BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries today, 5/9/12, including the GA and the Holy Father's catechesis.




Benedict XVI in Arezzo:
His first visit as Pope to Tuscany
by ANDREA FAGIOLI

May 9, 2012



Peter is coming to to seek out Donatus. The Successor of Peter will be visiting a Catholic community whose history began with the ancient venerated bishop.

This is the image that has been the running thread in the preparations of the Diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro for Benedict XVI's fist visit to Tuscany as Pope.

Starting from the pastoral message of Archbishop Riccardo Fontana to the Churches of Arezzo, Cortona and Sansepolcro: "Peter is coming to Tuscany to meet with us, to give his contribution to our unity, to help us in that communion which is a true aggregation of the Church internally and of sister churches among themselves".

But what will Peter do to find Donatus? Mons. Fontana says, "Fifty years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, it is the propitious occasion to verify, within our ecclesial community, how many fruits of the conciliar Pentecost have entered into our diocesan experience".

Donatus, patron saint of Arezzo, lived in the 4th century. It is said that he was raised in Rome by parents who came from Nicomedia (in what is now Turkey) and that he grew up with Julian who would later become the Roman emperor called the Apostate.

St. Pier Damiani said of Donatus and Julian, "Behold how two saplings grew in the field of the Lord, but while one became a cedar of Paradise, the other became coal for the eternal flames". When Julian started persecuting Christians, Donatus fled to Arezzo where he became a priest and preached under the bishop whom he eventually succeeded. Miraculous feats were attributed to him in his lifetime. Tradition says he was eventually beheaded in Arezzo in a new wave of persecution.

Benedict XVI will meet the entire diocese at the Mass to be held in the Prato, Arezzo's symbolic piazza in the shadow of the bell tower of the cathedral of St. Donatus, between the Fortress and the Cathedral.


The Duomo (Cathedral) of Arezzo andits massive marble altar. Below, from left, St. Damasus; miraculous image of the Madonna del Conforto; and the Madonna in her chapel, Arezzo's main Marian shrine.


After the recital of the Regina caeli, the Pope will enter the Cathedral to pay homage to the saInted bishop at his burial urn, and to the Madonna del Conforto. The Pope will lead a prayer he has composed for the occasion. This will be one of the most emotional moments for the Aretini who have venerated the small miraculous image for over two centuries in the chapel that has become the diocese's Marian shrine.

At lunch in the bishop's residence, he will be meeting with all the bishops of Tuscany. In the afternoon, the Pope will fly to La Verna, the Franciscan 'rock', to meet the various Franciscan communities and Poor Clares of Tuscany. He will say a prayer at the Chapel where St. Francis received the stigmata, as he will do later before the Holy Face in the co-cathedral of Sansepolcro before meeting with the townspeople in Piazza Torre di Berta.


The Volto Santo (Holy Face), found in the co-cathedrla of San Sepolcro (center) refers to a 9th-century wooden crucifix thought to be among the oldest such crucifixes in Europe.

An event which the city founded 1,000 years ago by the pilgrims Arcanus and Aegidius have been awaiting for centuries, since they were not visited by John Paul II. The two pilgrims returned from the Holy Land with a stone from the Holy Sepulchre, hence the name given to the city.

But Benedict XVI will be in Sansepolcro for the city's millennary celebration just as earlier, in Rome, at San Gregorio in Celio, he celebrated the millenary of the Camaldoli Benedictines with the monks who are the spiritual children of St, Romuald.

St. Donatus, St. Francis, and St. Romuald - the best representatives of a diocesan church that provides a collective identity for a vast differentiated territory.

The Pope will have three stops - Arezzo, La Verna and Sansepolcro - on a day which will go down in local history, even though it has had several times the gift of papal visits even in recent times.

He will be encountering the reality of a diocese which has put great emphasis on the education of its young people and the [rpductive use of social communications.

"Forming the formators" - besides being the title of a pastoral letter by Mons. Fontana - is "a process of conversion from the ephemeral to the necessary, from mere employment of disposable time to involvement in the person" for motivated and diligent pastoral work.

Moreover, Fontana says, "Service to the Church cannot be superficial - it requires daily competnet commitment".

"Forming the formators also means, for this diocese, reviving the oratories at the parish level, whereas at the academic level, the Istituto superiore di Science Religiose named for Blessed Gregory IX leads the way".

The Aretine diocese also has one of the only two diocesan information networks in Tuscany (the other is in Prato), under one editorial management for the diocesan weekly, local Catholic TV, a press office and various Internet site.

But the Pope's visit will also be an event for civilian society, not just for the diocesan Church. Benedict XVI has requested that donations be given to families most in need of economic assistance in the diocese and province of Arezzo.

"Like the early Christians," said Mons, Fontana, "we too would like to lay at the feet of the Apostles the treasures that we have. And these are the gifts we can give the Pope when he comes to our land: the appeal of our millenary identity, the rootedness of our faith which is manifested in the mission for 'forming the formators' so that whatever we have learned can be passed on to the next generations, the charity of Jesus's lament for Jerusalem that the city might turn back to God with a free and joyful heart".

Someone in Lella's blog called attention to an Italian translation of this article which I traced to the original English. Even if it was written in 2006, what it says is always valid on a subject that always provides spiritual balm...

The beauty of faith:
Sacred architecture and catechesis
by Jem Sullivan
from the Spring 2006 issue of


On the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI presented a Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to the Universal Church.

The “mini catechism,” among the first publications of his pontificate, contains some fourteen works of sacred art that will be included in subsequent language editions of the text.

In introducing the new Compendium, the Pope drew attention to the catechetical significance of works of sacred art. “Sacred images,” he noted, “proclaim the same Gospel message that the Sacred Scriptures transmit through words and they help reawaken and nourish the faith of believers.”

In recent decades, as Catholics in this country witness a diminishing, a stripping of sacred images from cathedrals, churches, and chapels, attempts to speak of the catechetical value of sacred art and architecture are sometimes deemed wasteful, extravagant, or irrelevant.

Against that backdrop, the inclusion of sacred images in the Compendium is all the more significant, as it invites architects, artists, catechists, pastors, bishops, parents, and teachers to reflect anew on the relationship of art and catechesis.

Leaving aside the vital issue of what constitutes genuine sacred art, the placing of sacred images within a catechism raises specific questions that this article seeks to reflect on: What is the catechetical value of sacred images? Why is sacred art and architecture indispensable to full instruction in the faith? Might sacred images serve as powerful means of evangelization and catechesis in our own day and age?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that sacred art is true and beautiful when “its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God — the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who ‘reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,’ in whom ‘the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.’… Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier” (CCC 2502).


Stained glass windows in three Pennsylvania churches.

The catechetical function of sacred art and architecture, affirmed in this passage, is to lead the faithful from seeing to contemplation to adoration of God. From a pedagogical standpoint, a sacred image of Christ, the Blessed Mother of God, or a Christian saint provides an earthly glimpse into eternal realities, a “head start to heaven,” so to speak.

The Catechism elsewhere describes the goal of “liturgical catechesis (mystagogy) … [as] aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the ‘sacraments’ to the ‘mysteries” (CCC 1075).

Instituted by Christ, the sacraments are the privileged means by which the faithful participate in His saving mystery through the ministry of the Church. Within this sacramental economy, sacred architecture and images, which predispose one to the sacramental presence of God, serve as a “pre-sacrament,” a phrase used by Pope John Paul II to describe the sacred art and architecture of the Sistine Chapel.

To limit the function of sacred images then to mere decorative or aesthetic representations of socio-cultural ideals is to miss a high note in the liturgical symphony that is in fact composed of sacred images, architecture, music, and rites.

For sure, sacred images express human, social, and cultural realities and add aesthetic value to the interior and exterior spaces of cathedrals, chapels, and churches, but they are also an indispensable means to instruct the faithful in the content of divine revelation and to reawaken and nourish their faith.

With the aid of sacred images, catechists, preachers, and teachers of faith echo the divine pedagogy of salvation history in which the witness of divine “words” and “signs” or “word” and “image” are inextricably linked.

Pope John Paul II drew attention to the pedagogical value of sacred images in his 1999 Letter to Artists when he wrote that “in a sense, art is a kind of visual Gospel, a concrete mode of catechesis.”

That is to say that each Sunday as the faithful hear the truth of the Gospel proclaimed and respond by professing their faith in the words of the Creed, those very truths of faith take the form of the beautiful in the sacred images that surround them.

Church teachings and doctrines condensed onto a page of a catechism find complementary forms of expression in sacred art and architecture. In this way, sacred images — paintings, mosaics, stained glass, sculpture, sacred music — become a “visual Gospel” by which the faithful see, hear, and touch the mysteries of faith so as to incarnate its truths in holiness of life and Christian witness.

One of the first to affirm this role of sacred images was Pope Saint Gregory the Great. In a letter to Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles in A.D. 599, he wrote, “Painting is employed in churches so that those who cannot read or write may at least read on the walls what they cannot decipher on the page” (Epistulae IX, 209). The movement from seeing to contemplation to adoration of God is realized through written or spoken words and through sacred images.

It is rightly suggested that appreciating the meaning of sacred images depends on one’s ability, however minimal, to “read” the signs and symbols expressed. Consequently, some have justified a diminishing of sacred art and architecture with the assertion that the faithful lack familiarity with Christian symbols.

The person in the pew, they would argue, cannot be expected to understand, let alone be instructed, through sacred images. In other words, since sacred images are meaningful only to those who are intellectually equipped to “read” them, the artistically uninitiated cannot gain much by way of formation in the faith from sacred images.

For centuries sacred images were aimed precisely at illiterate faithful. For sure, the appropriation of signs and symbols in sacred images relied on effective preaching and teaching in communion with the “seeing faith of the Church,” but the whole pedagogical point of a sacred image is not to engage viewers in an intellectual or didactic exercise alone.

Rather, it is to lead them to awe and wonder, perhaps even to a ravishing of the soul by a glimpse, a hint of divine beauty, in the hope that they entrust their lives to the beauty of faith. The whole point is to lead the faithful to perceive the Invisible in the visible, to learn a new way of seeing and hearing that leads to contemplation, worship, and adoration of God.

Whether or not the person in the pew fully understands the symbolic elements in a work of sacred art and architecture depends on a convergence of multiple factors. But the very presence of genuine sacred images that convey through the senses the content of Christian revelation draws the faithful into a distinct catechetical mode. And blank walls have an equally potent pedagogical message plain even to the most uninitiated!

Pope Gregory’s assertion would take distinct visible form in the outpouring of Christian art and architecture of the Middle Ages. A Gothic cathedral like Chartres served, in effect, as a catechism in stone, a homily in stained glass, expressing for the faithful in art and architecture the faith they professed in the Creed and heard proclaimed in the Scriptures.

As medieval craftsmen set stone upon carved stone, visible from miles away and luminous through colored glass, they were, in fact, sculpting and painting the saving message of Biblical history— explicit and beautiful as their faith.


Chartres cathedral and its great Rose Window (left), and right, the window called 'La Belle Verriere' (the beautiful glass window) featuring the Madonna that has come to be known as Nore Dame de la Belle Verriere.

A pilgrim entering Chartres Cathedral was not only drawn into a “reading” of Biblical history made visible in sacred art and architecture, but was, through his seeing and hearing, at the same time inserted into a sacramental present fully realized in the liturgy.

While visiting Chartres in the 1950s Soetsu Yanagi, the father of the Japanese crafts movement of the early twentieth century, stood long and silent before its great stone façade. Then turning to a Christian friend he simply said: “That is what you have lost today.”

He went on to observe that perhaps the West stood in need of a new teaching of the Gospel such as was expressed in the eloquent craftsmanship and beauty of Chartres.

Can works of sacred art and architecture serve as fresh catechisms and means of evangelization today just as they did for past generations? Or to return to our starting point, what catechetical purpose is served by inserting sacred images in a Catechism?

To provide a framework for such a recovery I offer some reasons for the indispensability of sacred art and architecture as “concrete modes of catechesis” today.

A first defense for the catechetical role of sacred images is, of necessity, theological. Saint John Damascene, defender of sacred images against the iconoclasts of the eighth century summarized it well: “In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who worked out my salvation through matter” (On the Divine Images, 17).

Saint Paul sums up the incarnational principle that inspires genuine sacred images when he writes: “Christ is the image (eikon) of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). When God acted in human history in the person of his Son, Christ entered our sensible world rendering it transparent to Him.

Images of beauty, through which the invisible mystery of God becomes visible, are now an essential part of Christian worship. As Pope Benedict XVI notes in The Spirit of the Liturgy, “The complete absence of images is incompatible with faith in the Incarnation of God.”

Secondly, there is the witness of history, cumulative and undeniable. From the art of the early Christian catacombs to Romanesque basilicas and Byzantine iconography, from the soaring Gothic to the creative torrent of the Renaissance, from the age of the Baroque and beyond, the history of Christianity is inextricably linked to its artistic heritage built up over centuries.

For sure, this historical wealth of previous centuries reflects past artistic styles, social and cultural worlds. Yet educators, artists, pastors, and even nations (as evidenced in debates over the Preamble to the European Constitution) who overlook or altogether ignore this accumulated treasury of Christian artistic and architectural history fail to resound with the most basic of human experiences — that of imagination rooted in memory.

Thirdly, there is a human or anthropological basis for the use of sacred images in faith formation. The Catechism speaks of faith as a response of the whole human person, engaging intellect, heart, senses, emotion, memory, and will.

A systematic formation in faith may lead one to notional assent (in Cardinal Newman’s terms) to the mystery of the Incarnation but it does not and should not stop there. Effective catechesis and evangelization is directed to real assent that encompasses intellect, heart, will, senses, and emotions.

Sacred architecture and art engage the senses so that catechetical formation involves and moves the whole human person toward lifelong conversion and discipleship.

Saint Thomas Aquinas outlines this rationale when he writes in the Sentences: “There were three reasons for the introduction of the use of visual arts in the Church: first, for the instruction of the uneducated, who are taught by them as by books; second, that the mystery of the Incarnation and the examples of the saints be more firmly impressed on our memory by being daily represented before our eyes; and third, to enkindle devotion, which is more efficaciously evoked by what is seen than by what is heard.”

A fourth and final reason for genuine sacred images placed at the service of catechesis and evangelization is a cultural one. Few will argue that we live in the midst of a global culture in which multiple images dominate, shape, and define people’s values and identity.

Television commercials, billboard advertising, the Internet, blogs, video games, all of these visual media express, reflect, and communicate in sensory forms the content and values of culture, for good or ill.

This sensory culture daily presents fragmented images that subtly and not so subtly trivialize and denigrate the dignity of the human person, create superficial and consumerist needs, and estrange us from spiritual realities.

To effectively engage the faithful who are shaped by this sensory culture can the Church afford to dispense with sacred architecture and images as tools of catechesis and evangelization?

In an interview given decades ago, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger cut to the heart of the matter when he observed:

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The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.

Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art which have arisen in communities of believers … if the Church is to continue to transform and humanize the world, how can she dispense with beauty in her liturgies, that beauty which is so closely linked with love and with the radiance of the Resurrection?

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The first statement in the above is one of my favorite quotations from Cardinal Ratzinger. No Christian can read it and ever forget it because it expresses a reality that is so actual and yet so encompassing and transcendent.

Jem Sullivan, Ph.D., is adjunct professor at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. She is a catechetical consultant and frequent writer for a variety of Catholic publications, and a docent at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Images of Christ by the 19th-century Danish artist Carl Bloch, considerd by some to have been the 'best' painter of Jesus images in his time.


A typically out-of-the-box reflection by my local pastor, Fr. Rutler, of the Church of our Svaiour in New York City...

Christ the Gentleman
by Rev. George W. Rutler

May 9, 2012

King Charles II said that a gentleman is one who puts those around him at ease. Even on his deathbed he apologized to the courtiers in attendance: “I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.”

The Society of Friends [Quakers] was a curiosity to him, especially because one of his admirals to whom he owed a large debt, had a son who belonged to it.

When William Penn, as a Quaker, would not doff his hat to the King, he asked, “Friend Charles, why dost thou remove thy hat?” The King answered, “Friend William, in circumstances such as these it is customary for only one man to keep his hat on.” Some accounts attribute the line to the King’s brother the Duke of York, who was only slightly less jolly and bibulous but even more Unquakerly Catholic. We do know that from such happy conversations we got Pennsylvania and New York.

One of the most glowing sections of Newman’s “Lectures on the Idea of a University” is his descant on manners: “Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.”

But read his lines carefully. The passage is redolent with irony, for the natural gentleman is not of necessity a Christian: “This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself.”

One risks glibness if not irreverence to say that Christ was a gentleman in the natural sense, but the graciousness of his human nature was “hypostatic” with the Source of Grace, and one sign of this was his habit of putting those around Him at ease. ['Hypostasis' is a word I have encountered twice in the past few hours, and in the theological sense, it means, in the simplest sense, 'the union of divinity and humanity in Christ'].

Julian of Norwich spoke often of this trait refracted in various ways: “Then our courteous Lord sheweth himself to the soul cheerfully with glad countenance, with a friendly welcome.”


Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloxh (Denmark, 1834-1890), oil on copper.

With protocols from the Heavenly Court, the courtly Christ went to lengths in calming people and caring for their comfort, even finding a grassy place for the crowds to sit before he preached, and asking that a girl he raised from the dead be given something to eat.

Never did the Lord “lord over” anyone, and if the occasional hypocrite or unjust judge or weak disciple became nervous in His presence, it was the fault of their guilt, for He never deliberately intimidated or shamed anyone. It was the very benignity of his presence that cracked their self-importance.

Once, when a reporter shouted to the 33rd President: “Give ‘em Hell, Harry!” Truman replied, “I don’t give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it’s Hell.” Our Lord gave people Heaven itself, and if that frightened them it was because their duplicity made Heaven hellish.

In the Resurrection, our Lord kept putting people at ease: “Peace.” “Do not be afraid.” “Why are you troubled?” He let the Magdalene first think he was a gardener, perhaps so that she might not faint, and when he made Himself known to the men on the Emmaus road, he may have done it with a smile that stirred hearts slow to believe.

He went so far as to let the apostles touch His wounds, and He ate a piece of baked fish to domesticate their incredulity. I expect that the only one Our Lord did not have to tell to calm down was Our Lady who was full of grace.

Jesus had no need to apologize for having been such a time a-dying, because instead of inflicting pain, he had taken all the world’s pain on himself, and his very agony was a grace.

He did another gracious thing by spending the forty days before the Ascension explaining how all the tangled events of history shaped a picture and how the prophets were prophetic.

You can tell how well He taught by the way the apostles later wrote their letters, always with that gentle zeal for souls that makes the term “gentleman” inadequate to describe souls so sympathetic.

When He had “opened their minds to understand the scriptures,” he told those in the Upper Room to “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

We know that Peter listened very carefully, for when he was clothed in that elegant spiritual haberdashery which is sanctifying grace, he delicately told the people in Jerusalem that they had acted out of ignorance, but if they repented, the Lord would grant them “times of refreshment,” for the Lord, unbending to evil and fierce in the face of the Evil One, is also gentle in all His ways. [A trait that his Vicar on earth emulates to perfection!]

Thursday, May 10, Fifth Week in Easter

ST. JUAN DE AVILA (Spain, 1500-1569), Priest, Apostolic Preacher, Author and Mystic
In the news recently because of a report that Benedict XVI may proclaim him a Doctor of the Church at the WYD celebration in Madrid this August, the saint was born Juan de Ávila [De Avila is his family name, and not an honorific of place, therefore the English translation 'John of Avila' is wrong; the real 'John of Avila' is better known as John of the Cross (John of the Cross] - in Almodóvar del Campo, near Toledo (Spain) in 1500, of Jewish 'converso' descent. Before becoming a priest, he studied philosophy at the University of Salamanca, and later at the University of Alcala, where one of his teachers was the future Saint Domingo de Silos. From the beginning, he was a powerful preacher and came to be known as the Apostle of Andalusia because he evangelized in the region as the Church launched the Counter-Reformation. He was a strong advocate for the reform of the clergy and his writings were very influential in the Council of Trent. Juan de Avila linked the priesthood closely to the Eucharist and regarded holiness as the preeminent quality of a priest - conformity to Christ as Good Shepherd and High Priest. To this end, he recommended painstaking selection of candidates followed by rigorous spiritual and intellectual formation within a community. He was a friend of San Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross ) (1542-1591) and a spiritual adviser to St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), St Francisco Borja (Francis Borgia))1510-1572), and St Pedro Alcantara (1499-1562). His collected works were first [published in 1618 and soon translated into other languages. His best known works are the "Audi Fili", translated to English as early as 1620, considered one of the best tracts on Christian perfection, and his "Spiritual Letters" to his disciples, Though he was beatified in 1893, he was not canonized until 1970, when he also became the patron of Spanish diocesan clergy. He is one of the Spanish saints named as patrons of WYD 2011, along with Blessed John Paul II. At WYD 2011 last August, Benedict XVI announced he would proclaim Juan de Avila a Doctor of the Church, becoming the fourth Spaniard to earn this distinction (after Isidro de Sevilla, Teresa de Avila and Juan de la Cruz).
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/051012.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood. New decrees approved.

- Delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress. Address in Spanish.

= Community of the Pontificio Collegio Spagnolo of Rome. Address in Spanish.


Anglicans and Catholics conclude
groundbreaking meeting in Hong Kong

May 10, 2012

The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, or ARCIC 3, has concluded a week long meeting hosted by the Anglican mission to seafarers in Hong Kong.

At the conclusion of the May 4th to 10th meeting, the two teams of theologians and Church leaders issued a joint statement saying ARCIC has carried forward considerably its work in response to the mandate given it by the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion and has sharpened its focus in terms of the two questions of Communion and ethical decision making.

The communiqué stresses that participants are also very keen to promote the reception of ARCIC work and so they intend to contact national groups of Anglicans and Catholics to share with them the work of the Commission and to hear their ideas about practical ecumenism on the ground.

The Commission invited an outside observer from the Greek Catholic Church who greatly helped with his contribution on the broader aspects of understanding the Church as Communion. The participation of Very Rev Dr. Peter Galadza, a married Ukrainian Catholic priest from the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in Ottowa, Canada, marked the first time ARCIC has sought experience from outside its mandate to deepen its understanding of the concept of Catholicity.

Pope inscribes Hildegarde von Bingen
among the saints of the universal Church
He also approves decrees qualifying 2 individuals and 39 martyrs
for beatification; 11 more advance one step towards beatification

May 10, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI received in audience on Thursday Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

During the audience he extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard of Bingen (1089-1179) to the universal Church, inscribing her in the catalogue of saints.

He also authorised the promulgation of decrees concerning the following causes:

MIRACLES
- Servant of God Tommaso da Olera (ne Tommaso Acerbis), Italian professed layman of the Order of St. Benedict (1563-1631).
- Servant of God Maria Troncatti, Italian professed sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Help (1883-1969).

MARTYRDOM
- Servants of Gods Frederic Bachstein and thirteen companions of the Order of Friars Minor, killed in hatred of the faith at Prague, Czech Republic in 1611.
- Servants of God Raimundo Castano Gonzalez and Jose Maria Gonzalez Solis, professed priests of the Order of Friars Preachers, killed in hatred of the faith at Bilbao, Spain in 1936.
- Servants of God Jaime Puig Mirosa and eighteen companions of the Congregation of the Sons of the Sacred Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and Sebastian Llorens Telarroja, layman, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1937.
- Servant of God Odoardo Focherini, Italian layman, killed in hatred of the faith at Hersbruck, Germany in 1944.

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Raffaello Delle Nocche, Italian bishop of Tricarico and founder of the Sisters Disciples of the Eucharistic Jesus (1877-1960).
- Servant of God Frederic Irenej Baraga, Slovene American, first bishop of Marquette (1797-1868).
- Servant of God Pasquale Uva, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Sisters Handmaidens of Divine Providence (1883-1955).
- Servant of God Baltazar Manuel Pardal Vidal, Spanish diocesan priest and founder of the Secular Institute of the Daughters of Mary's Nativity (1886-1963).
- Servant of God Francesco Di Paola Victor, Brazilian diocesan priest (1827-1905).
- Servant of God Jacques Sevin, French professed priest of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and founder of the Catholic Scouts of France and of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem (1882-1951).
- Servant of God Maria Josefa of the Blessed Sacrament (nee Maria Josefa Recio Martin), founder of the Congregation of Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1846-1883).
- Servant of God Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, American professed sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth (1901-1927).
- Servant of God Emilia Engel, German member of the Secular Institute of Sisters of Maria of Schonstatt, (1893-1955).
- Servant of God Rachele Ambrosini, Italian lay woman (1925-1941).
- Servant of God Maria Bolognesi, Italian lay woman (1924-1980).

On 14 March, the Supreme Pontiff authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree regarding the heroic virtues of Servant of God Felix Francisco Jose de la Concepcion Varela Morales, Cuban diocesan priest (1788-1853). [This was made public during the Pope's visit to Cuba at the end of March.]

NB: Although Hildegarde vin Bingen has been venerated for centuries in Germany as a saint, she was never formally canonized. Her formal inscription today among the saints of the universal Church may be preparatory to Benedict XVI's proclamation of her as the fourth female Doctor of the Church. It is serendipitous that the announcement on St. Hildegarde falls on the feast day of Juan de Avila, the other candidate Doctor of the Church to be proclaimed by Benedict XVI.

Obama ends the charade:
He supports gay marriage
as a 'human right' for everyone

Surprisingly little reaction so far in the Catholic media about President Obama's honest-at-last declaration of support yesterday for gay marriage as essentially a fundamental human right for everyone. After having rejected support early in his term for the Defense of (Traditional) Marriage Act passed in the Cinton administration, and in view of his documented record of having stated prior to his 2008 presidential campaign that he favored same-sex marriage, was anyone really surprised?

US TV yesterday however also replayed his election-campaign interview with best-sellign evangelist Rick Warren who asked him how he would define marriage, and he said, without any hesitation, "It is the union between a man and a woman", and that as a Christian, he also believes it is a promise made to God. (Did he take the name of God in vain?) His campaign has defined Obama's position on gaymarriagea s something that was 'evolving' - it has radly that: it was 'revolving' (or 'spinning', to use current jargon) depending on the circumstances in which he was saying it!

The USCCB itself reacted almsot immediately with a statement from its president, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, which the USCCB news agency, CNS, chose to report only in its CNS Blog and not on its regular news service. Go figure!

Cardinal Dolan's reaction


WASHINGTON, May 9 — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued the following statement today:

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President Obama’s comments today in support of the redefinition of marriage are deeply saddening.

As I stated in my public letter to the President on September 20, 2011, the Catholic Bishops stand ready to affirm every positive measure taken by the President and the Administration to strengthen marriage and the family.

However, we cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society. The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s words today are not surprising since they follow upon various actions already taken by his Administration that erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage.

I pray for the President every day, and will continue to pray that he and his Administration act justly to uphold and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

May we all work to promote and protect marriage and by so doing serve the true good of all persons.

---

One must note that Obama was apparently forced to take an unequivocal stand once and for all because last Sunday, his Vice President, unfortunately a cafeteria Catholic who tends to leave out the most essential 'food groups' in the Catholic menu, declared on public TV that he was "absolutely comfortable with the idea of a man marrying another man or a woman marrying another woman, because why should they not have the same right as everybody else?"

Given that unabashed declaration by his nominally Catholic VP, Obama could not do less than to man up and end his pretense of still 'evolving' his views on gay marriage. Did I say 'man up'? Have the policemen of political correctness come up with a gender-neutral definition of that terse and very powerful idiom? Maybe 'person up"? Reductio ad absurdum.

Obama’s rejection of traditional marriage also came a day after North Carolina became the 30th U.S. state to introduce a constitutional protection for traditional marriage, overwhelmingly approving an amendment that defines marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman. Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, and the Democratic nominating convention will be held there in September. Other commentators also point out that it came a day before he attends a massive fund-raising dinner at actor Goerge Clooenys' home in Los Angeles tonight which is expected to raise $14-million from a community that is very much pro-gay anything..

U.S. bishops applaud North Carolina's
referendum decision to protect marriage
by State constitutional amendment


WASHINGTON, May 10 — The decision by the voters of North Carolina to define marriage in a constitutional amendment as the union of one man and one woman “affirms the authentic and timeless meaning of marriage,” said Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, California.

Bishop Cordileone, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), applauded the May 8 decision with Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh and Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The success of this amendment demonstrates people’s awareness of the essential role that marriage, as the union of a man and a woman, plays for the common good,” said Bishop Cordileone. “Despite his comments yesterday, I would hope that President Obama would recognize this essential role as well. This is not a partisan issue, but a matter of justice, fairness and equality for the law to uphold every child’s basic right to be welcomed and raised by his or her mother and father together.”

He added, “I extend my gratitude to all of the people in North Carolina who worked tirelessly to make this a reality. The people of North Carolina join millions of other Americans in affirming the importance of marriage in our society.”

North Carolina is the 30th state to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Dublin's Archbishop on IEC's impact
on the problems of the Irish Church

May 10, 2012

How can the International Eucharistic Congress help bring Irish Catholics back to the sacramental life of the Church?

According to the Archbishop of the host diocese, Msgr. Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, by showing them the joy of celebration: “I see a willingness in some people to want to celebrate something different in the Irish Church and actually to use the word ‘celebrate is important”. Emer McCarthy has this report:

Speaking to Vatican journalists Thursday as he launched the one- month countdown to the beginning of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress (IEC2012), Archbishop Diarmuid Martin directly answered questions over the divisions that currently beleaguer the Irish Church.

But he said none of these should overshadow what really is the most pressing challenge in the Church in Ireland: the challenge of bringing Christ to the people. This, he said, requires new pastoral tools. for which preparation for the IEC has been a learning experience.

The divisions the Archbishop referred to in his address to journalists have a range of causes: the ever present reality of the child sex abuse scandal; the results of the Apostolic Visitation; dialogue with the Association of Catholic Priests; the Church's ongoing journey of internal renewal and the resulting tensions these create within the community.

“The overall crisis of the Church in Ireland isn’t about the child sexual abuse, it isn’t about any one individual. It is a much deeper challenge. They are just symptoms of an underlying cause... Secularisation is there, the Archbishop stated, “and has been there for some time, though it may have surprised some people”.

The leader of Ireland’s largest diocese also spoke of the weekly protests that have been taking place outside Dublin’s pro-Cathedral, but added that there is a gradual change taking place: “Even in secularised Ireland there is a recognition that this [the IEC} is an important event for the Catholic Church, that others should respect. And something that they are watching to see as to what image of the Catholic Church will emerge from that”.

The Archbishop said: “The Church in Ireland shouldn’t be associated with problems. It is renewing itself, it is a dynamic Church there are many things happening in the Irish Church. And this Eucharistic Congress I hope will be a moment when we hope to showcase all of those”.

“Like the Congress itself,” he continued “the Irish Church of the future will be a much different type of Church it will be more modest in its dimensions and in its role. It will be and is perhaps today in many ways a minority Church, but that doesn’t mean that its an irrelevant Church. The Church has to learn to present its message toady in Ireland in a secularised society in a different way. The IEC2012 is an example if you look at the program you’ll see this”.

“We have to - and this is a big one in Ireland - we have to really look at how we involve people in the preparation for the sacraments and how to understand them not just as social events but ecclesial realities”

“I remember the first words of Pope John in his wonderful homily during the Second Vatican Council and they were Gaudet Mater Ecclesia!, Mother Church Rejoice!. We have to regain a little bit of that. Pope John in that same homily[…] he spoke about the prophets of doom who see only gloom and frustration in what’s happening. The Church has always gone through this process of having to renew itself and this [the Congress] is not going to be the definitive event, but it is a contribution”.

“In the early Christian community, there was the Word, the Eucharist and charity and communion among Christians they were generous with each other and with others”.

Learning from the example of the early Christian community he concluded “can help create a particular lifestyle […] if the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin can make even a modest contribution to that, we’ll have done something”

IEC2012 is taking place in Dublin Ireland June 10-17, and all information on registration and events can be found by visiting the website www.iec2012.ie

Strangely, the RV report does not state that Mons. Martin spoke as one of the participants of a presentation news conference on the 50th IEC held at the Vatican today.

A related story...

High-level revamp at Irish College in Rome
as a result of apostolic visitation


Rome, May 10, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News) - Three of the four senior staff members at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome are stepping down from their posts after a Vatican investigation concluded that Ireland’s seminaries are not doing enough to promote Catholic orthodoxy.

“In colleges there is a constant changeover, maybe after the Apostolic Visitation it is not a bad idea to bring in new people, new ideas and move forward,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told CNA on May 10 in Rome.

Today’s announcement comes in the wake of the March 2012 publication of a two-year investigation – officially called an apostolic visitation -- into the health of the Irish Church. The visitation of Irish seminaries was led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

While the report praised Irish seminary staff for being “dedicated formators” who were “committed to the work of priestly training,” it also called for a “greater concern for the intellectual formation of seminarians” to ensure that their education was “in full conformity with the Church’s Magisterium.”

The report also recommended that the pastoral training of seminarians be re-evaluated to ensure “it is sacramental, priestly and apostolic” and concerned with “preparing candidates to celebrate the sacraments and to preach.”

Overall, the visitation found that the renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland was being hampered by “a certain tendency, not dominant but nevertheless fairly widespread among priests, religious and laity, to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings of the Magisterium.”

The change of guard at the Irish College in Rome will involve the vice rector, Father Albert McDonnell; the director of formation,Father Billy Swan; and the college’s spiritual director, Father Chris Hayden. They will all return to their respective dioceses at the conclusion of this academic year and receive new assignments.

The Trustees of the Irish College (the four archbishops of Ireland) will announce new appointments after they meet later this month.

Archbishop Martin pointed out to CNA that the spiritual director had already “asked to be relieved due to health reasons,” while the vice rector was serving beyond his term of office.

Last year, Father Ciaran O’Carroll took over as the seminary’s rector from Monsignor Liam Bergin, who had held the post for 10 years. He is now teaching theology at Boston College in the United States. {Which happens to be one of the centers of anti-'Catholic orthodoxy' in the United States.]

In a May 10 statement, Fr. O’Carroll thanked his three departing colleagues for their contribution to the college’s life and wished them “every blessing and success in their new appointments and for the future.”

It's very strange that the banner of the college does not carry an image of St. Joseph for whom it is named!

Pope receives community of
Spanish seminary in Rome

May 10, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI received the students, faculty, and staff of the Pontifical Spanish College of St. Joseph of Rome on Thursday, to mark the 50th anniversary of the College’s current facilities. S

Speaking to his guests in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the thousands of priests who have studied at the College since its founding in the 19th century, and expressed joy at marking the fiftieth anniversary of its facilities at via di Torre Rossa in Rome, just Southwest of Vatican City.

The Holy Father especially invoked San Juan de Avila, whose liturgical feast the Church marks today, recalling that he will formally declare the saint and Patron of Spanish secular clergy a Doctor of the Church.

Pope Benedict reminded his guests that the training of priests is always a top priority for the Church, and that the priest renews his life and his ministry by drawing strength from the contemplation of God’s word and from intense dialogue with the Lord.

“You cannot bring Christ to your brethren, nor can you find Him in the poor and the sick,” said Pope Benedict, “if you do not discover Him first in fervent and constant prayer.”

he Holy Father went on to discuss the need to promote a personal relationship with Christ whom the priest proclaims, celebrates and communicates, saying that this is the foundation of priestly spirituality.

---

Eminences,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear Rector, superiors, religious, and alumni
of the Pontificio Colegio Espanol de San Jose in Rome:

It is my pleasure to receive you today to commemorate the 50 years of the present seat of the Pontificio Colegio Español de San José, especially on the liturgical feast of San Juan de Avila, patron of Spanish secular clergy and whom I shall be proclaiming a Doctor of the Church.

I greet Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and president of the Spanish bishops' conference, whom I thank for his kind words, and I likewise greet the archbishops who are members of the patronate, the rector, the formators, religious and you, dear alumni.

This ephemeris marks a relevant stage of the long itinerary of this residence-school which began towards the end of the 19th century, when Blessed Manuel Domingo y Sol, founder of the Hermandad de Sacerdotes Operarios Diocesanos (Brotherhood of Diocesan Worker Priests), ventured to create a college in Rome with the blessing of my venerated predecessor, Leo XIII, and the support of the Spanish episcopate.

Thousands of seminarians and priests have passed through your college and served the Church in Spain with great love and fidelity to their mission.

The specific formation of priests is always one of the major priorities of the Church. Having been sent to Rome to deepen your studies for the priesthood, you must think above all, not so much of your own personal good, but your service to the holy people of God, who need pastors who are committed to the beautiful service of sanctifying the faithful with great preparation and competence.

But remember that the priest renews his life and draws strength for his ministry in contemplating the Divine Word and in an intense dialog with the Lord. He must be aware that he cannot bring Christ to his brothers nor encounter him in the poor and the sick, unless he first discovers him in fervent and constant prayer.

It is necessary to promote a personal relationship with him whom you will announce, celebrate and communicate. This is the foundation of priestly spirituality, until you become the transparent sign and living witness of the Good Shepherd.

The itinerary of priestly formation is also a school for missionary communion - with the Successor of Peter, with your own bishop, in your own presbytery, and always, at the service of your local Church and the universal Church.

Dear priests, may the life and doctrine of the saintly teacher Juan de Avila illuminate and sustain your stay at the Pontifical College. His profound knowledge of Sacred Scripture, of the Fathers of the Church, of the Councils, of the liturgical sources and healthy theology, together with his loyal and filial love for the Church, made him an authentic renewer during a difficult era in the history of the Church.

Because of that, he was a "clear-eyed and ardent spirit, who in his denunciation of evils, in his recommendations for canonical remedies, added a school of intense spirituality" (Paul VI, Homily during the canonization of San Juan de Avila, May 31, 1970).

The central teaching of the Apostle of Andalucia was the mystery of Christ, Priest and Good shepherd, which he lived in harmony with the feelings of the Lord, imitating St. Paul (cf Phil 2,5). "The Priest must look into this priestly mirror in order to conform yourselves in your desires and prayer with Him" (Tract on priesthood, 10). Priesthood essentially requires his aid and friendship: "This communication of the Lord with the priest... is a question of friendship", the saint said (ibid.,9).

Inspired by the virtues and the example of San Juan de Avila, I therefore invite you to exercise your priestly ministry with the same apostolic zeal that characterized him, with the same austerity of life, as well as with the same filial affection that he had for the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of priests.

Under the close advocacy of the Mater clementissima, countless alumni have entrusted their vocation to her, their studies, their most noble desires and plans, as well as their sorrows and concerns. Do not neglect to invoke her every day, nor should you tire to repeat her name with devotion.

Listen to San Juan de Avila, when he exhorted priests to imitate her: "Let us look at ourselves, Fathers. from head to foot, body and soul, and we shall see ourselves become similar to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who with her words, brought God to her womb... as the priest brings him forth with the words of the consecration" (First Sermon to Priests). The Mother of Christ is the model of that love which brings forth life for the Kingdom of God without expecting anything in return.

With the protection of Our Lady, may the community of the Pontifical College continue to fulfill its objectives of deep analysis and realization of e3ccclesiastical studies, in the climate of deep priestly communion and high scientific rigor that characterizes it, with a view to realizing that intimate fraternity demanded by the Second Vatican Council "by virtue of your common sacred ordination and your common mission" (Lumen gentium, 28).

That is how pastors are formed - as a reflection of the life of God-Love, one and triune - who serve their brothers with rectitude of intention and total dedication, promoting unity in the Church and the good of all human society.

With these sentiments, I impart to you a special Apostolic Blessing, which I gladly extend to your families, your communities of origin, and those who are collaborating in your formative itinerary during your stay in Rome. Many thanks.

---

The English service of Vatican Radio did not consider this item important enough to be reported by them [perhaps they think English readers and listeners are not at all interested in a papal audience with the second largest component of the World Jewish Congress?]. But VIS does report on it, as follows, though both photos come from the CJL site:

Pope meets Latin-American
Jewish community presidents




Vatican City, May 10 2012 (VIS) - Benedict XVI welcomed a delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress to the Vatican this morbning saying it was "the first group representing Jewish organisations and communities in Latin America which I have met here in the Vatican".

He went on to recall that "dynamic Jewish communities exist throughout Latin America, especially in Argentina and Brazil, living alongside a large Catholic majority", and that "beginning with the years of Vatican Council II relations between Jews and Catholics have become stronger, also in your own region, and various initiatives are afoot to make our mutual friendship deeper".

The Holy Father reaffirmed that the Vatican Council II Declaration Nostra aetate continues "to be the basis and the guide for our efforts towards promoting greater understanding, respect and cooperation between our communities.

He said the Declaration not only took up a clear position against all forms anti-Semitism, but also laid the foundations for a new theological evaluation of the Church’s relationship with Judaism, expressing the confidence that an appreciation of the spiritual heritage that Jews and Christians share will lead to increasing understanding and esteem".

"In considering the progress made in the last fifty years of Jewish-Catholic relations throughout the world, we cannot but give thanks to the Almighty for this evident sign of His goodness and providence. Thanks to the increase of trust, respect and goodwill, groups whose relations were originally characterised by a certain lack of trust, have little by little become faithful partners and friends, even good friends, capable of facing crises together and overcoming conflicts in a positive manner.

"Of course there is still a great deal to be done to shake off the burdens of the past, to foment better relations between our communities and to respond to the increasing challenges believers have to face in the modern world. Nonetheless, the fact that we are jointly committed to a path of dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation is a reason for thanksgiving".

He concluded:
"In a world increasingly threatened by the loss of spiritual and moral values - the values that can guarantee respect for human dignity and lasting peace - sincere and respectful dialogue among religions and cultures is crucial for the future of our human family.

"I hope that your visit today will be a source of encouragement and renewed trust when we come to face the challenge of forming stronger ties of friendship and collaboration, and of bearing prophetic witness to the power of God's truth, justice and love, for the good of all humanity".

I had to go the site of the CJL to find out the name of the person who led the delegation:

Vatican City, May 10 (Translated from CJL) - The Latin-American Jewish Congress. led by its president Jack Terpina and the presidents of the various Jewish communities in the region, had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today.

Terpina noted that the relationship between Jews and Catholics in Latin America is "an example not just for positive coexistence but of friendship and cooperation".

In his talk, the Pope referred to the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council this year and reaffirmed thatits declaration Nostra aetate "continues to be the basis and guideline for our efforts to promote better understanding, respect and cooperation betwene out two communities".


The CJL site also contains the text and the audio of the Pope's address. If the setting looks unfamiliar, it is the Sala dei Papi (Hall of the Popes) in the Apostolic Palace.

Here is the Vatican's English translation of the Pope's address which was delivered in Spanish:

---

Dear Jewish friends,

I am very pleased to welcome this delegation of the Latin American Jewish Congress. Our meeting is a particularly significant one, since you are the first group representing Jewish organizations and communities in Latin America which I have met here in the Vatican.

Throughout Latin America there are vibrant Jewish communities, especially in Argentina and Brazil, which live side by side with a great majority of Catholics. In the years since the Second Vatican Council, relations between Jews and Catholics have been strengthened also in your region, and various initiatives continue to deepen our mutual friendship.

As you know, this October marks the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, whose Declaration Nostra Aetate remains the charter and guide in our efforts to promote greater understanding, respect and cooperation between our two communities.

The Declaration not only took up an unambiguous position against every form of anti-Semitism; it also laid the groundwork for a theological reassessment of the Church’s relationship with Judaism and it expressed confidence that an appreciation of the spiritual heritage shared by Jews and Christians would lead to ever greater mutual understanding and esteem (No. 4).

As we consider the progress which has been made over the past fifty years in Jewish-Catholic relations throughout the world, we can only give thanks to the Almighty for this evident sign of his goodness and providence.

With the growth of trust, respect and good will, groups which initially approached one another with some hesitation have step by step become reliable partners and even good friends, capable of coping with crises together and overcoming conflicts positively.

Certainly, much remains to be done in overcoming the burdens of the past, fostering better relations between our two communities, and meeting the challenges which believers increasingly face in today’s world. Yet it is cause for thanksgiving that we are committed to walking together the path of dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation.

Dear friends, in a world which is increasingly threatened by the loss of the spiritual and moral values which alone can guarantee respect for human dignity and lasting peace, a sincere and respectful dialogue between religions and cultures is crucial for the future of our human family.

It is my hope that our visit today will be a source of encouragement and renewed hope in taking up the challenge of building ever stronger bonds of friendship and cooperation, and in bearing prophetic witness to the power of God’s truth, justice and reconciling love, for the welfare of all mankind.

With these sentiments, dear friends, I ask the Thrice-Holy to bless you and your families with every spiritual gift and to guide your steps in the way of peace.

Shalom aleikhem!

---

Andrea Tornielli writes about it, and I am posting his article now... Apparently, the FSSPX has its own internal 'plumbing malfunction' because photocopies have been posted online of a two-page letter dated April 7 from the three other bishops of the FSSPX to the fourth bishop and their Superior-General, Mons. Bernard Fellay, and his April 14 4-page reply to them. [Qui bono from such a leak? Methinks it's the three bishops behind it!] The letters make very clear that Fellay had decided to bring the FSSPX back to the fold, whereas the three other bishops are absolutely opposed to any such reconciliation, Mons. Fellay's unequivocal terms in replying to them are fascinating - and I will post the translations ASAP.

While Tornielli entitles his piece 'The internal battle', I think the battle is over, because Fellay has given his response to Rome, and the Holy Father will probably accept it. The only question is whether the three bishops (the controversial Mons. Williamson, who never hid his disdain for the doctrinal discussions held in Rome; Mons. Galarreta, who ironically headed the FSSPX theological panel to the discussions; and Mons. Tissier de Mallerais) have enough influence among the various FSSPX districts and seminaries to get a significant number of followers to join them in their all-but-formal schism.

Letters reveal 'internal battle'
in the FSSPX on dealing with Rome
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of

May 10, 2012



A website has published the letters exchanged last month between Bishops Tissier de Mallerais, Alfonso de Galarreta and Richard Williamson, and their Superior-General, Mons. Bernard Fellay.

The April 7 letter from the three bishops contains a peremptory call for Fellay not to sign the doctrinal preamble and not to accept the reconciliation offered by the Holy See which would give the FSSPX the canonical status of a personal prelature within the Church.

"The dostrinal discussions", they write Fellay, "have proven that an agreement is impossible with Rome" because "after Vatican II, the official authorities of the Church diverged from Catholic truths and today they are as determined as ever to remain loyal to the doctrine and practice of that Council".

They use statements supposedly made by FSSSPX founder Mons. Marcel Lefebvre a few months before he died to bolster their arguments. Such as: "The problem is not with specific errors in the individual Council documents, but rather a total perversion of the spirit [of the Council], with a completely new philosophy based on subjectivism".

The three dissenters say, "Even the thinking of the present Pope is impregnated with subjectivism - all the subjective fantasy of man in place of the objective reality of God, all of Catholicism subjected to the modern world". [They are truly delusional! Have these characters ever read Benedict XVI or listen to what he has been saying all these decades? Or do they just choose to see nothing good at all about Rome and this Pope?]

"How can we believe," they ask, "that any practical agreement could resolve this problem?... They are accepting us in the name of a pluralistic and dialectic pluralism. They can tolerate that the FSSPX continues to teach Catholic doctrine while they refuse to condemn the doctrine of Vatican II". [Vatican II never proposed any new doctrine. It was a pastoral council and the four major points disputed by the FSSPX - religious freedom, inter-religious dialog, ecumenism and collegiality - are all new pastoral attitudes towards the rest of the world (in the case of the first 3) and the relationship between the Pope and bishops, in the case of the fourth.]

They also quote Mons. Lefebvre as saying, "It is dangerous to place ourselves in the hands of Conciliar bishops and of modernist Rome", and conclude by telling Fellay: "You are leading the Fraternity to the point of no return, to a profound division", and predict that an agreement with Rome will end by destroying the Fraternity.

Fellay responds with a long and detailed letter, which is very interesting and significant in view of what is about to happen to the FSSPX, which is now on the verge of an agreement with the Holy See.

The Superior reminds his fellow bishops that "The Church still has Jesus Christ as its head. But one has the impression that you are so scandalized [by what has been happening] that you can no longer accept that this could still be true."

"Do you consider Benedict XVI a legitimate Pope? If he is, can Jesus Christ not speak through him? If the Pope expresses a legitimate will that concerns us, which is good, and which does not violate the commandments of God in any way, do we have the right to reject him, to cast aside his good will? Do you not believe that if the Lord guides us, he will also give us the means to continue our work?"

"The Pope has let us know that his concern to regularize our situation for the good of the Church is among the things at the heart of his Pontificate... (although) he knows that it would have been much easier for him and for us to just leave things as they are...

"Your idea of the Church is too human and fatalistic. You see dangers, conspiracies, difficulties, but you no longer see the role of grace and the Holy Spirit... Do not transform the errors of the Council into super-heresies, so that they become an absolute evil, in the very same way that the liberals have dogmatized a pastoral council. [Very well put, Mons. Fellay!] The objections we have are already dramatic enough, and we must not exaggerate them."

Finally, Fellay invites his three bishops to admit that the proposed personal prelature is quite different from the proposals made to Lefebvre in 1988 - "To pretend that nothing has changed since then is an error". And asks them to consider that the serious problems of the Church have never been resolved overnight but only gradually and slowly.

What significance do these letters have, and above all, could they possibly interfere with the process now under way? [Obviously not, because Fellay's reply to them was dated the day before he submitted his 'final answer' to Rome.]

It would seem not at all. But what they do is to provide a snapshot of something already known, which is the existence of profoundly diverse positions within the Fraternity. However, the responsibility for the dialogues and negotiating with Rome is in the hands of Fellay and his general assistants.

They have made their decision and we must wait some more days to learn the recommendations of the cardinals and bishops making up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Pope Benedict XVI's final decision.

All signs are that this will be known before the end of the month, when we shall see if and how the other three bishops will come around. [Their mind appears so closed it's hard to imagine that they will!]

This is one of the articles in the Toscana Oggi special for the Holy Father's first apostolic visit to the region when he visits Arezzo this weekend. Mons. Coda is a leading Italian theologian and is currently the secretary of the Pontifical Academy for Theology. Loppiano, a district of Val d'Incisa near Florence, is the first 'permanent citadel' of the Focolari Movement founded by the late Chiara Lubich in 1964 and has become a center of encounters among people of various faiths and cultures.

The theologian Pope
who leads us to God
by Mons. Piero Coda
President
Istituto Universitario «Sophia» of Loppiano
Translated from


It has become almost habitual to call Benedict XVI the theologian Pope. Which without doubt he is, and a world-class one. But in what sense? To look deeper into this is not secondary because it could reveal a new and gratifying look at the heart of his ministry.

First of all, it must be said that Benedict XVI is not a theologian only because - before becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and then called to Rome to the CDF - he was one of the most brilliant professors of theology in the Catholic world. And was already so before the Second Vatican Council, in which he participated as a theological expert, but most especially afterwards.

Nor is it because, in the exercise of his service as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the universal Church, he has been giving us stupendous 'lessons' of a theology that is dense but at the same time within reach of everyone, nourished as it is by the Word of God and modelled on the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, of the great Doctors and saints.

Rather, Benedict XVI is a theologian Pope above all because in everything that he says and does, he has been following a precise objective: that of contributing to open to everyone an access of light and joy towards the mystery of God in the highest who, in Jesus, descended to us and who, thanks to the grace of the Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of the faithful, illuminates our steps, gives meaning and vigor to our actions.

“Behold," the Lord said in the Book of the Apocalypse, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me" (3,20).

Pope Benedict XVI, with passion, tenacity and mastery, wants us all - children, young people and adults, believers and people who are still seeking, to listen to this invitation, for us to open the door to Jesus and learn to converse with him.

Is it not this return to the pulsing heart of the Christian faith, and therefore to the God who revealed himself as Love in Jesus who offered himself to us as the certain anchor of hope - which animates his encyclicals, and which has led him to call for a year of Faith that starts this fall?

And this, not just to rekindle and feed the fire and the light of the presence of God in the intimacy of every man, but to cause the beauty and efficacy of this presence shine forth in the variegated fabric of our society, where persons live out their lives, their affections and their work.

Just think of the encyclical Caritas in veritatis in which God's love for us in Jesus, and our love for him in response, is deployed in a fascinating and demanding plan for a social, economic, and political renewal at all levels.

But allw me to recall some episodes that I experienced firsthand and which allowed me to see this inspiration in action. The first goes back 15 years.

Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the CDF, was to meet an illustrious Japanese philosopher of the Buddhist tradition, Prof.
Masao Abe of Kyoto. Not being able to do it himself, he asked me to do so in his stead.

I therefore found myself at the CDF offices for this meeting which was very important to him: the subject was to be the originality of 'the face of God' as revealed in Jesus, about whom the professor was seeking to learn more. Our conversation that morning was rich and profound, and the cardinal, to whom I reported the meeting in detail, was very happy about it.

This came back to mind spontaneously years later when I saw Benedict XVI pause in silence next to a Muslim imam, in the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, during his apostolic visit to Turkey.

And this is one of the royal ways of life and of the mission of the Church that the Pope shows us: to bear witness to all, in peace and with love, the face of God that Jesus has shown us.

A second episode - which all of us, in some way, have been able to see, at least on TV - was his prayer vigil with the young people at World Youth Day in Madrid. That was when the Pope, after a sudden thunderstorm, knelt before the Eucharist on the altar, and drew with him a multitude of young people who in silence, and motionless for quite a while, joined him in prayer.

What could be greater and more decisive than to lead the faithful to the contemplation and experience of God, he who became flesh in Jesus and gives himself to us in the Eucharist?

A third episode took place last year, and it also had a young person, a blind one, as protagonist. I was in St. Peter's Square for the Wednesday General Audience with the students of the Istituto Universitario Sophia of Loppiano, of which I have been president since 2008.

Some of us, representing our delegation, were presented to the Pope later. When it was our turn, Caelison, a blind youth from Brazil, said to the Pope when he shook his hand: "I have met Jesus, the light, and I wish with my companions to bring him to everyone as you always ask us to do". The Pope looked at him with his penetrating eyes, realized that he was blind, and embraced him with warmth.

That is Benedict XVI, the theologian Pope of friendship with God.

Maestro Muti at the Vatican:
'What emotion it is
to conduct for Pope Benedict!'
​by Pierachille Dolfini
Translated from


He does not hide that he feels a bit more apprehensive than usual, because he will be conducting "for a Pope who is also a refined musician": "Such emotion to conduct for him!"

Riccardo Muti will be at the Aula Paolo VI Friday for a concert to celebrate the seventh anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope. A gift to the Pontiff from President Giorgio Napolitano, and therefore, from Italy.

"I have bound by close affection to the President of the Republic , and when he invited me to offer this concert for the Pope, I was very happy to do so. Especially since I admire Papa Ratzinger, a fine theologian who has the rare ability to transmit the most profound concepts in absolutely simple ways so that even persons who are not 'learned' can easily grasp his message", Muti said.

For the concert, Muti will lead the Orchestra and Chorus of Rome's Teatro dell'Opera. "I have chosen the Magnificat of Antonio Vivaldi - Daniella Barcelona will be the solosit - and the Stabat Mater and the Te Deum by Giuseppe Verdi. These are pieces that I love and which have meant something in my career as a musician and in my own life".

You often perform sacred music. Is this only because it is great music or because you find a spirituality which can speak even to man today?
I believe that any music which has a living and profound inspiration acquires a sacredness - it becomes an expression of the Spirit. When I execute music that is inspired by the Bible or ny liturgy, I feel the transcendence that pervades them. And the history of music owes much to the cultural patronage of the Church. Without the Church, the history of music would certainly be different, much poorer from the criterion of quantity, but above all, of quality.

Benedict XVI will be the third Pope for whom you will conduct since you performed for Paul VI in 1965...
At the time, I was still a student at the Milan Conservatory, and I went to the Vatican to conduct a student orchestra and chorus (among whom was Cristina, who later became my wife, and who was also studying music at the time). I was very much impressed by papa Montini's hieratic figure. And for the Pope, who had been Archbishop of Milan, I chose music by Scarlatti and Vivaldi.

It was different when I later conducted for John Paul II. Each time, I could feel the warmth and charisma of that extraordinary man. In 1986, I brought to the Vatican Cherubini's Messe du Sacre with the RAI Orchestra, and then in 2000, Bach's Mass in A minor withthe Vienna Philharmonic.

But the most emotional meeting was in 1983 at la Scala. The Pope who was seated in the hall came up to the stage to be among the musicians. I treasure a photograph of that moment.

This time, you will be going to the Vatican with the Rome Opera, your new musical family, along with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But this has meant revising your previous work schedule. For instance, you will no longer be conducting opera in Salzburg.
At least not for now. For a music director, the orchestra becomes a family that requires time and attention. The Rome Opera is our capital's musical calling card to the world. It cannot just be visited fleetingly during the year. Even if I am not its music director, I am committed to stay close to it in order to help it grow. Everyone is committed to it, and I think it has the potential to expand,, both at Costanzi as well as at the Baths of Caracalla, to develop a cultural discourse which can give Rome the musical prestige it deserves.

Will you ever direct at Caracalla despite the fact that you do not favor performing in the open?
We are already planning the 2013 season which will have a more demanding repertoire, and if we can make Caracalla a place which does honor to the origins and musical history of the city of Rome, then, of course, I will contribute what I can to that venue.

Early next month, Benedict XVI will be in Milan for the VII World Encounter of Families. In your view - as someone who has always wanted your family around you - what is the state of that institution today?
There has been an erosion, not just in Italy but elsewhere - a crisis that families are undergoing, startign with economic difficulties. But I am convinced that the family remains teh fulcrum that holds society together.

In terms of the crisis, what do you think of our current government of technocrats?
I don't understand much of what's going on. I only hope that this government - which is made up of serious persons - can do something to help bring hope to those who can barely make it through the month.

What about your appeals in defense of culture and music - are they now being heard? Is something starting to happen?
Unfortunately, they continue to be unheeded in large part. As logn as we continue with television which continues to pontentiate and broadcast transmissions which are demential and anti-cultural, that certainly do not help society to improve, then appeals of the sort from me and my colleagues will be like drops in the ocean.

The Academy of Santa Cecilia and La Scala have become autonomous. Do you expect this to happen also at the Rome Opera?
All I hope for is that our theaters do not lose their specific identities. One can speak of autonomy, which is certainly important, but in the end, what matters is that our Italian theaters continue to be the repositories of our great culture. Without this, autonomy is empty.

Fr. Longenecker offers a timely reminder to secularized Christians who may have forgotten or choose to ignore Scripture....

The sin of sodomy
by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

May 10, 2012


The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin, 1852.

Where does the word “sodomy” come from and what does it mean? The word refers to the city of Sodom – a city cited in the Book of Genesis which, along with Gomorrah, was known for the wickedness of its inhabitants.

In Catholic moral theology, sodomy is one of the sins that “cry out to heaven”. These four grave sins are referenced in Old Testament passages, and in the present discussion about homosexuality it is worth taking time to read the passage from which we get the term. The story is found in Genesis 19. Abram’s nephew Lot and his family have gone to live in Sodom and they are visited by two avenging angels who come to rescue them from the city’s impending doom.

---

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.“My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom — both young and old — surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here — sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

---

What can we say about this passage from Genesis? There is some pretty shocking stuff in it, not least of which is Lot’s willingness to offer his two young daughters to the crowd of rapists.

The homosexual interpreters say that the sin of Sodom is not homosexuality but “the failure to offer hospitality to strangers.” This has to be one of the most outrageous examples of intentional misinterpretation of Scripture ever attempted.

The passage says the inhabitants of the city of Sodom were wicked beyond belief, and “not offering hospitality to strangers” doesn’t really sound like the sort of sin for which God might rain down sulfurous fire from heaven. “What!” bellows the Almighty “You didn’t offer that tramp a bed for the night? It’s fire and brimstone for you!”

I don’t think so. Clearly the wickedness of the men of Sodom is linked with homosexuality. It is not only linked with homosexuality, however, it is also linked with gang rape. To put it bluntly, a crowd of men wanted to rape the two men visiting Lot. The sin of Sodom, therefore is not simply homosexual actions.

Sodomy is not just anal intercourse between men. There is an element of violence and perversion to the sin of Sodom. Consequently, while the legal definition of “sodomy” has been anal intercourse or bestiality, it’s proper definition would, in my opinion, include rape or sexual violence of any sort.

This is why the four “sins that cry to heaven” cry to heaven for vengeance. The cries to heaven are the cries of helpless victims of some form of violence and the victims have no recourse–nowhere to turn for help.

It is arguable, therefore, that it is unfair to use the word “sodomy” for all homosexual behaviors. Sodomy is not less than that. It is more than that. Homosexuals might argue that “loving same sex relationships” are not the sin of Sodom because the sin of Sodom was not just homosexuality–it was predatory homosexuality.

They would argue that the sin of Sodom was not just homosexual behavior – it was gang rape and was all tied in with cruelty and violence and probably bloodshed, torture and murder. Loving, stable, homosexual behaviors (they would argue) are not the same as the sin of Sodom.

Yes and no. It is certainly true that the sinners of Sodom were not only homosexuals, but they were public, violent and aggressive homosexuals. That they were blinded by the angels in Lot’s house is a telling and symbolic detail. These homosexuals were full of rage against Lot. They would hear no arguments against their intended behavior. They were blind and demonic in their lust and rage.

So, not too far off the homosexualist campaigners of our day who throw their “sexuality” in our face and launch increasingly aggressive, blasphemous and violent campaigns against anyone who would disagree with them. Certainly the public, violent and disgusting men of Sodom have their equivalents in our society today.

But let’s put them on one side, and focus on the “nice, kind, non aggressive, quiet homosexual”–the man next door who lives quietly with his “partner” and does not campaign for “gay marriage”. He just wants to be left alone. He is not a rapist or a pedophile. He does not go in for gang rape or violence or intimidation. Is he guilty of the “sin of Sodom”?

We have to consider the action itself. If a same sex couple engage in sexual intercourse, and both parties are consenting they may not be doing violence to each other in the blatant way that the men of Sodom intended, but they are still doing violence to one another and to the natural order and to the sacrament of marriage.

Furthermore, we sometimes forget that it is possible for heterosexuals to commit sodomy. Anal sex between a man and woman is sodomy and some moral theologians consider oral sex to be a form of sodomy. Therefore sodomy is not just homosexual in nature.

What we are talking about therefore – whether it is between two men or a man and a woman is un-natural sex – a sexual act that is not procreative and therefore not fully loving as God intended–a sexual act that is for pleasure only. Such behavior, by anyone is called a sinful action. This is an objective judgement based on natural law. Male and female genitalia are designed for a purpose and to use them otherwise is un-natural and therefore sinful.

Every sinful action from stealing a pencil to mass murder is, in this sense, un-natural and it is an action of violence against what is natural. It breaks something. It breaks the natural order, it breaks unity between persons, it breaks the natural cycle of life, it breaks harmony between God. It is destructive.

All sin – is therefore a distortion of the rightful order and therefore a form of violence. As such, all of us sinners are guilty of this kind of violence – and this is what is so often forgotten when critics blame Catholicism for being “judgmental”.

It is true that we call homosexual behavior a sin, and homosexuality a human weakness, but as we do so we look in the mirror and acknowledge that all of us are sinners and all of us suffer from the wound of sin and concupiscence.

Catholics are against sin wherever it occurs because it is destructive. In saying that we also recognize that there are different levels of guilt and that all sin is not equally offensive. We acknowledge this distinction in any type of sin.

Stealing a paper clip from the office is not as serious as stealing a million dollars from vulnerable widows through a Ponzi scheme. Likewise we can recognize different levels of guilt amongst the sexual sins.

A homosexual who lives quietly with his or her partner and strives for what he or she believes to be a loving and faithful life is not the same as a raging, aggressive homosexual activist who wants to destroy marriage, wants his total promiscuity endorsed, and thrusts his sexuality into the lives of others. Nor is it the same as a depraved, pornography addicted homosexual predator.

It is possible, and pastorally necessary to make such distinctions.

However, making these distinctions does not mean that homosexual actions are good.

Nor does it mean that men can marry one another.

Fr. Longenenecker fails to mention the Catholic 'advice' for Catholic homosexuals - which is to practise chastity. Seculars would call that 'unnatural', the way Catholics consider homosexual activity unnatural. So is priestly celibacy unnatural, but these acts of chastity are voluntary and offered to God for a noble purpose. It is not impossible.

Homosexuals are nothing new in human society, but the apparent prevalence today in Western societies must be seen in relation to the absolute number of people living today and a new 'confessional' culture that wallows in publicly proclaiming all kinds of perversities and sins.

In previous centuries, it remained 'the sin that dares not speak its name', which also meant that homosexuals chose to keep their activities private. It should remain so, and Catholic homosexuals who choose to indulge themselves must assume the moral responsibility for their choice and deal with it with their confessors if they care to.

All the elements present in the homosexual practices rampant in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah are, of course, present in the most reprehensible sex abuses committed by priests whose victims are overwhelmingly male teenagers and boys - but far worse than the original sodomites because 1) they are supposed to be consecrated men of God and 2) their victims were innocent and in their care... The following story is an appropriate news peg for Fr. Lognenecker's reflection above...


Vatican is investigating
7 Legion priests for child abuse


VATICAN CITY, May 11 (AP) — The Vatican is investigating seven priests from the troubled Legion of Christ religious order for alleged sexual abuse of minors and another two for other alleged crimes, The Associated Press has learned.

The investigations mark the first known Vatican action against Legion priests for alleged sexual assault following the scandal of the Legion's founder, who was long held up as a model by the Vatican despite credible accusations — later proven — that he raped and molested his seminarians.

The Legion, which is now under Vatican receivership, has insisted that the crimes of its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, were his alone.

But the Vatican investigation of other Legion priests indicates that the same culture of secrecy that Maciel created within the order to cover his crimes enabled other priests to abuse children — just as abusive clergy of other religious orders and dioceses have done around the world.

In a statement Friday to the AP, the Legion confirmed it had referred seven cases of alleged abuse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that investigates sex crimes. All but one involves alleged abuse dating from decades ago; one case involves recent events, the Legion said.

While the investigation is under way, the accused priests are being kept away from children, the Legion said.

"Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses ... committed by some Legionaries," the statement said.

It said it was committed to examining the accusations and reaching out to victims while safeguarding the rights of all involved.

The Legion issued the statement to the AP after the news organization approached it with the allegations; the Legion simultaneously sent the statement out to all priests in the order.

In addition to referring the cases to the Vatican as required by church law, the Legion said it had referred cases to police where civil reporting laws require it. It's not clear, however, if any law enforcement action was taken given the statute of limitations may have expired for such old cases.

The Legion said two other priests are also under investigation by the Congregation for alleged sacramental violations, believed to involve using spiritual direction to have inappropriate relations with women.

Preliminary investigations of an unspecified number of other priests accused of abuse found them innocent, the Legion said.

The scandal of Maciel and the Legion ranks as one of the worst of the 20th-century Catholic Church, since he was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II. The orthodox order, which has about 900 priests around the world, was praised for attracting both money and vocations to the priesthood.

Documentation from Vatican archives, however, has shown that as early as the 1950s, the Vatican had evidence that he was a drug addict and pedophile.

Only in 2006 did the Vatican sanction Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes. He died in 2008 and a year later the Legion admitted he had fathered three children with two different women and had abused his seminarians.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 and is pushing through a process of reform.

Aaron Loughrey, 35, was a 17- or 18-year-old Legion seminarian in Ireland in the spring of 1995 when he says he was forced by a superior to masturbate him in bed. Loughrey, who left the Legion before being ordained, says he has been in counseling almost ever since as he seeks justice from the order.

He said that the vow he took as a seminarian never to criticize the actions or deeds of a superior made him unable to question what the priest had told him to do. In a parallel to the way Maciel abused his seminarians, Loughrey says his superior had told him that an unnamed illness gave him terrible cramps in his lower abdomen that could only be eased with massage.

"In my heart and in my conscience I believed that I had acted that night like a true Legionary — putting my superior's needs before my own — and I stuffed the unsavory thoughts and feelings to the back of my mind," Loughrey has written.

The priest has since left the priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 ordered the Legion to remove the so-called fourth vow never to criticize a superior — precisely because of the abuse of authority that it had created in the order.

Friday, May 11, Fifth Week in Easter

ST. IGNAZIO DA LACONI (Sardinia, 1701-1791), Capuchin
One of the many 'begging' Capuchins who have become saints, Ignazio was born the second of seven children of peasant parents in Sardinia. During a serious illness, he vowed to become a Capuchin if he recovered. He regained his health but ignored the promise. A riding accident prompted him to renew the pledge, which he acted on this time - he was 20. His humility, self-denial and charity led to his appointment as the official beggar for the friars in Cagliari. He fulfilled that task for 40 years; he was blind the last two years. While on his begging rounds, Ignatius would instruct children, visit the sick and gently urge sinners to repent. The people of Cagliari were inspired by his kindness and his faithfulness to his work. Although he was in poor health since childhood, he lived to be 80. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death. He was beatified in 1940 and canonized in 1951.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/051112.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Seven US bishops from Florida (Region XIV) led by Mons. Tomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, on ad-limina visit

- H.E. Vytautas Ališauskas, Ambassador from Lithuania, on his farewell visit

- National directors of the Pontificie Opere Missionarie (Pontifical Missionary Works). Address in Italian.

And in the afternoon with

- Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
The meeting precedes a concert offered by President Napolitano at Aula Paolo VI to mark the seventh
anniversary of Benedict XVI's Pontificate. Riccardo Muti will condict the Orchestra and Chorus of
the Rome Opera House in a performacne of Vivaldi's 'Magnificat' and Verdi's 'Stabat Mater' and 'Te Deum'
from his Quattro Sacri Pezzi (Four Sacred Pieces).


Vatican statement on
latest violence in Syria

May 11, 2012

The Vatican Press Office released this statement today:

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Having witnessed yesterday's attacks which brought carnage to the streets of Damascus, we cannot but express our strong condemnation and the heartfelt closeness of the Holy Father and the Catholic community to the families of the victims.

These attacks should encourage all sides to boost and strengthen their commitment to implementing the Annan Peace Plan, which has been accepted by all sides in the conflict.

Yesterday's attacks also show that the situation in Syria requires a firm and joint commitment on the part of the entire international community to implement that plan and, as soon as possible, to send further observers.

The appeal made by the Holy Father on Easter Sunday is now more pressing than ever: it is necessary without delay to make an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation.

---

Benedict XVI:
Pontifical mission societies are
sowing seeds of new humanity

May 12, 2012

“Evangelization today impels the Church to work with ever quickening steps on the path of the world, to bring knowledge of Christ to every man”, said Pope Benedict XVI Friday as he received the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies (in Italian, Pontificie Opere Missionarie, known in several countries as Missio) during the annual meeting of their Board of Governors. Emer McCarthy has the report:

The Pontifical Mission Societies include the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood and the Pontifical Missionary Union. They all fall under the governance of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The Pontifical Mission Societies to help bring the Good News of Christ to the world, especially in countries where the Church is new, young or poor. The Societies care for and support the younger churches until they are able to be self-sufficient.

The four organisations also play a crucial role in combating poverty, disease, injustice and exploitation.

In his remarks to the group, Pope Benedict said: “Every man and every people has the right to receive the Gospel”. This because “only in the Truth, in fact, that is Christ Himself , can humanity discover the meaning of existence, to find salvation and grow in justice and peace. "

Even today, he continued, there is a need for mission, although "in this phase of economic, cultural and political change, where often the human being feels alone, in anguish and despair, the messengers of the Gospel, even though announcers of hope and peace, continue to be persecuted like their Master and Lord".

He said that the proclamation of the Gospel often "brings misery and suffering - the growth of the Kingdom of God in the world, in fact, often comes at the cost of the blood of its servants... But, despite the problems and the tragic reality of persecution, the Church is not discouraged, she remains faithful to her Lord's command, the awareness that "throughout Christian history, martyrs, that is, witnesses, have always been numerous and indispensable to the spread of the Gospel"(John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 45). The message of Christ, past and present, can not conform to the logic of this world, because it is prophecy and deliverance, it is the seed of a new humanity that is growing, and which only at the end of time will have its full realization. "

"Evangelization, which is always urgent, in these times impels the Church to work with ever quickening steps on the path of the world, to bring knowledge of Christ to every man. Only in the Truth, in fact, that is Christ Himself , can humanity discover the meaning of existence, to find salvation and grow in justice and peace. "

The Pope said he was "very pleased to encourage the project of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Missions Societies in supporting the Year of Faith. This project provides a worldwide campaign, which, through the prayer of the Holy Rosary, accompany the work of evangelizing the world and for many of the baptized to rediscover and deepen the faith".

In his address, the Pope mourned the sudden passing of the longtime secretary of Propaganda Fide, Italian missionary priest Fr. Massimo Cenci PIME, who died this morning. He was 68. He said “May the Lord reward him for all the work he accomplished in mission and service of Holy See."

The Pontifical Mission Societies has 120 offices worldwide and is the only organisation which supports every one of the 1,069 mission dioceses of the world, exclusively through the generosity of Catholics.

Florence, capital of Tuscany, remains the one major city in Italy that Benedict XVI has yet to visit as Pope. For this reason, Tuscans are looking forward to his visit to Arezzo this Sunday, which will be his first to the region. Her is Part 2 of a lengthy article in Toscana Oggi, appearing in its May 13 weekly edition written by its editor,


Left, a special magazine published by the diocese on the Pope's visit; right, tomorrow's weekly edition of Toscana Oggi and a poster of the papal visit (which unfortunately only comes as athumbnail so I cannot enlarge it more).

Papal visit to Arezzo:
A gift and a gesture
for all of Tuscany
by Andrea Fagioli


"A gift for Arezzo but also a gesture for the entire region of Tuscany and what it represents in Europe and in the world", is how Archbishop Riccardo Fontana, Bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro, described Benedict XVI's visit on Sunday at a meeting of the Regional Council last May 2.

He said that preparations for the visit have been characterized by "parsimony in organization, efficacy in communications, the proper attention to our people especially those most affected by the economic crisis in a way that has been most difficult and painful".
"The Church wants to do its part", he continued, "by helping the most needy, as well as by calling attention, as much as it can, to the region and what would promote the common good".

This is the significance of the Pope's visit to a region rich in history where, a thousand years ago, the Sacred Hermitage of the Camaldoli Benedictines was established and the pilgrims Arcanus and Aegidius founded the city of Sansepolcro.

It is a region, Mons. Fontana underscored, "where communal freedom and individual dignity have been elaborated since the Middle Ages; where the ideal city is one of justice and peace; and where commitment for the common good transcends ideological barriers".

He cited recent historical figures like Giorgio Lapira, Piero Calamandrei and the recently beatified Giuseppe Toniolo "whose witness reflected the values of the great Renaissance leaders that persist to our time, in this region, a land of prayer and dialog".

Mons. Fontana has called on his diocesan faithful to 'fully experience' this 13th of May with the Pope: "The presence of the Pope in this region," he said, "is tantamount to saying, as from an elevated pulpit, that even today, Tuscany can still lead the way in planning a future with a European and universal vision."

"The subjects of social policy and the economy - which are decidedly much closer to the work of this regional council - can well dovetail into a re-proposal of freedom and justice for all, according to the duty of human solidarity".

TSD, the diocesan TV of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro, will be transmitting live broadcasts of the Pope's entire visit on May 13, from 9 am to 9 pm, including certain 'exclusive' stages, such as his arrival by helicopter in Arezzo, his trip through the city by Popemobile, and his private visit inside the Cathedral of San Donato.
The coverage of the Papal Mass at 10 am will be shared with all the local and regional TV channels.

The entire event will also be streamed on www.tsdtv.it.

Cardinal Ratzinger's previous
visits to Tuscany

Although this is Benedict XVI's first visit to Tuscany as Pope, he has had a very special link to the region through the Benedictine nuns' community of Rosano near Florence, as the nuns recounted shortly after he was elected Pope.

He first visited Rosano in 1985 to preside at the solemn profession of vows of a novice. After that, he returned several times more, especially for the Solemnity of Corpus Domini when he celebrated Mass and led the procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

In 2001, he chose the abbey to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination along with his brother.

During those trips, the nuns recounted, he would be accompanied by his then secretary, Mons. Josef Clemens, and the cardinal's faithful driver, Alfredo. They would arrive late Saturday afternoon and leave the following afternoon. On Saturday evenings, he liked taking a walk in the fields.

Popes who have visited Tuscany


Throughout history, many Popes have visited the cities of Tuscany. Just to the diocese of Arezzo alone, the best-remembered is Gregory X for whom the Istituto di Scienze Religiose is named. He died in the Bishops' Palace of Arezzo on January 10, 1276, during a return trip to Rome.

An earlier predecessor, Victor II, died in Arezzo in 1057, while on a visit to resolve boundary questions between the Churches of Arezzo and Siena.

Among the most significant papal visits to Arezzo was that of John XVII, in 1007, who was invited by then Bishop Elempertus to consecrate the reconstructed cathedral of Pionta.

Alexander II, who had been the first bishop of Lucca who became the great reformer of the Church in the 11th century, was a guest for a few days at the Monastery of Capolona.

After Leo X, who stopped in Arezzo for a few days in 1515, we come next to 1805, when Pius VII passed through Arezzo on his way to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon I.

Two Popes visited Sansepolcro: Gregory XII, escorted by Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, when he was fleeing hostilities fomented against him by various European states; and Clement VII, during the trip to Bologna in order to crown Emperor Charles V.

In years much closer to our time, Paul VI was the first Pope to visit Tuscany. He went to Pisa on June 10, 1965, for the National Eucharistic Congress. He returned on Christmas Eve the next year to celebrate Mass at Florence's Santa Maria dei Fiore, to encourage Florence in its efforts to recover from the catastrophic flood of November 1966.

Papa Wojtyla visited Tuscany ten times - nine of them pastoral visits and one which was private and unexpected to the Monastery of Monte Argentario in December 2000. The pastoral visits were:
- Siena, on September 14, 1980;
- Two years later, on the May 1 Feast of St Joseph the Laborer, he went to Livorno, to Rosignano Solvay where he met with some factory workers, and to the shrine of Montenero;
- In 1986, again on St. Joseph's day, he chose Prato for a meeting with laborers;
- Later in the year, on Oct 18-19, he visited Florence and Fiesole;
- On May 21, 1989, he visited Grosetto, the first Pope to visit the Maremma region in 856 years;
- He returned on Sept. 22-24, 1989 for an intense three-day visit to Pisa, Cecina, Volterra and Lucca (where he venerated Lucca's 'Volto Santo'.
- He was supposed Arezzo and Sansepolcro in September 1992, but the visit was postponed because of health reasons.
- On May 23, 1993, he visited Cortona and Arezzo.
- On Sept. 17,1993, he went to La Verna and Camaldoli.
- He missed going to Siena for the National Eucharistic Congress in 1994 because of a domestic accident (was ti when he broke his hip?}
but came back on March 10, 1996 to celebrate Mass at the Piazza del Campo, after having met with workers at Colle Val d'Elsa.

Pope meets President Napolitano
before tribute concert and awards
papal knighthood to conductor Muti

May 12, 2012







Pope Benedict XVI attended a concert yesterday evening in the Paul VI Hall here at the Vatican, offered by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to honor the Holy Father on the seventh anniversary of his election as Pope.

The President also presented the Pope with a prestigious violin and an antique score to a Missa solemnis by Zimmerman, a German composer from the first half of the 19th century. [Sorry I can't find more about the composer for now.]

[Also present for the concert were Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his wife. It was the first time the head of the Italian government has attended this annual concert tribute offered by the President of Italy for the Pope. Neither of his two predecessors, Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi, did.]

The concert Friday evening featured sacred music by the Italian composers Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Verdi.

Speaking at the end of the concert, Pope Benedict thanked President Napolitano, the featured soloists, the orchestra and chorus of the Rome Opera, and Maestro Riccardo Muti – whom Benedict decorated with a Papal knighthood: the Grand Cross of St Gregory the Great - and all those who had a part in organizing the event.

“Let us pray,” said Pope Benedict, that, after hearing the evening’s music, “we might be able ourselves to say to God: ‘In you, O Lord, I place with joy my hope. Make it so that I might love you as your Holy Mother, so that my soul, at the end of the journey, might be given the glory of Paradise’.”

The concert followed a private meeting between the Pope and the President.



Vatican Press Office director Fr Federico Lombardi SJ said the meeting lasted 20 minutes, during which they expressed a common concern for peace, with particular reference to the situation in the Middle East.

The Holy Father expressed his personal gratitude to the President for the concert given in his honour, and expressed anew his love for Italy and his closeness to all citizens of the Republic, assuring the President of his continuing prayers in this difficult and challenging time for the country.


Photos of the event released by the news agencies were more woefully unrepresentative than usual - no photos pf the meeting beteen the Pope and the Preisdnet before the concernt, nor of the Pope presenting the papal knighthood to Muti, nor of the Pope greeting the performers and deliering his post-concert remarks:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching back to Rome...

Third Ordinariate for ex-Anglicans
set to be established soon in Australia

Three cheers to CNS for taking this initiative of going up to Menzingen to speak to Mons. Fellay directly, who proves in this interview- as he did in his letter-response to the three dissenting FSSPX bishops - that his heart is in the right place. God give him the courage and wisdom to persevere, and let us keep praying for the reconciliation which may be imminent but is not yet fait accompli.

FSSPX head prepared for possible
split over reconciling with Rome
By Francis X. Rocca


MENZINGEN, Switzerland. May 11 (CNS) -- The leader of a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics spoke in unusually hopeful terms about a possible reconciliation with Rome, but acknowledged significant internal resistance to such a move, which he said might lead to the group splitting apart.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, spoke to Catholic News Service May 11 at the society's headquarters in Switzerland about the latest events in more than two years of efforts at reconciliation with the Vatican.

The society effectively broke with Rome in 1988, when its founder, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained four bishops without the permission of Blessed John Paul II in a protest against modernizing changes that followed the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65.

In April the society responded to a "doctrinal preamble" stipulating the group's assent to certain Church teachings, presumably including elements of the teaching of Vatican II, as a prerequisite for reconciliation. The Vatican has yet to respond, but the director of the Vatican press office initially described the latest position as a "step forward."

The society is hardly united behind its leader's position, however. In April, according to a letter which surfaced on the Internet May 10, the society's other three bishops warned Bishop Fellay that the Vatican's apparent offer to establish the group as a personal prelature -- a status currently held only by Opus Dei -- constituted a "trap," and urged him to say no.

"There are some discrepancies in the society," Bishop Fellay told CNS. "I cannot exclude that there might be a split."

But the bishop defended his generally favorable stance toward the Vatican's offer against the objections of his peers.

"I think that the move of the Holy Father -- because it really comes from him -- is genuine. There doesn't seem to be any trap," he said. "So we have to look into it very closely and if possible move ahead."

He cautioned, however, that the two sides still have not arrived at an agreement, and that unspecified guarantees from the Vatican are still pending. He said the guarantees are related to the society's traditional liturgical practices and teachings, among other areas.

"The thing is not yet done," the bishop said. "We need some reasonable understanding that the proposed structure and conditions are workable. We are not going to do suicide there, that's very clear."

Bishop Fellay insisted the impetus for a resolution comes from Pope Benedict XVI.

"Personally, I would have wished to wait for some more time to see things clearer," he said, "but once again it really appears that the Holy Father wants it to happen now."

Bishop Fellay spoke appreciatively of what he characterized as the Pope's efforts to correct "progressive" deviations from Catholic teaching and tradition since Vatican II. "Very, very delicately -- he tries not to break things -- but tries also to put in some important corrections," the bishop said.

Although he stopped short of endorsing Pope Benedict's interpretation of Vatican II as essentially in continuity with the church's tradition -- a position which many in the society have vocally disputed -- Bishop Fellay spoke about the idea in strikingly sympathetic terms.

"I would hope so," he said, when asked if Vatican II itself belongs to Catholic tradition.

"The Pope says that ... the council must be put within the great tradition of the church, must be understood in accordance with it. These are statements we fully agree with, totally, absolutely," the bishop said. "The problem might be in the application, that is: is what happens really in coherence or in harmony with tradition?"

Insisting that "we don't want to be aggressive, we don't want to be provocative," Bishop Fellay said the Society of St. Pius X has served as a "sign of contradiction" during a period of increasing progressive influence in the Church. He also allowed for the possibility that the group would continue to play such a role even after reconciliation with Rome.

"People welcome us now, people will, and others won't," he said. "If we see some discrepancies within the society, definitely there are also (divisions) in the Catholic Church."

"But we are not alone" in working to "defend the faith," the bishop said. "It's the Pope himself who does it; that's his job. And if we are called to help the Holy Father in that, so be it."

Between the upcoming new Ordinariate in Australia and the hoped-for imminent return to the Roman fold by the FSSPX, I can hear Father Z beating the drums and preparing the trumpet blares for big steps forward by the Pope of Christian Unity, in which we can all join him joyfully...


P.S. The FSSPX earlier, through its information arm DICI, issued a statement about the leaking to the media of the letter sent to Mons. Fellay by his three FSSPX fellow bishops who all oppose any reconciliation with Rome, and Fellay's reply telling them that their position lacked both the elements of the 'supernatural' (i.e, consideration of the Church as Christ's institution) and of realism.

FSSPX condemns release
of private letters

May 11, 2012

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An exchange of private letters between the Superior General of the FSSPX and the other three bishops has been disseminated on the Internet. on May 9, 2012. Such conduct is to be condemned, and whoever has violated thee confidentiality of this internal correspondence has sinned grievously.

Such publication would only encourage those who wish to foment division, and the FSSPX requests that the only response should be the insistent prayer that we may all consider only teh will of God, for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls.

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