BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier posts on 3/8/12.





For an economist, Dr. Gregg always makes a compelling commonsense 'theological' analysis when he writes about Catholic subjects. This is one great introduction to an appreciation of Benedict XVI's first seven years as Pope (of which I hope we will get many excellent ones. Articles, I mean, but in a different sense, many more wonderful years with B16 as our Pope...

Benedict XVI and
the irrelevance of 'relevance'
by Samuel Gregg

March 8, 2012

Over the soon-to-be seven years of Benedict XVI’s papacy, it’s been instructive to watch the shifting critiques of this pontificate.

Leaving aside the usual suspects convinced that Catholicism should become what amounts to yet another liberal-Christian sect fixated with transitory politically-correct causes, the latest appraisal is that “the world” is losing interest in the Catholic Church.

A variant of this is the claim that the Irish government’s 2011 decision to closing its embassy to the Holy See reflects a general decline in the Church’s geopolitical 'relevance'.

[And you'd think a veteran Vatican observer like John Allen - who is also a sort of self-appointed expert on world Catholic affairs, since no one else is doing what he does, taking snapshots of the state of the Church worldwide bu visiting some key capitals to talk to the locals - would be one of those who would not respond with this knee-jerk banal commonplace, but that was exactly what he led off with last year, commenting on the Irish government's decision! Not one of the Italian Vaticanistas made that almost non-sequitur leap of logic! Clearly, Irish PM Kenny's government wanted to twist into its backstab on the Church to make it hurt more, and that's the only reason one should give. No other country has followed Ireland's example in the months since, even if the financial crisis drags on, so where does that out the 'irrelevance' claim?]

Whenever one encounters such assertions, it’s never quite clear what’s meant by 'relevance'. On one reading, it involves comparisons with Benedict’s heroic predecessor, who played an indispensable role in demolishing the Communist thug-ocracies that once brutalized much of Europe. [And those who argue this completely ignore that the global picture is radically different today from what it was when the free world was still fighting the 'evil empire', and terrorism as a daily political instrument was only in its beginnings, only becoming 'routine' after 9/11/2001. Islam was not the active threat for global hegemony that it is today via its surrogates who rule the Muslim countries.]

But it’s also a fair bet that 'relevance' is understood here in terms of the Church’s capacity to shape immediate policy-debates or exert political influence in various spheres.

Such things have their own importance. Indeed, many of Benedict’s writings are charged with content which shatters the post-Enlightenment half-truths about the nature of freedom, equality, and progress that sharply constrict modern Western political thinking.

But Benedict’s entire life as a priest, theologian, bishop, senior curial official and Pope also reflects his core conviction that the Church’s primary focus is not first-and-foremost “the world,” let alone politics.

Rather, Benedict’s view has always been that the Church’s main responsibility is to come to know better — and then make known — the Person of Jesus Christ. Why? Because like any orthodox Christian, he believes that herein is found the summit and fullness of Truth and meaning for every human being.

Moreover, Benedict insists the only way we can fully comprehend Christ is through His Church – the ecclesia of the saints, living and dead.

These certainties explain the nature of Benedict’s long-standing criticisms of various forms of political and liberation theology. His primary concern was not whether such movements reflected some Catholics’ alignment with the left, or the liberationists’ shaky grasp of basic economics.

Instead, Benedict’s charge was always that such theologies obscured and even distorted basic truths about the nature of Christ and His Church. [And those who claim otherwise simply parrot the totally unfunded media stereotype of Joseph Ratzinger as the pedantic, dogmatic and robotic enforcer of orthodox Catholic teaching - without once reading what he has actually written and said about liberation theology.]-

There is, of course, a 'relevance' dimension to all this. Unless Catholics are clear in their own minds about these truths, then their efforts to transform the world around them will surely run aground or degenerate into the activism of just another lobby-group amidst the thousands of other lobby-groups clamoring to be considered 'relevant'.

Which brings us to another great 'relevance' of Benedict’s pontificate: his desire to ensure that more Catholics understand the actual content of what they profess to believe.

It’s no great secret that Catholic catechesis went into freefall after Vatican II. It’s true that much pre-Vatican II catechesis was characterized by rote-learning rather than substantive engagement with the truths of the Faith.

But as early as 1983, Joseph Ratzinger signaled his awareness of the lamentable post-Vatican II catechetical state of affairs in two speeches he gave in Paris and Lyons.

Much to the professional catechists’ displeasure — but to the delight of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and every young priest present — Ratzinger zeroed in on the huge gaps in the catechetical text-books then in vogue.

Two years later, the 1985 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops suggested that a new universal catechism be published. [Every time this is brought up, I cannot resist adding that in George Weigel's account of that Synod in his biography of John Paul II, it was the later much-maligned Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston who put forth the suggestion for the Catechism during that 1985 Synod. It doesn't make up, of course, for his terrible judgment lapses in almost coddling abusive priests in his diocese, but he does earn a positive footnote in history for this.]

This bore fruit in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church produced under Ratzinger’s supervision. Significantly, it followed precisely the fundamental structures he had identified in his 1983 addresses as indispensable for sound catechesis.

Fast-forward to 2012. Now Benedict is launching what’s called “a Year of Faith” in his apostolic letter Porta Fidei to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s opening.

Reading this text, one is struck by how many times Benedict underlines the importance of Catholics being able to profess the Faith. Of course you can’t really profess — let alone live out — the truths of the Catholic Faith unless you know what they are. Nor can you enter into conversation with others about that Faith unless you understand its content.

Hence, as one French commentator recently observed, at least one sub-text of Benedict’s Year of Faith is that “doctrinal break-time” for the Church is over.

This point was underscored by the recent Note issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Along the other practical suggestions it gives for furthering the Year of Faith, the Note emphasizes “a profound bond between the lived faith and its contents” (i.e., true ortho-praxis can only be based on ortho-doxy).

It also stresses that Catholics need to know the content of the Catechism and the actual documents of Vatican II (rather than, sotto voce, the ever-nebulous [and rather noxious] “spirit of Vatican II” that seems indistinguishable from whatever is preoccupying secular liberals at any given moment in time.

[Documents which, it would seem, the liberal progressivist spiritists have not really read, or bothered to read, judging by the untruths and half-truths they have been spewing abundantly in the past four decades, passing off their own ideas of what they would like the Church to be, as the 'spirit of Vatican II'. Until Benedict XVI became Pope, few contested them at all!

Just start with all the inventions they stuck on the Mass, many of them never mentioned in Sacrosanctum concilium(SC), the Vatican II constitution on the Liturgy (e.g., sidelining the tabernacle and tearing out the old altars to give way to bare tables -with the corollary of celebrating the Mass ad populum; receiving Communion in the hand), and some directly contradicting SC (e.g., eliminating Latin completely from the Mass, allowing all sorts of profane music -instruments and lyrics - instead of SC's encouragement of Gregorian chant, religious texts (preferably Scriptural) for lyrics, and organ music; and worst of all, using Vatican II as an excuse for any priest to say and do as he pleases when saying Mass, instead of sticking to the ritual and the words that make a Mass a Mass. None of everything that has made a Novus Ordo Mass objectionable as commonly practised since 1970 is to be found in SC!]

The predictable retort is that this proves that, under Benedict, the Church is turning in upon itself. Such rejoinders, however, are very short-sighted. To paraphrase Vatican II, Benedict understands the Church can only have a profound ad-extra effect upon the world if it lives its ad-intra life more intensely and faithfully.

Far from being a retreat into a ghetto, it’s about helping Catholics to, as the first Pope said, “be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15).

And therein lies the Church’s true contemporary significance, as understood by Peter’s present-day successor. It’s not to be found in turning the Catholic Church into something akin to the Episcopal church of America (otherwise known as the preferential option for self-immolation).

It’s about bringing the Logos of the Lord of History into a world that lurches between irrationality and rationalism, utopianism and despair, so that when we die, we might see the face of the One who once called upon Peter to have faith in Him and walk on water.

And what, after all, could be more relevant than that?

The following is a positive evaluation of Benedict XVI from another angle, although it begins, unfortunately, by buying into all the 'public opinion' commonplaces that most commentators have used to interpret and thereby further promote the wildly disproportionate hype over the leaked documents from the Vatican Secretariat of State. None of those documents objectively constituted or indicated any high crimes or genuine scandal. To any objective view, they represent, at best, the interplay of conflicting interests inherent and normal in any human institution, especially bureaucracies (the Vatican bureaucracy is obviously no exception)* (NB: Il Regno is a twice-monthly publication out of the Bologna-based Centro Editoriale Dehnoniano run by the Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart founded by the late French priest Leon Dehon, whose cause for beatification has been stalled because of accusations that he was anti-Semitic.]

Benedict XVI:
Spiritual renewal in the face
of worldliness in the Church
by Gianfranco Brunelli
Translated from

March 8, 2012

The kindness of his gaze, the elegance of his manners, the calmness of tone that distinguish Benedict XVI did not veil the firmness of his words.

In his series of interventions during his fourth consistory to name new cardinals, he assembled a collection of unequivocal spiritual and doctrinal references following a recent spate of poison allegations aimed at the Vatican.

It could not be otherwise. The media clamor that had been generated first around the confidential letters written by the ex-secretary-general of the Vatican City Governatorate, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, now Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, to the Pope and to Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone regarding questionable financial transactions at the Governatorate. Then a couple of internal memoranda on the new anti-money-laundering laws to be enforced at the Vatican 'bank' IOR: and finally the 'delirious' anonymous memorandum inferring a supposed assassination plot against the Pope within this year - all had created great perplexity in the Church and in international public opinion.

The fact that some parties had resorted to leaking confidential documents, of various levels of importance, in order to feed any existing conflicts within the Roman Curia but most of all, calling to question the role and the ability of the Secretary of State, offered the image of a moral and institutional crisis within the Church's principal organ of governance.

[That was obviously the general impression that the leakers intended to create - namely, for public opinion to think the worst, that unimaginable crimes have been happening inside the Vatican, even if the incidents reported did not include any really major 'scandal' and merely reflected normal internal rivalries within any bureaucracy. But for an informed 'analyst to simply echo that intended impression as the actual outcome of the leaks is lazy and almost irresponsible.]

In a consistory in which a number of Curial officials were made cardinals, the Curia was therefore under scrutiny both in terms of image and of substance.

[I beg to disagree. In fairness to the media, practically no one projected the negatives created by the leaks to the Curial officials who became cardinals - perhaps because, even if most reports kept referring to the 'revelations' as affecting 'the Curia', the targets, as well as the leakers, were clearly all within the Secretariat of State, which is by no means the entire Curia.

The running beef was that yes, the Pope had elevated more curial officials than metropolitan bishops to cardinal in this consistory but that's an argument that has been discussed several times on this thread. But it must also be noted that no one, not even the Italian media, faulted any of the Curial officials for lack of qualification or competency for the jobs that Benedict XVI named them to. Even if some of them may be proteges or friends of Cardinal Bertone, that does not make them less competent or qualified; surely, no one could say Benedict XVI named some cardinals to their positions of responsibility if he did not think they were the best men for mostly administrative and technical responsibilities.]

But whoever wanted Cardinal Bertone replaced has failed at least for now, but he is expected to set everything straight in his own department. In fact, this kind of crisis affects the Pope by implying a crisis of authority in the Church. [Again, that was the kneejerk conclusion drawn by run-of-the-mill commentary, echoing the main criticism by the Pope's detractors who claim that he takes no part and no interest at all in the actual government of the Church. Detractors like Marco Politi deliberately ignore that the Pope holds weekly meetings with his chief Curial collaborators - the heads of CDF, of Bishops and of the Evangelization of Peoples, who head the curial offices with the greatest direct impact on churches around the world; and that every afternoon, he sits down with Bertone and/or his two deputies to discuss administrative issues. But gullible members of the public will simply take their cue from what the commentators say and do not question any of their (very faulty) premises.]

It is not accidental that the latter stages of the controversy also brought forth the hypothesis that the Pope may resign. [It really is a non sequitur, because the resignation hypothesis has been floated since last year, not however because of any controversies or administrative issues, but because of alleged health problems! And it is bound to be brought up more often, as the Pope gets older, since in Light of the World, Benedict XVI said clearly that he felt a Pope should resign if he was no longer physically, psychologically and mentally capable of carrying out the Petrine ministry.]

In the three days associated with the consistory, the Pope touched all the necessary themes. Starting with what he considers decisive for the Church in this historical moment.

He reads this last critical development as a confirmation and an acceleration of what he called 'a crisis of faith' in his address to the Roman Curia last December. A crisis that cuts across all Christianity. But especially European Christianity.

And alongside the sex abuses by priests, supposed financial scandals, and rivalries for power, there is the more significant testimony of Christians in places where the Church is now persecution what it believes.It is this reality that concerns the Pope most.

In his allocution to the cardinals before the rites that actually made them cardinals, the Pope spoke the 'mundanization' of the Church, and to the logic of power pursued by some of her members. A logic that is directly anti-evangelical.

Thus he told the new cardinals that following the example of Christ, they are called on "to serve the Church with love and vigor, with the limpidity and wisdom of teachers, with the energy and firmness of pastors, with the fidelity and courage of martyrs".

Then, commenting on the account of St. Mark regarding the request made to Jesus by the sons of Zebedee, James and John, about sitting next to him in his glory, to the right and left of him.

Benedict XVI quoted the words of Jesus: "You do not know what you are asking".

"James and John, with their request, showed that they did not yet understand the logic of life that ought to characterize the disciple, in his spirit and in his actions". But he pointed out that such erroneous logic did not just well in James and John, but "according to the Evangelist, it contaminated even 'the other ten' apostles, who "started to be indignant with James and John. They were indignant because it is not easy to enter into the logic of the Gospel, and to leave that of power and glory".

The episode narrated by St. Mark (cf Mk 16,37-45) ends with the admonition to all his disciples that "they may be servants" and 'slave to all'. An unequivocal admonition on the day of the consistory. To stigmatize an evil that has once again taken grip of the Church.

"Dominion and service, egoism and altruism, possession and gift, self-interest and gratuitousness - these profoundly contrasting approaches have confronted each other in every age and place", the Pope concluded.

"There is no doubt about the path chosen by Jesus. He does not merely indicate it with words to the disciples of then and today, but he lives it in his own flesh. He explains, in fact, 'For the Son of man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mk 10,45).

"These words shed light on today's public Consistory with a particular intensity. They resound in the depths of the soul and represent an invitation and a reminder, a commission and an encouragement, especially for you".

The Pope calls on the Curia in general and to the various internal factions to stop their infighting. One doubts that his message will be heard at all.

Extending this admonition to pastors to the entire Church, on his homily of February 19, feats of the Chair of St. Peter, the Pope recalled:

"Everything in the Church rests upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization, charity. Likewise the law and the Church's authority rest upon faith. The Church is not self-regulating, she does not determine her own structure but receives it from the Word of God, to which she listens in faith as she seeks to understand it and to live it.

"The Fathers of the Church fulfill the function of guaranteeing fidelity to Sacred Scripture. They ensure that the Church receives reliable and solid exegesis, capable of forming within the Chair of Peter a stable and consistent whole.

"The Sacred Scriptures, authoritatively interpreted in the Magisterium in the light of the Fathers, shed light upon the Church's journey through time, providing her with a stable foundation amid the vicissitudes of history".

Summarizing symbolically the various elements of the Chair of Peter, and looking at the ensemble of the Bernini Altar of the Chair, the Pope underscored the simultaneous presence of a twofold = ascending and descending.

"This is the reciprocity between faith and love. The Chair is placed in a prominent position in this place, because this is where Saint Peter’s tomb is located, but this too tends towards the love of God. Indeed, faith is oriented towards love. A selfish faith would be an unreal faith.

"Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into the dynamic of love that finds its source in the Eucharist, discovers true joy and becomes capable in turn of living according to the logic this gift. T

"True faith is illumined by love and leads towards love, leads on high, just as the altar of the Chair points upwards towards the luminous window, the glory of the Holy Spirit, which constitutes the true focus for the pilgrim’s gaze as he crosses the threshold of the Vatican Basilica".

"Pray that I may be able to keep my hand on the tiller with gentle firmness". This was Benedict XVI's response to the speculation about his possible resignation.

He knows how this debate over the resignation of a Pope, occasionally aired by the media, can in fact weaken the exercise of the Papal role, since he had experienced this as an involuntary protagonist alongside John Paul II.

For now, resignation is out of the question. His health allows him to govern the Church fully even if he is about to turn 85. But his response was not - as John Paul II's was in2 003 - inherent to his state of health but rather to the route and handling of the ship of the Church. That 'gentle firmness' says everything about his will to exercise pastoral direction and governance of the Church.

It is not accidental that he has placed before himself and the universal Church a demanding biennial on the symbolic and doctrinal levels: the Year of Faith which will open in October on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and will conclude towards the end of 2013.

It will be, in fact, a new Great Jubilee [marked by the Church in 2000 to celebrate the first 2000 years of Christianity). This Conciliar Jubilee configures itself symbolically as a landing stage in his Pontificate.

All the points of reform in his Pontificate coalesce around the Year of Faith: a new season of evangelization, reinforced by a spiritual renewal to clean out all behavior that constitutes a continual counter-testimony to the message of the Gospel.

Nor was it accidental that at the pre-consistory assembly of the College of Cardinals on February 17, the Pope asked incoming Cardinal Timothy Colan, Archbishop of New York, and president of the US bishops' conference, to introduce the subject of New Evangelization, and on Mons. Rino Fisichella , president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, to present the initiatives programmed at various levels of the Church during the Year of Faith.

In this, the Pope calls on the universal Church to make an examination of conscience on the reception thus far of the teachings from the Second Vatican Council according to that hermeneutic of continuity that he has so often cited.

Along this line, Benedict XVI hopes to bring the Church out of the ruts of scandal and internal power conflicts.

Along this line, he hopes to lead the Church to a new season of faithful witness. It is a plan strongly characterized by the personal vision of the theologian Pope but which remains, at the same time, quite open. [Open to what? To tactical adjustments, perhaps, but not to strategic or substantial change!]







POST-SCRIPT TO THE VIGANO CASE

*Continuing my introductory remarks above, I must address the Vigano case which media have virtually abandoned though it ought not to be, It ought to be followed up for logical reasons that are both pragmatic and ethical.

Mons. Vigano's scattershot accusations constituted the 'worst' of the leaked documents so far. And yet, they can be seen for what they are: the desperate flailings of an ambitious man whose path to glory has been thwarted, and therefore feels wronged to the point of seeking to inflict as much harm as he can on those he perceives to have thwarted him, principally Cardinal Bertone and the persons, lay and ecclesiastical, whom Vigano considers to be Bertone's 'enforcers'.

Let us take just one example. Recall that Vigano said in one of the letters that if no administrative action was taken against one of his targets, Mons. Paolo Nicolini of the Vatican Museums, he would then proceed to take judicial action himself against Nicolini. The Vatican has said that an internal inquiry ordered by the Holy Father found Vigano's various concrete accusations against specific individuals 'unfounded' - a rather awkward situation, to say the least, for the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States who, in effect, has been shown to make false accusations (a violation of the Eighth Commandment).

It would be unseemly, of course, for the Apostolic Nuncio to the US to now file any suit in Italy against Mons. Nicolini. But then, the concrete accusations of financial misdeeds he attributed to Nicolini were allegedly committed when Nicolini was working at the Lateran University, for which Vigano has absolutely no competence to sue. (And one must ask why that the Lateran itself did not sue Nicolini at all if he did indeed falsify invoices and failed to account for a financial shortfall, as Vigano accused him of.)

At the Vatican, Nicolini was and is in charge of the financial administration of the Vatican Museums, which during Vigano's short stay at the Governatorate, registered a major increase in revenues unprecedented in the history of the Museums - always the major income-getter for the Governatorate. Yet Vigano never accused Nicolini of fudging the Museum's finances, let alone of finagling them. His beef against Nicolini at the Vatican was that the latter gossiped about him!

The pettiness of Vigano's attitude is almost sickening, and yet, no one in the Italian media has bothered to follow up the various accusations he flung with abandon in those two letters to the Pope and to Cardinal Bertone. Normally, the media would have investigated with chop-licking alacrity.

That they have not indicates either that they find the accusations laughable, to begin with; or they really have no interest in investigating his accusations, and/or they are willing to accept the results of the internal Vatican inquiry. About which I wonder why no one has bothered to ask the Vatican for a summary of the accusations investigated and the corresponding conclusions reached.

I have been greatly exercised about the Vigano case because I find it anomalous and inexplicable that he is allowed to get away with the conduct he has shown. Forgiving him for his all-too-human sins is understandable and Christian, but letting someone of his character represent the Pope anywhere is unconscionable. The Pope has valid reasons, I am sure, for making the appointment. but IMHO, that does not make the situation less anomalous.

Friday, March 9, Second Week of Lent

Second from left, the saint's statue in the Founders' Corner at St. Peter's Basilica; extreme right: The Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana off the Roman Forum.
ST. FRANCESCA ROMANA (Rome, 1384-1440), Wife, Mother, Founder of the Olivetan Oblates of Mary
Born to a wealthy Roman family, she always wanted to enter the religious life, but at 13, she was made to marry Lorenzo, who was commander
of the papal troops in Rome and was often away at war. She came to love him and they had six children. He indulged her Christian devotion which
she shared with a sister-in-law, with whom she went around Rome helping the poor and the sick, inspiring other wealthy women to do the same.
When a plague struck Rome, two of their children died. By this time, they had lost most of their possessions because of Lorenzo's long absence
fighting the many anti-Pope wars. Francesca begged for alms to be able to keep helping the sick and the poor, and after her second child was
taken by the plague, she converted part of her house to a hospital. In 1425, she asked the Pope to be able to set up a women's religious community
without vows but following the Benedictine rule and dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. In 1433, she founded the order's first and only
convent in Tor di'Specchi. By this time, Lorenzo had come home, wounded, and Francesca nursed him until he died in 1436. Only after his death did
she move in with her community, where she died four years later. Miracles abounded after her death, but already in life, she was known to have had
mystic ecstasies, and after her first son died in the plague, an angel is said to have appeared to her to tell her that a daughter would also be taken
by God. Her remains are venerated in the 10th century church of Santa Maria Nova near the Colosseum. The Church was renamed after her when she was
canonized in 1608. During Lent in 2009, after a visit to Rome's City Hall, Benedict XVI visited her convent where he paid tribute to her as
'the most Roman of women saints'.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/030912.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father began the official day by attending the first Lenten sermon by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household,
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, at the Redemptoris Mater Chapel, whose sermons this year are deidcated to the four great
doctors of the Eastern Church. Today, the sermon was on St. Athanasius, who defended the divinity of Christ against
popular heresies in his day.

Later, the Holy Father met with

- Eight bishops from Nebraska and Kansas on ad-limina visit.

- All bishops from north central USA who are completing their ad-limina visit. Address in English.

- Participants of the Internal Forum for priest confessors sponsored annually by the Apostolic Penoitentiary. Address in Italian.

The Vatican released statistics on the Church in Mexico and in Cuba, preparatory to the Pope's visit.





Pope mourns death of Filipino Cardinal Sanchez, 92,
former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

The Vatican published the text of a telegram sent by the Holy Father today to Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, emeritus Archbishop of Cebu (Philippines), the senior living Filipino cardinal, for the death early today of Cardinal Jose T. Sanchez, 92, who was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, as well as president of the Pontifical Commission to administer the patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) from 1991-1996. Before that, he was secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 1985-1991.

The cardinal died in a Metropolitan Manila hospital a few weeks after suffering a heart infarct. The fifth Filipino to be named cardinal (1991), he was also the first and only Filipino so far to head a dicastery of the Roman Curia (actually, two dicasteries, simultaneously).

---

TO HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL RICARDO J. VIDAL
ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS OF CEBU

HAVING LEARNED WITH SADNESS OF THE DEATH OF CARDINAL JOSÉ T, SÁNCHEZ, PREFECT EMERITUS OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY, I OFFER MY CONDOLENCES TO YOU, THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY AND TO ALL THOSE WHO WILL JOIN YOU IN THE CELEBRATION OF THE MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL.

AS I RECALL WITH GRATITUDE THE LATE CARDINAL’S DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE LORD AS A PRIEST AND BISHOP IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, AS WELL AS OUR SERVICE TOGETHER IN THE ROMAN CURIA DURING THE PONTIFICATE OF BLESSED JOHN PAUL II, I WILLINGLY JOIN YOU IN COMMENDING HIS NOBLE SOUL TO OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

I PRAY THAT HIS WITNESS WILL INSPIRE OTHERS TO DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO THE SERVICE OF THE LORD AND HIS HOLY CHURCH, ESPECIALLY IN THE PRIESTHOOD.

TO ALL WHO MOURN THE DEATH OF CARDINAL SÁNCHEZ IN THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION, I WILLINGLY IMPART MY APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A PLEDGE OF CONSOLATION AND PEACE IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRISTI.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

---

Pope to US bishops:
The Church needs 'a conscientious effort'
to resist attempts to redefine marriage

March 9, 2012


The best I can do with the photo from tomorrow's issue of the OR (photo in its original size, right).

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News) - In an address that tackled attempts to redefine marriage, Pope Benedict XVI challenged the bishops of the United States to teach young people an authentic Catholic vision of sex and love.

“The richness of this vision is more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters; these in fact constitute a powerful and destructive form of counter-catechesis for the young,” he said today.

The Pope was addressing the bishops of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. They are currently in Rome as part of their ad-limina visit, which involves discussing the health of their dioceses with Pope Benedict and various Vatican departments, as well as making a pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul.

“Young people need to encounter the Church’s teaching in its integrity, challenging and counter-cultural as that teaching may be,” he told the bishops.

Children must see this vision “embodied by faithful married couples who bear convincing witness to its truth,” but the wider Church also has to give them support “as they struggle to make wise choices at a difficult and confusing time in their lives,” the Pope said.

The Pope focused his audience remarks on outlining the roots of the “contemporary crisis of marriage and the family.”

This crisis is evident, he said, in the “weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant” and the widespread rejection of a “responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity.”

He noted that these decisions have led to “grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.” The Pope dealt first with the threat posed by attempts to legally redefine marriage.

He recognized that drive to redefine marriage was being pushed by “powerful political and cultural currents,” which require a “conscientious effort to resist this pressure.”

This has to be done, he said, with a “reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution” consisting of “a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation.”

“Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage,” he said. This is why defending the institution of marriage is “ultimately a question of justice,” since it “entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike,” said the Pope.

Later this year, voters in Minnesota will accept or reject a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as “only a union of one man and one woman.”

Pope Benedict then addressed how the Christian vision of sex and love is taught to the young.

He said the bishops must “acknowledge deficiencies in the catechesis of recent decades.” This inadequate teaching has often failed to communicate “the rich heritage of Catholic teaching on marriage as a natural institution elevated by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament,” as well as the “vocation of Christian spouses in society and in the Church, and the practice of marital chastity.”

He called for better instruction of both the young and those preparing for marriage, with programs based upon the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These should also address the “serious pastoral problem” presented by “the widespread practice of cohabitation, often by couples who seem unaware that it is gravely sinful, not to mention damaging to the stability of society.”

All Catholic family agencies should also give support and “reach out to” those who are divorced, separated, single parents, teenage mothers, women considering abortion, as well as children suffering due to family breakdown.

The Pope identified an “urgent need” for Christians to “recover an appreciation of the virtue of chastity” which, he reminded the bishops, is defined in the Catechism as an “apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom.”

Fundamentally, he said, the Christian understanding of sexuality is “a source of genuine freedom, happiness and the fulfillment of our fundamental and innate human vocation to love.”

He concluded by telling the bishops that children have “a fundamental right” to grow up with an “understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships.”

(Mons. John Clayton Nienstedt, Archbisjop of Minneapolis-St. Paul, delivered the greeting in behalf of the bishops representing Regions, 7,8 and 9 of the USCCB.)

Here is the full text of the Holy Father's address, delivered in English:

---

Dear Brother Bishops,

I greet all of you with fraternal affection on the occasion of your visit ad limina Apostolorum. As you know, this year I wish to reflect with you on certain aspects of the evangelization of American culture in the light of the intellectual and ethical challenges of the present moment.

In our previous meetings I acknowledged our concern about threats to freedom of conscience, religion and worship which need to be addressed urgently, so that all men and women of faith, and the institutions they inspire, can act in accordance with their deepest moral convictions.

In this talk I would like to discuss another serious issue which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit to America, namely, the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and, more generally, of the Christian vision of human sexuality.

It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.

Yet, as Blessed John Paul II observed, the future of humanity passes by way of the family (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 85). Indeed, "the good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded on marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area. Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself" (Sacramentum Caritatis, 29).

In this regard, particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage.

The Church’s conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation.

Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike.

In our conversations, some of you have pointed with concern to the growing difficulties encountered in communicating the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family in its integrity, and to a decrease in the number of young people who approach the sacrament of matrimony.

Certainly we must acknowledge deficiencies in the catechesis of recent decades, which failed at times to communicate the rich heritage of Catholic teaching on marriage as a natural institution elevated by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, the vocation of Christian spouses in society and in the Church, and the practice of marital chastity.

This teaching, stated with increasing clarity by the post-conciliar magisterium and comprehensively presented in both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, needs to be restored to its proper place in preaching and catechetical instruction.

On the practical level, marriage preparation programs must be carefully reviewed to ensure that there is greater concentration on their catechetical component and their presentation of the social and ecclesial responsibilities entailed by Christian marriage.

In this context we cannot overlook the serious pastoral problem presented by the widespread practice of cohabitation, often by couples who seem unaware that it is gravely sinful, not to mention damaging to the stability of society.

I encourage your efforts to develop clear pastoral and liturgical norms for the worthy celebration of matrimony which embody an unambiguous witness to the objective demands of Christian morality, while showing sensitivity and concern for young couples.

Here too I would express my appreciation of the pastoral programs which you are promoting in your Dioceses and, in particular, the clear and authoritative presentation of the Church’s teaching found in your 2009 Letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan.

I also appreciate all that your parishes, schools and charitable agencies do daily to support families and to reach out to those in difficult marital situations, especially the divorced and separated, single parents, teenage mothers and women considering abortion, as well as children suffering the tragic effects of family breakdown.

In this great pastoral effort there is an urgent need for the entire Christian community to recover an appreciation of the virtue of chastity.

The integrating and liberating function of this virtue (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2338-2343) should be emphasized by a formation of the heart, which presents the Christian understanding of sexuality as a source of genuine freedom, happiness and the fulfilment of our fundamental and innate human vocation to love.

It is not merely a question of presenting arguments, but of appealing to an integrated, consistent and uplifting vision of human sexuality. The richness of this vision is more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters; these in fact constitute a powerful and destructive form of counter-catechesis for the young.

Young people need to encounter the Church’s teaching in its integrity, challenging and counter-cultural as that teaching may be. More importantly, they need to see it embodied by faithful married couples who bear convincing witness to its truth. They also need to be supported as they struggle to make wise choices at a difficult and confusing time in their lives.

Chastity, as the Catechism reminds us, involves an ongoing "apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom" (2339). In a society which increasingly tends to misunderstand and even ridicule this essential dimension of Christian teaching, young people need to be reassured that "if we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing, of what makes life free, beautiful and great" (Homily, Inaugural Mass of the Pontificate, 24 April 2005).

Let me conclude by recalling that all our efforts in this area are ultimately concerned with the good of children, who have a fundamental right to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships.

Children are the greatest treasure and the future of every society: truly caring for them means recognizing our responsibility to teach, defend and live the moral virtues which are the key to human fulfillment.

It is my hope that the Church in the United States, however chastened by the events of the past decade, will persevere in its historic mission of educating the young and thus contribute to the consolidation of that sound family life which is the surest guarantee of inter-generational solidarity and the health of society as a whole.

I now commend you and your brother Bishops, with the flock entrusted to your pastoral care, to the loving intercession of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. To all of you I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, strength and peace in the Lord.

---

The Holy Father has obviously made the decision to use his addresses to the US bishops complying with their ad-limina visits this year for a series of specifically aimed pastoral talks concerning the outstanding issues encountered by the Church in the West today, especially in the USA. To the group of bishops from Washington DC and the area around it, whom he met in early February, he spoke on the issue of religious freedom and the freedom of conscience in what turned out to be a prophetic message applicable to the Obama administration's healthcare mandate that runs roughshod all over the idea of freedom of conscience for people of faith.

Today's address comes on the heels of a few more states legislating same-sex 'marriage', including New Jersey, whose Catholic governor says he will veto the new law, and Maryland (cradle of American Catholicism), whose Catholic governor was the leading advocate for the law! (In the same way as the Catholic governor of New York, who also happens to live in cohabitation with a woman not his wife, spearheaded his state's drive to legalize same-sex marriage last year.)

BTW, the Pope's address today has a great companion piece int he pastoral letter of the bishops of England and Wales against same-sex marriage (posted on this thread yesterday) which also lays out the Catholic teaching on marriage between a man and a woman, which will be read from all Catholic pulpits in their jurisdictions this Sunday.

Perhaps no other country has so many prominent Catholics openly advocating practices that violate Catholic teaching, including in this case, the Vice President of the United States, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Obama's chief enforcer of healthcare, cabinet secretary Kathleen Sebelius (who as governor of Kansas had been a strong supporter of the late Dr. Tiller, who was America's leading practitioner of the so-called 'partial birth abortion', one of the most gruesome and diabolical medical procedures ever devised by modern man).

That's a dismal and unworthy picture, and I am somewhat comforted only by the thought that at the last March for Life, about three dozen Catholic congressmen, led by the present Speaker of the House John Boehner, spoke up in defense of life at all stages.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/03/2012 03:14]

Pope Benedict to confessors:
Each confession promotes
re-evangelization and conversion


Vatican City, Mar 9, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News)- Confession and true conversion of people’s hearts constitute the “motor” of all reform and an authentic “force for evangelization,” Pope Benedict XVI told a gathering of priests and deacons March 9.



The Pope reflected on confession in an address to 1,300 participants in the Apostolic Penitentiary’s annual course on the “internal forum,” a technical term for the area of personal conscience and judgment in the priest-penitent relationship.

He linked confession to the the New Evangelization, saying that the effort to spread the Gospel draws life from “the sanctity of the sons and daughters of the Church, from the daily process of individual and community conversion, conforming itself ever more profoundly to Christ.”

“Thus each confession, from which each Christian will emerge renewed, will represent a step forward for new evangelization.”

Priests are also able to become collaborators in the New Evangelization by hearing confessions, the Pope said. They have as many possible “new beginnings” as sinners they encounter, he noted, because those who truly experience the mercy of Christ in confession will become “credible witnesses of sanctity.”

Pope Benedict also reflected on what happens spiritually during the sacrament of confession. The repentant sinner is “justified, forgiven and sanctified,” thanks to the divine mercy, which is the “only adequate response” to humankind’s need for the infinite, he said.

The forgiveness of sins has a direct impact on efforts to spread the Gospel, he explained, pointing out that only those “who allow themselves to be profoundly renewed by divine grace can internalize and therefore announce the novelty of the Gospel.”

The Pope also had some words for priests who hear confessions. He stressed the importance of spiritual and canonical preparation, and reminded them that priests must be the first to renew an awareness of themselves as sinners who need sacramental forgiveness to renew their encounter with Christ.

He finished his talk by urging his fellow priests to always make “novelty of Christ” the focus of their priestly lives so that others will see Christ in them.

In Mexico and Cuba, papal trip
to highlight local and regional issues
By Francis X. Rocca


VATICAN CITY, March 9 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict's trip to Mexico and Cuba March 23-28 will be a relatively brief one, consisting of a little more than two days in each country. Yet his visit is bound to highlight a wide range of prominent issues affecting an entire continent of crucial importance to the Catholic Church.

The Pope arrives in Leon, in central Mexico, late afternoon local time, on March 23. His first full day's schedule will be light, no doubt reflecting concerns for the health of the Pope, who turns 85 April 16. Pope Benedict's flight will have taken him across eight time zones, to a city 6,000 feet above sea level (compared to only 70 in Rome). [In fact, there is more than 24 hours between the Pope's arrival in Leon and his first official event the next day.]

On the evening of March 24, the Pope will meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who has served as head of state since December 2006. His administration has been marked by a violent struggle between the military and the country's drug cartels, a topic that will presumably arise in discussions between the two men.

The next day, Pope Benedict will address bishops from Mexico and across Latin America at a vespers service in Leon's Cathedral of Our Most Holy Mother of Light. Here he is likely to touch on some of the issues that he raised on his only other Latin American trip, in 2007, when he spoke to the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, Brazil.

At that time, the Pope urged church leaders to struggle against poverty and oppression but to shun direct involvement in partisan politics -- an echo of his long-standing critique of the liberation theology movement, which grew from Latin American roots.

Pope Benedict also warned then against the danger of syncretism, or the blending of religions, by those who adopt elements of indigenous traditions in their Catholic devotions -- a practice that the Pope also denounced on his trip in November to the West African country of Benin.

The context and timing of this year's speech will likely affect the content of Pope Benedict's message to the Latin American bishops.

Mexico is historically a highly polarized country on religious questions. The country's 1910 revolution was heavily anticlerical, and the 1917 constitution forbade religious education and even the public display of clerical garb. Such measures sparked the Cristero Rebellion in the late 1920s, when conflict between Catholic rebels and government forces left as many as 90,000 dead.

The country remains a mix of highly assertive secular and religious traditions, making it potentially fertile ground for the new evangelization that Pope Benedict has made a priority of his pontificate, and which will be the theme of a Vatican synod of bishops this October.

Cuba, where the pope goes March 26, is in a sense the mirror image of Mexico. It's a country where the Catholic Church has enjoyed relatively tranquil dealings with the civil authorities; diplomatic relations with the Holy See have never been interrupted, even by the institution of a communist government in the 1960s; but religious practice has traditionally been as feeble as anywhere in Latin America.

Church officials estimate that only about 2.5 percent of Cuba's population of 11 million can be considered practicing Catholics today, a fraction of the proportion prior to the revolution, though it represents a significant rise since the visit of Pope John Paul in 1998.

The Church in Cuba continues to operate under severe restrictions, unable to build new churches or legally operate schools. However, the role of Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana and other Cuban bishops in successfully negotiating for the release of more than 100 political prisoners in 2010 reflects the government's growing respect for church authority.

Pope Benedict will no doubt raise issues of religious and political freedom with President Raul Castro when they meet on March 27. The Pope is also widely expected to meet with the President's brother, former President Fidel Castro, although no such encounter yet appears on his official schedule.

The main reason for Pope Benedict's trip is a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the country's patron saint, in the southeastern city of Santiago. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the miraculous appearance of the statue venerated at the basilica there. [It was not an 'appearance'. Fishermen found the statue floating in the bay.]




Congregation for saints approves
'heroic virtues' of 18th-century Cuban priest


Vatican City, Mar 8, 2012 (CNA) - The Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has approved a decree on the heroic virtues of Cuban priest Father Felix Varela, moving him one step closer to being declared “venerable.”

“The vote of the commission of cardinals and bishops was positive, and that means that now the prefect of the congregation of saints has to go to the Pope for his authorization to proclaim the decree on heroic virtues,” explained Brother Rodolfo Meoli, the postulator of the cause for Fr. Felix's beatification.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, who heads the congregation, presided over the plenary meeting and vote which took place in Rome on March 6.

In an interview with CNA on March 7, Br. Meoli said it is uncertain when Pope Benedict will approve the decree, but many think it will take place during the pontiff's March 25-28 trip to Cuba.

“I am thinking of calling Cardinal Amato to meet soon and find out if he plans to present the documentation before the Pope’s visit to Cuba,” he said.

“Generally, when the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints presents a decree to the Pope, he usually presents other decrees as well, and this can cause a delay.”

Br. Meoli said that as soon as the announcement about Fr. Varela’s heroic virtues was made, he called Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana.

He also called Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estevez of St. Augustine in Florida, where Fr. Varela died, and Bishop Anthony DiMarzio of Brooklyn – vice postulator of the cause – where the Cuban priest lived for many years.

“I am very happy,” Br. Meoli said. “Everyone responded with great enthusiasm hoping that the Pope will proclaim Felix Varela venerable when he goes to Havana.”

Felix Varela Morales was born in Havana on November 20, 1788. He was orphaned at a young age and was raised by his grandparents. At the age of 23, he was ordained a priest and devoted himself to teaching.

In 1821 he was elected to represent of the Spanish colony of Cuba before the government of Madrid. He left for Spain that year, never imagining that he would never again return to Cuba.

Fr. Varela made three proposals to the Spanish crown that would lead to his exile. He called for the abolition of slavery, for Cuban independence and for self-rule for the colonies in the Caribbean.

With the outbreak of Absolutism in Spain in 1823, Varela fled Madrid and was denied entry into Cuba. He was forced to settle in New York, where he worked as a pastor and eventually as vicar general. He continued speaking out and writing for the defense of human rights and freedom for Cuba.

His poor health forced him to move to St. Augustine, Florida, where he spent the last four years of his life. He died on February 25, 1853.

Br. Meoli emphasized that the priest's dedication to politics “should be understood within the context of his vocation to the service of God and to his homeland.”

He also observed that Fr. Varela could serve as an important figure of unity between Cuba and the United States, which are locked in an ideological conflict.

“From the spiritual point of view, he is on both sides,” he said. While he was in Cuba, Fr. Varela worked as a philosopher, educator and writer. While in New York, “he worked to defend Catholicism from the Protestant majority.”

Fr. Varela additionally played a key role in teaching the faith to immigrants. “He kept them in the faith. He founded churches, orphanages and schools, and he was devoted to ministry for the poor, the uneducated and the marginalized,” Br. Meoli said.

The strong pastoral statement opposing same-sex marriage by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales which will be read this Sunday from all Catholic pulpits in the area is a stark contrast to the liberal position taken by the Archbishop of Westminster (London) who has allowed and defended Masses expressly for homosexuals i a Soho church for the past five years. The following article describes the open 'celebration' by the church and its gay congregation of homosexual activity and same-sex partnerships.

Archbishop NIchols defends
five years of Soho 'gay Masses'
but may review open flaunting
of homosexual activity by partners
by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent


LONDON, March 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a statement released late last month the Catholic archbishop of Westminster “reaffirmed” the “intention and purpose” of the 2007 Pastoral Provision for ministry to homosexuals while suggesting that the way it is being carried out may be under review.

The Provision established the notorious “gay” Masses, held at a parish in the Soho district of London that have drawn heavy criticism for the past five years.


'Soho Masses' has a discreet website www.sohomasses.com/home and a very understated logo. It contains the text of the original statement that 'instituted' the gay Masses.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols wrote in the statement that the foundations of the Pastoral Provision are “the moral principles concerning chastity and the Church’s teaching on sexual activity, and the pastoral care of Catholics who are of same-sex orientation.”

However, while expressing support for the idea behind the Masses, he said that currently “consideration is being given to the circumstances in which these Masses are celebrated to ensure that their purpose is respected and that they are not occasions for confusion or opposition concerning the positive teaching of the Church on the meaning of human sexuality or the moral imperatives that flow from that teaching, which we uphold and towards which we all strive.”

The statement has received a mixed reception among Catholics who have campaigned against the Masses. Critics have complained repeatedly to the archdiocese and have sent written and photographic evidence to Vatican officials that Catholic teaching on sexuality is ignored or openly contradicted at the Masses. Participants at the Masses, they say, make no secret of their lack of interest in giving up homosexual activity.

Daphne McLeod of the campaign group Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice told LifeSiteNews.com that the scandal of the Soho Masses is the worst-kept secret in the British Church, and participants at the Masses, “don’t even pretend to be chaste.”

She said members of her group regularly attend the Masses and have spoken with participants who say that they have never heard from the pulpit that they should not indulge in homosexual activity.

The criticism has stung Catholic leadership in England, and publicly, both Nichols and his predecessor Cormac Cardinal Murphy O’Connor have insisted that the Masses are aimed to welcome those who struggle with same-sex attraction and intend to live chaste lives according to the teaching of the Church.

In a BBC interview in 2010, Bernard Longley, a former auxiliary of Westminster, and now archbishop of Birmingham called the objectors “judgmental” and Archbishop Nichols said that they should “hold their tongues”.

But McLeod defended her group’s position, saying, “We are just reacting to the facts we’ve been given” by regular participants at the Masses. “They walk up to communion hand in hand. They never hear from the pulpit they shouldn’t do it. They have talked to us and said, ‘We don’t know it’s wrong, the priest never tells us’.”

“We’re not being judgmental,” she added. “They tell us quite openly what they’re doing.”

Some prominent British Catholic bloggers and commentators have praised the statement, calling it “good news.” Joanna Bogle, an author and well-known Catholic personality wrote on her popular blog that the statement indicates that Archbishop Nichols may be coming around.

“A new approach seems to have been signaled about something in London which has been all wrong for too long,” she said. “Things look set to change… This is good news and what happens next needs our prayers.”

Deacon Nick Donnelly, who runs the “Protect the Pope” blog, also welcomed the statement, calling it “good news” and saying that it “signifies an important shift in [Nichols’] position on the Soho Masses.”

“Before the Holy Father’s visit the archbishop expressed, in intemperate language that those Catholics concerned about public dissent at the Soho Masses should ‘hold their tongues’. Now 18 months later, Archbishop Nichols has admitted the concern that the Soho Masses could be occasions for confusion and opposition to the Church’s teaching and needs investigating. This is exactly the claim made by Daphne McLeod and Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice,” Donnelly wrote.

But McLeod said that so far there is no concrete indication in the statement of any plans to change the current situation.

The organizers of the Soho Masses, who are open about their goals to change Catholic teaching and accept homosexual behaviour as normal, have also warmly welcomed Nichols’ statement.

Quoting New Testament passages on “speaking the truth in love,” Terrence Weldon, a member of the Soho Mass Pastoral Council, wrote in a piece for the liberal Catholic magazine The Tablet, “These verses epitomise the importance of the Soho Masses. For this reason I am glad that the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has this week reaffirmed his support for the Masses and also comfortable with his reminding that they must not oppose or confuse church teaching.”

“Gay men and lesbians know the benefits to mental health of living the truth, by coming out honestly in the truth of their lives. The closet is a lie. We need to be honest, and that includes honesty in Church,” Weldon wrote.

He denied that the Mass is used as an occasion for “sexual hook-ups,” but admitted that “the question of celibacy is not directly discussed or even raised.” There is only, “a tacit understanding of the Church’s teaching, including its teaching on conscience.”

On the comments section of the article, Martin Pendergast, a former priest currently living in a civil partnership with another man also commented, “Those of us who have been long-committed members of the Church, and are involved in other parishes, find our participation in the Soho Masses community a source of nourishment for our other commitments.”

Pendergast is another member of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council and is a well-known figure in the homosexualist activist community whose “partner” is the former head of the Catholic bishops’ charitable organisation CAFOD. Pendergast is a founding member of the “Cutting Edge Consortium,” a political lobby group that opposes opt-outs from Equality legislation that would allow churches to refuse to ordain or hire active homosexuals.

Despite her group’s misgivings, McLeod told LSN that some of the wording in the statement is clearly intended to be conciliatory. She said that although it has seemed their efforts have been fruitless, the statement’s language possibly indicates that Nichols is under some pressure from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to clean up the scandal.

“We all wondered about it,” she said, “and we can only think that he’s under pressure from Rome. This makes us very hopeful.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of the Anglican Church, will celebrate Vespers with Pope Benedict XVI today at the church of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome. He comes at a time when he , alone among the leaders of the Christian churches in the United Kingdom, has failed to express opposition to the Cameron government's intention to legalize same-sex marriage...

At least half of Anglicans unhappy about
Williams's failure to oppose government
proposal to legalize same-sex marriage
by Paolo Rodari
Translated from

March 9, 2012

There's much more to the visit to Rome this weekend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, than firming up the already good, if not excellent, relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.

It's more than just the Vespers that he will celebrate with Pope Benedict XVI Saturday afternoon at the church-monastery of San Gregorio al Celio, the Roman seat of the Camaldoli Benedictines, who celebrate this year the 100th anniversary of the founding of the hermitage in Camaldoli where the community originated.

It's more than just the lecture that Abp. Williams is to give on "Monastic virtues and ecumenical hopes".

It is the great divide between Benedict XVI and Williams - and now, between Williams and half of his Anglican faithful - over the issue of legalizing gay marriage.

The Catholic hierarchy in the United Kingdom has taken a united stand against the intention of Prime Minister David Cameron to legislate same-sex marriage.

Williams is coming to Rome as a friend, but obviously, the issue will be brought up in his meeting with the Pope before or after their joint liturgy.

Williams has been under fire by the more conservative wing of the Anglican Church for failing to openly denounce the gay 'marriage' initiative of the government.

Many Anglican traditionalists have said they may even join other Anglicans who have been returning to the Catholic Church under Benedict XVI's Anglicanorum coetibus. As many as half of Anglicans are said to be very unhappy about Williams's tepidity on the issue of gay marriage.

What makes Williams's failure more aggravating is that his predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Hugh Carey, has been gathering signatures in support of the ecumenical movement Coalition for Marriage which is pr4esneting a petition for the government to maintain the legal definition of marriage as "the voluntary union for life of a man and a woman" and excluding all other partnerships from the definition.




However, for those Anglicans who can be influenced by 'public opinion', there is the Times of London. for instance, which supports the Cameron initiative: "Reforming the law to allow marriage between same-sex couples would enrich a historical institution".


The problem with Archbishop Williams seems to be that he has allowed his considerable intellectual faculties to dominate his capacity to make unequivocal moral choices. he has thus equivocated about women priests and gay bishops, and now about same-sex marriage. Perhaps he needs to invoke the Holy Spirit more.

Here's a response to a story that broke the other day that illustrates yet another one of the US State Department 'lists' usually containing strange entries that leave you wondering what criteria the funny folk at Foggy Bottom use for making their choices...

Fr. Lombardi reacts to US State Department
listing of Vatican on money-laundering watch
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, March 9 (AP) — The Vatican on Friday sought to explain its presence for the first time on a U.S. list of countries that are a potential hub for money laundering, saying it was only natural to be included given its recent efforts to conform to international standards.

The U.S. State Department this week released its International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which identified the Holy See as one of 68 countries or jurisdictions "of concern" for money laundering or other financial crimes.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi noted Friday that all the world's major economies — the U.S., Japan and even Italy — are identified as countries of "primary concern" for money laundering. That more serious designation is because of the sheer size of their economies.

Lombardi said it wasn't surprising that the Vatican was placed on the list of jurisdictions "of concern" since it joined a European evaluation process in 2011 to try to conform to international anti-money laundering standards.

In early July, the Vatican is expected to learn whether it has complied with a host of recommendations to fight terror financing and money laundering.

The State Department report didn't explain why the Holy See was included, noting only that it was on the list for the first time. South Sudan, which declared its independence in 2011, was also included for the first time in another category of countries being monitored.

The Vatican passed legislation in 2010 making money laundering a crime and fine-tuned the law earlier this year. It also ratified three major U.N. conventions.

The moves are all part of the Holy See's efforts to get on the "white list" of countries that share financial information and shed its long-held reputation as a secretive offshore tax haven whose bank has been embroiled in scandals over the years. [Winfield continues to use terms like 'offshore' and 'bank' to refer presumably to the Vatican financial institution IOR despite clarifications - made for the first time in recent memory, I believe - of the exact nature and status of IOR made by Fr. Lombardi recently. ]

Other than the Holy Father's address to the US bishops yesterday, and the pastoral letter this weekend of the bishops of England and Wales opposing same-sex 'marriage', a third event this week underscores how this modern obsession has become an emblematic sign of our times. At the United Nations, the Vatican continues to oppose efforts to redefine marriage in the guise of protecting the rights of special groups who do not accept the categories of 'male' and 'female' as God created human beings.

Vatican opposes UN attempts and language
seeking 'gender rights' for special groups
that may lead to redefining marriage

March 9, 2012

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, addressed the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council on Friday in the General Debate and Panel Discussion on “Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence against Individuals based on their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.”

Here is the text of the address, delivered in English:

---

Mr. Chairman,

1. The Holy See Delegation has noted with careful attention the Report on “Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence against Individuals based on their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”.

The Holy See has condemned repeatedly violence against people because of their perceived sexual differences. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in fact, states: “Every sign of unjust discrimination in regard [of homosexual persons] should be avoided.”

The teaching of the Catholic Church on this issue was authoritatively set forth in a 1986 letter to all the Catholic bishops throughout the world, as follows: “It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action, and in law.”

2. Sections III and IV of the Report cite numerous and lamentable examples of ways in which the dignity and human rights of persons have been transgressed because of their perceived sexual differences. These represent tragic incidents of how some human beings are treated by other members of the human family in a most inhumane manner.

Most regrettably, examples of such unacceptable treatment, on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, can be listed in similar fashion.

All such behavior, whether fomented between individuals, by social and cultural groups, or by the State itself, should be proscribed and sanctioned since it is not in conformity with the principle of universality enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

3. In this specific regard, the Report refers to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action that states: “While the significance of national and regional peculiarities and various historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Mr. Chairman, it is the firm view of the Holy See that the grave problems of discrimination and violence toward the population upon which the Report focuses, or toward any other victimized groups or individuals, must be pursued on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity.

Thus these problems should receive attention and effective action at the level of national and local governments, civil society, religious and cultural leaders. Such situations cannot be resolved by defining new categories, laws or policies that posit rights and privileges to special groups in society.

4. In Section II of her Report, entitled “Applicable international standards and obligations”, the Report advances compelling arguments, based in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to affirm the need for protection of the “right to life, liberty and security of persons…”

It further argues, on the basis of the Human Rights Committee general comment No. 6, that “The State has an obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent, punish and redress deprivations of life, and to investigate and prosecute all acts of targeted violence.”

My Delegation, however, finds both confusing and misleading the High Commissioner’s decision to further develop her argumentation with an exclusive focus on those persons subjected to discrimination and violence on the basis of their perceived sexual differences.

The rights cited by the High Commissioner are rights that should and must be universally respected and enjoyed; thus efforts to particularize or to develop special rights for special groups of people could easily put at risk the universality of these rights.

5. Moreover, the Holy See Delegation wishes to raise serious concern with the insertion of terms such as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” which do not enjoy mention in binding documents of the United Nations and which are ambiguous in nature since they lack specific definition in international Human Rights instruments.

In fact, my Delegation believes that the use of the term “gender identity” was settled, in 1998, during the discussion leading up to the promulgation of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, which states, “For purposes of this Statute, it is understood that the term ‘gender’ refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The term ‘gender’ does not indicate any meaning different from the above.”

Thus the Holy See notes that the categories ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ “find no recognition or clear and agreed definition in international law.”

Any requirement for States to take such terms into account in their efforts to promote and implement fundamental human rights could result in serious uncertainty in the application of law and undermine the ability of States to enter into and enforce new and existing human rights conventions and standards.

6. In paragraph #68 of her Report, the High Commissioner rightly asserts that “the Human Rights Committee has held that States are not required, under international law, to allow same-sex couples to marry.”

She immediately proposes, however, that Sates have an obligation to “ensure that unmarried same-sex couples are treated in the same way and entitled to the same benefits as unmarried opposite –sex couples.”

In this regard, the Holy See expresses grave concern that, under the guise of “protecting” people from discrimination and violence on the basis of perceived sexual differences, this Council may be running the risk of demeaning the sacred and time-honoured legal institution of marriage between man and woman, between husband and wife, which enjoyed special protection from time immemorial within legal, cultural, and religious traditions and within the modern human rights instruments, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and extending to numerous other covenants, treaties, and laws.

Marriage contributes to society because it models the way in which women and men live interdependently and commit, for the whole of life, to seek the good of each other.

The marital union also provides the best conditions for raising children; namely, the stable, loving relationship of a mother and a father; it is the foundation of the natural family, the basic cell of society. States confer legal recognition on the marital relationship between husband and wife because it makes a unique and essential contribution to the public good.

If marriage were to be re-defined in a way that makes other relationships equivalent to it, as has occurred in some countries and as the High Commissioner seems to be encouraging in her Report, the institution of marriage, and consequently the natural family itself, will be both devalued and weakened.

7. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the Holy See Delegation condemns discrimination and violence against any human person, including those who are so targeted because of perceived sexual differences. We urge this Council, however, to preserve and maintain the universality of human rights and to fulfill its mandate to promote and monitor respect for the dignity of each and every human person.

We raise serious concern with attempts to define new categories, introduce new terms, or posit new rights, for special groups of people, within human rights law and instruments that already enjoy universal consensus.

Such attempts pose a threat both to the universality of human rights, to national sovereignty, and to the social, cultural, and religious institutions that are working to promote and attain the common good of all members of the human family.

---

Saturday, March 10, Second Week of Lent

Extreme right, Don Bosco's biography of the young Domenico.
ST. DOMENICO [Dominic] SAVIO (Italy, 1842-1857), Confessor, Patron of Choirboys
One of the youngest saints who was not a martyr, the sickly boy with pleurisy became a student of John
Bosco at his Oratory in Turin when he was 12, after a childhood already remarkable for his intense prayer
life, having learned to serve Mass at age 5. He often became lost to the world in prayer and afterwards
would describe visions, including one about a papal reconversion of England to Catholicism [antedating
Anglicanorum coetibus by 150 years!]. Don Bosco tempered the boy's zeal by teaching him 'the heroism
of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense'. As his disease worsened and the end appeared near,
he was sent home to his family. His dying words were: "Oh, what wonderful things I see!" He died a month
short of his 15th birthday. Shortly after his death, Don Bosco wrote The Life of Dominic Savio, a book
so well-written that along with Don Bosco's History of Italy, it was used in many public schools as part
of course materials on the Italian language, and provided the basis for Domenico's eventual canonization.
Pius X promoted his cause. He was proclaimed Venerable in 1933 under Pius XI, and he was beatified and
canonized under Pius XII in 1950 and 1954, respectively.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/031012.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- 13 US bishops from Iowa and Kansas on ad-limina visit

- Frère Alois, Prior of Taizé

- His Grace Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Anglican Communion, and his delegation.

Before the meetings, the Holy Father was presented the new edition of the Annuario Pontificio updated
with 2011 data and statistics about the Catholic Church in its 2,966 ecclesiastical areas around the globe.
Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and his deputy for General Affairs, Mons. Giovanni Angelo Becciu,
made the presentation.

In the afternoon, the Holy Father was to preside at Vespers, joined by Mons. Williams, at the Roman church
of San Gregorio Magno in Celio (on the Caelian hill).


One year ago today...

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, formally presented Volume 2 of Joseph Ratzinger/
Benedict XVI's JESUS OF NAZARETH. The book release had been preceded by two weeks of worldwide commentary on pre-
pblication excerpts of the book, notably the part in which the Holy Father reiterates Catholic teaching since
the Catechism published after the 16th-century Council of Trent that Jews should not be blamed for the execution
of Jesus - a teaching reiterated in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church but otherwise widely
unknown even to most Catholics. In less than a year, the book has sold 2.5 million copies in 12 languages.

Pope Benedict XVI receives
2012 Catholic yearbooks:
Catholic population grew by
150 million to 1.196 billion
from 2009 to 2010

March 10, 2012


Presentation of the yearbooks last year (2/22/11).

Pope Benedict XVI was presented today with the 2012 edition of the Annuario Pontificio and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, yearbooks which compile annual developments in the Catholic Church.

The presentation was made by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and his deputy for General Affairs, Mons. Giovanni Angelo Becciu.

They were accompanied by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, director of the Central Office of Church Statistics, along with Professor Enrico Nenna and other collaborators.

The editions give a snapshot of the Church in 2011, citing statistics from 2010. For example, in the last year, the Pope erected eight Episcopal Sees, one Personal Ordinariate, and one Military Ordinariate.

It shows just under 1.196 billion Catholics in the world, compared to 1.181 billion in 2009. The Catholic proportion of the world population has stayed fairly stable, at 17.5%.

From 2009 to 2010, the number of bishops in the world increased from 5,065 to 5,104.

The growth trend in the number of priests, which began in 2000, continued in 2010. There are now 412,236 priests (277,009 diocesan, 135,227 religious), an increase of 1,643.

The number of permanent deacons increased from 38,155 to 39,564, with over 97% of them in North America and Europe.

Globally, the number of professed religious from 2009 to 2010 rose from 729,371 to 721,935.

The number of students of philosophy and theology in diocesan and religious seminaries has steadily increased (4%) over the last five years. There were 114,439 seminarians in 2005 and 118,990 in 2010.

Other key statistics are given in the Vatican bulletin today, but they have to be translated.

Pope and Anglican Primate discuss
human rights, evangelization and Middle East



Pope Benedict met Saturday morning with the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, at the start of his 3-day visit to Italy.

According to the Anglican leader, the discussions focused on "a shared sense of deep anxiety" about the situation of Christians in the Middle East and a look ahead at the theological reflections that Dr Williams will be offering the Synod of Bishops next October.

They also talked "quite animatedly" about a recent lecture the Archbishop gave in Geneva on how to connect Christian theology with human rights.



After the audience Philippa Hitchen sat down with the Anglican leader to talk about their meeting, about current concerns in the Church of England, including the Anglican covenant, legislation on women bishops and the forthcoming diamond jubilee of Queen Elisabeth, as well as about the concept of monastic values as a key to ecumenical progress.

Asked about Saturday afternoon's celebration of Vespers with the Pope in the church of San Greglorio al Celio, Dr Williams says "The fact that 3 successive archbishops have been to San Gregorio is an acknowledgement of historical fact, that the mission to England began here and it's good to touch the soil on which you are nurtured, to honour the memory of St Gregory and St Augustine of Canterbury...and by going back to our common roots to affirm a communion that is still in us......."

"A monastic community is a community assembled around the word of God, that identifies together with the prayer of Christ...that says something about the deepest roots of ecumenism ...but also about mission and I'll be speaking on Monday in Montecassino more specifically about the mission dimension of monastic life...."


Convert priest thrilled to host
Pope Benedict and Anglican primate
By David Kerr


Rome, Italy, Mar 9, 2012, (CNA/EWTN News) - Catholic convert Father Peter Hughes prefers to describe himself as “an Anglican who is now in full communion with Peter.”

“In a personal sense I have made this journey, and it has been both a fascinating and a demanding one,” said Fr. Hughes, the prior of San Gregorio al Celio monastery in Rome, in an interview with CNA.

Fr. Hughes was received into the Catholic Church in 2000, after many years as an Anglican vicar in his native Australia and in England.

This weekend he will experience his life come full circle as he hosts both Pope Benedict XVI and the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The two religious leaders will pray Vespers together to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the monastic Camaldolese Order, which has overseen San Gregorio since the mid 1500s.

“The thought of living one’s own ecclesial tradition in a different context and celebrating what is rich in both …is reflected in this whole celebration,” said Fr. Hughes.

He believes this weekend’s events signify the “deepest desire” of the Pope and the Anglican leader “to move towards a communion which symbolically, structurally, sacramentally, institutionally can finally reach its consummation.”

The venue of San Gregorio monastery comes with added significance for English Christians. In the late 6th century Pope Gregory the Great dispatched St. Augustine from the monastery to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, thus making them “not Angles, but Angels.” St. Gregory actually built the monastery on the site of his family home.

“This is the third time that a Pope has met with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the house of Gregory the Great,” Fr. Hughes explained. "So, this connection with the English, this connection with Canterbury is fundamental to the celebration.”

In recent years, the search for unity has been made more difficult as many Anglican churches have liberalized their stance on moral issues, such as homosexuality.

An internal report published last year also suggested that the rate of decline among Anglican congregations is so severe that the Church of England could be “functionally extant” or effectively dead in 20 years. But Fr. Hughes is still hopeful for Christian unity.

“We’re always searching for expressions of God’s will. I think the desire for unity is as strong as ever. I think we need to look for ways in which we can stimulate our progress,” he said.

“This weekend is a way of saying, ‘this is another step on the way,’ another way of lifting our spirits and saying this is still something to hope for and this is still something to work for concretely.”


ARRIVING AT SAN GREGORIO AL CELIO:
The Pope climbed the stairs!


A monumental flight of stairs leads up to the front entrance of the church.

Shortly after this Vespers event with the Pope and Abp. Williams was announced last week, Italian media took pains to report that Pope Benedict XVI would enter the church of San Gregorio al Celio through the monastery entrance at the back so he would not have to climb the front steps. That's not what happened today! The Holy Father never does anything out of sheer bravado - he knows what he can do, and what he can't. Obviously, contrary to the media-on-morbidity-watch, he felt able to do this - under closest scrutiny...

I watched the Vespers on EWTN earlier today, but three hours later,there is still no report anywhere on the event. Meanwhile, I've put together some background material from earlier Vatican Radio reports and previous Forum material on St. Gregory the Great and St. Romuald.

FIRST VESPERS
OF THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
Eve of the death anniversary
of St. Gregory the Great
on the 100th anniversary
of the Camaldolesi Benedictines


Libretto cover: Illustration from the Lambeth Bible, 12th-century, Lmmbeth Palace Library. Top panel shows Abraham receiving the three 'guests, with his wife Sarah who would shortly conceive Isaac in her old age. Bottom panel: Main illustration is Jacob's ladder in Joseph's dream about his father, while one section shows the angel stopping Abraham when he was about to sacrifice Isaac.

Pope Benedict XVI presided at First Vespers today in the Church of San Gregorio Magno al Celio, with the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mons. Rowan Williams, who delivered a brief homily before the Holy Father's own homily.

This is the third time that an Anglican Primate has attended Vespers at San Gregorio with a Pope. John Paul II celebrated Vespers here in 1989 with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, and in 1996, with Rowan's predecessor, Mons. George Carey.

The occasion this year is the celebration by the Camaldolese monastery at San Gregorio in Celio of the 1000th anniversary of their founding by St. Romuald in 1012. [Benedict XVI will mark the anniversary in May this year when he makes a pstoral visit to Arezzo, near where the original Camaldoli monastery is.]

The monastery located on the Caelian hill has had strong ties with Canterbury and the Anglican Communion since the Second Vatican Council decreed ecumenism as a pastoral mission of the Church.

It was from this church that Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize England at the end of the sixth century.

The site also has another lesser known landmark: the tomb of Sir Edward Carne, who was sent to Rome twice between 1529 and 1533 by King Henry VIII in an effort to obtain papal approval for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Attached to the monastery and rising on top of an elegant flight of steps, there now stands the Roman Church of San Gregorio Magno, dedicated to Gregory the Great by a later Pope, Gregory II.

The entire complex grew out of chapels and oratories that Gregory, who was a Benedictine monk, build next to his residence on the Caelian hill before he became Pope. The present church is a baroque structure which houses a chapel in what was believed to have been the cell occupied by St. Gregory.

Today with the exception of the cosmatesque pavement and some ancient columns, the Church is an example of baroque splendour.

The Camaldoli monastic community, near the Tuscan hill town of Arezzo, is a place of outstanding natural beauty - Immersed in a lush forest around the foothills of the Apennines. Here, the 11th-century Benedictine monk St. Romuald of Ravenna founded the community, drawing deeply on the ancient monastic traditions of both East and West.

Uniting the solitary life of the hermit and the community dimension of a shared faith, the Camaldoli community has increasingly developed this vision into that of encounter between peoples of different faith traditions. Over recent decades this had led to its recognition as an important centre for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

Since the mid-16th century, the Camaldoli community has had an important presence in Rome in the monastery of St Gregory on the Caelian hill.



ST. POPE GREGORY THE GREAT (Italy, ca 540-624)
Civilian Prefect of Rome, Monk and Abbot, Papal Deacon and Envoy, Pope (590-604), Doctor of the Church

In 2008, Benedict XVI devoted two Wednesday catecheses to his great predecessor
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080528...
Gregory's parents Gordian and Sylvia, Roman patricians of the Anicia clan and devout Christians, are both venerated as saints. A great-great-grand-uncle was Pope Felix III (483-492) and one of his immediate predecessors Agapetus (535-536) was also from his clan.

Gregory is generally considered to have established the medieval Papacy and propagated medieval spirituality as embodied in St. Benedict. He is well-known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as Pope [and probably not matched by any other Pope until Benedict XVI] but his most important works were written as Pope.

In The Rule for Pastors written at the start of his Pontificate, he described the ideal bishop as teacher and guide of his flock. In Book 2 of his Dialogs, he wrote about the 'Life and Miracles of St. Benedict of Nursia' who had died when Gregory was a child; the work became the primary historical source for Benedict's biography.

His homilies continue to be quoted today and some 860 of letters he wrote as Pope were conserved. Gregory started life in the footsteps of his father as a Roman administrator, becoming Prefect of Rome when he was 32.

After a few years, he left civilian life to become a monk, converting the family home into a monastery. After he was ordained, he was named one of the Pope's seven deacons for Rome, but in 679, Pelagius II named him his ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople, which by then was the capital of the Roman Empire.

He served there for six years, then chose to return to his monastery where he became abbot. But in 590, he was elected Pope by acclamation to succeed Pelagius. At the time, the papacy had little influence outside Italy.

Gregory sought from the start to reaffirm the primacy of Rome as his predecessor Leo the Great had done. He considered evangelization of Europe's pagan lands a priority, and in this context, he sent a mission to England led by the future St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Gregory also required all his bishops to engage in systematic assistance to the poor, an activity which was responsible for reestablishing the prestige and influence of the papacy in Italy against the distant imperial rule in Constantinople.

His papacy was also characterized by his tireless efforts at peacemaking with pagan monarchs. He revitalized the liturgy, introducing the use of prayers in the Canon of the Mass that vary according to the liturgical season.

The so-called Tridentine Mass of 1570, adopted after the Council of Trent, in effect, simply formalized the rubrics of the Mass as it had been celebrated since the time of Pope Gregory, and 'Gregorian rite' is still interchangeably used as a term for the Tridentine Mass.

Around 800, when a system of notation was devised for the plainsong used in liturgy, it came to be called Gregorian chant although he had died two centuries earlier.

As Benedict XVI has pointed out, "Gregory remained a simple monk at heart.. and wanted to be simply servus servorum Dei, servant of the servants of God". He coined the phrase, which has become one of the 'titles' for the Supreme Pontiff. It manifested "his way of living and acting, convinced that a bishop should, above all, imitate the humility of God and follow Christ in this way".

NB: The Feast of St. Gregory is observed on September 3, anniversary of his episcopal ordination. Before Vatican II, it was celebrated on March 11, anniversary of his death, a date which always falls in Lent. But since no Memorials may now be observed during Lent, the feast was moved to Sept. 3.



Second and third from right: St. Romualdo's Vision, by Guercino, 1641; and Guido Reni's Coronation of Mary, 1595, with St. Romualdo (extreme right) and St. Catherine of Alexandria flanking Saints John the Evangelist and John the Baptist; and second from right, St. Romuald by Fra Angelico, in a 1441 fresco in the Convent of St. Mark, Florence.
ST. ROMUALDO (Italy, ca 950-1027), Benedictine monk, Hermit, Abbot, Founder of the Camaldolesi Benedictines

St. Piero Damiani would write the biography of this saint a mere 15 years after his death. One of the many saints who spent their early privileged life of wealth in profligacy, Romualdo had a change of heart at age 20 when he saw his father kill someone in a duel.

He fled to a Benedictine monastery near Ravenna where he decided to become a monk. He left the abbey after three years because he did not think it was strict enough and became a hermit on an island.

He gained a reputation for holiness that persuaded the Duke of Venice to leave office and join Romuald in a hermitage near the Benedictine abbey of San Miguel de Cuxa in Catalonia (Spain). Romuald returned to Italy after seven years when he learned that his father had become a monk but was tormented with doubts, which his son managed to resolve.

Romuald also gained the frieddship of Emperor Otto III who asked him to revive an old monastery as abbot. However, Romuald's reforms were resisted and he went back to being a hermit. For the rest of his life, however, he travelled all over France and Italy, establishing about a hundred monasteries and hermitages to propagate his mission to restore the Benedictine order to the primitive Rule of St. Benedict.

In 1012, he founded the Congregation of Monk Hermits of Camaldoli, after he was given a property in Tuscany on which he could built an abbey. The Camaldolese have given the Church two popes (Pius VII and Gregory XVI), many saints and blesseds. St. Romuald's body was found to be incorrupt at the time he was canonized in 1582, more than five centuries after his death.


AP had a perfunctory account of the Vespers service, focusing on Anglicanorum coetibus and the MSM version that the Pope's openigng to disaffectded Anglicans wishing to return to Catholicism was an opportunistic act. MSM has generally ignored the fact that various groups of traditional Anglicans had begun requesting the CDF for a 'mechanism' that would facilitate conversion en masse when Cardinal Ratzinger was still head of the CDF.

Pope prays with Anglican
primate for Christian unity




ROME, March 10 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has presided over a ceremony in a Rome church with the Archbishop of Canterbury, saying he hopes their presence together will spur both Catholics and Anglicans to pray and work for unity.

Benedict led a vespers service Saturday evening at which both he and Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the world's Anglican Communion, gave homilies. The two held private talks at the Vatican earlier Saturday, but no details were released.

While the Pope has made Christian unity a theme of his papacy, he has also created tensions with Williams. In 2009, Benedict issued an unprecedented invitation to Anglicans to become Catholics in groups or as parishes, just as many traditional Anglicans were upset by their church's ordination of women and gay bishops.
[But no mention of Abp. Williams's well-publicized indecision and failure to take an unequivocal stand about the problem of women and gay bishops that has occasioned many Anglicans turning away form the Church of England.]

Here is Vatican Radio's delayed report on the event. Outside of Christmas Eve Mass the Easter Vigil, Vatican Radio never reports promptly on evening events with the Pope, Choosing to wait until the next day to do so, or even later if the next day happens to be Sunday. [Since RV has a 365/24/7 operation, it's hard to believe it does not have at least one staff writer on duty after 5 pm for late events. One of my first jobs was to write newscasts and fresh reports if necessary on the graveyard shift - 12 midnight to 8 a.m - of a newsradio station in Manila.]. The plus side for this RV report is that they include both the text of Abp. Williams's homily and an English translation of the Pope's homily which was delivered in Italian.

Pope Benedict and Anglican primate
celebrate Vespers to mark 1000 years
of the Camaldoli monastic community

March 11, 2012

Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams celebrated Vespers in the church of St Gregory on the Caelian hill on Saturday afternoon, as they gave thanks together the 1000th anniversary of the Camaldoli monastic community which is based there. Philippa Hitchen was at the celebration and tells us more about this ecumenical encounter.

“It is good to touch the soil on which you are nurtured”. Those words from Dr Rowan Williams explain why three successive archbishops of Canterbury have come to the Rome church of San Gregorio al Celio – to the very place from where Pope Gregory the Great sent out the future St. Augustine of Canterbuury and 40 of his monks to take the Christian gospel to Anglo-Saxon England at the end of the 6th century.
"
Today, for the third time", Pope Benedict said in his homily, "the Bishop of Rome is meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury in the home of St Gregory the Great. Today’s celebration is therefore marked by a profoundly ecumenical character, which as we know is part and parcel of the spirit of the Camaldoli community that has lived and worshipped in the church on the Caelian hill since the mid 16th century".

Noting the hospitality and openness of this community which has made it a place for fruitful dialogue throughout the centuries and now in different parts of the world, the Pope said "we hope that today’s celebration will act as a stimulus for all the faithful – Catholic and Anglican – encouraging them to renew their commitment and prayer for the unity that Jesus himself asked of His Father"

In his homily, Archbishop Williams spoke of the monastic vision of Gregory the Great, grounded in humility, which helped him see clearly the needs of the people of England and respond by sending St Augustine on his prophetic mission. The church today, he said, is called upon to show that same prophetic spirit, to see where true need is and to answer God’s call…

Speaking of the need for silence and patient discernment to combat a feverish advertising culture and an economic system centered on selfishness and greed, the Archbishop said we must learn to set aside our busy and self-serving agendas and allow the self-giving Christ to live in us, to open our eyes and to empower us for service.

Before leaving the church, the two leaders each lit a candle in the small chapel thought to have been Pope Gregory’s simple monastic cell – a tangible reminder of the need to continue bringing the light of the Gospel to today’s world, just as St Gregory sent Augustine to bring the Cross of Christ to Britain over 14 centuries ago.

Here is RV's English translation of the Pope's homily:

---

Your Grace,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Monks and Nuns of Camaldoli,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It gives me great joy to be here today in this Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio for Solemn Vespers on the liturgical commemoration of the death of Saint Gregory the Great.

With you, dear Brothers and Sisters of the Camaldolese family, I thank God for the thousand years that have passed since the foundation of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli by Saint Romuald.

I am delighted to be joined on this occasion by His Grace Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. To you, my dear Brother in Christ, and to each one of you, dear monks and nuns, and to everyone present, I extend cordial greetings.

We have listened to two passages from Saint Paul. The first, taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is particularly appropriate for the current liturgical season of Lent. It contains the Apostle’s exhortation to seize the favourable moment for receiving God’s grace.

The favourable moment is naturally when Jesus Christ came to reveal and to bestow upon us the love that God has for us, through his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection.

The “day of salvation” is the same reality that Saint Paul in another place describes as the “fullness of time”, the moment when God took flesh and entered time in a completely unique way, filling it with his grace. It is for us, then, to accept this gift, which is Jesus himself: his person, his word, his Holy Spirit.

Moreover, in the first reading, Saint Paul tells us about himself and his apostolate – how he strives to remain faithful to God in his ministry, so that it may be truly efficacious and may not prove instead a barrier to faith.

These words make us think of Saint Gregory the Great, of the radiant witness that he offered the people of Rome and the whole Church by a blameless ministry full of zeal for the Gospel. Truly, what Saint Paul wrote of himself applies equally to Gregory: the grace of God in him has not been fruitless (cf. 1 Cor 15:10).

This, indeed, is the secret for the lives of every one of us: to welcome God’s grace and to consent with all our heart and all our strength to its action. This is also the secret of true joy and profound peace.

The second reading was taken from the Letter to the Colossians. We heard those words – always so moving for their spiritual and pastoral inspiration – that the Apostle addressed to the members of that community in order to form them according to the Gospel, saying to them: “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17).

“Be perfect”, the Master said to his disciples; and now the Apostle exhorts his listeners to live according to the high measure of Christian life that is holiness. He can do this because the brothers he is addressing are “chosen by God, holy and beloved”.

Here too, at the root of everything, is the grace of God, the gift of the call, the mystery of the encounter with the living Jesus. But this grace demands a response from those who have been baptized: it requires the commitment to be reclothed in Christ’s sentiments: tenderness, goodness, humility, meekness, magnanimity, mutual forgiveness, and above all, as a synthesis and a crown, agape, the love that God has given us through Jesus, the love that the Holy Spirit has poured into our hearts.

And if we are to be reclothed in Christ, his word must dwell among us and in us, with all its richness and in abundance. In an atmosphere of constant thanksgiving, the Christian community feeds on the word and causes to rise towards God, as a song of praise, the word that he himself has given us.

And every action, every gesture, every service, is accomplished within this profound relationship with God, in the interior movement of Trinitarian love that descends towards us and rises back towards God, a movement that finds its highest expression in the eucharistic sacrifice.

This word also sheds light upon the happy circumstances that bring us together today, in the name of Saint Gregory the Great. Through the faithfulness and benevolence of the Lord, the Congregation of Camaldolese monks of the Order of Saint Benedict has completed a thousand years of history, feeding daily on the word of God and the Eucharist, as their founder Saint Romuald taught them, according to the triplex bonum of solitude, community life and evangelization.

Exemplary men and women of God, such as Saint Peter Damian, Gratian – author of the Decretum – Saint Bruno of Querfurt, and the five brother martyrs, Rudolph I and II, Blessed Gherardesca, Blessed Giovanna da Bagno and Blessed Paolo Giustiniani; men of art and science like Brother Maurus the Cosmographer, Lorenzo Monaco, Ambrogio Traversari, Pietro Delfino and Guido Grandi; illustrious historians like the Camaldolese Annalists Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli and Anselmo Costadoni; zealous pastors of the Church, among whom Pope Gregory XVI stands out, have revealed the horizons and the great fruitfulness of the Camaldolese tradition.

Every phase of the long history of the Camaldolese has produced faithful witnesses of the Gospel, not only in the hidden life of silence and solitude and in the common life shared with the brethren, but also in humble and generous service towards others.

Particularly fruitful was the hospitality offered by Camaldolese guest-houses. In the days of Florentine humanism, the walls of Camaldoli witnessed the famous disputationes, in which great humanists such as Marsilio Ficino and Cristoforo Landino took part.

In the turbulent years of the Second World War, those same cloisters were the setting for the birth of the famous Codex of Camaldoli, one of the most significant sources of the Constitution of the Italian Republic.

Nor were the years of the Second Vatican Council any less productive, for at that time individuals of high calibre emerged among the Camaldolese, enriching the Congregation and the Church and promoting new initiatives and new houses in the United States of America, Tanzania, India and Brazil.

In all this activity, a guarantee of fruitfulness was the support of monks and nuns praying constantly for the new foundations from the depths of their “withdrawal from the world”, lived at times to a heroic degree.

On 17 September 1993, during his meeting with the monks of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, Blessed John Paul II commented on the theme of their imminent General Chapter, “Choosing hope, choosing the future”, with these words: “Choosing hope and the future in the last analysis implies choosing God ... It means choosing Christ, the hope of every human being.”

And he continued, “This particularly occurs in that form of life which God himself brought about in the Church, inspiring Saint Romuald to found the Benedictine family of Camaldoli, with its characteristic complementarity of hermitage and monastery, solitary life and cenobitic life in harmony with each other.”

Moreover, my blessed Predecessor emphasized that “choosing God also means humbly and patiently cultivating, according to God’s design, ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue”, always on the basis of fidelity to the original charism received from Saint Romuald and transmitted through a thousand years of varied tradition.

Encouraged by the visit from the Successor of Peter, and by his words, all of you Camaldolese monks and nuns have pursued your path, constantly seeking the right balance between the eremitical and the cenobitic spirit, between the need to dedicate yourselves totally to God in solitude, the need to support one another in communal prayer, and the need to welcome others so that they can draw upon the wellsprings of spiritual life and evaluate the events of the world with a truly Gospel-formed conscience.

In this way you seek to attain that perfecta caritas that Saint Gregory the Great considered the point of arrival of every manifestation of faith, a commitment that finds confirmation in the motto of your coat of arms: “Ego Vobis, vos mihi”, a synthesis of the covenant formula between God and his people, and a source of the perennial vitality of your charism.

The Monastery of San Gregorio al Celio is the Roman setting for our celebration of the millennium of Camaldoli in company with His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury who, together with us, recognizes this Monastery as the birthplace of the link between Christianity in Britain and the Church of Rome.

Today’s celebration is therefore marked by a profoundly ecumenical character which, as we know, is part and parcel of the modern Camaldolese spirit. This Roman Camaldolese Monastery has developed with Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, especially since the Second Vatican Council, links that now qualify as traditional.

Today, for the third time, the Bishop of Rome is meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury in the home of Saint Gregory the Great. And it is right that it should be so, because it was from this Monastery that Pope Gregory chose Augustine and his forty monks and sent them to bring the Gospel to the Angles, a little over 1,400 years ago.

The constant presence of monks in this place, over such a long period, is already in itself a testimony of God’s faithfulness to his Church, which we are happy to be able to proclaim to the whole world.

We hope that the sign of our presence here together in front of the holy altar, where Gregory himself celebrated the eucharistic sacrifice, will remain not only as a reminder of our fraternal encounter, but also as a stimulus for all the faithful – both Catholic and Anglican – encouraging them, as they visit the glorious tombs of the holy Apostles and Martyrs in Rome, to renew their commitment to pray constantly and to work for unity, and to live fully in accordance with the “ut unum sint” that Jesus addressed to the Father.

This profound desire, that we have the joy of sharing, we entrust to the heavenly intercession of Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Romuald.

---

Undermining Peter

Sometimes intellectuals can get too clever for their own good - to the detriment of the hapless target towards they may be directing their intellect for the moment. For the second time in a row, Giuliano Ferrara, self-proclaimed 'devout atheist' and otherwise an avowed, literate and compelling advocate of Benedict XVI and his Pontificate, has gone and done something perplexing to say the least, that is outrageous in many ways.

Not content by writing in Panorama recently that this Pontificate has been 'interrupted' by the Vatileaks story and its various consequences, now Ferrara is postulating a possible resignation of Benedict XVI not for reasons of health or the Pope's own perception that he may no longer be up to the job, but for a most selfish reason - in order that he may be able to influence the choice of his successor to insure that his Magisterium is continued and not deviated, while at the same time being able to retire and live out his remaining years in study as Joseph Ratzinger had always wanted to...

Do we really need such idle speculative exercises? There is no way they could possibly help the Pope - they just portray him to the world as being prey to extremely unflattering speculation even by intellectuals who profess to be his admirers. First, Antonio Socci last September peddled his speculation that Benedict XVI might resign when he turns 85 - for no reason other than reaching a milestone age! And now this??? All talk of a papal resignation is really most cruel - it was with John Paul II, it is now with Benedict XVI. Fortunately, Andrea Tornielli responded promptly to Ferrara as follows:

Much ado about the prospect
of Benedict XVI resigning;
now Giuliano Ferrara joins in
by ANDREA TORNIELLI
March 10, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The editor of the daily newspaper Il Foglio today dedicated a lengthy article to considering the resignation of Benedict. This is the reasoning of Ferrara, who has never hidden his admiration of Joseph Ratzinger.

"A Pope who resigns," he wrote, "because he considers it his spIritual duty to support a renewal and a relaunching that will not cancel out his own Magisterium, would indirectly have the possibility to influence his succession in a better capacity (given the times, he would also offer a great and terrible sign of the extraordinary life of his Church!).

"He would also realize a personal dream of his: more study and the production of theological light in his personal capacity and not as the universal Pastor. He would certainly 'disorient' the traditional certainties of centuries, and would promote a new papal reign that would make the People of God united within the Church less ungovernable; and would take way any slowness, fatigue or defensiveness in the Roman house of Peter".

[Everything in the thought process of the above is wrong. First, it assumes that Joseph Ratzinger would actually be capable of thinking so selfishly. Second, it assumes that a 'retired Pope' - a first in the history of the Church (Celestine V was a special case that is not comparable at all) - would truly be able to influence a Conclave to choose his successor. The world being what it is, the moment he retires, he would revert instantly to being a near non-entity! Third, it assumes that the next Pope so chosen would necessarily be able to make the Church less governable and do away with the 'slowness, fatigue and defensiveness' of the Roman Curia. Which is a way of saying that Benedict XVI has been and is unable to do that himself! But then, if Ferrara thought that this Pontificate has been 'interrupted' because of malicious minds gone wild, then he probably thinks that Benedict has failed in what he set out to do when he was elected in 2005. Which is not true. He never said that among his priorities would be to make the Curia run like the best-maintained Mercedes... NO, any way you think of it, this scenario is just so improbable as to be impossible! It's not even clever; it's stupid, and certainly uncalled for.]

"The odds are daunting", Ferrara concludes, "and even the circumstances rather improbable. a Pope with spiritual strength would never renounce 'the task assigned to him', as Joseph Ratzinger himself says. But who knows if one day the Pope may consider it a doubling of his spiritual strength to make the sovereign 'papocentric' gesture of resigning". [It would not be 'papocentric' at all, but most egocentric.]

Ferrara's article is written with elegance and intelligence - he discusses a papal resignation not on the basis of adverse news, much less gossip, (Rumors insisting on a possible papal resignation in April have been dismissed by the Vatican several times), but on the basis of the simple and direct way Benedict XVI himself spoke to Peter Seewald in the 2010 interview-book Light of the World on this question.

Papa Ratzinger answered: "When a Pope arrives at a clear awareness that he is no longer physically, mentally and spiritually able to carry out the task assigned to him, then he has the right, and in some circumstances, even the duty to resign".

What emerges from Ferrara's article - which cites in passing the Vatileaks episode and the negative Curial picture it produced, without dwelling on the matter - is the possibility of a sensational and 'papocentric' resignation prompted not so much by 'the clear awareness' that he is no longer able to carry out his ministry, but rather the decision to 'relaunch his own Magisterium' and to guide the choice of his successor.

The necessary distinctions being made, it seems that the basis for Ferrara's reasoning is a concern about the [perceived, supposed] weakness of the Ratzinger Pontificate. [Obviously, or he would not consider this Papacy 'interrupted' all because of malicious gossip about matters that really do not amount to a can of beans except to those hellbent on denigrating a papacy that, short of calling an ecumenical council as John XXIII did, is already more consequential than any other Papacy in its first seven years than any in the modern era.]

This concern is not very different from that which made the political analyst Ernesto della Loggia propose earlier in the week a widening of the electoral base for the papal conclave to include all the bishops of the world, in order to make the Pope's role more 'presidential', enhancing his role and giving him more powers. [The Pope already has great powers - what would he do with more? I do not dismiss the proposal out of hand, and I have not really thought it through, but my initial reaction is that it sounds most impractical and undermines the very logic for naming cardinals - a recognition of ecclesiastical and personal merit that earns the title-bearer the right to vote for the Pope. ]

It is true Ferraea says he does not share the analyses of those who affirm the weakness of Benedict XVI's Pontificate [I suppose Tornielli means commentators like Marco Politi, and to a elsser degree, John Allen, who has chimed in with his "Me too' in reviewing Politi's recent book purporting to show 'The Crisis of A Papacy', in which the facts are selectively negative and the analysis of such 'facts' is necessarily tendentious]
and prefers, he says, to note its vitality in the long term. {Well, that does not square with his Panorama article on an 'interrupted' Papacy.]

But his conclusion, with the resignation hypothesis presented as an occasion for a 'relaunch', ends up conceding to those who have been wishing for a healthy shake-up at the Vatican.

It is striking that personalities and intellectuals who had greeted the election of Joseph Ratzinger with great satisfaction - seeing him as the possible realization of a great papal project to reinforce the identity of the Church - now seem to be almost disillusioned by the ways that this Pontificate has taken, which is now being defined as 'a penitential Papacy". [And yet, a 'oenitential papacy - which the Church needs today - does not exclude that it is also a vital Papacy, in which the Church can nourish itself from the graces gained by true penitence which is conversion, or metanoia, in the New Testament sense. Hasn't Benedict XVI been fairly consistent and insistent on, first, properly forming that identity, and then, affirming that identity to the world in terms of witnessing to Christ and his message by the very lives that Catholics lead!]

Of course, others also see that in this Benedettian line, Benedict XVI manifests his prophetic power in the world today.

Papa Ratzinger has said with great simplicity and frankness that he considers resignation a possibility. He did so with the humble attitude that distinguishes him, as he seeks to show, even in this circumstance, that the important thing is not about the pro-activism of the person who is Pope, but rather the opportunity to bring forth the true protagonist, the true guide, the true Rock of the Church, who its founder, of whom the Bishop of Rome is but the vicar.

No one doubts that Benedict XVI, if he faced an invalidating illness or became aware of mental and spiritual incapacity to continue his service, would choose to resign. He has said so himself.

But to hypothesize that he would do, that thinking to 'relaunch' his own Magisterium in that way, or even to influence his own succession (a suggestion to this effect, we must remember, was contained in the anonymous memorandum about a supposed plot to kill the Pope), and thus 'realize' his personal dream of returning to his studies, would mean placing papal protagonism front and center.

But a gesture like that - rightly called by Ferrara 'Papocentric' - appears most remote indeed, both from Papa Ratzinger's own sensibility, and from what Tradition believes and teaches about the role of the Bishop of Rome with respect to the universal Church.

Since Il Foglio has a paywall, unless Ferrara's article gets reprinted elsewhere, I will not be able to read it. Not that I have any eager desire to do that just now.

March 11, Thrid Sunday of Lent

ST. JOHN OGILVIE (Scotland, 1579-1615), Jesuit, Martyr
He was raised as a Calvinist and educated in Europe where, after reading Scriptures, he converted
to Catholicism. He studied with the Benedictines in Regensburg, joined the Jesuits, and was ordained
in France in 1610. At a time when anti-Catholic persecution had driven Scottish Catholics underground,
he tried twice to go home in order to minister to the underground Catholics. He had to return to France
the first time but in 1613, he went back. His mission was to last less than a year because he was
betrayed, captured and tortured in unspeakable ways to renounce his faith. He refused steadfastly,
saying he would obey his king in all temporal matters but "In the things of spiritual jurisdiction which
a king unjustly seizes, I cannot and must not obey". He was condemned to death, dragged through the
streets of Glasgow, hanged and then disembowelled. He was beatified in 1939 and canonized in 1976.
He was the first Scottish saint since 1250.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/031112.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Sunday Angelus - The holy Father reflected on the Gospel episode when Jesus chased out the merchants and money-changers
from the Temple in Jerusalem shortly before his passion and death - a gesture considered prophetic by his disciples who
recalled the psalm about being zealous in behalf of the Father and his house, although Jesus was not a Zealot like
the sect of that name who were willing to commit violence in defense of God's law. After the prayers, he asked
the faithful to pray for the people of Madagascar who have been suffering from calamitous floods in recent days.


I apologize for being away all day Sunday due to some unavoidable commitments.

SUNDAY ANGELUS
March 11, 2012




Jesus purifies the Temple:
'Prophetic zeal but never violence
to protect his Father's house'

March 11, 2012

“Violence never serves humanity – it only dehumanies.” This was the Pope’s message at Sunday’s Angelus address, as he commented upon the Gospel passage of the Purification of the Temple.

Pope Benedict described our Lord’s action of driving the money-changers out of the Temple as prophetic. “Indeed,” he said, “the prophets, in the name of God, often denounced abuses, and they sometimes did so with symbolic gestures.”

And yet, thouuh Jesus was zealous to protect his Father's house, he was not a Zealot, a sect which used fiolence at the time in defense of God's law. and were awaiting a Messiah whom they thought would be political.

It is impossible to describe Jesus as violent, the Pope said, because “violence is contrary to the Kingdom of God; it is a tool of the Antichrist.”

In English, he commented on another part of today's Goespel:this is what he said: "In today’s Gospel Jesus foretells his resurrection and points to the temple which is his body, the Church. May our meditation on these mysteries deepen our union with the Lord and his Church. Upon all of you I invoke God’s blessings!"

After the Angelus, the Holy Father launched an appeal for the people of Madagascar hit by a devastating tropical storm.

---

My thoughts go first to the dear people of Madagascar, who have recently been hit by severe natural disasters, with serious damage to people, structures and crops. While I assure my prayers for the victims and the families of those so greatly tried, I hope for and encourage the generous assistance of the international community.

---

Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's Angelus reflection:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Gospel on this third Sunday of Lent refers - in the Gospel of St. John - to the well-known episode of Jesus who chased the animal vendors and money-changers out of the Temple of Jerusalem (cfr Jn 2,13-25).

The event, reported by all the evangelists, took place close to the feast of Passover and made a deep impression on the crowds a well as on the disciples. How should we interpret this gesture of Jesus?

First of all, it must be noted that the incident did not provoke any repression by the keepers of public order because it was seen as a typical prophetic in action: Indeed, the prophets, in the name of God, often denounced abuses, and they often did so with symbolic gestures. The problem was often regarding their authority.

That is why the Jews asked Jesus: "“What sign can you show us for doing this?” (Jn 2,18), showing us that he truly acted in the name of God.

Chasing out the vendors from the Temple has also been interpreted in the politico-revolutionary sense, placing Jesus in line with the Zealot movement in his time. The Zealots were, in fact, 'zealous' in behalf of the law of God and were ready to use violence to enforce respect for it.

In Jesus's time, the Jews awaited the Messiah who would liberate Israel from the dominion of the Romans. But Jesus disappointed this expectation, so much that some disciples abandoned him and Judas Iscariot would betray him.

Indeed, it is impossible to interpret Jesus as violent: Violence is contrary to the Kingdom of God. It is an instrument of the anti-Christ. Violence never serves humanity; it dehumanizes.

Let us listen to what Jesus said as he chased out the vendors: “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (Jn 2,16). And the disciples then recalled what is written in a Psalm: "Zeal for your house has consumed me" (69, 10).

This Psalm is as invocation for help in a situation of extreme danger because of the hatred of enemies - the situation that Jesus would experience in his passion.

Zeal for the Father and for his house would bring him to the Cross: His zeal is that of love which pays in person, not that which would serve God through violence.

Indeed, the sign' that Jesus would give as proof of his authority would be his death and resurrection. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up," he said. And St John annotates: "He was speaking about the temple of his body!" (Jn 2,20-21).

With Jesus's Resurrection, a new cult began, the cult of love, and a new temple, which is himself, Christ the Risen, through whom every believer can adore God the Father "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4,23).

Dear friends, the Holy Spirit began to construct this new Temple in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Through her intercession,. let us pray that every Christian may become a living stone in this spiritual edifice.

---

Monday, March 12, Third Week of Lent

ST. MAXIMILIAN OF TEBESSA (Numidia [present Algeria], 274-295), Martyr
Son of a Roman commander in North Africa, he refused to join the army as required
when he turned 21, saying he could only be a soldier for Christ. For this he was beheaded.
A 'passion of Maximilian' from late antiquity recounts his purported trial but little else
is known of him. He has been called the patron saint of conscientious objectors to war.
Readings for Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/031212.cfm


No events announced for the Holy Father today.



One year ago today...



One year ago today, the Wetsern world woke up to the terrible news that a tsunami in northern Japan not only wiped out the affected land are but also flooded a nuclear power plant whose reactors were in imminent danger of meltdown. The nuclear crisis quickly overwhelmed the tsunami story, as tragic as that was in terms of human lives lost.

Remembering Japan's
unprecedented 2011 disaster

March 20, 2012

The strong earthquake that struck Japan last year remains etched in the memory, not only of the people of the Rising Sun, but of the whole world – just like the even more frightening tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004, with its hundreds of thousands of victims.

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami killed 20,000 people, taking by surprise a country that has lived for centuries with these catastrophes – but this one struck without warning.

the disaster was compounded by the shocking accident at the nuclear plant of Fukushima, with exceedingly dangerous long-term consequences. Faith in science and in emergency plans, and indeed the entire energy policy of an advanced and well-organiZed country, were radically at issue.

Today in Japan four nuclear reactors are working while fifty are not. Experts think that last year’s shock created a situation of instability that makes the probability of another strong earthquake ever more likely. Life and expectations have changed.

We all admired the courageous, dignified, and united way in which the Japanese people reacted to the tragedy and dealt with the consequences.



On Good Friday, in answer to a question from a little Japanese girl on a television programme, the Pope said: “I, too, wonder why. We don’t have answers, but we know that Jesus suffered like you, an innocent victim. God loves me, He is on my side, and one day I will realise that this suffering wasn’t meaningless. Rest assured, we are with you, with all Japanese children who are suffering. Let us pray together that light will come for you as soon as possible.”

When facing a tragedy greater than us, we must not lose hope; we must try to find the ability to discover the deeper, lasting meaning of our destiny, of our journey together on this earth.

A new article in a scientific journal hypothesizes that the image on the Shroud of Turin could only have been produced by a burst of radiation far beyond that of present scientific capacity to produce - a conclusion similar to the 10-year arrived at by the Italian agency for nuclear studies published late last year... See [/DIM} http://benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527207&p=273
on 12/24/11 for a layman's version of the ENEA report.

'The image on the Shroud
is the result of radiation
that current technology
is unable to produce'
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of


PADUA, March 11 - The Shroud of Turin, the sheet believed by many Christians to have wrapped the dead body of Jesus Christ, with an impression of the body and face of a man who was crucified in the way described by the Gospels, remains a mystery.

A new study just published in an American scientific journal concludes that the most probable and reliable hypothesis for what caused the image on the Shroud is radiation, particularly what is called 'the corona effect'.



The author is Giulio Fanti, professor of mechanical and temperature measures at the department of industrial engineering of the University of Padua, and his article is published in the current issue of the US-based Journal of Imaging Science and Technology (JIST).

"Since 1898, when the photographer Secondo Pia obtained the first photographic reproductions of the Shroud, many researchers have advanced various hypotheses on how the image could have been produced", Fanti told La Stampa. "Many interesting hypotheses have been examined but none have been able to completely explain the mysterious image. None of the attempts to reproduce the desired effect, none of the copies so produced, has succeeded in offering the specific characteristics of the Shroud".

The article examines all the most important hypotheses by comparing them to 24 characteristics which are thought to be the most specific and significant ones discussed in more than a 100 recent scientific articles published internationally about the Shroud.

After first reviewing and evaluating the hypotheses advanced by researchers in the 20th century - who attributed the image to calcium or ammoniacal deposits, to the effect of a lightning-like radiation, or a tracing made by zinc deposits, Fanti says, "I then examined the most sophisticated recent hypotheses such as those relating to gas diffusion or the effect produced by a corpse on a sheet impregnated with aromatic spices and various substances" [i.e., according to Jewish funerary practices in the time of Christ].

"I also considered the possibility of the simultaneous action of more mechanisms, such as the ideas of those who, in the second half of the 20th century, questioned the authenticity of the Shroud and had therefore proposed techniques of reproduction such as those that were used by medieval artists. [The skeptics claim the sheet dates only to the Middle Ages, not to the time of Christ, and appeared to have been supported by controversial carbon dating carried out on fragments of the Shroud in the 1970s.]

Among the 'artistic' hypotheses mentioned in the article, Fanti considers that of Pesce and Garlaschelli. "I have proved that the experimental results obtained by their techniques, even in this century, are quite distinct from the most specific characteristics of the Shroud image. Many scholars have, in fact, produced 'artistic' copies that appear excellent macroscopically [to the naked eye] but are very deficient in terms of reproducing many microscopic qualities of the Shroud image, and which therefore invalidate their efforts".

But he concludes otherwise for the possibility that radiation caused the image, citing hypotheses by some scholars, and in particular, referring to the study by ENEA, the Italian agency for energy and new technologies, which used techniques of ultraviolet laser in seeking to reproduce an image as close as possible to the characteristics of the Shroud image.

"The radiation hypothesis allows a much closer approximation to the characteristics of the Shroud image," says Fanti, "but still presents a major problem: It has only been possible to produce images on the order of a square centimeter of fabric, because to produce a larger image - the size of a human figure - would require an enormous quantity of radiation which current technology is incapable of doing".

Expreiments carried out by Fanti in Padua, in collaboration with his colleague Prof. Giancarlo Pesavente, "required electric tension of 500,000 volts to obtain a comparable image a few centimeters long".

Fanti's studies are summarized in two tables for the article that demonstrate how a radiation burst represents the most reliable hypothesis so far. "Only an explanation that is based on the corona effect produced by an electrical discharge satisfies all the specific characteristics of the image on the Shroud".

But he adds: "However, to obtain an image as large as that on the Shroud would require tens of millions of volts."

Or, he concludes, "Speaking non-scientifically, it is a phenomenon that could only be explained by an event like the Resurrection".

The last statement occasioned a prompt and rather erroneous reaction from the president of the Centro Internazionale di Sindologia in Turin (Sindonology is the term for studies on the Shroud - Sindone in Italian], in what seems to be an obvious misunderstanding of what Fanti said about the Reusrrection.

'Fanti's conclusions
are not scientific at all:
The Resurrection cannot
be proved in a laboratory'
by Maria Teresa Martinengo
Translated from the Italian service of

March 12, 2012

TURIN - At the Centro Internazionale di Sindonologia di Torino, which by law, "assures every scientific, technical and organizational support in the sindonologic field to the Pontifical Custodian of the Shroud" (namely, the Archdiocese of Turin), president Bruno Barberis distanced himself from the theories of Prof. Giulio Fanti published in JIST.

In par5ticular, he questions the statement linking the image to 'a phenomenon such as the Resurrection'.

Barberis, a professor of mathematics at the University of Turin said: "We are scientists and we must always keep in mind the lesson from Galileo: If we cannot verify or reproduce something, our study has no scientific value. And we cannot prove the Resurrection by reproducing it in a laboratory".

[I have not read the article by Fanti, because it is only available by paying a $30 online subscription fee, but judging by what Fanti told Tornielli, he was not at all claiming 'to reproduce the Resurrection in the laboratory' - only that the most probable scientific hypothesis for the image is not reproducible by current technology - and that "Speaking non-scientifically, it is a phenomenon that could only be explained by an event like the Resurrection".]

"Of course," Barberis continued, "neither can we recreate in the lab the nuclear reactions taking place in the sun, but we can study them with sophisticated instruments currently available to technology. The Resurrection is something else".

"The Resurrection is a supernatural event, therefore it cannot be studied by science that seeks to explain natural phenomena. It will be possible to study only when someone can resurrect a dead man and they study and verify the phenomenon".

He also raised other questions: "The corona effect cited by Fanti is possible, but natural conditions that could reproduce the effect on the scale that is needed do not exist. With current instruments, the corona effect can only be reproduced on a tiny piece of fabric." [Isn't that exactly what the ENEA researchers and Fanti say?]

Barberis reiterates: "Anything scientific should be reproducible in a laboratory, otherwise it is not scientific. This center can only accept scientific proof".

[It seems to me the reporter was not exactly qualified to do the interview with Barberis, or she would have challenged his completEly erroneous premise abut Fanti's statement! Clearly, Fanti's statement about the Resurrection - I don't believe it would be found in his published article - is Fanti's own profession of faith, if you will. He was not advancing it at all as a scientific hypothesis, and he said so!

Besides, the reporter ought to have asked Barberis what he thought of the scientific data published in JIST, which as a scientist, he could evaluate. For Barberis to argue against a false premise is most unscientific in itself. La Stampa's editor should ask the reporter to go back and interview Barberis and keep him on track!]

The following article is commendable, except that the writer apparently ignores a great deal of what Benedict XVI has been saying about penitence and purification, If the Pope has not preached outright asceticism at all, it's because he knows a great many faithful first have to learn the essentials of the faith - properly - before they can be called on to something more demanding!


After the sex abuse crisis:
How about returning to
'fish on Friday' ascetism?
by Pat Guinan, M,D.

March 2012

The writer is President of the Catholic Physicians' Guild of Chicago, and teaches at the Department of Urology and Surgery with the University of Illinois in Chicago.

There is a human need for discipline, which is another word for asceticism.

After almost a decade (if you date the modern priest sex abuse crisis from Boston in 2002 , the Church seems to be on the defensive. Its response has been limited to reacting to each new revelation, which appears to be unending — with most recent incidences in Ireland, Belgium, and Austria.

Where to next? There are forces in our modern culture that seem bent on damaging the hierarchical Church. These include, hopefully well-meaning groups, such as Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), who seem unable to find anything positive to say about the Church, beyond demanding the removal of bishops, and even the Pope.

The issue is not helped by those who benefit financially from finding new, credible or not, and continuing old abuse cases. Legal, and other fees, have cost the Church $2,600,000,000.00 as of 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI has done, perhaps, more than anyone else to address and correct this matter. On his recent trip to England, he repeated a litany of public apologies, as well as meeting personally with many of the victims, as he has done in Germany, and innumerable other instances over the past 5 years. Perhaps, it’s now time to change course and be more proactive. [More pro-active???? If he means with respect to the sex abuse crisis, the writer apparently ignores all the concrete measures taken by the CDF so far, not to mention Benedict XVI's repeated calls for penitence and purification, best stated in his March 2010 letter to the Catholics of Ireland! In which he mentions a number of concrete actions that the Church and the faithful could do as acts of penitence and purification! Or perhaps the editors at HPR should have rephrased Guinan's words, with his permission, to be more factual and not rashly - and falsely - generic! Editors are supposed to do that.]

The public action of the Church must change from one of endless apologies to one of resolute, positive action. That action must include a return to the classic asceticism that has been the hallmark of the Church for 20 centuries. [Preaching asceticism is all very well, but how about starting with the more basic and universally doable things Benedict XVI proposes in the Letter to Irish Catholics?]

We will briefly discuss: (1) What ascetical discipline is: (2) How the practice of asceticism has given the Church its acknowledged holiness over the centuries; (3) What happened over the past 50 years to vitiate Church asceticism; and, (4) the efforts at renewal that should be taken now.

Asceticism and Discipleship
There is a human need for discipline. For example: children are taught to behave themselves; scholastic success requires concentration; athletic victory demands training. This innate need for discipline is another name for asceticism.

Asceticism can be defined as “the practice of the denial of physical or psychological desires in order to obtain a spiritual ideal or good.” It is a universally accepted human activity practiced in all societies and religions, both primitive and advanced.

Is it not perhaps a reasonable human response to the effects of original sin, or our material fallibility. It was best articulated in classical Greece as athletic askesis, or discipline. This concept then took an ethical turn, becoming control of the bodily and emotional passions.

This discipline, or asceticism, was also the hallmark of Greek, non-athletes, as well. While the Stoics are best known for their self-discipline, other groups such as the Pythagoreans, had ascetical guidelines as well. Muslims have Ramadan, a well-known, month-long fasting period.

Hindu groups are universally recognized for their ascetical practices, some quite extreme. Buddhist monks practice a monastic discipline that we would consider severe. Primitive peoples (American Blackfeet Indians) were ascetical also.

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TABLE 1: ASCETICISM (or DISCIPLINE)
Universal Human Witness to Asceticism

(1) Definition: “Practice of the denial of physical or psychological desires in order to obtain a spiritual ideal or good.”
(2) The Greeks: Realized that human passion and emotion had to be controlled (Stoics).
(3) Jews: The Bible begins with a description of original sin or the human tendency to succumb to emotional and physical temptations.
(4) Christians: Discipline (or asceticism) advanced by hermits and monasteries.
(5) Moslems: Ramadan. Month long fast.
(6) Hindu: Extreme forms of corporal punishment.
(7) Buddhism: Monks and nuns renounced material and physical desires.
(8) Primitive: (Blackfeet Indians) isolation of young warriors.

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We cite these as examples of the universal human practice of asceticism as there appears to be trans-cultural acknowledgments of a need for mortification and discipline.

Christian Tradition and Eventual Erosion
Christ, who fasted 40 days and 40 nights, 8 promoted asceticism. The Christian Church embraced the idea, from the beginning, not only through fasting and abstinence, but also through celibacy.

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TABLE 2:
Catholic Church Ascetical Discipline

(1) John the Baptist: Subsisted on locusts and honey.
(2) Christ: Fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
(3) St. Mathew: Required fasting.
(4) Council of Nicaea (325 AD), Fifth Canon: 40 day fast.
(5) Monasteries, 500 AD -1200 AD: Practiced fast and abstinence.
(6) Eastern Christian Church: Rigorous fasting and abstinence .
(7) Vatican II (1962-1965): De-emphasized fasting and abstinence.
(8) Paul VI (1967): “New expressions beyond fast and abstinence.”

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This practice of fasting has been integral to the Church from the time of the apostles, having begun with the apostles’ imitation of Christ who promoted it.

This continued during the time of Church persecution, and later was adopted by desert hermits. Their rather extreme ascetical practices similar to John the Baptist, subsisting on locusts and honey became an example for their fellow Christian followers.

The rise of monasteries furthered the ideal of self-discipline and sacrifice. With austere practices codified into monastic rule, the efficacy of following these rules was proven in the virtuous lives of saints arising from these centers of faith.

The Fifth Canon of the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) codified fasting regulations. Fasting, as well as abstinence from meat (“fish on Friday”), became the standard for centuries, particularly in the Eastern Christian Church.

Unfortunately, this practice has changed since Vatican II (1962-1965). The “spirit of Vatican II” was interpreted by some to mean that the Church’s ascetic tradition should be updated. They decided that the idea of fasting and mortification was to be replaced by charitable works of mercy, which they felt would be more positive.

This idea was best articulated by Pope Paul VI, who said: “seek new expressions beyond fast and abstinence,” we must “reorganize penitential discipline with practices more suitable to our times.”

While the Church still prescribes fasting and abstinence, it is, for all practical purposes, universally ignored. Lent used to be highly meaningful, with its “giving up pleasures.” But that is no longer the case as very few Catholics practice the Lenten discipline with the seriousness they did prior to Vatican II. This is unfortunate.

It is no coincidence that the priest sex abuse crisis, which actually peaked in the 70s and 80s, only reached the attention of the popular press in 2002.

The liberal theological spin, which arose from misinformation surrounding Vatican II, when coupled with the prevailing cultural individualism and lack of moral discipline pervading that period, negatively influenced some seminaries, leading to a subsequent rise in sexual abuse.

Donald Goergen’s book, The Sexual Celibate, is an example of this attitude: Goergen writes, for instance, that “sexual feelings should not be repressed.” Some will say that Vatican II had no effect on this crisis, but the facts and temporal sequence, suggest otherwise. Vatican II could not eliminate original sin, or change human nature.

James Hitchcock has commented that “strict rules about clerical behavior were generally rescinded after the council under the assumption that priests could be trusted to act in appropriate ways.” These ideas are the antithesis of an ascetical or disciplined mindset.

Ascetical theology was traditionally a major element in the Church’s teaching, along with dogma, and moral and liturgical theology. This discipline emphasized, in particular, fasting, abstinence and celibacy. These were not highly regarded virtues in post-World War II, western culture. Indeed, the pervasive cultural zeitgeist emphasized autonomy and sexual expression.

The mood was Pelegian, that is, that the perfectibility of man was possible through self-discipline, without needing divine assistance. Original sin was forgotten.

Freudian philosophy believed that suppressing emotions and sexual expression were harmful, psychologically and developmentally. Eugene C. Kennedy’s book, Psychological Investigations of Priests, suggested that most priests were emotionally immature because they had not successfully integrated Erickson’s psychosexual development phase into their personalities.

The emphasis was on autonomy and self-expression - rather than fasting, abstaining and chastity as practices recommended for seminarians. Following Vatican II, personal sin was de-emphasized, as was regular confession. With these ideas being held up as guiding principles, it seems inevitable that some priests would cross the line.

The Western cultural zeitgeist, following the Enlightenment — emphasizing autonomy and downplaying discipline (the drugs and sexual excesses of the 60s) — did not really impact the Church until the negative aspects of the “Spirit of Vatican II” influenced modernist theology.

Indeed, as one reviews the history of Church asceticism, one notes a distinct change in tone around the mid-20th century. What was formerly mandated discipline became an optional suggestion.

Renewal
Following Vatican II, some interpretations allowed a lapse in what was previously common practice. “Fish on Friday” had been a universal practice. Why was it discontinued? It was seen as an anachronism. But, its value remains.

Its re-institution, with pastoral emphasis and education, would remind the entire Church that asceticism remains an essential discipline of the Church. [NB: The Church in England re-instituted 'fish on Fridya's last year.]

It would be an acknowledgment that man has a fallen nature and, because of original sin, an inclination to err. Our fallen nature requires a practice of the virtues, particularly chastity, which can only be achieved by ascetical efforts. Fish on Friday would only be a small, but hopefully, a helpful beginning.

In summary, the Church has de-emphasized its ascetical orientation, and the sex abuse crisis followed. We should renew the discipline of holy asceticism by taking several steps:

(1) There must be an acknowledgment that man’s fallen nature extends to all in the Church—hierarchy, priests, religious and laity;

(2) A corollary to the preceding point is that the discipline of asceticism should be required of all members;

(3) This discipline includes a return of the past practices of fast and abstinence, as well as the evangelical virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience for priests and clergy.

A return to “fish on Friday” would be a small but symbolic step in the right direction.