BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Wednesday, March 30, Third Week in Lent

ST. PEDRO REGALADO (Spain, 1390-1456), Franciscan, Reformer, Mystic
He lived at a time of great historical transitions: In 1418, the Council of Constance settled the Great Western
Schism and ended the Avignon papacy; France and England were fighting the Hundred Years' War; the Muslim
Turks finally ended the Byzantine Empire in 1453, Gutenberg had just invented the printing press, and
the century would end with Columbus reaching America. In Villadolid, Spain, young Pedro entered the Order
of the Franciscans, went on to became superior of a convent, actively engaged in reform of the Franciscan
order, and by 1442, was head of the Reformed Franciscans in Spain. His charism was in service to the poor,
and tradition says that when he fed them, he never ran out of food to share. He was immediately the object
of a cult after his death, and 36 years later, when Spain's 'Catholic Queen' Isabella ordered his body
exhumed to be transferred to a better tomb, the body was found to be incorrupt. He was canonized in 1746.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/033010.shtml


OR today.
Two papal stories in this issue: the Holy Father's message to the Latin American and Caribbean bishops meeting in Bogota to discuss pastoral ministry for the defense of life and the family; and a new Vatican law intended to protect against unauthorized commercial use of papal photos and texts. Page 1 international news: London conference aims to define Libya's future without Qaddafi, as his forces manage to stop the rebel advance towards Tripoli in Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte; in Fukushima, levels of plutonium (a degradation product of uranium) indicate that nuclear fission had taken place in one of the damaged reactors, as the government considers nationalizing the entire energy industry; and the story, 'Flower in the midst of desolation', about a Japanese doctor, convert to Catholicism who had known Maximilian Kolbe in Japan, and his life of dedication to caring for survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bomb that took the life of his own wife.


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

General Audience - The Holy Father's catechesis was dedicated to St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787), bishop, spiritual writer, philosopher and theologian, who founded the Redemptorist order and was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pius IX in 1871. With St. Alphonsus, the Pope has only one more Doctor of the Church to present in his catecheses - St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), the most recently proclaimed, by John Paul II in 1997, a century after her death.