BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

The Pope in Sicily
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 10/4-10/5 issue of



Ten hours were sufficient for Benedict XVI to speak to the true heart of Palermo, of Sicily and of the Sicilians. And through them, to all of Italy, as he said in his meeting with the youth, the last event but what the Pope himself called 'the central one', in a day that was truly memorable.

It was a visit that allowed hundreds of thousands of persons - perhaps as many as half a million, if one combines those who were present at the different events and those who turned out on the streets - to welcome the Bishop of Rome to one of the most beautiful of European capitals.

He came to confirm the Sicilians in their faith and returned home confirmed in turn by the faith and hope of the Sicilians. He underscored this earlier to the young people and families at the final event, exchanging tender hugs with those who joined him on stage.

The visit was an important event, not just for Sicily. But most of the Italian media appeared to have failed to appreciate what the event truly was and what it had demonstrated - between news agencies that failed to take an overview of the whole day, and national newspapers which did not think the event merited Page 1. With the notable exception of some TV newscasts and Page 1 references in La Repubblica and L'Unita. [How ironic, considering that Repubblica is the leading anti-Church newspaper, and L'Unita is the Communist newspaper! But really, what happened to Il Giornale and Il Foglio? It's odd that neither Andre Tornielli nor Paolo Rodari have reported so far...]]

And there was the London newspaper Independent, which ignored the strong condemnations of the Mafia by Benedict XVI, making us miss the exemplary coverage provided by the British media during the Pope's state visit there. [Actually, the Independent perversely chose to stay with the one and only story filed by all the Anglophone news agencies, whose common line was that the Pope failed to mention the Mafia by name during his homily at the Mass - which was only the first of five papal texts for the day, during which he was quite explicit about the Mafia.]

The Pope condemned organized crime many times, starting with the homily at the mammoth Mass by the Mediterranean, and with unequivocal clarity. Three times he recalled Don Pino Puglisi, the priest 'killed by the Mafia' in 'a barbarous assassination', adding his voice to what the Sicilian bishops have been preaching.

And at the end of the visit, he added a symbolic gesture which will be remembered. In the dying light of day along the highway, he stopped to lay flowers and say a silent prayer at the roadside monument in Capaci in memory of judge Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinero and Vito Schifani - victims of a deadly ambush which has become an emblem of the Sicilians' fight against the Mafia.

In Palermo, Benedict XVI left words which will not be forgotten, bringing "strong encouragement not to be afraid to bear clear witness to human and Christian values" and raising his tone to say "We must be ashamed of evil, of that which offends God and man. We should be ashamed of evil when it infests the civilian and religious community with activities that cannot stand the light of day".

He later exhorted the young people, and certainly not just those of Sicily, not to be afraid to oppose evil. "Do not yield," he said, to the blandishments of the Mafia, which is a way of death, incompatible with the Gospel".

But how to overcome so many difficulties, the problems of daily life and its ever more urgent concerns? The Pope repeated his answer in the three major meetings he had and summarized it to the young people: By going to the roots, keeping alight in families - as the first place where children are educated - the flame of faith that is handed down from generation to generation" in a Christian land like Sicily with its ancient traditions and vitality.

And that Sicily has a future if her people imitate the men and women whom the land and its traditions had raised in sanctity albeit silently - in order to create new hope from the certainty that no one can take away the joy and the certainty of the faith. With a Church that, at the service of everyone, can and wants to help Sicily to breathe again.


AP, AFP and Reuters did not even bother to report on the Pope's other events in Palermo. Perhaps because subsequent events gave the lie quite sweepingly to their initial headline - in which they stressed how anti-Mafia activists were disappointed that the Pope had not been more forceful against the Mafia in his homily and had not, in fact, even mentioned the Mafia by name; and secondarily, comparing Benedict XVI unfavorably with John Paul II who in one of five visits to Sicily, had called on the Mafia in prophetic tones to repent because they will be judged by God.

And so, none of the news agencies saw fit to write about the Pope's unscheduled roadside stop to pay tribute to the victims of the Mafia and praying for all such victims, even if they did feed the photos of the event that were provided by L'Osservatore Romano.

Another media problem highlighted during the Palermo visit has to do with crowd estimates. The first stories in English - even those by CNA - said 'Palermo polic'e estimated the crowd at 30,000. Which stumped me because during the live coverage of the Mass, the Vatican Radio commentators started out by saying that "Organizers expected 100,000 for this Mass but clearly there are more than 100,000 present today".

Then, later on, some time around Communion, the commentator said "We have just been told by the Palermo police that they estimate the crowd at more than 200,000, perhaps as many as 250,000".

Therefore, it was quite an outrage to read the Anglophone wire stories an hour later citing 30,000 as the figure - when I had seen the TV cameras sweep over the crowd. Even the Palermo police could not have been so dumb as to say that crowd only numbered 30,000!

The above has to be borne in mind when reading the following post-visit report from CNA. In a way, it is almost condescending to the Pope, as in, "Gee, you did it again! It's a miracle!" As if it could not possibly happen unless it was a miracle. It is distressing when Catholic media itself - and even, as this story claims, the #2 man at the Vatican press office - takes this kind of an attitude toward Benedict XVI, like John Allen at his most cynical. Sorry to bring him up again - it's just that since he writes more often about the Pope than his colleagues in the Anglophone media, he is bound to be correspondingly more on record with his cynical, often unwarranted digs.]





Pope Benedict's Sicily visit
draws another 'miracle' turnout


Vatican City, Oct 4, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Contrary to preliminary reports from Sicily on Sunday, the crowds attending papal events in the island's capital city were "never before seen in Italy."

According to an official from Holy See's Press Office who was on the ground at the event, this is just the latest occurrence in a continuous "crescendo" of "miracle" turnouts for Pope Benedict XVI.

The Holy Father visited Sicily for just 10 hours on Sunday, but according to press office figures, he was seen by nearly 300,000 people. Three major events marked the day's schedule, two of which were outdoors on a very hot, clear day.

Police figures originally put the figure at 30,000 people for the morning Mass on the seafront esplanade called the "Foro Italico." But the sub-director of the Holy See's Press Office, Fr. Ciro Benedettini, who was able to get the official estimates from local authorities, said on Monday that the figure was "around 200,000." [Why couldn't the CNA reporter in Palermo ask the Palermo police himself for the figure??? Why get it second-hand?]

From his vantage point at the altar, he said, there were people as far as the eye could see, and accompanying the Pope's every movement across the city there was a robust line of people to greet him as he passed.

Of these and the "at least 30,000" young people and families that showed for the afternoon encounter with the Holy Father in a city square, Fr. Benedettini said that for a pastoral visit in Italy, "they are the highest figures we have ever seen."

A "consistent crescendo" of interest has followed the Pope recent trips, he said, which include the U.K., where the Pope was also seen by hundreds of thousands of people. An estimated 500,000 attendees joined the Pope for Mass at the Marian shrine in Fatima, Portugal, during his visit there last May.

He also referred to the reverent silence of the crowds during events at which the Pope presides as a “miracle.” The same total silence was observed on Sunday in Sicily, just as it was at Mass in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park, at London's Hyde Park during the prayer vigil and also at Blessed Cardinal Newman's beatification Mass in Birmingham.

Not wishing to make a comparison with turnouts for celebrations during John Paul II's five visits to the island, Fr. Benedettini emphasized his positive impressions to journalists in the Vatican press office on Monday, asking, "Did you see the enthusiasm of the young people? They were as happy with Pope Benedict and more."


OR devotes its usual Monday-Tuesday double issue to the Sunday visit to Palermo, limited this time to the Papal texts and Vian's editorial. No wrap-up story, strangely enough. And the choice of pictures was not exactly stellar. And, of course, one wishes they could post more online (I somehow think the paper edition does contain more pictures):







This is the picture they chose for Page 1.


La Stampa's Vaticanista Giacomo Galeazzi has written for his blog for what obviously his editors could find no space in their news pages. Once before, I remember Galeazzi doing this - during the Pope's visit to Genoa. similarly under-covered and under-rated in the Italian press. Galeazzi does not muzzle his personal reactions in his blog entries. His title states a fact that the Vatican press official earlier would not commit himself to, in the CNA story.


For Benedict XVI, crowds never
seen before in Palermo


Oct. 4, 2010


250,000 faithful at the Mass at Foro Italico, 500,000 all in all during the visit to Palermo. Even in Sicily, Benedict XVI surpassed the most optimistic expectations for attendance, as he did in the recent trip to the United Kingdom (600,000 turned out to see him in a nation with 6 million Catholics).

"The people appreciate and understand his message which is simple and strong," according to some in the Secretariat of State.

Never had so many people gathreed in Sicily for a religious event. And Benedict XVI's strong words against the Mafia and in favor of a moral rebirth for the island were welcomed as liberating.

"In Palermo, as in all of Sicily, there is no lack of difficulties, problems and concerns. I think especially of those who live their cexistence concretely in precarious conditions, because of lack of employment, uncertainty about the future, physical and moral sufferings, and because of organized crime".

For Papa Ratzinger, in such a situation which is humanly despairing, the Christian should not allow himself to be defeated. "The temptation to be discouraged, to be resigned," he pointed out, "comes to those who are weak in faith, who confuse good with evil, to those who think that in the face of evil, nothing can be done. On the contrary, he who is firmly founded on faith, who has full trust in God and lives in the Church, is able to bring forth the explosive power of the Gospel".

"Jesus invites us to be humble," he said earlier, "but not to be cowardly", citing Paul in his letter to Timothy, who wrote: "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control".

Let us dare, was the German Pope's challenge to the Catholics of Sicily. And for him, this means Sicilians should put everything into the proper formation of the younger generations. That is why, he said, both the Church and civilian authorities should support the family.

"Each of us needs fertile ground in which to root ourselves, rich soil with nutritive substances which make the person grow - Christian values, above all, love and faith, knowing the true face of God, the awaresness that he loves us infinitely, faithfully, patiently to the point of giving himself for us".





Pope's surprise gesture:
He pays tribute to slain judge
and other Mafia victims
by MARCO ANSALDO
Translated from


"He who commits evil must be ashamed. I am thinking of the problems of Palermo and particularly, the physical and moral suffering caused by organized crime".

It was no furious cry as that made by Pope John Paul II at the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento 17 years ago ("Repent! One day, the judgment of God will come!").

But during his ten hours in Palermo, Papa Ratzinger, with his restrained style, likewise denounced - and in an unexpectedly powerful way just before leaving Palermo - the Mafia and its affiliates, accompanied during his visit by at least 250,000 persons - more than twice the expected attendance at the big Mass event, on a hot day that marked his first visit to Sicily as Pope.

A visit that turned out to be almost completely marked by his firm opposition to the Mafia. In the afternoon, before the young people of Sicily, the Pope said the words that many had been waiting for, that were not said during his homily at Mass.

"Do not yield to the blandishments of the Mafia," he said, enunciating the word well to a burst of applause and fist-waving, "which is a way of death, totally incompatible with the Gospel, as your bishops have told you so many times".

And to the 30,000 young people and families from all parts of Sicily who had come to this meeting, Benedict XVI cited models to be followed, from the Focolari member Chiara Badano who died of cancer at 19, beatified last Sunday, to Rosario Livatino, a judge killed by the Mafia at age 38.

"In Sicily," he said, "there are splendid examples of young men and women who have grown like beautiful, luxuriant plants. Often they do not make the news, because evil makes more noise, but they constitute the strength and the future of Sicily. Do not be afraid to oppose evil! Together you will be like a forest that grows, silently, but capable of bearing fruit, of bringing life and of profoundly renewing your land".

In the evening on the road to the airport at Punta Raisi, Papa Ratzinger made an unscheduled stop in Capaci, to leave flowers and offer prayers at the spot where Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three security men were ambushed and killed by the Mafia.

John Paul II had made five trips to Sicily in his 26 years as Pope. At times yesterday, Papa Ratzinger echoed words said earlier by his predecessor, in the morning when he urged Sicilians not to be afraid or organized crime, and not to yield to being resigned, recalling heroic figures like Don Pino Puglisi.

The example of that parish priest, who was killed by the Mafia in 1993, and whose cause for beatification is in process, was first recalled by Benedict XVI in his morning homily.

"Those who are firmly founded in the faith, who have full trust in God and live within the Church," he said, "are capable of summoning the explosive power of the Gospel. That is how they acted - the saints, male and female, who flowered in the course of centuries, in Palermo and all of Sicily, as well as laymen and priests in our day who are well known to you, like Don Pino Puglisi. "Imitate his heroic example," he would urge priests, religious and seminarians later, when he met them in the Cathedral of Palermo.

"In Palermo, as in all of Sicily, there is no lack of difficulties, problems and concerns. I think especially of those who live their existence concretely in precarious conditions, because of lack of work and uncertainty about the future. I am among you today to bear witness to my nearness and that I remember you in prayer. I am here to give you strong encouragement".

Many were happy at the Pope's words. From European Parliament member Rita Borsellini, sister of another Mafia-assassinated judge ("A clear and strong message against the Mafia, which gives hope and warms the heart of every honest Sicilian"), to representatives of the
Junior Commission of Addiopizzo ['Goodbye to bribes and contracts'), an association active in denouncing organized crime ("After listening to the Pope's words about fighting organized crime," said one of their counselors, "the young people are very encouraged and will write the Pope a letter of thanks").

The enthusiasm among the people was great, literally engulfing the Pope in a collective embrace during an intense day in Palermo. There were a few streamers critical of the Church but the police moved them away.

Said an old cabdriver, watching the Popemobile leave the city, "This blessed man should come here every month, so that our streets are cleaned and people will stop double parking anywhere!"