BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See earlier posts today, 2/12/12, on preceding page.




Here's someone whose view I share that Benedict XVI may yet visit Dublin to close the Eucharistic Congress. It would be a visit not unlike the lightning trips he made to Compostela and Barcelona in 2010, which were not on his travel schedule for that year, until they were announced a few weeks before the event. The event is just as important for the Church, being the 50th International Eucharistic Congress...

This London-based blogger who writes as 'The Reluctant Sinner' describes himself as 'a Catholic who studied theology to postgraduate level, and am specifically interested in biblical scholarship, Church history, philosophy of religion;. He 'confirms' my gut reaction to the Archbishop of Dublin who has publicly said he does not think it is the 'right time' for the Pope to visit Ireland - ignoring that a visit to close the IEC would be far from an apostolic visit to Ireland, and therefore, hardly an 'imposition' on the people of Ireland, as Mons. Martin he all but publicly said it would be (See original post about this on page 285 of this thread)...

Irish Church divided on whether
Pope should come to Dublin in June

February 11, 2012

It is my personal belief that Pope Benedict XVI will visit Ireland this year. He may even travel to the closing ceremony of the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. He will do this despite the prophets of doom in his own Church, and also because he knows that the ordinary Massgoers in Éire are currently in need a form of pastoral care than only the Successor of St Peter can offer. His visit may only last hours, but will certainly boost the morale of his flock in Ireland for the next few decades.

Sadly, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, recently downplayed the prospect of a visit to Ireland by the Pope. During an interview with RTÉ Irish radio), the Archbishop stated that he felt a Papal visit to coincide with the Eucharistic Congress would be premature in light of the recent clerical child abuse scandals.

These criminal acts by priests, sometimes involving the collusion of Ireland's bishops and the Irish state, have led to a general feeling of anger against the Church in Ireland. In what many consider to be a cynical or frankly unjust move, the Irish government has also openly criticised the Holy See, accusing it of being a primary facilitator of the scandals - effectively blaming Rome for Ireland's problem.

According to the Irish Examiner, it seems that one of Diarmuid Martin's main fears concerning a Papal visit to Ireland in June is that it may lead to protests by those opposed to the Church, which would then detract from the whole purpose of the Congress. It appears that this is a fear shared by some of Martin's brother bishops in the Irish hierarchy.

But these concerns fail to acknowledge the reality of the situation. I am confident that most Irish people know that the blame for clerical child abuse does not rest with Pope Benedict XVI, who has done more than anyone else to remove the filth that has infected the Catholic Church in recent times. The people of Ireland are not naïve. [One certainly hopes so, as the 'Ireland, stand up!' movement would seem to show, contrary to the 'public opinion' reflected in Irish MSM.]

I believe that Archbishop Martin's cautionary words also display a certain lack of trust in God's grace and in the ability of the Successor of St Peter to transform negative situations into positive ones.

Before the Pope's visit to the UK in 2010, it is true to say that many within the Church's hierarchy feared the worst - so much so that at times it even appeared as if some bishops couldn't be bothered to support the Papal visit. Yet, when the prophets of doom in the media and the Church were confounded by the success of Pope Benedict XVI's visit and by the sheer numbers of faithful Catholics and others who came out to greet the Holy Father, they were the first ones to stress that they had always known it would go well! Such is life. Such is politics.

To be fair, when speaking on RTÉ Radio, Dr Martin actually said that he hoped the Pope would visit Ireland one day. He then went on, though, to seemingly dampen any welcome by basically suggesting that the Holy Father shouldn't attend the Eucharistic Congress, as the timing would be wrong.

Referring to the clerical child abuse scandals that have hit Irish Catholicism in recent years, the Archbishop of Dublin cautioned that the Church was not yet "at that stage" whereby a Papal visit would "fit into the overall timetable of the renewal of the Church in Ireland."

The Archbishop of Dublin went on to say that the Holy Father himself had suggested that any visit by him would have to take into consideration the state of the Irish Church before it could bear effective fruit. [The Pope most likely meant an apostolic visit - which had been considered before the post-Cloyne Report hysteria that overtook Ireland - not a 'special occasion' visit such as the IEC]

In publicly stating that the Church has not yet reformed herself sufficiently to deal with a Papal visit, it seems that Diarmuid Martin's comments during his interview on RTÉ suggest that he would rather the Pope did not attend the 50th Eucharistic Congress in June. What Dr Martin appeared to be saying was: the Pope is welcome to visit Ireland, but not yet.

Having said all that, it seems that the Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady, actually contradicted the Archbishop of Dublin during a separate interview on Wednesday - in which he stated that the timing is right for a Papal visit to Ireland.

Speaking to the Irish Catholic in Rome, Cardinal Brady's spoke some words that contrast those offered by Diarmuid Martin. Brady told the newspaper that he heard Archbishop Martin's comments concerning any possible visit by the Pope to Ireland.

He then went on to offer a different view to that given by the Archbishop of Dublin. Here is what he said: "My hope is that the Pope will come. I was listening to Archbishop Martin at the weekend about whether the moment is right or not. My hope is that the moment would be right."

Cardinal Brady went on, though, to state that he had not been given any indication by the Vatican as to whether or not the Pope would be attending the Eucharistic Congress, or if the Holy Father has any other plans to visit Ireland later in the year.

It seems that a difference in attitude has opened in the Irish Church. It is a division between those, like Brady, who appear to hold onto that Christian attitude of optimism, and those, like Martin, who seem more concerned with public opinion and the political spirit of the age.

Is it any wonder, then, that Pope Benedict chose to raise Seán Brady to the cardinalate, whilst the red hat has not yet been offered to Martin? [Ahem, that's a thought that has been lurking in my mind since Martin gave that God-awful, almost holier-than-the-Pope interview to Maureen Dowd of the Times post-Cloyne Report. My thought is based on nothing more than gut reaction. So if this blogger, who is close to the situation in Ireland, states it the way he does, there may be something to it! I think perhaps there may be some human envy, too, in that the Archbishop of Armagh is, by definition, Primate of All Ireland. I'm sorry, I know I am being uncharitable to the Archbishop of Dublin, and I would be most happy to be proven wrong.]

It seems to me that the Pope is still actively considering attending the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this June. If he were not, I am sure that Rome would have clarified the situation by now. The fact that there are only four months left before the Congress and that the Pope hasn't ruled out a visit to Ireland this year seems encouraging to me. I may be wrong, of course.

In the past, Pope Benedict XVI has often travelled to shrines or events in Italy that only involve a short journey from Rome. Like his predecessors, he has sometimes made visits that only last a few hours or an afternoon. In that sense, and seeing that Rome is only a three-hour flight from Dublin, I can see no reason whatsoever why the Holy Father could not visit Ireland just for the Eucharistic Congress's closing ceremony.

In so doing, costs would be kept to the minimum, unjust and angry protests would be contained within a specific time-frame, and - more importantly - the Irish people would have the opportunity to see and hear the Successor of St Peter on their soil.

It is undeniable that the Pope feels a close attachment to the people of Éire, and that his presence as Vicar of Jesus Christ is something that can turn negative situations into positive ones. Having the Pope present for few short hours in Dublin would bring about more healing to the Church and people of Ireland than can be achieved through decades of apologies and attempts at reconciliation by the Irish Church's own hierarchy.

Unlike some in the episcopacy, Pope Benedict XVI is not so much concerned by image or politics, by media representations or unjust anti-Papal vitriol.***

His primary concern is the care of that flock of sinners and saints which Christ Jesus has entrusted into his care. For that reason, then, I believe that the Pope may very well surprise the prophets of doom by turning up for the closing liturgy of the 50th Eucharistic Congress to be held on 17 June in Dublin's Croke Park Stadium. If he does, Ireland will rejoice, despite the pessimism of that nation's leaders - ecclesiastical or otherwise.


***Apropos,I've reflected on this and posted occasional comments to remark on it, but let me go farther this time:

Let us continue praying for the Pope:
Yes, we can rise to his defense all we want
but he does not need us to confound his enemies -
As Vicar of Christ, he does that best on his own

Even some of the Pope's most ardent admirers often over-estimate the effect of the media attacks on Benedict XVI himself, projecting our own outraged reactions onto him as if he were an ordinary man.

He did not cave in to more than a decade of direct and active media hostility when he was CDF Prefect - for the simple reason that all the attacks were false. Why would he be any less 'stoic' about attacks on him as Pope, equally false and unfounded, when he knows the Pope gets to be the focus of the entire weight of historical and present hostility against the Church?

It is a cross the Successor of Peter knows he must bear, and that as Vicar of Christ, he would bear gladly and be crucified upon, head to the ground, as Peter did.

It bothers me when Vaticanistas routinely write "The Pope is suffering....", presumably from all the slings and arrows of the media and uninformed public opinion. In addition to the reasons I cited above against this facile assumption, they obviously do not know that, so why state it as if it were fact? It is as if he never said all the things he said to Peter Seewald in the July 2010 interview in the sixth year of his Pontificate. It is as if he had never undergone 'ordeal by media' as CDF Prefect. At the time, he said something like the attacks do not bother him at all as long as he can go to sleep at night after a clear examination of conscience. (I must find the exact quote).

Of course, now as Pope, it must concern him how the attacks on him personally and on his Curia represent potential damage to the Church, if not actual damage, in terms of negative 'public opinion' and the consequent weakening of the faith among the already weak of faith. But he is Peter, and Christ said to him, "The gates of hell shall not prevail..." With the grace of God, he does what he can, as do the men he chose to work with him and around him - and then, it is all up to God's will, as are, to begin with, the adverse situations with which he tests his Church and his creatures.

Benedict XVI is human, yes, but as the Pope and holy man that he is, he also has superhuman resources not available to us, much of which comes to him from the constant prayers of all us faithful who must never cease to pray for him, for the Church, and all her all-too-fallible members (we all).

Consistent with what we know of him, that is all he expects - not a superduper PR-savvy press office ready to spring up, unnecessarily, to do battle contra mundum at every perceived slight and delirious calumny peddled by anyone, including those who are inconsequential in the overall scheme of things! That's not the role of the Vatican Press Office, any more than it is the role of, say, the White House Press Office in defense of the President. If only because it is 'bad PR' for any Press Office to be engaged in direct tit-for-tat with any critic or detractor.

Speaking from my own modest 11 years of experience running the information office for a ranking government official, I know a Press Office cannot dispute opinion, no matter how wrong or terrible or based on false premises. A Press Office can only dispute statements wrongly claimed to be fact by presenting the correct facts. If the Vatican Press Office should react like Pavlov's dog to every negative statement (mostly opinion) made about the Pope, it will not have time to do anything else, and its responses would simply be ignored for the knee-jerk reactions that they would seem to be!

A Press Office is not supposed to be adversarial to the media, and if it must do battle directly, it has to choose its battles most carefully. For the day-to-day fighting, the Vatican has sympathetic allies in the traditional and new media, some of them very influential, who can 'respond' far more effectively because they are not perceived as mouthpieces or ventriloquist dummies for the Vatican even if their hearts and minds are obviously in the right place!

Imagine if the Vatican Press Office back in 1968 had to respond to every negative attack there was on Paul VI after Humanae Vitae! Paul VI himself was never the issue, even if he personified it for his opponents. And the document spoke for itself, which is true, if not more so, about everything Benedict XVI writes and says.

So Fr. Lombardi is no Joaquin Navarro-Valls in terms of PR savvy. If Benedict XVI were so concerned about his own personal 'image' - as one cannot imagine any Pope to be - he would have replaced Fr. Lombardi by now with someone like, say, Vittorio Messori or Luigi Accattoli, or some other long-standing survivor of Italy's media minefields, who is also on his side and will not be dictated to by some middle-level bureaucrat at the Secretariat of State, or even by the Secretary of State himself, but will ask to answer to the Pope!

Because of who he is and what he has done and continues to do, Benedict XVI is his own best defender, without having to defend himself but just being who he is. It is no accident that every high-ranking Vatican official who makes a statement in his defense when speaking to the media always precedes it by saying, "the Pope does not need me to come to his defense, but..."

Nor should the fact that there are traitors and incompetents in the Vatican lead us to excoriate everyone in the Curia as disloyal to the Pope and unworthy of their positions. Especially not the heads of the Curia who, with the exception of the preaident of the Pontifical Council for the Laity (appointed by John Paul II but who is not even 70 yet, so, far from retirement), are now all appointees of Benedict XVI: They are his own men, and we can assume he did not appoint any of them casually and without thorough deliberation.

Even Cardinal Bertone's apparent administrative incompetence does not mean he has ever been less than loyal or devoted to the Pope. He just does not seem to see that habitual incompetence itself can be the most harmful thing any subordinate can do against the Pope. And I for one would gladly 'forget' all past episodes of this seeming incompetence if he can just flush out and dismiss the principal traitors to the Pope and the Church from their secure sinecures in the Third Loggia of the Apostolic Palace! And soon! (Even if, most likely, the diligent mole in the hole who has been feeding Il Fatto Quotidiano with pilfered documents has already acquired all the juicy files he has been able to access!)

Of course, all this 'fog of war' serves to keep the focus away from Benedict XVI's Magisterium. But his opponents were never interested in exposing his Magisterium anyway, so no loss there. And the Vatican, as well as his admirers and Catholic clergy and faithful who can, continue to propagate it, each in their own way.

John Paul II made headlines for the greater part of 26 years because he travelled all over the globe to bring the Christian message. Yet, with significantly far less media hostility - and a boundless reservoir of good will - than Benedict XVI has, his Magisterium was never the focus of media reporting about him, and much of what he preached remains unknown or unconsidered in the Catholic world. Or worse, ignored by Catholic sectors to whom he directly addressed it but who insist on asserting their own will (for instance, his teaching on why the Church does not have the right nor the faculty to change the institution of priesthood, or his exhortations on what Catholic schools must be).

Evangelization - the mission of the Church - is never easy, but who would have thought that from the small band of Apostles, Christ's message had conquered much of the known world within a few hundred years after he died! In the Internet age, despite the infinity of competing messages on line, the Christian message nonetheless continues to get across to believers, seekers and some who simply come across it by accident.

So let us persevere, each doing what we can, and following Benedict XVI's own example, to do what we can do, to give what we can give, and not try to give what we cannot, as he said to Peter Seewald. In his case, he is giving himself as he did from the day he was ordained a priest - more than that he cannot give. No one can.

ANGELUS TODAY


I'm so glad there were so many photos taken today at the Angelus. From the EWTN broadcast, he looked and sounded very well, Deo gratias!


Jesus heals a leper:
It evokes salvation history,
says Pope Benedict

February 12, 2012

Healing beyond the physical was the theme of Pope Benedict’s weekly Angelus address, delivered this morning in St. Peter’s Square. The Holy Father spoke about today’s Gospel, which relates how a leper had come to Christ, saying “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus replied, saying, “I do will it, be made clean.”

“In that gesture and in those words of Christ,” the Pope said, “is the whole history of salvation - it embodies the will of God to heal, to cleanse us from the evil that disfigures us and destroys our relationships”.

Pope Benedict gave an “existential commentary” on this Gospel passage in the life of Saint Francis, who recognised Christ in a leper. When, overcoming his initial revulsion, Francis embraced the leper, “Jesus healed him of his leprosy — that is, his pride — and converted him to the love of God. This,” the Pope said, “is the victory of Christ, which is our deep healing and our resurrection to new life!”

The Pope concluded his remarks with a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose apparition at Lourdes was commemorated yesterday. Our Lady, he said, gave to St. Bernadette, the visionary of Lourdes, a timeless message: the call to prayer and penance.

At the end of his address, Pope Benedict made an urgent appeal for an end to violence and bloodshed in Syria. He called all people to remember in prayer the victims of the conflict. And he called on everyone—and above all the political authorities in Syria—to favor the path of dialogue, reconciliation and commitment to peace.



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

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

Last Sunday, we saw that Jesus, in his public life, healed many sick persons, showing that ?God wants life for man, life in full. .

The Gospel this Sunday (Mk 1,40-45) shows us Jesus in contact with the disease that was considered at that time as the worst of all because it made the person 'impure' and therefore to be excluded from social relationships. We speak of leprosy.

A special law (cfr Lv 13-14) reserved to priests the task of declaring a person 'leprous', meaning impure. Likewise, it was up to the priest to recognize if he was healed and therefore to readmit the the healed patient to normal life.

As Jesus preached in the villages of Galilee, a leper came to him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean". Jesus did not avoid contact with the man, but prompted by his intimate participation in his condition, held out his hand to touch him - violating a legal ban - and said, "I do will it. Be made clean".

In that gesture and in those words of Christ is contained the entire history of salvation - embodying the will of God to heal us, to purify us of the evil that disfigures us and ruins our relationships.

In that contact between Jesus and the leper, every barrier came down between God and human impurity, between the sacred and its opposite, certainly not to deny the existence of evil and its negative power, but to show that the love of God is stronger than any evil, even that which is most contagious and horrible.

Jesus took upon himself our infirmities - he took on our leprosy so that we could be purified.

A splendid existential commentary to this Gospel episode is the famous experience of St. Francis of Assisi that he summarizes thus at the start of his spiritual testament: "The Lord said to me, Brother Francis, to start doing penitence this way. When I was in sin, it seemed to me too repellent to look at lepers. But the Lord himself led me to be among them and I employed mercy with them. Leaving them, what had seemed repellent to me became a gentleness of spirit and body. Afterwards, I waited a while and then left the world" (FF, 110).

Jesus was present In those lepers, whom Francis met when he was still, as he said, 'in sin'. And when he approached one of them, overcoming his own repugnance, embraced him, Jesus healed him, Francis of his own leprosy - namely, of his pride - converting him to the love of God.

Such is the victory of Christ, who is our profound healing and our resurrection to a new life.

Dear friends, let us address our prayer to the Virgin Mary, whom we celebrated yesterday in commemorating her apparitions in Lourdes. Our Lady conveyed to St. Bernadette a message that is ever actual: the invitation to prayer and to penitence.

Through his Mother, Jesus always comes to us to free us of every ailment of the body and the soul. Let us allow ourselves to be touched and purified by him, and let us use mercy towards our brothers.

After the prayers, he said this:

I have been following with much apprehension the tragic and growing episodes of violence in Syria. In recent days, they have resulted in numerous victims. I remember the victims in prayer, among whom are children; the wounded, and all who suffer the consequences of a conflict that has become ever more a cause of concern.

I also renew an urgent appeal to put an end to the violence and bloodshed. Finally, I call on everyone - especially the political authorities in Syria - to choose the way of dialog, of reconciliation and of commitment to peace.

It is urgent to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the various components of the nation, as well as to the hopes of the international community that is concerned for the common good of the entire society and the region.

In English, he said:

I am pleased to welcome all of you to Saint Peter’s Square on this cold morning, especially the students and staff of Sion-Manning School from London.

At Mass today, the Gospel tells us of how our Lord willingly cured a leper. May we not be afraid to go to Jesus, beg him to heal our sinfulness, and bring us safely to eternal life. God bless you and your loved ones!

---

A small item I ought to have seen earlier - since it is a denial story, I will simply piggyback it on this post:

Pope has no plans
to visit Iran



VATICAN CITY, Feb. 12 (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI receives many invitations and that a trip to Lebanon is under consideration but that there are no plans for a visit to Iran.

The Italian news agency ANSA on Wednesday quoted Iran's ambassador to the Holy See as saying Iran issued an invitation to the Pope in 2010 and that he would be welcomed to that country with "enthusiasm."

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says the Pope does have a Middle East trip "under study," a possible September visit to Lebanon to present a document on the future of the church in the region.

But why didn't the reporters ask Lombardi about Dublin??? It's a far more likely possibiiity than Iran!

Three publishers, one work:
The Fathers of the Church
in the catecheses of Benedict XVI
Translated from the 2/12/12 issue of


Pastor, man of God, witness and scholar: the surprising 'mix' which Benedict XVI has shown us constantly finds a significant manifestation in the catecheses dedicated by him to the Fathers of the Church.

Precious words that publishers have certainly not allowed to pass into oblivion. In 2008-2009, the Vatican publishing house LEV, put out three regular volumes based on those catecheses, later reissued in well-illustrated artistic editions.

Starting with St. Clement the Roman and ending with St. Maximus the Confessor, it is somewhat like looking through a family album, in which Benedict's words venerated names that have brought forward the Christian tradition tale shape and color.

In 2008, the Italian publishing house Citta Nuova published its own collection of the Patristic catecheses in the book entitled Catechesi sui Padri della Chiesa. Da Clemente Romano a Gregorio Magno (Cathecheses on the Fathers of the Church: From Clement the Roman to Gregory the Great).

Now, Mondadori has come out with Testimoni del messaggio cristiano (Witnesses to the Christian message), its own anthology of Benedict XVI's Patristic catecheses.

NB: In English, Ignatius Press came out with two volumes of the catecheses, while Our Sunday Visitor came out with The Fathers in 2008. Both publishing houses have been publishing Benedict XVI's catecheses as each cycle ends, i.e., the Apostles, the Great Teachers, Holy Women, the Doctors of the Church.

Monday, February 13, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

ST. EGIDIO MARIA-DI-SAN-GIUSEPPE (Giles Mary-of-St. Joseph) (Italy, 1729-1812)
Franciscan brother
Born Francesco Antonio Pontillo to a poor family in Taranto, southern Italy, the future
saint was orphaned early but worked to provide for his family before joining the Franciscans.
For lack of education, he remained a brother and was assigned to a hospice in Naples
where he served for 53 years as cook, porter and official beggar for the hospice. While
gathering food for his community, he shared his bounty with the poor. In the streets of
Naples, he became known for comforting those who were troubled and preaching repentance.
In time, he was called 'consoler of Naples' and even nobles sought him out for counsel.
He died at prayer when he was 83, and huge crowds came to his funeral. Though he was
beatified in 1888, he was not canonized until 1996, when a 1937 remission of uterine
cancer in a woman, who was still alive, was recognized as a miracle for his canonization.
The only photo of him online is the image used by the Vatican at his canonization. Many
lists of Franciscan saints online still do not carry his name.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/021312.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

The Vatican released the text of the Pope's message for the 49th World Day of Prayer on April 29,
the fourth Sunday of Easter, on the theme "Vocations: A gift of God's love".

---

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will be celebrated on 29 April 2012, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, prompts us to meditate on the theme: Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God.

The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love – Deus caritas est: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16).

Sacred Scripture tells the story of this original bond between God and man, which precedes creation itself. Writing to the Christians of the city of Ephesus, Saint Paul raises a hymn of gratitude and praise to the Father who, with infinite benevolence, in the course of the centuries accomplishes his universal plan of salvation, which is a plan of love. In his Son Jesus – Paul states – “he chose us, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him in love” (Eph 1:4).

We are loved by God even “before” we come into existence! Moved solely by his unconditional love, he created us “not … out of existing things” (cf. 2 Macc 7:28), to bring us into full communion with Him.

In great wonderment before the work of God’s providence, the Psalmist exclaims: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:3-4).

The profound truth of our existence is thus contained in this surprising mystery: every creature, and in particular every human person, is the fruit of God’s thought and an act of his love, a love that is boundless, faithful and everlasting (cf. Jer 31:3).

The discovery of this reality is what truly and profoundly changes our lives. In a famous page of the Confessions, Saint Augustine expresses with great force his discovery of God, supreme beauty and supreme love, a God who was always close to him, and to whom he at last opened his mind and heart to be transformed:

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” (X, 27.38).

With these images, the Saint of Hippo seeks to describe the ineffable mystery of his encounter with God, with God’s love that transforms all of life. It is a love that is limitless and that precedes us, sustains us and calls us along the path of life, a love rooted in an absolutely free gift of God.

Speaking particularly of the ministerial priesthood, my predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, stated that “every ministerial action - while it leads to loving and serving the Church - provides an incentive to grow in ever greater love and service of Jesus Christ the head, shepherd and spouse of the Church, a love which is always a response to the free and unsolicited love of God in Christ” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 25).

Every specific vocation is in fact born of the initiative of God; it is a gift of the Love of God! He is the One who takes the “first step”, and not because he has found something good in us, but because of the presence of his own love “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).

In every age, the source of the divine call is to be found in the initiative of the infinite love of God, who reveals himself fully in Jesus Christ. As I wrote in my first Encyclical, Deus caritas est, “God is indeed visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist” (No. 17).

The love of God is everlasting; he is faithful to himself, to the “word that he commanded for a thousand generations” (Ps 105:8). Yet the appealing beauty of this divine love, which precedes and accompanies us, needs to be proclaimed ever anew, especially to younger generations. This divine love is the hidden impulse, the motivation which never fails, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to open our lives to this love. It is to the perfection of the Father’s love (cf. Mt 5:48) that Jesus Christ calls us every day! The high standard of the Christian life consists in loving “as” God loves; with a love that is shown in the total, faithful and fruitful gift of self.

Saint John of the Cross, writing to the Prioress of the Monastery of Segovia who was pained by the terrible circumstances surrounding his suspension, responded by urging her to act as God does: “Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and there you will draw out love” (Letters, 26).

It is in this soil of self-offering and openness to the love of God, and as the fruit of that love, that all vocations are born and grow. By drawing from this wellspring through prayer, constant recourse to God’s word and to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, it becomes possible to live a life of love for our neighbours, in whom we come to perceive the face of Christ the Lord (cf. Mt 25:31-46).

To express the inseparable bond that links these “two loves” – love of God and love of neighbour – both of which flow from the same divine source and return to it, Pope Saint Gregory the Great uses the metaphor of the seedling: “In the soil of our heart God first planted the root of love for him; from this, like the leaf, sprouts love for one another.” (Moralium Libri, sive expositio in Librum B. Job, Lib. VII, Ch. 24, 28; PL 75, 780D).

These two expressions of the one divine love must be lived with a particular intensity and purity of heart by those who have decided to set out on the path of vocation discernment towards the ministerial priesthood and the consecrated life; they are its distinguishing mark. Love of God, which priests and consecrated persons are called to mirror, however imperfectly, is the motivation for answering the Lord’s call to special consecration through priestly ordination or the profession of the evangelical counsels. Saint Peter’s vehement reply to the Divine Master: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (Jn 21:15) contains the secret of a life fully given and lived out, and thus one which is deeply joyful.

The other practical expression of love, that towards our neighbour, and especially those who suffer and are in greatest need, is the decisive impulse that leads the priest and the consecrated person to be a builder of communion between people and a sower of hope. The relationship of consecrated persons, and especially of the priest, to the Christian community is vital and becomes a fundamental dimension of their affectivity. The Curé of Ars was fond of saying: “Priests are not priests for themselves, but for you” (Le cure d’Ars. Sa pensée – Son cœur, Foi Vivante, 1966, p. 100).

Dear brother bishops, dear priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, catechists, pastoral workers and all of you who are engaged in the field of educating young people: I fervently exhort you to pay close attention to those members of parish communities, associations and ecclesial movements who sense a call to the priesthood or to a special consecration. It is important for the Church to create the conditions that will permit many young people to say “yes” in generous response to God’s loving call.

The task of fostering vocations will be to provide helpful guidance and direction along the way. Central to this should be love of God’s word nourished by a growing familiarity with sacred Scripture, and attentive and unceasing prayer, both personal and in community; this will make it possible to hear God’s call amid all the voices of daily life.

But above all, the Eucharist should be the heart of every vocational journey: it is here that the love of God touches us in Christ’s sacrifice, the perfect expression of love, and it is here that we learn ever anew how to live according to the “high standard” of God’s love. Scripture, prayer and the Eucharist are the precious treasure enabling us to grasp the beauty of a life spent fully in service of the Kingdom.

It is my hope that the local Churches and all the various groups within them, will become places where vocations are carefully discerned and their authenticity tested, places where young men and women are offered wise and strong spiritual direction. In this way, the Christian community itself becomes a manifestation of the Love of God in which every calling is contained.

As a response to the demands of the new commandment of Jesus, this can find eloquent and particular realization in Christian families, whose love is an expression of the love of Christ who gave himself for his Church (cf. Eph 5:32).

Within the family, “a community of life and love” (Gaudium et Spes, 48), young people can have a wonderful experience of this self-giving love. Indeed, families are not only the privileged place for human and Christian formation; they can also be “the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God” (Familiaris Consortio, 53), by helping their members to see, precisely within the family, the beauty and the importance of the priesthood and the consecrated life.

May pastors and all the lay faithful always cooperate so that in the Church these “homes and schools of communion” may multiply, modelled on the Holy Family of Nazareth, the harmonious reflection on earth of the life of the Most Holy Trinity.

With this prayerful hope, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to all of you: my brother bishops, priests, deacons, religious men and women and all lay faithful, and especially those young men and women who strive to listen with a docile heart to God’s voice and are ready to respond generously and faithfully.

From the Vatican
18 October 2011

---

The weekend produced a number of commentaries in the Italian media on recent sensation-mongering stories about infighting and backstabbing in the Vatican - not that this is anything new in Church history, past and recent - but although one of the targets is universally identified (Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone) the other factions are not, other than being the Old Guard in the Curia who were known associates of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, former Secretary of State and current Dean of the College of Cardinals.

There is also the unfortunate tendency in all these reports and commentaries to extrapolate the infighting, backstabbing and treachery to the entire 'Roman Curia'. even if these nefarious activities all seem to be taking place in the Secretariat of State, where the real 'power' resides, because its bureaucracy administers not just the other organisms of the Curia but also the network of Vatican embassies around the world. I doubt that the media will ever get out of the convenient but very fallacious rut of attributing anything negative about the Vatican to 'the Roman Curia' just because this 'entity' has been the favorite whipping-boy of the news media since the Vatican became a regular news beat.

Corriere della Sera today features the following commentary by Vittorio Messori on Page 1, in which the veteran writer places the latest 'scandals' in the right perspective (he too generalizes the malady to the Curia but in this case, the generalization is valid ...

The weakening of faith
in a den of intrigue
by Vittorio Messori
Translated from

February 13, 2012

These days, to follow what is certainly not edifying news about the Vatican can be lip-smacking or saddening, depending on whether the reader is anti-clerical or not.

In fact, it should not be more than usually disconcerting for the Catholic who knows the history of his Church but who also keeps in mind the warnings of the Gospel.

Namely, that the Church is a field where good grain and poisonous weeds are always found together. It is a net cast into the sea in which both good and bad fish are to be found.

These are words from Jesus himself, who calls on us not to be scandalized because of this, nor even to 'divide' the healthy from the rotten, because this will be his task at the Last Judgment.

The prime example of this situation is, obviously the center and motor of the ecclesial 'machinery': the Vatican Curia, which is the central administration of what Tradition calls 'the Church militant'.

In this regard, it was not a heretic or a priest-hater [the Italian word for this is quite colorful: mangiapreti, literally 'priest-eater'] but a saint proclaimed Doctor of the church by Paul VI - Catherine of Siena. co-Patron of Italy - who once observed:"The Court of our Holy Father seems to me at times a nest of angels, at other times a den of vipers".

Good and bad found in the same entity, as they are in everything human. Because the Church is also a human institution - a historical shell (with its corresponding limitations) that guards a meta-historical Mystery.

We will get to the moral aspect later. First, let us consider the 'organizational' aspect. It must be remembered that the Vatican today is not just all about 'scandals' regarding sex crimes, finances or power.

It is the administrative machinery of the Church itself, which for years and years has appeared to stall with disquieting frequency - due to mistakes, distractions, diplomatic gaffes, even errors on official documents in the use of Latin which is still the official language but which is increasingly less and worse known by the people who work there.

Yes, the Curia, like the Church itself, must be semper reformanda. But now it see4ms that even a 'corporate reorganization' is not possible, simply because of a lack of fresh energies and of people of quality.

The infinite number of Vatican offices have been led since the time of the Counter-Reformation by ecclesiastical persons who come from all the dioceses and religious orders of the world. But our world today is one where most dioceses and congregations have closed down their seminaries for lack of attendance, and they certainly can no longer send to Rome their most promising young people in the service of the universal Church.

In fact, there are few such young people, and these few are jealously kept close by their bishops and superiors-general.

And yet, after that Vatican II which was supposed to streamline the ecclesial structure, the Annuario Pontificio [listing all ecclesiastical personnel with official titles] has almost tripled in size. Bureaucratic expansion has proceeded unchecked, as functions, posts, responsibilities have grown, even as qualified human resources have inversely diminished.

And the available personnel seem unable to carry the crushing responsibility of administering God's will on earth!

Therefore, Catholic realism would seem to impose a drastic redimensioning of the structure of a Catholic Church which, for all the numbers it has, is becoming or has already become a minority community in many places.

To maintain the Church's baroque apparatus when her human resources are deficient (and those who0 do run this apparatus are often not up to the task) inevitably leads to the disintegration and errors we find in the management of the Church.

So should we then seriously consider what some propose as a return to the first millennium by turning over the Vatican with all its cultural, artistic and touristic assets to the UNESCO, and for the Pope to return to the 'true' cathedra of the Bishop of Rome at the Lateran Basilica, with an institutional structure reduced to a minimum?

We don't have to resort to such extreme measures, but the problem exists and it must be confronted - but not with a 1960s ideology or a demagoguery to pauperize the Church.

Of course, there seems to be a moral surrender as well in some aspects, not merely sexual (pedophile priests are an example, but not the only kind), but also a seeming return to the Renaissance era when the Vatican consisted of various foci of intrigues and infighting for career advancement, power, money, ideological and political interests.

And in this case, no reform can hold, and there can be no purely human remedy. Every technique of corporate reorganization would be ridiculously impotent.

Which means the situation should open itself up to the 'scandal' of prayer - words used by Benedict XVI, but words that have been used for decades now, by Joseph Ratzinger.

If the Church is in crisis, he has always said, it is the crisis of faith in men of the Church. Including the hierarchy.

He said to me once: "At the point where we are, I must confess that faith - a full faith that does not hesitate - now seems to me so rare that when I encounter it, I am astonished by it more than by unbelief".

And that is why he has gone back to the roots of the faith - with his three volumes on the historical Jesus who is also the Jesus of faith. That is why he has created an organ expressly for the new evangelization. That is why he has proclaimed a Year of Faith.
:
"L'inrtendance suivra" {The administrative people will come after), Napoleon used to say, meaning conquer [a territory] first, then bring in the people to run it.

Benedict XVI is certain that the Church needs to conquer - or rather, reconquer - first: to reconquer that faith in the historicity of the Gospels, in God who was incarnated in the womb of a woman, in a Jesus who demonstrated with his resurrection that he is the Christ.

Does the Church now have only a few good men, and among them, many who are not qualified? Well then, a true and proper institutional exfoliation would be assured if those who are still at work 'in the vineyard of the Lord' (as the Pope likes to call it), forget all about working for any human prize but for a divine one.

If faith wavers or is extinguished, if it is no longer their daily reason for existence, the clever laziness of the bureaucrat lies in ambush, and the old monsignor as well as the young religious will both be ready to transform themselves into functionaries of a clerical ministry and therefore, subject to every temptation.


Pray, pray and pray - and do penance! Benedict XVI is almost as insistent on this basic admonition as the Blessed Virgin is in all her apparitions. He says this to the faithful in almost all his homilies and in in his catecheses. Pray daily, regularly, and everything will follow, he says. He says it to priests and bishops at every occasion.

One must wonder how many of the priests and bishops who have become certified bureaucrats in the Vatican ztill remember that they are priests, first of all, that the priesthood should define who they are. and that they should take time off during the day to 'talk to God' regularly. Do they even say daily Mass as they should? I was struck when I read somewhere that as a university professor, Joseph Ratzinger was a rarity because he said daily Mass, whereas most professor-priests no longer do!


Poison in the Curia:
A response to the Pope's
efforts to purify the Church
by Lucetta Scaraffia
Translated from

February 13, 2012


For some time now there has been a new literary genre one might call 'Vatican mystery', but after The Da Vinci Code, the genre has grown in a major way. Many authors and publishers today are hoping for worldwide success with books purporting in various ways to 'uncover profane altars' and thus desanctify the Church, which despite everything, has kept an image of sacredness - or at least, respectability - even in the eyes of non-believers.

It's not difficult to imagine that such readings have inspired the so-called 'crows' who have been instrumental in 'flying out' confidential documents from the highest levels of the Vatican's premier bureaucracy, the Secretariat of State, with the apparent ibtention to discredit the Vatican as a whole.

Even more influenced this way are the assorted Vatican reporters and commentators - many of them authors themselves of similar 'mysteries' in the form of pamphlets purporting to reveal the 'hidden plots' within the Vatican walls.

They are now unleashing a flood of commentary focused on Vatican infighting and power seeking, on opposing vendettas, on the next Conclave. All such commentaries appear to postulate the idea of a good Pope who is nonetheless incapable of dealing with rivalries and hostilities which have somehow managed to overwhelm him.

Perhaps, such an interpretation may also be seen as influenced by the world outside the Vatican, since the Vatican is situated within a far vaster society. One might even say that external forces are moving the chess pieces, with the complicity of some corrupt functionary or prelate within the Vatican.

But to understand something of what is going on, perhaps it is becessary above all to consider the role of the Pope, who in a few days will be marking the 30th anniversary of his joining the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Thirty years spent at the heart of an institution he loves deeply but one he has not defended at any cost, least of all at the cost of truth. Cardinal Ratzinger came to know the reality of the Church - that is, its most elevated hierarchy - very well in a way he made clear with the meditations he wrote for the Good Friday Way of the Cross at the Colosseum in March 2005, just a few weeks before he was elected Pope.

Many were amazed at the courage and passion in his words denouncing 'filth' in the Church [obviously, he was not referring only to pedophile priests], though later many would consider it a sign from him of how he would govern if he were elected Pope. [I am surprised historian Scaraffia would make this statement! Clearly, at the time the cardinal was asked to write the meditations - it would have been at least several weeks before Good Friday - there were very few (him least of all) who thought that he was even papabile in the event that John Paul II passed away!]

It is to the honor of the ecclesial institution that the Conclave elected the man who knew a lot about the Vatican, perhaps everything there is to know [about what was wrong] but which had been unmentionable before then - that they elected a man who openly proclaimed his desire to purify the Church.

By choosing him to the Pope, one presumes that his electors agreed to this work of cleansing, even if some perhaps hoped in their hearts that it would not come soon nor radically. By choosing him, love for the Church - or, if you will, a sense of the institution - appeared to have prevailed among the cardinals.

Of course, Benedict XVI did not take his stand as a harsh judge and prefect of the former Office in charge of the Inquisition, but as a man of God. Now as Pope, he is in a position to realize his desire - and that is, to recover the faith, begin a new process to evangelize countries that had once been strongly Christian but now largely secularized.

But a Church that is not purified, that is encumbered by heavy baggage from the past and the opacities of the present, cannot undertake a new evangelization credibly and effectively.

He made his intentions clear when early in the Pontificate, he disclosed the results of the CDF's investigation of Father Marcial Maciel, who founded the Legionaries of Christ, and opened an investigation into the workings of the congregations Maciel founded with a view of bringing the evil to light and to correct it.

For a change, no cover-up to avoid scandal, but the truth. Not just from the Christian point of view, only the truth allows mortification by those who sinned, and therefore purification.

But there can be no purification without pain, without public acknowledgement of the evil done. So it is for the pedophile priests and complicit bishops, as it is for non-transparent financial dealings that allow lay cronies to make dishonest profits from dealing with the Vatican.

Benedict XVI has courageously chosen this path, and for this, he has chosen for some key positions people who do not belong to established interests within the Vatican and outside its walls, charging them with the mission of bringing out everything in total honesty and transparency.

Was it not therefore likely that his actions would provoke protests and counteractions by any possible means?

Anyone who thinks the Pope is nothing but an aged man who has been reduced to powerlessness, ignores that he undertook this process of purification deliberately and consciously. One cannot possibly think that he himself does not realize how much it would cost him personally. him and his closest associates, in retribution from those who oppose any such cleansing. Nor that he has chosen the harder path of carrying out such work despite its obvious costs instead of constantly evading the issue by using 'diplomatic' means.

Only his way is is it possible to carry out true purification that can produce results. And so, those that are often called 'errors' or 'deficiencies' of governance by the Pope should rather be seen as conscious decisions with the end of bringing conflicts out in the open in order to arrive at the truth.

Having become accustomed to think that the whole world is irremediably nothing more than a 'sea of mud' [I cannot think of an appropriate English equivalent for that metaphor], we can no longer see it as the stage for the eternal battle between good and evil, which also takes place within the Church herself.

'There's an ugly streak in the Curia:
Anonymous criticisms are wrong'
Interview with Cardinal Kasper
by Gian Guido Vecchi
Translated from

February 13, 2012

All the poison stories about the Vatican preceded a week that is full of important meetings among the cardinals of the Church.
- Tomorrow, the Council of Cardinals that has oversight of organizational and economic affairs will me meeting.
- On Thursday, Church hierarchy will be meeting informally with Italian authorities at the annual reception to celebrate the anniversary of the 1929 Lateran pacts which established the Vatican as a sovereign state.
- On Friday, the Pope will meet with all the cardinals present in Rome for a 'day of reflection and prayer' on the Church efforts for new evangelization, with Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York setting the keynote.
- On Saturday, Benedict XVI will create 22 new cardinals in the fourth consistory of his Pontificate, and preside at a separate consistory in which the cardinals will ratify a decree to proclaim seven new saints in the Church.

VATICAN CITY - "I am sad for the sake of the Holy Father. I am really sad about all this. He must be very sad to see all these attempts to destroy what he has built".

Cardinal Walter Kasper, 78, who for ten years, headed the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Council for Religious Relations with the Jews, is one of the leading theologians alive. One of the few cited directly by Papa Ratzinger in JESUS OF NAZARETH.

He and the Pope have known each other for more than 40 years. They have different theological positions but they have always held each other in reciprocal esteem.

This year, Kasper's book La Chiesa Cattolica. Essenza, Realta, Missione (The Catholic Church: Essence, Reality, Mission) was oublished in Italy, In it, Kasper reflects on the future of the Church: "A new beginning is possible only if, in a way similar to what happened with the movement that led to Vatican-II, three things can take place together: a spiritual renewal nourished by the sources of the faith; solid theological reflection; and an ecclesial mentality".

It is above all the last element that seems to be absent these days, considering the seemingly continuous launch of 'guided missiles' striking at the heart of the Vatican. The latest one alleged an inexistent plot against the life of the Pope.

Kasper says of these poison bombs, "I find them disgusting".


What do you think is happening, Eminence?
I do not know, nor have I ever known much about what happens internally at the Vatican. I never wished to know anything of these factions, I was never interested. I was an alien in the Curia. I simply tried to do my work. So I understand how said this must all make the Pope feel.

Papa Ratzinger himself spent 30 years [actually 24; 30 includes his years as Pope so far] in the Roman Curia. It shouldn't have been a surprise to him.
But he never got into this underbrush. As cardinal and Prefect of the CDF, Joseph Ratzinger only thought about doing his job, to serve the Church. He never had any part in these internal quarrels. A simple question of dignity!

What is not working here?
It is a lack of ecclesiality. Those who take part in these activities do not have a sense of the Church, no sense of loyalty to the Church and to the Vatican itself. This is not the way things should be done. As a Christian and as a human being, I agree it is right to seek justice if one has been wronged. But not this way. This is just a mean streak.

A mean streak?
Yes. And it shows a climate in the internal bureaucracy, a workstyle, that is not good at all. Not that everyone is guilty - many people do work genuinely for the Church. But those who do these underhanded things are irresponsible.

What would be the right way?
If anyone wants to criticize the Secretary of State or whoever, he can do so if he has reasons. But he must speak clearly, present his complaints to the party concerned, even tell the Pope. But not with anonymous notes which are not credible - they discredit themselves. If you want to protest anything, then say so face to face and take responsibility for it.

It was a cardinal, Castrillon Honyos, who sent the anonympous memorandum to the Secretary of State....
But one can do that. Of course, the memorandum seems outside reality, and its contents are laughable, But there are persons who have the duty to evaluate such documents. If you get a signal that you think may be significant, it is your duty to inform the Secretary of State.

But the point is that someone gave out these confidential documents to the media. I am very disappointed in this continual transmission of pilfered documents to the media - documents which were supposed to be private to the specific addressee, not disclosed far and wide.

What are the consequences?
I always try to meet people and talk to them. About these matters, I find many faithful scandalized, and they are right. Those who indulge in these bad practices cause confusion among the faithful. It hurts the image of the Church. And this, at a time when the Pontiff is working so hard for the renewal of the Church - he who sought to restore order when he saw the abuses that were being committed.

And what can be done now, Eminence?
I know what I shall tell the Holy Father. I will say it to him directly or in a letter. He will evaluate what I have to say and decide what to do. But I would never say in public what I say to him.

VATICAN NOTE ON PILFERED
DOCUMENTS TENDING TO DISCREDIT
THE VATICAN AND THE CHURCH
Translated from the Italian service of

February 13, 2012

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, released this note this evening:

---

These days we should all have steady nerves so no one can be surprised by anything. The US administration had its Wikileaks, and now the Vatican has its own leaks, an outflow of documents which tend to create confusion and bewilderment that help place the Vatican, the governance of the Church, and in general, the Church herself, in a bad light.

Therefore, it is time for calm and sangfroid. And much use of reason, something that not all the media tend to do.

We are dealing with documents of diverse nature and importance, each arising in different times and situations: Discussions about the optimal economic management of an institution with many material activities such as the Governatorate. Notes about juridical and normative questions that are still under discussion and about which it is natural to have various opinions. A memorandum with delirious ravings that no serious person with a head on his shoulders would ever take seriously, even alleging a plot against the life of the Pope.

Such as they are, putting them all together serves to create confusion. A serious information outlet should be able to distinguish these diverse issues from each other and understand that they are significantly different among them.

It is obvious that the economic activities of the Governatorate should be managed wisely and strictly. It is clear that the IOR and the Vatican's financial activities should participate correctly in international norms against money laundering. All this is obviously being done in accordance with the Pope's instructions.

It is equally obvious that the story about a death plot against the Pope is delusional, foolish, and does not merit any serious consideration.

It is certainly sad that documents internal to the Vatican are passed on disloyally to the media as a way to create confusion. The responsibility cuts both ways.

First of all, on the part of the person who furnishes these documents, but also with those who gladly use it, and certainly not out of love for the truth!

Therefore we must resist and not allow ourselves to be engulfed in a vortex of confusion which is what those with ill intentions desire, and we must remain capable of reason.

In a way - it is an old bit of conventional wisdom - the existence of particularly strong attacks is a sign that something important is at stake.

The major series of attacks against the Church because of sexual abuses committed by priests is being rightly counteracted by a serious and profound commitment of far-reaching renewal. Not a short-term response, but one of purification and renewal.

Now, we have the situation in hand, and we are developing a strong strategy towards healing, renewal and prevention, for the good of the whole society.

At the same time, it is known that a serious effort is underway to guarantee full transparency in the operations of Vatican institutions even from the financial angle. New norms have been published towards this end. We have opened international channels of communication to insure adequate checks and controls.

But now, various documents in circulation seek to discredit these efforts. Paradoxically, this constitutes another reason to pursue the new policies with determination and not allow ourselves to be upset. If so much trouble is taken to hound us, then the matter obviously is a big deal to them.

Those who think that they could discourage the Pope and his co-workers from their commitment are wrong and they delude themselves.

As to the question of a supposed power struggle with a view to the next papal conclave, I would ask its proponents to consider that the Pontiffs who have been elected in the past century have all been persons of the highest and most indisputable spiritual worth.

It is clear that the cardinal electors have sought and will continue to seek to elect someone who deserves the respect of the People of God and who can serve mankind in our time with great moral and spiritual authority.

Trying to interpret events in the Vatican as part of an internal power struggle arises in part from the moral coarseness of those who provoke and promote it, who are often able to see nothing else.

But whoever believes in Jesus Christ knows that, fortunately - whatever is being said or written about in the newspapers today - the true concern of those who bear responsibility in the Church are the serious problems of mankind today and tomorrow. And that is why we do not speak in vain when we speak about the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

---

I hate to post this item with Fr. Lombardi's note, but the item represents the animus of persons who are even more insidious and insupportable than the backstabbing intrigue-driven malevolents in the labyrinths of the Secretariat of State - namely, the arrogant bishops spawned after Vatican II. who interpret collegiality to mean that each one of them is equal to the Pope and therefore owes no respect, much less obedience, to the one and only Pope.

But the retired bishop recounted here is but one of many - one can probably name at least a dozen - Italian bishops who have been unspeakably insolent and almost contemptuous of Benedict XVI. I just did not think it worth posting any of their ravings before. I'm posting this because this bishop is as delusional as whoever was behind the Romeo-death plot memorandum. But then he was responding to a radio interviewer who apparently buys into the 'death plot story'... And so we have the ongoing tragicomedy of delirious fantasy presented as 'fact' by a till-now respectable Italian newspaper, and commented on as fact by a man who was chosen to be the bishop of a major Italian city!

Italian bishop claims 'death plot'
is a ploy to prepare for
the Pope's eventual resignation


ROME, February 13 (Translated from TMNews) - Papa Ratzinger is tired and is thinking to resign! This was the opinion expressed by Mons. Luigi Bettazzi, emeritus Bishop of Ivrea (northern Italy, where Cardinal Bertone was once Bishop), in the radio program Un Giorni da Pecora (A day in Pecora).

Monsignor, do you believe in the plot revealed by Il Fatto Quotidiano to kill Papa Ratzinger?" [The way the question is asked, the interviewer seems to accept the plot to be gospel truth even if, despite its lurid headlines, the Fatto story itself made clear that the existence of a lot was apparently deduced by Chinese officials from Cardinal Romeo's alleged assertion that the Pope would die within 12 months.]
No, I don't. If it had been about the preceding Pope, I would understand. But this Pope here seems so gentle and religious. I do not see any reason someone would want to kill him". [I'm bad, but is he saying, in effect, that compared to his predecessor, Benedict XVI is too inconsequential for anyone to even think of plotting against?]

What did you think when this news came out?
That it is a way of preparing for the eventuality of the Pope's resignation. To cushion the shock, because the resignation of a Pope would be a great shock, they are starting to advance this idea of a death plot.

And you think that Papa Ratzinger intends to resign?
I believe so, yes, even if the Vatican has denied it before. But an old cardinal always used to tell me, "I the Vatican denies anything, it means it is true".

But why would Benedict XVI resign at all?
I think he feels very tired. All you have to do is look at him. He's someone who is accustomed to study. But in the face of the problems he cases, and even perhaps, just in the face of the tensions within the Curia, he probably thinks that it's the next Pope who should worry about these things.

Obviously, I would not waste my time commenting on the bishop's statements! Although I will question the editorial judgment of the TMNews agency to report this at all!

P.S. For the record, I posted another distasteful and lengthy article by Philip Pulella of Reuters in the TOXIC WASTE BIN which is his totally tendentious overview of the Vati-leaks stories.

Obama's revised HHS mandate
doesn't solve the problem,
Cardinal-designate Dolan says
By Francis X. Rocca


ROME, February 13 (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York said Feb. 13 that President Barack Obama's proposed revision to the contraceptive mandate in the health reform law did nothing to change the U.S. bishops' opposition to what they regard as an unconstitutional infringement on religious liberty.

[Mons. Dolan arrived in Rome to take part in activities leading to the Consistory on Saturday when he and 21 others will be formally created cardinals. He was asked by Pope Benedict XVI to give the keynote address at the Day of Reflection and Prayer by the College of Cardinals on Friday, the eve of the consistory. ]

"We bishops are pastors, we're not politicians, and you can't compromise on principle," said Cardinal-designate Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "And the goal posts haven't moved, and I don't think there's a 50-yard line compromise here," he added.

"We're in the business of reconciliation, so it's not that we hold fast, that we're stubborn ideologues, no. But we don't see much sign of any compromise," he said.

"What (Obama) offered was next to nothing. There's no change, for instance, in these terribly restrictive mandates and this grossly restrictive definition of what constitutes a religious entity," he said. "The principle wasn't touched at all."

Obama's proposed revision of the Department of Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate left intact the restrictive definition of a religious entity and would shift the costs of contraceptives from the policyholders to the insurers, thus failing to ensure that Catholic individuals and institutions would not have to pay for services that they consider immoral, Cardinal-designate Dolan said. [I still cannot get over how Obama thought anyone would be taken in by his 'compromise', other than his Stockholm-syndrome-stricken captive, Sister Keehan! All he has done is move the pebble to the next shell, but Catholics will still be paying - directly or indirectly - for other people to have contraceptive/sterilization services for free!]

For one thing, the cardinal-designate said, many dioceses and Catholic institutions are self-insuring. Moreover, Catholics with policies in the compliant insurance companies would be subsidizing others' contraception coverage. He also objected that individual Catholic employers would not enjoy exemption under Obama's proposal.

"My brother-in-law, who's a committed Catholic, runs a butcher shop. Is he going to have to pay for services that he as a convinced Catholic considers to be morally objectionable?" he asked.

Cardinal-designate Dolan said he emailed Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who heads the Catholic Health Association, on Feb. 10 to tell her that he was "disappointed that she had acted unilaterally, not in concert with the bishops."

"She's in a bind," the cardinal-designate said of Sister Carol. "When she's talking to (HHS Secretary Kathleen) Sebelius and the president of the United States, in some ways, these are people who are signing the checks for a good chunk of stuff that goes on in Catholic hospitals. It's tough for her to stand firm. Understandably, she's trying to make sure that anything possible, any compromise possible, that would allow the magnificent work of Catholic Healthcare to continue, she's probably going to be innately more open to compromise than we would."

In a Feb. 10 statement, Sister Carol praised what she called "a resolution ... that protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions."

Cardinal-designate Dolan said Obama called him the morning of his announcement to tell him about the proposal.

"What we're probably going to have to do now is be more vigorous than ever in judicial and legislative remedies, because apparently we're not getting much consolation from the executive branch of the government," he said.

The cardinal-designate said the bishops are "very, very enthusiastic" about the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, introduced by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., which he said would produce an "ironclad law simply saying that no administrative decrees of the federal government can ever violate the conscience of a religious believer individually or religious institutions."

"It's a shame, you'd think that's so clear in the Constitution that that wouldn't have to be legislatively guaranteed, but we now know that it's not," he added.

Cardinal-designate Dolan also said that some "very prominent attorneys," some of them non-Catholic and even non-religious, had already volunteered to represent the bishops.

"We've got people who aren't Catholic, who may not even be religious, who have said, 'We want to help you on this one.' We've got very prominent attorneys who are very interested in religious freedom who say, 'Count on us to take these things as high as you can.' And we're going to."

He said the bishops draw hope for that fight from the Supreme Court's recent unanimous ruling in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, a case regarding the ministerial exception.

"You'd think that (the Obama administration) would be able to read the tea leaves, that these things are going to be overthrown," the cardinal-designate said.

An administration official told Catholic News Service in an email Feb. 13 that the White House planned to convene a series of meetings "with faith-based organizations, insurers and other interested parties to develop policies that respect religious liberty and ensure access to preventive services for women enrolled in self-insured group health plans sponsored by religious organizations."

Post-symposium:
'Church's measures against child abuse
should be checked by external aduit'
Interview with Mons. Scicluna
by Gerard O'Connell



Left, Mons. Scicluna; right, Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh, was among the more than 100 bishops who attended the symposium.

ROME, Feb. 13 - Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, who works at the side of Pope Benedict XVI in dealing with the sexual abuse of minors by priests, evaluates the recent international symposium on this subject and emphasizes that “awareness needs to be translated into practice” in the Church, “and practice needs to be audited”.

What is your evaluation of the symposium?
The symposium, organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University, was a truly Catholic experience. We had bishops from all parts of the world, and coming from different points in the experience of the sexual abuse of minors.

We had bishops from the USA and Canada who had already an experience with applying the law as it stands, through three steps: setting the norms and applying them, then doing child protection systems - guidelines and practice, and finally auditing the practices.

Then you had other people who are still trying to come to terms with sexual abuse itself, and with the fact that a priest can ever abuse a minor.

Between these extremes you had lots of people in the middle. But coming together, listening to each other was an experience that, in the end, was enriching for everybody.

Were there other positive aspects?
The other positive aspect was the important support of the Holy See, and of the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Bishops, Religious, and the Evangelization of Peoples. These are very important departments of the Roman Curia which not only promote the law but also, in the case of Bishops and Evangelization – choose bishops. It was important to have these four departments participating in this event.

Furthermore, a very good number of experts from all over the world were present at the symposium and shared their expertise. This made the whole experience one of very high quality.

A victim addressed the symposium...

That was important because it gave the right sort of input and made the event a truly complete experience. It was important to listen to Marie Collin’s experience, and to the advocacy offered by Baroness Hollins.

Their message was very clear, and very well received. It was a very important moment at the start of the symposium. We were all very impressed by this woman and her courage. I think every participant is very grateful to the courage shown by Marie Collins, and for the gracious way in which she listened and empathized with the bishops, and showed the way forward.

Is it clear to everyone that children are the priority?
I don’t think that any participant went away without realizing that this is what the Church from the top down and from the base up wants. After all, that is what Jesus wants. The Gospel says: Do not impede, do not hinder the children from coming to Jesus. Scandal destroys the innocence of children and young people.

And what about putting the institution before the individual?
Putting the institution above the protection of children is not only evil - it is antithetical to the nature of the Church.

Problems of abuse have surfaced in Europe, North America and Oceania, but there is still ‘the silence’ of Asia and Africa.
I think silence is a sin that you will find everywhere. I was quite impressed by the interpretation that Archbishop Tagle of Manila gave for this Asian tendency to keep things hidden, and not to disclose abuse. He used two terms: shame and honor.

The shame and the silence is a way of protecting the little honor which is left in the victim. But it is quite tragic to have to defend one’s honor by simply burying an abuse that has been experienced.

Archbishop Tagle himself was indicating that the time will come when Asia will need to move from this way of defending one’s honor, because at the end of the day silence will only give the opportunity for predators to move on from one victim to the other. It will not give the solutions we seek; that is, to limit and prevent harm.

What about Africa?
People from Africa told us that there are great problems relating to sexual misconduct in Africa, but these concern adults. We don’t have statistics and we have few cases reported of abuse of minors from Africa.

How is Latin America acting on abuse?
Latin America is actually increasing in its awareness of the problem. We’ve had – because the media talked about them – some high profile cases from Latin America and those have put the matter on the agenda, not only of public opinion but also of the local churches. So the response we get from the bishops in Latin America is very encouraging. We have bishops who take disclosure cases seriously, and encourage people to disclose. I think that is the way forward.

The question of the accountability of bishops has been raised frequently. Are bishops aware that they are accountable for their actions or omissions here? Secondly, could you explain the provision in Canon Law for those who fail to exercise authority properly in this field?
I’ll start with your second question. We usually refer to penal law as a response of last resort, and that is what I would want it to remain concerning the accountability of the shepherds of the Church. Canon 1389 talks about abuse of power, but also negligence in the use of power, and Canon 128 then talks about liability for damages when a person causes harm to another person in the Church, through negligence or through malicious actions or malice.

I think that bishops know they are accountable, first of all to God and to their communities. The message is very clear: when it comes to protecting children disregard for Church rules or procedures is unacceptable. It would be truly going against the nature of a shepherd and a steward if he allows his flock to be harmed and innocence to be betrayed in this way.

There are sanctions for those who refuse to be true stewards, and the Holy See has the duty and the jurisdiction to act in defense of the People of God, and the People of God have the right to bring their concerns to the Holy See.

The theologians who addressed the symposium said: “the Church must be close to the victims but cannot fail to be close to the abusers too who are now judged without mercy.” Was this discussed much?
Part of the symposium was to help bishops respond to the CDF’s invitation to make guidelines, and these guidelines talk about the pastoral care of the complainants or the victims, and of the accused. These two important aspects have to be balanced. Participants also highlighted the need to talk to the people close to these groups: families of victims, families of the accused, and communities impacted by abuse.

What challenges lie ahead after a symposium like this?
The challenge comes at the level of the local communities, how to bring awareness to local communities, to parishes, to schools, to families. If we don’t have that sort of empowerment of our communities then we remain on the level of good laws, good practices, and documents. We’re talking about practice, and this is the more important and challenging aspect. Awareness needs to be translated into practice, and practice needs to be audited.

Is the audit only an internal one?
A good audit needs to have an external input, an input which comes from a disinterested third party who is not part of the community. I think a credible audit will always need an external input.

How would you sum up the symposium?
In two words: awareness and commitment.

Tuesday, February 14, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

SAINTS CYRIL AND METODIUS (9th century), Apostles to the Slavs, Co-Patrons of Europe
The two brothers were born (Cyril in 826, Methodius in 815) to an influential Greek family in Thessaloniki but soon moved to Constantinople. Methodius became a monk, eventually becoming abbot of a monastery while carrying out important administrative functions for the Byzantine Empire. His younger brother concentrated on his studies, even learning Aramaic, Jewish and Arabic, later becoming a university professor. Because of his language skills, the emperor sent him on a peace mission to the reigning Caliph, and later to a Byzantine dependency to prevent the spread of Judaism. The brothers first worked together when they were sent to evangelize at the request of the Prince of Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic). For this purpose, they decided to translate the Bible to Slavonic; they they devised an alphabet that would best represent Slavonic sounds - this eventually developed into the Cyrillic used by Russia and other Eastern European Slavic languages. In 867, the brothers were invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas III, at which time they brought with them the relics of Pope St. Clement, that Cyril had recovered in the Crimea on one of his expeditions. (Clement was persecuted under Trajan, exiled to a quarry and then thrown into the Black Sea weighed down with an anchor. Cyril apparently found bones that had been buried with an anchor.) On this visit, Cyril was ailing, and sensing his end was near, he decided to become a monk. He died 50 days later. At his funeral procession in Rome in 869, the people are said to have expressed their own version of 'Santo subito'. Methodius returned to Moravia to carry on their work for another 16 years, most of which he spent fighting off challenges from the German bishops of Salzburg and Regensburg who resented that part of their jurisdictions were assigned to his new archdiocese. Pope Adrian II Rome supported him in these disputes and also approved the Slavic liturgy. Three years after he died (884), widespread political changes resulted in the exile of all his missionaries from Moravia - it is thought that their dispersal throughout the rest of Eastern Europe was responsible for spreading Christianity throughout the Slavic world. The two brothers were immediately venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church as 'Equal to the Apostles', but they were not introduced into the Roman Catholic liturgy until 1880. One hundred years later, John Paul II would declare them Co-Patrons of Europe together with St. Benedict of Norcia. The feast of the two brothers is observed by the Catholic Church on Feb. 14, the day of Cyril's death. Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis to them on June 17, 2009.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/021412.cfm



Not to forget
the 14 Saints Valentine

Valentinus is the name of 14 martyred saints of Roman antiquity. But the Valentines remembered on February 14 have been traditionally two 3rd century martyrs - Valentine, Bishop of Terni, who was martyred in the early 3rd century during the Aurelian persecutions, and Valentine the priest, of Rome, who was martyred in 269, on February 14. Both happened to be buried on different sites in Rome's Via Flaminia. A third St. Valentine was martyred in Africa with other companions.

Because of these uncertainties and scant information, the liturgical celebration of St. Valentine on February 14 was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969. But "Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome", who was definitely known to be buried on Feb. 14, remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics.

A verse from Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Parliament of Fools' (1347) is cited as the first association of St. Valentine to romantic love - "For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh to choose his mate" - in observance of a royal engagement. The 19th-century Butler's Lives of Saints enshrined Chaucer's poetic fancy as having been based on tradition, though it was not. Meanwhile Victorian England and mid-18th-century USA began the business of heart-shaped cards on February 14, since when 'Valentine's Day' spread worldwide as a day for lovers.

we should all remember and pray to the 14 Saints Valentine on February 14....and give thanks
for the uncommon blessed valentine we all have in common, our beloved BENEDICT XVI...
BENEDICTUS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI!





No bulletins posted on the Vatican site so far.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/02/2012 14:05]

No hysterics please:
The healing is under way
Translated from

February 14, 2012

I confess I have no idea who could be the crows, the moles and the wild boars inhabiting the Apostolic Palace. But I feel nauseous going through the cataract of interpretations, hypotheses, lamentations and scandalized expressions of the past several days. It pains me all, but on the other hand, has this not been part of the Church's history in the past twenty centuries?

It is a fact that for some time now, there are people within the Vatican have been occupied with the old and dirty job of feeding confidential files to the media not to shed light on anything but to generate confusion and to paint a depressing image of the Church from within.

Their final objective could be trivial or of great consequence. Settling personal accounts. demolishing the image of Cardinal Bertone, opposition to the clean-up and transparency measures inspired by Pope Benedict, preventive war against some cardinals looking to the next Conclave...

But let us not be deceived. The Vatican offices have not always been a model of holiness, nor was the Far West.

And if there is anyone who knows the light and shadows of that world, it is Joseph Ratzinger, who this month marks 30 years of service at the Vatican.

Once, when he was Prefect for the Faith, he was asked about the Roman Curia, with the expectation that, considering his spiritual nature and his reformist impulses, he would fulminate against the structure so demonized by fiction writers, and which had not always made his life easy at the Vatican.

With his usual suavity and intelligence, and that special instinct for not allowing himself to be borne by any current, Cardinal Ratzinger replied that many honorable and exemplary men also work in that much reviled 'machine', men who have dedicated their lives to the service of the Church with enthusiastic diligence despite scarce resources, besides whom their counterparts in the corporate world and government would pale.

But it is obvious Benedict XVI also knows the risks the Lord runs in having his will translated to practical measures by men of flesh and blood and all their weaknesses. There's good and bad in families, among priests, among intellectuals, in any human society. Why should the Curia be different?

I am reminded of what he said to newsmen enroute to Portugal in May 2010 about the persecutions the Church has to suffer, when he was asked about the 'prophecy' of Fatima:

---

The attacks against the Pope and the Church do not just come from outside the Church. The sufferings of the Church come from within, from the sin which there is within the Church. This has always been the case, but today we see it in a really big way: that the larger persecution of the Church does not come from her external enemies but it is born from the sin inside the Church, and that is why the Church has a profound need to relearn penitence, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness, on the one hand, but also the need for justice [he was referring to the sexual abuse of minors by priests]

We are realists, knowing that evil will always be on the attack, from within and from the outside, but we also know that the forces for good are present, and that in the end, the Lord triumphs over evil.

---

And he was not just talking the talk.

Contemplating what is happening at the Vatican today, one also remembers the priest of Tarcy, in George Bernanos's Diary of a country priest, who tells his colleague Ambricourt, that in the Church, asses, mules and billygoats coexist, some so savage that one wishes to kill them, but you can't do that "because the Master wants to receive them all at the Last Judgment in good condition".

I have been writing that there is a silent opposition to the fundamental line of Benedict XVI's Magisterium and governance, which is composed of persons one cannot necessarily classify into the usual categories of left-right or conservative-progressive. If that is happening in so many Catholic sectors (the media, intellectuals, some bishops), how can it not happen in the Curia itself - within the machinery that is intended to help the Pope govern, and therefore, where it is also easiest to trip him up? [Worse than just tripping him up, I'd call it outright sabotage and treachery!]

I repeat: It is natural to feel profound sadness at all this, but let us not pull out our hair and rend our garments! Those who engage in these strategies of confusion play on emotions, in trying to paint a grotesque image on the basis of small truths or half truths.

The image of a Pope who is isolated and powerless, devoted only to his writings and catecheses, while the world is collapsing around him is clearly targeted to discredit him, but it is also a great lie.

First of all because Benedict XVI has given more than enough proof of his idea of governing the Church: To preach with wisdom, to indicate the urgent priorities of the Church's mission, to establish the channels of purification, to call for a Year of Faith, to dialog with the secular world... As well as placing qualified and competent men of proven loyalty in essential positions, even if this is not always easy.

It would be stupid to think that in a team that counts with eminences like Bertone, Ouellet, Levada, Amato, Canizares, Piacenza, etc., the Pope is alone! [Stupid and a deliberate denial of reality! That is why it angers me when the term Curia is used to stand for everything that's wrong in the Secretariat of State, not to mention in the Vatican, ignoring the fact that all the heads of the Curia are now Benedict's own men (with the exception of Cardinal Rylko at Laity) and that all of them are highly qualified and competent (though a big question mark right now on Cardinal Bertone for administrative competence), loyal to the Pope, who share his vision of the Church, and are personally beyond reproach!]

What's also true is that Benedict XVI has not sought to put together a team of clones [If only there were at least one person who exists that could approximate being a clone to him!] or of servile collaborators.

Each of his 'ministers' has their own strength and style, they may be deficient in something or other, and we may not even like all of them. But it is simply ridiculous to sell the idea of a Pope sequestered in his apartment and unable to cope with events. That pus is now coming out from the wound within the Church only means that healing has begun.

I am really looking forward to what Benedict XVI will have to say later this week before and during the Consistory for new cardinals - it will be a message to all of us.

Meanwhile, I believe that this wave of negative publicity has to do with the Holy Father's most insistent concern: the weakness of the faith, the fatigue with faith, the risk that the light of faith could be extinguished.

It would be stupid to think that the problem of faith is only external and not within our own home. In one of his last discourses in Germany last September, Benedict XVI left us these words of wisdom and guidance:

---

It is not a question here of finding a new strategy to relaunch the Church. Rather, it is a question of setting aside mere strategy and seeking total transparency, not bracketing or ignoring anything from the truth of our present situation, but living the faith fully here and now in the utterly sober light of day, appropriating it completely, and stripping away from it anything that only seems to belong to faith, but in truth is mere convention or habit.

---

Thank God for a voice of reason amid all the hysterical reaction in some circles, even among admirers and devotees of Benedict XVI, to the current media fixation on so-called exposes regarding the Vatican. In the grand scheme, the 'exposes' are all trivial, petty. and even laughable because much of it is feigned, especially what amounts to the most 'serious' accusation made so far - Mons. Vigano's frustrated flailings. (If you read his letters, he claims he found cronyism, overpricing and other financial irregularities at the Governatorate, but he also claims to have corrected these wrongs, and he never says anyone stopped him from doing so, only that the persons he may have moved against took their revenge by destroying his chance to be named President of Vatican City-State!)

And yet, everyone in the media is so eager to find fault with the Vatican that their narrative through all this has focused wrongly on 'corruption and power struggles in the Vatican'. What's more, substantive issues raised in the more serious accusations have been answered unequivocally by the Note from the Governatorate (which tacitly admitted, by not addressing the question in the Note, paying too much for the Nativity Scene in 2009, a cost substantially reduced in 2010 thanks to Mons. Vigano, and kept down even in 2011, after he had left), and other notes from the Vatican Press Office.

A French journalist has written the following piece, labelled an analysis, which is spoiled, however, by the inexplicable and completely wrong assertion that the memorandum sent by Cardinal Castirllon to the Vatican was written by him (!) It is very clear in all accounts that the memorandum was sent to Castrillon by a German friend of his, and that's the reason it is written in German, one of the several languages that Castrillon himself speaks:

Revelations, leaks and plots:
Who wants to end
Benedict XVI's 'glasnost'?
by Antoine M. Izoard
Translated from

February 14, 2011

Cui prodest? (Who profits?)

As the Italian press continues to publish 'revelations' o n alleged death plots or seemingly plausible examples of corruption at the heart of the smallest sate on earth, a Curial cardinal cites Seneca to ask, Who gains from all this?

Because if the confidential documents published seem real, if the media have found in these a new vein to mine in this time of crises, many would like to know who is really interested in showing a Vatican in the grip of confusion. [DUH! The media themselves, to begin with, only too happy to lend a hand to the petty interests within the Vatican who are stoking the fires of discord and ambition in those who are leaking these files! Frankly, I would have thought that by now, Cardinal Sodano ought to have issued a statement to deny that he has anything to do with these treacheries nor do other persons that have been named publicly as anti-Benedict or anti-Bertone. If he continues to keep silent, 'everyone' will simply presume he is guilty, the same way he is presumed of having been among the 'enablers' of Father Maciel, as he has declined to make any public comment at all about it.]

After the Vigano case with its accusations of corruption and financial malversation in the Vatican state government, after the open suspicions that the 'Vatican bank' IOR has been involved in money-laundering all these years, the supposed conspiracy to assassinate Benedict XVI revealed by an Italian newspaper has all the novelesque characteristics of a Dan Brown plot.

Thus one learns that a retired Colombian cardinal wrote, in German, a secret report in which he maintains that an Italian cardinal had confided to some Chinese officials about this plot to kill the Pope. [What's with Izoard? I am sure he reads and understands Italian well enough, but why is he misrepresenting what the newspaper wrote? As tendentious as the FQ headline-article-minispecial was, it was clear from its account that 1) Castrillon simply forwarded a memo he received from a German friend; 2) the memo, not Castrillon, alleges that Chinese officials to whom Cardinal Romeo had spoken to in China last November, deduced the existence of a plot from his alleged statement that 'The Pope only has 12 months to live'.]

The same confidential document indicates that the Pope is secretly preparing for his succession and states that he has a very conflictual relationship with his Secretary of State. [Again, a misrepresentation. The memo attributes those statements as having been made by Cardinal Romeo to Chinese officials. Neither the anonymous German memo-writer nor Castrillon are alleging them at all!]

As fantastical as the statements are, the document does exist. Who them is organizing these leaks to the press? In many Vatican offices, perplexity reigns. "Who could want the skin of Cardinal Bertone?", they murmur, or "Who has an interest in launching here and now what would appear to be preparations for the next Conclave?" [Come now, surely those questions would hardly be asked by the hardened and blase denizens of the Vatican bureaucracy! They're valid rhetorical questions that do not have to be attributed to Vatican employees, of all people!]

The Vatican spokesman refuses to see in all this any internal 'settling of accounts'. But German Cardinal Walter Kasper, from his retirement, deplores the 'mean streak' that has led to these disclosures and says that "if anyone wants to criticize the Secretary of State or someone else, let him to do it he has good reasons" [More importantly, Kasper also said, "...but do it openly," not through underhand methods.]

As head of the Vatican communications effort, Fr. Lombardi cannot ignore the increasingly strong attacks against the Pope and the Church, even as he deplores that the recent dismissal in the United States of a major court action filed against the Pope and two Vatican cardinals, has been largely ignored by the media.

Meanwhile, rumors continue to circulate. Thus, a Sicilian newspaper states that if the Pope only has '12 months more to live', it's because he has stomach cancer [NB: the disease that caused the death of John XXIII].

An Italian archbishop meanwhile says he is sure the Pope is about to resign. [The ridiculous canard I posted a few posts above .]

"The fact that the attacks are getting stronger is a sign that something important is at stake," noted Fr. Lombardi, who says that all the attacks are intended to discredit the efforts of the Vatican to establish true transparency in the operations of all its offices.

But is it not, in fact, the Ratzingerian 'glasnost' that's upsetting his opponents? ['Glasnost' is the Russian term for openness and transparency in all the activities of an institution, that Mikhail Gorbachov sought to introduce in the 1980s.]

Seven years into his Pontificate, the man whom many said would simply be a transitional Pope has managed, without making too much noise, to shake up many things: from the Maciel case to hands-on leadership in managing pedophile scandal that has besmirched the Church; from his efforts towards a correct 'reception' of Vatican-II to his friendly reach-out to the traditionalists; from his 'iron hand in a velvet glove' towards Beijing to the dialog with Islam... [These initiatives represent far more than 'glasnost' because they encompass, in fact, the second term of the Gorbachov reformist binomial, 'perestroika', a restructuring, which in the case of Benedict XVI, has been a policy perestroika rather than organizational.]

Fr. Lombardi says the Pope will never allow himself to be intimidated by these 'revelations'. Joseph Ratzinger, who came to the Roman Curia 30 years ago, knew what he would have to deal with as Pope.

"Pray for me," he asked the faithful On April 24,2005, "that I may not flee from the wolves". These words, pronounced at the Mass that inaugurated his Petrine ministry, resounds in all its significance today, along with the motto he had chosen for his episcopal coat-of arms, "cooperators in the truth'.

Last month, he said to the Roman Curia: "Be witnesses. Be transparent in everything, and work as pastors ready to give your life for others". [And all they have to do is look at how he has lived his life before he became Pope and now that he is Pope. He does not ask of his bishops and priests anything more, or less, than what he himself has been giving and doing.]

What a fitting Valentine's tale this is for all Benaddicts!

Joseph Ratzinger:
Thirty years in Rome
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 2/15/12 issue of


Thirty years ago, on February 15, 1982, it was made public that John Paul II had released Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, and that in fact, on November 25, 1981, he had named the 54-year-old Bavarian cardinal to be the Prefect of the premier dicastery of the Roman Curia, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Thus, continuing to serve another three months as Archbishop of Europe's second largest diocese, it was not till February that Cardinal Ratzinger would come to Rome to take up his new post.

He had come here first in twenty years earlier, in 1962, to attend all four sessions of Vatican II till 1965 as a theological consultant to one of the leading actors in the Council, Cardinal Joseph Frings, Archbishop of Cologne.

After that, the brilliant German theologian came back to Rome several times, especially after 1977, when he was named Archbishop of Munich and created a cardinal one month later by Paul VI in his last consistory.

In the first conclave of 1978, after Paul VI died, Cardinal Ratzinger began a personal friendship with the then Archbishop of Cracow, Karol Wojtyla, and in the second conclave, contributed to the latter's election, convinced, as he wrote in 2004, that "he was the Pope for the present hour" in the history of the Church.

A few months later, John Paul II called him to Rome to ask him to be the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, but Cardinal Ratzinger said he did not think it right to leave his Archdiocese after only two years.

But John Paul II wanted him in Rome, so in February 1981, he informed the Cardinal that he intended to name him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, although he did not manage to overcome the cardinal's objection to leaving Munich until the autumn of 1981.

After arriving here in February 1982, Joseph Ratzinger would never again leave Rome except for official trips and short visits back home.



With the passage of years and his desire to return fulltime to a life of study which he always felt to be his calling, John Paul II asked him to stay on as head of the CDF, as well as his primary theological adviser.

Thus, for a quarter century, the two men held the Church together from Rome - tertio millennio adveniente, into the third millennnium - as the men of our time made a transition towards the secular age: accompanying mankind and bearing strong witness that God is near, as the true followers of Jesus have maintained through the centuries, despite all the sins and human imperfections present in the Church.

And then in 2005, much more was asked of Joseph Ratzinger when he was elected Pope in one of the shortest Conclaves in modern times, an election he had not sought in any way, but which he accepted with the simple serenity that impresses anyone who has ever been near him even for a moment.

"I don't know anything about him, but he has kind eyes", said an old Roman woman at the time.

And in the seven years of his Pontificate so far, Benedict XVI has conveyed every day, not only to the faithful, that which he said in 2006 in Munich, in front of the Mariensauele, the pillar in honor of Mary. Citing St. Augustine's interpretation of a psalm, he said he was like a pack animal laboring for a peasant to whom he felt very near, as he feels near our Lord Jesus, and because of this, he fears no evil.

One also reads this feeling of total trust in God in his valuable 1997 autobiography in which he recounted the first 50 years of his life.

Today, 30 years since the start of the Roman period of this gentle pastor, who does not retreat from the attacks of wolves, we already have a clear profile of a mature Pontificate which will take its place in history, dissipating stereotypes that are hard to die and presenting a sharp contrast to the irresponsible and unworthy actions of his opponents.

Critics and detractors who are caught up in the media uproar, inevitable but not disinterested, providing an opportunity for that purification that the Church always needs.

A Pontiff of peace who wishes to revive the flame of God's primacy, Benedict XVI is perfectly consistent with his personal history. One marked by a broad outlook, which during his three decades in Rome, has always sought to have universal breadth and has spurred his work of innovation and purification, pursued with courage, tenacity and patience, well aware that by night the enemy continues to sow bad seed.

And so the Pope tirelessly urges continuous renewal - ecclesia semper reformanda, a Church ever re-forming - confident that the holiness of the Church shall never be obfuscated for as long as, in listening to the Truth, the People of God remain close to the one Lord.



Benedict XVI's remarks at the Mariensauele in Munich on Sept. 15, 2006, bear re-reading:

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I hope you will allow me to recall on this occasion a few thoughts which I set down in my brief memoirs with regard to my appointment as Archbishop of Munich and Freising. I was to become, and did become, the successor of Saint Corbinian.

From my childhood I was very much taken with the story that a bear had attacked and killed the horse on the saint was riding across the Alps. Corbinian severely scolded the bear and he punished him by loading him down with all his baggage and making him carry it all the way to Rome. So the bear, carrying the baggage of the saint, had to go to Rome, and only there was he allowed by the saint to go free.

In 1977, when I had to face the difficult choice of whether or not to accept my appointment as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, knowing that it would take me away from my usual work at the university and mean new work and new responsibilities, I had to do a lot of reflecting.

And precisely then I remembered this bear and the interpretation of verses 22 and 23 of Psalm 73 that Saint Augustine, in a situation much like my own and in the context of his own priestly and episcopal ordination, had come up with and later set down in his sermons on the Psalms.

In Psalm 73, the Psalmist asks why in this world good things often happen to bad people, while bad things happen to many good people. And he goes on to say: “I was foolish in my thinking, I stood in your presence like a dumb beast. But then I entered the sanctuary and I understood how even amid my troubles I was close to you and that you were always with me”.

Augustine loved this Psalm and often made reference to it, seeing in the words “I stood in your presence like a dumb beast” (in Latin, iumentum) a reference to the beasts of burden used in North Africa to work the land.

In this iumentum he saw an image of himself as a beast of burden for God, someone burdened by his responsibility, the sarcina episcopalis(episcopal burden). He had chosen the life of a scholar and God had called him to become a “beast of burden”, a sturdy ox drawing the plough in God’s field, doing the heavy labour assigned to him.

But he came to realize: just as the beast of burden is very close to the farmer, working under his direction, so I am very close to God, because thus I serve him directly for the building up of his Kingdom, the the building up of his Church.

With these words of the Bishop of Hippo in mind, I have found in Saint Corbinian’s bear a constant encouragement to carry out my ministry with confidence and joy – thirty years ago, and again now in my new task – and to say my daily “yes” to God: I have become for you a beast of burden, but as such “I am always with you” (Ps 73:23).

Saint Corbinian’s bear was set free in Rome. In my case, the Lord decided otherwise. And so I find myself once more at the foot of the Mariensäule, imploring the intercession and blessing of the Mother of God, not only for the city of Munich and for my beloved Bavaria, but for the universal Church and for all people of good will.

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In the last lines of MILESTONES (written in 1997), Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, poignantly, thinking of himself as Corbinian's bear and the psalmist and Augustine's beast of burden: :

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In the meantime I have carried my load to Rome and have now been wandering the streets of the Eternal City for a long time. I do not know when I will be released, but one thing I do know: that the exclamation applies to me too: "I have become your donkey, and in just this way I am with you".

---

Benedict XVI as the 'donkey working in the vineyard of the Lord'. If I were a cartoonist, I would start drawing daily cartoons using the image!



Joseph Ratzinger, Roman
30 years ago, he came to Rome to work -
Who knew he would be elected Bishop of Rome?
Translated from

February 14, 2012

Thirty years have passed since the former Archbishop of Munich-Freising came to live in the city which would see him chosen as Successor to Peter.

Thirty years later, Piazza della Città Leonina 1, in the popular but 'papal' neighborhood of Rome, Borgo Pio, is still the private address of Joseph Ratzinger. No one has moved into the apartment. [Perhaps the Vatican, which owns the building, wants to keep the place as a historical site, since Benedict XVI is the first Pope in a long time to have actually lived in Rome before becoming Pope. None of the Italian Popes were Roman, except Pius XII who lived in Germany in the years before he was elected Pope and did not appear to have an immediate family by the time he became Pope.]

This was his residence starting from shortly after he arrived in Rome on February 15, 1982, to take up his new position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Joseph Ratzinger lived in this apartment, 'in the shadow of St. Peter's Dome' as Romans would say, for the next 23 years. He became a discreet but familiar presence in the neighborhood.



Every morning, like clockwork, he walked from his apartment to the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio, on the farther side of the Bernini Colonnades, to carry out his very sensitive job as Prefect of the CDF.

John Paul II had named him to the position on November 25, 1981.

But he did not immediately move to Rome. According to the man who was his private secretary from 1984-2003, Mons. Josef Clemens, the cardinal only "left his pastoral administration of the Archdiocese of Munich" that February 15 thirty years ago. Not knowing, obviously, that Rome would become his permanent residence.

Today, Benedict XVI can look out on the Eternal City from his papal apartment but he can no longer walk its streets. In the borgo near the Vatican, his presence is still felt, and Rome had become his city even before he became its Bishop.

Clemens says that when the Cardinal first arrived in Rome from Munich, "the apartment at Piazza della Citta Leonina was not ready - they were still renovating it, and so for a short while, he lived at the Collegio Teutonico. It was not until April that he moved into the building" which is just off the Porta Angelica, one of the gates to the Vatican.



His name was never shown on the buzzer box for the building, but he soon became a familiar figure in the neighborhood, walking around in a black beret. He patronized most of the shops in the area, and he had his favorite restaurants. He walked comfortably and anonymously among residents, tourists, pilgrims and ambulant vendors populating the always busy streets of Borgo Pio.

He would go to Cantina Tirolese on via Vitteleschi, which people thought was his favorite restaurant because it served Bavarian food and a hot chocolate drink that be loved. Or to Passetto di Borgo, at Borgo Pio 60, where he enjoyed Roman dishes.

One could also find the cardinal browsing the bookstores in Via della Conciliazione. He frenuented the Libreria Leoniana on Via dei
Corridori to check out the latest publications in theology and philosophy.

But his Rome was not limited to the Vatican and his neighborhood. He felt a special bond with the eastern suburban parish of Casalbertone, because the Church of Santa Maria Consolatrice was his titular Church from 1977 to 1993.

He developed an intimate relationship with the parishioners, whom he visited frequently to say Sunday Mass. As Pope, his first pastoral visit to a Roman diocese was to Santa Maria Consolatrice.

On eve of meeting the Pope,
Muslim woman who heads British Tories
says 'Europe needs confident Christians'
by John L Allen Jr


ROME, Feb. 14 -- When you’re talking about the Vatican, it’s a good idea to be careful about using the word “unprecedented.” Over hundreds of years of history, almost everything has happened at least once.

This afternoon, however, brought something you definitely don’t see every day: A prominent Muslim woman standing in the heart of Rome, opining that Europe needs to become “more confident in its Christianity.”



Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a cabinet minister in the U.K. [chairman of the Conservative Party] and the highest-ranking Muslim woman in the West, made that case before present and future Vatican diplomats at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome. She spoke as part of a high-level delegation of U.K. officials in town for working meetings with Vatican officials.

Pope Benedict XVI, whom Warsi will meet tomorrow, previously has proposed a grand “Alliance of Civilizations” with Islam, one thrust of which is that Christians and Muslims should be natural allies against radical currents of secularism seeking to exclude religion from public life.

Today’s speech amounted to a signal that at least one influential British Muslim, and a woman to boot, is ready to sign on.

It’s not the first time Warsi has come out swinging against what she calls a “suspicion of faith” in Europe.

Back in 2010, just ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s high-profile visit to the United Kingdom, she announced in a speech to Anglican bishops that the new conservative government under David Cameron would “do God”. That was a reference to a famous quip by an advisor to Tony Blair suggesting that “God,” in the sense of overt references to religion, is precisely what enlightened European pols don’t do.

Today, however, marked the first time Warsi has brought her religion-friendly message to the Pope’s backyard.

“In order to ensure faith has a proper space in the public sphere, in order to encourage social harmony, people need to feel stronger in their religious identities, more confident in their beliefs,” she said. “In practice this means individuals not diluting their faith, and nations not denying their religious heritage.”

“If you take this thought to its conclusion then the idea you’re left with is this: Europe needs to become more confident in its Christianity,” Warsi said.

Warsi, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants to the U.K., said that as a child whatever discrimination she faced was based on race, but after 9/11 the focus shifted to religion. That experience, she said, has led her to oppose anti-religious discrimination wherever she finds it – against Muslims, but also, she said, slights to Europe’s Christian heritage.

Though Warsi has drawn fire from some Muslim leaders and groups, particularly for supporting Western incursions in Afghanistan and other Muslim nations, she’s also taken up popular Muslim causes in the West, including opposition to public bans on head scarves and burqas.

In her speech this afternoon, Warsi endorsed inter-faith dialogue, but not a lowest-common-denominator exercise in which differences are played down.

“Just as Esperanto, which attempted to build a new tongue and neutralizes our component languages, a common language between faiths risks watering down the diversity and intensity of our respective religions,” she said.

“It’s not about us coming to some watered-down compromise,” Warsi said, “but being firm enough in our devotion to work together.”

Warsi argued that when a Christian fights anti-Semitism, or when a Muslim defends the Sikhs, it’s not a sign of weakness in their faith, but of strength.

Warsi identified two primary categories of opponents of a robust public role for religion in today’s Europe.

First, she said, is the “well-intentioned liberal elite,” figures “who think that the route to religious pluralism is by creating a path of faith-neutrality.” In fact, she said, their version of a level playing field is “all but impassable to anyone of belief.”

Second, she said, are “anti-religionists” and “faith deniers”, meaning people who seek “to remove all trace of religion from culture, history and public discourse.” What they miss, she said, is that “people of faith give more to charity, and the number of people going to a place of worship is globally on the up.”

Militant forms of secularism, Warsi said, are reminiscent of the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century in their intolerance for religious belief.

She laid out her version of an antidote:
= Holding firm in our faiths.
= Holding back intolerance.
- Reaffirming the religious foundations on which our societies are built.
- Reasserting the fact that, for centuries, Christianity in Europe has been inspiring, motivating, strengthening and improving our societies.

None of that implies, Warsi said, uncritical deference to religious voices. She noted that at the moment, Anglican bishops in the U.K. are opposing a set of welfare reforms floated by the Cameron government. She recognizes their right to be heard, she said, while also reserving the right to think they’re wrong.

Tomorrow, Warsi and the other members of the U.K. delegation will meet Benedict XVI in a Vatican audience. It’s hard to imagine she won’t find common ground with the Pope on her concluding note in tonight’s speech:

“People need to realize that, in our continent and beyond, Christianity’s teachings and value are as permanent as Westminster Abbey, as indelible as Da Vinci’s Last Supper, and as solid as Christ the Redeemer,” she said. [I didn't realize a Muslim could call Christ 'the Redeemer'?!

“Christianity is as vital to our future as it is to our past,” Warsi said.

The current crisis and
the deepest truths about our being
by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

February 14, 2012

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“To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truths about our being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God.”
— Pope Benedict XVI
To American Bishops from the Washington Area
January 19, 2012

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I.

The ad limina visit of American bishops on January 19th, in L’Osservatore Romano, showed a photo of the Pope with Cardinals McCarrick and Wuerl. In the English edition, the address was entitled: ”Convincing Witness to the Face of Radical Secularism”.



As these prelates are from the area where most of the recent direct attacks on Catholic teaching have occurred, and often sponsored by Catholic legislators or bureaucrats working for the President, this particular address of Benedict is of significant meaning.

Like many of the American bishops, the Pope is aware of the threat to Catholic religious freedom and religious liberty posed by the regulations of the Obama administration. While awareness of the seriousness of this threat seems lost on many Catholics, academics, and politicians, it is quite clear that the Pope and the bishops are acutely aware of the rigid logic that has been at work in contemporary secularism and in particularly in this administration.

The Pope recalls his visit to the United States where he reflected on the “American historical experience of religious freedom and specifically the relationship between religion and culture.”

As always, Benedict XVI begins with principle. “At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is the consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions of human flourishing.”

Agreement or disagreement on the highest things will necessarily affect how we live and how we can or cannot live together. And, looking backwards, how we live will indicate what we hold as true. Benedict understood the worldview coming from the Founding Fathers as a generally healthy one.

“Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.”

These are very startling papal words. How many American Catholics (let alone those in other parts of the world) acknowledge this increasing “hostility to Christianity as such?” It is a moment of what Hegel would call “world-historic importance.” No matter, the hostility is there and incrementally increasing, if we are paying attention to what is happening almost daily.

The Church in this country is to propose “a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths, but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prosperity.” These lines remind us that the agenda of those who, especially in moral matters, seek not merely to “allow” Church presence when necessary but more subtly to change Church teaching to conform it to the relativism of the culture, especially on life issues.

This pressure to change doctrine is where the Church has finally realized that it must draw a line in the sand. The issue is no longer merely technical or practical. It is about the “unchanging moral truths.” The administration has taken the position that if the Church will not change, then it will, usually in the dubious name of “human rights,” be excluded from the public order.

Benedict points out that the source of this attack is “scientific rationalism” but also sheer “political power.” We are now seeing the raw use of political power exercised by a government that is “democratically” elected.

We cannot take refuge in “majority rule,“ as that too may be totalitarian; it too may and does at times impose doctrines against reason and faith. If this surprises us, it is only because we have not been paying attention to what has been happening in our political parties, in our media, and in our universities.

II.

What we are now witnessing is the Catholic intelligence focusing on the logical principles and their inevitable conclusions once the first principles of relativism are made operative in a culture and in politics.

“When a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of human mystery and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it necessarily becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionism and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society.”

These are particularly strong words, spoken to Americans about America. The Pope does not hesitate to tell us that totalitarian principles are actively at work in our current political leaders. Clearly, the Holy Father has been paying attention to what U.S. bishops have been telling him.

Again we have to understand the whole coherence of the Catholic mind. “Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, human and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning.”

The doctrine of creation maintains that an order does exist in things and in human things, an order not simply put there by the human mind but discovered there. God’s essence is not voluntaristic as in the Muslim world wherein no secondary causes can be attributed to God as that would impugn Allah’s power.

A science that finds nothing but human intelligence in the world speaks the same voluntaristic language. Science is only possible if the world is real—and real things actually have their own being and order, something open to reason.

Benedict tells us that the Church proposes her understanding of man and the world as a matter of liberty and not of constraint. We are free when we discover and conform to reality. Benedict adds something that he often repeats: “The Church’s witness is of its nature public: she seeks to convince, by proposing rational arguments in the public square.

The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation.”

What is most disconcerting and dangerous about the recent HHS mandate is precisely this refusal, mindful of Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias, to engage in conversation. It insists on limiting everything to its view of what is legitimate. The Church is merely a private thing for a few pious believers who do not count; its public reasons do not have to be engaged as it has no power.

Thus, “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize that the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasingly expression in the political and cultural spheres.”

Once radical limitations on freedom of religion are in place and freedom of expression is curtailed, the possibility of reversing the imposed laws becomes problematic.

The bishops have been wise to base their claim on the tradition of religious freedom. As Benedict puts it: “Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”

The Pope tells us that many bishops have spoken to him about this situation. It is up to the bishops, of course, to get down to names and numbers, but clearly the Holy Father sees the basic outlines of the issue. As usual, he spells things out clearly and frankly.

The Pope here tells us that this is an issue not primarily for the bishops but for the Catholic laity. At a time when the Church needs articulate and qualified politicians and leaders, it finds that many of the leading proponents of the positions inimical to Church teaching themselves claim to be Catholic.

“No one who looks at these issues realistically can ignore the genuine difficulties which the Church encounters at the present moment.” No doubt the Pope is aware of the sorry effect of clerical scandals and the episcopal handling of them.

Yet, we have here a new generation of bishops who are educated more in the models of John Paul II and Benedict, intelligent men who know what they are up against and determined to take as their models the great teaching and acting bishops of our tradition.

For this, we might thank the current administration for carrying to its logical conclusion the secularist claim that the only thing that matters is whatever the government says and enforces. It is against this view that we must now fortify ourselves.

The “deepest truths about our being” are at stake. We have never really heard them clearly and publicly articulated in our polity. Hopefully, we will hear them from now on.

Wednesday, February 15, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

ST. CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE (France, 1641-1682), Jesuit, Preacher, Writer
Claude was best known before his own beatification and canonization as the spiritual director
who supported St. Margaret Mary Alacoque when she was troubled initially by her visions of the
Sacred Heart, and became, like her, an ardent devotee. Claude had been named rector of the Jesuit
College at Paray le Monial, near the convent of the Sisters of the Visitation to which Margaret
belonged. It is believed the assignment was intended to provide Margaret with the right direction.
Two years later, he was sent to London as court preacher to Mary, Duchess of York (who would
become Queen as the wife of James II). He continued guiding Margaret Mary by letter, and counseled
many Anglicans who wanted to return to the Church. Then, he found himself accused as a conspirator
in an anti-monarchic plot and was imprisoned. By intercession of King Louis XIV, he was released
and sent back to France. He died two years later. He left a number of books on the spiritual life.
He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1992.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/021512.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

General Audience - The Holy Father reflected on three of the 'seven last words' of Jesus on the Cross as related
in the Gospel of Luke, dwelling in his conclusion on the prayer of Jesus asking the Father to forgive those
'who know not what they do' - "those who do us wrong, who have harmed us, forgiving them so that the light of
God may illuminate their heart...with the certainty that in the hands of the Father, however difficult our trials,
problems and difficulties, nor how heavy the suffering, we shall never fall out of the hands that created us,
that sustain us in the journey of existence"... He also blessed a reproduction of the Holy Door of St. Peter's
Basilica to be part of the permanent exhibit on John Paul II in his birthplace of Wadowice, Poland. The Holy Door
was last opened on Christmas Eve, 1999, when John Paul II formally inaugurated the Great Jubilee of 2000.

This afternoon, the Holy Father holds his traditional meeting with the seminarians of Rome at the Collegio Maggiore
at the Lateran, and was to give a lectio divina on verses 1-2, Chapter 12, of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans.
After the lectio, he joins the seminarians at dinner.


The Vatican today released an unusually lengthy joint communique by the Holy See and Her Majesty's Government
of the United Kingdom following the visit of a ministerial delegation led by Bsroness Warsi, the Pakistani-born
Muslim chairman of the British Conservative Party. The communique goes beyond the usual brief formula about
'cordial talks on matters of mutual interest'. The delegation met with Pope Benedict after the General Audience,
having met in previous days with other Vatican officials.


Page 1 of OR today carries the editorial commemorating the day 30 years ago when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger arrived in Rome to take up his post as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (translated and posted a few posts earlier on this page). The secular stories on Page 1 concern the Greek dilemma of continued violent rioting protesting austerity measures needed to qualify Greece for further debt bailout from the European Union; a visit to Washington by the next president of China to re-examine a strategic alliance between the world's leading economic powers; and a continuing impasse to any effective international action against Syria for its many months of violent repression of protests against President Assad's regime. On the back page is the announcement of the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia, with the attendance of the Pope, to take place this year from Feb. 26- March 3, on the theme 'The communion of the Christian with God'. Cardinal Laurent Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, is leading the exercises this year.; an article by Cardinal Dsiwisz on the Holy Door reproduction for Blessed John Paul's museum in his birthplace of Wadowice; and an address by Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of Cor Unum, on restructuring the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel on its 30th year of existence. Other important Church news in the inside pages: the formal inauguration last Sunday of the Ordinariate of Peter's Chair in Houston, Texas, for American Anglicans and Episcopalians converting to Catholicism; the opening of a symposium in Rome of European and African bishops on the subject of cooperating in the new evangelization, in which the Old Continent needs to learn from Africa the freshness of the faith; Patriarch Kirill II meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin and endorses his re-candidacy to be President of Russia, praising him for his role in 'leading Russia out of crisis in the 1990s'; and in the Ukraine, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk expresses the hope that a new law being considered regarding religious properties confiscated in the Soviet era from both Orthodox and Catholic Churches will be fair about restituting the properties.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY



The Pope's catecheses on prayer:
'Jesus on the Cross taught us to pray
and ask mercy even for those who harm us'

February 15, 2012

Jesus’s last prayer on the Cross, in the face of death, teaches us “no matter how hard the trial, how difficult the problem, how heavy the suffering, we will never fall from the hands of God”, said Pope Benedict XVI Wednesday as he dedicated the second general audience to the last words of Christ before he died.

This how he synthesized his catechesis in English:

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In our continuing catechesis on Christian prayer, we turn once more to the prayer of Jesus on the Cross.

Saint Luke relates three "last words" of the crucified Lord. In his prayer: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34), Jesus intercedes for his executioners and shows the depths of his reconciling love for sinful humanity.

In his words to the Good Thief: "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43), he offers sure hope to all those who repent and put their trust in him.

His final cry: "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit" (Lk 23:46), expresses Jesus’ trust-filled surrender to God’s will, born of that unique relationship to the Father which had shaped his own life of prayer.

From the Cross, Jesus teaches us to forgive and love our enemies, to pray for their conversion, and to commend ourselves into the Father’s hands, trusting that they will continue to sustain us amid the sufferings of this life until they embrace us in heaven.

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Here is Vatican Radio's English translation of the main catechesis:

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In our school of prayer last week I spoke about Christ’s prayer on the Cross, taken from Psalm 22: "My God, my God why have you forsaken me". Now I would like to continue to meditate on the prayers of Jesus on the cross in the imminence of death and today I would like to focus on the narrative that we encounter in the Gospel of St. Luke.

The Evangelist has handed down three 'words' of Jesus on the cross, two of which - the first and third - are explicitly prayers to the Father. The second one consists of the promise made to the so-called good thief crucified with him, answering, in fact, the thief’s prayer, Jesus reassures him: "Truly I tell you today will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23,43).

The two prayers of the dying Jesus and the acceptance of the repentant sinner’s supplication to Him are suggestively entwined in Luke's account. Jesus both prays to the Father and hears the prayer of this man who is often called latro poenitens, "the repentant thief."

Let us dwell on these three prayers of Jesus. The first is pronounced immediately after being nailed to the cross, while the soldiers are dividing his garments as sad reward of their service. In a way this gesture closes the process of crucifixion.

St. Luke writes: "When they came to the place called Golgotha (Calvary), they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. [Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”] They divided his garments by casting lots" (23,33-34).

The first prayer that Jesus addresses to the Father is one of intercession: He asks forgiveness for his executioners. With this, Jesus himself carries out what he had taught in the Sermon on the Mount when he said: "But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Lk 6,27). He had also promised to those who can forgive, "your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High" (v. 35).

Now, from the cross, He not only forgives his executioners, but speaks directly to the Father interceding on their behalf.

This attitude of Jesus finds a moving 'imitation' in the story of the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. Stephen, in fact, coming to an end, "knelt down and cried with a loud voice:" Lord, do not hold this sin against them". That said, he died" (Acts 7,60). It was his last word.

The comparison of the prayer for forgiveness of Jesus and that of the martyr is significant. Stephen turns to the Risen Lord and calls for his murder - a gesture clearly defined by the expression "this sin" - is not imputed against those who stone him.

Jesus addresses the Father on the cross and not only asks for forgiveness for his executioners, but also offers a reading of what is happening. In his words, in fact, the men who crucify him "know not what they do" (Lk 23,34).

He cites ignorance, "not knowing", as the reason for his request for forgiveness from the Father, because ignorance leaves the way open to conversion, as is the case in the words that the centurion spoke at Jesus' death: "This man was innocent, beyond doubt" (v. 47) - he was the Son of God.

"It is a consolation for all times and for all men that the Lord, both for those who really did not know - the killers - and those who knew and condemned him, gives ignorance as the reason for asking for forgiveness – he sees it as a door that can open us up to repentance" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, II, 233).

The second prayer of Jesus on the cross as told by St. Luke is a word of hope - his answer to the plea of one of the two men crucified with Him. In the presence of Jesus, the good thief 'returns to himself' and repents - he feels himself to be before the Son of God, who reveals the Face of God, and prays: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (v. 42). The Lord's answer to this prayer goes far beyond the supplication, he says: "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (v. 43).

Jesus knows he is entering into a direct communion with the Father and reopening the path for man to God’s paradise. So through his response, he gives us the firm hope that the goodness of God can touch us even at the last moment of life, and that sincere prayer, even after a life of wrong, encounters the open arms of the good Father who awaits the return of his son.

But let us pause on the last words of the dying Jesus. The Evangelist says: "It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'; and when he had said this he breathed his last." (vv. 44-46).

Some aspects of this narrative are different from the picture offered in Mark and Matthew. The three hours of darkness are not described in Mark, while in Matthew, they are connected with a different set of apocalyptic events, such as the earthquake, the opening of graves, the dead raised to life (cf. Mt 27.51-53).

In Luke, the hours of darkness are caused by the eclipse of the sun, but at that moment, the veil of the temple is also torn. In this way Luke's account has two signs, in some way parallel, in heaven and in the temple. The sky loses its light, the land sinks, while in the temple, the place of God's presence, the veil that protects the Holy of Holies is rent.

The death of Jesus is explicitly characterized as both a cosmic and a liturgical event. In particular, it marks the beginning of a new worship in a temple not built by men, because it is the very Body of Jesus dead and risen, that would bring men together, joined in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood.

The prayer of Jesus in this moment of suffering - "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" - is a loud cry of extreme and total trust in God. This prayer expresses his full awareness of not being abandoned.

The opening invocation - "Father" - recalls his first recorded statement when he was a twelve-year-old boy. At that time, he remained for three days in the temple of Jerusalem, the veil of which is now torn. And when his parents had expressed their concern, he replied: " Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" (Lk 2,49).

From beginning to end, what completely determines Jesus’s sentiments, his words, his actions, is His unique relationship with the Father. On the cross He also fully experiences, in love, his filial relationship with God, which animates his prayer.

The words spoken by Jesus, after the invocation "Father," are taken from the expression of Psalm 31: "Into your hands I commend my spirit" (Ps. 31.6). These words, however, are not a simple quotation, but rather show a firm decision: Jesus "delivers” himself to the Father in an act of total abandonment.

These words are a prayer of 'custody', full of confidence in the love of God. The prayer of Jesus before his death, which is tragic for every man, is at the same time pervaded by the deep calm that comes from trust in the Father and the will to abandon himself totally to Him.

In Gethsemane, entering the final struggle in intense prayer as he was about to be "delivered into the hands of men" (Lk 9,44), his sweat became "like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Lk 22,44). But his heart was fully obedient to the will of the Father, and "an angel from heaven" had come to comfort him (cf. Lk 22,42-43).

Now, in his last moments, Jesus addresses the Father, into whose hands he really surrenders his whole life. Even before leaving for the journey to Jerusalem, Jesus had insisted to his disciples, "Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men." (Lk 9,44).

Now that life is about to leave him, he seals his final decision in prayer: Jesus had allowed himself to be delivered "into the hands of men", but it is into the hands of the Father that He raises his spirit, so - as stated by the Evangelist John - 'it is done', the supreme act of love is brought to an end, to the limit and beyond the limit.

Dear brothers and sisters, the words of Jesus on the cross in the last moments of his earthly life offer challenging indications to our prayers, but also open us to a quiet confidence and a firm hope.

By asking the Father to forgive those who are crucifying him, Jesus invites us to the difficult act of praying for those who do us wrong, who have damaged us, knowing always how to forgive, so the light of God may illuminate their hearts, thus inviting us to live in our prayers the same attitude of mercy and love that God has towards us: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our those who trespass against us," we say every day in the 'Our Father'.

Jesus in the final moment of death, by placing himself entirely in the hands of God the Father, communicates to us the certainty that, no matter how hard the trial, how difficult the problem, how heavy the suffering, we will never fall from the hands of God, those hands that created us, support us and accompany us on the journey of life, guided by his infinite and faithful love.

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Vatican and UK jointly declare
that religious freedom is
fundamental to a healthy society

February 15, 2012

The right to religious freedom, the need to promote disarmament and sustainable development, to support peace and democracy in North Africa and the Middle East and to promote a culture of social responsibility as the basis of a healthy society.

Those were some of the wide ranging issues discussed by a British government delegation and top Vatican officials on Wednesday during a visit marking the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations between the UK and the Holy See.

A joint communiqué following the working meeting said Britain and the Holy See look forward “to working together to combat intolerance and discrimination based on religion, wherever it is manifest.”

The delegation met with Pope Benedict today and spoke of his successful 2010 visit to the UK which paved the way for this follow up meeting.

Leading the delegation was Britain’s only Muslim Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi, who told Vatican Radio more about the talks and about the audience with the Pope.

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This is a historic visit, a visit that we discussed at the very successful State papal visit in September 2010….

This delegation is unprecedented really in the history of the UK, but also in the history of the Vatican, to have 4 cabinet minister and 3 ministers of state with a big delegation to visit and have bilateral discussions, as well as enjoy an audience with the Holy Father…

It’s the privilege of a second meeting I’ve had with the Pope – the first time he asked me to continue to make the case for faith, and I explained that my speech here and the work that we’ve been doing with the government over the past 20 months was trying to make the case for faith and he blessed us….

I handed him a gift of a King James Bible from the Prime Minister …he opened it and read the message from the Prime Minister…I also handed him a personal gift of a translation of the Koran ...

I think the most important thing that’s come out for me is that the Vatican, being the smallest state in the world, has one of the biggest global reaches …

There are many issues on which we agree… The world, as we go forward, we know is not based on geographical relations but on networks and the Holy See is one of the most networked states in the world….

We spoke about international aid, disarmament, climate change, the importance of interfaith relations and the importance of making the case for faith...

---

Here is the text of the joint communqiue issued today:

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JOINT COMMUNIQUE BY THE HOLY SEE
AND HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

On 14-15 February 2012 the Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, hosted talks between the Holy See and a British Government Ministerial delegation led by the Rt Hon Baroness Warsi.

The visit of the delegation to Rome follows the successful visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010, and marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See, which took place the year of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Britain, the first by a reigning Pontiff.

The delegation also met the Secretary of State His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and was received by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government agreed on the urgent need for action to strengthen the universal commitment to religious freedom as a fundamental human right, and to its practical application with a view to promoting respect for all religions in all countries.

The Holy See and the British government look forward to working together to combat intolerance and discrimination based on religion, wherever it is manifest.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government reaffirmed the need to promote integral and sustainable global development, based on the centrality of the human person and grounded in the principle of the inherent human dignity and worth of each person.

Much progress has been made over the last decade in improving health and well-being for many people. However, there are still significant gaps and challenges in the long and complex path towards ensuring integral human development for everybody.

Too many people are still hungry, too many people do not have access to education and to decent work, too many women die in childbirth. In view of these challenges we recognise a shared obligation to achieve a fair international financial and trade framework. And we will strive for a better future for all humanity, taking into particular account care for the poorest people in the world.

Looking ahead to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro in June this year and to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change implementation process, we share the conviction that in order to take forward a human-centred and sustainable global development, there is a need to continue to strengthen the integration of its interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: the economic, the social and the environmental, as well as the connection between combating poverty and tackling climate change.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government share a commitment to work at the United Nations and other fora to strengthen the international focus on conflict prevention, disarmament, arms control and non proliferation, aimed at protecting human life and building a world more respectful of human dignity.

As part of this effort, we look forward to positive outcomes in July to the final negotiations to agree upon a robust Arms Trade Treaty with a wide scope, and to the 2nd Review Conference of the UN Programme on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

With regard to the changes which have occurred in North Africa and the Middle East, the Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government stressed the importance of undertaking real reforms in the political, economic and social realms, in order better to ensure the unity and development of each nation, in responding positively to the legitimate aspirations of many people for peace and stability.

In this context, reference was made to the role which Christians can play and to the importance of inter-religious dialogue. The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government expressed the hope for a resumption of negotiations in good faith between Israelis and Palestinians so as to bring about a lasting peace.

They renewed their appeal for an immediate end to violence in Syria and stressed the need for co-operation to overcome the present crisis and work towards a harmonious and united coexistence.

As the London Conference on Somalia approaches, the Holy See and the British Government encourage the international community to support a coherent strategy on Somalia in order to end the crisis there, placing as a priority the protection and welfare of the people of the Horn of Africa.

Her Majesty’s Government welcomed His Holiness Pope Benedict’s support for the ongoing process of reconciliation in Northern Ireland, the establishment of stable, inclusive political institutions, and efforts to build a peaceful, stable and prosperous future for all parts of the community.

Her Majesty’s Government and the Holy See agreed that the use of violence for political ends is deplorable, and must be set aside in favour of constructive dialogue for the well-being of the whole community.

As the United Kingdom prepares to host the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, both sides look forward to a year characterised by the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Truce: at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

There was in addition a good exchange of views on a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural issues, including on developing the UK’s collaboration with the Vatican Museums.

Both sides recognised in particular the role of faith and education in the development of a culture of social responsibility and the underpinning of a healthy society.

In this context, appreciation was expressed for the significant contribution which the Catholic Church, and Christians in general, have made and continue to make to the good of British society.

The Holy See emphasised the need to ensure that institutions connected with the Catholic Church can act in accordance with their own principles and convictions and stressed the necessity of safeguarding the family based on marriage, religious freedom and freedom of conscience.

Both sides look forward to further strengthening their relationship by working together through their respective networks and global partnerships, including the Commonwealth of Nations, to promote the common good.

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Archbishop Nichols says UK-Vatican meeting
marks high point in their bilateral relations

February 15, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI met on Wednesday with a high level delegation of British government ministers who are in the Vatican to follow up on contacts made during the 2010 papal visit to Britain.

The delegation is led by Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi and includes the Secretaries of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, for Scotland, For Northern Ireland, as well as Ministers of State for International Development, for Energy and Climate Change and for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, was accompanying the delegation on this working visit. He told Philippa Hitchen the meeting marks a high point in relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See:

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I believe it’s very significant indeed, it’s a historic visit. We’re also marking the 30th anniversary of the restoration of full diplomatic relations – the history goes back to the 1470s, but I think this is a high point right across the sweep of those centuries and its a signal of the important and growing relationship between the British government and Holy See and therefore a recognition of the role that the Catholic Church plays throughout the world on many crucial issues.

Baroness Warsi is in a unique position coming from a family originally from Pakistan, a Muslim woman, so she has an audience which is attentive to what she says and this (the need for a more confident voice of faith in public life) is a constant theme of her speeches.

So she is very committed to the positive good that faith, confidently expressed, really does make and she’s critical of those who want to isolate faith and privatise it…

One of the features of this visit is that the topics are global issues that range far and wide – like the international work in disarmament, climate change, education around the world – these are big global issues in which the British government does take a lead and I think they recognise the Holy See has a reach that is far beyond most other institutions. …

Certainly the Minister of state for culture, media and sport has been involved in discussions with cultural centres here in the Vatican looking back over the exchanges that have taken place over the last few years, for example the Raphael tapestries that came to Britain …and they’re looking at what might be the next steps.

And it’s important because culture and the world of the arts is a great vehicle for the expression of the spiritual dimension of human endeavour…

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Because the Pope did not have a prepared text for this event, we won't get the Vatican's transcript until tomorrow, there are no English stories available of the event, and even initial reports in the Italian media are sketchy. I have opted to use the INSIDER report to begin with.


In 'lectio divina' to seminarians,
Benedict makes an indirect reference
to media concerns that ignore
the Church's first mission - the faith
Translated from the Italian service of

February 15, 2015

"Everyone seems to be talking about the Church of Rome these days. We can only hope they can also talk about her faith," Benedict XVI remarked in an extemporaneous lectio divina to the students of Rome's seminaries this afternoon, in his annual meeting with them at Rome's major diocesan seminary, the Pontificio Collegio Seminario at the Lateran.



[In the past several years, he has chosen the form of a lectio divina to address them, leading them to reflect on a Bible passage of his choice, This year, it is verses 1-2 from Chapter 12 of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans:

["Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect".]

"Let us hope", he said, indirectly alluding to the new wave of negative stories in the media about the Roman Curia, "that they would speak not of these things but of the faith of the Church".

About Paul's words, he told the seminarians, "Paul speaks to us because he was speaking to the Romans of all time".

He warned them of "the power of finance and the media" which, he said, "are necessary and even useful, but sometimes abusive to the point of being contrary to man's interests".

He said that financial powers have transformed money into the 'instrument of Mammon', and said that in this way, they oppress man, and "the Christian is against such conformism of subjection".

Referring to 'public opinion', he said, "We need to be informed, but information cannot be 'the power of image', in which ultimately what is said or what is perceived matters more than reality, and men seek image only".

The Pope said the 'non-conformism' of the Christian is that of he who desires 'freedom in truth' and rebels against 'the oppression of image', and he pointed out that God . helps man be free.

I will not forget his very powerful and likewise extemporaneous lectio to the seminarians in 2009, when he commented on Galatians 5, emphasizing verses 15-16, as follows: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. "Just a few weeks later, in his unprecedented letter to the bishops of the world - a historical first in the modern era and a very Pauline letter in itself - he used the very citation from Galatians to describe the situation of dissent in the Church today.

And this is the man his detractors insist has chosen to isolate himself from reality and leave the job of leadership to his subordinates! My blood pressure shoots up whenever I think about such accusations by supposedly intelligent men in the media who make these claims repeatedly - against all common sense!

How can they say that of a man who begins his working day by reading a variety of newspapers, not just the press round-up that some flunky in the Secretariat of State prepares? He would have to be a certified idiot not to notice if the newspapers (German, English and Italian) that he reads daily came to him with large cutouts to keep him from reading certain stories or commentaries! He also takes time in the evenings to watch the primetime news on Italian and German TV - surely, George Gaenswein is not holding the remote ready to 'mute' the audio promptly to spare the Pope from hearing himself and the Church being trashed on Italian state TV! {GG would have to keep it mute every time there was some news about the Church!].

I was truly hoping not to have to post another item on any new round in the open war declared by the newspaper Il Fatto Quotdiano against the Vatican, but that newspaper did come out with more Vatileaks today in the form of letters that make it appear - and so the newspaper emblazons it - that the very man Pope Benedict XVI put in charge of a full-transparency campaign throughout every Vatican office appears to be opposing the adoption of any laws to prevent clients from laundering money through the Vatican financial institution IOR - and that his observations are actually proposals to circumvent any such laws!

John Allen has the patience I don't have for reading through these journalistic stink bombs, so here's his take... Of course, as a journalist seeking to reach the widest readership possible, he shares the obsession of MSM to spin out bad news as long and as negatively as they possibly can, so if you detect an underlying Schadenfreude in his stories, remember it's a basic component of the herd mentality of journalism today....

Yet more Vatican leaks
by John L Allen Jr

Feb. 15, 2012

ROME -- In what has become a near-daily occurrence, more confidential Vatican documents were leaked today, including a memo from the cardinal in charge of financial oversight warning that a new law against money-laundering could be seen as a “step back” from reform, potentially creating “alarm” in the international community and among regulatory agencies.

The memo was addressed to the President of the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called “Vatican Bank,” and to the Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. It was published along with another memo along the same lines, this one written by the president of a Vatican court. [WAIT! Aren't we going to be told what the dates on these memoranda were? Dates are certainly important relative to a reference event, in this case, whenever the new laws were supposed to take effect in the Vatican!] You can see how easily a simple omission of basic facts can change the significance of a story - but MSM does it all the time, especially in reporting about the Church, and omission of facts can be just as malicious and harmful as outright distortion or misrepresentation.

In the inimitable style of the Italian press, the documents appeared under the headline, “The Papers that Nail the Vatican.” [YEAH, RIGHT! As if the Anglophone press did not gleefuly brandish 'smoking gun' after 'smoking gun' when they were trying to crucify Joseph Ratzinger in the spring of 2010, each one blowing up in their faces!]

Speaking on background, Vatican officials today played down the significance of the documents, suggesting they amount to a snapshot of an internal debate that has already been resolved in favor of greater transparency and collaboration with external regulatory bodies.

One of the memos came from Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who heads the Vatican’s new Financial Information Authority, created in 2010 with the power to inspect the books of other Vatican offices to guard against fraud. The other came from Giuseppe Dalla Torre, an Italian professor and head of a court for the Vatican city-state. [DATES PLEASE!]

Taken together, the two documents cast doubt on modifications to the anti-money laundering laws adopted in January, and suggest that it contains a massive loophole: Offenses committed prior to the law taking effect on April 1, 2011, would be exempt.

In his memo, Nicora suggested the revisions to the law could “create serious alarm in the international community, as well as among international anti-money laundering organizations.”

In an accompanying commentary, the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano suggested that behind the scenes, Bertone overruled those objections and supported a restrictive reading of the new law, in order to hamstring Italian inquests into incidents before last April. [I don't want to have to read these tedious letters, but Allen is saying in effect that Nicora had some objections which Bertone overruled by putting in restrictions of his own with the same end, which is, to short-circuit Italian and/or international law from affecting Vatican operations. Is that it?]

However, officials involved in the drafting of the new law said that the Nicora memo reflected an early reading of a draft, and said its concerns have already been addressed.

Last Thursday, Feb. 9, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, specifically rejected the charge of a loophole in the law, responding in that instance to an earlier leak of another internal memo.

“According to Vatican norms in the area of anti-money laundering, the Vatican judicial authority does have the power to investigate suspect transactions in the period before April 1, 2011,” Lombardi said, “and that’s in the context of international cooperation with the judges of other states, including those of Italy.”

American lawyer Jeffrey Lena, who’s advising the Vatican on its financial overhaul, said today the new rules are not a step back.

“The modifications of the law were undertaken to bring the internal legal system more closely into compliance with the GAFI international standards,” Lena said.

Lena’s reference is to benchmarks established by a secular intergovernmental body known as the Financial Action Task Force, designed to prevent the financing of terrorism and money laundering.

[Does anyone in his right mind - and I doubt those at IFG are - really think that the Vatican would do anything that would undermine its own determined efforts to get on the 'white list' of financial institutions deemed by the EU to be in compliance with international norms? That's the lunatic view of anyone who is sickeningly obsessed with painting the Vatican in only one color - devil's black, the heart of darkness! Unfortunately, journalists know that yellow journalism outsells serious new any time, so they can and will be as unscrupulous as they wish in reporting about the Pope and the Church. knowing that most newspaper readers cannot and do not resist all that poison bait.]

At the moment, the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organisational and Economic Questions is holding a regularly scheduled meeting. The Council is composed of 15 cardinals from around the world who advise the Vatican on economic matters.

Though the meeting is held behind closed doors, it's a reasonable assumption that the recent cycle of leaks and bad press, along with the questions they raise about overall fiscal policy, are likely to come up.

Two American cardinals, Francis George of Chicago and Roger Mahony [formerly] of Los Angeles, are members of the council.


And I don't want to translate a sketchy conjecture piece, either, in which Guido Horst, a veteran German-language Vaticanista, claims, in effect, that both the Vigano letters and the Castrillon-forwarded memorandum were leaked by the SecState's 'Second Division', namely, the department in charge of Vatican diplomacy. He even mentions the name of Mons. Dominique Mamberti, who heads the deparment, and is, in effect, the Vatican's 'foreign minister'. I am surprised VATICAN INSIDER ran the story at all, considering how really skimpy it is on fact, and that Mons. Mamberti is in town and he ought to have been given a chance to respond to the unattributed charges. (To have him even indirectly linked to Vatileaks was certainly not propitious on the day when he was the principal host for the visiting British delegation. I certainly hope Mamberti issues a statement on his own!)

See, this business of 'anonymous' sources has long been used by journalists - notably by the Vaticanistas - to advance their own hypotheses or that of the interests they protect without anyone taking responsibility for any harm that almost always results from these 'indiscrezioni', a favorite Italian term for gossip or personal opinion masquerading as factoid!]