BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Not a good day at all for the Vatican. Nor was yesterday. These events have truly discombobulated me, so I hope I can make up...




Friday, May 25, Seventh Week of Easter

ST. BEDE THE VENERABLE (England, ca 672-735), Monk, Historian, Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI gave an illuminating catechesis on St. Bede, the only Anglo-Saxon Doctor of the Church, on 2/18/2009.
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090218...
In describing Bede's extraordinary example of holiness and scholarship, the Holy Father pointed out the saint's emphasis on the Church as catholic, apostolic and based on Roman
tradition; his work in liturgical theology, and his catecheses 'in the tradition of Cyril, Ambrose and Augustine. From the time he entered the monastery of St. Paul and
St. Peter in Jarrow, he never left till his death - despite his renown and invitations from kings and popes - except for a brief visit to teach at the school of the Archbishop
of York. His scholarly interests from philosophy and theology to mathematics and astronomy. In his lifetime, he was already called Venerable, and Church Councils urged his
teachings to be read in church. He wrote at least 45 books, including his famous Ecclesiastical History of the English People, for which he is considered the father
of English historiography. Benedict XVI quoted this from Bede: "Every time a soul accepts and keeps the Word of God, in imitation of Mary, he conceives and generates Christ
anew... (and the Church 'reproduces' herself", words that seemed to echo in Benedict's homily on Pentecost Sunday 2010. Bede was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1899.
St. Bede is buried in Durham Cathedral.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/052512.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- H.E. Petr Nečas, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and his delegation

- Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life, and the secretary of the Congregation, Mons. Joseph William Tobin.

In the afternoon, he met with

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)


I must apologize for my sudden dysfunction earlier today. It continues. I cannot get over the shock of the bizarre events in the Apostolic Palace since yesterday, when all those who have anything to do with issuing news to the public about the Vatican have been singularly and, it seems, vindictively uncharitable, not to mention any injustices inherent in some of their statements and decisions.

Now, they can all make fools and laughingstock of themselves, but this time - far more than in the Vatileaks that are at the core of these new outrages - I shudder at how they have exposed the Holy Father to the perception that he has become nothing more than a helpless pawn in the game plan of those who seem to have had the upper hand in the matter of Gotti Tedeschi and the IOR, and now in identifying the Pope's valet as the supposed traitor responsible for Vatileaks...

I just cannot believe that Benedict XVI approved of the brutal way with which the Secretariat of State 'fired' Ettore Gotti Tedeschi from IOR. "He no longer has the confidence and trust of the Secretariat of State", said the statement instructing the four other members of the IOR's Administrative Council to vote out Gotti Tedeschi. There was just no rational reason for the entire scenario. A civilized telephone call would have been enough. He had his resignation letter ready, and it appears he was able to submit it before they could vote him out. But Fr. Lombardi did not report that.

Only for something similar to be repeated in a different context today with the arrest of the Pope's valet no less as the super-traitor behind Vatileaks. This sudden display of uncharitable unreasonableness is no way to show that 'the Vatican [read 'the Secretariat of State'] can be decisive and will not brook any irregularities'... In both cases, the two men are presented to the public as 'guilty' without benefit of due process. When did 'due process' become superfluous at the Vatican?... But I must contain my outrage and try to think this through dispassionately... No one in the Italian media appears to have processed it properly yet, nor is ready to...

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/05/2012 03:53]

Gotti Tedeschi about his 'ouster':
'Better not to speak now -
I don't want to upset the Pope'
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of

May 25, 2012

ROME - "I prefer not to say anything now. Otherwise I will say ugly words. Be patient. I am torn between the desire to say the truth and that of not wanting to upset the Holy Father with my explanation. My love for him prevails over every other sentiment now, even a defense of my reputation which has been so vilely questioned".

The 'loss of confidence' which led Ettore Gotti Tedeschi to leave his post as president of the Vatican financial institution IOR after less than three years, came suddenly but he had been considering resignation for months.

From the time when a Roman magistrate opened an inquiry into the movement of some IOR accounts from Italian banks to German banks, Gotti Tedeschi chose to work directly with the investigating magistrate.

That started misunderstandings between him and the IOR's director-General, Paolo Cipriani [who was also named in the investigation, being the other top IOR executive].

At that time, Gotti Tedeschi received a public gesture of support from Benedict XVI who received him and his wife in Castel Gandolfo after a Sunday Angelus. "We must set the example," the Pope said to him at the time.

Gotti Tedeschi, who had been chosen by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone to head the IOR, continued with his work to bring renewal and transparency to the institution, closing many 'dormant' accounts which were registered under surrogates' names.

Among the persons who resented Gotti Tedeschi's actions was Marco Simeon, currently director of RAi-Vaticano who has ties with Italian wheeler-dealer Luigi Bisignani. [Both Simeon and Bisignani are mentioned unflatteringly in Mons. Vigano's allegations about Cardinal Bertone in his letter to the Pope in 2010. There's no reason to even suspect Bertone of corruption, but when you have cronies and proteges who are not above dropping your name whenever they can to profit by it, it's almost as bad.]

Last summer, Cardinal Bertone wanted IOR to rescue the financially- troubled San Raffaele hospital and university complex in Milan, a move supported by many political and financial leaders of the city. [Yeah, well, it's not their money!]

But Gotti Tedeschi, after further consideration, opposed it as a risky venture, crossing Giuseppe Profiti, manager of the Bambin Gesu hospital in Rome and Bertone's main adviser on health issues. [As it turned out, Benedict XVI vetoed Bertone on this, as he did Bertone's attempt to put his man at the head of the Toniolo Isntitute's board before the new Archbishop of Milan could be seated ex-officio.]

Gotti Tedeschi's relations with Bertone himself grew increasingly chilly, although it was thought it had improved lately.

The point of no return for Gotti Tedeschi was the amended law on financial transparency which was supposed to bring the Vatican into the 'white list' of European nations considered to have appropriate measures against money laundering.

As president of IOR, Gotti Tedeschi agreed with Cardinal Attilio Nicora that there were too many amendments, but most especially, that it downgraded the role of the Authority for Financial Information (AIF) created by the law signed December 30, 2010, by Benedict XVI.

The experts of Moneyval, the European Council's agency for enforcing anti-money laundering measures in the Eurozone, will decide who is right when they issue their report in July on whether the amended law meets their standards.

Behind yesterday's 'no confidence' vote, Gotti Tedeschi sees a 'settling of accounts' for the positions he has taken in the past year - positions that increasingly isolated him in the Vatican, except for the fact that he has always been on good terms with the Pope's private secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein.

But the explanation given in black and white by the Holy See statement yesterday was completely the opposite. However, sources at the Secretariat of State insisted that "the IOR Council made their decision autonomously". [Not according to Il Sole's Carlo Marroni who wrote about Gotti Tedeschi's resignation hours before the Vatican issued the statement about the 'no confidence' vote, and said that a note came to the Council from the Secretariat of State saying "Gotti Tedeschi no longer has the trust and confidence of the dicastery". Of course, Marroni may well have been stacking the cards for Gotti Tedeschi, who knows, but I have seen no such suggestion in the Italian media.]]

The sources denied any role by Bertone in Gotti's resignation, saying it was hardly the time for such a move, with the stir caused by Vatileaks still at high pitch.

His former colleagues who voted 'no confidence' in him yesterday said Gotti Tedeschi was unable to be a team player with them. In any case, the outcome is the same: the governance of the Holy See appears even more chaotic than ever.

[And that happens if the nominal administrator - Cardinal Bertone - is unable to provide leadership. It appears that in six years, his answer to the hostility against him by the Old Guard and the entrenched Vatican bureaucracy loyal to the Old Guard, was not to seek to make friends with them, but to put in his own people as a way of imposing his authority in any sphere or undertaking that he wants to dominate.

In all this, he does not seem to see how counter-productive his decisions are for the Pope. If only because Benedict XVI did him the great honor of making him #2 at the Vatican - then made him Camerlengo, and then gave him carte blanche to straighten out IOR - he should be striving to live up to those responsibilities instead of trying to build his own empire, which, in itself, is a disservice to the Pope. Because he is making enemies, and his enemies end up being enemies of the Pope. How can he not see that?

What, objectively, has he done that has been good for the Pope, aside from amusing him with gossip and trivial talk? He was always missing in action when it was necessary for the Pope's friends to speak up for him. And his mistakes have been near-calamitous. He may be a good soul, but where's the common sense?

And what respectable banker will want to handle the hot potato that's IOR after the treatment given to Gotti Tedeschi, a banker's banker and Opus Dei model of rectitude?]

As for Friday's 'hot news', here's Andrea Tornielli's original report, with his updates during the day:[DIM]

Vatican announces
it has caught the 'leaker' -
and it's the Pope's valet
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of

May 25, 2012

The investigation of the Vatican police into the release of private documents from the Apostolic Palace "has resulted in identifying a person who was found to have such documents in his possession", said Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, who said that this person "is now held by a Vatican magistrate for further interrogation".

So is this person the 'crow' stealing from the eagle's nest, or a scapegoat to cover up for someone of much higher rank? This is the question asked by many in the Vatican itself when the news broke.

Although the Vatican statement did not provide a name, an Italian newspaper said the suspect is Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI's valet since 2006. Nicknamed Paoletto by all, he is known at the Vatican as a 'good and simple' person who is devoted to the Pope.

But the whole Vatileaks episode suggests a mastermind who knows ecclesial politics. And it is also strange that after months of controversy over Vatileaks, the alleged culprit would continue to keep any stolen documents in his possession.

In less than 24 hours, it would seem that the Vatican has 'neutralized' two persons who have been accused of leaking documents to the media. First, was the now ex-president of IOR, and today, the Pope's valet.

Could Gotti Tedeschi have been so careless as to leak a letter sent to him by e-mail without even whiting out his e-mail address on the copy? It is difficult to even imagine, but he has said he will sue anyone who accuses him of leaking confidential documents to the media.[But his memorandum against the Bertone-Bertello dilution of AIF powers was part of the Vatileaks dump used by Gianluigi Nuzzi!]

And could the Pope's valet have been so careless [or stupid] that months after the Vatileaks scandal erupted, he would have continued to keep incriminating documents? That, too, is hard to believe.

Vatican sources said that the Pope was informed yesterday afternoon of the arrest of his valet and his interrogation, that he 'was saddened and afflicted' by the news and is being kept up-to-date about it.

Vatican police said they had found "a tremendous amount of private documents from the Vatican" in the Gabriele's apartment along via di Porta Angelica, right within Vatican walls, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Gabriele faces serious charges if the questioning should establish probable cause.

Gabriele, now 46, was among the chamber aides during the time of John Paul II, when his valet was the legendary Angelo Gugel, who continued to serve Benedict XVI until his retirement in 2006, when Gabriele took his place.

Along with the four Memores Domini, he was the layman closest to the Pope and considered part of his household. He also acted as a butler, serving meals during the few times that Benedict XVII has guests.

Reserved, always elegant, he is well-known and well-liked in the Vatican. He is always near at hand whenever the Pope appears in public but discreet as a shadow.



5/26/12
My tuppence worth

I did go into near-literal shock yesterday when the ongoing Vatican tragicomedy that already included a most graceless and nasty way of telling the world that the president of IOR had been 'fired' - although two very reliable reporters say he had submitted his resignation before the four other members of Administrative Council of which he was president voted him out of office after getting word from the Secretariat of State that he, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi,"no longer has the confidence" of that dicastery - went even more haywire and more senseless than the blackest farce.

The Vatican announced the most improbable of culprits as being the man who fed the Vatileaks documents to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi - now detained for questioning is Paolo Gabriele, who has been the Pope's valet since 2006...

First things first: Maybe I am being ingenuous, but I cannot believe that Benedict XVI could tolerate the treatment of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi as if he were a criminal that the Vatican had to chase out at any cost!

Compare that to how the Vatican closed ranks behind the then IOR head Archbishop Paul Marcinkus in the 1980s - despite the major scandal of Banco Ambrosiano and banker suicides and the Vatican having to restitute $250 million to affected clients of the Ambrosiano of which IOR was the major stockholder... Yet John Paul II kept him in his position as IOR head for another eight years until he retired.

The least Gotti Tedeschi was entitled to was elementary decency in the way he was dismissed - and there was certainly nothing decent, much less Christian, about the way it was done. The man who was the principal technical adviser to Benedict XVI for Caritas in veritate was tossed out and literally trashed in the most humiliating and despicable way possible. He is retrospectively pictured now by the Vatican spinmeisters as having been the direct subject of investigation by an Italian prosecutor in connection with a 23-million-euro IOR transaction.

All the while the Vatican had told us in more than one communique that it was a merely technical question, which appears to have been resolved because the Italians released the 23-million euros they had sequestered pending the investigation. If Gotti Tedeschi was the personal object of the investigation, what about Paolo Cipriani, the IOR director-general (one of those who signed the no-confidence vote in Gotti Tedeschi yesterday), who was also named in the investigation because of his position in the bank as Gotti Tedeschi was?

Indeed the Vatican and the IOR moved on from that glitch, such that on December 30, 2010, Benedict XVI could promulgate an unprecedented law intended to establish transparency in the financial transactions of all Vatican agencies and to put them all under a watchdog financial authority. And there was the literal rub.

Apparently Cardinal Bertone and his protege at the Vatican Governatorate, Cardinal Bertello, then got together to propose an amendment to the new law that would also give supervisory financial powers to the Secretariat of State, the Governatorate and the Vatican Gendarmerie! The newly created Authority for Financial Information would no longer be 'the authority' or even 'an authority' because it would then have to co-exist with whatever mechanisms those other Johnny-come-lately agencies would decide to put in place. It's the classic too many cooks trying to spoil the broth.

We learned from the 'preview' of the leaked documents last February that both Cardinal Nicora of the AIF and Gotti Tedeschi opposed this watering-down of the Authority which would virtually nullify its intentions. Too bad for them the Bertone faction apparently got their amendment through (to the Pope, or it would not have become law), but Gotti Tedeschi's opposition to their power-sharing scheme was apparently taken badly by Bertone - who had personally recommended Gotti Tedeschi to take the top post at IOR back when! (These reservations were, of course, shared by some of the Moneyval inspectors who came to inspect the state of implementation of the Vatican's transparency measures, and found the amended law problematic because it gave too much 'political power' to the Secretariat of State in financial transactions.)

When Gotti Tedeschi also had second thoughts about putting IOR money into getting control of the financially-strapped San Raffaele empire, as Bertone wanted, and which the Pope vetoed, Gotti Tedeschi probably knew his days at IOR were numbered. [Probably he wanted to stay on at least until and if the Vatican was approved for the 'white list' in July.]

Now, overnight the Italian banking world's Sir Galahad - sans peur et sans reproche - is portrayed as nothing less than a criminal who 'failed to fulfill his functions as IOR head', 'who only made things worse at IOR instead of cleaning it up as he was told to do', and worse, now accused of leaking to the media his own internal memoranda opposing the AIF!

These developments are absolutely Byzantine in their intricate intrigue. One might almost say the Vatican axe-wielders reached far back into time to learn from the Borgias how best to cut down one's enemies without having to kill them literally.

Now, this intrigue involving the Pope's valet. The one thing that the new developments have served to show so far is that if indeed the hapless Paolo is the villain, then Nuzzi's melodramatic 'background' story about his source 'Maria' was really and truly all fiction.

Gabriele wasn't taken into Benedict XVI's papal household until 2006 when his predecessor Angelo Gugel - who had valeted for John Paul II - retired. How could Gabriele, who previously worked for Mons. Harvey, prefect of the Pontifical Household [who does not live in the pontifical household], have conceivably started gathering his dossiers at the funeral of John Paul II because he thought it was time 'reality' behind the scenes ought to be exposed? [He snuck into the papal apartments while everyone was at the funeral???] But that 'reality' would have had nothing to do with Benedict XVI who was two weeks away from being elected. Then why don't the leaked documents include anything from the John Paul years?

Are we to believe that behind the ingenuous look and demeanor of this man - who even more than the Pope's own brother has had the closest daily physical contact with Benedict XVI, helping him in his daily physical routine, from getting dressed and undressed, to serving his meals, to keeping close to him at all times when he is out in public, to be sure he is there with any conceivable sudden necessity that the Pope may have, all but tucking him into bed - is it possible that all the while there lurked a cold-blooded traitor intending to harm him with distasteful indiscretions?

If he did it, was he offered financial incentives by whoever was pulling his strings? Because it is hard to imagine what could have motivated someone with the unimaginable privilege of serving the Pope - a living saint - with his bodily needs, as part of what is now Benedict XVI's family to the end of his days.

Or, since the documents disclosed by Nuzzi only go back two years at most, did some satanic mastermind in the Apostolic Palace (which also houses the Secretariat of State) who has it in for Bertone, somehow hit upon Gabriele to do the dirty work for him, and has now hung him out to dry? Would Gabriele have been so naive as to keep the stolen documents in his own house to be 'discovered' by the police? And why does the motley mix of documents revealed by Nuzzi also include correspondence received at the Secretariat of State, not necessarily by the Pope himself?

The Vatican was careful not to name Gabriele in its statements about the 'unearthing of the mole', but someone sure made it known right away to the media - with the subsequent detail of what the police reportedly found in his house.

On the other hand, the Vatican police must have presented the Pope with enough facts to convince him that they were not doing an injustice by arresting his valet. Nor can one imagine them planting the documents they claim to have found in his house, though anything is possible in these circumstances.

The only major question I can interpose is: Where would Gabriele have found the time and the opportunity to do all this - to rummage the files in the Pope's private study, take out what he thought was 'useful' and make copies of them, all of this presumably over a time period of at least two years, without anyone ever suspecting anything! It is even less likely that he would have taken out the files to copy them elsewhere and then return them the next day.

To begin with, one cannot imagine he has any idle time, by himself, when he is in the papal apartments - when the only time he would not need to be directly at the Pope's beck and call is when the Pope is working in his study with his secretaries. And his work is such that he leaves to go home to his family as soon as the Pope tells him he is done for the day - when the Pope continues to work in his study until he has to go to bed. So if he was the traitor, one can only be in awe of the absolute efficiency with which he did the job.

John Paul II forgave Ali Agca for trying to kill him. I cannot imagine that if Gabriele were to be found guilty after due process - it is outrageous that all the Vatican statements so far about him, even now that they use his name openly, do not seem to contain the presumption of innocence that is due every accused person - that Benedict XVI has not already forgiven him, and prays for him and his family.

Andrea Tornielli on his blog today gives his reasons for believing that even if Gabriele was the one physically responsible for getting copies of the documents out of the Vatican, there had to be someone far more significant in the pecking order who used him as an instrument.

Obviously, the arrest of Paolo Gabriele is not the last word in all this. If indeed he had anything to do with this monstrous scenario of betrayal, then maybe he can reveal far more interesting things. For now, anyone out there who may be the real mastermind and puppet-handler behind all this is quietly celebrating - while all eyes are temporarily off from the Secretariat of State where I continue to think the plot resides.

Whoever they are who mean the Pope no good, they've already accomplished one thing - to show the world the apparent state of disarray in Vatican administration. They may think they are really targetting Cardinal Bertone, but those who are already inclined to be hostile or skeptical of Benedict XVI will blame him because he named Bertone. Which seems increasingly to be the one off-key decision that this Pope, much as I love and respect him, has made.

P.S. In all this 'excitement' about catching the presumed crow, is the Vatican doing anything to look into the criminal responsibility of Nuzzi who knowingly divulged stolen private information to the public for commercial purposes (to sell a book)? He is equally culpable as the person(s) who stole the documents.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/05/2012 03:49]

Saturday, May 26, Seventh Week of Easter

Center photo is the saint's 'founder' statue in St. Peter's Basilica; next to it, a Tiepolo painting from 1740.
SAN FILIPPO NERI (Italy, 1515-1575), Priest, Mystic, 'Apostle of Rome', Founder of the Congregation of the Oratory
He was born to a well-to-do family in Florence and sent as a teenager to live with an unmarried uncle near Montecassino whose business he was expected to inherit. But he decided to give up worldly advantages and went to Rome to study philosophy and theology, spending the next 17 years in prayer and a voluntary apostolate of helping the poor. During this time, he spent his nights in the catacomb of St. Sebastian, where in 1544, he is believed to have experienced a mystical ecstasy that inflamed his heart to the point of breaking two of his ribs. Meanwhile, he had gathered around him other laymen interested in prayer and serving the poor, pilgrims to Rome, and the convalescent. They also met every night for prayers, discussions and listening to music based on scenes of sacred history that were set to music. Among his disciples was Giovanni da Palestrina and Tomas Luis de Victoria who composed music that came to be known as oratorios, and from which the meeting halls came to be called oratories. In 1551, he finally was ordained a priest, and soon became known as an outstanding confessor as well as, even in his lifetime, 'the apostle of Rome'. In 1556, he founded the Congregation of the Oratory where priests engaged in apostolate for the poor and the sick could live in a community without professing monastic vows. Besides their daily Oratory gatherings, members also preached at a different church every night. They were accused of heresy by some because at their meetings, laymen spoke on religious subjects, and because the music they introduced was considered secular. Nonetheless, Philip - who was known for his good humor, ready laughter and easy communication with everyone, as much as for his holiness - was sought out for spiritual counsel by many prominent figures of his day and became one of the most influential figures of the Counter Reformation. The more ample version of the Roman chasuble that he and St. Ignatius are shown wearing in many paintings has been called the 'Philippine' chasuble. He founded the Chiesa Nuova in Rome, where his remains are venerated. He was beatified in 1615 and canonized in 1622 as the single Italian along with four great Spanish saints of the Counter-Reformation: Ignacio de Loyola, Francisco Javier (Francis Xavier), Teresa de Jesus of Avila, and Juan de la Cruz - the first two, founding fathers of the Jesuit order, the other two Carmelite reformers who were also among the great writers of Spain's Golden Age and later named Doctors of the Church.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/052612.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education
(Seminaries and Higher Institutes of Learning)

At 11:45, he was at St. Peter's Square for a special audience with members of the Italian movement
Rinnovamento dello Spirito (Renewal of the Spirit) on their 40th anniversary. Address in Italian.


Pope donates 100,000 euros
for communities recently
struck by earthquake

May 26, 2012

In the aftermath of the earthquake that recently struck the territory of the dioceses of Carpi, Mantua, Modena and Ferrara-Comacchio-Nonantola, Pope Benedict, through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, has sent a special donation of €100,000, to be divided between the dioceses affected by the disaster, in support of the relief work undertaken by the Catholic Church for the victims.

This donation is intended to be a concrete expression of the feelings of spiritual closeness and paternal solicitude of the Holy Father for the people affected by the earthquake.


STATEMENT FROM FR. LOMBARDI
Translated from


Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, released this statement today:

---

I confirm that the person who was arrested Wednesday evening at his residence on Vatican territory for illegal possession of private documents is Mr. Paolo Gabriele, who remains in detention.

The first phase of the 'preliminary interrogation' under the direction of a Vatican promoter of justice [prosecutor], Prof. Nicola Picardi, has been concluded, and a 'formal interrogation' has begun, conducted by an investigating magistrate, Prof. Piero Antonio Bonnet.

The accused has named two attorneys of his confidence who are competent to act before the Vatican tribunal, and has had the chance to meet with them. They can assist him in the successive phases of the proceedings.

He enjoys all the juridical guarantees provided by the penal codes and by penal proceedings currently in force within Vatican City State.

The interrogatory phase will continue until an adequate overview is obtained of the situation being investigated, following which the investigating magistrate will proceed to dismiss the charges or bring the case to trial.

---

Additional information that has now come out in the Italian media on the Gabriele case:

- Marco Tosatti, Vaticanista of La Stampa, says in his blog that he has been told by his sources that Vatican police found in Gabriele's home 'boxes' of private documents presumably from the Pope's files, along with "all the apparatus necessary to copy and reproduce documents". [Which could be a common 3-in-1 fax/scanner/copier that anyone could legitimately have, so that doesn't necessarily 'prove' anything. Gabriele's lawyers could well demand to have the documents and the boxes they were kept in, dusted for Gabriele's fingerprints, if they wished to show they were planted.]

- TGcom says that so far, Gabriele has reportedly kept his silence and refused to answer questions from the police and the investigating magistrate.

- Ignazio Ingrao in Panorama claims that Vatican police started investigating the Pope's immediate circle after determining that some of the documents leaked to Nuzzi had never been forwarded to the Secretariat of State; that everyone in the Pope's household, including two male persons assigned to help out Gabriele in his chores, were then questioned; and that suspicion alit on Gabriele because he gave some contradictory answers.

- Gabriele's wife told a journalist she was 'much saddened and pained' by what is happening, but that she has been told by her husband's lawyers not to say anything about the case itself.

- If Gabriele is prosecuted and found guilty, he could reportedly face a 30-year jail term for violation of personal privacy and the privacy of correspondence, along with the attendant consequences.

- AGI says that speaking to newsmen after issuing the statement above, Fr. Lombardi said this, in his personal capacity: "There isgreat affection here for the family of Paolo Gabriele, and we hope that his family will be able to overcome this moment... You can imagine the Pope's state of mind about this. All those who have been to the Apostolic Palace often and have known Paolo can only feel sorrow and surprise today".

Just a minor word about the terms that have been used to describe Paolo Gabriele. The Anglophone press has been using 'butler', even as the Italian media moved from calling him 'asistente da camara' (literally, assistant in the bedroom, i.e., valet) as they had always done before this, and which is the proper description, to 'maggiordomo'. But by all accounts, he was neither butler nor majordomo, since he was primarily the Pope's valet - anyone in high office who must make a lot of public appearances generally needs one. He was not the butler - though he served meals when there was company - nor the majordomo, both of which would imply that he had the senior role in running the household, which he obviously did not. For which reason, I will continue to refer to him as the Pope's former valet.

Pope Benedict commends
Italian lay ecclesial movement
on its 40th anniversary

May 26, 2012

Some 30,000 people attended Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square Saturday morning to commemorate forty years since the founding of the movement Rinnovamento Nello Spirito (Renewal in the Spirit) in Italy.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian bishops' conference(CEI), the main celebrant.



The celebration was immediately followed by a special audience with Pope Benedict XVI, who addressed the members of the movement, saying in part:

---

In your pilgrimage, where you have the opportunity to spend time in prayer before the tomb of Saint Peter, may you reinvigorate your faith, grow in the Christian witness, and confront without fear, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the challenging tasks of the new evangelization.

Dear friends, never tire of turning towards heaven: the world is in need of prayer. Be of service to those men and women who feel drawn towards Heaven in their lives, giving praise to the Lord through a new way of life. And may you be joyful Christians!

I entrust each and every one of you to the most Holy Mary, who was present at the Last Supper and the event of Pentecost. Persevere with her in prayer, go forward guided by the light of the Holy Spirit, living and proclaiming the announcement of Christ.

---

The Holy Father concluded by imparting his Apostolic Blessing upon those who were present and their families.


The Pope adjusts a scarf of the Rinnovamento movement.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

I welcome you with great joy on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the birth of the movement Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo in Italy. as an expression of that vast movement of charismatic renewal throughout the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council.

I greet you all with affection, starting with your national president, whom I thank for his beautiful words, filled with the Spirit, which he addressed to me in your behalf.

I greet your spiritual adviser, the members of your council, the officials and animators of your various groups and of your community throughout Italy.

In this pilgrimage of yours, which gives you the opportunity to linger in prayer at the tomb of St. Peter, you will be able to reinvigorate your faith, grow in Christian witness and fearlessly face, led by the Holy Spirit, the demanding tasks of the new evangelization.

I am glad to meet you on the eve of Pentecost, a fundamental feast for the Church that is also very significant to your movement. I call on you to always welcome the love of God which is communicated to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the principal unifier of the Church.

In these four decades, you have striven to offer your specific contribution to spreading the Kingdom of God and to the edification of the Christian community, thus nourishing communion with the Successor of Peter, with your Pastors, and with the whole Church.

In various ways, you have affirmed the primacy of God, to whom we always render our supreme adoration. And you have sought to propose this experience to the new generations, showing them the joy of new life in the Spirit, through your wide-reaching work of formation and multiple activities linked to the new evangelization and the missio ad gentes.

Your Apostolate work has thus contributed to the growth of spiritual life in Italy's social and ecclesial fabric, through ways of conversion that have led many persons to be made whole again in the profundity of God's love, and many families to overcome difficulties.

Nor has your movement lacked for young men who have generously responded to the vocation of special consecration to God in the priesthood or in consecrated life. For all this, I give thanks to you and to the Lord.

Dear friends, continue to bear witness to the joy of faith in Christ, the beauty of being disciples of Christ, the power of love that his Gospel has liberated in history, as well as the incomparable grace that every believer can experience in the Church, through the sanctifying practice of the Sacraments and the humble and disinterested exercise of your charisms which, as St. Paul says, must always be used for the common good.

Cultivate elevated and generous desires in your soul. Take as your own the thoughts, sentiments and actions of Jesus. Yes, the Lord calls on each of you to be a tireless collaborator in his plan of salvation, which changes hearts. And he needs you in order to make your families, your communities, and your cities, places of hope and love.

In the present society, we live in a situation that is in many ways precarious, characterized by uncertainty and fragmentary choices. Often there are no valid points of reference to inspire one's own existence.

Therefore it becomes even more important to build the edifice of life and all social relationships on the stable rock of God's Word, allowing yourselves to be guided by the Magisterium of the Church. One increasingly understands the decisive value of Jesus's statement when he said: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock" (Mt 7,24-25).

The Lord is with us - he acts through the power of his Spirit. He invites us to grow in trust and abandonment to his will, in our fidelity to our calling, and in the commitment to become 'adult' in faith, in hope and in charity.

Adult, according to the Gospel, is not he who is subject to no one and needs no one. Adult - meaning mature and responsible - can only describe he who makes himself small, humble and a servant before God, who does not simply follow the winds of time.

Therefore it is necessary to form consciences in the light of God's Word, and thus give them firmness and true maturity. The Word of God inspires and gives meaning to every ecclesial and human project, even when it concerns the edification of the earthly city (cfr Ps 127,1). The spirit of institutions must be reanimated and history must be made fruitful with seeds of new life.

Today, believers are called on to a convinced, sincere and credible testimony of faith, closely linked to a commitment to charity. Indeed, it is through charity that even persons who are remote or indifferent to the message of the Gospel are able to get close to the truth and convert themselves to the merciful love of the heavenly Father.

In this regard, I express my satisfaction for what you are doing to spread a 'culture of Pentecost' in social circles, proposing spiritual animation with initiatives in favor of those who suffer poor living conditions and marginalization.

I am thinking especially of your work to achieve spiritual and material renewal for detainees and ex-detainees. Of the Pole of Excellence for Human Promotion and Solidarity named after Mario and Luigi Sturzo in Caltagirone. And of your International Center for the Family in Nazareth, whose first stone I had the joy of blessing in 2009. Continue with your commitment in behalf of the family, the irreplaceable place to educate children in love and self-sacrifice.

Dear friends of the Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo! Do not tire of turning to heaven: the world needs prayer. It can do with men and women who feel the attraction of Heaven in their lives, who make of the praise of God a new lifestyle. And be joyous Christians!

I entrust you all to the Most Blessed Mary, who was in the Cenacle at the Pentecost. Be constant like her in prayer. Proceed along your journey quided by the light of the Holy Spirit, living and proclaiming the message of Christ.

I send you forth with my Apostolic Blessing, that I impart affectionately to you, and to all your members and your families. Thank you.

---

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/05/2012 02:08]

AP has a fairly objective wrap-up of this topic so far - minus the new developments reported in the Italian media, except that it persists in calling Gabriele 'the Pope's butler' (ex, now!).

Vatican confirms the Pope's butler
was person arrested for Vatileaks
by NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, May 26 (AP) — The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that the Pope's butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance. [I do take exception to the use of the word 'corruption' because the only 'proof' offered of this so far is that 'big deal' 500,000-euro contract denounced by Mons. Vigano for the construction of the 2009 Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square, which the technical services department have explained appropriately. The cost dropped down to 350,000 euros the following year because the contractors no longer had build a new platform and frames after the investment the previous year to make these permanent and reusable year after year. And yet the media continually refer to 'corruption' as though it were the prevailing culture at the Vatican. I wonder if they were equally so ready to generalize the 1982 Banco Ambrosiano-IOR scandal to being emblematic of everyone in the Wojtyla Curia!]

Paolo Gabriele, a layman and member of the papal household, was arrested Wednesday after secret documents were found in his Vatican City apartment and was continuing to be held Saturday, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Gabriele is often seen by Pope Benedict XVI's side in public, riding in the front seat of his open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the Pontiff from the rain. He has been the Pope's personal butler since 2006, one of the few members of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

His arrest followed another stunning development at the Vatican this week, the ouster of the president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, by his board. Sources close to the investigation said he, too, was found to have leaked documents, though the official reason for his ouster was that he simply failed to do his job.

The "Vatileaks" scandal has seriously embarrassed the Vatican at a time during which it is trying to show the world financial community that it has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal- plagued tax haven.

Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have undermined that effort, alleging corruption in Vatican finance as well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to show more transparency in its financial operations.

But perhaps most critically, the leaks have seemed aimed at one main goal: to discredit Pope Benedict XVI's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state.

The scandal took on even greater weight last week with the publication of "His Holiness," a book which reproduced confidential letters and memos to and from Benedict and his personal secretary. The Vatican called the book "criminal" and vowed to take legal action against the author, publisher, and whoever leaked the documents.

The Vatican had already warned of legal action against the author, Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, after he broadcast letters in January from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador.

Nuzzi, author of "Vatican SpA," a 2009 volume laying out shady dealings of the Vatican bank based on leaked documents, said he was approached by sources inside the Vatican with the trove of new documents, most of them of fairly recent vintage and many of them painting Bertone in a negative light.

Bertone, 77, had no diplomatic experience when, after Benedict's election, he took over the high-profile job as the main administrator of the Vatican and its external relations. He had long been Benedict's loyal deputy as a canon lawyer at the Vatican's orthodoxy office.

But he has been blamed for a series of gaffes that have plagued Benedict's papacy and, according to the leaked documents, generated a not inconsiderable amount of ill will directed at him from other Vatican officials.

"For some time and in various parts of the church, criticism even by the faithful has been growing about the lack of coordination and confusion that reign at its center," Mons. Paolo Sardi, the former No. 2 official in the Vatican secretariat of state, wrote to the Pope in 2009, according to a letter reproduced in "His Holiness."

At a news conference this week, Nuzzi defended the publication of the book and said he wasn't afraid of Vatican retaliation. In fact, he even taunted Vatican prosecutors to seek help from Italian magistrates to investigate the case, charging that it would be a remarkable turnaround, given that the Vatican has been less than helpful in the past when Italian prosecutors came asking for information for their investigations.

He praised his sources — and said there were several — in his acknowledgments, writing: "They risked their jobs, loves, lives to entrust their big and little secrets."

Nuzzi had no comment Saturday about the arrest. [He did - he told an Italian TV reporter that he would neither deny nor confirm if Gabriele was one of his sources.]

Lombardi said Saturday the arrest of Gabriele was a sad development for all Vatican staff. "Everyone knows him in the Vatican, and there's certainly surprise and pain, and great affection for his beloved family," Lombardi said.

Lombardi said Gabriele had met with his two lawyers and that the Vatican judicial system was taking its investigative course. He hasn't been indicted.

The Vatican has taken the leaks very seriously, with Benedict appointing a commission of cardinals to investigate. Vatican gendarmes as well as prosecutors are also investigating the sources of the leaks. [Let us hope so, because the impression given at this time is that Gabriele was the only source of the documents made public by Nuzzi, and that the investigation can stop there.]

John Allen's 'All Things Catholic' column yesterday entitled "All hell breaks loose in the Vatican'
ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/all-hell-breaks-loose-holy-see
discusses the initial report about Gabriele's arrest in connection with Vatileaks, but mostly the dismissal of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi from the IOR. He offers no new information or insight, except that he furnishes the names of the IOR Administrative Council members who carried out the 'no-confidence' vote at the behest of the Secretariat of State (which I had been meaning to research but never got around to doing, so thanks!):
- Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, German, former executive director of Deutsche Bank, now named interim president of IOR
- Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus
- Manuel Soto Serrano, a Spanish banker and accounting professional
- Giovanni De Censi, an Italian banker and businessman



Aldo Maria Valli is the Vatican correspondent for Italian state TV's premier news program RAI-TG1. A known follower of Cardinal Carlo Maria Montini, he has not always been kind to Benedict XVI, but in 2010, he did write a book called "LA VERITA SUL PAPA' (The truth about the Pope), subtitled "Why he is attacked, why he is heeded" that has been published also in Polish and Spanish.

Gotti Tedeschi and Gabriele:
Both most devoted to Benedict XVI,
now both the target of serious charges
by Aldo Maria Valli
Translated from

May 26, 2012

Now, as is usually said in such cases, let justice take its course. Although there is great perplexity about this development.

Paolo Gabriele, who had been the valet to His Holiness since 2006, and who is now accused of having been the person responsible for giving out private documents from the Pope's files for publication, was a man who seemed most devoted to the Pope and was known to everyone for his simplicity and affable ways.

He seems to be the exact opposite of a sinister conspirator who wants to rake up muck and spew forth for the public the least confessable of Vatican secrets.

Whoever has met him cannot imagine him lifting papers from the Pope's desk, leaving the study to find the nearest photocopier and then returning the papers carefully where he found them. Just as it is difficult that such an enterprise could be the work of a single person.

The newsman Gianluigi Nuzzi, who was the recipient of these stolen files, has said that the traitor did so in order to denounce the hypocrisy in many Vatican actions and to make the public understand how difficult it is for someone within the Vatican who seriously takes Benedict XVI's admonitions to clean house!

Nuzzi has also indicated that he had at least twenty sources from various agencies of the Vatican. [A claim that hardly seems plausible in view of the general randomness and relative lack of substance of the documents he published. Surely he could not be saving the 'worst' for another book!]

Of course, it is possible that that Paolo the valet, wishing to respond in deed to the Pope's constant admonitions to 'moralization' and purification. decided to cooperate with others in an objectively illegal act (violating the privacy of correspondence) committed in the name of a greater good (to unmask the corrupt and the whited sepulchers in the Vatican).

Nonetheless, it is difficult to escape the impression that Paolo was chosen to be the classic scapegoat, especially since he is a layman, and it is known that laymen get less protection at the Vatican than those who wear a cassock.

While we await developments, the same amazement greeted the manner in which the Holy See 'liquidated' banker Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was literally cast forth summarily on the grounds that he had not lived up to the tasks assigned to him by the Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State.

In the harsh communique released by the Vatican press office, Gotti Tedeschi was accused of "failing to carry out various functions of primary importance for his position".

In effect, he was declared incompetent. But one may well ask, are they just finding this out after three years? And one questions why the dismissal came in the middle of the continuing storm over Vatileaks. And why it took all this time for the four other members of the Administrative Council to decide their head was incompetent!

The Vatican statement says "the members of the Council are saddened by the events that have led to this vote of no-confidence". That would seem to imply that in recent days, there have been specific instances that led them to their unanimous decision to fire him.

What facts are these? Is it possible, as his detractors have said, that Gotti Tedeschi himself was among the 'leakers' at the Vatican?

The banker, like the valet, is known to be most devoted to Benedict XVI - he is a man who, in order to defend the Pope and to carry out his orders, would be ready to sacrifice himself without batting an eyelash.

We can all remember when he went to see Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo, after a Rome magistrate started an investigation into whether the IOR had failed to comply in a specific transaction with international banking regulations against money laundering.

His emotion at the meeting was evident [Valli is the lead Vatican anchorman for Italian state TV, and reported the incident at the time], and the Pope was very paternal when he received him and encouraged him to move forward with his work.

Quite different, however, is the relationship between the banker and Bertone, especially after Gotti Tedeschi's clear NO to the investment of IOR funds in order to gain control of the troubled Milan-based San Raffaele empire, which was so strongly desired by Bertone.

In recent days, Gotti Tedeschi has reportedly told some friends: "Bertone has put himself in the way of the transparency desired by the Pope, and his ventures into the economic and financial fields have been anything but commendable. Besides, he gets involved in things about which he understands absolutely nothing".

The prospects offered by the Vatican today are desolating. It seems that anywhere you look, there is intramural fighting, quarrels, controversies, divisions, mutual spite.

An intellectual theologian-Pope, who continually warns against 'internal persecutions' from within the Church herself, and of those whom he called 'wolves' when he formally assumed the Petrine ministry, reigns over a tiny state which now seems to be half a public laundry for dirty linen and half a nest of vipers.

The picture it presents is one of total confusion, and so even when the Vatican announces a possible suspect for a terrible crime, it cannot even seem credible.

How does it happen that the three-man commission of cardinals - Julian Herranz, 83; Josef Tomko, 88, and Salvatore di Giorgi, 82, managed after a few days of investigation, to single out Gabriele? [In fairness to the cardinals, they were given the results of Vatican police investigations thus far, and it appears that the police had narrowed down the possible suspects to the Pope's immediate household.]

Perhaps they took lessons from Chesterton's infallible detective, Father Brown. But it is also possible that they wanted to name a suspect as soon as possible without paying too high a price in terms of the Vatican's image. As though there were still any image to defend.

[That's a very cynical conclusion, that may be unfair to the three cardinals who were named by the Pope, unless one assumes that being of the 'old school', they may prefer to keep to the culture of silence about errors and sins committed by their fellow priests and bishops. Granted, 'the Vatican' may have such a frayed public image by now that will be difficult to repair, but the Pope himself has not been shown to have been part of anything questionable, but is rather the ultimate victim of all the various machinations in play, including those directly targetting Cardinal Bertone. But the negative reflection on him is that he lends himself to being a pawn in the power game.

Bertone would do well at this point to offer his irrevocable resignation now as Secretary of State, and not continually have to subject Benedict XVI to choosing him as the lesser evil when confronted with the periodic consequences of all the hostility Bertone has been earning. It would so so much to clear the air. His enemies cannot possibility say anything worse of him than they have already said, nor can his image be any worse than it already is. He would be performing an act of self-sacrifice for the greater good and in behalf of Benedict XVI.

He will still be the Papal Camerlengo, appointed by Benedict XVI in 2007 as such, and therefore, on paper, administrator of the property and revenues of the Holy See, as well as acting Vatican chief of state during a sede vacante (period between the death of one Pope and the election of the new Pope). It is he who formally declares the Pope dead and is then involved in the preparations for the next Conclave. Theoretically, if both Cardinals Bertone and Sodano should outlive Benedict XVI, Bertone could be a counterweight to Sodano during the sede vacante.

But one has the impression Bertone enjoys power too much, or he would not be forever seeking to have more of it! He already has more power in this Pontificate in terms of the influence he seeks to wield over all the other agencies of the Vatican than Cardinal Ratzinger ever had under John Paul II, when the present Pope's influence was primarily doctrinal and theological, and never political!

The general incredulity over the arrest of Gabriele and sympathy for him in the Italian media at the moment is best exemplified in this report by ANSA, the major Italian news agency:

Gabriele in solitary detention,
severely tested and in prayer
by Nina Fabrizio


ROME, May 26 (Translated from ANSA) - Sorrowful, profoundly tested, in silence, and spending his waking day in prayer - is how Paolo Gabriele is described by those who have seen him in the Vatican police holding cell where he has been held since Wednesday evening.

These are obviously very difficult hours for the man everyone calls Paoletto at the Vatican, who now faces being charged with aggravated theft of private documents.

Perhaps worse is the shame - for this very Catholic man - of being considered the traitor, or at least one of those who stole private files from the Vatican and provided them to the media, exposing some behind-the-scenes at the Vatican that have been dissected minutely in a blaze of headlines.

And yet, Paoletto earned his unique role of being the valet to the Pope, giving him a constant physical proximity to the Pope that has now become the reason that he is the prime suspect in Vatileaks.

He worked his way up to become the valet to the Pope, after years of gaining the trust of the Vatican hierarchy,a bond that had seemed more than firm. As a very young man, he was first employed as part of the cleaning crew in the Secretariat of State. Then, he worked for Mons. James Harvey when the latter was named Prefect of the Pontifical Household.

Shortly thereafter, a letter of recommendation from Mons. Jozef Bart, rector of the Chiesa di Santo Spirito in Sassia, located at the end of the via della Conciliazione - which Paoletto had been attending as a devotee of the Divine Mercy made popular by St. Faustina Kowalska - opened the doors of the papal apartment itself to him.

He came in as a manservant under the direction of the legendary Angelo Gugel, John Paul II's valet, at which time Paoletto also earned the good graces of Don Stanislao (Dsiwisz), the Pope's personal secretary .

Then in 2006, the great promotion. Gugel himself recommended him to take over as Benedict XVI's valet when he retired. Being the Pope's personal valet means literally being his shadow from the first glimmer of dawn when the Pope wakes up, to the evening before he goes to bed. In short, for everyone at the Vatican, Gabriele was considered as one of the 'fidatissimi' - those most trusted around the Pope.

Which explains the surprise, the amazement, and even the incredulity which has been the prevalent state of mind since yesterday among his fellow citizens of Vatican city state and those outside the Vatican who have come to know him.

And yet there are accusations against him, and they are very serious.

It all began Wednesday, a weekday like any other which began as usual - the valet woke up at 6 to be at the papal apartment to help the Pope get dressed for the day. Then Mass in the Pope's chapel. And breakfast. And then, being there for the Pope, close by, during the General Audience in St. Peter's Square. Lunch with the Pope and the rest of the papal household.

It was after 4 p.m., when he was allowed to leave for the day, that everything changed. His personal Calvary began. Arriving home, he found the Vatican police conducting a search of his home.

"Private documents were found," Fr. Lombardi would later say. He was taken in for questioning. The arrest was not formalized till Friday morning when he was taken to one of the so-called 'secure rooms' at Vatican police headquarters - a room measuring 4 meters by 4. Sources say Paoletto has not made any admissions. Now, they say he has no recourse but prayer. [And the two attorneys he has named to represent him.]

Meanwhile, at the Vatican, the inquiry conducted by three cardinals named by Benedict XVI last month to investigate Vatileaks in general, continues, raising the possibility of new headlines. Experienced observers have noted that cardinals are never appointed to conduct an inquiry of this kind unless other cardinals are involved, since a cardinal can only be investigated by his fellow cardinals. [That's a rather far-fetched suggestion since there are no other cardinals with regular access to the papal apartment other than Cardinal Bertone, who has daily meetings with the Pope. And he could not be responsible for leaking out documents that are extremely derogatory to him. He is also the only cardinal in the Secretariat of State. But it does make sense if the investigation looks into exactly what the security regimen is at State, which would involve questioning Bertone himself. And in questioning the cardinal chiefs of other Vatican dicasteries who may have something to contribute to the inquiry...

Two points that have been brought up by a lawyer who is licensed to represent a client before a Vatican tribunal: 1) If Gabriele is brought to trial, it will be done expeditiously and it could be over by November; and that 2) if Gabriele is found guilty and then sentenced, the Pope as sovereign of Vatican State has the authority to grant him formal pardon or commute his sentence...Apropos, I hope Gabriele's state of mind has nonetheless allowed him to send a message to the Pope - written or through his attorneys - that he is sorry for all this trouble, without it being taken as an admission of guilt, or even professing his innocence, if he can.]

Here is Tornielli's blog, in which he is skeptical about Gabriele's culpability in all this, or that if he is guilty of anything at all, it is of being the instrument of some higher architect of the Vatileaks scheme in the Vatican hierarchy...


The Vatican 'crows'
and their mentality
Translated from

May 26, 2011

Dear friends, the news of the arrest of the Pope's valet Paolo Gabriele has upset so many persons in the Vatican. Those who know him cannot believe that he could have betrayed the Pope, lending himself to the criminal act of lifting documents from the Pope's desk and turning them over to Gianluigi Nuzzi.

I spoke with a priest who was his spiritual director, who describes Gabriele as a simple person, a true Christian, and devoted to the Pope.

On the other hand, there is proof of his activity, the police claim, and I cannot imagine that the arrest of a member of the papal household could have been made lightly, or that he has been framed by someone more powerful than he.

Let us see what happens, and above all, that the Vatican investigators and magistrates will be able to reconstruct how and why the presumed 'crow' acted, what was his motivation, and what channels he used to get the documents to Nuzzi. Let us wait to see if they can establish his guilt in the Vatileaks case.

But that which I absolutely cannot believe is that Paolo Gabriele could have been the mastermind that designed this release of private documents which ended up first on TV and on Il Fatto Quotidiano last January, and now in a book.

We are witnessing a factional war, an internal skirmish behind the walls of the Vatican. Whoever was behind the leaks did not intend to let the facts contained in the documents known to the Pope - who already knows them since he received them.

But whoever orchestrated this wanted to make the Roman Curia appear like a car without a driver, a sieve, an institution in disarray. It has been said that the target of Vatileaks is above all, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. I am convinced that maneuvering to succeed him at the head of the Curia's 'control room' has had some weight in this episode but it does not suffice to explain it.

That sophisticated mind (because it has to be a sophisticated mind within the Vatican who has managed all this, and no one can believe it has to do with low-level people), despite the claims to wanting 'transparency', would have reckoned that filtering out a mountain of private documents to the public would definitely be translated as an attack at the heart of the Vatican, and, ultimately, on the Pope.

Certainly, the undergrowth of wheeling and dealing that emerges from some of the documents published by Nuzzi is dis-arming tot he Vatican. And one must hope that beyond the sacrosanct hunt for the 'moles' and the 'crows' that the reality described by the documents in the book may bring about other internal consequences.

In the background is not just a confrontation between the Old Guard and the new, among the claimants to Bertone's seat, between conservative currents and less conservative. In the background of all this is the next Conclave and a Pope who, in the eyes of many at the Vatican, has been reigning too long despite all the blows he has taken.

One must hope that the three-man cardinal's commission and the Vatican magistrature do not stop with the valet. One must hope that they have the courage to chip away at the higher levels to find out who has designed and managed this operation. One must hope that the same determination they have shown against Paolo Gabriele will be used against those who pulled his strings even if they wear cassocks and perhaps even a zucchetto.


If Gabriele did indeed steal those documents, and if he was indeed acting in behalf of a mastermind pulling his strings, then it is very unfortunate that he was simple enough and not Christian enough to have agreed to it. Regardless of the intention, stealing anything is a sin, and betrayal of someone you profess to be devoted to is even worse, one which cannot be justified because in this particular case, especially, there is no end, no matter how noble it professes to be, that can justify the means. If this was the case, he should simply come clean, so the Pope can get to the bottom of the matter. If he played the part he seems to have done, speaking up now is the only way he can redress in some small way a betrayal beyond words.

Of course, even sophisticated minds can be incapable of seeing that they are doing wrong - with the best intentions, even, those that notoriously pave the way to hell. And the best example one might point to in this case is Cardinal Bertone, who has been doing Benedict XVI a world of wrong and seeming completely impervious to the negative consequences to the Pope of his (to my mind) self-serving actions.

One could arguably be more furious at him in all this than at those behind Vatileaks, because the latter at least are more honest in the sense of being self-aware, knowing exactly what they are doing and why. Even if we do not know what is really happening at the Vatican (we have been shown slivers of it through the Vatileaks documents), what else can one conclude from the public chronicle all these years, long before Vatileaks, of Bertone's 1) administrative incompetence - he obviously cannot run the Secretariat of State, much less the Roman Curia - and 2) his evident over-reaching into areas which are clearly not within his jurisdiction, and still less, within his expertise. Not to mention 3) his abject failure to speak up in defense of the Pope when it matters. No one, not one, in the Curia or in the media, has spoken up at all to deny, contradict, or even mitigate this disastrous record. One can almost think Satan is masquerading behind the bonhomie of the back-slapping, 'good-natured' Secretary of State. [I used to think about Bertone, long ago, before the Wielgus case, "He's a good soul, just someone in above his head, but he loves the Pope"! Since then, I have become more and more aghast at his acts of omission and commission, and perhaps too prejudiced against him to be fair, though I try to be.]

Let us see what happens, and above all, pray for Benedict XVI, that these body blows will make him stronger and not beat him down, that his example and his teaching may not be eroded in the public mind by all this Satanic poison, and that the Holy Spirit this Pentecost may exorcise all traces of Satan from the Vatican. Surely the fire of the Spirit will prevail and "Thou shalt renew the face of the world". For now, renewing the face of the Vatican will be a start.

May 27. PENTECOST SUNDAY

From left: 12th-century Russian icon; 16th-cent. Mt. Athos icon; illumination from the Duc du Berry's Tres Riches Heures, 1413-1416; Bernini's Holy Spirit, 1647-1653, St. Peter's Basilica; El Greco, 1596-1600; Rubens, 1619; contemporary icon.
Pentecost, which celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles comes 50 days after Easter and marks the end of the Easter season.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/052712-mass-during-the-day.cfm

Today's saint:
Extreme left, a portrait of Augustine in a medieval manuscript; next to it, an icon showing Gregory the Great(left) and Augustine.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY (b Italy early 6th-century, d England ca 605)
Benedictine Monk, Missionary, Bishop, 'Apostle of England'
Augustine led the 'Gregorian Mission', one of 40 monks sent by Pope Gregory the Great to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. Eventually, they
landed in Kent, where contrary to the hostility they expected, they were welcomed by King Ethelred, a pagan married to a Christian. He set them
up in Canterbury and were allowed to carry out their mission freely. In fact, he himself converted. Augustine was consecrated a bishop in France
and went back to establish his See in Canterbury. Soon they set up the Sees of London and Rochester as well, as well as a school for missionaries.
Problems arose from the hostility between the Christianized Britons, who also insisted on retaining Celtic customs, and the Anglo-Saxons. However,
following Pope Gregory's advice, Augustine and his missionaries "purified rather than destroyed pagan temples and customs, and transformed their
feasts into Christian feasts". Before Augustine died, he named one of his fellow missionaries, who would eventually become St. Lawrence of Canterbury,
to succeed him. Upon his death, Augustine was quickly revered as a saint.


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Mass of the Pentecost - Celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the feast of the 'baptism
of the Church', the Holy Father said Pentecost was the feast of human unity, understanding and sharing, in
which man invokes the Holy Spirit of unity and truth.

Regina caeli - The Holy Father announced that on October 7, at the opening day of the Ordinary Assembly
of the Bishops' Synod on the New Evangelization, he will formally proclaim Saints Juan de Avila (Spain) and
Hildegarde von Bingen (Germany) Doctors of the Church, bringing the number of these exalted saints to 35.
They are the first Doctors of the Church proclaimed by him.


The Vatican released the text of the message sent by Benedict XVI to His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV,
Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of his episcopal consecration.
NB: Benedict XVI himself celebrates tomorrow the 35th anniversary of his episcopal consecration as Archbishop of Munich-Freising.


Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in his regular Sunday space in Corriere della Sera has an excellent reminder to make about betrayal in the Church, which dates back to Judas Iscariot. But I respectfully disagree with his basic premise that 'the faithful' have lost trust in the Church and that such trust must be recovered urgently. It is a sweeping generalization. Anyone who has 'lost trust' in the Church because of these events had little faith, or weak faith, to begin with, and is ever ready to cite anything negative reported in the media as a pretext for 'losing trust' in the Church.

Betrayal in the Church:
'Now the Church must recover
the trust of the faithful'
by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini
Translated from

May 27, 2012

The Church, after the news these days about 'crows' in the Vatican, must urgently recover the trust of the faithful.

It was Jesus's own experience to be betrayed and sold - the experience of the Church and any Pope cannot be less.

Whoever screams 'Scandal! now must remember what happened two thousand years ago. What's happening today was also born out of betrayal, of an evil action. As a Church, we must ask forgiveness from everyone. [True, but also penance from the present Judases today - and earthly justice, where that is possible.]

Scandal always has a triple nature - it involves he who does it, he who accepts it, he who gains from it. But the Church can look beyond and see the positive sense in what has emerged so far.

The Church may lose money, but she does not lose herself. Whatever has happened can and should bring us closer to the Gospel and teach the Church not to aim for treasures on earth (cfr Mt 6,19-21).

[The last paragraph is perplexing. How does it apply to the current furor over stolen documents? Any material gain coming from the release and publication of stolen documents certainly did not go to the Church. And if the reference is to the problems of IOR, the Church has not lost 'treasure' through IOR since 1982, when this institution had to pay some $250 million to restitute victims of the Banco Ambrosiano crash. The primary function of IOR is to fund Church undertakings of primarily charitable nature through proper management of its resources. It should be judged on whether it is carrying out this function, and since December 2010, whether its banking operations are in line with international norms. Infighting at IOR is irrelevant to the faithful if these two criteria are met.]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/05/2012 04:17]

MASS OF PENTECOST SUNDAY



At 9:30 this morning, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided at St. Peter's Basilica at Holy Mass with the cardinals, archbishops and bishops present in Rome as concelebrants.



Here is Vatican Radio's English translation of the Holy Father's homily:

---

Dear brothers and sisters

I am happy to celebrate this Holy Mass with you – a Mass animated by the Choir of the Academy of Santa Cecilia and by the Youth Orchestra, which I thank – on this Feast of Pentecost.

This mystery constitutes the baptism of the Church, it is an event that gave the Church the initial shape and thrust of its mission, so to speak. This shape and thrust are always valid, always timely, and they are renewed through the actions of the liturgy, especially.

This morning I want to reflect on an essential aspect of the mystery of Pentecost, which maintains all its importance in our own day as well. Pentecost is the feast of human unity, understanding and sharing.

We can all see how in our world, despite us being closer to one another through developments in communications, with geographical distances seeming to disappear – understanding and sharing among people is often superficial and difficult.

There are imbalances that frequently lead to conflicts; dialogue between generations is hard and differences sometimes prevail; we witness daily events where people appear to be growing more aggressive and belligerent; understanding one another takes too much effort and people prefer to remain inside their own sphere, cultivating their own interests. In this situation, can we really discover and experience the unity we so need?

The account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, which we heard in the first reading, is set against a background that contains one of the last great frescoes of the Old Testament: the ancient story of the construction of the Tower of Babel.

But what is Babel? It is the description of a kingdom in which people have concentrated so much power they think they no longer need depend on a God who is far away. They believe they are so powerful they can build their own way to heaven in order to open the gates and put themselves in God's place.

But it is at this very moment that something strange and unusual happens. While they are working to build the tower, they suddenly realise they are working against one another. While trying to be like God, they run the risk of not even being human – because they have lost an essential element of being human: the ability to agree, to understand one another and to work together.

This biblical story contains an eternal truth: we see this truth throughout history and in our own time as well. Progress and science have given us the power to dominate the forces of nature, to manipulate the elements, to reproduce living things, almost to the point of manufacturing human beings.

In this situation, praying to God appears outmoded, pointless, because we can build and create whatever we want. We do not realise that we are reliving the same experience as Babel.

It's true we have multiplied the possibilities of communicating, of possessing information, of transmitting news – but can we say our ability to understand each other has increased? Or, paradoxically, do we understand each other even less?

Doesn't it seem like feelings of mistrust, suspicion and mutual fear have insinuated themselves into human relationships to the point where one person can even pose a threat to another? Let's go back to the initial question: can unity and harmony really exist? How?

The answer lies in Sacred Scripture: unity can only exist as a gift of God's Spirit, which will give us a new heart and a new tongue, a new ability to communicate. This is what happened at Pentecost.

On that morning, fifty days after Easter, a powerful wind blew over Jerusalem and the flame of the Holy Spirit descended on the gathered disciples. It came to rest upon the head of each of them and ignited in them a divine fire, a fire of love, capable of transforming things.

Their fear disappeared, their hearts were filled with new strength, their tongues were loosened and they began to speak freely, in such a way that everyone could understand the news that Jesus Christ had died and was risen. On Pentecost, where there was division and incomprehension, unity and understanding were born.

But let's look at today's Gospel in which Jesus affirms: “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to the whole truth”.

Speaking about the Holy Spirit, Jesus is explaining to us what the Church is and how she must live in order to be herself, to be the place of unity and communion in Truth; he tells us that acting like Christians means not being closed inside our own spheres, but opening ourselves towards others; it means welcoming the whole Church within ourselves or, better still, allowing the Church to welcome us.

So, when I speak, think and act like a Christian, I don't stay closed off within myself – but I do so in everything and starting from everything: thus the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of unity and truth, can continue to resonate in people's hearts and minds, encouraging them to meet and welcome one another.

Precisely because it acts in this way, the Spirit introduces us to the whole truth, who is Jesus, and guides us to examine and understand it. We do not grow in understanding by closing ourselves off inside ourselves, but only by becoming capable of listening and sharing, in the “ourselves” of the Church, with an attitude of deep personal humility.

Now it's clearer why Babel is Babel and Pentecost is Pentecost. When people want to become God, they succeed only in pitting themselves against each other. When they place themselves within the Lord's truth, on the other hand, they open themselves to the action of his Spirit which supports and unites them.

The contrast between Babel and Pentecost returns in the second reading, where the Apostle Paul says: “Walk according to the Spirit and you will not be brought to satisfy the desires of the flesh”.

St Paul tells us that our personal life is marked by interior conflict and division, between impulses that come from the flesh and those that come from the Spirit: and we cannot follow all of them.

We cannot be both selfish and generous, we cannot follow the tendency to dominate others and experience the joy of disinterested service. We have to choose which impulse to follow and we can do so authentically only with the help of the Spirit of Christ.

St Paul lists the works of the flesh: they are the sins of selfishness and violence, like hostility, discord, jealousy, dissent. These are thoughts and actions that do not allow us to live in a truly human and Christian way, in love. This direction leads us to losing our life. The Holy Spirit, though, guides us towards the heights of God, so that, on this earth, we can already experience the seed of divine life that is within us.

St Paul confirms: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace”. We note how the Apostle uses the plural to describe the works of the flesh that provoke the loss of our humanity – while he uses the singular to define the action of the Spirit, speaking of “the fruit”. In the same way, the dispersion of Babel contrasts with the unity of Pentecost.

Dear friends, we must live according to the Spirit of unity and truth, and this is why we must pray for the Spirit to enlighten and guide us to overcome the temptation to follow our own truths, and to welcome the truth of Christ transmitted in the Church.

Luke's account of Pentecost tells us that, before rising to heaven, Jesus asked the Apostles to stay together and to prepare themselves to receive the Holy Spirit. And they gathered together in prayer with Mary in the Upper Room and awaited the promised event.

Just as when it was born, the Church today still gathers with Mary and prays: “Veni Sancte Spiritus! - Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love!”. Amen.

---

REGINA CAELI TODAY



Pope Benedict will formally proclaim
Juan de Avila and Hildegarde von Bingen
Doctors of the Church on Oct. 7

Addressing the faithful in St. Peter's Square today on the last Regina caeli for the liturgical year, the Holy Father noted that Pentecost Sunday today "completes the Easter season.”

“This feast reminds us and experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other disciples gathered in prayer to the Virgin Mary in the Upper Room,” the Pope said. “Jesus, risen and ascended into heaven, sends His Spirit to the Church, so that all Christians can share in His divine life and become His effective witness in the world.”

Noting that the Holy Spirit “continues to inspire women and men who engage in the pursuit of truth”, the Pope announced that on October 7, at the beginning of the Ordinary Assembly of the Bishops' Synod to discuss the New Evangelization, he will proclaim St. Juan de Avila and and St. Hildegard von Bingen as Doctors of the Church.

“These two great witnesses of the faith lived in very different historical periods and came from different cultural backgrounds,” he said. “But the sanctity of life and depth of teaching makes them perpetually present: the grace of the Holy Spirit, in fact, projected them into that experience of penetrating understanding of divine revelation and intelligent dialogue with the world that constitutes the horizon of permanent life and action of the Church.”

“Especially in light of the project of the New Evangelization, to which the Synodal Assembly will be dedicated, and on the vigil of the Year of Faith, these two figures of saints and doctors are of considerable importance and relevance.”

Pope Benedict then invited the tens of thousands of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square to join him in saying the Regina Coeli, praying that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Church might “be powerfully animated by the Holy Spirit to witness Christ's Gospel with boldness and ever more open to the fullness of truth.”

After the prayers, he reminded the faithful that on Friday, June 1, he will be going to Milan "to be with families from all over the world celebrating the Seventh World Meeting of Families". He will be with them until June 3, for the Concluding Mass of the event.

"I ask you to join me in praying for the success of this important event, and that families may be filled with the Holy Spirit, rediscover the joy of their vocation in the Church and the world, and bear loving witness to the faith," he said.



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

---

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, which brings the period of Easter to an end, fifty days after the Sunday of the Resurrection.

This solemnity reminds us and makes us relive the outpouring of teh Holy Spirit ont he Apostles and other disciples who were gathered in prayer with the Virgin Mary at the Cenacle (cfr Acts 2,1-11).

Jesus, resurrected and having ascended to heaven, send his Spirit to the Church so that every Christian may take part in his divine life and become a valid witness for him to the world.

The Holy Spirit, bursting into history, defeats its aridity, opens hears to hope, stimulates and favors in us the interior maturation of our relationship to God and to our neighbor.

The Spirit, who "had spoken through the prophets", with the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, continues to inspire men and women who are committed to the search for the truth, proposing original ways of knowing and of appreciating in depth the mystery of God, of man, and of the world.

In this context, I am happy to announce that on October 7, at the start of the Ordinary Assembly of the Bishops' Synod, I shall proclaim St. Juan de Avila and St. Hildegarde von Bingen Doctors of the universal Church.

These two great witnesses to the faith lived in very different historical periods and cultural environments.

Hildegarde was a Benedictine nun in the heart of Germany's Middle Ages, an authentic teacher o theology and profound scholar of the natural sciences and of music.

Juan de Avila, a diocesan priest during the Spanish Renaissance, took part in the turmoil of the cultural and spiritual renewal of the Church and of society at the dawn of the modernity.

But the sanctity of their lives and the profundity of their teaching make them perennially relevant: the grace of the Holy Spirit, in fact, projected them into that experience of penetrating comprehension of divine revelation and of an intelligent dialog with the world that constitute the permanent horizon of the life and activity of the Church.

Especially in the light of the Church's drive for a new evangelization, to which the Synodal Assembly will be dedicated, and on the eve of the Year of Faith, these two figures - saints and Doctors of the Church - are of relevant importance and topicality.

Even in our day, through their teaching, the Spirit of the Risen Lord continues to make his voice heard and to illuminate the journey that leads to that Truth which alone can make us free ad give full meaning to9 our life.

As we pray the Regina caeli together, let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary so she may obtain for the Church that she be powerfully animated by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Christ with evangelical directness and to open herself ever more to the fullness of truth.

After the prayers, he said:
This morning, in Vannes, France, Mother St-Louis, born Louise-Élisabeth Molé, founder of the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis, who lived between the 18th and 19th centuries, was proclaimed Blessed. Let us give thanks to God for this exemplary witness to love for God and neighbor.

I also wish to remind you that this Friday, June 1, I will be going to Milan for the VII World Encounter of Families. I invite everyone to follow this event and to pray for its success.

In English, he said:
I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at this Regina Caeli on the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Next Friday, I will go to Milan to be with families from all over the world celebrating the Seventh World Meeting of Families. I ask you to join me in praying for the success of this important event, and that families may be filled with the Holy Spirit, rediscover the joy of their vocation in the Church and the world, and bear loving witness to the faith. Upon all of you, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!

---

ST. HILDEGARDE VON BINGEN (Germany, 1098-1179)
Benedictine Nun, Mystic, Writer, Composer, 'Sybil of the Rhine'


Benedict XVI dedicated two catecheses to her on Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, 2009, in his series on the great Christian women of the Middle Ages.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100901_en.html
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100908...
At a time when few women wrote, Hildegarde produced major works of theology and visionary writings. When few women were respected, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and the medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first musical composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed.

Although not formally canonized until recently by Benedict XVI (by extending her cult to the universal Church, in an act equivalent to canonization), Hildegarde has been regarded for centuries as a saint in her native land. Interest in this extraordinary woman was initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion. Her story is important to students of medieval history and culture, and an inspirational account of an irresistible spirit and vibrant intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural, gender barriers to achieve timeless transcendence.

Hildegarde was the tenth child born to a noble family. As was customary with the tenth child, which the family could not count on feeding, and who could be considered a tithe, she was dedicated at birth to the Church. The girl started to have visions of luminous objects at the age of three, but soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid this gift for many years. At age eight, her family sent Hildegarde to an anchoress named Jutta to receive a religious education.

Jutta was born into a wealthy and prominent family, and by all accounts was a young woman of great beauty who had spurned the world for a life decided to God as an anchoress. Hildegarde’s education was very rudimentary, and she never escaped feelings of inadequacy over her lack of schooling. She learned to read the Psalter in Latin, but her grasp of Latin grammar was never complete (she had secretaries help her write down her visions). However, she had a good intuitive feel for the intricacies of the language, constructing complicated sentences with meanings on many levels and which are still a challenge to students of her writing.

The proximity of the Jutta’s anchorage to the church of the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg exposed Hildegarde to religious services which were the basis for her own musical compositions. After Jutta’s death, when Hildegarde was 38 years of age, she was elected the head of the budding convent that had grown up around the anchorage.

During the years with Jutta, Hildegarde confided her visions only to her and a monk named Volmar, who was to become her lifelong secretary. However, in 1141 a vision of God gave Hildegarde instant understanding of the meaning of religious texts. He commanded her to write down everything she would observe in her visions. Though she never doubted the divine origin of her visions, Hildegarde wanted them to be approved by the Church. She wrote to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who took the matter to Pope Eugenius who exhorted Hildegarde to finish her writings. With papal imprimatur, Hildegarde finished her first visionary work Scivias (“Know the Ways of the Lord“) and her fame began to spread through Germany and beyond.

The 12th century was also the time of schisms and religious confusion when anyone preaching any outlandish doctrine could attract a large following. Hildegarde was critical of schismatics, and preached against them her whole life, working especially against the Cathari.

She will be the fourth female Doctor of the Church after Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux; and the second German after Albertus Magnus.


SAN JUAN DE AVILA (Spain, 1500-1569)
Priest, Apostolic Preacher, Author and Mystic, Patron of Secular Clergy


The saint was born Juan de Ávila in Almodóvar del Campo, near Toledo (Spain) in 1500, of Jewish 'converso' descent. [G][De Avila is his family name, and not an honorific of place, therefore the English translation 'John of Avila' is wrong; the real 'John of Avila' is better known in English as John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) Cross]

Before becoming a priest, he studied philosophy at the University of Salamanca, and later at the University of Alcala, where one of his teachers was the future Saint Domingo de Silos.

From the beginning, he was a powerful preacher and came to be known as the Apostle of Andalusia because he evangelized in the region as the Church launched the Counter-Reformation. He was a strong advocate for the reform of the clergy and his writings were very influential in the Council of Trent.

Juan de Avila linked the priesthood closely to the Eucharist and regarded holiness as the preeminent quality of a priest - conformity to Christ as Good Shepherd and High Priest. To this end, he recommended painstaking selection of candidates followed by rigorous spiritual and intellectual formation within a community.

He was a friend of San Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross) (1542-1591) and a spiritual adviser to St. Teresa de Jesus of Avila (1515-1582), St Francisco Borja (Francis Borgia))1510-1572), and St Pedro Alcantara (1499-1562).

His collected works were first [published in 1618 and soon translated into other languages. His best known works are the Audi Fili, translated to English as early as 1620, considered one of the best tracts on Christian perfection, and his "Spiritual Letters" to his disciples,

Though he was beatified in 1893, he was not canonized until 1970, when he also became the patron of Spanish diocesan clergy. He is one of the Spanish saints named as patrons of WYD 2011, along with Blessed John Paul II.

At WYD 2011 in Madrid, Benedict XVI announced he would proclaim Juan de Avila a Doctor of the Church, becoming the fourth Spaniard to earn this distinction (after Isidro de Sevilla, Teresa de Avila and Juan de la Cruz).

Why is Benedict XVI being blamed
for skeletons in the closet
from the past Pontificate?

As if the Holy Father does not have enough problems within the Vatican right now, Italian media reports of what took place at the Regina caeli today constitute new outrage.

Pietro Orlandi, brother of the 15-year-old girl Emanuela who was believed to have been abducted from a street in Rome in 1983, had organized yet another march to demand that the cold case be re-opened - when in fact, it has been in recent days, with the Rome police and magistrature opening the crypt of a murdered Rome mobster who died in 1990 but who has been named as someone who may have had something to do with Orlandi's disappearance.

The opening of the tomb in the crypt of Rome's Basilica of Sant'Apollinare was authorized by the Vatican at the request of Orlandi who believed his sister's body may have been buried with the mobster. The mobster's body was exhumed, virtually intact in its sealed casket, and will be cremated, according to his widow. No other bodies were found in his tomb or casket. However, Rome police took samples for testing from some 200 ossuaries found in the crypt, many of them dating back 200-300 years.

In addition, they are investigating Mons. Pietro Vergari, who was the rector of Sant'Apollinare at the time that the mobster was buried there. (It has been said that the mobster earned the privilege of being buried in a Roman basilica because he donated a considerable amount of money for charity to the late Cardinal Ugo Poletti, who in 1990, was John Paul II's vicar General for Rome, and who presumably authorized the burial.)

Those facts would seem to make today's march unnecessary. Additionally, however, two more elements made today's march unseemly and ultimately outrageous:

1. The participation in the rally and march which started in a downtown Rome square of the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno and the former Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, now head of the center-left Partito Democrata minority in the Italian Parliament - in which both of them spoke out to demand that the Vatican re-open the case.

They know very well it is not for the Vatican to do that since the crime occurred in Rome, and Roman police and magistrature have since re-opened the case. That was what the exhumation was about.

Both Alemanno and Veltroni then joined the march towards St. Peter's Square, where the few hundred marchers gathered by Orlandi were a conspicuous presence with their headbands, posters and a huge balloon bearing the picture of the missing girl.

2. While the Pope was speaking, the demonstrators kept chanting 'Verita' (truth) and 'Giustizia' (justice), and after he had finished speaking, they started to chant VERGOGNA! (Shame), claiming they did so because "The Pope did not even deign to say one word about Emanuela".

The brother added, 'It's a shame. Why could he not have said a word of prayer?"

[People seem to misunderstand the nature of what the Pope says in his messages at the Angelus or Regina caeli. Other than topical news that he himself decides he must comment upon or offer an appeal and prayers, he is given beforehand a list of groups of people who have informed the Pontifical Household that they will be present, where they come from, and for what purpose they are there. He then frames a specific or general message for each group, according to the significance of their cause. These groups have been appropriately vetted beforehand by the Pontifical Household. The Pope, therefore, as a matter of prudence, does not extemporize to react to the presence of groups who are not in the list given to him. It's as simple as that. And especially not when they disrupt him while he is speaking, which to my recollection, rarely happens.]

This is the second march on St. Peter's Square on a Sunday that Orlandi has organized with the obvious intention of forcing the Pope to speak publicly about his sister's case.

The abduction took place in 1983 under a different Pope. At the time, John Paul II gave Pietro Orlandi a job at the IOR. During all those years since 1983, the Orlandi family never organized a demonstration to 'pressure' John Paul II into anything.

[According to Wikipedia, "On Sunday, 3 July, Pope John Paul II, during the Angelus, appealed to those responsible for Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance, making the hypothesis of kidnapping official for the first time", but does not provide a link to a source for that statement, so I could check what he said exactly. So I checked the Vatican site for the text of the Pope's Angelus messages that day - the date is July 4, not July 3 - http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/angelus/1982/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19820704_it.html
but I do not find any mention of Orlandi at all. Is it possible the Vatican did not transcribe that particular part, if indeed the Pope had referred to it?]

Last year, Orlandi resigned his job at IOR and began his 'crusade' for his sister 29 years after her abduction, by starting a website calling on sympathizers to help pressure Benedict XVI into re-investigating the case.

No one has even remotely suggested that Cardinal Ratzinger, at the time of the abduction barely two years in Rome as Prefect of the CDF, knew anything about the case then or later.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, #3 man at the Secretariat of State at the time of the abduction, said recently in response to Orlandi's badgering that the Vatican had revealed everything that it had found out on its own about the case - which adds nothing that could advance the investigation.

Why is Orlandi venting his frustration - and anger - on Benedict XVI who had nothing at all to do with the case? Why didn't he start 'putting pressure' on the Vatican back when - in the years between 1983-2005? It seems to me he has discovered that he can be a 'celebrity' and grab headlines by doing what he is doing. he is also taking advantage of the fact that the Vatican is particularly vulnerable in the media these days.

Misguided sympathizers, who have contributed to Orlandi's website, and who have joined these marches, have been led to believe that 1) the Vatican failed to do anything significant in the past to solve the Orlandi case, and 2) the Vatican is not now doing anything to help solve it. Wake up, people, and get a life!

But the worst of these sympathizers are Alemanno and Veltroni (who was mayor of Rome from 2001-2008), who have access to all the records on the case that the Roman police have - including information provided by the Vatican - and who should know better than to shift the burden of the case to Benedict XVI 29 years after the crime! The least they can do now is to apologize to the Pope for their grandstanding and shameless political pandering today.

CNN quoted Veltroni today as saying

---

he hoped "that the Vatican would do more to help with the investigation". "The Vatican attitude has changed, they are more cooperative," said ex-mayor Walter Veltroni, who is close to the Orlandi family.

Veltroni made an appeal for anyone who knows the truth to come forward. "I'm sure there are many people in Rome that know and that could help to discover the truth," he said. "It's time for them to talk."

---

If Veltroni could not get anybody to that when he was mayor of Rome, and the crime was more recent than it is today, what makes him think someone will come out this time? I don't question his issuing a general appeal for new information, but his statement that "the Vatican could do more to help with the investigation". Did he express this 'dissatisfaction' at all under the previous Pontificate?

People who follow daily news, including ongoing investigations of crimes, both old and new, are aware that there will always be a certain number of cases that will remain unsolved, and that some cold cases can suddenly re-open even decades later and lead to a solution.

Badgering Benedict and disrespecting him in public is not going to bring a solution any nearer because he does not have any information to provide. If he did, or if he ever should get any new information about this case - plausible or not - does anyone doubt that he would immediately bring it to the attention of the Rome police?

The newsphoto agencies today posted only 3-4 pictures of Benedict XVI at the Angelus compared to dozens of the Orlandi protesters. And that's how MSM is also taking advantage, like Pietro Orlandi is, of the Vatican's image vulnerability these days.

As we take note of the first anniversary of the arrest of the Vatileaks traitor Paolo Gabriele, allow me to re-post this mini=compendium of stories for perspective...

True stories of treason and
espionage at the Vatican give
perspective to the present case
May 25, 2012

No one so far - not one of the Italian Vaticanistas or John Allen, who continues to be touted as 'the most authoritative US journalist on the Vatican" - has anything to say about the arrest of Paolo Gabriele, other than that if he did steal those documents, he did not do it on his own; someone put him up to it, and that someone must be discovered. One would think that the easiest way to find this out would be to break Gabriele's alleged silence and non-cooperation with his interrogators, and make him say who.

If there was any financial consideration at all, the police should be able to trace any bank accounts in his name or that of any member of his family to check that out. If he is indeed guilty of stealing those documents in behalf of someone, I can only think of one reason why he will not freely disclose the identity of his puppet-master - a credible threat of to kill his family if he does so. It sounds like yet another plotline out of pulp fiction, but what else is there?

That he is delusional and truly believes he was serving a noble purpose by stealing documents from a man who has literally left himself to his ministrations every day for the past six years and whom he could have killed at anytime if he wanted to? That's too monstrous to think. [P.S. 2013 - Alas, that is what it was! And no one has so far presented any plausible hypothesis, let alone evidence, that someone was pulling his strings. Megalomaniacs - and that is what he appeared to be, from his own statements and from expert psychiatric observance - pull their own strings.

As terrible as this case is, it helps to learn that it is by no means the worse that could happen. The one constant about all the stories so far is that there is nothing in the leaked documents that raises any question at all of Pope Benedict's integrity. In fact, Vito Mancuso, the lay theologian who prides himself in his near-heretical positions, used that observation as a pretext for claiming that the book had only the best of intentions, and was quoted by TMNews to have said at the book presentation last week: "The book is not an attack on Benedict XVI - in fact, it expresses confidence in his rectitude and spiritual purity".

Unfortunately, 99.9% of the media, including Catholic media, never noted that at all, despite Nuzzi's explicit praise of Benedict XVI in the Introduction to his book. Rather, Mancuso said, "it is a formal and substantial attack against the Pope's principal collaborator, Cardinal Bertone". [That's a different issue.]

The revolting tale of
Pius XII's personal physician

So in the meantime, some Italian reporters have spoken to Church historians of comparable acts of treason in the Apostolic Palace - and one of the first I read was this one, from a speculative article by Paolo Rodari in Il Foglio, dated May 22, 2012, about how the three-man investigating commission of cardinals were now having to look into the papal household itself since treason right under the Pope's nose is not unusual. He goes on to cite something I had not even heard about before:

---

One fact is certain: the 'viper' is not an unknown figure in the Sacri Palazzi. Every Pontificate has its own. One of the most veteran of Vaticanistas, Benny Lai, has written often that the viper is a figure which recurs often in the history of the papacy - usually a person who enjoys 'important protection' within the Vatican itself such that sometimes, even when discovered, he is left in place.

Lai had often admitted that he himself took part in various 'expedients' to get information from Vatican sources, especially behind-the-scenes accounts. The most famous of this: "We contributed to a fund so that every month we would pass on 10,000 lire to Riccardo Galeazzi Lisi, Pius XII's personal physician, so that he would keep us informed about the Pope's health".

But when the Pope found about about this betrayal, he did not dismiss Lisi, but reportedly said: "If he wants to stay, let him stay, but keep him out of my sight".[It seems, however, that the Pope did not pick out another personal physician because the traitor was present at his deathbed and did something even more revolting!] When Pius XII died while in Castel Gandolfo, Galeazzi Lisi took Polaroid photos of the Pope in agony and sold them to various French and Italian media outlets.

---

Rodari does not say more about that horrible man, but I looked him up - getting only Italian links on my search, and the Wikipedia account of what he did to the Pope is so horrifying as to sound unbelievable. But the same account is repeated in various ways in the other sources I could find. If you read Italian, you can read the Wikipedia account here:
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riccardo_Galeazzi_Lisi

In short, this despicable doctor first took pictures of the dying Pope which he immediately sold to some Italian and French newspapers, and then took more pictures when he asked to be left alone in order to embalm the Pope. The results of his embalming method had horrific consequences for the mortal remains of the Pope before he could even be brought to St. Peter's to lie in state. Other doctors had to do the best they could to clean up and remedy Lisi's mess in order to make the Pope presentable to lie in state. It's excruciating to think of that saintly man subjected to the diabolic inhumanity of his own personal physician!

The man was expelled by the Italian medical association and John XXIII banned him from ever stepping foot in the Vatican again. But he lived to write a book - for a French publisher - about his macabre feat which was a pretext to use all his photographs again. (It is a tribute to some residual decency in the mass media that they apparently never sought to exploit or even to transmit these photos, and I have been unable to find out if the newspapers to whom he sold the photos ever used them at all.)

Church historian Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant'Egidio Community and at the time, newly named Minister for International Cooperation in Mario Monti's government, gives other recent but less bizarre examples of treason in the Vatican.

'From infiltration by fascist agents
to the present-day crows, the Vatican
has always been fertile ground for spies'
by Marco Ansaldo
Translated from

May 27, 2012

VATICAN CITY - "At the Vatican, there have often been cases in which money, espionage and the media are intertwined. During the Fascist era, there was someone who organized a network of espionage and information dealing. Today, one must understand what motivates these traitors - whether it is for financial reasons, intramural politics, or an operation against the Church".

Andrea Riccardi, historian and professor of Church history, is not surprised at the internal confrontations in the Vatican laid bare in recent months. As a historian of the Church, he shares his reflections with us:

Minister Riccardi, what is happening at the Vatican?
Everyone seems to profess surprise at this episode of so-called moles and crows, and the public is naturally struck by the very fact that all this inside information is being leaked.

But the historian knows that the Vatican, at various times, if we just start with the 19th century, the most diverse forms of attention and pressures have been exerted. And that is because the Vatican, has always been a frail entity despite all the stereotypes about its supposed power. Nonetheless, it also remains a reality that is of continuing interest to the powers of the world.

What happened during the Fascist years?
Mussolini's secret police spied constantly on the Apostolic Palace.
Today we have all the documents about their informers, who were ecclesiastics as well as Catholic laymen.

For instance, a Monsignor Puzzi, who had the run of the Vatican in terms of access, continually passed on information to the Fascist police.

Another example, in the mid-1930s, was a Mons. Benigni who worked in the foreign relations section of the Secretariat of State. who organized a network for information trading and espionage.

In short, they were double-faced...
They worked for the Church, but served other customers. When Montini [future Paul VI] was the Sostituto [Deputy] at the Secretariat of State, he was denounced to the Fascists as not just being anti-Fascist but of organizing a Catholic resistance against Fascism.

And during the war?
The scenario was terrible, The Nazis had many contacts within the Vatican and they infiltrated freely. The Nazi commandant in Rome kept the Holy See under constant surveillance by a great number of inside informers, and the Italian military had technical control of Vatican communications.

How did the Vatican react?
Both Pius XII and Montini, who was his trusted lieutenant, suffered the fact that they were constantly under siege. That had to be a great part of their suffering at the time. The walls of the Vatican did not protect them. But there were all these unfaithful ecclesiastics then, and they will always be around.

And after the war?
It was very curious that clandestine bishops in the Soviet Union were being systematically found by the Soviets. That led to the discovery of one Edward Prettner Cippico, an archivist for the Russian section of the Secretariat of State. He was informing the Soviets. But he was pardoned by John XXIII in 1963.

And under Papa Roncalli himself?
It was discovered that the attacks in the media against his line were the work of what was called at the time 'the Roman party' within the Vatican.

Then with Papa Wojtyla, the chapter is rather broad...
The first ten years of his Pontificate was rife with Communist infiltrators...

But was the Vatican that easy to penetrate?
If only for political and media pressures, the condition of this tiny 'island' in the middle of Italy is that it is at the same time vulnerable as well as decisive for the unity of the Catholic world. It is an institution that has no protective barriers at all.

But what do you think is the aim of Vatileaks?
One must ask whether it is for financial reasons, intramural politics, or an operation against the Church. But in any case, the aim is to weaken the Pope. So that the Borgia stereotype is projected to this Pontificate, namely, that the Vatican is a wellspring of poison. In fact, the Vatican is and always has been a place of both grandeur and weakness. [Like any human institution is bound to be!]

His enemies and other malevolents under-estimate Benedict XVI if they think that all the various stratagems tried so far against him will 'weaken' him - and they have tried everything in the past seven years. Since his enemies in the media can't find a 'smoking gun' to crucify him with some made-up offense, they are now exploiting Vatileaks like a shotgun, shooting at him from all directions and hoping that somehow, some bullets will find their mark...

Monday, May 28, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Center photo: Statue of Mariana as the National Heroine of Ecuador
ST. MARIANA DE JESUS (Ecuador, 1614-1645), Virgin, Lay Franciscan, 'Lily of Quito', National Heroine of Ecuador
Mariana Paredes Flores was the daughter of expatriate Spaniards in the capital of Ecuador and showed signs of extraordinary holiness even as a child. After she was orphaned early, she lived with an older sister in hermit-like conditions of penance, self-mortification and prayer, during which she was known to go into ecstasies. She became a Franciscan lay sister to enable her to to serve the poor of the city. She established a clinic for them as well as a school for Africans and indigenous Ecuadorians. She became known for miraculous gifts of prophecy, healing, and at least one story of raising a dead person to life. When the plague hit Quito in 1645, she offered herself as a sacrifice to spare the city, even as she helped nurse the sick. She died soon after. In her images, she is shown with lilies because it is said that a lily sprung from her blood when she died, Her body is venerated incorrupt at the Jesuit Church in Quito. She was beatified in 1853 but not canonized till 1950 - the first saint of Ecuador, which has also declared her a national heroine.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/052812.cfm
Yesterday we celebrated Pentecost Sunday after 7 weeks of Eastertide. In the pre-Novus Ordo calendar, it was easy - the week after Pentecost Sunday was called First Week after Pentecost, etc. until the next major liturgical season, Advent. For those like me who may not have been quite clear about 'ordinary time' in the Novus Ordo, it refers to the weeks of the liturgical year that are not within the Lenten season or the Advent-Christmas season. Today is the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, because the numbering continues from the seven weeks after the Epiphany (which ends the Advent-Christmas season) to just before Lent; there are a total of 33-34 such weeks in ordinary time until Advent comes around.


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- H.E. Madame Laura Chinchilla Miranda, President of the Republic of Costa Rica, and her delegation

- Bishops of Malta and Gibraltar on ad-limina visit.


35 YEARS AGO TODAY...


Professor Father Joseph Ratzinger was consecrated Archbishop of Munich-Freising. He was named to the position on March 24, 1977. Within a month after he was ordained a bishop, he was made a cardinal by Paul VI on June 27, 1977.

Vatican spokesman denies allegations
in the Italian media about other
Vatileaks suspects, and Gabriele's
lawyer affirms his client's full
cooperation with the investigation


ROME, May 8 (Translated from TMNews) - Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi today 'denied in the most total way' that there is any cardinal, Italian or nor, who 'is suspected in any specific way' by those who are investigating Vatileaks.

"I also deny that there is a woman being interrogated," Lombardi told newsmen. [Various Italian newspaper reports claimed that 'an Italian cardinal' and 'a married laywoman with children' were among those being investigated.]

But Lombardi said that the inquiry continues by the three-man commission of cardinals named by the Pope for this purpose.

Meanwhile, Carlo Fusco, one of the two lawyers named by ex-valet Paolo Gabriele to assist him, issued a statement saying that Gabriele "has told the magistrate that he will offer his complete collaboration" and "that this will take place as soon as I and the other lawyer, Cristina Arru, are able to study the objective findings presented against Gabriele".

Lombardi said that the "interviews or alleged interviews' published today in two Italian newspapers with persons (different ones) claiming to be part of the Vatileaks conspiracy are "in the realm of pure imagination", saying readers should be able to deduce that from what these supposed conspirators are saying. [For instance, the one who spoke to La Repubblica, said he was part of a group of persons assigned by the Pope to "ensure transparency"! Excuse me? Andrea Tornielli published the other interview with another person claiming to be among those responsible for Vatileaks.]

The statement by Gabriele's lawyer was read to newsmen by Fr. Lombardi. Fusco, a well-known lawyer who belongs to the Focolare movement, began by saying that "Some news outlets have reported unfounded allegations about the charges against my client... Regarding such reports (which have gained wide dissemination and emphasis, I can only express great amazement that any newsman should claim to know about elements of the police investigation which have been properly kept secret and which have not yet been released even to us".

He also said that contrary to news reports, Manuela, Paolo's wife, "has not left the family home near the Vatican and has not spoken to any newsman nor does she intend to at this time, since she is confident as I am in the work of the Vatican magistrate". Fr. Lombardi added that this morning, Paolo was visited by his wife.

The fourth point made by lawyer Fusco was that "in the long conversation that we had, Paolo remained serene and tranquil".

Finally, Fusco said that "I took on this responsibility to act in his behalf at his request, because we have a friendship and mutual esteem that goes back to when we were children".

[Meanwhile, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who is the last person to need more hype, now alleges that the Vatican has been 'rounding up' suspects in a way that would not be tolerated in any free society. No one else has claimed the Vatican has been 'rounding up' suspects, not even the stories claiming to know specific suspects.]

5/29/12
P.S. Earlier, I had a paragraph here about the National Catholic Reporter claiming that the dissident nuns of LCWR and dismissed Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois have banded together to start a 'Free Paolo' movement in behalf of Paolo Gabriele whose human rights they claim the Vatican is violating. I believe I picked it from a Pulp.It link to Father Z's blog [I don't see the link now, nor the blog entry itself] - but a friend of the Forum now tells me the item was a parody report by Father Z, and I couldn't tell! My mistake was not checking it out in the NCRep itself. So sorry for this, and thanks to Ann for pointing out the mistake. I apologize to the NCReporter, the LCWR and Mr. Bourgeois.

I have been waiting for Vittorio Messori to speak up about the current headline-making developments, and today he does, in Corriere della Sera.

Benedict XVI's serene strength
(that some mistake for 'apathy')
by VITTORIO MESSORI
Translated from

May 28, 2102

It's the conditioned reflex in journalism - and it's understandable, perhaps even dutiful, but it is oftenabused, and unwarranted. I refer to the fine-tooth comb to which the newspapers subject every papal statement to find some reference to current events regarding Church affairs.

I have very carefully read the complete text of the homily delivered by Benedict XVI at the Mass of Pentecost yesterday, said to have been written entirely by him (i.e., not based on a draft prepared by others according to his written or oral instructions).

I find it a text of high spirituality, an urgent appeal not just to the faithful but to all mankind to rediscover mutual understanding and communion, abandoning so many conflicts, some of them violent.

Even his contrast between Pentecost, sign of union, and Babel, sign of disunion, is a classic of homiletic art, such as that employed by one of its great practitioners, the mythical Bossuet who was the preacher in the court of the Sun King.

But I could not find any 'hook' to the present black chronicles about the Church. I say 'black' intentionally because this seems to be one of the very rare times, since the Papacy lost its temporal powers, that anyone, let alone a layman, has been described as detained ' by priests' in one of their prisons. [Gabriele is detained at Vatican police headquarters, not in a jail.]

It is hardly the imagined dungeons of the former Holy Office of the Inquisition, where Benedict XVI worked for a quarter-century, but in effect, that is the general impression.

The holding cell for the ex-valet also reminds us, among other things, of a fact that is often forgotten or overlooked: The Vatican, despite its half-square-kilometer territory is a State in the world's family of nations, it has a [permanent observer] seat in the United Nations, its own flag, its own coat of arms, a state hymn, a newspaper and an official gazette; it has ambassadors, policemen, a small armed force (the Swiss Guard), its own civilian courts, a radio-TV network, a railway station. It even has its much-gossiped-about central bank, and of course, its own jail.

And it is important not to forget this because, especially in the current uproar, there is the continuing practice of confusing Vatican City State for the Roman Catholic Church. They are not the same thing.

And so, issues over IOR, the Vatican newspaper, or the Vatican's Nuncios throughout the world concern Vatican City State, not the Church.

Even the recent arrest and the months-long media interest in Vatileaks have no religious relevance whatsoever - it's a matter for the Vatican police and magistrature, thus for the State, certainly not the Church.

[But it's a distinction that will hardly be noted because in the public mind, Vatican automatically means the Church, a notion long ingrained into them by the news media who have never differentiated between the Vatican as a civilian institution (Vatican City State) and the Vatican (the Pope and the Roman Curia) as the central authority for the Roman Catholic Church.]

To get back to Benedict XVI's Pentecost homily: He probably had these reflections noted down for some time, even if the actual text itself is recent, but it is difficult to claim that he was making any references to current events. If only because, and this bears repeating, the homily is part of the teaching of the Successor of Peter as guardian of faith and morals in the Church.

Then, there is the fact that the liturgical occasion was Pentecost, which, as the Pope reminded us, was the 'baptism' of the Church, born a few days earlier, at the Ascension.

Prof. Ratzinger was - and is - a great expert in dogmatic theology [theology of the Church's doctrine, in the strict sense of the adjective 'dogmatic', and not in its popular pejorative connotation]. He had - and has - excellent formation in Biblical exegesis, as shown in his recent books on the historical Jesus. He may not be a specialist in Church history, but he moves about easily in that realm.

Therefore, he knows quite well that there is great license in the myth of the primitive Church as having been composed only of saints - as critics of the Holy See today invoke in claiming today that the Church should 'return to its origins'.

The myth arises from a few passages in the Acts of the Apostles describing the idyllic primitive Christian community of Jerusalem, where everyone loved each other and pooled all their resources together for the common good.

Unfortunately, that state of affairs did not last long because that first community, made up of Jews, was soon torn between the 'hellenists' and the 'Judaicizers', even coming to blows. Which resulted in the first schism - that of the Christian Jews.

The letters of St. Paul give us an unexpected and rather discouraging picture of the early local churches: Even those that had been personally founded by him, almost upon their founding, were not only divided almost immediately by doctrinal disputes, but were also not shining examples of morality. Which is why Paul in his letters was always reproaching and exhorting them, and stigmatizing sinful behavior.

If we leap ahead in time, it must not be forgotten that in many cities of North Africa, where Christianity had been implanted very early on, it was often the Christians who in the Middle Ages opened the doors for the Muslims, hailing their arrival because they felt that they were preferable to the representatives of the Byzantine Church who lorded it over them. And better even than the continuous fighting, often bloody, and the immorality of the infinite sects and factions within the Latin Church.

Tired of all these, the Christians of North Africa virtually cried out, "Let the disciples of Mohammed come, and perhaps they will be able to impose order among these so-called followers of Christ's Gospel who are laden with sin".

Why do I point out these things? Because Benedict XVI's serenity amid any turmoil is born from the awareness that from the Church's very beginnings - from that first Pentecost - that the ecclesial institution has rarely risen to the level of the ideal, that imperfection is the norm, wherever man is concerned.

Some have spoken of this Pope's 'apathy' in the face of recent grave episodes that certainly do not affect doctrine and theology at all, but that are damaging to the institutional machinery, with the risk of 'scandalizing' the faithful and loss of credibility for Catholicism itself.

And there are those who claim, speaking as friends of the Pope and for the good of the Church, that he should resign and take up his true calling - a scholar confined in some hermitage, alone with his books. And leaving the Church to be governed by someone else who is more active and more 'attentive' to the problems of the Church. [And where is that someone else? If such an imaginary creature exists, he should be named Secretary of State right away for Benedict XVI, who needs an efficient administrator who can work with everyone instead of making make enemies right and left, not someone to replace him as Pope!]

But these so-called friends of the Pope, friends whose good will we cannot question, seem not to realize that they are playing the game of the Pope's enemies who are trying to chase him out with efforts such as Vatileaks.

As for apathy, anyone who says that about Benedict XVI ignores the fact that he is a man who does not like the spotlight or headlines, but someone who works patiently, thoughtfully, quietly, respectful of every individual, and that there are things he has done, and continues to do, that are often not reported by the media at all but which are all relevant to the mission of the Church.

Some believe that we will soon have proof that will surprise those who accuse him of being uninvolved in current events.

The fact remains that a theologian like him is fully aware that the Church is and has always been, as the Fathers used to say, immaculata ex maculatis - spotless in her Mystery, Christ himself, but too often soiled in her institutional wrapping, composed of men that the Sacraments have not all made saints.

The Pope knows well that the Church must not be confused with its personnel. Of course, this all causes him pain and sorrow, as he said without hesitation in dealing with the pederast crimes committed by some clergy, and other similar transgressions shameful to the Church.

But this sorrow does not in any way diminish his conviction that whatever men of the Church may do, however sinful some of them may be, they will never manage to make a dent or a scratch on what truly counts: that faith in him who is Innocence by definition, who on that first Pentecost, launched his Church on its missionary journey throughout the world.

What really counts, Benedict XVI, once said, is the pearl, not the shell that surrounds it.


More than one Italian commentator has repeated lately a famous riposte by a 19th-century cardinal to Napoleon's threat that "I will destroy your Church". To which Cardinal Ercole Consalvi replied, in effect, "Good luck to you! Even we ourselves have not managed to do that!"

The Church is Christ's Church. For two millennia, it has withstood, firm on its Rock, despite sinful Popes, immoral and unworthy priests, and the legion of sinners within who are nonetheless part of the 'communion of saints' - along with the outright and relentless hostility of those who are not part of the Church. She will withstand this current blizzard of headlines mostly signifying nothing, and even Satan's nth success at infiltrating into the institutional heart of the Church.

Messori speaks about more down-to-earth considerations in the following interview:

On mediocre personnel in the Curia,
waiting it out till Bertone turns 78,
and why the Pope sleeps well at night


VATICAN CITY,May 29 (Translated from TMNews) - "I really do not understand all the brouhaha. There's already the Damocles sword of age hanging over Bertone. All it takes is a bit more patience. He will be 78 soon...."

Thus, Vittorio Messori, journalist and authoritative Catholic author, author of two interview books - one with the present Pope when he was just a cardinal, a book that has gone into the annals of the Church, and the other with John Paul II - is far from the Vatican these days, completing a book about Lourdes.

He attributes the Vatican scandals of recent months to a fundamental problem of mediocrity among Curial personnel. He is not scandalized if it should turn out that a cardinal could be part of the Vatileaks scheme, 'in good faith' as anarchics say when they launch their murderous attacks.

But he absolutely excludes the possibility that Benedict XVI may resign, as some have suggested: "They do not know him at all if they think he would resign over an episode like this!"

"Since the end of Vatican II and the Revolution of 1968 through the 1970s, 30 percent of the international clergy has been lost, and the seminaries are half-empty," Messori points out.

"By tradition, the Roman Curia has always recruited personnel from the dioceses of the world. When the dioceses had all the priests they needed, it was normal to send some of their good priests to serve in the Curia, but now that most seminaries are closed, if a local bishop has any promising priests, he will keep them close to him instead of sending them to Rome. It's a banal question of recruitment. The new crop of priests often do not have adequate formation. I was educated in a classical liceo (high school) with strict standards, but now, when I read Vatican documents in Latin, I am often jolted by the many errors that I find.. And yet at the Vatican, Latin is not a matter of archeology!... The Curia does not have enough competent people. When Spain found itself with a huge empire in the 17th century, the Emperor Charles V cried out in his palace in Madrid - 'Give me men!'

"The Church is a worldwide empire herself, and if she does not have the men to run the empire, she is in trouble. It's as if a government department announced a competition for an important position. If only a few take part, then it will be forced to live with the little that is available. Of course, there are exceptions - I personally know quite a few Vatican functionaries who are very qualified, but Curial personnel are generally rather mediocre".

Is there the same problem among cardinals? "Most of them are 70 years or older - they became priests at a time when the seminaries were full and vocations were plentiful. And they rose in the ecclesiastical ladder at a time when they had a lot of competition."

But now that a cardinal may be involved in Vatileaks? Can a cardinal possibly fall so low?

"It's not necessarily about falling so low. In this case, another interpretation is possible: Often, people who do these underhanded things say they are doing it for the good of the Church, and may really believe that. When anarchists act, most people consider them to be despicable murderers, but others consider them heroes who, by killing the king, are striking a blow at the monarchy itself.

"If a cardinal is involved at all, I don't think he is doing it for money or power, because a cardinal can also become Pope. Perhaps it is someone convinced he is acting for the good of the Church, that the end justifies the means, and that getting rid of certain persons would be for the good of the Church. And that's a line of thought that we consider menacing, but those involved in it think it is beneficial".

But don't they run the risk that, in wanting to 'do good for the Church', they are weakening the Pope to the point of perhaps having him resign?

"But the Pope, in fact, remains serene. I have known him for 20 years, and I have had the opportunity to be with him when he is on vacation. Twice he spoke to me at length about the troubles of the Church, from his point of view as CDF Prefect, and I asked him with a smile, 'With all that, how can you sleep at night?'

"He looked at me somewhat amazed and said, 'I sleep very well. At night, I examine my conscience, and know that I have nothing to be ashamed of'.

"For him, the Church is not ours nor the Pope's - it is the Church of Christ. It belongs to him alone. He must be disappointed and saddened by all that has happened recently, but only those who do not know him could possibly think he would resign because of these troubles.

"He would resign if he becomes physically disabled as Papa Wojtyla was in his final months. But as long as he is physically able, I cannot imagine him resigning because the Church has become 'ungovernable' or simply because 'I am sick of all this. Let me retire to a monastery!' He knows that the Church will not be 'saved' by him or by the cardinals. It is the Church of Jesus!"

Then what could be the objective of these unwarranted disclosures?
"The immediate target is probably Bertone. Now, I have never wanted to be a Vaticanista, I write primarily about religion, and I keep myself informed, but I cannot claim to know what is happening in the Vatican.

"All I am saying, as someone who reads the newspapers, is this: it seems that the apple of discord is the Secretary of State. But he has passed the usual age-75 retirement age in the Curia. One simply has to wait until he turns 78 (in December), which is the maximum age allowed. So I do not understand all the brouhaha. The Damocles sword of age hangs over his head... Be patient just a little bit more."

I disagree - although his 78th birthday may be the most face-saving exit for Bertone. But a lot of bad things could happen between now and December. Bertone's very presence will continue to fester because he has made too many enemies, including those who were once his friends. A festering presence is unhealthy, any way you look at it. It's not he personally who festers, but the atmosphere around him, and, as we know, miasma sticks to the skin when it engulfs you. He moves out, the atmosphere will clear - at least enough to allow whoever takes his place to show his mettle. Otherwise, we start all over...

BTW, all those who are discussing Vatileaks openly now - and claiming to be part of the conspiracy - are saying the main target is Bertone. Ain't it obvious! But someone (Alberto Melloni, I think) expressed it well earlier, "They want to tell the Pope what a mistake he made in choosing Bertone, and that he continues the mistake by keeping him on".

One of the articles I ought to have translated yesterday...

Cardinal De Giorgi:
'The Church may be going
through a difficult time, but
let us be serene like the Pope'
by Salvatore Scolozzi
Translated from



As the ranking prelate in the region, Cardinal De Giorgi was with the Pope during the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Santa Maria di Leuca and Brindisi in June 2008.


Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi was calm and serene, but above all, he wanted to reassure the faithful in his former home diocese, with words of reality and confidence.

He said this morning (Sunday), "Even the Church of God has its troubles, there have always been troubles in the Church, from the time Judas betrayed Jesus, through today. Unfortunately, evil is always at work".

These have been busy days for the retired cardinal, 82, from the Salento region of southeastern Italy, who along with other emeritus cardinals, Julian Herranz and Josef Tomko, were named by Benedict XVI to resolve the questions over Vatileaks.

The arrest last week of the Pope's valet, Paolo Gabriele, is only the start of the commission's work alongside the Vatican police and prosecuting magistrates of the Vatican in a wide-ranging inquiry.

But for Cardinal De Giorgi, emeritus Archbishop of Palermo, "There is nothing to fear: The Pope is a man of calm - we see him serene even in the midst of difficulties. This is a man who should be declared a living saint, who with his theological culture is already one of the Fathers of the Church".

He is not speaking to anyone about the case, of course, but he did not ignore it either, saying words of reassurance during a half hour homily at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the Santa Rosa district of his native city, Lecce.

He came home for the weekend from Rome in order to preside at a baptism and 50 weddings, and to bring the parish a relic of Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, "at whose beatification at the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mure it was my pleasure to preside recently".

In his homily, he cited the new Blessed as a man to emulate: "Toniolo in his time put into practice what the Gospel taught. He lived a very straight life". Like Toniolo, the cardinal is a veteran of Italian Catholic Action, having once been its spiritual director.

He has always lived moderately, this cardinal, and shuns discussing scandals or gossip. And so, it bothers him that recent days have seen all sorts of exaggerated headlines in the newspapers, with false allegations and inaccuracies of every kind, some attributed to priests and prelates.

He does not say it, but the Cardinal makes it clear that the Vatican means business with their inquiry. They will not allow any dispensations, exemptions or waivers. Their mandate from the Pope is to clean up, at all levels, but to avoid 'grandstanding' and fueling headlines.

In his homily, he was also clear that the Pope himself must be the ideal reference: "He has been telling the whole world that men should follow the safe horizons of the faith, and not those that lead to unhappiness and despair. Our task, which comes from baptism, is not just to know his teaching but to put it into practice, for our own holiness, for our sanctification".

Joseph Ratzinger, consecrated Archbishop May 28, 1977 (left); named Cardinal June 2, 1977, and created cardinal June 27, 1977.

35 years ago, Joseph Ratzinger
was ordained Archbishop of Munich:
In the service of Truth
Translated from the 5/27/12 issue of


"Our Munich, our Bavarian homeland, is so beautiful because the Christian faith has awakened the best in her - it has taken nothing away from her vigor, but it has rendered it generous and free. A Bavaria in which no one has faith any longer would have lost its soul, and safeguarding monuments of the past will not serve to deceive in this respect".

These were words spoken by the new Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Joseph Ratzinger, on his episcopal ordination 35 years ago in the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), the cathedral of the Munich.

The principal consecrators were Bishop Josef Stangl of Wurzburg, Bishop Rudolf Graber of Regensburg, and the Auxiliary Bishop of Munich, Ernst Tewes.

In naming the then professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Regensburg, three weeks before his 50th birthday, to succeed the late Cardinal Julius Doepfner to head the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, Pope Paul VI had chosen an eminent theologian from the Second Vatican Council, who had become acknowledged on an international level.

"In spirit, we turn to you, beloved son: You are endowed with excellent spiritual gifts. Above all, you are an important teacher of theology, which as a professor, you have transmitted to your listeners with zeal and fruitfulness. Therefore, in view of existing treaties, by virtue of our apostolic mandate, we name you Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Munich and Freising," one reads in the Pontifical letter of nomination dated March 24, 1977.

And so, after 80 years, the post was once more given to a priest of the diocese itself.

Cardinal Ratzinger concluded his 1977 autobiography La Mia vita ( published as Milestones in English) with a brief account of how he learned of his appointment to the Archdiocese of Munich, and of the day he was consecrated Archbishop.

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What am I to say at the conclusion of this biographical sketch? As my episcopal motto I selected the phrase from the Third Letter of John, cooperatores veritatis - co-worker of the truth. For me, it seemed to be the connection between my previous task as teacher and my present mission.

Despite all the differences in modality, what is involved was and remains the same: to follow the truth, to be at its service. And because in today's world, the theme of truth has all but disappeared, because truth appears to be too great for man, and yet everything falls apart if there is no truth, for these reasons, the motto also seemed timely in the good sense of the word.

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Five days after that episcopal consecration, on June 2, 1977, came the announcement that in the consistory on June 27, 1977, he would be made a cardinal.

The Lord had it all planned out for Joseph Ratzinger: In the space of four months, the year he turned 50, he rose from professor-priest to Archbishop of Europe's second largest diocese, to a Cardinal of the Church. I've never thought about it before, but surely, no prelate in the modern era had ever risen so high so fast. But who knew that he then had to mark time, for another 28 years, before he would reach the only possible culmination of his blessed life? And that Blessed - Benedictus - is the name by which history and the Church will remember him. Indeed, he had to be the living saint he is not to let all his accomplishments and superior endowments ever get in the way of his humility and endearing humanity.


The main feature of OR's observance of Benedict XVI's 355h anniversary as a bishop were major excerpts from the chapter written by Cardinal Ratzinger in the book of the Congregation for Bishops, Duc in altum. Pellegrinaggio alla tomba di San Pietro e incontro di riflessione per i nuovi Vescovi nominati dal 1° gennaio 2000 al giugno 2001 {'Put out into the deep': Pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter and reflections for the new Bishops named from January 1, 2000, to January 1, 2001)(Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001). Unfortunately, we are not told when and for what occasion Cardinal Ratzinger wrote it. In any case, it's a major statement of how he sees the mission of the Bishop, especially as a successor to the Apostles, and as usual, it is as informative as it is enlightening. The chapter is in two parts. Here is a translation of Part 1. [I did not realize the length of it until I started translating, and found out I could not stay awake long enough to finish both parts].

The bishop as teacher
and guardian of the faith
by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

I. Biblical foundations

1. Paul's farewell address in Miletus (Acts 20,17-30) and
the portrait of the presbyter in the First Letter of Peter (5,1-4)

There is nothing as impressive on the relationship between the episcopal ministry and vigilance for the faith in the testament of St. Paul transmitted to us by the Acts of the Apostles as the farewell address of the Apostle in Miletus to the priests of Ephesus.

Paul knows that he is on the way to martyrdom. He knows he is never returning to this place. So he gathers the presbyters to entrust the Church to them formally. Here we have the introduction of apostolic succession. The responsibility which had been entrusted to the apostle was transmitted to the gathered presbyters.

Paul, according to the Acts, was aware that he was not acting on his own initiative, just as the integration of the presbyters into the ministry was not simply an organizational action on his part. "The Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood" (20,28).

Three affirmations are particularly important here: It is the Holy Spirit who calls to the presbyteral ministry and confers it. The Church is not a secular organization for which we study the best possible and most efficient structures. She is the creature of the Holy Spirit, which not only created her at the beginning, at Pentecost: In the Church, it is continually Pentecost, because always, it is only the Holy Spirit that can create her; only the Holy Spirit can confer the apostolic ministry and thus the succession in this.

We must once more take into more attentive consideration and familiarize ourselves anew with this interior dependence on the Holy Spirit, with this continuous reference to him. Just as it was not the efforts of the disciples and their competence that had achieved the miraculous catch of fish, but the mission on the part of the Lord and their obedience to it, so the Church can continually subsist only from the mission she has received and obedience to it.

The second affirmation: the ministers who have up to now been called presbyters are now called bishops, and this expression is identified with the Biblical concept of the shepherd. The word 'episkopos' carried in it, before it was used in the New Testament, a vast range of meanings.

In Greek tragedy, God himself appears as the 'episcopos', he who watchfully scrutinizes the good and bad works of men. The Book of Wisdom, Philo, and the Sybilline Oracles picked up this linguistic usage, so that in the first Letter of Clement about the history of the word's meaning, we can find God designated as the Creator and the 'Episcopo' of every spirit (59,3).

In Philo, Moses appears as 'Episcopo' (rer. div. her. 30). The word was therefore not a denomination of secular function, but it described a sacred function on the model of and in participation with God's vigilance over men.

Thus it is not surprising that in the Letter of Peter, Christ himself is designated as 'the shepherd and the episcopo of your souls' (2,25).

In the Letter of Peter as in Acts 20, the two concepts of episcopo and of shepherd are united, and thus the word episcopowhich is new in Biblical tradition, is linked with the rich Biblical tradition of the idea of the shepherd, as we find it once more in the letter of Peter, which designates Christ as the great pastor (archiepiscopo), and so, once again a link to the service of episcopein (to watch over).

The superficial concept of the superintendent, that one can deduce from a literal translation of episcopo, thus assumes a completely different profundity: it has to do with watching with the heart, seeing by God, seeing with God. It means the loving care that a shepherd has for his sheep, each of whom he knows and calls by name, and whom he loves because they are his sheep.

Episcopein is interior responsibility for those whom God has entrusted to us, which in turn is a participation in God's care itself for men. The Biblical background reaches its true profundity with the affirmation that the Good Shepherd - Jesus - offers his life for his sheep (Jn 10,15): the shepherd becomes a lamb and thus redeems the sheep.

This connection reappears in Paul's farewell address in Miletus, where he reminds those who have now become Pastors of the Church of God, that the Son ransomed this flock with his own blood.

We are therefore in the third affirmation from the passage we have cited: The Pastor is responsible for the Church of God, and this Church is founded on the sacrificial offering of his life by the Son. The passion, which had begun with the dispersion of the disciples, now becomes the great act of gathering together.

From the height of the Cross, the Lord draws men to him; from the height of the Cross, he brings together the dispersed children of God (Jn 11,52). Once more all the grandeur of the Church appears to us: The Church as fruit of the Lord's Passion. It is evident that ultimately, it is always the one Church, the Church in its totality.

The presbyters of Ephesus each worked in their own place, but doing this, they were pasturing the Church together, the Church of Christ, not just part of it.

Above all, however, it is the martiriological dimension of the pastoral ministry that is manifested here.

If the pre-Christian concept of God as episcopo over men shows us a God who dominates only from above, a Lord untouched by human disorder and suffering, the figure of Christ instead shows us that God, in order to be the pastor of men, came to earth himself, that his pastoral ministry came at the cost of his Son's passion. Only by suffering with men, loving and dying with them, can he truly take their problems into his hands.

God without any effort could create the cosmos in all its grandeur, Cardinal Newman once said, but to bring man to him cost him the inexpressible effort of the Incarnation and his own death. Only through the commitment of one's own self can we become pastors for men, pastors of the Church founded on and to be founded on the passion of Christ.

This is the level of the commitment that is demanded of us. If we give less, if we do not want to involve ourselves, then we should not be surprised at the decline of the Church and of faith.

Moreover, the entire farewell address of St. Paul is impregnated with this martiriological foundation. Just as he had always suffered for the Church and the Gospel - think of the dramatic description of his sufferings in Chapter 11 of the second Letter to the Corinthians - now he lends himself to enter definitively into the communion of suffering with Christ, and only thus will he bring his apostolic work to completion.

Now we must ask ourselves yet again: What concretely is the content of this 'pastoring', this episcopein, this vigilance over the flock of Christ, this care for them which unites us to God's caring? In the farewell address at Miletus, we find two descriptions related to this.

The first is "to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace" (v 24). The second speaks of the duty of the apostle "to proclaim the entire plan of God" (v 27). I find this formulation, in its very simplicity and grandeur of expression, particularly effective. It means communicating God's will to men, without reservations, in all its grandeur.

Which brings to mind the third invocation in the Our Father: 'thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Fulfillment of God's will makes heaven heaven. Earth becomes heaven when the will of God is fulfilled in it.

All of us want to know how to structure our life so that it may be good, 'happy'. All human beings want this. Everyone wants to know the key that will lead to true life. For this we study, we seek, and every search for happiness is an expression of this need to find life - life in abundance, the fullness of life.

If it is true that the will of God is our life, and conforming ourselves to this will represents the key that leads to life, then is it not also true that the thirst for life in its most profound essence is the thirst to know the will of God? Is it not therefore the highest and most beautiful mission to make known the will of God and thus pass on the key that leads to life? This is the apostolic ministry, this is the episcopal ministry.

But today, there are doubts if this is indeed our most intimate desire, that should also become our most practical desire. There is doubt not only among non-believers but also in the Church. In fact, many think that the will of God is really too difficult for us, so it would be better not to know it. If we don't know what it is, then living against or outside this will is not a sin - only knowledge of it would make us culpable. Ignorance is bliss, in this case, so they think.

Thus Christianity appears to them not as a grace but as a burden - those who do not know the will of God, so they think, live better. In which case, it is no longer a beautiful thing to announce the will of God. It fact, it would be better not to be so complete. On this subject, we are at the point at which the question of the Bishop as teacher and guardian of the faith becomes concrete in our time.

2. The introduction to the Letter to the Romans (Rom 1,1-7)

But before continuing with present problems, we must look deeper into the relationship between 'making the will of God known" and faith. For this purpose, we are offered the description of the apostolic mission by Paul, in his self-presentation at the start of the Letter to the Romans.

This description reprises many points his farewell address in Miletus, but places its emphasis on different parts and utilizes a slightly different vocabulary. Here Paul designates himself as "servant of Jesus Christ", as an apostle by vocation, as someone set apart for the Gospel of God.

The succession of titles is of great importance to understand the apostolic mission and thus, also for a correct view of the episcopal ministry. First of all, the apostle is a servant of God - he does not belong to himself, he is totally the property of someone else, ohe belongs to Jesus Christ.

At the same time, Paul enters - and with him, the bishop - into a genealogy: Israel, the holy people of God, was designated as servant of God, and then the great personages in which the mission of Israel was manifested: Abraham, Isaac, but especially Moses.

"Called to be an apostle" - the idea of mission resonates here, and could also have influenced by a memory of the vocation of the men of God in the Old Testament.

Finally, there is the idea of "being set apart", which is typical of the prophets, and places the apostle in the line of the prophets of the Old Covenant. Set apart for what? "For the Gospel of God". The link is evident here to Acts 20,24, which spoke of the Gospel of God's grace.

Paul in Romans 1,3f presents the content of the Gospel simply as Christology, the Church's Christological faith, citing a pre-Pauline Christological confession. In conclusion, the Apostle, the bishop, the evangelist, exists to announce Christ, and more precisely, Christ as the Church belies and confesses him.

By citing a confession of faith, the common faith of the Church, her authority, enters into the text of the Letter to the Romans, and consequently into the apostolic mission.

This becomes even more evident when Paul says that grace and apostolate would be conferred on them to lead all peoples to obedience of the faith. Here the link to his address to the Ephesian presbyters is evident once more, in which he spoke about announcing the will of God.

What Paul announced as an apostle is the faith. To accept the faith means entering into a relationship of obedience. What the apostle meant by this was expressed grandly in Galatians 2,20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me".

With these words, Paul describes what happened at his conversion. What he describes is his overwhelming personal experience which is also an expression of the common reality of being Christian.
Completely personal and completely objective, a most singular personal experience and yet a presentation of that which is for everyone the essence of Christianity.

One can translate this by saying that to be Christian means a conversion. But then we must understand the word conversion in all the depth that it has acquired here. Conversion in the Christian sense is more than changing some opinions and attitudes. It means death and rebirth. It is a change of the subject.

"The I ceases to be an autonomous being and a a subject subsisting in itself. The I is taken from itself and placed into a new subject. The I does not simply disappear but must once and for all renounce itself in order to accept itself anew in a new I greater than itself and together with it".

Thus 'obedience' is understood in a new and very radical sense, as it was pre-announced earlier in the title 'servant of Christ'. For our context, it is important that this obedience, this rebirth of man, which tears him away from his solitude and his lack of orientation and leads him to the open, liberating him, is connected to the act of faith.

In this respect, it is significant that Paul presents the faith right away as 'catholic', namely as a reality that reunites all peoples together. The faith has universality - the Gospel is not just for the Romans, but it has a universal meaning.

The new community, which the believer enters, is open to all - because truth is open to all and concerns everyone in the same way. We see that 'faith' here is meant in both its objective and subjective senses.

It is an act of conversion, of renewal. Its obedience is liberation from the anguishes of the I and the blindness of pure opinion. But faith is also objective - it is the content of preaching, the content of the life of the Church in its totality.

Faith edifies the Church. It is her foundation. Thus Paul manifests here with particular evidence the centrality of the service of faith for the apostolic ministry, for the episcopal ministry.

3. A look at the pastoral letters

This therefore opens access to the pastoral letters, which by remodelling the ministry of Paul makes all of its key points known once more.

The presentation of the apostolate in 1 Timothy 2,1-7, is very similar to that in the Letter to the Romans. It says of Paul that he was instituted as the announcer and apostle of the one God and theone mediator, Jesus Christ, "as the teacher of all peoples in the faith and in the truth".

The importance of teaching emerges more evidently here, but the basic direction remains the same: universality is emphasized, coming from the universality of truth, the universality of the one God and of the one mediator.

And the essential mission of the apostle is that of being a teacher in faith and in truth. In these later letters, the apostolic succession is treated more concretely, along with the need that the apostolic ministry in the Church acquires her configuration, so that the flame of faith may be continually revived, that flame which is often threatened with extinction in the daily routine (2Tim 1,6).

Thus we understand the openly imploring tone with which the Apostle begs Timothy to persevere in announcing the one faith, against all routine, against falling into an arbitrary faith and into ideology: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching" (2Tim 4,1f).

I think that we bishops, much more than what we are doing, must place ourselves before the tribunal of God and Jesus Christ, before the judgment of the living and the dead, to measure our lives against the criterion of future judgment.

The court before which we must feel responsible is not the mass media, which have promoted themselves to be the great court of the past and the present, exalting or destroying persons.

Our criterion is future judgment, and in pondering our actions, the first question must be this: What will the true Judge say about my present decision?

The Pastoral letters are often classified facilely as minor works and therefore secondary from the theological and spiritual viewpoint. I personally see in the second letter to Timothy a passion and a fervor which presents Paul's last battle in a moving way - when he is separated from everything and everyone, from many things that had already been revoked or consciously forgotten, and yet, precisely because he was close to martyrdom, he makes a last effort to fight for the transmission of the Gospel.

In this sense, these letters are a portrait of the bishop by which we must always orient ourselves, and whose most profound identification with the initial affirmations are very evident to me.

II. Episcopal service to the faith today:
Four difficulties and responses to them

1. Freedom and bonds

The vigilance of the pastor, his attention to his flock, which all of the New Testament places in the foreground, is therefore, above all, taking care of the faith - positively, so that it may manifest in everything its luminous power, and negatively, so that it is protected from falsification.

And who does not see that falsifications abound, not just in apostolic times, at the time of the pastoral letters, but even today? In theory, everyone agrees about the mission of vigilance and care, which corresponds to the ministry of the bishop as pastor and teacher. But in practice, there are many "but's".

To any initiative of correction, the first response is objection: Should the freedom of teaching and of the teacher not be respected? Did not the history of the Inquisition damage the reputation of the Church? Is freedom not the pre-eminent good?

At present, the Frankfurt school [of philosophical thought] tells us that there is a dialectic of enlightenment, in which whenever freedom is pushed too much, it ultimately destroys freedom itself. The history of the ideologies in the last century demonstrates this with more than enough proof.

Freedom sometimes must be defended precisely in order to unmask false freedom as such, and return freedom to its proper limits. To believe means accepting a common decision, a common faith, which is therefore able to bring about peace and unity.

No one ought to believe. To believe must always be a free decision, and in this sense, there must also be the freedom to stay apart from the faith. Responsibility before God cannot be replaced by external constraints.

But he who makes the free decision for faith also accepts the bond of being in a common form, and he cannot use freedom as a pretext to stay within that form and be able to destroy it from within.
I am convinced that today, especially, we must decisively oppose any abuse of the concept of freedom.

Of course, there are various forms of bonds. Someone who has freely taken on the task of teaching in the name of the Church has a different bond than a lay Christian who, on his own responsibility alone, seeks to develop his ideas. One cannot teach against the Church in the name of the Church! There is also a question of honesty here.

In this context, of course, one must speak about conditions inherent to theology. If it retreats to the realm of pure academics, it loses its internal relationship with the life of the faith, with the Church, with the prayerful communion with Jesus Christ, and it cannot develop well.

Without the practice of the faith, it is impossible that reflecting on it can have a successful outcome. Therefore it is very important not to allow the ministry of theological instruction to wander into pure academic neutrality.

The structuring of such teaching must be articulated that it corresponds to its internal conditions. Theology is not pure speculation, but an interpretation of the faith of the Church and this is impossible if one does not live in her and with her.

2. To orient ourselves in the Babel of specialization

The first objection against vigilance and guarding the faith comes today from the unilateral idea of freedom. Along with it is a second strong objection: How could a bishop today interfere in the growing specialization and differentiation of theology? In the face of an increasingly detailed presentation of theology, is the bishop not almost like a secular person who must abstain from judgment? Will he not be accused immediately of incompetence and fundamentalism?

In this respect, I wish to offer three indications.

a. Obviously, the diagnosis of heresy and obfuscating the faith cannot be handed out lightly. Prudence is required. According to St. Ignatius of Loyola, one must first assume good will, and seek to interpret the new proposal in the good sense.

For the bishop, personal contact with the teachers of theology is very important. There are many things that can be clarified in a personal relationship. Closeness to the bishop helps to reinforce the theologian's pastoral sensibility and his co-responsibility for the communion of faith, just as in turn, it gives the bishop an access to the problems of present-day theology.

b. Mutual assistance among bishops and the advice of reliable experts are important. Thus the episcopal conferences should make sure that they have a truly competent commission for the problems of the faith, in which bishops of proven competence can work with professors who follow essential theological discussions and can help the bishop to deal with difficult questions.

c. Even more important than the first two aspects is the third: Today, the difference between theology and faith is often forgotten. In theology, we cannot all be specialists, and the theologian himself is not a specialist in all the considerably detailed construction of contemporary theology.

But bishops should not seek to carry out themselves the work of theologians. Their function is something else: they are teachers of the faith, on which theology is based. In theology, there can only be relatively few specialists. In questions of faith, we are all instructed by God, as the Gospel of John tells us (6,45).

What the Lord pre-announces prophetically in the Gospel is reiterated in the first Letter of John for what had now become the Church: "You have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge....The anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you" (1Jn 2,20.27).

The term anointing refers to the profession of faith at baptism: with that, all Christians have knowledge and a theology which, if it places this faith into question ,would be false doctrine.

In this sense, every Christian has the right and the ability to intervene against false doctrine and in favor of the common faith, but especially the bishop, who represents the right of the faithful and is their voice.

If it is important to defend the freedom of the teacher, one must however keep in mind that the more preeminent good is the defense of the faith in behalf of the faithful, who have a right to the genuine faith of the Church. Their faith is the asset of the Church that most deserves to be defended.

This is what a famous statement of the Lord refers to: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mk 9,42).

This does not refer, as recent interpretations have used it, to sexual abuse of children. The expression 'little ones' is a designation for the faithful of Christ, and the scandal, whose atrocity Jesus stigmatizes with the image of a millstone around the neck, is to upset and destroy their faith.

These very words of the Lord can make us understand the great responsibility we have and the greatness of the good that we must protect.

The profession of faith in the Church is the solid ground upon which theology must rest. If theology abandons the faith, it ceases to be theology and becomes a private philosophy of religion.

Theology must measure up to the profession of faith at baptism, in which all of us "have knowledge". The simplicity of this confession of faith cannot be lost from sight, otherwise Christianity becomes a gnosis, a matter for erudites, who ultimately have nothing but hypotheses, but no longer have a foundation upon which we can live and die.

For the Fathers of the Church, it was perfectly clear that the regula fidei - the rule of faith - is the ultimate criterion for exegesis, within which a very vast space remains for the interpreter to research and to discover, while at the same time, the reality to be interpreted is safeguarded and does not dissolve in its interpretation.

Moreover, for the Fathers, regula fidei was not something written, nor something wider than the profession of faith, but it was something living - which includes the living voice of the Church, namely, the Magisterium. Thus, the Magisterium is the true aid in distinguishing between true interpretation and falce.

The bishop himself, in his local Church, is the living voice of the faith, its teacher and guardian. But in order that the Church be one, he teaches correctly only if he teaches in a manner that is synchronous and diachronous with all the Church - if the bishop is in harmony with the voice of the Successor of Peter.

In many regions, it has become customary to systematically defy the voice of the Magisterium, to consider it as an impediment to the freedom of research and thought. But we must accustom ourselves once more to consider the Magisterium as an aid that is given to us in order to identify the voice of faith as it is. And in this way, we defend the equal right of all the faithful against 'class thinking', in which only a few privileged ones would possess the key to knowledge.

3. Peace in the Church and
the struggle to defend the faith

Now we come to a third objection against the mission of vigilance and caring for the flock. If we enter into questions of faith, are we not dangerously disturbing peace in the Church? Mass media have taken over this question and confuse the faithful. This gives rise to polarizations - but is the danger deriving from public confusion and the resulting conflict not greater than if we just left the question undisturbed?

When we at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ask the bishops to take a position against a work which is openly deviant from Church teaching, we are often told: "Only a few people know about this book, it is no longer sold. No one has made a big deal out of it. Why should we give it any publicity and perturb our normally placid routine?"

Such arguments could be fully justified. St. Augustine, in the fight against the Donatists, coined the term tolerare pro pace - to tolerate for the sake of peace. Peace is an important asset, and it must be weighed in if the text in question, the group in question, is so important that one must assume responsibility for the uproar it will cause, as against allowing the question to go away silently.

As much as this may be true, we cannot tranquilize ourselves so easily. Peace - interior peace in the ecclesial community - is an important asset, we have said. But there are also false forms of peace. if we always just let things be, the feeling of arbitrariness arises - "One must not have problems; everything must be tranquil" - but this quiet no longer has content, so it loses consistency and becomes empty.

Every falsification of the faith that is not corrected becomes an element of internal poisoning in the organism of the Church. At first, it apparently does not cause any damage, until it becomes a general infection. It continues to propagate itself silently until the very sensibility for faith is lost, and faith itself is no longer manifested as a common good, because it has been so eroded from the inside. Of course, the external apparatus may continue for a bit more time, but from within, the Church is already doomed to exhaustion.

And we wonder why the churches are empty, why a silent exodus is taking place, a simple extinction of the faith. To be in the Church no longer seems to be important, because she no longer has a purpose, she seems no longer to take her deepest foundation seriously - the presence of the revelation of God in the faith.

Gregory the Great in his Psstoral Rule interpreted a very dense statement by the Lord in this way: "Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another" (Mk 9,50). Salt destroys peace, it burns, it can be bad. It seems to contradict peace.

But both should be realized together: peace, which tolerates the other, but salt as well, which seeks out and fights the elements of decomposition.

"He who is too concerned with purely human peace no longer opposes evil and so justifies the perverse, and has isolated himself from the peace of God... It is a great sin to come to terms with corruption", he said (II 408).

The bishop must be a man of peace, but he should also have salt in him. He must be ready for conflict when it has to do with the true good, so that the salt does not become insipid and we are not then rightly despised and trampled on.

4. The good of the faith

In conclusion, I wish to mention a last objection which, for the most part, we ourselves hide, but which we must bring out into the light. I made a reference to this objection at the start.

There are not a few Catholics - including some bishops - who, even if they are personally fully orthodox and devout, ask themselves - more or less openly: "If it is truly such a good thing to know everything about the will of God, perhaps the faith has become more of a burden than a grace. Would it not be burdensome to live the faith integrally? Could it be that the good conscience of those who do not know the will of God or know it only halfway is an easier way to salvation?"

At the start of the liberal age, when despite separation from the faith, the basic Christian certainties still held and appeared as certainties to common thinking, this would have been a truly averse impression. The faithful had to sustain the foundation for others and keep it from collapsing, because pure reason does not exist. Its effectiveness always depends on a thousand premises.

Today, when these basic certainties have widely collapsed, we see the darkness towards which man is hurtling, if he does not know anything about his origin or his destination. The non-culture of death arises. A world without sense, a world in which we do not know who we are and what we ought to do, a world that needs to deaden itself with drugs.

Nihilism is no longer easy - there is only darkness. Faith is the light. We Christians must believe anew in a more knowing way, more joyous, much more optimistic.

Yes, it is beautiful to know the will of God. It is beautiful to know God and to be known by him. It is beautiful to know what God looks like. We see the face of God himself in Christ who loves each of us and gave himself up to die for us.

Only if we go back to perceive once more from within the preciousness of faith, the authentic joy that there is in faith, as the first Christians felt in the midst of ancient paganism, only if we return to being truly happy in the faith, shall we spontaneously see that the most important thing is to defend this precious pearl, be engrossed in its splendor, and recognize that the most elevated part of our mission is our commitment to this treasure.

Concluding observations on
bringing the faith up to date

Up to this point, I have spoken only of conflictual cases, of the vigilant guardianship of the faith which is a task proper to the pastor. But the true task of the pastor is positive: to keep the faith so alive that it should not come to any conflicts.

I see three principal sectors in which special attention is required for bringing the faith up to date: preaching (which includes keeping abreast and more deeply examining our knowledge of the faith), catechesis, and theological instruction in seminaries and university faculties. To speak exhaustively about this would require a whole conference.

I shall merely cite briefly some of my concerns and considerations. Preaching after the Council has come closer to Scripture, in general, and this constitutes great progress. But it has also become more casual and more thematically poor, and this is a danger.

In general, in the course of the triennial cycle, all the doctrine of the faith is no longer presented, only random passages, while the rest is forgotten. I think that the bishops of a region must work together to establish an order of preaching in which it will be able to proclaim in the course of three years all that is contained in the faith, especially those themes that are often ignored - about God the Creator, sin and redemption, grace and the sacraments (above all the sacrament of penitence), contemplation of the 'last things', eternal life.

Even catechesis, in my opinion, has become too sectorial and often ignores great parts of the contents of the faith.Evidence completely far beyond what we might have thought certify to us an incredible ignorance in the younger generations of fundamental statements of the faith.

Preparation for communion in many places consists more of socializing than gradual penetration into the mystery of the presence of the Lord and of his sacrifice. The grandeur of the mystery of Christ is hardly ever transmitted, and so on.

For the completeness of preaching as for the integrity of catechesis, the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers valuable aid. It must be used much more. But, of course, it has to be translated into concrete terms to be used in preaching and catechesis.

Finally, there is the mission of technological instruction in seminaries and in college faculties. Thank God, there are a number of truly good theologians among the younger generation. But it is undeniable that there are serious problems.

A fundamental problem seems to be that one no longer sees a common philosophical background. Eclecticism prevails. One chooses from current philosophies which offer remarkable help, but in the end, they do not leave any room for the living God.

The encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Fides et ratio offer valuable aid in this respect: They must enter into theological reflection much more than they have been used.

Above all, we must not forget that the Fathers and the great theologians of the Middle Ages, as well as the most significant teachers of theology in the 19th and 20th century, continue to be teachers for us, who show us the way and whose basic approach has not lost any of its actuality even if it must be rethought, examined in depth, amplified, and brought into dialog with the present.

Whoever reads the Scriptures with the Fathers of the Church, especially with St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure, with Moehler and De Lubac (to mention just a few names), will draw from them valuable indications while finding at the same time ample room for creative analyses in depth.

In conclusion, I wish to return once more to the first Letter from Peter. The apostles designates himself in his humble and kind style as a 'co-presbyter', a presbyter along with us, and has almost formulated with unsurpassable clarity what the priestly and apostolic ministry is, the principle of apostolic succession.

In this context, he presented the model priest and bishop, against which we must constantly measure ourselves. The presbyter is "witness to the sufferings of Christ and a participant in the glory that he should make manifest". He watches over the flock not out of constraint, but gladly, as God wills it. He does not lord over the persons entrusted to him but is an example for them. "And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory" (5,4). This is the perspective in which we carry out our service.



P.S. What an excellent presentation of the role of bishops! I gather now that Cardinal Ratzinger must have written it especially for the book prepared by the Congregation for Bishops to give out to the bishops who were ordained in the Jubilee Year 2000. A copy should be printed separately and sent out to all bishops and theologians of the world...

Tuesday, May 29, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

The prayer card showing a young Madeleine honors her as the patron of home schooling.
ST. MADELEINE-SOPHIE BARAT (France, 1779-1685), Virgin, Founder of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Born on the eve of the French Revolution, the young Madeleine received first-class home schooling from her brother, a monk who taught school. By the time she was 15, she was
well-schooled in the classics as well as in Scriptures and theology. When the Reign of Terror began, her brother took her with him to Paris where he would become a Jesuit and part
of a group that was seeking to reform the order in post-revolutionary France. He introduced her to a colleague who was interested in setting up schools for girls to provide
education similar to what Jesuits were providing to boys. In 1800, with three other postulants, Madeleine started the order devoted to the Sacred Heart, establishing their first
convent in Amiens. At age 23, she was elected Superior-General and remained so until her death. Their work progressed apace with more convents and schools founded all over
France. Eventually, she brought the order and its work to Italy, Belgium and Switzerland. One of her earliest nuns, Philippine Duchesne (who would be canonized herself in 1988),
went to Louisiana where she and her fellow nuns established the first free school west of the Mississippi, and where the Sacred Heart institutions flourished. In 1826, the rules of
the congregation were approved by the Vatican. For the rest of her life, Mother Barat travelled actively, founding and visiting convents, and compiling voluminous correspondence,
while maintaining her interior life well-nourished by prayer and contemplation. She died in Paris at the age of 94, on Ascension Day, as she foretold. At that time, the order
counted about 4,000 nuns in 99 communities around the world. In 1893, her body was found incorrupt when it was exhumed during her cause for beatification. In 1904, when the order was
forced to leave France because of the new secular laws forbidding Catholic instruction, her remains were taken to Belgium where it remained in the order's convent in Jette,
near Brussels, returning to France in July last year. It is now venerated at the St. Francis Xavier Church in Paris. Mother Barat was canonized in 1925.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/052912.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

Vatican statement on latest
massacre of civilians in Syria

May 29, 2012

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican news director, issued this statement today:

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The recent massacre in Houla, Syria, where more than one hundred people, including many children, lost their lives, has distressed and worried the Holy Father and the entire Catholic community, as well as the international community, who have unanimously condemned the incident.

In renewing its call for the cessation of all forms of violence, the Holy See urges the parties concerned and the international community to spare no effort to resolve the crisis through dialogue and reconciliation.

The leaders and believers of different religions, too, though prayer and mutual collaboration, are called to make great efforts to promote the longed-for peace, for the good of the whole population.

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The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has now released, in the Vatican's official languages,
as anticipated, the "Norms for How to Proceed in Discerning Personal Apparitions and Revelations"
promulgated by the CDF in February 1978, for the guidance of bishops around the world, but available
till now only in Latin. The English version is on
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20111214_prefazione-levada_en.html


The Press Office announced the appointment of two new US bishops:
- Mons. Samuel Joseph Aquila, till now Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota,
as Archbishop of Denver, a post
vacated last year by Archbishop Charles Chaput, now Archbishop of Philadephia.

- Mons. Richard Joseph Malone, till now Bishop of Portland, Maine, as Bishop of Buffalo, New York,
succeeding Mons. Edward Kmiec who has resigned upon reaching canonical retirement age.

Fr. Lombardi says Vatican inquiries
are meant to establish the truth
and make necessary corrections
Adapted from

May 29, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI is being 'tested' by the events connected with the release of private documents from his desk and the subsequent arrest of a member of his household on charges of possessing stolen, but he and his co-workers are facing it all with “faith” and “a great desire to serve the Church”, said Holy See Press Office Director, Fr. Federico Lombardi at a news briefing today. Emer McCarthy has the report:

Fr. Lombardi began the briefing by underlining that while the situation the Vatican faces is “serious”, it is “neither tragic or terrible”.

But first, he spoke of the Pope's sorrow and pain at the news of the recent massacre of innocent civilians in Houla, Syria, as well as for a second deadly earthquake this morning to hit the central Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in a week.

Regarding the 'Vatileaks' investigations, Fr. Lombardi said the second phase of the investigation of Paolo Gabriele – to decide whether to proceed to trial or not – is still at the preliminary stage .

He emphasized that the aim of all the investigations about the leaks is to arrive at the truth based on the objective facts as they emerge.

He said that Gabriele, 46, and father of three, is 'calm', and is cooperating with investigators. He has met with his wife and one of his defense lawyers, Carlo Fusco. The first formal interrogation will take place in the next few days.

Fr Lombardi again denied reports in the Italian media that other people have been detained, and that the police have questioned some cardinals.

He stressed that while the Commission of Cardinals named by the Pope last month to investigate the leaks have been speaking with various dicastery heads and Curial officials as part of their inquiry, this does not mean that they are under investigation. He added that the three-man Commission (Cardinals Julian Herranz, Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi) is not a juridical body.

Asked how the entire episode has affected the Pope, Fr. Lombardi said “It is a time of severe testing for the Pope and the Roman Curia which we hope can be overcome with decision, by identifying the truth and the underlying problems”.

He added: “This is the right path to follow to maintain the trust of the People of God, which the Pope fully merits”.

He also reiterated his appeal Monday to journalists to report only the objective facts of the situation, rather than speculation or unconfirmed information reported as fact.

“Both the Pope and his co-workers in the Roman Curia are facing the situation with faith and a great desire to serve the Church. We do not fear the problems, difficulties, errors or faults that may emerge. Instead we are trying to react in a correct manner as part of a sometimes difficult journey of truth, with the necessary interventions to re-establish trust and the proper function of the government of the Church and its institutions”.


The media, of course, are not heeding Fr. Lombardi's admonition to stick only to reporting facts. Even as Gabriele's lawyer yesterday questioned the allegation that 'a huge mass of documents' had been found by the police in Gabriele's home, some newspaper reports today have embroidered on that to claim that there were 'four boxes' of documents found, and that some of the documents "appeared ready to be sent out and contained notations of the names of persons they were to be sent to, including priests and newsmen". I only note this so that they can be compared later with 'objective facts' when these are made available.

If any of these alleged investigative data being reported by the media is true, isn't it time for the Vatican police and investigating magistrates to look among themselves and their own people who could be leaking their information out? This exercise of indiscretion can be carried out ad absurdum - with a drip-drip-drip of leaks about the data in the possession of those who are investigating the original Vatileaks!

And yet, in the absence of 'objective facts', the media feel free to publish whatever they wish in order to 'maintain' public interest - not necessarily to sell more papers or attract more audiences for radio and TV news, but to exploit the occasion as hard as they can in order to push their anti-Catholic, anti-Pope agenda. Consider a sampling of headlines in the Anglophone media today:

There is a two-pronged agenda in all this: to portray 'chaos' in the Vatican, and to say the scandal has caused a loss of trust in the Church. Both of which are rank exaggerations, pure and simple.

'Chaos' would mean that everyone in the the Roman Curia is running around saying 'Dear me, the sky has fallen', and no one is able to perform, not even their routine tasks. That's obviously not the case.

And as for 'loss of trust' in the Church, one can only say again that media persist in projecting their own prevailing opinion - which reflects that of their secular environment - to assume that this must be the general attitude of the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world - when the overwhelming majority probably do not follow these so-called scandals with the same monomaniacal obsession that the media devote to events of a negative nature, or are even aware of this 'obsession du jour' that MSM have.

And the usual sidebar, of course, of Catholics who are now being Pharisaic yet again, beating their breasts to say, "I give up! This is not a faith I can keep. I am ashamed to stay in this Church which is rotten from top to bottom" are those of little faith, to begin with, who have been looking for a pretext to say that. First it was those pedophile priests. Now the 'thieving, scheming Curia'.

P.S. I have taken out and apologized for a parody post (supposed to have been from the NCReporter) that I fell for completely and reported in a brief note yesterday, as if it were true... I shall be more careful next time.


P.S. Until tomorrow's issue (May 30), the Vatican newspaper has not published anything about the arrest of Paolo Gabriele and anything that has to do with Vatileaks. Tomorrow, it has a front-page interview with Mons. Angelo Becciu, Deputy Secretary of State for General Affairs, who talks about the mood at the Vatican with these developments. The headline is 'Le carte rubate dal Papa' (The Pope's purloined papers)... I will translate later.... I must note that the dismissal of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi from the IOR was 'reported' by the OR on its back page the day after it happened, by simply reproducing the statement made by the Vatican Press Office the previous day, with the headline 'Statement from the Vatican Press Office'. Thank you, Mr. Vian, for at least not rubbing in the unwarranted brutality of that statement by giving a headline that would have been anything but neutral... But I don't suppose we will be seeing any more articles by Gotti Tedeschi in the OR!

CDF publishes Church criteria used
by local bishops since 1978
to determine authenticity of claimed
apparitions and private revelations



PREFACE TO THE NORMS
by Cardinal William J. Levada

1. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is competent in questions regarding the promotion and safeguarding of the teaching of faith and morals.

It is also competent to examine difficulties regarding the proper understanding of the faith, such as cases of pseudo-mysticism, presumed apparitions, visions and messages attributed to supernatural sources.

In regard to these very delicate tasks, more than thirty years ago this Dicastery prepared the Normae de modo procedendi in diudicandis praesumptis apparitionibus ac revelationibus. This document, formulated by the Members of the Plenary Session of the Congregation, was approved by the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, on 24 February 1978, and subsequently issued on 25 February 1978.

At that time the Norms were sent to Bishops for their information, without, however, being officially published, as the norms were given for the direct aid of the Pastors of the Church.

2. Over the years this document has been published in various works treating these matters, in more than one language, without obtaining the prior permission of this Dicastery. Today, it must be recognized that the contents of these important norms are already in the public domain. Therefore, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith believes it is now opportune to publish these Norms, providing translations in the principal languages.

3. In the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God held in October 2008, the issue of the problems stemming from the experience of supernatural phenomena was raised as a pastoral concern by some Bishops.

Their concern was recognized by the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who inserted the issue into the larger context of the economy of salvation, in a significant passage of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Verbum Domini. It is important to recall this teaching of the Pontiff, which is an invitation to pay appropriate attention to these supernatural phenomena:

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In all of this, the Church gives voice to her awareness that with Jesus Christ she stands before the definitive word of God: he is ‘the first and the last’ (Rev 1:17). He has given creation and history their definitive meaning; and hence we are called to live in time and in God’s creation within this eschatological rhythm of the word; ‘thus the Christian dispensation, since it is the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Tim 6:14 and Tit 2:13)’.

Indeed, as the Fathers noted during the Synod, the ‘uniqueness of Christianity is manifested in the event which is Jesus Christ, the culmination of revelation, the fulfilment of God’s promises and the mediator of the encounter between man and God. He who ‘has made God known’ (Jn 1:18) is the one, definitive word given to mankind.’

Saint John of the Cross expresses this truth magnificently: ‘Since he has given us his Son, his only word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything at once in this sole word – and he has no more to say… because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has spoken all at once by giving us this All who is his Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty’ (Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22).

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Bearing this in mind, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, notes the following:

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Consequently the Synod pointed to the need to ‘help the faithful to distinguish the word of God from private revelations’ whose role ‘is not to complete Christ’s definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history.’

The value of private revelations is essentially different from that of the one public revelation: the latter demands faith; in it God himself speaks to us through human words and the mediation of the living community of the Church.

The criterion for judging the truth of a private revelation is its orientation to Christ himself. If it leads us away from him, then it certainly does not come from the Holy Spirit, who guides us more deeply into the Gospel, and not away from it.

Private revelation is an aid to this faith, and it demonstrates its credibility precisely because it refers back to the one public revelation. Ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation essentially means that its message contains nothing contrary to faith and morals; it is licit to make it public and the faithful are authorized to give to it their prudent adhesion.

A private revelation can introduce new emphases, give rise to new forms of piety, or deepen older ones. It can have a certain prophetic character (cf. 1 Th 5:19-21) and can be a valuable aid for better understanding and living the Gospel at a certain time; consequently it should not be treated lightly. It is a help which is proffered, but its use is not obligatory. In any event, it must be a matter of nourishing faith, hope and love, which are for everyone the permanent path of salvation.

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4. It is my firm hope that the official publication of the Norms regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations can aid the Pastors of the Catholic Church in their difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages or, more generally, extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin.

At the same time it is hoped that this text might be useful to theologians and experts in this field of the lived experience of the Church, whose delicacy requires an ever-more thorough consideration.

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PRELIMINARY NOTE
Origin and character of these norms

During the annual Plenary Session in November 1974, the Fathers of this Sacred Congregation examined the problems relative to presumed apparitions and to the revelations often connected with them and reached the following conclusions:

1. Today, more than in the past, news of these apparitions is diffused rapidly among the faithful thanks to the means of information (mass media). Moreover, the ease of going from one place to another fosters frequent pilgrimages, so that Ecclesiastical Authority should discern quickly about the merits of such matters.

2. On the other hand, modern mentality and the requirements of critical scientific investigation render it more difficult, if not almost impossible, to achieve with the required speed the judgments that in the past concluded the investigation of such matters (constat de supernaturalitate, non constat de supernaturalitate) (consistdent with the supernatural, or not consistent with the supernatural] and which offered to the Ordinaries the possibility of authorizing or prohibiting public cult or other forms of devotion among the faithful.

For these reasons, in order that the devotion stirred among the faithful as a result of facts of this sort might manifest itself in full communion with the Church, and bear fruits by which the Church herself might later discern the true nature of the facts, the Fathers judged that in this matter the following procedure should be promoted.

When Ecclesiastical Authority is informed of a presumed apparition or revelation, it will be its responsibility:

a) first, to judge the fact according to positive and negative criteria (cf. infra, no. I);

b) then, if this examination results in a favorable conclusion, to permit some public manifestation of cult or of devotion, overseeing this with great prudence (equivalent to the formula, “for now, nothing stands in the way”) (pro nunc nihil obstare).

c) finally, in light of time passed and of experience, with special regard to the fecundity of spiritual fruit generated from this new devotion, to express a judgment regarding the authenticity and supernatural character if the case so merits.

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Publication of these norms - unchanged since 1978 - is particularly relevant today because Benedict XVI has asked an international commission to investigate the authenticity of the alleged Marian apparitions in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje. Two successive bishops of the Bosnian diocese to which Medjugorje belongs have declared, on the basis of the 1978 criteria, that the phenomena reported "are not consistent with the supernatural".

Medjugorje has become a much-visited Marian shrine, though its legion of devotees are opposed by skeptics who accept the local bishops' findings and judgments. In 2010, the Pope named an international commission of cardinals, bishops and scientists to make a definitive ruling. The Church does not authorize its bishops and priests to lead any pilgrimages to Medjugorje, but the hierarchy has always said that the Church welcomes any spiritual fruits resulting from the faith of pilgrims to that Bosnian village.

A belated post about one of the Holy Father's recent official events as Head of State:

Pope Benedict meets with
Costa Rica's President
Translated from

May 28, 2012



The Vatican released the following commmunique:

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On the morning of May 28, 2012, the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Madame Laura Chinchilla Miranda,was received in audience by His Holiness Benedict XVI, after which she met with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Mons. Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with other states.

During the cordial conversations, good relations existing between the Holy See, the Church and the State of Costa Rica were reviewed, and the hope is for further reinforcement with a Concordat that will respect the identity of the State and its autonomy, as well as the existing collaboration between civilian and ecclesiastical authorities.

The Church in Costa Rica makes specific contributions through its educational, social and charitable institutions. All parties agreed on the importance of continuing to protect the fundamental dignity of the human being from the moment of conception.

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