Saturday, January 23
Right photo: Blessed Marianne's beatification rites in St. Peter's Basilica.
BLESSED MARIANNE COPE (b Germany 1838, d Hawaii 1918)
Virgin, Professed Franciscan of the Third Order, Missionary
Born Maria Anna Barbara Koob in Darmstadt, Germany. Her parents migrated to the United States when she
was a baby and settled in Syracuse, New York. She joined the Third Order Franciscan nuns and was taught in
schools for immigrants. She was assigned as superior to several places, during which she helped found
the first two Catholic hospitals in the US, gaining the experience she would later use in Hawaii. In 1877,
she was elected Mother Provincial of her order and re-elected in 1881. In 1883, she and some of her fellow
nuns answered a bid from the Hawaiian government to run a center for receiving leprosy patients in Maui.
In 1888, she went to Molokai to help Father Damien (now St. Damien) run the leper colony during his final
months. She took over after he died and served the lepers for the rest of her life, gaining fame for her
holiness as Mother Marianne of Molokai. It was considered a miracle that she did not catch the disease in
the 30 years she spent there. She was one of the first two persons beatified under Benedict XVI in rites
at St. Peter's Basilica on May 14, 2005.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/012310.shtml
OR today.
The papal story in this issue is on the new book documenting Benedict XVI's pastoral trips in Italy from May 2005 to
September 2009 - with the texts of the presentations made Friday by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Mons. Fernando Filoni
(deputy Secretary of State for internal affairs), and Gianni Letta, undersecretary of the Italian Prime Minister's cabinet.
Other Page 1 stories: The UN plans to transfer Haiti quake victims from shattered Port au Prince to tent cities on safer
ground; study shows that in 10 years, the emerging economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia, etc) will outgrow the
current G7 nations in GDP; and the US defense secretary tells Pakistani officials that the US is 'in for the long term' to
fight terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Today's ecumenical feature is about relations with the Anglicans. And on
relations with the Jews, an interview with the director of a Jerusalem center for promoting these relations.
THE POPE'S DAY
The Holy Father met today with
- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)
- Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Vicar-General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome
- Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Emeritus President of the Pontifical Committee for International
Eucharistic Cingresses
- Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, emeritus President of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace and the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Workers
- Mons. Francesco Monterisi, Arch-Priest of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls
The Vatican released the following papal texts:
- Message for World Day of Social Communications, 2010 (all offocial Vatncain languages)
- Message to the newly-elected patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Irinej of Pec (English)
- The Holy Father's letters on January 16 to the President of Haiti and the Chairman of the Haitian
bishops' conference expressing his condolence for the catastrophe caused by the earthquake (French).
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/01/2010 14:38]