BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier posts today, 10/7/10.






Pope Benedict's discourse to
participants of Catholic Press Congress





07 OCT 2010 (RV) - At midday today the Holy Father received participants in a congress on the Catholic press promoted by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The congress has been taking place this week in Rome.

Addressing the participants, who come from 85 countries, the Pope referred to two specific aspects of the role of the Catholic press.

On the one hand, he said, "there is the specific nature of the medium: the press; i.e., the written word and its importance and effectiveness in a society which has seen the burgeoning of dish antennae and satellites. ...

On the other hand, the 'Catholic' connotation with all its attendant responsibility of remaining explicitly and substantially faithful, through daily commitment to following the path of truth.

"Catholic journalists must seek the truth with impassioned minds and hearts", he added, "but also with the professionalism of competent workers equipped with adequate and efficient means".


Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's address to the journalists:

---

Dear brothers in the episcopate,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen:

I welcome you with joy at the end of your four days of intense work sponosred by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and dedicated to the Catholic press.

I greet you all, who come from 85 nations, and work in newspapers, weeklies or other periodicals and on Internet sites. I greet the president of the dicastery, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, whom I thank for speaking in behalf of everyone, as well as the secretaries, the undersecretary, and all his officials and personnel.

I am happy to be able to address you with a word of encouragement to continue, with renewed motivations, in your important and specialized work.

The world of the media is undergoing profound transformation even from within. The development of new technologies, and particularly, of widespread multimedia capabilities, appear to call into question the role of the more traditional and established media.

Opportunely, your Congress has dwelt on considering the specific role of the Catholic press. In fact, two particular aspects emerge from a careful reflection on this subject:

On the one hand, the specificity of the medium, namely the press, that is, the written word and its relevance and effectiveness - in a society that has seen a proliferation of antennae, parabolas and communications satellites which have almost become emblems of a new way of communications in the era of globalization.

On the other hand, the description 'Catholic', with the corresponding responsibility that you must be faithful to it in an explicit and substantial way through your daily commitment to follow the royal road of truth.

The search for truth should be pursued by Catholic journalists with passionate hearts and minds, but also with the professionalism of competent workers who avail of appropriate and efficient means.

This is even more important in this historical moment which demands that the journalist, as the mediator of complex currents of information, undergo a profound mutation.

Today, for example, the world of images has increasingly more weight with the development of ever newer technologies. But if all of this doubtless has its positive aspects, image can also become independent of reality, it can give rise to a virtual world with varying consequences, fhe first of which is the risk of indifference to reality.

Indeed, the new tecnologies, along with the progress they bring, can make the true and the false interchangeable; they can lead to confusing the real and the virtual.

Moreover, how an event, whether happy or sad, is reported, can turn it into a spectacle rather than an occasion to reflect. The search for ways to promote the human being becomes secondary because the event is presented principally to play to the emotions.

These aspects are like alarm bells. They invite us to consider the danger that the virtual takes us even farther from reality, which does not stimulate the search for what is true, for truth.

In this context, the Catholic press is called on, in a new way, to express its potential to the utmost and to give daily proof of its irrenunciable mission.

The Church disposes of a faciltiating element since the Christian faith and communications have a fundamental structure in common: the fact that the medium and the message are one and the same.

Indeed, the Son of God, the Word incarnate, is at the same time, a message of salvation and the means through which salvation is achieved.

This is not a simple concept, but it is a reality that is accessible to everyone, even to those who, despite being protagonists in the world's complexity, are still able to keep that intellectual honesty that is characteristic of the 'little ones' in the Gospel.

Moreover, the Church, mystical Body of Christ, who is present contemporaneously everywhere, nourishes the capacity for more fraternal and more human relationships, as a place for communion among believers, so that together, they are a sign and instrument of the vocation of everyone to communion.

Her strength is Christ, and in his name, she 'follows' man on the highways of the world to save him fom the mysterium iniquitatis which operates insidiously in the world.

The press evokes in a more direct manner, compared to other means of communication, the value of the written word. The Word of God came down to men and has been transmitted to us through a book, the Bible.

The word continues to be the fundamental instrument - and in a certain sense, the constitutive instrument - of communications. These days it is used in various forms, but even in the so-called 'civilization of image', it continues to retain all of its value.

From these brief considerations, it is evident that the communications challenge is, for the Church and those who share her mission, very demanding.

Christians cannot ignore the crisis of faith which has overcome society, or simply trust that the patrimony of values transmitted through the centuries can continue to inspire and shape the future of the human family.

The idea of living 'as if God did not exist' has been shown to be harmful; rather, the world needs to live 'as if God exists', even without the power of belief, otherwise it will only produce a 'dishuman humanism'.

Dearest brothers and sisters, whoever works in the communications media, if he does not want to be "a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13,1) - as St. Paul would say - should keep the option strong within him that enables him to deal with the world by always placing God at the top of his scale of values.

The times in which we live, although they are remarkable for many positive things - because the threads of history are in the hands od God and as his eternal plan reveals itself farther - are nonetheless marked by so many shadows.

Your task, dear workers in the Catholic press, is to help contemporary man orient himself to Christ, the only Savior, and to keep alight in the world the torch of hope, so men may live today worthily and construct the future adequately.

And so, I exhort you to constantly renew your personal choice for Christ, drawing from those spiritual resources that the worldly mentality under-estimates, though they are invaluable, indeed indispensable.

Dear friends, I encourage you to continue with your none-too-easy task, and my prayers go with you, that the Holy Spirit may make your work ever more profitable.

My blessing, full of affection and gratitude, which I gladly give, embraces all of you present here and those who work in the Catholic media all over the world.

---

With regard to the Pope's call for Cathoolic journalists to be Christian above all, there is a tendency among some in the Catholic media, particularly those with with recognizable bylines, to be 'journalists' first before they are Christian!

In the name of supposed 'objectivity' - which is really a preemptive and defensive justification of themselves to their MSM colleagues, as in 'Hey just because I'm Catholic does not mean I don't see the rot in the Church!' - they consciously follow the herd mentality of the MSM in denouncing perceived (some of it, real enough) errors and failures of the Church and its hierarchy - but often failing to balance it off with the Church position. Or else, as in the reporting and commentary on the sex-abuse 'scandal', content to present the Church position with platitudinous generalizations instead of researching specific facts pertinent to whatever case is being discussed!

For Catholic journalists, bearing Christian witness should mean serving the truth, above all, not dominant opinion or their reputation among their secular peers.

Leave it to Fr. Schall to highlight some fundamental verities in the Holy Father's discourses during the recent trip to the United Kingdom....




October 7, 2010

---

"All of us, in our different ways, are personally engaged in a journey that grants an answer to the most important question of all — the question concerning the ultimate meaning of our human existence."
- Pope Benedict XVI
Meeting with Representatives of Other Religions
Twickenham, London, September 22, 2010 [1]

---

I.

The visit of Benedict XVI to Great Britain was an occasion that we can long ponder. Preparations for the visit seemed to indicate that there would be much opposition from many sources, most of which failed to materialize.

Instead, the journey to England culminating in the Beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman was a dignified and indeed happy occasion. Pundits misjudged both the English and the Pope.

The Holy Father spoke or preached in many different places, in churches, in universities, in Westminster Hall, in parks in Glasgow, London, and Birmingham, and even in castles. The Queen was there. Bless her, and the Prime Minister.

Baroness Hayman, the Speaker of the House of Lords, after listening to the Holy Father's address in historic Westminster Hall said touchingly: "But for me, perhaps the most important and long-standing thing that I will take from what you said was the need for an ethical foundation as each and every one of us approaches the complexities and the difficult issues facing us as individuals, as communities, and facing the world today."

The amount of teaching and instruction in this visit was enormous. The Pope never lost an opportunity to speak to the young about their lives, about prayer and vocation. [One can really say that of every pastoral or apostolic visit that he makes, whether it's one day as in Palermo, or four days as in the UK, during which he is able to synthesize and distill all the essential points of his Magisterium - of the Christian faith, really - in the most concise, clear and direct ways possible.]

In Westminster Cathedral, at a blessing of young people at the font of the Cathedral, Benedict said: "Every day we have to choose to love, and this requires help, the help that comes from Christ, from prayer and from the wisdom found in his word, and from the grace which he bestows on us in the sacraments of the Church."

Benedict quietly teaches us how to take care of our souls. "Deep within our heart," he told these young folks, "he (Christ) is calling you to spend time with him in prayer. But this kind of prayer, real prayer, requires discipline; it requires making time for moments of silence every day."

Such advice is right out of (Thomas) A' Kempis or John Paul II, St. Bernard and St Benedict, in whose shadow, as the Archbishop of Canterbury remarked, all of England stands in buildings stemming from the Benedictine tradition.

I will not touch on here the various references and talks that the Holy Father devoted to Newman, a man whom Pope Ratzinger (as he acknowledged in Hyde Park), has studied all along in his life.

But I do want to emphasize two comments that Benedict made concerning Newman in the Hyde Park Prayer Meeting (September 18, 2010).

First, "Newman, by his own account, traced the course of his whole life back to a powerful experience of conversion which he had as a young man. It was an immediate experience of the truth of God's word, of the objective reality of Christian revelation as handed down in the Church."

The important phrase in that passage is that Christian revelation is an "objective reality." Benedict's JESUS OF NAZARETH is precisely about the objective nature of Christ's reality and presence.

Secondly, Benedict recalled that in "one of the Cardinal's best-loved mediations is included the words 'God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.'" [From that wonderful prayer!]

We cannot help but universalize such a passage and apply it not only to the Pope's own life but to each of our own. This too, when we come to see our lives spelled out, will be the case.

We are created for some definite service, a service that we can refuse, but in refusing, no doubt, God's plan will work out another way.

During this visit, the Holy Father did not hesitate to mention those Catholics who suffered martyrdom in England, often for the defense of the office of Peter — Sir Thomas More, those killed at Tyburn, and St. Thomas A'Beckett.

Many of the great English, Welsh, and Scot saints are mentioned — Bede the Venerable, St. Ninian, St. Columba, St. Mungo, St. Margaret, St. David, and St. Edmund Campion. My only disappointment in the trip was that, though he cites him elsewhere, the Pope did not cite Chesterton.

Perhaps my favorite comment of Benedict took place during the interview with reporters on the flight over to Great Britain. The pope was asked if there was anything that could be done to make the Church more "attractive." Benedict responded:

---

A Church which seeks above all to be attractive would already be on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for itself, does not work to increase its numbers so as to have more power. The Church is at the service of Another; it does not serve itself, seeking to be a strong body, but it strives to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths, the great powers of love and of reconciliation that appeared in this figure and that came always from the presence of Jesus Christ.

---

[In many ways, the most emblematic expression of Benedict XVI's Magisterium.]

This is a constant Christian theme. We did not invent our religion. We received it and are to keep it in the world in the basic form in which it was handed down. If people listen, fine. But if they do not, we can only accept their choice. "The Church is at the service of Another."


II.

At several points in the visit, the Holy Father gave brief, even pithy, explanations of what it is all about. I cited in the beginning the universal question that all men must face — "What is the ultimate meaning to our existence."

This question was placed before the members of other religions. The Pope went on to say:

---

Yet, these disciplines (the human and natural sciences) do not and cannot answer the fundamental question, because they operate on another level altogether.

They cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart, they cannot fully explain to us our origin and our destiny, why and for what purpose we exist, nor can they provide us with an exhaustive answer to the question, 'Why is there something rather than nothing?'

---

It might be noted that Father Robert Spitzer, S.J., in his recent appearance on the Larry King Show, elaborated on this very question.

In spite of Professor Stephen Hawking's claim that he could explain everything so that there was no need of God, Spitzer pointed out very carefully that the scientific formulae that the human mind derives from investigating things does not itself make the formulae or place their operations in cosmic things.

They do not come from nothing, in other words. Their only initial source can be from outside the cosmos itself, which is not a self-created entity.

In an Ecumenical Celebration in Westminster Abbey, Benedict, summing up what was held in common with Anglicans, said that our society has often become "hostile" to Christianity. Yet, the resurrection is the only real response "to the spiritual aspirations to men and women of our time."

The Pope then reflected: "As I processed into the chancel at the beginning of this service, the choir sang that Christ is our 'sure foundation.' He is the Eternal Son of God, of one substance with the Father, who took flesh, as the Creed states, 'for us men and for our salvation.' He alone has the words of everlasting life."


III.

In terms of worldwide political interest, the Holy Father's address in Westminster Hall was of great significance. The Pope began by praising the English common law tradition from which we Americans have our legal roots.

Of the famous men and women who were in this Hall, the pope singled out Sir Thomas More. This is the very place where he was condemned, who "chose to serve God first." The Pope acknowledged the relation of More's execution to his own office, the Chair of Peter.

The British took significant steps to limit subsequent arbitrary political power — "freedom of political affiliation, and respect for law, with a strong sense of individual rights and duties, and the equality of all citizens before the law."

Catholic social thought, Benedict pointed out, also includes such limitations. Pragmatism itself cannot consistently justify such principles. The role of the British Parliament in the abolition of the slave trade is praised because it was not mere pragmatism.

But what grounds these principles?

---

The central question at issue, then, is this: Where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation.

According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers.

---

One cannot overestimate the importance of this passage. In public debate, whether it be about abortion, gay marriage, war, taxes, welfare, or education, Catholics do not first appeal to revelation as the source of their position. It may back it up, but they primarily appeal to grounded reason that is not closed to anyone else in argument.

Religion assists to "help purify reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This 'corrective' role of religion vis-a-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves." These views do not give due attention to reason.

The Church remains in the public order today the principle defender not of revelation but of reason. Religion and revelation need one another even in the public order, in this sense.

The public expression of religion is a good thing.

---

There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silences or at least relegated to the purely private sphere," the Pope tells the English politicians.

There are those who argue that public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.

And there are those who argue — paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination — that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their consciences.

---

The Pope's reason sees the contradictions of logic in such arguments.

Such views do not understand the rights of citizens or the reality of religion in public life. In the cooperation between the Church and state, "religious bodies — including institutions linked to the Catholic Church — need to be free to act in accordance with their own principles and specific convictions based upon the faith and the official teaching of the Church."

In his talk to other religious leaders, the Pope took up something that needs much more emphasis, namely, the lack of reciprocity in granting religious freedom in many areas. The Pope does not name China, Islamic countries, and other restrictive cultures.

---

I am thinking in particular of situations in some parts of the world where cooperation and dialogue between religion calls for mutual respect, the freedom to practice tone's religion and to engage in acts of public worship, and freedom to follow one's conscience without suffering ostracism or persecution, even after conversion form one religion to another.

---

The fact is, we have no real idea of the amount of persecution and discrimination that goes on against freedom of religion in many parts of the world and diplomacy or weakness prevents us from pointing it out more forcefully.

In his departure, with the British Prime Minister present, the Holy Father expressed his appreciation to the Queen and Parliament, to the Anglican Archbishop, as to the whole of the Islands for their gracious courtesy during his visit.

But my final words to be cited from this trip are those of Benedict to the Anglican Primate:

---

Fidelity to the word of God, precisely because it is true word, demands of us an obedience which leads us together to a deeper understanding of the Lord's will. An obedience which must be free of intellectual conformism or facile accommodation to the spirit of the age.

This is the word of encouragement which I wish to leave with you this evening, and I do so in fidelity to my ministry as the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of St. Peter, charged with a particular care of the unity of Christ's flock.

With such words, spoken on English soil, I think, we have again made present in that land what was once rejected with so much blood. The unity of the flock is fundamental. The one charged with it is the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

---

[I agree. This was perhaps the most overlooked significant passsage of the entire trip: simply phrased but unusually powerful because very direct statements of Benedict XVI's own strong sense of his mission as the custodian of Christian unity, the very essence of true ecumenism. It brought tears when he said it because of where he said it and to whom he was saying it.]

On reflecting on this visit, no Briton, I think, whatever be the fame of English practicality, can help but wonder, if he has not before, "What is the ultimate meaning of our existence?"

He did not have this question addressed to him in the Times or the Guardian but in the reflections of Benedict XVI, the Successor to Peter. It is still the most fundamental question of the modern age.

ENDNOTES:

[1] Benedict XVI, Meeting with Representatives of Other Religions, Walgrave Drawing Room, St. Mary's University College, September 17, 2010, L'Osservatore Romano, English, September 22, 2010. All references in this essay will be found in this edition of L'Osservatore Romano.



I'm posting the following essay by Fr. Baker with Fr. Schall's essay not because it is a lesser piece, but because it is not directly about Benedict XVI, and yet, it remainds us once again about the acknowledged sources of the Catholic Church's teachings and practices, often underscored by Benedict XVI himself, including Tradition with a big T.


Tradition and Catholic faith
Editorial
by Kenneth Baker, SJ

Issue of October 2010


Recently I read a little book by the German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper called Tradition: Concept and Claim (St. Augustine’s Press, 2010). In the book Pieper offers some reflections on the important notion of tradition.

He is not primarily concerned with tradition as it is understood in Catholic theology, but what he has to say is very applicable to tradition as a norm of Catholic doctrine and morals.

Tradition, Pieper says, is the process of handing on or transmitting some truth, such as a teaching, a statement about reality, or a proverb; it can also be a custom, a legal maxim, or a holiday, like the Fourth of July.

An essential point regarding what is handed down as a tradition is that it is not changed in any way by either addition or subtraction. It is handed down from one generation to the next, like a precious diamond that always remains the same.

Traditions like that help to unify a people or a nation. Common traditions tend to bind people together; we see that in this country at Fourth of July celebrations, when people of different ethnic and social backgrounds get together to celebrate the founding of the country.

Pieper makes the point that a physical science, like physics, does not have a tradition in the same sense, because it is constantly undergoing change and revision. In a sense everything is up for grabs as new discoveries are made.

He also says that teaching is not the same thing as tradition. The teacher forms students according to his own way of proceeding and according to his own insights and way of thinking. He may pass on some traditions, but that is not primarily what teaching is about. He strives, or should strive, to communicate truth to his students, and that truth is constantly being added to.

Tradition as it is understood in the Catholic Church is something quite different from the description given above because what is handed down from one generation to the next is divine revelation —either as the word of God or divine events such as the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That revelation is also called the “deposit” of faith. We find it expressed in the liturgy of the Church, in the Bible, in the Fathers of the Church and in the Magisterium.

Tradition in this sense is also called “sacred” because it comes from God himself — it is not a human invention. Church authorities — the Pope and bishops — have a serious obligation to hand on the deposit of faith without adding to it or taking anything away from it. Their task is to hand on unchanged what they have received ultimately from God.

What, then, is the role of theology, which is faith seeking understanding? Theology’s task is to reflect on the deposit of faith, to seek new insights into divine revelation and apply them to the age in which it takes place. Examples of this are Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Of course, there is such a thing as the development of doctrine, but this means coming to a deeper understanding of divine revelation and making explicit what was implicit in what God said or did in the past.

The Church’s most recent teaching about tradition is found in chapter 2 of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. [DEI VERBUM, the Vat-II document that Fr. Ratzinger worked on directly, and which for him is fundamental, as he expressed in many wyas during the Synodal Assembly on teh Word of God.]

There we read that there is “a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end.”

Revelation, however, is broader than just the Bible and was communicated to the Church before it was written down. In the same place Vatican II says, “Consequently, it is not from sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed” (§9).

So there are revealed truths in tradition which are not written down in the Bible. On this point the Council said, “Sacred tradition and sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, which is committed to the Church” (§10).

“The task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ”(§10).

According to the Council, then, Scripture, tradition and the Magisterium are united and stand together as the source and norm for Catholic theology, spirituality and liturgy.

Pope Benedict confounds his critics
[Yet again! But they never learn]
by William Doino, Jr.

Oct 7, 2010

Three weeks have passed since the Pope’s visit to Great Britain, and memories of it still fill my mind, because it was a triumph few had expected.

Of all the remarkable things I saw, while blogging about it for First Things, nothing more surprised me than this: on September 18th, as his Popemobile rolled toward Hyde Park — with Benedict waiving to his supporters packed along the streets — a BBC reporter, watching in amazement, suddenly burst out: “The 83-year-old pontiff has confounded his critics!”

To appreciate the significance of that comment, one has to understand the BBC. For years, it has been among Benedict's most cynical media foes, questioning every aspect of his pontificate. The coverage has been so bad that Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien felt it necessary to speak out (Catholic bishops in the U.K. tend to keep their heads down), denouncing the network’s “consistent anti-Christian institutional bias,” particularly against the Catholic Church.

Yet there was that BBC reporter, undergoing an awakening, if only for an instant. [Alas, that seems to be the operative word in these, by now, recurrent media scenarios about Benedict XVI. Again and again, he proves himself undaunted and firm, courageous and constant, often inspired and original, in 'being the Pope'. But again and again, under identical circumstances, his detractors manage to create the devil's illusion of a hapless Pope riding for an inevitable fall. And they are confounded again and again - if confounded is the right word, rather than 'proven wrong'. They keep getting 'confounded' because they keep functioning from the same wrong premises, the consequence in turn of arguing from pure prejudice and refusing to look at facts.]

Even more astonishing was the reaction of another commentator, Joe Wilson, of BBC Radio Lancashire: “Somehow as the four days progressed, bit by bit, the Pope’s visit transformed from the worry of embarrassment that reaction would be tepid, to the glow of the eventual warmth given off by the obvious love so many felt for him.”

He quoted a pilgrim “still floating on a cloud somewhere” over Hyde Park: “It was really, really wonderful. We were just surrounded by so many different people. Young people, elderly people, more young people than elderly people, people of all nationalities. It was awesome.”

This was not supposed to happen.

In the weeks leading up to the papal visit, the secular media’s coverage was almost universally negative. “Pope Faces Protests and Apathy on Visit to Britain,” headlined the Guardian of London. “Pope Benedict to Encounter Hostile Audience in U.K. Visit,”reported the Religion News Service. “How do You Welcome an Unpopular Pope?” asked The Atlantic sarcastically. Time magazine assured its readers that Benedict’s journey “promises to be the chilliest — and potentially rudest — welcome of his 17 trips abroad.”

Although Catholics in Britain kept insisting that Benedict’s visit would “bring energy and inspiration,” to quote the Archbishop of Westminster, the media had its own agenda. They weren’t interested in what the faithful had to say.

But it would be the faithful, and their spiritual leader, who would have the last say. From the opening moments of his voyage to his departure at Birmingham airport, Pope Benedict’s pilgrimage was virtually flawless. For a papacy supposedly unskilled in communications, the Pope and his entourage delivered a tour de force of public relations.

It would be a mistake, however, to judge the papal visit purely as PR. For as memorable as the visuals were, it was the substance of the visit that counted most.

On the plane ride to Scotland, and throughout his visit, Benedict made clear how serious he was in combating clerical abuse. The “first interest” of the Church, he said are “the victims.” He promised to do everything in his power to help them “overcome the trauma, to refind their lives.” His private meeting with victims, and commitment to justice on their behalf, impressed the British public, disproving any notion he was out to dodge or minimize the gravity of the issue.

He then did what every Pope is called to do: he bore witness to Jesus Christ. He did so in the heart of secular Europe, with diplomatic aplomb and mutual respect.

He praised Britain’s many social achievements, but defended the Church’s liberty and faith in the public square. He pushed back against a rabid, unhealthy secularism. He pointed out that a secular society is only as strong as the beliefs that undergird it — and reminded the British of their Christian history, and why it has given them so much to be thankful for.

He bucked up the spirits and convictions of the British bishops and thus gave hope to all British Catholics. He called Great Britain back to its religious heritage, proposing its citizens draw on it again, to heal contemporary ills.

He met with interfaith groups, and gave new life to the Church’s ecumenical mission, but also paid tribute to the unique virtues of Catholicism, honoring two of its greatest sons, Thomas More and John Henry Newman.

And he did something else, not often mentioned: he conveyed a sense of Christianity’s overwhelming beauty. “The most positive effect of the Pope’s visit was one that even the BBC could not prevent - and that was the public display of Roman Catholic ritual at its most gorgeous and replete,” wrote British philosopher Roger Scruton perceptively.

For many television viewers the Mass at Westminster Cathedral was their first experience of sacramental religion. The mystical identity between the ordinary worshiper and the crucified Christ is something that can be enacted, but never explained.

It is enacted in the Mass, and as Cardinal Newman recognized, it is the felt reality of Christ’s presence that is the true gift of Christianity to its followers. . . . [That is why for Vatican-II misinterpreters to see the Mass as nothing more than a communal feast and social gathering, rather than a solemn but joyous recreation of Christ's ultimate sacrifice, is so objectionable and downright un-Christian!]

For many Englishmen, I suspect, the Pope’s Westminster Mass was the first inkling of what Christianity really means.

As these transcendent events were taking place, the British public got an opportunity to contrast — up close and first-hand — the beautiful message of Benedict with the ugliness of his unbridled critics. What they heard from the latter must have sounded surreal, given the gentle witness of the actual man.

“Joseph Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity,” declared scientist Richard Dawkins absurdly. Philosopher A.C. Grayling called Catholicism a “criminal conspiracy” under Benedict.

“In all my years as a campaigner,” said secular activist Claire Rayner, “I have never felt such animus against any individual as I do against this creature. His views are so disgusting, so repellent and so hugely damaging to the rest of us, that the only thing to do is to get rid of him.”

This is the face of modern atheism. Or, at least, much of it. Columnists Padraig Reidy and Simon Heffer wanted no part of this embarrassing intolerance, and rebuked their fellow atheists.

The tone of these critics, said Reidy, is like that of “Ian Paisley’s rabidly anti-papist Free Presbyterian church, not of rational secular debate.”

Heffer wrote how “dismayed” he was by “the aggression and militancy” of the anti-papal atheists, and said their antics “threatened to compromise our reputation as a civilized and hospitable country.”

But it would be that very civilized tradition that would uphold British honor in the end, allowing the public to hear Benedict’s elegant voice. The Pope reciprocated, and didn’t miss his chance.

“Although he had come with a fierce message about the vital importance of the place of faith in public life and education,” wrote Austen Ivereigh, “it had been framed, throughout, in terms and language and symbols which pointed to the value of dialogue and respect. It is this, perhaps above all, which floored his critics. The Pope’s was a message which all could instantly recognize as the true humanism.”

Ivereigh’s views were echoed by strikingly favorable editorials in the secular British press. “Pope Gives Britain a Lesson in Candor,” hailed the Daily Mail. “The Pope Puts Religion Back in the Spotlight,” affirmed the Daily Telegraph.

If there is one man in Britain who deserves credit for bringing all this to fruition, it is Chris Patten, the official appointed by the government to help oversee the papal visit.

Lord Patten is a rather unlikely hero. A “progressive” Catholic, his faith has often been described as tepid and fashionable, very much like that of Tony Blair’s. In the days leading up to the papal visit, Patten was widely mocked, by both Left and Right, as a hapless figurehead, who was obviously overseeing an impending disaster.

But it was Patten, for all his imperfections, who never lost faith in Benedict, and in his ability to inspire a secular audience. In a combative interview with the BBC, Patten described Benedict as “the greatest intellectual to be Pope since Innocent III,” a “world class theologian,” who had a “really important message about the Christian roots of civilization in this country, and in Europe, and the way in which we can become more self-confident in asserting those Christian traditions.”

Nobody can argue, said Patten, “that Pope Benedict doesn’t have very thoughtful and intelligent ideas to offer.” Most of those who know Benedict, “regard him as a very sympathetic figure.” He noted that his previous visits “have all confounded the critics who existed before, because of the way he’s dealt with the public, not just the Catholics, but others as well.”

Asked if he was worried about protests, he said, “No, not at all,” and predicted the visit would be a “huge success.” He had every right to celebrate, therefore, when his prediction proved true.

[As grateful as we all are to Lord Patten for the yeoman's job he did, it's too much to credit him with the lion's share 'for bringing all this to fruition'. Bishops of England and Scotland, even those who have openly defied Benedict XVI on Summorum Pontificum (notably the bishops of Edinburgh and Glasgow), closed ranks and publicly stood solidly behind the Pope. And what of all the priests who organized their parishes to take part in the visit in every way they could? And most of all, the Catholics of the United Kingdom who showed the Pope affection and respect even if they may disagree with what the Church teaches on life and death issues.

Benedict XVI, we always knew, would play his part to perfection as he always has. What we did not know was what effect all the anti-Church media hype would have on the participation of the British faithful. And now we know that their good sense and what I call the impulse of faith withstood and rejected all that hype, Deo gratias and God bless them.]

Perhaps the most revealing comment about the papal visit, came from a source outside Britain. “What has made this trip such a palpable success?” asked the Italian daily Il Tempo. “Above all, because we’re not talking about an ‘idea,’ but rather a ‘presence.’ The Pope is a real presence, not a clerical idea, of what religion is all about.” [Sorry I missed that editorial I must look it up!]

The journey also affected Benedict. Upon his return to Rome, he affirmed that Christianity was still “strong and active” in Britain, despite many challenges, and shared his “profound conviction” that “the ancient nations of Europe have a Christian soul.”

Benedict’s stay, concluded Lord Patten, “was in the most profound sense a visit to remember. . . . Its lessons and messages will reverberate down the years.”

William Doino Jr. is a contributor to Inside the Vatican magazine, among many other publications, and writes often about religion, history and politics. His 80,000-word annotated bibliography on Pius XII appears in The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII (Lexington Books, 2004).


The Archdiocese of Barcelona says some 2000 journalists have already applied to be accredited to cover the Pope's visit there on Nov. 7. My only question at this point - though I would love to be proven wrong - is how much of a pre-visit negative hype will the Spanish media give him? Barcelona is not only Spain's most sophisticated city but also its most secular and outspokenly ultra-liberal.

Pope's interview book
comes out on Nov. 24
Translated from the 10/8/10 issue of




Seewald interviews the Pope in Castel Gandolfo (taken 7/21). From the front page of tomorrow's OR, from a bad PDF image. Surprisingly, the picture was not posted as a regular jpg in the summary webpage.

At the Herder presentation in Frankfurt - both the dummies for LICHT DER WELT and GESU DI NAZARETH-2 on display. I am unable to bring out the book titles clearer in this photo enlarged from OR online.

There is great anticipation for Benedict XVI's interview book with Peter Seewald which will be published in German on November 24. Its full title is LICHT DER WELT: Der Papst, die Kirche und die Zeichen der Zeit (Light of the world: The Pope, the Church and signs of the times).

This was announced today at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the presence of Seewald who previously published two interview books with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: Salz der Erde: Christentum und katholische Kirche an der Jahrtausendwende, 1996 (Salt of the earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the turn of the millennium), and Gott und die Welt: Glauben und Leben in unserer Zeit, 2201 (God and the world: Faith and life in our time).

"I am still overwhelmed by the kindness and availability of the Pope", said Seewald, saying that like the first two times, before he became Pope, Benedict XVI did not shy away from any question.

"I believe", Seewald said, "that everyone will be surprised to find the Pope so accessible and open".

Seewald met newsmen at a forum hour arranged by his German publisher Herder and Libreria Editrice Vatican (LEV), the Vatican publishing house, to present the interview book and Benedict XVI's JESUS OF NAZARETH-Vol. 2.

Don Giuseppe Costa, director of LEV, said that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's writings are in great editorial demand around the world.

"There is an eagerness among the faithful for the messages of the Holy Father, and therefore, an interest by publishers worldwide to meet the demand". Fr. Costa said.

One consequence is the growing partnership between LEV and Herder. "We both share the historic responsibility of translating into products for the book market the words and writings of a Pope who employs language that is easy and immediate, synthesizing and clear".

On the Pope's decision to grant an interview to Seewald, Fr. Costa said "The simple fact that he agreed to do it means he appreciates the use of books as a communications tool".

He says the book will certainly stimulate new contemporary reflection on the Church.

Before having seen the text, 12 international publishing houses have already acquired rights to publish the book. including Ignatius Press for the United States and Bayard in France, which were represented at the session by Jesuit Fr. Joseph Fessio of Ignatius and Frederic Boyer of Bayard.

As for JESUS of NAZARETH, the first volume was a worldwide best-seller, with at least 3 million copies sold in 30 languages. A similar success is expected for Volume 2 to be published next spring.

On July 11, 2007, Benedict XVI said, addressing a diocesan convention at the Lateran Basilica: "For Christian education and formation, prayer and our personal friendship with Jesus are decisive: Only he who knows and loves Jesus can introduce others to a vital relationship with him. Urged by this need, I thought it would be useful to write a book that will help to know Jesus".


Unfortunately, the article does not say when the first translation of the Seewald book may be expected, presumably in Italian, as it will be published directly by LEV.



The centerpiece of the LEV booth in Frankfurt: Vol. 1 of Joseph Ratzinger's OPERA OMNIA (Collected Works) on the liturgy, which has just come out in Italian. Five books in the 16-volume series have already been published in German. [Thanks to Gloria for this photo.]

Benedict XVI:
Pilgrim, Pastor, Prophet
By Kathleen Naab



WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 6, 2010 (Zenit.org).- When one opens Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy, two elements immediately jump out.

First, there's a wide variety of people who offered personal or scholarly reflections on this Pope: His own secretary of state provided the first introduction, but King Abdullah of Jordan and President Shimon Peres of Israel penned the following pages.

And the second eye-catcher? The pictures. Page after page of glossy prints reflect Benedict XVI in countless settings: smiling, scholarly, prayerful. Surrounded by his brother priests, or flanked by leaders of other creeds in their religious garb. Embraced by children and world leaders alike.

According to the editor of the work, this 224-page volume is a recording of some of the most extraordinary accomplishments of just five years -- spanning from 2005, when the Holy Father was elected, to this year.

ZENIT spoke with Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, about the book and the Pope it portrays.

What is the aim of a book such as this?
The book records the extraordinary accomplishments of the first five years of Pope Benedict's reign. These early years have been full of inspired teachings on faith, hope, and love and on key events including war in the Middle East, environmental challenges, and the explosion of technology in the new millennium.

There have been moments of triumph, such as his well received visit to the United States; moments of tension, such as his visit to Regensburg, in Bavaria, where he once taught; poignant moments such as his visit to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz; and moments of pain, such as his meetings with persons who have suffered from sexual abuse by clergy.

How did you decide what to focus on in the pontificate?
We identified key themes of the papacy, and the photos, essays and reflections combine to illuminate issues and teachings under each theme.

One that has been prominent these past five years is the desire to achieve unity, which stands out in several ways. The Pope is reaching especially to Orthodox Christians so that the Eastern and Western “lungs” of Christianity can breathe together again. He has met with the archbishop of Canterbury and the patriarch of Constantinople, for example. He has invited the followers of the schismatic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to return to the Catholic Church and agreed to welcome groups of Anglicans seeking corporate reunion with Rome.

Another theme is the relevance of faith to contemporary issues, including war -- he thinks the answer to peace lies in religion, especially in the Middle East. He has addressed environmental issues -- he’s called the Green Pope. When he met with American young people at Dunwoodie Seminary in Yonkers, New York, he told them: “The earth itself groans under the weight of consumerist greed and irresponsible exploitation.” He recognizes the growth in technology -- YouTube was invented in 2005, the year he was elected. Four years later he was on it. In Church time, that’s nanoseconds. He is not afraid of technology.

He has shown his concern for the Middle East by personal trips to Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Turkey. His visit to the Holy Land was eight days long. He sends a message of reaching out to others with his trips to Muslim nations and their shrines -- he prayed shoeless beside his Muslim hosts at the Dome of the Rock in Turkey -- he prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall -- and honored the memory of Jews at Vad Yashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial.

His three encyclicals are telling.
The first, "God is Love," was a very human expression of what God’s love means. He said he was speaking of “the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.”

His second, "On Christian Hope," spoke to a troubled society. “No one and nothing can answer for centuries of suffering,” he said, but added that with Jesus “there is a resurrection of the flesh. There is justice. There is an 'undoing' of past suffering, a reparation that sets things right.”

His third, "Charity in Truth," was a remarkable piece which showed the Church’s relevance to the environment, the economy and other 21st century problems.

The book presents the Pope in three facets: pilgrim, pastor and prophet. Explain the choice of these divisions and the reasoning behind them.
These three facets are the essence of the Holy Father's life and work. He is a pilgrim who brings the Good News of Christ to the world through his travels and through his speeches, letters and prayers. He often travels as a pilgrim in the literal sense, visiting sacred shrines and holy places.

The section on Benedict as pilgrim covers his support of Africa, China, Europe and the American continental mission; ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue; relations with Jews and Muslims; and papal travels such as the 2008 visit to the U.S.

He is a pastor to the world's 1 billion plus Catholics and to other people as well, teaching, guiding and bringing hope and comfort with a compassionate pastoral heart. His role as pastor includes his response to the sexual abuse crisis; encyclicals on hope and love; views on Catholic education and the role of the family; support of young people; liturgical reform and participation in the Eucharist; support of the priesthood, religious life, and vocations; and devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the saints.

He is a prophet whose voice illuminates Scripture and Church tradition and brings truth to bear on a range of current issues, including Catholic social teaching and the encyclical on social charity; views on faith and politics, human rights, justice, war and peace, bioethics, the environment, and immigration, and his use of social media.

Just browsing through the beautiful pictures in this book gives an immediate insight into the "humanity" of this Pope. Whether patting the head of a St. Bernard or blowing out the candle on his birthday cake, the Holy Father is seen to be just like any of us. Is the "humanity" of a Pope difficult to convey?
It can be difficult because the Pope is such a revered figure, and a world leader. In the case of Pope Benedict, before he became Pope, he spent the previous 25 years of his career as the guardian of the Church’s deposit of faith. He gained notoriety in that job for reining in theologians who pushed the envelope too far.

So his warm, pastoral side may have come as a surprise to many who thought of him as a brilliant scholar and theologian and "watchdog" of the Church.

After his election papal observers began to see another side: the compassionate father, "Il Papa," as the Italians call the Pope affectionately, and they were pleasantly surprised. They saw him as the pastor who could hold a woman’s hand amid the rubble of the earthquake-stricken town of L’Aquila in Italy.

People thought of Benedict as a teacher in the stratosphere. They discovered that, like the best teachers, he is down to earth. His writings are accessible. His visit to the United States turned into a love fest when warm crowds greeted him at assemblies and in the streets of Washington and New York. The Pope and the people responded to one another. He may be an introvert but people connect with him.

The extraordinary photos give you a glimpse of the man at work, at prayer and at leisure. You see him pastorally interacting with children -- very tender pictures; you see him pensively and intently at prayer, both in his private chapel and alone in a garden. You see him at play -- one I like shows him with St. Bernard dogs. This is a man who appreciates animals. Others show him tenderly touching or holding a child -- he’s grandpa here. The book shows he’s quite human, from his laughter while interacting with young children to his broken wrist on vacation.

As editor, do you have a favorite reflection and/or a favorite photo?
Some of the brief anecdotes make me laugh. I like one about his being stopped when he was a cardinal by tourists who wanted him to take their picture in St. Peter’s Square. Do they know their photographer became Pope? I enjoyed the essay by Mar Muñoz Visoso of our staff about the Pope as a pianist and how he relaxes with Mozart. I love the photo of the Pope with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Shanghai Opera House Chorus. The idea of a Chinese symphony playing for the Pope at the Vatican is amazing, given the late 20th century history of the Church in China.

by Cindy Wooden: Catholic News Service - October 7th

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "Light of the World," a book-length interview with Pope Benedict XVI will be released Nov. 23 in the world's major languages, including English, the head of the Vatican publishing house said.

Addressing journalists Oct. 7 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Salesian Father Giuseppe Costa, the director of the Vatican publishing house, said the text of the book based on interviews conducted in July by the journalist Peter Seewald had already been consigned to 12 publishing houses from around the world.

In the United States, the book will be published by Ignatius Press, which also published the two book-length interviews Seewald conducted with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope.

The Vatican publishing house, LEV, said it expected to sign publishing agreements with other companies before the Frankfurt fair ended Oct. 11.

The book is based on conversations Seewald and the pope had the week of July 26-31 at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said the conversation covered a variety of topics, such as Seewald's earlier book-interviews, "Salt of the Earth" (1996) and "God and the World" (2002).

During the news conference, LEV also announced that it had already signed contracts with 24 publishing houses to print and distribute the second volume of Pope Benedict's work on the life of Jesus.

"Jesus of Nazareth: From the Entrance in Jerusalem to the Resurrection" is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Thirty-two different editions of the first volume, which covered Jesus' life from his baptism to the transfiguration, were published and almost 3 million copies were sold, LEV said in a press communique.

www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1004103.htm


*********************************************************************************************

I do not know what source the CNS reporter used, but two posts above, I posted a translation of the article coming out in the OR tomorrow, and the publication date is clearly Nov. 24. Also, the OR story does not say that any edition other than the original German will be out on Nov. 24. (I WISH!) I have checked the LEV webpages if they have posted a new press release but the last one is still the pre-Frankfurt story they had in September.

TERESA

Flag signed by trapped miners presented
to the Pope by Chilean journalist


VATICAN CITY, OCT. 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The group of 33 Chilean miners trapped 700 meters (2,300 feet) below ground has made its presence felt in the Vatican, in a flag they all signed that was presented today to Benedict XVI.

The miners have been underground since a cave-in Aug. 5. There is hope that the first drill to reach their refuge will break through on Saturday, and the process of hauling the miners up will begin soon thereafter.

But today, the miners were in the minds of representatives of the Catholic press who met with the Pontiff to conclude a four-day meeting sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The 230 journalists came from 85 nations, including Chile. Jaime Coiro, director of communications for the Episcopal Conference of Chile, was part of the Chilean delegation.

At the end of the audience, Coiro was able to present the Pope with the flag.

His twitter feed recounted some of the details:

"I gave the flag to the Pope. He was very interested. He became very happy at seeing the miners' signatures.

"The Holy Father asked me if they would be rescued on Saturday. I told him that the rescue is expected in the next few days.

"He took the flag and together with me, unfolded it, looking over the signatures. He told me that he continues to pray."

The flag came to be signed by the miners because of the initiative of the wife of one of them, Claudio Yáñez. The woman asked her husband to get the miners to sign a flag so that she could take it to a school.

Yáñez obliged, asking his companions in the mine to sign the flag and adding his own message: "The 33 of us are alive in this refuge" and a dedication to the school.

However, to ensure that the flag would make it to its destination, a second flag was similarly signed. This second flag was given to the director of communications of the Diocese of Copiapo, to be used as an offering in a national meeting of Chilean journalists last week in Santiago.

At that gathering, the journalists decided to send the flag to Rome as a token of gratitude to the local Churches of the world that have shown solidarity with the plight of the miners, and prayed for them.

"But the opportunity to give [the flag] to the Pope was a true surprise," Coiro explained, "because God speaks through these mysteries."

He noted that he was part of the group that was able to greet the Pope personally today because he had replaced someone from the Latin American bishops' council (CELAM) who was unable to attend.

Benedict XVI picks an Italian
to head the Congregation for the Clergy
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from

Oct. 8, 2010




Benedict XVI has named a bishop from Genoa as his new minister for all the priests of the world: Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, who was until yesterday secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy of which he is now Prefect, succeeding Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, who has retired one year after reaching age 75.

Piacenza's nomination is crucial for the Pontificate of Benedict XVI who has rewarded one of his most faithful collaborators, the 'spark plug' of the recent Year for Priests which concluded last June.

In recent months, because of all the media scandal over sex abuses against minors, Catholic priests have been in the eye of a cyclone, and the new Prefect will be fully immersed in a reform of the clergy strongly desired by the Pope.

Born in Genoa on Sept. 15, 1944, and ordained in December 1969, Piacenza was a parish vicar and then confessor of the major seminary and chaplain of the University in Genoa. He then became the archbishop's delegate to the university, professor of canon llaw at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, a judge of the diocesan and regional ecclesiastic tribunal of Liguria, professor of contemporary culture and the history of atheism at the Ligurian Superior Instutte of Religious Sciences.

He first began working at the Congregation for the Clergy in 1990, where he became a department head in 1997 then under-secretary in 2000.

In Nov. 2003, John Paul II named him bishop in appointg him to head the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church. Piacenza was ordained a bishop by the then Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

In 2007, Benedict XVI asked him to return to the Congregation for the Clergy as the number-2 man to the new Prefect at the time, Cardinal Claudio Hummes.

The Pope's new 'minister for the clergy' is an affable and frank man, a tireless worker (in the past few years, waiting time for responses from the dicastery has been drastically reduced). one who does not frequent social salons, rarely gives interviews, and never misses joining a daily rosary meeting.

In the past few years, he has increasingly become valuable for his superiors. Papa Ratzinger, who has known him for some time and has great esteem for him, has therefore named him Prefect - it is rare that s dicastery secretary then goes on to become its head.

After yesterday's announcement, Mons. Piacenza automatically becomes in line for a cardinal's hat, because he heads a very important dicastery that has always been led by a cardinal.

Before the end of October, Benedict XVI is expected to announce a consistory to name new cardinals on the Feast of Christ the King in November. Thus, Genoa, which alrady has a cardinal arhbishop, will be getting a second cardinal.




Pope names African archbishop
the new head of Cor Unum




Mons. Sarah with the Pope at a Missionary Children's event last year, when it was speculated that he would be named President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. But the African who was named to that post was Cardinal Turkson of Ghana.

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has appointed 65-year-old Archbishop Robert Sarah as the new president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum." He steps into the shoes of the now retired Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes in leading the Holy See's department for charity and relief.

Promoted from being secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Archbishop Sarah will bring nearly a decade of experience in the Vatican to the mission of "Cor Unum"

The objectives of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" are to provide assistance in the Pope's name for humanitarian relief or to promote projects and initiatives for integral human development. The council also encourages and coordinates the initiatives of Catholic organizations worldwide.

Archbishop Sarah was ordained in 1969 in Conakry, Guinea. After his ordination, he worked as the rector of a minor seminary and as a parish priest before his election to the archbishopric of Conakry at just 34 years old. At the time he was the youngest bishop in the world.

Almost exactly nine years ago, he was appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, where he worked under Cardinal Cresencio Sepe until 2005, then under the present Prefect, Cardinal Ivan Dias.

Sarah's nomination came as Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of now emeritus President, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes of Germany, who reached the Curial retirement age of 75 last year and had served as Cor Unum head for the last 15 years.

Friday, Oct. 8, 27th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. GIOVANNI LEONARDI (Italy, 1541-1609), Priest and Founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God
He was a pharmacist in the Tuscan city-state of Lucca when working with victims of a plague led him to become a priest. He was ordained in 1572 at the peak of the Counter-Reformation and after the Council of Trent. He founded a Confraternity for Christian Doctrine to teach correct doctrine to the young, and published a compendium of Christian doctrine which was widely used in Italy till the 19th century. He also propagated devotion to the Eucharist, to Eucharistic Adoration and to the Blessed Virgin. He and other priests who were attracted to his work started thinking of a new congregation for diocesan priests. Their ideas were rejected by Lucca authorities who did not favor the new Protestantism but also thought Leonardi and company were against reforming the Church. Eventually exiled from Lucca, he ended up in Rome where he became friends with the future St. Philip Neri. In 1583, he founded the order of Clerks Regular of teh Mother of God, which was approved by Pope Clement VIII in 1595, who also appointed him to reform the Benedictine monks in two Italian monasteries. He died in Rome during an influenza epidemic when he was helping take care of the sick. He was canonized in 1938.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/100810.shtml


OR today.

The Holy Father reiterates the irrenunciable mission of Catholic journalists in the digital age:
'Truth and reality at the heart of the communications challenge'
Other papal stories: The Pope receives the new ambassador from Chile; and the announcement that his interview-book with Peter Seewald will be out on November 24 (photo above shows them on 7/21 during the weeklong interview series in Castel Gandolfo). Page 1 international news: A new UN report identifies 22 countries as having chronic food shortage in the past decade.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- President Nicolas Sarkozy of France

- Seven Brazilian bishops from Brazil's North-Northeast Sector I) on ad limina visit

- Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (weekly meeting)


A news briefing was held at the Vatican today preparatory to the Special Assembly for the Middle East
of the Bishops' Synod, which begins on Sunday, Oct. 10, with Mass at St. Peter's Basilica.

Waiting to know what’s in
the next Pope interview book
by JOSIE COX
Faith World

Oct 8, 2010 06:59 EDT


What’s a journalist supposed to do with a successful author who declares that his next book about Pope Benedict will “go down in history” — but refuses to give any details of what’s in it? [Did she really think Seewald needed to 'pre-sell' his book by citing any specifics from it?]

When he says it will “shed new light” on the sexual abuse rocking the Roman Catholic Church — but says none of that will illuminate issues that abuse victims want to know about? [?????]

When the most he will say about the revelations in his sure-fire bestseller is that it will reveal “the secret behind the famous episcopal miter”?

That was the situation I faced on Thursday after I interviewed Peter Seewald at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The amiable Munich-based journalist has an inside track to one of the most prominent personalities in the world, Pope Benedict.

He has already produced two long interview books with him, back when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s top doctrinal official.

Seewald got to sit down with the Pope for an hour a day for a whole week recently at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence. The text of their long talk will come out in book form under the title “Licht der Welt” (Light of the World).

Judging from his two earlier books — “Salt of the Earth” (1996) and “God and the World” (2000) — Seewald probably has some interesting insights into the Pope’s thinking in the new book. He even gave some tantalizing hints about the contents when I asked about the clerical sex abuse scandals.

But he kept his cards so close to his chest that it was hard to imagine what to expect when the book, which is being written in German, comes out in 10 languages on Nov. 24. [Coming out simultaneously in 10 languages was not in the OR story about this, only that contracts had been signed for piblication rights by ten foreign publishers. Could the OR reporter have gotten it wrong?]

“The Pope seemed very understanding of the criticism that he did too little too late about the sex scandals, but the book certainly sheds new light on the whole issue and debate,” Seewald said during a pleasant chat over a cup of coffee.

But pressed for specifics, he remarked: “For victims of the sex scandals in the Church, I do not think this book will shed light on many issues, and may be consoling to an extent. Of course, it won’t undo things that have been done and it’s no way of excusing what has happened.”

See what I mean?

He then went on to say: “I believe many people will be shocked at the way Benedict XVI is portrayed in the book. Many people may not like it and many people may not believe it.”

Shocked? Hmmm … It’s hard to imagine that Seewald — who was raised a Catholic, turned from the Church to Marxism at 18 but returned to the faith under the influence of the long interview with Ratzinger that became their first book — will do a hatchet job on the Pontiff. Now that would shock people — especially journalists who would wonder why he should “burn his source” when things seem to be going so well.

What little he decided to divulge on this point — “He’s not a lone ruler and has not got the hard shell many people think he does. He’s a servant, not necessarily a knight or a ruler” — sounds like what we hear from everyone else who gets to see the Pontiff in person.

He’s very kind and considerate, at ease even during an interview, Seewald said — not at all the Panzerkardinal or “God’s Rottweiler” that the tabloid press made him out to be when he was elected Pope five years ago. [DUH! Sewald has always known that!]

Pssst! – journalists got that message already, quite a while ago. Definitely not a shocker.

So I asked about Seewald’s impressions of the now 83-year-old Ratzinger himself, especially whether he’d changed since the last time he sat down for a Q&A with him a decade ago.

“I don’t actually believe he has changed that much,” he said. “He still has so much energy and life. He is so disciplined. His secret recipe for this, he says, is to live each day only with the pressures of that day and not worrying about tomorrow or yesterday.”

OK, that’s interesting. Says a bit about the man himself. But we still don’t know much about what’s in the book. [DUH! She should have followed that line of questioning - ask him more about the Pope than about the book! - then she might have had a real news story, not just this whiny piece!]

It’s hard to imagine there won’t be a lot in Light of the World to interest readers who want to know more about the liife and thoughts of Joseph Ratzinger. The Frankfurt Book Fair just wasn’t the place to go find out what it will be.

BTW the Munich diocese radio station, Münchner Kirchenradio, didn’t have much luck eithe in their telephone interview with Seewald (in German).

Pope Benedict XVI receives
President Sarkozy of France




10 OCT 2010 (RV) - As speculated last month, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France paid a visit this morning to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

During the course of their visit, the French President presented the Holy Father with a collection of books by the French author, René de Chateaubriand – in particular, a five-volume set of Chateaubriand’s Memoires and the two-volume Genius of Christianity.

Sarkozy received in exchange a ceramic model and print of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Pope and the President met and spoke privately for a half hour.

A Statement from the Press Office of the Holy See issued after the meeting said that at the center of their cordial exchanges, were subjects of international politics, such as the peace process in the Middle East, the situation of Christians in several countries and the enlargement of the representation of the world in multilateral institutions.

The Pope and the President also discussed the importance of the ethical and social dimensions of economic issues. along which they both stressed the perspective proposed by the Encyclical Caritas in veritate.

After recalling the Apostolic Journey of His Holiness to Lourdes and Paris in 2008, and the visit of President Sarkozy they year before, Pope Benedict and President Sarkozy reaffirmed the mutual desire to maintain an ongoing dialogue at different institutional levels and continue to collaborate constructively on issues of common interest.

President Sarkozy went on to meet with the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who was accompanied by the Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.


Sarkozy's fence-mending visit
after flap over gypsy crackdown
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 8 (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Friday with the Pope and top Vatican officials in a fence-mending visit following France's controversial crackdown on Gypsies, while a top Vatican cardinal urged France to welcome immigrants and those who have been persecuted.

Sarkozy's government has linked gypsies, or Roma, to crime, dismantled hundreds of their shantytowns and expelled more than 1,000 Roma in recent months, sending them home to Romania and Bulgaria.

The crackdown has been criticized by many Roman Catholics, and Pope Benedict XVI himself appeared to weigh in on it with a subtle message about tolerance over the summer.

Speaking in French to pilgrims gathered at his summer residence Aug. 22, Benedict urged people to accept "legitimate human diversity" and asked parents to "educate your children about universal brotherhood," a statement that was widely interpreted as being directed at France.

On Friday, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who heads the Vatican's office for inter-religious dialogue, added his voice to the chorus. He referred to the issue during a private prayer service he celebrated in Sarkozy's honor in a chapel inside St. Peter's Basilica.

As Sarkozy and his delegation listened, Tauran asked for prayers for France and its leaders, for the "absolute respect for life," for peace, justice "and that immigrants and those who are persecuted are welcomed."

Sarkozy has defended the expulsions, saying they are part of an overall crackdown on illegal immigrants and crime. Most of the Roma in France are from Romania and Bulgaria, and as EU citizens, they have a right to travel to France, but must get permission to work or live there in the long term. The government also says most of the Roma are leaving voluntarily, with a small stipend from France.

In an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Friday, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defended the government's position, saying, "like any other government, it is the duty of the French authorities to enforce the law. It is as simple as that."

The Vatican made no explicit mention of the matter in its communique issued after Sarkozy's meetings, saying only that there was a shared desire to continue to collaborate "on questions of common interest."

Sarkozy arrived for his audience with the Pope about 15 minutes late, looking tense. But by the end of the half-hour visit, he appeared relaxed as he presented the Pope with a collection of books and received in exchange a ceramic model and print of St. Peter's Basilica.

Sarkozy then asked the Pope for an extra rosary - the gift Benedict usually gives delegation members traveling with visiting heads of state. Benedict's personal secretary Monsignor Georg Ganswein fetched one from a drawer and gave it to Sarkozy.

After the audience, Sarkozy was to have lunch with the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Le Parisien newspaper said Sarkozy's visit to the Vatican was seen as a chance to repair his image with France's Catholics, many of whom have been disturbed above all by his "'bling-bling' image, his relationship to money, and quite simply his way of being."

The Rev. Philippe Verdin, a Dominican priest who published a book of interviews with Sarkozy in 2004, said Sarkozy was engaged in a "great spiritual quest."

"He is very intuitive and understands how important prayer is: He's a man who prays," Le Parisien newspaper quoted Verdin as saying. "He is very concerned about giving grace to God. I am sure he thanked God for allowing him to meet Carla Bruni."

Bruni, Sarkozy's wife, did not attend the papal audience Friday.

Some observers complained that Sarkozy showed a lack of gravitas during his 2007 visit to the Vatican. News reports at the time said he was seen sneaking a peek at a text message on his cell phone while he presented his delegation to the Pope.

Bizarrely, Sarkozy's delegation that year also included standup comic Jean-Marie Bigard, whose humor is often described as crude.

The headline is Anna's own! ... Attagirl! Proclaimed like a true Benaddict....

Pope groupie meets Pope


Oct. 7, 2010


In St Peter's Square just after meeting the Pope; inset, at the Catholic Press Congress earlier.

An emotional and slightly self-indulgent blog post from Rome where I have been taking part in a conference on Catholic media organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

There were a couple of fantastic talks which really stuck out: John Thavis of the Catholic News Service gave a talk on Catholic media covering the abuse crisis in America in the 1990s, while Ludwig Ring-Eifel of Katholische Nachrichten Agentur gave an interesting insight into the Catholic press in Germany, explaining that a Catholic press that was subsidised risked not noticing that no one was reading it any more.

Meanwhile, on a panel about the internet, Sandro Magister, Italian über-blogger spoke about how he developed the digital coverage of the Church while an African Dominican gave a fascinating talk about the digital divide between Africa and the developed world, and made us see everything with a bit more perspective. The physical reality of the internet – fibre optic cables – became incredibly relevant.

But I would be lying if I didn’t say the best part of the whole conference was getting to meet the Holy Father today after he addressed the group of around 200 Catholic journalists about the future of Catholic journalism. Sadly the speech doesn’t exist in English yet. [If only Anna knew about our Forum, she would know thatit was translated promptly here!]

I wasn’t expecting to meet the Pope so I was happy I had packed a black frock but was worried because I thought protocol would require me to wear a mantilla. After a slightly hopeless search I went to see a friend who works with the Order of Malta and miracle of miracles he helped find one I could borrow.

The Holy Father looked tired* but was sweet and gentle. Fighting back the tears of excitement and emotion I told him that his visit to Britain had brought joy and hope to people. He asked, “Really?” And then I said: “Yes really.” And he said: “Thank you. God’s blessing [Gottes Segen]“.

*[Before addressing the journalists, the Pope had received the new ambassador from Chile; Cardinal Cordes; and the officers of the Venezuelan bishops' conferences. hearing from them first hand about Hugo Chavez's latest insanities would be more tiring than a day in Palermo on pastoral visit!]


P.S. Some thumbnails from Catholic Press Photo taken during the recent Catholic Press Congress gives us faces to go with familiar bylines:

From left, John Thavis of CNS; Sandro Magister; Jesus Colina, editor of ZENIT; Karl Ring-Eifel of KNA; Magister with Mons. Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

I cannot believe I missed this particular aticle, even if I am aware that I have only skimmed the material out there during and after the Holy Father's triumph in the UK... and will continue to post anything I find interesting or informative even long after the event....

Hyde Park vigil was ‘beyond words’,
says Archbishop Nichols
By Nibin Thomas

1 October 2010


Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has said the silence of 80,000 people praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament at Hyde Park was “something beyond words”.

The Archbishop said in a video reflection: “I can never forget that sense of 80-90,000 people in total silence in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in Hyde Park. It was something beyond words – the fruit of a lot of prayer and a moment of profound grace. It shows the beauty of holiness.”

He also said that “heart did speak to heart” during the four days of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to Britain.

Archbishop Nichols described as a privilege his own journey in the popemobile with the Pope though the streets of London, and feeling engulfed by the “wave of joy and happiness” that greeted the Pope.

The Archbishop, in particular, emphasised a sentence from the Pope’s speech at Westminster Cathedral. “He said to us: ‘Be witnesses to the beauty of holiness, the splendour of the truth and the joy and freedom born of a relationship with Christ’. That’s the sentence I suggest we ponder as a great gift from the Holy Father.”

Archbishop Nichols encouraged Catholics to learn how to talk about their faith through the example of the Holy Father. He asked them to be gentle and respectful in their dealings with others, especially those who do not share similar views, and admiring their achievements instead of pointing out errors.

He said that the Pope had drawn attention to the crucifix at Westminster Cathedral during his visit because that was where real joy and happiness came from.

He said: “Where does joy and happiness come from? Not because we are innocent, not because we are clever, but because we are forgiven.”

The Archbishop invited Catholics to be more confident in their faith. He said: “Let it show. Wish people ‘God Bless’ at the end of a conversation. Offer to pray for them – especially if they’re having a hard time, and don’t be afraid to use the signs of faith like a simple sign of the Cross at home at the beginning and end of the day with those you live with – those in your family.”


A few days later, Archbishop Nichols spoke of the sex abuse scandal in the Church and used a metaphor in the lay world that ought to resonate....


Archbishop Nichols:
'Paedophile scandal is like the banking crisis:
Sins of the few are attributed to entire system'
By Steve Doughty

6th October 2010


England's Roman Catholic leader has compared his Church’s paedophile scandal with the banking collapse that led to the recession.

Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols linked the behaviour of abusive priests with that of the City traders whose unrestrained lending threw the financial world into crisis.

The comparison astonished an audience during a question and answer session at Mansion House in London.

It also focused fresh attention on the Church’s long-running embarrassment over child abuse which many of the archbishop’s colleagues had hoped may have been put to rest by the Pope’s visit to Britain last month.

Pope Benedict XVI expressed his ‘deep sorrow’ for the ‘unspeakable crimes’ of child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church’.

Paedophile clerics worldwide are estimated to have raped around 3,000 children over the past 50 years, but their crimes were habitually covered up by Church authorities.

The archbishop told an audience including bankers and Labour MP Frank Field, an adviser on poverty to the Coalition, that the bad actions of a small minority will often command the attention of the public.

Replying to a suggestion that a few badly-mismanaged banks had tarnished the reputation of the City, he suggested that the good works of the majority are overshadowed by the misbehaviour of the few.

‘That’s what sticks, that’s what you have to deal with,’ the archbishop said.

His remarks raised eyebrows among senior bankers. The Financial Times said in a commentary that ‘you could just about see his point’, but added: ‘Is it really an appropriate comparison to make?’[Why ever not? Sin is sin. Why should sex abuse on a child be considered 'worse' than ethical abuse that leads to the financial ruin of thousands if not millions of people, a ruin that can even lead to suicides? In both cases, the ynderlyign drive is lust - carnal lust, in one case; unbridled lust for wealth and power, in teh other!]

His decision to raise the scandal follows a decade of widely-praised efforts by Catholic leaders in England to set up new administrative systems to ensure there could be no further tolerance of paedophile priests. [To those who can read, Caritas in veritate was a condemnation of all the unethical financial practices that inevitably bring on a crisis like the one we have had since 2007!]

The archbishop’s comparison also amounted to a stronger condemnation of the behaviour of the City than that made by Pope Benedict during his state visit.

The Pope said the financial crisis was a result of moral failure, but kept his condemnation of paedophile priests entirely separate.

MEDIA MONITOR:
Three cases

The Pope's pastoral visit to Venice

I was wondering why no one in the Anglophone media was picking up the story in the Italian media yesterday morning about the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Venice and Aquileia in May next year (my first news post yesterday, posted on the preceding page of this thread). CNA finally woke up today and translated one of the stories but without acknowledging the news source.... CNS has not reported on it, and I don't see it in Catholic Herald, either.
www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-benedict-xvi-to-visit-venice-...

It was a strange oversight by the Anglophone Catholic media, because the announcement was made by Cardinal Scola himself (though it had been speculated on earlier by one Italian newspaper) and he gave specifics - and due to the fact that Venice is the destination, which no Pope had visited in 26 years and which had given the Church three of its Popes in the 20th century!.

The CNA and CNS writers in Rome are generally prompt to pick up what the OR says about, say, reproving Berlusconi for his questionable remarks in public, to cite their most recent pick-up. That particular story was not provided in the online selection of OR (and I can understand why not!), so CNA/CNS must have taken it from the paper edition. If it had been in the online edition, I would probably have cited it in my little summaries of what's in OR but not bothered to translate it on its own because it is merely peripheral.



There was a minor story that got some play in many news outlets earlier this week, judging by the online news summaries, but which I chose to sideline because it was based on a wrong premise, as a vigilant Catholic site points out today... And yet it was purveyed by AFP, which is one of the top three international news agencies serving media outlets around the world.


Iranian leader thanks Pope -
for something the Pope never said

October 07, 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has thanked Pope Benedict XVI for denouncing an American fundamentalist pastor’s plan to burn the Qu’ran — although the Pope never made such a public statement.

In letter to the Pope, made public on his office web site, Ahmadinejad wrote: “I thank you for your stance in condemning the unwise act of a church in Florida, America, in insulting the word of God which hurt the hearts of millions of Muslims." The church in Florida actually backed away from its Qu’ran-burning plan.

The AFP story on the Iranian president’s message states that in September the Pope “denounced pastor Terry Jones's threat to burn the Muslim holy book.”

In fact the Pontiff’s statement — which AFP accurately quotes — was delivered at a public audience on September 15, several days after Jones had announced that his congregation would not burn the Qu’ran. The Pope’s words referred not to the controversy in the Florida church, but to a violent clash in Afghanistan.

It is true, however, that the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Affairs had condemned the Qu’ran-burning plan as “outrageous,” in a statement released before the event was cancelled.


My gut keeps me from rushing to post anything that makes me say, 'Come again???', especially if it's a minor or secondary story that won't really make a difference when one learns about it or never learned about it at all...

But my gut kept me likewise from running with a more significant 'story' about Mary McKillop that made headlines around the world and took on a life of its own in the blogosphere for several days, until someone who should know spoke up this week. But of course, the rebuttal hasn't made the news that the first one did, because the first story was tailored to fit the media narrative that runs thus: the Church has always been a den of child molesters and priest protectors to the point that more than a century ago, it excommunicated soon-to-be-saint Mary McKillop for 'blowing the whistle on a priest offender!

Someone at the Catherine of Siena Institute [a Colorado-based lay apostolate training program run by the Western Dominican province in the United States] has done a good summary of the news mishandling that saves me having to go back to reconstruct the sequence of the mishandling and correction.

Mary MacKillop:
The whistle that never blew
Written by Sherry

Thursday, 07 October 2010 07:15

A week ago, newspapers and the Internet were buzzing with the story that Bl. Mary MacKillop, who is being canonized in Rome this Sunday, was a "whistle-blower", a woman who had been excommunicated because she exposed the sexual abuse of a priest.

The story got considerable play over at dotcommonweal, the America blog, it was featured as a news story on New Advent, Andrew Sullivan's blog, Get Religion, Religion News, etc. Mary was going to be the unofficial patron saint of whistle-blowers [on priests!]

The problem is that the whistle-blower scenario has turned out to be completely false. And that news hasn't made it around the internet yet.

At the time the story came out, I did some research because I happened to own a copy of the definite biography of MacKillop, written by the postulater of her cause, Fr. Paul Gardiner. (We have used Mary for years as an example of the charism of teaching in our Called & Gifted workshops.) As I wrote in the discussion over at Dotcommonweal:

---

The problem with the whistle-blower scenario is that Mary wasn’t anywhere near Adelaide in April, 1870 when her sisters there heard rumors about Fr. Keating, a local Franciscan. She was in Brisbane, 1,000 miles away, and didn’t return until nearly a year later. (A journey of 1000 miles in 1870 Australia took weeks.)

The sisters in Adelaide heard stories of abuse and told Fr. Woods, their founder. Fr. Woods told the Vicar General of the diocese and the Vicar General sent Keating away.

One of Keating’s confreres, Fr. Horan, set out to take his revenge on Fr. Woods by destroying the Josephite Sisters which he had founded. It was Horan who drafted a long list of accusations against the Sisters, calling them incompetent and disobedient, and it was Mary MacKillop who was trying to keep her footing and protect her sisters in the middle of what was essentially a dispute among priests.

And all of this occurred while the bishop, who was the only one who could have defused the situation, was away in Europe for over a year at the First Vatican Council!...

It would be most odd for Gardiner not to mention Mary’s role in this – if she was involved – since the whole point of the chapter was to understand the complex patterns of events that led to her excommunication and dissolution of the Josephites in the Diocese of Adelaide (Some of the communities outside Adelaide survived.) Of course, an error is always a possibility but his book is not the work of a careless or incompetent man.

. . . The imagined “whistle-blower” scenario of Mary personally walking into the bishop’s office to report an abusive priest never happened. The Josephite community in Adelaide were whistle-blowers but the ultimate whistle-blower was Fr. Woods and he was the one that Horan was attempting to punish for it.

But in the current climate with the first Australian canonization happening in three weeks, it was much easier – and more profitable – to fudge the facts. So the saintly, unjustly treated woman becomes the whistle-blower while the mentally ill male co-founder, who actually did the reporting is ignored.

---

History is sometimes stranger than fiction! The primary whistle-blower turned out to be a wildly eccentric, mentally ill male cleric, Fr. Woods, not our new woman saint. Since Fr. Woods was regarded as "the founder" of the Josephite sisters, Fr. Horan sought to take vengeance by destroying the women's community that he had founded.

It turns out that the carelessness and incompetence lay elsewhere. Now both Fr. Gardiner and the executive producer of the Australian Broadcasting Company's Compass show (the source of the original story) have vehemently denied ever asserting that Mary was a whistle-blower.

As Fr. Gardiner put it: "Early in 1870, the scandal occurred, and the Sisters of Saint Joseph reported it to Father Tenison Woods, but Mary was in Queensland and no one was worried about her," Father Gardiner told The Australian.
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/priest-denies-making-claims-about-mackillops-excommunication/story-e6frg6nf-12259...

Father Gardiner, considered the nation's foremost authority on the MacKillop story, said his words had been twisted to suit the "ill will" of media outlets.

"There was a long chain of causation. Somehow or other, somebody typed it up as if to say I said Mary MacKillop was the one to report the sex abuse," Father Gardiner said.

"I never said it - it's just false - it's the ill will of people who are anxious to see something negative about the Catholic Church. There's already enough mud to throw, though."

So as we come to this weekend of celebration and joy, can all bloggers of good will make a concerted effort to get out the true story? Let's see if we can make the true story fly about the internet as quickly as the false one did.

By the way, the docu-drama that started all the fuss, which will be broadcast this Sunday, is Blessed Mary: A Saint for All Australians, on the History Channel and getting strong reviews.

I know the above story has nothing to do with Benedict XVI directly, but he was obviously the target of the original canard. Mocking him, in a way, for presiding at the canonization of a nun who, in the eyes of the detractors, stood up to the problem of sexual abuse by priests more than a century ago and who was, they claim, consequently punished for that act by excommunication! It doesn't matter that they have their facts completely wrong - it's the narrative they have decided to push in order to further 'shame' the Pope and the Church. Of course, it's exploitation, plain and simple. Blessed Mary McKillop will know how to pray for them.

OK, Chico, you've got a rival now... Cats have never made as many headlines as they have, with Benedict XVI! Were there ever any 'pet' stories about JP2?...


Cat becomes a star
after meeting the Pope
By Tim Ross, Religious Affairs Editor

08 Oct 2010



The Pontiff greets Pushkin, held by Father Anton Guziel.

Pushkin, the Birmingham Oratory cat, has become an unlikely religious hero after the Pope paused during his state visit to 'bless’ the feline and tickle his ears.

The 10-year-old black half-Persian secured his audience with Benedict XVI after howling at the Holy Father during his visit to the Oratory last month. A famous cat-lover who is said to have fed strays in Rome, the Pontiff stopped to stroke Pushkin.

His owner, Father Anton Guziel, said: “As soon as the Pope arrived the most terrible howling could be heard. There was an awesome presence there and Pushkin wanted to acquaint himself with it."

"Once the Pope had prayed, he saw the cat and smiled delightedly and came over and he started to talk to him. He said, 'Aren’t you pretty, aren’t you pretty? What’s his name? How old is he?’

"Then he stroked him, tickled him under the ears and shook Pushkin’s paw. At that point the cardinals all rushed in and started taking photographs.”

Fr Anton said Pushkin had received a stream of fan mail since the encounter. “He had a letter from Canada from a priest who also had a cat called Pushkin who sadly died. Then he had a nice card with an embroidered cat on it from a lady, and mail from some cats who live in a Carmelite convent in Wolverhampton.”

Pushkin is also “a good friend” of Princess Michael of Kent, Fr Anton said. “They correspond and send Christmas cards to each other. He has added the Pope to his Christmas card list.”




An earlier version of the above story, with a few more details about the Pope's visit to the Oratory, was on a UK-based Catholic news site:


Pushkin has put on
'hairs and graces'!
by Amanda Dickie

Oct. 1, 2010

Pope Benedict is well known as a cat lover. As Cardinal Ratzinger he used to feed the strays of Rome and as Pope he has kept two cats in the Vatican. During his recent visit to the UK he had an unexpected encounter with Pushkin, the Birmingham Oratory cat.

Fr Richard Duffield, Provost of Birmingham Oratory and Actor for the cause of Blessed John Henry Newman, was responsible for the logistics of the beatification ceremony.

He said that the event and the entire Papal visit was a great success, as he expected it would be, despite “the sound and fury” beforehand. He was particularly moved by seeing his parishioners from the Oratory receive communion from the Pontiff.

Cardinal Newman was founder of the Birmingham Oratory and seeing the Pope in prayer in Newman’s room made a lasting impression, he enthused.

The Pontiff toured the church, praying at Blessed John Henry Newman's shrine and in his private room, and met the staff and community. Fr Richard presented him with a rosary that had belonged to Cardinal Newman in a box made especially by carpenter John Leather, a parishioner of the Oxford Oratory.

Fr Duffield was also responsible for ensuring that the Pope met a very important member of the Birmingham community. After private prayer in Cardinal Newman's room the Pope descended in a lift.

As the door opened, right on cue, he heard a cat mewing, and looked pleasantly surprised. The Provost ran after the Vatican TV crew and photographer who were exiting down the road and they rushed back to record the historic encounter.

Fr Anton Guziel, one of the community, went and fetched the half Persian black cat into the papal presence. The Pope was delighted to meet the cat sporting the Papal colours, with a yellow and white ribbon about his neck.

He inquired as to Pushkins' age - he is ten years old – and told the delighted feline in German, that he was very pretty. Pushkin extended a paw to the Pope who took it smilingly. He stroked him under the chin and tickled his ears whilst Fr.Anton held him.

According to Fr Anton, Pushkin maintained “a dignified and prayerful silence”, throughout the encounter. The priest bought the cat with him two years ago when he joined the community and Pushkin has settled in as the Oratory cat, greeting visitors and maintaining a correspondence with Princess Michael of Kent, another noted cat lover.

Since the Pope's visit, Fr Anton says Pushkin has gained “hairs and graces!” Pushkin now expects to be placed on the Papal Christmas card list!

[The item gives a link to a videoclip of the Pope and Pushkin,
www.itv.com/central-west/catholic-cat02207/
but when I click on it, it says it is not viewable outside the UK.]


I love the pictures of Pushkin and the Pope! You can almost hear Benedict murmuring his delight....

More happy fallout from the papal trip.... We all read about this commission back in 2006 but never got to see the portrait...


Portrait of the Pope

Oct. 7, 2010

Michael Noakes, the portrait painter, was commissioned by the Vatican to paint Pope Benedict XVI shortly after he was elected, although it took about a year before he started work. The Holy Father sat for Mr Noakes in the library attached to his private apartments in the Vatican.

The finished work hangs in the Vatican, but Mr Noakes also worked on a related study which he has kept in his studio. For the occasion of the recent papal visit to Britain, the portrait is reproduced below:



“I was the only painter to whom [Pope Benedict] had given time for a portrait,” Mr Noakes said. “I think it is still true that I am the only artist to have been given that opportunity.”

[That's not quite right, of course. He sat for at least two other painters - See story and photos on Page 128 this thread some time last summer.]

Mr Noakes gave the Pope a book on the daily life of the Queen, written by his wife Vivien and illustrated by him.

The artist, who was educated at Downside and the Royal Academy schools, said: “I found the Pope diffident and even perhaps a little shy. He is not a large man. We talked in English and, rather charmingly, he seemed to use every opportunity to shake hands.”

Benedict XVI to celebrate
first feast day Mass of Newman?
Translated from


This newspaper has learned that Benedict XVI will be celebrating the Mass of Blessed John Henry Newman tomorrow [in his private daily Mass], the first celebration ever of teheliturgical feast day of the English cardinal whom he beatified last Sept. 19.

The text for the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours for Newman's feast day was approved months ago by the Congregation for Divine Worship and can be found in Latin and English here:
www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/National/Newman.pdf



The feast day of beatified persons is generally celebrated only in their country of origin because veneration of Blessed ones has a local character, in contrast to the universal veneration of saints.

The Congregation for Divine Worship has not received any request from British dioceses for final authorization to celebrate Newman's Mass, and that for now, it can be celebrated only in the churches of the Oratorian priests (Newman's order) anywhere in the world.

And by the Pope, of course.


However, there is this news from the United Kingdom:


England prepares to celebrate
Blessed Newman's first feast day

October 7, 2010

This Saturday, October 9, parishes in England will have the opportunity to celebrate for the first time the feast day of Blessed John Henry Newman.

This is being seen as one of the tangible first fruits of the Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the UK; one which will have a lasting impact on the Church in this country.

His Grace, Archbishop Vincent Nichols will be celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Papal Visit which will coincide with the first Feast Day:

At the Mass of Beatification in Birmingham on 19 September 2010 Pope Benedict XVI said:

---

The definite service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing 'subjects of the day'.

His insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world.

---

A note on the date: It is customary for a Saint or a Blessed to be celebrated on the day of their death unless it is impeded by another celebration. Blessed John Henry Newman died on 11 August 1890. The Church across the world celebrates St Clare on August 11 and so another date was sought.

October 9, which was the day when Newman converted to Catholicism, was also appropriate because it falls at the beginning of the University year - the university was an area in which Newman had a particular interest.

A FIRST THINGS piece on the UK visit had cited something from this essay but as no link was provided, I never got around to looking it up till tonight... BQO is a Philadelphia-based online journal on 'science, religion, markets and morals'...


Missionary to the multiculturalists:
The Pope's visit to post-Christian Britain
By Roger Scruton

Thursday, September 23, 2010


Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain brought home the strange spiritual condition in which the British people in general, and the English in particular, now find themselves.

The English have an official church — the Church of England — whose dominant position is guaranteed by the unwritten constitution, and whose head is the Head of State. Bishops have seats in the House of Lords, and act as legislators. And each English village has its Anglican church — usually an ancient building of stone, whose Gothic spire is like a badge of ownership, a guarantee from God that the place around will always be England and that England will always be Christian.

Yet these churches are hardly visited: more people attend Friday prayers in the mosque than attend Sunday worship in the Anglican Church. And still more people attend Mass at whatever crowded Catholic Church they can find, in a country where Catholic churches have been legal for less than two centuries.

Most English people say that they believe in God, though only a minority claim to be Christian, and of that minority fewer still are observant.

The official culture, represented by the BBC, the TV chat shows and the opinion pages of the quality press, is neither Christian nor English, but “multicultural” — and even Pope Benedict ended his visit with praise for the multicultural identity that has emerged in our country.

Nobody really knows what multiculturalism is, or how you belong to it or affirm it in your daily life. But it is the official religion of the British Isles.

The main sign of this is that less and less people in public life bear witness to the Christian faith or express any opinion in matters of religion other than a vague hope that the many faiths will learn to live together peacefully.

You can be outspoken about religion, but only if you are an atheist, and only if your target is Christianity — the once official faith, whose loosened grip exposes it to assault from all who might once have been obliged to endorse its Credo.

The Pope’s beatification of John Henry Newman had a special poignancy, therefore. Newman was an Anglican priest who joined the Oxford movement in protest against the Wesleyan assault on ritual and mystery.

The Anglican Church, he believed, had made too many concessions to the drearier forms of Protestantism, and was losing the core of enchantment that draws ordinary people into its fold.

Once he had thought through what this criticism really meant, Newman left the Anglican Church and became a Roman Catholic, founding the Oratory at Brompton and taking an active part in the establishment of churches, religious institutions and places of education dedicated to the Roman Catholic faith.

As Rector of the new Catholic University in Dublin, he delivered the lectures that were later published as The Idea of a University. These describe the ideal university, like the ideal church, as a place of enchantment.

The Church delivers God’s grace; the university delivers grace of another kind — the kind that prepares us for society. Both depend upon a mysterious encounter with authority, revealed in ritual and submission.

The beatification of Cardinal Newman can be read as endorsing the path that Newman took, from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. It can also be read as endorsing the Anglican Church, as a valid purveyor of sacramental gifts — the gifts that Newman sought to protect from disenchantment in the face of Protestant austerity.

But for most English people, I suspect, the beatification has been a piece of mumbo-jumbo that does not concern them. Who was this J.H. Newman anyway?

That he was author of The Dream of Gerontius would be known to lovers of Elgar; that he wrote the great hymn ‘Lead Kindly Light’ would be known to Anglican church-goers — some of them at least. That he is the author of one of the great autobiographies, as well as the best defense of the university as an institution that we now possess will be known to scholars.

Some might even be familiar with The Grammar of Assent, that strange reflection on the truth-discerning aspect of the human mind that has baffled logicians and philosophers for a century and a half.

But what do ordinary multicultural Englishmen know about those things? BBC News will not have informed them, any more than it would have explained to them the doctrinal differences between the Anglican and the Roman churches.

So far as the BBC was concerned the main interest of the Pope’s visit lay in the protests that surrounded it — protests from marginal groups pressing for the ordination of women, for gay rights, or for an apology to the victims of sexual abuse by members of the priesthood. The Pope gave the apology, and skirted the other issues.

The BBC, as the voice of the official multiculture, could find little of significance in his remarks other than their divergence from current secular morality, and the fact that from time to time the Pope rebuked the atheists who have such standing with the BBC.

The most positive effect of the Pope’s visit, however, was one that even the BBC could not prevent — and that was the public display of Roman Catholic ritual at its most gorgeous and replete.

For many television viewers the Mass at Westminster Cathedral was their first experience of sacramental religion. The mystical identity between the ordinary worshipper and the crucified Christ is something that can be enacted, but never explained. It is enacted in the Mass, and as Cardinal Newman recognized, it is the felt reality of Christ’s presence that is the true gift of Christianity to its followers.

For those who experience it the quibbles of the atheists and the protestors seem as trivial as BBC News. For many Englishmen, I suspect, the Pope’s Westminster Mass was the first inkling of what Christianity really means.

Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher living in England. His many books include Beauty and The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope.

Saturday, Oct. 9, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
Most depictions of St. Denis show him carrying his head. Third from left, Last Communion (left panel) and Execution of St. Denis (right panel); and next to it, St. Denis with Rusticus and Eleutherius.
ST. DENIS & COMPANIONS (d Paris ca 250), Martyrs
St. Denis was a bishop sent from Rome to Gaul (Roman France) to re-Christianize Lutetia (ancient Paris) which had fallen back to paganism after the persecutions of Decian. he is generally considered the first Bishop of Paris. According to legend, Denis so alarmed the pagan kings by his conversions that he and his inseparable companions, Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon, were beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre ('mount of martyrs'). After being beheaded, Denis is said to have picked up his head and walked with it, preaching, until he finally died at the spot where centuries later St. Genevieve would build the basilica in his name - the Church where the Kings of France have been buried since Carolingian times. St. Denis is the patron saint of Paris. He is also one of the fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints popular in the Middle Ages as intercessors for various causes. Denis is invoked particularly against diabolical possession and headaches. His feast has been celebrated since the 9th century.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/100910.shtml
Today is also the first celebration of the feast day of Blessed John Henry Newman. [See earlier post above.]


Unusually, the Vatican has not yet posted the OR for today.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Ivo Josipović, President of the Republic of Croatia, with his wife and delegation

- Officers of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops led by Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago
and USCCB President

- Participants of the Study Conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on the
20th anniversary of the Code of Canon Law for the Oriental Churches. Address in Italian.

And in the afternoon with
- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting).


The Press Office announced a briefing on Tuesday, Oct. 12, by Mons. Rino Fisichella to present the Holy Father's
Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio Ubicumque et sempre (Everywhere and always) creating the Pontifical Council
for New Evangelization, of which he will be the first president.

Vatican Radio: 9th October

Vatican Radio reports that on Tuesday, October 12, there will be a press conference to present the Motu Proprio Ubicumque et Semper regarding the newly established Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. The document will be presented by Archbishop Salvatore "Rino" Fisichella, who was recently appointed as the first President of the new Council.

www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/it1/Articolo.asp?c=428537

rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-motu-proprio-out-on-tues...