March 19, 2012
DOUBLE GALA TODAY FOR OUR BELOVED HOLY FATHER
SIX YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS, AND COUNTING....
AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE
TO THE CHURCH, TO THE WORLD, TO ALL OF US.
AND A BLESSED NAME DAY, DEAR PAPINO...
Tribute to the Pope on his name day
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 3/18/12 issue of
L'Osservatore Romano extends its best wishes to the Pope with this popular representation of St. Joseph who carries the baby Jesus in his arms. In turn, the baby caresses him and appears to be supporting him, with the Cross in his hand, under the loving and protective gaze of the Virgin Mary.
It is an ingenuous image which is also very expressive that this newspaper offers the Pope, who was baptized with the name of the Patron of the Universal Church, its most heartfelt wises fOr his name day feast. Wishes that we express in the name of our readers, who join so many men and women throughout th world who look to the Holy Father with attention, affection and admiration.
Benedict XVI, too, like his patron sasint, shows us Jesus - about whom he is completing the third and last volume of his book - and is supported by him, under the gaze of Mary, daughter of Zion and image of the Church.[/DIM[
St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, is honored by the Church twice during the year - March 19 and May 1, when he is honored as the Patron Saint of Laborers.He is also the patron of a happy death.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/031912.cfm
The Vatican site is once again inaccessible - for the third time in a week - and one must think it is once again under hacker attack, as it was both times earlier, by the group called Anonymous.
Holy See joins in horror
at Toulouse school shooting
March 19, 2012
The Church is united in prayer with the suffering of the Jewish community in France following the Monday morning school shooting in the southern city of Toulouse in which three children and a teacher were killed.
Vatican Press Office Director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, described the act which saw an unknown gunman open fire at the Ozar Hatorah school before fleeing on a scooter as “ignoble and shameful”.
Fr. Lombardi continued that the hurt provoked by the shooting adds “to other recent acts of absurd violence that have hurt France”. Three soldiers were killed in similar circumstances in other parts of France in the past weeks.
Monday's attack, said Fr. Lombardi, “arouses deep indignation and bewilderment and the most resolute condemnation”, particularly given “the age and the innocence of the young victims, and because it happened in a peaceful Jewish educational institution”.
Fr. Lombardi expressed deep condolences to the “bereaved families and Jewish community, our concern for this horrible deed, and our deepest spiritual solidarity”.
The Archbishop of Toulouse, Robert Le Gall, has also issued a statement expressing “profound sympathy”:
After the assassination of paratroopers in recent days in Toulouse and Montauban, which has deeply affected our region, a further horrific act took place this morning with the murder of four people including three children at the Jewish college Ozar Hatorah in-the Rose Garden neighborhood, in Toulouse.
Cardinal Vingt-Trois [Archbishop of Paris and president of the French bishops' conference] is currently in New York with a delegation of bishops for three days of meetings with our Jewish brothers and sisters. We express our profound sympathy to families affected by this horror and ensure our prayers.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy travelled to the site of this morning’s shooting, declaring it "a national tragedy," and promised that "everything will be done to find" the killer.
The Church of France is organizing a prayer service after these tragedies. Vespers will be held tonight at 5:45 p.m. in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.
Fear has spread beyond the borders of France. Israel has expressed its "horror" at the atrocity and has called on Paris "to shed light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice." The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in turn condemned the shooting denouncing it as "a heinous crime".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/03/2012 10:53]