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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 23/08/2021 11:16
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Thursday, March 1, First Week of Lent

ST. DAVID OF WALES [DEWI SANT in Welsh] (Wales, 500-589)
Abbot, Bishop, Patron Saint of Wales
He was thought to be the son of a Welsh king who became a priest and soon gained fame as a teacher
and preacher, in a region that was often prey to barbaric invasions and surrounded by pagan lands.
He led a community of monks who followed a very ascetic rule of work and prayer, and were reputed
to live on nothing but bread, herbs and water. Legend has it that once, he was preaching to a large
crowd who were unable to see him, until a dove came to pluck him by the shoulder to raise him even
as the ground rose below him so everyone could see him. At one point, he traveled to Jerusalem where
the Patriarch consecrated him an archbishop. But he lived most of his life in Wales where he founded
many monasteries and lived to an advanced age. In the 11th century, a hagiography called Book of
David appeared supporting the local Welsh veneration of him. Indeed, he was canonized in 1120, the
only Welsh saint so far. Today there are more than 50 churches in Wales named for St. David. He is
buried at the church named for him in southwestern Wales where he founded his main monastery.
In September 2010, Benedict XVI unveiled a new portrait of St. David in London's Westminster Cathedral.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/030112.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father is on retreat (Day 5).

The Prefecture for the Pontifical Household released the following communique:

SERMONS FOR LENT 2012
Translated from


"Remember your leaders...and imitate their faith" (Heb 13,7)
The Fathers of the Church, Teachers of Faith

In preparation for the Year of Faith decreed by the Holy Father Benedict XVI (12 Oct 2012- 24 November 2013), the four sermons for Lent this year take inspiration and aim to give freshness to our beliefs through a renewed contact with the 'giants of teh faith' from the past.

We shall consider one by one the schools of thought represented by the four great Doctors of the Eastern Church - Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzene and Gregory of Nissa - to see what each of them has to say to us today about the dogmas which each of them championed specially: the divinity of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and knowledge of God, respectively.

P. RANIERO CANTALAMESSA, O.F.M. Cap.
Preacher of the Pontifical Household




THE HOLY FATHER'S
PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR MARCH 2012


General intention:
"That the whole world may recognise the contribution of women
to the development of society."

Missionary intention:
"That the Holy Spirit may grant perseverance to those who suffer
discrimination, persecution or death for the name of Christ,
particularly in Asia."



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I must say that the Ignatius Press publicity campaign for the Georg Ratzinger book that comes out today in English in the USA is impressive - I am finding stories about the book almost on every news site online, and today, the ultra-left Huffington Post website has two stories on it in its Religion webpages, plus a slideshow consisting of five Ratzinger family photos.

Growing up in the Catholic faith
by GEORG RATZINGER


The following is an excerpt from "My Brother the Pope" by Msgr Georg Ratzinger as told to Michael Hesemann. © 2012 Ignatius Press -– published with permission.

Generally speaking, our family made a big thing of Christmas. The preparations already began with the First Sunday of Advent. At that time, the Rorate Masses were celebrated at six in the morning, and the priests wore white vestments.

Normally violet is the color of the vestments in Advent, but these were special votive Masses that were supposed to recall the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to the Mother of God and her words, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38).

That was the main theme of these “liturgies of the angels,” as they were also called, in which the appropriate passage from the Gospel of Luke was read.

After we started school, we used to attend these Masses in the early morning, before classes began. Outside it was still night, everything was dark, and the people often shivered in the cold. Yet the warm glow of the sanctuary compensated for the early rising and the walk through snow and ice.

The dark church was illuminated by candles and tapers, which were often brought by the faithful and provided not only light but also a little warmth. Afterward we went home first, ate breakfast, and only then set out for school. These Rorate Masses were wonderful signposts leading us to Christmas.

In our family, though, it was not only Christmas that was marked by the deep faith of our parents and the religious customs of our homeland.

From our parents we learned what it means to have a firm grasp of faith in God. Every day we prayed together, and in fact before and after each meal (we ate our breakfast, dinner and supper together).

The main prayer time was after the mid-day dinner, when the particular concerns of the family were expressed. Part of it was the prayer to Saint Dismas, the “good thief,” a former criminal who was crucified together with Jesus on Mount Calvary, repented on the cross, and begged the Lord for mercy. We prayed to him, the patron of repentant thieves, to protect Father from professional troubles.

Being a policeman, after all, was a rather dangerous profession, and we were often very anxious about Father. Especially when he worked the night shift and had to walk the beat. When a misdemeanor or a crime had occurred in the area he patrolled, it was his duty to investigate it. Father often worked at night, and then it could happen that he was held up, for whatever reasons, and came home later. Then, naturally, we children and Mother were anxious and prayed that nothing had happened to him. So, of course, our prayer life was always marked by concern about Father.

When we were children, our parents also put us to bed and prayed our evening prayers with us. They used a very special form of blessing and repeated it three times. Unfortunately I do not remember the wording today. This was followed by another somewhat expansive blessing. Once I asked my father what it meant, but all he said to me was, “I do not know exactly, either. My father and mother used to pray this prayer at my bedside.”

I must admit we seldom went to Mass together, simply because our father had to work on Sunday or else sang in the church choir. When we were somewhat older, I and then later my brother served at the altar usually on Sundays and during the week, while Mother and our sister went to another Mass.

Often on Sundays we attended Mass twice, once as servers and another time with our family, for instance, the early Mass at 6:00 and the main parish Mass at 8:00 or 8:30. Then, in the afternoon at 2:00, there were devotions, and on feast days a Vespers service.

This piety, which was lived and put into practice, defined our whole life, even though today I celebrate only one Mass and refrain from going to a second one. Nevertheless, it was imparted to us as children in the cradle, so to speak, and we remained faithful to it throughout our lives.

I am convinced that the lack of this traditional piety in many families is also a reason why there are too few priestly vocations today. Many people in our time practice a form of atheism rather than the Christian faith. In some respects, they may maintain a sort of vestigial religiosity; perhaps they still go to Mass on the major feast days, but this rudimentary faith long ago ceased to permeate their lives, and it has no bearing on their everyday routine.

It starts with sitting down at table and beginning a meal without even thinking about prayer, and it ends with no longer coming to church regularly on Sundays. Thus, an almost pagan way of life has taken root.

If there are no religious practices even in family life, then this has an effect on all the rest of human life. I often speak with brother priests, and in almost all cases it seems that they prayed regularly as a family and went to Mass together. This then shaped their whole lives and directed them toward God. Thus, their vocation fell on fertile soil.


Brothers in faith:
How the Ratzinger boys became
leaders, each in his own way

by Michael Hesemann

Some of the most moving moments in my week-long interviews with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger on which our book "My Brother, the Pope" was based, were those when he remembered how both brothers reinforced another's faith.

Keep in mind, Georg Ratzinger was the older brother, born three years before Joseph, who later became Pope. In a certain way, he became his role-model, although both brothers were different in both mentality and gifts.

In Georg's case, it was his love for music which developed rather early. Joseph, on the other hand, was the little genius, the best of his class at school, a loner in the afternoons, who enjoyed nothing more than to be with his books, either in the hay of his parent's stable or out there in nature, in the green meadows of their Bavarian homeland.

What united both was not only the common blood, as two sons of a very close and loving family, but, first of all, their common Catholic faith and their rural Bavarian piety, which determined the events of the year and enriched the everyday life of the Ratzingers.

"From our parents we learned what it means to have hold in the faith in God" is certainly one of the most important sentences in our book. Common prayer was a regular and important part of their day, next to the regular and at least weekly Holy Mass in their Parish Church.

The First Holy Communion, which Georg received three years earlier than his little brother, was the highlight of their childhood. "When the religious life is already practiced in the family, it influences the whole rest of your life," Georg Ratzinger states. "This forms your whole life and directs it towards God. It creates a fertile ground for the priestly vocation."

For Georg Ratzinger, it was "completely organic" that he became a priest; not by a special event, a certain call, but by harmonic growth. When the time came, he served at the altar and became a ministrant - an honor and duty for Catholic boys, at that time even more than today.

There, serving the priest, he begun to realize that this is where he belongs, that the Lord's altar is his place in life - as a server now, in the future as a priest. Georg Ratzinger never questioned his call. He was just sure that this was God's plan for him.

At that time, little Joseph looked up to his "big brother," both proud of him and maybe a little bit jealous that he was not yet allowed to serve at the altar, impatiently waiting for his time to come.

"I don't know if I became a role-model for my brother in a certain way," Georg Ratzinger says in a typical understatement, "but at least he saw in my example how life would look like, when he himself decided to follow me on this way. We never directly spoke about it, but I can very well imagine that my example at least encouraged and confirmed him in his decision."

Still, the Ratzinger boys had to overcome the dark times of the Nazi dictatorship and World War II. It certainly was an inner opposition which strengthened their decision to resist the diabolical "Zeitgeist" and decide for Christ and His Church. They couldn't wait for the war to end and to the new challenge in their life, to become priests and to teach the Gospel in post-war Germany.

Due to the years Georg Ratzinger had to serve in the German "Wehrmacht" and the following time as a POW, both started their Theological Studies at the Seminary in Freising at the same time, on Jan. 3, 1946. Suddenly, the "small brother" was a co-seminarian in the same class.

Eventually, on June 29, 1951, one after the other, Georg and Joseph Ratzinger both proclaimed their "Adsum." Two brothers in faith became priests -- and vowed to strengthen not only each other but all believers in their common faith.

This was the beginning of two of the most remarkable careers of the 20th century: Georg Ratzinger became the famous choir-leader, touring around the world with the Regensburg Cathedral Boy Choir, the "Regensburger Domspatzen"; and Joseph, arguably Germany's most important theologian, before he was called to Rome and was eventually elected on the See of St. Peter. Both learned that nothing is impossible, if your faith is strong.

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I am always disappointed when veteran Vatican observers - even the best ones - end up taking a stereotyped kneejerk view of developments in the Church, or this time, in the Vatican. As Jean Mercier does in this piece. Which not only fails to offer any new insight or information, but also makes the usual gross and often unfounded assumptions used loosely by the run-of-the-mill Vaticanista.

Benedict XVI: Betrayed
by people in high places

Translated from

March 1, 2012

In addition to his problems with the Lefebvrians, the Pope must now deal with the current media enthusiasm over the disclosure of documents leaked by a traitor within the Curia.

[Once again, the unthinking and baseless attribution of the current problem to the entire Curia, when it has clearly been confined so far to the Secretariat of State - which is not 'THE CURIA' much as its denizens may think they are.]

It is a practice at every Mass to pray for the Pope and the bishop of the place where the Mass is said - a practice which is vital in these particularly troubled times. [It is vital at all times, since we do not pray to God only when we are in trouble.]

Benedict XVI has never been so exposed as in the past two months. [That is a fundamentally false statement. First, because, for a change, no one is blaming the Pope directly for all this contretemps ex cept insofar as he chose Bertone, to begin with), if only because he is the ultimate victim of anything that detracts from the efficacy and efficiency of Vatican administration. And more importantly, the current uproar is nothing compared to the spring of 2010 and all the media-generated cyclonic battering the Pope had to endure - and withstood with such grace - in which his implacable enemies at the New York Times and the AP did everything they could to try and impugn his personal reputation. One imagines that if he could, he would gladly take all the opprobrium today for the reprehensibly childish behavior of his subordinates, but he cannot expiate their individual sins nor undo the damage done by their insidious actions - they have to do that themselves.]

Of course, there's the FSSPX file which is far from resolved - and whose ultimate and daunting resolution is in his hands alone. But the Pope must have had serious concerns since the Italian media started publishing documents which should never have left the Vatican. [Those papers should never have left the CONFIDENTIAL files in which they were kept! So obviously, someone - or more than one - who had access to those confidential files had no problem copying whatever documents he/they could. The fact that six weeks after the Vigano letters were first published, Vatican security has not yet identified the traitors is troubling. Was file security so lax that a simple process of elimination by access level has not narrowed down the possible culprits enough to identify them (at least 20, as improbably alleged by the supposed mole who was interviewed disguised on Italian TV, so there is no way to establish his bona fides (not that a traitor can be expected to have any, of course). ]

A traitor - or more than one - has leaked to a scoop-hungry Italian media [What media is not scoop-hungry regardless of the country?] letters addressed to the Pope and his co-workers. These letters denounce corruption in the Vatican [One letter alleged it, though what it described was more cronyism and wasteful spending rather than corruption - and this is a blatant example of how even the most well-meaning reporters can be just as coprophagic and coprophilic, to use Cardinal Bergoglio's memorably appropriate terms, as their less reputable colleagues] ][/DIM, evoking maneuvers aimed at the next Conclave, providing the scenario for such maneuvers by some cardinals to get power or to manipulate it, and revealing the reciprocal hatreds among the different factions.

[In choosing to present the 'cumulative' effect of the leaks so far, Mercier is wrongly giving equal weight to Viganp's letters and the ravings of an anonymous memorandum, even if the latter does have a few plausible assumptions about inevitable high-level rivalries]

This is very serious because the traitors
could be from the Secretariat of State. [Could be? No subjunctive speculation needed here, when the Vigano letter to Bertone has aa SecState date stamp on it, and when subsequent statements by Fr. Lombardi have, in effect, authenticated the leaked documents.]

It is obvious that the object of the operation is to have the Secretariat of State blow up, or at least, to force out Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, because most of the documents target him, directly or indirectly.

Obviously, one must not be naive. The Curia has never lacked for power squabbles. The novelty is that the media have cashed in on these dysfunctions that have till now been kept from view, and the Pope's communications services are at a loss because they cannot deny the existence of the documents.

With each revelation, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has had to acknowledge that the documents are real, even if the facts they allege are sometimes imagined or a distortion of reality.

For instance, that about the existence of a plot to assassinate the Pope which, as the leaked document itself makes clear, was nothing but the false interpretation of statements allegedly made by a cardinal while on a visit to China.

Who could want to 'blow up' the Curia? From all accounts, it would be those who never accepted Cardinal Bertone as Secretary of State - who had been for a time Cardinal Ratzinger's 'right hand' at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was now his 'prime minister'.

His choice of Bertone was risky: This Salesian cardinal is doubtless more interested in football and Italian politics than in governing an institution as complex as the Holy See. But he had the full confidence of the Pope. even as he also represented a major break with the system that had been established by his predecessor, Cardinal Sodano.

The latter, whose entire career had been in Vatican diplomacy [and therefore, the Secretariat of State], had been an intimate friend of Chilean President Augusto Pinochet and his wife when Sodano was the Apostolic Nuncio to Chile. and had supported the scandalous Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ.
[I have never liked Sodano from sheer gut reaction, but I 'defended' him for his Eastern Sunday 2010 public message of support for Benedict XVI in the name of the College of Cardinals,and for the gross misinterpretation of what he said about 'idle chatter'. Likewise, it is not fair to impute to him any guilt by association with the Pinochets or with Maciel. He does not have to defend his record with the Pinochets because one cannot imagine he approved Pinochet's tyrannies. (He would have to be a monster to have done so.) However, since he has chosen not to publicly deny his support of Maciel, he cannot blame anyone for the widespread impression that he was Maciel's principal shield at the Vatican.]

Cardinal Ratzinger had sought since the start of the 2000s to attack the problem of sexual crimes in the heart of the clergy but came up against the resistance of Sodano's team. [It would seem that the 'Sodano team' could not have been so brazen about 'protecting' Maciel, if they did, were it not that as late as 2004 - at least three years since the US scandal erupted and the Pope made the CDF in charge of the problem - John Paul II himself publicly praised Maciel and his Legionaries of Christ as a worthy model for the Church. At a time when the CDF had been unable to conduct the investigations which eventually led to a condemnation of Maciel's conduct in 2006. In other words, in 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger did not yet have the proof to show John Paul II that he had been deceived by and about his friend Maciel. In turn, the late Pope's loyal friendship with Maciel gave cover, in effect, to those who sought to protect Maciel from being unmasked.]

It is not impossible that Sodano is behind the present destabilization moves, that he is pulling the strings behind the scenes. He keeps a certain level of power[through his influence on members of his team who are still in the Secretariat of State - and one might imagine that most of the bureaucracy were behind him] and he seems to be in excellent form at 84.

In the case of a Conclave, he would be in charge of the preparations for the succession since he is the Dean of Cardinals. {Not so, unless you assume he will necessarily outlive Benedict XVI. Both were born in 1927, Sodano being 7 months younger. It always infuriates me when a reporter or commentators makes this questionable assumption.]

As for Bertone, who is doubtless beyond his capabilities in such a political role, he has obviously attracted enmities. He seems to be physically and morally exhausted. {How can Mercier say that from the outside looking on? Bertone looked and sounded as jaunty as ever in his appearance at the Vatican Secret Archives exhibit on Monday. In fact, it's hard to imagine Bertone being less than ebullient, only that his bonhomie obviously has not won over any of his enemies.]

Having reached canonical retirement age two years ago, Benedict XVI has kept him on. But the Pope knows that he must replace him rapidly if he does not want to plunge the Curia into an even graver crisis. {Again, an assumption that has so many unknowable premises, not the least that Benedict XVI 'must replace him rapidly'. To replace Bertone, he needs someone who is capable of restoring order and discipline tout de suite in the Secretariat of State. Another 'outsider', no matter how well-qualified, will probably not work, but the Pope must also be sure that the new man will be loyal to him and the Church, not to any vested interests.]

So he must find another man who has his full confidence, because Benedict XVI is aware that he may have a few more years to live, and he must have assurance of support.

At the same time, he must name a successor to Cardinal Levada at CDF, the other position in the Curia.

Which leaves him with a couple of major decisions to make, which will constitute genuine wagers for the future by a man who despite keeping his intellectual brilliance intact, may find it hard to find the right fit for these positions, and must rethink the administrative aspect of his governance in the latter phase of his Pontificate (which may last another 5 years or more).

All the more reason to keep praying for him.


About the assertion Mercier makes in his headline, it is not news that well-placed types in the Vatican establishment have never accapted the election of Benedict XVI and have done everything that middle-level bureauxcrats who know the system from A to Z can do to stall or impede his actions (since they are unable to block him directly). So that kind if highly-placed treason is not news.

I would take the argument further, though, and say that without meaning it in any way, it is Cardinal Bertone who has betrayed the Pope and his so-far unswerving manifestation of confidence in him worst of all. He does so in two ways - Bertone's own apparent administrative incompetence; and a number of misplaced initiatives (eventually rescinded by the Pope himself) which, instead of serving to 'improve' his image to those who oppose him, have only served to give them ammunition to shoot him down.

From all accounts, even by Vaticanistas sympathetic to him, Bertone seems to have displaced his focus from the Secretariat of State itself which he is supposed to run - but obviously has not been able to master, given all the rebels loyal to the Old Guard who still man the levers - to seeking to control important moneymaking institutions of the Church in Italy over which the Vatican really has no business butting into (not to mention the Italian bishops conference itself).

It's like a student having to do his homework conscientiously and well first and pass his exams with flying colors, before he can think of running for Student Council president and all sorts of extra-curricular activities to the neglect of his academic course work.

One would think Cardinal Bertone might look at the example of Benedict XVI himself who preaches that each of us must attend to the essentials first, and the rest will follow. This applies to the way we practice our faith as to the way we live our daily life in general.

Even worse, it seems that Cardinal Bertone may have allowed power to get to him. His efforts to make his hand felt significantly in the affairs of the Church in Italy seem to have been a way to develop a significant power base that did not need to be from within the Secretariat of State and would be a counterweight to it. It is still a reach for power. And an unseemly one.

The magnitude of his attempts - fortunately foiled by the Pope in time - would seem to indicate the magnitude of his desire for such power. And it would seem that once again, Lord Acton was right about power. It can corrupt. Even of Cardinal Bertone hardly seems to be corruptible. I wonder if he has considered the example of the Salesian founder, St. John Bosco, lately]

God bless Benedict XVI and all those who are supposed to help him carry out his Petrine ministry!


P.S. Ciacomo Galeazzi suggests today that Cardinal Leandro Sandri, now Prefect for Oriental Churches, may be a possible replacement for Bertone. In a recent blog entry, John Allen also brought up Sandri's name, praising him as having kept the Secretariat of State 'running smoothly' for over a decade as the Sostituto to Cardinal Sodano. So presumably he will not be seen as an outsider at SecState. But will his more than 5 years of service now as a cardinal created by Benedict XVI outweigh any loyalty he may have to Sodano and the Old Guard? Also how does the claim that Sandri ran SecState 'smoothly' square with the continuing refrain by most Vaticanistas, including Allen, that John Paul II was so disinterested in governing that ht left the Curia in disarray? The statements can't both be true.


Perhaps it's just me, but the tone of the following news report-cum-comentary by Andrea Tornielli is quite different from his blog yesterday commenting on the Tonrielli-Tettamanzi letter, in that he allows himself to be far more censorious in his blog....

Some foreign cardinals are uneasy
about the Secretary of State but
the Pope will keep him on

by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from

March 1, 2012

VATICAN CITY - "These are the documents to see and to present, whose historical truth strikes me" Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone demonstrated tranqullity, though surrounded by Vatican security men who accompoany him everywhere.

He had just arrived at the exhibit 'Lux in Arcana' of documents from the Vatican Secret Archives, and that was his answer to newsmen's questions about the 'poisoned atmosphere' created by the so-called Vatileaks.

But if externally - as in recent interviews on Italian state TV-s TG-1, and his many other public activities - the Vatican 'Prime Minister' appears serene, the atmosphere is quite different at the Vatican where the hunt goes on for the mole or moles responsible for releasing confidential files to the media: starting with the letters of the ex-Secretary of the Vatican Governatorate, Mons. Carlo Maria Vigano, who denounced 'corruption' in the awarding of Vatican work contracts, to a private exchange of opinions about the proposed anti-money-laundering regulations to be adopted by the Vatican's IOR, to an anonymous note with unfounded speculation of a plot to kill the Pope, to the letter written by Caridnal Bertone to then Archbishop of Milan Cardinal Dionigo Tettamanzi dismissing him from the administrative council of the Istituto Toniolo (the private fo8undation that runs the Catholic University, the Gemelli Hospital and many other institutions of the Church in Italy).

What has grown lately is the perceptible disquiet among prominent cardinals from around the world who were in Rome for the recent consistory. It is known that two years ago, following the uproar over the 'Williamson case', a group of cardinals convened by Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo had tried to ask the Pope to accept the resignation offered pro forma by Bertone when he turned 75. The cardinals were Ruini, Bagnasco, Scola and Schoenborn - known to be among those close to the Pope. [One had wondered at the time why Bertone was not among the invitees!]

But apparently the Pope closed the discussion before it could even begin, as he reportedly did on previous occasions when other cardinals had brought up the subject, including the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joachim Meisner [who is Benedict XVI's closest friend among the cardinals]. [No wonder Bertone has been confident about his standing with the Pope to the point of audacity! The Pope obviously has his reasons for keeping on Bertone that we may never know, but this seems to be one papal decision that has been counterproductive by most accounts, on which he nonetheless insists.

Papa Ratzinger has known Bertone for many years. [But he has known Cardinal Meisner much much longer! And even Cardinal Kasper, for that matter, whom he has known for over 40 years. And yet, Kasper, who was always to the left of Joseph Ratzinger in his theology, has emerged in the past few years as the only cardinal who has spoken up promptly in defense of Benedict XVI through a number of 'controversies' starting with the Good Friday prayer for the Jews in 2007. Each time, in marked contrast to the deafening silence from Cardinal Bertone whose behavior during such crises I have described as 'missing in action' - he was never to be found anywhere near the action in its critical phases.]

Working with him for six years at the CDF, the Pope appreciates Bertone's loyalty, but he also knew when he appointed him as his Secretary of State but he also knew that since the latter did not come from the Vatican diplomatic ladder, his arrival would provoke considerable upsets in that establishment. Many ranking officials in the Secretariat see the recent developments as the Old Guard lashing its tail.

Meanwhile, despite 'intensive' investigations by the Vatican police, they have yet to identify the person or persons responsible for Vatileaks.
[Isn't anyone bothered by this seeming inefficiency? You'd almost think they aren't really trying! How many policemen and how many weeks does it take to flush out these moles? Maybe the Pope should call in the police dog Inspector Rex to help them out!]

In recent weeks, the disturbances in the SecState establishment are becoming a true and proper earthquake that is destabilizing the entire institution, which appears beset - even shattered - by various power plays. [Perhaps Tornielli exaggerates. And surely he only means the Secretariat of State, not the entire Curia... Maybe it's not enough to just order a police investigation. Maybe the Secretary of State should call all his staff and personnel together and assert his leadership in a firm but charitable manner and try to reach out to them genuinely. Maybe he should speak to each department, section and office separately to listen to their concerns - even about him personally. Maybe he should stop giving the impression that he is interested only in talking to VIPS and political leaders from all over the world, who routinely pay him a courtesy call after they see the Pope... And if he has tried all this and it has not worked - leadership is judged by its results - then he is ineffective as a leader and he should insist on resigning to spare the Pope more embarrassment and genuine harm. It would be the best service he could render.nd his greatest vanity would be to think that he is indispensable in any way to the Holy Father.]

Under criticism is how Bertone has run the Secretariat of State; his excessive interst in Italian affairs - just think of his foiled attempts to gain control of Istituto Toniolo and then the San Raffaele - as well as the whole undergrowth of his lay plenipotentiary surrogates, true or presumed, who have been working in his name and using his name.

Not two weeks ago, during the consistory, the disquiet felt by many foreign cardinals about mismanagement in the Curia emerged clearly in various conversations among them. Many started to speak openly and to ask about certain papabili - which is unheard of.
[Why would disquiet over the Secretary of State necessarily lead them to discuss papabili? It's a non sequitur, unless their concern is to keep Bertone himself from being considered papabile, which God forbid!] Some were openly displeased about the Italian leadership in the Secretariat of State.

So far, Benedict XVI has continued to defend Bertone from attacks and criticisms: "He has his defects, but so did his predecessors", he has reportedly said, implying that he intended to keep him on by his side.
[Yes, but (and I am sorry to think this, Holy Father), it seems sad - and wrong - that a Benedict XVI should content himself with someone who is, in effect, a mediocrity, or at least, someone far from brilliant in his performance so far, as his right-hand man!]

The Secretary of State therefore appears to be firmly in command for now, and there are those who say he is planning a major countermove such as changes in the management structure of IOR.

And since Benedict XVI is known for taking his time on making major decisions, no one is saying that the pro forma resignation submitted by Bertone two and a half years ago will be accepted soon.


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Thoughts from the Lenten meditations:
Towards 'ever-renewed conversion'

Translated from the 3/2/12 issue of


From the sign of the Cross to consciousness of sin, through a rediscovery of the truth of the faith that should involve the Church herself, which is called upon to live the evangelical beatitudes and reject hypocrisy and lies.

This is the itinerary of reflection chosen by Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, for the first part of the Lenten spiritual exercises of the Roman Curia, which has been taking place this week in the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace, in the presence of Benedict XVI.

Developing the theme "The Christian's communion with God", the cardinal started with the sign of the Cross as the ideal introduction for the topics that comprise the meditations on the first letter of St. John during the days between Sunday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, March 3, when the retreat ends: God is life, God is light, God is truth, God is mercy and piety, God is a loving guide, the conclusive eschatological communion, love of the world, the anti-Christs (or lack of faith in Jesus Christ), and the sin of priests.

"It is not that works and actions need a new consecration, when the profound nucleus of existence is already consecrated by Baptism", Cardinal Pasinya recalled, referring to the sign of the Cross, "but with this act, we add to every action the spledndor of consciosness, the dynamism of freedom".

What does the gesture mean? He has no doubts: It means "sacrificing for love: it is dying in order to resurrect".

This also means, therefore, renouncing vanity, prestige, the desire to possess and to dominate, in order to consecrate one's own work to Christ.

Indeed, if an action is done out of pure vanity, "it cnanot carry the sign of the Cross. it is not crucified, it is not Christianly sanctified: a work of apostolate is offered and consecrated for love of our neighbor".

The sign of the Cross, is therefore much more than habit. For Cardinal Pasinya, a way to "annul the selfish sense of any action is to mark it with with the Cross - it also means liberating it and making it available for further dynamism".

The meditation on the sign of the Cross was followed by three reflections on God as light, truth and life. In this context, the African cardinal referred to some of the tragic phenomena which already distinguish our time - wars, the arms race, genocides, political violence, abortion and every form of exploitation of man for economic and commercial motivations.

He asked that mankind not remain indifferent to "the repression and exploitation of man by man, not to let down our guard even if the mystery of sin seems to overwhelm us, and never to banalize human life".

He particularly stressed the difficult situation these days in Syria and the appeal launched by Benedict XVI at the Angelus on February 12: "We must walk in the light," the Pope had said, "meaning, decide to abandon sin" and allow ours life to be transformed by truth through a path of 'ever renewed conversion".

This understanding of God-as Truth particularly interpellates those who no longer have any consciousness of their own sin, those who have lost the sense of sin because they no longer even consider the question of God.

Equally targeted by this are those who no longer have any criteria of morality, who confuse good and evil". This is a tendency that the cardinal juxtaposed with "religious indifferentism oif those who affirm that all religions are valid but in fact, only want an easy morality".

Even priests, the cardinal pointed out, "are not sheltered from these errors to the degree that spiritual aridity itself leads them to the same defects. In which case the priestly minister is transformed into a functionary without a true sense of God - a lost opportunity for true communion with the Lord".

Taking up the theme in a subsequent meditation, the cardinal 3xamined the emblematic case of the apostles Judas and Peter. About the former, he said, "He had been betrayed by his generosity and attachment to Christ, nonetheless, he fell, because he was reckless and exposed himself close to danger. But shortly thereafter, he abandoned the place where he had fallen and wept bitterly for his sin".

From this, a lesson to all priests: "Our generosity does not shelter us from sin. We must take prudent measures to avoid recklessness that exposes us to falling. In any case, whatever happens, the Lord is always by our side. The greatest harm that we can do is to doubt his mercy, as Judas did".

"To live in the truth", he underscored, "is to live according to the beatitudes. It is to repudiate the lies in our words and actions. It is to reject the hypocrisy that makes us appear to be what we really are not".

But he said this was not merely an individual question. Society itself must fight for the truth. The Church herself must fight lies and deceits within herself and in the world. "Above all, she must fight in order that the truth of the Gospel of Christ may be known and lived".

What is important, he said, is to trust in God's mercy. "If we publicly confess our sins, he said, when speaking about God as light on the third day of the retr4eat, "Jesus the just and the faithful will forgive and purify us of every unease".

In fact, he said, we have in him a defender, he who had been the victim to expiate our sins. In order to orient our journey towards him, he gave us his commandments, especially love.

"It would be wrong," he said, "to consider the observance of the commandments as if that means communion with God. It is rather a sign and a criterion of our communion with God. Indeed, John considers communion as an effective reality which is recognized by observance of the commandments, and might be compared to the performance of a pianist - the more errors he makes, the less perfect is his performance". Sin, he said, is a rupture of our communion with God.
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Pope's clout as an author
marks the cultural shift
in religious publishing

Translated from the 3/1/12 issue of


The 3/1/12 issue of OR carried a lengthy interview with Fr. Costa, director of the Vatican publishing house LEV (Libreria Editrice Vaticana), of which this excerpt was highlighted.

What is the situation today for religious books?
Religious publishing is very much alive today, after the crisis of the old ideologies and of education itself, Amid the dominance of multimedia communications, it presents itself increasingly as a necessity in order to promote religious identity in the multiracial Babel.

Benedict XVI, for example, has brought about a significant change fron the cultural viewpoint because with his books and his encyclicals, which are followed by readers and end up as best-esllers, the Pope has 'forced' secular bookstores to sell his books! And behind his books are emerging other religious writings which compel the attention of the secular bookstores.

So there are intgersting prospects for religious publishers even if we are just at the start.

Even in recent international book fairs, such as that in Frankfurt [largest annual book fair in the world], books with a religious dimension have become one of the major categories Many publishign houses are getting into publication of religious books and now carry many religious titles on their catalogs.

This progress has been made possible also because religious books have amplified their own exploratory horizons, no longer limited to liturgy and theology, but widening the view to include the relationship of religion to society, to current affairs and to language.

The Vatican publishing house has been among the promoters of this new tendency, with the advantage of holding the Pope's royalty rights, which has favored its contacts with publishers around the world.

Not very well-known is the interest among Italian publishers in religious books, other than those born in the Catholic world...
In Italy, the distribution of religious books reflected our civilian history in which (since unification) there has been a clear separation between secular and religious. Thus our bookstores were either secular or religious.

It was only in the 1960s, with Vatican II, that something started to change in that separation. And with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, almost by osmosis, it began to be reflected in bookstores.

When did this change gain ground?
In the 1990s. When the ideologies had clearly collapsed, so too the myth of 'non-belief', of 'politics is everything', of 'only the experimentable is true'. Publishers like Mondadori and Laterza started book series on religious historiography and religious essays.

Certainly, the role of the last two Popes has been fundamental in this change, especially that of Papa Ratzinger.
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Friday, March 2, First Week of Lent

Extreme right: Agnes on the 50-crown Czech banknote; her father King Ottokar was on the demonetized 20-crown bill.
ST. AGNES (ANEZKA) OF BOHEMIA (1205-1282), Poor Clare nun
She was the daughter of the King of Bohemia and was betrothed at age 3 to a duke who died three years later. Growing up,
she felt a strong religious calling. After declining offers of marriage from King Henry VII of Germany and Henry III of England,
she had to appeal to Pope Gregory IX to refuse the proposal of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who replied that he would
not be offended to be turned down for 'the King of heaven'. Agnes built a hospital for the poor and a convent for the new
Franciscan order in Prague. Then in 1236, she and seven other noblewomen set up the first Poor Clares community in Bohemia.
St. Clare herself sent five sisters from San Damiano to help them set up, and wrote at least four letters to Agnes counseling
her on being an abbess. Agnes preferred to call herself 'senior sister'. Besides her untiring work for the poor, she became
known for her strict rule of poverty, obedience and mortification. She led her community for 46 years until she died, inspiring
great devotion among her people. She was canonized by John Paul II in 1989, and Benedict XVI remembered her during his
visit to the Czech Republic on the 20th anniversary of her canonization in 2009.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/030212.cfm



No bulletins today from the Vatican, other than
an announcement of an episcopal resignation in Brazil.


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Rare treasures from Vatican Archives
go on exhibit for the first time

by Dario Thuburn


VATICAN CITY, March 2 (AFP) -Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history including Galileo Galilei's trial documents and Martin Luther's excommunication went on public display for the first time Wednesday.

The exhibit also includes a request to annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the 'Dictatus Papae' of Pope Gregory VII, an 11th-century script asserting the spiritual and terrestrial powers of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The exhibit entitled "Lux in Arcana" in Rome's Capitoline Museums will run until September 9 and organisers said it was a unique chance to see a priceless collection of documents from the Vatican's closely-guarded vaults.

"It will be the first and possibly the only time in history that they leave the confines of the Vatican City walls," organisers said in a statement.

They said the show has "100 original and priceless documents selected among the treasures preserved and cherished by the Vatican Secret Archives for centuries" and includes multimedia installations about the documents.

The exhibition marks the 400th anniversary of the creation of the Vatican Secret Archives -- a term used to mean personal archives -- by Pope Paul V.

The Holy See's second in command, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, opened the show with Vatican culture "minister" Gianfranco Ravasi, Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno and Italian Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi.

Asked what he had been most struck by, Bertone said it was the "historical truth" in documents on Pope Pius XII's papacy during World War II, who has been criticised by Jewish groups for not doing enough to ease their persecution.

"The research on the period of Pius XII has so far generated more than two million files and information about prisoners of war," he said.

One of the documents in the exhibition is a report from papal envoy Francesco Borgongini-Duca on the conditions in seven internment camps in Italy in 1941, asking for aid to be sent to the prisoners.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the head of the Vatican archives Sergio Pagano said all the documents in the vaults from Pius XII's papacy would be made available to researchers "within one or two years".

"The final decision however depends on the Pope," he told reporters.

"Benedict XVI's willingness to accelerate the opening, also as a way of silencing dissonant voices on the pontificate of Pope Pacelli (Pius XII), can only benefit the Church," he said.

Bertone said earlier the exhibition would help "the search for truth and the common good" -- and would dispel "a pseudo-historical novelistic ambiance", an apparent reference to Dan Brown's bestselling "Da Vinci Code".

Among other treasures are a 10th-century parchment on the division of powers between pope and emperor and a document on the nomination of 13th-century hermit Pietro Morrone as Celestine V -- the only pope ever to resign.

It also has minutes from the 14th-century trials of the Knights Templar.

There is also a 15th-century edict from Pope Alexander VI on carving up the New World between Spain and Portugal after Columbus's discovery of America, as well as a secret code he used when he was besieged by French troops.

There are letters from Michelangelo about building St. Peter's basilica in the 16th century, the deed of abdication by queen Christina of Sweden from 1654 and a letter on silk from the 17th-century Chinese empress Helena Wang.

Among the most unusual documents is a letter written on birch bark from the chief of the Ojibwa Native American tribe to Pope Leo XIII in the 19th century, calling him: "Grand Master of Prayers, who makes functions of Jesus."

Another rarity is a letter from imprisoned French queen Marie Antoinette after the revolution in 1789, which reads: "The feelings of those who share my sorrow... are the only consolation I can receive in this sad circumstance".

Rome's mayor Alemanno said: "This exhibition is really unique and exceptional. This is the first time that the Vatican secret archives open their doors for an incredible exhibition that spans all historical eras."


The British Daily Mail online has the best text and photo reportage of LUX IN ARCANA,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108400/Vatican-exhibition-The-threatening-letter-sent-Pope-asking-annul-Henry-VIIIs-marriage.html?ITO=1490
even if its story focuses naturally on the document that is of greatest interest to UK citizens:

Vatican exhibit shows threatening letter
sent by English noblemen to Pope Clement VII
asking him to annul Henry VIII's first marriage

By Graham Smith and Nick Pisa

March 1, 2012


Signed by 81 noblemen, the threatening letter sent to Pope Clement VIIi in 1530 'asking' him to annul Henry VIII's first marriage'

A group of English noblemen threatened the Roman Catholic Church when they wrote to the Pope urging him to annul Henry VIII's marriage to his first wife so the king could marry Anne Boleyn, a letter released by the Vatican has revealed.

The document, signed by MPs and clergy including the Archbishop of Canterbury, alluded to the 'extreme remedies' they could pursue if Pope Clement VII refused their request.



The 1530 letter - a 3ft-wide parchment with 81 wax seals attached to red silk ribbons - preceded Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and clearly illustrates his rejections of the Pope's authority.

It is one of 100 documents from the Vatican Secret Archives that yesterday went on public display in Rome's Capitoline Museums for the first time.

The exhibition also marks the first time the documents have been allowed outside Vatican City.

Henry VIII's split from Catherine of Aragon led to his breakaway from the Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England.

The letter is considered a 'priceless document of great historical significance.'

In historical terms, it has only recently been discovered, having been found in 1926 by Angelo Mercati, Prefect of the Archives, hidden in a chest built under a chair.

The peers warn the Pope in no uncertain terms that 'a refusal of annulment would require recourse to extreme measures for the good of the kingdom which we would not hesitate to take,' and was sent from London in July 1530 taking two months to arrive on the Pope's desk.

The Pope refused to annul the marriage, setting in motion a chain of events that led to a split from the Catholic Church and the start of the English Reformation.

Among the other items on display is a 60-metre parchment scroll documenting proceedings of the Trial of the Knights Templar medieval Christian military order, accused of heresy and sexual misconduct.


Left, the Knights Templar scroll; and right, a document signed by Galileo.

It is partially rolled out in one room of the museums, alongside secret manuscripts, letters and codices.

Elsewhere, a register containing the excommunication of 16th century German reformer Martin Luther, and a report on the 1633 trial of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei for asserting that Earth revolved around the Sun, are on show.

A letter dated May 1887 from the Ojibwe Indians of Ontario to Leo XIII, written on bark birch and thanking him for sending missionaries to convert them, colourfully alludes to the Canadian Spring as 'where there is much grass in the month of the flowers'.

Sensitive letters from before and during the Second World War have not been released - the period is a contentious one as many historians have questioned whether then Pope Pius XII did enough to speak out against Adolf Hitler.

Archivist Pier Paolo Piergentili said this is the first time in the archive's 400-year history that it is opening up a selection of documents for public display.

He said: 'The aim is to physically show the sources of history, and make available the documents that have created history in Europe, and not only Europe.'

Documents in the Vatican Secret Archives span the 8th to the 20th century and are stored on 85km of shelving at different sites within the sovereign state.

Part of the collection is open for researchers upon request.

Founded by Pope Paul V in 1612, the archives contain all deeds and documents pertaining to the government of the Church.

The exhibition, "Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archive Reveals Itself", runs from March until September and aims to demystify the Church's records.


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Valli (born 1958) is the Vatican news anchor for Italian state TV's premier newscast TG-1. Like many of the Italian Vaticanistas, he also writes books on religious subjects and personalities. He has written three books about John Paul II. In 2010, he wrote a book on Benedict XVI entitled La verita del Papa: Perche lo attaccano, perche va ascoltato (The Pope's truth: Why they attack him, why he must be heard), which has been published in Spanish and Polish, as well. But he has also written a book each about Carlo Maria Martini and Hans Kueng more recently. So he's an 'equal-opportunity author'. He also wrote a totally inexplicable column last November mocking Benedict XVI's use of the 'Popemover' as evoking the image of a pagan idol placed on a pedestal(!) - something he didn't say when John Paul II used the same Popemover for the same purpose - to spare an aging (or infirm) Pope the unnecessary effort of walking a considerable distance just before he has to preside at a two-hour ceremony. Why is that objectionable in any way?

Shooting at Bertone
by Aldo Maria Valli
Translated from

March 2, 2012

'Lux in arcana', light in darkness. That is the title of the exhibit on the Vatican Secret Archives which Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was among the very first to visit before it opened Wednesday afternoon at the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

It may seem scripted but it's true. Here was the cardinal, appearing in the middle of a tempest provoked by crows targeting him with their release of confidential documents from his own files at the Secretariat of State.

Here he was, appearing in public, to take part at an event dedicated to historical documents guarded zealously in the deepest vaults of the Holy See.

Coincidence apart, the mystery of the crows continues. Who are these people moving in the shadows, and why? [Bertone's enemies, obviously. and to bring him down. That does not need any sleuthing. The more urgent question is why is it taking so long to identify them????]

'Follow the money', Deep Throat advised Carl Bernstein when the then rookie reporter from the Washington Post, along with his colleague Bob Woodward, was investigating the break-in by President Nixon's operatives into a Democratic Party office at the Watergate building.

That advise could also be useful to understand who the traitors may be at the Vatican. But besides the money motive, there would be revenge, as well. Someone (not necessarily one individual only) is greatly motivated to have the current Secretary of State depart the scene. Someone who has been hurt in his own interests - for money, power or career. [He/they could just as well be middlemen who are being used as instruments by such persons.]

Let's be clear about one thing. The Salesian cardinal, since he became the Pope's principal collaborator, has committed not a few errors. Since he loves football, we might say that if he were playing for bis beloved Juventus, he would be considered well outside the rankings. His first name is Tarcisio, like that of the legendary goalie Burgnich of rival Inter, but unlike the latter, he has a great propensity for kicking the ball into his own goal.

The last episode that has become public is quite incredible, and it happened less than a year ago. A Vatican Secretary of State (Bertone) writes a brother cardinal (Tettamanzi), who is Archbishop of the world's largest diocese (Milan), asking him summarily, in the name of the Pope, to leave the presidency of the administrative council of the Istituto Toniolo (which has always been, since it was founded, a most delicate economic and political plum for the Church in Italy), and informing him that he already has a replacement (former constitutional court judge Flick).

Cardinal Tettamanzi, incredulous at the contents of the faxed letter and its practical implications, does not answer Bertone but writes the Pope instead for clarification - and the Pope, after having listened to both cardinals separately, decides that things at the Toniolo should remain as is - no changes until the new Archbishop of Milan joined the Council. [Valli omits the important fact that Bertone had originally misrepresented the situation at the Toniolo to the Pope, accusing Tettamanzi of gross mismanagement, while the latter was able to show documented proof that the Toniolo did much better since he took over.]

Besides this, other serious slips had been made by the Secretary of State. For instance, his attempt to personally manage the relations of the Church in Italy with the Italian government (through frequent and inopportune dinners with Italian officials) and his earlier attempt (also failed) to designate the new leadership of the Italian bishops' conference after the Ruini era (the Pope named his own choice, Cardinal Bagnasco, a Ruiniano, and ironically, Bertone's successor as Archbishop of Genoa].

Then, there was Bertone's bid to have the Vatican acquire majority control of the San Raffaele Medical Center in Milan, which the Pope stopped in time (before the bid could be acted on).

Impulsive and impetuous, Bertone sometimes charges ahead, with his finger on the trigger, without seeming to have weighed all the risks and consequences of what he intends to do.

Nonetheless, one must say that Bertone also gets some good and even excellent marks on his report card. With his resolute style, he has supported decisively the Pope's line [as if he had a choice but to follow!] against abusive clergy (especially with regard to cooperating with civilian authorities).

He has also fought for the financial transparency that Benedict XVI has legislated in the Vatican, with eventual participation in European banking conventions and anti-money laundering measures.

He has introduced rigid norms in Vatican administration to clean out part of the 'filth' that Papa Ratzinger has so often denounced.

[But why should Bertone get extra marks for carrying out what the Pope wants? It's his duty to do that, in the same way as it is not his duty nor his place to take major initiatives on his own without the Pope's knowledge. None of the three initiative mentioned above originated from him, but from the Pope himself. And whatever 'rigid norms' he has introduced into the Vatican administration obviously do not include controlling access to confidential files and dealing with insubordinate, rebellious or downright treacherous personnel!]

To the outside world and even to the Pope, all the above would seem to be badges on Bertone's lapel, but they could also be precisely what motivates thoughts of revenge on the part of the crows or those who are pulling their strings.

The interested parties may feel directly affected in their activities - with practical consequences in loss of revenue or privileges - and have therefore decided to use the media to discredit Bertone and paint him into a corner.

Having friends or acquaintances in the Secretariat of State
[or working there themselves], it would have been easy for them to get documents they could 'leak' to the media.

[If that is so, then what they have managed to release so far is rather thin and spotty, because they reveal no major scandal and have done no concrete damage:
- Vigano's scattershot charges were reportedly investigated internally and found to be 'unfounded';
- Vigano himself boasts he managed to cut down the contract price for the Nativity scene on St. Peter's Square almost in half;
- The Vatican did pass all the transparency legislation required by international convention;
- The anonymous memorandum is clearly worthless, even as an exercise in fiction; and
- The Pope foiled Bertone's attempt to oust Tettamanzi from the Toniolo.
Are we to assume that there could be major scandals in any yet-unpublished purloined letters????

As for Cardinal Bertone, he seems unable to learn from his mistakes. After failing to influence the Pope's choice of the CEI president, failing to take over from the Italian bishops their right to deal with the Italian government directly,, failing in his attempt to take over the Toniolo in March, he then proceeds with the cockamamie bid for the San Raffaele a few months later, only to be foiled again by the Pope - and all this behind the Pope's back (which is disloyalty in and of itself, even if no one doubts he feels loyal to the Pope.] Not to mention the fairly minor matter of appearing to have promised Vigano that he would eventually become President of the Vatican Governatorate, when appointments are purely the Pope's prerogative! Not at all a pretty file, but it almost seems like Bertone is Benedict's one big blind spot!]


Within the Apostolic Palace, the atmosphere is poisoned. {Says who? I wish journalists would not make such rash statements about things they could not possibly know!] No one can no longer trust the next man. Even those who are investigating the leaks are regarded with suspicion. [The guiltless would not; only the guilty would. And surely all the preceding statements is melodramatic hyperbole!]

In this respect, the crows have won. They can say they have achieved their purpose.

But Benedict XVI appears not to have allowed himself to be 'impressed' by the dust-up.
[A very good way to describe this teapot-tempest, gives it the right perspective.]

As displeased as he may be about what is happening, he has kept calm. But using words as his weapon, he has launched admonitions against careerism and divisions in the very bosom of the Church. He has reiterated his appeal for the faithful - and the prelates - to abandon the logic of power in favor of service, and has tacitly indicated total confidence in his Secretary of State, apparently saying NO to all those who have recently tried to ask him to dismiss Bertone.

Benedict XVI has a sense of proportion, and he knows that this tempest too shall pass. He also knows that the crows can only fly so much and not to any great heights, that they can cause some trouble for a while but they must not be over-estimated.

Veteran Vaticanista Luigi Accattoli was right to call the culprit crow 'a midget crow'. It is possible other crows are following in the wake of the lead crow, to advance their own interests and perhaps make some profits.

The fact that the Pope will soon be 85 (and Bertone himself turns 78 this year) has led all this people to try to create the feeling of an imminent end of reign, even spreading rumors about the health of the Pope and his presumed incapacity, because of detachment, to manage any crisis.
[Unfortunately, most Vaticanistas - let alone the general media - tend to forget (or fail to credit the fact) that Benedict XVI has come through all the various 'crises' of his Pontificate so far quite triumphantly, and in his own understated way, in which he lets all the fire and fury burn themselves out, confident that the truth and his own actions will, with God's grace, carry the day eventually. But the media forget all of that with every new 'crisis' that they generate against him.]

In fact, the gentle Benedict always looks beyond. Even if he may personally feel depressed by all that he must see and hear (power games have always been present in the Vatican, at various levels and with different protagonists), he knows he does not have to use a cannon to shoot down down midget crows. [But first unmask the traitors - whether they are crows, moles, vipers, actual midgets, or just pea-brained petticrats.]


The following takes a different perspective of Vatileaks, perhaps because it is written by someone of Italian descent for the UK's Catholic Herald. It is an angle that I have not seen any Italian Vaticanista use - perhaps because they are too close to the trees to see the forest. However, Gambi's introduction is not just woefully short of facts, but he also gets some basic facts wrong, and presents them in a tendentious way that is more misleading than helpful to the general non-Italian reader.

There is a bigger agenda behind Vatileaks
than just careerism in the Vatican

by Paolo Gambi

Friday, 2 March 2012

Did you know that the Italian Catholic bishops’ conference receives about €1billion a year from the Italian state through a tax exemption known as the 8×1000? [It is not a tax exemption It's an outright special compensation legislated by a bilateral Concordat which has the force of international law. The Italian bishops' conference is named in the law as the direct recipient.]

Did you know that the Italian bishops’ newspaper, Avvenire, received almost €6m in 2010, and several Catholic magazines have received more than €1m in the same year? [That's because these media are part of the legitimate activities of the Church in Italy, and so they get a share of the 0.0008% grant.]

Did you know that much of the Church’s real estate is not liable to the “ICI”, Italy’s property tax? [Thee tax-exempt properties are those that are used directly for religious, charitable and social non-profit activities of the Church, in the same way that similar properties belonging to other religious organizations used for the same purposes are tax-exempt.]

[Non-Italian readers may not be aware of any of the above but Italians are, very much so, and they have lived with it for decades. The 'otto per mille' is a 0.0008% (that's eight-thousandth of 1%) share from Italy's annual tax revenues that goes to the Church in Italy, through the Italian bishops' conference, as compensation by the Italian state since 1984 for all the Church properties confiscated by the state from the former Papal States upon Italian reunification in 1861. Before 1984, Italy had been the official and therefore state-supported religion.

Italian bishops publish balance sheets every year accounting for how they have spent the 'otto per mille' revenue - not just to support the bulk of Church activities in Italy (that is how the CEI media get a share of the money), including the salaries of bishops and priests, I believe, but also to help selected needy dioceses around the world.

Like all other religious non-profit organizations in Italy, Church properties used for religious, charitable and other non-profit purposes are tax-exempt. Any properties however which bring in revenue - buildings that are rented out or used for commercial activities - must pay commercial taxes. A recent ruling by the Monti government - which occasioned this latest debate round - clarified exactly what Church activities and categories are tax-exempt, and which are not.

Other than Cardinal Bagnasco's reference to it when he opened the winter meeting of the CEI in January, I chose not to post anything earlier in the Forum on the issue and its attendant debates, which we last heard in this fullblown form several years ago when then Prime Minister Prodi said that priests should preach from the pulpit against tax evasion because 30% of Italians were said to be chronic tax evaders.

Vatileaks began at the height of the public debate about the tex-esemption clarifications, which brought out all the latent and active anti-clericalism among secular Italians, led by the Italian media and the Italian political left. Through all the wild accusations made against the Church during that debate, Cardinal Bagnasco, CEI President, said consistently: "Tax evasion is a sin. The Church does not evade taxes she ought to pay".]


These are just some examples. There are others, too, that I imagine non-Italian Catholics do not know about. But are we aware of what all this means in terms of public life?

Let us grasp the nettle: when we deal with all these media attacks against the Vatican we must consider the power of the Italian Church. Yes, the so-called Vatileaks scandal is part of the internal war between factions of Vatican officials.

On the other hand, the reason why so much of the Italian media is keen on it is that many powerful groups want to reduce the influence of the Church in public life. There is a war inside, but there is one also outside.
[And obviously, undermining the Church from within - which is the immediate effect of Vatileaks - makes it easier for external forces to attack her.]

If you read Italian newspapers and magazines and watch Italian television, most of the news about the Church depicts leakers, scandals, gossip and attacks. Some in Catholic circles just say: “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” Others put the blame on unidentified demonic enemies who are plotting to erase the Church and destroy the world.

But why don’t we just admit that the Church is a real force in Italy, and the price of that power is to receive robust criticism. ]
If you choose to enter the field you must play by the rules. And the power game is rough. It’s like rugby: you can’t be surprised if someone jumps on you.

[Gambi writes as though the Church in Italy has a less than civic, even recalcitrant, attitude towards the tax redefinition. That's unfair, because the Church in Italy has lived with the perennial Damocles's sword of secular hue-and-cry over the' otto per mille' for almost three decades now, and it's not as if the Church in Italy has not, like the Church everywhere, been aware that for many, the Church will always be a sign of contradiction to the logic of the world.]
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In this excerpt reproduced by ABC NEWS online, Mons. Georg talks about the Pope's visit to bavaria in September 2006, from his own viewpoint...

Altoetting, Marktl, Regensburg -
the Pope visits his 'home plsces'
-

From Chapter IX
by MONS. GEORG RATZINGER



When my brother came to Altötting, naturally I traveled there from Regensburg. I stayed overnight with the Capuchins and ate with them. Before the papal Mass, I met Professor Franz Mussner (b.1916), who taught New Testament exegesis in Regensburg and today lives in Passau, his native city, as a cathedral canon.

At that time, he had just celebrated his ninetieth birthday, and when he saw me, he said we two were the only ones who had permission to carry a cane; all the other attendees were forbidden to have one for security reasons.


Benedict XVI prays before the Madonna of Altoetting at the Chapel of Mercy, Altoetting.

A very festive, beautiful liturgy followed, which visibly moved people. Then during the meal afterward, crispy roast pork and dumplings, I finally sat at a table again with my brother. Instead of taking a siesta afterward, we took a little walk through the convent garden and "chatted". My brother was so happy he could finally be in his homeland again. ...

Next on the itinerary after Altötting was Marktl, where we visited Saint Oswald's, the church where he was baptized.



In quiet prayer, we lingered there in front of the baptismal font over which he had been accepted into the communion of Holy Mother Church seventy-nine years before. After that, he took me with him in the helicopter to Regensburg; I sat opposite him, face-to-face, the whole time.

The welcome in Regensburg was overwhelming. I spent the night in the major seminary beside my brother's apartment, for the next morning we wanted to celebrate early Mass together. From there we set out for the great papal Mass on Islinger Feld.

On the program that afternoon were his address in the Aula Magna of the university and an ecumenical evening prayer service.

And then finally came September 13, to which we had looked forward for so long.

Already when the program for his trip to Germany was being planned, my brother asked for a day he could use for private meetings. On that day, he was with me practically the whole time.

There was only one official item on the program at 11:00 in the morning: the consecration of the new organ in the "Old Chapel", of which I had grown so fond that this, too, was actually a private event.

Originally he was supposed to travel directly from the major seminary, where he was staying overnight, to the "Old Chapel" on Schwarze-Bären-Straße, but he wanted to drop off something at my house first. So we went there via Luzengasse, (the street) which runs by my house.

At the time, we thought we would use the nearest entrance to the church, but the chapter of the "Old Chapel" was waiting for us on the north side, and so we entered by the north side, were solemnly greeted there, and arrived punctually for the great consecration of the organ.

After that, we returned to my house. Along the way, we met the leader of the Jewish community, Herr Hans Rosengold (who has unfortunately died since), whom my brother thanked for his hospitality -- he had invited the whole papal entourage to dinner.

Upstairs on the terrace of my house, we drank an aperitif and then ate our midday meal on the ground floor. The Bishop was there and also a small group including his secretary, Monsignor Gänswein.

Frau Heindl, my housekeeper, had prepared a delicious meal for us, which in fact almost did not arrive at our table. You see, she lives right across the street on Königsstraße and had cooked there for us in advance because she thought that that was the simplest solution: then she would just have to bring the food over quickly, as she often did.

But on that day, our street was blocked off, and the police did not want to let her through. Then dear Frau Heindl became rather indignant: "There's no bomb in the pot, but soup for the Holy Father! And if you don't let me through, then he gets nothing to eat!" she said very energetically.

Then the policemen themselves were disconcerted and did not know at first whether they should believe her. So they did not leave her side but came into the house with her as far as the kitchen, where they then saw that what she said was true, that she was practically at home here and was supposed to prepare the midday meal.

Eventually there was breznsuppe (pretzel soup), roast beef smothered in onions, spätzle, and finally a pineapple custard; everything tasted wonderful.

After a little siesta, a midday nap, we drove up to Pentling to visit first of all the grave of our parents at the cemetery in Ziegetsdorf. The Bishop and his secretary came along, too.

In Pentling, a whole crowd of people had gathered, among them Herr and Frau Hofbauer, who take perfect care of our house there -- they are very fine people.

Finally, in our house we ate supper. My brother also lay down for a short time before we drove back to the major seminary, because he was really very tired and had a headache.

He enjoyed that day very much, and it was almost like it always was. He loves the little house in Pentling very much; he really feels at home there, for even the most beautiful palace does not have what a one-family house like that has.

Of course this visit to his homeland was primarily a pastoral journey, but for him it was also a farewell to his old life. [Such a simple sentence but how very poignant! One of those that can be written only once.]

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In other words, a theologian per se does not have any magisterial authority. He will have it if and when he becomes a bishop, when he will be bound to express the teachings of teh faith in communion with the Pope and other bishops, not on his own without reference to the 'official' teaching of the Church...

Vatican commission makes it clear:
A bishop's Magisterium prevails
over theologians' opinions

By Francis X. Rocca


VATICAN CITY, March 2 (CNS) -- Theologians and bishops have complementary roles in furthering understanding of the Catholic faith, but the former must ultimately defer to the latter on questions of definitive interpretation, according to a new report from a Vatican panel of theological advisers.

"Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles and Criteria" is the latest report from the International Theological Commission, a group of theologians appointed by the Pope to study themes of current interest and offer expert advice to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The final text of the 38-page report was approved Nov. 29, 2011, but was scheduled to appear for the first time in English in a forthcoming issue (Vol. 41, No. 40) of Origins, the weekly documentary service of Catholic News Service. It is based on discussions held in Rome over the period 2004-2011.

The report acknowledges an inevitable tension, while emphasizing a need for harmony, between the practice of theology and the exercise by the Pope and bishops of the Magisterium, the Church's teaching authority in matters of faith and morals.

"Bishops and theologians have distinct callings and must respect one another's particular competence, lest the Magisterium reduce theology to a mere repetitive science or theologians presume to substitute the teaching office of the Church's pastors," the theologians write.

"Theology investigates and articulates the faith of the Church, and the ecclesiastical Magisterium proclaims that faith and authentically interprets it," the report says.

In their pronouncements, bishops should draw on the work of theologians in order to demonstrate a "capacity for critical evaluation," among other virtues, the report advises.

"On the other hand, the Magisterium is an indispensable help to theology by its authentic transmission of the deposit of faith ('depositum fidei'), particularly at decisive times of discernment," the authors add.

The report is unequivocal in stating where final authority lies:
"When it comes to the 'authentic' interpretation of the faith, the Magisterium plays a role that theology simply cannot take to itself. Theology cannot substitute a judgment coming from the scientific theological community for that of the bishops."

Yet the authors note that "not all magisterial teaching has the same weight," and that theologians should apply "constructively critical evaluation and comment" to the statements of their bishops.

"While 'dissent' towards the Magisterium has no place in Catholic theology, investigation and questioning is justified and even necessary if theology is to fulfill its task," they write.

Pope Benedict struck a similar note when he addressed the commission late last year.

"Without a healthy and vigorous theological reflection, the church risks not expressing fully the harmony between faith and reason," the Pope said Dec. 2. "At the same time, without faithfully living in communion with the church and adhering to its Magisterium as the vital space of its existence, theology cannot give an adequate explanation of the gift of faith."

The commission is currently preparing at least two other reports: one on the Catholic understanding of belief in one God, and another on the relation of Catholic doctrine to the church's social teaching.

Here's a helpful guide-at-a-glance for the various types and levels of Magisterium:


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Vatican tells UN:
Rising restrictions on religion
affect more than 2 billion people



On March 1, the Holy See Delegation addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on the subject of religious freedom.

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer to the UN in Geneva, said in many countries “the gap is growing between widely accepted stated principles, and their daily application on the ground.” He pointed out “rising restrictions on religion affect more than 2.2 billion people.”

Archbishop Tomasi also told the Council “religions are not a threat, but a resource. They contribute to the development of civilizations, and this is good for everyone.”

Below is the full text of his remarks to the Human Rights Council:


Madam President,

The implementation of human rights is a difficult challenge today, particularly with regard to the fundamental and inalienable right of every person to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.”

Among other elements, the evolving political situation, wrong perceptions of the role of religion, expediency, and subtle ambiguities in the understanding of secularism lead to intolerance and even outright persecution of people because of their faith or religion.

The freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance, which is guaranteed by human rights law and international instruments, is disregarded in several places in the world.

Such stifling policies and practices place at risk the contribution of many citizens to social life and progress in their respective countries. The Holy See appreciates the regular attention of the Human Rights Council to this major issue as well as the related efforts and decisions taken by Special Procedures.

In many countries, however, the gap is growing between widely accepted stated principles, and their daily application on the ground. Serious research provides reliable data on current and repetitive patterns of gross violations of the right to freedom of religion.

Christians are not the only victims, but terrorist attacks on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia increased 309% between 2003 and 2010.

Approximately 70% of the world’s population lives in countries with high restrictions on religious beliefs and practices, and religious minorities pay the highest price.

In general, rising restrictions on religion affect more than 2.2 billion people. The affected people either have lost the protection of their societies or have experienced some government-imposed and unjust restrictions, or have become victims of violence resulting from an impulsive bigotry.

The evidence shows that additional efforts are required from the international community in order to assure the protection of people in their exercise of freedom of religion and religious practice. Such actions are urgently required since in several countries the situation is worsening and since the factual reporting of such violations is underplayed, despite the fact, it should be highlighted in the pertinent Reports.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights points to respect for the human dignity of all people as the foundation on which the protection of human rights is built.

In the present circumstances, it is worth recalling that States should ensure that all their citizens have the right to enjoy freedom of religion individually, within the family, and as a community, and to participate in the public square.

Religious freedom, in fact, is not a derived right, or one granted, but a fundamental and inalienable right of the human person. A religious belief should not be perceived or considered as harmful or offensive simply because it is different from that of the majority.

The task of the Government is not to define religion or recognize its value, but to confer upon faith communities a juridical personality so that they can function peacefully within a legal framework.

Respect for the religious freedom of everyone may be at stake in places where the concept of “State religion” is recognized, especially when the latter becomes the source of unjust treatment of others, whether they believe in other faiths or have none.

Above the institutional considerations, the critical problem facing the promotion and protection human rights in the area of religious freedom is the intolerance that leads to violence and to the killing of many innocent people each year simply because of their religious convictions.

The realistic and collective responsibility, therefore, is to sustain mutual tolerance and respect of human rights and a greater equality among citizens of different religions in order to achieve a healthy democracy where the public role of religion and the distinction between religious and temporal spheres are recognized.

In practical life, when managed in the context of mutual acceptance, the relations between majority and minority allow for cooperation and compromise and open the way for peaceful and constructive coexistence.

But to achieve this desirable goal, there is a need to overcome a culture that devalues the human person and is intent on eliminating religion from the public life.

Pope Benedict XVI clearly describes this situation when he writes: “Sadly, in certain countries, mainly in the West, one increasingly encounters in political and cultural circles, as well in the media, scarce respect and at times hostility, if not scorn, directed towards religion and towards Christianity in particular. It is clear that if relativism is considered an essential element of democracy, one risks viewing secularity solely in the sense of excluding or, more precisely, denying the social importance of religion. But such an approach creates confrontation and division, disturbs peace, harms human ecology and, by rejecting in principle approaches other than its own, finishes in a dead end. There is thus an urgent need to delineate a positive and open secularity which, grounded in the just autonomy of the temporal order and the spiritual order, can foster healthy cooperation and a spirit of shared responsibility.”

Madam President, religions are not a threat, but a resource. They contribute to the development of civilizations, and this is good for everyone. Their activities and freedom should be protected so that the partnership between religious beliefs and societies may enhance the common good.

A culture of tolerance, mutual acceptance and dialogue is urgent. The educational system and the media have a major role to play by excluding prejudice and hatred from textbooks, from newscasts and from newspapers, and by disseminating accurate and fair information on all component groups of society.

But lack of education and information, that facilitates an easier manipulation of people for political advantages, is too often linked to underdevelopment, poverty, lack of access to effective participation in the management of society.

Greater social justice provides fertile ground for the implementation of all human rights. Religions are communities based on convictions and their freedom guarantees a contribution of moral values without which the freedom of everyone is not possible.

For this reason, it becomes an urgent and beneficial responsibility of the international community to counteract the trend of increasing violence against religious groups and of a mistaken and deceptive neutrality that in fact aims at neutralizing religion.




A Pew Fporum study issued August 2011 shows at a glance the magnitude of religious restriction among the countries of the world.


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Saturday, March 3, First Week of Lent

ST. KATHARINE DREXEL (USA, 1858-1955)
Missionary, Abbess, Founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (for Indians and Colored Peoples)
Born to a Main Line Philadelphia family, the first 30 years of her life could have been straight out of the movie
'High Society'. But a vacation out West awakened her interest in the plight of American Indians. On a trip to Rome
in the mid-1880s, she met Pope Leo XIII, whom she asked to send missionaries to a bishop friend of hers in
Wyoming. The Pope challenged her, "Why don't you become a missionary yourself?" Back in the US, she visited
the Dakotas, met with Sioux leaders, and decided to take on the religious life. She announced on the Feast
of St. Joseph in 1889 that she intended to devote the rest of her life "to help American Indians and colored
people". The headlines screamed "Heiress gives up $7 million", her part of the family fortune which she donated
totally to her cause. With some friends she set up the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (she would later consult
St. Frances Cabrini about the rules for the order), and eventually set up 50 mission for Indians in 16 states.
She also founded Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic University for Afro-Americans. At 77,
a heart attack forced her to retire. She spent the rest of her life as an anchoress, recording her meditations
on slips of paper. She died in 1955 at age 96. She was beatified in 1988 and canonized in 2000, also named
the patron saint of racial justice and of philanthropists. She was the second American-born American woman
saint, after Elizabeth Seton.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/030312.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Conclusion of the Lenten spiritual exercises - The Holy Father delivered brief remarks to thank
Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, who was this year's retreat master.
The Pope said he appreciated the tales of faith from Africa that the cardinal used to illustrate
his reflections on the First Letter of St. John on the retreat theme, "The Christian's communion
with God".

Afterwards, he met privately with Cardinal Pasinya.

The Vatican also released a copy of the Pope's letter formally thanking Cardinal Pasinya for
his guidance of the spiritual exercises.
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Pope concludes week
of spiritual exercises

Translated from

March 3, 2012



The Holy Father and the senior members of the Roman Curia ended a week of spiritual exercises today at the Apostolic Palace on the theme “the communion of Christians with God”.

The Lenten retreat ended at 9 o'clock this morning at the Redemptoris Mater chapel of theApostolic Palace with Lauds and the final meditation proposed by this year's retreat master, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Here is a translation of the brief remarks by the Holy Father to conclude the retreat:


Your Eminence,
Dear brothers:

At the end of these days of prayer and listening, one must say Thank you. Int eh name of us all, I say thank you to you, Eminence, for the guidance you have given us during these exercises.

You have guided as, so to speak, through the great garden of the First Letter of St. John, and thus, all Scripture, with great exegetical competence and with spiritual and pastoral experience.

You always led with your gaze fixed on God, and we have learned the love and faith that communion with God creates.

You also spiced up your meditations with beautiful stories, mostly taken from your beloved Africa - stories that have given us joy and which are helpful to us.

I was particularly struck by the story in which you spoke about a friend who, when he was in a coma, had the impression of being in a dark tunnel, at the end of which he saw some light, and most especially, heard beautiful music.

I think this can be a parable of our lives: We often find ourselves in a dark tunnel, in the deep of night, but through our faith, we eventually see the light and hear beautiful music. We perceive the beauty of God, of heaven and earth, of God the creator and of his creatures. And so, it is true, spe sumus salvati (In hope we are saved)
(cfr Rm 8,24).

And you, eminence, have confirmed us in faith, in hope, and in charity.




Afterwards, the Holy Father had a private meeting with Cardinal Pasinya.

The Vatican also released the text of the Pope's formal letter of thanks to the cardinal:




To our Venerated Brother
Cardinal LAURENT MONSENGWO PASINYA
Archbishop of Kinshasa

At the end of the seek of Spiritual Exercises, during which you proposed the meditations on the theme of communion with God, I wish to express to you, Venerated Brother, my heartfelt gratitude for the precious service that you have offered to me and my co-workers.

Commenting on some passages of the First Letter of St. John, you have led us in an itinerary of rediscovering the mystery of communion of which we became part upon our Baptism.

Thanks to the course you wisely mapped out, the silence and prayer of these days, especially the Eucharistic Adoration, were filled with profound gratitude to God for the 'great love'
(1 Jn, 3,1) he has given us, and through which he has bound us to him in a filial relationship, which till now has constituted our most profound reality,and which is fully manifested when "our eyes shall see his face and we shall be like him" (Roman Missal, Euch. Prayer III).

A reason for particular joy on my part was to be able to evoke from your very presence and your style, Venerated Brother, the special testimony to faith of the Church that believes, hopes and loves on the African continent: a spiritual patrimony that constitutes a great richness for all the People of God and for the whole world, especially in the perspective of the New Evangelization.

As a son of the Church in Africa, you have made us experience once more that exchange of gifts which is one of the most beautiful aspects of ecclesial communion, in which the variety of geographical and cultural origins finds a way to express symphonically the unity of the mystical Body.

Even as I invoke for you, dear Brother, the abundance of divine rewards, and in formulating my best wishes for your demanding ministry, I impart from te heart a special Apostolic Blessing that I gladly extend to all your priests and the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care.


From the Vatican
3 March 2012





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Italian nun's 1965 healing certified
by Lourdes medical committee -
Would be 68th official Lourdes miracle

by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from

March 3, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The letter from Lourdes was sent on February 10, 2012, eve of the 154th anniversary of the first Marian apparition to Bernadette Soubirous.

Mons. Jacques Terrier, Bishop of Tarbes-Lourdes who has since retired, wrote the Bishop of Casale Monferrato in Italy, Mons. Alceste Catella, informing him that the Medical Bureau of Lourdes - the international medical committee which scientifically examines reported miraculous healings - had decided that the healing of Salesian Sister Luigina Traverso was inexplainable by present scientific knowledge.

[This would be the 68th official miracle attributed to Lourdes. The 67th miracle was officially recognized in November 2995. Casale Monferrato is a town near Turin.]


Right, Suor Luigina and Mons. Catella.

The scientific verification process In the case of Sr. Luigina, who is the financial administrator of the Instituto San Giuseppe in San Salvatore Monferrato, was thus concluded, and the next step was for Mons. Catella to make a formal statement on the miraculous healing.

Suor Luigina, born in Novi Ligure in 1934, took part in a pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Oftal (an association that brings sick pilgrims to Lourdes) in July 1965. The president of the Casal Monferrato branch of Oftal said Suor Luigina was afflicted with "paralyzing lumbar sciatica with the spinal vertebra in meningocele" (a stype of spina bifida).

She was a stretcher patient, who had not walked for a long time, and had undergone multiple spinal operations without success. Shortly before leaving for Lourdes, a medical examination reported that "Patient is suffering generally, pale and hypotensive. A fresh surgical scar is painful to pressure. Rigidity and contraction of the lumbo-sacral region of the spine. Reduced mobility of the feet due to paralysis of the anterior tibial muscles; of the extensor muscles of the big toe, and the common extensor muscles of the other toes. Insufficiency of the sural triceps and posterior tibia. Inert fibulae. Bedsores due to being bedridden".

In Lourdes, Suor Luigina immersed herself in the pools [fed by the spring that Bernadette had 'activated' in the grotto of Massabielle at the behest of the apparition in 1868].

On July 23, 1965, during the daily Eucharistic procession, the nun told her Oftal caretakers that at the passage of the celebrant bearing the Sacrament, she felt "a strong heat penetrating her body and a desire to get up and walk". She said she felt better and noted "the sudden recovery of motion in her feet and the disappearance of pain".

Brought back to her own room, in the presence of the doctor accompanying the Tortona pilgrims, Danilo Cebrelli, and the bishop's representative, Mon. Lorenzo Ferrarazzo, Suor Luigina sat up on her bed and asked to receive a blessing from the monsignor, who said: "Suor Luigina, if you wish to receive the blessing, get up and kneel down to pray". She promptly obeyed, left her bed, and knelt down.

By the time the pilgrims returned to Tortona, Suor Luigina felt herself completely healed. On July 27, 1865, a doctor, Prof. Claudio Rinaldi, attested: "Good overall condition. Normal spine configuration, in no pain, surgical scar also painless, absence of any segemental muscular contraction or rigidity. Inferior limbs completely mobile with equal and symmetrical strength, and even fine movements of the extensor of the big toes were possible. Negative Laseque test (test for presence of herniated spinal disc), prompt reflexes of the patella and Achilles heel. Normal (muscle) sensitivity".

Since then, she has not experienced any manifestation of the pathology that had made her an invalid.

In July 2010, 45 years after the event and paperwork was initially filed, the case of Suor Luigina was examined by the Medical Bureau at Lourdes, on the occasion of the Oftal pilgrimage from Tortona that year. The unanimous verdict was "complete and permanent healing".

Mons. Catella, asked whether this was a miracle, replied: "We cannot affirm it yet because now the Church must certify it. But we do have an unimpeachable scientific basis to reach such a certainty. It is a great joy to be able to convey this information (the letter from Lourdes), which gives me the opportunity to renew my invitation for greater participation in the diocesan pilgrimages - for the faithful to go to Lourdes to give thanks to Mary. a mother who is always attentive to her children's supplications".

"Our local Oftal and our diocese of Casale Monferrato", said Oftal diocesan president Alberto Busto, "once again look to Mary with loving gratitude. This follows the extraordinary healing on June 2, 1950, of Evasio Ganora, also a Casale citizen, which was officially acknowledged as a miracle in 1955. So far, six Italians are among the certified miracles of Lourdes".

The last miracle of Lourdes that was certified medically and by the Church was in November 2005 - the 67th.
www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&id=1342&id_rubri...

A good overview of Lourdes, the Marian apparitions and the phenomenon of the world's second largest Marian shrine was posted by the English service of Vatican Radio last Feb. 11, 154th anniversary of the first apparition:
www.radiovaticana.org/in2/articolo.asp?c=564638



MASSABIELLE: THE GROTTO OF THE APPARITIONS



The only known photograph of Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto was taken three years after the apparitions. Right, the marker describing the apparitions, which reads (in translation):

"The year of grace 1858: In the gap in the rock where the statue is, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette 18 times: on February 11 and 14; every day except two between Feb. 18-March 4, on March 28, April 7 and July 10. The Blessed Virgin told the child on February 18: "Would you come here for the next 15 days? I do not promise to make you happy in this The world but in the next". The virgin told her during those 15 days: "Pray for sinners. Kiss the earth for sinners... Penitence, penitence, penitence...Go tell the priests to have a chapel built here... I want people to come in procession... Go drink at the fountain and wash yourself... Go eat the weeds there.. On March 25, the Virgin said: "I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION".


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St. John de La Salle parish
awaits the Pope tomorrow

Translated from the Italian service of

March 3, 2012

Benedict XVI will make a pastoral visit tomorrow to the parish of San Giovanni Battista de La Salle in the Torrino quarter of Rome where he will celebrate Holy Mass on the second Sunday of Lent.

The Church, one of the many Roman churches whose construction began in the Great Jubilee Year 2000, was consecrated in 2009, and serves a parish of about 12,000 residents, who are looking forward to the Pope;s visit with great joy. Federico Piano interviewed the parish pries,t Fr. Giampaolo Perugini:

FR. PERUGINI: The Pope will be welcomed by the parish like a father. Eighty-five percent of our parishioners are young couples with children of school age. They are all waiting to hear what the Pope has to say to us, insofar as the Lord Jesus speaks through Peter.

What else will he find in the parish?
Our Church was dedicated on December 12, 2009, and is therefore still developing, but it has been an exponential development. Since a parish was established her - whether it was just by aggregation, actual membership or sense of identity - we have grown a lot.

We have an oratory [Italian term for a church-based center for a center for multiple forms of community activity] we call Stella Polare (polar star), based on the nomenclature of the streets in the neighborhood. They are all named after a star or a planet, and so we thought that Stella Polare would be an appropriate name for the parish center.

The oratory is run by volunteers, young parents who give their time on Saturdays and Sundays, to the oratory, also a laboratory. Our parish is dedicated to the universal patron of educators, St. Jean Baptiste de La Salle, who also inspired much of the work of St. John Bosco, and so, there is a strong educational vocation in the parish.

We have classes in music, painting, theater, singing, piano and guitar. We even have an orchestra of young musicians who play in Church on Sundays. In sports, we have teams competing in football, mini-basket, mini-rugby, mini-volley.

It is a young parish, which is still growing, and which is very honored to welcome the Pope.

What are the problems, especially at the social level?
The neighborhood is generally well off. The couples here mostly acquired their homes when the parish was still a project on the boards and so, they are simply paying off their mortgages now. Mostly, both parents work, and so their problems have to do with bringing the children to school and taking them home, and in general, with problems of movement. But the greater problem will be whether these families will succeed in keeping the nuclear family together. [They presumably have several years more before their children go to college and have to face that question.]

The other problem has to do with secularization. A life that is mostly caught up in work and the quest for wellbeing, runs the risk of marginalizing their spiritual life or considering it as simply the observance of some moral rules.

What results do you expect from the Pope's visit?
We are already seeing it during our preparation for the visit, in which so many persons are involved, individuals coming forward to ask ume what they can do to be useful. Then we have existing parochial groups, who have been holding formational meetings about the Petrine ministry, and on this Pope in particular - his encyclicals and his role in the Church and the world.

I feel the joy of bringing him closer to families who love him and pray for him daily, who are aware of the difficulties and concerns he has to face, and wish to do what they can to keep him smiling and feel comforted by the prayers of the faithful.
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I missed the original story to which Cardinal Sarah is reacting, but it adds just one more vehement objection I have to what the United Nations has become - the primary vehicle for universal secularization ever devised by the mind of man. Failing rather abjectly to prevent wars and solve armed conflicts as its primary mandate for being is, the UN and its agencies have instead used the one-nation-one-vote rule to launch various social engineering initiatives that advance secular causes. Resolutions passed to this effect become virtual universal legislation that the UN's assiduous liberal bureaucracy somehow manage to impose on most of the nations of the world

African cardinal denounces UN demand
to abolish all laws against homosexual activity

by Hilary White



ROME, March 1, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The demand by the United Nations Secretary General that African countries abolish all legal prohibitions against homosexual activity has met with anger from one African Vatican prelate who said that "it is not our culture; it’s against our faith” to endorse homosexuality.

At a Vatican meeting on Africa earlier this month, Cardinal Robert Sarah, the President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development, told the National Catholic Register that “African bishops must react” to the demand.

He described the secretary general’s comments as “stupid” and added that the “Catholic bishops of America must help us in Africa, by reacting themselves.”

“It’s not possible to impose on the poor this kind of European mentality,” he added.

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon had told an assembly in Addis Ababa that what he called discrimination against homosexuals “has been ignored or even sanctioned by many states for far too long.”

Cardinal Sarah has been one of the Vatican’s most outspoken critics of the internationalist agenda in Africa. In his address last month on the Pope’s Lenten message for 2012, Cardinal Sarah said that the Church, as “part of its prophetic mission,” is motivated by “fraternal correction in truth and charity” when it opposes “certain fashionable ideas.”

“Charity teaches us that we are responsible not only for the material well being of others, but also for their moral and spiritual good,” he said.

“We cannot overlook the fact that a certain ideology which exalts the rights of the individual can have the consequence of creating isolation and solitude… Therefore we can help one another by discovering our reciprocal responsibility the one for the other.”

“Sometimes it is thought that the Church’s concerns, her tenacious resistance to certain fashionable ideas, are moved by thirst or nostalgia for power. This is not the case.”

The cardinal said that the Church is “moved by a sincere concern for mankind and for the world” and not “by a desire to condemn or recriminate.”

“Justice and mercy,” he said, require “the courage to call things by their name.”

The cardinal’s remarks to NCR echo one of the most prominent themes running through the discourse of the 2009 African Synod in Rome, where 300 bishops of the continent repeatedly warned against the imposition of an alien, anti-human creed on an unwilling African people.

In dozens of interventions, voice after voice at the Synod used the strongest terms to denounce this “hidden agenda” by UN-based international aid organisations.

The bishops described it as the “ferocious onslaught” of an “insidious ideology” opposed to traditional African values, a “malevolent and shortsighted” form of “cultural imperialism” being pushed by UN groups like the UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and the UNFPA, as well as the World Bank, the IMF, and even by the European Union.

Presenting the Synod’s final document, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, said, “We urge the countries of Africa to carefully scrutinise the services being offered to our people, to ensure they are good for us.” The Synod “denounces all surreptitious attempts to destroy and undermine the precious African values of family and human life.”

Concluding his address, Cardinal Sarah said, “Our secularized society lives and organizes itself without reference to God because it is affected by a poverty more tragic even than material want; a poverty represented by the rejection and complete exclusion of God from social and economic life, by the revolt against divine and natural laws.”
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In the USA, the US bishops are pledging to fight on against the Obama administration's determined assault on religious freedom through the wedge issue of providing free contraceptive means to everyone under universal health care, even if it means compelling Catholic institutions and employers to fall in line or pay crippling fines for failing to do so... Cardinal Dolan has a new rallying letter for US bishops who have unanimously and unconditionally closed rnaks on this issue from the beginning.




March 2, 2012

My brother bishops,

Twice in recent weeks, I have written you to express my gratitude for our unity in faith and action as we move forward to protect our religious freedom from unprecedented intrusion from a government bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

I remain deeply grateful to you for your determined resolve, to the Chairmen of our committees directly engaged in these efforts - Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Bishop Stephen Blaire and Bishop William Lori -who have again shown themselves to be such excellent leaders during these past weeks, and to all our staff at The USCCB who work so diligently under the direction of the Conference leadership.

How fortunate that we as a body have had opportunities during our past plenary assemblies to manifest our strong unity in defense of religious freedom. We rely on that unity now more than ever as HHS seeks to define what constitutes church ministry and how it can be exercised. We will once again dedicate ample time at our administrative Committee meeting next week, and at the June Plenary Assembly, to this critical subject. We will continue to listen, discuss, deliberate and act.

Thank you, brothers, for the opportunity to provide this update to you and the dioceses you serve. Many of you have expressed your thanks for what we have achieved together in so few weeks, especially the data provided and the leadership given by brother bishops, our conference staff and Catholic faithful. And you now ask the obvious question, “What’s next?”

Please allow me to share with you now some thoughts about events and efforts to date and where we might go next. Since January 20, when the final, restrictive HHS Rule was first announced, we have become certain of two things: religious freedom is under attack, and we will not cease our struggle to protect it.

We recall the words of our Holy Father Benedict XVI to our brother bishops on their recent ad limina visit: “Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”

Bishop Stephen Blaire and Bishop William Lori, with so many others, have admirably kept us focused on this one priority of protecting religious freedom. We have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the government that we are not at peace with its invasive attempt to curtail the religious freedom we cherish as Catholics and Americans.

We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it. As pastors and shepherds, each of us would prefer to spend our energy engaged in and promoting the works of mercy to which the Church is dedicated: healing the sick, teaching our youth, and helping the poor.

Yet, precisely because we are pastors and shepherds, we recognize that each of the ministries entrusted to us by Jesus is now in jeopardy due to this bureaucratic intrusion into the internal life of the church.

You and I both know well that we were doing those extensive and noble works rather well without these radical new constrictive and forbidding mandates. Our Church has a long tradition of effective partnership with government and the wider community in the service of the sick, our children, our elders, and the poor at home and abroad, and we sure hope to continue it. Of course, we maintained from the start that this is not a “Catholic” fight alone.

I like to quote as often as possible a nurse who emailed me, “I’m not so much mad about all this as a Catholic, but as an American.” And as we recall, a Baptist minister, Governor Mike Huckabee, observed, “In this matter, we’re all Catholics.” No doubt you have heard numerous statements just like these.

We are grateful to know so many of our fellow Americans, especially Our friends in the ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, stand together in this important moment in our country. They know that this is not just about sterilization, abortifacients, and chemical contraception. It’s about religious freedom, the sacred right of any Church to define its own teaching and ministry.

When the President announced on January 20th that the choking mandates from HHS would remain, not only we bishops and our Catholic faithful, but people of every faith, or none at all, rallied in protest.

The worry that we had expressed -- that such government control was contrary to our deepest political values -- was eloquently articulated by constitutional scholars and leaders of every creed.

On February 10th, the President announced that the insurance providers would have to pay the bill, instead of the Church’s schools, hospitals, clinics, or vast network of charitable outreach having to do so. He considered this “concession” adequate.

Did this help? We wondered if it would, and you will recall that the Conference announced at first that, while withholding final judgment, we would certainly give the President’s proposal close scrutiny. Well, we did -- and as you know, we are as worried as ever.

For one, there was not even a nod to the deeper concerns about trespassing upon religious freedom, or of modifying the HHS’ attempt to define the how and who of our ministry. Two, since a big part of our ministries are “self-insured,” we still ask how this protects us. We’ll still have to pay and, in addition to that, we’ll still have to maintain in our policies practices which our Church has consistently taught are grave wrongs in which we cannot participate.

And what about forcing individual believers to pay for what violates their religious freedom and conscience? We can’t abandon the hard working person of faith who has a right to religious freedom.

And three, there was still no resolution about the handcuffs placed upon renowned Catholic charitable agencies, both national and international, and their exclusion from contracts just because they will not refer victims of human trafficking, immigrants and refugees, and the hungry of the world, for abortions, sterilization, or contraception.

In many ways, the announcement of February 10 solved little and complicated a lot. We now have more questions than answers, more confusion than clarity. So the important question arises: What to do now? How can we bishops best respond, especially united in our common pastoral ministry as an Episcopal Conference?

For one, under the ongoing leadership of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Bishop Blaire and Bishop Lori, we will continue our strong efforts of advocacy and education.

In the coming weeks the Conference will continue to provide you, among other things, with catechetical resources on the significance of religious freedom to the Church and the Church’s teaching on it from a doctrinal and moral perspective.

We are developing liturgical aids to encourage prayer in our efforts and plans on how we can continue to voice our public and strong opposition to this infringement on our freedom. And the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, that has served the Conference so well in its short lifespan, will continue its extraordinary work in service to this important cause.

Two, we will ardently continue to seek a rescinding of the suffocating mandates that require us to violate our moral convictions, or at least insist upon a much wider latitude to the exemptions so that churches can be free of the new, rigidly narrow definition of church, minister and ministry that would prevent us from helping those in need, educating children and healing the sick, no matter their religion.

In this regard, the President invited us to “work out the wrinkles.” We have accepted that invitation. Unfortunately, this seems to be stalled: the White House Press Secretary, for instance, informed the nation that the mandates are a fait accompli (and, embarrassingly for him, commented that we bishops have always opposed Health Care anyway, a charge that is scurrilous and insulting, not to mention flat out wrong. Bishop Blaire did a fine job of setting the
record straight.)

The White House already notified Congress that the dreaded mandates are now published in the Federal Registry “without change.” The Secretary of HHS is widely quoted as saying, “Religious insurance companies don’t really design the plans they sell based on their own religious tenets.” That doesn’t bode well for their getting a truly acceptable “accommodation.”

At a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom—that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. They were informed that they are. So much for “working out the wrinkles.”

Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent, hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America.

The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.

We will continue to accept invitations to meet with and to voice our concerns to anyone of any party, for this is hardly partisan, who is willing to correct the infringements on religious freedom that we are now under.

But as we do so, we cannot rely on off the record promises of fixes without deadlines and without assurances of proposals that will concretely address the concerns in a manner that does not conflict with our principles and teaching.

Congress might provide more hope, since thoughtful elected officials have proposed legislation to protect what should be so obvious: religious freedom. Meanwhile, in our recent debate in the senate, our opponents sought to obscure what is really a religious freedom issue by maintaining that abortion-inducing drugs and the like are a “woman’s health issue.”

We will not let this deception stand. Our commitment to seeking legislative remedies remains strong. And it is about remedies to the assault on religious freedom. Period. (By the way, the Church hardly needs to be lectured about health care for women. Thanks mostly to our Sisters, the Church is the largest private provider of health care for women and their babies in the country.)

Bishop William Lori, Chairman of our Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, stated it well in a recent press release: “We will build on this base of support as we pursue legislation in the House of Representatives, urge the Administration to change its course on this issue, and explore our legal rights under the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Perhaps the courts offer the most light. In the recent Hosanna-Tabor ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously defended the right of a Church to define its own ministry and services, a dramatic rebuff to the administration, apparently unheeded by the White House.

Thus, our bishops’ conference, many individual religious entities, and other people of good will are working with some top-notch law firms who feel so strongly about this that they will represent us pro-bono. In the upcoming days, you will hear much more about this encouraging and welcome development.

Given this climate, we have to prepare for tough times. Some, like America magazine, want us to cave-in and stop fighting, saying this is simply a policy issue; some want us to close everything down rather than comply (In an excellent article, Cardinal Francis George wrote that the administration apparently wants us to “give up for Lent” our schools, hospitals, and charitable ministries); some, like Bishop Robert Lynch wisely noted, wonder whether we might have to engage in civil disobedience and risk steep fines; some worry that we’ll have to face a decision between two ethically repugnant choices: subsidizing immoral services or no longer offering insurance coverage, a road none of us wants to travel.

Brothers, we know so very well that religious freedom is our Heritage, our legacy and our firm belief, both as loyal Catholics and Americans. There have been many threats to religious freedom over the decades and years, but these often came from without. This one sadly comes from within.

As our ancestors did with previous threats, we will tirelessly defend the timeless and enduring truth of religious freedom. I look forward to our upcoming Administrative Board Meeting and our June Plenary Assembly when we will have the chance to discuss together these important issues and our way forward in addressing them.

And I renew my thanks to you for your tremendous, fraternal support and your welcome observations in this critical effort to protect our religious freedom.

With prayerful best wishes, I am
Fraternally in Christ,


Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops


For those Forum followers who do not live in the USA, the Democrats in Congress this week called a law student from Georgetown University (a Jesuit school in Washington, DC) to testify in behalf of American women who now feel entitled to free birth control pills. They never did in all the decades since the pill became available, before the Obama administration introduced this new entitlement! And it's not as if the pill costs as much as, say, cancer treatment pills. But oh no, this woman complained that 'thousands of college students' like her are suffering because they have to spend about $1000 a year for birth control pills. (She complained as if not getting the pill free would be equivalent to not being able to buy milk for a baby!)

To which objective commentators, including those who are not Catholic, immediately said in outrage, "Well, why should the taxpayer pay so that you can have your recreational sex without having to worry about getting pregnant? How about considering abstinence, huh?" [I don't know why not one congressman questioned the woman's figures but $84 a month for birth control pills (or condoms) somehow seems most unlikely!]

Unfortunately, that is the irrational state to which the Democrats' promotion of universal entitlements has brought their supporters, who expect the state to increasingly pay for all his basic - and in the case of contraceptive pills, eminently optional - needs. Without heeding the example of Greece and other entitlement-mired European states where cradle-to-grave social benefits, including crippling pension plans, have resulted in basket cases like Greece...


P.S. No-bama called the Georgetown student just before she came on one of the many lefty TV programs that have hailed her as the new culture heroine, to tell her that he was behind her and would always support 'reproductive health rights'(which is more about 'rights' than it is about 'health'). for women. One of the awful corollaries of Nobama-logic is, of course, that pregnancy is a disease under their concept of 'reproductive health'.
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March 4, Second Sunday of Lent

ST. CASIMIR OF POLAND (b Cracow 1458, d Vilnius 1483), Confessor
Patron Saint of Poland and Lithuania, Patron of Young People
He was born in Cracow's Wawel Castle, to King Casimir III of the Jagiellon dynasty, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the
Holy Roman Emperor Albert II Hapsburg. From childhood, he chose to live a higly-disciplined severe life and vowed himself to
lifelong celibacy. When he was 15, the nobles of Hungary were dissatisfied with their king, they asked King Casimir to send his
son to be their king. The young Casimir went eagerly, but the army at his disposal was weak and in no position to withstand
a threatened Turkish invasion. He fled back to Poland, returned to his studies, and vowed never again to be involved in any war.
He served as regent of Poland in 1481-1482 when his father was away, and he was said to have ruled with prudence and justice.
In 1483, while on a visit to Lithuania, of which he was the Grand Duke, he succumbed to a lung disease. He was buried in
Vilnius. Several miracles were quickly ascribed to him, and he was canonized in 1522, and in 1948, Pope Pius XII declared him
a patron saint for young people.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/030412.cfm



WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY

Pastoral visit to San Giovanni Battista de La Salle parish in Rome - In his homily, the Pope commented on the two readings today on the concept of sacrifice - Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, and God himself sending his own Son to be sacrifice; as well as the Gospel on the Transfiguration as a preparation for the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, taking us from 'from Mount Tabor to Golgotha'.

Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father reflected how in the first Sunday of Lent, we contemplated Jesus in the desert, exposed to the temptations of Satan, and this Sunday, we see him on the mountain, transfigured by his heavenly Father - both places of prayer. The Transfiguration, he said, reminds us that Jesus is our unfailing interior light who guides us even in the darkest night.
P.S. I was taken aback by the report of the Pope's activities this morning in the English service of Vatican Radio that specifically says today is the Feast of the Transfiguration! "Sunday 4th of March is also the feast of the Transfiguration..." Although today's Gospel is on the Transfiguration, the Feast itself is observed on August 6. It's yet another regrettable instance of lack of editorial supervision at RV's English service. (I can't say about the rest of the language services because I don't follow them as regularly as I do the English service).


OR today.

Illustration: Ascent to the empyrean, Hieronymus Bosch, 1504.
Benedict XVI at the conclusion of the Lenten spiritual exercises at the Vatican:
'Towards the light'
He recalls retreat master Cardinal Pasinya's story of a friend who survived coma
to describe his near-death experience as light and music at the end of a tunnel.
The back page is dedicated to the Pope's concluding remarks at the spiritual exercises, Cardinal Pasinya's final meditation for the retreat, and a report on Cardinal Bertone's homily on the bishop as a humble servant, delivered when he ordained the new Nuncio to Zambia, Archbishop Julio Murat. Page 1 stories: Vladimir Putin's expected victory to a new term as President of Russia; parliamentary elections in Iran; and a new global survey finds that 2.67 billion persons suffer from water scarcity at least one month every year because of droughts and the consequent drying up of major river basins.



This time last year...

- Pre-release buzz on JESUS OF NAZARETH, Vol. II, dominated papal news, after the publication of excerpts in which the Pope reiterates Catholic teaching since the Council of Trent that 'the Jews' were not responsible for the execution of Jesus - something most Catholics themselves were not aware of, although it is also in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, it was treated as worldwide big news, and Israeli government leaders thanked the Pope for his statements.

- Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic Minister for Minorities of Pakistan, was assassinated on a street in Islamabad. There have been moves since then to propose him for beatification for having been killed 'in odium of the faith'.


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PASTORAL VISIT TO TORRINO
Translated from

March 4, 2012





This morning, at 9:30, the Holy Father Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to the Roman parish of San Giovamni Battista de La Salle in Torrino, in the southern sector of the Diocese of Rome.

Before the Mass, the Pope first greeted children taking catechetical classes in the parish, along with the parish priests of the local Prefecture and the ministrants for the Mass.

At 9:45, the Pope presided at the Eucharistic celebration .

After the Mass, he met with the priests of the parish, and then proceeded to the front steps of the Church where he said a few words of farewell to the congregation.



The children presented him with drawings, and a jersey of the parish Oratory.

The Pope's greeting to the children:

Dear children:

I wish you a good Sunday and a good day!

For me, it is a great joy to see so many children. It means Rome lives and will continue to live even tomorrow!

You are now following the path of catechesis. Learn about Jesus, learn what he did, said and suffered. This way, you will also learn about the Church and the sacraments, and therefore, how to live, because living is an art, and Jesus teaches us this art.

I wish you all a good Sunday. And already today, I wish you a happy Easter. Thank you for your welcome.








Dear brothers and sisters of the parish of San Giovanni Battista de La Salle:

First of all I wish to say, with all my heart, thank you for this very heartwarming welcome. Thanks to your good parish priest for his beautiful words. Thanks for this spirit of family that I find with you.

We are truly the family of God, and the fact that you see in the Pope a father as well is a very beautiful thing that encourages me. But of course, the Pope is not the last recourse - it is the Lord, and we look to the Lord to perceive, to understand - as far as possible - something of the message of this second Sunday of Lent.

The liturgy today prepares us both for the mystery of the Passion - as we heard in the first Reading - and for the joy of the Resurrection.

The first Reading refers to the episode in which God puts Abraham to the test
(cfr Gen 22,1-18). He had one son, Isaac, who was born to him in his old age. He was the promised son, the son who would eventually bring salvation even to the peoples.

But one day, Abraham received from God the command to offer his son in sacrifice. The aged patriarch found himself facing the prospect of a sacrifice, which for him, as a father, was certainly the greatest sacrifice one could imagine.

Nonetheless, he did not hesitate one instant, and after having prepared all that was needed, he leaves with Isaac toward the place where the sacrifice would be offered.

We can imagine, during this journey towards the summit of the mountain, what was taking place in his heart and in that of his son's. He built an altar, he arranged the firewood, and having bound up the boy, he grasped the knife to immolate him.

Abraham trusted so fully in God that he was ready even to sacrifice his own son, and with his son, the future, because without a son, the promised land meant nothing, it would all end in nothing. In sacrificing his son, eh would be sacrificing his very self, too - all of his future, all the promise [that God had made to him].

This was truly a most radical act of faith. But at the crucial moment, he was stopped by an order from above: God did not desire death but life. Death does not give the true sacrifice; life does. And the obedience of Abraham became the source of an immense blessing that reaches up to our day. Let us leave this mystery which we can continue to meditate.

In the second Reading, St. Paul affirms that God himself made a sacrifice: he gave us his own son, he gave him on the Cross to triumph over sin and death, to conquer evil and to overcome all the evil that exists in the world.

This extraordinary mercy of God evokes the admiration of the Apostle and a profound trust in the power of God's love for us. In fact, St. Paul says: "He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?"
(Rm 8,32).

If God gives himself in his Son, he gives us everything. And Paul insists on the power of Christ's redemptive sacrifice against any other power that could enter our life. He asks, "Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us. Who will condemn? It is Christ [Jesus] who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us" (vv 33-34).

We are in God's heart - in this is our great trust. He creates love, and in love we walk toward God. If God gave his only Son for all of us, no one can accuse us, no one can condemn us, no one can separate us from his immense love.

It was precisely the supreme sacrifice of love on the Cross that the Son of God accepted and chose voluntarily, that becomes the source of our justification, of our salvation.

Let us not forget that, in the Holy Eucharist, this act of the Lord, which remains eternally in his heart, is always present, and that this act of his heart draws us and unites us to him.

Finally, the Gospel tells us of the episode of the Transfiguration
(cfr Mc 9,2-10): Jesus manifests himself in glory before the sacrifice on the Cross, and God the Father proclaims his beloved Son and asks the disciples to listen to him.

Jesus has gone up a high mountain, taking with him three Apostles - Peter, James and John - who would be extremely close to him in his extreme agony on another mount, the Mount of Olives.

Not long before, the Lord had announced his coming passion, and Peter could not understand why the Lord, Son of God, would speak of suffering, of rejection, of death, of the cross. Indeed, he opposed this prospect vehemently.

Now, Jesus had taken with him the three disciples to help them understand that the way to glory, the way of luminous love that conquers the darkness, is through total giving of oneself, it goes through the scandal of the Cross. The Lord, always anew, must take us with him, at least so we can begin to understand that this is the necessary way.

The Transfiguration is an event of light that helps even us to look at the Passion of Jesus with the eyes of faith. Yes, it is a mystery of suffering, but it is also the 'blessed passion', because it is, at its nucleus, a mystery of God's extraordinary love.

It is the definitive exodus that opens the way towards the freedom and the novelty of the Resurrection, of salvation from evil. We need it for our daily journey, which is often marked by the darkness of evil.

Dear brothers and sisters, as I said earlier, I am very happy to be among you today to celebrate the Lord's Day. I greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the sector, your parish priest, Don Giampaolo Perugini, whom I thank once more for the kind words he addressed to me in your name, and also for the much appreciated gifts that you offered to me.

I greet the parish vicars, and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who have been in this parish for so many years, and have been especially beneficial in the life of this parish, which found ready and generous hospitality in their mission house during its first three years.

I also greet the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who are attached to this church which carries the name of their founder. I greet all those who are active in various parish activities: the catechists, members of associations and movements, as well as various other parochial groups.

Finally, my thoughts go to all the residents of this area, especially the aged, the sick, persons who are alone or in difficulty.

Coming to you today, I noticed the location of this church on the highest point of the neighborhood, with a tall belltower that is like a finger or an arrow pointing to heaven. I think this is an important sign. Like thee three apostles in today's Gospel, we too need to go up the mountain of Transfiguration in order to receive the light of God, so that his face may illumine ours.

It is in personal and communitarian prayer that we encounter the Lord, not as an idea nor a moral proposition, but as a Person who wishes to enter into a relationship with us, who wants to be a friend and who wants to renew our life in order to make it like his.

This encounter is not just a personal fact. Your church, situated on the highest point of the neighborhood, is a reminder that the Gospel must be communicated, announced to everyone. We must not allow others to go bear different messages, messages that do not lead to true life. Make yourselves missionaries of Christ to your brothers, where they live, work, study, or where they usually spend their free time.

I am aware of the various significant works of evangelization that you have been carrying out, particularly through the oratory you have named 'Stella Polare' - I am glad to receive this shirt [the Oratory jersey] - where, thanks to the volunteer work of competent and generous persons, with the involvement of the parish families, you can promote children and young people getting together through sports activities, without neglecting cultural formation through art and music. But above all, where they are educated in their relationship to God, in Christian values, and an ever more conscious participation in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.

I am happy that the sense of belonging to the parochial community has been maturing and consolidating through the years. Faith must be lived together, and the parish is a place in which one learns to live his faith in the 'we' of the Church.

I wish to encourage you to grow, as well, in pastoral co-responsibility, in the context of authentic communion among all the entities present in it, who are called on to walk together, to live complementarity in their diversity, to testify to the 'we' of the Church, the family of God.

I know the commitment you have put into the preparation of children and young people for the Sacraments of Christian life. May the coming Year of Faith be a propitious occasion for the parish to grow and consolidate the experience of catechesis on the great truths of the Christian faith, in order to allow everyone in the neighborhood to know and deepen their knowledge of the Creed of the Church, and to overcome that religious illiteracy which is one of the great problems of our time.

Dear friends, you are a young community - one can see that right away - composed of young families, and populated, thank God, by so many children and young people. In this respect, I wish to remind you of the task of the family and the entire Christian community to educate them in the faith, aided in this by the theme of the current pastoral year, by the pastoral orientations suggested by the Italian bishops' conference, and without forgetting the profound and always relevant teaching of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.

In particular, dear families, you are the environment of life in which the first steps of faith are taken. Be a community in which one learns to learn to know and love the Lord ever more, a community in which you enrich one another in living a faith that is truly adult.

Finally, I wish to remind you all of the centrality of the Eucharist in personal and communitarian life. May the Holy Mass be the center of your Sundays, which must be rediscovered and lived as the day of the Lord and the community, the day on which to praise and celebrate him who died and resurrected for our salvation, a day in which to live together the joy of a community that is open and ready to welcome any person who is alone or in difficulty.

Gathered round the Eucharist, in fact, we can be more easily aware that the mission of every Christian community is to bring the message of God's love to all men. That is why it is important that the Eucharist must always be the heart of the life of the faithful, as it is today.

Dear brothers and sisters, From Tabor, the mount of the Transfiguration, the Lenten itinerary leads us to Golgotha, the mount of the supreme sacrifice of love by the only Priest of the new and eternal Covenant.

That sacrifice contains the greatest transformational force for man and history. Taking upon himself every consequence of evil and sin, Jesus rose on the third day as the victor over death and Evil. Lent prepares us to participate personally in this great mystery of the faith, which we will celebrate in the Triduum of the Passion, death and Resurrection of Christ.

Let us entrust our Lenten journey and that of the entire Church to the Virgin Mary. May she, who followed her son to the Cross, help us to be faithful disciples of Christ, mature Christians, to be able to participate with her in the fullness of Paschal joy. Amen!








Leaving the church:

The Pope's farewell remarks:

Dear friends,

Thank you for this beautiful celebration and for the church, with the Madonna and the saints. We are a family with all the saints.

Last Sunday, the Lord led us in the desert. This Sunday, in themountain. These are always privileged places to be closer to God, to leave all the things of daily life and to perceive that God is there, that he is the center of our life.

I wish that you may always feel the closeness of God adn that he may guide you every day. A good Sunday and a happy Easter to all of you.



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/03/2012 04:40]
04/03/2012 23:27
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ANGELUS TODAY




'Jesus is the light
that never fades'

Adapted from

March 4, 2012
On this second Sunday of Lent, Pope Benedict began his day with a visit to the Roman parish of John the Baptist de la Salle, south of the capital. Afterwards, he led the noontime Sunday Angelus at St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father reflected on the Transfiguration which is recounted in today's Gospel, saying that the event featured two essential elements: the divine light that transfigured the face of Jesus, and the voice of the Heavenly Father who spoke to him.

He said that the Transfiguration was an orientation towards the fulfillment of Jesus's mission, signifying his awareness that before attaining to the resurrection, he would undergo suffering and death on the cross.

Commenting on the fact that Jesus took Peter, James and John with him to Mount Tabor, the Pope said Jesus did this because he wanted to give his closest friends an experience of the light dwelling in Him, so that after this event, he would be their inner light, able to protect them from the assaults of darkness, and a light that would never go out.



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks at the Angelus today:

Dear brothers and sisters:

This Sunday, the second in Lent, is also characterized as the Sunday of the Lord's Transfiguration. In fact, in the Lenten itinerary, the liturgy - after having invited us to follow Jesus in the desert in order to face and conquer temptations as he did - now proposes that we climb with him to the mountain of prayer in order to contemplate on his human face the glorious light of God.

The episode of the Transfiguration of Christ is attested to in common by the evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. It has two essential elements.

First of all, Jesus goes up a high mountain with the disciples Peter, James and John, and there, "he was transfigured before them"
(Mk 9,2) - his face and his garments radiated a dazzling light, while beside him,there appeared Moses and Elijah.

Then, a cloud came over the mountaintop, and a voice came from the cloud that said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
(Mk 9,7).

Thus, the light and the voice - the divine light that shone on Jesus's face, and the voice of the heavenly Father who testified for him and asked that he be heeded.

The mystery of the Transfiguration cannot be detached from the context of the journey that Jesus was taking. He was at the time headed resolutely towards the fulfillment of his mission, knowing very well that, in order to reach the Resurrection, he must pass through suffering and death on the Cross.

He had spoken openly to his disciples about this, but they did not understand. Rather, they rejected such a prospect because they were not reasoning according to God but as men
(cfr Mt 16,23).

That is why Jesus took three of them with him to the mountain and revealed his divine glory, the splendor of Truth and Love. Jesus wanted this light to illuminate their hearts when they would have to go through the pitch darkness of his passion and death, when the scandal of the Cross would become insupportable for them.

God is light, and Jesus wishes to give his most intimate friends the experience of this light. which dwells in him. Thus, after this event, he would the interior light within them, able to protect them from the assaults of darkness.

Even in the darkest night, Jesus is the lamp that never goes out. St. Augustine summarized this mystery with a beautiful statement: "That which to the eyes of the body is the sun that we see, Christ is for the eyes of the heart"
(Sermo 78, 2: PL 38, 490).

Dear brothers and sisters, we all need this interior light to overcome the trials of life. This light comes from God, and it is Christ who gives it to us. He, in whom the fullness of divinity dwells (cfr Col 2.9).

Let us go up the mountain of prayer with Jesus, and, contemplating his face full of love and truth, let us allow ourselves to be filled interiorly with his light.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary, our guide in our journey of faith, to help us live this experience during this season of Lent, finding in each day a moment of silent prayer and of listening to the Word of God.


After the prayers, he said this to English-speaking pilgrims:

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at this Angelus prayer, especially students from the United States of America.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is transfigured, and shows his disciples that his Passion will lead to the Resurrection. By God’s grace, may our Lenten observance lead to a renewal of his radiance within us. Upon you and your loved ones, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!







[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/03/2012 12:22]
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