern for Christians in places like Indonesia [the world's largest Muslim nation], while anti-Christian pogroms are taking place in Pakistan and India, a place which used to be thought of as tolerant.

These are all facts that will not be on the margins at the Assisi meeting in October. Benedict XVI will make sure of that.

Indeed, the re-orientation of inter-religious dialog can be considered rightly as one of the keys to his Pontificate. Even if the Assisi meeting will be an occasion for prayer, there is no question that for him, it counts as an occasion for inter-religious dialog.

Benedict XVI has many times denounced a too superficial concept of such dialog, which is limited to creating an atmosphere of reciprocal sympathy and agreeing on a few points for practical collaboration.

"We have perhaps avoided the responsibility of discussing our differences with calm and clarity," whereas authentic dialog requires "attentively listening to the voice of truth", the Pope said in addressing an interfaith meeting in Washington.

For the Church, the ultimate objective of dialog is always the search for truth, and it can be motivated only by the urgency of charity. The Pope wishes to place at the center of dialog with the non-Christian religions - and we have seen this most clearly with respect to Islam - the essential questions of human life: What is man's origin and what is his destiny? What is good and what is evil? What awaits man at the end of his earthly existence?

At the same time, the question of religious freedom with all its implications has to be a focus of all true inter-religious dialog. It is lamentable that such dialog has often been exclusively devoted to matters of practical collaboration while the question of religious freedom is never tackled with the acuity and amplitude it demands.

That time has ended, because, as Benedict XVI said in that Washington meeting, "the duty to defend religious freedom never ends", and that means also confronting its corollary propositions such as religious education in schools; the process of conversion; reciprocity; and the public dimension of religion.

These are crucial and painful questions, not just in the Islamic world, but in areas of Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish dominance. And as long as there is no progress in the area of religious freedom, then we must question the path that inter-religious dialog takes.

Pope encourages pastoral ministry
for vocations in Latin America

The Holy Father has sent a message to the participants of the II Latin American Continental Congress for Vocations, under the auspices of the Department for Vocations and Ministries of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), which is taking place in Cartago, Costa Rica, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 5.

Here is a translation of the message, written in Spanish:

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Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
beloved priests, religious and lay faithful:

Shortly, it will be 17 years since the first Latin American Continental Congress for Vocations convoked by the Holy See, in close collaboration with the Latin American Episcopal Council and the Latin American Confederation of Religious.

That event signified an important occasion to launch the pastoral ministry for vocations in the continent. The present Congress, that you have decided to celebrate in Cartago, Costa Rica, is an initiative of the bishops responsible for the vocational ministry in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to follow through on the road that was begin in the context of the great missionary impulse promoted by the V General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate in Aparecida (Concluding document, 546).

The great task of evangelization requires an ever greater number of persons responding generously to God's call and who can dedicate their lives to the Gospel.

More incisive missionary activity brings forth as precious fruit, along with strengthening Christian life in general, an increase in vocations of special consecration. In any case, the abundance of vocations is an eloquent sign of ecclesial vitality and the strong presence of the faith among the People of God.

The Church, in its most intimate being, has a vocational dimension that is implicit in its etymological meaning of an 'assembly convoked' by God.

Christian life participates in this vocational dimension that characterizes the Church. In the soul of every Christian must resonate ever anew Jesus's call to his Apostles to 'Follow me', a call which forever changed their lives (cf. Mt 4, 19).

In this second Congress, which has for its theme, "Lord, at your command, I will lower the nets" (Lk 5,5), the various agencies of the vocational ministry of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean have assembled with the objective of strengthening the pastoral ministry itself, so that the baptized may take on the call to be disciples and missionaries of Christ in the present circumstances of those beloved lands.

In this respect, the Second Vatican Council affirms that "the entire Christian community has the duty to encourage vocations, and must procure them, above all, through a fully Christian life (Optatam totius, 2).

The vocational ministry must be fully integrated into the overall pastoral care, with a presence in all the concrete pastoral fields (Cf. V General Conference, Aparecida, Final document, 314).

Experience teaches us that vocations do not lack wherever there is good planning and constant exercise of the vocational ministry. God is generous, and so must the commitment to vocational ministry in all the local Churches be equally generous.

Among the many aspects that could be considered for the cultivation of vocations, I wish to emphasize the importance of caring for the spiritual life. Vocation is not the result of any human planning or of a facile organizational strategy.

In its deeper reality, it is a gift of God, a mysterious and ineffable initiative of the Lord, who enters the life of a person and captivates him with the beauty of his love, consequently inspiring a total and definitive abandonment of the self to that divine love (cf. Jn 15, 9.16).

One must always bear in mind the primacy of spiritual life as a basis for all pastoral planning. It is necessary to offer to the younger generations the possibility of opening up their hearts to a great reality: to Christ, the only one who can give meaning and fulfillment to their lives.

We must conquer our self-sufficiency and go to the Lord humbly, imploring him to keep calling on many for the priesthood.

At the same time, strengthening our spiritual life will bring us to ever greater identification with the will of God, and to offer a purer and a more transparent testimonial of faith, hope and charity.

Your faithful and joyous witness of your own vocation has been and is a privileged way of awakening in many young people the desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ. At the same time, you must have the courage to propose to them with delicacy and respect the possibility that God, too, calls them to him.

Frequently, the divine vocation opens up through a human word, or thanks to an environment in which young people experience a living faith. Today, as always, young people are "sensitive to the call of Christ who invites them to follow him" (Address to the inaugural session of the V General Conference of CELAM, Aparecida, May 13, 2007).

The world needs God, and will therefore always have need of persons who live for him and who announce him to others (Letter to seminarians, Oct. 18, 2010).

The concern for vocations has a special place in my heart and my prayers. I encourage you then, dear brothers and sisters, to consecrate all your forces and talents to this exciting and urgent task, that the Lord will recompense generously.

I invoke for the organizers and participants of this Congress the intercession of the Virgin Mary, true model of generous response to God's initiative, as I impart on you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican
January 21, 2011

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Thanks to

for leading me to the blog of the Apostolic Nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean - the American bishop Mons. Thomas Gullickson, from Sioux Falls, Indiana, who apparently has been blogging since 2006, and has an obvious interest in proper liturgy, as the section on liturgy on his blog has quite a number of articles. The following is his homily on Sunday, January 30, in which he tells it like it is, but all in a properly Christian way, about bishops who continue to resist Summorum Pontificum...

On bishops who disdain the Latin Mass
but tolerate abuses to the Novus Ordo -
and do not see their own hypocrisy

January 30, 2011

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"Take yourselves for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families?

No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything.

The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
-From the Second Reading
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

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These words of St. Paul can (as they have for me) give perspective to a person’s vocational journey, reminding us that both celibate priesthood lived to the full and a truly blessed marital union, as vocations to which we are called by God, are gift and grace revealing the handiwork of the Most High for His greater glory and our joy always, but always, in Him Who has not only begun the good work in us but Who brings it to fulfillment with our cooperation.

It is another aspect of this reading, however, that I would like to reflect upon briefly. The penultimate sentence of this passage is the one which strikes me above all today: “The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom.”

It is another way of saying Christ is everything in all of us. That is a notion which has consequences for the way we lead our lives and for the sorts of causes we may choose or attempt to champion.

Should everything else pass away, libraries, monuments or whatever, and we as a race or generation fail, we, God’s little ones, the common and contemptible can still boast about God’s handiwork as revealed in us through Christ. That accomplishment is reflected in lives lived so as to radiate the presence of the gentle Savior Who dwells in our hearts.

“…Members of Christ Jesus…” Too often, I am afraid, we gloss over the wonder of our, by God’s doing, being incorporated into the Son of God made Man. By reason of our dullness or distraction, perhaps, we rarely pick up on more than the flutter of the emotions of those scholars and mystics who wax eloquent or gushing over the implications or import of words like “sanctification” or “divinization” for our lives.

Maybe, in point of fact, the problem is less with our dullness or distraction and more with that of the bravado of some of those who try to limbo under the bar of human comprehension placed on what for casual party-goers, at least, is the impossibly low notch of these “–tion” words!

It might be better to leave the low, low bar to the stage performers and professionals and dwell both simply and profoundly upon the consequences of our baptism, of our having put on Christ, but in a fashion more intimate and earth-shaking that can be rendered by just a perfunctory glance at the great images of the white garment and our candle catching fire from the Easter candle.

“…Christ Jesus … by God’s doing … our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom.” Ours must be the mind of Christ. Jesus condemns hypocrisy and commands those among His listeners for whom the shoe fits to first pull the plank from their own eye before attempting to pull the splinter from their neighbor’s eye.

In that regard, I have to say (at the risk of condemning myself by my own judgment) that I have been particularly troubled of late by encounters (both through the media and directly) with the intolerance of any number of prelates within the Church: intolerance not directed toward wicked people, but intolerance toward those who are attempting as best they can to be faithful, especially in matters concerning Divine Worship and the education of children and youth.

Why, even three years after the issuance of Summorum Pontificum (just to name one example), are well-meaning lay folk still treated with such great disdain by no less than bishops - bishops [supposed to be] in communion (of heart, soul, mind and strength?) with the Successor of St. Peter - when they ask for Mass in Latin?

Is this anything other than blind hypocrisy? You tolerate no small amount of bad taste, bad music and caprice, while begrudging some few a port in the storm of liturgical abuse which seems not to want to subside?

Can we be after His own Heart and not just claim to be members of Christ’s Body while still acting so at odds with the example set by the Holy One of God, meek and humble of heart?

Such prelates are at counter or cross purposes to the sense in which the Church wants to go; they are ignoring what the Spirit is saying to the Churches and doing so with a backhand to some who are branded common and contemptible, but certainly not in the eyes of Christ...

Let me say it more clearly! My issue is with the contempt shown for an outstretched hand, contempt such as would not be shown toward someone asking for some other benefit.

When the Holy Father speaks of his will to see these two forms of the Roman Rite (ordinary and extraordinary) enrich each other, when he and others express eagerness for a recovery of the sense of the sacred in our churches and in how we worship, I am convinced that he has indicated the true nature of the rupture which has indeed occurred and needs to be mended or healed.

You would think that those in communion with the Pope would seek to understand him and embrace his point of view. There is too much room for caprice and hence the need to reform contemporary Catholic worship.

This is evidenced time and again, by way of one example, in the sense of helplessness many priests experience when confronted by musical groups moving into church with inappropriate repertoires, not to mention the dance and puppet troupes which should have been banished long ago. If a bishop does not want to discipline, at least he can respect and foster those seeking good order.

St. Charles Borromeo advised his priests to fight distractions and foster devotion the same way that you keep a stove lit with only a flicker of flame inside, and that is, by keeping that stove closed up tight until you get the fire going strong.

I think that has to be the aim of the reform of the reformed liturgy. That was the genius over centuries of the old Latin Low Mass, tamper-proof and self-contained throughout the vicissitudes of time.


The pendulum swing to the other extreme, which has swept away everything that was popular devotion and religious expression, while at the same time opening up that stove to nearly anything and everything, has had little more effect than to have diminished the liturgy’s capacity for providing heat and light.

Contemporary worship is too often held hostage by caprice (tasteful or tasteless is not the point), by creativity, if you will, but still something not foreseen by legitimate authority.

Among the things which contribute to the crisis of faith among our youth, among those things which contribute to their dismissal of the Sunday obligation to assist at Mass (see the statistics for Mass attendance by young Catholics!) is the absence in what they experience in their parishes and Catholic school settings of an approach to Divine Worship marked by the healthy fear and trembling which time and again brought His disciples to their knees before the Son of Man.

Just the other day in an airport waiting lounge I caught a conversation, in the row of seats back to back with me, between two elderly Catholic couples who were miffed at Father for having admonished them to go to confession for having failed to fulfill their Sunday obligation on the day after Christmas! The grounds for their dismissal of Father’s well-meant admonition were that such rules are man-made anyway. This is to my mind a logical conclusion to be drawn from a Sunday service as free-flowing and de-sacralized as they probably experience, as anything on cable TV or to be found in a passing revival tent meeting.

“The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom.”

Apart from this intolerance, I’ve been confronted again and again recently with the reality of how oblivious many priests, religious and laity are to the de-sacralized character of their liturgizing.

Jeff Tucker at “The Chant Café” is swarming about all he sees as progress toward the reform of the reform. I wish I could see what he sees. The promotion of the extraordinary form is an encouragement to reforming vernacular liturgy.

The hunger of many of the laity for a reformed vernacular liturgy marked by noble simplicity has been and continues to be fostered by encounters with the extraordinary form. My guess is that a more positive attitude by more bishops toward the extraordinary form would go a long way to moving some of the priests toward an examination of conscience concerning their approach to celebration.

Why do some successors to the Apostles seem so unaware of the injustice of the double standard they apply in reacting negatively to requests for Mass in the extraordinary form? If they are unwilling to restore decorum to vernacular worship “cold turkey” for lack of courage or whatever, then the least they could do is recognize and support those among them who seek better.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI. {That the day of God may come soon!)

Benedict XVI's peace message:
Restoring the primacy of God
can resolve religious conflicts
by Bruno Mastroianni
Translated from

Feb. 1, 2011

God alone can save us from a clash of civilizations! Divisions arise when there is no authentic faith.

God alone can save us from a clash of civilizations! This seems to the the strategy - if one can speak of it as such - of Benedict XVI to conjure away hostilities among religions.

2010 closed with the bloody car bomb attack on a Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria [[Actually this happened on January 1], the latest in a long series of continuing violence not only in the Middle East but also in Africa and other nations, where Christians, according to statistics, are the most persecuted religious group today.

Were it not for the dead and the wounded, it would be cause to rejoice that it is the leader of this most oppressed group who raises his voice to ask the faithful not to yield to the logic of conflict.

One must re-read his message for the World Day for Peace released a few weeks before January 1, in which Papa Ratzinger explains firmly that fanaticism, violence, and divisions are not the results of religion, but rather of the lack of it.

God save us from the clash of civilizations! Divisions arise when man does not seek God, but only himself, placing his own interests - be they personal, communitarian or pertaining to his religion - ahead of respect for the truth. In this way, relative good is absolutized and imposes itself by force, creating violence.

God save us from the clash of civilization! Islam's intentions against the West can make anyone shudder - while making others, even in the west, rub their hands in satisfaction. But this is, of course, unacceptable.

It's not about closing one's eyes to Islamist terrorism, which experts say, is fomenting an international strategy against Christians. It is about not yielding to political simpllfication which sees the resolution of the problem in a sprinkling of democracy around the world.

Of course, the United Nations must do its part [What part has it really played in the true issues of war and peace, life and death, all these decades - when it is nothing more than a debating club for preening leaders, a forum for their egos, and a vast unelected bureaucracy insidiously seeking to enforce their secular agenda on the whole world?], just as the international community must mature all political, diplomatic and economic measures.

But let us not lose sight that behind all this is something much greater: mankind - be it Islamic, Copt, secular, or of any creed -
continually afflicted by selfishness. divisions, and violences that result from a lack of authentic faith.

What can save us from a clash of civilizations is to put back God in first place after having relegated him to the tailend for so long. This goes for us exhausted Westerners as much as for the too often exploited Muslims. We cannot reduce everything to a geopolitical match between two opponents.

This is what the Pope is aiming for. This is what the Christian victims who have been killed in the practice of their faith have testified to and what they remind us with their martyrdom.

Wednesday, February 2, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

From left: The Presentation portrayed by Giotto (1304), a 14th-century Russian icon, Bellini (1459), Cosma Ture (1474) and Raphael (cropped)(1503).
FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
The event is described in the Gospel of Luke 2:22–40: Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth to complete Mary's ritual
purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn, in obedience to the Law of Moses. Upon bringing Jesus into the temple, they encountered Simeon
the Righteous, who had been promised that "he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord." Simeon prayed the prayer that would become known as the
Nunc Dimittis, or Canticle of Simeon, which prophesied the redemption of the world by Jesus: "Lord... I have seen with my own eyes the one you have sent to save people.
You have made this way for all peoples to be saved..." Simeon then prophesied to Mary: "He will be a sign that people do not believe in. He will make many people in Israel fall
and rise. (Yes, a long knife will cut your heart too.)..." The elderly prophetess Anna was also in the Temple, and offered prayers and praise to God for Jesus, and spoke
to everyone there about Jesus and his role in the redemption of Israel.
Celebrated 40 days after Christmas, this is one of the 12 major feasts of the Orthodox Church. In the English-speaking world, it is also known as Candlemas, from a
tradition started by Pope Sergius in the 16th century based on a candlelight procession held by the early Christians of Jerusalem to celebrate the event.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/020211.shtml



OR today.
The only papal story is the Holy Father's message to the second Latin American Congress for Vocations being held in Costa Rica (translated and posted on this page yesterday). Since today is also the Day for Consecrated Life, three other stores in this issue are devoted to the issue - a Page 1 essay on the role of consecrated women in the life of the Church; and in the inside pages, a review of a book about new forms of consecrated life about the many new religious communities that have emerged since Vatican II; and an interview with Brazilian Archbishop Joan Braz de Aviz, recently named Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Apostolic Societies. Page 1 international news: Continuing coverage of the Egyptian crisis up to yesterday's massive general strike in Cairo, but without President Mubarak's evening TV speech saying he will not run in the September elections; and a related story that the Egyptian crisis has so far not affected oil prices.


PAPAL EVENTS TODAY

General Audience - The Holy Father announces he is starting a new catechetical cycle on the Doctors of the Church,
starting today with St. Teresa of Avila, who is also the last in his cycle of catecheses on great women figures of
the medieval Church.


Wednesday, Feb. 2
17:30, St. Peter's Basilica
Vespers
FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD AT THE TEMPLE
XXV World Day of Consecrated Life



In addition to a number of new diocesan bishops and auxiliary bishops announced today, the Holy Father has named
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra as the Apostolic Nuncio in Pakistan.

Pakistani radicals burn
Pope's effigies in Lahore




Photos from Reuters.

LAHORE, Feb. 2 (Agenzia Fides) – The radical Islamic groups under the Tehrik Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Risalat network (TTNR, Alliance to defend the honour of the Prophet), burned effigies and mannequins representing the Pope and the Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, as well as the Christian symbol of the Cross in a rally on Sunday.

This was reported to Fides by the “All Pakistan Minorities Alliance” (APMA), an organisation that defends the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan.

The TINR-organized protest saw the streets of Lahore lined with more than 40,000 Islamic militants against any amendment to the blasphemy law, the liberation of Asia Bibi (the Christian woman sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy), and against the Pope and the United States, symbols of the West, which “try to influence the country.”

Archbishop Lawrence Saldhana of Lahore and President of the Episcopal Conference of Pakistan, commented to Fides: “The Islamic radicals have attacked the Pope, accusing him of interfering in the life of the Country. They burned his effigy and the Cross. For that we are very sorry. As faithful Christians this wounds us. We dissociate ourselves from every act of violence and we demand respect for all sacred symbols, whatever their religion.”

Fides sources note that the same Islamic radicals who defend the name and the honour of the Prophet Mohammed – against every person or act considered “blasphemous” – do not hesitate to insult and give offence to the symbols of the Christian religion, such as the Cross and the Pope.

Further, the demonstration in Lahore confirmed Islamic hostility towards the Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, who is Catholic.

The APNA says that this latest open threat against Minister Bhatti, whose life is in serious danger, and who has been left completely on his own at the political level.”

In addition, the APMA stresses to Fides that “security measures put in place to defend him are completely inadequate. It is urgent to provide him with greater protection.”

Archbishop Saldanha said: “Minister Bhatti is experiencing a very difficult time, targeted by extremists. On behalf of all Christians in Pakistan, we wish to express to the Minister our complete solidarity and gratitude for his social and political commitment to defending religious minorities.”

The Archbishop, recalling the Day of Prayer and fasting for peace held by the Church in Pakistan on 30 January said: “The prayer, fasting, sharing and words of peace we exchanged on Sunday give us hope and strength, even if we are a small community which experiences suffering and difficulties.”

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY:
Catechesis on St. Teresa of Avila



Pope begins catechetical cycle
on the Doctors of the Church


2 FEN 2011 (RV) - Pope Benedict XVI says he will dedicate his Wednesday audiences to a new cycle of lessons on the Doctors of the Church in the coming weeks, beginning with “one of the highest examples of Christian spirituality of all time”, St Teresa of Avila.

The 16th-century saint and Carmelite reformer was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Describing her as " true teacher of life for the Christian faithful of every era" Pope Benedict XVI said her life and writings are particularly relevant "in our current society often lacking in spiritual values”.

He described her spirituality as "profound and articulated”, proposing the Gospel virtues as the basis of all Christian life and human existence, in particular detachment from earthly goods and evangelical poverty.

But she also wrote of human virtues, such as affability, truthfulness, modesty, kindness, happiness and culture. Saint Teresa presented a profound harmony between the great biblical figures and living the Word of God in her daily life.

Teresa was born in Spain, in Ávila in 1515 to, as she herself writes in her autobiography, "virtuous, God-fearing parents". She had nine brothers and three sisters. Teresa entered the Carmel monastery in Avila at the age of twenty. Maturing in the spiritual life, she embraced the ideal of a renewal of her Order and with the support of the future Saint John of the Cross she founded a chain of reformed Carmels throughout Spain.

Pope Benedict continued: “Her highly influential writings, which include the Autobiography, The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle, reveal her profound christocentric spirituality and her breadth of human experience. Teresa considered the evangelical and human virtues the basis of an authentic Christian life. She identified deeply with Christ in his humanity and stressed the importance of contemplation of his Passion and of his real presence in the Eucharist”.

Above all, concluded the Pope, “she presents prayer as an intimate friendship with Christ leading to an ever greater union of love with the Blessed Trinity. In her life and in her death Teresa embodied an unconditional love for the Church. May the example and prayers of Saint Teresa of Avila inspire us to greater fidelity to prayer and, through prayer, to greater love for the Lord and his Church, and more perfect charity towards our brothers and sisters”.


Here is a translation of the full catechesis:

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From left: Two generic icons; painting by Francois Gerard, 1827; founder statue in St. Peter's Basilica; St. Teresa in Ecstasy[Teresa's heart pierced by an angel), by Bernini, 1652; portrait by monk Juan de la Miseria, painted when the saint was 61; portrait by Rubens, 1615.

Dear brothers and sisters,

During the catecheses that I have dedicated to the Fathers of the Church, the great theologians, and the women figures of the Middle Eages, I have been able to dwell on some saints who have also been proclaimed Doctors of the Church for their outstanding doctrine.

Today I wish to start a brief series to complete the presentation of the Doctors of the Church. I will start with a saint who represents one of the peaks of Christian spirituality of all time, Santa Teresa de Avila, or Teresa de Jesus.

She was born Teresa Ahumada in Avila, Spain, in 1515. In her autobiography, she mentions some details about her childhood: that she was born to 'virtuous and God-fearing parents' in a numerous family with nine brothers and sisters.

As a child of less than 8 years, reading the lives of some martyrs inspired in her a desire for martyrdom, such that she devised an escape from home so that she could die a martyr and go to heaven. (cfr Vita 1, 4); "I want to see God," the child told her parents.

Some years later, Teresa would speak of her childhood readings and would say that she discovered truth, which she summarized in two fundamental principles: on the one hand, "the fact that everything that belongs to this world passes away"; and on the other hand, that only God is "for always, always, always", a theme that would return in her very famous poem, "Let nothing disturb you;/ let nothing frighten you./ God does not change./ Patience obtains everything:/ Whoever has God/ does not lack anything./ God alone is enough".

Orphaned of her mother at age 12, she asked the Virgin Mary to be a mother to her (cfr Vita 1, 7).

If in her adolescence, reading profane [ie.,non-religious] books had brought her the distractions of worldly living, her experience as a student of the Augustinian nuns of Santa Maria de Gracia in Avila and her frequent reading of spiritual books, especially the classics of Franciscan spirituality, taught her to meditate and to pray.

At age 20, she entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Avila, taking the name of Teresa de Jesus. Three years later, she fell gravely ill and was in coma for four days, apparently dead (cfr Vita 5, 9).

Even in her struggle against her own illnesses, the saint saw a struggle against her weaknesses and resistances to the call of God: "I wished to live," she wrote, "because I understood quite well that I was not living, but fighting the shadow of death, and I had no one who would give me life, nor could I myself take it away. He who could give it to me had reason not to help me, since so many times I had turned toward him, only to abandon him" (Vita 8, 2).

In 1543, she lost the close support of her family: her father died, and all her siblings had emigrated one after the other to the New World. In Lent of 1554, when she was 39, Teresa reached the peak of her struggles against her own weaknesses.

The fortuitous discovery of the statue of a 'much wounded Christ' left a profound mark on her life (cfr Vita 9). The saint, who at that time, found herself in profound consonance with St. Augustine, describes the decisive day of her mystical experience: "It happened that... suddenly I had the sense of the presence of God, and in no way could I doubt that he was within me, and that I was totally absorbed into him" (Vita 10, 1).

Parallel to the maturation of her interior life, the saint started to develop concretely her ideas for a reform of the Carmelite order. In 1562, she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, with the support of the Bishop of the city, Alvaro de Mendoza. Shortly afterwards, she also got the approval of the order's Superior-General, Giovanni Battista Rossi.

In the following years, she proceeded with establishing other new Carmels, 17 in all. She had a meeting of fundamental significance with (the future) St. John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) with whom, in 1568, she established in Duruelo, near Avila, the first convent of Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelites.

In 1580, she obtained from Rome approval for erecting an autonomous Province for her reformed Carmelites, which formally gave birth to the Religious Order of the Discalced Carmelties.

Teresa's earthly life ended while she was involved in the activity of setting up more convents. In fact, in 1582, after having established the Carmel of Burgos, and while she was returning to Avila, she died on the night of October 15 in Alba de Tormes (outside Salamanca), humbly repeating two sentences: "Finally, I die a daughter of the Church" and "It is time now, my Spouse, for us to see each other".

Hers was a life spent entirely in Spain, but spent for the entire Church. Beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614, and canonized in 1622 by Gregory XV, she was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by the Servant of God Paul VI in 1970.

Teresa de Jesus did not have any academic formation, but she always treasured the teachings of theologians, litterati, and spiritual masters. As a writer, she always drew on what she had personally experienced or saw in the experience of others (cfr Prologue to 'The Way of Perfection', that is, she wrote entirely out of experience.

She was able to weave relationships of spiritual friendship with many future saints, particularly with Juan de la Cruz. At the same time, she nourished herself by reading the Fathers of the Church - St. Jerome, St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine.

Among her principal works, there is, first of all, her autobiography entitled Book of Life, which she herself called 'Book of the Lord's Mercies'. Written in the Carmel of Avila in 1565, it is about her biographical and spiritual life, written, as she herself affirmed, in order to subject her soul to the discernment of her 'master of spirituals', the future St. John of Avila.

The aim was to show the presence and action of the merciful God in her life, and therefore, the work often narrates her dialog of prayer with the Lord. It is fascinating to read, because the saint not only narrates, but appears to relive the profound experience of her relationship with God.

In 1586, Teresa wrote The Way of Perfection, which she called Admonitions, consisting of the advice that she gave to her nuns, particularly, the 12 novices at the Carmel of St. Joseph in Avila. Teresa proposed to them an intense program of contemplative life in the service of the Church, on the basis of the evangelical virtues and prayer. Among its most valuable passages is her commentary on the Lord's Prayer, as a model for praying.

Teresa's most famous work of mysticism is The Interior Castle, which she wrote in 1577, in the prime of her maturity. It is a re-reading of her own way of spiritual life, and at the same time, a codification of the possible development of Christian life towards its fullness - sanctity - through the action of the Holy Spirit.

Teresa uses the structure of a castle with seven rooms as an image of man's interiority, while introducing the image of the silk cocoon that becomes a butterfly to express the passage from the natural to the supernatural.

The saint drew inspiration from Sacred Scripture, particularly the Song of Songs, for her final symbol of the 'two spouses', which allows her to describe, in the seventh 'room', the peak of Christian life in its four aspects: Trinitarian, Christologic, anthropological and ecclesial.

Teresa dedicated the Book of Foundations, written between 1573-1582, to her activities as founder of the reformed Carmelites, in which she describes the life of each group as it was being born. As in her autobiography, the narration is projected at demonstrating the action of God in the work of establishing these new convents.

It is not easy to summarize in a few words the profound and detailed spirituality of Teresa. But I wish to mention some essential points.

In the first place, St. Teresa proposed the evangelical virtues as the basis of all Christian and human life, particularly, detachment from material goods, or evangelical poverty, which concerns us all: love for one another as an essential element of community and social life; humility as love for the truth; determination and resolve as the fruit of Christian daring; theological hope, that she describes as a thirst for living water. She does not ignore human virtues like affability, veracity, modesty, courtesy, joy, culture.

In the second place, St. Teresa proposes profound harmony with the great Biblical figures and listening to the Word of God. She felt herself to be most in consonance with the bride in the Song of Songs and with the Apostle Paul, other than with Christ of the Passion and Jesus in the Eucharist.

The saint then underscores how essential prayer is: To pray, she said, "means to keep frequent company with a friend, since in prayer, we keep company, one on one, with him whom we know loves us" (Vita 8, 5).

Teresa's ideal coincides with the definition St. Thomas Aquinas gave of theological charity as “amicitia quaedam hominis ad Deum” - a kind of friendship between man and God, who had offered his friendship to man first - that is, the initiative comes from God (cfr Summa Theologiae II-ΙI, 23, 1).

Prayer is life and develops gradually in step with the growth of Christian life. It starts with vocal prayer, then passes into internatlization through meditation and contemplation, until it achieves a union of love with Christ and the Most Holy Trinity.

Obviously, it is not a development in which ascending to the higher steps means leaving the previous types of prayer, but it is a gradual deepening of a relationship with God which wraps around one's whole life.

More than a pedagogy of prayer, Teresa's teaching is a true 'mystagogy' [teaching a mystery]: She teaches the reader of her works to pray by praying herself along with him. In fact, she often interrupts her narration or her exposition by 'bursting' into prayer.

Another subject that was dear to the saint was the centrality of Christ's humanity. For Teresa, Christian life was a personal relationship with Jesus, which culminates in union with him through grace, through love, and through imitation.

That is why she gave great importance to meditation on the Passion of Christ and on the Eucharist as the presence of Christ in the Church, for the life of every believer and as the heart of liturgy.

St. Teresa had unconditional love for the Church: she manifested a vivid sensus Ecclesiae in the face of the episodes of divisions and conflicts of the Church in her time.

She reformed the Carmelite Order sp that it could better serve and defend "the holy Roman Catholic Church" and she was ready to give her life for the Church (cfr Vita 33, 5).

One last aspect of the Teresian doctrine that I wish to underscore is perfection as the aspiration of all Christian life and its final goal. The saint had a very clear idea of the 'fullness' of Christ to be re-lived by the Christian.

At the end of going through the 'interior castle' and reaching the seventh room, Teresa describes this fullness, which is realized in the indwelling on man of the Trinity and union with Christ through the mystery of his humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, Sr. Teresa de Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of all time. In our society, which often lacks spiritual values, St. Teresa teaches us to be tireless witnesses for God, of his presence and his action.

She teaches us to truly feel the thirst for God that exists in the depth of our heart, the desire to see God, to seek him out, to converse with him and to be his friend. This is the friendship that we all need and which, day after day, we must seek anew.

May the example of this saint, who was profoundly contemplative as well as effectively industrious, urge us to dedicate each day an appropriate time for prayer, to this opening towards God, to this way to seek him out, to see him, to find his friendship, and with it, true life.

Truly, many of us need to say: "I do not live, I do not really live, because I do not live the Essence of my life". Because of this, time for prayer is never time lost - it is a time during which the road of life opens up, the road opens up tso we can learn from God ardent love for him, his Church, and concrete charity for our brothers. Thank you.

After his plurilingual greetings to various pilgrim groups, he said this:

I wish to greet with affection all religious men and women and all consecrated persons on this day that is specially dedicated to the consecrated life, on the liturgical feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Dear brothers and sisters, I bless each of you and your way within the Church.

In his greeting to young people, the sick, and newlyweds, he said:

The other day, we celebrated the liturgical memory of St. John Bosco, priest and and educator. Look to him, dear young people, as an authentic teacher of life and holiness. You, who are afflicted, learn from his spiritual experience to trust in the crucified Christ in every circumstance. And you, dear newlyweds, turn to his intercession so that he may help you assume generously your mission as spouses.

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[COLORE=@FF0000]APPENDIX

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Actually, the Holy Father has already covered most of the Doctors of the Church in his chronological catecheses of the great figures of the Church since the Apostles. The following is a list of the Dcotors of the Church, classified by era. According to this list, after Teresa of Avila, Benedict XVI will have seven more DOC to present.

WESTERN ROMAN CHURCH DOCTORS
1 St Ambrose, 340-397 (Pastoral Doctor)
2 St Jerome, 345-420 (Doctor of Biblical Science)
3 St Augustine, 354-430 (Doctor of Grace)
4 St Gregory the Great, 540-604 (Doctor of Hymnology)

EASTERN CHURCH DOCTORS
5 St Athanasius, 295-373 (Doctor of Orthodoxy)
6 St Basil the Great, 330-379 (Doctor of Monasticism)
7 St Gregory Nazianzus, 330-390 (Doctor of Theologians)
8 St John Chrysostom, 345-407 (Doctor of Preachers)

EARLY CHURCH DOCTORS
9 St Ephraem, 306-373 (Doctor of Deacons and Poets)
10 St Hilary, 315-368 (Doctor of Christ's Divinity)
11 St Cyril of Jerusalem, 315-387 (Doctor of Faith and against Heresy)
12 St Cyril of Alexandria, 376-444 (Doctor of the Incarnation)
13 St Leo the Great, 390-461 (Doctor of Doctrine)
14 St Peter Chrysologus, 400-450 (Doctor of Homilies)
15 St Isidore, 560-636 (Doctor of Education)
16 St Bede, the Venerable, 673-735 (Doctor of English History)
17 St John Damascene, 676-749 (The Icon or Image Doctor)
18 St Peter Damian, 1007-1072 (Doctor of Reform and Renewal)

MIDDLE AGE CHURCH DOCTORS
19 St Anselm, 1033-1109 (Doctor of Scholasticism)
20 St Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153 (Devotional and Eloquent Doctor)
21 St Anthony of Padua, 1195-1231 (Evangelical Doctor)
22 St Albert the Great, 1200-1280 (Doctor of Science)
23 St Bonaventure, 1217-1274 (Seraphic Doctor)
24 St Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274 (Angelic Doctor)
25 St Catherine of Siena, 1347-1379 (Doctor of Unity)

COUNTER REFORMATION CHURCH DOCTORS
26 St Teresa of Avila 1515-1582 (Doctor of Prayer)
27 St Peter Canisius, 1521-1597 (Doctor of Catechetical Studies)
28 St John of the Cross, 1542-1591 (Mystical Doctor)
29 St Robert Bellarmine, 1542-1621 (Doctor of Church State Relations)
30 St Lawrence of Brindisi, 1559-1622 (Doctor of Conversions and Missions)
31 St Francis de Sales, 1567-1622 (Doctor of Authors and the Press)

MODERN ERA CHURCH DOCTORS
32 St Alphonsus Liguori, 1696-1787 (Morality and Marian Doctor)
33 St Therese of Lisieux, 1873-1897 (Doctor of Confidence and Missionaries)

The following list provides the date when each saint was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, and which Pope proclaimed them.

1-4: Saints Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great: Boniface VIII, September 20, 1295.
5: Saint Thomas Aquinas: Saint Pius V, April 11, 1567.
6-9: Saints Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint John Chrysostom: Saint Pius V, 1568.
10: Saint Bonaventure: Sixtus V, March 14, 1588.
11: Saint Anselm of Canterbury: Clement XI, February 3, 1720.
12: Saint Isidore of Seville: Innocent XIII, April 25, 1722.
13: Saint Peter Chrysologus: Benedict XIII, February 10, 1729.
14: Saint Leo the Great: Benedict XIV, October 15, 1754.
15: Saint Peter Damian: Leo XII, September 27, 1828.
16: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: Pius VIII, August 20, 1830.
17: Saint Hilaire of Poitiers: Pius IX, May 13, 1851.
18: Saint Alphonsus Liguori: Pius IX, July 7, 1871.
19: Saint Francis of Sales: Pius IX, November 16, 1871.
20-21: Saints Cyril of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem: Leo XIII, July 28, 1882.
22: Saint John Damascene: Leo XIII, August 19, 1890.
23: Saint Bede the Venerable: Leo XIII, November 13, 1899.
24: Saint Ephrem of Syria: Benedict XV, October 5, 1920.
25: Saint Peter Canisius: Pius XI, May 21, 1925.
26: Saint John of the Cross: Pius XI, August 24, 1926.
27: Saint Robert Bellarmine: Pius XI, September 17, 1931.
28: Saint Albert the Great: Pius XI, December 16, 1931.
29: Saint Anthony of Padua: Pius XII, January 16, 1946.
30: Saint Laurence of Brindisi: John XXIII, March 19, 1959.
31: Saint Theresa of Avila: Paul VI, September 27, 1970.
32: Saint Catherine of Siena: Paul VI, October 4, 1970.
33: Saint Theresa of Lisieux: John Paul II, October 19, 1997.

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Editorial

Issue of February 2011

The pagans of Rome cast the early Christians as bad citizens, a charge which reappears today in both the West and East: secularists in the Americas and Europe gradually move to marginalize a Christian presence in public life while Islamic extremists and totalitarian regimes use starker measures to purge Christians from society altogether.

Pope Benedict XVI drew attention to these violations of religious freedom in his January address to members of the world diplomatic corps stationed at the Vatican.

He began his survey by remembering the plight of Christians in Iraq, the terrorism in Egypt that “brutally struck Christians as they prayed in church,” Pakistan’s anti-Christian blasphemy law, the attacks on Christians in Nigeria during Christmas, and the trials and difficulties Christians still face in Communist China.

Turning to the West, he noted that its violations of religious freedom assume a more subtle character, often appearing in countries “which accord great importance to pluralism and tolerance.”

He said that Christian doctors, nurses, and legal professionals have seen their right to conscientious objection wither. He decried “the banning of religious feasts and symbols from civic life under the guise of respect for the members of other religions or those who are not believers.”

And he expressed dismay at the tendency of Western societies to harass Christian social, educational, and charitable agencies even when they “contribute to society as a whole.”

Western society only undercuts itself by hampering these groups, Benedict argued. Far from endangering the common good, the truly religious make the deepest contribution to it.

“A clear example of this was Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta,” he said. “People like her show the world the extent to which the commitment born of faith is beneficial to society as a whole.”

“The great lesson of history” is that true religion gives a civilizational push to the world, he said. Out of the “sincere search for God” has come the establishment of democratic societies and respect for human rights. Religious freedom is not in conflict with the common good, he argued, but an inseparable component of it. Man cannot rest in a good that satisfies his nature without serving and seeking God, and thus religious freedom is the “fundamental path to peace.”

“Humanity throughout history, in its beliefs and rituals, demonstrates a constant search for God and ‘these forms of religious expression are so universal that one may well call man a religious being,’“ he said, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“The religious dimension is an undeniable and irrepressible feature of man’s being and acting, the measure of the fulfillment of his destiny and of the building up of the community to which he belongs. Consequently, when the individual himself or those around him neglect or deny this fundamental dimension, imbalances and conflicts arise at all levels, both personal and interpersonal.”

Pope Benedict said that governments from both the East and West make rhetorical nods to religious freedom even as they hollow out its reality through a monopolistic hold on public life.

In a comment directed to Middle Eastern governments, he said, “I would like to state once again that the right to religious freedom is not fully respected when only freedom of worship is guaranteed, and that with restrictions.”

To all governments, he said, “abstract proclamation of religious freedom is insufficient: this fundamental rule of social life must find application and respect at every level and in all areas; otherwise, despite correct affirmations of principle, there is a risk that deep injustice will be done to citizens wishing to profess and freely practice their faith.”

Christian persecution has been defined downward, observed Pope Benedict. He said that it is the Church’s “conviction that one cannot create a sort of scale of degrees of religious intolerance. Unfortunately, such an attitude is frequently found, and it is precisely acts of discrimination against Christians which are considered less grave and less worthy of attention on the part of governments and public opinion.”

He also expressed concern that some in the international community too often treat religious freedom and “human rights” as automatically at odds, which is an impossibility if the good of man is properly understood.

He lamented that this view leads to the inventing of new rights as a way of canceling out a right to religious freedom. These invented rights are “merely the expression of selfish desires lacking a foundation in authentic human nature,” he said.

To see what he means, one only has to look at the extent to which “gay rights” and “abortion rights” in the West have been used by government officials to sideline Christians in public life.

Today’s secularists are not unlike the pagans who presided over the collapse of the Roman Empire, blaming its decline on the most conscientious citizens while honoring the most decadent ones.

But true peace can only come from the tranquility of order, as St. Augustine wrote, and the tranquility of order depends upon the intellectual and moral virtues that Christianity fortifies.

This is why Pope Benedict reminded the diplomatic elite that eroding religious freedom in the name of peace will only extinguish it. In a peaceful world, he said, no one should have to choose between “fidelity to God and loyalty to their nation.”

‘We’re only at the beginning
of this Pontificate’, says Mons. Fisichella
by John Thavis



ROME, Feb. 2 — “We’re still at the beginning of a pontificate, and in my opinion it’s always difficult to make judgments or offer a far-ranging analysis at the beginning.”

Those simple words of Archbishop Rino Fisichella last night took some people by surprise. He was commenting on a new and somewhat critical book about Pope Benedict’s pontificate, which will reach the six-year mark in April.

He made the remarks at a press conference in Rome to present the book, C’era una Volta un Vaticano (“Once Upon a Time There Was a Vatican”) by Massimo Franco, a respected journalist who has written about Italian politics and the Catholic Church. The book describes a series of challenges that have greatly reduced the church’s influence in social and political life, including the sex abuse crisis and what the author calls the Vatican’s “gaffe factory.”

[Thavis had quoted Franco in his recent analysis of how the Vatican and the Church in Italy have dealt with Berlusconi's conduct so far (posted on the preceding page of this thread), in which I commented on Franco's statement that Italian politicians are generally "impatient or indifferent when the Church tries to Enter the political arena", which is patently not the case. The secular politicians are far from indifferent, always reacting with knee-jerk hostility and vehement declarations that religion and the Church should play no part in the public arena! It's the kind of tendentious observation - so obviously contrary to fact - often made by Franco that has made me distrust him to be an objective commentator on the Church! Now his new book apparently bears out my gut reaction. Franco writes a column and occasional editorials for Corriere della Sera, which is generally anti-clerical.]

The idea that Pope Benedict might enjoy a long reign is not new. Reporters have noticed that the German Pope seems to deliberately pace himself, much as a long-distance runner would do. At 83, he seems in good health and of quick mind.

But Archbishop Fisichella is the first Roman Curia official to suggest that the controversies, scandals and missteps during Pope Benedict’s first six years may not loom so large in the future. At the very least, he said, “a sense of history should make us prudent and cautious from this point of view.”

He recalled that Pope John Paul II’s first years were also troubled by disagreement and internal dissent, making them “the most terrible and the longest years” of his pontificate. Pope Paul VI in his first six years was ignored, a true “voice crying in the wilderness,” and he gained stature in Italy only later, with actions like his direct appeal to Red Brigades terrorists, Archbishop Fisichella said.

As head of the newly formed Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, Archbishop Fischella said he appreciates that Pope Benedict will have unfinished business as supreme pontiff. [What high-ranking official of any institution is bound to have no unfinished business at the end of his tenure? Life goes on, so chronic problems go on and new ones crop up! Obviously, every Pontiff has to carry on with the unfinished business of his predecessors. The crucial factor is what they choose to make their priority.]

He said the Pope’s main project is one of formation, in response to an “educational emergency” that afflicts people inside and outside the Church. [There you are!]

I decided to put this vignette from today's GA into a separate post because the photographers understandably focused on it.


Boy eludes security
to come up to the Pope

Feb. 2, 2001


Inset shows the boy walking nonchalantly towards the stage.


A spontaneous and touching moment of light relief took place in this morning's audience when a small boy escaped from his parents' grasp and ran onto the stage of the Paul VI Hall, towards Pope Benedict.

The Holy Father, who had just finished reading his greetings in English, waved the guards away and welcomed the young child exchanging a few words with him before blessing him.

His secretary Mgr. Georg Gänswein then accompanied the child back to a security agent who took back the reluctant child to his parents.

YOUCAT -A novelty for WYD-Madrid:
The faith, in the language of young people

February 2, 2011


BENEDICT XVI TO THE YOUNG: 'Let yourself be fascinated by the Catechism!

Today's issue of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, calls attention on its Page 1 (color picture above) to a teaching tool developed by the Church for the coming World Youth Day in Madrid.

It will be published in all the official languages of the Vatican, and will be part of the contents of the knapsack given out to each WYD participant. (The report has yet to appear on the official WYD site).

Avvenire also publishes excerpts of the Foreword written by Pope Benedict XVI for the book, which is based on the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (I will post it as as soon as I have translated it.

Meanwhile, here is more information about YOUCAT from Ignatius Press, which is publishing the 300-page English edition:)

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YOUCAT is short for Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the official catechism for World Youth Day.

Written for high-school age people and young adults, YOUCAT is an accessible, contemporary expression of the Catholic Faith.

The popular format includes Questions-and-Answers, highly-readable commentary, margin pictures and illustrations, summary definitions of key terms, Bible citations, and quotes from the Saints and other great teachers.

What's more, YOUCAT is keyed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, so people can go deeper. It explains:

- What Catholics believe (doctrine)

- How they celebrate the mysteries of the faith (sacraments)

- How Catholics are to live (moral life)

- How they should pray (prayer and spirituality)

The questions are direct and honest, even at times tough; the answers straightforward, relevant, and compelling. After the Bible, YOUCAT will likely become the "go-to" place for young people to learn the truth about the Catholic faith.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote the foreword; Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the editor of YOUCAT and the Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, wrote the afterword. Lavishly Illustrated.

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It's a wonderful idea. I hope it will be as useful and memorable for all its users as the classic Baltimore Catechism was to the English-speaking Catholics of my generation and earlier ones! More than memorable, unforgettable is really the word because the questions and answers were framed very simply in a way that lent itself to quick memorization whose imprint remains even decades later, in my case./DIM]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/02/2011 11:44]

VESPERS, EXPOSITION AND BENEDICTION
Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
XV World Day for Consecrated Life

Illustration: The Presentation and the Flight to Egypt, 12th-century Evangelarium, Benedictine Monastery of Pruem, France.

At 5:30 Wednesday afternoon, Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, and the XV World Day for Consecrated Life, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided at St. Peter's Basilica in the celebration of Vespers with members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The rite included the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and concluded with a Eucharistic Benediction.





Pope calls on consecrated persons
to be luminous witnesses to Christ
in today's world


2 FEB 2011 (RV) - “Today, especially in more developed societies, we are witnessing a condition characterized by a radical plurality, by the progressive marginalization of religion in the public sphere, by a relativism that touches fundamental values. This situation demands that our Christian witness be luminous and coherent and that ever more care and generosity be given towards our efforts in the area of education”.

This was Pope Benedict XVI’s message to men and women religious on Wednesday as he marked the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the 15th World Day for Consecrated Life, with the celebration of Vespers in St Peter’s Basilica.

Reflecting on the meaning of the feast, he said it is interesting to observe “this entrance of the child Jesus into the solemn environment of the temple”, amidst the busy comings and goings of people “caught up in their daily commitments”, the priests going about their chores, the numerous faithful and pilgrims, “none of whom is aware of what is going on”.

“Only two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, discover the great novelty” said the Pope. “Guided by the Holy Spirit, they find in that child the fulfilment of their long period of waiting and watchfulness”.

The Presentation of Jesus in the temple, he said is an “eloquent icon of the complete giving of one’s life for those – men and women – who, through the evangelical counsels, are called to imitate in the Church and in the world “those characteristic aspects of the chaste, poor and obedient Jesus“.

Because of this, today’s feast was chosen by the Venerable Pope John Paul II to celebrate the annual Day for Consecrated life”.

Pope Benedict XVI then proposed three thoughts for reflection:

First, the biblical icon of the presentation of Jesus in the temple “contains the fundamental symbol of light – the light which, coming from Christ,…shines on all the Church's children…But those who are called to the consecrated life have a special experience of the light which shines forth from the Incarnate Word”.

Second, the evangelical image manifests prophecy as a gift of the Holy Spirit. “Simeon and Anna, contemplating the Child Jesus, catch a glimpse of his destiny of death and resurrection for the salvation of all peoples, and they announce this mystery as universal salvation. Consecrated life is called to this prophetic witness, linked by its dual, contemplative and active forms”.

Third, the gospel image of the presentation of Jesus in the temple shows the wisdom of Simeon and Anna, the wisdom of a life dedicated totally to seeking the face of God, his signs, his will; a life dedicated to listening to – and to announcing his word. Consecrated life, in the world and in the Church, is a visible sign of this seeking the face of the Lord, and of the ways that lead to him.

Finally, Pope Benedict concluded, consecrated life, “becomes a life-giving commitment” that, “with wisdom, with faith” and the “inexhaustible possibilities of true education”, can guide the hearts and minds of men and women of our time “towards the good life of the Gospel.”




Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily:

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Dear brothers and sisters:

In today's celebration, we contemplate the Lord Jesus whom Mary and Joseph presented at the Temple 'to offer him to the Lord' (Lk 2,22).

This Gospel scene reveals the mystery of the Virgin's Son, consecrated by the Father, who had come to the world to comply faithfully with his will (cfr Heb 10,5-7).

Simeon called him 'a light of revelation for Gentiles' (Lk 2,32) and announced with prophetic words his supreme sacrifice to God and his final victory (cfr Lk, 2,32-35).

It was the encounter of the two Testaments, the Old and the New. Jesus entered the old Temple - he, who is the new Temple of God: he came to visit his people, bringing to completion his obedience to the Law and inaugurating the end times of salvation.

It is interesting to observe from up close this entrance of the Baby Jesus into the solemnity of the temple, among the great hustle and bustle of so many people, caught up in their own personal concerns: the priests and the Levites doing their turn of service, the numerous devotees and pilgrims desirous of an encounter with the God of Israel.

But none of them was aware of anything [unusual]. Jesus was just another baby like many others, the firstborn son of simple parents. Even the priests were incapable of grasping the signs of the new and special presence of the Messiah and Savior.

Only two old people, Simeon and Anna, discover the great news. Led by the Holy Spirit, they found in this Baby the fulfillment of their long and watchful waiting.

Both contemplate the light of God, who had come to illuminate the world, and their prophetic gaze opens to the future, as the announcement of the Messiah: "Lumen ad revelationem gentium!" (Lc 2,32).

In the prophetic attitude of the two old persons is found all of the ancient Covenant, while expressing the joy of encounter with the Redeemer. At the sight of the Baby, Simeon and Anna have the intuition that he is the Awaited One.

The presentation of Jesus in the temple constitutes an eloquent icon of the total donation of his own life, for all those men and women who are called by evangelical counsel to reproduce in the Church and in the world "the characteristic traits of Jesus who was chaste, poor and obedient" (Post-Synodal Apost. Exh. 'Vita consacrata', 1)

Therefore today's feast was chosen by the Venerable John Paul II to celebrate the annual Day of Consecrated Life. In this context, I address a heartfelt and grateful greeting to Mons. João Braz de Aviz, whom I recently named to be the Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as I also greet his Secretary and co-workers., and I affectionately greet the Superiors-General and all consecrated persons present.

I wish to propose three brief reflections for this day:

First: The evangelical icon of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple contains the fundamental symbol of light: the light of Christ which radiates to Mary and Joseph, to Simeon and Anna, and through them, to everyone.

The Fathers of the Church linked this irradiation to the spiritual way. Consecrated life expresses this way specially as philocalia = love for divine beauty reflected from the goodness of God (cfr ibid., 19).

The light of this beauty shines forth from the face of Christ. "The Church contemplates the transfigured face of Christ to confirm herself in the faith and avoid disorientation by his disfigured face on the Cross... She is the Bride before the Bridegroom. who takes part in his mystery, is surrounded by his light, which has reached all her children...

"But a singular experience of the light that comes from the Word incarnate is certainly reserved for those who are called to the consecrated life. The profession of the evangelical counsel, in fact, places them as a sign of prophecy for their community of brothers and for the world" (ibid., 15).

In the second place, the evangelical icon manifests prophecy, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Simeon and Anna, contemplating the Baby Jesus, are able to see his destiny of death and resurrection for the salvation of all peoples, announcing this mystery as universal salvation.

Consecrated life is called to such prophetic witness, by virtue of its double activity that is both contemplative and active. Consecrated men and women are called on to manifest the primacy of God, the passion for the Gospel practised as a lifestyle and announced to the poor and the least in the world.

"Because of this primacy, nothing can come before personal love for Christ and for the poor in whom he lives. True prophecy is born from God, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his Word in the various circumstances of history" (ibid., 84).

In this way, consecrated life, in how it is lived daily along the roads of humanity, manifests the Gospel and the Kingdom that is already present and at work.

In the third place, the evangelical icon of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple manifests the wisdom of Simeon and Anna, the wisdom of a life dedicated totally to the search for the face of God, for his signs, for his will - a life dedicated to listening to his Word and announcing it. "«Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram»: I seek your face, Lord (Sal 26,8).

Consecrated life is a visible sign, in the world and in the Church, of this search for the face of the Lord and the ways that lead to him (cfr Gv 14,8).

Thus, the consecrated person bears witness to the commitment - which is joyous as well as laborious - to the assiduous and wise search for the divine will (cfr Cong. per gli Istituti di Vita Consacrata e le Società di Vita Apostolica, Istruz. Il servizio dell’autorità e l’obbedienza. Faciem tuam Domine requiram [2008], 1).

Dear brothers and sisters, be assiduous listeners of the Word, because every wisdom in life comes from the Word of the Lord. Be scrutineers of the Word through the lectio divina, since consecrated life “is born from hearing the word of God and embracing the Gospel as its rule of life. A life devoted to following Christ in his chastity, poverty and obedience thus becomes a living ‘exegesis’ of God’s word. The Holy Spirit, in whom the Bible was written, is the same Spirit who illumines the word of God with new light for the founders and foundresses. Every charism and every rule springs from it and seeks to be an expression of it, thus opening up new pathways of Christian living marked by the radicalism of the Gospel" [Apost. Ech. Verbum Domini, 83).

We live today, eespecially in the most developed societies, a condition often marked by a radical plurality, of the progressive emargination of religions from the public sphere, of a relativism which is applied to fundamental values.

This demands that our Christian witness be consistent and luminous and that our educational efforts should be even more attentive and generous.

May your apostolic activity, in particular, dear brothers and sisters, become a life commitment which draws, with persevering passion, from Wisdom as truth and beauty, 'the splendor of the truth'. May you be able to orient - with the wisdom of your own lives, and with trust in the inexhaustible possibilities of true education - the minds and hearts of the men and women in our time towards 'the good life of the Gospel'.

At this time, my thoughts go out with special affection to all consecrated men and women in every part of the world, and I entrust them to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He then said a prayer he composed for the occasion:

---

Benedict XVI no longer
an 'organ donor'
Translated and adapted from the German service of



O2 FEB 2011 (RV) - Pope Benedict XVI is no longer a registered organ donor, according to the Pope's secretary, Mons.Georg Gaenswein.

In a letter to a Munich Catholic physician and right-to-life activist Gero Winkelmann, Gaenswein said that "despite many published reports (that the Pope is a registered organ donor), the organ donor registration that Cardinal Ratzinger had since the 1970s became invalid ipso facto when he was elected Pope.". Thus, he said, any current reference assuming the document is still valid is wrong.

Many reports since the election of Benedict XVI have mentioned his registration as an organ donor and have assumed that his certificate continues to be valid. I suppose it became invalid ipso facto for Cardinal Ratzinger when he became Pope because Church policy is that any Pope's remains must be kept intact - which is why, for example, Poland could not have the heart of John Paul II after his death as the Church of Poland would have wanted.

One assumes Mons. Gaenswein or someone else in the Vatican has officially informed the concerned organ bank or donor association to take away Joseph Ratzinger from their lists. Better yet, maybe organ banks have an age limit beyond which registered donors are automatically taken off the list...


Italy's TGcom adds a few details to the RV story:

After a Catholic physician in Germany sought to encourage organ donation by publicizing Joseph Ratzinger's registration as an organ donor decades ago, the Pope's personal secretary sent the doctor a blunt letter saying that the election to the papacy had invalidated any such registration.

The physician, Gero Winkelmann of Munich, has referred to Joseph Ratzinger's signed pledge to donate his organs after his death, in articles and conferences promoting pledges for organ donation.

But the doctrine of the Church provides that the remains of Popes must be interred completely and integrally, which excludes the possibility of organ donation ...

[The article goes on to quote from Gaenswein's letter as reported by RV.]

Thursday, February 3, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

ST. BLAISE [Barsegh, Blas, Biagio] (Turkish Armenia, d 316)
Bishop, Martyr, One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
What is known of his life was not written till many centuries after his death.
He was said to be a physician who became Bishop of Sevastea. Most of his
life was spent before the Edict of Milan in 313 which decreed religious
toleration throughout the Roman Empire. But it was not immediately followed
in Armenia, and Blaise retired to a cave to escape persecution. There he is
said to have befriended the wild beasts. Some hunters found him and dragged
him back to the authorities who compelled him to worship pagan idols. He
refused and was tortured by laceration using wool combs, hung from a tree,
and eventually beheaded. His cult grew in the 12th and 13th century throughout
most of Europe including England. When the Black Death struck in the 14th
century, he was one of the so-called Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints who were
invoked to cure specific illnesses. Blaise was associated with throat ailments
because he had helped a child who choked on a fishbone.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/020311.shtml


OR today.

Illustration: St. Teresa as Protector of Carmelite nuns, 17th-century painting.
At the General Audience, the Pope speaks about Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church:
'The saint and her friendship with God'
Other papal stories in this issue: The Holy Father's Foreword to YOUCAT, the 300-page catechism specially prepared for participants in the Madrid World Youth Day, with statements from Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna, who edited the book and supervised the German translation, and Cardinal Scola of Venice, who supervised the Italian translation. Page 1 international news: Continuing coverage of the Egyptian crisis updated to President Mubarak's Tuesday night statement that he will not seek re-election in September; and a new survey shows that unemployment is rising in Germany while it is declining in Spain. In the inside pages, an essay by Mons. Enrico Dal Covolo, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, on the Sacred Scriptures as the fruitful object of meditation not only through lectio divina but in the works of artists and literary figures, especially Dante.


PAPAL EVENTS TODAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Alfons M. Kloss, Ambassador of Austria to the Holy See, who presented his credentials. Address in German.

- Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (regular meeting)

- Members of the Emmanuel Community. Address in French.




The Holy Father has accepted the resignation as Archbishop of Maribor (Slovenia) of Mons. Franz Kramberger under Canon 401 §2 of the Code of Canon Law [resignation for reasons other than reaching retirement age].[/DIM} He named Mons. Marjan Turnšek, who was Coadjutor Bishop, to succeed Kramberger. [NB: The resignee was recently disclosed to have operated a massive financial scheme for years that bankrupt the archdiocese.]

AP summarizes the story behind the resignation based on Italian media reports last week:


Pope accepts resignation of
Slovene bishop involved in major
financial loss for his archdiocese
by Nicole Winfield


VATICAN CITY, Feb. 3 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday accepted the resignation of a Slovenian bishop blamed for incurring millions in debt on the archdiocese through bad investments.

The Vatican said Monsignor Franc Kramberger, 74, was resigning under the article of canon law that allows bishops to retire early if they are sick or for some grave reason that makes them unsuitable for office. A Vatican official confirmed that the financial mess in Kramberger's archdiocese of Maribor was to blame.

The Italian newsweekly L'Espresso broke the story last month, reporting that the archdiocese had accumulated around €800 million ($1.1 billion) in debt stemming from its stakes in a chain of failing business companies, including a nationwide TV network known for its variety of porn channels.

While the archdiocese has downplayed the size of the total debt attributable to it, it has admitted that some of its economic activities may not have been compatible with the Church's core calling.

On Thursday, the Slovenian Bishops' Conference said in a statement carried by the Slovenian STA news agency that Kramberger had asked to be relieved of his duties and that the Pope had accepted.

The Vatican said Monsignor Marjan Turnsek, currently the coadjutor bishop in Maribor, would replace Kramberger. Turnsek had been brought in at the end of 2009, two years after the first indications were received by Rome that something was wrong.

According to L'Espresso, starting in the 1990s, the Maribor church set up holding companies to invest in paper, chemical and telecommunications industries, among other endeavours. But several of the projects and companies it invested in now are on the verge of bankruptcy, the magazine wrote, citing a report by a special Vatican investigator sent to Maribor last year to sort out the scope of the damage.

It says the Slovene church this month must present a restructuring plan for its holding company. If the company and its related investments fail, Slovenian banks, companies and everyday investors will be out millions, L'Espresso wrote.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/02/2011 17:53]

February 3, 2011

To my knowledge, Fr. Schall is the first commentator to pick up on the Holy Father's concerns, expressed in LOTW, about the pervasive drug problem in today's world, as insidious and obviously damaging to large sectors of mankind today as its human trafficking and arms sales corollaries. In addition to his insight, his essay is also very informative with its at-a-glance overview of the magnitude and evil of the drug problem

---

Many, many bishops, above all from Latin America, tell me that wherever the road of drug production and trafficking passes—and that includes large sectors of these countries — it is as if an evil monster had its hand on the country and had corrupted the people.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World, pp. 60-61.

---

I.

One of the few good things about old-fashioned war, usually, was that we had a definite enemy and a cause that could be defined or understood in political terms.

With the current drug wars, we have something rather different, though possibly even more lethal: an undermining of a society from within, not from without. Armies could presumably protect the civilians behind the lines, though bombing, shelling, and now missiles made that less easy.

But drugs introduce a new element. The war is closer to a civil war. The traffic that supplies the raw material, however, passes beyond borders; it does not much discriminate between soldier and civilian, or innocent and guilty. The frontier is the human will and soul, not any "front" defined in terms of rivers, mountains, or oceans.

In its latest report on "Mexico and the Cartel Wars in 2010", Stratfor tells us that some 11,000 people were killed last year, double the number of 2008. Some 30,000 have been killed altogether. It begins to make Iraq seem like a peace-keeping operation.

The cartel names are great — Sinaloa, perhaps the most powerful, La Familia, Gulf, Los Zetas, Aztecas, and the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization (Juarez). These groups are constantly fighting for turf, moving, changing names and alliances. We hear of the Cartel Pacifico and the New Federation.

Several of the leading drug lords have been killed — Arturo Beltran Leyva, Ignacio "El Nacho" Coronel, and Nazario "El Mas Loco" Moreno Gonzales, who is called the "spiritual leader" of La Familia. Several have been arrested, including Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal. Others such as Fernando "El Ingeniero" Sanchez Arellano and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera still flourish.

These cartels are said to have "offices" in some 230 American cities. They are connected with European distribution and with the supply sources in Columbia and along the Central American route. Drugs are be smuggled into the U.S. by boat, airplane, or border crossing. The money made must be returned to Mexico, in one article I read, often through Atlanta.

It is estimated that $25 to $40 billion dollars are involved each year. The cartels are involved in kidnapping, human trafficking, "protection," and all sorts of "businesses." Police, newspaper writers, clergy, or politicians who seek to do something about it are often killed or their families threatened. So it is big business with high stakes.

I have seen estimates that around 500,000 people are involved. It must be at least that. Every major Mexican town has its problems, not just those on the immediate US border. The relation of the Mexican government to its state governments, the army, the Federal Police, to the Congress to all this mess is tangled.

Obviously, the governors of American Border States like Texas and Arizona recognize that this trafficking is an immediate present danger to their citizens. Some Americans are killed; others threatened. Many writers think it is the most important problem that faces our society today. Lack of more effective and urgent response makes one suspicious about how high up the corruption goes...

This issue is always presented as something that needs to be stopped — the killings, the arms, the smuggling. Once we stop the flow of these items, the problem will end, or so we are told. Less often do we think in terms of "Why does all of this evidently profitable 'commerce' go on anyhow?"

I know a young lady who teaches in a Catholic high school in small Iowa town. I asked her if she sees any of this drug business there or if she has ever heard any preaching about it. She said that it does go on and there is general silence.

Of course, we see "drug free" signs in many places, especially schools. Whether those areas are or are not "drug free" we often must wonder about. The drugs are evidently being sold all over the place. We know that what results in the purchasers — addiction, broken lives — are usually treated as health or recreation problems, not criminal problems.

II.

It is with this background that I was particularly interested in a passage in the Light of the World interview of Benedict XVI with Peter Seewald.

As I mentioned in the beginning citation, Benedict is quite up-to-date on this issue. He regularly hears bishops from all over the world, particularly Latin America. They report to him what is going on in their dioceses. When this drug trafficking appears, as it does in more and more places, it is as if an "evil monster had its hand on the country."

Something diabolical surrounds this trade, in fact. "I believe that we do not have an adequate idea of the power of this serpent of drug trafficking and consumption that spans the globe," Benedict continues.

Where have we heard of that "serpent" before? With our eyes, we see that this scourge "destroys youth, it destroys families, it leads to violence and endangers the future of entire nations."

We have seen these effects in Columbia. We now see it in Mexico if not in our own country.

Why is this growing menace not addressed on the massive scale it deserves? One reason, of course, is that the drug traffickers, like Islamic terrorist organizations, take any public criticism of their operation seriously. In effect, someone is sent, often successfully, to silence any investigation, jury, police force, media analysis, or adequate response.

But the Pope is more interested in causes. It is not just a shady business deal or trade. It manifests in an emptiness in our souls. "This too is one of the terrible responsibilities of the West: that it uses drugs and that it thereby creates countries that have to supply them, which in the end exhaust and destroys them."

This is surely what happens in Columbia, Mexico, and in the lines of supply in other countries. Too often growers of poppies or other sources of drugs are said to be poor and need the business. This "farming" is all that is left to them. It almost gets a pass on "social justice" grounds.

"A craving for happiness has developed that cannot contain itself with things as they are. And that then flees into the devil's paradise, if you will, and destroys people all around," Benedict surmises.

Not being "content with things as they are" means that we often find an exaggerated demand for happiness that must be settled here and now, no waiting. Not seeking happiness in the right way sets us off in spurious directions to give us an artificial happiness that in effect "destroys" us.

III.

The bishops also tell the Pope that allied to drug trafficking is "the destruction that sex tourism wreaks on our young people." Some of this was brought to our attention in the floods in Thailand and New Orleans. The bishops tell the Pope that this trafficking is so bad that it is "something we cannot even begin to imagine."

Again the Pope thinks that we can find an underlying cause. It comes from "the arrogance and the boredom and the false freedom of the Western world." Here again is the theme that our sins are not just our own but, unless dealt with, are soon spread all over the world. They arise from a relativism, from a false sense of freedom.

How do we analyze this situation? "You see," the Pope points out, "man strives for eternal joy; he would like pleasure in the extreme, would like what is eternal. But when there is no God, it is not granted to him and it cannot be."

So the drug problem is, at bottom, the God problem in another form. It would not exist if we were not created so that within us is a drive to eternal joy, to the ultimate pleasure of seeing God.

We are to know what we are and how to achieve our elevated end through virtue and grace. But we can reject this. We are free to do so. But we are not free to escape our very nature, which will send us off seeking happiness wherever if we do not choose to find it where it belongs in God. This latter is the central adventure of our lives.

Happiness really cannot be found in any other place than in God. That is simply the way it is. The drug trade is, in a way, almost visible proof of this incapacity.

So what is the alternative to God? Man "himself must now create something that is fictitious, a false eternity." Thus, to the question of what to do about the drug traffic, it looks like it will go on until we rediscover God in a practical way in each of our souls so that we do not go off seeking a "false eternity."

"This is a sign of the times that should be an urgent challenge to us, especially as Christians." The reality and failure of drugs to provide happiness is indeed "a sign of the times."

Often, we do not like to hear these things. We think the problem of drugs is a "social problem," a "political" problem, or a "medical problem."

The Pope had it right in the beginning. No problem would exist if no market existed. We do not address ourselves to the causes of this market. The market exists basically because a notion of freedom separates man from God, rather than unites him.

We are "autonomous," we think. The drive to happiness in us, we think, is not intended to incite us to find out what God had in mind for us at our creation. No, it is to enable us to make our own "eternity" in this life. But it is not so.

Christians "have to show — and also to live accordingly — that the eternity man needs can come only from God. That God is the first thing necessary in order to be able to withstand the affliction of this time." Everything about man must be made good, made right, if this alternate drug "happiness" is not to engulf us.

If we look at our society, at ourselves, we see that God is seldom "the first thing necessary." Yet, Scripture tells us, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto thee" (Matt. 6:33).

Why should we do this? In a way, the drug traffic has been a blessing. It makes clear both that we all, whether into drugs or not, have an intrinsic unsettlement in our souls about happiness.

All else we seek, we seek in the light of how we define this end. The means to it are what prudence reveals. Does this thing I choose to do take me to or away from the end that God has offered to me?

But if the only end that I have is one I give to myself, in the end that is all that I shall ever have, namely myself. That, more or less, is the definition of hell, which we already see in the results of this whole drug business.