BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Day 10 at Les Combes:
Working lunch with Bertone,
phone calls to his brother,
dictates to a tape recorder




LES COMBES, July 22 (Translated from Apcom) - The Pope "is doing well, he is in good spirits, he continues to adjust himself to having his arm in a cast, and has started using a tape recorder to dictate ,since he cannot use his right hand to write," according to Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican press director.

During his vacation at Les Combes, Benedict XVI has been working, among other things, on the second volume of JESUS OF NAZARETH.

Lombardi adds that the Pope "has regular telephone conversations with his brother who will be joining him in several days in Castel Gandolfo, where he usually spends four weeks with him as in previous years."

Also, "the Pope goes on his regular walks after lunch and in the late afternoon".

Today, he had a visit from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, as anticipated. He arrived at 10:30 by helicopter from Romano Canavese, his hometown. They had a working lunch together.

This meeting between the Pope and Secretary of State is also part of the holiday tradition, so as to keep the Pope updated regarding problems concerning the current government of the Church.

Bertone returns to Romano in the afternoon and tomorrow, he will be back in Rome.

Lombardi said Bertone has been invited by the president of the Italian Senate to give a lecture on the encyclical Caritas in veritate at the Senate on July 28.

Meanwhile, Lombardi also announced the program for the Pope's visit to Aosta on Friday for Vespers.



The Pope will go to Aosta by car. At the Arch of Augustus, he will be welcomed by the authorities, then, he will travel through the city in an open car, going through the Praetorian Gate to the Cathedral.

Some 400 persons are expected to take part in the Vespers which start at 5:30 p.m. They are diocesan priests, religious and seminarians, two lay representatives from each of the parishes of the diocese, and the staff of the diocese.

The liturgy will be celebrated in Italian and French. The Pope will give a homily.

After Vespers, he will emerge to the Church square to greet the faithful.

On the way back home, he will go through the town center of Introd to greet the wards at the local home for the aged.

Fr. Lombardi also confirmed that the orthopedists who operated on the Pope last Friday will be coming to Les Combes on Saturday with a portable X-ray machine to check out how the fracture is healing one week later.

Also present will be an orthopedist from Rome who is coming to Les Combes since he will be taking over the Holy Father's medical care for teh fracture after his vacation ends.



Italian orthopedic societies
say medical management
of the Pope's fracture
was most appropriate




AOSTA, July 22 (Translated from ANSA) - The orhopedists at the Aosta hospital who treated Pope Benedict XVI for his right wrist fracture "acted with appropriate scientific and clinical evaluation, choosing a treatment that offers the best chances of healing the injury to His Holines and allows him to continue with his vacation and exercise his eminent ministry".

This was expressed today in a note from the president of the Italian Society for Orthopedics and Trauma, Pietro Bartolozzi, as well as by the president of the Guild of Italian Surgeons and Orthopedists, Sen. Michele Saccomanno.

The two specialists made the statement for their respective associations in response to "specious polemics that arose inappropriately over the treatment chosen and given to His Holiness Benedict XVI".

Following the Pope's operation last Friday, some newspapers published interviews with a couple of doctors who questioned the medical management method chosen for the Pope's fracture.

Someone has officially come out with what I have been commenting on since Obama's visit to the Vatican - that his statements about 'working to reduce abortions' mean nothing, considering that all his polices and his intended legislation in fact tend to encourage abortions, and that 'working to reduce abortions' is simply incompatible with his ultra-liberal ideology that considers abortion a 'fundamental human right' and a 'woman's reproductive right'.

I am definitely prejudiced because I object vehemently to Obama's general and habitual dishonesty about many life-and-death matters that are in his power now to decide. But the objective facts about Obama's record on abortion in legislation and in speeches are there for all who want to see.

Along with all the manifest untruths and shifting views he has said during the campaign and in his few months as President, with respect to a wide range of issues from Guantanamo to the supposed immediate effect to create jobs by the almost $800-billion dollar 'stimulus' plan he had his minions in Congress rush through without even reading it. Just as they are not reading his ill-thought energy bill and even worse health care reform bill. The daily polls show the American people are wising up to him, thank God! - and finding out just how gulled they were by his so-called 'charm and charisma'.


Obama has misled the Pope
on his abortion agenda,
congressman charges




Washington D.C., Jul 20, 2009 (CNA) - In remarks on the House floor last week, Congressman Chris Smith argued that President Obama purposely misled Pope Benedict XVI when he said that he “wants to reduce abortion” at their July 10 meeting.

Smith recalled the President's statement to the Pope and pointed out that Obama has repeated it several times to different Catholic audiences. And yet, Smith charged, Obama’s actions have not aligned with his words. “He says one thing and does precisely the opposite.”

Now, the New Jersey Congressman said, Obama is offering a plan for health care reform that is a thinly veiled attempt to increase access to abortion on demand.

The plan would increase funding for abortions and allow abortion services to be considered part of “basic health care” required by all insurance plans, including private plans.

Smith pointed to information from the Guttmacher Institute, which has stated that “when taxpayer funding is not available, between 20 and 35 percent of Medicaid abortions that would have been procured simply don't occur.”

These children go on to be born, he explained, referencing the millions of children throughout the country who are able to live their own lives and pursue their own hopes and dreams “because taxpayer subsidies didn't effectuate their demise.”

“The ugly truth is that if his so-called health care reform care bill, if enacted, will lead to millions of additional deaths to children and millions of mothers will be wounded,” Smith said.

Rep. Smith concluded his remarks by encouraging his fellow congressmen to vote against the health care bill and insisting that “there will be more children who will die if this legislation becomes law simply because the subsidies are there to effectuate their deaths.”




In this connection, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a July 17 letter sent to the White House, all members of Congress and the federal department of Health and Human Services re-stating Catholic positions on health care form.

I am posting it here because of its direct relevance to Obama's glib and disingenuous 'commitment' to reduce abortions.



US bishops urge universal health coverage
but not to fund abortions, and urge
guarantees for right to conscience

Tuesday, July 21, 2009



The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops just released a July 17 letter from Bishop William Murphy, Chair of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. It was sent to all members of Congress, the White House and Health and Human Services and addresses the conference' concerns on health care reform:

On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), I write to outline our policy priorities and to express hope that the serious efforts of the Congressional committees will bring genuine life-affirming reform to the nation’s health care system. The USCCB looks forward to working with you to reform health care successfully in a manner that offers accessible, affordable and quality health care that protects and respects the life and dignity of all people from conception until natural death.

For decades, the Catholic bishops of the United States have been and continue to be consistent advocates for comprehensive health care reform that leads to health care for all, including the weakest and most vulnerable. The bishops want to support health care reform. We have in the past and we always must insist that health care reform excludes abortion coverage or any other provisions that threaten the sanctity of life.

As Congress begins debate on health care reform the Catholic bishops of the United States offer the following criteria for fair and just health care reform. Health care reform needs to reflect basic ethical principles. We offer these as a guide:

• a truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity;

• access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of legal immigrants;

• pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism including freedom of conscience and variety of options; and

• restraining costs and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers.

Two of these criteria need special attention as Congress moves forward with health care reform.

Respect for life and dignity: As we renew our longstanding support for reforming our nation’s health care system, we must also be clear that we strongly oppose inclusion of abortion as part of a national health care benefit. We would also oppose inclusion of technologies that similarly fail to uphold the sanctity and dignity of life.

No health care reform plan should compel us or others to pay for the destruction of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage of abortion. Any such action would be morally wrong. It also would be politically unwise.

No health care legislation that compels Americans to pay for or participate in abortion will find sufficient votes to pass.

For decades, Congress has respected the right of health care providers to decline involvement in abortion or abortion referrals, without exception, and has respected moral and religious objections in other contexts as well.

The Weldon amendment to the Labor/HHS appropriations act, approved by Congress each year since 2004, forbids any federal agency or program (or state or local government receiving federal funds under the act) to discriminate against individual or institutional health care providers or insurers because they decline to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion.

Programs, such as Medicaid, that provide funding for the rare “Hyde exception” abortions, also provide for participation in the program by health care providers who decline to provide any abortions at all. (For a compilation of such federal laws, see www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/crmay08.pdf.)

Health care reform cannot be a vehicle for abandoning this consensus which respects freedom of conscience and honors our best American traditions. Any legislation should reflect longstanding and widely supported current policies on abortion funding, mandates and conscience protections because they represent sound morality, wise policy and political reality. Making the legislation “abortion- neutral” in this sense will be essential for widely accepted reform.


The rest of the letter can be found here:
www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2009-07-17-murphy-letter-cong...


NB: Tomorrow's issue (7/23/09) of

carries a story about Bishop Murphy's letter under the headline
'The dangers of proposed healthcare reform in the USA'.

Yes!!! I believe editor Vian has received the Pope's message clearly this time. Before Obama's visit to the Vatican, Vian might well have run a gushing story instead about Obama's 'historic plan' to provide health insurance to every American, without pointing out its impossible cost at a time when the US Treasury is bankrupt, nor its built-in abortion trap, and he might well have ignored the US bishops' letter as he ignored the anti-Notre Shame letters by leading US bishops for weeks!

Cleaning out Church 'filth'
in the Year for Priests:
The Pope dismisses German priest
for sexual offenses in the 1970s
Translated from


July 22, 2009


Pope Benedict XVI has relieved a 71-year-old German priest from his assignment after the latter admitted to molesting many children in the 1970s.

This was reported by the erring priest's order, the Missionaries of the Holy Family, in Mainz. A note from the order expresses its regrets to the families of the victims.

At least 16 children who attended an elementary school in Bad Neustadt an der Seele, about a hundred kilometers east of Frankfurt (on the Main), were sexually molested by the priest in 1972-1976.

However, due to a German statute of limitations, the crimes can no longer be prosecuted in the justice system.




Meanwhile, a second report on sexual offenses by Irish priests has now come out centered on the Diocese of Dublin. See report in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread.

July 23

St. Bridget of Sweden (1603-1673)
Widow, Founder of the Birgittine order
Co-Patron of Europe



OR today.

The Pope receives his Secretary of State in Les Combes:
'A working vacation'
The story is as widely reported yesterday and posted on this thread. Other Page 1 stories: the UN says
it is 4.8-billion dollars short of funds needed for its humanitarian projects; opposition protests continue to defy
Iranian government despite dozens of arrests; Washington denounces military cooperation between North
Korea and Myanmar (Burma). In the inside pages, an article about the US bishops' statement on Obama's
proposed health care reform; and articles on St. Bridget and Cardinal Newman, who will be beatified
later this year.



THE POPE IS ON VACATION - DAY 11

P.S. to Day 10 in Les Combes:
Pope gets to meet some neighbors







LES COMBES (AOSTA), July 23 (Translated from ANSA) - "It needs time - and patience," Benedict XVI replied when one of his neighbors asked him Tuesday how his broken wrist was doing.

This morning, Vatican television (CTV) distributed a video of the Pope taken yesterday, which begins by showing the arrival of Cardinal Tarcisio Berton by helicopter, for a working visit with the Pope.

"Did the flight go well?" the Pope is heard to ask.

"Yes, we even saw Mt. Cervino [the Italian name for the Matterhorn, one of the highest Alpine peaks, on the border between Italy and Switzerland]", Bertone replies.

Then he says, "I have a briefcase full of documents" as he puts it down on the garden table seen in the photos released by the Vatican yesterday.

The video then shows a meeting between the Pope and some of his neighbors - a group of women with children - towards the end of his evening walk last night.

"Has it snowed much here?" the Pope asks one of the women.

"Yes, there was six meters of snow in the next valley," she says.

"I can't imagine six meters [about 20 feet] of snow," the Pope remarks. "That's higher than a house". [About the height of a regular two-story building, in fact.]

Then one of the women asks him about his wrist. "It needs time - and patience," says Papa Ratzinger.

He then turns to the children and says, "So, you are on vacation now..." But the children appeared too overcome with the occasion to reply.



[The neighbors are from among the handful of local people who have homes in Les Combes - said to be about 20 or so - near the Salesian vacation colony where the Pope's vacation chalet is located.]

The Pope had nothing particular on today's schedule. Tomorrow, he will go to Aosta to celebrate Vespers with the diocesan clergy int he Cathedral which was once the seat of the great 12th-century Doctor of teh Church, St. Anselm of Canterbury, who was Bishop of Aosta before the Pope sent him to England.

The region of Val D'Aosta and the diocese of Aosta are observing an Anno Anselmiano (April 2009-April 2010) to mark the 900th anniversary of the saint's death.


VaticanYouTube does not have the video referred to above yet, but there's a 20-minute video of the Angelus at Romano Canavese:
www.youtube.com/vatican?gl=GB&hl=en-GB


Addenda from Fr. Lombardi:
Day 11 has been a 'normal day'
Translated from
the Italian service of



Alessandro De Carolis spoke by telephone to Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican press director, in Les Combes:

FR. LOMBARDI: Yesterday evening, during his customary walk, the Pope, who had walked up to the edge of the village of Les Combes, met a group of children accompanied by their mothers, and stopped to chat.





It was a pleasant interlude - even interesting, when one of the children [according to the ANSA story, one of the mothers] told the Pope that in the nearby Val de Rheim last winter, the snow had been six meters deep, and the Pope reacted with some surprise.

Today, the Pope had a normal day, whereas yesterday, Cardinal Bertone brought him a number of files on the more urgent matters regarding the governance of the Church - which the Pope has been studying.




You have said that the Pope has been learning to adapt to having a broken wrist. When is his next medical check-up due?
They are bringing over today a portable X-ray machine from the hospital in Aosta to the residence here. The doctors will do an X-ray of the wrist on Saturday [to see if the bone alignment remains stable]and the other routine medical check-ups following a fracture repair.

Besides the Vatican physicians, Dr. Polisca and Dr. Berti, who are here with him during his vacation, there will be Dr. Manuel Mancini, of course, who performed the surgery last Friday, and also Prof. Vincenzo Sessa, who heads the orthopedics department at the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome.

He is one of the regular specialist consultants of the Vatican health service, and it will be he who will be following the progress of the wrist recovery when the Holy Father goes back to Castel Gandolfo and Rome. This way, he will be taking over the Pope's orthopedic care properly.


Meanwhile, Aosta is awaiting the Holy Father's visit tomorrow...
Yes, the preparations are well underway. They have set up the TV cameras where they can, and the city and diocese are making sure that everything will run as well as possible.

Happily, the Pope will be able to travel through the city - let us hope the weather remains good - through the central historic streets where people can gather so the citizens can welcome him.

Especially important because for the Vespers in the Cathedral of Aosta, only 400 persons [diocesan clergy and parish representatives] can be accommodated. But the radio and television feeds will allow the participation of those who wish to follow the event and pray with the Pope.




says in a report that Fr. Lombardi provided the information in the RV interview above in a briefing note to the media, with the following additional bit:

"Cardinal Bertone also brought the Pope more messages of good wishes that have kept coming to the Vatican, including those from the King and Queen of Spain, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former Italian President (now Senator-for-life) Carlo Azeglio Ciampi."

If the Nobel Prize juries weren't so ideologically driven, I would send this article as a nominating letter for Benedict XVI to be considered for the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics.

And again, I muct apologize not having seen this article earlier. I try to post teh good ones as soon as I come across them, but I'd have to dedicate at least an hour a day just to check out all the CIV commentary that's being posted to keep up. But this was in the Times of London, and I missed it.


Pope Benedict is
the man on the money

The best analysis yet of the global economic crisis,
tells how people, not just rules, must change

by Brian Griffiths

July 13, 2009


Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach is a trustee of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Trust and Vice-Chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He was an economic adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A devout evangelical Christian, he is, by virtue of his title, a member of the House of Lords.


When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, his strengths and weaknesses seemed clear. Here was an eminent theologian, philosopher and guardian of Christian truth, but a man unlikely to make the Church’s message relevant to the world today.

How simplistic this now looks in the light of his third encyclical, in which Pope Benedict XVI confronts head-on the financial crisis that has rocked the world.

The language may be dense, but the message is sufficiently rewarding. The encyclical analyses modern capitalism from an ethical and spiritual perspective as well as a technical one.

As a result it makes the (UK) Government’s White Paper on financial reforms published two days later look embarrassingly one-dimensional and colourless.

It is highly critical of today’s global economy but always positive. Its major concern is how to promote human development in the context of justice and the common good.

Despite heavy competition from some of the world’s finest minds, it is without doubt the most articulate, comprehensive and thoughtful response to the financial crisis that has yet appeared. It should strike a chord with all who wish to see modern capitalism serving broader human ends.

The Pope makes it clear that the encyclical takes its inspiration from Populorum Progressio, the encyclical published by Paul VI in 1967, at the height of anti-capitalism in Europe. It attacked liberal capitalism, was ambivalent about economic growth, recommended expropriation of landed estates if poorly used and enthused about economic planning.

It was in stark contrast to Centesimus Annus (1991), the most recent encyclical dealing with economic matters, published after the fall of communism by a Polish Pope.

John Paul II affirmed the market economy as a way of producing wealth by allowing human creativity and enterprise to flourish.

Pope Benedict is highly critical of modern capitalism.
- He believes that the international economy is marked by “grave deviations and failures”.
- Economic growth is weighed down by “malfunctions and dramatic problems”.
- Businesses that are answerable almost exclusively to their investors have limited social value.
- The financial system has been abused by speculative financial dealing and has wreaked havoc on the real economy.
- Globalisation has undermined the rights of workers, downsized social security systems and exploited the environment.
- As global prosperity has grown, so has “the scandal of glaring inequalities”.

Despite these criticisms, the encyclical has a positive view of profit, providing it is not an exclusive goal.
- It recognises that more labour mobility resulting from deregulation can increase wealth.
- It accepts that economic growth has lifted billions out of poverty and enabled some developing countries to become effective players in international politics.
- Globalisation offers an unprecedented chance of large-scale redistribution of wealth worldwide.

The kind of market economy Pope Benedict defends is much closer to the European social model than the “spontaneous order” of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.

For him, market capitalism can never be conceived of in purely technical terms. Development is not just about freeing up markets, removing tariffs, increasing investment and reforming institutions. It is not even about social policies to accompany economic reforms.

At the heart of the market is the human person, possessing dignity, deserving of justice and bearing the divine image. The market needs to be infused with a morality emanating from Christian humanism, which respects truth and encourages charity.

The encyclical suggests six major ways to make global capitalism more human.

First, it calls for “the management of globalisation” and a reform of international economic institutions. They are needed “to manage the global economy, to revive economies hit by the crisis, to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis . . . to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration”.

Not surprisingly, for this huge task we need “a true world political authority” through reform of the United Nations.

Next, there needs to be greater diversity among the enterprises that create wealth: mutual societies, credit unions and hybrid forms of commercial organisation.

Third, globalisation has weakened the ability of trade unions to represent the interests of workers, something that needs to be reversed.

Fourth, the scandal of inequality requires countries to increase the proportion of GDP given as foreign aid.

Fifth, because the environment is the gift of the Creator we have an intergenerational responsibility to tackle climate change.

Finally, everyone involved in the market, traders, producers, bankers — even consumers — must be alert to the moral consequences of their actions.

“Development is impossible without upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose consciences are finely attuned to the common good.”

Pope Benedict’s words are not just platitudes. They affect every person at work every day. In the City [London's financial center], they are a challenge to management to create a culture of prudence, responsibility and integrity.

There has to be zero tolerance for misleading clients, fudging conflicts of interest and inflating valuations. However great the revenue they produce, those who deviate must be disciplined. This kind of ethos cannot be imposed by regulation alone.

Thanks to Lella and one of her followers at

for leading me to this story in SECOLO D'ITALIA, the online journal of the conservative political party Alleanza Nazionale, which is part of Prime Minister Berlusconi's ruling coalition.


Will Vietnam be the first Asian country
to be visited by Pope Benedict XVI?
BY Paolo D'Andrea
Translated from

July 23, 2009


Since modern Popes started travelling outside Italy, their trips have not been all equal in significance.

Some papal trips indicate the trajectory of different Pontificates. Paul VI travelling to the Holy Land, to India and to Uganda, and those of John Paul II to his own country, Poland, when it was under Communist rule, to Morocco, and to Syria have marked important stages in the history of the Church.

Papa Ratzinger has already had his share of important trips such as to the USA, to France and to the Holy Land.

But so far his trips have been distorted by the way the media has reported them - basically as a test of the Pope's popularity. As if Benedict XVI has to be constantly monitored under a microscope to see how much 'in tune' he is with the local Churches.

Now, almost unexpectedly, the 82-year-old German Pope may yet make a trip that his record-setting globe-trotting predecessor might have envied. He may well become the first Pope ever to visit Vietnam, one of the few Communist regimes left after 1989.

[Vietnam, of course, has a significant Catholic past, having been a French colony from the mid-19th century to the Second World War. Before that, it had been evangelized by the Jesuits in the early 17th century.]

There have been plausible convergent indicators lately that Vietnam may well be the first Asian country to be visited by Benedict XVI.

Missionline, the online news agency of the Vatican institute for foreign missions, has put these indicators together. The Vietnamese bishops, who recently had their ad-limina visit to Rome, extended an invitation to the Pope for the visit.

Their invitation means nothing unless the Vietnamese government also invites the Pope, and Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pamh Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), has just told the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) that informal overtures have already been made to the Vatican by the Office of Religious Affairs in Hanoi through the Archbishop of Hanoi, Joseph Ngô Quang Kiêt.

Archbishop Pamh also said that in November a Vietnamese official delegation will be going to the Vatican to pursue the dialog on establishing full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

In December, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet will make an official visit to Italy, and he is expected to seek an audience with the Pope, who met in 2007 with the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Vietnamese Church, for its part, has been doing everything it can to advance the possibility of a papal visit. It has declared a Jubilee year which begins in November to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the first apostolic vicariates in the country and the 50th anniversary of the institution of a national Catholic hierarchy.

If the papal visit does happen, the program will certainly include a visit to the national shrine of Our Lady of La Vang* (located in central Vietnam, near the old imperial capital Hue), for which the Vietnamese Church has designated January 6, 2011, as a day of national pilgrimage to conclude the jubilee celebrations.



In order to grasp the exceptional significance of a papal visit to Vietnam, one must situate it in the complex controversial history of the Vietnamese Church and relations between Vietnam and the Vatican.

There is a reason why, along with Russia and China, Vietnam was one of the 'impossible' travel destinations for John Paul II.

Communications between the Vatican and North Vietnam were interrupted in 1954 when the Communists took over Hanoi, continuing however, through South Vietnam, until the Vietcong took over Saigon in 1975.

Subsequently, however, the attempts by Hanoi to create an 'official' Catholic Church did not have the same relentless tenacity that China has invested into such an undertaking. They did create the pro-government Committee of Patriotic Catholics but this has never quite achieved its goal of being the 'democratic guide' to the Catholics of Vietnam.

How little support it has was evident in 1988, with the canonization of 117 Vietnamese martyrs who were killed in the persecutions that followed the evangelization of Vietnam. The patriotic committee carried out the government campaign to boycott the canonization, presenting the martyrs instead as agents of colonialism.

But it was obvious that majority of the population, not just the Catholics, were pleased by the honor rendered by the Church to their fellow Vietnamese.

But that year was also the start of a thaw which is now showing fruit.
That was when Cardinal Roger Etchegaray travelled to Hanoi for the first Vatican direct contact with the Hanoi regime.

Since then, 15 Vatican delegations have travelled to Vietnam and with patient and silent work have managed over time to put a brake on government control of Church life.

This way of realistic flexibility has so far been beneficial to the local Catholics (six million - representing 7% of the population). Episcopal nominations still require the government's agreement, but in recent years, the government has shelved previous regulations limiting access to seminaries.

Recently, the national chapter of Caritas was revived, much needed in a country hit by the world wide crisis resulting as elsewhere in growing numbers of 'new poor' who need assistance.

But the process of easing tensions over the past 20 years has not been linear nor without its major problems. The Communists were not happy when John Paul II named Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan a cardinal; he had been exiled in 1988 after 13 years in prison.

In the past two years, some sectors of the local Church, particularly the local Redemptorists, have spearheaded vibrant public demonstrations demanding the return of Catholic properties confiscated by the Communist regime since the mid-1950s. (One of these properties is the building that used to be the headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature in Hanoi and some lands belonging to the parish of Thai Ha in Hanoi.}

The Vietnamese bishops' conference have supported the demonstrators.
'between December 11, 2007 to January 11, 2008, thousands of Catholics gathered a few times in front of these properties. Some of their demonstrations were forcibly broken up by policemen.

Despite the recent controversies, Cardinal Pham reiterated in his interview with UCAN that "the atmosphere in recent years is propitious for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Vietnam".

In this regard if recent behind-the-scenes reports are right, it raises questions on some choices by Curial officials who seem to be on the ascendancy in the Secretariat of State.


Left, Mons. Parolin on his last trip to Hanoi earlier this year; right, a Marian procession in Hanoi.

In recent years, the key person in the rapprochement with Vietnam has been Mons. Pietro Parolin, currently 'undersecretary' for foreign affairs at the Vatican. "A true priest and a true diplomat', as described by Vaticanista Lucio Brunelli.

Respected for his balance and realism by diplomats accredited to the Holy See, Parolin has also monitored the complicated Chinese dossier for years.

The most obvious thing, that would also be consonant with the sensus Ecclesiae, would be to wait for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, then name Parolin as the Apostolic Nuncio there.

But that doesn't seem to be in the Curial changes proposed by the 'Vatican yuppies' said to be in the ascendant who have been working to gain the good graces of their septuagenarian bosses.

According to speculation by quarters who have been proven right in the past, Parolin will be sent to Caracas as Nuncio to deal with the difficult problem of keeping the Church of Venezuela afloat in the regime of Hugo Chavez.


*Some more information about Our Lady of La Vang: During the persecution of Catholics in Vietnam in the late 17th and early 18th century, many Catholics would flee to the jungle to escape the persecution. In August 1798, a lady appeared to them above the trees with a baby in her arms and accompanied by two angels.


She comforted them and told them to use the leaves of a fern called 'la vang' in the local dialect as a healing agent. Many miracles were attributed to her after that, particularly in 1820-1886, when the persecutions were resumed in a more severe manner.

In 1901, enough funds were raised to build a church in her honor. In 1961, the bishops of Vietnam voted to make La Vang Vietnam's national shrine. In 1962, John XIII elevated the church to the status of a basilica.

However, except for the belltower (below, left), the Basilica was destroyed by the Vietcong in 1972 during the Vietnam War. It has been replaced by a modest glass and steel church. A large outdoor sculpture depicts the Virgin's original appairtion at La Vang.

Benedict XVI in the footsteps
of St. Anselm, the rational saint
by Paolo Rodari

July 24, 2009


AOSTA - The Pope comes to the city today. To celebrate Vespers. But it won't be a small matter.

Benedict XVI's visit today is, in fact, a true and proper homage - complete with homily - to a model of holiness, St. Anselm of Aosta and of Canterbury, who fascinates the Pope, holiness wedded to intelligence. A Christian life characterized by the ability to read to the heart of things, to the heart of facts, to the heart of reality.

Even at the cost of being out of tune with others. A way of life that mirrors very much Papa Ratzinger's own temperament.

The homage to St. Anselm (1033-1109), a Benedictine philosopher who became Archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church ('Doctor Magnificus'), comes on the 900th anniversary of his death.

The Cathedral of Aosta, which dates back to the 4th century, is dedicated to Mary of the Assumption, but it was also Anselm's seat when he was Bishop of Aosta.

Benedict XVI will be seeing the new cenotaph 'Tribute to St. Anselm', by the British sculptor Stephen Cox, which has been installed at the south entry to the Church.

The cathedral itself is the site for many of the activities programmed by the Diocese and the region for the Anno Anselmiano, which began last April.

Last April, on the actual anniversary of Anselm's death, the Pope wrote a letter to Dom Notker Wolf, the Primate Abbot of the Benedictine Confederation, in which he called Anselm 'a true European saint'.

He said that "the memory left behind by Anselm is to be meditated with devotion and the treasure of his wisdom to be exalted and explored".

The Anselmian model is similar to many other figures that Benedict XVI likes to cite. Among them, the English Cardinal John Henry Newman, a convert from Anglicanism, who will be beatified this year. Newman's life was characterized like Anselm's by the union of faith and intelligence, faith and reason.

Who was Anselm? What is his legacy? Which ideas of Anselm does Joseph Ratzinger closes to his own spirituality?

Anselm was, above all, a monk. Although he became an archbishop, he wished to remain a Benedictine monk, always strongly conscious of the importance of the monastic life.

It is well known that if Joseph Raztinger had not become Pope, he would have retired to a 'monastic' life of prayer, study and deepening his understanding of the mysteries of the faith.

"Nostalgia for the monastery," Papa Ratzinger wrote Dom Wolf, "accompanied him the rest of his life. He said so when, with great sorrow to him and his monks, he had to leave the abbey to undertake the episcopal ministry, for which he did not feel himself suitable".

There is a cardinal occupation in Anselm's life that is very much shared by Papa Ratzinger: the lectio divina - reading Scripture "not in tumult but in quiet, not in haste, but in calm, with attentive and loving meditation."

"In his writings about the mysteries of the faith, there is no separation between erudition and devotion, between mysticism and theology", he further wrote.

Anselm's example continues to be very relevant. Underlying most of the Ratzingerian texts is that Anselmian love for the truth of the faith and for deepening an understanding of it through reason. Indeed, the Pope notes, "faith and reason - fides et ratio - are found wonderfully united in Anselm".

This is a battle Joseph Ratzinger has always carried forward - unting faith and reason, two forms of cognition which are often considered incompatible and alternative.

"As though", the Pope wrote to Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, who represented him at the anniversary Mass for Anselm last April, "he who uses reason does not need to believe, and he who believes must perforce do so outside the field of rationality".

"St. Anselm," Biffi said in his homily at that Mass, "would shudder at such an attitude. For him, and for every Christian who is adequately informed, faith is not only inseparable from reason, but it is, in fact, the supreme and highest exercise of our intellectual faculties."


[And I shiver every time the Holy Father cites Augustine and Anselm and other Fathers and Doctors of the Church who obviously are very much like who he is, and I must then restrain myself, almost superstitiously, from projecting into the future....]



The Pope and the Valdostans
by Mario Ponzi
Translated from
the 7/24/09 issue of



Messages sent by hand to whoever might have the good fortune to get near the vacation residence. Knick-knacks and various objects of local artisanship sent as a homage to the illustrious guest. Home-made sweets and traditional cakes to express the sense of family with which they experience his geographical closeness.

In this way, the Valdostans have managed to show their respectful affection for Benedict XVI.

Now, they are preparing to experience his presence in a more concrete manner when he comes to Aosta, the capital, this afternoon to celebrate Vespers at their Cathedral.

Of course, some of them have already had occasion to meet him. Last of all were the three mothers and their children who are his neighbors in Les Combes.

But the Valdostans have had the experience of having the Pope among them in summer for two decades by now. [John Paul II spent summers in Les Combes ten times since 1989.]

We spoke to Don Aldo Armellin, the priest who is the diocesan liaison with the papal residence in Les Combes.


How has the community experienced the presence of the Pope so far?

I would say, as a moment of grace. It's the thirteenth time that a Pope has come to Val D'Aosta for a vacation. John Paul II loved our mountains. And now, it's the third time for Papa Ratzinger.

It's the renewal of what we would like to call by now a beautiful custom . But the presence of the Pontiff among us is always an event capable of arousing deep emotion.


Before the Pope arrived, the order given was 'to guarantee him privacy and absolute rest'. But it seems that the chances for encountering the Pope do come up even if in some cases, these are unexpected. But how are you preparing for the encounter at Vespers on Friday?

Actually, the diocese now has two big events on the program. The first is Vespers. The bishop had asked the Pope if he could meet with the clergy and the religious of the diocese [as he did during his two previous vacations here]. Benedict XVI expressed the wish that the invitation could be extended as well to representatives of the entire ecclesial community, and so we will have more than 400 persons at Vespers, many of them lay people.

But we are sure that many more will come to the Cathedral Square, and the Pope will greet them after Vespers. And even more will be lining the route that the Pope will take to get to teh Cathedral.

The second event is the noontime Angelus on Sunday, July 26, at which we expect to have a very good attendance. Above all, there will be Valdostans themselves, but certainly there will be many of the
tourists who are on vacation themselves in this area.


As the liaison to the Pope's vacation residence, you are, in effect a link between him and the community. What has been your experience so far?

That we have always been guided by respect for the Holy Father's needs. He is here for a vacation and the Valdostans are with him in prayer, respectful of his privacy but also seeing every encounter as a gift. And these have always been far richer than one expects.


Have there been any special messages or gifts entrusted to you for conveying to the Pope?

Yes. There are so many who want to reach out to the Pope even if only by sending him a message of good wishes, or to show him their affection and gratitude with a simple gift, to show him their feeling of family by sending him a home-made dessert.

Usually, the written messages come from sick and suffering people, those who are in particular difficulties. There are so many of them. So Friday night, after Vespers, he will be visiting the home for the aged in Introd in representation of all these persons in need.


Do you think that the religiosity of the Valdostans comes from popular tradition or from genuine faith that they live in their daily lives?

Ours is a deep faith that is expressed in our traditions. Of course, we too have been affected by secularization and so, some religious certainties of tradition are being questioned.

So I think that, as for the universal Church, so too the Church in Val D'Aosta is challenged to make our people encounter the beauty of Christian life and the evangelical announcement in the rhythms of our daily life, which presents so many opportunities.


Would you describe the Valdostan community as youthful for its vivacity, adult for its mature faith, or aging by the inertia of its habits?

You cannot define the community that easily. In some sectors, there is definitely a great liveliness - in the oratories, the volunteers for Caritas, the catechists and other pastoral workers. At the same time, there are, of course, elements of Christian life that are lived as routine - but that's how it is in every diocese or Christian community.


The Bishop of Aosta says
'the Pope confirms us
in our faith'
Translated from

July 22, 2009


"The presence of the Pope in the Cathedral makes visible the primary responsibility of the unviersal Church in the world and is a call to reawaken faith, hope and love", Mons. Giuseppe Anfossi, Bishop of Aosta, says in the diocesan weekly Corriere della Valle, as he looks forward happily to the two big diocesan events during the Pope's vacation.

Speaking about the Vespers in Aosta Cathedral Friday afternoon, Anfossi points out that "a cathedral is a place rich with symbolic significance. First of all, its the bishop's seat. When all the priests of the diocese are under one roof, it is a visible sign of communion with their bishop, and tomorrow, of our communion with the Bishop of Rome as well".

Mons. Anfossi adds:

"There's even more significance this time. Benedict XVI recently launched the Year for Priests. So with this encounter, he will also be calling on the faithful to rediscover the beauty of the priestly ministry, on the priests to be fully conscious of their own ministry and responsiblity, and of the relationship that their ministry has to other services, charisms and ministries in the Church.

"The presence of the Pope highlights that the first task of the bishop, of priests and of active Christians is to awaken and keep the faith alive.

"For the bishop, the most important thing to underscore is faith, because the religious and pastoral crisis experienced in today's society is fundamentally a crisis of faith."

Mons. Anfossi adds: "We are very happy that the Pope himself made known what he wants to do while he is on vacation among us, and even if he cannot use his hand to write, we hope that the very place itself is a continuing source of inspiration."

"Praying with him as the Successor of Peter, we feel confirmed in the faith, sustained in our hope, and fully engaged in charity."

July 24

ST. CHARBEL MAKHLOUF (Lebanon, 1828-1898)
Maronite monk and hermit
'The Wonder Worker'



OR today.


The story on the Pope's encounter with some of his neighbors in Les Combes is on Page 1. Other stories: No recession in China, which
saw a second-quarter growth of 7.9% in its GDP; North Korea refuses any further dialog with the USA; in Iran, Mousavi claims
Ahmadinejad's new government lacks legitimacy; and devastating forest fires in France and Spain.


THE POPE ON VACATION - DAY 12



FINALLY, PAPA RATZI IN A BERET!


We Benaddicts have long been wondering when the Pope would get back to his French beret.
And he finally has! I can't believe the Yahoo news service did not post this yesterday
when the Vatican released it along with several other photos.

Now, the next thing I'm waiting for is when he will say his first EF Mass in public as Pope.

Day 12, Part 1, in Les Combes:
Preparing for Vespers tonight



LES COMBES, July 24 (Translated from SIR) - The Holy Father had a 'peaceful morning' during which he prepared for "the encounter with clergy and parish this evening in Aosta" at Vespers, and to work on the homily he will give during the liturgy, according to Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican Press director.

He also said that the Pope took his usual walks yesterday even if it was a rainy day. [See the 'historic' picture with the beret in the post above!]

Also yesterday, Fr. Lombardi said, "The president of the region, Augusto Rolandin, and the mayor of Introd, Osvaldo Naudin, dined at the Salesian colony with the Vatican staff and the Salesian community. The mayor contributed a polenta (cornmeal) dish with goat meat, which he himself cooked, with great mastery!" [It's actually an Italian equivalent of couscous, which is made with boiled wheat-flour granules and lamb.]

The Pope is expected to arrive at the Augustus Arch in Aosta at 5 p.m., after which he will ride in an open car towards the Cathedral of Aosta for the Vespers celebration.

In Les Combes, they are preparing for the Sunday Angelus, at which at least 5,000 persons are expected.

AsiaNews, the more familiar news agency of the PIME (the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions), reports developments to the report filed earlier by its sister agency MissiONline (see earlier post on this page).



Some confirmations of a thaw
in Vietnam-Vatical relations
by Thanh Thuuny



HO CHI MINH CITY, July 24 (AsiaNews) - Diplomatic relations and, perhaps, an invitation to Benedict XVI to visit Vietnam next year, where even John Paul II failed to make it.

These are the hopes of Vietnamese Catholics spurred on by the news, given by Cardinal J.B. Pham Minh Man and confirmed by the authorities, that in November a government delegation will visit the Vatican, and that the following month, the President of Vietnam will meet the Pope.

The visit of the Vietnamese delegation has an important precedent; on 25 January 2007 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was received at the Vatican.

At that time it seemed that many of the issues which divide the two parties could have been resolved and that and that there was the possibility of establishing normal diplomatic relations on the horizon. But it was not to be, and Vietnamese Catholics continue to experience difficult times.

Informal relations between Vietnam and the Vatican were not interrupted, however, and regular visits to the nation by a Holy See delegation continued.

Now the government says that "a delegation of the Government of Vietnam will visit the Vatican in November 2009to discuss some issues involving relations on both sides, and on December 2009, Vietnam’s President will meet and for an exchange of views with the Holy Father Benedict XVI for relations in a near future."

For Catholics in Vietnam, the bishops ad limina visit in June of this year was a particularly important event. On that occasion, the chairman of the Bishops Conference, Msgr. Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon, had expressed the hope that the Pope might one day visit the country and recalled that the Church will celebrate a special Vietnamese jubilee year from 24 November 2009, the Solemnity of the Vietnamese Martyrs, to the Epiphany of 2011.

Clearly the hope of Catholics is to see the Pope at that time, since the Vatican has said that next year, Benedict XVI will undertake a journey to Asia.

Moreover, the ad Limina visit of the Vietnamese bishops, according to Cardinal Pham, has borne important fruits for the Church which “has a new vision to bring the Good News to all in a socialist country”.

The Pope spoke of the Church of Jesus who "lives with and among our people." This has a special meaning, it is also a pastoral plan for the bishops in Vietnam today.

The website of the Church of Vietnam has announced that the Pope's message will be translated into Vietnamese, so it can be read by all.

Some Catholics welcomed the bishop's words that the Church of Jesus "does not intended to replace the government, instead it seeks - in a spirit of dialogue and respectful cooperation - to take part in the life of the nation, serving all people... It proclaims the Good News, primarily through the fundamental values of morality in the lifestyle it promotes. In every environment, in every sphere of society, economical and political. We express faith in God and the Church follows the love of Jesus and serves for life, ours and that of our brothers and sisters."

Through this lesson, he said, Vietnamese Catholics have experienced that you can communicate and respect one another. The cardinal affirmed that "after 30 years of communicating with the government, after decades of 'living together', Catholics and communists understand with one another more. Many Catholics have recognized that communists are fellow-citizens and brothers in a home. Many communists also have noted that real Catholics are not hostile, but members of the community who can cooperate for stable development".

The official quarterly journal YAD VASHEM, of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Museum, has Pope Benedict XVI on the cover of its July 2009 issue and a four-page spread about his visit to Yad Vashem.
www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/pressroom/magazine/54/pdf/magazi...






Except for briefly repeating the earlier criticism of Yad Vashem officials of what the Pope omitted from his address, the account is a straightforward news item, and I am posting the main storyline, excluding the details of what happened.


POPE BENEDICT XVI'S
HISTORIC VISIT TO YAD VASHEM
by Leah Goldstein

On 11 May 2009 Pope Benedict XVI made an historic visit to Yad Vashem, on his first day in Israel.

Similar to the visit of his predecessor Pope John Paul II in March 2000, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit took place in Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance, where he participated in a memorial ceremony, delivered an address and greeted six Holocaust survivors and a Righteous Among the Nations.

.....

In his remarks at the Hall of Remembrance, broadcast to a worldwide television audience, the Pope spoke of the importance of remembering
the victims of the Holocaust and the identities embodied by their names, and denounced Holocaust denial as illegitimate.

The Pope also expressed sympathy and reverence for the victims: “The Catholic Church… feels deep compassion for the victims remembered here… I am deeply grateful to God and to you for the opportunity to stand here in silence: a silence to remember, a silence to pray, a silence to hope.”

....

While references to anti-Semitism and the identity of the Nazi murderers and their accomplices were missing from his address at Yad Vashem, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was a positive and significant event that will surely increase Holocaust awareness around the world.

His remarks during his visit to Israel regarding the Holocaust strengthen his global message: to honor and respect the victims and survivors of the Shoah, and to commit to the basic human values that underpin the coexistence of humanity.
....



The two other pages are devoted to backgrounders on the Holocaust survivors who were presented to the Pope, and on the facsimile of a painting by an Auschwitz prisoner presented to the Pope as a gift.

The Yad Vashem site also has a link to its YouTube videoclip of the Pope's entire address at Yad Vashem, with other video clips of the 'government' part of his visit in Israel.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-gJF6Z-e4E&feature=channel_page

Thanks for your very detailed news coverage here, Teresa. We now have our original forum to read, Gloria's threads here and your threads. But it can never be too much!!!!!

The professorial beret - in white, at last! - has to be my favourite news item of the day!!!!


Papa Benedetto, ti voglio bene per sempre!

AN IMPROMPTU PASTORAL VISIT

The setting: The city and diocese of Aosta, with its newly-restored Cathedral of the Assumption.

Aosta, 110 kms north-northwest of Turin, is the capital of Val D'Aosta region, and is located near the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel through the Alps, and near the junction of the Great St. Bernard and Little St. Bernard passes.



Aosta, named for the Emperor Augustus, dates back to the Augusta Praetorium Salassorum colony established by the Romans in 25 BC. The Augustan Arch, below left, is one of the entrances to the city.





The Pope rode through the center of Aosta from the Augustan Arch to the Cathedral in an improvised Popemobile.


Below, passing through the main square in front of City Hall.







At the Cathedral, the improvised 'Popemobile' went around the Church and through the crowd gathered in the square before the Pope got off.











Inside the Cathedral.




Greeting the faithful after Vespers.






The only wrap-up story of sorts that I have seen so far is this one from a local Aosta online paper, and it is sketchy.


The Pope wishes everyone
a good vacation -
without an accident
di Domenico Albiero

July 24, 2009


"Thank you for your welcome, for the affection and the sympathy, Let us hope for good weather during the vacation period, as I too am on vacation," adding, "And without any accident, unlike what happened to me!"

The Pope said farewell to the Aostans this evening after celebrating Vespers at the Cathedral of Aosta. Not realizing that outside, the first few drops of rain were coming down.

It was an occasion to meet the Catholic community of Val D'Aosta and the the thousands of tourists and curious onlookers who waited for him along the route that separates the Augustan Arch from Piazza Giovanni XXIII.

People had started to gather in the city center in the early afternoon
in the hope of seeing the Pope when he arrived for Vespers with the diocesan clergy and parish representatives from all over Val D'Aosta.

Welcomed at the Augustan Arch by civilian authorities and the Bishop of Aosta, Mons. Giuseppe Anfossi, when he arrived by car from les Combes, the Pope reached the Cathedral around 5:15 p.m. after a motorcade through the city center.

He was escorted into the cathedral by the canons of the cathedral chapter.

In his extemporaneous homily, the Pope spoke of a God who was not remote but comes close to man in his suffering.

"A society without God is a society without a compass", he said, "unable to find an orientation to face, for instance, the present economic crisis, but also suffering and tragedy."

Before the Vespers, there was an exchange of gifts. The Pope gave Mons. Anfossi a chalice to commemorate the occasion, and the bishop gave him a set of liturgical vestments.

Vespers closed with the most traditional hymn of the Church in Val D'Aosta, the hymn to Mary as "O Reine immaculee'. (Like much of northwestern Italy near the Alps, Aosta is bilingual in Italian and French.)

Before going back to his vacation home in Les Combes, the Pope was scheduled to visit the home for the aged in Introd, the municipal commune to which Les Combes belongs.




has a brief item that points out something I would otherwise not have noticed.

The Pope was not wearing
the Fisherman's ring today

And Fr. Lombardi explained that for the past few days, the Holy Father has not been wearing the ring 'to simplify things', since his right forearm and hand are in a cast and in a sling, and especially since he has no public events.

[But the Vespers in Aosta was public. Obviously, neither GG nor Paolo the valet, who was riding in the front passenger seat of the Pope's jeep today, noticed nor reminded him.... It doesn't matter: we know he's the Pope!]

BTW, it just occurred to me, looking at the pictures tonight, that providing security for the Pope has got to be the most challenging security task on earth. No President of the United States - after JFK was shot in Dallas - ever has to ride an open car as the Pope does, or address audiences in open air regularly at a known place and time as the Pope does for his Wednesday audiences and any of his other scheduled public events. In short, no one is as vulnerable because no one is as exposed.

We must trust that Inspector Giani and his Italian counterparts are in 'continuing education' with the top minds of the US Secret Service and the Israeli Mossad on the state of the art of assuring the safety and minimizing the risk to their super-precious charge!





P.S. FOR MARYJOS
Thank you for your comments. It is my pleasure - that I also consider a duty by now - to try and present the most comprehensive 'coverage' of what concerns Benedict XVI, at least in the most significant aspects, but I also look out, of course, for any Benaddictive morsel of which there are not enough...

I hope we get more pictures of Papino in his white beret!

Here is a translation of Vatican Radio's transcription of the homily delivered extemporaneously Friday evening by the Holy Father during Vespers at the Cathedral of Aosta.




THE HOLY FATHER'S HOMILY
AT VESPERS IN AOSTA

---

Excellency,
Dear brothers and sisters,

I wish first of all to say 'Thank you", Your Excellency, for the words with which you have introduced me to the great history of this cathedral. You have made me feel that we pray here, not only at this moment, but that I pray with [the faithful of] past centuries in this beautiful church.

And thanks to all of you who have come to pray with me and to make visible this network of prayer that links us all and always.

In this brief homily I wish to say a few words about the prayer with which these Vespers conclude, because I think that in this passage from the Letter of the Romans, prayer is interpreted and transformed.

The prayer in Romans has two parts: an addresss - a heading, we might say - and then, the prayer itself made up of two requests.

Let us start with the address which itself has two parts: it concretizes the 'you' with whom we talk in prayer, so we can better knock at the door of God's heart.

In the Italian text, we read simply: "Merciful Father". The Latin text is more ample - "Almighty and merciful God".

In my recent encyclical, I have tried to show the priority of God both in our personal life, as well as in the life of history, of society, of the world.

Certainly, choosing God is something profoundly personal, and the person is a being in relationships. If the fundamental relationship - the relation with God - is not there, if it is not lived, then all of man's other relationships cannot find their correct form. And this goes likewise for society, for mankind as such.

If God is missing, if one does without God, if God is absent, then there is no compass to show the entirety of all relationships that can make us find the way, the orientation in which one must proceed.

God: we must bring back to the world the reality of God, make him known, and make him present. But how are we to know God? In the ad-limina visits, when I speak with the bishops where traditional relgions still exist - above all in Africa, but also in Asia and Latain America - these religions have many details that are diverse from one another, of course, but they also have common elements.

All know that there is a God, one God, that God is a word in the singular, that the gods are not God, that there is God, the God.

But at the same time, this God seems absent, very distant, who does not seem to come into our daily life - he is hidden, we do not know his face. And so religions concern themselves mostly with things, powers that are nearer, spirits, ancestors, etc. - since God himself is too distant, one must deal instead with these powers closer to hand.

The act of evangelization consists precisely in the fact that it brings closer that 'distant' God. God is no longer distant but close, so that this 'known unknown' can now make himself known, he reveals himself, the veil over him disappears, and he shows his face.

And because God is near, we can know him, he shows us his face, he enters into our daily life. We no longer have to deal with other 'powers' because he is the true power. He is the Almighty.

I do not know why they omitted the word 'almighty' (omnipotent) in the Italian text. The truth is we all feel somewhat threatened by omnipotence - it would seem to limit our freedom, it seems a bit too strong. But we should learn that the omnipotence of God is not arbitrary power, because God is Goodness, he is the Truth. God can do everything but be cannot act against what is good, he cannot act against the truth, he cannot act against love and against freedom, because he himself is goodness, he is Love, he is true freedom. So, everything that he does can never be against truth, love and freedom. On the contrary.

He, God, is the custodian of our freedom, of love and of truth. The eye that sees us is not an evil eye that keeps us under surveillance - it is the presence of a love which will never abandon us and which gives us the certainty that it is good that we exist, it is good to live. He is the eye of love who gives us the space to live.

'Almighty and merciful God'. This text from the Letter to the Romans, is linked with a passage from the Book of Wisdom, which says: "You, God, show us your omnipotence in forgiveness and mercy." The peak of God's power is mercy, it is forgiveness.

In the world concept today of power, we think of someone with large properties, who has something to say about the economy because he can dispose of capital to influence the world through the market.

Or we think of someone who has military might, who can threaten. Stalin's question, "How many divisions has the Pope?", still characterizes the average idea of power.

And ther is power that can be dangerous, that can threaten, that ca ndestroy, that holds so many things of the world in its hands.

But Revelation tells us it is not so. True power is the power of grace, the power of mercy. In his mercy, God shows his true power. So the second part of this prayer's address says, "You have redeemed the world with the passion, with the suffering of your Son".

God suffered, through his Son, with us. This is the peak of his power that he is capable of suffering with us. That is how he shows us the true divine power - that we wished to suffer with us, and that he will never leave us alone in our suffering. God, in his Son, had suffered with us and is therefore close to us in our suffering.

Nonetheless, the difficult question remains, one that I cannot now interpret amply: why was it necessary to suffer in order to save the world? It was necessary ebcause there exists an ocean of evil in the world, an ocean of injustice, of hatred, of violence.

And all the victims of hatred and injustice have the right to justice. God could not ignore the cry of those who suffered and who had been oppressed by injustice.

To forgive is not to ignore but to transform, so God had to enter into this world to oppose this ocean of injustice, much greater than that of goodness and love.

That explains the Cross, and from that moment, against that ocean of evil, there now exists an infinite river that will always be greater than all the injustices of the world, a river of goodness, of truth and of love.

God forgives, transforming the world. He enters our world so that there can be a power against evil, in that river of goodness that is always greater than all the evil that can ever exist.

The address to God is also an address to ourselves: God invites us to place ourselves on his side, to leave that ocean of evil, of hate, of violence, of selfishness, and to identify ourselves with the river of his love, to enter into it.

And this is the request contained in the first part of the prayer: "Grant that your Church may offer itself to you as a living and holy sacrifice".

This appeal, addressed to God, also concerns us. It refers to two passages in the Letter to the Romans. In Chapter 8, Paul says: "We ourselves should become a living sacrifice".

We ourselves, with all our being, should become adoration, sacrifice. We should restore our world to God and thus transform the world.

And in Chapter 1, Paul describes the apostolate as priesthood. The function of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it becomes a living host, it becomes liturgy. That liturgy is not just something alongside the realities of the world, but that the world itself may become a living host, it becomes liturgy.

It is the great vision that Teilhard de Chardin later had, that in the end we would have a true cosmic liturgy, when the world becomes a living host.

Let us pray to the Lord that he may help us to be priests in this sense of helping to transform the world, in the adoration of God, and begin by transforming ourselves. So that our life may speak of God, that our life becomes liturgy, an announcement of God, the gate through whci a distant God becomes the God who is near, and that we truly give ourselves to God.

Then comes the second appeal: "Grant that your people may always experience the fullness of your love". In the Latin text it says, "Satiate us with your love". Thus, the text refers to the psalm which we sang, "Open your hand and satiate the hunger of every living being".

How much hunger there is on earth! Hunger for bread in so many parts of the world - and Your Excellency has spoken of suffering among families here - hunger for justice, hunger for love. With this prayer, we ask God, "Open your hand and truly satiate the hunger of every living being. Satiate our hunger for the truth, and for your love".

So may it be. Amen.


The Pope's words to the faithful
outside the church after Vespers


Dear friends,

I would like to say simply "Thank you' for your welcome, for your affection and sympathy. Here we are all united in prayer, and we are united in the friendship that the Lord gives us.

I wish you all good weather, and a good vacation, since I, too, am on vacation - but let it be without incident to you!

Thank you, and best wishes to all....

---

7/26/09
AOSTA VESPERS
PHOTO POST-SCRIPT

Thanks to our dear and trusted, incredibly and consistently diligent Russi - one of the earliest members of the PRF,
whose site continues to be arguably the most comprehensive, user-friendly multimedia archive on Benedict XVI -


I was able to watch the SAT-2000 coverage of the Vespers in Aosta, from which I was able to capture some pictures that give a more complete picture of an eventful although brief visit.

Better yet, I also had the singular experience once again of watching and listening to Benedict XVI extemporize a great homily with his customary flow of words, so organized and linear, with his precise vocabulary that sometimes rises to poetry - and not a single UMM... or the slightest beat of hesitation!

[And people actually think Obama is eloquent just because he has a deep baritone and can declaim with rhetorical flourish off a teleprompter! Meet the real Goldmund/Chrysostomos, Mr. O! Have you watched Obama answer a question at news conferences when he does not have the benefit of a prompter? He makes so many more UMMs and hesitations than the much-maligned Dubya who moreover had the obvious virtue of sincerity and common sense.]

July 25

St. James the Greater (Died in Galilee 44 AD)
Apostle and brother of St. John
First Apostle to be martyred
Patron of Spain
(as Santiago Matamoros, James the Moor-Slayer)



OR today.


The Aosta event yesterday occurred too late to make it to the press run for today's
OR which carries Fr. Lombardi's note on Day 11 (photo, taken Thursday) and the
morning of Day 12 of the Pope's vacation. Other Page 1 stories: Youth (19-24)
unemployment hits 18% in Europe, as much as 36% in Spain); Vice President Biden
reiterates US support for the integrity of Georgia in visit to Tbilisi; Hillary Clinton
says dialog with Iran remains an open offer despite lack of response; and there's
an editorial commentary on the failure of the UN and the international community
to keep commitments to protect civilian populations in areas of conflict.



THE POPE ON VACATION - DAY 13

Day 13 in Les Combes:
Medical check-up and X-rays
show the Pope is doing well;
preparing for Angelus tomorrow
Translated from
the Italian service of

July 25, 2009




The Pope with Dr. Mancini, left, Note he is wearing his ring on the left hand again.


As Les Combes prepares to welcome thousands of persons for the noonday Angelus tomorrow with the Pope, Benedict XVI today underwent a medical check-up and X-ray of his right wrist eight days after he fractured it and underwent surgery.

Alessandro Di Carolis spoke to Vatican press director, Fr. Federico Lombardi.

FR. LOMBARDI: It was a normal morning for the Pope. Around 11:40, he underwent the anticipated check-up one week after the surgery. This took place at specially equipped area in the nearby Salesian vacation colony.

The results were very good. The medical progress was as expected. They had to take out the cast for the X-ray, and then replaced with a new one.

Afterwards, the Pope thanked all the doctors. It all took place in a family atmosphere.


The Pope and his medical team: Starting with the blue-shirted man in the center, towards the right, radiologist Dr. Massimiano Natrella, Dr. Mancini, the Pope, Dr. Laura Mus (who assisted Mancini in the surgery), Dr. Berti and Dr. Polisca. No identification provided for Prof. Sessa.

Besides the two Vatican doctors who travel with the Pope - Dr. (Patrizio) Polisca and Dr. (Franco) Berti - there was of course Dr. Manuel Mancini, who operated on the wrist, and as previously announced, Prof. Vincenzo Sessa, chief of Orthopedics at the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome and consulting specialist for the Vatican health service. He will be following the course of the fracture after the Pope leaves Les Combes.


After the crowds in Aosta yesterday, you will be having a crowd here tomorrow for the Angelus, too. How are the preparations going?

Everything is going well. In the morning, they set up the equipment for the radio and TV broadcasts. And we have been informed of all the many groups who are coming - youth associations, various parish and church organizations, people coming from nearby regions such as Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneto and even Tuscany. We expect around 5,000 people.

At 10 a.m., Mons. Anfossi, Bishop of Aosta, will concelebrate Mass with Mons. Miglio, bishop of Ivrea, and the bishops of Mondovi, Asti and Ventimiglia.

Then, for the Angelus, we also expect Cardinal Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin.


Allaying fears about the swine flu

Fr. Lombardi was also asked about a misconception in the Italian media that the Pope's general audiences may be affected by a scare over swine flu:


Media has raised that there may be a health risk for people attending gatherings at the Vatican, such as the Pope's general audiences, because of the swine flu virus. What do you have to say about this?

I read the interview that appeared in L'Osservatore Romano and I think there is absolutely no reason for particular concern. Prof. Rocchi explained in the article that, of course, even the Vatican must look out for eventual warnings by the World Health Organization and Italian authorities for whatever epidemic may be under way, in order to avoid gatherings which could facilitate spread of the infection.

It is a general word of prudence. You will recall that when t swine flu first broke out in Mexico, the Archbishop of Mexico City asked the faithful to refrain from going to Sunday Mass when the extent of the outbreak was still not known, precisely to avoid spreading the virus. But the situation quickly came back to normal [the outbreak was not as widespread nor as rapid as had been feared].

So, we are talking here about normal, natural prudence by everyone, including the Christian community, which must act when necessary. But I don't think it's anything imminent - and certainly, Prof, Rocchi did not say it was.



Some pictures of the residence captured from a Sky TV videoclip:


View of the residence that shows the Pope's second-floor rooms with a view towards Mont Blanc. Picture below shows the 'Mont Blanc' side more clearly, and the inset shows the side view of the Pope's rooms.


Right, rear view of the chalet which slopes down to a single storey. The foreground of the left photo shows part of the vegetable garden set up by a foundation that provides agricultural jobs for handicapped persons.]



The AP has filed a report in which, unusually, they put together snippets of news from all the available Italian media sources today, including the Sky TV report on the pastry shop and the baker who provision the Pope during his vacation [reported days ago on this thread], from which I took the videocaps above:



Vatican says Pope's wrist
is healing well



VATICAN CITY, July 25 (AP) – Doctors examined Pope Benedict XVI's broken wrist at the pontiff's Alpine vacation chalet and are pleased with how the injury is healing, a Vatican spokesman said Saturday.

During the half-hour checkup, the cast on the fractured right wrist was removed and a new one put on, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

The 82-year-old Pope had surgery at the hospital on July 17 on his right wrist, which he fractured in a fall in the chalet near Aosta.

Doctors from Aosta hospital as well as Vatican doctors carried out medical and radiological exams at the chalet in the mountains near the French border, Lombardi said.

The exams yielded "excellent results," said Lombardi.

"The (healing) process is good and is in line with what was expected," the spokesman said.

Vatican CTV television captured some of the pope's chatting with his doctors, the Italian news agency ANSA reported from the vacation retreat.

"Well, then, doctor, thanks. Let's hope that all is going well," the Pope was overheard telling Dr. Manuel Mancini, the orthopedist who had done the surgery, ANSA said.

"It's all going very well. Now we're just awaiting the X-ray results,'" the doctor replied.

"It will be satisfactory, we hope," the pope was heard saying.

"It will surely be satisfactory," Mancini was quoted as replying.

At noon Sunday, Benedict will recite prayers and greet the public on a meadow outside the chalet, after local bishops celebrate Mass.

Among the doctors involved in Saturday's checkup was a Rome hospital orthopedist who will continue the Pope's care when he returns to Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican holiday retreat near Rome, as well as when he is back in the Vatican, Lombardi said.

Traditionally, the Pope spends much of the summer at the Castel Gandolfo palace in the lakeside hill town after a briefer holiday in the cool mountains in Italy's north.

This is the part of the story from the SKY TV video:

Local pastry chefs [a local pastry chef] told Italian TV they (she) had sent a strudel and raspberry and pistachio torte [cake] to the German-born Pope's chalet in Les Combes in the Val d'Aosta region, where the Pontiff is scheduled to stay until July 29.

A local cleric told TV the Pope's aides had asked for deliveries of small baskets of blueberries, blackberries and other berries, for which the region is famed. [The 'home economist' of Don Bosco seminary in Chatillon - this, too, along with the vegetable garden story, was reported days ago on this thread.]

The Pope's kitchen was also being stocked with various kinds of lettuce [and other vegetables and herbs] from a garden planted by disabled people outside the chalet.

Last night, I was unable to finish translating this item which I saw as a companion piece to Vittorio Messori's article, posted in BENADICTIONS, about the deplorable tendency in the secular media to make tenuous links between simultaneous but totally unrelated events in order to forecast a 'general trend' in the Church.

The author is the Vatican correspondent of the Italian news agency AGI, who makes an impassioned denunciation of all the bad journalistic practices that habitually misrepresent the Pope and the Church.



A Vatican correspondent's
open letter to Avvenire:
On calculated misrepresentations
of the Pope and the Church
in the media
by SALVATORE IZZO
Translated from

---

Dear Editor,

First of all I must compliment my colleagues in Avvenire for their verification that led to exposing the grotesque lies that have been reported in the media about supposedly lawbreaking priest and nun drivers - and other false news reports.

One must honor merit: your editors show proper concern for checking out news reports, which should be the duty of all journalists. The fact of so-called scoops fabricated at a lawyer's desk can certainly be amusing, just as the denial made about the two cats that were supposed to be waiting for the Holy Father in Les Combes.

But one of our colleagues on TG3 ended up paying a painful price for a comment about those non-existent cats which he intended to be witty but was instead offensive.

That was an episode that was disappointing, and which I hope can start serious reflection among us who report on the Vatican for the news agencies. In the same way that the lack of fact-checking on 'news' which comes from lawyers' offices - which are often taken as filtered gold despite evident inconsistencies - should concern court and police reporters.

But in recent times, there have been too many similar episodes [in reporting about the Church and the Pope] about which there is little be amused about.

From the Regensburg lecture to the supposed attacks of the Vatican against the Italian government's recent security decree [that concerns illegal immigrants, among others] - which even repeated statements by Fr. Federico Lombardi failed to be reported enough in order to make clear that the respectable and obviously personal opinions of an authoritative Roman prelate, whom journalists often resort to in a manner that raises doubts, do not represent the official position of the Vatican - there is a long list of misunderstandings and equivocations that have caused serious damage to the image of the Pope and unpleasant consequences even on the international level.

The most tragic episode was the out-of-context extrapolation of some words that Benedict XVI said about AIDS - during an inflight interview enroute to Africa - which provoked very violent reactions including anti-Pope resolutions formally declared by some European parliaments.

For economic reasons - the prohibitive cost of a ticket for the trip to Africa - only a few news agencies held a practical monopoly of the information from that interview, and it was several hours before the Vatican published the full text of what the Pope said on that occasion, which clearly showed that the Pope had not in fact expressed new condemnations against the use of condoms but was simply remarking on what the Church has done to fight AIDS in Africa.

But unfortunately, the damage was done. Those few lines that were lifted - without the premise that the Pope had laid down for what he was saying, such as a reference to the DREAM project of the Sant'Egidio Community in Africa - and immediately reported to the world directly from the airplane through the Internet sites of the news organizations who were present on board, hugged headlines around the world on what was essentially a false report.

Just a few weeks before that, a similar misunderstanding was generated and fueled by the extrapolation - also out of context - of a statement made by the Vatican's permanent representative to the United Nations about the Church's opposition to a French resolution to decriminalize homosexuality [in those nations that make it a crime].

With the result that for several days, the Vatican was accused of advocating imprisonment, if not outright execution, for homosexuals! Obviously based on a mistake: Archbishop Celestino Migliore was really warning against the risk that the French resolution would result in international sacntions against nations which do not consider gay unions equivalent to normal matrimony. But the superficiality [and I think, a lot of bad faith] of the news accounts about his statements caused a lot of tension [UNNECESSARILY SO!]

With regard to the UN, there was also equivocation about the Pope's address to non-governmental organizations in which he reiterated the Vatican's reservations on demographic policies [that advocate population control], but was invariably reported as 'Benedict XVI attacks the UN', a 'forced' [and obviously false] conclusion that was strongly denounced by L'Osservatore Romano - though this was ignored by the media organizations respnsible for the mismanipulation.

And it was truly tragic that last January, the first reports by news agencies on the Pope's lifting the excommunication of the four Lefebvrian bishops ignored the statement immediately made by Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi about the limited significance of the Pope's action. Answering our questions in the Vatican press room, Fr. Lombardi made it clear that the lifting of the excommunications had nothing to do with Bishop Williamson's negationism.

Likewise, at Regensburg in September 2006, Fr. Lombardi had immediately warned the Vatican news corps of a possible equivocation regarding Islam - and he made this warning before the Pope delivered the lecture, a warning ignored by most of them, with the consequences we all know.

[This is the first time I have read this anywhere. Most accounts of that event - by those who spearheaded the 'Pope attacks Islam' news lead, and particularly the AP's Victor Simpson - claimed at the time that they realized the possible implications as soon as they read the advance copy of the lecture given to them, but that the Vatican officials did not seem concerned about it!

More to the point, all the initial stories about the lecture did not, in fact, lead off with the 'anti-Islam' slant but about its true subject: faith and reason in the practice of religion. It was only almost two days later that Ian Fisher of the New York Times and Marco Politi of La Repubblica, to begin with, called attention to the anti-Mohammed citation from a Byzantine emperor, provoking instantaneous outrage from the Muslim world.]

These incidents certainly prove that news sources should immediately clarify misunderstood or misrepresented positions, but even such efforts, which finally are being taken [by the Vatican], will not serve anything if we, the Vatican correspondents of the news organizations, do not ourselves guaratee aboslute correctness in reporting the words and texts of the Pope and the Holy See, as well as the Italin bishops' conference (CEI), resisting the pressures of those who are interested in using the Church for political ends and wish to present it as belligerent and capable only of saying NO.

Pesonally, I am experiencing all of this as a challnge, well aware of my own personal limitations but encourgaed by signs of intellectual honesty from some of my younger colleagues.


Salvatore Izzo

---

July 26

Saints Joachim and Anna
Parents of the Virgin Mary


OR today.

Benedict XVI presides at Vespers in the Cathedral of Aosta:
'The omnipotence of a God who will never abandon us'
The deadline-belated reportage on the Pope's visit to Aosta on Friday. A large part of Page 1 is occupied by nominations made yesterday, which included the quinquennial renewal of the 30 members of the International Theological Commission which works under the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith. Other Page 1 stories: Iran's supreme leader orders Ahmadinejad to fire the vice president he appointed because he once said that "The Israeli government, not its people, are our enemies"; and the US releases $200 million aid to the Palestinian Authority as it pledged at a conference of donors last March.





THE POPE IS ON VACATION - DAY 14

ANGELUS TODAY






The Holy Father led the noon Angelus prayers today in Les Combes before an international audience whom he later greeted in various languages. He greeted local residents in their patois, a French-based dialect.

More than 6,000 faithful attended, beyond the 5,000 that had been expected.

In his mini-homily he spoke of the miracle of bread and fishes, and related it to the mission of priests today, as well as on Saints Joachim and Anna, parents of the Virgin Mary, on their feast day today, asking prayers for all the grandparents of the world and the vital role they play in imparting values to children.

In English, he said:

---

I greet all the English-speaking visitors present today. Thank you for joining me here in Les Combes to pray the Angelus. I hope that your holidays may be a time of great joy, spent together as families, and of deep spiritual renewal, as you rest in the marvel of God’s gift of creation. May the Almighty abundantly bless each of you and your loved ones.

---

Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's words at the Angelus today:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:


I wish you a good Sunday! We meet here in Les Combes near the hospitable house which the Salesians have placed at the disposition of the Pope, where I am coming to the end of a period of rest among the beautiful mountains of Val D'Aosta.

I thank God who has given me the joy of these days which have been marked by true relaxation - despite the small inconvenience which is now well-known to you - and quite visible!

I take the occasion to thank affectionately all those who have attended to me with discretion and great dedication.

I greet Cardinal [Severino] Poletto [Archbishop of Turin] and the other bishops present, in particular the Bishop of Aosta, Mons. Giuseppe Anfossi, for the kind words he addressed to me.

I greet the parish priest of Les Combes, the civilian and military authorities, the forces of law and order, and all of you, dear friends, along with those who are with us through radio and television.

Today, on this splendid Sunday when the Lord shows us all the beauty of his Creation, the liturgy provides as the Gospel page the start of Chapter 6 in the Book of John.

It contains, first of all, the miracle of the loaves - when Jesus fed five thousand with just five loaves of bread and two fishes; then, the other miracle of the Lord when he walked on the waters of the lake during a storm; and finally, the discourse in which he reveals himself as 'the bread of life'.

Narrating the symbolism of bread, the Evangelist underscores that Christ, before distributing the food, blessed it with a prayer of thanksgiving (cfr v. 11).

The verb he used was 'eucharistein' and refers forward to the Last Supper, though, in fact, John refers here not to the institution of the Eucharist but to the washing of the feet. The Eucharist is anticipated here in the great symbol of the Bread of life.

In this Year for Priests, how can we not recall that we priests, especially, can see ourselves reflected in the Johannine text, identifying ourselves with the Apostles when they say, "Where can we find food for all this people?"

Reading about that anonymous boy who happened to have five loaves of bread and two fishes, we too spontaneously say, "But what is that for such a multitude?"

In other words: Who am I? How can I, with my limitations, help Jesus in his mission? And the Lord gives the response: By taking in his 'holy and venerable' hands the little what we are, priests become instruments of salvation for so many, for everyone!

A second point for reflection comes from today's liturgical commemoration of Saints Joachim and Anna, parents of Our Lady, and therefore, grandparents of Jesus.

This occasion makes us think of the subject of education, which has such an important place in the pastoral work of the Church. In particular, it invites us to pray for grandparents, who, in the family, are the depositories of and often witnesses for the fundamental values of life.

The educational task of grandparents is always very important, end becomes even more so when, for various reasons, the parents are unable to have an adequate presence with their children in their growing years.

I entrust to the protection of St. Ann and St. Joachim all the grandparents of the world and bestow on them a special blessing. May the Virgin Mary who - according to a beautiful iconographic convention - learned Scriptures at the knees of her mother Ann, help them to always nourish their faith and hope at the sources of the Word of God.


At the end of his plurilingual greetings, he had these words for Italians and the residents of Val D'Aosta:

Finally, I greet with affection the Italian-speaking families and groups, particularly the Sisters of Charity of St. Mary, who are gathered for their Chapter General meeting.

Dear sisters, draw new lymph from your charism to be a sign of the Lord's love in the service of the poor and the young, imitating Mary, model of charity and Mother of Good Counsel.

I also greet the nuns of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from Aosta and other religious present.

I am happy to welcome the faithful from Romano Canavese where I visited last Sunday, and those from Courmayeur, Santa Maria della Versa, Castelnuovo Scrivia and Chieri.

I greet the Comunità di Sant’Egidio, Comunione e Liberazione, and the young people from San Benigno Canavese, San Protaso in Milan, Induno Olona and the Diocese of Lodi; the 'Opera per la Gioventù Giorgio La Pira' of Florence, the Domus laetitiae group from Biella, and the many African residents of Turin.

Earlier, speaking of St. Joachim and St. Ann, I had a special thought for all grandparents. I extend this thought to all older people, especially those who are alone or in difficulty.

Than you once again for coming, and I wish all a good Sunday.


To the Valdostans, he said in their patois:

Dear Valdostans, I am truly glad to be here among you. Pray for me and for all the Church.

I wish everyone a good summer!

---

The geraniums in the foreground are paler this year (pink and peach rather than red and orange) than in previous years, but the Holy Father looks timelessly youthful and glowing! BTW, again no ring.

P.S. There were more than enough red and orange geraniums, too, it turns out. Here are additional pictures lifted from the Sky-TV videoclip of the Angelus:



And a shot of the kiosk and the meadow after everyone had gone.

In the preceding page, I posted a great number of photos captured from the full video of the Vespers in Aosta last Friday on aspects of the event not reflected in the newsphotos that were made available.





July 27

Blessed Antonio Lucci (Italy, 1682-1752)
Franciscan and Bishop


No OR today.



THE POPE ON VACATION - DAY 15
And the days dwindle down...
The Holy Father goes to Castel Gandolfo
for the rest of the summer on Wednesday, July 29.

Pope Benedict XVI
unfrocks Medjugorje priest

Father Tomislav Vlasic, the priest who helped to turn the Bosnian town of Medjugorje
into one of the Catholic Church's most visited shrines, has left the priesthood
after being placed under investigation by the Vatican.

By Simon Caldwell

Published: 8:00AM BST 27 Jul 2009


Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former "spiritual director" to six visionaries who claim that the Virgin Mary visited them nearly 40,000 times over 28 years, has been laicised by Pope Benedict XVI a year after he was placed under investigation over allegations that he exaggerated the apparitions and had engaged in sexual relations with a nun.

While the Vatican has never given the shrine its formal blessing, an estimated 30 million pilgrims have visited Medjugorje in the last three decades and hundreds of thousands make the journey from Britain and Ireland each year.

The unfrocking of Father Vlasic will come as a blow to Medjugorje followers worldwide who were hoping that the Vatican would one day legitimise the controversial shrine.

The Franciscan was asked to leave the priesthood after the Vatican launched an investigation into allegations that he was guilty of sexual immorality with a nun which he then covered up.

He was also suspected of exagerating stories of the Virgin Mary's appearance and under formal investigation for alleged "dubious doctrine, the manipulation of consciences, suspect mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders".

Father Vlasic refused to co-operate with the investigation from the outset and he was banished to a monastery in L'Aquila, Italy, where he was forbidden to communicate with anyone, even his lawyers, without the permission of his superior.

He has not commented on the allegations but told the Vatican that he felt wronged given he had turned Medjugorje into an international shrine and generated funds to build new churches.

It emerged on Sunday that he has chosen to leave the priesthood and his order, a move which has brought the investigation to an abrupt halt.

But the Pope has insisted that Father Vlasic observes a set of conditions on pain of excommunication which include a total ban on teaching Christian doctrine and giving spiritual direction.

There is also an "absolute prohibition of releasing declarations on religious matters, especially regarding the phenomenon of Medjugorje".




It seems to me that the Medjugorje mass pilgrimage phenomenon is a sign of the times: how willing - maybe even desperate - modern Catholics are to reinforce their faith through belief in the 'supernatural', Marian apparitions in this case, no matter if the Church has not 'validated' them.

Frankly, it strains credulity to believe the claim by one or more of the Medjugorje 'seers' that the Virgin Mary has appeared daily to him/her for the past 28 years - and yet it is typical of the claims put forward and promoted by Fr. Vlasic and his 'spiritual wards'. Subsequent reports of how Vlasic and the seers themselves appear to have profited materially from their 'fame' simply add to the disquieting aspects of this cultural phenomenon.

The Church has taken the sensible position that no Roman Catholic priest should lead pilgrimages to Medjugorje because that would give the mistaken impression that the Church has put its imprimatur on the 'apparitions' there as it did for Lourdes and Fatima.

At the same time, the Church points out that one should not minimize the faith that draws pilgrims to Medjugorje provided their prayers are not simply in the hope of getting a miracle. Faith should not require supernatural proof, because by definition, it is 'the conviction about things not seen'.

Day 15 in Les Combes:
'Normal' last 2 days
of vacation for the Pope
Adapted and translated from



LES COMBES - "We expect today and tomorrow to be quiet, without any particular commitments," Fr. Federico Lombardi said today as the Pope's vacation winds down, ending Wednesday. "The Pope will dedicate himself as usual to prayer, study and reading."

Before he leaves Les Combes on Wednesday, he will meet in the morning with the local and state security forces, firemen and others who were assigned to insure his security during his holiday in Val D'Aosta.

"In the afternoon, a meeting with local authorities before leaving by helicopter around 5 p.m. for the airport at Torino-Caselle, from where he will fly back to Rome-Ciampino airport. He will proceed from the airport directly to Castel Gandolfo where he is expected in time for dinner".

Additionally, Fr. Lombardi also confirmed that Benedict XVI will be visiting Turin next spring when the Holy Shroud goes on public exposition on April 10-May 23, 2010.



Cardinal Poletto behind the Holy Father at the Angelus yesterday.

Lombardi said the Pope received an update on preparations for the exposition - which he authorized last year - from Cardinal Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin, who had lunch with the Pope yesterday after the Angelus. Also present was the Bishop of Aosta, Mons. Giuseppe Anfossi.

he Vatican press director said "The Pope ended the day yesterday with his usual evening walk, thus concluding a Sunday marked by a festive encounter with the faithful for the Angelus, and lunch with some guests, among them, Cardinal Poletto and Bishop Anfossi."


Background information on the Shroud
from Cindy Wooden



The last time the Shroud of Turin was displayed to the public was in 2000 for the jubilee year. The shroud is removed from a specially designed protective case only for very special spiritual occasions, and its removal for study or display to the public must be approved by the pope.

The shroud underwent major cleaning and restoration in 2002.

According to tradition, the 14-foot-by-4-foot linen cloth is the burial shroud of Jesus. The shroud has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.

The Church has never officially ruled on the shroud's authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.

A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.

She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of the phrase "The king of the Jews."

Castex's recent discovery of the word "found" with another word next to it, which still has to be deciphered, "together may mean 'because found' or 'we found,'" she said.

What is interesting, she said, is that it recalls a passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, "We found this man misleading our people," which was what several Jewish leaders told Pontius Pilate when they asked him to condemn Jesus.

She said it would not be unusual for something to be written on a burial cloth in order to indicate the identity of the deceased.

Frale, who is a researcher at the Vatican Secret Archives, has written a new book on the shroud and the Knights Templar, the medieval crusading order which, she says, may have held secret custody of the Shroud of Turin during the 13th and 14th centuries.

She told Vatican Radio that she has studied the writings on the shroud in an effort to find out if the Knights had written them.

"When I analyzed these writings, I saw that they had nothing to do with the Templars because they were written at least 1,000 years before the Order of the Temple was founded" in the 12th century, she said.


Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale had the good sense to ask someone in the Pope's household last week how exactly the Pope broke his wrist - the only one to do so at the time. Now, Fr. Lombardi describes it himself in an interview with SKY-TV, as reported by both ANSA and Apcom.


Fr. Lombardi explains:
Pope stumbled against the bed
while trying to get to light switch



LES COMBES (AOSTA), July 27 (Translated from ANSA) - In the middle of the night between Thursday and Friday last week, Pope Benedict got up from bed and tried to get to a light switch but stumbled on the foot of the bed.

That is how he fell on his right wrist and fractured it, according to Fr. Federico Lombardi, speaking to Sky TG-24.

"The Pope got up in a dark room, which is also very different from his bedroom in the Vatican," Lombardi says. "He moved about to get to the light awitch, stumbled across the foot of the bed, fell down and hurt himself."

Lombardi confirms that the Pope did not wake anyone up, "he did not call for help, and he did not do anything about the injury."

But in the morning, he adds, "he noticed the wrist was swollen and painful," despite which he went ahead, said Mass and had breakfast.

Afterwards, however, the doctor was called [Dr. Polisca, who is staying at one of the houses in the nearby Salesian colony] and he decided the Pope should be go to the hospital. The rest of the story is known to all."



Among the videos on Russi's site is a roundup of videoclips taken when the Holy Father left the hospital in Aosta on Friday the 17th. Towards the very end, one newscast showed a very brief clip of the Pope arriving in Les Combes (the car is driving up to the main entrance at the side of the house, below right):

and caught the two Memores housekeepers greeting him:

In a cathedral 16 centuries old,
Benedict XVI restores the message
to make God known to man
Editorial
by ANGELO SCELZO
Translated from

July 26, 2009



In the increasingly eventful chapter of 'surprises' in Benedict VXI's Pontificate, the Vespers he celebrated at the Cathedral of Aosta last Friday is a new entry from many aspects.

Think of it: the Pope is on vacation, the rhythms of normal life are generally slowed down everywhere in summer, and a carefree atmosphere attests to the fact that summer is a season of the ephemeral.

And suddenly from the cathedral that was once St. Anselm's seat in Aosta, words come forth that resonate with the 16 centuries of faith conserved within those walls - recently restored to some of its ancient splendor - but also indicating the path for a new future, as Pope Benedict extemporized an extraordinary lesson of his Magisterium.

As father of the Church and its teacher in faith, the Pope can certainly not be limited in what he needs to say about the faith, even in the summer, nor for that matter, to keep a 'light touch', especially with the physical disability to his right wrist.

Indeed, we all got far more than we expected.

First of all, the beauty of language - a gift which helps and almost carries forward a course that the Pope himself says may appear more suggestive than demanding.

Or rather, suggestive because it is demanding: To affirm, in the silence of that cathedral, that "power means to be with those who suffer" and that "without God, the world has no compass" was like ripping open not just the enclosing cathedral walls but also the wall of indifference in the world.

It was much more than a resounding call: it was a meditation which also placed a seal on this temple of worship - alongside and beyond the restored stone of the cathedral, he also restored its message, confirmed its charism anew.

The voice of sixteen centuries of faith rang out stronger and firmer than ever, belying the cliche that summer is not a time for thinking anything big, or for doing other than pro forma tasks.

What fascinates about Benedict XVI is the daring simplicity of the task that he has assigned himself: to make the face of God not only known to mankind but to make God familiar to man.

And that is what evangelization means. But Pope Benedict makes it clear that for the Church, evangelization is everything.

Even in St. Anselm's cathedral, it would have been difficult to think of a mid-summer papal visit. But then, neither does one necessarily associate a Vespers celebration with something that constitutes a true spiritual pilgrimage for souls made uneasy by the times we live in.

One cannot consider the event otherwise. And in a sense, it has become more difficult to speak about 'surprises' from this Pope [presumably because he is so consistently on message].



The full video of the Vespers in Aosta may be seen on Russi's site
www.benedictxvi.tv/video/full/587-FULL-SIZE-vespers-aosta-24-07-...


An unexpected implication of the Aosta homily was picked up by two Vaticanistas who commented in their Sunday reports.


In his Aosta homily,
the Pope praises
'the Catholic Darwin'
by Gian Guido Vecchi
Translated from



LES COMBES (Aosta, July 25 - "Let us hope everything goes well," the Pope said yesterday to his doctors after they X-rayed his fracture right wrist one week after they operated on it.

Both his medical check-up and the X-rays were 'excellent', the doctors said afterwards. They replaced the resin cast that was taken off to do the X-ray, said the fracture was healing well, and the cast would be taken off after the feast of the Assumption.

Meanwhile, Benedict XVI had 'rehabilitated' Pierre Teilhard de Charcin (1881-1955), known as 'the Catholic Darwin' and the 'forbidden Jesuit'.

One of the great 20th-century theologians, who was also a paleontologist and biologist, he became the object of a 'monitum' (reprimand) from the then Holy Office on June 30, 1962, exhorting "all Bishops and superiors of relgious institutions, seminary rectors, and university heads to protect the thoughts, particularly of young people, from the dangers in the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his disciples".

So one had to see Benedict XVI - great theologian that he is, who took part in the Second Vatican Council as a consultant and who led the ex-Holy Office for 23 years - praise "the great vision that Teilhard de Chardin had", the Pauline idea that ultimately, we will have "a true cosmic liturgy and the cosmos will become a living host".

It was just one citation, but an important one, linked to Paul's Letter to the Romans, given in a homily that was extemporaneous - therefore, even more significant because the words came spontaneously.

Already, in his 1987 Principles of Catholic Theology, the then Cardinal Ratzinger acknowledged the influence of Teilhard's influence on Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution of Vatican II on the relationship between the Church and the contemporary world.

And much water has passed under the bridge since the ex Holy Office denounced 'ambiguities and errors so serious that they offend Catholic doctrine' about Teilhard's writings in the 1962 monitum.

As Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi (also Jesuit) commented, "No one today would dream of saying that an author who expresses heterodox views should not be studied." [By scholars, presumably, not by pupils, students and seminarians.]

Theologian Gianni Gennari observes: "But the monitum against Teilhard was never withdrawn."

[In June 1981, the OR published a letter written by then Secretary of State Casaroli to then Mons. Paul Poupard on the occasion of the centenary of the French Jesuit's birth - which praised Teilhard's body of work beyond "the difficulties of conception and deficiencies of expression" and conveyed "this message on behalf of the Holy Father to you and all the participants of the conference over which you are presiding at the Catholic Institute of Paris in homage to Fr. Teilhard de Chardin".

Two weeks, later, the OR published a communique which rejected interpretations that Casaroli's letter meant the Vatican had changed its position about Teilhard, saying: "After having consulted the Cardinal Secretary of State and the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which, by order of the Holy Father, had been duly consulted beforehand, about the letter in question, we are in a position to reply in the negative", pointing out that Casaroli's letter had, in fact expressed reservations even if the 1962 monitum was never directly mentioned.

It must be noted that Cardinal Ratzinger was never involved in this dispute because he was not named CDF Prefect till November 1981 and he did not actually take office until February 1982.]

Gennari notes: "Teilhard de Chardin spoke of 'divine matter' and because of this, he was accused of pantheism! It is very significant that Benedict XVI says today what the young Ratzinger would have said in the 1960s. Which is not an argument for those who would have us believe that the Church is trying to bury Vatican-II".

The lay theologian Vito Mancuso, who last year wrote an open letter to Corriere della Sera demanding the rehabilitation of Teilhard, commented on the Pope's citation in Aosta: "Teilhard de Chardin was persecuted for having introduced the evolutionary method in theological thought, and an optimistic but not ingenuous attitude towards the world and science. I am pleasantly surprised. Benedict XVI's words have great significance."


Praise for Teilhard de Chardin:
Benedict XVI 'pardons'
the Catholic Darwin
by GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Translated from



AOSTA, July 26 - Half a century after a Vatican condemnation, Joseph Ratzinger paid homage to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit who tried to reconcile the theory of evolution with Christianity. [Not exactly. He tried to apply the idea of evolution to the development of man in the Christian sense.]

The 1962 monitum against his writings (that is, the reprimand made by the former Holy Office against what it considers 'grave doctrinal errors' in his writings) has not been lifted, but in the very rich homily delivered extemporaneously by Benedict XVI last Friday at the Cathedral of Aosta, he praised "the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin, who thought that ultimately we would have a true cosmic liturgy and the cosmos would be a living host".

It's a highly significant citation, surprisingly sprung by Benedict XVI about "an aristocratic theologian, scientist and mystic who crossed over from the religious field, and with his studies in China on the origins of mankind [he was among the discoverers of Peking Man], influenced even non-Christian thinkers", said Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of L'Osservqatore Romano and a scholar on the history of Christianity.

"Notwithstanding criticisms of his weak philosophical vision and excessive optimism in the union of faith and science, he is a figure who fascinated an era, one who in 1963 was the inspiration for a leading character in the novel that became big film, Nei panni di Pietro [literally, 'In Peter's clothes'- sorry, the title does not ring a bell with me] and L'uomo venuto dal Cremlino {The man from the Kremlin), both loved by Papa Wojtyla," Vian continues.

And yet, Cardinal Ottaviani, custodian of orthodoxy [as prefect of the CDF in the 1960s), banned the 'heretic' Teilhard from Catholic bookstores and schools for, among other things, that 'cosmic liturgy' praised Friday by Benedict XVI [and a recurrent concept in his discourses on liturgy].

"Teilhard de Chardin was accused by the Vatican of immanentism and materialism for concepts such as 'divine matter', with sharp censure that has never been revoked," says the theologian Gianni Gennari.

"Yet as a progressive theological adviser at Vatican-II, Ratzinger studied him and discussed him enthusiastically with Karl Rahner. Now, as Pope, he is not afraid to show the same conviction, without asking whether it is prudent to express his personal attitude for that controversial advocate of dialog with the contemporary world who was so opposed by the traditionalist Curia."

"Pope Benedict has thus shown in his own words that the identification of creation and the living host does not contradict the value of the sacraments," Gennari goes on.

He thinks that in this way, the Pope is rehabilitating Teilhard's non-atheist Christian evolutionism - that is, history as the path from the alpha of pre-incarnation Christ to the omega of the risen Christ".

After recent Vatican 're-readings' of Galileo, Giordano Bruno and John Calvin, Papa Ratzinger has also lifted the shadow of pantheism [God-world] that he was accused of, and recognizing that in general, his work does not contradict the Magisterium.

Now it remains for the CDF to take the formal step of withdrawing the Monitum and do justice to the Catholic Darwin.


I hope the Pope clears the way for the next logical step....
In 2007, I posted two brief articles by priests that I thought made an excellent brief introduction that skims the essentials of Teilhard de Chardin's thought in the READINGS thread of the PRF:
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=355008&p=3

As I mentioned in my introductory comment to that post, I was very much into Teilhard in the 1960s as an intellectual adventure in which I did not mind whatever was unorthodox about his thinking, because I was not reading him as a Catholic writer [I was not into reading about Catholicism at the time; I was also getting introduced to the Eastern philosophies and religions) but for his scientific insights and his attempt to synthesize his thought in Christian terms, which was an extraordinary combination.

More security - and more crowds
expected for Benedict XVI
than Czechs had for Obama



PRAGUE, July 26 (CTK) - Security measures during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Czech Republic in September will be even stricter than during U.S. President Barack Obama's visit in the spring, today's issue of the daily newspaper Pravo quotes police protection service head Lubomir Kvicala as saying.

"We expect many more people to come to public spaces, therefore the measures will be greater than during President Obama's visit," Kvicala said.

Obama attended an informal EU-United States summit in Prague last April.

The Pope will be in the Czech Republic on September 26-28.

Pravo writes that it will principally be the Mass that Benedict XVI will celebrate at the Brno-Turany airport on Sunday, September 27, that will place big demands on protection.

Brno Bishop Vojtech Cikrle estimates that some 120,000 people will attend it.

Obama's speech outside Prague Castle was attended by some 15,000 people.

July 28

St. Leopold Mandic (b. Croatia 1887, d. Padua 1942)
Capuchin monk
'The Saint of Confession'


OR for 6/27-6/28:

Illustration: Tiepolo, 'St. Ann and the girl Mary', Venice.
The Pope at Les Combes Angelus recalls priests' part in the plan of salvation and pays homage to
Grandparents as the repositories and witnesses of fundamental values
Other Page 1 stories: An editorial commentary on Europe's demographic winter which also freezes the economy;
China and the US start two-day economic summit in Washington. A long essay in the inside pages reviews the essays
collected in the book In difesa di Pio XII: Le ragioni della storia (In defense of Pius XII: The reasons of history)
edited by the OR's Giovanni Maria Vian.



THE POPE ON VACATION - DAY 16

LES COMBES, July 28, 2009 (Photos from Osservatore Romano):

What a beautiful man, and what a great portrait!


Variation on a theme.

Robert Moynihan, editor and publisher of INSIDE THE VATICAN magazine, has started a biweekly column for ZENIT called 'Inside the colonnade' of which this is the first.

Mr. Moynihan is a truly veteran Vatican observer, and his journalism is always very personal, and given his age, also tends to meander and indulge himself. A column is, of course, first and foremost, and always, a vehicle for personal opinion.

In this case, I believe Mr. Moynihan's 25-year friendship with the OR's Vian prevails over what one senses to be his own personal reservations about Obama, leading him to stretch and strain in order to justify Vian's obvious and (to me, journalistically) objectionable advocacy of Obama in any way, shape or form - before the Pope so clearly put his foot down at the July 10 meeting in the Vatican.



Barack and Benedict XVI:
The Vatican's approach to
a problem like Obama
by Robert Moynihan



ROME, JULY 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- I first walked through Bernini's colonnade in May 1984. I was going to the Vatican Library to do research for a dissertation in medieval history.

By chance, my topic was very similar to the topic Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, chose for his post-doctoral dissertation, The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure, and this gave me material for conversation when I met with Ratzinger on several occasions in the 1980s and 1990s.

On my very first visit to the Vatican library, I met a young scholar named Paolo Vian, son of the renowned Italian Catholic scholar, Nello Vian. Paolo graciously "showed me the ropes" during that summer at the library, helping me enormously.

I soon met Paolo's older brother, Gian Maria Vian, then a young professor of patristics at the University of Rome, and also a Vaticanista, reporting for the daily paper of the Italian bishops' conference, Avvenire -- the same Gian Maria Vian who today is the controversial editor of L'Osservatore Romano, known as the "Pope's newspaper."

In the years that followed, I had many occasions to talk with Gian Maria, a man of wide culture and ready wit, and I occasionally dined at his home with him and his wife (she suffered a long, debilitating disease, and sadly passed away several years ago).

So I have known Gian Maria Vian for 25 years, and can call him my friend. Indeed, I saw him several times during July in Rome, and we were able to speak at length.

The editor's recent positive attitude toward Obama has put Vian at the center of several critical debates in Catholicism today, and has led many to question even the "Catholicity" of L'Osservatore Romano.

In a series of articles this year, Vian and writers he chose have argued that Obama does not seem as much of a pro-abortion president as had been feared.

This has raised eyebrows among those active in the pro-life cause -- and sparked anger.

At the time of the emotionally charged debate over Obama's commencement address May 17 at Notre Dame, which was protested by over 80 U.S. bishops and boycotted by former U.S. Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon because of Obama's extreme pro-abortion record, Vian justified his more lenient position on the president: "We have noticed that his (Obama's) entire program prior to his election was more radical than it is revealing itself to be now that he is president. So this is what I meant when I said he didn't sound like a pro-abortion president."

[Yeah, well, Vian should not confine his reading to the New York Times and Time magazine. He should at least read the equally reputable (if not much more reputable at this point) C]Wall Street Journal which is rock-solid on economic and financial reporting, and fair and balanced in its political reporting and commentary. Because he may then begin to see the real Obama and his relentless personal agenda that the media Obamaniacs in the press have been too besotted and self-blinded to see.]

U.S. Catholic theologian Michael Novak described Vian's pro-Obama position as "star struck" and "teenage," and said that Vian's political perspective seems "like a blind observer of faraway events -- completely ignorant."

Vian defends himself by saying that the paper is adopting a "waiting and seeing" policy. [You can and should 'wait and see' without taking sides! Otherwise, what's to wait for if you've already decided to give him the benefit of the doubt against all doubtless evidence!]

He said, "We hope that Obama does not follow pro-choice politics; not because we want him to follow Catholic politics, but because we hope and want Obama to guide politics at the service of the weakest, and the weakest are the unborn, the embryos."
[The ultimate naivete is to believe that if you bend over backwards to be nice to a bigot, maybe he'll change his mind. Not for a person whose pro-abortion belief is bred in his bone!]

Have Vian, and the Vatican, been downplaying Obama's vehemently pro-abortion voting record and the pro-abortion record of his administration for "tactical" reasons? And, is such a position morally defensible?

Benedict XVI chose Vian to take over the editorship of L'Osservatore Romano in 2007.

Until two years ago, the paper's relationship to the Vatican was like that of Pravda to the Kremlin in the old U.S.S.R.

I remember how I and the other Vatican journalists would always look eagerly for articles signed only by three asterisks -- that was the not-so-secret "code" that those articles were "authoritative," approved at the very highest level of the Vatican.

But the rest of the paper was -- sorry to say -- boring.

"When I took over the paper," Vian says, "the Pope wrote me a letter in which he said that L'Osservatore had to be present in the cultural debate. The Pope asked me for more international coverage, more attention to the Christian East, and more space for women." [He didn't ask him to take sides, did he? Especially not when the side taken is morally equivocal at the very least - and on an issue that the Church considers non-negotiable.!]

So, Vian hired L'Osservatore's first-ever female staffer. [Moynihan is obviously lifting substantially from one of Vian's last interviews as a source for this part of his article, and perpetrating its factual mistakes - small ones, but factually wrong nonetheless. Vian hired the first female to be a regular contributor to the OR, who, more importantly, is also Jewish; the OR had female staffers before that, including the lady recently promoted to be the editor of the German edition.]

And he adds: "When the deputy editor and I were invited to see the Pope to talk a bit about the paper three weeks after we were appointed, he gave us to understand that he'd like to see a few more pictures in it."

Vian decided to use color photographs every day on the front and back. But the new editor's impact has been most significant in the paper's content.

A month before President Obama's scheduled visit to see the Pope on July 10, Vian published an editorial that took a positive view of Obama's first 100 days.

Conservative Catholics in the United States and elsewhere were appalled that, despite Obama's moves to provide greater access to abortion and stem-cell research, the paper was not denouncing Obama. [Not to denounce in a blanket way, no, because that would be equally unfair. But specifically, at least not to have skewed the presentation as he did to give the impression that in fact, Obama had not carried out any anti-life measures when he so clearly has!] There were calls for Vian to resign.

When I spoke with Vian a few days ago, I asked him about this controversy. He told me that he still has the "full support" of the Vatican's Secretariat of State. (In fact, Vian is a personal friend of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state.)[Who recommended him to the Pope].

What can explain Vian's position -- and, by implication, the position of the Secretariat of State, and, perhaps, of the Pope himself?

Vian told me that the "big picture" needs to be kept in mind, that the Holy See's agenda, while always and unswervingly pro-life, nevertheless includes many other issues, such as social justice, disarmament, the Middle East and Cuba. [Yes, but pro-life is non-negotiable, whereas political issues that do not involve indiscriminate killing - in war and violence or by contraception, abortion, euthanasia - are subject to pragmatic considerations of Realpolitik.]

Vian's position illustrates the considerable differences between the European and American viewpoints on many critical issues of our time. The Europeans (like Vian) focus on points of agreement, and the Americans (like Vian's critics) focus on points of disagreement. [DUH! If people agree, there is nothing to dispute. It's unrealistic and completely counter-productive to sweep points of disagreement - especially vital, pivotal issues such as the defense of life - under the rug!]

I do think Vian -- and even the Secretariat of State -- may be "naïve" about Obama and his intentions.

But I also believe that Americans can become so intent on one grave moral injustice (abortion and the manipulation of human embryos, both of which are always profoundly wrong) that they can ignore other areas of possible agreement.

[NO! Absolutely not. The American Catholics who were enraged that the OR was bending over backwards for Obama do not rule out cooperation and agreement in other areas at all.

What they were protesting is that the Vatican - until the Pope himself stepped in - seemed to be giving a pass to Obama's unmistakable, undeniable pro-abortion militancyto the point of not reporting at all on the opposition by US bishops, including the president of the USCCB, to Notre Dame giving an honorary degree to Obama.

The opposition was to the flagrant one-sidedness - on the wrong side - of the editorial position that Vian took. By any journalistic standard, that was wrong, and by plain standards of decency, blatantly unfair!

It is exactly the kind of advocacy journalism for the liberal side that the New York Times and other major American media have taken since Watergate and which is now killing their business and their credibility as they become more incapable of reporting both sides fairly and equitably.]

Is it possible to find a balanced solution, giving proper weight to both points of agreement and disagreement?

The best approach may be the one chosen by Benedict XVI himself in his meeting with Obama on July 10.

I was in the Vatican on that occasion. I saw Obama as he stepped out of his car, and I attended the press conference after the meeting was over.

And two points were clear: the Pope was receiving Obama with warm friendship, and yet, he was not compromising the truth of the Church's teaching about life.

In fact, he made it a special point to hand the president a Vatican document which explains in detail the reasoning behind the Church's teaching that abortion is always wrong, and experimentation on human embryos is always a violation of the dignity of human life.

The booklet, Dignitas Personae (dignity of a person), condemns artificial fertilization and other techniques used by many couples, and also says human cloning, "designer babies" and embryonic stem-cell research are immoral.

The document defends life from conception to natural death, and a Vatican statement issued after the meeting said the topics discussed included "the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one's conscience."

The Pope's private secretary told reporters after the meeting: "This reading can help the president better understand the Church's position on these issues."

We do not know if Obama has read that booklet. (That is something I would like to know, because the arguments in that booklet are compelling.) [What will you bet he didn't so much bother as to open it? Or perhaps he got around to flipping a few pages over, followed by a few choice remarks about the obscurantism of the Church?]

The point is, the possibility of reaching Obama with a reasoned argument in defense of life was increased by the way Vian presented Obama's position during the spring.

[EXCUSE ME???? 'A reasoned argument in defense of life' with someone who advocates contraception and abortion as basic human rights???? And whose proposed healthcare reform bill would mandate 'counselling every five years for end-of-life choices' for all Americans over 65 - than which there is no more shameless way to mandate euthanasia???? Who's being naive here? Dr. Moynihan, read the US papers, please. Don't insulate yourself in Europe.]

Obama was entering the Vatican on July 10, not as an enemy, but as a human being, to whom the Pope could appeal as one man to another.

{EXCUSE ME ONCE AGAIN! But the Pope would have treated him in exactly the same way whether the OR had endorsed him or not! As he treated Hugo Chavez of Venezuela when he was at the Vatican. It's demeaning the Pope himself to even suggest that he could possibly treat a guest at the Vatican as an enemy. This is the worst and most irrelevant argument Moynihan could have thought of to justify Vian's obviously deliberate (self-admitted) choice to stack the cards for Obama in the newspaper he edits!]

Naïve? Perhaps. Time will tell. And the Church will be ready to defend her beliefs if Obama makes clear that he will persist on a course that is directly opposed to those teachings.

Interestingly, on July 23, it was reported that Obama's health care legislation may be held up due to the opposition of a group of conservative Democrats in the U.S. House who have vowed not to vote for any bill that doesn't include explicit language banning the use of federal funds for abortion.

They, as well as most Republicans, charge that abortions will otherwise increase if more women have insurance coverage that pays for the procedure.

Obama, when asked if he would favor federally subsidized insurance plans that covered abortion, said, "As you know, I'm pro-choice. But I think we also have the tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care."

[Of course, he would deny it. He's proven very good at talking out of both sides of his mouth these past two and a half years that he's been the 'center of the world'. But right there, in the statement Moynihan quotes is a barefaced lie!

How can he say that abortions have never been financed by government-funded health care when his very first executive action as president was to repeal George W. Bush's ban against using US government funds for any international program that promoted abortion for whatever reason - usually as part of healthcare packages and development aid? Ronald Reagan banned such funding, Democrat Clinton restored it, Bush banned it again, and now Democrat Obama has restored it back.

And let's not even talk about how the various versions of Obama's healthcare reform proposed by Congressional Democrats contain both hidden and overt references that would mandate health insurance plans to pay for all abortions, whether they are medically justified or not!

No, Mr. Moynihan, you have to be more rigorous in screening self-serving statements, especially when they are so obviously false!]

Hearing this, pro-choice activists are concerned. "We're certainly worried," says Marilyn Keefe, director of reproductive health programs at the National Partnership for Women and Families. "Abortion is basic healthcare for women. We're worried about the possibility that existing coverage will be rolled back."

[You really believe they are worried about that aspect? With solid Democratic pro-choice majorities in both houses, who can easily argue that because of Roe v. Wade, abortion is a human right and therefore should be covered by medical insurance?]

Perhaps the Pope's meeting with Obama had some good effect. [Dear Mr. Moynihan, maybe you've lived outside the United States too long!]

Day 16 in Les Combes:
Eve of departure
Translated from
the Italian service of

July 28, 2009







Benedict XVI by now is having his last night's sleep in Les Combes before he leaves tomorrow afternoon for Rome and Castel Gandolfo. [I hope they have since provided his bedroom and bathroom with a night light or replaced the light frame switches with something phosphorescent. Can't risk him taking another stumble!]

Alessandro Di Carolis spoke to Fr. Federico Lombardi today:

FR. LOMBARDI: The Holy Father spent a day in great tranquillity, carrying on his usual reading, reflection, prayers, his walk after lunch and in the early evening.

Tomorrow, he will greet all the persons - and there are not a few - who have worked together to insure his safe and peaceful stay here at Les Combes.

Last night, there was the traditional dinner at the Salesian colony to thank them, with the attendance of the civil and military authorities of the region, the province and the municipality of Introd, as well as the medical personnel from the Parini Hospital in Aosta.

Mons. Gaenswein conveyed to them the Holy Father's greetings, who said he looked forward to thanking them personally tomorrow.

It may not look like it but even a papal vacation still requires a lot of logistical and security organization, and everyone involved carries out his task willingly and even gladly, even if the work is complex.

Over the years, an atmosphere of great cordiality and collaboration has developed among the Vatican security personnel responsible for close-in protection of the Pope, the personnel of the Salesian colony, the local forces of law and order, and the local authorities most directly concerned with the Pope when he is here.

That was evident last night in the remarks made by the president of the region, Augusto Rollandin; the president of the Regional Council, Albert Cerise, and the mayor of Introd, Osvaldo Naudin, whom the Pope greeted two weeks ago as 'the eternal mayor' since has has been mayor for the past 30 years.


In this regard, the municipal council of Introd formally announced yesterday that they wish to confer honorary citizenship on the Holy Father...

Yes they did. Now, the Pope must give his formal and explicit acceptance, after which, some time in the next few months, a delegation from Introd will come to Rome to officially confer the honor. That has been the SOP with the German towns and cities who made the Pope an honorary citizen. [But in Bressanone last year, the conferment was done just before the Pope left at the end of his vacation there.]

Of course, the Pope is happy to accept these honors because they represent to him the warmth and affection of the communities concerned.



There's a fairly long anticipatory article on preparations at Castel Gandolfo for the Pope's stay in tomorrow's issue of L'Osservatore Romano, along with his public program for the next few days, but for now I will post the CNS blog based on it:




Pope’s piano tuned,
even if he can’t play for now
Posted on July 28, 2009
by Cindy Wooden



VATICAN CITY — The director of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo told the Vatican newspaper that preparations are almost complete for the pope’s expected arrival tomorrow evening: bushes have been re-potted, trees have been trimmed, flowers have been planted, walls have been painted and — he said — a piano tuner has come and gone.

Severio Petrillo, director of the villa — which includes the papal residence as well as gardens and a working farm — said he knows the pope has to wear a cast for another 20 days or so.

But the Pope’s brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, is arriving, too, [on Saturday]. And he’s a musician. For years, he was the director of the famous Regensburg Boys’ Choir. And, besides, Petrillo said, piano playing could be part of the physical therapy the Pope will do once the cast is off [after August 15].

Petrillo also said that the Pope will meet swimmers, divers, water polo players and other athletes participating in the July 17-Aug. 2 FINA World Championship in Rome.

He will lead the Sunday noon Angelus from the inner courtyard of the Appostolic Palace, as usual. [Wooden omits the information that on Sunday afternoon, a German orchestra (not yet identified) will present a concert in the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace for the Holy Father and his brother.]
The Pope’s weekly general audience Aug. 5 also will be held at the papal villa, rather than at the Vatican, he said.

[Further general audiences during the summer will be held at Castel Gandolfo or at the Vatican depending on the number of requests for tickets.]

I am curious why CNS chose to run this item as a blog and not as regular news!

Is China showing signs
of a thaw towards the Vatican?
by GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Translated from

July 26, 2009


VATICAN CITY - The Chinese government is 'opening up' towards the Vatican by postponing till next year the selection of a new president for the 'patriotic' bishops.

A Beijing 'conclave' for this purpose has reportedly been postponed six months in the hope that an agreement can be reached with the Vatican on the most outstanding issues regarding the Catholic Church in China.

This is seen as a belated consequence of Pope Benedict XVI's letter to the Catholics of China in June 2007, in which he urged all Chinese Catholics to fulfill their duties as Chinese citizens as well.

According to La Stampa sources, high-level meetings between Vatican officials and the Chinese have just ended, and as a sign of openness, the Chinese government has decided to postpone an important nominating conference to 2010.

Besides the head of the official bishops' conference, five new episcopal appointments will also be decided at that meeting for the dioceses of Taizhou in the Zhejiang region; Sanyuan in Shaanxi; Hohhot in Inner Mongolia; and Wuhan and Haimen in Jiangsu.

In effect,Beijing will defer chossing new bishops until coming to an agreement with the Holy See. Government sources in Beijing said that the Holy See has been informed that "in order to widen the possibility of choices, the convocation has been postponed to 2010".

The official justification is the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Communist China to which 'a representation of personalities in the religious field' will be invited - including the bishops of Hongkong and Macao who he remained faithful to Rome all this time.

According to the statutes of the 'official' Church in China controlled by the government, its national assembly is convoked every five years, but in special cases, it may be held earlier or later.

After the death of the previous president, Bishop Fu Tie Shan, in April 2007, the authorities had already decided to wait until the 2009 national aseembly to choose his replacement. And four months ago, the vice president of the patriotic Association, Liu Bainian, had announced the convocation of the National Assembly and the College of Bishops of the official church in the second half of 2009.

And so, this new postponement in the hope of reaching an agreement with the Vatican within the next several months is an encouraging sign.

The Pope's July 2007 letter opened up new scenarios for Rome and Beijing, which even includes a trip to China by the Pope, even if his letter reiterated the right of the Vatican to nominate bishops and criticized the methods of the government-sponsored Patriotic Association which runs the affairs of the 'official' Church.

In the Catholic world, there has been an ongoing dispute over the interpretation of the Pope's letter.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, who recently retired as Bishop of Hongkong, opposes the interpretation of Belgian missionary and China expert Fr. Heydrickx who says the Pope called on underground Chinese Catholics to come out and join the 'official' Catholics.

After the Pope's letter, there have been no further illegitimate episcopal ordinations (not concurred with by the Vatican) of 'patriotic' bishops, nor any of clandestine bishops either.

All the bishops ordained since then, including the new Bishop of Beijing Li Shan, have had the approval of the Vatican through a practical modus vivendi, even without a formal agreement to this effect.

The outstanding issues at this point are, on the part of Beijing, that the Holy See should end its diplomatic relations with Taiwan [a point which the Vatican has conceded informally], and 'non-interference' in China's internal affairs [a murky demand, since anything the Vatican has to say about the Catholic Church in China could easily be considered by Beijing as just such interference]; and on the part of the Vatican, an end to the control of the Catholic Church in China by the Patriotic Association, and the Pope's freedom to name Catholic bishops.