Tuesday, February 21, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
ST. PIER DAMIANI (Peter Damian) (Italy, 1007-1072)
Professor, Benedictine monk, Abbot, Papal Legate, Cardinal, Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI dedicated a catechesis to the saint on September 9, 2009.
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...
Born to an impoverished noble family in Ravenna, his brother Damian (from whom he takes his second name) put him through school where he excelled in languages and the law. A renowned professor in Parma and Ravenna by age 24, he decided to join the Benedictine monastery founded by St. Romuald in Fonte Avellana. Always an ascetic himself, he championed a return to the rules of early monasticism, and all his life, would champion reforms in the Church promulgated by the Popes of his time. Although he considered a hermit's life as 'the peak of Christian existence', he found himself being assigned to arbitrate local disputes and other missions from the Vatican, in addition to being a prolific writer (he is considered one of the greatest of medieval Latin writers). He became abbot at Fonte Avellana and founded five other monasteries. In 1057, he reluctantly accepted a papal appointment as Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, where he served for ten years, then obtained papal dispensation to return to Fonte Avellana. He carried out more missions for the Pope, and was returning from one when he fell ill and died. In the Divine Comedy, Dante called him the precursor of St. Francis. He was never formally canonized, but in 1878, Pope Leo XII made him a Doctor of the Church (Doctor of Reform and Renewal), the last of the Early Church Doctors.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/022112.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
No events announced for the Holy Father.
After talks between Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and the rector of Peru's Catholic University,
The Vatican issued a ststement saying it has requested the University to present revised statues by Easter Sunday
that willfollow the guidelines laid down by John {aul II in his Apostolic Constitution
Ex Corde Ecclesiae
regarding therequirements for a Catholic Unviersity. This follows months of dispute between the University and
the ARchdiocese of Lima, and a visitation by Cardinal Peter Erdo on behalf of the Pope after the University
ignored an earlier order in July 2011.
OR for Feb. 20-21:
Right photo: The Pope greets Cardinal Fernando Filoni after his greeting in behalf of all the new cardinals before the Mass on Sunday.
Benedict XVI celebrates Mass with new cardinals on the Feast of Peter's Chair
'The entire Church rests on faith'
This issue contains the coverage of the Sunday Mass and Angelus as well as the Pope's special audiences yesterday for the new cardinals, their families and guests. Page 1 international news: As anti-protest repression continues in Syria, Egypt recalls its ambassador; German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the major political parties have agreed on Joachim Gauck, 72, a Protestant minister and human-rights activist in Communist East Germany, as the new Federal President; G20 foreign ministers meet in Los Cabos, Mexico to discuss development and security concerns. In the inside pages, two articles about the Holy Father's JESUS OF NAZARETH Vol II from the conference held about the book at the University of Turin.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/02/2012 18:45]