Google+
 

BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 23/08/2021 11:16
Autore
Stampa | Notifica email    
08/11/2009 05:31
OFFLINE
Post: 18.821
Post: 1.469
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran






Earlier stories for 11/7/09 - including many pre-Brescia visit stories - are posted on the preceding page.








Benedict XVI fulfills
the dream of Paul VI

by Mons. Luciano Monari
Bishop of Brescia
Translated from
the 11/8/09 issue of






Brescia welcomes the Pope today, For me, as bishop of this place, and for our Church, the arrival of Benedict XVI represents an encounter of grace which is full of multiple significances. To say so, I wish to cite two texts from the New Testament which help to understand them.

The first is that which recounts the visit Peter makes to the centurion Cornelius and his family (cfr Acts 10,24-33). The centurion welcomes him, inviting him to tell them what the Lord had asked him to.

This is the first significance of the Pope's visit. What we expect of the Pope is that he does in Brescia what his mission is, namely, to announce the Gospel.

The fact of hearing this from the voice of Peter has a power and particular meaning for us. The Gospel remains the most important thing, and the Pope is coming to Brescia in its service.

But there is a second passage which illuminates the sense of this November 8 visit, and it is found in Paul's Letter to the Galatians, where Paul recounts his visit to Peter in Jerusalem.

The Apostle writes: "I presented to them the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles - but privately to those of repute - so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain" (Gal 2,2).

The meeting with Peter was a guarantee for Paul that his announcement of the Gospel corresponded to the faith and mission of the whole Church.

In this perspective, the visit of the Pope to Brescia must be seen as a confirmation that what our Church has done and continues to do is right, lived in communion and with and recognized to be authentic by the Bishop of Rome.

But what is this Church that is about to welcome the Pope? The Church of Brescia is rich for its past as well as for its present - for its human resources, with their creative capacity, and their great willingness to work. But it is also rich in the Christian sense, for the presence of many saints, for institutions born for Christian purposes, for a widespread lay commitment that is both organizational and cultural.

Ours is also a Church that knows suffering, which has experienced and continues to experience moments of hard work, and which faces a future with great problems, with important challenges starting with the lack of vocations and how to bring the Gospel within a lifestyle that has become pagan in many aspects.

But we have deep roots to reach into under such circumstances - and among this is the gift that Brescia has given to the Universal Church on Paul VI. Benedict XVI will be here in memory of Papa Montini, and the Church of Brescia is proud to count Paul VI among her sons.

Such pride is also fed by loyalty which is expressed in a series of institutions, and of well-thought-out initiatives to preserve his memory and to have his life and work known.

A worthy undertaking because, as far as I know, Paul VI is perhaps one of the lesser-known Popes, not known enough for his life and for the values that motivated his actions.

The Church of Brescia seeks to safeguard this memory and to make it live on. It is a commitment that at times needs a bit of effort because attention to Paul VI is not a widespread popular movement. And while it is a great movement, it is not yet a general one.

One of the objectives we have is precisely to make this movement popular, because there are extraordinary elements in the life and spirituality of Paul VI that can inspire personal and communitarian growth.

The visit of papa Ratzinger reminds us of this further, in the name of a profound bond between these two Popes, a bond that goes far back. Paul VI always sought, in the years of his Pontificate, the nearness of theologians who could express the reality of Vatican II and therefore, the announcement of the Gospel, to the contemporary world, a world that had changed culturally and become indifferent to the Church.

I believe that by nominating Joseph Ratzinger to be Archbishop of Munich, Paul VI was pursuing this objective. Not all the reference points that he thought he had identified had received satisfactory responses in terms of safeguarding that full fidelity to tradition which Paul VI had always sought to live. And from this point of view, Archbishop Ratzinger corresponded to the expectations of the Pope from Brescia.

In a way, the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the Papacy brings to fulfillment the dream of Paul VI for an announcement of the Gospel to a society in continual transformation, an announcement faithful to tradition but also capable of meeting the issues and cultural challenges of the day. It is an attitude that Joseph Ratzinger always had and that he carries forward today as the Successor of Peter.

Finally, one might perhaps add that the welcome for the Pope today will be an occasion for Brescia to see him as a person, with his teaching, his vision of man and of life.

Serious dialog with an intelligent man is always fruitful, whether one shares his certainties or not. This Pope has always been in dialog with the contemporary world - a dialog that is sometimes severe, as it must be for those who have strong convictions and seek to live them consistently.

But it is certainly a human dialog that hinges on reason, not on selfish interests, on the confrontation of reasons, not on imposition by force. This in itself is gain enough.

We therefore expect to present the Pope this Sunday with a peaceful day among us. Perhaps we will not be able to show him a perfect image of our Church. But we can show him a lively Church which believes sincerely in the Gospel, which loves the Lord, which seeks to grow by overcoming its fears and its inconsistencies.

And the Pope will help us simply by announcing to us the Gospel of Jesus. To hear this Gospel preached to us by the Successor of Peter will be an experience of comfort and joy, both for what the Pope will tell us, and because we shall see in him, in his presence, the fulfillment of a promise from the Risen Lord: "Behold, I am with you to the end of the world". We can ask for nothing more from this encounter with Pope Benedict.


The affinity between two 'teachers'
in words and gestures

by MARCO RONCALLI
Translated from

Nov. 7, 2009


We alreadty noted it in a Page 1 story in this newspaper on August 6, 2005 (anniversary of Paul VI's death) the special bond that binds Giovanni Battista Montini and Joseph Ratzinger, two intellectuals who came to the Chair of Peter.

Ir explains one of the reasons for the Pope's visit to Brescia and Concesio. Benedict XVI's presence will be rich with significance, that of Benedeict XVI, who is firmly linked to the memory of the Pope who guided the Second Vatican Council and the initial face-off between the Church and the contemporary world.

A memory that 31 years after the Brescian Pope's death, continues to show itself in many ways: sympathy and communion, recognition and affection, convergence of ideas in the exercise of the Petrine ministry, an affinity in framing the dialog with secular culture and in urging greater vitality in Christian witness.

Of course, they have differences, and their styles are different, but the similarities become more evident and more convincing with time - even in their magisterial texts. Just recall in this context Papa RAtzinger's theological rationalism in reinterpreting Montini's teaching, in his revival of Populorum progressio in the recent Caritas in veritate.

If it is true, as the Bishop of Brescia has pointed out, that Benedict's visit confirms the path of a local Church that will not turn its back from the transcendental mystery of God, nor close its ears to listing to the Gospel announced with the voice of Peter; and if it is true that Benedict's arrival in Brescia will highlight the patrimony of Christian faith and civic life that the diocese must not only safeguard in memory, but deepen and value even more for their own spiritual growth, then a few facts leap to the eye when comparing the itineraries of Paul VI and Benedict XVI.

How can we forget that it was Papa Montini himself in March 1977 who named Joseph Ratzinger Archbishop of Munich-Freising after the death of Julius Dopfner, and three months after, to make him a cardinal in his last consistory?

How can we forget the appreciation of Paul VI for the work of the young German theologian, first as a consultant at Vatican II, and then as an acute observer of the troubled post-Conciliar years, such that in 1975, he invited him to preach the Lenten spiritual exercises at the Vatican (though the German declined because he felt neither his Italian nor his French were adequate to the task)?

And the telling details that Joseph Ratzinger remembers of his few meetings with the Brescian Pope. Like the ad limina visit of the Bavarian bishops in October 1977, when Papa Montini reminisced about his presence in Munich as a young priest, disoriented at first but soon made to feel at home by so many kind persons. Or the Mass at St. Peter's on Paul VI's 80th birthday, in which the Bavarian cadinal was struck by the Pope's citation of a verse from Canto XXIII of Purgatory in the Divine Comedy where Dante writes of "that Rome where Christ is Roman" - words that struck Ratzinger because of their symbolic relevance.

Yet another symbol is the series of Patristic texts Sources Chretiennes which will receive the VI International Paul VI Prize from the Istituto Paolo VI in Concesio tomorrow.

In a ceremony at the new headquarters of the Institute, Benedict XVI will hand over the prestigious award to the publishers of the historic series of books emblematic of the mid-20th century rediscovery of early Christian writings.

It is a gesture that also brings back another affinity that goes back a long way. In 1980, then Cardinal Ratzinger, along with Cardinal Paul Poupard, presided over the first of the international colloquia promoted by the Institute - it took place in Rome on October 24-26, on Paul Vi's encyclical Ecclesiam suam.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/11/2009 12:40]
08/11/2009 12:29
OFFLINE
Post: 18.822
Post: 1.470
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





Sunday, November 8

BLESSED JOHN DUNS SCOTUS (b Scotland 1266, d Cologne 1308)
Franciscan, Scholastic Theologian
One of the most influential thinkers of the Middle Ages,
Duns Scotus taught in Oxford, Paris, and Cologne, where
he died. His ideas on the Immaculate Conception were
adopted by Pius IX when he proclaimed the dogma in 1854.
The 'Doctor Subtilis' was beatified in 1993 by John Paul II.




OR today.

Papal stories in this issue: A Page 1 editorial commentary on 'Paul VI, Benedict XVI and the matrix of the Church's social doctrine [translated and posted in preceding page]; the Pope's visit o Brescia and Cocnesiontoday; and his emssage to participants of a Rome seminar on education and sports. Other Page 1 sttories: Iran apparently does not intend to accept IAEA proposal on its nuclear program; the growing Chinese presence in Africa; and US unemployment rate hits 10.2%, highest since 1983.



PASTORAL VISIT OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI

TO BRESCIA AND CONCESIO

Sunday, November 8, 2009



P R O G R A M

08.00 Departure from the Vatican heliport for Ciampino airport.

08.30 Departure from Ciampino airport for Brescia.

09.30 Arrival at the Fusco military airport in Ghedi (Brescia province).

En route to Brescia:
- Private visit to the parish church of Botticino Sera and
veneration of the remains of St. Arcangelo Tadini

10.15 WELCOME CEREMONY in front of Brescia Cathedral
and brief visit to the Cathedral.

10.30 EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION at Piazza Paolo VI.
- Homily by the Holy Father
- Angelus prayer and remarks by the Holy Father.

16.00 Greeting the organizers of the visit
at the Paul VI Pastoral Center of Brescia.

16.45 VISIT TO THE BIRTHPLACE OF POPE PAUL VI
and the new headQuarters of the Istituto Paolo VI in Concesio.

17.30 INAUGURATION OF THE NEW HEADQUARTERS and
AWARDS PROGRAM OF THE VI INTERNATIONAL PAUL VI PRIZE
Auditorium of the Istituto Paolo VI.
- Address by the Holy Father

18.15 VISIT TO THE PARISH CHURCH OF SNT'ANTONINO
where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized.
- Address by the Holy Father.

19.00 Depart Concesio for the Fusco military airport and departure for Rome.

20.00 Arrival at Ciampino airport, then helicopter flight to the Vatican.



SITE MAP FOR TODAY'S VISIT


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/11/2009 20:59]
08/11/2009 13:56
OFFLINE
Post: 18.823
Post: 1.471
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran






Pope begins Brescia visit




Pope Benedict arrived at the Ghedi military airbase near Brescia at 9:20 this morning under driving rain. From there, he was driven to Botticino Sera, the Brescian suburb that was served by St. Arcangelo Tadini, the workers' priest canonized by Benedict XVI last April.

He venerated the saint's remains and then, in an unexpected departure from the program, he addressed the crowd briefly before leaving the parish, calling on them to follow the saint's example and 'work so that a brotherly world may come forth in which everyone works not for himself but for others."

He thanked them for their 'warm welcome' and said "It makes me very happy to see a church that is alive and generous".













From Botticino, the Pope proceeded to the city center of Brescia for the Mass and Angelus at Piazza Paolo VI.


NB: Most of the pictures posted here of the Brescia visit come from the photogalleries of

which has been very prompt in sharing them online.
However, the photos cannot be right-clicked, so I have had to pick them up one by one by a print-screen capture, and then cropping the pictures out. Tedious work, but worth it.




[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/11/2009 10:11]
08/11/2009 14:12
OFFLINE
Post: 18.824
Post: 1.472
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran






Pope Benedict honors Paul VI
in his Italian birthplace




BRESCIA, Italy, Nov. 8 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI made a one-day pilgrimage Sunday to northern Italy to pay tribute to Paul VI, his predecessor who made him a cardinal.



Thousands held umbrellas or pulled jackets tightly about them as a chilly rain fell during Benedict's Mass in Paul VI Square outside the cathedral in Brescia, 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Milan.

A canopy sheltered Benedict from the downpour as he hailed Paul VI's achievements as a reforming Pope.

In 1977, a year before Pope Paul VI died, he elevated German prelate Joseph Ratzinger, then 50 — relatively young to become a "prince of the church" — to the rank of cardinal. Ratzinger took the name Benedict XVI when he was elected pontiff in 2005.

Later Sunday, Benedict planned to visit the village of Concesio, Paul's birthplace.

Paul VI was elected Pope in 1963, taking over from John XXIII who began the Second Vatican Council, a landmark initiative to modernize the policies and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Paul led the council to its completion, which Benedict attended as an up-and-coming theologian.

In his homily, Benedict quoted extensively from Paul VI's 1968 speech in which he noted the Catholic faithful's expectations that the Pope should lead with "impressive, energetic and decisive interventions."

"Even the Pope needs to be helped with prayer," Benedict quoted Paul as saying.




On the way to the Cathedral, the Pope stopped briefly to pray in front of the memorial marker in Piazza della Loggia two blocks over from the Piazza Paolo VI to say a prayer for the victims of a terrorist bomb that killed 9 and wounded dozens in May 1974. He gave a blessing before proceeding to Piazza Paolo VI for the official welcome by city and Church officials, later followed by the Mass and Angelus.














[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/11/2009 15:42]
08/11/2009 15:56
OFFLINE
Post: 18.825
Post: 1.473
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





THE MASS










THE POPE'S HOMILY


Dear brothers and sisters!

My joy is great to be able to break with you the bread of the Word of God and of the Eucharist, here in the heart of the Diocese of Brescia, where the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Montini was born and underwent his formation as a youth.

I greet you all with affection and thank you for your warm welcome! I particularly thank your Bishop, Mons. Luciano Monari, for the kind words he addressed to me before the Mass, and with him, I greet the cardinals, bishops, priests and deacons, religious men and women, and all pastoral workers.

I thank the Mayor for his words and for his gift, and the other civilian and military authorities. And I address a special thought to all the sick people who are inside the Cathedral.

At the center of the liturgy on this 32nd Sunday in ordinary time, we find the figure of the poor widow, or more precisely, we find the gesture that she makes in casting the last coins she has into the treasure of the Temple.

A gesture which, thanks to the attentive gaze of Jesus, has become proverbial: 'widow's pence' has in fact, become synonymous to the generosity of one who gives without reservation the little that he or she possesses.

First, however, I wish to underscore the importance of the setting in which this Gospel episode takes place, namely, the Temple of Jerusalem, religious center of the people of Israel and the heart of all their life.

The Temple is the place for public and solemn worship, but also of pilgrimage, of traditional rites, and of rabbinical disputes, such as that reported in the Gospel between Jesus and the rabbis of his time - in which, however, Jesus teaches with singular authority, that of the Son of God.

He pronounces severe judgments - as we heard - on the scribes because of their hypocrisy. They, in fact, while showing off great religiosity, were exploiting the poor, imposing obligations which they themselves did not observe.

Jesus, in short, showed that he loved the Temple as a house of prayer, and because of this, he wished to purify it of improper uses, indeed, to disclose its deeper significance, linked to the fulfillment of his own mystery - the mystery of his death and resurrection - in which he himself would become the new and definitive Temple, the place where God and man meet, the Creator with his creature.

The episode of the widow's pence takes place in such context, and it leads us, through Jesus's own point of view, to fix our attention on a fleeting but decisive detail: the gesture of a very poor widow who tosses two coins into the treasure of the Temple.

As he did that day to his disciples, Jesus tells us: Pay attention. Look very well at what the widow did, because her action contains a great teaching - it expresses the findamental characteristic of those who are the 'living stones' of this new Temple, namely, the gift of oneself to the Lord and to one's neighbor.

The widow of the Gospel, like the widow in the Old Testament, gives everything, gives herself, and places herself in the hands of God, for the sake of others. This is the perennial significance of the poor widow's offering, whom Jesus exalted because she gave more than the rich - who only give part of what they have in excess, whereas she gave everything that she had to live upon (cfr Mk 12,44), and therefore gave herself.

Dear friends, with the aid of this evangelical icon, I wish to meditate briefly on the mystery of the Church, the living Temple of God, and thus pay homage to the memory of thw great Pope Paul VI, who consecrated his entire life to the Church.

The Vhurch is a spiritual organism that prolongs in space and time the oblation (offering) made by the Son of God, a sacrifice apparently insignificant compared to the dimensions of the world and history, but decisive in the eyes of God.

As it says in the Letter to the Hebrews - in the text that we heard earlier - for God, the sacrifice of Jesus, offered 'once for all', sufficed to save the whole world (cfr Heb 9,26-28)., because in that single oblation was condensed all the love of the Son of God made man, just as in the gesture of the poor widow was concentrated all her love for God and for her brothers. Nothing is lacking, and nothing more can be added.

The Church which is incessantly reborn with the Eucharist, from Jesus's self-giving, is the continuation of that gift, of a superabundance that can be expressed even in poverty, of the 'all' that is expressed in a fragment.

it is the Body of Christ who gives himself entirely, a Body that is broken and shared, in constant adherence to the will of its Head. I am happy that you are deepening your knowledge of the Eucharistic nature of the Church, with the guidance of your Bishop's pastoral letter.

This is the Church that the Servant of God Paul IV loved with passion and sought with all his strength to make understood and loved. Let us reread his thoughts on death, where at the conclusion, he speaks of the Church:

"I could say," he writes, "that I have always loved her... and it is for her, not for anything else, that I have lived. But I wish that the Church would know this".

They are the tones of a palpitant heart which goes on to say: "I would like finally to comprehend all about her, her history, her divine design, her final destiny, her complex, in all her total and unitary composition, her human and imperfect consistency, her disasters and her sufferings, the weaknesses and miseries of so many of her children, in her less sympathetic aspects, and in her perennial effort at fidelity, love, perfection and charity. Mystical Body of Christ! I wish to embrace her, greet her, love her, in every being of which she is composed, in every bishop and priest who assists and guides her, in every soul who lives her and illustrates her; I wish to bless her".

His last words are for her, as the Spouse of his life: "It is to the Church that I owe everything, and all I had. What will I say? May the blessings of God be upon you; be conscious of your nature and your mission; be sensitive to the true and profound needs of mankind; and walk in poverty, that is, freely, strongly and lovingly towards Christ".

What can we possibly add to words so elevated and intense? I would only wish to underscore this last vision of a Church that is 'poor and free' which recalls the Gospel figure of the widow.

That is what the ecclesial community should be in order to be able to speak to contemporary man. The Church's encounter and dialog with mankind in our time were particularly close to Giovanni Battista Montini's heart in all the seasons of his life, from his early years as a priest to his Pontificate.

He dedicated all his energies to the service of a Church that conformed as much as possible to the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that in encountering her, contemporary man would be able to encounter Christ, of whom he has absolute need.

This was the fundamental yearning of the Second Vatican Council, which corresponds to Pope Paul Vi's own reflection about the Church. He wanted to programmatically propose some of its salient points in his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam, dated August 6, 2004, pre-dating the Conciliar Constitutions Lumen gentium and Gaudium et spes.

With that first encyclical, the Pontiff proposed to explain to everyone the importance of the Church for the salvation of mankind, and at the same time, the need to establish a relationship of mutual knowledge and love between the ecclesial community and society (cfr Enchiridion Vaticanum, 2, p. 199, No. 164).

'Conscience', 'renewal', 'dialog': these three words were chosen by Paul VI to express his dominant 'thoughts', as he called them, at the start of his Petrine ministry - and all three have to do with the Church.

Above all, the exigency that she deepens her awareness of herself: her origin, nature, mission, final destiny. And second, her need to renew and purify herself, looking at Christ as the model; and finally, the problem of her relations with the modern world (cfr ibid., pp. 203-205, nn. 166-168).

Dear friends - and I address myself specially to my brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood - how can we not see that the question of the Church, of her necessity in the design of salvation, and of her relationship with the world, continue to be absolutely central even today?

That, in fact, the development ofsecularization and globalization have made this need even more radical, in the face of the rejection of God, on the one hand, and of non-Christian religions, on the other?

The reflection of Papa Montini on the Church is more than ever relevant. And even more precious is the example of his love for the Church, which is inseparable from his love for Christ.

"The mystery of the Church", we read in Ecclesiam suam, "is not simply the object of theological knowledge - it should be lived fact, in which even before having a clear notion of it, the faithful soul can have an almost connatural experience" (ibid., p 229, n. 178).

This presumes a robust interior life which is, the Pope continues, "the great spring of spirituality in the Church, her own way of being irradiated by the Spirit of Christ, a radical and irreplaceable expression of her religious and social activity, inviolable defense and renewable energy in her difficult contact with the profane world" (ibid., p. 231, n. 179).

And it is the Christian who is open, the Church that is open to the world, who have need of such a robust interior life.

Dearest ones, what an invaluable gift for the Church is the lesson of the Servant of God Paul VI! And how exciting it is every time to count oneself in his school! It is a lesson that concerns us all and commits us all, according to the different gifts and ministries of which the People of God are rich, through the action of the Holy Spirit.

In this Year for Priests, I am happy to underscore how much this lesson must interest and particularly involve priests, for whom Papa Montini always had special affection and concern.

In the encyclical on priestly celibacy, he wrote: "'Taken possession of by Jesus Christ' (Phil 3,12), to the point of abandoning all of oneself to him, the priest configures himself more perfectly to Christ even in the love with which the Eternal Priest loved his Body, the Church, offering all of himself for her... The consecrated chastity of his sacred ministers manifests, in fact, the virginal love of Christ for the Church, and the virginal and supernatural fecundity of this marriage" (Sacerdotalis caelibatus, 26).

I dedicate these words of the great Pope to the many priests of the Diocese of Brescia, well represented here, and to the young men who are being formed in the seminaries.

I also wish to recall what Paul VI said to the students of the Seminario Lombardo on December 7, 1968, when the difficulties of the post-Conciliar years were augmented by the ferment in the student world:

"So many," he said, "expect attention-getting gestures, energetic and decisive actions, from the Pope. The Pope is not duty-bound to follow any line other than confidence in Jesus Christ, which is more urgent for his Church than anything else. It will be He who will still the tempest.

"This is not about a sterile or inert expectation, but of vigilant waiting in prayer. This is the condition Jesus has chosen for us so that he can operate in fullness. Even the Pope needs to be helped with prayer" (Insegnamenti VI, [1968], 1189).

Dear friends, may the priestly example of the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Montini, guide you always, and may St. Arcangelo Tadini, whom I venerated earlier in a brief stop at Botticino, intercede for you.

As I greet and encourage the priests, I cannot forget - especially here in Brescia - the lay faithful who in this land have demonstrated extraordinary vitality in faith and good works, in the various fields of apostolate associations and social commitment.

In the Teachings of Paul VI, dear Brescian friends, you can find indications that are always valuable for facing the challenges of the present, especially the economic crisis, migration, and education of the youth.

At the same time, Papa Montini never lost an occasion to underscore the primacy of the contemplative dimension, and therefore, the primacy of God in human experience. That is why he never tired of promoting the consecrated life, in the variety of its forms. He intensely loved the multiform beauty of the Church, recognizing in it the reflection of the beauty of God which shines out from the face of Christ.

Let us pray that the brilliance of divine beauty may shine in each of our communities and that the Church may be a luminous sign of hope for mankind in the third millennium.

May this grace be obtained for us by Mary whom Paul VI proclaimed, at the end of the Second Vatican Council, Mother of the Church. Amen.










THE ANGELUS

The Holy Father also led the Angelus prayers before the end of the Mass. Because of the rains, the whole schedule was set back by an hour, and the Angelus was recited at 1 p.m. instead of noontime.

Here is a translation of the Pope's message before the Marian prayer:


At the end of this solemn celebration, I thank all those who were responsible for the liturgical animation, and all those who in various ways helpted in the preparation and realization of my pastoral visit to Brescia. Thank you all.

I also greet those who are following us on radio and television, and those who are in St. Peter's Square, particularly the many volunteers of the Unione Nazionale Pro Loco d’Italia.

At this Angelus prayer, I wish to recall the profound devotion that the Servant of God giovanni Battista Montini always had for the Virgin Mary. He celebrated his first Mass in the Shrine of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Marian heart of your city, not far from this Piazza. In that way, he placed his priesthood under the maternal protection of the Mother of God, and this attachment accompanied him all his life.

As his ecclesial responsibilities grew, he was also maturing an ever more ample and organic concept of the relationship of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the mystery of the Church.

In this perspective, his closing speech of the third session of Vatican-2 on November 21, 1964, was memorable. That session had promulgated the ecclesial constitution Lumen gentium which, in the words of Paul VI, "has as its summit and crown an entire chapter dedicated to Our Lady".

The Pope noted that it was the broadest synthesis of Marian doctrine ever elaborated by an Ecumenical Council, with the end in view of "manifesting the face of the Holy Church, to which Mary is intimately bound" (Enchiridion Vaticanum, Bologna 1979, p. [185], nn. 300-302).

In that context, he proclaimed the Most Blessed Mary as 'Mother of the Church'(cfr ibid., n. 306), underlining with ecumenical sensitivity, that "the devotion to Mary... is a means intended to orient souls towards Christ and thus reach the Father, in the love of the Holy Spirit" (ibid., n. 315).

Echoing the words of Paul VI, let us today pray likewise: O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, we commend to you the Church of Brescia and the entire population of this region. Remember all your children; confirm theur prayers to God; keep their faith firm; increase their charity - O clement, o pious, o most sweet Virgin Mary (cfr ibid., nn. 317.320.325).



Afterwards, the Pope proceeded to the Centro Pastorale Paolo VI in Brescia, where he lunched with the bishops of the Lombardy region, and had a brief rest.

At 4 p.m., before leaving Brescia for Concesio, the Holy Father met with the orgainisers of this visit.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/11/2009 20:18]
08/11/2009 20:53
OFFLINE
Post: 18.826
Post: 1.474
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





AGI has a brief sidebar on the Pope's lunch today:


Pope lunches with Cardinal Tettamanzi
and other bishops of Lombardy




BRESCIA, Nov. 8 (Translated from AGI) - Pope Benedict XVI had lunch today at the Centro Pastorale Paolo XVI in Brescia shortly after 1 p.m.

With him were Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan; Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and a native Brescian; and Cardinal Paul Poupard, emeritus Prefect of teh Pontifical Council for Culture, who was involved, witH Cardinal Ratzinger, in the early activities of the Istituto Paul VI; and his diocesan host, Mons, Luciano Monari, Bishop of Brescia.

Among the other bishops present were Monsignors Claudio Baggini (Vigevano), Dante Lafranconi (Cremona), Diego Coletti (Como), Francesco Beschi (Bergamo), Giovanni Giudici (Pavia).

The menu featured pheasant carpaccio in vinaigrette and truffles' risotto with zucchini flowers, saffron and cheese; beef shank with crisp-fried vegetables and grated horseradish; and a dessert called 'autumn flavors'[not described] .

The meal was prepared by the chefs of Miramonti l'Altro and La Sosta, both Brescian restaurants.


The Pastoral Center is a multi-purpose facility that hosts conferences and has hotel and restraurant services.



P.S. Cardinal Martini was at
the luncheon with the Pope!


reports that -


The Pope lunched in the company of, among others, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, earlier today. The emeritus Archbishop of Milan was seated next to the Pope, and witnesses say they seemed to have a long chat.


I'd be so mortified if I were the AGI reporter who missed reporting the presence of Cardinal Martini!!!!
Either he/she missed it completely, or APCOM has its story wrong...


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/11/2009 23:23]
08/11/2009 22:35
OFFLINE
Post: 18.827
Post: 1.475
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran






THE POPE IN CONCESIO


The Holy Father travelled by Popemobile along the 8 kilometers that separates the town of Concesio from the center of Brescia, and arrived in Paul VI's hometown to visit Montini's birthplace and the adjoining new headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI which the Pope inaugurated.





Photo shows from top left, clockwise, an aerial view of the Montini property; the street entrance to the house; the dining room; the room where the future Pope was born; and the house entrance seen from the inner courtyard. The new Istituto Paolo VI headquarters was built on the large expanse of meadow to the rear of the property (it would be the foreground of the top left photo).


Following background information on the Montini house and the new Istituto Paolo VI headquarters is translated from:



The house where Paul VI was born is a 17th-century structure built on the foundations of a 15th-century building. It was acquired by the Montini family from the Counts of Lodrone in 1830, and seerved as the country home for the parents of teh future Pope. It retains all its 17th century features, including frescoed ceilings, tiled floors, and an old-fashioned kitchen that features a large stone tub.

It is furnished the way it was around the turn of the century (19th to the 20th) when Giovanni Battista Montini was born. The room where he was born is kept as it was then.

The property was passed on to the Istituto Paolo VI by the remaining Montini heir, Vittorio.







From the house, the Holy Father and his party walked towards the Institute headquarters in the 'rear' of the Montini property.






The new headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI is a three-story modern building of 2500 square meters, which houses a museum of contemporary sacred art, a library with 30,000 volumes, an archive of 500,000 documents, of which 50,000 are directly on Paul VI, as well as an auditorium that holds 250 people (where the ceremony with the Pope was held today).

For 30 years since it was established in 1979, the Institute worked out of the Centro Pastorale Paolo VI in Brescia. The new headquarters is located in the area behind the Montini country home where the future Pope was born.

The property had 3,500 square meters of meadow, part of which is now occupied by the building, with a still considerable area of lawn left. The modern 3-story building is built with stone that matches the hilly pre-Alpine landscape of Concesio.

The Institute's museum of art now has some 250 paintings on display, including works by Picasso, Chagall, Manzù, De Chirico, Sassu, although all in all, the collection already owns some 7000 works.

Paul VI had a great passion for the arts and started the Vatican's own Museum of Contemporary Religious Art.

Giuseppe Camadini, a Brescian lawyer adn entrepreneur, is president of the Institute. At a news conference last week, he said:

"The Institute is an international center for study and documentation, originally sponsored by the Opere per l'Educazione Cristiana of Brescia and founded on April 10, 1979. The initiative has a civic as well as religious value."

He said that primarily, it offers Italian and foreign scholars the possibility of finding the tools and research materials they may need to conduct studies on the life and work of Paul VI. The archive contains published and unpublished documentation on the late Pope. The library has focused on books concerning the history and culture of the period during which the Pope lived. The Institute has published 60 monographs on Paul VI as well as a semestral newsletter of which there are now 57 issues.

The Paul VI International Prize was called the Catholic Nobel Prize by John Paul II, and given to persons and/or institutions who have made outstanding contributions to religious culture and education.

The sixth award went this year to the publishers of Sources Chretiennes, a French book series republishing the texts of early Christian writers. It has published over 350 volumes since it was started in 1947 by the French theologians Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou. Its work has contributed to the resurgence of interest in the Fathers of the Church in the late 20th century.

Previous winners of the Prize were Hans Urs von Balthasar, in 1984; to French composer Olivier Messieaen in 1988; Oscar Cullmann (1902-1999), outsstanding Lutheran theologian who took part in the Vatican II and was a mainstay of the ecumenical movement just before he died in 1999; Canadian Jean Vanier, a retired naval general who founded L'Arche, an international organization which creates communities where people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them share life together, in 1997; and French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, in 2002.



AT THE INSTITUTE

The following pictures are my videocaps from the CTV feed, which I can only get through the Vatican Radio page. A distortion in the video results in a slight vertical elongation of the images.




Below right, the Pope gives the Paul VI International Prize to Bernard Menier, director of Sources Chtretiennes.





'The encounter with Christ
is a liberating educational experience'


Here is a translation of the Pope's discourse:



Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear friends:

I thank you all from the heart for having invited me to inaugurate the new heacdquarters of the institute dedicated to Paul VI, built next to the home where he was born.

I greet each of you affectionately, starting with the cardinals, bishops, authorities and other personages present. I address a special greeting to your president, Giuseppe Camadini, thankful for the kind words which he addressed to me, and for illustrating the origins, purpose and activities of the Institute.

It is my pleasure to take part in the solemn ceremony of awarding the Paul VI International Prize, given this year to the French book series Sources Chretiennes. A choice made in the field of education, which is meant to highlight - as it has been well underscored - the profuse activity of this historic book series, started in 1942 by Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou, among others, for a renewed discovery of ancient and medieval Christian sources. And I thank the series editor Bernard Meunier for the greeting he addressed to me.

I take this propitious occasion to encourage you, dear friends, to increasingly bring to light the personality and doctrine of this great Pontiff, not so much from the hagiographic and celebratory aspect, but rather - and this has been rightly noted - from the aspect of scientific research, in order to offer a contribution to the knowledge of truth and understanding of the history of the Church and the Popes of the 20th century.

To the degree that he is better known, the Servant of God Paul VI is better appreciated and more loved. A bond of affection and devotion unites me to this great Pope, starting from the years of the Second Vatican Council. And how can I forget that in 1977, it was Paul VI who entrusted me with the pastoral care of the Diocese of Munich and then made me a Cardinal? I feel I owe this great Pontiff so much gratitude for the esteem that he showed me on various occasions.

I would love to speak in depth, in this headquarters, of the different aspects of his personality. But I will limit my considerations now to one single aspect of his teaching, which I think to be of great relevance and in tune with the motivation for this year's Prize, which is educational capability.

We live in a time in which we note a true educational emergency. To form the young generations, on whom the future depend.s has never been easy, but in our time, it seems to have become even more complicated. And this is well known to parents, teachers, priests and those who have direct educational responsibilities.

An atmosphere, a mentality, and a form of culture iare becoming widespread that result in casting doubt on the value of the person, on the meaning of truth and of goodness, and ultimately, on the goodness of life itself.

And yet one also notes strongly a similarly widespread thirst for certainties and for values. It is therefore necessary to transmit to future generations something valid - solid rules of behavior, high objectives towards which to decisively orient their existence.

The demand is growing for an education that is capable of taking responsibility for the expectations of young people: an education that must be above all else, testimony, and for the Christian educator, a testimonial of faith.

In this respect, what comes to my mind is this incisive statement by Giovanni Battista Montini, written in 1931: "i would like my life to be a testimonial to truth... I mean by testimonial the custody, the search for and the profession of the truth" (Spiritus veritatis, in Colloqui religiosi, Brescia 1981, p. 81).

Such a witness, Montini noted in 1933, is made impelling by the observation that "in the profane field, men of thought - even and perhaps especially in Italy - think nothing of Christ. He is unknown, forgotten, absent, in a great part of contempoary culture"
(Introduzione allo studio di Cristo, Roma 1933, p. 23).

Montini the educator - as student and priest, Bishop and Pope - was always aware of the need for a well-qualified Christian presence in the world of culture, art and social aitivity, a presence rooted in the truth of Christ that is at the same time, attentive to man and his vital needs.

That is why attention to the educational problem and the formation of youth was such a constant in the thought and actions of Montini, an attention that also came from his family environment.

He was born to a family belonging to the Brescian Catholicism of that time, which was committed and fervent in works, and he grew up with the example of his father Giorgio, who was a protagonist in important battles to affirm freedom of education for Catholics.

In one of his earliest writings dedicated to Italian schools, Giovanni Battista Montini observed: "We do not ask more than a bit of freedom to educate as we wish the young people who come to Christianity attracted by the beauty of its faith and traditions"
(Per la nostra scuola [For our school], a book by Prof. Gentile, in Scritti giovanili [Youthful Writings], Brescia 1979, p. 73).

Montini was a priest of great faith and wide culture, a leader of souls, an acute inquirer into the 'drama of human existence'. Generations of young university students found in him, when he was spiritual director of FUCI [federation of Italian Catholic universities], a point of reference, a former of consciences who was able to arouse enthusiasm, to call them to their mission to be witnesses at every moment of life in order to show off the beauty of the Christian experience.

When they heard him speak, his students said of him, they perceived the interior fire that animated his words, in contrast to his frail appearance.

One of the bases for the educational offerings by the university circles that he led at FUCI consisted in orienting the personality of the young people towards spiritual unity - "No separate compartments in the soul," he said, "with culture on one side, and faith on the other; or school on one hand, and Church on the other. Doctrine, like faith, is one" (Idee=Forze (Ideas=Power] in Studium 24 [1928], p. 343).

In other words, for Montini, full harmony and the integration of the cultural and religious dimensions of formation were essential, with particular emphasis on knowledge of Christian doctrine and the practical developments of life.

Because of this, from the start of his activities in the Roman circle of FUCI, he promoted among university students, along with serious spiritual and intellectual commitment, charitable initiatives to serve the poor, through the conference of St. Vincent [de Paul].

He never separated what he would later call 'intellectual charity' from social presence in taking on responsibility for the needs of the neediest. This is how the students were educated to find continuity between the rigorous duty to study and their concrete tasks among the shanty dwellers.

"We believe," he wrote, "that the Catholic is not one tormented by a hundred thousand problems, even if these may be spiritual in nature. No! The Catholic is he who has the fecundity of certainty. Thus, faithful to his faith, he can look at the world not as an abyss of perdition but as field of harvests" (La distanza dal mondo, in Azione Fucina, 10 Feb 1929, p. 1).

Giovanni Battista Montini insisted that the formation of young people must make them capable of relating with modernity - a difficult and often critical relationship, but always constructive and dialogic.

He underlined some negative characteristics of modern culture, both in the field of knowledge as well as in practice - such as subjectivism, individualism, and the unlimited assertion of the subject. At the same time, he thought dialog was necessary but must always start from solid doctrinal formation, whose unifying principle is faith in Christ, therefore, a mature Christian 'consciousness' able to confront everything without falling into the fashion of the time.

As Pontiff, he said to the Rectors and Presidents of the universities of the Society of Jesus, that "doctrinal and moral mimetism is certainly not in conformity with the spirit of the Gospel".

"Moreover," he continued, "those who do not share the position of the Church ask us for extreme clarity in our positions in order to establish a constructive and loyal dialog".

That is why cultural pluralism and respect "should never let the Christian lose sight of his duty to serve the truth in charity, to follow the truth of Christ which, alone, gives true freedom" (cfr. Insegnamenti xiii, [1975], 817).

For Papa Montini, the young person must be educated to evaluate the environment in which he lives and works, to consider himself as a person and not a number in the crowd: in a word, he must be helped to have 'strong thinking' capable of 'strong action', while avoiding the danger that he may sometimes risk of placing action before thought, and turning experience into the source of truth.

He said in this regard: "Action cannot be a light to itself. If one does not wish to bend man to think as he acts, he must be educated to act as he thinks. Even in the Christian world, where love, carita, has supreme and decisive importance, one cannot do without the light of truth, which presents love with its ends and its reasons" (Insegnamenti II [Teachings, Vol II], 1964, p. 194).

Dear friends, the years of FUCI, which were difficult because of the political context in Italy, but exciting for the young people who recognized in the Servant of God a leader and an educator, left a lasting mark on the personality of Paul VI.

As Archbishop of Milan and then Successor of the Apostle Peter, his yearning and his concern for the subject of education never waned. This is attested to by his numerous interventions dedicated to the new generations, in tempestuous and tormented times, as in 1968.

With courage, he showed the way to an encounter with Christ as a liberating educational experience and the only true response to the desires and aspirations of young people who had become victims of ideology.

"You, the young people of today," he reiterated, "are sometimes captivated by a conformism that can become habitual, by a conformism that unconsciously bends your freedom to the automatic domination of external currents of thought, of opinion, of sentiment, of action, of fashion: and then, caught up in a gregariousness that gives you the sense of being strong, you become rebels as a group, en masse, often without knowing why".

"But then, if you acquire a consciousness of Christ, and you adhere to him... you will become free interiorly... you will know why and for whom you live... And at the same time, like something marvelous, you will feel born in you the science of friendship, of sociality, of love. And you will not be isolated" (Insegnamenti vi [Teachings VI, [1968], pp 117-118).

Paul VI called himself 'an old fieind of young people': he could recognize and share their torment in the debate between the will to life, the need for certainty, and the yearning for love, on the one hand against their sense of disorientation, the temptation of skepticism, the experience of disappointment, on the other.

He had learned to understand their spirit and reminded them that the agnostic indifference of current thought, pessimistic criticism, the materialistic ideology of social progress, do not suffice for the spirit, which is open to other horizons of truth and life (cfr. Insegnamenti xii [Teachings, XII, [1974], p. 642).

Today, like then, an unavoidable question emerges for the new generations, a demand for meaning, a search for authentic human relationships. Paul VI said: "Contemporary man will more gladly listen to witnesses than to teachers, or if he listens to teachers, he does so only because they are witnesses first" Insegnamenti xiii [Teachings XIII], 1975, pp 1458-1459).

My venerated Predecessor was a teacher of life and a courageous witness of hope, who was not always understood, and indeed many times was opposed and isolated by the dominant cultural movements in his time.

But as solidly as he was physically fragile, he led the Church without hesitations. He never lost his trust in young people, renewing to them, and not just to them, the invitation to trust in Christ and to follow him on the road of the Gospel.

Dear friends, once more, thanks for giving me the opportunity to breathe in, here, in his hometown and in these placed full of memories of his family and his childhood, the atmosphere in which the Servant of God Paul VI was formed, the Pope of the Second Vatican Council and of the immediate post-Conciliar years.

Here, everything speaks of the richness of his personality and his vast doctrine. Here, there are significant memories of other pastors and protagonists of the history of the Church in the past century, as for instance, Cardinal Bevilacqua, Bishop Carlo Manziana, Mons. Pasquale Macchi, his trusted private secretary, and Fr. Paolo Caresana.

I hope from the heart that the love of this Pope for young people, his constant encouragement to entrust themselves to Christ - an invitation taken up by John Paul II, and which I, too, wished to renew at the start of my Pontificate - may be perceived by the new generations.

For this, I assure my own prayers, as I bless all of you who are present, your famlies, your work, and the initiatives of the Istituto Paolo VI.



After the program, the Holy Father signed the Institute's Guest Book and was given a brief tour of the new building, inclduing its museum of contemporary sacred art.



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2009 18:33]
09/11/2009 00:28
OFFLINE
Post: 18.828
Post: 1.476
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran






AT THE CHURCH
WHERE PAUL VI WAS BAPTIZED


The last event on the Pope's visit was the church of Sant'Antonino where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized, where the Pope addressed the parishioners,



The church where Paul VI was baptized, and the baptismal font (2nd photo, as it is today); third and fourth photos, before renovation.






Pope says 'It's not easy
to be a Christian'



BRESCIA, Nov. 8 (RV) - In the final discourse of his visit to Brescia in the footsteps of Pope Paul VI, Benedict XVI told the 300 parishioners of St Anthony’s Church in Concesio that "It's not easy to be a Christian”.

Speaking in the small village church where the future Pope, Giovanni Battista Montini, was baptised more than a century ago, Pope Benedict noted that “it takes courage and tenacity not to comply with the mentality of today’s world, not to be seduced by the sometimes powerful calls of hedonism and consumerism, to face, if necessary, misunderstandings and sometimes even real persecution''.

For this reason - he added -''we should remain firmly united in the Church, even when we see some shadows and blemishes on its face'' ''loving her as our true mother'' and translating this love into concrete action ''within our communities'.''

Pope Benedict also urged believers not to yield to the temptation of “individualism 'and prejudice” rather to overcome “all rivalry and division”.

Earlier Sunday evening Pope Benedict XVI launched an appeal for the freedom for Catholics to educate their children according to their faith and tradition.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the Paul VI Institute for religious studies, located next to the family home of the late Pope in Concesio.

Retracing his own personal bond with Paul VI, and their shared commitment to education he noted that “educating the younger generation, on which the future depends, has never been easy, but in our time seems to become even more complex”.

Pope Benedict said “a mentality and a culture that cast doubts on the value of the person, the meaning of truth and goodness..,is spreading”.

Yet he also observed that “there is a widespread thirst for hard certainties and values”.

Pope Benedict spoke of Paul VI’s involvement with the university students of his day, his promotion of an ‘intellectual charity’ that was rooted in social action in favour of the poor.





Meeting the community of Concesio:
'Concrete gestures of love
can overcome rivalries and divisions'


At the end of his pastoral visit, Benedict XVI went to the parish church of Sant'Antonino in Concesio, where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized on Sept. 30, 1897. Here is a translation of his address to the parishioners:




Dear brothers and sisters:

This meeting closes my pastoral visit to Brescia, birthplace of my venerated predecessor Paul VI. It is for me a great pleasure to end it here in Concesio where he was born and began his long and rich human and spiritual experience.

Even more significant - emotional even - is to stop at this, your church, which was his church. Here, on Sept. 30, 1897, he received Baptism, and who knows how many times he came here to pray?

Here, probably, he learned to better understand the voice of the divine Teacher who called him to follow, and who led him, through so many stages, to become his Vicar on earth.

Here the inspired words still resound which Giovanni Battista Montini, having become a cardinal, said fifty years ago, on August 16, 1959, when he returned to this, his baptismal font.

"Here I became Christian," he said, "I became a son of God, I received the gift of faith" (G.B. Montini, Discorsi e Scritti Milanesi, ii,[Milanese Discourses and Writings, II], p. 3010).

In remembering him, it is my pleasure to greet with affection all of you, his townmates, your parish priest and your mayor, along with the Pastor of the Diocese, Mons. Luciano Monari, and all those who have come here for this brief but intense moment of spiritual intimacy.

"Here I became a Christian... Here I received the gift of faith". Dear friends, allow me to take this occasion to recall, starting from that affirmation by Papa Montini, and referring to other similar interventions, the importance of Baptism in the life of every Christian.

Baptism, he said, can be called "the first and fundamental relationship - vital and supernatural - between the Lord's Passover and our Easter" (Insegnamenti iv [Teachings, IV], 1966, p. 742). It is the Sacrament through takes place "the transfusion of the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection this followers" (Insegnamenti xiv [Teachings XIV], 1976, p. 407). It is the Sacrament that starts our relationship of communion with Christ.

"Through Baptism," as St. Paul said, "we were indeed buried with him into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead..., we too might live in newness of life" (Rom 6,4).

Paul VI liked to underscore the Christocentric dimension of Baptism, in which Christ clothes anew to enter into vital communion with him, and now belong to him.

In times of great changes within the Church and in the world, how many times did Paul VI insist on the need to remain firm in our vital communion with Christ! Only thus can one become a member of his family which is the Church.

Baptism, he noted, is "the door through which men enter the Church" (Insegnamenti xii [Teachings XIII], 1974, p. 422). It is the Sacrament through which we become "brothers of Christ and members of that humanity destined to become part of his mystical and universal Body that is his Church" (Insegnamenti xiii [Teachings XIII], 1975, p. 308).

Once man is regenerated by Baptism, God makes him a participant in his own life, and "the baptized person can effectively direct himself towards God-Trinity, hiss ultimate end, that for which he is ordained, for the purpose of taking part in his life and eternal love" (Insegnamenti xi [Teachings XI}, 1973, p. 850).

Dear brothers and sisters, I wish to go back in thought to that visit to this parish church which the then Archbishop of Milan made 50 years ago. Recalling his Baptism, he asked himself how he had guarded and lived this great gift of the Lord, and while he acknowledged that he had never understood it enough nor followed it through enough, he confessed: "I want to tell you that the faith which I received in this church with the sacrament of Holy Baptism was the light of life for me... the lamp in my life"(op. cit., pp. 3010,3011).

Echoing his words, we can ask ourselves: "How do I live my Baptism? How have I made use of the journey of new life that St. Paul spoke of?"

In the world in which we live, to use once more an expression of Archbishop Montini, often there is "a cloud which takes away the happiness of serenely seeing the divine sky... There is the temptation to believe that faith is a bond or a chain that must be taken off, that it is something old if not outdated, and which no longer serves" (ibid., p. 3012), and through which man thinks that "economic and social life suffice to give an answer to all the aspirations of the human heart" (ibid.).

In this respect, how eloquent was St. Augustine who wrote in Confessions, that our heart does not have peace until it rests in God (cfr i, 1). Man can be truly happy only when he finds the light that illuminates him and gives him full meaning.

This light is faith in Christ, the gift we receive at Baptism, and which must be constantly rediscovered in order to be transmitted to others.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us not forget this immense gift that we receive on the day that we are baptized! In that moment, Christ has bound us to him for always, but on our part, do we continue to be united to him through choices that are consistent with the Gospel?

It is not easy to be Christian! It takes courage and tenacity not to conform to the mentality of the world, not to let oneself be seduced by the often powerful beckonings of hedonism and consumerism, or to face, if necessary, incomprehension and sometimes even true persecution.

To live Baptism means remaining firmly united to the Church, even when we see some shadow or stain on her face. It is she who has regenerated us into divine life and accompanies us throughout our entire journey.

Let us love her - and love her like our true mother! Let us love her and serve her with a faithful love that translates into concrete gestures within our own community, not yielding to the temptation of individualism and prejudice, and overcoming every rivalry and division. Thus we will be true disciples of Christ!

May we be helped from heaven by Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church, whom the Servant of God Paul VI loved and honored with great devotion.

Again, I am grateful to you for your warm welcome that is so cordial and beautiful, dear brothers and sisters, and as I assure you of remembrance in my prayers, I impart to all a special blessing.






NB: Most of the pictures I have posted about the Brescia visit are from

which has come promptly online today with its photo galleries (and videoclips from Teletutto) on each of the places were the Pope was, with the exception of the lunch at Centro Pastorale and the meeting wfterwards with the organizers. Obviously, such events are not generally open to coverage.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2009 10:54]
09/11/2009 10:40
OFFLINE
Post: 18.829
Post: 1.477
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran




Apostolic Constitution on Anglicans
to be published today?



The European Catholic blogosphere was alight last night because of a Spanish blog that said the Apostolic Constitution on returning Anglicans would be published today, Monday.

The blog, in turn, referred to a throwaway phrase in the first line of a Vatican Radio report yesterday, 11/8, in its German service (see below) about the response of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) to the Pope's initiative.



The line reads "Even before the publication of the Apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus,
reportedly set for Monday..."

In his blog yesterday, Paolo Rodari of Il Foglio also speculates that the AC would be published this week...
We'll know in two hours, when the Vatican Press Office posts its daily bulletins at noon, Rome time....

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/11/2009 10:43]
09/11/2009 11:25
OFFLINE
Post: 18.830
Post: 1.478
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran



Monday, Nov. 8

The facade; the baldachin over the main altar; and the Cathedra.
FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN CATHEDRAL
'Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput'

[Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head.]
Dedicated to John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano is the Cathedral church of Rome,
the seat of the Bishop of Rome. Its official name is Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris(Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour).
The present building was built in 1646 on the site of a 4th-century church built by Constantine. It is the oldest among the four
major basilicas of Rome, and as the seat of the Bishop of Rome, it may be considered the parish church of all the world's Catholics.*




No OR today.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Participants of the VI World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees. Address in Italian.



The Vatican rleased the text of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus regarding provisions
for Anglicans who are returning to the Church, along with complementary norms on its application from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.


*In November 2007, I put together a post with photos about the Lateran Basilica in the PRF:
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354952&p=11



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2010 02:41]
09/11/2009 12:06
OFFLINE
Post: 18.831
Post: 1.479
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





The Italian newspapers all feature coverage of the Pope's visit to Brescia and Concesio today. For now, I will translate Andrea Tornielli's wrap-up.


The German Pope conquers
the city of Paul VI

by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from




Photo: Il Giornale di Brescia


A completely Brescian day, in the footsteps of Paul VI, to meet the diocese and the city.

A Mass celebrated under driving rain which did not keep 12,000 faithful from filling up Piazza Paolo VI to the inch for the Eucharistic concelebration by Benedict XVI with the bishops of Lombardy and Cardinals Dionigi Tettamanzi, Giovanni Battista Re and Paul Poupard.

Later, the Pope would have lunch with them, along with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, emeritus Archbishop of Milan, who 2ill be 83 in February, and is ailing with Parkinson's disease.

Benedict XVI arrived in the morning at the military airbase of Ghedi. Accompanying him on the flight was Gianni Letta, undersecretary to Prime Minister and his cabinet.

Enroute in the Popemobile to the city center of Brescia, the Pope stopped briefly at the parish church of Santa maria Assunta in Botticino Sera to venerate the remains of St. Arcangelo Tadini (1846-1912), who was the parish priest from 1887 until he died and had founded the Congregation of teh Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth. Tadini was canonized by Papa Ratzinger last April.

No speeches were on the program, but upon leaving the church, the Pontiff addressed the crowd briefly, saying "we are grateful to St. Arcangelo for the gift which he has given us - he taught us to love God, to love Christ and Our Lady, in order to give rise to a fraternal world where everyone lives not for himself but for others".

Arriving in Brescia, the Pope also decided to make a brief stop before the memorial in Piazza della Loggia to the victims of a May 1974 terrorist bomb which killed eight and injured dozens. It was an unscheduled stop much appreciated by the citizens of Brescia, especially the victims' families and friends.

After being officially welcomed in front of the Cathedral of Brescia by Bishop Luciano Monari and Mayor Adriano Paroli, the Pope was welcomed in the church by its canons. He stopped to view the monument to Paul VI by the sculptor Lello Scorzelli [who had designed for the late Pope the pastoral staff topped by the Crucifix, which was used by Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI in the first years of his Pontificate].

He then venerated the relics of St. Andrew and St. Benedict and prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, before speaking to the seminarians and sick persons who were invited to the Cathedral.

Then came the Mass in the Piazza. Among those who presented gifts at the Offertory were three workers from Brescian firms that had been hard hit by the economic crisis. The Pope spoke to each of them briefly.

In the afternoon, after lunch and a brief rest, the Pope proceeded to Concesio, birthplace of Paul VI, where he inaugurated the new headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI built next to the family home where he was born in 1897.

Benedict XVI dedicated his address to Papa Montini as educator, relating it to the ongoing educational emergency in Italy.

Before leaving Concesio, the Pope also prayed at the parish church of Sant'Antonino, where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized.


I hope I get around this week to translating the stories from the Brescia papers on sidelights not generally recounted in the general media about the Pope's local trips. Here is today's front page of the invaluable Il Giornale di Brescia:

The Pope in the heart of Brescia



Ten hours on Brescian territory to meet the ecclesial community, to venerate the figure of St. Arcagnelo Tadini, to pay homage to Pope Paul VI, son of Brescia, and to inaugurate the headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI.

Eighty thousand Brescians turned up to greet him - from his landing in Ghedi airbase at 9:20 a.m. to his departure from the same place at 7:20 p.m. - and to follow the Pope's Brescian day.

In his Popemobile, the Pope travelled a total of 45 kilometers on Brescian streets, cheered by people on both sides of the road despite the terrible weather.

From Ghedi, the papal motorcade went first to Botticina Sera, where the mortal remains of Arcangelo Tadini rest in the parish church he led, a saitn canonized by Benedict XVI himself last April.

Here, the Pontiff, breaking protocol, addressed fervent words to the faithful and took time to greet some children.

Then the route towards the center of Brescia where, after a moment of prayer before the memorial to terrorist victims in Piazza della Loggia, the Pope proceeded to the Cathedral, and a Mass that started at 11 in Piazza Paolo VI, concelebrated with 3 cardinals, the bishops of Lombardy and some 400 Brescian priests.

The Mass was attended by 12,000 who could be accommodated in the Piazza, and several thousands more watching maxisceens in Piazza Loggia and Largo Formentone.

In his homily, the Pope made ample references to the Magisterium of Papa Montini. And it was this too, at the center, of Pope Benedcit's entire afternoon schedule.

Aftere lunch at the Centro pastorale in Brescia, Benedict XVI proceeded to Concesion to visit Papa Montini's natal home and to inaugurate the new seat of the Istituto Paolo VI built next to it. He also presented the sixth Paul VI International Prize to Sources Chretiennes, a French publishing house.

P.S.

also has some excellent pictures - especiall crowd and motorcade scenes that are usually not available in standard photo reports - and they do not simply duplicate those by the news agencies nor Il Giornale di Brescia, But they are also not 'mouse-copiable', and I won't have time to work on them until late tonight....

But here's a beautiful, almost poetic, wrap-up on page 1 of Brescia Oggi today - too bad the front-page image is not available unless one is an online subscriber:



The Pope stirs Brescian enthusiasm:
Stadium-like fervor in the Piazza

by Massimo Tedeschi
Translated from

Nov. 9, 2009


The inclement weather did not ruin the feast for the faithful in Piazza Paolo VI, in Botticino, in Concesio.

And the papal gestures that broke through most of all were his caresses to the children and his prayer stop before 'la stele' [Brescian term for the stone marker to commemorate the victims of the May 1984 terrorist bombing in the city's Piazza della Loggia] .

But his homily and the discourse at the Istituto Paolo VI in
Concesio were important but demanding lessons....

Thus: Stronger than the rain. More tenacious than the cold and wind. More urgent than the need to seek warmth. So might one describe the 12,000 who crowded next to each other for at least five hours in Piazza Paolo XVI, lashed mercilessly most of the time by driving rain, but holding out bravely to attend the Papal Mass.

So it was for thousands of others - we will not know exactly how many - who parked themselves in front of the maxiscreens in Piazza della Loggia, in Largo Formentone, in Corso Zanardelli, to follow the Mass.

So it was for two thousand volunteers who formed a human cordon along the 48 kilometers of all the routes that Benedict XVI passed through from Ghedi to Botticino, to Brescia and Concesio.

Benedict XVI's first visit to Brescia became a 'plunge into the crowds and for the crowds'. ['Bagno di folla', literally 'bath of people', is the Italian term for huge crowds drawn around a figure.]

The 12 hours that Papa Ratzinger spent on Brescian land brought us a double image of the Successor of Peter: as pastor and theologian, father and teacher, shy and authoritative, philosopher and mystic - the aspects that coexist in him in enchanting equilibrium, and which was the hallmark of his day in Brescia. [I am surprised Tedeschi fails to point out the obvious parallels to the Bresscian Pope himself!]

The shepherd, the paternal leader, the loving father with delicate gestures, placed himself under the scrutiny of all the Brescians. The theologian and teacher held the floor during his homily in the piazza, in his challenging speech at the istituto Paolo VI in Concesio, and in his warm greeting to its parishioners.

And if the homily had aroused an audience that is generally numb to spiritual messages, the speech at the Institute was a challenge that calls for reflection. Perhaps even debate.

Papa Ratzinger's day in Brescia started at 9:23 a.m., when the Italian military Airbus touched down at the airbase in Ghedi. And soon, the Holy Father's unmistakable red shoes stepped down the ramp - to cheers from a jubilant welcoming crowd.

The streets along which the Popemobile rode - bearing plate #1 of Vatican City State - had been cleared of traffic earlier. Security forces had blocked all streets crossing the papal route with their usual excessive caution, paralyzing a section of the province.

Castenedolo, Virle, Rezzato, Botticino: the route travelled by the Popemobile was nonetheless constellated with crowds, waving yellow and white flaglets despite the rain.

In Botticino, Papa Ratzinger notices the preparations, he stops, he speaks to the faithful, he kisses children - and enthusiasm is skyhigh.

Then on towards the city. In the suburbs, Sant' Eufemia, San Faustino, both sides of the street are packed.

And then in Piazza della Loggia, the Pope once more steps out of his program. The Popemobile stops, the Pope gets off, and prays before the marker. Brescia's citizens are exultant - he has not forgotten a tragedy that was traumatic for them.

The entry into Piazza Paolo VI was triumphal. First to greet him were the youth groups. Sunddenly, the piazza was like a stadium at a championship game.

After the formal welcome from the mayor and the bishop - sober and substantial - Papa Ratzinger entered the Cathedral and spent a moment in prayer.

Afterwards, he poses with seminarians gatehred there to be presented to him. He greets sick people who have been invited to the Church for the Mass, but he will spend more time with them later, after the Mass.

The Mass itself is intense, almost mystical. [Apropos, the Annunciation image on the chalice that the Holy Fahter raised at consecration is so startling it looked to me at first glance like it was a reflection!] It started almost an hour late, so the Angelus was recited at 1 p.m.

For which the luncheon with the bishops of Lombardy - including Cardinal Martini, emeritus of Milan - was necessarily took up the slack. This was followed by a brief rest at the Centro Pastorale Paolo VI.

For the 82-year-old Pope, the afternoon had three more activities - the visit to Paul VI's home, the inauguration of the Istituto Paolo VI's new headquarters and the awarding of teh paul VI International Prize, and lastly, an embrace from the people of Coincesion at the church where Giovanni Battista Montini had been baptized.

Finally, at 7:30, take-off from Ghedi for Rome. The Pope must have been tired. But the Brescians - or at least, quite a number of them - were happy, [And so, we must believe, is the Pope!]


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2009 18:48]
09/11/2009 12:26
OFFLINE
Post: 18.832
Post: 1.480
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran



Yes, the Apostolic Constitution intended for Anglicans returning to the Catholic Church is out....


Vatican releases text and norms
of landmark Apostolic Constitution


Nov. 9, 2008


On October 20, 2009, Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced a new provision responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Catholic Church.

The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus which is published today introduces a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow the above mentioned groups to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.

At the same time, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is publishing a set of Complementary Norms which will guide the implementation of this provision.

This Apostolic Constitution opens a new avenue for the promotion of Christian unity while, at the same time, granting legitimate diversity in the expression of our common faith.

It represents not an initiative on the part of the Holy See, but a generous response from the Holy Father to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups. The provision of this new structure is consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to be a priority for the Catholic Church.

The possibility envisioned by the Apostolic Constitution for some married clergy within the Personal Ordinariates does not signify any change in the Church’s discipline of clerical celibacy.

According to the Second Vatican Council, priestly celibacy is a sign and a stimulus for pastoral charity and radiantly proclaims the reign of God (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1579).



APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
'ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS'








In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favorably to such petitions.

Indeed, as the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, 1 could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization.

The Church, a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,2 was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, as "a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people."3 Every division among the baptized in Jesus Christ wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists; in fact, "such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching the Gospel to every creature."4 Precisely for this reason, before shedding his blood for the salvation of the world, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father for the unity of his disciples.5

It is the Holy Spirit, the principle of unity, which establishes the Church as a communion.6 He is the principle of the unity of the faithful in the teaching of the Apostles, in the breaking of the bread and in prayer.7 The Church, however, analogous to the mystery of the Incarnate Word, is not only an invisible spiritual communion, but is also visible;8 in fact, "the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality formed from a two-fold element, human and divine."9 The communion of the baptized in the teaching of the Apostles and in the breaking of the eucharistic bread is visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff.10

This single Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic "subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity."11

In the light of these ecclesiological principles, this Apostolic Constitution provides the general normative structure for regulating the institution and life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who desire to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner. This Constitution is completed by Complementary Norms issued by the Apostolic See.

I. §1 Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church are erected by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith within the confines of the territorial boundaries of a particular Conference of Bishops in consultation with that same Conference.

§2 Within the territory of a particular Conference of Bishops, one or more Ordinariates may be erected as needed.

§3 Each Ordinariate possesses public juridic personality by the law itself (ipso iure); it is juridically comparable to a diocese.12

§4 The Ordinariate is composed of lay faithful, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate.

§5 The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate.

II. The Personal Ordinariate is governed according to the norms of universal law and the present Apostolic Constitution and is subject to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia in accordance with their competencies. It is also governed by the Complementary Norms as well as any other specific Norms given for each Ordinariate.

III. Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

IV. A Personal Ordinariate is entrusted to the pastoral care of an Ordinary appointed by the Roman Pontiff.

V. The power (potestas) of the Ordinary is:

a. ordinary: connected by the law itself to the office entrusted to him by the Roman Pontiff, for both the internal forum and external forum;

b. vicarious: exercised in the name of the Roman Pontiff;

c. personal: exercised over all who belong to the Ordinariate;

This power is to be exercised jointly with that of the local Diocesan Bishop, in those cases provided for in the Complementary Norms.

VI. §1 Those who ministered as Anglican deacons, priests, or bishops, and who fulfill the requisites established by canon law13 and are not impeded by irregularities or other impediments14 may be accepted by the Ordinary as candidates for Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. In the case of married ministers, the norms established in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 4215 and in the Statement In June16 are to be observed. Unmarried ministers must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy of CIC can. 277, §1.

§2. The Ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule (pro regula) will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter. He may also petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from can. 277, §1, for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

§3. Incardination of clerics will be regulated according to the norms of canon law.

§4. Priests incardinated into an Ordinariate, who constitute the presbyterate of the Ordinariate, are also to cultivate bonds of unity with the presbyterate of the Diocese in which they exercise their ministry. They should promote common pastoral and charitable initiatives and activities, which can be the object of agreements between the Ordinary and the local Diocesan Bishop.

§5. Candidates for Holy Orders in an Ordinariate should be prepared alongside other seminarians, especially in the areas of doctrinal and pastoral formation. In order to address the particular needs of seminarians of the Ordinariate and formation in Anglican patrimony, the Ordinary may also establish seminary programs or houses of formation which would relate to existing Catholic faculties of theology.

VII. The Ordinary, with the approval of the Holy See, can erect new Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, with the right to call their members to Holy Orders, according to the norms of canon law. Institutes of Consecrated Life originating in the Anglican Communion and entering into full communion with the Catholic Church may also be placed under his jurisdiction by mutual consent.

VIII. §1. The Ordinary, according to the norm of law, after having heard the opinion of the Diocesan Bishop of the place, may erect, with the consent of the Holy See, personal parishes for the faithful who belong to the Ordinariate.

§2. Pastors of the Ordinariate enjoy all the rights and are held to all the obligations established in the Code of Canon Law and, in cases established by the Complementary Norms, such rights and obligations are to be exercised in mutual pastoral assistance together with the pastors of the local Diocese where the personal parish of the Ordinariate has been established.

IX. Both the lay faithful as well as members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally part of the Anglican Communion, who wish to enter the Personal Ordinariate, must manifest this desire in writing.

X. §1. The Ordinary is aided in his governance by a Governing Council with its own statutes approved by the Ordinary and confirmed by the Holy See.17

§2. The Governing Council, presided over by the Ordinary, is composed of at least six priests. It exercises the functions specified in the Code of Canon Law for the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, as well as those areas specified in the Complementary Norms.

§3. The Ordinary is to establish a Finance Council according to the norms established by the Code of Canon Law which will exercise the duties specified therein.18

§4. In order to provide for the consultation of the faithful, a Pastoral Council is to be constituted in the Ordinariate.19

XI. Every five years the Ordinary is required to come to Rome for an ad limina Apostolorum visit and present to the Roman Pontiff, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a report on the status of the Ordinariate.

XII. For judicial cases, the competent tribunal is that of the Diocese in which one of the parties is domiciled, unless the Ordinariate has constituted its own tribunal, in which case the tribunal of second instance is the one designated by the Ordinariate and approved by the Holy See.

XIII. The Decree establishing an Ordinariate will determine the location of the See and, if appropriate, the principal church.

We desire that our dispositions and norms be valid and effective now and in the future, notwithstanding, should it be necessary, the Apostolic Constitutions and ordinances issued by our predecessors, or any other prescriptions, even those requiring special mention or derogation.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on November 4, 2009, the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo.




_________________

1 Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 23; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Communionis notio, 12; 13.
2 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 4; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2.
3 Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 1.
4 Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 1.
5 Cf. Jn 17:20-21; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2.
6 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 13.
7 Cf. ibid; Acts 2:42.
8 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8; Letter Communionis notio, 4.
9 Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.
10 Cf. CIC, can. 205; Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 13; 14; 21; 22; Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2; 3; 4; 15; 20; Decree Christus Dominus, 4; Decree Ad gentes, 22.
11 Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.
12 Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Const. Spirituali militium curae, 21 April 1986, I § 1.
13 Cf. CIC, cann. 1026-1032.
14 Cf. CIC, cann. 1040-1049.
15 Cf. AAS 59 (1967) 674.
16 Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Statement of 1 April 1981, in Enchiridion Vaticanum 7, 1213.
17 Cf. CIC, cann. 495-502.
18 Cf. CIC, cann. 492-494.
19 Cf. CIC, can. 511




Complementing the new AC, a set of norms, set out in fourteen articles, has also been issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/24626.php?index=24626&po_date=09.11.2009&lang=... RELEASE


Anglicanorum coetibus, the title of the Apostolic Constitution, comes from the first two words of the Latin text, and is the prepositional form of "groups of Anglicans", as referred to in the first sentence.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/11/2009 19:08]
09/11/2009 12:47
OFFLINE
Post: 18.833
Post: 1.481
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran




To minimize speculation and unwarranted interpretations of the new Apostolic Constitution and its norms, the Vatican press Office also released this essay, though I am sure canon law junkies and assorted ecumenical types will come up with all sorts of issues. By the way, all of the releases today in connection with the AC were all finalized in English.

I am posting this on this thread for continuity with the other texts released today.



The significance of the Apostolic Constitution
ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

by Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J.
Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University


The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of November 4th 2009, provides the essential norms which will govern the erection and the life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who wish to enter, either corporately or individually, into full communion with the Catholic Church.

In this way, as it says in the Introduction, the Holy Father Benedict XVI – Supreme Pastor of the Church and, by mandate of Christ, guarantor of the unity of the episcopate and of the universal communion of all the Churches – has shown his fatherly care for those Anglican faithful (lay, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated life and of Societies of Apostolic Life) who have repeatedly petitioned the Holy See to be received into full Catholic Communion.

The Introduction to the Apostolic Constitution lays out the ratio legis of the provision emphasising a number of things which it might be useful to point out:

- The Church, which in its unity and diversity is modelled on the Most Holy Trinity, was instituted as "a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people" (Lumen gentium, 1). For this reason every division among the baptized wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists, and constitutes, therefore, a scandal in that it contradicts the prayer of Jesus before his passion and death (cf. John 17:20-21).

- Ecclesial communion, established by the Holy Spirit who is the principle of unity in the Church, is, by analogy with the mystery of the Incarnate Word, at the same time both invisible (spiritual) and visible (hierarchically organized). The communion among the baptized, therefore, if it is to be full communion, must be "visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff".

- Although the one Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in union with him, there are also elements of sanctification and of truth to be found outside her visible confines, in the Churches and Christian Communities separated from her, which, because these elements are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.

Those Anglican faithful who, under the promptings of the Holy Spirit, have asked to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church have been moved towards unity by those elements of the Church of Christ which have always been present in their personal and communal lives as Christians.

For this reason the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus by the Holy Father, together with what will follow from this, indicate in a particular way the movement of the Holy Spirit.

The juridical means by the which the Holy Father has decided to receive these Anglicans into full Catholic communion is the erection of Personal Ordinariates (I § 1).

The competence of erection has been given to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The reason for this is that during the long process which has finally borne fruit in this Apostolic Constitution many doctrinal questions have had to be addressed, and such questions will continue to arise as the time comes for the erection of particular Ordinariates and for the incorporation of groups of Anglican faithful into full Catholic communion through the Ordinariates.

In any case, as specific issues emerge, each Ordinariate will be subject not just to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but also to the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia according to their competences (Ap. Cons. II).

For example: for associations of the Faithful, the Pontifical Council for the Laity will have competence; for the formation and life of priests, the Congregation for the Clergy; for the various forms of consecrated life, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, etc.

For the visit ad limina Apostolorum, which the Ordinary is obliged to make every five years, the Apostolic Constitution specifically mentions that the Ordinary must consult not only with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but also with the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples(Ap. Cons. XI).

The possibility for the erection of Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church which is envisioned in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus does not create a new structure within the current canonical norms, but rather, uses the structure of Personal Ordinariates, originally created for the pastoral care of members of the armed forces, in the Apostolic Constitution of John Paul II Spirituali militum cura of April 21, 1986.

Notwithstanding the similarities between these two types of Personal Ordinariates, it is clear that given their different purposes, one for the Military and the other for those coming from Anglicanism, there are also significant differences between them.

What we are dealing with are structures created by the Church in order to deal with specific situations which arise from the needs of the faithful, and which are, by definition, exceptional. The pastoral concern of the Church and the flexibility of her canonical norms permit the creation of juridical structures which are specifically adapted to the spiritual good of the faithful, while not contradicting the foundational principles of Catholic ecclesiology.

Just as the Military Ordinariates were not envisioned in the Code of Canon Law, so also Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church were not specifically foreseen.

However, just as the Military Ordinariates are described in the Apostolic Constitution Spirituali militum cura as specific ecclesiastical jurisdictions which are similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 1), so also the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus describes Personal Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism as juridically similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 3).

These Personal Ordinariates cannot be considered as Particular Ritual Churches since the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral tradition is a particular reality within the Latin Church. The creation of a Ritual Church might have created ecumenical difficulties.

Nor can these Personal Ordinariates been considered as Personal Prelatures since, according to can. 294, Personal Prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and, according to can. 296, lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of Personal Prelatures by way of agreements. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life are not even mentioned in the canons concerning Personal Prelatures.

The Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism are therefore personal structures in as much as the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, and consequently also of parish priests, is not geographically defined within the territory of an Episcopal Conference like a particular territorial Church, but is exercised "over all who belong to the Ordinariate" (Ap. Cons. V).

Moreover, one or more Personal Ordinariates can be erected within the territory of the same Episcopal Conference, according to necessity (Ap. Cons. I § 2).

It is clear from a careful reading of the Apostolic Constitution and of the Complementary Norms published by the Apostolic See that the provision of erecting Personal Ordinariates is intended to respond to two needs: on the one hand the need "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared" (Ap. Cons. III); on the other hand the need to fully integrate into the life of the Catholic Church groups of faithful, or individuals, coming from Anglicanism.

The enrichment is mutual: the faithful coming from Anglicanism and entering into full Catholic communion receive the richness of the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral tradition of the Latin Roman Church in order to integrate it into their own tradition, which integration will in itself enrich the Latin Roman Church.

On the other hand, exactly this Anglican tradition – which will be received in its authenticity in the Latin Roman Church – has constituted within Anglicanism precisely one of those gifts of the Church of Christ, which has moved these faithful towards Catholic unity.

What is involved in this provision, therefore, goes beyond what was envisioned in the Pastoral Provision adopted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by John Paul II on June 20, 1980.

Whereas the Pastoral Provision foresaw that the faithful coming from Anglicanism would be members of the Diocese in which they were domiciled, although receiving special care from the diocesan Bishop, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus considers them as members of a Personal Ordinariate and not of the Diocese in which they are domiciled.

Furthermore these Ordinariates will be composed of faithful from every sate of life (laity, priests and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life) coming from Anglicanism either in groups or individually, or receiving the sacraments of initiation within the Ordinariate itself (Ap. Cons. I § 4).

Priests will be ascribed to the Personal Ordinariate by incardination, regulated according to the Code of Canon Law (Ap. Cons. I § 3), while lay people and Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life must manifest their desire to enter and become part of the Ordinariate in writing (Ap. Cons. IX).

The Complementary Norms (= CN) state that such lay people and Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life must be inscribed in an appropriate register of the Ordinariate (Art. 5 § 1).

Thus, while one is a member of a particular territorial Church by virtue of one’s domicile or quasi-domicile, one is a member of the Personal Ordinariate in virtue of the objective fact of having previously adhered to Anglicanism, or because one has come to the Catholic faith through the Ordinariate. In this sense, inscription in the appropriate register substitutes for the fact of domicile or quasi-domicile, which in relation to membership in a Personal Ordinariate is irrelevant.

This Apostolic Constitution wishes above all to provide a means to re-establish full communion, in some way "corporately", for groups composed of people in various states of life. Personal Ordinariates for such groups appear to be the most suitable canonical structure by which the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral tradition, developed within Anglicanism and recognised as authentic by the Catholic Church, can be protected and nourished.

All of which does not exclude the possibility of membership in the Ordinariate for individuals coming from Anglicanism, or for individuals who come to the Catholic faith through the pastoral or missionary work of the Ordinariate and who receive the sacraments of initiation within the Ordinariate. The Pastoral Provision was not suitable for the new situation to which that the Holy See was called upon to respond.

The Ordinary, to whom the pastoral care of the faithful who belong to the Ordinariate is entrusted, exercises ordinary vicarious authority (potestas ordinaria vicaria) in the name of the Roman Pontiff (Ap. Cons. V.b).

He enjoys legitimate autonomy with respect to the jurisdiction of the Diocesan Bishops in which the faithful of the Ordinariate have their domicile and is, therefore, better able to ensure that those faithful are not simply assimilated into the local Dioceses in a way which would lead to the loss of the richness of their Anglican tradition – which would be an entire impoverishment of the entire Church. On the other hand, the Ordinary in the exercise of his vicarious authority must ensure the full integration of the Ordinariate into the life of the Catholic Church, making sure that it does not evolve into an isolated community.

The safeguarding and nourishing of the Anglican tradition is guaranteed:

1. by the concession to the Ordinariate of the faculty to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical rites proper to the Anglican tradition and approved by the Holy See, without, however, excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite (Ap. Cons. III);

2. by the fact that the Ordinary may determine specific programmes of formation for seminarians of the Ordinariate living in a diocesan seminary, or may establish a house of formation for them (Ap. Cons. VI § 5; CN Art. 10 § 2); the seminarians must come from a personal parish of the Ordinariate or from Anglicanism (CN Art. 10 § 4);

3. by the concession that those who were married Anglican ministers, including bishops, may be ordained priests according to the norms of the Encyclical Letter of Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 42 and of the Declaration In June, while remaining in the married state (Ap. Cons. VI § 1);

4. by the possibility that, following a process of discernment based on objective criteria and the needs of the Ordinariate (CN Art. 6 § 1), the Ordinary may also petition the Roman Pontiff, on a case by case basis, to admit married men to the priesthood as a derogation of CIC can. 277, § 1, although the general norm of the Ordinariate will be to admit only celibate men (Ap. Cons. VI § 2);

5. by the fact that the Ordinary may erect personal parishes, after having consulted with the local Diocesan Bishop and having obtained the consent of the Holy See (Ap. Cons. VIII § 1);

6. through the capacity to receive into the Ordinariate Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic life coming from Anglicanism, and of erecting new ones;

7. by the fact that, out of respect for the synodal tradition of Anglicanism: a) the Ordinary will be appointed by the Roman Pontiff from a terna of names presented by the Governing Council (CN Art. 4 § 1); b) that the Pastoral Council will be obligatory (Ap. Cons. X § 2); c) that the Governing Council, composed of at least six priests, apart from fulfilling the duties established in the Code of Canon Law for the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, will also exercise those duties specified in the Complementary Norms which include in some cases giving or withholding consent or of expressing a deliberative vote (Ap. Cons. X § 2; CN Art. 12).

The integration of the Ordinariate into the life of the Catholic Church is assured by those norms which govern the profession of faith and the relationships of an Ordinariate with an Episcopal Conference, and with individual Diocesan Bishops. According to these norms:

1. the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be considered the authentic expression of the faith of the members of the Ordinariate (Ap. Cons. I § 5);

2. a Personal Ordinariate will be erected by the Holy See within the territorial confines of an Episcopal Conference, after having consulted with that Episcopal Conference (Ap. Cons. I § 1);

3. the Ordinary will be a member of his respective Episcopal Conference and will be obliged to follow its directives, unless they are incompatible with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (CN Art. 2);

4. the ordination of ministers coming from Anglicanism will be absolute, on the basis of the Bull Apostolicae curae of Leo XIII of September 13, 1896. Given the entire Catholic Latin tradition and the tradition of the Oriental Catholic Churches, including the Orthodox tradition, the admission of married men to the episcopate is absolutely excluded (NC Art. 11 § 1);

5. the priests incardinated into an Ordinariate constitute its presbyterate, but are obliged to cultivate bonds of fraternal unity with the presbyterate of the Dioceses in whose territory they exercise their ministry. They are to encourage joint initiatives and pastoral and charitable activities, which may be regulated by agreements between the Ordinary and the Diocesan Bishop or Bishops concerned (Ap. Cons. VI § 4; NC Art. 3). The Complementary Norms envisage the possibility of mutual pastoral assistance between priests incardinated into the Ordinariate and those incardinated into Dioceses in which there are faithful of the Ordinariate (NC Art. 9 §§ 1 and 2);

6. the priests of the Ordinariate are eligible for election to the Presbyteral Council of the Dioceses in whose territory they exercise the pastoral care of the faithful of the Ordinariate (NC Art. 8 § 1);

7. the priests and deacons of the Ordinariate are eligible to be members of the Pastoral Council of the Dioceses in whose territory the exercise their ministry (NC Art. 8 § 2);

8. the authority (potestas) of the Ordinary is exercised together with the Diocesan Bishop in the circumstances envisioned in the Complementary Norms (Ap. Cons. V; NC Art. 5 § 2);

9. candidates for Holy Orders will be formed together with other seminarians, especially with regard to doctrinal and pastoral formation, even though particular programmes or houses of formation may also be established for them (Ap. Cons. VI § 5; CN Art. 10 § 2);

10. before establishing a personal parish the Ordinary must listen to the opinion of the Diocesan Bishop of the area (Ap. Cons. VIII § 1);

11. the Complementary Norms establish when the rights and duties proper to a parish priest of the Ordinariate are to be exercised in mutual pastoral cooperation with the parish priest of the territory in which the personal parish has been erected ( Ap. Cons. VIII § 2; CN 14 § 2);

12. the competent tribunal for judicial cases regarding the faithful of the Ordinariate is that of the Diocese in which one of the parties has domicile, presuming that the Ordinariate has not constituted its own tribunal (Ap. Cons. XII).

It is clear that the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus provides norms which establish the nature and, in general, regulate the life of Personal Ordinariates erected specifically for Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.In this way a flexible canonical structure has been instituted.

Moreover, it is foreseeable that what is contained in the present apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms may be adapted in the Decrees of Erection of each individual Ordinariate in the light of particular local situations. As the Holy Spirit has guided the preparation of this Apostolic Constitution, so may he also assist in its application.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2009 04:02]
09/11/2009 18:08
OFFLINE
Post: 18.834
Post: 1.482
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





Pope's historic offer creates
an Anglican tradition
within the Catholic Church


Nov. 9, 2009


Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans wishing to convert, published today, has surprised everyone by the scope of its ambitions and its extraordinary tributes to Anglican spirituality, elements of which the Pope believes will greatly enrich the Catholic Church. There is a sense in which Rome is recognising, for the first time, that you can be Anglican and Roman Catholic.

The immediate reaction from Forward in Faith has been very positive indeed. Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham said this morning: “I had thought the original notice from Rome was extremely generous. Today all the accompanying papers have been published and they are extremely impressive.”

The opening words of the Constitution show that the Pope regards this as a historic moment for Western Christianity. The Holy Spirit has driven Anglicans to seek full communion with Rome “repeatedly and insistently”, he says.

So he clearly believes it is his God-given mission to make special arrangements for those who are bringing with them “the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion … as a precious gift”.

The broad outline we already know: the former Anglicans will be given quasi-dioceses called Ordinariates, presided over by Ordinaries who may be ex-Anglican married bishops.

The surprise, as I noted earlier, is just how much status these Ordinaries will be granted: they will sit on Bishops’ Conferences and may even use their episcopal insignia.

“Married bishops in all but name”, is how Ruth Gledhill describes them. That’s overdoing it, I think, since the married ones will not be in bishops’ orders.

She also says that this is “everything that Catholic Anglicans hoped for and more”. Fair enough: it’s more than many Anglo-Catholics were expecting, though I see there’s a ban on Catholic clergy who converted to Anglicanism joining the Ordinariate (and quite right, too, in my opinion).

In addition to a structure of parishes, the Ordinariate will be allowed “houses of formation” for seminarians, though these will be incorporated in wider seminary training. The door is not closed on “case by case” ordination of married laymen, though it will be very much the exception rather than the rule.

But here’s a surprise: according to Article 7 of the Norms, “When necessary, priests, with the permission of the Ordinary, may engage in a secular profession compatible with the exercise of priestly ministry”.

In other words, Ordinariate priests may work as (for example) teachers, doctors or social workers, just as Anglican non-stipendiary ministers may.

Whether permission would extend to the private sector I don’t know, but this is a clever solution to the problem of some ex-Anglican priests who would urgently need to support their families after leaving their previous ministry. (The Catholic Church can’t afford to pay for many new full-time priests, that’s for sure.)

Also, Anglican priests already in secular jobs would be eligible to become Ordinariate priests. (I’m wondering if I dare point out that the Rev George Pitcher could “come over” and be the Telegraph’s first Catholic priest religion editor – but that’s about as likely as me defecting to Canterbury.)

Another notable feature of the Constitution: it makes provision for what are effectively new orders within the Ordinariate structure: “The Ordinary, with the approval of the Holy See, can erect new Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, with the right to call their members to Holy Orders, according to the norms of canon law.”

So the Pope clearly envisages the Ordinariate as a living and growing entity within the Catholic Church worldwide, not just England and Wales.

Ruth Gledhill thinks the problem of church buildings can and should be overcome (and it’s nice to be able to praise one of her posts for a change):

This leaves the delicate problem of where these congregations will worship. Many are already talking of local ecumenical sharing agreements. In other words, congregations would divide into two – but still use the one church. Would the Church of England be generous about that? After all, the requests to The Episcopal Church for generosity in the case of its own departing flocks, and with all the local ecumenical projects embracing everything from Methodist to Orthodox up and down the land, it would look a tad hypocritical if dioceses began expelling priests and congregations whose only crime was to espouse the ‘One Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith’ in deed as well as Word.



However, don’t expect any decisions about parishes, buildings or appointments for some time. The practical hurdles remain formidable – but my initial impression is that quite a few have been surmounted today.



I turned first to Damian Thompson for the British reaction, whereas apparently, he turned first to what the Times of London would say about the new AC. No anathema, what a welcome surprise!


Vatican holds the line on celibacy
for Anglican rebels

by Ruth Gledhill

Nov, 9, 2009


The Vatican today held the line on priestly celibacy as it published the document which opens the door for hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.

Pope Benedict XVI has made it as easy as possible for traditional and “continuing” Anglicans to convert to Catholicism while retaining key elements of their ecclesiastical heritage, observers commented.

The Apostolic Constitution even allows for married Anglican bishops to be granted the status of retired Catholic bishops, to become members of the local Catholic bishops’ conference and to be granted permission to use the “insignia” of episcopal office, such as the mitre, pectoral cross and staff, by the Holy See in Rome.

But after a hard-fought battle within the Holy See, former Catholic priests who left the Church to marry and subsequently became Anglican clergy will not be permitted to return.

Married Anglican clergy, as long as their marital state is not “irregular”, will be allowed to train for the priesthood in special seminaries set up within the new Anglican Ordinariates, similar to dioceses.

The new law “does not signify any change... in the discipline of clerical celibacy,” the Holy See said.

The constitution, signed by Pope Benedict XVI and published in the Vatican’s official bulletin, states that the admission of married men to the clergy will be considered “on a case by case basis".

Under the structure as published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the onus for paying for the new clergy, the ordinary in charge or “bishop”, the seminaries and other costs, will be down to the ex-Anglicans themselves.

This is unlikely to disconcert the established Church’s Catholic Anglicans as most Anglican congregations have become used already to paying their vicar’s £20,000 stipend and his pension contributions.

The UK branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, which has about 400,000 members worldwide and is led by Archbishop John Hepworth in Australia, has already indicated that its members will move over to the Ordinariate.

But the most significant group to go in Britain is likely to be those who make up the 1,000-plus membership of the traditionalist group Forward in Faith.

Father John Broadhurst, the chairman of Forward in Faith and Bishop of Fulham in the London diocese, said: “I had thought the original notice from Rome was extremely generous. Today all the accompanying papers have been published and they are extremely impressive.

“I have been horrified that the Church of England, while trying to accommodate us, has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need to continue on our Christian pilgrimage.

“What Rome has done is offer exactly what the Church of England has refused.”

He told his members: “We all need now to ask the question: 'Is this what we want?' For some of us I suspect our bluff is called. This is both an exciting and dangerous time for Christianity in this country.

“Those who take up this offer will need to enter into negotiation with the Church of England about access to parish churches and many other matters. This situation must not be used to damage the Church of England, but I do believe we have a valid claim on our own heritage in history.

The doctrinal standard demanded by Rome is the New Catechism, which most of us use anyway. We would be allowed to use Anglican or Roman rites and our ordinaries would have jurisdiction. We will all need to meet and talk.”

In statements accompanying the document, the Holy See said it had been published in response to “repeated and insistent” petitions from Anglicans to join the Church. The Holy See insisted its provision was “not an initiative on the part of the Holy See, but a generous response ... to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups."

The statement said: “In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately."

The new ordinariates, similar to dioceses, will allow the new converts to preserve “elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony” while entering “full communion” with the Catholic Church.

The document is expected to be discussed by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams when the two meet privately in Rome in two weeks' time.

The long-scheduled meeting will coincide with celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Willebrands, a Dutch cardinal who was a pioneer in Catholic ecumenism and who died in 2006.

An adviser to Dr Williams said that Dr Williams did not wish to comment on the Apostolic Constitution because it was a matter for the Catholic Church.

Asked why, in that event, Dr Williams attended the press conference at the Catholic administrative headquarters with the Archbishop of Westminster to announce its pending arrival last month, the adviser said: “Because he was asked to.”

The Church of England is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has about 77 million followers. The Catholic Church counts some 1.1 billion faithful.





Speaking of priestly celibacy - the issue that has seemed to 'excite' most secular commentators on the Rome's 'Anglican opening' - as it did Ruth Gledhill above - Benedict XVI managed to work in some strong words by Paul VI on that subject towards the end of his homily in Brescia yesterday:

In the encyclical on priestly celibacy, he wrote: "'Taken possession of by Jesus Christ' (Phil 3,12), to the point of abandoning all of oneself to him, the priest configures himself more perfectly to Christ even in the love with which the Eternal Priest loved his Body, the Church, offering all of himself for her... The consecrated chastity of his sacred ministers manifests, in fact, the virginal love of Christ for the Church, and the virginal and supernatural fecundity of this marriage" (Sacerdotalis caelibatus, 26).

I dedicate these words of the great Pope to the many priests of the Diocese of Brescia, well represented here, and to the young men who are being formed in the seminaries.


Benedict XVI has always included a line on encouraging more priestly vocations in his out-of-town homilies and in his messages to bishops on ad-limina visit. But yesterday's reference was more pointed than usual. After all, it is the Year for Priests. And maybe he was also thinking of the AC coming out today.

The other Pauline pearl that Benedict shared with us yesterday is addressed to everyone, not just priests. Once again quoting from Paul VI, this time from 1968, that fateful year:


"So many," he said, "expect attention-getting gestures, energetic and decisive actions, from the Pope. The Pope is not duty-bound to follow any line other than confidence in Jesus Christ, which is more urgent for his Church than anything else. It will be He who will still the tempest.

"This is not about a sterile or inert expectation, but of vigilant waiting in prayer. This is the condition Jesus has chosen for us so that he can operate in fullness. Even the Pope needs to be helped with prayer"
(Insegnamenti VI, [1968], 1189).



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/11/2009 00:04]
10/11/2009 11:46
OFFLINE
Post: 18.835
Post: 1.483
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran





In addition to the four Papal texts delivered in Brescia and Concesio, L'Osservatore Romano for 11/9-11/10/09,
also featured this editorial and a wrap-up story:



In the sign of Montini
Editorial by
Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 11/09-11/10/09 issue of






Giovanni Battista Montini left his natal land while still quite young, shortly after his ordination as a priest, but he always remained very attached to his tiny Brescian hometown, where his family roots were, returning there every time he could.

Elected pope in the Conclave of 1963 and taking the name Paul VI, he was never able to visit again his 'Brixia fidelis', for whom - he told his townmates visiting Rome - he always carried in his heart the wish that it may always keep its 'great vitality and great faith'.

Almost as if to make up for Papa Montini's delicate discretion, two of his successors have visited his Lombard diocese: John Paul II twice, in 1982 and 1988, and Benedict XVI last Sunday - both of them linked to Paul VI from the time of Vatican II, both of them his 'creatures', since he made them both cardinals. As Pope Benedict recalled with gratitude in evoking that bond of 'affection and devotion'.

So many Brescians joined him yesterday in his homage to Paul VI with a warmth that enlivened a grey autumn day: In Botticino, venerating the most recent saint of the diocese, don Arcangelo Tadini, and then in the city, where he prayed for the victims of domestic terrorism, and finally in Concesio, where Montini was born and baptized in 1897.

Recently moved to Concesio, in a magnificent headquarters inaugurated by the Pope yesterday, is the Istituto Paolo VI which awarded its International Price this year - a true Catholic Nobel Prize - to Sources Chretiennes, the French book series which has for almost 60 years republished the earliest texts of the Christian tradition.

Before the Cathedral where Montini was ordained a priest, surrounded by the bishops of Lombardy led by their metropolitan [Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan], Benedict XVI presided at a Eucharistic concelebration that was impressive for its solemn composure which not even the continuing rain could shake.

Benedict XVI explained the Gospel and reminded the faithful of the 'inestimable' gift represented by the enduring lessons from their 'great Pope'.

All his life, Paul VI rendered witness to the truth, in his encounter with contemporary man which, in his time as today, meant Catholicism confronting both the oblivion of God as well as non-Christian religions.

In the face of the post-Conciliar difficulties, Montini declared that the Pope was not dutybound "to follow any line other than trust in Jesus Christ, which impels his Church more than anything else".

In the same way, shortly after being elected, his present successor had disclosed his 'true program of governance' as Pope: "not to follow my ideas, but to listen, with all the Church, to the Word and the will of the Lord... in order that he himself may lead the Church at this time in our history".



Here was the OR's wrap-up story:


The welcome of 'faithful Brescia'
by Gianluca Biccini
Translated from
the 11/09-11/10/09 issue of




Brixia fidelis, 'faithful Brescia', enthusiastically welcomed Benedict XVI during his pastoral visit on Sunday. Nov. 8.

Despite a rainy day, tens of thousands turned out into the streets along the papal route from the Ghedi airbase to Botticino Sera, to the capital city, then to Concesio, to greet Benedict XVI who had come to render homage to 'their' Pope, Paul VI.

The diocese into which the Servant of God was born, the land in which Giovanni Battista Montini matured his vocation for the priesthood, lived a day of prayer and fasting with Papa Ratzinger who recalled his 'bond of affection and devotion' with the Brescian Pope, going back, as he recalled, "to the years of the Second Vatican Council".

On his 17th pastoral visit in Italy, Benedict XVI paid homage to the memory of this "teacher of life and courageous witness to hope", exalting 'his personality and his doctrine', his lesson which represents even today "an inestimable gift for the Church".

A visit - his second to Lombardy, after Vigevano and Pavia in May 2007 - that was all in the name of his predecessor, sealed with his inauguration of the new headquarters for the Istituto Paolo VI in Concesio, located on the very property where the future Pope was born.

As a gift to the Institute, he brought two manuscripts by Montini. They were the texts for his address on the occasion of an audience on November 12, 1969, to the members of the Pia Opera Bresciani who celebrated their fourth centenary; and for a homily in St. Peter's Basilica on May 16, 1971 to mark the 80th anniversary of Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum .

During the 10 hours he spent in Brescia and Concesio, Benedict XVI also made a brief stop in Botticino Sera where he gave unscheduled remarks to the parishioners, after venerating the remains of St. Arcangelo Tadini at their parish church, the Brescian priest he canonized at St. Peter's last April.

The Pope left the Vatican by helicopter at 8 a.m. for Ciampino airport, where he took an Italian military Airbus to Brescia. He was accompanied by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who is a native of Brescia himself; Archbishops Fernando Filoni, deputy Secretary of State for internal affairs, and James Harvey, prefect of the Pontifical Household; Bishop Paolo De Nicolo, Harvey's regent; Mons. Georg Gänswein; Dr. Patrizio Polisca; Fr. Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican Press Office, and our editor, Giovanni Maria Vian.

Also joining the papal flight, for the second time since the Pope's visit to Cagliari in September 2008, was Gianni Letta, undersecretary to the Prime Minister's cabinet, representing the Italian government on the official welcoming committee for the Pope.

Welcoming the Pope at Ghedi airbase were Mons. Luciano Monari, Bishop of Brescia; Antonio Zanardi Landi, Italian ambassador to the Holy See; Roberto Formigoni, president of Lombardy region; and mayor Adriano Paroli of Brescia.

Going towards the city, the Popemobile passed through the suburbs of Visano, Castenedolo, Virle and Rezzato, before stopping at Botticino Sera. Everywhere, faithful who were oblivious of the inclement weather waved miniature Vatican flags. "We distributed 20,000 in this area", said one of the organizers.

At the door to the parish church where St. Arcangelo spent his priestly life, the Pope was welcomed by the parish priest Don Raffaele Licini, the Mayor of Botticino, Mario Sonetti, and a crowd of some 2500.

Prominent among the Pope's welcomers were the Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth, the congregation founded by St. Arcangelo, and hundreds of children.

Then, the entrance into Brescia - which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had visited in March 1986 - through the Sant'Eufemia neighborhood, with streamers along the streets, so many people at their windows or on their doorsteps, joyous manifestations of welcome such as the bells pealing from the Combonian seminary or an improvised percussion performance by Africans in front of the church of Sts. Faustino and Giovita, patrons of Brescia. They were a reminder of how so many immigrants have been integrated into this province which is proverbial for its industry.

The Pope also paused for a prayer and a blessing before the marker in the city's central Piazza della Loggia, where a terrorist bomb killed eight persons and wounded 94 on May 28, 1974.

The Popemobile reached the Cathedral of Brescia just when the rain was coming down most heavily. The Pope was greeted by the clamorous welcome of youth groups, as well as by city and church officials who gave him a formal welcome.

He then entered the Cathedral, welcomed by its canons, and stopped to admire the bronze monument to Paul VI. Invited within the Church were the seminarians of the diocese, with whom he posed for pictures; and many sick persons who would follow the Mass from inside the Church and whom the Pope blessed.

At the Mass in Piazza Paolo VI facing the Cathedral, concelebrating with the Pope were Mons. Monari; Cardinals Re, Tettamanzi (Archbishop of Milan), and Paul Poupard, emeritus President of the Pontifical Councilf or Culture; Archbishops Filoni and Harvey, Bishop De Nicolo, Mons. Gaenswein, some 30 Lombard prelates, and 400 diocesan priests.

The prayers for the faithful included one for families most suffering from the economic crisis.

At the end of the Mass, one hour behind schedule, the Pope led the Angelus.

The first part of the visit ended for the Pope at the Centro Pastorale Paolo VI, where he met the organizing committee which had mobilized 2,000 volunteers to assist with the crowds.

The Centro Patorale itself, directed by Mons. Gianfranco Mescher, housed the Istituto Paolo VI before it moved to Concesio.

At the Pope's luncheon with the bishops of Lombardy, one of the guests was Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, emeritus Archbishop of Milan.

In the afternoon, Benedict XVI visited Concesio, the town where on September 26, 1897, Giovanni Battista Montini first saw light. Once again, clusters of faithful lined the route from Brescia.

At the Montini family home, the Pope was welcomed by Mayor Stefano Ratali and the president of the Istituto Paolo VI, Guiseppe Camadini. Privately, the Pope met with the Sisters of Mary Help of Christians who take care of the house, and some descendants of the Montinis.

He then visited the rooms which have been turned into a museum in memory of Paul VI. He signed the guest book with the same pen that John Paul II had used in 1982.

After this visit, he walked to the headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI at the rear of the Montini property.

An international center for scholars researching the life and work of the Brescian Pope, the Institute's first secretary general had been Nello Vian, father of our editor.

The inaugural ceremony for the new building took place in the auditorium. The program included the awarding of the Paul VI International Prize to the French book series Sources Chretiennes, represented by its editor, Bernard Meunier.

Finally, Benedict XVI went to the Pieve neighborhood of Concesio, where he was welcomed by the parish priest, Mons. Dino Osio, to the Church of Sant'Antonino, where baby Montini was baptized.

The Pope delivered an address to the parishioners, bid them goodbye, and left for Ghedi airbase and the flight to Rome.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/11/2009 01:52]
10/11/2009 12:15
OFFLINE
Post: 18.836
Post: 1.484
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran



Tuesday, Nov. 10

Raphael's 'Leo the Great Meets Attila the Hun', 1541, Vatican fresco. The Apostles Peter and Paul are shown above the figure of the Pope, left.
ST. LEO THE GREAT (b. ca 400, Pope 440-461), Doctor of the Church (Doctor of Doctrine)
Born to a noble Tuscan family, he came to a position of importance in the imperial court. When he was 40, he was
sent by the emperor to settle a dispute between the two highest officials in Gaul. During the mission, Pope Sixtus II
died and he was unanimously elected by the people to succeed him. As Pope, he was responsible for the first
administrative consolidation of the Church, distinguishing himself in four other critical areas: He controlled a number
of prevalent heresies in his time; at the Council of Chalcedon, he definitively declared the dual nature of Christ;
he defended Rome from barbarian attacks and is remembered for meeting Attila the Hun and keeping him from
invading Rome; and the spiritual depth of his pastoral care, with a call to holiness embodied in his great sermons.





OF for 11/9-11/10/09:

The double issue has the complete coverage of the Pope's visit to Brescia and Concesio, with a Page 1 editorial 'In the sign of Montini'. But the leading Page 1 news is the Apostolic Constitution for returning Anglicans under the title 'A new road for Christian unity'. Other Page 1 stories, the Pope's address yesterday on migrants as a resource not a problem; remembering the Berlin Wall 20 years after it fell; and China reinforces its African presence by allotting 10 billion dollars for assistance in the next three years.





THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met at noon today with

- Participants in the VI World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, sponsored by
the Pontifical Council for this sector. The theme is "A pastoral response to the migration phenomenon
in the era of globalization. Address in Italian.


A news conference was held by Fr. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, and colleagues,
on the Nov 6-10 conference at the Vatican on Astrobiology, in the context of the International
Year of Astronomy. The Study Week was co-sponsored by the Observatory and the Pontifical Academy o
f Sciences.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/11/2009 01:57]
11/11/2009 01:15
OFFLINE
Post: 18.837
Post: 1.485
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran




Fresh from his 17th pastoral visit as Primate of Italy, Pope Benedict turns his attention this week to the Italian bishops' annual general assembly in Assisi.


Pope calls on Italian bishops
to work on bringing God
back to the world





Vatican City, Nov 10, 2009 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to the general assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference reiterating the role of the bishops as educators and representatives of Christ on earth.


Cardinal Bagnasco presides at the CEI plenary assembly in Assisi. The cardinal had a message-packed 17-page opening address to the assembly earlier.

The Pope also told the bishops, who are meeting in Assisi this week, what he had said in Aosta, Italy, over the summer: "If our fundamental relationship with God is not living, if it is not lived, then none of our other relationships can take their correct form. If God is absent, we lack the compass ... to show us the path, the direction we must follow.

“We must bring the truth of God back into the world, make Him known, make Him present.”

The Holy Father then called upon the bishops to “become living adoration, a gift that changes the world and restores it to God.”

Pope Benedict also touched on problems of division in Southern Italy as well as the new Italian edition of funeral rites, both of which are topics present on the Conference’s agenda.


THE POPE'S MESSAGE
TO THE ITALIAN BISHOPS


Following is a translation of the message sent by the Holy Father to the president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco:







To my Venerated Brother
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco
President of the Italian Bishops' Conference



On the occasion of the 60th General Assembly of the Italian Bishops' Conference, it is my special pleasure to send my affectionate greeting to you, to the CEI Secretary, and to all the Pastors of the Church in Italy, gathered in Assisi, a symbol of that Christian life conducted 'according to the form' of the Gospel, as incarnated in the existence of St. Francis adn St. Clare who continue to exercise an irresistible spiritual fascination in Italy and in the world.

Present with you ideally, I express all my spiritual closeness, knowing well the zeal that you, venerated and dear brothers, employ daily in the service of the communities entrusted to your pastoral care.

In the apostolic visits that I have been making to the Italian dioceses, as well as on other occasions which bring me in contact with the beloved Church in Italy, I meet vital communities, firm in their ties to the Successor of Peter and in reciprocal communion.

For this, "I do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers" (Eph 1,16), together with the priests, your primary co-workers in your apostolic efforts, the deacons, religious and lay faithful who share hare your joy and your responsibility as witnesses to Christ in every area of Italian society.

These periodic meetings, I am sure, nourish your reciprocal cooperation which is indispensable for realizing the mandate that marks your apostolic activity: to increase faith, hope and charity in the Christian population, to nourish the relationships with other religious communities and civilian authorities, to work to ensure the presence of the leaven of the Gospel in the culture and in the fabric of Italian society, for the protection of human life, for the promotion of peace and justice, and for the defense of Creation.

The exchange and fraternity that characterize your work in assembly give strength and liveliness to the common commitment towards the one Church of Christ and the growth of the human fabric in society.

A few months have passed since our meeting on the occasion of the General Assembly last May, during which education was identified as the fundamental perspective for your pastoral orientations in the coming decade.

The emergence of the educational issue is a sign of the times that has urged all Italy to place the formation of the new generations at the center of attention and commitment of each one, according to his responsibility, and in the context of a broad convergence of intentions.

As I recalled in my intervention last May 28, education is "a constitutive and permanent exigency in the life of the Church" and can be found at the heart of her mission, which is to make sure that every person can encounter and follow the Lord Jesus, the Way who leads to authentic love, the Truth who comes to meet us, and the Life of the world.

The educational challenge involves all the sectors of the Church and demands that the great questions of contemporary man be faced decisively: those that have to do with the nature of man and his dignity - a decisive element in the complete formation of a person - and 'the question of God', which seems to be more than ever urgent in our time.

I wish to recall, in this regard, what I said last July 24 during Vespers in the Cathedral of Aosta: "If the fundamental relationship - that with God - is not alive, is not lived, then all other relationships will not be able to find their right form. But this also goes for society, for mankind as such: When God is not present, if God is set aside, if God is absent, we lack the compass for an overview of all relationships in order to find the way, the orientation we must follow. We must once again bring the reality of God into the world, to make him known, to make him present" [L'Osservatore Romano, July 26, 2009, p. 8).

In order for this to happen, we must be the first, dear brother bishops, with all our being, to be living adoration, a gift that transforms the world and restores it to God. This is the profound message of the Year for Priests, which constitutes an extraordinary occasion to go to the heart of the ordained ministry, leading each priest to the unity of his identity and mission.

I am happy to see how, in your dioceses, this special proposition has been generating not a few initiatives, especially spiritual and vocational, and is contributing to bring to light the path of sainthood that has been traced over time by so many Italian bishops and priests.

Indeed, the history of Italy is also the story of countless ranks of priests bent over the wounds of disoriented and suffering mankind, making of themselves an offering of salvation.

I hope that you will gather abundant fruits from this choral prayer and meditation on the gift of the priesthood that came from the heart of Christ for the salvation of the world.

Another subject to which the work of your Assembly will give ample attention is "the southern question'. Twenty years since the publication of the document Sviluppo nella solidarietà. Chiesa italiana e Mezzogiorno [Development in solidarity: The Italian Church and the South], you continue to feel the need to speak up and take responsibility for the needs of a region that cannot grow unless together.

In the lands of southern Italy, the presence of the Church is a seed of renewal, personal as well as social, and of integral development. May the Lord bless the efforts of those who work, with the tenacious strength of goodness, for the transformation of consciences and the defense of the truth of man and society.

In the course of your meeting, you will also examine the new Italian edition of the Funeral Rite. It responds to the need to combine faithfulness to the original Latin with timely adaptations to the national situation, and availing of the experience that matured after Vatican-II, with an attentive look at the changed socio-cultural context and the demands of the new evangelization.

A funeral constitutes an important occasion to announce the Gospel of hope and show the motherhood of the Church. The God "who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead" is he who will "wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain" (Ap 21,4).

In a culture which tends to ignore thoughts of death - if it is not seeking outright to exorcise it and reduce it to a spectacle or transforming it into a right - it is the task of every believer to cast the light of Christian revelation on this mystery, certain that "love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death" (Spe salvi, 48).

Eminent cardinals and venerated brothers in the Episcopate, fifty years ago, at the end of the XVI National Eucharistic Congress and after an extraordinary Peregrinatio Mariae [Marian pilgrimage], the bishops of Italy consecrated Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Refresh your memory of that significant and fruitful act, in order to confirm the most special bond of affection and devotion that unites the Italian people to the heavenly Mother of the Lord.

I gladly join you in this remembrance, entrusting the work of your Assembly, the Church in Italy and the entire nation to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels, and the purest image of the Church.

I invoke her intercession, with that of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, and all the saints of this Italian land. With these sentiments, I impart the Apostolic Blessing from the heart to you, the bishops, their co-workers and everyone present.


From the Vatican
November 4, 2009







[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/11/2009 23:31]
11/11/2009 01:33
OFFLINE
Post: 18.838
Post: 1.485
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran



Immigrants can make important
contributions to society, Pope says

By Carol Glatz



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 10 (CNS) -- People should not look upon immigrants as problems, but as fellow brothers and sisters who can be valuable contributors to society, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The migration of peoples represents a chance "to highlight the unity of the human family and the value of welcoming, hospitality and love for one's neighbor," he said, during an audience with participants of the Sixth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees taking place Nov. 9-12 at the Vatican.

The Pope underlined the tragic difficulties many migrants face in their efforts to survive or improve living conditions for themselves and their families.

"The economic crisis, with the enormous growth in unemployment, diminishes the possibilities of employment and increases the number of those who aren't able to find even unsteady work," he said.

The economic divide between industrialized and poor countries continues to grow, he said, and many people have no choice but to leave their homeland in search of a living -- even if it means accepting inhuman working conditions and experiencing great difficulties fitting in someplace new with different language, culture and rules.

Many immigrants today are fleeing "humanly unacceptable" living conditions, but they are not finding "the reception they hoped for elsewhere," said the Pope.

Globalization means that working for the common good must extend beyond national borders, he said. True development comes through solidarity, addressing the unequal distribution of the world's resources, "dialogue between cultures and respect for legitimate differences," he said.

The Pope said today's phenomenon of world migration can offer that needed opportunity to meet new cultures, foster understanding between peoples, build peace and promote development that benefits all nations.

Christians must be open to listening to the word of God who calls people to imitate Christ in caring for others and to "never be tempted to despise and reject people who are different," he said.

Conforming one's life to Christ's means seeing every man and woman as a brother or sister, children of the one God, he said.

This sense of brotherhood leads to being caring and hospitable toward others, especially those in need, he said.

"Every Christian community that is faithful to Jesus' teachings cannot but feel respect and concern for all people ... especially for those who find themselves in difficulty," he said.

"This is why the Church invites all Christians to open their hearts to migrants and their families knowing that they are not just a 'problem,' but are a 'resource'" that can contribute to true development and the good of all people, he said.



Here is a full translation of the Pope's address:




Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!

I am happy to welcome you at the start of the World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees.

I greet first of all your Pontifical Counsel, Mons. Antonio Maria Vegliò, whom I thank for the kind expressions with which he introduced our meeting.

I greet the Secretary, members, consultants and officials of the Pontifical Council for the Pasotral Care of Migrants and Refugees.

I address a deferential greeting to the Honorable Renato Schifani, president of the Senate of the Republic.

And I greet you all who are present. To each of you goes my appreciation for the commitment and concern with which you work in a social field that is so complex and sensitive, offering support to those who, out of free choice or by force, have left their country of origin to emigrate to other lands.

The theme of the Conference - "A response to the migration phenomenon in the era of globalization" - testifies to the particular context in which migrations are taking place in our time.

In fact, if the migration phenomenon is as old as the history of mankind, it has never stood out so much for the consistency and complexity of the problem as today.

It now concerns almost all the nations of the world and takes place in the vast process of globalization. Men, women, children, young and old, in the millions, face the tragedies of emigration sometimes simply to survive, before even seeking better conditions of life for themselves and their families.

In fact, the economic disparity between the poor and industrialized countries continues to grow. The world economic crisis, with the enormous growth in unemployment, reduces the possibilities fro gainful work, and increases the number of those who cannot find any work, not even temporary precarious jobs.

Thus so many are constrained to abandon their own lands and communities of origin. They are ready to accept work conditions that are not at all consonant with human dignity, along with an effortful insertion into their host society made worse by differences in language, culture and social class.

The condition of migrants, and worse, that of refugees, calls to mind, in a way, the plight of the ancient Biblical people who, fleeing slavery in Egypt with dreams of the promised Land, crossed the Red Sea, and instaad of reaching the desired goal right away, had to face the harshness of the desert.

Today, many migrants abandon their country to escape conditions of life that are humanly unacceptable, but without finding elsewhere the welcome that they expect. [Especially if they are illegal immigrants!]

In the face of such complex situations, how can we not stop to reflect on the consequences of a society fundamentally based only on material development? In the encyclical Caritas in veritate, I noted that true development is only that which is integral, namely, that which concerns every man and the whole man.

Authentic development always takes on a fraternal character. In effect, in a society that is being globalized, the common good and the commitment to it, as I also noted in Caritas in veritate, cannot fail to take on the dimensions of the entire human family, namely, thw community of peoples and nations (cfr No, 7).

Rather, the process of globalization itself, as the Servant of God John Paul II underscored opportunely, can constitute a proiptious occasion to promote integral development, but only "if cultural differences are accepted as an occasion for encounter and dialog, and if the unequal distribution of world resources can provoke a new consciousness of the need for the solidarity that should unite the human family" (Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, in Teachings XXII, 2, 1999, p 998).

Consequently it is necessary to respond adequately to the great social changes under way, keeping clear that there cannot be effective development without promoting the encounter of peoples, dialog among cultures, and respect of legitimate differences.

In this perspective, why should we not consider the present world phenomenon of migration as a condition favorable to understanding among peoples and for the construction of peace and development that would involve every nation?

This is what i wished to point out in the Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the Pauline Year: Migrations tend to bring to light the unity of the human family, the value of welcome, hospitality, and love of neighbor.

But this must be translated in daily gestures of sharing, of compassion and concern for others, especially the needy. In order to be welcoming to each other, St. Paul teaches, Christians must be available to listen to the Word of God which calls us to imitate Christ and stay close to him.

Only this way can they be concerned for their neighbor and never yield to the temptation of scort or rejection of those who are different.

Conformed to Christ, every man and woman is seen as brother and sister, children of the same Father. Such a treasure of brotherhood will make them "attentive in hospitality, the firstborn daughter of agape" (cfr Insegnamenti IV, 2 [2008], 176-180).

Dear brothers and sisters, faithful to the teaching of Jesus, every Christian community can only have respect and attention for all men, created in the image and likeness of God, and redeemed by the Blood of Christ - and more so when they are in difficulty.

That is why the Church invites the faithful to open their hearts to migrants and their families, knowing that they are not just a 'problem', but that they constitute a 'resource' that we must learn to value appropriately for the progress of mankind and authentic development.

To each of you, I renew my thanks for the service that you render to the Church and to society, and I invoke the maternal protection of Mary on each of your activities in behalf of migrants and refugees.

For my part, I assure you of my prayers, while I gladly bless you and all those who form part of the great family of migrants and refugees.



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/11/2009 01:43]
11/11/2009 13:11
OFFLINE
Post: 18.841
Post: 1.489
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran



Wednesday, Nov. 11

ST. MARTIN DE TOURS (born Hungary 316?-d France 397)
Bishop and Confessor, Patron of France
Son of a Hungarian soldier in the Roman Empire, he grew up in the area that is now Pavia, Italy,
and joined the cavalry at 15. At 18, he had his famous dream of giving half his cloak to a beggar
who turned up later as Christ wearing it. He was baptized, and two years later, he left the army
to be a 'soldier for Christ'. In Tours, France, he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers. He went
into exile and back with Hilary, establishing the first French monastery on their return. He was
active in preaching against the various heresies of his time. He was named bishop by popular
acclaim on Hilary's death, and continued to fight paganism and heresies. In the 7th century,
his cult was taken up by Clovis, who founded what became the Merovingian dynasty. His shrine
became a popular stop on the pilgrimage route to the Shrine of St. James in Compostela, Spain,
and he has remained one of the most popular of European saints. Martin Luther, who was baptized
on his feast day, was named for him.




OR today.

The only papal news in this issue is the Holy Father's message to the general assembly
of the Italian bishops' conference meeting this week in Assisi. Other Page 1 stories:
US insists Israel must freeze any activity in the West Bank settlements; Lebanon finally
gets a coalition government several months since the elections; North Korea demands
South Korean apology for firing against a NoKor military motorboat that entered
southern territorial waters; more than 150,000 flood victims in hurricane-hit El Salvador;
and a joint article by the Finance Ministers of France and the UK pushing their initiative
for an international treaty regulating the sale of conventional weapons - an effort
actively supported by the Vatican as it did the campaign that successfully adopted
an international treaty against cluster bombs. Inside, there is an article on a multi-
cultural conference about Caritas in veritate at the Pontifical University of Santa
Croce, with Muslim, Jewish and Protestant participants.





THE POPE'S DAY
General Audience today - The Holy Father paid homage to the medieval reform movement that started
in the Abbey of Cluny which renewed monastic life and gave Christianity new vigor in the 12th century.
The GA was held today in Aula Paolo VI.


The Abbey is celebrating its 11th centenary year. See story in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread last September
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=859...


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/11/2009 23:46]
11/11/2009 15:00
OFFLINE
Post: 18.843
Post: 1.491
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Veteran




GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY



The Holy Father today continued with his catechetical cycle on Christian culture in the Middle Ages with a tribute to the Abbey of Cluny for its profound renewal of monastic life in the 12th century and its role in forging the Christian identity of Europe. Today's General Audience was held aT the Aula Paolo VI.

Here is how he synthesized the catechesis in English:




In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to the monastic reform linked to the great monastery of Cluny.

Founded eleven hundred years ago, Cluny restored the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict and made the Church’s liturgy the centre of its life. It stressed the solemn celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours and Holy Mass, and enriched the worship of God with splendid art, architecture and music.

The monastic liturgy, seen as a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy, was accompanied by a daily regime marked by silence and intercessory prayer. Cluny’s reputation for sanctity and learning caused its influence to spread to monasteries throughout Europe.

Exempt from interference by feudal authorities, the monastery freely elected its abbots and flourished under a series of outstanding spiritual leaders like Saints Odo and Hugh.

Cluny also contributed to the reform of the universal Church by its concern for holiness, the restoration of clerical celibacy and the elimination of simony.

At a formative time of Europe’s history, Cluny helped to forge the Continent’s Christian identity by its emphasis on the primacy of the spirit, respect for human dignity, commitment to peace and an authentic and integral humanism.






Here is a translation of the catechesis:


THE CLUNIAC REFORMS
AND FORGING EUROPE'S IDENTITY




Dear brothers and sisters:

This morning I wish to speak to you about a monastic movement that had great importance in the Middle Ages, and which I already referred to in previous catecheses.

It is the Order of Cluny, which at the start of the 12th century, the time of its maximum expansion, had almost 1,200 monasteries - a truly impressive figure!

In Cluny, 1100 years ago, in 910, a monastery was founded under Abbot Bernone, following a donation made by William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine.

At that time, Western monasticism, which had flowered a few centuries earlier under St. Benedict, had become decadent for various reasons: unstable politcal and social conditions due to continuous invasions and devastation by peoples who had not been integrated into the European fabric; widespread poverty; and above all, the dependence of monasteries on the local lords, who controlled everything that had to do with the territories in their jurisdiction.

In this context, Cluny represented the spirit of a profound renewal of monastic life in order to lead it back to its original inspiration.

In Cluny, the observance of the St. Benedict's Rule was revived with some adaptations that had been introduced by earlier reformers. Above all, the intention was to guarantee the central role that liturgy should occupy in Christian life.

The Cluniac monks dedicated themselves with love and great care to the celebration of the liturgical Hours, the singing of Psalms, processions that were as devout as they were solemn, and above all, the celebration of Holy Mass.

They promoted sacred music. They wished architecture and art to contribute to the beauty and solemnity of liturgical rites. They enriched the liturgical calendar with special celebrations, such as, for instance, at the start of November, the commemoration of the faithful departed, as we celebrated it recently. They built up the cult of devotion to the Virgin Mary.

So much importance was given to liturgy, because the monks of Cluny were convinced that it was a means of participating in the heavenly liturgy.

The monks felt responsible for interceding at the altar of God for the living and the dead, especially since numerous faithful always asked to be remembered in prayer.

Moreover, it was precisely for this that William the Pious had wanted to establish the Abbey of Cluny. In the document that attests to this foundation, we read: "I establish with this gift that at Cluny, there shall be constructed a monastery for regulars [monks] in honor of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and that this monastery shall house monks who live according to the Rule of St. Benedict... that it may be a venerable asylum of prayer with vows and supplications, where the heavenly life is sought with desire and intimate ardour, and prayers, invocations, and supplications are assiduously addressed to the Lord".

To safeguard and nourish this atmosphere of prayer, the Cluniac rule emphasized the importance of silence, a discipline which the monks gladly undertook, convinced that the puity of virtues to which they aspired, required intimate and constant individual recollection.

It is therefore not surprising that a reputation for sanctity soon developed about Cluny, and that many other monastic communities desided to follow its practices.

Many princes and Popes asked the abbots of Cluny to disseminate their reforms, and soon, there was a dense network of monasteries linked to Cluny, either with actual juridical ties, or by charismatic affiliation.

Thus there came to be delineated a Europe of the spirit in various regions of France, Italy, Spain, Germanh and Hungary.

The success of Cluny was assured above all by the elevated spirituality which was cultivated there, but also by other conditions which favored its development.

Unlike what had happened up to then, the monastery of Cluny and the communities dependent on it were acknowledged to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the local bishops and were placed directly under the Roman Pontiff.

This resulted in a special link with Peter's Chair, and thanks precisely to the protection and encouragement of the Popes, the ideals of purity and fidelity which the Cluniac reform pursued, could be rapidly disseminated.

Besides, the abbots of Cluny were elected without any interference from civilian authorities, unlike elsewhere. Truly worthy personages succeeded each other in heading Cluny and the numerous monastic communities that were its dependencies: Abbot Odon, whom I spoke about in a catechesis two months ago; and other great personalities like Emard, Msyeul, Odilo and Hugh the Great - each of whom served long years, thus assuring stability in the reforms they undertook as well as their dissemination. Like Odon, the last three named are also venerated as saints.

The Cluniac reforms had positive effects not only in purifying and reawakening monastic life, but also on the life of the universal Church itself. In fact, the aspiration to evangelical perfection represented a stimulus to combat two serious evils that afflicted the Church at that time: simony, or the acquisition of pastoral office by purchase, and the immorality of the secular clergy.

The abbots of Cluny, with their spiritual authoritativeness, and the Cluniac monks who became bishops - some of them even becoming Popes - were protagonists in that impressive action of spiritual renewal.

The fruits were not sparse: priestly celibacy was once more esteemed and practised, and more transparent procedures were introduced to the assignment of ecclesiastical offices.

Equally significant were the benefits to society from the Cluniac reforms. At a time when only ecclesiastical institutions attended to the needs of the indigent, charity was practised with commmitment.

In all cases, an almoner was dutybound to house travellers and pilgrims in need, priests and religious who were travelling, and above all, the poor who came begging for food and lodging.

No less important were two other institutions that were typical of medieval civilization and promoted by Cluny: the so-called "truces of God" and the 'peace of God".

In a time that was strongly marked by violence and the spirit of vendetta, the 'truces of God' assured periods of non-belligerence, on the occasion of certain religious feasts and days of the week.

The 'peace of God" was a call to respect helpless persons and sacred places or risk ecclesiastical sanctions.

Thus, in the consciousness of the peoples of Europe, a process of long gestation grew, which would lead, in increasingly clear manner, to acknowledge two elements fundamental for building society, namely, the value of the human being, and the primary good that peace is.

Besides, as it was with other monastic foundations, the Cluniac monasteries had ample properties which, diligently worked upon, contributed to economic development.

Other than manual labor, the medieval monks also ran schools for children and set up libraries and scriptoriums for the transcription and translation of books. [This was 2-3 centuries before the printing press was invnted.]

In this way, a thousand years ago, when the process of forming the European identity was in full development, the Cluniac experience, dispersed throughout vast regions of the European continent, made its important and valuable contribution.

The Cluniac experience recalled the primacy of spiritual goods. It maintained human tension towards the things of God. It inspired and favored initiatives and institutions to promote human values. It educated Europeans in the spirit of peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray that all those who really have at heart an authentic humanism and the future of Europe, may rediscover, appreciate and defend the rich cultural and religious patrimony of those centuries.


The Holy Father had special messages for some of the pilgrim groups. First, to the Poles:

On your National Day today, allow me to recall once more the words of the Servant of God John Paul II: "The kiss I leave on Polish soil has a special significance for me. It is like a kiss on a mother's hands, since the Fatherland is also our motherland. Her history has not been easy ... she has suffered much... and so she is entitled to a special love" (Warsaw, 6/16/83).

May this description of your homeland be reason for you to be grateful for her freedom today and an encouragement to work with great concern for her future. May the Lord bless Poland and each of you.


To the Hungarians:

Today we commemorate St. Martin of Tours, who was born in Pannonia, Hungary. May your land be Holy Pannonia, land of saints.


To the Czechs:

Tomorrow, you will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the canonization of Agnes of Bohemia, who, in the collective imagination of your country, is linked to the gift of freedom reacquired. Avail of this gift for your sanctification.


To the Italians:

I greet with particular affection the officers and students of the Finance Guard from your headquarters in Coppito, L'Aquila. Dear friends, your base has become a reference point for the people of L'Aquila who have been sorely tried [by the March earthquakes].

The most beautiful medal that your department can pride itself in is that of solidarity, of which in these past months, you have been both protagonist and witness, committing you further to carry ou your work with an auhentic spirit of service.

He commended the young, the newlyweds and the sick to the protection and intercession of today's saint, Martin of Tours.








[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/11/2010 04:26]
Nuova Discussione
 | 
Rispondi
Cerca nel forum

Feed | Forum | Bacheca | Album | Utenti | Cerca | Login | Registrati | Amministra
Crea forum gratis, gestisci la tua comunità! Iscriviti a FreeForumZone
FreeForumZone [v.6.1] - Leggendo la pagina si accettano regolamento e privacy
Tutti gli orari sono GMT+01:00. Adesso sono le 08:25. Versione: Stampabile | Mobile
Copyright © 2000-2024 FFZ srl - www.freeforumzone.com