BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Secretariat of State denies
media speculation on its role
in Boffo resignation

After almost three weeks of silence, the Vatican Secretariat of State issued an unsigned statement today flatly denying the involvement of Cardinal Bertone or the editor of L'Osservatore Romano in the events that led to the resignation of Avvenire editor Dino Boffo last September, and stating that the Holy Father reaffirms his confidence in his co-workers and hopes that the interest of justice and truth will be served in this affair.


Here is a full translation of the Vatican statement:

---

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE

Since January 23, news and reconstructions have multiplied, especially in many Italian media outlets, concerning the events connected to the resignation of the editor of the Catholic daily newspaper Avvenire, with the evident intention of showing an involvement of the editor of L'Osservatore Romano to the point of insinuating the direct responsibility of the Cardinal Secretary of State.

These news and reconstructions have no basis at all.

In particular, it is false that an officer of the Vatican Police or the editor of L'Osservatore Romano passed on the documents which became the basis for the resignation last September 3 of the Avvenire editor; it is false that the editor of L'Osservatore Romano gave - or in any way transmitted or endorsed - information about these documents; and it is false that he wrote under a pseudonym, or inspired, articles about it in other newspapers.

It seems clear from the proliferation of the arguments and the most incredible hypotheses - repeated in the media with a truly singular consonance - that it is all based on unfounded convictions, with the intent of attributing to the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, in a gratuitous and calumnious way, an action that was unmotivated, unreasonable and malicious. This is giving way to a defamatory campaign against the Holy See which involves the Roman Pontiff himself.

The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who was always informed [about the matter], deplores these unjust and injurious attacks, renews his full confidence in his co-workers, and asks that those who truly have the good of the Church at heart may do everything so that truth and justice may be affirmed.

From the Vatican
February 9, 2010

---

P.S. The Italian media reported last week that following the revival of the 'Boffo case', with direct aqccusations levelled against the OR editor and Cardinal Bertone, the Holy Father entrusted his secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein, to provide him with a report that would ascertain who was responsible for what. Presumably, the time lapse between the revival of the controversy and today's announcement can be partly explained by the time it took for Mons. Gaenswein to make the report since he was given the assignment early last week.

Some observations: 1) It is a stretch to see the media fascination with the Boffo case as "giving way to a defamatory campaign against the Holy See which involves the Roman Pontiff himself". Of course, the usual suspects have tried to milk this event to insinuate their usual anti-Church, anti-Pope biases, but otherwise, the serious reporting and commentary have been focused on the OR editor's possible involvement, which, for some reason, he never sought to refute. How difficult would it have been for him to pick up the phone and talk to both Magister and Ferrara, both of whom have known him for years, to clear this up? Why did he have to wait for the Holy Father to order an investigation, and for the Secretariat of State to clear him, when he could easily have done so himself? By asking this obvious questions, I am not suggesting that he was guilty of fomenting the anti-Boffo initiative in any way - I'm simply questioning his common sense! More importantly, with reference to the Vatican note, no one, least of all the Vatican, could possibly accuse Sandro Magister, Giuliano Ferrara and Paolo Rodari, among others, of trying to defame the Holy Father in any way by raising questions about Vian's involvement!
2) The 'documents' - which existed long before the events described here - were not the basis for Dino Boffo's resignation, as the statement says. It was the improper and false use of the documents to falsely label him in public as a 'notorious pracitising homosexual', and the resulting scandal for the Church in Italy, that left him no choice but to resign.
3) OR editor Vian opened himself to the ensuing speculation about his role by giving an unawarranted interview to Corriere della Sera the day after Boffo was slandered by Il Giornale, in which Vian directly criticized Avvenire for having reported on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private escapades while he himself had avoided reporting any of it in the OR!... I don't believe Vian is malicious or stupid, but the interview was completely gratuitous and improper.
4) This is the second time that the Secretariat of State issues a belated reaction to a major embarrassment in a statement that is unsigned. The first was in defense of the communications snafu surrounding the lifting of the Lefebvrian bishops' excommunication. Not very edifying or exemplary.


The following article was obviously written before the statement today from the Secretariat of State. But that does not affect the validity of the arguments presented.


A confused Curia
by Aldo Maria Valli
Translated from

February 9, 2010


Starting February 21, for a week, the Pope will suspend his audiences and other public events to take part with the Roman Curia in annual spiritual exercises at the start of Lent.

It is an occasion for prayer and reflection which will perhaps be most welcome to Benedict XVI this year when he has to face many sensitive decisions.

The dossier on the Boffo case, with the nmerous and ever-more insistent 'It is said that..' on a possible involvement of the Secretary of State and the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, has probably reached the Pope's desk, as the Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi indicated officially.

As he usually does, the Pope has been listening to the opinion of bishops and cardinals in a position to know anything about the matter. He has held informal consultations to acquire all the necessary data to decide on the facts.

It is the same method Cardinal Ratzinger used when he was chief of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It enables him to proceed punctiliously, distinguishing concrete circumstances from any dust-up raised artificially or otherwise.

But the Boffo case, with all its collateral effects, is simply the latest link in a chain spiked with thorns, almost a Via Crucis for the Church and its Pastor.

Recalling once more with courage and without euphemisms that "some members of the Church have violated the rights of children" and that this is behavior that will always be deplored and condemned by the Church (in his address yesterday to the Pontifical Council for the Family), Papa Ratzinger touched on an issue that has lately involved him anew.

It is thought that the Pope is almost ready with the pastoral letter he has decided to write to the Catholics of Ireland following recent government reports verifying the abuses committed by Irish priests and the systematic efforts by Irish bishops to cover up even as late as 2004.

He will probably finalize it after he meets with all the Irish bishops in an extraordinary meeting to which he has convoked them at the Vatican on February 15-16.

Last December, he met with the two top Irish bishops, Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh and Darmuid Martin of Dublin, after the publication of the Murphy Commission Report on a three-year investigation by Judge Yvonne Murphy regarding sexual abuse of children committed by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin in 1975-2004.

In a few days, the annual meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life will take place at the Vatican. The Academy president, Mons. Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, was embroiled in controversy last year because of an article he published in L'Osservatore Romano that seemed to defend the abortion performed on a 9-year-old Brazilian girl who had a twin pregnancy resulting from rape by her stepfather.

Fisichella opposed the action of the Bishop of Recife who excommunicated the doctors who performed the abortion, writing that before doing so, the bishop should have defended and embraced the young girl with the humanity that should always distinguish men of the Church.

The Bishop of Recife wrote an official note saying Fisichella was misinformed and had not even tried to find out the facts behind the case before writing the article, but the Vatican newspaper did not print the bishop's letter.

One of the more prominent members of the Academy for Life, Mons. Michael Schooyans, emeritus Professor of the University of Louvain in Belgium and a bioethics expert, wrote a paper reproaching Fisichella for having fallen into the trap of falsely using the idea of compassion 'to defend everything' instead of defending the Catholic teaching on abortion, and along with many of the Academy members, signed a letter requesting the replacement of Fisichella as Academy president.

Papa Ratzinger, who is always vigilant on matters regarding the defense of life, was particularly let down by the episode, especially since Fisichella's article was published with the imprimatur of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, once again in the center of controversy.

And especially considering that 17 Academy members signed the protest against Fisichella, resulting weeks later in a 'clarification' from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which did not clarify much and failed to calm down the protest.

Sandro Magister who wrote about the Academy for Life protest last year, revisited the issue last week in
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1342048?eng=y
which also includes the full text of Mons. Schooyans's paper.

And these are just some of the more visible problems that the Pope has to deal with, along with the contention over his rapprochement with the Lefebvrians, and the continuing friction with Jewish critics who have not stopped denouncing his promulgation of Pope Pius XII's 'heroic virtues' which reopened the beatification process for Pius XII.

True, Papa Ratzinger, in his own style and true to his character, has faced all this with the serenity that comes with his faith.

But the problems he must grapple with, especially within the Church itself, are quite clear, as he himself understood five years ago, when he denounced 'the filth in the Church' in his Good Friday meditations, and in his repeated appeals as Pope against ecclesiastical careerism and against men of the Church "biting and devouring each other like beasts".

The cleaning-out process that he has been trying to do is not easy and will require much time, but certainly, it would be much easier if the Pope were supported by a compact and efficient team. Instead, the impression is that confusion reigns around him.


It is surprising that Cardinal Bertone, who is praised by all those who know him as frank, direct and decisive, has not seemed to act that way at all in both the Fisichella and the Boffo cases (not to mention the Wielgus and Williamson cases).

In none of these embarassments did he step up front to take responsibility or at least to answer critics directly, instead of resorting to belated unsigned notes from the Secretariat of State. And in each case, inaction and delay have only contributed to embarrassing the Holy Father until he himself has to step up and take the blame. This happened in the Wielgus and Williamson cases, and indirectly, in the Fisichella and Boffo cases.

Cardinal Bertone is supposed to watch out for the Pope, not the other way around. All who love the Pope must find it incumbent on Bertone to prove himself worthy every day of the praise and confidence expressed by the Pope in his letter confirming him as Secretary of State. Too many embarassments for the Pope have been traced to him.



And finally, the international wire agencies have taken note of this ecclesiastical soap opera, unfortunately with the usual quota of inaccuracies:


Vatican intrigue hits
new level with leak denial
By NICOLE WINFIELD



VATICAN CITY, Feb. 9 (AP) – The Vatican denied Tuesday that it leaked documents that led to the resignation of a prominent Catholic editor, intervening in a tale of ecclesiastical intrigue that has dominated Italian headlines for weeks.

The Vatican No. 2 [If this is a reference to Cardinal Bertone, it is technically wrong, because the communique is unsigned, although obviously it had to be authorized by him] issued a statement saying reports that Vatican officials leaked the documents were false and that Pope Benedict XVI himself "deplored these unjust and insulting attacks" that were "defaming the Holy See."

The statement — unusual in its line-by-line denial of unsourced rumors — was confirmation that what had been a strictly Italian church scandal had reached the highest echelons of power in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace and that the Pope clearly wanted to put an end to it.

The intrigue began last summer, when Il Giornale newspaper published reports based on what it said were court documents saying the editor of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, had been involved in a harassment case several years ago with homosexual overtones. [Correction again: There were two documents - one was a factual court document which correctly stated that Dino Boffo had been fined for 'telephone molestation' but without any details of the ase; the other was alleged to be a 'police informative' identifying Boffo as a 'notorious practising homosexual' and claiming that the court case had something to do with a homosexual involvement - but all the other media identified this immediately as an anonymous flier that had been sent to the media months earlier and ignored for the scurrilous nonsense that it was.]

The revelations were initially seen as tit-for-tat retribution by Il Giornale, owned by Premier Silvio Berlusconi's brother, against Avvenire. The Catholic paper had harshly criticized the premier for his purported sex scandals with younger women. [In fact, Boffo was not harsh at all. He had avoided commenting on Berlusconi's peccadilloes in the paper until Avvenire readers swamped him with protest letters, after which he wrote a couple of commentaries that were civil rather than condemnatory.]

Avvenire's editor, Dino Boffo, admitted he had been fined in a plea bargain agreement — details of which have never been publicly released — but he denied making harassing phone calls. Amid the fallout though, he resigned, saying he wanted to spare his family and the Church further humiliation. [Plea bargain? Boffo said he paid the fine to avoid further stress on the complainant, explaining that the calls were placed by a drug addict he was helping to rehabilitate who used one of the cell phones assigned to Boffo's use by Avvenire, and that the woman harassed ny the teenager accepted Boffo's explanation.]

Three months later, Il Giornale's editor Vittorio Feltri — who had penned the initial articles — admitted the documents implying a gay angle to the case were false and apologized to Boffo in a front-page letter.

The scandal resurfaced last week when Feltri said the document in question had been given to him by an "institutional" church official whom he trusted.

That revelation fueled speculation in the Italian media that a high-ranking Vatican official had provided the document to embarrass his high-ranking counterparts at Avvenire's owners, the Italian Bishops' Conference.

There have been long-running reports of territorial and other battles between the Vatican's secretary of state, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the leadership of the Italian Bishops' Conference.

In his statement Tuesday, Bertone said reports that the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano had provided the documents to Feltri were "unfounded."

"It seems clear from the proliferation of the most incredible assertions and hypotheses ... that everything rests on unfounded convictions, with the intention of gratuitously and calumniously attributing to the editor of Osservatore Romano an unmotivated, unreasonable and malicious action," he wrote.

"The Holy Father Benedict XVI, who has been kept constantly informed, deplores these unjust and injurious attacks, renews his complete faith in his collaborators, and prays that those who truly have the good of the Church to heart may work with all means to ensure that truth and justice triumph."

Italian newspapers routinely publish unsourced stories about the latest Italian political intrigue. They also publish unsourced reports about machinations in the Vatican. Rarely, though, do such reports elicit such a thorough and high-ranking denial as the one issued by Bertone.


I will say it again. This should never have reached this point if Vian had taken the trouble to call up Magister and Ferrara and Rodari the moment their articles came out naming him, in order to refute them.

In the same way that Magister and Ferrara and Rodari could have picked up the phone to ask Vian pointblank about his involvement or non-involvement in this issue before making the direct accusations they did.

All this people have known each other for years - all of a sudden they can't talk to each other on the phone before going off on this extended melodrama? One must suspect ulterior motives in each of these players to explain why they all acted in such an immature way that defies common sense!

For that matter, Cardinal Bertone himself could have called up Ferrara - who is one of the Vatican's staunchest and most consistent supporters in the Italian media - after the first Il Foglio article that named him and Vian in connection with the Boffo case. Or issued a statement of denial right away, as Cardinal Ruini did after Rodari reported that he, Ruini, had spoken to the Pope about the Boffo case when he had an audience with him on January 9.

There was no reason to let it fester for almost three weeks and have the Pope step in, as usual, to say "Enough already!"

Irish bishops meet with abuse victims
to prepare for meeting with Pope



Maynooth, Ireland, Feb 9, 2010 (CNA) - A second meeting between Irish bishops and representatives of victims of abuse by priests and Church-run institutions was held on Monday. The meeting focused on victims’ concerns and on informing the bishops’ preparations for their upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

The meeting in Maynooth involved Tom Hayes of the Alliance Support Group, John Kelley and Patrick Walsh of Irish SOCA, Michael O’Brien of Right to Peace, and Michael Walsh of the group Right of Place.

The bishops involved were Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O’Reilly, Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey, Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley and Bishop of Killala John Fleming.

“Today’s meeting was constructive and helpful to us as we prepare to meet the Holy Father next week,” said Bishop McAreavey. “The meeting focused on the ongoing concerns of survivors. We intend to relay these concerns to Pope Benedict both verbally and in the form of written submissions which were presented to us today by survivors and which directly represent their views.”

All the Irish bishops will reportedly meet with Pope Benedict from Feb. 15-16.



A writer in a regional Italian newspaper presents a brief overview of how Benedict XVI has dealt with the problem of priests committing sexual offenses against minors. A major article of this kind is overdue from the Vaticanistas.


Benedict XVI's hard line against
priests who violate minors
by Nina Fabrizio
Adapted and translated from

February 9, 2010


As Pope, Benedict XVI first spoke at length about the painful subject of pedophilia in the Church when he addressed Irish bishops on ad limina visit in October 2006.

At the time, the Church of Ireland had just taken cognizance of the alarming extent of the problem and was beginning its own internal investigations.

Recently, the extent of the scandal in the Archdiocese of Dublin from 1975 to 2004, along with the systematic cover-up by local bishops, was documented in the Murphy Report summarizing the findings of an Irish judicial commission which investigated the abuses committed from 1975 to 2004.

The Pope has condemned the offenses and is writing a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics to address the scandal.

Benedict XVI has faced the sex abuse scandal squarely and even met with some victims on his visits to the United States in April 2008 and to Sydney for World Youth Day three months later.

The victims the Pope met in Washington,DC, were from Boston, the city where the scandal over priests commmitting sexual offenses against minors first erupted into international prominence in 2001.

So far, American dioceses have paid out more than $2 billion in damages to victims who filed criminal suits.

In Australia, victims' associations who cited 107 priests already sentenced for their offenses also sought a meeting with the Pope. He met with some representatives shortly before leaving Sydney to come back to Rome.

Once again, as he had on his way to the United States and during his visit there in April, he expressed his shame for the offenses committed by priests and his concern for their victims, making it clear that "those reponsible for such misdeeds should be brought to justice".

At the Vatican in April last year, he met with descendants of a Canadian aboriginal tribe which had been victimized by similar priests' abuses against their children, as well as by violent attempts to eradicate their culture.

Canadian dioceses have paid out some $80 million dollars so far to native children abused in Catholic schools during the 20th century.

The latest priest scandal is from Germany, where four Jesuit schools in Berlin, Hamburg and the Black Forest disclosed abuses committed by two priests in teh 1980s and early 1990s, who reportedly left the order in the 1990s.

An inquiry by the magazine Der Spiegel reports that from 1995 to the present, a total of 84 priests or lay employees have been identified as sex-offense suspects in 24 of 27 German dioceses (2 did not respond to the survey).


Surprisingly, the report does not mention Italian priests - including a prominent one who founded a worldwide chain of drug rehabilitation centers and was held up by everyone to be a saint - who, since Benedict became Pope, have been disciplined by the Vatican for sex offenses against children.

And the most notorious case of all, the Legionaries of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, whom the Pope removed from active ministry and advised to retire in penance and prayer in 2006, sparing him a canonical trial because of his advanced age and frail health. He died two years later at age 87. Maciel also fathered at least one child.


Irish abuse victims ask Pope
to replace bishops
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK



DUBLIN, Feb. 9 (AP) – Prominent Irish victims of Catholic sexual abuse have written to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to take responsibility for the Church's concealment of child molestation by forcing out bishops implicated in the decades of cover-up.

Their plea, published Tuesday, comes one week before a special Vatican summit involving the pontiff and Ireland's bishops to craft a response to mammoth abuse cover-up scandals in the Irish church.

Three bishops have already tendered their resignations after a government-authorized investigation published in November found that Dublin Archdiocese authorities habitually concealed evidence of pedophile priests from civil authorities for decades.

But the letter-writers — among them Andrew Madden, a former altar boy who in 1995 became the first Irish person to go public with a lawsuit against the church — said the Pope needed to do much more than accept those three resignations. They said dozens of bishops who failed to report accounts of abuse to the police should be replaced.

And they criticized the Pope and his diplomat in Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, for refusing to respond to letters from Irish investigations into the extent of abuse and cover-up.

[A terrible tactical error by both the CDF and the Papal Nuncio, who did not even respond to the letters, citing the technicality that the letetrs did not go through the proper channels!]

"Survivors find it incomprehensible that the Vatican and your representative in Ireland, the papal nuncio, saw fit to hide behind diplomatic protocols to avoid cooperating," they wrote.

The Dublin Archdiocese report found that bishops did not begin telling police about abuse suspicions and evidence involving more than 170 priests until victims began suing them in 1995.

A second Irish government-sanctioned investigation published in May found that tens of thousands of children suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse in Catholic-run orphanages, workhouses and residential schools until the last of them closed in the 1990s.

Just as in the Dublin Archdiocese, the investigators found, church authorities shielded those abusers because they cared more about protecting the church's reputation than the children in their care.

The signatories of Tuesday's letter included directors of One in Four, an Irish counseling service founded by abuse victims of Catholic priests, and Marie Collins, who was raped by a priest in a Dublin children's hospital in 1960.

She reported the abuse in 1995 — when she discovered that the archdiocese had already known about the priest's sexual interest in children for the previous three decades but kept transferring him to new parishes regardless.


It's frightening to think how in the United States as in Ireland, the uniform response to these terrible offenses by priests was for their bishops to cover up by transferring them to other places - which shows 1) a readiness not just to have the offenses go unpunished, but to spread them elsewhere; 2) a total disregard for the victims; 3) condoning evil for the wrong reason - if their intention was to 'protect' the Church's reputation. How did they all live with their consciences all these years?

Last month, two days after Benedict XVI's visit to the Rome Synagogue, French philsopher/journalist/all-around commentator Bernard-Henri Levy wrote an essay in defense of Benedict XVI and Pius XII which was widely published, and posted in translation on Page 61 of this thread:
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...

In a recent interview with the French daily newspaper, Le Journal de Dimanche (it used to be a weekly paper but it has kept its name), Levy, who is Jewish, reiterated his support of both Popes. Here is a translation of the relevant excerpt from the interview:


BHL speaks up again for
Benedict XVI and Pius XII
Translated from

February 6, 2010

Some readers of your book L’Idéologie française, on the roots of the Vichy regime [the puppet French government that collaborated with the Germans during World War II], cannot understand why you have supported Benedict XVI and Pius XII in a recent article...
Well, they obviously misread me. The book was a critique of Maurassism [after Charles Maurras (1868-1952), theoretician of a national Church]. and paganism, not of Christianity.

As for Benedict XVI, I have been reading him closely. And on Judaeo-Christian relations, the systematic disinformation against him has truly been incomprehensible: besides the fact that he has elevated the discussion intellectually, he has also been in total continuity with his predecessor.

As for Pius XII, all I ask is that one looks at the facts, And the fact is that, contrary to what cretins have been repeating in a loop, most of the relevant archives are open and can be consulted [The 12-volume compilation ordered by Paul VI in the 1960s].

The fact is that, amid the deafening silence in the world about the Shoah, he was actually the least silent of all. The fact is that it was he, who had no planes, no tanks, no army, who said and did more than Churchill, Roosevelt and De Gaulle combined [considering they said and did nothing!]

Of course, he could have said and done more. Everyone could have said and done more. But to present him as 'Hitler's Pope' and to embroider endlessly on the so-called 'silence of Pius XII' is absurd and rather disgusting.


You have been a defender of Jewish-Christian relations...
In 1981, I wrote an article on the Polish Solidarity movement which I entitled 'We are all Polish Catholics'. Since Le Testament de Dieu, in 1979, which was my celebration of Judaism, I have believed that there is common cause between Judaism and Christianity, particularly in the fight against totalitarianisms.


How did you come to this belief?
From some powerful encounters. Maurice Clavel [1920-1979, French philosopher, journalist and literary writer], that great Catholic convert whose work I edited. But above all, Emmanuel Lévinas [1906-1995, French philsopher and Talmudic commentator], whom I met after writing La Barbarie à visage humain (Barbarism with a human face).

And there were also two decisive events. On the Catholic side, Vatican II: Jews were no longer 'fathers' in the faith but brothers - 'older brothers' according to the bishops - and for me, this changes everything, since a father is destined to die while you are supposed to grow alongside your brother. And on the Jewish side, the growing awareness of the thought of Franz Rosenzweig [1887-1929, influential German Jewish theologian and philosopher], author of Star of redemption, Levinas's master of thought, who said in effect that there are two ways [Jewish and Christian - Rosenzweig had thought seriously about converting to Christianity] to the truth, not one but two, thus, dialog.


And what would that lead to?
Today, outside perhaps of some residual exceptions, the dominant anti-Semitism is no longer of Catholic origin... And the time has come to engage and to explore these two ways to the truth...


Of course, for us Catholics, Jesus Christ is both the Way and the Truth, as well as the Life...

Cardinal Ruini inaugurates
Rome seminars on CIV
Translated from
the 2/10/10 issue of



To orient the enormous and unprecedented scientific and technological potentialities of the emerging historical phase - this is the heart of the anthropological challenge in the encyclical Caritas in veritate - in which Benedict XVI forcefully articulates the 'inseparable bond' between truth and charity because "a Christianity of charity without truth would be fatally marginal".

This was affirmed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the committee for the Cultural Project of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), who inaugurated the first of a series of 'Encounters in the Cathedral' dedicated to the Pope's third encyclical at the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Tuesday evening.

His topic was "The anthropological foundations of Caritas in veritate".

[The two other lectures dedicated to Caritas in veritate will be held on February 22, with a lecture by Mario Monti, president of Milan's Universita Bocconi, who will speak on "The protagonists and motivations for integral human development" in the light of teh encyclical; and on March 8, with economist Stefano Zamagno, who will speak on the relationship between "Economic development adn civilian society".]

Ruini was introduced by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, his successor as the Pope's Vicar in Rome, who said the encyclical "has been received favorably not only in the media" but also "in the most diverse centers - from the scientific and cultural, to the religious, political, economic and in high finance, at a time when the international scene has seen radical changes with unforeseeable prospects, which demand a general rethinking of the reference values on which civilization and the world economy must be built".

In his lecture, Cardinal Ruini said that "the truth of man is expressed first of all in the centrality of the human being" which another important encyclical, Paul VI's Populorum progressio, dedicated to the theme of integral human and planetary development, "considers as the key principle for a correct and fruitful realization of development".

The perspective in which Caritas in veritate affirms the 'centrality of the human subject', Ruini said, "is not simply a function of development'. On the contrary, "centrality pertains to the person himself, by the very fact that he exists".

For instance, this centrality may be seen as it relates to ecological problems and the man-nature relationship - neither man nor nature are the result of chance or evolutional determinism, but of
God's creative intervention". because "being cannot come from nothing, and intelligence cannot arise by chance".

In this case, "globalization itself must not be understood as a fatal process, anonymous and impersonal, subject to our will and responsibility, but on the contrary, as a historical process that is pluri-dimensional and fully human, with evident technological factors and socio-economic dimensions, but with equally essential cultural and ethical aspects."

The basis for the ethical orientation in development is "the relation of man to nature, and therefore to natural law - the natural environment has a grammar of its own that indicates the purpose and criteria for its utilization".

In the face of these considerations, Ruini said, "the responsibility of the Church, even to the public, is evident in the great issues of development and ecology, since she is the custodian of a faith that has an essential ethical and anthropological dimension".

In Caritas in veritate, he says, it emerges that "the new and specific anthropological element today is constituted by recent scientific and technological developments which have given man new power to intervene in himself".

"Man is becoming capable of physically modifying himself" - which is at the heart of the 'new anthropological question".

This new power invites a reflection on "the capacity of scientific and technological rationality to guide the processes of man's transformation in a way that assures him of positive and beneficial results".

And thus, the need "to orient the new phase that is opening so that it is favorable to man: the image and experience of man that prevails in the overall culture and society are important, at the level of nation, culture, and of all mankind".

There are two essentials for "such an appeal to be accepted and to have a true historical effectiveness".

The first has to do "with the process of globalization and the changes under way in the large geo-economic and geo-political equilibria, which inevitably geo-cultural as well" in people who are heirs of the Christian tradition as Europeans are, "who were the first to have the responsibility and the task of maintaining the centrality of man".

And the second has to do with 'each of us', in the concrete situation in which each finds oneself, since "we are all co-responsible so that the centrality of the human subject takes on a strong and concrete saliency - one that can have an impact on the growing power that man is acquiring to modify himself physically - in order to orient this power in favor of man, in every individual and in every stage of life, always as the end and not the means".

Wednesday, February 10

Second from right: Austrian commemorative coin showing the twin saints; center, cartoon of the twins at their last meeting;
and extreme right, statue of St. Scholastica in Monte Cassino.
ST. SCHOLASTICA (480-542), VIRGIN
The twin sister of St. Benedict, the only information about her comes from Gregory the Great's account of Benedict's life. They were born to
wealthy parents, and Scholastica is thought to have been attracted to the consecrated life earlier than her brother. Gregory says that when
Benedict was established in Monte Cassino, Scholastica lived at a woman's monastery five miles away; that they made it a point to meet once
a year in order to discuss their spiritual life; and that one of these visits came the day before she died, when she begged him to stay longer.
He refused because it was against his rule to stay away from his monastery overnight. A storm came down which prevented Benedict and
his companions from leaving, and Scholastica told her brother, "You refused, and I prayed to God". Three days later, while at prayer, Benedict
saw a dove flying upwards and concluded it was the soul of his sister. He announced her death to his monks and then buried her in the tomb
he had prepared for himself.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/021010.shtml



OR today.

No papal story in this issue unless yesterday's note from the Secretariat of State can be considered one,
which the OR found it necessary to preface with the gratuitous line: 'The following note was approved by
the Holy Father who directed that it be published'. (The line was not in in the Vatican note released yesterday.)
Other Page 1 stories: UN's nuclear agency concerned about Iran's announcement that it is proceeding with
uranium enrichment; the European Union is concerned over Spain's economy with a skyhigh deficit and 19.5%
unemployment; and Ukraine's prime minister questions presidential election results which she lost, but
international observers say the polls were clean. In the inside pages, Cardinal Camillo Ruini speaks on the
anthropological bases of Caritas in veritate, and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri's address at the presentation
of the book Quando il Papa pensa al mondo (When the Pope thinks about the world).



THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience today - The Holy Father's catechesis was on St. Anthony of Padua,
the great Dominican theologian, preacher and Doctor of the Church.

After the GA, the Holy Father met with

- A delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Address in English.



The Vatican has released the program for the Holy Father's Apostolic Visit to Malta on April 17-18.

The Vatican press office today released the official program for the Holy Father's coming visit to Malta. (I have added where appropriate information from the Church of Malta on the opportunities for the Pope to interact with the faithful during the visit).

APOSTOLIC VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO MALTA

for the 1950th ANNIVERSARY OF ST. PAUL'S SHIPWRECK

April 15-18, 2010

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P R O G R A M

Saturday, April 17

ROME
15.25 Departure from Leonardo Da Vinci airport

LUQA
17.00 WELCOME CEREMONY
Malta International Airport, Luqa
- Speech by the Holy Father
The Pope will be greeting the public in the streets
on the way to La Valletta.


LA VALLETTA
18.15 CORTESY CALL ON THE PRESIDENT OF MALTA
Palace of the Grand Masters
Children will be gathered at St. George's Square
to greet the Pope.

RABAT
The Pope will be greeting the public in the streets
on the way to Rabat.
19.45 VISIT TO THE GROTTO OF ST. PAUL
- Prayer and Address by the Holy Father
The Pope will be greeting the public
in front of St. Paul's Church.


Sunday, April 18

FLORIANA
10.00 HOLY MASS
Piazzale dei Granai (Granaries Square)
- Homily
REGINA COELI
- Remarks by the Holy Father

RABAT
13.00 Lunch with the Bishops of Malta
Apostolic Nunciature

16.00 Leave Apostolic Nunciature for Kalkara
The Pope will be greeting the public in the streets
on the way to Kalkara.

KALKARA
16.45 Leave by boat from the harbor of Kalkara
for the Grand Harbor of La Valletta


LA VALLETTA
17.15 MEETING WITH YOUTH
Waterfront wharf of La Valletta
- Speech by the Holy Father
The Pope will be greeting the public in the streets
on the way to the airport in Luqa.

LUQA
18.40 DEPARTURE CEREMONY
Malta International Airport, Luqa
- Speech by the Holy Father

19.10 Departure for Rome


ROME
20.45 Arrival at Ciampino airport

Rome and Malta are in the same time zone.

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Upper left, satellite photo of Malta and Gozo, the other main island. Center, Valletta sky;ine. Map shows location of Rabat, Luja airport, and Greater Valletta, where Kalkara and Floriana are located. Above left is the waterfront at the Valletta Grand Harbor, where the Mass will be held.

Pope Benedict’s defense
of authentic equality
by Michael Miller

February 10, 2010


Once again the mild-mannered but intellectually fierce Pope Benedict XVI has provoked criticism over remarks that challenge the secular establishment’s provincial understanding of the world.

In his speech to the bishops of England and Wales in Rome last week, during their ad limina visit, the Pope encouraged them to fight against so-called equality legislation.

He argued that such legislation limits “the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs” and in some cases “actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded” and guaranteed.

Critics immediately jumped, claiming that the Pope’s critique undermined protection of women and homosexuals in the workplace and promoted discrimination. Yet as usual, the critics not only mischaracterize, they miss the larger point.

Benedict’s vision goes beyond provincial English politics. His concern is to preserve real freedom by revitalizing reason and respect for truth — not to pander to current fashions of ideological equality.

One of the more contentious parts of the equality legislation requires that religious adoption organizations end so-called "discrimination" and allow homosexual couples to adopt children.

In practice this means that Catholic adoption agencies will be forced either to shut down or to act against their conscience. This is clearly a loss of religious freedom, but Benedict realizes there is a lot more going on.

First, Benedict's remarks reflect one of the consistent themes of his papacy: to revitalize reason and a respect for truth in the West.

In his famous homily before his election to the papacy, when he spoke of a “dictatorship of relativism,” and throughout his writings and speeches, he has challenged the limited and ultimately irrational notion of reason that dominates Western intellectual life.

Second is his defense of authentic equality. The current legislation transforms equality from a question of justice and fairness before the law to an ideological weapon to further secularist social policy and discriminates against religion.

This pseudo equality manifests a vitiated concept of reason. The equality laws in Britain reflect less the British tradition than they do Rousseau's notion of radical equality, which has been the source of much socialist and liberal thought.

Radical equality now has become praiseworthy as something good in itself, separated from any question of truth, common sense, or even biological realities. This is what happens when we lose a rich concept of reason: Anything goes — whatever is currently politically fashionable among the elite, or is supported by consensus.

Pope Benedict understands that justice based on consensus is capricious and unstable.

Third is Benedict’s awareness of the need to protect the natural right of free association and freedom of religion within a pluralist society.

The current equality legislation prevents religious and other peaceful groups within society to live according to their conscience. It also smacks of totalitarianism.

The right of association has been a hallmark of free and prosperous societies, a protection for the weak and a guardian of justice. When it is undermined for ideological reasons, society suffers.

Not only does it prevent people from living out their beliefs, it also reduces the power of civil society to check the state. Benedict's critique of the equality law is a defense of people’s right to join together for some project that benefits the common good.

Benedict has been harangued for claiming that certain parts of the legislation violate the natural law. What does this arcane Medieval concept have to do with modern legislation? Well, everything.

The genius of English freedom has been to base its society on law, not on ideology. English legal culture is rooted in the natural law tradition.

A Guardian editorial on February 3rd argued that churches have as much to gain from the legislation as they do to lose because it protects Catholics from being discriminated against when they look for jobs — and accuses Benedict of being protected by the laws he is criticizing.

But Benedict realizes that if law is not grounded in reason and truth and becomes unhinged from reality, then justice gets reduced to power — Might makes right.

As a young man in Nazi Germany, Joseph Ratzinger experienced a society where power was separated from reason and justice. He knows what violations of the natural law mean in practice.

Critics miss that Benedict is the one promoting real equality and equal protection against a theory of justice guided by whatever happens to be the fashion at the time.

Andrew Brown — also at the Guardian — writes, “Just when it seemed that Roman Catholicism was a normal and natural part of the English religious scene, Pope Benedict has to come out with a statement that raises every residual Protestant hackle in the country.”

Brown conjectures that the Pope didn’t expect to be heard. But of course he did. And precisely because the last thing Benedict wants is Catholicism to be a normal part of the current English religious scene.

This may be what Mr. Brown wants, but a church that does nothing more than sway with the prevailing winds neither inspires nor draws people — nor does it have the strength to stand up against injustice and abuse.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY





The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis today to St. Anthony of Padua, the great Dominican preacher theologian and Doctor of the Church.

Here is how he synthesized the lesson in English:

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Continuing our catechesis on medieval Christian culture, we now turn to Saint Anthony of Padua, a contemporary of Saint Francis who helped lay the foundations of the Franciscan theological and spiritual tradition.

Born in Lisbon, Anthony became an Augustinian canon and then a Franciscan Friar. His great eloquence and learning made him one of the great preachers of his time.

His Sermons, imbued with the traditional spiritual exegesis of the Scriptures, offer a guide to growth in the Christian life and stress the importance of prayer as a loving and joy-filled conversation with the Lord.

Here we see one of the principal characteristics of Franciscan theology: its emphasis on God’s love, which grants spiritual knowledge and transforms our lives.

At a time of great economic growth, Anthony called for the cultivation of interior riches and sensitivity to the needs of the poor.

Typical also of the Franciscan tradition is his stress on the contemplation of Christ in his humanity, particularly in the mysteries of the Nativity and the Crucifixion.

In this Year for Priests, let us ask Saint Anthony to pray that all preachers will communicate a burning love for Christ, a thirst for closeness to the Lord in prayer, and a deeper appreciation of the truth and beauty of God’s word.

---

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

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

After having presented, two weeks ago, the figure of St. Francis of Assisi, this morning I wish to speak of another saint belonging to teh first generation of the Friars Minor: Anthony of Padua, who is also called Anthony of Lisbon, his natal city.

He is one of the most popular saints in the entire Catholic Church, who is venerated not only in Padua, where a splendid Basilica houses his mortal remains, but throughout the world.

The faithful are familiar with his images and statues showing him with the lily, symbol of his purity, or with the Baby Jesus in his arms, commemorating a miraculous apparition mentioned in some literary sources.

Anthony contributed significantly to the development of Franciscan spirituality, with his outstanding gifts of intelligence, equilibrium, apostolic zeal, and principally, mystical fervor.

He was born to a noble family in Lisbon around 1195 and was baptized Fernando. He joined the Canons who followed the monastic rule of St. Augustine, first at the monastery of San Vicente in Lisbon, and later, in the monastery of Santa Croce in Coimbra, renowned as a Portuguese cultural center.

He dedicated himself with great interest and attention to the study of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church, acquiring the theological knowledge that he would put to good use in teaching and preaching.

The event that represented a decisive turning point in his life took place in Coimbra, when in 1220, the relics of the first five Franciscan missionaries, who had been martyred in Morocco, were exposed.

Their story inspired the young Fernando to imitate them in advancing along the way of Christian perfection. He chose to leave the Augustinian Canons to become a Franciscan friar. He was accepted, taking the name Antonio, and then, he too went to Morocco.

But Divine Providence disposed otherwise. Following an illness, he was forced to return to Italy where, in 1221, he took part in the famous 'Chapter of Mats' in Assisi, where he met St. Francis.

Subsequently, he spent some time in total privacy at a convent near Forli in northern Italy, when the Lord called him to another mission. Invited rather casually to preach at a priestly ordination, he showed such gifts of knowledge and eloquence that his Superiors assigned him to preaching.

Thus he began in Italy and France a period of apostolic activity that was as intense as it was effective, inducing many who had left the Church to come back. He was also among the first - if not the first - theology masters among the Friars Minor.

He began teaching in Bologna, with the blessing of Francis who, having recognized Anthony's virtues, sent him a brief letter that opened with the words, "I would like you to teach theology to our brothers".

Anthony laid the bases for Franciscan theology which, cultivated by other distinguished thinkers, would reach its peak with St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Blessed Duns Scotus.

He continued his preaching even after becoming the Provincial Superior of the Friars Minor in northern Italy, alternating this activity with his administrative tasks. When his term as Superior ended, he retired to a place near Padua, a place he had visited many times before. After a year, he died at the gates of the city on June 13, 1231.

Padua, which had received him with veneration and affection in his lifetime, honored him with its devotion. Pope Gregory IX, who had heard him preach, had called him 'the Ark of the Testament' and canonized him in 1232, the year after his death, during which many miracles were reported due to his intercession.

In the last phase of his life, Anthony wrote down two cycles of 'Sermons', entitled respectively, 'Sunday Sermons' and 'Sermons on the Saints', intended for preachers and theology teachers of the Franciscan order.

In these sermons, he comments on the Scriptural texts presented in the liturgy, using the patristic-medieval interpretation of the four senses: the literal or historical, the allegorical or Christological, the tropological or moral, and the anagogical, which orients the faithful to eternal life.

These are theological-homiletical texts which echo his live preaching, in which Anthony proposes a true and proper itinerary for Christian living.

The Sermons contain such a wealth of spiritual teachings that in 1946, the Venerable Pius XII proclaimed Anthony a Doctor of the Church, with the title of 'Evangelical Doctor' because his writings brought forth the freshness and beauty of the Gospel. Even today, we can read them with great spiritual profit.

He speaks of prayer as a relationship of love that impels man to converse tenderly with the Lord, creating ineffable joy which suavely wraps the spirit in prayer.

Anthony reminds us that prayer requires an atmosphere of silence, which is not necessarily detachment from external noises, but an interior experience which takes away the distractions provoked by the daily preoccupations of the spirit.

According to the teaching of this illustrious Franciscan doctor, prayer can be divided into four indispensable attitudes which Anthony defines in Latin as obsecratio, oratio, postulatio, gratiarum actio.

We can translate those states as these: to open one's heart trustingly to God; to converse affectionately with him; to present our needs to him; and to praise and thank him.

From St. Anthony's teaching on prayer, we can grasp one of the characteristic features of Franciscan theology, which he initiated: that is, the role assigned to divine love, which enters into the sphere of our affections, our will, our heart, and is also the spring from which spiritual knowledge - surpassing any other knowledge - gushes forth.

Anthony wrote: "Charity is the soul of faith, which brings it alive. Without love, faith dies" (Sermones Dominicales et Festivi II, Messaggero, Padua 1979, p. 37).

Only one who prays can achieve progress in spiritual life: this was the primary purpose of St. Anthony's preaching. He knew well the defects of human nature, the tendency to fall into sin, and thus, he exhorted continually to fight the tendency to greed, to pride, to impurity, and instead, to practice the virtues of poverty and generosity, of humility and obedience, of chastity and purity.

At the start of the 13th century, in the context of the rebirth of cities and the flourishing of commerce, there was also a growing number of Christians who were insensitive to the needs of the poor.

Because of this, Anthony often invited the faithful to think of the true wealth, that of the heart, which by being good and merciful, accumulates treasures for heaven.

"Oh you rich men!", he said, "make friends with the poor, welcome them to your houses: later it will be they, the poor, who will welcome you into the eternal tabernacles, where there is the beauty of peace, the trust of certainty, and the opulent quiet of eternal satiety" (Ibid., p. 29).

Is not this teaching, dear friends, a teaching that is very important even today, when the financial crisis and the grave economic disequilibria have impoverished not a few and are creating conditions of poverty>

In my encyclical Caritas in veritate, I point out that "The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly - not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centered" (No. 45).

Anthony, in the school of Francis, always placed Christ at the center of his life and thought, his actions and his preaching. This is another characteristic feature of Franciscan theology: Christocentrism.

Gladly, he contemplated - and invites us to contemplate - the mysteries of the Lord's humanity, particularly the Nativity, which inspires sentiments of love and gratitude for divine goodness.

Likewise, the sight of the Crucifix inspired him with thoughts of gratitude to God and respect for the dignity of the human being, a symbol in which everyone, believers and non-believers, could find a meaning to enrich life.

Anthony wrote: "Christ, who is your life, is hanging on the Cross before you, so that you may look at the Cross as in a mirror. You will realize how mortal your wounds are, that no medicine can heal other than the blood of the Son of God. If you look well, you will also realize how great your human dignity and value are... Nowhere else can man better realize what he is worth than when he looks at the mirror of the Cross" (Sermones Dominicales et Festivi III, pp. 213-214).

Dear friends, may Anthony of Padua, so venerated by the faithful, intercede for the entire Church, especially for those who dedicate themselves to preaching.

May they, drawing inspiration from his example, take care to bring together [in their preaching] solid and healthy doctrine, sincere and fervent piety, as well as incisive communications.

In this Year for Priests, let us pray so that priests and deacons may carry out with great care the ministry of announcing and making present the Word of God to the faithful, especially through liturgical homilies.

May their homilies be an effective presentation of the eternal beauty of Christ, as Anthony recommended: "If you preach Jesus, he will soften hardened hearts; if you invoke him, you will sweeten against bitter temptations; if you think of him, he will illuminate your heart; if you read him, he will satiate your mind" (Sermones Dominicales et Festivi III, p. 59).

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Pope meets Lutheran delegation


February 10, 2010


At the end of the General Audience this morning, the Holy Father received a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America that is currently on an ecumenical tour visiting London, Rome and Istanbul.

Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Lutheran Church in Rome - which has a predominantly German membership - on March 14, where he will take part in a Vespers service. John Paul II did the same thing in 1983.

Here are the words the Pope addressed (in English) to the Luterhan delegation today:

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Distinguished Friends,

I am pleased to greet Bishop Mark Hanson and all of you present here today for this ecumenical visit.

Since the beginning of my Pontificate, I have been encouraged that relations between Catholics and Lutherans have continued to grow, especially at the level of practical collaboration in the service of the Gospel.

In his Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint, my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II described our relationship as "brotherhood rediscovered" (No. 41). I deeply hope that the continuing Lutheran-Catholic dialogue both in the United States of America and at the international level will help to build upon the agreements reached so far.

An important remaining task will be to harvest the results of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue that so promisingly started after the Second Vatican Council.

To build on what has been achieved together since that time, a spiritual ecumenism should be grounded in ardent prayer and in conversion to Christ, the source of grace and truth.

May the Lord help us to treasure what has been accomplished so far, to guard it with care, and to foster its development.

I conclude by renewing the wish expressed by my predecessor, during whose Pontificate so much was accomplished on the road to full visible unity among Christians, when he said to a similar delegation from the Lutheran Church in America:

"You are most welcome here. Let us rejoice that an encounter such as this can take place. Let us resolve to be open to the Lord so that he can use this meeting for his purposes, to bring about the unity that he desires. Thank you for the efforts you are making for full unity in faith and charity" (Address to the Bishops of the Lutheran Church in America, 26 September 1985).

Upon you and all those entrusted to your pastoral care, I cordially invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.

---

With the official release today of the program for the Pope's apostolic visit to Malta (See three posts above), the Church in Malta also released the text of the bishops' announcement to the faithful:

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SOLEMN ANNOUNCEMENT OF
THE POPE’S VISIT TO MALTA
February 10, 2010


Dear brethren,

One thousand, nine hundred and fifty years ago, St Paul, the Apostle, was delivered from the shipwreck through the mighty power of God the Father, our Lord and Master, to undertake the mission of spreading the Word to the people of our islands.

Imbued with the power of the Spirit and encouraged by the hope which God Himself instilled in Paul’s heart through His Angel, and as ordained by His Divine Plan, Paul brought to our ancestors, and to us, their descendants, the Good News of the Kingdom of God – a Kingdom as envisaged by Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, who through his birth, life, death and resurrection brought man to eternal life.

Paul the Apostle, our Father, announced to us this new and eternal life. Our ancestors embraced the faith and in so doing, became united as God’s people on this earth. Through the passage of time, this journey, which started at that moment, has also endured storms.

Today it is our turn, as heirs of the faith of our forefathers, to give witness to this faith and pass it onto our children. For this, we give thanks to our Lord.

As a loving Father, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, entrusted by Jesus Christ with the mission of guiding the Church in the footsteps of Peter, shall also visit our islands. Like Paul, he shall come and abide among us for a brief period of time, in order to fulfill and fortify us in the faith which the Apostle Paul instilled within us. For this also, we wish to give thanks to our Lord.

His Holiness the Pope will arrive on our islands on Saturday 17th April. Just as Publius, the Governor of Malta welcomed Paul, so too our civil authorities will greet His Holiness at the Presidential Palace.

Following that, the successor of Peter will pay homage to the place where, according to Church tradition, Paul announced the Word of God to the islanders. Thereon, he will join us at St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat, to give thanks to God for his unceasing providence.

On Sunday, 18th April, the day of the Lord, His Holiness will gather the faithful around him, in the same way that Paul gathered our ancestors and together we shall listen to the Word of the Lord.

As our father, His Holiness will break the Eucharistic bread with us during a Mass which will be celebrated at the Granaries in Floriana.

That same afternoon, he will tread through the waters of the Grand Harbour, en route from Kalkara to the Valletta Waterfront, where he will preside over an encounter with youths, encouraging them to strengthen their faith, fortify their hope and enkindle their hearts in love.

From Valletta, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will be escorted to the airport to begin his return journey to the Vatican.

By the grace of God, may we as a nation, greet His Holiness warmly and welcome him as our Father, much in the same way that our ancestors paid homage to Paul and his friends.

May his visit instill in us the blessings which we require so that we may continue to live according to God’s will for his Church, in order that through our Christian beliefs and way of life, we may give witness to God’s love, as well as be a light for other nations.

+ PAUL CREMONA O.P.
Archbishop of Malta

+ MARIO GRECH
Bishop of Gozo

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It didn't dawn on me until later today that there was a reason for the date of the announcements from the Vatican and Malta - today is the actual Memorial of St. Paul's Shipwreck.



MEMORIAL OF ST. PAUL'S SHIPWRECK
1950th Anniversary
February 10, 2010



On February 10, all of Malta celebrates the day of its patron saint, with the most colorful and grandiose events in the capital of La Valletta. This feast is a public holiday in Malta [as is the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19], whose population of some 400,000 is 98% Catholic.

The Feast of St Paul's Shipwreck remembers the saint's miracles after he took refuge on the island. In Valletta, a procession led by teh Archbishop of Malta carries the saint's statue through the streets accompanied by marching bands and fireworks, to and from the Church of St. Paul's Shipwreck.

In 60 AD, St Paul performed a number of miracles during his stay on the island, including the healing of Publius' father, the Roman governor. Tradition has it that Publius then became the first bishop of Malta, converting the Maltese to Christianity.



The church itself is one of the oldest buildings on Malta, dating to the 16th century. The statue of St. Paul was sculpted in 1657. The church also has a reliquary containing what is believed to be a wristbone of St. Paul, as well as a portion of column said to be where he was tied before his martyrdom in Rome.

The celebration is a carnival-like, replete with costumes, festive fairs and street performance, ending with a fireworks display.

According to tradition, the ship that was carrying the Apostle Paul to Rome for his trial was shipwrecked near Malta’s coast. But the Apostle Paul survived, came ashore and stayed in Malta for three months.

How the media
misrepresent the Pope
by Andrea Acampa
Translated from

February 10, 2010


"To understand Benedict XVI is not easy. To communicate him to the people is even less so*. [I disagree strongly, but more below.] In this sense, the new book by the journalist Francesco Antonio Grana is spot on in giving a reading of this Pontificate outside the usual media box", according to Cardinal Michele Giordano, who wrote the Preface to Grana's latest book, Benedetto XVI oltre le mode del pensiero(Benedict XVI beyond fashions of thought)(L’Orientale Editrice, 2009).


As Grana says in his book: "If on the one hand, the faithful who had become accustomed to the eloquent language of John Paul II's gestures - a true and proper unwritten encyclical - have committed themselves to follow the new Pope [It's five years already! Stop calling him the new Pope!], the media have not done so, which have persisted in using cliches instead of seeking to find out who he really is and what he proposes. Thus, very often, one reads homologous news reports generally taking the line laid down by the news agencies".

{There follows an interview with Grana.]


Grana was introduced to the Pope by Cardinal Giordano when the latter had an audience with the Pope last weekend, and Grana took the occasion to present the Pope with the four books he has written.


The title of your book is enigmatic. Why did you choose it?
As a communications professional, I would be expected to say it was to catch the attention of media and public opinion. But I would be lying to myself first of all. A bishop told me that today, it is not uncommon that books on the Pope and the Church are an opportunity for business. But he added that in my case, it was not so, with the affection and esteem of those who have followed my writing all these years.

Actually, the title was born while I was writing the book. When I was seeking to write about Benedict XVI beyond the cliches, the commonplaces of communications, beyond the caricature of which he has been a victim, beyond fashionable thinking, precisely.


How do you think the media have done in communicating teh Pope's authentic message?
I don't wish to be pessimistic although I am tempted to be. We journalists did not wait to see the first actions of Benedict XVI to understand how he would carry out his Pontificate, especially after the long reign of the great John Paul II.

What we did, instead, was to superimpose our own convictions, often diametrically opposed to fact, on Benedict XVI's Magisterium, as for instance when it is said that only an anti-Conciliar Pope could rehabilitate the Latin mass or revoke the excommunication of teh Lefebvrian bishops.

It doesn't matter that Benedict XVI, with great clarity, has explained the authentic meaning of his actions - aimed at reconciliation and unity. Media still choose to impose their own convictions, their own cliches, on reality.


So Benedict's enemy is bad journalism?
In some way, bad journalism has become a kind of anti-Pope which places itself regularly in opposition to someone elected by the cardinals in Conclave! But their voice is suffocating that of the Pope.

Often, in order to understand what Papa Ratzinger really thinks, one must read his homilies and addresses in full, and not newspaper articles. [I have always advocated that - and that is why I break my back to post full translations of papal texts ASAP, so that the news reports can only serve to demonstrate how regularly the journalists misrepresent his thought or reduce it to a single point - often the wrong one - instead of presenting it in all its richness! Recently, with his address to the Pontifical Council for the Family, the news reports ignored all his family-oriented messages to play up what he said about sex-offending priests, which was simply an illustration for what he said about how children must be respected!]


There are those who claim that Benedict XVI is a Pope who is all wrapped up in ivory-tower intellectual exercises, who is bent on always saying NO mercilessly, who is deaf to modernity and hostile to other religions. Is that so?
The Benedict XVI we have seen in the past four (almost five) years is everything but! This is a Pope who can communicate with theologians as with children, with the crowds in St. Peter's Square and those who flock to him when he travels, with leaders of all religions and with the youth of the world.

A man who, in the wake of his predecessors, has given priority in his pontificate to ecumenical and inter-religious dialog. [No! He was the first one to specifically name it as his priority. It was not Paul VI's priority (who had his hands more than full with overseeing the chaotic post-conciliar years), nor was it John Paul II's (who was focused on bringing down Communism in the first 12 years of his reign, and after that, on pursuing new evangelization all over the globe)].

He is a Pope who speaks to the heart and who stirs up remarkable attention even beyond the Catholic world. This does not please some.


Is it that difficult to get on Benedict XVI's wavelength?
I don't think so. All that media needs to do, as Cardinal Bertone once said, is to report, without adding their distorted interpretations, what the Pope really says and his actions as father of the people of God. That is how we journalists can best serve the truth.


Left, Grana's new book on Benedict XVI; right, his first B16 book in 2007, 'Compromettiti con Dio' [Commit yourself to God: The revolution of Benedict XVI].

Last Saturday, you presented the Pope with your four books? What did he say?
First of all, it was very emotional for me to meet Benedict XVI and to present my books to him. He was so good as to show great interest, taking some time to look through the books - the one dedicated to John Paul II, the one that analyzes Church communications, and teh two books dedicated to his Pontificate.

Also very touching were the words of Cardinal Giordano when he introduced me to the Pope as his spiritual son. Benedict XVI also thanked him for having supported my work in trying to spread his Magisterium by writing the introductions adn presenting the books to the public.

At the end of the meeting, I asked the Pope to pray for me, and he, with singular gentleness, asked me to do the same for him.

Benedict XVI has a very refined sensitivity and I hope that this can be perceived increasingly by believers as well as all other men".


*[It's unfortunate that Cardinal Giordano starts with the two statements as he does. Because to understand Benedict XVI in his homilies and other papal texts is generally easy, whether one reads them only with the eyes of faith, or with the use of both faith and reason. He writes them to be understood. The proof is that over-simplified, reductive or even downright misleading introductory sentences in which the journalist paraphrases him. are then eked out by quoting him directly.

The more formal texts - encyclicals and some messages for international observances - are a bit more difficult to go through, because of their more academic nature. These are the texts that require the journalist to earn his wages by breaking them up into thematic units that can be reported simply but multiply - a single news report will not do them justice. Think of Caritas in veritate, with its blend of theology, philosophy, economics and practical, down-to-earth propositions and considerations.]



The site of the Papaboys [Young Italians who organized themselves after the Jubilee Year WYD in Rome as supporters of John Paul II and who carried on their enthusiasm for his successor]

reproduced the first part of Gran's opening chapter to his new book, and I will post it as soon as I find time to translate.

This is the second presentation published by the OR from a recent roundtable discussion on a new book about Benedict XVI's view of the international scene today. The first was by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini (translated and posted on the preceding page of this thread).


The geopolitics of Benedict XVI:
A commitment to truth and
reconciliation on the global scene
by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri
Translated from
the 2/10/10 issue of



Editor's Note: We publish here excerpts from the intervention of the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches on the occasion of the presentation of the book Quando il Papa pensa il mondo (When the Pope thinks about the world) (Roma, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, 2009, 200 pp).


I will say right away that the Pope thinks about the world in the perspective of continuity with the patrimony of Christian thought, of which he is the primary guardian. It is a guardianship that I would call 'vital' and associated with the evangelical exhortation to "read the signs of the times".

My considerations have to do in particular with that part of the Church with which the Congregation for Oriental Churches is concerned: the Holy Land and the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, even if its competence also covers the Syro-Malabarese and the Malankar Catholics of India and all the Oriental Catholics spread around the world.

They constitute the Oriental diaspora which is decisive for the survival of their respective Churches in their homelands and the ancient traditions of the Christian Orient.

The truth can be reached only when one is free. This goes for all truth, but especially for the truths of the spirit. These truths concern good and bad, the prospects for life, its meaning, its final destiny, the religious code inscribed on the human conscience and the inseparable and intimate bond of the I with the Person of God. The truths of the spirit thus require the space of liberty so that they can be lived in all the dimensions of the spirit.

An effective commitment to truth is also functional to forgiveness and reconciliation. But diverse convictions about the truth give way even today to violent opposing positions, to social and political conflicts, and to outright 'religious wars'.

The Catholic Church condemns such wars and has not hesitated to ask for forgiveness of errors committed in the past by some of its members. John Paul II's admonition is always relevant: "There is no peace without justice, there is no justice without forgiveness".

I think of Lebanon, whose people are rediscovering, with the support of international solidarity, a fruitful accord among her different faith communities, which make up not just one sovereign nation, but also represent a message and symbol of cooperation and coexistence. The Lebanese have the right to respect for the integrity and sovereignty of their nation.

I think of the entire Middle East, and Iraq in particular, which is unfortunately saddled with terrorism. And so many other lands which are the theater of bloody conflicts: I will limit myself, for instance, to citing the latent conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose populations are also sorely tried by the worsening of endemic poverty.

Notably from the second nation, we are watching the escape of many young people towards Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries, because the best resources of their nation have been exhausted.

The unstoppable migration of Christians is of concern to the entire Middle East: thousands of men and women have been constrained to leave their homes for other lands in order to have a dignified life. Suffering as well from lack of religious freedom, they are leaving the lands of their fathers where the Church developed in the early centuries.

The migration phenomenon must be faced with humanity and justice on the part of the international community. Benedict XVI, in the Christmas season of 2006, wrote a letter to the Catholics of the region to encourage them to remain where they are, and asking everyone to help them. With the same intentions, the Holy Father has convoked for this autumn a special assembly of the Bishops' Synod devoted to the Middle East.

Everyone knows of the Pope's urgent appeals to consolidate the signs of dialog between Israelis and Palestinians, and his hope for abandonment of recourse to partial and unilateral solutions in favor of a global approach that respects the rights of the peoples involved.

Because of the situation that has resulted in the Gaza Strip, the Pontiff has exhorted insistently for a commitment to respect the ceasefire while seeking to restart peace negotiations, and renouncing hatred and terrorism.

The Holy See will never tire of reiterating that military solutions must be avoided everywhere: the future should come about through relations of respect and, if possible, of brotherhood, among different social and religious groups.

It is necessary to seek together a negotiated solution that takes into account the legitimate aspirations of various races, subordinating narrow interests. Public authorities should commit themselves to dialog and reconciliation so that coexistence among peoples may progress to stability.

For the State of Israel, there must be recognition of its right to exist and enjoy peace and security within borders that are internationally accepted; and for the Palestinian people, recognition of their right to a sovereign and independent homeland, respect for personal and communitarian dignity, and for freedom of movement. Mutual trust can be strengthened only if these expectations are accepted.

Syria deserves consideration because it can offer the world an example of coexistence and peaceful tolerance among religions. When he received the credentials of the Syrian ambassador in 2006, Benedict XVI gave an address that was very incisive regarding the Syrian nation and its surrounding lands, with a very strong appeal for peace and asking for the cessation of violence in Lebanon, the Holy Land and Iraq.

The Pontiff began by expressing his admiration for the flourishing since ancient times of civilizations and religions in that nation, which is dear to Christians for the numerous testimonials of the Apostle Paul and other eminent figures of early Christianity.

He added that, sharing the opinion of many impartial observers, the Holy See believes that solutions are possible based on law, on acceptance of the 'relevant resolutions' of the United Nations, and international recognition of 'secure borders'. He encouraged Syrians to proceed along the paths of peace and stability, as the world looks for signs of hope from the nations that enjoy significant influence in the Middle East.

With respect to Iran, the Holy See expressly encourages the continued pursuit of diplomatic means, adopting measures of transparency and reciprocal trust, always keeping in mind the authentic good of the peoples in the region.

In Iraq, the end of terrorist violence would offer the possibility of relaunching the reconstruction of the country and to arrive at a hoped-for reconciliation. But the threats continue and are sometimes specifically directed against Christian communities.

In this context, appropriate constitutional reform should safeguard the rights of minorities, relieve the difficulties of peoples caught up in conflict, and confront the problems of the homeless within the country and those who are fleeing it, among whom many are Christians.

Egypt, whose historical vestiges in antiquity and art are extraordinary, has been a melting pot of cultures and religions who, through the millennia, have forged her identity as a wise people. The efforts of Egypt toward peace and solutions that respect the rights of states and peoples have been numerous. Thus, there is positive confidence in the role that the nation can carry out in the uncertain Middle East region.

Nations like Bulgaria and Romania, who both have a long Christian tradition, have joined the European Union. On the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the Holy See expressed its hope for the full protection of the dignity of every man, with particular reference to religious freedom and the institutional rights of churches.

The tragic events in the last century must lead Europe to build a future free of every oppression and ideological conditioning. Only through reconciliation can Europe guarantee itself a future of hope. And we are happy at the signs of peace in the Balkans and the Caucasus. We would like to see in both regions not the flashpoints of war, but the light of peace, fraternity and forgiveness for the security of everyone.

Cyprus must be mentioned because of current negotiations related to her division. New prospects have emerged that must be encouraged and supported by the international community. The visit of the Holy Father in June could stimulate the call to peace, fraternity and reconciliation on the island.

And so we come to Turkey, as the 50th anniversary approaches of diplomatic relations with the Holy See. Living alongside the Muslim majority are Christian communities who are aware of their ancient heritage and the contributions they can continue to make to Turkish and European civilization.

The Holy Father has had many occasions to express his esteem for Islam and to reiterate the commitment to inter-religious dialog in an authentic spirit of reciprocity. Catholics appreciate the freedom of worship guaranteed by the Turkish Constitution and are happy to contribute to the wellbeing of their fellow citizens, particularly through their educational, charitable and healthcare activities.

The long-awaited juridical and civil recognition would allow the Catholic Church in Turkey to enjoy full freedoms. Situated on the frontier between Europe and Asia, Turkey can be a bridge among different religious and cultural regions, and contribute strongly to stable peace.

From this tour of the horizon, it is clear that the security of the world, seen from the specific observatory of the Middle East, continues to be fragile. Human freedom is a good to be shared, for which we are all responsible. Law and order guarantee freedom. But to become a force for peace, law and order must be firmly based on natural law, which the Creator has placed in the human heart, as the revealed Word firmly teaches us.

God himself can never be excluded from the horizon of man because he is our origin and our fulfillment.

Thursday, February 11

Except for the prayer card (second from right), all illustrations are from the shrines in Lourdes.
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
On February 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, an unschooled 14-year-old peasant girl in Lourdes, southern France, experienced the first of 18 apparitions during the next year of a lady who identified herself in Bernadette's dialect as the 'Immaculate Conception'. It had only been three years earlier that Pius IX had declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Against initial skepticism and mockery, Bernadette stuck to her story, and only four years later, the Church recognized the authenticity of the visions. People began to flock to Lourdes from other parts of France and from all over the world, and numerous miracles have been attributed to Our Lady's intercession. Lourdes today is the most visited religious shrine in the world. The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes became a worldwide observance in 1907, and the Church now observes the World Day for Sick People on this anniversary.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/021110.shtml


OR today.

At the General Audience, the Pope speaks on St. Anthony of Padua:
The importance of humanism born of the Christian faith
The economy needs people-friendly ethics


The other papal news is his meeting with a Lutheran delegation after the GA. Other Page 1 stories:
An editorial on the significance of the Lateran pacts signed 81 years ago today creating Vatican City
State and governing relations between the new state and the Italian government; Latin American
governments pledge $300 million for Haiti reconstruction.



THE POPE'S DAY
Mass for the Sick - The Holy Father presided at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the Feast of Our Lady
of Lourdes, which is also the 18th World Day for the Sick and the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical
Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers. Homily in Italian.

MASS FOR THE SICK
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES
XVIII World Day for the Sick
XXV Anniversary of the Pontifical Council
for Ministry to Healthcare Workers

A reliquary containing relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous was carried in procession through the streets of Rome to end at St. Peter's for the Papal Mass.



At 10:30 today, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided at St. Peter's Basilica at the Eucharistic concelebration on the occasion of the 29th World Day for the Sick and the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers.

The Mass was preceded by the arrival at the Basilica of the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous. Taking part in the Mass were pilgrims and sick persons in the care of UNITALSI (the Italian association for transporting sick peoople to Lourdes and other shrines) which ends its observance of teh World Day for the Sick with a procession this afternoon from Castel Sant'Angelo to St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father will deliver a blessing from his study window at around 5:30 p.m.






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

---

Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear brothers and sisters:

The Gospels, in their synthesizing description of the brief but intense public life of jesus, attest that he announced the Word and healed the sick, the definitive sign that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

For example, Matthew writes: "He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people" (Mt 4,23; cfr 9,35).

The Church, to whom is entrusted the task of prolonging the mission of
Christ in space and time, cannot neglect these two essential works: evangelization and healing the sick in body and spirit. Indeed, God wishes to heal the entire man, and in the Gospel, the healing of the body is the sign of the deepest healing of all, which is the remission of sins (cfr Mk 2,1-12).

No wonder then that Mary, mother and model of the Church, is invoked and venerated as Salus infirmorum, health of the sick. As the first and perfect disciple of her Son, she has always shown, accompanying the Church on her journey, a special solicitude for those who suffer. Witness to this are the thousands of persons who have gone to Marian shrines to invoke the Mother of Christ and find strength and comfort from her.

The Gospel account of the Visitation (cfr Lk 1,39-56) shows us how the Virgin, after the annunciation made by the Angel, did not keep the gift she received to herself, but immediately set out to help her aged cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John.

In the support offered by Mary to a relative who was having a delicate pregnancy at an advanced age, we see a pre-figuring of all the Church's activity in support of every life that requires care and healing.

The Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers, established 25 years ago by the Venerable John Paul II, is a special expression of such concern.

My thoughts go with gratitude to Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, first president of this discastery,e who has always been a passionate advocate in this area of Church activity; and to Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán who carried on the work until a few months ago,

And with great cordiality, I extend my greeting to the present President, Mons. Zygmunt Zimowski, who has taken on this important legacy, and to all the officials and personnel who have meritoriously collaborated this past quarter century in this office of the Holy See.

I also wish to greet the asssociations and organisms who are in charge of the World Day for the Sick, particularly UNITALSI and the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.

My most affectionate welcome goes of course to you, dear patients. Thank you for having come today and above all, for your prayers, which are enriched by the offering of your trials and sufferings.

I extend my greeting to the patients and volunteers who are linked to us from Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa, and other Marian shrines, to tho those who are with us through radio or television, and those who are in hospitals and hospices or in their own homes.

May the Lord God who watches constantly over his children, give each of you his comfort and consolation.

There are two principal themes presented by the liturgy of the Word today: the first has a Marian character and links the Gospel and the first Reading, taken from the final chapter of the Book of Isaiah, as well as the Responsorial Psalm taken from the canicle of praise in Judith.

The other theme, which we find in the passage from the Letter of James, is the prayer of the Church for the sick, particularly the sacrament that is reserved for them.

In memory of the apparitions at Lourdes, the place chosen by Mary to manifest her maternal solicitude for the sick, the liturgy opportunely reechoes the Magnificat, the Virgin's canticle which exalts the wonders of God in the history of salvation: the humble and the indigent, like all those who fear God, experience his mercy which overturns earthly destinies, thus showing the holiness of the Creator and Redeemer.

The Magnificat is not a song for those on whom fortune smiles, who always have 'the wind behind their sails'. It is rather the gratitude of those who know the tragedies of life but trust in the redemptive work of God.

It is a song that expresses the proven faith of generations of men and women who placed their hope in God and committed themselves first hand, like Mary, to be of help to their brothers in need.

In the Magnificat, we hear the voices of so many saints of charity - and I think specially of those who spent their lives among the sick and the suffering, like Camillo de Lellis and John of God, Damiaan Veuster and Benedetto Menni. Whoever has been close to suffering persons at length knows anguish and tears, but also the miracle of joy, which is the fruit of love.

The motherhood of the Church is a reflection of God's caring love about which the prophet Isaih speaks: "As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort" (Is 66,13).

It is a motherhood that speaks without words, that inspires comfort in hearts, an intimate joy, a joy that paradoxically coexists with pain and suffering. The Church, like Mary, keeps within herself the tragedies of man and the comfort of God, and keeps them together during her pilgrimage in history.

Through the centuries, the Church has shown the signs of God's love, which continues to work great things in humble and simple people.

Are not suffering that is accepted and offered, and the sincere and gratuitous sharing of it, miracles of love?

Is not the courage to confront evil when unarmed, like Judith, with only the strength of fath and hope in the Lord, a miracle that the grace of god continually inspires in so many persons who spend time and energy to help those who suffer?

For all this, we experience joy that does not forget suffering, but rather comprehends it. In this way, sick persons and all who suffer are in the Church not only as recipients of attention and care, but first and above all, as protagonists in the pilgrimage of faith and hope, witnesses to the wonders of love, and of the paschal joy that flowers from the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.

In the passage from the Letter of James that we just heard, the Apostle invites us to expect constantly the imminent coming of the Lord, and in this context, I wish to make a special exhortation to the sick.

This link is very interesting because it mirrors the act of Jesus who, in healing the sick, demonstrated the nearness of the Kingdom of God. Sickness is seen in the perspective of the final days with the realism of typically Christian hope.

"Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise" (Jm 5,13). These are similar to the words of St. Paul when he invites us to live every single thing in relation to the radical newness of Christ, to his death and resurrection (cfr 1 Cor 7,29-31).

"Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person" (Jm 5,14-15).

Christ's prolongation in his Church is evident here: It is still he who acts through the priests; it is his same Spirit that works through the sacramental sign of oil; it is to him that faith, expressed in prayer, is addressed; and as with the persons healed by Jesus, one can say to every sick person: your faith, sustained by the faith of your brothers and sisters, has saved you.

From this text, which contains the foundation and the practice of sacramental Unction for the sick, one also gets a view of the role of the sick in the Church.

It is an active role in order to 'provoke', so to speak, prayer that is made with faith. He who is sick should call the priests. In this Year for Priests, I wish to underscore the bond between sick persons adn priests, a kind of alliance, of evangelical 'complicity'.

Both have a task: the sick should 'call' the priests, and the latter should respond, in order to draw towards the experience of illness the presence and the action of the Risen Lord and his Spirit.

Here we see all the importance of the pastoral care of the sick, whose value is truly incalculable, for the immense good that it does to the sick person in the first place and to the priest, but also to the family, friends, the community, and through unknown and mysterious ways, to the whole Church and to the world.

In effect, when the Word of God speaks of healing, of salvation, of the health of the sick, it understands this concepts in an integral sense, never separating body and soul: a sick man healed by Christ's prayer, through the Church, is a joy on earth and in heaven, the first fruit of eternal life.

Dear friends, as I wrote in the encyclical Spe salvi; "The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and for society" (No. 38).

In establishing a dicastery dedicated to health ministry, the Holy See wished to make its own contribution to promote a world that is more capable of accepting and caring for the sick as persons. It has wanted to help them live the experience of illness in a humane manner, not denying it but giving a sense to it.

I wish to conclude these reflections with a thought from the Venerable Pope John Paul II to which he bore witness with his own life. In the Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, he wrote: "Christ taught men at the same time to do good with suffering and to do good with those who suffer. In this double aspect he revealed the basic sense of suffering" (No. 30).

May the Virgin Mary help us to live this mission fully. Amen.

---

Not wanting to have my own strong reactions get in the way, I thought I would let the dust settle a bit after the Vatican statement on the Boffo case, to which the reactions were fast and furious. Sandro Magister and Giuliano Ferrara acknowledge the statement, but Magister insists his reading of Cardinal Bertone's power 'over-reach' is well-founded (and cites new 'examples' in a long article today), while Ferrara lamented the tone of the note, which he claims bears the literary hand of Giovanni Vian, the OR editor who is involved in the whole brouhaha.

Most Vaticanistas immediately declared themselves completely in agreement with the note, even if they themselves had reported and fanned the story earlier, and now saying unanimously, "This should close the case" once and for all.

A couple of them who bucked the herd mentality, including Antonio Socci, made the same observation I made: Why didn't the parties involved all just pick up the phone and clear up things among themlselves before hanging it all out in public? Socci shares my misgivings about Cardinal Bertone's tendency to stand back and let the Pope ultimately take the flak for matters which are well within his competence. The blunt formulation was "He should be a shield for the Pope, rather than using the Pope as a shield". And that, IMHO, is what he and the OR editor have done, very simply!

Some have pointed out that the case is far from closed since Vittorio Feltri, the man who set this all in motion by making the most defamatory accusations against Boffo which he retracted three months later, is set to face a press association ethics inquiry into his journalistic misconduct on February 22 - at which time he may be forced to name his original 'sources'.

An interesting and independent position, apparently not shared by any of his colleagues, is that of Vittorio Messori, who has maintained it from the beginning, but that's another story in itself.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of the more sensible and unbiased reactions I have seen so far. I'll start with Bruno Mastroinanni, who wrote this ahead of his regular Thursday column:


The light of Benedict XVI's teaching
andt the poison of the Boffo soap opera
by Bruno Mastroianni
Translated from

Feb. 10, 2010


In the end, all the muck-raking related to the 'Boffo case' had some positive value: to give us, by contrast, a clear perception of the spiritual caliber of Benedict XVI. [Not that we needed any reminder, those of us who love and trust him fully!]

It is true that the sludge of speculation on the presumed misdeeds and internal battles among high-ranking prelates has created confusion. But ultimately, apart from satisfying the appetites of those who gloat over uncovering misdeeds by bishops and priests, the entire episode is having an opposite effect.

The purported factions and divisions making up this 'Roman soap opera' are of concern only to those who see the Church as an institutional machine like many others.

For all - and this includes both faithful and non-Catholic sympathizers - who appreciate the spiritual reality that the Church represents, the scandal constitutes a background against which the clear and luminous figure of Papa Ratzinger stands out.

By being fully committed to bringing back the attention of the Church to that which truly counts, he shows up this Vatican whodunit for what it is: events that are destined to turn hoary as the newspapers are.

Because what remains is man's hunger for God, present in every human creature, which the Church is called on to assuage. It is difficult to imagine a line of governing' more lucid than that of Benedict XVI who is focused on forming authentic Christians.


About Vittorio Messori who has taken a completely independent view of this since it all began. He sticks to it: He thinks the Italian bishops conference made a mistake when they kept Boffo on as their top tri-media man after he first told them back in 2004 about the court case for which he paid a fine. That they should have dismissed him then because they should have known it would come back to haunt them. [This is right, but only if one assumes that the facts of the court case are sordid and scandalous, to begin with. Cardinal Ruini, and Cardinal Bagnasco after him, obviously thought it was not a problem, but maybe they could have been merely naive.]

Messori still thinks that Boffo should disclose the files on the court case even now, to put an end to all speculation, especially because, he says, it could well turn up on the Internet some time soon. [But why should Boffo stir up all the fuss again? No enterprising muckraker so far has managed to get a statement from the complainant denying that the case was not about what Boffo has said it was!]

In a TV panel discussion Monday night, Messori said he received a number of "congratulatory calls from Curial figures" when he first wrote about his proposal.

So there we are. We have an all too human Curia who seem not to be following the example of the Holy Father, and seem to be oblivious of the call to holiness for all priests even in this Year for Priests.


And I believe this commentary goes to the heart of the entire Boffogate episode:


Boffogate: Winnowing
the grain from the chaff
by PIETRO DI MARCO
Translated from

February 10, 2010


The communique from the Secretariat of State which denies any foundation to the "news and reconstructions" that were intended to "demonstrate an involvement in the [Boffo] case of the editor of L'Osservatore Romano" and even "outright responsibility by the Cardinal Secretary of State" must be taken seriously.

We cannot doubt the correctness and sincerity of such a clearcut declaration regarding the falsity of of inferences quickly circulated about documents sent and/or endorsed or articles written under a pseudonym by persons who hold high responsibilities at the Vatican, ostensibly to promote the downfall of Dino Boffo.

On www.chiesa, some time in September-October last year, I had proposed a cautious scenario with far more protagonists, that could represent a plausible strategy of the Secretariat of State, with the aid of the Vatican newspaper (which it controls), to "deconstruct the Ruinian equilibrium in the Church-State relationship in Italy in order to be the sole arbiter in the Italian situation".

That context included the background struggle for control of the Fondazione Toniolo which runs the Catholic University of Milan. [Boffo has been and still is a member of the Toniolo's administrative Council and was seen to be Ruini's and then Bagnasco's representative. Quite a few Vaticanistas think this connection was plausible since they claim that the defamatory flier against Boffo was first circulated when the administrative council of Toniolo was voting to name a new rector and since re-circulated every time the Toniolo was scheduled to make an important vote.].

I did not consider such a strategy umotivated nor unreasonable, as much as mistaken in its objectives, and a bit cynical, as when one is too sophisticated in plotting one's moves. Judging by the possible calculations made and the means chosen, I had my reservations about the apparent strategy, and not less important, the methods used, not only about Boffo but in connection with other initiatives. In any case, I seek amends for my speculation.

But a complicated mess still remains, beyond the Boffo case, even after the Vatican note. For some time, the Secretariat of State, to carry out its own politics, has been intervening in sensitive matters between bishops and their respective governments, not just in Italy. It can well affirm that positions on 'national' issues are not within the competence of bishops, but it should not play its hand opportunistically on the 'right' or on the 'left'.

The communique notes that "a defamatory campaign is underway against the Holy See that involves the Holy Father himself". One must be clear about this: those who have criticized Cardinal Bertone or the OR editor were not criticizing the Holy Father in any way. The Secretary of State is not the Pontiff, even if in this Pontificate, he is clearly meant to complement the Pope's work.

The Pope has a central and formidable strategy, a mission to which he clearly has dedicated himself totally: reconstructing a Magisterium of essentials, a constant preaching to renew doctrinal vigor, to tap once again the vein of the traditio fidei after its slow post-Conciliar corruption, in which it has been banalized, diluted and rendered almost unpreachable.

The Magisterium and preaching of the Pope should be amplified by the Church, by those who teach and by those who learn. And the task of the Secretary of State is to complement and supplement the Pope in the concrete mission of governing and administration that is its part of the Church's mission, distinct from Papa Ratzinger's immense primary task of confirming his people in the faith.

The temptation to conceive and take on an autonomous policy of governing the Church of Rome is understandably strong in the division of labor whereby the Pope attends to rebuilding the faith, and the Secretary of State takes care of administering the Church.

And the theological culture of recent decades has not helped since it distinguishes extrinsically between 'inside' the Church and 'outside' the Church. But Benedict XVI's theology, oriented to the City of God, is necessarily political, just as the visible institution of the Church must be theological.

A misunderstanding of this gives rise to the objective interference and the occasional sense of stridency in the editorial choices of the Vatican newspaper or in the decisions of the Secretary of State.

However, the acts of those who govern and/or communicate, supposedly by the side of the Pope, cannot be autonomous but 'symphonic' with what he says. It is Cardinal Bertone's duty to protect the image of the Pope.

And it is certainly not useful to his task of governing the Church that he seems to be unaware that his actions are only 'externally' coordinated with the Pope's, and that he must take responsibility if unexpected and even traumatic politico-ecclesial events are attributed to the Church of Rome.

{My sentiments precisely during the Wielgus case and the Williamson case, in which the Secretariat of State not only failed to do its duties connected with the primary events themselves - to acquire and provide all the information necessary to enable the Pope to make administrative decisions and to backstop those decisions] - but left the Pope out there, by himself, exposed to all the slings and arrows that were thrown his way!

In the Boffo case, the three weeks of inaction came on the heels of the wide publicity given to the Holy Father's letter confirming Bertone in his position and praising him warmly for his good qualities. He should have lived up to that letter by making a statement decisively as soon as the Boffo case was rekindled in the newspapers on January 23, instead of waiting once again to let the Holy Father take the initiative.]


Here's the other commentary from Il Tempo, which is flawed by its fallacious premises:


The compass of Vatican interests
by Paolo Messa
Translated from

February 11, 2010


The Roman heart of the Church is in turmoil, and the official note from the Vatican have not sufficed to stifle the controversy. It is hard to deny that there seems to be a kind of derby within the Vatican hierarchy.

But it would be useful and interesting to distinguish between the internal quarrels (even those that are overt and legitimate) and the Pope's own basic choices.

For almost three weeks, the Italian newspapers were intent on recounting, as in a gossip-column or a soap opera, what they claim the Boffo case revealed - never mind that is very disputable - of a change of regime, from the firm governance of Cardinal Camillo Ruini in the Church of Italy, to that of the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. And in effect, the troops - journalistic and otherwise - who espoused this theory seemed to be supportive of Bertone.

The point is: is the duel, which has inspired so much attention in the Italian media and among not a few prelates in Rome, just a general dispute over 'temporal power', or does the presumed shift of the center of gravity - where Italian affairs are concerned - from the Italian bishops conference to the Secretariat of State, and from Avvenire to L'Osservatore Romano, have the Pope's imprimatur?

Cardinal Camillo Ruini was the advocate of a very precise image of the Italian Church for a long time. He was the symbol of a Catholic 'third party'-ism: patriotic, politically engaged but across the board, and rooted in the very nerve centers of the country's social dynamic. His solid and able leadership of the CEI allowed the bishops to play a leading role in the strategic choices for the country.

The passage from Papa Wojtyla to Papa Ratzinger inevitably meant some discontinuity. Benedict XVI has chosen a Magisterial line that is condensed ideally in his encyclical Caritas in veritate, in which the doctrinal element is the priority, and the interest shifted from Italy alone to all states, with particular interest in international geopolitics and economics.

[But it is wrong to conclude that because the Pope is interested in the international picture, he should be any less interested in what's happening in Italy. He is still Primate of Italy and Bishop of Rome. One only has to listen to his weekly Angelus messages and homilies to see how consistently he is aware of this - that he is not just pastor of the Unviersal Church, but of Rome and of Italy as well.

The question is: who should concern themselves more about Italian affairs - Bertone or the Italian bishops? In Italy, the Pope works through the Italian bishops. Cardinal Bertone's avowed intention, which he set down in black and white, is to exclude the Italian bishops from dealing with Italian politicians on issues that affect the lives of Italian Catholics, when that is, after all, the pastoral duty of the Italian bishops.

Cardinal Bertone can deal with the rest of the world, as he should. Why does he want to usurp the duty of the Italian bishops, clearly spelled out in the Lateran Pacts? When he was Archbishop of Genoa, would he have welcomed the Vatican telling him to butt out of dealing with civilian officials?]

The work of the new editor of L'Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, should be looked at in this perspective because it represents the direction of Papa Ratzinger's Church. [Vian himself said at the start that the Pope gave him specific guidelines: more attention to international affairs, more attention to the Oriental Churches, and more involvement by women writers. The problem is not the content of the OR; but the way the presentation and the very choice of news items are often slanted to represent Vian's personal opinions, as he has made clear in a number of those interviews that he has been giving quite freely.]

The OR represents the compass of a difficult but fascinating Pontificate. [Excuse me, no! It simply reflects - or it should - the direction of the true compass, the Pope himself.]

In the near future, it is possible that the Church will find itself less interested in the battles over Law 40 on assisted reproduction and more on the strategic balance in China and Africa and how this can affect evangelization. [In the examples cited, there is no question of having to make a choice. The Italian battles over bioethics involve non-negotiable principles which the Church will never abandon - even if Mr. Vian decides not to give it the attention it demands - and the reporting by OR on China and Africa has not been enterprising or original, much less comprehensive, at all. I am sure the Pope gets his insights on international affairs more from the reports he gets from his Nuncios and bishops around the world than from the newspapers, least of all, the OR with its rationed space.]

It is posssible that some politicians, and not a few journalists and lay organizations, may feel disoriented in this context. [No, they should not! Because the time is long past when anyone had to scrutinize the OR like reading tea leaves to find out exactly what the Vatican means. No one expresses better what the Vatican means and intends to do than Benedict XVI himself - and the is obliged to publish all his texts.

To indulge in the useless exercise of using the OR for other than reading the Pope's texts - and occasional religious, cultural and historical articles that one does not usually find in other newspapers - is simply foolish. No one goes, or should go, to the OR for general news! Its staff is not equipped for that kind of reportage. If no one has articulated that obvious fact so far, it's because no one wants to be the one who says the emperor is naked. ]

What must not be encouraged is to look at the fundamental problems of the Church peeping through a keyhole or with the idea that everything can be solved simply by naming the right people.

Let us avoid exporting the provincialism of the Italian media to the Vatican. We can all do better to reread Caritas in veritate.



I have been waiting for some commentator to note how uncharacteristic was the tone and language of the Secretariat of State communique. But as no one has done so yet, I will now.

The note is peremptory and petulant, and I do not see why the OR decided to preface it, when it printed it, with the sentence: "This text was approved by the Holy Father who directed that it be published". The line was not part of the communique issued to everyone the day before; it simply reinforces the impression that SecState and the OR are using the Holy Fahter to shield them, instead of the other way around. This would not matter at all if the note itself reflected anything of the Benedict XVI we know. But it does not, in many ways.

Aside from the acid tone, there is not a line at all to acknowledge that Boffo was unjustly defamed, much less to regret that he had to pay the price with his resignation. Nor is there any acknowledgment and sympathy for the turmoil that the Italian bishops' conference had to undergo as a result. It is a very 'self-centered' statement, intent only on asserting self-righteousness. In short, there was no charity in the note.

The Italian bishops were more 'attentive to the interests of the Church' when they immediately issued a statement to support the Vatican note, and even if they did so out of a sense of duty rather than full sharing, at least they did the right thing and closed ranks with the Vatican immediately.

On Sunday, Pope to visit Caritas
hostel, clinic and mess hall
at Rome's main train station
Translated from
the 2/12/10 issue of





An ambulatory polyclinic, a pharmacy and the hostel named after Caritas-Rome founder Don Luigi Di Liegro. as well as the evening soup kitchen for the homeless, are the centers of the diocesan Caritas at Rome's main train station, which Benedict XVI will visit on Sunday, February 14.

The program was made known Thursday morning at the Marconi Hall of Cardinal Vicar Agostino Vallini, who emphasized how in the past 30 years, the city and the diocese have worked closely to help those who live in indigent and marginal conditions.

He recalled the work of Fr. Luigi Di Liegro, who was "indefatigable in inspiring the community to think of the poor,and who was responsible for courageous initiatives".

The Pope's visit to a Caritas center on Sunday comes three years after he visited the soup kitchen on Colle Oppio near the Colosseum on January 4, 2007.

It is also a visible sign of the Pope's participation in the Year of the Fight against poverty and social exclusion decreed by the European Union for 2010.

Taking place on February, the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, co-patrons of Europe, the Bishop of Rome hopes to call the attention of other bishops to similar initiatives in their respective dioceses.

"It is a pastoral gesture," said Cardinal Vallini, "a sign of encouragement for those who work in this center of reception and opposition to marginalization that has become through the years a place symbol for the city".

"The Christian community cannot forget or pretend not to see persons who are excluded from normal society. True faith is that which is expressed in love and charity.."

Accompanying the Pope to the centers in Via Marsala will be Bishops Merisi, president of Caritas Italy; Mandara, euxiliary bishop for central Rome; and Di Tora, who succeeded Don Di Liegro as director of Caritas Rome after the latter died in 1997; and the current director, Mons. Feroci.

On the part of civilian authorities, there will be the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, and the president of the Italian state railways, the entity that provided the space for the Caritas activities in Rome's main train station.

The Pope will observe the various services of the center, starting with the polyclinic where he will meet the doctors and nurses, whose services now extend beyond first aid, emergency and attention to indigent sick, but also has a mobile clinic. Some 300 volunteers have helped more than 80,000 persons since the clinic opened in 1997.

Since Don Di Liegro opened the hostel in 1987, it has provided overnight accommodation for more than 1,200,000 persons - as many as the residents of Naples, twice the population of Palermo, and four times that of Bologna. It can accommodate some 200 homeless every night.

the Pope's final stop will be the mess hall, where he will unveil a commemorative marker and bless the cornerstone of proposed redevelopment.

The mess hall serves 500 meals every evening to indigents who are provided a meal card by Caritas reception centers or the municipal offices.

After greetings from the railways director, a female beneficiary of the center, and Cardinal Vallini, the Pope will speak, and then get to meet some of the wards, who, Vallini said, "will have the chance to experience the sensitivity of Benedict XVI.

To help raise money for the redevelopment, which the national adn city governments will help finance, Caritas recently launched a fund-raising drive dubbed 'Un Cuore in Stazione'.


Poster for the fund-raising project features a station bench with the sketch of a man sleeping on it, and the tagline "Pietro does not live here anymore"; at right, the pastoral letter notifying the Caritas staff and volunteers of the Pope's visit.

Papal blessing ends observance
of World Day for the Sick






VATICAN CITY, Feb. 11 (Translated from ASCA) - A long and slow reverential procession along Via della Conciliazione towards St. Peter's Square concluded the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the 18th World Day for the Sick.

There were many patients on wheelchairs, Red Cross nurses, volunteers, many faithful - all with the traditional lit candle in hand to pray and participate in the Marian celebration.

The faithful followed behind a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous in a reliquary.

At St. Peter's Square, they all looked towards the Pope's study window. Promptly, on schedule, the Pope came to the window with his own lit candle and blessed teh sick and the faithful.

"Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your love for those who are sick and suffering, and for the Lord", he said, before imparting the blessing.




Present in St. Peter's Square was the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, who said that "Having the relics of St. Bernadetted with us is a message of closeness and solidarity towards those who suffer", adding that "Solidarity is never purely material but a spiritual fact especially important to those who suffer".

The ceremony ended with fireworks.




5,000 afflicted persons join
procession to the Vatican



Vatican City, Feb 12, 2010 (CNA).- On Thursday evening five thousand people with illnesses, supported by volunteers, family and friends, processed the half-mile from Castel Sant'Angelo, on the banks of Rome's Tiber River, to St. Peter's Square for the World Day of the Sick.

The group was accompanied by the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous, and was met at the end by the Holy Father himself.

The thousands of pilgrims carried candles and sang the Ave Maria of Lourdes as they made their way up the Via della Conciliazione to receive the Apostolic blessing from Pope Benedict in St. Peter's Square.

The throng, carrying with them the relics of St. Bernadette, brought the "atmosphere and sense of devotion that are breathed each day in the French sanctuary" to the Holy See, reported Vatican Radio.

In his blessing, the Holy Father welcomed the group emphatically, saying, "Dear friends! Thank you for your prayer, thanks for your love for the sick, for our Lord!"

"With all my heart I impart on you the Apostolic blessing!"

The procession, which was followed by a fireworks display, marked the conclusion of the Vatican's celebration of the 18th annual World Day for the Sick. Mass had been celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI for the occasion and the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes earlier on Thursday.

Irish sex abuse victims
ask Church for $1.37 billion
By Francis X. Rocca



VATICAN CITY, February 11 (RNS) -- Irish victims of clerical sex abuse are asking Pope Benedict XVI for over $1.37 billion in compensation, in a letter that the head of Ireland's Catholic Church will hand-deliver to the Pope next week.

The letter also requests a meeting with Benedict during his forthcoming visit to Britain, expected to take place in September.

Cardinal Sean Brady received the letter from representatives of sex abuse victims on Monday (Feb. 8), according to a report in the Irish Independent.

Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore said the Pope will receive the letter when he meets with Irish bishops next Monday and Tuesday, reportedly to discuss last November's Murphy Commission report. That report traced a pattern of clerical physical and sexual abuse over three decades, from 1975-2004, which had been covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin.

In December, Benedict expressed “outrage,” “shame,” and “profound regret” over the report's revelations, and the Vatican announced he would write a letter to Irish Catholics “in which he will clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the situation.” The Pope's letter is widely expected to be published shortly after next week's meeting.

Four Irish bishops have already resigned as a consequence of the Murphy Commission's revelations.

The February 11 issue of the British liberal Catholic
newspaper, The Tablet,

that leads off with a commentary on Pope Benedict XVI's
remarks on existing or proposed UK legislation labelled
as 'equality laws' (posied on preceding page of this thread)
also turns out to contain an editorial opposing Catholic
teaching on homosexuality - not among those accessible to
non-subscribers. Lifesite News has a report. which also
provides context and other useful information:



Ahead of the Pope's visit,
'Tablet' urges Church to change
its teaching on homosexuality



LONDON, February 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Britain’s left-leaning Catholic magazine, the Tablet, has called for the Catholic Church to “if not doctrinally, at least pastorally” change its teaching on homosexuality.

The Catholic Church, said an unsigned editorial titled, “The Deepest Human Desire,” should “move on with confidence,” to facilitate greater acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle, or risk losing public approval.

Referring to the media uproar following comments made to the English bishops by Pope Benedict XVI opposing the Labour government’s proposed Equality Bill, the Tablet said, “The Church must take seriously, and ponder deeply, the underlying reasons for this week’s furore.”

The problem, the editorial said, is the “Catholic attitude to homosexuality.”

“What gay Catholics say is that it is not so much the Church’s disapproval of their sexual activity that hurts and damages them, as its inability to comprehend and value their emotional lives, their relationships. The deepest human desire of all is to love and be loved.” The Tablet asserts that many have found this love in same-sex relationships.

But this rosy view of the homosexual lifestyle is distinctly at odds with the findings of many studies, as well as abundant anecdotal evidence, that show homosexual activities to be mentally and physically damaging.

In a hard-hitting television documentary in 2008, homosexual activist and journalist Simon Fanshawe described the “gay scene” in London and elsewhere in Britain as a “sewer” of casual, degrading sex, drug abuse and misery.

Fanshawe pulled no punches in his investigation of bath houses, gay clubs and gay “beauty pageants” where sex, obsession with looking young and “chasing the ultimate sexual high” form the centre of life for many homosexuals.

Gay men, he said, are so "hardwired" towards finding casual sexual encounters, some going as far as plastic implants to enhance their appearance, that finding genuine intimacy is "practically impossible.”

Gay men, he said, have “organise[d] our identity around sex. And that is corrosive. And to make things worse, promiscuity has become the norm.”

While Fanshawe ended his documentary with a plug for homosexual “marriage” as a solution to the shallowness and unfulfilling promiscuity of the gay lifestyle, a soon-to-be released study has, according to the New York Times, found that gay “marriages” themselves are highly polygamous, with frequent extra-‘marital’ liasons being the norm for these unions.

Available evidence of the harms of the gay lifestyle notwithstanding, the Tablet insists that the Catholic Church needs to change. In the face of growing public “tolerance” for homosexuals, the Church should "move beyond a sterile state of disapproval," lest it "lose the sympathy of wide sections of the public." [As if the Church would adapt its teachings to public opinion!]

"Is the Church able to move beyond a sterile state of dis­approval that is in danger of becoming part of its public profile?" the Tablet asks, blasting the Church for its "inability to comprehend and value [homosexual persons'] emotional lives [and] their relationships."

The Tablet implied the support of none other than Pope Benedict XVI for this position, saying that his encyclical Deus Caritas Est supplies a "context" for understanding that homosexual relationships should be "treasured and respected." [It is inconceivable how anyone could interpret DCE's passages on inter-personal relationships of love as a justification for practising homosexuality!]

John Smeaton, the head of the U.K.'s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said the editorial, "goes beyond mere opinion, and is in fact a manifesto for homosexual equality."

Smeaton wrote, "It is part of a softening-up and consciousness-raising exercise within the Church. It is clear that The Tablet intends to use the months leading up to the Pope's visit as part of a media campaign to entrench an anti-life and anti-family agenda within official Catholic circles."

Catholics in the U.K. who adhere to and wish to promote the Church's teaching on sexuality have complained for years that theTablet is one of their greatest foes.

Sold in most U.K. Catholic parishes, taken by most of its religious orders, and quoted freely as an authoritative voice for the Catholic Church by the secular media, the Tablet has come to represent the Catholic Church in Britain.

Smeaton said, "For a parish priest to take the Tablet in bulk for sale to his parishioners is like a psychiatrist ordering cyanide capsules in bulk for sale to his depressed patients.

"The Tablet isn't known as 'The Bitter Pill' for nothing."

In August last year, the Tablet was blasted by Denver bishop Charles Chaput for an editorial in which the magazine urged the U.S. Bishops to support Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.

The U.S. bishops, the magazine said, "have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue - making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion - rather than the more general principle of the common good."

Bishop Chaput, in a letter published on the Denver diocese website, said that the editorial was the result of "ignorance and cynicism."

"It proves once again that people don't need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues," the bishop wrote.

"Abortion is not, and has never been, a 'specifically Catholic issue,' and the editors know it."

Founded in 1840, the Tablet was sold to a group of laity by Cardinal Hinsley in 1935, and taken on by "The Tablet Trust" in 1976. It made its first public break with Catholic sexual teaching in August 1968 over the issuance of Pope Paul VI's encyclical on contraception, Humanae Vitae.


On the other hand, it turns out someone identified as 'a journalist for The Tablet' wrote the following article for the Times of London earlier this week. Recall that Tablet editor Catherine Pepinster was one of the very first to react to the confirmation of the papal visit to the UK, writing for the Guardian on Feb. 3 (See page 65 of this thread- 'My pride in Pope Benedict's visit'):


The Pope's visit -
worth every penny

Secularists will want to portray Catholics as closed-minded oddballs
obsessing about sex, but the truth is rather different

by Christopher Lamb


“Why should British taxpayers pick up the bill for the Pope’s visit?” an indignant radio presenter asked me live on air last week.

After the media storm whipped up over Pope Benedict XVI’s criticism of the Government’s equality legislation, there appears to be a growing hostility to his visit to Britain later this year.

However, in answer to the earlier question I think there are some compelling reasons why people in Britain should look forward to this historic event.

Firstly, this is a visit from a head of state whom Britain benefits from having good relations with.

Quietly, in recent years, Britain and the Vatican have worked together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to eradicate extreme poverty, combat aids and protect the environment.

Recently, Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, writing in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper, explained that, “the Catholic Church… has been a crucial partner to the international community in helping to achieve the MDGs.”

People can easily forget that the Catholic faith has around a billion followers and it has embassies all over the world. Therefore the papal visit, only the second ever made by a pontiff to this county, is a boost to Britain’s foreign policy.

And just for the record, while the taxpayer will be paying for a large part of the visit, the Catholic Church in this country is donating a sizeable chunk.

Second, the Pope’s visit is not only for Catholics. He’s the most prominent Christian leader in the world and won’t just be addressing his own followers – as if they were part of a sect – when he speaks.

His desire is to address, in the words of the seminal Second Vatican Council text, Gaudium et Spes, “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age.”

One area where he has something important to say is on the economy. The Pope’s most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was a subtle critique of unfettered capitalism.

In the light of the British economy’s travails his message that support should be given to “economic initiatives which, without rejecting profit, aim at a higher goal than the mere logic…of profit as an end in itself,” seems like an apt one.

No doubt he will reiterate the Church’s support for the family and there will be those who will accuse the Pope of bigotry because of the insistence that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

However, while there will be no budge in Church teaching, the Pope’s style has been to stress that the Christian faith is not a list of prohibitions but the path to true freedom.

As he told the Scottish Bishops last Friday: “the Church offers the world a positive and inspiring vision of human life, the beauty of marriage and the joy of parenthood. It is rooted in God’s infinite, transforming and ennobling love for all of us, which opens our eyes to recognize and love his image in our neighbour.”

Also, at the end of the visit, it is expected that the Pope will preside at the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, close to becoming the first English saint since the Reformation.

Newman, of course, was for many years an Anglican priest and one of the leading figures in the Church of England during the 19th century. This, then, is an event of special importance to both Churches.

Third, the visit will show that Catholicism makes a valuable contribution to Britain. Secularists will want to portray Catholics as closed-minded oddballs obsessing about sex, but the truth is rather different.

A recent Ipsos Mori poll found that Catholics, due to their faith, place a higher than normal emphasis on helping the poor, homeless and giving aid abroad.

The numerous Catholic charities in this country such as The Passage in central London, the largest day care centre for the homeless in the country, are testament to that (this is such an impressive charity that even the vocal atheist Stephen Fry was happy to host one of their fundraising receptions).

The four million Catholics in this country are a varied bunch, involved in every area of society from Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the civil service, to Peter Kay, the comedian. Walk into a Catholic Church and you’ll find the homeless rubbing shoulders with ministers of state. Talk about a model for social cohesion.

Without doubt the visit will generate controversy, but to those who wish to see it, the Pope can offer a morale boost to the country and some badly needed moral leadership.

I think it’s worth every penny.

Friday, February 12

ST. APOLLONIA (Egypt, d Alexandria 249), MARTYR
One of the early martyrs of the Church, she is thought to have been a deaconess quite advanced
in age at the time of her death. In the first wave of persecutions against Christians under
Emperor Philip, Christians fled Alexandria after some of them were stoned to death. Apollonia
was captured by a mob who beat her and knocked out all her teeth. They then built a fire and
threatened to burn her unless she denounced her God. Legend has it she asked them to give her
a minute to think about it, then jumped into the fire herself. She is considered the patron of
dentists, and her images generally show her with pincers holding teeth. In the Middle Ages, she
was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers who were saints invoked for help in specific diseases.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/021210.shtml


OR today.

On the World Day for the Sick, the Pope hopes the world can accept and treat
all sick persons with loving care:
'God wants to heal the whole man'
Other Page 1 stories: An editorial commentary on relativistic attitudes towards illness and disease;
in the face of Greece's deficit crisis, European Union leaders vow to defend the stability of the
euro but have no specific proposals; North Korea faces more food shortages this year as the 2009
harvest was 5% lower than in 2008. And in the inside pages, a report on Cardinal Bertone's current
trip to Poland, where he received an honorary degree yesterday from the University of Wroclaw.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Bishops of Romania (Group 2) on ad-limina visit.
Afterwards, he met with all the Romanian bishops, whom he addressed in Italian.

In the afternoon, he will make his annual visit, as Bishop of Rome, to the Major Seminary
of the diocese at the Lateran. According to a seminary official, this year, they will be
joined by students from other seminaries in Rome.



NEW SAINTS TO BE DECLARED
ON FEBRUARY 19

The Vatican has announced a consistory on February 19 to announce the canonization of the
following new saints:

- STANISŁAW SOŁTYS (KAZIMIERCZYK), Polish Priest, Lateran Regular Canons

- ANDRÉ (ALFRED) BESSETTE, Canadian Priest, Congregation of the Holy Cross

- CÁNDIDA MARÍA DE JESÚS (JUANA JOSEFA) CIPITRIA Y BARRIOLA, Spanish, Virgin, Founder of the Congregation
of the Daughters of Jesus

- MARY OF THE CROSS (MARY HELEN) MACKILLOP, Australian, Virgin, Founder of the Congregation of the Sisters
of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart

- GIULIA SALZANO, Italian, Virgin, Founder of the Congregation of Sister Catechists of the Sacred Heart

- BATTISTA (CAMILLA) VARANO, Italian, Virgin, Nun of the Order of St. Clare


SNOW IN ST. PETER'S
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 24 YEARS






VATICAN CITY, Feb. 12 - It's been 24 years since the last time a snow flake fell on St. Peter's Square. The last time the Vatican saw snow was on January 6, 1986.

Snow fell this morning as the Pope worked in his study, He peeked through his window to get a glimpse of the white wonderland below.

The snow started to fall around 8 a.m. Behind a white backdrop, tourists scattered around St. Peter's Square to capture rare images of the basilica, which are usually only seen on post cards.

In other parts of the city, there were reports the Colosseum and the Roman Forum shut down due to the snow.

POPE AT WORK!