BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI

For a few days now, many Anglophone blogs have been hailing the martyrdom of a priest in Syria, except the story he was one of three men shown being beheaded by anti-Assad rebels on an Internet video is false. He was not one of those victims, but he did die a martyr's death another way....

Syrian rebels did not behead
Franciscan Fr. Francois Mourad:
They shot him 8 times as
he tried to defend some nuns
July 3, 2013
By Patrick Goodenough

CNSnews is the online news service of the Washignton-based conservative Media Rsearch Council.

JEUSALEM, July 3, 2013 (CNSNews.com) – A Catholic priest slain in Syria last month was not one of the three men seen being beheaded in a video clip posted online – but he was killed by anti-Assad rebels, who gunned him down as he tried to defend nuns at a monastery.

A representative of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land told CNSNews.com that Francois Murad had been “killed by eight bullets.”

She said a Franciscan from the Custody had gone to the site – St. Anthony’s Monastery in Ghassanieh – on the day Murad was killed, June 23, and had taken his body for burial later the same day in Knayeh, a village nearby.

“He also took the Catholic religious women of the village who were still in Ghassanieh, in order to find them a place more secured.”

CNSNews.com reported earlier on claims that Murad had been beheaded by rebels. A graphic online video showed the decapitation of three men, and Catholic Online reported at the weekend that Murad had been identified as one of the three victims.

The Franciscan representative said the Custody did not know the identities of the three men who were beheaded, or whether any of them were Christians or clergy.

Based in Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, headed by Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has jurisdiction stretching from Egypt to Syria.

Murad, 49, was a former Franciscan friar who was later ordained as a priest. After his own monastery in Ghassanieh was bombed he moved into the Franciscan one in the same village, St. Anthony’s, for safety and to give support to those still there, including nuns – until Sunday, June 23, when rebels attacked.

“Islamists attacked the monastery, ransacking it and destroying everything,” Pizzaballa said in an earlier statement. “When Father Francois tried to resist, defending the nuns, rebels shot him.”

The Vatican cited local sources as saying the attackers were believed to be members of the al-Nusra Front, a group linked to al-Qaeda.

Murad’s murder comes amid growing concern about the safety of Syrian Christians as the civil war drags on.

Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told a congressional hearing last week that the Christians were trapped between the two sides in the conflict, and also being “specifically targeted in an ethno-religious cleansing campaign.”

Shea cited accounts of Christians and others being “targeted with summary executions, forcible conversions to Islam and expulsions from their homes as a result of actions taken by the courts of the ‘Caliphate of Iraq and the Levant,’ the name the al-Nusra Brigade and other Islamist rebels use in reference to the Syrian territory under their control.”

“Christian leaders are particularly vulnerable in Syria, as the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad is targeting them to send a message to the entire community that Christians are no longer welcome in the country,” says Barnabas Fund, an international charity working to help Syrian Christians.

Two Syrian church leaders, a Greek Orthodox bishop and Syriac Orthodox archbishop, were kidnapped by rebel gunmen near Aleppo last April and remain unaccounted for.

In a decision that has drawn mixed reactions, the Obama administration announced recently it will broaden its assistance to the Syrian opposition to include military aid.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked Tuesday about the beheading video and how the administration could be certain U.S. assistance to the opposition does not go to jihadist groups like the one responsible.

“One of the reasons why the Secretary [John Kerry] felt it was so important for military aid to go through the SMC [the Free Syrian Army’s supreme military council] is to make sure that it’s going to moderate members of the coalition,” she replied.

“That’s been a priority. That’s been something that’s he’s been working with Congress on and has been encouraging our other partners around the world to do the same.”

A U.N.-commissioned report released last February by an expert panel investigating rights abuses in the conflict said outside support to rebels has benefited extremists and pushed the rebellion in a more radical direction.

“The intervention of external sponsors has contributed to the radicalization of the insurgency as it has favored Salafi armed groups such as the al-Nusra Front, and even encouraged mainstream insurgents to join them owing to their superior logistical and operational capabilities,” it said.

The panel’s subsequent and latest report, released in June, recorded the growing power and influence of al-Nusra.

“This group has been part of, and occasionally co-leading, most of the major operations conducted by other anti-government armed groups given its better organization and discipline, greater operational efficiency and access to external support,” it said.

“Foreign fighters with jihadist inclinations, often arriving from neighboring countries, continued to reinforce its ranks.”

A Pew poll last month found that opposition to U.S. and other countries arming Syrian rebels has risen to 70 percent, up from 65 percent last December, while support for such action has dropped to 20 percent, down from 24 percent six months ago.

July 4, 2013 - Both the scientist and journalist in me prompt me to post this special lookback feature on the day it all played out one year ago... The first having to do with the first scientific documentation of a hypothesis that has been favored by most theoretical physicists for the past half century, namely, the existence of a so-called 'God particle' in the universe of matter and energy that compose the atom, once thought by physicists to be the ultimate building block of all matter... And the second is the publication of an Italian paper that says the Shroud of Turin 'proves' the Resurrection took place by a phenomenon of energy similar to what took place right after the Big Bang that physicists postulate to have been the material start of the universe...



This is definitely the most exciting development in theoretical science in quite some time - the first of this millennium. There's always been controversy over the term 'God particle' used for this until-now most elusive of sub-atomic particles, but I've always thought the fact that someone thought to call it that was significant in itself. As significant as ongoing research into what has been called the 'God spot' or 'God module' in the human brain that is thought to predispose man to think of transcendence, another way of saying that God is inscribed in the human heart.

Scientists prove
'God particle' exists -
or something like it
A closer look at the Higgs boson that helps
explain what gives matter size and shape


BERLIN, July 4, 2012 (AP) — Scientists working at the world’s biggest atom smasher near Geneva have announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle that looks remarkably like the long-sought Higgs boson.

Sometimes called the “God particle” because its existence is fundamental to the creation of the universe, the hunt for the Higgs involved thousands of scientists from all over the world.

School physics teaches that everything is made up of atoms, and inside atoms are electrons, protons and neutrons. They, in turn, are made of quarks and other subatomic particles. Scientists have long puzzled over how these minute building blocks of the universe acquire mass. Without mass, particles wouldn’t hold together and there would be no matter.

One theory proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs and teams in Belgium and the United States in the 1960s is that a new particle must be creating a “sticky” field that acts as a drag on other particles. The atom-smashing experiments at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, have now captured a glimpse of what appears to be just such a Higgs-like particle.

The Higgs is part of many theoretical equations underpinning scientists’ understanding of how the world came into being. If it doesn’t exist, then those theories would need to be fundamentally overhauled. The fact that it apparently does exist means scientists have been on the right track with their theories.

But there’s a twist: the measurements seem to diverge slightly from what would be expected under the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. This is exciting for scientists because it opens the possibility to potential new discoveries including a theory known as “super-symmetry” where particles don’t just come in pairs — think matter and anti-matter — but quadruplets, all with slightly different characteristics.

CERN’s atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, alone cost some $10 billion to build and run. This includes the salaries of thousands of scientists and support staff around the world who collaborated on the two experiments that independently pursued the Higgs.

Were there any practical results from this discovery? Not directly. But the massive scientific effort that led up to the discovery has paid off in other ways, one of which was the creation of the World Wide Web. CERN scientists developed it to make it easier to exchange information among each other.

The vast computing power needed to crunch all of the data produced by the atom smasher has also boosted the development of distributed — or cloud — computing, which is now making its way into mainstream services. Advances in solar energy capture, medical imaging and proton therapy — used in the fight against cancer — have also resulted from the work of particle physicists at CERN and elsewhere.

“This is just the beginning,” says James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN. Scientists will keep probing the new particle until they fully understand how it works.

In doing so they hope to understand the 96 percent of the universe that remains hidden from view. This may result in the discovery of new particles and even hitherto unknown forces of nature.


Has physics found
its 'Holy Grail' (for now)?
By DENNIS OVERBYE

July 4, 2012



ASPEN, Colorado — Physicists working at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider said Wednesday that they had discovered a new subatomic particle that looks for all the world like the Higgs boson, a potential key to an understanding of why elementary particles have mass and indeed to the existence of diversity and life in the universe.

“I think we have it,” Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the director general of CERN, said in an interview from his office outside Geneva, calling the discovery “a historic milestone.”

His words signaled what is probably the beginning of the end for one of the longest, most expensive searches in the history of science. If scientists are lucky, the discovery could lead to a new understanding of how the universe began.

Dr. Heuer and others said that it was too soon to know for sure whether the new particle, which weighs in at 125 billion electron volts, one of the heaviest subatomic particles yet, fits the simplest description given by the Standard Model, the theory that has ruled physics for the last half-century, or whether it is an impostor, a single particle or even the first of many particles yet to be discovered.

The latter possibilities are particularly exciting to physicists since they could point the way to new deeper ideas, beyond the Standard Model, about the nature of reality. For now, some physicists are calling it a “Higgslike” particle.

“It’s great to discover a new particle, but you have to bfind out what its properties are,” said John Ellis, a theorist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Joe Incandela, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, a spokesman for one of two groups reporting data on Wednesday, called the discovery “very, very significant.”

“It’s something that may, in the end, be one of the biggest observations of any new phenomena in our field in the last 30 or 40 years, going way back to the discovery of quarks, for example,” he said.

Here at the Aspen Center for Physics, a retreat for scientists that will celebrate its 50th birthday on Saturday, the sounds of cheers and popping corks reverberated early Wednesday against the Sawatch Range through the Roaring Fork Valley of the Rockies, as bleary-eyed physicists watched their colleagues read off the results in a webcast from CERN.

It was a scene duplicated in Melbourne, Australia, where physicists had gathered for a major conference, as well as in Los Angeles, Chicago, Princeton, New York, London and beyond — everywhere that members of a curious species have dedicated their lives and fortunes to the search for their origins in a dark universe.

Nima Arkani-Hamed, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, said: “I was really impressed. It’s a triumphant day for fundamental physics. Now some fun begins!”

At CERN itself, 1,000 people stood in line all night to get into the auditorium, according to Guido Tonelli, a CERN physicist who said the atmosphere was like a rock concert. Peter Higgs, the University of Edinburgh theorist for whom the boson is named, entered the meeting to a standing ovation.

Confirmation of the Higgs boson or something very much like it would constitute a rendezvous with destiny for a generation of physicists who have believed in the boson for half a century without ever seeing it. And it affirms a grand view of a universe ruled by simple and elegant and symmetrical laws, but in which everything interesting in it, like ourselves, is a result of flaws or breaks in that symmetry.

According to the Standard Model, which has ruled physics for 40 years, the Higgs boson is the only visible and particular manifestation of an invisible force field, a cosmic molasses that permeates space and imbues elementary particles that would otherwise be massless with mass. Particles wading through it would gain heft.

Without this Higgs field, as it is known, or something like it, physicists say all the elementary forms of matter would zoom around at the speed of light, flowing through our hands like moonlight. There would be neither atoms nor life.

Physicists said that they would probably be studying the new Higgs particle for years. Any deviations from the simplest version of the boson — and there are hints of some already — could open a gateway to new phenomena and deeper theories that answer questions left hanging by the Standard Model: What, for example, is the dark matter that provides the gravitational scaffolding of galaxies? And why is the universe made of matter instead of antimatter?

“If the boson really is not acting standard, then that will imply that there is more to the story — more particles, maybe more forces around the corner,” Neal Weiner, a theorist at New York University, wrote in an e-mail. “What that would be is anyone’s guess at the moment.”

One intriguing candidate for the next theory they have been on the watch for is called supersymmetry, “SUSY” for short, which would come with a whole new laundry list of particles to be discovered, one of which might be the source of dark matter. In supersymmetry there are at least two Higgs bosons.

Dr. Incandela said, “The whole world thinks there is one Higgs, but there could be many of them.”

Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago and the chairman of the physics center board, said, “This is a big moment for particle physics and a crossroads — will this be the high water mark or will it be the first of many discoveries that point us toward solving the really big questions that we have posed?”

Wednesday’s announcement is also an impressive opening act for the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest physics machine, which collides protons and only began operating two years ago. It is still running at only half-power.

Physicists had been holding their breath and perhaps icing the champagne ever since last December. Two teams of about 3,000 physicists each — one named Atlas, led by Fabiola Gianotti, and the other CMS, led by Dr. Incandela — operate giant detectors in the collider, sorting the debris from the primordial fireballs left after proton collisions.

Last winter they both reported hints of the same particle. They were not able, however, to rule out the possibility that it was a statistical fluke.

Since then the collider has more than doubled the number of collisions it has recorded.

The new results capped three weeks of feverish speculation and Internet buzz as the physicists, who had been sworn to secrecy, did a breakneck analysis of some 800 trillion proton-proton collisions over the last two years. They were racing to get ready for a major conference in Melbourne that started on Wednesday, where they had promised an update on the Higgs search.

In the end, the CERN council, which consists of representatives from each of CERN’s 20 member states, decided that the potentially historic announcement should come from the lab’s own turf first.

Up until last weekend, physicists from inside were reporting that they themselves did not know what the outcome would be, though many were having fun with the speculation.

“HiggsRumors” became one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter. The particle also acquired its own iPhone app, a game called “Agent Higgs.” Expectations soared when it was learned that the five surviving originators of the Higgs boson theory had been invited to the CERN news conference.

On the eve of the announcement, in what was an embarrassing moment for the lab where the Web was invented, a video of Dr. Incandela making his statement was posted to the Internet and then quickly withdrawn. Dr. Incandela said he had made a series of video presentations with alternate conclusions so that the video producers would not know the right answer ahead of time, but the one that was right just happened to get posted.

But the December signal was no fluke.

Like Omar Sharif materializing out of a distant blur of heated air into a man on a camel in “Lawrence of Arabia,” what was once a hint of a signal had grown over the last year, until it practically jumped off the chart. “I believe it now; I didn’t before,” said a physicist who was one of the first to see the new results but was not authorized to discuss them.

The new particle has a mass of about 125.3 billion electron volts, in the units of mass and energy — Einstein showed they are the same — that are favored by physicists, about as much as a whole barium atom, according to the CMS group, and 126 billion according to Atlas.

Both groups said that the likelihood that their signal was a result of a chance fluctuation was less than one chance in 3.5 million, so-called “five sigma,” which is the gold standard in physics for a discovery.

On that basis, Dr. Heuer said that he had decided only Tuesday afternoon to call the Higgs result a “discovery.”

He said, “I know the science, and as director general I can stick out my neck.”

Dr. Incandela’s and Dr. Gianotti’s presentations were repeatedly interrupted by applause as they showed slide after slide of data bumps rising like mountains from the sea.

Dr. Gianotti said at one point: “Why are you applauding? I’m not done yet. This is just beginning. There is more to come.”

She noted that the mass of the putative Higgs made it easy to study its many behaviors and channels. “So,” she said, “thanks, nature.”

Gerald Guralnik, one of the founders of the Higgs theory, said he was glad to be at a physics meeting “where there is applause like a football game.”

Asked to comment after the announcements, Dr. Higgs seemed overwhelmed, saying, “For me, its really an incredible thing that’s happened in my lifetime.”

In quantum theory, which is the language of particle physicists, elementary particles are divided into two rough categories: fermions, which are bits of matter like electrons, and bosons, which are bits of energy and can transmit forces, like the photon that transmits light.

Dr. Higgs was one of six physicists, working in three independent groups, who in 1964 invented the notion of the cosmic molasses, or Higgs field. The others were Tom Kibble of Imperial College, London; Carl Hagen of the University of Rochester; Dr. Guralnik of Brown University; and Francois Englert and Robert Brout, both of Université Libre de Bruxelles.

One implication of their theory was that this cosmic molasses, normally invisible and, of course, odorless, would produce its own quantum particle if hit hard enough, by the right amount of energy. The particle would be fragile and fall apart within a millionth of a second in a dozen different ways depending upon its own mass.

Unfortunately, the theory did not say how much this particle should weigh, which is what made it so hard to find. The pesky particle eluded researchers at a succession of particle accelerators, including the Large Electron Positron Collider at CERN, which closed down in 2000, and the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Batavia, Ill., which shut down last year.

Along the way the Higgs boson achieved a notoriety rare for abstract physics. To the eternal dismay of his colleagues, Leon Lederman, the former director of Fermilab, called it the “God particle,” in his book of the same name, later quipping that he had wanted to call it “the goddamn particle.”

Finding the missing boson was one of the main goals of the Large Hadron Collider.

Both Dr. Heuer and Dr. Gianotti said they had not expected the search to succeed so quickly, a tribute, they said, to the people who had built the collider and the detectors and learned to run them efficiently. “It’s truly amazing,” said Lisa Randall, a prominent Harvard theorist.

Dr. Heuer recently extended the current run of the collider an extra three months, to the end of this year, during which the experimenters say they expect to triple their data on the new particle, narrowing its possible identities.

The collider will then shut down for two years for major repairs. When it starts up again, theories of both inner space and outer space could be up for grabs.

Although they have never been seen, Higgslike fields play an important role in theories of the universe and in string theory. Under certain conditions, according to the strange accounting of Einsteinian physics, they can become suffused with energy that exerts an antigravitational force. Such fields have been proposed as the source of an enormous burst of expansion, known as inflation, early in the universe, and, possibly, as the secret of the dark energy that now seems to be speeding up the expansion of the universe.

Knowing more about the new particle will help put those theories on firmer ground, Dr. Turner of Chicago said.

So far, the physicists admit, they know little. The CERN results are mostly based on measurements of two or three of the dozen different ways, or “channels,” by which a Higgs boson could be produced and then decay.

There are hints, but only hints so far, that some of the channels are overproducing the Higgs while others might be underproducing, clues maybe that there is more than the Standard Model at work.

“This could be the first in a ring of discoveries,” Dr. Tonelli said.

CERN will be examining the rest of the channels over the coming months and years, and the idea that the Standard Model could be cracking is a prospect that physicists find thrilling. Only time, and a few more trillion proton collisions, will tell.

In an e-mail, Maria Spiropulu, a professor at the California Institute of Technology who works with the CMS team at CERN, wrote about the Higgs: “I personally do not want it to be standard model anything — I don’t want it to be simple or symmetric or as predicted. I want us all to have been dealt a complex hand that will send me (and all of us) in a (good) loop for a long time.” [i.e., God is inscrutable and will always be. Every new discovery appears to yield more questions... I'd love for Joseph Ratzinger to have an occasion to comment on this latest development with his acute theological insight!]





By those happenstances of synchronicity, there's a news report today about the Big Bang that could have been the physical (according to the laws of physics) explanation for the Resurrection of Christ, just as a Big Bang had marked the birth of the cosmos. In both cases, it was a phenomenon of energy in the form of light - materializing the physical universe on the one hand, and on the other, dematerializing the Body of Christ from within its Shroud and rematerializing it according to the law of conservation of mass and energy... Not for the first time, one is struck that God's first word of creation was "Let there be light"!

How the Body of Christ
could have dematerialized
from the Shroud in a Big Bang
by Marco Tosatti
Translated from the Italian service of

July 4, 2012


In a recent study, Italian physicist Giuseppe Baldacchini says that the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin as Christ's burial shroud is confirmed by the laws of physics as they are known today, specifically by the theory of annihilation.

Baldacchini is a physicist who has held various positions of responsibility at ENEA (the Italian agency for new technologies and energy) based in Frascati. At the same time, he has been a passionate scholar and researcher on the Shroud, and has now published his conclusions and reflections in a 25-page paper (including 2-1/2 pages of references] entitled 'Religion, Christianity and the Shroud' available online in Italian) http://www.sindone.info/BALDAKKI.PDF
[Baldacchini was also one of the co-authors of the ENEA paper published last December reporting the result of 10 years of research into how the image on the Shroud could have been produced. A report on the paper was posted on Page 271 of this thread on 12/15/11.]

[I will anticipate Tosatti and translate here Baldacchini's major conclusions as stated in his abstract of the paper:

---

In the light of what is known to science today, the Shroud of Turin is the funerary wrapping of Jesus Christ as narrated in the Gospels. Careful scientific studies have demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that it is not a fake. Moreover, the most widely credited scientific hypothesis about it today cites a process of radiant energy emission that is compatible with the Resurrection. Evidence of this phenomenon [a body leaving the shroud by no explainable means] is visible on the Shroud which was a mute witness to the most important event that has taken place in human history.

---

He proposes a fascinating hypothesis to respond to a series of questions about how the images on the Shroud could have been formed, and how the body within it could have 'disappeared'.

Baldacchini starts out with two working hypotheses: that the Shroud was a medieval hoax that has been used by the Catholic Church for devotional practices and/or religious propaganda like many relics; or that it authentic and that it truly contained the cadaver of Jesus Christ after his death on the Cross and is therefore a 'witness' of his Resurrection.

"The Shroud is a blanket made of old linen measuring about 4.4 X 1.1 meters on which there are many marks, among them a faint corporeal image (IC) front and back, and stains caused by organic and inorganic liquids. In recent decades, it has been shown that the IC is neither a design or painting executed by any known technique, and some of the reddish marks are of human blood" (Antonacci, 2000), (Wilson, 2010).

"However," Baldacchini points out, "we cannot exclude that it could be fake, so let us suppose that it is a medieval fakery carried out by the most brilliant counterfeiter that has ever lived or that has ever been known," It would mean, however, that the author, or authors, of the hoax knew quite a lot of present-day technologies and information long before they were invented or discovered.

Baldacchini lists 11 determinative scientific elements that make him conclude the Shroud is not fake. Because of space limitations, we cannot list all 11 here, but we ask you to refer to the integral text of Baldacchini's paper.

The scholar points out that "The Shroud does not contain any trace of putrescent gases or liquids produced naturally by a human body 40 hours after death, and therefore, the corpse was no longer there before those 40 hours, but it was in it long enough for the bloodstains to liquefy after initial coagulation, in the process of hemolysis".

Moreover, he points out that "The body could not have been removed manually - since, based on the bloodstains found, there is no evidence at all of movement".

So how did the body disappear? "The only phenomenon known to physics so far which can lead to the complete disappearance of mass by conversion to its equivalent energy is annihilation of matter by antimatter (AMA) which is reproducible today only at the subatomic level in laboratories specializing in elementary particles. But it was the dominant process right after the Big Bang, the event that marked the initial existence of our universe."

He says that the annihilation theory also satisfies the requirements of preceding hypotheses: "Only a small fraction of the energy corresponding to the mass is released, although the entire physical body itself is annihilated in order to reconstitute itself as it was outside the Shroud".

The preceding hypotheses he cites are that of 'radiant energy burst' (REB) along with that of 'mechanically transparent body' (MTB), with parts of both accommodated in the 'historically consistent method' (HCM).

All these hypotheses were elaborated in recent years to account for the disappearance of the body, which could not have been actually removed from the Shroud. "So, the body of Jesus Christ became 'transparent' to the Shroud while it was emitting radiant energy as the MTB hypothesis says, and emitted some amount of radiant energy as the REB says, without the problems raised by the HCM" (mainly, that the energy released would have amounted to a nuclear explosion that would have blown up all of Jerusalem). [I must go back to translate Baldacchini's summations of these hypotheses to make them more clear and relevant to his discussion.]

But the physicist also says, "The AMA hypothesis does not tell us anything other than that the body dematerialized within the Shroud and rematerialized elsewhere, dead or alive, which makes no difference to physical law, but it does not contradict the Gospel accounts that describe him as resurrected and alive".

The chemical and physical characteristics of the Shroud also bear out the AMA, says Baldacchini. "I have gone as far as the limits of present scientific knowledge but I have sought to remain within the laws of physics as we know them today - especially the conservation of energy, and the non-conservation of certain fundamental parameters in the elementary sub-atomic processes that are the material bases for the existence of the universe".


Baldacchini's paper is rather remarkable because the first part of it is dedicated to a very informative survey of all the world's religions, then proceeds to the beliefs of Christianity to lay the groundwork for the Resurrection and how the Shroud provides direct evidence that a body dematerialized from it. He then proceeds to a technical-mathematical proof of his matter-antimatter annihilation hypothesis - and his simple mathematical derivations make immediate sense even to someone like me who who only did a semester's work of nuclear physics in college (whose prerequisite, however, was four semesters of calculus and analytical geometry) under a deeply Catholic professor who was a brilliant exponent of quantum mechanics and to whom I will always be grateful for kindling my lifelong interest in theoretical physics. As someone who had the benefit of a wide-ranging curriculum in both physical and natural sciences, I can say that, outside of contemplating the Eucharist or the sheer wonder of Creation around me, I was never more in awe and amazement of God and his powers than when studying the sciences!

Friday, July 5, 2013, 13th Week in Ordinary Time

Second from right, a Barnabite icon showing Zaccaria and St. Paul, his inspiration. Statue, Founders Gallery, St. Peter's.
ST. ANTONIO MARIA ZACCARIA (Italy, 1502-1539)
Priest, Founder of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (Barnabites)
Born in Cremona, the future saint was raised a by a pious mother who had been widowed early, and was a medical doctor by age 22. He became attracted to the religious apostolate while working among the poor. He renounced his inheritance rights, became a catechist and was ordained a priest at age 26. Assigned to Milan, he laid the foundations for three orders - one for men (the Barnabites), a second for women (Daughters of St. Paul), and a third one for married couples. The aim was to reform the Church among its priests, religious and lay faithful. Society was decadent and so was the Church, leading Martin Luther to launch the Reformation. Zaccaria became a passionate preacher of reform, doing public penance to set an example. He also encouraged daily Communion and Adoration of the Eucharist, as well as lay apostolate. As a reformer, he drew a lot of opposition but he persevered. His community was investigated twice but was exonerated both times. He became seriously ill while on a mission in 1539 and he was brought home to his mother. He died shortly after. He was only 36.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070513.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Pope Francis began his official day by blessing a new statue to St. Michael the Archangel in the Vatican Gardens
in front of the headquarters of the Vatican Governatorate. Also in attendance was Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI,
who was invited by the Pope since the initiative for the statue began under him. The statue complements a Fountain
named for St. Joseph, also found in front of the Vatican Governatorate, and inaugurated in 2010 by Benedict XVI. It is the 100th fountain built in the Vatican Gardens.

Afterwards, the Pope met with
- Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood, who presented him with new
decrees on confirmed miracles, martyrdom and heroic virtues of various candidate saints. This time,
Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were the most notable in the list approved by the Pope. He will now call
a consistory to set the date for the canonization rites of the two Popes. One of those who has had a miracle
attributed to him, setting him up for beatification, is Alvaro Portillo, who succeeded St. Jose Maria Balaguer
as head of the Opus Dei.

- Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, emeritus President of the Pontifical Council for the Family

- Caridnal Fiorenzo Angelini, emeritus President of the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers.
(Mons. Angelini is in his 90s, and in 2010, he was visited by Benedict XVI in the little town near Sulmona where he lives in retirement.)

A news conference was held to present Pope Francis's first encyclical, Lumen Fidei. The presentors were
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of Bishops; Mons. Ludwig Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith; and Mons. Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.




One year ago...

No events were announced for Benedict XVI on this day. He was officially on vacation till the end of July... But this day last year, the Vatican released its financial statements for 2011, which showed a deficit of about 15 million euros for the Holy See and a surplus of about 22 million for the Governatorate, which is financed autonomously, mostly from the income of the Vatican Museums (it continues its record earnings, from 82.4 million in 2010 to 91.3 million in 2011). [2013 P.S. The Holy See recovered in 2012, because from the financial statements released two days ago, it registered a surplus last year of 2-million euros.

Also, finally today, four days after the fact, the English service of Vatican Radio reported a revision by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, to the offensive caption for Pius XII in its Holocaust photo gallery. The revision was just slightly less offensive, but it does not remedy the cat that the Pius XII pictures are found in the Gallery's Hall of Shame!... And the Italian media wrongly reported the 'adoption' by the Council of Europe of the second Moneyval on-site evaluation of the Holy See's financial operations as 'approval' of the Holy See's request to be included in Europe's financial 'white list' even if we won't know what the report says for another month. [It turned out to be favorable on balance, with the Holy See meeting most of the key criteria set by Moneyval.] Fr. Federico Lombardi said in a press briefing:]"It seems we are on the right path. We began a journey, and this is a significant stage,"

A rare day at the Vatican, where the theme seemed to be 'the day of two Popes' - on the one hand, Pope Francis and his living predecessor, Benedict XVI; and on the other, two of his predecessors whose decrees of canonization he has signed.

The two living Popes attended a Vatican event together in the morning to dedicate a statue of St. Michael Archangel in front of the Vatican Governatorate's headquarters in the Vatican Gardens, on the very day that Pope Francis's first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, was released, in which he acknowledges in Paragraph 7 of the encyclical:

---

These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.

---

The full text may be found here:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_enciclica-lumen-fidei_en.html

If you have not already skimmed - or have undertaken a first thorough reading of the encyclical - you will be able to tell the work Benedict XVI did that is pretty much left as is by his successor. This article in the UK Catholic Herald recounts the writer's own impressions upon his first reading of the encyclical:

Thanks to Francis, we now have a magnificent
papal trilogy on faith, hope and charity
The Pope shows humility in completing
an encyclical largely written by Benedict XVI
By Fr Mark Drew

Friday, 5 July 2013

Pope Francis announced a few weeks back that his first encyclical would be “the work of four hands” – a characteristically vivid way of saying that he would be handing on and adding to the preparatory work realised by Pope Benedict before he resigned.

As I began to read the text on the Vatican website, I was curious as to whether my exegetical skills would be able to tell apart the passages written by Francis from those of his predecessor.

As it happens, there was not much call for the source criticism so beloved of the scripture scholars: Sandro Magister’s blog informs us that the great mass of the text is from Benedict’s pen, and his style in evident throughout.

Francis tells us in the introduction that he had completed his predecessor’s work, and here and there are passages couched in a more familiar style (but Benedict, too, was not above using homely examples, so the adepts of Redaktionsgeschichte [editing history] should not be too confident!)

I will not try and summarise the letter; let me attempt rather to whet the readers’ appetite to tackle it themselves. The meditation on the first of the “theological virtues” is dense but accessible. Those nostalgic for the short encyclicals of pre-Wojtyła papacies will find it on the lengthy side, but perseverance brings rich rewards.

This is no mere rehashing of material commonplace from dogmatic treatises and previous magisterial teaching, but a lucid and original synthesis based on the vast erudition of the former Pope.

To the usual biblical reflections are added texts from theologians ranging from Justin Martyr and Augustine to Newman and the Jewish writer Martin Buber. Literature and philosophy have their contribution to make, too, with contributions from Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky and TS Eliot.

It is no small tribute to the humility of Pope Francis that he has chosen to make his own a work which owes so much to his predecessor. The reactions from the secular press seem to have picked up, above all, on the desire for continuity in teaching.

The themes dear to Francis – I noticed the many references to faith as a journey, which chime in with his frequent use of the verb camminare in his homilies – are interwoven with Benedict’s panoramic vision to form a seamless whole.

Those whose interest in papal pronouncements is restricted to their treatment of sexual ethics will be disappointed. There is a chapter on the role of faith in building up the “city” of human society, in which the primordial role of marriage and the family is stressed. But the reader is left to make his or her own applications to the controversies of the day, in a manner which Francis seems to have adopted as his preferred strategy.

Above all, Francis’s hands have been at work here in handing on to us the completion of a magnificent trilogy of mediations on Faith, Hope and Charity conceived by his predecessor. The whole Church will be grateful to him, as he guides us in the years to come in deepening that legacy and making it our own.

As much as I looked forward to the publication of this encyclical, I was also half-dreading it, not sure how the media would report on it, but the meme, thank God, seems to be the fact that the encyclical was written largely by Benedict XVI, although Pope Francis provided an introduction and a conclusion that underscore his own personal reflections on the theological virtue of faith. It certainly is an indisputable historic fact that this is an encyclical by four hands....


Vatican issues first text
co-written by two Popes


VATICAN CITY, July 5, 2013 (AFP) - The Vatican on Friday issued an unprecedented religious text co-written by Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI in which the two P+opes said faith should serve the "common good" but restated their opposition to gay marriage.

Francis paid tribute to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in the encyclical, saying that the ex-pontiff had "almost completed" the text before stepping down in a historic resignation this year and that he himself had merely added "further contributions."

The 82-page text stresses that there is no contradiction between the Catholic faith and the modern world and calls for more dialogue with scientists, other religions and non-believers.

It also restates the Catholic Church's position on marriage saying it should be a "stable union of man and woman."

"This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God's own love, and of the acknowledgement and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation," reads the text.

While some passages in the encyclical have a more academic and ponderous feel characteristic of Benedict XVI, others contain the simpler expressions and brighter outlook of his successor. [That's the journalist's personal opinion! When were Benedict XVI's texts ever 'ponderous'?]

Examples of Francis's input could be references to the need to protect nature and to sustainable development, as well as his oft-repeated phrase: "Let us refuse to be robbed of hope". [Excuse me! As if Benedict XVI had not repreatedly called for man to safeguard Creation, and had not written an encyclical treating significantly of 'sustainable development' and an entire encyclical on hope itself!]

Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noted there were "differences of style, sensibility and accent" between the two Popes in the text but said there was "substantial continuity of the message".

Francis and Benedict, who both live within the walls of the Vatican City and wear the white papal vestments, met publicly on Friday at a ceremony in the Vatican for the unveiling of a new statue.

Benedict became the first Pope to resign of his own free will in 700 years in February, and Francis was elected to succeed him in March as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years.

The central message of the encyclical, entitled "Lumen Fidei" ("Light of Faith") is that faith should be considered a "common good".

"Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter, it helps us build our societies," it says.

The text also calls for a "return to the true basis of brotherhood", saying that the ideal of equality without faith "cannot endure".

In another passage the encyclical says that believers should be humble and not "presumptuous".

"As a truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed by force... Faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others."

Encyclicals are papal circular letters addressed to the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church that are intended to summarise a Pontiff's thoughts on a particular aspect of Church life.

Some of them have gone down in history as significant landmarks in Church history.

Pope Leo XII in 1891 published Rerum Novarum in which he undertook to engage the Catholic Church in social issues, denouncing living conditions for the working class and encouraging workers to organise themselves into associations.

In 1914, Benedict XV denounced the horrors of World War I in Ad beatissimi apostolorum principis and Pius XI in Mit brennender Sorge in 1937 condemned Nazi racism.

In Humanae Vitae, Paul VI condemned all forms of contraception [Not all forms of contraception - but all forms of 'artificial contraception'],/DIM while John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae in 1995 called for opposition to laws legalising abortion and euthanasia.


2 popes craft Francis's
first encyclical on faith
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, July 5, 2013 (AP) — Pope Francis issued his first encyclical Friday, a meditation on faith that is unique because it was written with someone else: Benedict XVI.

Benedict's hand is evident throughout much of the first three chapters of "The Light of Faith," with his theological style, concerns and reference points clear.

Francis's priorities come through strongest in the final chapter, where the Argentine Jesuit insists on the role of faith in serving the common good and giving hope to those who suffer. [That is not a message exclusive to Pope Francis alone - it is the Christian message reverberating through the ages, through the mouths and writings of countless Christians!]

It includes his first clear statement as Pope on marriage being a union between man and woman with the aim of creating children.

"This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God's own love, and of the acknowledge and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to a new life," the encyclical reads.

Francis also cites his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, as well as Mother Teresa, in saying "How many men and women of faith have found mediators of light in those who suffer!" And he concludes with a prayer to Mary, to whom he is particularly devoted.

The encyclical didn't appear to break any new ground in Church teaching [Popes are not supposed to 'break new ground' in Church teaching but to hand down the 'deposit of faith' they have received in a way that is relevant and comprehensible to the society they address!... Again, this lamentable tendency by media to describe the current Pontificate as if it is taking place in a vacuum that has no precedents and antecedents at all. This kind of reporting would imply that Benedict XVI was never concerned about faith to be in the service of justice, law and peace, nor that the family should be the lead 'agent' in the formation of the young - concepts that he happened to repeat as often as he could. His aim was not just to teach the doctrine of the faith but to urge the faithful to bear witness to the faith in their own lives and in the day-to-day.]

"Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey," he writes. "To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light."


How can we not all say DEO GRATIAS that Benedict's encyclical on faith has been published finally - even if it is not signed by him - much sooner than we ever thought. A great 'Thank you', of course, to Pope Francis for his generosity in adopting it for his first encyclical. [My other curiosity had been how Pope Francis would acknowledge Benedict XVI's work on the encyclical - would he say so in the encyclical itself? And he did!] Fr. Drew said it best - Pope Francis has enabled us, the faithful, to have Benedict's complete trilogy on the theological virtues in encyclical form. God bless the Pope and the emeritus Pope! We can be sure that their predecessors, not just the soon-to-be-saints John XXIII and John Paul II - must be smiling down at them from the window of the Lord's house!

And to Benedict XVI, once again, always and ever:

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/07/2013 02:33]

A solitary Benedict 'fan' must have written this report for the English service of Vatican Radio, because it is the first RV report I have seen since March 13, 2013, that does not seem to be afflicted by the Benedict-amnesia that has been globally evident in RV's inexplicably partisan reporting of papal news!...hank heaven for little gifts...

Benedict XVI joins Pope Francis
in consecrating the Vatican to
the protection of St Michael Archangel

July 5, 2013




To the joy of Vatican City State workers, Friday morning Pope Francis was joined by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the gardens for a ceremony during which the Holy Father blessed a statue of St Michael Archangel, at the same time consecrating the Vatican to the Archangel’s protection.


Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican Governatorate, delivers a brief greeting to the Popes and the assembly.

Following a brief ceremony, Pope Francis addressed those present noting how St. Michael defends the People of God from its enemy par excellence, the devil. He said even if the devil attempts to disfigure the face of the Archangel and thus the face of humanity, St Michael wins, because God acts in him and is stronger:

---

In the Vatican Gardens there are several works of art. But this, which has now been added, takes on particular importance, in its location as well as the meaning it expresses. In fact it is not just celebratory work but an invitation to reflection and prayer, that fits well into the Year of Faith.

Michael - which means "Who is like God" - is the champion of the primacy of God, of His transcendence and power. Michael struggles to restore divine justice and defends the People of God from his enemies, above all by the enemy par excellence, the devil. And St. Michael wins because in him, there is He God who acts.

This sculpture reminds us then that evil is overcome, the accuser is unmasked, his head crushed, because salvation was accomplished once and for all in the blood of Christ. Though the devil always tries to disfigure the face of the Archangel and that of humanity, God is stronger, it is His victory and His salvation that is offered to all men.

We are not alone on the journey or in the trials of life, we are accompanied and supported by the Angels of God, who offer, so to speak, their wings to help us overcome so many dangers, in order to fly high compared to those realities that can weigh down our lives or drag us down. In consecrating Vatican City State to St. Michael the Archangel, I ask him to defend us from the evil one and banish him.

We also consecrate Vatican City State in St. Joseph, guardian of Jesus, the guardian of the Holy Family. May his presence make us stronger and more courageous in making space for God in our lives to always defeat evil with good. We ask Him to protect, take care of us, so that a life of grace grows stronger in each of us every day.

---

So I decided to look up the inauguration of the St. Joseph fountain in 2010, and what a surprise to learn it took place on July 5 three years ago!



Pope blesses new
St. Joseph Fountain
at the Vatican
July 5, 2010


NB: Photo below right, is lifted from the PDF of the OR Page 1 and cannot be further enlarged without making the piels visible.


On Monday, July 5, Pope Benedict XVI blessed and inaugurated the 100th fountain within Vatican city state - a fountain named for St. Joseph and dedicated to the present Pontiff.

It is located at the edge of the green space facing the main headquarters of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, with the apse of St. Peter's Basilica to the right of it.

The Holy Father was welcomed by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, Governor of Vatican City state.






The fountain arises from a natural spring in the rocky surface of the Garden, and drains into two elliptical pools, one six meters in diameter, the other 8. [It must be noted that many public drinking fountains around St. Peter's Square and in the city of Rome itself are fed by natural springs.]

A curved wall forms a backdrop for the fountain, and features six bronze relief panels executed by artist Franco Murer, depicting key events in the life of St. Joseph - the betrothal of Joseph and Mary, Joseph's first dream, the birth of Jesus, the flight to Egypt, 'finding' the child Jesus in the Temple, and a scene from the daily life of the Holy Family in Nazareth.



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks at the inauguration, which constitutes a most beautiful 'homily' on St. Joseph:

---

Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with joy that I inaugurate this fountain in the Vatican Gardens, a natural setting of singular beauty. It is a work that adds to the artistic patrimony of this enchanting green space within Vatican City State, a space rich with historical-artistic testimonials from various ages.

Not just the meadows, the flowers, the plants and trees found here, but also its various towers, houses, little temples, fountains, statues and other structures make the Vatican Gardens a fascinating 'unicum', a singular place.

For my predecessorts as well as for me, the Gardens have been a vital space, a place to which I gladly come frequently for prayer and serene relazation.

In addressing to each of you my heartfelt greeting, I wish to acknowledge this gift that you have offered to me and dedicated to St. Joseph. Thank you for this considerate and kind thought.

It has been an undertaking that saw the collaboration of many. I thank, above all, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, also for the words he addressed to me, and for his interesting presentation of the work carried out for this project.

With him, I thank Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano and Bishop Giorgio Corbellino, secretary-genrtal and deputy secretary-general, respectively, of the Governatorate.

Likewise, my sincere appreciation to the Vatican's Department of Technical Services; to the sculptor and project engineer, their consultants and the artisans who carried out the work; and a special thought to the spouses (Michael and Dorothy) Hintze and Robert Castrignano of London [Patrons of the Arts inscribed for the Vatican Museums], who generously financed the work, and to the Sisters of the Monastery of St. Joseph in Kyoto. And lastly, my thanks to the Province of Trento, its communes and the Trentine enterprises for their contributions.

This fountain is named for St. Joseph, a figure close to the heart of the People of God and to mine. The six bronze panels that adorn it evoke moments in his life, and I wish to dwell briefly on these.

The first panel is the betrothal of Joseph and Mary - an event which is of great importance. Joseph was from the royal lineage of David, and by his marriage to Mary, he would confirm on the Virgin's Son - the Son of God - legal entitlement as a 'son of David', in cimpliance with the prophecies.

The betrothal of Joseph and Mary was, thus, a human event which was decisive in the story of man's salvation, in realizing the promises of God. Therefore, it also has a supernatural connotation that its two protagonists accepted with humility and confidence.

The moment of testing would come soon enough for Joseph, a test that was demanding on his faith. As the promised spouse of Mary, before living with her, he found out about her coming motherhood and was very disturbed. The evangelist Matthew underscores that Joseph, being a just man, did not wish to repudiate her, but decided 'to divorce her quietly' (cfr Mt 1,19).

But in a dream - depicted in the second panel - an angel made him understand that what had happened to Mary was the work of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, trusting in God, accepted this and cooperated in the work of salvation.

Of course, divine intervention in his life could not have failed to
disturb him at heart. To entrust oneself to God does not mean seeing everything clearly according to our criteria - it does not mean achieving what we ouselves have planned.

To trust in God means to empty ourselves, renounce the self, because only he who accepts 'losing' himself for God can be 'just' as St. Joseph was, namely, one able to conform his own will to that of God and thus realize himself.

The Gospel, as we know, has not given us any statement from Joseph who carried out his work in silence. It is the style that characterized his whole existence, both before finding himself faced with the mystery of God's action on his spouse, and afterwards, when - knowing about the mystery - he was with Mary at the Nativity, represented in the third panel.

On that holy night, in Bethlehem, with Mary and the Baby Jesus, the Heavenly Father entrusted to Joseph the daily care of his Son on earth, care that he provided in humility and silence.

The fourth panel shows the dramatic episode of the flight to Egypt in order to escape the homicidal violence of Herod. Joseph was forced to leave his native land with his family, in haste - another mysterious moment in his life, another test which required of him full confidence in God's plan.

Afterwards, in the Gospels, Joseph appears in only one other episode, when he goes to Jerusalem and lives through the anguish of losing his son Jesus. St. Luke describes the effortful search for the boy and the wonder of finding him in the Temple - as the fifth panel shows - as wella as the greater wonder of hearing him say the mysterious words: "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Lk 2,49).

These two questions from the Son of God that help us to understand the mystery of Joseph's fatherhood. Reminding his own parents of the primacy of him whom he called 'my Father', Jesus affirms the primacy of God's will over every other, and reveals to Joseph the profound truth of his own role: He, too, is called to be a disciple of Jesus, dedicating his existence to the service of the Son of God and the Virgin Mother, in obedience to the heavenly Father.

The sixth panel represents the work of Joseph in Nazareth, alongside Jesus. The Son of God was hidden to men, and only Mary and Joseph protected his mystery and lived it every day. The Word Incarnate grew up as a man in the shadow of his parents, but at the same time, they too remained hidden in Christ, in his mystery, living out thair own vocations.

Dear brothers and sisters, this beautiful fountain dedicated to St. Joseph is a symbol for the values of simplicity and humility in the daily fulfillment of the will of God - values which distinguished the silent but precious life of the Guardian of the Redeemer.

I entrust to his intercession the hopes of the Church and the world. Together with the Virgin Mary, his spouse, may he always guide my way and yours, so that we can be joyous instruments of peace and salvation.

---

More information from a report in the July 3 OR:
A travertine block inset into the pavement in front of the panels carries a Latin inscription translated thus:

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To Benedict XVI, Successor of the Apostle Peter, who was given St. Joseph as his heavenly patron at baptism, (is dedicated) this fountain in honor of the spouse of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, guardian of the Holy Family, protector of the universal Church and patron of workers. The 100th fountain in Vatican City is offered as a gift through the generosity above all of Patrons of the Arts of the Vatican Museums. July 5, in the year of the Lord 2010, the sixth of this Pontificate.

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Franco Murer, who designed and executed the bronze panels, is a sculptor from Belluno, who previously designed two commemorative medallions for John Paul I and the stations of the Cross in bronze for a church in Canale d'Agordo, John Paul I's hometown near Belluno.

Murer won the competition for the fountain design over four other atists who were chosen on the basis of their work and professional career.

A palm tree has been planted in the space between the two panels as a symbol of the Holy Land.

The Vatican's department of technical services is marking the inauguration of the new fountain by publishing 3 volumes on the Fountains of Vatican City - the first on the Fountains along the Roadways and in the Woodland; the second on Fountains in Buildings and Monuments, and the third on the Fountains in St. Peter's Square and in the Vatican Gardens - to promote knowledge about the artistic and cultural patrimony represented by these special monuments.

Yesterday, after the news conference to present the encyclical Lumen fidei, the Vatican Press office promptly provided translations in the Vatican official languages of the interventions made by two of the three presentors - Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Archbishop Ludwig Mueller. I tried to post them as soon as I could, but instead of lifting the English translations straight out of the news bulletin, I relied on the Vatican Radio posting, which posted both interventions together back to back under Cardinal Ouellet's heading, and then posted Mons. Mueller's separately. I was too pooped out last night to sort it all out, hence this delayed posting. I wonder why the Vatican did not see fit to include Mons. Fisichella's intervention...

Announcing 'The Light of Faith':
Two viewpoints on the encyclical


Cardinal Ouellet:
The light of faith
that unites two Popes

Here is the Vatican's English translation of the full text of Cardinal Ouellet’s intervention:

A pillar was lacking in Benedict XVI’s trilogy on the theological virtues. Providence willed that this missing pillar should be both a gift from the Pope Emeritus to his successor and a symbol of unity.

For in taking up and completing the work begun by his predecessor, Pope Francis bears witness with him to the unity of the faith. The light of faith is passed from one Pontiff to another like a baton in a relay, thanks to “the gift of the apostolic succession.” This gift assures “the continuity of the Church’s memory,” as well as “certainty in attaining the pure source from which the faith flows” (49).

So we feel an altogether particular joy in receiving the encyclical Lumen Fidei. Its shared mode of transmission illustrates in an extraordinary way the most fundamental and original aspect of the encyclical: its development of the dimension of communion in faith.

The encyclical in fact speaks not with a “royal ‘We,’” but with a “we” of communion. It describes faith as an experience of communion, of the expansion of the “I” and of solidarity in the Church’s journey with Christ for the salvation of the human race. I will limit myself here to illustrating this viewpoint.

The encyclical presents the Christian faith as a light that comes from listening to the Word of God in history. It is a light that allows us to see the love of God at work, establishing his covenant with humankind.

This light can already be perceived in the works of the Creator, but it shines forth as love in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Him, the light of Love irrupts into history. It offers us human beings a hope that gives us the courage to journey together toward a future of full communion.

“Christ, having endured suffering, is “the leader and perfecter of our faith,” we hear in the Letter to the Hebrews, in a key passage of the encyclical (Heb 12:2; cf. LF, 57).

Objectively, the light of faith orients the meaning of life, comforts and consolesbroken and searching hearts, but it also commits believers to serving the common good of humanity through proclamation and an authentic sharing of the grace they received from God.

This is why faith calls believers to embrace the world’s suffering, like St. Francis and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, so as to radiate the light of Christ there. “Faith is not a light that dispels all our darkness, but the lamp that guides our feet in the night and that is enough for the way,” the encyclical tells us (57).

Subjectively, faith is an opening to Christ’s Love, a welcome. It is entering into a relationship that broadens our “I” to the dimensions of a “we” in the Church. This “we” is not simply human, but properly divine. That is, it is an authentic participation in the “We” of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. [The ecclesial 'we' as an analog to the Trinitarian 'we' was a theme Benedict XVI often stressed in his homilies and catecheses.]

The encyclical insists on this Trinitarian foundation, which constitutes faith as a reality at once personal and ecclesial: “This opening to the ecclesial ‘we’ occurs according to the very opening of God’s love, which is not only the relation between Father and Son, between ‘I’ and ‘thou, ’but it is also, in the Spirit, a ‘we,’ a communion of Persons” (39).

In this Christological, Trinitarian and ecclesial light, confessing the faith acquires is concrete shape through the celebration of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist, in which “the believer affirms that the center of being, the most profound secret of all that is, is the divine communion” (45).

He thus finds himself “engaged in the truth he confesses.” For this very reason, he is transformed and “introduced into a love story that seizes him and expands his being by making him a member of a great communion,” the Church (45).

From this Trinitarian “We” that prolongs itself in the ecclesial “we,” the encyclical follows very naturally with the “we” of the family, the place par excellence of the transmission of the faith (43).

On the one hand, this is made manifest in the experience of infant baptism, in which the parents and godparents confess the faith on behalf of the child, welcoming him or her into the Church’s faith, which always precedes us.

On the other hand, the encyclical reminds us, there are profound affinities between faith and the definitive love that a man and a woman promise to one another in marriage. “To promise a love that is forever, is possible when we discover a design greater than our own projects, which upholds us and allows us to give the entire future to the beloved person” (52).

Thus, thanks to faith, the spouses’ love can last and unite the generations in the joy of fidelity and the service of life. “Faith is not a refuge for those who have no courage, but a blossoming of life,” concludes the encyclical, which sees the family as “the first environment in which faith enlightens the city of men” (52).

The encyclical contains a further remarkable discussion of the pertinence of faith for life in society, that is, for building up “the city of men” in justice and peace.

Faith does so thanks to a respect for each person and his or her freedom, as well as the resources of compassion and reconciliation it offers to relieve suffering and resolve conflicts. “Yes, faith is a good for all; it is a common good” (51). The tendency to confine faith to the domain of private life is here peacefully but decisively
refuted.

Many of the aspects developed in Benedict XVI’s encyclicals on charity and hope find their complement in this light shed on faith as communion and service of the common good. “The hands of faith are raised toward heaven; but at the same time, in charity, they build a city on the basis of relationships that have the love of God as their foundation” (51).

“If we remove faith from our cities, trust between us will weaken”(55). In brief, through faith, God wants to “make relationships between human beings solid” (ibid.). He hopes for the realization of the “greatness of the shared life that He makes possible” through the grace of His presence (55).

In conclusion, the encyclical contemplates Mary, the figure of faith par excellence: she who listened to the Word and kept it in her heart, who followed Jesus and allowed herself to be transformed by “entering into the gaze of the incarnate Son of God” (58).

In the end, Pope Francis reaffirms with his predecessor a truth of the faith that has been set aside or even doubted in certain milieus: “In Mary’s virginal conception, we have a clear sign of Christ’s divine filiation. Christ’s eternal origin is in the Father. He is the Son in a total and unique sense; and for this reason, he is born in time without the intervention of a man” (59).

We welcome with great joy and gratitude this integral profession of faith, in the form of a catechesis written “by four hands” of the successors of Peter. Together, they show forth the Church’s faith in its beauty – the faith that “is confessed within the body of Christ as the concrete communion of believers” (22).



Archbishop Mueller:
All is grace in the light of Faith

In the meditations that he offers us by way of his daily homilies, Pope Francis often reminds us that “all is grace.” This affirmation, which in the face of all the complexities and contradictions of life might seem naïve or abstract, is in fact an invitation to recognise the ultimate goodness of reality.

This is the purpose of the encyclical letter lumen fidei. the light that comes from faith, from the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and in his Spirit, illuminates the depths of reality and helps us to recognise that reality bears within itself the indelible signs that the work of God is good.

Faith, because of the illumination that comes from God, in fact enables those who believe to see with a light that “illumines their entire journey” (n. 1), “every aspect of human existence” (n.4).

Faith “far from divorcing us from reality" enables us to grasp reality’s deepest meaning and to see how much God loves this world and is constantly guiding it towards himself” (n. 18).

This is the central message of this encyclical letter which takes up some of the ideas that were dear to Benedict XVI.

“These considerations on faith,” writes Pope Francis, “are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own” (n. 7).

It is a fortunate coincidence that this text was written, so to speak, by the hands of two Popes. Notwithstanding the differences of style, sensibility and accent, anyone who reads this encyclical will immediately note the substantial continuity of the message of Pope Francis with the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI.

The origin of all things is God – and faith in Him is a recognition of this fact. Faith opens up the mind and the heart of man, expands his horizons, brings him ever closer to his fellow man and throws open the doors to an existence commensurate with his dignity.

Conversely, we must also recognise that every time we do not think, act or love in accordance with our faith in God, we do not contribute to building a more human world. In fact, acting in this way, we often give a counter-testimony to God and disfigure the face of the Church.

A living faith in God - through which we are led by His Spirit to His only begotten Son Jesus Christ – is our greatest resource. It is from this starting point that all attempts at reform and renewal must begin, and not only in the Church for at this level we are talking about a gift which the Church cannot keep for herself.

Faith, and the life of grace that it offers us, is in fact a treasure of goodness and truth for all of humanity, because all are called to live in friendship with God and to discover the horizons of freedom that are opened to all who allow themselves to be guided by the hand of God.

Faith in the God who is revealed to us by Jesus Christ is the true “rock” upon which man is called to build his life and the life of the world. It is a gift which can never be presupposed or “taken for granted” but which must be continually “nourished and reinforced” (n. 6).

It is through faith that we are able to recognise that every day we are offered a “great love”, a love that “transforms us, lights up our way to the future and enables us joyfully to advance along the way on wings of hope” (n. 7).

It is because of faith that we are able to face the future that awaits us with realism and realistic confidence, without allowing ourselves to be “robbed of hope,” as Pope Francis continually reminds us. Faith, hope and love “wonderfully interwoven” constitute the dynamism of the life of man, opened to the gifts provided by God (cf. n. 7).

The encyclical Lumen fidei is divided into four parts, which can be seen as four aspects of one whole.

In the first part, we move from the faith of Abraham, the man who recognised in the voice of God “a profound call which was always present at the core of his being” (n. 11), to the faith of the People of Israel.

The history of the faith of Israel, in its turn, is a continual passage from “the temptation to unbelief” (n. 13) and the adoration of idols, “works of the hands of man”, to the confession “of God’s mighty deeds and the progressive fulfilment of his promises” (n. 12).

This leads ultimately to the history of Jesus, a summary of salvation, in which all the diverse threads of the history of Israel are united and fulfilled.

In Jesus we are able to say definitively that “we know and believe the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16) because he is “the complete manifestation of God’s reliability” (n. 15). In him faith reaches its fulfilment.

It calls us to recognise that God does not remain far away in the heights of heaven, but has become, and remains, approachable in Jesus Christ, who died and rose again and who remains present among us.

In following Jesus, faith transforms the whole of human existence. The individual identity of the believer, the “I”, once opened to the primordial love offered through faith (cf. n. 21) “becomes an ecclesial existence” (n. 22).

By opening us to communion with our brothers and sisters, faith does not reduce us to “a mere cog in a great machine” (n. 22) but helps us to come into our own to the highest degree (cf. n. 22).

“For those who have been transformed in this way, a new way of seeing opens up” (n. 22), and faith becomes an authentic “light” that invites us to allow ourselves to be transformed ever anew by the call of God.

In the second part, the encyclical forcefully raises the question of truth as one which is “central to faith” (n. 23). Because faith has to do with knowledge of reality it is intrinsically linked to truth: “ faith without truth does not save¼ it remains a beautiful story¼or it
is reduced to a lofty sentiment” (n.24).

The question of truth and the imperative to seek the truth cannot be avoided. Neither can the role played by the major religious traditions in this search for truth be a priori excluded, especially when it comes to the great truths of human existence.

What, then, is the specific contribution offered by the Christian faith in this search? Faith, which opens us to the love of God, transforms the way we see things “because love itself brings enlightenment” (n. 26).

Even if modern man does not always see the connection between love and truth – not least because today love is often relegated to a type of sentimentality – “love and truth are inseparable” (n. 27).

Love is authentic when it binds us to the truth and truth attracts us to itself with the force of love. “This discovery of love as a source of knowledge, which is part of the primordial experience of every man and woman” is confirmed for us in the “biblical understanding of faith” (n. 28) and is one of the most beautiful and important ideas emphasised in this encyclical.

It is because faith is both connected to knowledge and bound to the truth, that Thomas Aquinas was able to speak of oculata fides, of the act of faith as a type of “seeing” (cf. n. 30).

Faith is not only about hearing because it is also “tied to sight” (n. 30) which looks for and recognises the truth, in an “interaction between faith and reason” (n.32). Already Augustine of Hippo had “discovered that all things have a certain transparency” and can therefore “reflect God’s goodness” (n. 33). Faith helps us to draw out the profound meaning of reality.

In this way we can understand how faith is able to “illuminate the questions of our own time about truth” (n. 34), the great questions which arise in the human heart when faced either with the beauty of reality or by its dramas. A

nd because the truth, to which we are led in faith, is linked to and comes from love, it is not a truth which we must fear, for it does not impose itself with violence but seeks to persuade deeply, fortiter ac suaviter (more strongly and more gently) simultaneously.

This is why the encyclical does not hesitate to affirm that faith “broadens the horizons of reason to shed greater light on the world which discloses itself” (n. 34) both to scientific investigation and to any man or woman who is seeking with a sincere heart.

It is precisely faith which reveals to us that any person who sets out to search for truth and goodness “is already drawing near to God” and is “already sustained by his help” (n. 35) even without knowing it.

I do not intend, in the brief time remaining to me, to summarise the third and forth sections of the encyclical, but would just like to draw attention to a few points which, in my opinion, are particularly important.

Above all I would like to highlight the origin of faith, which if it profoundly touches the believer, is an event which does not close the person in on himself in an isolated and isolating “face-to-face” with God.

Faith in fact “is born of an encounter which takes place in history” (n. 38) and “is passed on¼by contact from one person to another, just as one candle is lighted from another” (n.37).

Faith arises out of a set of relationships which both precede and transcend us, from an “us” which invites us to emerge from the solitude of our “I” and to place ourselves within an ever larger environment and horizon, in a dialogue and on a journey that have no end.

The dialog form of the early baptismal formulas of the Church (which are the origin of our Creed) testify to this fact and to this dynamic which places us within an ecclesial “we”, within a new subject to which we belong through faith.

The Church is the place in which this personal dynamic – which arises out of the vision of faith – is rooted and from which it is constantly re-launched, moving us towards God and to our neighbour, and becoming, therefore, a new Weltanschauung (world view), and unique way of looking at the world: it is, in fact – as Romano Guardini beautifully put it – “ the bearer within history of the plenary gaze of Christ on the world” (n. 22).

The Church is the place in which faith is born and in which it is able to be communicated, that is, the place in which it can be witnessed to in a rational, and therefore reliable, way: “what is communicated in the Church¼is the new light born of an encounter with the true God” (n. 40).

It is precisely this encounter with the living God that is made possible by the Church and that renders faith credible. The vehicles and efficacious signs of this encounter “are the sacraments celebrated in the liturgy of the Church” (n. 40). Thus the encyclical affirms that “faith itself possesses a sacramental structure” (n. 40).

In this way we can easily understand the inherent dynamic of faith: it moves us from the visible and the material “to the mystery of the eternal” (n. 40). In this dynamic the believer in his whole being becomes involved in the truth that he recognises and confesses (cf. n 45).

And so “he or she cannot truthfully recite the words of the creed without being changed” (n. 45) because faith demands a continual change; it prohibits the believer from closing his or herself in an accommodating sense of peace.

Another issue I would like to draw your attention to is a quotation from the Sermons of St. Leo the Great that is included in the third part of the encyclical: “If the faith is not one, then it is not faith” (n. 47).

We live today in a world which, despite all its connectedness and globalisation, is fragmented and divided into many “worlds” that, even if in communication with one another, are often and intentionally isolated and in conflict.

The unity of the faith is, therefore, the precious gift that the Holy Father and his fellow Bishops are called to foster, guarantee and witness to, as the first fruits of a unity that wants to give itself
as a gift to the whole world.

What we are talking about is not a monolithic unity, but a rich and active pluriformity – God himself is Three in One – which is simultaneously both the origin and the mission of the Church.

For this very reason the Church was defined by the Second Vatican Council as “the sign and instrument” (LG 1) of the unity that comes from God and which is destined to embrace the whole of humanity.

This unity is rightly called “catholic” because it is founded on the truth that it seeks to serve and promulgate. It has, in fact, the “power to assimilate everything that it meets in the various settings in which it becomes present and in the diverse cultures which it encounters, purifying all things and bringing them to their finest expression” (n. 48).

This unity, because it is founded on the truth, deprives us of nothing – rather it enriches us with the gifts that come from the generosity of the heart of God.

This unity in truth, which leads us to God – the Father of us all – actually assists us in the rediscovery of the origins of true brotherhood (cf. n. 53). Without truth and without God, the modern dream of universal brotherhood will never be realised but is rather destined only to replicate the miserable experience of Babel.

Indeed, brotherhood “lacking a reference to a common Father as its ultimate foundation, cannot endure” (n. 54) - a fact that is unfortunately all too manifest in the history of the last two centuries.

Finally, I would like to make one last suggestion taken from the fourth part of the encyclical. While it is true that authentic faith fills one with joy and “a desire to live life to the fullest” (n. 53) – here we see concretely the connection between the teaching of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI – “the light of faith does not make us forget the sufferings of the world” (n. 57).

Rather it opens us up to “an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light” (n. 57). Only the light that comes form God – from the incarnate God who has encountered and defeated death – is able to offer a reliable hope in the face of evil, in the face of every type of suffering which afflicts the life of man.

In summary, the encyclical wishes to restate in a new way the truth that faith in Jesus Christ is a good for humanity “truly a good for everyone; a common good”: “Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey towards a future of hope” (n. 51).

These are just a few thoughts through which I want to encourage everyone to read and savour this beautiful document. Indeed, this encyclical letter can be rightly called a “document” because it is not just a collection of words but documents for us, in the light of faith, the Christian vision of life which draws us into a total participation in God.

This, above all, is the witness for which we are grateful to both Pope Francis and Benedict XVI – two great witnesses of faith and hope for modern man.

Typically, Vittorio Messori does not hem and haw about the authorship of this encyclical...

The 'four hands' encyclical:
Virtue, reason and
an appeal to believers
by Vittorio Messori
Translated from

July 6, 2013

Virtue and reason. Lumen fidei, 'the light of faith', written by Bergoglio and Ratzinger, is a heartfelt appeal to believers.

So here it is, at last, the first encyclical thought through adn written 'by four hands, to use the expression first employed by Papa Bergoglio himself. Who yes, signs it alone, with a handwritten 'Franciscus', but explains in the text how it played out:

---

These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue[7] — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.

---

Actually, the contributions of the Argentine Pope seem to be more like a side dish. According to Massimo Introvigne, who is a sociologist of religion, these contribuiuons have to do mostly with the fact that "Francis insists on his own preferred themes, such as that faith liberates us from 'self-referentiality', in which we [the Church] aways speaks to her own people instead of 'going out' to speak to others". [I may be simple-minded, but doesn't the Church have the duty to communicate to her own members first before seeking out 'others'? If she cannot communicate to her own members the essentials of the faith - and this cannot by any means be called 'self-referentiality' - in order that their lives may provide genuine witness to that faith, how can she expect 'others' (presumably those outside the faith) to learn and accept the message of Christ?

Of course, history has shown that often, converts to Catholicism end up being far better witnesses - and exemplars - of the faith than most cradle Catholics. But the New Evangelization was thought of precisely by John Paul II and carried out under Benedict XVI to reach back to Catholics who have been alienated or who have left the flock outright. And who is going to carry out the New Evangelization if not those Catholics who have remained anchored to their faith (including most of the world's priests and religious, one hopes) and newer Catholics whose discovery of our faith has changed their lives so radically they want it to be an experience open to all?

Pope Francis has spoken dramatically - in a reversal of Jesus's image - that priests need to 'go out' and seek the 99 lost sheep, to join the single solitary sheep that seems to be left. But often those 99 lost sheep are right in the priest's own parish. Should he not minister to them first before he goes out seeking other lost sheep to minister to? Doesn't charity begin at home? Of course, I understand the Pope means that a priest must go out of his way to help the poorest and the neediest first. Is the priest to choose between the poorest and the neediest in the material sense to whom he can only bring spiritual comfort and little by way of material relief], and the poorest and the neediest in the spiritual sense who may be materially well off but have lost their souls in the process? Don't they both need spiritual ministry? Such ambiguity is the first danger of speaking in slogans and stereotypes instead of reasoned propositions.

Both the way of thinking as well as certain stylistic expressions in the encyclical are clearly Ratzingerian. In short, what we have here is the homogeneous conclusion to the triptych that Benedict XVI had decided to dedicate to the three theological virtues in order to start at the very roots the project of the New Evangelization first announced by John Paul II.

In this newspaper, we have sought to explain why a novelty like what would seem to be 'a dual Magisterium' should not be a source of confusion, but on the contrary, it confirms a truth that is Christian and specifically Catholic.

It is not incidental that Pope Francis himself writes, after having acknowledged the major role of his predecessor in preparing the encyclical:

---

The Successor of Peter, yesterday, today and tomorrow, is always called to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the priceless treasure of that faith which God has given as a light for humanity’s path.

---

The Popes who succeed each other can be individually interesting but in the end, the diversity of characters, of cultures, of personal stories, that they have are irrelevant (at least for the things that really matter).

In effect, the role of the Bishop of Rome - 'yesterday, today, tomorrow', Pope Francis underscores - is to be the Teacher and the Custodian of a depositum fidei that is not his but has been entrusted to him, one that he can better understood, analyze and explain in depth but that he cannot change by one iota.

Therefore, the first encyclical 'by two Popes' is but a confirmation of this truth that is often forgotten even by believers (including some Church historians) who emphasize the differences between Pontificates.

Sure, the style or the insistence on certain themes can differ, but certainly not the content, whenever a Pontiff restates the truth of the Gospel.

Precisely because it is so Ratzingerian, the 80-plus pages of Lumen fidei have great theological density. But as we shall probably see in the documents that Francis will elaborate on his own, the stress will be on a pastoral rather than a doctrinal orientation.

It is the very importance of the text [of Lumen fidei] that suggests we postpone a more thorough analysis that is now hampered by journalistic 'urgency'.

For now, we must limit ourselves to observations that are not, I believe, apologetic but objective. As the encyclical reminds us from the very beginning, the movement of thought that began with modernity called itself 'Enlightenment' - in specific contrast to what that movement considered the 'shadows' [perhaps 'shadiness'!] represented by Christianity, but especially by Catholicism.

The times of religious predominance were called 'the dark ages. But the torch that was lit to lead mankind to new destinies soon led to revolutionary Terror in France, to the Napoleonic massacres (two million young Europeans, the future of all Europe itself, were sacrificed to the ambitions of the little Corsican), then gradually to the disastrous outcomes of all the 'isms' created to escape the Christian darkness - socialism, communism, nationalism, fascism, national socialism... and today, an unreined liberalism and libertinism whose consequences we take for granted.

Thus, it is also in the light of history that this encyclical was deliberately called 'Lumen fidei', the light of faith, from its first two words in Latin, Faith which not only is not shadows, as those who lit the 17th-century Enlightenment assured their contemporaries, but a faith that is capable of giving new clear light not just to mankind but to the lives of individual humans.



French author and blogger Yves Daoudal is even more unequivocalabout the encyclical's authorship.

'Lumen fidei':
A true pontifical swan song -
and a masterpiece
Translated from

July 5, 2013

So here we have the 'four hands encyclical' - the four hands, in effec,t of Joseph Ratzinger and Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis who signed the encyclical no longer uses the term 'four hands' but acknowledges that Benedict XVI "had practically completed a first draft" of the text. Let us just say, "the draft of the text'.

Francis said he made a few contributions. They are so discreet they are almost invisible. Whereas one recognizes throughout the favorite themes, the references, the style of Joseph Ratzinger the theologian, exegete and pastor, and of Pope Benedict XVI.

In short, what we have here is the last magisterial text of Benedict XVI. A true pontifical swan song. A masterpiece.

This encyclical, which is profoundly Pauline (indeed, the more one reads St. Paul, the more one sees he has said everything about the faith), also relies on the Fathers of the Church, as once more we see Joseph Ratzinger pursue this course, on par with the Fathers, especially in No. 23, where he compares the Hebrew text and the Greek translation of a statement by Isaiah, as St. Jerome or St. John Chrysostom might have done.

The theme, light of faith, leads Ratzinger-Benedict - along the lines of his beloved St. Bonaventure and a thought current going back to Origen (and even earlier, to Scriptures) - to contribute his part to the doctrine of the five spiritual senses, which is doubtless a 'first' for a magisterial text.

It is the very heart of the encyclical. The central part which has been prepared by what came before and which would then irrigate the applcation of the doctrine.

It starts with a citation from (my beloved) Guillaume de Saint-Thoerry, that eminent cantor of the spiritual senses in the medieval monastic world (in concert with his master and friend Bernard of Clairvaux): In the Song of Songs the dovelike eyes of the beloved "are believing reason and love, which become one eye in the contemplation of God, when the intellect becomes 'the intellect of enlightened love' (intellectus amoris illuminati).

This is followed by a masterful (and magisterial) developmwent on the synthesis between the two approaches to knowledge which have been abusively separated: hearing, which is the Biblical approach, and seeing, which is the Greek one.

But our faith is faith in the Son of God who became man, whom one hears and sees. "The connextion between seeing and hearing, as organs for knowledge of the faith, appears most clearly in the Gospel of John.

"It is also St. John who adds touch: '...what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes...what our hands have touched of the Word of life...'"

And Benedict XVI cites St. Augustine: "To touch with the heart, that is believing".

The rest of the encyclical - on the formulation, the transmission and the benefits of the faith on the practical level and on the common good, flows from these considerations. Starting of course with the sacraments, through which he incarnate Word touches us and through which we touch it.

There will be very much said about this encyclical, especially since it is very concentrated. Nonetheless, one will note that it contains the collected expression, chiselled definitively, of the principle themes dear to Ratzinger-Benedict. It must be read.

Double almanac post today to make up for missing Saturday...

Saturday, July 6, 2013, 13th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. MARIA GORETTI (Italy, 1890-1902), Virgin and Martyr
Daughter of a poor farming family near Ancona, central eastern Italy, Maria never learned to read and write. The family migrated to a community near Rome. She was not yet 12 and had only recently made her First Communion when she was assaulted by an 18-year-old neighbor, Alessandro Serinelli, who stabbed her several times when she defended her virginity, telling him it was a sin and Jesus forbade sin. She died from her wounds the following day, but before dying, she received Extreme Unction and forgave her assailant. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Years later, he had a vision of Maria in heaven, which led him to repent. When he was released after 27 years, he begged forgiveness from Maria's family and became devoted to her memory. Many miracles were attributed to Maria after her death. When she was beatified in 1947, her 82-year-old mother and three surviving siblings joined Pius XII on the loggia of St. Peter's. Her canonization in 1950 brought half a million people to Rome, and for the first time, a canonization Mass was celebrated in St. Peter's Square. Pius XII held her out to the young people of the world as an example. Among the pilgrims was Serenelli, who was 66. (He had became a Capuchin lay brother, working as a gardener until he died at age 70). The main shrine to Maria Goretti is in Nettuno, 60 kms south of Rome.

AT THE VATICAN - July 6, 2013

Pope Francis met with
- H.E. Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona, President of the Repoublic of Trinidad and Tobago, with his spouse and delegation.

- Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches.

-Participants in the closing sesion of the diocesan phase of the beatification process for the servant of God
Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuán (Vietnam). Address in Italian.
Vatican Radio's English translation may be found here:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/06/pope_francis_remembers_cardinal_van_thuan_(full_text)/en1-708012

In the afternoon, Pope Francis met with seminarians, novices and young people on a vocational quest who are underaking
in a pilgrimage to Rome entitled 'I trust in You' July 6-7 as part of the program for the Year of Faith. Address in Italian.
Vatican Radio's English translation may be found here:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/07/pope_to_seminarians,_novices:_yours_is_a_mission_of_joy,_mercy_and/en1-708317

NB: On this day last year, there were no events announced for Benedict XVI, who had just begun his annual summer sojourn in Castel Gandolfo.

July 7, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Feast of BLESSED EMMANUEL RUIZ AND COMPANIONS (d Damascus 1860), Martyrs
Ruiz, born in 1804 in Santander, Spain, but little is known of his life, except that he became a Franciscan missionary and went to Damascus as a missionary at a time of anti-Christian riots in Syria, with thousands of Christians losing their lives. Ruiz was the head of the local Franciscan convent. When Muslims sought them out, he and seven fellow friars and three Maronite laymen were captured and subjected to great tortures before being executed for refusing to become Muslims. Ruiz and his fellow martyrs were beatified in 1926. [I can find no images online, not even in a Spanish-language search, nor in Franciscan sites online.]
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070713.cfm

AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Mass with Seminarians, Novices, and Young People with Vocations - The Pope spoke to the assembly in St. Peter's Basilica
of their three-fold mission to bring joy, mercy and enlightenment to the world.
Vatican Radio's English translation of the Pope's homily may be found here:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/07/pope_to_seminarians,_novices:_yours_is_a_mission_of_joy,_mercy_and/en1-708317

Sunday Angelus - Pope Francis reflected on today's Gospel in which Jesus sends out 72 disciples to announce his word,
and challenges the faithful today, especially the young, to have the courage to spread the Word of God and experience
the joy that the 72 disciples felt in carrying out their mission, After the prayers, he referred to Lumen fidei
as a work begun by Benedict XVI and which he now offers to the People of God to bring them back to the essentials of the
faith and a practice of the faith in real life, but also as an assistance to those who are in search of faith.



Today is the sixth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum (2007).


... and the fourth anniversary of Caritas in veritate (2009).



One year ago...

Last year at this time, no events were announced for Benedict XVI at the start of his summer sojourn in Castel Gandolfo,
where he said he hoped to complete the third volume of JESUS OF NAZARETH as well as his planned encyclical on faith.







One remarkable thing about the decree of canonization for Blessed John XXIII has been noted by only a few commentators: That the requirement for a post-beatification miracle appears to have been waived for him, as the Vatican announcement of the decree of canonization for him simply states:

---

...Finally, the Supreme Pontiff has approved the favorable vote expressed by the Cardinals and Bishops at the Ordinary Session [of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood] regarding the Blessed John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli), and has decided to convoke a consistory that will also concern the canonization of Blessed John Paul II (Karol Josef Wojtyla).

---

I am sure there is more than one miracle attributed to the intercession of Papa Roncalli, and while I don't think many would object at all to his canonization (as many continue, surprisingly, to object in the case of John Paul II, despite the strong popular 'Santo subito' acclamation for him), the waiver of a required miracle does raise the question of the appropriateness of such a waiver, even if it is perfectly within the right of the Pope to make such a waiver. Not to mention that Papa Roncalli's canonization would come on the 50th anniversary year of his death as well as that of the opening of Vatican II which he convoked.

It would seem even more drastic and exceptional than the waiver by which John Paul II and Benedict XVI decided to do away with the five-year statutory post-mortem period before a process for canonization could be started, as the two Popes did respectively in the cases of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and John Paul II himself.

Rorate caeli blogspot rightly brings up the question, "What about Pius XII?" to whom more than one miracle has been attributed but whose beatification process has not gone beyond the proclamation of his heroic virtues?

I would not say Pope Francis should waive the miracle requirement for him, but Pius XII's postulator should push for a beatification miracle to be tabled for consideration by the medical experts, to begin with! Just as each postulator who presents documented evidence of a miracle should push to expedite the cause of the candidate saint he represents. As a news consumer, I am aware of only the reported miracles attributed to Pius XII and John Paul I, whose causes certainly deserve pushing, but there must be other such miracles not reported in the media but which are being attributed to other candidate saints who are not Popes, and which must be tabled for consideration without delay.

Benedict XVI, out of consideration for the adamantine opinion of many Jewish religious and political leaders who continue to see Pius XII as the ultimate author of the Holocaust rather than Hitler - because he kept 'silent' - ordered Vatican scholars to review the records once more abut Pius XII and his record with regard to the persecution of Jews in World War II. After this review, he proceeded, in an act of supreme political incorrectness, to proclaim the heroic virtues of Papa Pacelli, thus advancing his cause to the point where certification of a miracle attributed to him would lead to his beatification.

It must not be forgotten that, contrary to the hypothesis of the successful Soviet propaganda play in 1960 that instantly demonized Pius XII in the eyes of militant Jews and probably as many Catholic 'intelligentsia' as well, Pius XII had been the only world leader documented to have done concrete deeds personally and officially in behalf of tens of thousands of persecuted Jews during World War II not just in Italy but elsewhere in Europe, acts which Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir acknowledged and eulogized at Pius XII's death, and which 'militant Jews' have since completely ignored.

Thanks to the blogsite New Liturgical Movement for this photo series which it says comes from Facebook, but which account? In any case, this represents the most number of photos we have seen of our beloved B16 since he retired, so enjoy... To those out there who still object that his decision to go on wearing the white cassock is an encroachment of a papal prerogative (which shows ignorance of the fact that in tropical countries, priests and bishops wear white cassocks instead of black), would it satisfy them that B16 certainly knows his place and does not wear the mozzetta nor a sash with his cassock. There are not two Popes at the same time, and being ex-Pope, without any powers or prerogatives whatsoever (other than to continue to be called Your Holiness), is a universe removed from being Pope. Georg Gaenswein, to take just the most obvious example, has far more 'consequence' right now than Benedict XVI in the Vatican hierarchy because he holds an official position.

FRANCIS AND BENEDICT
Their 3rd 'known' encounter takes place
on the day their 'joint' encyclical is published:
Photo supplement
























I wonder who is the lucky person whom Benedict XVI is approaching with such warmth!

I read in one of the reports in the Italian media that the architect of the St. Michael statue had originally wanted to have the statue unveiled and blessed on the anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope last April 19, but that was before February 11... Is it possible B16 may attend a major Vatican event this year - perhaps not the closing Mass of the Year of Faith, which would be most appropriate, but perhaps the Canonization Mass for John XXIII and John Paul II, two Josephs who preceded him on Peter's Chair (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli and Karol Josef Wojtyla), if only because of his personal ties to John Paul II.

Monday, July 8, 14th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. GREGORIO MARIA GRASSI and COMPANIONS (d. 1900, China), Martyrs
About 25,000 Chinese Catholics and 43 European missionaries were martyred in the so-called Boxer Persecution of 1900.
The Boxers were a fanatical sect who hated all foreigners and especially the Catholic Church. With the approval of the
empress dowager Tzu Chi, then ruling the Chinese Empire, they went about burning churches and murdering missionaries and
their neophytes. Gregorio Maria Grassi, born in Italy in 1833, was a Franciscan missionary to China since 1856 and later
Bishop of North Shansi, he and 14 other European missionaries, along with 14 Chinese religious, were hacked
to death by the Boxers on July 1, 1900. That same week, three other Italian Franciscans were murdered in
the province of Hunan. The Boxer martyrs were beatified in 1946. On October 1, 2000, they, along with 88 others
martyred in China between 1648 and 1930, were canonized by John Paul II.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070813.cfm


WITH THE POPE TODAY

Pope Francis made the first official trip of his Pontificate today the Italian island of Lampedusa off the coast of Tunisia,
where he tossed a wreath of flowers into the sea in memory of all those who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean
from Africa towards Europe, of which Lampedusa is the nearest landfall. He greeted the group of migrants now in temporary
residence on the island as they await official disposition of their respective destinies and celebrated Mass for the islanders.
In his homily he said everyone, including himelf, is responsible for the plight of migrants seeking asylum who, he said, are
victims of the globaliztion of indifference. He left Rome's Ciampino airport at 8:00 in the morning for the 90-minute flight
to Lampedusa, and was back at the Vatican by 2:00 p.m.
The Vatican's official translations of his homily may be found here:
http://attualita.vatican.va/sala-stampa/bollettino/2013/07/08/news/31374.html#Traduzione%20in%20lingua%20inglese



One year ago...

In his first summer Angelus at Castel Gandolfo last year, Benedict XVI, looking and sounding very well, said that "in today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that if we live with an open and simple heart, nourished by true faith, we can recognize the presence of God in our lives and follow his holy will". He is officially on vacation till the end of July.



ANGELUS TODAY





Jesus was 'the greatest miracle'
but Nazareth rejected him

July 8, 2012

Speaking from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about today's Gospel, which tells how Jesus, when He had returned to His hometown of Nazareth, was rejected by His own people.

“This fact is understandable,” the Pope said, “because familiarity at the human level makes it difficult to go beyond that and to be open to the divine dimension.”

Jesus was not able to work any miracles in Nazareth – “apart from curing a few sick people by laying His hands on them” – because the people were closed off to the spiritual dimension. The Holy Father explained that “the miracles of Christ are not a display of power, but signs of the love of God, which is made present where it encounters the faith of man.”

And so, the Pope says, Jesus was “amazed” at the lack of faith among his own people: “How is it possible that they do not recognise the light of Truth? Why are they not open to the goodness of God, who has willed to share our humanity?”

“In fact," the Pope points out, "the man Jesus of Nazareth is God made visible; in Him, God dwells fully. And while we too always seek other signs, other wonders, we do not realize that the He is the real sign, God made flesh; He is the greatest miracle of the universe: all the love of God hidden in a human heart, in a human face.”

In Polish, he greeted an inter-religious prayer service to be held Sunday evening at the former Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek. Representatives of the Greek and Latin Catholic Church, from the Orthodox Church, from the Protestant ecclesial communities and from the Jewish community will offer prayers for peace throughout the world.

“I unite myself spiritually to these events,” the Pope said, “and I pray for goodness and peace for the world, for Poland, and for each of you.”



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

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[Before he could start his pre-Angelus message this morning, the Holy Father graciously gave way to a choir from Germany which sang a celebratory hymn.]

Dear brothers and sisters,

Let us thank the children of Dresden who sang so well!

I wish to dwell briefly on the Gospel passage this Sunday, a text from which comes the famous saying "Nemo propheta in patria" - namely, no prophet is well-received among his own people, who have seen him grow up (cfr Mc 6,4).

Indeed, after Jesus, around age 30, had left Nazareth and had already been going around preaching and healing for some time, he came back to his hometown to preach in the synagogue. His townmates were 'astonished' at his wisdom, but knowing him as 'the son of Mary', the carpenter who had lived among them, instead of welcoming him with faith, they 'took offense' with him (cfr Mc 6,2-3).

This fact is understandable, because familiarity on the human level makes it difficult to go beyond and to be open to the divine dimension. That this carpenter could be the Son of God was difficult for them to believe.

Jesus himself cites the example of the experience of Israel's prophets who in their own country were the object of scorn, and he identified with them.

Because of this spiritual closedness of his own people, in Nazareth, Jesus was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them" (Mk 6,5).

The miracles of Christ are not a display of power, but a sign of God's love, which happens wherever it encounters man's faith - it is a reciprocity. Origen writes: "In the same way that for bodies, there exists a natural attraction to others by some, like a magnet draws iron,... faith exercises an attraction on divine power" (Comment on the Gospel of Matthew 10,19).

Therefore, it would seems that Jesus took exception to the bad welcome that he got in Nazareth. But at the end of this account, we find an observation that says the contrary. The Evangelist writes, "He was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mk 6,6).

To the astonishment of his townmates, who were scandalized by him, Jesus responds with amazement. Even he, in a certain sense, is scandalized. Though he knew that no man is a prophet in his own land, still he found the closed hearts of his townmates obscure, impenetrable.

How is it possible that they cannot recognize the light of Truth? Why don't they open up to the goodness of God, who willed that he would share our humanity? Indeed, the man Jesus of Nazareth is God's transparency - in him God dwells fully.

Even as we - and even we - are always looking for other signs, other miracles, we do not recognize that the true sign is he, God made flesh - he is the greatest miracle in the universe. All the love of God, found in a human heart, in a human face.

She who truly understood this reality is the Virgin Mary, who is blessed because she believed (cfr Lk 1,46). Mary was not scandalized by her Son: her wonder at him was full of faith, full of love and joy, in seeing him so human and at the same time so divine.

Let us therefore learn from her, our Mother of faith, to recognize in the humanity of Christ the perfect revelation of God.

After the prayers, he said:
Dear brothers and sisters, I am glad to welcome you here to Castel Gandolfo, where I arrived a few days ago. I greet the local community and wish all families that they may have a time of rest and of physical and spiritual recharging.

And I affectionately greet the Sisters of St. Elizabeth, who have come from various parts of the world, to celebrate ten years of their perpetual vows. Dear sisters, may the Lord renew you profoundly in his love!

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POPE FRANCIS IN LAMPEDUSA
Translated from

July 8, 2013

At 7:20 this morning, the Holy Father left Domus Sanctae Marthae by car for Rome's Ciampino airport where he took a plane that left at 8:00 a.m. for his visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

At the airport in Lampedusa, he was welcomed by the Archbishop of Agrigento [the Sicilian diocese to which Lampedusa belongs], and the mayor of the island, Madame Giuseppina Nicolini.

He rode by car to Cala Pisani where he boarded a small vessel to cross the bay to the Port of Lampedusa, accompanied by fishermen in their boats. During the boat ride, the Pope tossed a wreath of flowers into the sea to honor refugees fleeing North Africanfor Europe who had died during the difficult and dangerous trip across the Mediteranean in small craft that are often overcrowded and not very seaworthy.



Arriving in the port, groups of recent migrants who made it to Lampedusa were waiting to greet him at the pier. He then proceeded by car to a sporting facility in Salina where, at 10:10 a.m., he celebrated Holy Mass, at which the Holy Father gave this homily:

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Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death. That is how the headlines put it. When I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens all too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart.

So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!

First, however, I want to say a word of heartfelt gratitude and encouragement to you, the people of Lampedusa and Linosa, and to the various associations, volunteers and security personnel who continue to attend to the needs of people journeying towards a better future. You are so few, and yet you offer an example of solidarity! Thank you!

I also thank Archbishop Francesco Montenegro for all his help, his efforts and his close pastoral care. I offer a cordial greeting to Mayor Giusi Nicolini: thank you so much for what you have done and are doing.

I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit. The Church is at your side as you seek a more dignified life for yourselves and your families. To all of you: o’scià!

This morning, in the light of God’s word which has just been proclaimed, I wish to offer some thoughts meant to challenge people’s consciences and lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart.

"Adam, where are you?" This is the first question which God asks man after his sin. "Adam, where are you?" Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation, because he thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God.

Harmony was lost; man erred and this error occurs over and over again also in relationships with others. "The other" is no longer a brother or sister to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life and my comfort.

God asks a second question: "Cain, where is your brother?" The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a chain of death, even to the spilling of a brother’s blood!

God’s two questions echo even today, as forcefully as ever! How many of us, myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live; we don’t care; we don’t protect what God created for everyone, and we end up unable even to care for one another! And when humanity as a whole loses its bearings, it results in tragedies like the one we have witnessed.

"Where is your brother?" His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This is not a question directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us.

These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death.

How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God! Once again I thank you, the people of Lampedusa, for your solidarity. I recently listened to one of these brothers of ours.

Before arriving here, he and the others were at the mercy of traffickers, people who exploit the poverty of others, people who live off the misery of others. How much these people have suffered! Some of them never made it here.

"Where is your brother?" Who is responsible for this blood? In Spanish literature we have a comedy of Lope de Vega which tells how the people of the town of Fuente Ovejuna kill their governor because he is a tyrant. They do it in such a way that no one knows who the actual killer is. So when the royal judge asks: "Who killed the governor?", they all reply: "Fuente Ovejuna, sir". Everybody and nobody!

Today too, the question has to be asked: Who is responsible for the blood of these brothers and sisters of ours? Nobody! That is our answer: It isn’t me; I don’t have anything to do with it; it must be someone else, but certainly not me.

Yet God is asking each of us: "Where is the blood of your brother which cries out to me?" Today no one in our world feels responsible;

we have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters. We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the priest and the levite whom Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half dead on the side of the road, and perhaps we say to ourselves: "poor soul…!", and then go on our way.

It’s not our responsibility, and with that we feel reassured, assuaged. The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference.

In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!

Here we can think of Manzoni’s character – "the Unnamed". The globalization of indifference makes us all "unnamed", responsible, yet nameless and faceless.

"Adam, where are you?" "Where is your brother?" These are the two questions which God asks at the dawn of human history, and which he also asks each man and woman in our own day, which he also asks us.

But I would like us to ask a third question: "Has any one of us wept because of this situation and others like it?" Has any one of us grieved for the death of these brothers and sisters? Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their families?

We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience compassion – "suffering with" others: the globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep! In the Gospel we have heard the crying, the wailing, the great lamentation: "Rachel weeps for her children… because they are no more". Herod sowed death to protect his own comfort, his own soap bubble. And so it continues…

Let us ask the Lord to remove the part of Herod that lurks in our hearts; let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our world, of our own hearts, and of all those who in anonymity make social and economic decisions which open the door to tragic situations like this. "Has any one wept?" Today has anyone wept in our world?

Lord, in this liturgy, a penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our indifference to so many of our brothers and sisters. Father, we ask your pardon for those who are complacent and closed amid comforts which have deadened their hearts; we beg your forgiveness for those who by their decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!

Today too, Lord, we hear you asking: "Adam, where are you?" "Where is the blood of your brother?"

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At the end of the Mass, Archbishop Montenegro spoke a greeting to the Holy Father, who responded with the following words:

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Before giving the Benediction, I wish to thank once again you, the people of Lampedusa, for the example of love, the example of charity. the example of hospitality that you have been giving us, that you have given us and continue to give.

The Bishops has said that Lampedusa is like a lighthouse. May your example be a guiding light o the world so that others may have the courage to welcome those who are seeking a better life. Thanks to you all, and thanks to you, don Stefano.

I also wish to thank you for your tenderness which I have felt in the person of don Stefano (parish priest of Lampedusa), who was telling me on the boat what he and his vicar, don Luis, have been doing. Thanks to all of you, and thank you, don Stefano.

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After the Mass, the Pope went to the Parish of San Gerlando for a brief rest. At 12:30, he left for the airport, and headed back to Rome at 12:45.



Pope Francis commemorates
migrant dead at Lampedusa
By Alessandro Bianchi


LAMPEDUSA, Italy, July 8, 2013 (Reuters) - Pope Francis celebrated mass on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Monday to commemorate thousands of migrants who have died crossing the sea from North Africa, underlining his drive to put the poor at the heart of his papacy.

The choice of Lampedusa for his first official trip outside Rome was highly symbolic for the Pontiff, who said news reports of the deaths of desperate people trying to reach a better life that had been like "a thorn in the heart".

Thousands of islanders waving caps and banners in the Vatican's yellow colors welcomed Francis at the fishing port where he arrived aboard a coastguard vessel accompanied by a flotilla of fishing boats and cast a wreath into the water.

He spoke to young African migrants before celebrating Mass in a sports field that served as a reception center for tens of thousands of mainly Muslim migrants who fled Arab Spring unrest in North Africa in 2011, greatly increasing an exodus that has gone on for years.

His trip came at the start of the summer months when the island, one of the main points of entry into the European Union and just 113 km (70 miles) from Tunisia, sees a steady flow of rickety and unsafe boats arriving on its shores.

He saluted the migrants, many of whom are preparing to fast during Ramadan, and thanked the people of Lampedusa for taking them in and setting an example of solidarity to a selfish society sliding into "the globalization of indifference".

"We have become used to other people's suffering, it doesn't concern us, it doesn't interest us, it's none of our business!" he said during his homily from an altar built from an old fishing boat painted in Italy's red, green and white colors.

With the Church struggling to get to grips with financial shenanigans at the Vatican bank and memories of the pedophile priests scandal still fresh, the visit to Lampedusa was an opportunity to turn away from internal upheaval.

He had harsh words for people smugglers who he said profited from the misery of others as well and asked pardon for "those, whose decisions at a global level have created the conditions which have led us to this drama".

During the Mass he used a wooden chalice carved from the wood of a migrant vessel by a local carpenter.

At the height of migrant influx in 2011, when over 62,000 arrived in Italy, dozens of boats carrying hundreds and even thousands of people were arriving in Lampedusa every day. and although the numbers have declined, arrivals have continued.

Shortly before the Pope arrived, a boat carrying 165 migrants from Mali pulled into port, while on Sunday, 120 people, including four pregnant women, were rescued at sea after the motors in their boat broke down 7 miles off the coast.

According to U.N. figures, almost 8,000 migrants and asylum seekers landed on the coasts of southern Italy in the first half of the year, the vast majority of them from North Africa, mainly Libya, which has been in turmoil since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

So far, the United Nations said 40 people were known to have died crossing from Tunisia to Italy this year, down from 2012 when almost 500 were reported dead or missing. The improvement follows better coordination between Italy and nearby Malta.

The islanders have sometimes seen their home transformed into a refugee center, with improvised campsites dotting the hills above the port, but they have largely welcomed the migrants and there have been few tensions or problems.

Normally a sleepy island that lives mainly from tourism and fishing, Lampedusa's normal population of some 5,000 has been outnumbered on several occasions by migrants waiting at the portside or in the main reception center to be transferred to Sicily and mainland Italy.

Reminders of the crisis are everywhere on the island, notably in the portside scrapyard of old fishing boats, normally chosen by migrant smugglers in the knowledge that they would have only one voyage to make.


Everything about Pope Francis's visit to Lampedusa was bound to be dramatic - as his sudden decision to make the visit was. And his homily today was certainly most dramatic in his evocation of God's reproach to Adam after he committed the original sin of presuming to be better than God. and to Cain after he committed the first murder.

But there was always the danger of melodrama in this showcase gesture whose deep-felt good intentions no one can doubt. Yet one is surprised when the Pope himself says at the start of his homily, "When I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens all too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart." What powerful imagery!

And yet, how could he have 'first heard of the tragedy just a few weeks ago' when this has been happening in unusual numbers since the outbreak of the blighted Arab spring in early 2011, and in not insignificant numbers in the years before that?

Perhaps that is the reason he includes himself among the universe of humans afflicted with the globalization of indifference, and called the Mass he offered a liturgy of repentance. Much like the liturgies offered by John Paul II during the Great Jubilee Year for all the collective wrongs done by the Church and those who have represented her throughout history. Or like the few liturgies offered by Irish bishops to atone publicly for their failure to even acknowledge the existence of the abuse problem in the past.

And the Pope was certainly right to beg forgiveness for "those who by their decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies".

But the world is not generally 'indifferent' to the plight of refugees. It cannot do everything that it should, because there are just too many, and many continue to be created daily, by conditions of famine, poverty, pandemic disease, organized crime, institutionalized violence and wars. But it has not stopped trying, even if good intentions always come up against the dilemma - how can we help the poorest and neediest among our own citizens, as well as displaced persons even poorer and needier who end up among us?

The miracle of the loaves and fishes, interpreted as the largesse that becomes possible by communal sharing, will have to be replicated over and over everyday and everywhere, i.e., the Kingdom of God must be realized here and now. But we are still living in the realm of the possible in terms of human nature unenlightened by the word of God, which must forever be preached and still not touch the hearts and minds of everyone!

Nonetheless, in concrete terms, history, past and present, is replete with stories of refugee camps in nations bordering other nations in a state of instability and flux, of host governments spending resources that their own people could use, just to provide emergency assistance to thousands if not millions (as in the refugee camps bordering Somalia and the Sudan) and not just abandon them to die.

Even the UN, as questionable as its ethics has become on the leading social issues of the day, has never relented in its efforts to do something for refugees. The Church herself, and many philanthropic organizations and private charities, have been doing all they can to help - sometimes to the point of encouraging violation of existing national laws just to accommodate refugees.

And the people of Lampedusa, rightly praised by the Pope, have been living with the phenomenon of being outnumbered on their own island by
migrants - and have had the grace and charity to do so and share what little they have if necessary. It is a hospitality that other parts of Italy have shown to boat people arriving from Albania or Turkey - at least until local authorities can make the necessary disposition about the fate of the new arrivals.

And of course, the Italian government helps to the extent that it can materially - it has not left Lampedusa to carry the costs of the migrants' temporary sojourn.

As soon as the Pope's trip was announced, media sycophants quickly played up that he would be 'traveling without the usual pomp' and that, as John Allen wrote, "Pointedly, Francis has requested that the only authorities on hand be local -- no VIPs from the Italian political scene and no retinue of princes of the Church".

Two points: 1) The Pope decided on this visit as a gesture of compassion for migrants who suffer every difficulty including death at sea. Who in his right mind would plan any 'pomp' for such a visit? Twice during his Pontificate, Benedict XVI decided to visit two earthquake-ravaged regions of Italy, weeks after the event so as not to get in the way of initial rescue and rehabilitation work. No one found it necessary to say he was travelling 'without the usual pomp', for the simple reason that tragic circumstances are certainly not an occasion for pomp. Not that any of Benedict's travels (or those of Paul VI and John Paul II before him) were accompanied by pomp. They were always great events as any papal visit is, but that does not make them 'pompous'. The honors that local dioceses and civilian authorities decide to render to the Pope, any Pope, are customary and fitting, and can in no way be called 'pomp'.

2) About not wanting to be accompanied by 'any princes of the Church or any political VIPs', would it have been wrong to visit Lampedusa with Cardinal Sarah, president of Cor Unum, and Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace - both of whom are Africans, and who represent offices directly concerned with the plight of refugees - and Cardinal Meglio, who is Italian and head of the Council for Migrants and Refugees? Officials whom the Pope would have to call on anyway if he decides to increase the scope of the Church's involvement in this most difficult of issues. They could well have spent the trip back to Rome crystallizing the lessons from Lampedusa preparatory to planning some concrete ways in which the Church could better help refugees coming from Africa.

And would it have been wrong for a representative of the Italian government to be present, not just out of protocol considerations, but to be able to explain to the Pope exactly what the government is doing about the migrants and what the outstanding problems are?

Some might say that perhaps the Pope does not want to share the spotlight with anyone, to underscore that this is his personal concern and not likely to be shared by anyone in the Vatican. But hardened Pope-watcher junkies know that no other person could ever or ever does share the media spotlight with the Pope, any Pope. His entourage is hardly ever mentioned, much less reported upon; and they know better than to even insinuate themselves into a photo opportunity. So that consideration is certainly out of the question.

Pope Francis now has a first-hand appreciation of the situation in Lampedusa. Except he has heard only the local side of what is most definitely a national and an international issue.

We come next to the problem of our collective and individual indifference to suffering in the world that the Pope so decried in his homily. And I am grateful the Pope offered a Mass of repentance in behalf of all of us. Watching TV news in the past half century has exposed contemporary society to the worst inhumanities that man can commit against other men. And in this case, it is true that familiarity breeds indifference or deliberate unconcern, as the Pope well describes.

[And yet, it is certainly not the indifference of others that has led to the tragedies at sea for some of the migrants. And to even imply that is wrong!]

Still, how many times a day do I catch myself belatedly realizing that, after having first heard about the death of anyone through the news - VIP or some nameless vagrant who is victimized - I failed to immediately say a prayer for the deceased! Watching an all-news channel all day, I get to realize it only after the second or third time I hear the news! Of course, it is appalling, because it should be a Christian reflex to pause and say a prayer when one learns of a death, but in my case, it has become a very delayed reflex!

But surely, when one reads or watches the horror stories that can befall migrants fleeing their homes in hopes of finding a more 'livable' life elsewhere, no one whose heart is not an unfeeling rock can help feel compassion.

Yet sitting in my apartment in New York, what can I possibly do to translate that compassion into something concrete? An annual contribution to agencies like UNICEF, UNCHR, the Red Cross, and Catholic Charities seems pitiably insignificant, and if I could not even afford that, will thinking about them in my daily prayers qualify as compassion, Your Holiness?

It is true that "those who by their decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies", or criminals engaged in human trafficking for that matter, are at the root of mass migrations. But what Marxists call 'the exploitation of men by (other) men' has taken place throughout human history, and the Old Testament certainly abounds with examples. It is the dark side of human nature and is not exclusive to contemporary men.

But our time has also witnessed the best example of mass migration that was properly channeled - even if what occasioned it was the war in Vietnam and the rest of what used to be called Indochina - namely, the 'repatriation' to the United States of the boat people from that war-ravaged territory.

As a TV journalist, I covered the Philippine government's efforts (an initiative of the much-maligned Imelda Marcos) to provide temporary homes for boat people from Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s. Thousands and thousands who were provided with modest homes, each with a little garden where they could grow vegetables and raise poultry or pigs, in a huge hilltop resettlement area in the historic Bataan peninsula, overlooking Corregidor. There, they could live as in a normal community. But these were benign circumstances, because each of them was simply waiting his turn to be processed as legal immigrants to the United States, and stayed in Bataan for about 3-5 years, giving way each time to a new wave of displaced persons waiting to be admitted to the United States.

In developing a documentary series about them, I got to visit the community with my crew at least once a month, and it was an experience I always looked forward to, especially since we made friends with many of the families. When I think now of the thousands of successful Vietnamese Americans, it always warms my heart to think that some of the snot-nosed urchins in Bataan who used to rattle the henhouses for fun are now successful, happy and well-adjusted professionals!

The UN as well as the US and Philippine governments contributed to make that resettlement program the success that it was. The local folk were not called on to make any sacrifices for them, but on the occasions when the foreigners came downtown for some occasion, they treated them with the hospitality that Orientals generally show each other.

No, not all contemporary men have lost the capacity for compassion. For every heartless tinpot dictator or murderous drug lord, there are countless nameless ones who respond to their 'neighbor' in times of calamity, and thankfully, these acts of compassion and solidarity we also get to watch on the TV news. Deo gratias!

The encyclical on faith
'Lumen Fidei' is a quiet new force in the world
for those who seek God, truth, goodness, and salvation
BY James V. Schall, S.J.

July 7, 2013

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“There is no human experience, no journey of man to God, which cannot be taken up, illuminated and purified by this light. The more Christians immerse themselves in the circle of Christ’s light, the more capable they become of understanding and accompanying the path of every man and woman toward God.”
— Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, 35.

“These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has propounded on this theological virtue — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his first encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own. The Successor of Peter, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, is always called to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the priceless treasure of that faith which God had given as a light for humanity’s path.”
— Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, 7.

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I.

It has long been known that Benedict XVI was working on a third encyclical, one on faith, in the years after completing Spe Salvi, his great encyclical on hope (still the JVS favorite!). Benedict had designated this year as that of faith. He had given several general audiences on the topic before he resigned.

So it is both a gracious and profound thing for his successor, Pope Francis, to take up what Benedict had mostly completed to add his own touches to it. Nothing makes the point of the unity of faith over time and background as resident in the Chair of Peter more clearly than this collaboration of two popes.

Though Pope Francis has shown himself quite capable of citing learned authors with the best of them, we know that when something begins with Nietzsche, then cites Dostoyevsky, Martin Buber, Dante, Romano Guardini, Ludwig Wittgenstein, T. S. Eliot, and Newman along the way, not to mention numerous fathers of the Church, especially Augustine, and heavy German footnotes, that we see the hand of Benedict. The only thing missing was a quotation from Plato.

What struck me about this latest encyclical was how little it addressed itself to current events. It does say that marriage is between one man and one woman for their good and that of the child, but that is nothing new. One would think that a Church that wanted to be “relevant,” with a new Pope, some greater effort would be made to speak of economics and foreign affairs.

I can imagine the editorial writers in the world press and media scratching their collective heads trying to figure out how to deal with this obviously important document. They are not used to being told that they cannot explain the condition of their own souls without the faith that addresses itself to the whole of human existence.

I suggest that the encyclical’s purposeful indifference to such things is precisely its point. In the long run, these worldly things are not particularly important if they are not also taken up with the great drama of faith that constitutes salvation history. We cannot explain ourselves by ourselves to ourselves.

“Idols exist, we begin to see, as a pretext for setting ourselves at the center of reality and worshiping the work of our own hands. Once man has lost the fundamental orientation that unifies his existence, he breaks down into the multiplicity of his desires…” (13).

This encyclical spells out the alternative to the self-centered man. We are not the center of our own reality; yet, we really exist and there is a center.

The faith informs us about the communion within the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The one God is Triune. This communion is revealed to us in faith. It does explain things that we cannot figure out without it, but with it, we can make much sense of it and of other things we already know.

It says, with the Apostle John, that God is love, as is everything that flows from the Godhead if we would but see it. Christianity is not about our searching for God. It is rather about God searching for us.

While the pagan might seek some explanation for things, a worthy endeavor no doubt, the fact is that Christianity is a gift, a surprise. It is something unexpectedly given in history, beginning with Creation and the call of Abraham.

It leads through the history of Israel to Christ and the Church in which He left His Sacrifice to be remembered. It includes the end and completion of things, individual lives, and the world itself. The encyclical is careful to spell out this journey of faith that includes our present understanding of it.

In one sense or another, we are required to take a stand for or against it, so important it is to what we are.

II.

“Our belief is expressed in response to an invitation, to a word which must be heard and which is not our own; it exists as part of a dialogue and cannot be merely a profession originating in an individual” (39).

Recalling a remark in Spe Salvi in which Benedict talked of the dialogue of baptism, this dialogue status of the Creed is emphasized here. It is both “I believe” and “we believe.”

The content of the faith is given to the Church wherein it is to be protected and passed on. It is the function of the Church and its authority not to add any new revelation but to be sure that the only revelation given by God through Christ remains what He wanted it to be. This is the only faith that frees us. It is that context of faith that explains what we are.

This encyclical explains what man really is. The full reality of man cannot be explained without understanding his relation to God. It is true that a great many in the world do not know this fact. Many too, for political and ideological reasons, are not allowed to hear of it freely presented in their societies or countries.

The Pope does not here go into the issues of the need to have a free society in which we are at liberty to state and live what we believe. The Church has already made clear its view on religious liberty as the first freedom. If we do not know what we are to believe, we might as well forget about trying to explain what we are to others.

This explanation is why the encyclical, like John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio, spends some time on the relation of truth to faith. Faith is not something that we take up when we cannot find the truth by ordinary means. Faith itself is a truth and speaks the truths that God intended to reveal to us for His, that is, for our, uses, for our good.

“At the heart of biblical faith is God’s love, his concrete concern for every person, and his plan of salvation which embraces all of humanity and all of creation, culminating in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Francis writes.

“Without insight into these realities, there is no criterion for discerning what makes human life precious and unique. Man loses his place in the universe; he is cast adrift in nature, either renouncing his proper moral responsibility or else presuming to be a sort of absolute judge, endowed with an unlimited power to manipulate the world around him” (54). The notion of a “plan of salvation” that includes everyone is a central element of the faith. Once we rely on our own plan, we are subject only to our own criteria.

“In the love of God revealed in Jesus, faith perceives the foundation on which all reality and its final destiny rest” (15). That is, all of reality originates in God's initial love of us. Each person is included in this plan, but after the manner in which he exists, that is freely. The final destiny is to live eternal life as adopted sons within the Godhead. This destiny is what the encyclical explains to us.

It asks us to think of the actual alternatives — unending life in this world, nothingness, or some sort of shadowy existence of our souls. One of the purposes of the encyclical, I think, was to remind us of the superiority of the understanding of man and his destiny that we find in the plan of faith.

The encyclical is bathed in light and acute in listening. It deals with suffering as Christ did. It is not the worst evil. For the Christian, suffering is never without its pointing to resurrection (17).

God does not remove suffering from the world. But Christ’s life does teach us that it has a purpose. It is not a sign of God’s absence but of His presence among us. The connection of sin and expiation for it remain essential to understanding the faith. We can only face the question of why the innocent suffer when we realize that Christ was innocent. Nothing teaches us that suffering and sin are not the same more than such a realization.

III.

“Our culture has lost its sense of God’s tangible presence and activity in our world” (17). This loss means that we are not really conscious of what is going on among us. The rise and fall of nations is not apart from what is going on in the souls of citizens.

“The beginning of salvation is openness to something prior to ourselves, to a primordial gift that affirms life and sustains it in being” (19). The encyclical thus tells us that our very remaining in being is a gift. We do not begin with our own beginning. We do not explain ourselves as if we had done so. This is why we need to realize the “understanding” of faith, what it says about God, the world, and each of us.

Some time is spent on the relation of believing and understanding, reason and revelati0n(23). Faith increases and completes our knowledge. We read in Scripture that Christ asked Peter: “But who do you say that I am?” We want the answer to this question to be both intelligible and true. It is not necessary that we understand everything. We are not gods. But it is necessary that we realize that what we do know in faith is true.

In thinking about what is found in faith, we begin to think more clearly about everything else. To the plan of God, we were given witnesses. We were also told of those who did not believe. We were promised ultimately to see God “face-to-face.” The reason for what first seems like ambiguity was that we remain free.

The whole of revelation is thus to be understood in terms, not just “Do you believe in me?” but in “Do you love me?” One of the psalms says that “God has no love for half-hearted” men.

The encyclical keeps returning to memory. It reminds us that we do not begin at the beginning. We learn of our beginnings, both of our birth and of our heritage from others. ”The question of truth is really a question of memory, deep memory, for it deals with something prior to ourselves and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends our petty and limited individual consciousness” (24).

I suppose few of us like to describe our consciousness of ourselves as “petty and limited.” But this is what they are if we cannot connect them with anything that would explain to us what drives us on.

Where are we going? We want to know the truth here. We want to know where we fit in. The plan of God in faith tells us that we do fit in. We may never have realized this before. This realization is one of the reasons the encyclical speaks as it does, to us in our inner consciousness, and not just by some abstract idea.

What is common to John Paul II, Benedict, and Francis is the constant reminder that, in all of this talk of faith and truth, we are also talking of God’s love of us. “The discovery of love as a source of knowledge, which is part of the primordial experience of every man and woman, finds authoritative expression in the biblical understanding of faith. In savoring the love by which God chose them and made them a people, Israel came to understand the overall unity of the divine plan” (28).

The notion that there is something in love that transcends the love of a man and a woman while revealing what it is a memorable passage. Superficial and passing loves can never understand this. One suspects that one of the reasons for the love-chaos of our society is precisely the failure to understand what is said here. God chose Israel with an “everlasting love.” He remains loyal to us even when we reject Him. This too is the divine plan and is manifest above all in the life of Christ.

“Truth nowadays is often reduced to the subjective authenticity of the individual, valid only for the life of the individual. A common truth intimidates us, for we identify it with the intransigent demands of totalitarian systems. But if truth is a truth of love, if it is a truth disclosed in personal encounter with the Other and with others, then it can be set free from its enclosure in individuals and become part of the common good” (34).

How often is it necessary to distinguish objective truth from subjectivity! The notion that truth is totalitarian implies that untruth is freedom. The reason the encyclical brings up the notion of personal encounter at this point is it shows that if truth is subjective, we simply can never know anything but ourselves. We all become isolated and must protect ourselves from each other.

Yet, the encyclical recognizes the lack of specifically Christian faith. We recognize that some still know and seek what is good, though they may not know its full dimensions.

“Anyone who sets off on the path of doing good to others is already drawing near to God, is already sustained by his help, for it is characteristic of the divine light to brighten our eyes whenever we walk towards the fullness of love” (35).

This point concerns the action of the Holy Spirit in the world. There is only one good and one understanding of it. But the paths to it will vary. This background brings us to the question of the purpose of theology. If anyone can be saved by simply wishing to do good, why bother with anything else?

“Theology is more than simply an effort of human reason to analyze and understand, along the lines of the experimental sciences,” Pope Francis writes. “God cannot be reduced to an object. He is a subject who makes himself known and perceived in an inter-personal relationship. Right faith orients reason to open itself to the light which comes from God, so that reason guided by love of the truth, can come to a deeper knowledge of God” (36). The one who does good still needs an explanation of what the source and meaning of this good it. The doing good is part of the encounter with God who is good.

The plan of God is not just that we should do good, but also that we should know the truth. The truth is ultimately not an abstraction but a person, who is the Truth. We are led to the Church, to the locus of the proper worship of God.

“Faith’s past, that act of Jesus’s love which brought new life to the world, comes down to us through the memory of others—witnesses—and is kept alive in that one remembering subject which is the Church” (38).

The Church is a “remembering subject.” It all fits together. This unity of the plan of God is what is most striking in this encyclical. We are led by faith to see again, or perhaps for the first time, what the Church that Christ founded is all about.

“We are reminded of this by the dialogical format of the Creed used in the baptismal liturgy. Our belief is expressed in response to an invitation, to a word which must be heard and which is not my own,” Pope Francis writes in words that will conclude my reflections here on faith. “It exists as part of a dialogue and cannot be merely a profession originating in an individual. We can respond in the singular—‘I believe’—only because we are part of the greater fellowship, only because we also say ‘We believe’” (39). [This is something straight out of a Wednesday catechesis by Benedict XVI, so it is strange for it to be introduced by the phrase 'Pope Francis writes' even if that is so, in effect!]

The encyclical, Lumen Fidei, I think, is a quiet new force in the world for those who seek the good, for those who doubt intellectual isolation is what life is about, for those who know that they are not the cause of themselves, for those who sin and those who suffer.

Again, Christianity is not first about our seeking God, but about God seeking us. If we wish to understand how this is so, we can do no better than to read this third encyclical on faith, together with the earlier ones on love and hope.

Throwing down the gauntlet of Faith
The uniquely penned encyclical 'Lumen fidei" is about
the light of faith, as well as divine life, true love, and absolute truth
by Carl E. Olson
Editorial

July 8, 2013

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“The future is made wherever people find their way to one another in life-shaping convictions. And a good future grows wherever these convictions come from the truth and lead to it.”
— Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Preface to the Second Edition (2004)
of Introduction To Christianity

“Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God—an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself. From God's standpoint, faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself. Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly.”
— Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est

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There have already been some fine overviews written about Lumen fidei (“The Light of Faith”), the co-authored and unique encyclical released by Pope Francis on July 5th, but written largely in the months prior by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Rather than trying to summarize a document that deserves to be read in its entirety, or to provide a “greatest hits” list, I will content myself in making a few loosely related points about the text that might be of interest to readers, especially those (again, hint!) who have or will read it in full.

Pope Francis notes that Benedict XVI “had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own” (7).

My impression is that the vast majority of the encyclical came from Benedict's pen. That said, the passages by Francis are fairly obvious, but rarely in a disconcerting or jarring fashion; quite the contrary. There are moments of repetition, which are likely meant to be points of reiteration but sometimes are simply repetitive.

That is a minor quibble, for Lumen fidei is a strong and challenging document that has some exceptional and even surprising passages. This text is like a gauntlet of faith that has been thrown down in the midst of a confused and deeply wounded world with a combination of humility, love, and exhortatory firmness.

Granted, those of us who love reading theological texts can sometimes get carried away in reacting to them. I understand that many Catholics won't bother to read the encyclical, and I know the larger world, if it pays attention at all, will simply try to find the “controversial passages.” That's sad, but predictable, and that's all I'll say about that at the moment.

As I read Lumen fidei, I was struck by the many passages that drew upon themes and insights found in several of Ratzinger's books, going back to his Introduction to Christianity, but also including Spirit of the Liturgy and Daughter Zion, as well as his first encyclical, Deus caritas est.

Although it has the name of Francis on it, the text bears the theological and stylistic imprint of Ratzinger, and it is to Francis's everlasting credit that he so humbly and warmly presented it as he did.

In addition to the specific, previous works, there is a heavily Johannine, Augustinian quality to the encyclical. Note, for instance, that Deus caritas est opened with a quote from 1 John (4:16) and that the first reference in Caritas in veritate is to John 8.

Similarly, this new encyclical's first paragraph quotes from John 11 and 12; all told, there are 23 references from the Johannine writings. There are only four other references to specific passages in the Gospels, and all of those are from the Gospel of Luke.

This isn't surprising when you consider that the word “light” (referring directly to Christ), by my rough count, appears some 22 times in the Fourth Gospel compared to a total of about the same number in the Synoptics. What is surprising to me, considering the theme of the encyclical, is that none of the references from John's Gospel are from the Prologue (1:1-18), which establishes the theme of Jesus Christ being the light of world and so uses the word “light” six times (Jn 1:4-9).

The two theologians mentioned most in Lumen fidei (over twenty times each, in various ways) are St. Paul and St. Augustine. There are, of course, references to several other saints and writers, including Justin Martyr, Cyril of Jerusalem, Irenaeus, Thomas Aquinas, Gregory the Great, Martin Buber, Romano Guardini, and Dante, among others.

But the Apostle to the Gentiles and the Bishop of Hippo get the lion's share of non-biblical quotes and references, including an entire section (33) focused on the experience and witness of Augustine: “In the life of Saint Augustine we find a significant example of this process whereby reason, with its desire for truth and clarity, was integrated into the horizon of faith and thus gained new understanding.”

Augustine, of course, has had a tremendous influence on Ratzinger. As Fr. Raymond J. de Souza wrote several years ago:

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St. Augustine is more than the principal intellectual influence on Benedict; the greatest of the first millennium’s Christian scholars is the Pope’s constant intellectual companion. His preaching and teaching are unfailingly leavened with Augustinian quotations. If John Paul II was a great philosopher Pope, teaching the wisdom of Saint Thomas Aquinas to the late 20th century, Benedict is doing the same for Augustine in the 21st.

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I've not yet read any reaction by Evangelical Protestants to the encyclical, but I'd be curious to know what they think about a lengthy papal text about faith that mentions justification a grand total of one time: “Paul rejects the attitude of those who would consider themselves justified before God on the basis of their own works” (par 19). Granted, the encyclical was not written in the 1540s, nor is it focused on Catholic-Protestant dialogue.

But with that lone reference in mind, here is a number worth pondering: 161. That's the number of times the word “love” appears. The word “light”? 149. The word “life”? 91. Those three words, I suggest, are together a sort of thematic trinity (all the more memorable, I suppose, because of the alliteration, at least in English). The other key word is “truth”, which appears 83 times.

Put in very short form, an essential point of the encyclical is that the light of faith, which is always a gift of God, reveals the path to divine life, which is a sharing in Trinitarian communion and love, which in turn is the very ground of truth and reality.

For instance:

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Faith is born of an encounter with God’s primordial love, wherein the meaning and goodness of our life become evident; our life is illumined to the extent that it enters into the space opened by that love, to the extent that it becomes, in other words, a path and praxis leading to the fullness of love.(51)

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And:

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If love needs truth, truth also needs love. Love and truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people’s day-to-day lives. The truth we seek, the truth that gives meaning to our journey through life, enlightens us whenever we are touched by love. One who loves realizes that love is an experience of truth, that it opens our eyes to see reality in a new way, in union with the beloved. (27)

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There are several other (and interconnected) themes that warrant attention, but I'll note just three.

First, the depiction—regularly used by both Benedict and Francis in other texts and addresses—of faith as an encounter with Christ, a movement toward the Savior that involves an opening up to the future—an advance, a transformation, a turning, and a journey.

The word “journey” appears nearly forty times, and I suspect it is primarily used by Francis, whereas the word “future” appears 21 times, and is, I think, used mostly by Benedict. In short, there is a strong sense of movement into the future (and eventually eternity), in the light of faith, and an emphasis on the action of faith, which is a mysterious but real dynamic of call and response, beckoning and harkening, imploring and acknowledging. God is the God of “covenantal love” and the “God of fidelity” (28), the “God who is Amen” (50).

The movement, which is relational and filial and transformative, takes place in history and makes sense of history.

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“Faith-knowledge, because it is born of God’s covenantal love, is knowledge which lights up a path in history. That is why, in the Bible, truth and fidelity go together: the true God is the God of fidelity who keeps his promises and makes possible, in time, a deeper understanding of his plan. … Faith-knowledge sheds light not only on the destiny of one particular people, but the entire history of the created world, from its origins to its consummation” (28).

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This emphasis on the rootedness of history is coupled with an appeal to memory, another deeply Augustinian theme:

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“The question of truth is really a question of memory, deep memory, for it deals with something prior to ourselves and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends our petty and limited individual consciousness. It is a question about the origin of all that is, in whose light we can glimpse the goal and thus the meaning of our common path”(25).

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One of the great challenges to faith today is living in a culture that has little real regard for history or concern for memory, that is, a shared understanding of where we come from (God) and the end for which we were created (communion with God).

Which brings us to a theme that Francis, as I've noted, has touched on repeatedly in the first few months of his pontificate: “Christ’s work penetrates the depths of our being and transforms us radically, making us adopted children of God and sharers in the divine nature” (42). Or, in another passage: Faith is thus linked to God’s fatherhood, which gives rise to all creation; the God who calls Abraham is the Creator, the one who "calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom 4:17), the one who "chose us before the foundation of the world… and destined us for adoption as his children" (Eph 1:4-5). (11)

And, in a reference from one of Francis's favorite passages:
In accepting the gift of faith, believers become a new creation; they receive a new being; as God’s children, they are now "sons in the Son". The phrase "Abba, Father", so characteristic of Jesus’s own experience, now becomes the core of the Christian experience (cf. Rom 8:15). (19) [But the 'Abba, Father' theme is one of those most emphasized by Benedict XVI in more than a few catecheses! Was this an inadvertent slip, and Olson really meant ;one of Benedict's favorite passages'?]]

Finally, one of the great insights of this encyclical is found in a striking section (13) about “the temptation of unbelief”. If asked what is the opposite of faith, most people will respond, “Disbelief” or “skepticism” or even “atheism”.

But the encyclical explains that what really opposes faith, in the end, is idolatry. We either seek God or we seek, knowingly or otherwise, to replace God with false gods. History certainly bears this out, as do our own struggles with temptation and sin.

Idolatry “is always polytheism, an aimless passing from one lord to another.” But faith “consists in the willingness to let ourselves be constantly transformed and renewed by God’s call. Herein lies the paradox: by constantly turning towards the Lord, we discover a sure path which liberates us from the dissolution imposed upon us by idols.”

I like Fr. Imbelli's resolution of the strange uneasiness Ihat assails me when I read 'Francis writes...' in citations from Lumen fidei, even if it is his encyclical, and his alone, for all intents and purposes. Fr. Imbelli says "The Popes write..." Which purists may object to as implying a 'double' or simultaneous Magisterium, but is, in fact, a wonderful way to underscore that there is but one Magisterium preached and carried on by the two persons living today who have been elected Pope, each in their time. My own provisional neutral formulation of attributing authorship of the encyclical was "The encyclical says..." but "The Popes write..." really hit it right.

Fr. Imbelli, a priest from the Archdiocese of New York, teaches theology at Boston College and often contributes to L'Osservatore Romano. he is one of five writers asked by AMERICA magazine to comment on the faith encyclical, to which they will add other contributors... Surprisingly - or perhaps not - 2 of the 5 do not even mention Benedict XVI at all, as if he had absolutely anything to do at all with the encyclical they are praising!

An extraordinary collaboration
By Fr. Robert P. Imbelli


At the end of the new encyclical, Lumen Fidei, the simple signature appears: “Franciscus.” Officially, it is thus the first encyclical of the new Pope.

Yet things are not as simple as they appear. Francis, some days prior to releasing the document, stated it was the work “of four hands,” his and those of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

And in the encyclical itself he writes: “[Benedict] himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am most deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own” (#7).

Thus we are witnesses to an extraordinary collaboration that might equally be called the Testament of Benedict and the Inaugural Address of Francis.

Those familiar with the three encyclicals and other writings of Benedict will quickly recognize favorite themes and sensibilities. In many ways, this lovely exposition of Catholic faith can serve almost as a “Summa” of Benedict’s magisterium, written in a lucid, inviting style. Indeed, the sixty succinct paragraphs beg to be pondered and prayed.

At the heart of the encyclical’s meditation on faith is this conviction: “In the love of God revealed in Jesus, faith perceives the foundation on which all reality and its final destiny rest” (#15). Christian faith arises from the loving encounter with Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Thus it engages the whole person, understanding, will, and affections.

As a result, before being formulated in propositions (necessary though these be), faith is a deeply experiential reality which sets the person on a new way, enabling him or her to see reality in a new light, the light of Christ, and opening up a new horizon and mission. “Those who believe are transformed by the love to which they have opened their hearts in faith” (#21) They are being transformed by the indwelling of Christ in the Spirit.

The “I” of the believer becomes incorporated into Christ’s ecclesial body: the “I believe” of the individual situated in the “we believe” of the community. In a rich passage the encyclical teaches: “This openness to the ecclesial ‘We’ reflects the openness of God’s own love, which is not only a relationship between the Father and the Son, between an ‘I’ and a ‘Thou,’ but it is also, in the Spirit, a ‘We,’ a communion of persons” (#39).

Moreover, the ecclesial communion experienced and enjoyed is not self-enclosed, but impels us to our responsibilities for the common good. “[Faith’s] light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey towards a future of hope” (#51).

Rooted in the soil of Christ’s paschal mystery, faith does not deny or ignore the sufferings of the world. It seeks to bring the service of hope and love, especially to the most needy and abandoned. “Faith is not a light which scatters all darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey” (#57).

Lumen Fidei offers challenging and enriching spiritual exercises for the contemporary church and the wider world. Tolle, lege – take it up and read!

As I was totally unable to put in any work yesterday, July 9, let me attend to what would have been my July 9 postings ('almanac' and B16 lookback) before coming to July 10.

Tuesday, July 9,2013, 14th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. AUGUSTINE ZHAO RONG & COMPANIONS (d China 1815), Martyrs
Augustine was a Chinese soldier who was part of the escort bringing the French-
born bishop Gabriel Dufresse of Chengdu to Beijing where he was condemned
and executed in the early 19th-century persecutions under Emperor Kia-Kin.
Impressed by the martyred bishop's faith, Augustine became a Catholic
himself, entered a seminary, was subsequently arrested, tortured and put
to death in 1815. He was among 122 Chinese martyrs of the faith put to death
between 1638-1930 who were beatified at different times but canonized together
on October 1, 2000.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071013.cfm


AT THE VATICAN, July 9, 2013 TODAY
Pope Francis met with
- Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
[As the weekly meeting between the Pope and Cardinal Ouellet to discuss pending nominations for bishopusually takes place towards the end of the week, one presumed this meeting, along with the preceding one-on-one with Cardinal Turkson, is part of the Pope's individual sitdowns with the heads of the Roman Curia and Vatican offices preparatory to whatever reforms he will decide to make eventually.]



One year ago...

No official events for Benedict XVI today, but a very special event to commemorate his participation in Vatican-II. He made a private visit to the motherhouse of the Society for the Divine Word (SVD) in Nemi, near Castel Gandolfo, where in 1965, as a theological consultant
to Vatican-II, he was part of a work group of Council Fathers (bishops) that spent a few days at the SVD center
to work on the text for what eventually became the Vatican-II declaration on the Church's missionary work in
the modern world, Ad Gentes.

The lookback feature today is especially nostalgic...




Benedict XVI in Nemi:
'My most beautiful memory of Vatican-II'
Translated from

July 9, 2012

At 11:30 this morning, the Holy Father Benedict XVI left the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo by car to visit the Centro Ad Gentes of the Divine Word missionaries in nearby Nemi.

The place, then called the International Center of the Society for the Divine Word (SVD), hosted the work of the Vatican-II Commission on Mission in 1965, in which then Fr. Joseph Ratzinger took part as a theological consultant to the Council.




The Pope was greeted in Nemi by the newly-elected SVD Superior-General Fr. Heinz Kulüke, the outgoing Superior General Fr. Antonio Pernia, and the Procurator-General, Fr. Giancarlo Girardi.

At the main chapel of the Center, the Holy Father was welcomed by 150 participants in the order's annual General Chapter meeting and by the community of the diocesan Curia of Rome.

After adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Fr. Kulüke formally welcomed the Holy Father, who went on to deliver brief remarks extemporaneously.





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

---

I am truly grateful for the chance to revisit, after 47 years, this center in Nemi, of which I have the most beautiful memories, perhaps the most beautiful of Vatican-II.

[At the time], I lived in the center of Rome, in the Collegio di Santa Maria dell’Anima, with all the noises of the city. That, too, was beautiful. But to be here, amid greenery, to have this breath of Nature and the freshness of the air, is in itself beautiful.

And then, there was the company of so many great theologians, with an assignment as important and beautiful as to prepare the Council decree on mission.

I remember, first of all, the Superior-General at the time, Fr. Schütte, who had suffered in China, was sentenced and then expelled. He was full of missionary dynamism, of the need do to give a new thrust to the missionary spirit.

And there was me, a theologian of no importance, rather young, who had been invited to take part for some reason. But it was a great gift for me.

There was Fulton Sheen, who fascinated us in the evenings with his discourses; and Father Congar and the great missiologists from Louvain. It was truly an experience of spiritual enrichment for me, a great gift.

The decree that we worked on did not involve great controversies. But there was one that I did not really understand, between the school of Louvain and the shcool of Muenster: What was the principal objective of mission? Was it implantatio Ecclesiae or announcing the Gospel?

But everything converged into one dynamic: the need to bring forth the light of the Word of God, the light of God's love, to the world, and to give the world new joy by this announcement.

Thus was born in those days a good and beautiful decree, which was accepted almost unanimmously by the Council Fathers, and which I also consider a very good complement to Lumen gentium, because it expresses a Trinitarian ecclesiology, which starts off from the classic idea of bonum diffusivum sui - goodness has the inherent necessity to communicate itself, to give itself.

It cannot remain by itself - goodness is essentially communication. And this we already see in the Trinitarian mystery, within God himself, which is disseminated in the story of salvation and our need to give to others any goodness we have received.

It is with these memories that I think of those days in Nemi which are, for me, an essential part of my Council experience.

I am happy to see that your society is flourishing - the Father General spoke of more than 6.000 members in so many countries. Clearly, missionary dynamism is alive, and it lives as long as there is joy in the Gospel, if we stay with the experience of goodness that comes from God, which should be communicated and wants to be communicated. Thank you for this dynamism.

I wish every blessing and great inspiration from the Lord for your Chapter meeting. May the same inspiring powers of the Holy Spirit which was with us almost visibly in those days [of the Council] be present anew among you and help pave the way forward for your society as well as for the mission ad gentes in the coming years.

I thnak you all. God bless you. Pray for me, as I pray for you. Thank you.

---

The Holy Father receives a carved wooden image of a Balinese Madonna from an Indonesian artisan. The SVD has a large community of missionaries in that country, which has the world's largest Muslim national population.

Right, the SVD fathers show the Pope some of the photo albums and the guest register from the 1965 work session he attended. (B/W photos from tomorrow's OR).


With an original photo, VATICAN INSIDER was able to do a much better blow-up from the 1965 group photo than I could from the OR photolift - too bad their photo editor appears not to have recognized the Venerable Fulton Sheen (foreground) and cropped his face in half:

The only cardinal in the group is the commission chairman, Armenian Cardinal Gregory Agagianian (1895-1971), who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the time (he had turned out to be the closest competitor to Angelo Roncalli in the 1958 Conclave). Fr. Congar is one of the four Dominicans in the photo - I think, fourth from left in the third row.




Joseph Ratzinger revisits
a place associated with
his work in Vatican-II
by Alessandro Speciale
Translated from the Italian service of




VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the international house of the Society for the Divine Word (SVD)in Nemi today, a town not far from Castel Gandolfo, which like is, is also perched above a lake in the Alban Hills south of Rome.

Since 2010, the SVD has named its meeting and retreat center in Nemi Centro Ad Gentes. Not by chance.

The center, in 1965, hosted the Vatican-II Commission on Missions which was drafting the Council decree on missions, Ad Gentes. Working with the Commission were theological consultants including Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, then 38, who returns today as Pope.

The decree Ad Gentes – ass SVD Fr. Stephen Bevans writes in a 2009 book Evangelization and Religious Freedom - had an 'unusually turbulent' genesis. A first version, presented to the Council at the end of 1964 and supported by Paul VI, was retracted without being brought to a vote because of opposition, such as that expressed by Fr. Ratzinger at the time.

The then Superior-General of the SVD (an missionary order generally referred to as the Verbites), Fr. Johannes Schütte, was charged with forming a commission to draft a new proposal restating the missionary task of the Church, incorporating suggestions presented by the Council Fathers. Among the experts named to work with the commission were the French Dominican theologian Yves Congar and Joseph Ratzinger.

The commission first met in Nemi in January 1965, at which preliminary meeting Fr. Ratzinger was not present. He participated in the plenary session from March 29 to April 3, when the final draft of the decree Ad Gentes was drawn up.

When Fr. Schütte presented the draft decree to the plenary of the Council in December 1965, it was approved with 2394 votes for and only 5 against/ (This was the best voting record for any of the 16 Council documents).

The SVD center was renovated in 2010, at which time the Verbites invited the Pope to revisit them. They renewed the invitation this year on the occasion of the order's chapter-general. In the words of the SVD procurator-general, "to remember and celebrate the work" of the bishops and consultants who had prepared the decree "on retreat in this center".

In his June 9 letter to the Pope, Fr. Girardi wrote, "We would be very grateful if the Pope could;d come and bless the Center, while at the same time, the participants in the Chapter-General will have the joy of meeting the Holy Father and share some moments of filial veneration and new impetus to continue our missionary service in various local churches around the world where we are present".

Welcoming him to the center will be the newly-elected Superior General, German Fr. Heinz Kulüke. The SVD, founded in 1895 by ....
currently has more than 6,000 priests around the world. [In my childhood, our parish priest was a Belgian SVD who was also the chaplain of the Catholic school I attended. The Philippines has one of the largest SVD presences in the world, with three SVD seminaries. I've always always found it a bit strange that the Philippines has been considered missionary country all along - perhaps because we are a Third World country - even if we were Christianized in the 16th century and more than 80% of the population is Roman Catholic.]

The following is abridged from the original because I have omitted material already said in the preceding article....


That spring of 1965 -
and Congar's diary notes
by Gianni Valente
Adapted and translated from the Italian service of


"What a place! Everything is very fine: marble and decorative wood...", Dominican Fr. Yves Congar wrote about the SVD center in his Vatican-II diary published posthumously only a few years ago.

The excellent hospitality offered by the SVD when Congar was part of the Vatican II commission which met in Nemi twice to draft the conciliar decree Ad Gentes was noted with ascetic embarrassment by Congar: "A table that is a bit too abundant. Not just that there isn't anything Lenten about it [the second session took place during Lent], but there was a true excess of everything. In the evenings, meals were taken with wine. Obviously, this all helps create an atmosphere of cordiality, and that is why Fr. Schütte does it, but at what expense!"


The OR published the group photo of the Ad Gentes commission seen above, with the signatures of the participants on the Center's register, which unfortunately does not reproduce very well. Joseph Ratzinger's is the last signature, and since it does not enlarge well at all, I used a similar signature from a 1962 document for comparison (a letter written in September 1962 by Fr. Ratzinger to Cardinal Frings reporting on what he had done by way of preimianry work for their pwrticipation in Vatican-II*.

The Pope's visit will doubtless bring back memories of the brainstorming sessions on the great themes concerning the life of the Church in which he took part as a theological consultant during the years 1962-1965. [He first came to Vatican II as a consultant for the Archbishop of Cologne, Josef Frings, who immediately got him appointed as an official theological expert (peritus) for the Council itself.]

Cardinal Frings, with arguments put together by Fr. Ratzinger, had been one of the leaders in the successful move to withdraw the draft decree on missions prepared by the Vatican-II Preparatory Commission.

Although Fr. Ratzinger was not present at the first meeting of the commission on the missions decree in Nemi, an important text in the working agenda was his paper on the theological foundation of Church missions, «Considerationes quoad fundamentum theologicum missionis Ecclesiae»".

The Latin paper, recently published in the magazine of the Vatican-II study center of the Pontifical Lateran University, is dedicated to the doctrinal principles of mission, and offers relevant points of reflection even today, in view of the coming Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith.

In 1965, Fr. Ratzinger wrote authoritatively that mission "is not a battle to capture other people in order to incorporate them into our own group". He sees mission not as self-actuated by the Church, but that Christ himself through the Church, draws to him and the Father the hearts of men. "No human or religious effort in themselves can save men - all salvation comes from Christ".

The work session in Nemi confirmed the affinity and similar outlook between the Bavarian priest and the French theologian Congar, twenty years his senior. They both rejected the narrow idea of mission which was limited to the traditional idea of bringing the Gospel to pagans. They thought that this reduced everything to technical and jurisdictional problems regarding the formation of new dioceses in mission lands.

The two theologians believed in a unitary perception of mission and its theological sources and then applying it to concrete contexts and circumstances.

Congar, in his Council diary, famously gave way to his feelings even about those with whom he worked (and whom he named openly). "Fr. X is truly an ass", or "Mons. Y says nothing and seems very bored", or "Mons. Z almost does not follow [the discussion] and is of no help at all".

He makes one exception: "Fortunately, there is Ratzinger. He is reasonable, modest, dispassionate, and very helpful", he says in his notes for March 31, 1965.

[My addendum: The second of the three great French theologians who served as periti at Vatican-II, Henri de Lubac, also made observations in his Vatican-II diaries about those he encountered. He said of Joseph Raztinger that 'his powerful intellect is matched by his peacefulness and affability', and of Hans Kueng, that he had 'juvenile audacity' and was 'incendiary, superficial and polemical' in his speech.

All three French periti were made cardinals eventually: Yves Congar (1904-1995) in 1994, Henri de Lubac, SJ (1896-1991) in 1983, and Jean Danielou, SJ (1905-1974) in 1969. Paul VI would also have made de Lubac cardinal in 1969, but he declined at the time because it was required then that a cardinal must be made bishop first. John Paul II waived the requirement for him in 1983. The only other Vatican II peritus to be made cardinal was Joseph Ratzinger in 1977, whom Paul VI elevated at age 50 because of his theological work, well before his mentors De Lubac and Congar. The three French theologians were recognized but at a much older age. I checked and saw that Cardinals Walter Kasper and Kurt Lehmann were both made cardinals in 2001, at age 68 and 65, respectively, but although both are theologians, they became cardinals by virtue of the positions they held at the time- Kasper as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Lehmann as chairman of the German bishops' conference.]

Apropos, the following constitute all the other photos I can find of Fr. Ratzinger at Vatican-II - and would be most happy if anyone out there could contribute more:


Top photo and left, bottom photo, with Cardinal Frings; right, with Yves Congar.

The dates of the pictures are uncertain. The photo at extreme left, bottom, is from 1964 (taken from MILESTONES). The one with his brother Georg (center) is supposedly from 1965, and bottom right is from the time period but probably taken in Germany.

*The 1962 letter comes from photos taken by Simone at the PRF of the travelling exhibit on Benedict XVI organized by the Archdiocese of Cologne in 2007. I translated the letter in the full post with Simone's photos which can be found on
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354506&p=49

One other lookback to one year ago... Lest we forget what unprecedented strides the Church made under Benedict XVI in combatting the problem of sex-offender priests and their negligent bishops




After the February symposium:
Some episcopal conferences still have
to submit their specific guidelines
for dealing with clergy abuse of minors
by Salvatore Izzo


VATICAN CITY, July 9 (Translated from AGI) - A demanding task faces the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mons. Ludwig Gerhard Mueller, with regard to specific national guidelines prepared by local bishops to protect children and eliminate the scourge of abusive priests.

In fact, probably because of this, in part, there was a determined campaign in the traditional media and on the Internet to oppose his nomination on the ground that his theology is purportedly unorthodox.

Mons. Charles Scicluna, the CDF's promoter of justice (chief prosecutor of abuse cases) described what needs to be done in an interview with the magazine Jesus, recalling that at the international symposium on the problem held last February, the episcopal conferences were asked to submit their proposed guidelines by May according to the criteria proposed by the CDF and further refined at the symposium.

"A great part of the bishops' conferences have submitted their respective guidelines for the evaluation of the CDF. We are sending out reminders to those who have not yet submitted," Mons. Scicluna said. "These guidelines will be reviewed for concreteness, and suggestions will be made as needed for modification."

He said many of those who have not yet submitted their proposals are African nations "where there are great problems in ecclesiastical structure".

For the rest of the world, more than half have submitted - including the Italian bishops' conference.

Mons. Scicluna cited a possible instance when the CDF might propose a modification: "If the bishops' conference, in its description of relations with civilian authorities, will cite state law only to underscore the autonomy of the Church, it will be asked to provide a precise, careful and complete description of how state law deals with sexual crimes, and to specify that, in full respect of state law, the local Church will never act to dissuade victims for exercising their right to bring their complaint to civilian authorities. This is a commitment that must be explicit, so that the framework for dealing with the problem is complete".

"Bishops are single individuals, whereas the national conference is made up of diverse personalities," Scicluna noted. "But I was very encouraged by the bishops [or bishops' representatives] who attended the February symposium at the Gregorianum, who said the impact upon them of the various testimonials they heard was very powerful."

"It's not as if in a few weeks, one can accomplish a revolution in mentality," he noted. "It will require time, but under the humble and courageous leadership of the Holy Father, the right seeds have been planted. The faithful demand the vigilance of their pastors - this is a fight against sin and against crimes, to protect the innocence of children and young people, who are treasures for the Church".


Meanwhile, the papers and proceedings of the February symposium have now been published in Italian. The book is entitled as the symposium was, 'Towards Healing and Renewal'.



The book was edited by Mons. Scicluna, who obtained his doctorate in canon law and jurisprudence from the Gregorian University where he is also currently a visiting professor of penal processes; Fr. Hans Zoller, SJ, president of the Gregorian's Institute of Psychology, who is a theologian and psychotherapist; and Fr. David Ayotte, SJ, a priest from the archdiocese of Los Angeles, who has been teaching at the Gregorian since last year.

Father Zoller said this to Vatican Radio about the symposium and its follow-through:

---

The Symposium and the publication of these acts represent a small step in the long and painful process that the Holy Father has undertaken. Without him, we would not have held this symposium at all, and we would not have this movement in all parts of the Church to become very aware of the need for the Church to act with one voice and one will in this matter...

The strongest gestures have been the Holy Father's meetings with some victims and his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland - they represent a great and impressive effort to look at all the sins and crimes committed in the past by ministers of the Church, but even by their superiors who covered up for them and those who were in a state of denial.

The Pope has been the leading witness of the fact that there can be no moving ahead without trying to put things right: to do justice to the victims and to do everything we can to prevent any such abuses.

That is why, at the end of the symposium, we set up the Center for the Protection of Minors, which the Gregorian has based in Munich as a center for e-learning. We have since sent people to the primary dioceses of the primary nations collaborating with us, and they have brought back material from places like India and Indonesia, with lots of eye-opening information.

Although we must all be united in battling abuse of young people, we also have to take into account that different countries not only have different languages and sensibilities but the laws themselves regarding protection of children differ from country to country. So it is necessary to know all this in order to make the Church's response to the problem more affective everywhere.

---

Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 14th Week in Ordinary Time

Fourth from left: The saint's incorrupt body.
ST VERONICA GIULIANI (Italy, 1660-1727), Poor Clare Nun, Mystic, Abbess
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on Dec. 15, 2010, to this saint:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20101215...
Daughter of a wealthy Umbrian family, Ursula Giuliani grew up having divine visions starting at age 3 - they would continue throughout her life. Their dying mother dedicated each of her five daughters to the Wounds of Christ. Ursula joined the Poor Clares at age 17, taking the name Veronica to commemorate the Passion of Christ. She did menial jobs in the kitchen, infirmary and sacristy before she became portress. After 14 years, she was made mistress of novices. Three years later, at age 37, she received the stigmata - first the imprint of the Crown of Thorns on her forehead, and then the five wounds of the Crucifixion. For this, her bishop suspended her from duty and subjected her to the most rigorous of investigations to verify the authenticity of the wounds. Eventually, she was restored to her office, but she discouraged her own novices from getting 'caught up' in mysticism. When she was 56, she was made abbess against her wishes, but she proved to be a very practical and efficient administrator. She died on Good Friday at age 67. Canonized in 1839, her body has remained incorrupt and is enshrined in her monastery at Citta del Castello. Her confessor had ordered Veronica to keep a record of her spiritual life. She did so for 30 years, and her writings were eventually published as Tesoro Nascosto (Hidden Treasure) from 1825-1928, encompassing 14 volumes.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071013.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for Pope Francis today. As previously announced, there will be no General Audiences for the rest of July.
[Rather surprising for our workaholic Pope who, in this regard, at least, is doing as his predecessors did, even if he has chosen not to leave the Vatican for the summer except for his WYD trip to Brazil on July 22-29.]

I wonder if Cardinal Bergoglio ever took a vacation. I am surprised Andrea Tornielli does not provide us with this bit of information, even in his latest two rapturous dithyrambs eulogizing his alltime favorite Pope:
vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/francesco-francis-francisco-26293... on July 8 and
vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/papa-el-papa-pop... on July 9.

In the first, in which we get new details about Pope Francis's humility and simplicity as Pope [the headline "No flattery, no valets, no pomp, no ceremony" merits a considerable fisk all by itself], Tornielli concludes by citing Sant'Egidio's Andrea Riccardi who says of the Pope, "He is extraordinary because he is a 'normal' man... His words reflect what a genuine person he is!" Does that mean all the other Popes before him were not 'genuine persons' at all? What were they then - 'fake humans', or mere actors playing a part? And "No flattery"? - when Tornielli and all his colleagues, as well as every person wearing a Roman collar in Rome who speaks to the media these days, sees to be indulging in nothing but Francis-flattery all the time! I must repeat, they can sing the praises of the Pope to high heavens, but do it without denigrating the other Popes, especially his immediate predecessor. When Tornielli (or any other commentator, for that matter) praised Benedict XVI in the past for things he said and did, it was never at the expense of any other Pope, so such postive reporting that is fair and objective can be done!

In his second paean of the past two days, Tornielli quotes a minor Spanish diplomat who says, “(Francis) does not want to be surrounded by people flattering him, not least sycophants. He wants people around him to be sincere and welcomes criticism. He listens to everyone’s advice, gets informed and then takes conscious decisions.” And no Pope before Francis was the same way? Just imagine Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II - not to mention Benedict XVI: Does anyone really think any of them wanted sycophants around them, did not welcome criticism, did not listen to advice, did not get informed, and did not make conscious decisions?

Frankly, I have been waiting for more than three months now for Pope Francis to make an open admonition, directly or indirectly, to the media he once described as 'coprophiliac and coprophagic" (shit-loving and shit-eating, to use the colloquial terms for Cardinal Bergoglio's carefully chosen Greek-derived words) in a 2010 interview with Tornielli himself, to be charitable to his predecessor Popes and stop making him a paragon of all virtues at their expense! Now that would be genuinely humble, and a much-needed lesson for the media. And we know how masterfully the Pope can prick the egos of various 'categories' of people whom he chooses to single out for finger-wagging in his daily homilies, from nuns behaving like old maids, to priests riding in new cars.

If Benedict had ever wagged his finger even once at anyone - not daily as Pope Francis does in his now stuff-of-legend morning homilettes - the Panzerkardinal would have been re-incarnated as the PanzerPope and 'Lord High-and-Mighty who is driving the faithful away by droves through his incessant moralizing'! But it's A-OK with everyone that Pope Francis does it.fG]]

In fact, he recently gave a homily exhorting the media to be careful about defaming people by their reporting! By that he meant reporting bad deeds people have done - which is not defamation if the deeds reported are facts. It would have been the perfect opportunity, but he said not a word about defaming others unjustly, based only on personal animus (as Benedict XVI, most of all, is being defamed daily by Francis's legion of sycophants).

But perhaps Pope Francis is too modest to even read anything written about him. Because if he did, he would never stop squirming from embarrassment, like EEEEWWWW!, and crying out in outrage at the injustice daily being committed against his predecessors by a shamelesly sycophantic and opportunistic media.

One story about the Lampedusa visit claimed that the Pope declined to partake of a meal that the islanders had prepared specially for him, choosing instead "just to eat a sandwich". I hope the report is false, because a guest also has an obligation of form (I believe the word is courtesy) to his hosts. As in the Vatican concert that he 'snubbed', 'lo cortes no quita no valiente'...

The LA Times story on the Lampedusa visit was even more absurd, waxing wondrously over the fact that the Pope did not use a Popemobile on the island, especially since Mercedes Benz had just gifted him with a state-of-the-art Popemobile. How wonderful he did not take it to Lampedusa, the writer gushes! Is she out of her mind? The visit was meant to be a compassionate gesture to commemorate tragic circumstances, to an island with a total of 5,000 inhabitants! What does he need a Popemobile there for?

When Benedict XVI visited L'Aquila and Romagna after their respective earthquakes, he used whatever transport was available that could navigate roads that were hardly in A-1 condition - a minivan, a car in which he sat in front beside the driver, an Italian atmy jeep improvised to be a Popemobile so he could greet the crowd that came for the Mass he celebrated in L'Aquila. But did anyone even bother to mention those details at all when they reported on those visits? In your dreams!

I suffer bouts of nausea when reading such stories, because no one needs to discredit other Popes, implicitly and explicitly as the MSM habitually do these days, in order to praise Francis. I could rewrite Tornielli's stories easily, retaining most of his superlatives and raves about Francis, but without making any negative implications about other Popes, especially about Benedict XVI.

A writer, after all, can shape his stories the way he wants to, and since March 13, 2013, Tornielli has chosen to see Francis as the paragon of all virtues, as if there had been nothing good at all about his predecessors. And as if Benedict XVI's Pontificate was significant only for doing everything wrong that Francis is now trying to set right. Yet one could compile a book of all the glowing articles Tornielli wrote about Benedict XVI while he was Pope! Was any of that sincere at all? (Even if the facts certainly supported it!) If he was capable then of writing those articles without disparaging other Popes, why can't he do it now with Francis? If, God forbid, there were another papal succession in Tornielli's lifetime, what kind of despicable journalistic opportunism will he then display?

The media whom Cardinal Bergoglio excoriated in 2010 as 'shitty' - for their scurrilous but undocumented attacks against the Curia, one must point out - have not changed since then, even if they have changed their tune about the Church and her leader. Have they now suddenly become palatable and faultless because of that? Yet see what demagoguery about Francis and injustice about Benedict we are being fed daily!