BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

All the earlier posts on the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Viterbo and Bagnoregio are on the preceding page. This was the last event on his program today.





THE POPE IN BAGNOREGIO-2




Below, before the Pope's address, the Mayor of Bagnoregio presented him with a commissioned sculpture of St. Bonaventure as a gift from the Commune.



THE HOLY FATHER'S ADDRESS
TO THE PEOPLE OF BAGNOREGIO

Here is a translation of the address given by Pope Benedict XVI to the people of Bagnoregio on Sunday evening at the Piazza San Agostino.

---

Dear brothers and sisters!

The solemn Eucharistic celebration this morning in Viterbo opened my pastoral visit to your diocesan community, and our encounter here at Bagnoregio practically brings it to a close.

I greet you sll with affection - religious, civil and military authorities; priests, religious, and pastoral workers; young people and families - and I thank you all for the cordiality with which you have welcomed me.

I renew my thanks first of all to your Bishop for his affectionate words which recalled my ties to St. Bonaventure. And I greet with deference the Mayor of Bagnoregio, grateful for the courteous welcome which he addressed to me in the name of the whole city.

Giovanni Fidanza, who became Friar Bonaventura, joined his name to Bagnoregio in his famous self-presentation in the Divine Comedy.

Saying "Bonaventura's life in me behold, from Bagnororegio, one, who in discharge of my great offices still laid aside all sinister aim" (Dante, Paradise XII, 127-129), it underscored how, in the important tasks that he had to carry out in the Church, he always put off dealing with temporal realities ['all sinister aim'] in favor of the spiritual welfare of souls.

Here, in Bagnoregio, he spent his childhood and adolescence, and then followed St. Francis, towards whom he had special gratitude because, as he wrote later, he had 'snatched him from the jaws of death' when he was a child (Legenda Maior, Prologus, 3,3) and had predicted for him 'buona ventura', good fortune, as your mayor reminded as just now.

With the Poverello of Assisi, he established a deep and lasting bond, drawing from him ascetic inspiration and ecclesial genius.

And now you jealously guard of your illustrious townmate the important relic ot the "Holy Arm'; you keep his memory alive and study his teaching in depth, especially through the Centro di Studi Bonaventuriani founded by Bonaventura Tecchi, which every year organizes a specialized conference of studies dedicated to the saint.

It is not easy to summarize the ample philosophical, theological and mystical teachings left to us by St. Bonaventure. In this Year for Priests, I wish especially to invite all priests to place themselves in the school of this great Doctor of the Church and study well his teaching of wisdom rooted in Christ.

Towards that wisdom which flourishes in holiness, he oriented every step of his speculation and mystical tension, going through all the stages, starting from what he called 'uniform wisdom' regarding the fundamental principles of knowledge, to 'multiform wisdom', which is the mysterious language of the Bible, and then to 'wisdom that takes all forms' [omni-form] which sees in every created reality the reflection of the Creator, and finally to 'formless wisdom', which is the experience of intimate mystical contact with God, as man's intellect silently makes contact with the infinite Mystery (cfr J. Ratzinger, San Bonaventura e la teologia della storia, Ed. Porziuncola, 2006, pp. 92ss).

In memory of this profound searcher and lover of wisdom, I wish moreover to express encouragement and esteem for the service which, within the ecclesial community, theologians are called on to render to the faith that seeks the intellect, that faith which is 'a friend of intelligence' and which becomes new life according to the plan of God.

Of St. Bonaventure's rich doctrinal and mystical patrimony, I wish tonight to limit myself to certain paths of reflection, which may be useful for the pastoral course of your diocesan community.

He was, in the first place, a tireless searcher of God, since he began his studies in Paris, and he remained so until he died. In his writings, he indicates the itinerary to follow.

"Because God is on high," he wrote, "the mind must raise itself towards him with all its powers" (De reductione artium ad theologiam, n. 25). He traces a path of demanding faith in which "reading without unction, speculation without devotion, research without admiration, meditation without exultation, industry without piety, science without charity, intelligence without humility, study without divine grace, reflection without divinely inspired wisdom" are insufficient.
(Itinerarium mentis in Deum, prol. 4).

This journey of purification involves the entire person in order to reach, through Christ, the transforming love of the Trinity. Since Christ, always God and always man, works in the faithful a new creation through his grace, the exploration of the divine presence becomes contemplation of him in the soul "where He lives with the gifts of his uncontainable love" (ibid. IV,4), until one is finally transported to him.

Faith is therefore perfecting our cognitive capacity and participating in the knowledge that God has of himself and the world. We see hope as a preparation for the encounter with the Lord, which will mark the complete fulfillment of that friendship which links us to him. Love introduces us to divine life, making us consider all men to be brothers, according to the will of our common heavenly Father.

Besides being a searcher of God, St. Bonvaventure was the seraphic singer of creation, who, following St. Francis, learned to "praise God in everything and through all of his creatures", in which one sees "the omnipotence, the wisdom and the goodness of the Creator" (ibid I,10).

St. Bonaventure presents a positive vision of the world, a gift of love from God to men. He recognizes in the world a reflection of the supreme Goodness and Beauty which, like Saints Augustine and Francis before him, he defines as God himself.

All this is given to us by God. From him, as the original source, comes the true, the good and the beautiful. Towards God, as through the steps of a ladder, one climbs until reaching and almost grasping the Supreme Good, and finding in him our happiness and our peace.

How useful it would be if even today we can rediscover the beauty and the value of creation in the light of divine goodness and beauty! In Christ, St. Bonaventure noted, the universe itself can go back to being a voice that speaks of God and urges us to explore his presence - a world that exhorts us to honor and glorify God in all things (cfr ibid. I,15). One notes here the spirit of St. Francis, whose love for all creatures was shared by our saint.

St. Bonaventure was a messenger of hope. We find a beautiful image of hope in one of his Advent sermons, where he compared the movement of hope to the flight of a bird, which opens up its wings as wide as possible, and uses all its strength to move them. In a sense, it becomes all movement, projected in flight towards the heights.

To hope is to fly, says St. Bonaventure. But hope demands that all our limbs become movement and be projected towards the true height of our being, towards the promises of God. Whoever hopes, he wrote, "should lift his head, directing his thoughts on high, towards the height of our existence, namely, toward God" (Sermo XVI, Dominica I Adv., Opera omnia, IX, 40a).

The mayor in his address posed the question, "What will Bagnoregio be tomorrow?" In fact, we all ask ourselves about our future and that of the world, and this question has a lot to do with hope, for which every human heart thirsts.

In the encyclical Spe salvi, I noted that not just any hope will suffice to face and overcome the difficulties of the present - a 'reliable hope' is indispensable, which, by giving us the certainty of reaching a 'great' goal, justifies the 'effort of the journey" (cfr No. 1).

Only this 'great hope-certainty' assures us that notwithstanding our failures in personal life and the contradictions of history in its entirety, the 'indestructible power of love' will always protect us.

When such a hope sustains us then we will never risk losing the courage to contribute, as the saints have done, to the salvation of mankind, opening up 'ourselves and the world to the entry of God: of truth, of love, of goodness" (cfr No. 15).

May St. Bonaventure help us to 'open the wings' of hope which urges us to be, like him, incessant searchers of God, singers of the beauty of creation and witnesses to that Love and that beauty which 'move everything'.

Once more, dear friends, thank you for your welcome. As I assure you of remembrance in my prayers, I impart through the intercession of St. Bonaventure, and especially of Mary, faithful Virgin and Star of hope, a special apostolic blessing which I gladly extend to all the inhabitants of this beautiful land so rich with saints.

---

The Pope proceeded from here to the heliport from where he returned to Castel Gandolfo shortly after 7 p.m.



Before the Pope addressed the townsfolk at Piazza San Agostino, he made a private visit to the Co-Cathedral of San Nicola to venerate the 'Holy Arm' of St. Bonaventure. These are the only pictures available from the newsphoto agencies so far:

Because of the Viterbo-Bagnoregio visit yesterday, I did not find the time to translate this article, whose final thesis I find rather puzzling to be applied to the Italian bishops' conference (CEI).



With Boffo's resignation,
the Vatican takes control
of the Church's political
dealings in Italy
by VITTORIO MESSORI
Translated from

Sept. 6, 2009


There is no doubt that the input about Dino Boffo leaving the Catholic media galaxy - or, at least, the acceptance of his resignation [from his high profile job as head of the newspaper, radio and TV enterprises of the Italian bishops' conference] - came from him who, one must not forget, is also Primate of Italy as well as Bishop of Rome.

A national daily newspaper, a nationwide TV channel, 200 radio stations in every region of Italy, constitute a concentration of abnormal power in one man, and the Church of Italy ignored the cardinal virtue of prudence (St Thomas called it the auriga virtutum) in leaving a man widely perceived to be its image exposed to every risk of blackmail after a minor judicial verdict that its leaders may have thought irrelevant and destined to be buried forever in the archives of a provincial court.

But the Church in Italy also forgot another principle practised by her hierarchy in another era - the principle of 'divide and conquer'. The Catholic Church is the last 'absolute monarchy', where the limitless power at the top regulates the dialectic equilibrium, always muffled but not always idyllic, of its subordinate levels.

Instead, all the information resources of the Italian Church came to be managed and controlled by one man, who in turn, was responsible to only one man: the president of the CEI.

And that is yet another imprudence which resulted in the current situation - where the cruel and unexpected professional ruin of an individual has cast a shadow of suspicion and discredit on an entire media system for which the Italian Church must now render full accounting.

But if there is no doubt, as mentioned earlier, that the suggestion for Boffo's resignation - or the acceptance of it - had come from the Pope himself, there is equally no doubt that the exit was welcomed by the person concerned if only to avoid worse troubles.

He said so in his letter of resignation to the CEI president, Cardinal Bagnasco: "The media storm is far from attenuating itself", rather, that those against him "are mobilizing men and means for a battle they mean to fight to the very end". And therefore, in order to "placate hostilities", it was necessary that their target "make the sacrifice' of stepping down.

More than a 'sacrifice', the resignation gives this tormented man - who has my fraternal understanding - the possibility of finding some sleep again after a week of hell.

It also gives him the possibility of avoiding what he did not do and which, as he makes known in his resignation letter, did not intend to do, namely, to authorise the Terni tribunal to release the entire dossier on his case. His lawyer has requested that the file remain sealed. (It is known that a member of the tribunal had wanted to comply with the law that allows such documentation to be made public, but another colleague opposed it 'to protect the reputation' of the persons concerned.)

So, all we know are the two concluding pages of the decision, without knowing how the magistrate reached his conclusion. This is the reason, they say, that Boffo has yet to press charges, at least so far, against Il Giornale, because when this happens, then the newspaper's lawyers will have the right to see the sealed file. Which would obviously lead to a fresh round of front-page headlines.

Until the whole file is disclosed, this dispute over formal elements does not answer the real question: What really happened?

Actually, Boffo's resignation letter refers to this issue: "They [his enemies] would want me, at all costs, to confess something, and I would tell them, if I made a mistake... it was not to have given the proper weight to a trivial offense ['reato bagatellare']."

That is a juridical term, but it could also be a curious reference to [Louis-Ferdinand] Celine, the controversial French writer [1894-1961] who wrote the anti-Semitic tract Bagatelles pour un massacre(Trivia for a massacre) [in which the massacre he refers to is is that of the Gentiles whom he feared were being led to another war; after World War II, he was condemned as a collaborator and imprisoned, but later pardoned.]

[Frankly, I don't follow the analogy, especially as I have not read Celine's tract. It would certainly not be in Boffo's interest to compare his personal 'trivia' to any 'trivia' Celine might have mustered to make his anti-Semitic points!]

Are there then small things to be taken lightly, imprudent whims, careless language, that can be tolerated in others but which could embarrass a man at the very top of a the media system of a Church that is intransigent about the rightness of certain things [i.e., morality]? It would seem so.

In any case, being reduced from a one-man institution to a mere private individual has allowed Boffo to loosen the grip of the mastiffs who, would otherwise, never have stopped demanding that he authorize the release of his entire judicial file.

The imprudence in this case was not only on the part of Boffo as the aggrieved party [in the media war]. It is possible that the editor of Il Giornale thought he would gain an immediate 'victory', given that there was an actual verdict [and a fine accordingly paid], with the resignation of Boffo accepted by a highly embarrassed and chastened CEI.

It is possible he did not expect the immediate 'castling' and compactness in the reaction of a significant part of the Catholic world.

And it could well result in a political boomerang. A CEI which had a moderate attitude, not hostile, to the current government, now speaks (like Boffo in his resignation letter) of "an obscure block of secularist politicians" which, from within Berlusconi's coalition majority, is seeking to attack the Church. The quite brutal disclosure of Boffo's possible 'peccadillos' is thus seen as an anti-Christian operation.

The next editor of Avvenire will be obliged to carry on a less conciliatory policy with regard to the government [Why? The newspaper should neither be conciliatory nor hostile to any government - it should simply be objective, praising what is good and right, and denouncing what is against Catholic doctrine and/or the interests of the Church] compared to that of his unfortunate predecessor, who was well-known for his moderation, but also thought by some to lean towards the center-right.

As to all that has been written, in the wake of the Boffo case, on disagreements and antagonisms between the Secretary of State and the president of the CEI: Beyond their differences in temperament and perspectives (which is nonetheless much less than has been claimed), the problem goes far beyond personalities.

Many years ago, in Rapporto sulla fede {The Ratzinger Report, 1994), Joseph Ratzinger stated that the more than 100 episcopal conferences around the world had no theological basis, they are not part of the divine structure of the Church.

He noted that the Catholic Church is not a federation of national Churches which agree only on the major principles of the Creed. He thought that the power of the many 'small Vaticans' spread in all the five continents should be cut to measure - that there is only one Peter, And he is in Rome.

{And this has been one of the worst misinterpretations of Vatican-II - that in creating the bishops' conferences, it thereby authorized bishops to be in complete autonomy of the Pope, despite explicit re-statements in various Vatican-II documents of the Pope's supreme authority and the bishops' duty to be in communion with the Pope.

I continue to find it difficult to explain, other than by sheer egoism and ideological obstinacy, why intelligent bishops, as for instance, Cardinals Lehmann and Archbishop Zollitsch in Germany, can be so openly hostile and defiant of the Pope's instructions.

Or why so many bishops have been setting their own rules to 'interpret' Summorum Pontificum, which is a clear and obvious directive to the universal Church and therefore, to all local Churches, without need for their 'interpretation'.]

When he became Pope, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith started to attend to that concern expressed in 1994. Thus, the courteous but firm reminder by Bertone, his 'prime minister', to Bagnasco, representing the Church of Italy. Respect and trust, yes, for the national Churches, but the Head of the Church reserves the major lines of governance to himself.

[It is not as if whatever Cardinals Ruini and Bagnasco have done in dealing with a succession of Italian governments were done independent of, much less without the consent and authority, of the Bishop of Rome, be he John Paul II or Benedict XVI! That is why Vatican observers like Sandro Magister ] saw Bertone's letter to Bagnasco upon the latter's nomination to head the CEI as not only unseemly but unwarranted.

Not that there is now a settling of accounts with the Italian cardinals (despite the resulting difficulties for Bagnasco arising from the one-man media institution that he inherited from Cardinal Ruini), but rather a long-range strategy by Benedict XVI to oppose what he considers to be an unacceptable 'clerical federalism'.


With all due respect to Messori, neither Cardinal Ratzinger nor Benedict XVI could possibly have meant the CEI (whether in 1994 or at present) as an example of 'clerical federalism'!

Cardinal Ruini was for 14 years John Paul II's widely-accepted 'political deputy' with respect to dealing with the Italian government, and continued to be so for two years under Benedict XVI. His successor, Cardinal Bagnasco, is widely considered to be very much in Ruini's mold - an intelligent authoritative theologian in his own right, who agrees with Benedict XVI's thinking and is absolutely loyal to him.

(This does not mean that both cardinals were not indeed imprudent or short-sighted in concentrating so much power and therefore high visibility on someone who may have been intrinsically vulnerable. As for why the CEI needed to finance an extensive media operation of its own, why not? The Church in Italy has been under secular attack for decades - it does need efficient communications outlets under its own control to disseminate its message to the public, otherwise it is completely at the mercy of its opponents.)

It is not the CEI that is guilty of 'clerical federalism' in any way, since its leadership for the past 18 years has been extremely supportive of the Vatican and the Pope.The intransigent federalists are some Italian bishops who do consider themselves completely autonomous of the Pope - but even if one summed up all the presumptuous opponents of Summorum Pontificum among them, they are not a significant percentage of Italy's 200+ bishops.

Perhaps the CEI leadership should be able to ride herd over the dissidents? Show me a bishops' conference anywhere in the world that has been able to do this! Could anyone, for instance, have been able to ride herd over the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Martini, in the John Paul II years?

The Church may not be a democracy in doctrinal matters, but it certainly has been a democracy in following the rule of the majority at papal Conclaves, in its ecumenical councils, and in the post Vatican II Bishops' Synod. And in day-to-day administrative matters in modern times.

It has also been 'democratic' in allowing ideological dissent - otherwise how can all the anti-Pope, anti-Vatican propaganda be so much in the news? But the Church is also ever vigilant to curb doctrinal dissent (that is why the CDF is there, and why there are the current visitations to the Legionaries of Christ and to the religious sisterhoods in the United States).

From all accounts, the CEI leadership in the past 18 years (under Ruini and Bagnasco) has always been able to gain consensus from its Permanent Council members - in support of the Vatican and the Pope - as well as getting majority votes in its general membership.

What it cannot do - and what no other bishops' conference has done -is impose on any individual bishop who considers himself equal to the Pope, as many of the petty, close-minded opponents to SP do. Because this is primarily a question of individual character, not a matter of disciplinary action. Unless the bishop violates canon law or deviates from Catholic dogma - and the dissidents are shrewd enough to stay just within the limits of canonical or dogmatic violation.

Monday, Sept. 7

BLESSED FREDERIC OZANAM (France, 1813-1853)
Founder, Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Beatified 1997



No OR today.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with
- Mons. Nikola Eterović, Secretary-General of the Bishops' Synod.

- Bishops of Brazil (Groups 1 and 2, representing sectors West-1 and West-2) on ad limina visit - earlier received
separately, but addressed jointly today by the Holy Father. Text in Portuguese.

As I cannot translate right away the Holy Father's address today to the Brazilian bishops, here is an ASCA report on it. I find what he said about 'self-secularization' very powerful, despite its brevity, one of his most forceful on the issue of secularization and the false interpretation of Vatican II:



Pope warns the Church
against self-secularizing
by conceding too much
to the secularized world





CASTEL GANDOLFO, Sept. 7 (Translated from ASCA) - Pope Benedict XVI today warned against a 'self-secularization' by the Church, because of wanting to open itself to the world after Vatican-II which has translated into a willingness to make too many 'concessions' to the secularized world, especially in ethical issues.

The Pontiff spoke to a group of Brazilian bishops [representing sectors West-1 and West-2 of the world's largest Catholic country] currently making their quinquennial ad-limina visit.

"In the decades following the Second Vatican Council," he recalled, "some have interpreted this opening to the world not as demanded by the missionary ardor in Christ's heart, but as a transition to secularization, seeing in it some values of great Christian importance such as equality, freedom and solidarity, and showing a willingness to make concessions and to find grounds for collaboration." [Hear, hear, all you self-deluding Catholic liberals who think any 'common ground' on abortion is possible at all with an administration that considers it a fundamental human right!]


Thus, the Pope continued, "we have watched some interventions in public discussions made by responsible prelates in the Church who reflect the expectations of public opinion and neglect to speak of certain fundamentals of the faith like sin, grace, evangelical life and the 'last things' [hell, purgatory, the Last Judgment]."

"Without realizing it," the Pope continues in his analysis, "many ecclesial communities have ended in self-secularization, and in hoping to please those who have distanced themselves from the Church, have seen instead many who were in teh Church leave, betrayed and disillusioned".

In Brazil, after decades influenced by Liberation Theology, which saw in social movements the signs of the 'liberation' spoken of in the Gospel, the Catholic Church has seen the number of the faithful decrease appreciably because of the competition from various autonomous Christian 'sects'.

On the other hand, the Pope pointed out, those today "who come to us see what they do not see anywhere else, which is the joy and the hope arising from being with the risen Lord".

Today, he said, "There is a new generation born in this secularized ecclesial atmosphere which, instead of seeing openness and consensus [in such secularization], is seeing the widening in society of opposition to the Magisterium of the Church, especially in ethical matters."

Nonetheless, he added, "in this desert without God, the new generation feels a great thirst for transcendence."





THE HOLY FATHER'S ADDRESS
TO THE BRAZILIAN BISHOPS

---

Dear brothers in the Episcopate,

With feelings of intimate joy and friendship, I welcome and greet each and everyone of you, beloved Pastors of Western Regions 1 and 2, of the National Episcopal Conference of Brazil.

Your group opens the long pilgrimage of the members of your conference o your ad limina Apostolorum visit which will give me the occasion to know better about the realities in your respective diocesan communities.

These will be days of fraternal sharing as we reflect together on the questions which most concern you. It is a moment I have profoundly anticipated since those unforgettable days in May 2007, during my visit to your country, when I was able to experience the affection of the Brazilian people for the Successor of Peter, and especially, when I had the opportunity to visually and ideally embrace the entire episcopate of your great nation in our meeting at the Cathedral of Sao Paolo.

Indeed, only the great heart of God can know, protect and guide the multitude of sons and daughters which he himself has generated in the vastness of Brazil.

During our conversations these days, you have brought up some problems and challenges that must be met, as the Archbishop of Campo Grande described at the start of this meeting.

It is daunting to listen to the great distances that you yourselves, along with your priests and other missionary workers, must travel in order to serve your respective faithful, many of whom, in addition to their own problems, also face the problems connected to a fairly recent urbanization, when the State is not always an instrument to promote justice and the common good.

But do not be discouraged! Remember that announcing the Gospel and adherence to Christian values, as I wrote in the recent encyclical Caritas in veritate, "is an element that is not only useful but indispensable for the construction of a good society and of true integral human development" (No. 4).

I thank you, Mons. Vittorio Pavanello, for the cordial words and sentiments that you addressed to me in the name of everyone here, which I am glad to reciprocate with wishes of peace and prosperity for the Brazilian people on this important day which is your National Day.

As the Successor of Peter and Universal Pastor, I can assure you that in my heart, I live your apostolic concerns and efforts every day, never ceasing to pray to the Lord about the challenges that you face in the growth of your diocesan communities.

In these days, and particularly in Brazil, workers in the vineyard of the Lord continue to be few in relation to what must be harvested, which is vast (cfr Mt 36-37). This lack aside, adequate formation of those who do answer the call to serve the people of God remains truly essential.

Because of this, during the current year for Priests, allow me to reflect with you, beloved Bishops of West Brazil, on the solicitude that is specific to the episcopal ministry which is to generate new priests.

Although God is the only one capable of sowing in the human heart the call to pastoral service, all the members of the Church should ask themselves about the inner urgency and real commitment that they feel about this cause and how they live it.

One day, to some disciples who were remarking that harvest time was 'still four months away', Jesus answered: "I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest" (Jn 4,35).

God does not see like man does. The urgency of God is dictated by his desire that "all men may be saved and arrive at knowledge of the truth" (1 Tm 2,4).

There are so many men who seem to wish to consume their whole life in one minute, others wander about in tedium and inertia, and some abandon themselves to violence of every kind. Basically, these are desperate lives in search of hope, as we can see from the widespread, if at times confused, need for spirituality, a renewed search for reference points that one can follow in the journey of life.

Beloved brothers, in the decades that followed the Second Vatican Council, some have interpreted openness to the world not as a demand of the missionary ardor in Christ's heart, but as a transition to secularization, seeing in it some values of Christian importance such as equality, freedom and solidarity, and willing to make concessions and discover areas of collaboration.

Thus we have heard interventions by some ranking Church officials speaking out in public debates on ethics, responding to the expectations of public opinion, but neglecting to speak of certain fundamental truths of the faith like sin, grace, the evangelical life and the 'last things' [hell, purgatory, the Last Judgment]."

Without realizing it, many ecclesial communities have ended up in self-secularization: Hoping to please those who have distanced themselves from the Church, some of our colleagues have seen instead many who were in the Church leave, defrauded and disillusioned.

Contemporary men, when they come to us, see what they do not see anywhere else, which is, the joy and hope which arise from the fact of being with the risen Lord.

A new generation was born in such a secularized ecclesial climate in which, instead of seeing openness and consensus, they see instead a widening of the abyss in society due to differences from or outright opposition to the Magisterium of the Church, especially in ethical matters. In this desert without God, the new generation is experiencing a great thirst for transcendence.

It is the young people of these new generations knocking today at the doors of the seminary - they need to find educators who are true men of God, priests who are totally dedicated to education, who show their total self-giving to the Church through celibacy and an austere life, following the example of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

That way, these young people will learn to sensitize themselves for an encounter with the Lord, by daily participation in the Eucharist, loving silence and prayer, and searching, first of all the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Beloved brothers, as you know, it is the task of the Bishop to establish the fundamental criteria for the formation of seminarians and priests, that must be faithful to the universal norms of the Church: it is in this spirit that your reflections must develop the subject of the Plenary Assembly of your episcopal conference last April.

Certain that I can count on your zeal with respect to the formation of priests, I invite all the Bishops, their priests and seminarians, to reproduce in their own lives the love of Christ the Supreme Priest and Good Shepherd, as did the Holy Curate of Ars.

And that like him, they may take as model and protector of their own vocation, the Virgin Mary who responded uniquely to God's call, conceiving in her heart and flesh the Word made man, in order to offer him to mankind.

To your dioceses, along with my cordial greeting and the certainty of my prayers, please convey my paternal Apostolic Blessing.

---

Peter's task
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 9/7-9/8/09 issue of







For the sixteenth time yesterday, Benedict XVI visited a diocese of Italy, the nation of which the Bishop of Rome is also the Primate.

With a simple and clear purpose, underscored by the motto chosen for the papal visit to Viterbo and Bagnoregio: "Confirm your brothers", as Jesus said to Peter at the Last Supper, in the Gospel account of St. Luke.

The Roman Pontiff did so with his presence and his words, welcomed with the affection which found emblematic expression by an aged nun who caressed the Pope's healing right wrist before kissing his ring yesterday, a gesture of devotion and feminine attention as touching as it was spontaneous and unexpected.

In his customary way, during the liturgical celebration in Viterbo which was characterized by a truly impressive spirit of focused attention by the congregation, Benedict XVI explained the Bible readings of the day.

And then, using the image of a desert in the heart of any man that is closed off to God and to his neighbor, he noted how Jesus had ventured even into pagan (non-Jewish) territory, healing the sick and preaching the way towards a new humanity - which is good and without discriminations - offering the world today an example of authentic brotherhood.

In the background of the visit was the figure of St. Bonaventure who sought a 'wisdom rooted in Christ' and to whom the young Joseph Ratzinger was fascinated to the point of devoting his Habilitation dissertation to qualify for university professorship to this great Franciscan theologian.

Speaking to the faithful of Viterbo, the Pope addressed all Italian Catholics, surrounded by his Vicar in Rome and the bishops of Lazio, and welcomed by civilian authorities in an image of evident institutional calm.

Taking up the pastoral priorities of the Bishop of Viterbo - which had been the seat of the Popes in the second half of the 13th century - Benedict XVI underscored the importance of education, a priority in both the Christian community and all of society, and the urgency of "living and bearing witness to the faith in the various sectors of society", of which he named a few: social commitment, political activity, and integral human development, which is at the core of his encyclical Caritas in veritate, a text which has aroused widespread interest even beyond the visible confines of the Catholic Church.

The Pope is, of course, well aware of how historical seasons and social contexts change, as well as the specific difficulties faced in each era.

But equally clear is his conviction of what remains unchanged: the urgency to "live the Gospel" in solidarity with everyone. That is why he calls on Italian Catholics - on every component of the Church, but especially, of the lay faithful - to be able to live up to the stature of their history in the service of the dignity of every human being and the common good of the nation.

He also asked the Catholics of a diocese singularly tied to the Peter's Chair, but also of all faithful in Italy and the world, to pray for him. That he may "always carry out with, faithfulness and love, the task of being Pastor for all the flock of Christ".

As his predecessors have done, among whom the Pope recalled the example of St. Leo the Great, a native of Tuscia [the historical region where Viterbo is located], "who rendered a great service to truth in love, through his assiduous exercise of the word".


Although he is always attentive to writing an editorial when he feels it necessary to call attention to the Pope's words, Mr. Vian does not have the literary ability and felicitous expression of, say, Giuliano Ferrara, or the best editorialists of Avvenire (not always staff members).

And so, his attempts to paraphrase what the Pope actually said always appear awkward, rambling and incomplete. In other words, it's better to go directly to what the Pope actually said.

He also uses this particular editorial to express the current line of the Secretariat of State - and Mr. Berlusconi's government, for that matter - that after the Boffo buffeting, there is an 'institutional calm' between the Vatican and civilian authorities. (See paragraph 7 above).

P.S. Vian inexplicably fails to make any mention to the Pope's specially composed, powerful and very 'topical' prayer to the Madonna della Quercia!




In this connection, the AP report on the Pope's pastoral visit yesterday was focused primarily - and unfortunately for the passtoral and spiritual aspects of the visit itself - on the presence in Viterbo of Gianni Letta, undersecretary of the Prime Minister's cabinet, representing the Italian government. (Besides which, it contains a number of factual errors on verifiable recent news data!)

AP, echoing most of the Italian media, saw it as a sign of the Vatican's friendship with the Berlusconi government - not that it was ever hostile, even despite the much-headlined sexual escapades attributed to Berlusconi lately.

However, it is not the first time Letta has represented the government at these pastoral visits. It must also be pointed out that before ever becoming a member of Berlusconi's staff, he has been one of the 'gentiluomo di Sua Santita', the Papal gentlemen - lay attendants of the Pope and his household who serve without pay in the Apostolic Palace or at St. Peter's Basilica in an honorific position handed down from father to son.

Pope meets Berlusconi aide
amid scandal fallout
by NICOLE WINFIELD


ROME, Sept. 6 (AP) – Premier Silvio Berlusconi's top aide met with Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday amid continuing fallout over scandals that have strained ties between Italy's government and the Catholic Church.

Berlusconi adviser Gianni Letta pronounced relations were "solid" after meeting briefly with the Pontiff during a visit by the Pope to Viterbo, north of Rome.

"My smile says it all. I'm happy and serene," Letta said, according to the ANSA and Apcom news agencies, although he added that there was always work to be done to "further strengthen" relations.

Ties between the government and church, which are politically important in the largely Roman Catholic Italy, have been in a tailspin recently.

Catholic publications [except Giovanni Vian's L'Osservatore Romano - and I specifically label it as such] have openly criticized Berlusconi for his dalliances with young women, and Vatican officials [a couple of Curial prelates, at most] have criticized the conservative government for its tough anti-immigration policy.

In what was largely seen as tit-for-tat retribution, a Berlusconi family newspaper last week accused the editor of the country's pre-eminent Catholic newspaper [Oh wow!, Cardinal Bertone will not be pleased that Avvenire is being called that! What about OR? But then, one of Boffo's professional successes was to make Avvenire into an attractive, readable and compelling general-readership newspaper and not just a channel for news about the Italian bishops] of being involved in a scandal.

The editor, Dino Boffo, professed his innocence. But he resigned Thursday as head of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishop's Conference, saying he was doing so for his family and the church.

Last week, Il Giornale, which is owned by Berlusconi's brother, claimed that Boffo had been fined in a plea-bargain several years ago for making harassing calls to the wife of a man in whom he was purportedly interested. It accused him of hypocrisy for scrutinizing Berlusconi's private life.

Boffo acknowledged being fined in the case but said someone else had used his cell phone to make the calls. Prosecutors maintain Boffo made the calls, but have denied there was a gay angle to the case. But Boffo has insisted that the full court file remain sealed.

Il Giornale published the article after Boffo's Avvenire called on Berlusconi to answer questions about revelations that women had been paid to attend parties at the premier's residences and that a high-class prostitute had once spent the night with him. [NO! It was not Boffo who asked Berlusconi to 'answer questions' about his private escapades - it is La Repubblica, which is keeping a running count of the days it has posed its first '1o questions for Berlusconi', now augmented by '10 more questions for Berlsuconi'. After weeks of editorial silence on the matter, Boffo wrote a moderate editorial reflecting the consensus of Avvenire readers that the Prime Minister should desist from scandal-raising behavior in keeping with the dignity of his office.]
The revelations were sparked by the announcement in the spring by Berlusconi's wife that she was divorcing him, citing his presence at the 18th birthday party of a Naples model.

Berlusconi, 72, has denounced what he says is a media smear campaign against him and has sued two left-wing dailies and several other European publications for libel. He has denied ever paying anyone for sex and says there was nothing "spicy" in his relations with the model, Noemi Letizia.

In an interview aired Sunday on Sky TG24, Letizia said Berlusconi's wife should know better than to think she played any role in the end of their marriage.

"Everyone can see I am not the reason for the divorce," said Letizia, who was interviewed in a garden and on a motorboat. "How can an 18-year-old's birthday party ruin a marriage? If this is the case, what kind of marriage could it be?"

Speaking in Italian and an occasional phrase in English, Letizia said she had actually enjoyed the notoriety that the scandal had caused and that she hoped it would help her with her dream to go to the U.S. and become an actress.

Despite the monthslong scandal, Berlusconi's coalition appears solid, although his support among Catholics had slipped slightly, according to an Ipsos survey published Sunday in Corriere della Sera. The poll of 800 people said Berlusconi remained popular among 50 percent of practicing Catholics, compared to 55 percent in April before the scandal broke. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Italian newspapers have focused on how the scandal has laid bare the divisions between the Italian bishops and the Vatican over who was responsible for cultivating relations with the Italian political establishment.

During Pope John Paul II's pontificate, the head of Italy's bishop's conference was in charge. Under Benedict, though, the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has asserted his authority, the newspapers said.

Vittorio Messori, longtime Vatican watcher and commentator, wrote in Corriere that Bertone was merely enforcing Benedict's long-sought ideal of "clerical federalism" — the centralized authority of the Vatican over bishops worldwide. [Which, I maintain, notwithstanding Messori's obvious eminence, is a mis-application of Ratzinger/Benedict's phrase to the CEI leadership in particular!]

Indeed, there has been an unwarranted over-interpretation of Vatican-government relations in the aftermath of the Boffo case, in which the prevailing viewpoint used is that of considering the Vatican as just another institution with secular partisan interests.

Berlusconi is being denounced by his opponents (ultra-liberal, generally anti-Catholic, such as La Repubblica) as an immoral libertine who should answer for his private personal conduct to the public. In which they manage to be breathtakingly contradictory to their usual position that the Catholic Church has no business moralizing about politicians, even if the Church has never done so ad hominem ['One denounces the sin and not the sinner'], which is what the anti-Berlusconi hypocrites are doing.

For his part, while his lawyers were announcing they would sue soem newspapers in italy and in other countries for 'defamatory' stories about Berlusconi, he himself managed to be above the fray in the past week, but spoke this weekend:


Berlusconi insists his relations
with the Catholic Church are excellent
By Flavia Krause-Jackson



ROME, Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said relations with the Vatican were excellent in spite of the resignation of a Catholic news editor and commentator accused by Berlusconi family-owned Il Giornale of homosexual behavior and harrassment.

“The relationship between the government and the Church will consolidate further in the coming months on important issues, such as the right-to-die bill,” Berlusconi said on Mattino Cinque, a morning show on Mediaset SpA’s Canale 5. “My government has defended principles that are at the base of Catholic doctrine and demonstrate that ties are excellent.”


As questionable as his private morals (sexual and financial) may be, and as boorish as he is said to be, Berlusconi has not taken any public positions contradicting Church doctrine since he first came to office in 1994, as far as I have been able to google. In fact, he has always maintained that the political parties he has formed (Forza Italia and its successor, Partita della Liberta), are natural allies with the Church in their espousal of conservative causes.

He even had Parliament override President Napolitano's veto last year of a bill that would have saved Eluana Englaro from arbitrary discontinuation of her food-and-water lifeline.

He is among the remarried Italian Catholic divorcess who have been petitioning the Church to allow them to receive Communion but I have not read any reports that he has ever tried to force the issue by publicly seeking to receive Communion, as some American politicians have done. (Though I wonder when was his last confession.)


As a real outsider looking on, I think that Boffo's resignation has been exploited by the secular Italian media, echoed by tendentiously cavalier news agencies who report Italian events to the rest of the world - often incompletely, erroneously, and/or without the proper context:

1) To portray a serious rift between the Vatican and the CEI over political management. There is obviously some friction. but how can there be a real rift when the Pope is also Primate of Italy, and therefore head of the Italian Church, in which capacity he named Cardinal Bagnasco to head the CEI?

2) To portray supposedly major problems between the Vatican and the government of Silvio Berlusconi. Even if a) Cardinal Bertone has said that is not the case at all (and indeed there are no major issues between them - even on the tough anti-illegal immigration policy of the government, although the Pope has always said that immigrants who do get to Italy by any means should be welcomed and respected as human beings, he always takes care to say they must also know that there are laws that need to be followed); b) the Vatican newspaper has, in fact, not said a word about Berlusconi's current scandals; and c) Berlusconi himself has not spoken out agains the Vatican, now or at any time); and therefore,

3) Outside of the Berlusconi-owned media, to cause political damage to Berlusconi, even if he does not face any real parliamentary challenges to his government so far.

On the part of the Secretariat of State, some subtle and not-so-subtle maneuvering has been reported by usually reliable journalists as an effort to wrest from the CEI the task of dealing with the Italian government.

Which does not make sense because it is the Italian bishops and the Italian Church who are directly concerned in almost all the provisions of the Concordat between the Vatican and the State of Italy.

In fact, it is the Church in Italy, represented by the CEI, not the Vatican, that is the beneficiary of the annual 0.008 percent of Italian tax revenue stipulated by the Concordats.

And it is the Italian bishops, not the Secretariat of State, who must mobilize the Church in Italy to any action necessary to support the Church position in any public debate.

Finally, the Pope, insofar as he is Primate of Italy, must act through the CEI, not through the Secretariat of State.

Cardinal Bagnasco must certainly clear it with the Pope - who appointed him - whenever he has to make a crucial decision for the Church in Italy. One imagines that when he does that, it means effectively clearing it with the Secretariat of State as well, because the Pope knows protocol and would not keep his Secretary of State uninformed of anything the CEI president tells him.

If the Pope wants the Church in Italy to speak with one voice as the Vatican on any specific issue, all he has to do is tell Cardinal Bagnasco, who will certainly not contradict him. Nor go out of his way to offend Cardinal Bertone, either!

That is why I cannot explain why someone like Vittorio Messori is in the camp of those who see the Boffo case as the proper occasion for a 'consolidation of power' [or less charitably, 'power grab'] by Cardinal Bertone.

Moreover, even if Bertone turns out to be as politically adroit as a Cardinal Richelieu, I doubt he (or anyone else) can turn any single dissident bishop, in Italy or elsewhere, to a pro-Benedict bishop! As the Holy Father pointed out to the Brazilian bishops today, decades of self-secularization by those in the Church who have mis-interpreted Vatican II cannot easily be overturned.

As for Vian's decision not to say anything at all about Berlusconi's Sexgate in OR, that's all very well, if he had taken care to make an editorial stand at the start that "The newspaper is aware of all the stories circulating involving the Prime Minister of Italy, but we will not be reporting any of it or commenting on it because they concern his private behavior, for which he must be responsible to his family and before God." - or something similar.

You cannot aspire to be a 'serious' newspaper and choose to blank out a subject matter everyone else is reporting. At least acknowledge it once, and then keep editorial silence if that is your choice.

In Viterbo and Bagnoregio,
the Pope calls on the faithful
to build a new humanity on the basis
of 'faith that is a friend to intelligence'

Sept. 7-8, 2009


The double issue of L'Osservatore Romano coming out tomorrow, Tuesday (for 9/7-9/8/09) carries its full coverage of the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Viterbo and Bagnoregio. It uses the Pope's address on St. Bonaventure in Bagnoregio as the lead article.

In addition to the editorial translated above, it also contains all the papal texts delivered yesterday, including the Prayer to the Madonna della Quercia, [all were translated and posted on this thread yesterday]; three descriptive reports on what took place in Viterbo and Bagnoregio; and the greetings by Mons. Lorenzo Chiarinelli, Bishop of Viterbo.

The articles below are illustrated by the photos from the issue, except for the stock photos of Civita di Bagnoregio.



Welcome at the Papal Loggia in Viterbo.


'Faith that is a friend to intelligence'
Translated from



Faith that is a friend to intelligence in order to build a 'new humanity' based on listening and dialog, free of selfishness, exclusions and discriminations.

This was the center of the message left by Benedict XVI on Sunday, Sept. 6, to the people of Viterbo and Bagnoregio, at the end of an intense day among the people of upper Lazio.

The Pontiff's visit was one between the past and the future, starting at the 13th century Palazzo dei Papi in Viterbo, from whose loggia he gave his first greeting to the city.

More than 30,000 people took part in the Eucharistic celebration afterwards in the open field at Valle Faul.

In his homily, the Pope warned against the temptation of transforming the human heart into a 'profound dssert', devoid of "the capacity to listen, to speak, to communicate with God and with other oersons".

Then, he said, men "become blind because incapable of seeing reality; deaf in order not to hear a cry for help; and the heart hardens in its indifference and selfishness".

So Benedict XVI calls on the Church to a new commitment to respond to the present emergency in education, asking believers to bear strong witness to their faith and greater attention to the signs of God.

"Lay faithful, young people and families", he said, "do not be afraid to live and bear witness to your faith in the various sectors of society, in the multiple situations of human existence".

Even if the seasons of history and social contexts change, he added, "the calling of Christians to live the Gospel in solidarity with the human family, in step with the times, does not change and does not go out of fashion."

Thus, he urged "social commitment, service through political activity, and integral human development".

Before the Angelus which followed the Mass, the Pontiff offered a reflection on the Second World War, which started 70 years ago, expressing the hope that it should remain "a warning for all not to repeat such barbarisms and to intensify efforts to construct a lasting peace in our time, which is still marked by conflicts and confrontations, and to transmit to the new generations a culture and a lifestyle shaped by love, solidarity and respect for the other".

In this context, the Pope underscored in particular "the contribution that religions can and should make to promote forgiveness and reconciliation, to oppose violence, racism, totalitarianism and extremism which distort the image of the Creator in man, block out the horizon of God, and consequently, lead to disrespect for man himself."

This wish found an echo in the Pope's prayer before the Madonna della Quercia in the presence of the cloistered nuns of the Diocese of Viterbo.

In the afternoon, in Bagnoregio, where the legacy of spirituality from St. Bonaventure is kept alive, the Pope looked to the future, pointing to the need to rediscover the "great hope-certainty' that he suggested in the encyclical Spe salvi.

"It assures us", he explained, "that despite failures in personal life and the contradictions of history in its entirety, the 'indestructible power of Love' always protects us".

When this hope sustains us, he assured, "we can never risk losing the courage to contribute, as the saints did, to the salvation of mankind, opening up ourselves and the world to the entry of God: of truth, of love, of light".



The Mass at Valle Faul.


The composure of a concrete
manifestation of affection
by Mario Ponzi
Translated from


Between present and future. From his citation of Dante's lines in the Divine Comedy, referring to St. Bonaventure "who in discharge of my great offices still laid aside all sinister aim" - meaning temporal realities over the spiritual - to his exhortation to Christians to bear witness to their faith 'without fear' through social commitment and politcal activity for integral human development and to give 'wings to hope'.

Perhaps this contrast between the past and that which is yet to come was never better synthesized than in Benedict XVI's visit to Viterbo adn Bagnoregio.

Yet yesterday, Sunday, Sept, 6, while the vetus urbis, old city, which is the etymology for Viterbo, opened up its past which is eminently pontifical, to a Pope who came as a pilgrim to its ancient dioceses, the new Viterbo, which is seeking its place in the society of the digital era, also showed him the apprehensive face of new generations facing an uncertain future.

Likewise, the signs of hasty progrss which has not yet allowed a reciprocal acceptance between the old city and the new. The two faces of a city which came together to give Benedict XVI the memory of a day among its celebratory but composed citizenry.

Because it was a celebration from the first moments of the visit.

Welcoming the Pope, who arrived by helicopter at 9:30 at the Rocchi sports field, were the Bishop of Viterbo, Mons. Lorenzo Chiarinelli; the Apostolic Nuncio in Italy, Mons. Giuseppe Bertello; the underesecretary of the Prime Minister's cabinet, Gianni Letta; the Italian ambassador to the Holy See, Antonio Zanardi Landi; the president of Lazio region, Piero Marrazzo; the president of Lazio province, Alessandro Mazzoli; and the mayor if Viterbo, Giulio Marini.

An informal welcome, and then a fast drive to the center of the city in Piazza San Lorenzo. The motorcade passed through the narrow streets of the historical center, between medieval edifices which seemed to rest on the masses of people along the streets.

Between these crowds, the motorcade arrived at the Palazzo dei Papi, the first stop of the program. The Pope greeted the city from the historic loggia of the 12th century palace.

Welcome speeches by the bishop and the mayor, an exchange of gifts, and then, the blessing of the new bronze doors of the adjoining Cathedral of San Lorenzo, which will remain as a lasting memento of a day of faith spent with the Pope.

He did not fail to enter what had once been the papal residence - it had been 25 years since a Pope had been here, John Paul II who visited Viterbo in 1984.

Benedict XVI visited the famous Conclave Hall, where, in the 13th century, the Conclave was born - election of a Pope with the cardinals under lock and key - as it has since come down to our day.

The Pope's brief tour evoked a constellation of memories linked to the passage through Viterbo of great saints - Rosa, Crispino, Giacinta, as well as eminent Popes, cardinals and laymen like Mario Fani, pioneer of the modern lay apostolate and co-founder of Italian Catholic Action, who was inspired by the city and his devotion to its patron Santa Rosa.

Then, another passage through the crowds to proceed to Valle Faul where he celebrated Mass. Almost 30,000 people found space in the ample esplanade even if only 15,000 seats were set up.

Here Viterbo showed its new face to the Pope, with so many young people in the congregation in front of the altar, as well as in the hills overlooking Valle Faul.

There were no streamers nor the usual sea of flaglets. Viterbo's famous historical cortege stopped short of the esplanade, deployed along its medieval streets.

Subdued applause greeted the Pope as he passed through the crowd in the Popemobile - according to the diocesan instructions that for the Mass, 'temporal realities' should give way to the spiritual.



The Pope concelebrated mass with Cardinal Agostino Vallini, his Vicar in Rome, and the other bishops of Lazio; Mons. Charinelli; Archbishop Fernando Filoni, undersecretary of state for foreign relations and scholar of Viterban history, having studied at the seminary of the Madonna della Quercia; Archbishop James Harvey, prefect of the Pontifical Household; Mons. Paolo De Nicola, Harvey's deputy; Mons. Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's private secretary; and Mons. Fortunato Frezza, undersecretary of the Bishops' Synod. Along with dozens of diocesan priests, including functionaries from the Roman Curia who come from Viterbo and Tuscia.

The Mass offerings came from representatives of the four ancient dioceses that were consolidated with Viterbo in 1986 - Acquapendente, bagnoregio, Montefiascone and Tuscania, with a cross-section of Viterbans, among them, two 'facchini di Santa Rosa' and two 'ciuffi' - representing the 140 persons (facchini) who carry the towering 'macchina di Santa Rosa' on its annual transport through old Viterbo (the 'ciuffi' are the key facchini who insure the equilibrium of the tower during the transport).

In place of the Pope, Cardinal Vallini distributed Communion. because, the Pope's personal physicain, Dr. Patrizio Polisca explained, the Pope wrist is still healing, and it was not advisable for him at this point to perform the repeated motion of drawing the host from the ciborium and placing it on the tongue of the communicant.

Polisca added that rehabilitation therapy to recocver full functionality of the wrist has begun but will take a few weeks.

"The act of taking the consecrated hope from the ciborium and offering it to the communicant is a gesture that requires full functionality to make sure the Host does not fall," he also explained.

After leading the Angelus with the congregation, the Pope left Viterbo for the Shrine of the Madonna della Quercia on its outskirts, where he lunched with the bishops of Lazio.

After a brief rest, he met with the cloistered nuns of the diocese and prayed with them in front of the miraculous image of the Madonna, declared patron saint of the consolidated diocese when John Paul I created it in 1986.


With regular nuns at the Basilica of the Madonna della Quercia.

The coming days will tell what the few hours spent in Viterbo by the Pope will mean for the diocese.

The impression gathered from those who left the Mass was that of a diocesan Church which wished to show the Pope a people firmly rooted in human and Christian values, who look to the future while jealously guarding their traditions.

The Pope came at a particular time in the pastoral life of the diocese in order to confirm all Catholics in their faith, as the visit motto says, but also to provide a moment of reflection on the great crises of our time in order to be very clear about the values the faithful need in order to go forward.




At the Co-Cathedral of San Nicola in Bagnoregio.

The Pope's afternoon
in Bonaventure's hometown
with a people who live on history
by Mario Ponzi
Translated from



A faith that is a friend to intelligence in order to restore wings to hope. This was the message that Benedict XVI left the faithful of Bagnoregio at the end of a day spent among the people of Upper Lazio, as they face the future.

The Pope spoke this time in the birthplace of St. Bonaventure, to a community that inhabits a jewelbox of history and art, culture and traditions, epitomized by the ancient city where time seems to have stopped, on the rock that dominates the territory.


Civita di Bagnoregio: online stock photos, not provided by OR.

The Civita di Bagnoregio, cultural patrimony of humanity, a unique marvel sui generis, is now called 'the dying city', because the tufaceous outcropping over clay on which it was built is eroding very slowly but inexorably. Unstable terrain, and by its very nature, exposed to the erosive action on the tufaceous rock and clay leaves 'peaks' among the furrows called 'calanchi'.

Over the past few centuries, the people gradually filtered out from the old 'city on the hill' to the stable plain below, in the city also called Bagnoregio, bearing the collective memory of the Civita.

It is almost superfluous to dwell on the enthusiasm with which the citizens of this medieval burgh welcomed the Pope. For them it was an exceptional occasion that was celebrated with great joy.

Mayor Biagiotti, greeting the Pope, recalled that despite the impressive historical links of the region to the Popes, none of the 50 Popes who visited Viterbo had ever been to Bagnoregio, although Pius IX passed through on a visit to northern Lazio.

The passage of the Popemobile through the narrow streets of the town, with Vatican flags and images of St. Bonaventure hanging from windows and balconies along the route, was very emotional. Welcome signs were everywhere, some even written in Latin.

After a brief visit to the Co-Cathedral of San Nicola to venerate the relic of St. Bonaventure (the 'Holy Arm') and to admire the so-called St. Bonaventure Bible dating to the second half of the 13th century, the Pope emerged to Piazza San'Agostino, where a stage had been set up in front of the monument to St. Bonaventure, for the Pope's encounter with the townspeople.


Left, The mayor of Bagnoregio presented the commune's gift to the Holy Father - a commissioned sculpture of St. Bonaventure. Right, the Pope addresses the townsfolk.


"(This is) a community that is very much alive," said Mayor Biagotti in formally welcoming the Pope, "which is aware of being immersed in a current of life that comes to us from remote times, and carrying in itself the history, the culture, the tradition of hard work, and the spiritual moral and civic qualities deriving from such legacy".

Our people are gentle, Bigiotti said, and "like the calanchi that surround us in the east, they mark the passage of time by showing to all their wounded yielding sides" while at the same time, they are "tenacious like the underlying basalt whose reassuring solidity we have felt through the centuries".

"And what will Bagnoregio be in the future?" he asked. In answer, he quoted from the city's illustrious saint, "If life is a journey, it means that we must orient all our steps towards a tomorrow that we must begin to construct today".

In his own address, Benedict XVI picked up on the mayor's question: "Indeed, we all ask ourselves abour our future and that of the world, a question that has everything to do with hope."

But it must be a 'reliable hope', which can give us "the certainty of reaching a great goal that justifies the effort of the journey", as he wrote in the encyclical Spe salvi: "Only this great hope-certainty assures us that, notwithstanding the failures of personal life and the contradictions of history in general, the indestructible power of love will always protect us."

St. Bonaventure's example should therefore serve to help us today 'open wide the wings of hope" and be, like him, "searchers of God, singers of the beauty of creation, and witnesses to that love and beauty which 'make everything move'".

A brief greeting to the authorities present, some moments spent with the sick and disabled, and the Pope then left for the improvised heliport to fly back to Castel Gandolfo.




I must say I am not a fan of the Italian style of news reporting which I find too impressionistic, rather superficial, and often not exhaustive. It is an odd mix of objective fact and random flights of fancy prose, instead of the straightforward reporting of an event, spiced by local color and detail where necessary, that I learned in American-style journalism.

The Italian style is an awkward mix, and is even more awkward in the hands of the OR reporters, whose only advantage is that they sometimes have details that are not reported elsewhere - though not too many in the case of the Viterbo-Bagnoregio visit.

Also - even if it's a colossal bore and almost a waste of time to translate OR stories (it takes time and great effort to shape their reports into a reasonably readable news story while trying to be as faithful as possible to the language and construction used, so how I welcome it when the story is an interview instead!) - it's good to go on record with how the Pope's newspaper reports on the Pope, so 'gladly the cross I bear'!

Of course, most of the time, it is done without an accompanying story, merely the full papal text from an event in both the original language or languages it is delivered, as well as its Italian translation. That is the greatest service that OR does. The translations of these texts in the Vatican's official languages subsequently appear in the following weekly OR published in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, and once a month, in Polish.

There are, of course, the occasional editorials about the Pope and his messages and actions, but the news reports as such only come when he makes these pastoral visits or apostolic trips abroad, brief reports when he is on vacation, and exceptional stories as when he fractured his wrist.

What the OR needs is someone like Dino Boffo (without his baggage), a genuine and talented journalist who made Avvenire into the admirable newspaper it is today). And that expresses all my disappointment after almost two years in Giovanni Maria Vian, an academic who has really tailored his brand of journalism to the exigencies of the Secretariat of State.

BTW, the only reason I have not been able to use Avvenire as often as I want to is that since it changed its online viewing platform to an elaborate PPF set-up, it has not always been technically accessible, and if I cannot access it the first time I try to do so during the day, I often do not have the time to go back to it later. It's a pity because they often have very good graphics that are worth using to illustrate current reports about the Church (or secular news, for that matter).

The Pope and his catecheses
by Fr. Massimo Camisasca
Translated from

Sept. 7, 2009


Fr. Camisasca, born 1946 and ordained in 1975, has been the Superior-General of Comunione e Liberazione's Fraternity of the Missionaries of San Carlo Borromeo since 1985. Since 1992, he has written at least 22 books on religion, theology and the C&L movement.


Pope Benedict XVI has resumed speaking, during his general audiences, of the history of the Church through its saints and its most important teachers. Last Wednesday, he spoke on St. Odon, the second abbot of Cluny.

I wish to offer some reflections not on the contents, but on the method of these lessons. It seems to me that the Pope's objective is to allow the historical dimension of truth to shine forth. By showing us how it is born or is discovered and then affirmed in the lives of these exemplary men, he makes us grasp what truth is in a more effective manner that any abstract argumentation.

It is not by chance that the protagonist of the last catechesis [and so many other catecheses and lectures of Benedict XVI] was medieval monasticism - perhaps the most striking example in human history of what truth has to do with history itself.

Truth is to be found in any life that generates history. And that is what the monks have taught us: how truth gives form to history.

But one must be careful: nothing can be farther from the truth than that religion is an instrumentum regni, an instrument to rule. Civilian religion [secularism?], significantly born within the movements of the French Revolution, is the exact opposite of monasticism.

Indeed it was born as the expression of a State, a political power, which wished to put together some common values on which to construct civil coexistence.

An acute plan, certainly astute, but which has nothing to do with the life of St. Odon, say. Again, it is not by chance that it was the very descendants of the Revolution of 1789 who transformed Cluny into a stone cave. [???? The abbey was sacked and practically destroyed totally during the French Revolution.]

Monks felt they were the objects of a love that 'condemned sin and loved the sinner' - and from this experience, a new civilization was born in time, like ripe fruit from a tree.

They did not live together to cultivate a plan to change the world, but living within the light brought by Christ, they made the world around them flower.

This is really the basic theme even of the Holy Father's last encyclical, Caritas in veritate.

If we are no longer able to live the experience that generated that passion for man in the medieval monks. we must resign ourselves to imitate or seek to reproduce that love - in which case, the copy would be stillborn.

Monasticism is as far from using faith as an instrumentum regni, as capitalism is far from appreciating the work of the monastery, nor the 'communism' of the communal life in Cluny, nor the monk's readiness to help the sick man in whom he sees Christ.

Today, the fruits of that life, which marked the birth and development of European civilization, are seen by contemporary men as a provocation.

Admiring, the faithful can see the Spirit in that work and be comforted in his faith. Looking back on it, the non-believer may find his curiosity awakened and take the great step from the fruits to the tree that generated these fruits.

[The conclusion being, from the premise of the article, that this is how last Wednesday's particular catechesis leads the attentive listener to appreciate the truths concretely expressed in the monastic life.



Of course, the definitive lecture on monasticism and the inestimable and incredibly wide-ranging consequences of the monks' humble search for God was Benedict XVI's address to the French world of culture at the College des Bernardins in Paris almost one year ago.]

Tuesday, Sept. 8

THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Illustrations: From left, Icon (10th-cent.);Domenico Beccafumi, 1543; Master Bertram of Minden, c. 1500; Esteban Murillo, 1658.



OR for 9/7/-9/8/09:


OR's full reportage of Benedict XVI's pastoral visit to Viterbo and Bagnoregio [described in yesterday's post on this page); Page 1
has a story on the Nativity of Mary in the Byzantine tradition, illustrated by the icon on the extreme left of the 'feast day strip'
above. Other Page 1 stories: The Pope's address to the bishops of Western Brazil (Full translation posted on this page last night);
and Israel decides to proceed with all new settlement projects already underway in the West Bank.



No events scheduled for the Holy Father today.

Robert Moynihan lost no time to write an appreciation of the Holy Father's discourse on Bonaventure and hope in Bagnoregio Sunday evening.


On outspread wings:
Benedict in Bagnoregio
By Robert Moynihan




ROME, SEPT. 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Sometimes we think that physical problems, material problems, are the most important ones.

This is because they are so evident to us, right in front of our eyes. Rain is coming, we need a roof; winter is coming, we need to store food; a baby has a fever, we need medicine, anything, to break the fever.

But if we look through the Gospels, and if we consider our own lives, we begin to recognize that our most serious problems are spiritual ones.

And this is why we see Jesus going beyond physical healing, going beyond healing the blind and the deaf -- something we read about in Sunday's Gospel reading (Mark 7:34), when he spoke the Aramaic word “Ephphatha” (“Be opened”), and the deaf man’s ears were opened.

(There are just three occasions where Mark records Jesus speaking in Aramaic; here; when Jesus says “Talitha cum” -- Little girl, get up! -- in Mark 5:41; and at the crucifixion (Mark 15:34), when Jesus cries out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani!” -- My God, My God, why have you forsaken me).

This is why we see Jesus forgive sins.

Because falling into sin leads to despair, and to death. Sin is the heavy burden Jesus sets out to remove from the shoulders of men, from the hearts of men.

And his forgiveness of sins is, above all, what outrages the religious leaders of his time – because God alone can forgive sins.

Jesus brought hope. He brought hope to the blind, and deaf, and dying, and even raised the dead. He also brought hope to sinners, to people who were spiritually dead. He brought hope of new life to people who had fallen short, failed and despaired.

Benedict XVI is the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of Peter.

As such, his mission, in the deepest sense, is simply that of bringing hope.

Benedict conceives of his own mission this way, as a mission to bring hope to a world which, despite so much external wealth and power, is spiritually impoverished.

It is a mission to bring meaning to those many who have come to believe life no longer has meaning.

And this is the great blow Benedict strikes in the battle between the “culture of life” and the “culture of death.” He strikes a blow on behalf of meaning, on behalf of the true “Logos” who is meaning itself. And in so doing, Benedict brings hope to the hopeless.

On Sunday afternoon, Pope Benedict was in the little Italian hill town of Bagnoregio, the birthplace of St. Bonaventure, to continue this ongoing mission.

And, in his homily Sunday afternoon, he made a reference to hope which is strikingly beautiful, and worth remembering.

Bonaventure lived in the 1200s, the so-called High Middle Ages when Europe was building the great cathedrals, and establishing the great universities, which still astonish and benefit us today.

Bonaventure was born in 1221 and lived only until 1274, but in that brief half-century of life, he became, arguably, one of the very great Catholic theologians of all time.

Sunday, Benedict XVI celebrated Bonaventure as a messenger of hope.

The Holy Father spoke about how Giovanni Fidanza -- Bonaventure’s baptismal name -- became “Fra Bonaventura,” a Franciscan friar, and eventually the minister-general of the Franciscan Order, which was attempting to renew the Christian faith of that time by a commitment to total poverty.

“It isn’t easy to summarize the rich philosophical, theological and mystical doctrine handed down to us by St. Bonaventure,” Benedict said. But, he added, if he had to choose a phrase, it was that Bonaventure found a “wisdom rooted in Christ.”

Bonaventure, he said, oriented every step of his thought toward “a wisdom that blooms into holiness.”

Bonaventure, the Pope affirmed, “was a tireless seeker of God” from the time he was a student in Paris until the very end of his life, and his writings indicated the path this search should take.

“Because God is above,” Bonaventure said in his De reductione artium ad theologiam (On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology), “it is necessary that the mind raise itself to Him with all its strength.”

But how can the human mind do this? Can our minds, by study and reflection, truly draw near to God?

Bonaventure, the Pope said, believed that study and reflection alone were not sufficient. Study must be accompanied by grace, Bonaventure taught, science by love, intelligence by humility (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, prol. 4).

“This journey of purification involves the whole person so that the person can, through Christ, reach the transforming love of the Trinity,” Benedict XVI explained. “Faith is thus the perfection of our cognitive faculties. Hope is thus a preparation for the encounter with the Lord. And love thus introduces us into the divine life, by bringing us to consider all men our brothers.”

Then the Pontiff spoke specifically about hope.

“St. Bonaventure was the messenger of hope,” he said. “We find a striking image of hope in one of his homilies for Advent, where he compares the movement of hope to the flight of a bird, who spreads his wings as widely as possible, and uses all of his strength to move them. His whole being, in a certain sense, becomes movement in order to rise up and fly.

“To hope is to fly, St. Bonaventure tells us,” the Pope continued. “But hope demands that all parts of our being become movement and turn toward the true depth of our being, toward the promises of God. He who hopes, Bonaventure affirms, ‘must lift his head, turning his thoughts toward what is high, that is, toward God.’ (Sermo XVI, Dominica I Adv., Opera omnia, IX, 40a).”

The Pope ended this way: “Every human heart is thirsty for hope. In my encyclical "Spe Salvi," I noted, however, that some types of hope are not sufficient to face and overcome the difficulties of the present. What is needed is a ‘certain hope’ which, because it gives us the certainty that we will reach a ‘great’ goal, justifies the effort of the journey.

“Only this great and certain hope assures us that, despite the failures of our personal lives and the contradictions of history as a whole, the ‘indestructible power of Love’ always protects us.

“When such a hope supports us, we never risk losing the courage to contribute, as the saints have done, to the salvation of humanity, opening ourselves and the world to the entrance of God -- of truth, of love, of light (cf. Spe salvi, No. 35).

“May St. Bonaventure help us to ‘spread the wings’ of that hope that enables us to be, like him, incessant seekers after God, singers of the beauty of creation, and witnesses to that Love and that Beauty that ‘moves all things.’”

If we follow the teaching of Benedict, and of Bonaventure, and focus our seeking on the “certain hope” announced by Jesus Christ, we too can give our souls the wings they need to fly, though all the trials of this world afflict us, and then we can soar, as birds do, by setting our entire being into motion, and becoming, as it were, that very hope which we await with such longing.

The Pope speaks to Santa Rosa
by Nicola Moncada
Translated from

Sept. 6, 2009




The impression was quite clear. The Pope, standing next to her, spoke with Rosa. The longuage, not earthly, was inaudible to those present. Nonetheless, eloquent.

And something happened - between the Pope who, after venerating her remains, walked up to her urn, almost caressing it with his hand, and the saint who, eight centuries ago, became a humble 'handmaid of Christ'.

The Pope, motionless, head inclined slightly, contemplated the saint. And it was as though, through the glass, there was someone watching over this face-to-face in which something seemed to pass between the two interlocutors.

Words that cannot be said in a human language, but which, in another 'order' of reality, was a long discourse. Very tender, subdued, firm.

It was only minutes earlier that the Pope entered the Shrine. He was welcomed by the Poor Clares [who run the Clarisse monastery of Santa Rosa), their Mother Superior and little girls aspiring to become novices.

Next to the Pope, discreetly stepping aside, or providing information when necessary, was the Bishop of Viterbo, Mons. Lorenzo Chiarinelli.

In a church that was silent, near-empty but 'engrossed', the Pope knelt. And prayed.

After that, he rose to meet the saint. Then, he stopped to look at her heart in a reliquary to the right of the urn.





On the left, a table. On it, a brand new papal zucchetto in a box, handmade by the Poor Clares [He wore it briefly, then left it to them as a memento); a parchment with the sisters' petition for the Pope's Apostolic Blessing; and an impressive historical document: an old parchment about half a meter long and several centimers wide, on which, in Rosa's time, or shortly thereafter, an anonymous chronicler had written the manuscript now known as 'Vita I' - the first written story of the saint. The original, one might say. (In Vita II, othere miracles were attributed to Rosa - those familiar from Franciscan tradition.)

That parchment also has the first image of Rosa - a rather stylized sketch - a face that is tender and rapt, with a slightly prominent chin, her eyes downcast.

It is very moving, this Vita I, which is normally kept jealously in the archive of the Basilica, and whose lines still seem to emit the spiritual effusion of the saint.

Afterwards, before leaving the Basilica, the Pope was presented with a a delegation of 'mini-facchini' [children aspiring to become facchini, or 'bearers' of the saint's legendary Macchina when they come of age].



The Pope, not bound by protocol, showed his great humanity with the children. he spoke to them like a father, but also, like one of them.


From the Monastery's brochure: John Paul II venerates the Rose of Viterbo during his 1984 pastoral visit.


Images of Santa Rosa: Below left, the sketch found in Vita-I; right, a 1999 anthropological reconstruction of what Rosa could have looked like at age 17 - scientists worked with the anthropometric data from her mummified body.

NB: I have been unable to find any information online o8 when and how and why the body became mummified.

Wednesday, Sept. 9

ST. PEDRO CLAVER
(b Spain, 1581, d Colombia, 1654)
Jesuit missionary
Patron saint of slaves



OR today.

No papal stories in this issue. Page 1 stories:
Taliban car-bomb strikes international force
headquarters at Kabul airport; IAEA says Iran
never suspended its uranium enrichment program;
new hope for resumption of six-nation negotiations
with North Korea on nuclear disarmament of
the Korean peninsula.



THE POPE'S DAY
General Audience today - The Holy Father's catechesis was on St. Pier (Peter) Damiani (1007-1072),
a Doctor of the Church (Doctor of Reform and Renewal).

The Holy Father met this morning in a meeting room of the Aula Paolo VI with
- Mme. Asha-Rose Migiro, Vice-Secretary Genereal of the United Nations.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY


At the General Audience held at the Aula Paolo VI this morning, Pope Benedict XVI devoted his catechesis to St. Pier Damiani (Peter Damian), a medieval Italian monk who is one of the 33 Doctors of the Church.

Here is how he summarized the catechesis in English:

---

In our catechesis on the Christian writers of East and West, we turn to Saint Peter Damian, who was born in Ravenna at the beginning of the eleventh century and became an accomplished writer and Latinist.

His fine sensitivity made him excel in poetry and enabled him to see the world as a parable, full of symbolic references to the supernatural, leading him to embrace as a mature man a monastic vocation at Fonte Avellana, founded not long before.

He was fascinated by the salvific mystery of the cross of Christ and promoted as the fullness of Christian living a form of monasticism noted for its austerity.

Nourished by a mystical understanding of Scripture, Saint Peter Damian enjoyed precise theological insights especially into the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, our union with Christ, and the Church as a communion, from which he derived practical advice for living in charity with others.

In 1057 he accepted the office of Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and assisted the Pope with courage and dedication in the reform of the Church of his time. After ten years he was granted his wish to return to his monastery and continued to serve the Church with prayer and action until his holy death in 1072.

May the example and intercession of Saint Peter Damian, my dear Brothers and Sisters, inspire and renew us in our love of Christ and his Church.

---

Here is a full translation of the catechesis:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

During these Wednesday catecheses, I have been speaking about the great figures in the life of the Church from her beginnings. Today, I wish to dwell on one of the most significant personalities of the 11th century, San Pier Damiani, monk, lover of solitude, but also an intrepid man of the Church, directly involved in the reforms carried out by the Popes in his time.

He was born in Ravenna in 1007 to a noble but impoverished family. Orphaned of both parents, his infancy was not without privations and suffering, even if his sister Roselinda became a mother to him, and his older brother Damiano adopted him as a son. That is why he came to be Piero di Damiano, Pier Damiani.

He was educated first in Faenza and then in Parma, where at age 26, we learn that he was a teacher.

Along with competence in the field of law, he acquired refined expertise in the art of composition, ars scribendi, and thanks to his knowledge of the great Latin classics, he became "one of the best Latinists of his time, and one of the greatest writers of the Latin Middle Ages" (J. Leclercq, Pierre Damien, ermite et homme d’Église, Roma 1960, p. 172).

He distinguished himself in the most diverse literary genres: from letters to sermons, hagiographies to prayers, poems adn epigrams. His sensitivity to beauty led him to a poetic contemplation of the world.

Pier Damiani conceived the universe as an inexhaustible 'parable' and an expanse of symbols from which one could interpret interior life as well as divine and supernatural reality.

In this perspective, around 1034, his contemplation of the absolute in God led him to progressively detach himself from the world and its ephemeral realities, to retire to the monastery of Fonte Avellana, which had been founded a few decades earlier, but was already famous for its austerity.

Fonte Avellana is located in Serra Sant'Abbondio, a town 60 kms west of Ancona in the Marche region of Italy.

For the edification of the monks, he wrote the life of the founder, St. Romualdo of Ravenna, and at the same time, engaged himself in a deeper knowledge of spirituality by espousing his ideal of eremitic monasticism.

One thing must be underscored right away: the hermit of Fonte Avellana was dedicated to the Holy Cross, and the Cross would be the Christian mystery which would fascinate Pier Damiani more than any other.

"Whoever does not love the Cross does not love Christ", he said (Sermo XVIII, 11, p. 117), and described himself as "Petrus crucis Christi servorum famulus – Peter, servant of the servants of the Cross of Christ" (Ep, 9, 1).

Pier Damiani devoted beautiful orations to the Cross, in which he reveals a vision of this mystery which has cosmic dimensions because it embraced the entire history of salvation:

"Oh blessed Cross!" he exclaimed, "you are venerated, preached and honored by the faith of the patriarchs, the predictions of the prophets, the 'senato giudicanti' [judicial Senate???] of the apostles, the victorious army of the martyrs, and the ranks of all the saints" (Sermo XLVIII, 14, p. 304).

Dear brothers and sisters, the example of San Pier Damiani urges us to always look at the Cross as the supreme act of God's love for mankind, in giving us salvation.

For the pursuit of the eremitic life, this great monk prepared a Rule in which he forcefully underscored the 'rigorous life of the hermit': in the silence of the cloister, the monk is called on to live a life of prayer, day and night, with prolonged and severe fasts; he must exercise generous fraternal charity as well as ready and ever-willing obedience to his prior.

In study and daily meditation of Sacred Scripture, Pier Damiani discovered the mystical significance of the Word of God, finding nourishment for his spiritual life. In this sense, he described the monk's cell as a 'parlor where God converses with men'.

For him, the hermit's life was the peak of Christian living, and "the culmination of the stages of life", because the monk, who is free of ties to the world and to himself, receives "a deposit of the Holy Spirit, and his soul happily joins its heavenly Spouse" (Ep 18, 17; cfr Ep 28, 43 ss.).

This is important for us today even if we are not monks: to know how to be silent in order to listen to the voice of God; to seek, so to say, a 'parlor' where God can speak to us: To learn the Word of God in prayer and meditation is the way of life.

San Pier Damiani, who was essentially a man of prayer, meditation and contemplation, was also a refined theologian: his reflections on various doctrinal subjects led him to important conclusions about life.

Thus, for instance, he explains with clarity and liveliness the trinitarian doctrine, already employing - from his knowledge of Biblical and patristic texts - the three fundamental terms which would later become definitive even for Western philosophy: processio, relatio and persona (cfr Opusc. XXXVIII: PL CXLV, 633-642; e Opusc. II e III: ibid., 41ss e 58ss).

Because his theological analysis of the Trinity led him to contemplate the intimate life of God and the ineffable dialog of love among the three Divine Persons, he drew from such analysis ascetic conclusions for living in community, and for the relationships among Latin and Greek [Orthodox] Christians who were divided on this issue.

Even his meditation on the figure of Christ had significant practical implications since all of Scripture is centered around him. The "Jewish people' themselves, he noted, "have virtually carried Christ on their shoulders, through the pages of the Holy Scripture". (Sermo XLVI,15).

Thus, he adds, Christ should be at the center of the monk's life: "Christ should be heard in our speech, Christ should be seen in our life, Christ should be perceived in our heart" (Sermo VIII,5).

Intimate union with Christ should involve not only monks, but all who have been baptized. And we find in this a strong exhortation to us not to allow ourselves to be totally absorbed in the activities, problems and concerns of everyday, forgetting that Jesus should really be the center of our life.

Communion with Christ creates a unity of love among Christians. In his Letter #28, which is a brilliant treatise on ecclesiology, Pier Damiani develops a profound theology of the Church as communion.

"The Church of Christ," he wrote, "is united by the bond of charity to such a point that, since it is one in many members, mystically it is entirely present in each single member. That is why the entire universal Church is rightly called the only Spouse of Christ, in the singular, and each soul elected by virtue of the sacramental mystery [Baptism]must be considered as fully the Church.".

This is important: Not only is the entire universal Church united, but in each of us, the Church must be present in its totality. Thus the service of the individual becomes "an expression of universality" (Ep 28, 9-23).

Nonetheless, the ideal image of the 'holy Church' illustrated by Pier Damiani did not correspond - and he knew this well - to the reality of his time.

That is why he was not afraid to denounce the state of corruption that existed in monasteries and in the clergy, above all because of the practice lay authorities of conferring investitures to ecclesiastical office. Many bishops and abbots therefore acted as governors of their own subjects rather than pastors of souls. Not uncommonly, their moral life left much to be desired.

Thus, with great sorrow and pain, Pier Damiani left the monastery to accept, although with difficulty, his nomination to be Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. In this way, he entered into full collaboration with the Popes in the none-too-easy undertaking of reforming the Church.

He saw that it was not enough to contemplate, and had to renounce the beauty of contemplation to bring his own contribution to the work of renewing the Church. Thus, he renounced the beauty of the hermit's life, and courageously undertook numerous trips and missions.

But given his love of monastic life, he obtained permission ten years later to return to Fonte Avellana, giving up the Diocese of Ostia. But his longed-for quiet was short-lived. Two years later, he was sent to Frankfurt in an attempt to prevent the divorce of Henry IV from his wife Bertha; and again, two years after that, in 1071, he went to Montecassino for the consecration of the Abbey church, and at the start of 1072, he went to Ravenna to re-establish peace with the local Archbishop who had supported an Anti-Pope, leading to an interdict on the city.

On his return trip to his hermitage, an unexpected illness forced him to stop at Faenza in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria fuori Porta [outside the gate], where he died on the night of February 22-23, 1072.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is a great grace that in the life of teh Church, the Lord inspired such an exuberant, rich and complex personality as San Pier Damiani. It is uncommon to find works of theology and spirituality as acute and lively as those from the hermit of Fonte Avellana.

He was a monk to the very core, exercising forms of austerity which may seem excessive to us today. But in that way, he made monastic life an eloquent testimony of the primacy of God and a call to everyone to journey towards holiness, free of any compromise with evil.

With lucid consistency and great severity, he spent himself for the reform of the Church in his time. He gave all his spiritual and physical energies to Christ and to the Church, always remaining, however, as he liked to call himself, Petrus ultimus monachorum servus, Peter, servant of the monks.


In his pluri-lingual greetings after the catechesis, the Holy Father had a special message for the Czechs, fifteen days before his apostolic trip to the Czech Republic on Sept, 26-28:

A cordial greeting to the group of pilgrims from Krnov and Prague. I thank you for your prayersm as I await with joy my visit to your country. I gladly bless all of you Praised be Jesus Christ!


In his Italian greeting, he addressed Coldiretti, Italy's largest confederation of regional and provincial federations, as well as local and district farmers' organizations, representing more than 500,000 agricultural businesses:

I greet the ecclesiastical advisers, the officials and rerpesentatives of Coldiretti, and I encourage you to continue your commitment to social and spiritual service in the agricultural sector.

May your conference at this time be an occasion to reaffirm ethical principles in the economy in order to revive hope through solidarity.

---

Pope cites Pier Damiani:
'Learn to be silent
in order to hear God's voice'



Vatican City.Sept. 9 (AsiaNews) – We must not allow ourselves to become absorbed by daily activities and problems of life, "forgetting that Jesus must be central to our life”, we must learn to" know how to be silent in ourselves to hear the voice of God".

This lesson on the "supremacy of God" comes from the life and work of St. Pier Damiani (Peter Damian), Doctor of the Church, the "exuberant personality" illustrated by Benedict XVI to 8,000 people present today in the Paul VI for the general audience.

Writer, Latin scholar, poet, "personally committed to the reform undertaken by the popes" in the eleventh century, but above all a monk, Pier Damiani was born in Ravenna in 1007.

An orphan from an early age, his childhood "was not without pain. He received his formation first at Faenza and then Parma. He became a teacher, competent in law and had a "refined skill in the art of composition", being "one of the best Latinists of his time".

His "poetic contemplation of the world”, pushed him to leave it in 1034, when he entered the recently founded monastery of Fonte Avellana. He described the life of the founder St. Romuald of Ravenna, and "especially the ideal of monastic hermitage”.

The Pope recalled that the hermit was dedicated to the Holy Cross, “the Christian mystery that fascinated him more than all others".

"Those who do not love the Cross - he would say - do not love Christ..He dedicated beautiful reflections to it”, enhancing "the cosmic dimensions that embrace the whole history of salvation

"His example urges us to always regard the cross as the supreme act of God for man, who gave us salvation."

In Fonte Avellana, Pier Damiani also drafted the rule that "in the silence of the cloister, monks are called to a life of prayer," of "fasting", of "brotherly love", and "availability to the superior".

He emphasized the "mystical meanings of the Word of God", he defined the cell as a "parlour where God converses with man”.

"This is still important for those of us who are not monks: knowing how to make silence within, to hear the voice of God...In prayer and meditation we learn the Word of God in the path of life”, he wrote.

In his theological work Pier Damiani "sets out with clarity and brilliance the doctrine of the Trinity" and describes the Church as Communion, "the Church is united by the bond of charity" and "the whole universal Church is rightly called the only bride of Christ, in the singular” .

He was aware, however, that "this ideal image does not match the reality of his time; he does not hesitate to denounce the corruption that exists in the monasteries and the clergy in particular the practice of conferring on secular authorities the investiture of ecclesiastical offices. Several bishops and abbots behaved more like governors of subjects than pastors of souls".

So in 1057 he accepted an appointment as Cardinal of Ostia and began working with the popes in the reform of the Church. "He renounced the beauty of the Hermitage and courageously undertook numerous journeys and missions”.

Ten years later returned to Fonte Avellana. But only two years later he wass sent to Frankfort to avert a divorce between Henry IV and Bertha. Then to Monte Cassino and finally Ravenna. In 1072 on his return from this mission, he died.

"It is a great grace," Benedict XVI said, "that God raised such an exuberant personality in the life of the Church."

"He was a monk to the end," he concluded, "with forms of austerity that today might seem excessive, and thus made monastic life an eloquent testimony to the primacy of God", but he is "a reminder to all to walk towards holiness free from any compromise with evil", not to "be entirely absorbed by the activities, problems and worries of every day, forgetting that Jesus must be truly in the centre of our lives".





Before the General Audience, the Holy Father had a private meeting with Madame Asha Migir, a deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

To understand the Pope's position
in the Berlusconi-Boffo case,
read 'Caritas in veritate'
by Bruno Mastroianni
Translated from

Sept. 9, 2009


There's something unseemly about the way the newspapers hasten to find in his words, gestures and any sign whatsoever a possible indication of what the Pope thinks about the recent media tempest [over Dino Boffo, Avvenire and what the Italian Prime Minister may have had to do with the Il Giornale article that accused Boffo of questionable morals].

Various analyses have speculated on everything: the deterioration of the relationship between the Church in Italy and the present government; a settling of accounts between the Italian bishops' conference (CEI) and the Vatican Secretariat of State; even fantasizing over a possible 'great center' (political) in the future.

But one cannot find an answer at this level. If one really wishes to see what Papa Ratzinger has in mind these days, one must aim higher!

For instance, by re-reading the paragraph in Caritas in veritate that is dedicated to the significance of the mass media.

It says that in order to make a genuine contribution to human development, the media should be "animated by charity and in the service of truth, of goodness, and of natural as well as supernatural brotherhood".

Because otherwise, the Pope says, media risk being subordinate to "economic calculation, aimed at dominating the markets, and not the least, the desire to impose functional cultural parameters on activities that have ideological and political power".

In the face of what has been happening in Italy, it is difficult to believe that Benedict XVI could only be concerned with an equilibrium between the Vatican and the political world, or on the power dynamics between the Roman Curia and the Italian bishops - the aspects that have preoccupied the media.

[How true! Even the most reputable commentators have not seen beyond the political implications - intra-Church and between the Vatican and Berlusconi's government - of the case, to the pastoral and spiritual perspective of the Bishop of Rome and Primate of Italy.]

In all likelihood, the Pope sees once more how much our over-mediatized world needs to recover a sense of proportion, first of all, even before grasping the ultimate significance of current events.

Ah, but then, the media never has a sense of proportion when it concerns the Church and the Pope! Nothing negative involving the Church or an individual Catholic is too trivial not to be blown up into major scandal whenever and wherever possible.

Worse yet, they use a different set of standards for the Church and its followers than they do for any other institution, organization or private individual, much less for other religions (especially, not the Muslims or Jews!) - movable 'standards' that are arbitrarily adjusted as needed to cast the Church and Roman Catholics in the worst possible light.

In concrete terms, it is not difficult to imagine that the Pope would like the whole truth [the fashionable term is 'transparency'] - as opposed to half-truths, insinuations, deductions and speculations - to be reported in the media about Berlusconi, Il Giornale, Feltri, Boffo, Avvenire and the CEI; while distinguishing the sin from the sinner, as Christian charity dictates.

Truth is really the ultimate charity in media matters - one must be objective with facts and write in good faith, so that good things are appropriately credited and wrong things may be redressed.

This week's issue of TEMPI, also has this provocative article about a question that Italian media have largely ignored as an issue in the Church, because of their general sympathy for the liberal positions affirmed every now and then by the emeritus archbishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini.

I would conjecture that perhaps there is some element of deference to his age in all this, except that the media have not shown any deference to Pope Benedict XVI at all for that reason! (Martini is just two months older than the Holy Father).

The item properly belongs to ISSUES or the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, but the issue here is basically public adherence - or lack of it - to the Magisterium of the Church, as represented in part by what the Holy Father says, by an eminent representative of the Church.

If a Cardinal, once considered a papabile, can be so openly - and scandalously, in the sense that the Catechism uses the word scandal - defiant of the Magisterium, no wonder a preening priet in Linz flaunts his far-from-celibate life even as he mocks the Holy Father's 'conservatism'.

If only for that, Cardinal Martini should think long and hard about his part of the responsibility for open dissidence in the clergy, as he has pursued his uninterrupted ego trip for decades now in defiance of two Popes. And I say ego trip because he has acted as though the rules of the Church do not apply to him.


A professional question
for Martini, the cardinal
who 'blesses' an anti-life
politician and his work
By the Editors
Translated from

Sept. 9, 2009


"Go to hell, dear colleagues. We will all see each other down there". Those were perhaps the most convincing words written by Vittorio Feltri in the wake of the storm stirred up his now infamous 'scoop'. [Feltri is the editor of Il Giornale, who cooked up the vicious attack on Dino Boffo by mixing up objective fact with anonymous defamatory information and his own tendentious judgment of Boffo's morality.]

Feltri rejoices in exposing the hyprocrisy of his colleagues. But he has always been that way - he does not pretend - although he has now become a tragic figure in our profession.

"Enough with the poetry", he said, for instance, reproaching Gad Lerner [Jewish italian journalist and TV host], when Feltri did us the favor of presenting the first issue of TEMPI at the Meeting in Rimini in August 1995. "Our business is to sell newspapers. Period."

Mutatis mutandi, what is the business (or profession) of Carlo Maria Martini?

Is he not a Biblical scholar and a pastor in the Catholic Church? Then why has he written a very flattering introduction for a book-manifesto of Ignazio Marino in the latter's bid to become head of the Partito Democrata [new leftist party born earlier this year, which lost badly to Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition in the parliamentary elections]?

Everyone knows Marino advocated euthanasia for Eluana Englaro, and has openly said he questions the actual relevance of Catholic church teachings on life and death issues.

A true believer in so-called individual self-determination, Marino represents the unconditional surrender of 'weak thinking' - perhaps as a result of being too parochial ideologically - to the dominant radical philosophy of self-possession/self-sufficiency and total immanentism [in which nothing can possibly transcend material things verifiable by the senses].

Marino is a 'meek Pannelliano', taking on all the ethical battles that surround Marco Pannella [leader of the Italian Radical Party] who is a Capaneus [in Greek mythology, an arrogant king who defied Zeus to stop him from invading Thebes] intent on lecturing God and every Church which is not his own voluble and rarefied conscience.

Why then has Cardinal Martini positioned himself for hosannas from the ministers of radicalism? Why does a Prince of the Church give his blessing to an aspiring political leader whose draft legislation on biological wills would allow euthanasia to creep into legitimacy?

We know what Feltri's profession is. But what does the emeritus Archbishop of Milan really profess?


The article does not mention that Marino was Martini's interlocutor in that infamous long interview in 2006 for L'Espresso, in which Martini advocated bioethical positions contrary to the Magisterium, such as denying that a fertilized egg could be considered a human being, advocating adoption by gay couples, and under certain conditions, favoring some forms of artificial procreation and the use of condoms by married couples.

On euthanasia, he notes that "this can never be approved by the Church" but says he sympathizes with those who, for various reasons, decide on euthanasia for themselves or their loved ones.

The way things are, however, Martini, who suffers from Parkison's disease, will probably remain 'untouchable' in his dissidence for the rest of his life.

BTW, Ignazio Marino is an Italian American (and Catholic) who was, at the time of the Martini interview, director of the organ transplant center of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Apparently, he enjoys dual citizenship.

Conscience: The world abuses it,
but Benedict XVI defends it
by Angelo Campodonico
Translated from

Sept. 8, 2009



In the essays collected in the book Elogio della coscienza (Eulogy of conscience, Cantagalli 2009), Benedict shows in practice the concept of 'broadened reason' that he exalted in the Regensburg lecture of 2006.

The most decisive trait of his thought is intelligence, acumen, intellect [according to Thomas Aquinas, from intus-legere, reading within), and insight (seeing within), the intelligence of principles.

We can also speak of his esprit de finesse. He seems to suggest that if one starts out wrong, if one does not act on principle, on 'first things', then one can reason very well indeed but still end up wrong, in theoretical and moral error.

Reason is not only - much less, above all - the rationality of the calculator who infers correctly but is unable to grasp principles. Reason is first of all intelligence, the ability to grasp principles and to open onself to reality.

This is the first lesson for philosophers and for everyone: open your eyes, look at the primary evidence that is manifest in your experience.

Attention to principles, to first things, means in this book a defense of the authentic meaning of conscience. But not as one understands conscience today as absolutizing one's freedom of choice.

Rather, it means a defense of the ability of conscience to open up to being, to truth and goodness, and ultimately, to the True and the Good, namely, God.

Conscience is the "original memory of what is good and true. The intimate tendency in man, who is created in the image of God, that is oriented to whatever conforms to God. There is a given in man - conscience and its proofs - that was not placed there by him, but which must be recognized and exercised by him in order to judge good from evil. At its very root, man's being recognizes harmony with some things and contradiction in others" (p. 24).

The heart of the Bible becomes the anamnesis or memory in Augustine, con-scientia, and above all, the synderesis or intellect of first principles in Thomas Aquinas, and the conscience John Henry Newman writes about in his letter to the Duke of Norfolk cited by the Pope.

In that letter, Newman begins - not accidentally - by citing Thomas Aquinas's definition of natural law as "an impression of Divine Light on us, a participation of the rational creature in eternal law".

Human awareness of this law, thought it may be defective in some individuals, is what Newman defines as conscience. He underscores that "conscience is the original Vicar of Christ, a prophet of news, monarch of peremptoriness, priest of blessings and anathemas, and, even if the eternal priesthood exercised through the Church should cease to exist, the priestly principle would remain and have authority in conscience".

For Newman, even the authority of the Pope is based on the sacred character of conscience. The Pope, custodian of revelation, must respect nature and conscience, because grace cannot contradict nature.

The vision of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Newman and Benedict XVI, values harmony between man and reality, between conscience and reality. It is a harmony (con-venientia) between rationality-affectivity [man's positive sentiments and emotions towards others, particularly his intimates] on the one hand, and known reality which is the object of attraction-repulsion on the other hand. This harmony allows man to judge good from evil, in which he must exercise the judgment of conscience.

What is important today is to underscore that the dimension of morality and of conscience is not blind - it is not limited to postulating or 'crying out in the void', as it has been with a great part of modern thought starting with Kant, but rather, intelligit - it understands, it knows.

It is what happens in a dialog between two persons - our conscience and our reason react and judge the other on the basis of their facial expressions and their words. In concrete experience, practical rationality which directs an action and speculative rationality which is its basis are intimately connected.

In secularized society, Newman observes, conscience, this 'severe assistant' has been replaced by a 'surrogate' - "the right to think, speak, write, and act according to one's own judgment or mood, without having to think of God", in other words, a right based on nothing but 'the right of will'.

In which case, conscience becomes nothing but "the absolute right and freedom to do without conscience". But without exercising the judgment of authentic conscience, man loses his unity with time, the sense of personal history, and he breaks up into fragments.

As philosopher Charles Taylor notes, there is no authenticity, no possibility of being truly oneself, to be authentic and original, unless conscience is open to truth and goodness, with a unified "I'.

The book is an invitation to a reawakening of conscience and judgment. It concerns everyone, Christian or not, in the face of the risk of massification, of proceduralism which waters down and fogs up everything, of the loss of confidence in the ability to draw from truth and goodness, to be deserving of truth and goodness, and therefore, to be free.

Without exercising the judgment of conscience, man inevitably becomes a slave to the power of the majority, to the myth of directionless progress which today is joined to an ideological reading of the theory of evolution.

"Man today sees himself as the great destroyer of the world, an unhappy product of evolution. Indeed, a man who no longer has access to the infinite, to God, is a contradictory being, a failed product.

"Here appears the logic of sin: man, wanting to be like God, seeks absolute independence. To be self-sufficient, he must be independent, he must emancipate himself even from love, which is always a free grace which cannot be produced or manufactured.

"But in making himself independent of love, man cuts himself off from the true richness of his being, he becomes empty, opposition to his very self becomes inevitable. 'It is not good to be a man'. (pp 46-47)

This way, even the notion of truth becomes relegated to "the dominion of intolerance and all that is profoundly anti-democratic, as the modern notion of democracy now seems indissolubly linked to the relativist option".

Reason which will only listen to itself, "cut off from the roots of faith lived in a culture and historical civilization that were deeply religious, and which wishes to be nothing more than empirical reason, becomes blind reason instead".

Wherever commonly shared certainty is no longer recognized unless it is experimentally verifiable, there remains no parameter of reference for truths which go beyond the purely material sphere other than their mere instrumentality, namely, as a a pawn in play between majority and minority. (p. 68)

Nonetheless, the Pope underscores, there is no democracy without conscience: "A foundation of truth, truth in the moral sense, appears irrenunciable for the survival of democracy itself". (p. 53)

Democracy cannot be founded on procedures alone. As even a liberal like Ronald Dworkin notes, "Escape from substance will end in substance. Questions of a substantial nature are inevitable because it is always incumbent on human reason to examine the substantial good of a procedure, not to mention the substantial good that can be obtained from that procedure".

Procedural reason is not enough. One must then exercise practical rationality, that of conscience which recognizes what is true and good. In other words: political society presupposes that certain values like the dignity of the individual be recognized as natural and constitutive, not as an outcome of convention and procedure.

"Human rights are not subordinate to the imperatives of tolerance and pluralism: they are the very content of tolerance and liberty. To rob another of his rights can never become legitimate material for positive established law, much less be the content of freedom". (p. 52)

In the general atmosphere of nihilism, "the individual cannot pay for his progress, for his well-being, by betraying known truth, and neither can all mankind. Here we touch the truly critical point about modernity: the idea of truth has been eliminated in practice and replaced with that of progress, in which progress itself is the truth.
And yet even in such an exaltation of progress, it becomes devoid of direction and neutralizes itself. Indeed, without any direction, then everything could easily be progress or regress". (p. 19)

Thus, there has been a passage from the affirmation of truth, to progress with direction (the great secular optimistic ideologies), to nihilistic progress without direction, i.e., everything's OK, just keep going wherever.

But truth is not the product of politics: "Each time the relativists feel convinced about this - that they can 'produce' truth - they fall instead into a form of totalitarianism notwithstanding their protestations of fighting for the primacy of freedom. In this situation, the majority becomes a kind of divinity, against which no right to appeal is permissible". (p. 64)

Mankind, says Benedict XVI, runs the risk today of being destroyed from the inside, by man's own moral decline. And this, despite the fact that today, the moral question is often raised, as in codes of ethics, and the like.

But conscience itself - moral sensibility - is no longer cultivated. Man does not learn to judge, and he is afraid to exercise the judgment of conscience.

Instead of fighting this potentially mortal malady (lack of morality, of listening to the truth, of the good), despite all the talk about morality, mankind "is intent, as though hypnotized, on the external danger, which is only a secondary effect of his interior mortal malady". (p. 139)

The Pope makes clear: "Man is called on to respond: In order to act correctly, our sight must first of all be pure, and our ears open. Without truth, there is no correct behavior. That is why the desire for truth, the humble and accommodating search for it, is the fundamental prerequisite of every morality...

"Even if the search for that which is useful, which serves social progress, is pursued with the best of intentions, any time the criterion of truth and God is abandoned, that search, inadvertently, elevates power as the supreme measure of man" (p. 85).

In such a context, it no longer makes sense to educate and train. Conscience is a princple implanted in us before any formation, but education and experience are necessary for its maturation. It is sovereign but not autonomous.

Conscience, according to Newman, possesses the supreme right of judgment, provided it is responsible: "Conscience has rights because it has duties".

Benedict XVI adds that "the concept of conscience includes obligation, namely, that of taking care of itself, to form and educate itself" (p. 159).

"The anamnesis (memory) infused into our being has need, so to speak, of external assistance to become conscious of itself. But this 'from outside' is not something counter to it, rather it is something made to measure for it... bringing to fulfillment that which is characteristic of anamnesis: namely, its interior specific opening to the truth" p. 26).

There exists, according to Augustine, a permanent dialog between interiority and exteriority. One leads to the other. "Before action, there is listening, the perception of reality" (p. 95)

Authority does not go against conscience, but it allows the latter to be itself, to take courage in itself. Only another person as someone authoritative can infuse this courage. In the better contemporary philosophies, man is always 'with others' - conscience is in relationship with others, it continually needs witnesses in order to mature.

The Pope praises conscience, understood as the ability to judge good from bad. But conscience needs to be educated. This is not often underscored these days, because it goes against spontaneity and the worship of authenticity which is often absolutized. In fact, education at all levels is often discussed, while educating the conscience is neglected.

Perhaps it is feared that this would mean doing violence to conscience itself, Often, man no longer knows what it means to work on one's conscience, an ascetic practice.

But even the pagan Aristotle had underscored centuries ago that 'natural virtues', if not cultivated, are not true virtues and are not enough.

Even Thomas Aquinas specifies that although one cannot fail to follow conscience, when it commands something wrong, then one is guilty of failing to educate it through the exercise of virtue.

What happens with conscience, the Pope says, using a beautiful simile, is what happens when learning a language. Although the ability so speak is innate, someone has to speak to the child so he can develop language.

Similarly, conscience is inherent in every man by nature, but it needs to listen to others, to certain others, in order to mature and reach its full capacity. The maturation of conscience is the maturation of the whole man, which means maturing rationality and affectivity together.

Maybe the editors at TEMPI share kindred minds with Luca Volonte at Libero, who, moreover, does not overlook Benedict XVI's constant and explicit encouragement for Catholic laymen to bear witness to the faith in engaged political activity.


What's behind Benedict XVI's words
by LUCA VOLONTE
Translated from

Sept. 9, 2009


Let us return to the positive, because after a summer heavy with polemics, something positive has emerged.

The statements, and above all, the serene atmosphere between the Vatican and the Italian government was 'photographed' in the encounter in Viterbo between His Holiness and Gianni Letta, chief aide to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

All the Italian newspapers had to write Monday about the 'almost affectionate' meeting - which, even if it does not chase away all the possible clouds between the Italian bishops conference (CEI) and the Prime Minister over the Boffo case, nor rule out any eventual effects on relations between the two states - is positive, very positive for both the Vatican and for all Italian citizens, not just Catholics.

The other significant point for reflection - and a fundamental pendant of the 'catecheses' which Benedict XVI has been directing towards pour oliticians - is his well-articulated interventions about the role of lay Catholics in political activity.

Just a year ago, on his visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, Papa Ratzinger urged Catholic politicians to follow a moral life, acquire strong competence in their chosen field and dedicate themselves to the common good. [He also had a similar message during his pastoral visit to Cagliari, Sardinia, last year.]

In the past year, the Pontiff has had occasion to underscore similar reflections. As he did in Viterbo last Sunday. With the same breadth of scope and in the spirit of the motto 'repetita iuvant' (repetition helps!), the Pope reaffirmed with his characteristic clarity and firmness that:

"The seasons of history follow each other, social contexts change, but what will not change nor ever go out of fashion is the calling of Christians to live the Gospel in solidarity with the human family, in step with the times".

One can be sure that even without making an explicit reference, the Pope wanted his invitation understood to look back at the many riches of gifts and criteria of action in his recent Caritas in Veritate, which appears to have been 'archived' in oblivion too soon by the media in their preoccupation with international conferences and the day-to-day politics of Italy.

"To live the Gospel in solidarity with the human family", as the Pope proposed, goes well beyond mere 'private' witness of his faith by the individual, and even beyond the public and stentorian witness exhibited by Catholic politicians during public debates over non-negotiable principles.

The Pope asks for more. He asks that belonging to the Church and attraction to Christ may change the lives of individual Catholics to the point that each one realizes he must "live the Gospel in solidarity with the human family" - which means everyone, including non-believers.

This, said the Pope, is "the heart of social commitment, this is the service to be rendered in political activity, towards integral human development".

Thus, the particular competence necessary for political activity, in a life that adheres to the Gospel, but even that is not enough. According to the Pope, Catholics need a sense of mission and the consequent openness that comes with it - a life in solidarity with others.

Even his later reference to St. Bonaventure as he who pushed back his concerns for temporal realities in order to attend to the spiritual needs of souls fits into his blueprint for Catholics in political life:

What interests the Pope and the Church is the Gospel and the encounter with Jesus Christ, not polemic. And this gave rise to the many positive elements in the Pope's visit to Viterbo. This is the reason for that 'almsot affectionate' encounter with Ginani Letta, who runs the administration of the Prime Minister's cabinet.

Let us leave the professional conspirators and well-known malicious tongues to invent all sorts of bargains and under-the-table dealings between the government and the Apostolic Palace on the proposed legislation on biological wills and on the 0.008% share that the Church in Italy gets from annual tax revenues.

Such minds make their own pettiness the standard by which the world should live. Too much arrogance there. Much like the retired cardinal who seems to have decided he will confide his own death into the hands of Dr. Marino-'mariolo' [scoundrel] (aspirant to the leadership of the Partito Democrata) rather than to God!

My, my, my! Better to be in the demanding but exciting company of Benedict XVI who offers so much more!

Thursday, Sept. 10

ST. TOMAS DE VILLANUEVA [Thomas of Villanova]
(Spain, 1488-1455)
Augustinian, Bishop and Confessor
(Familiar to many of us as
the patron saint of Castel Gandolfo)



OR today.

Illustration: San Pier Damiani at the foot of the steps with contemplative souls ascending and descending. From a 15th-cent manuscript of Dante's Divina Commedia.
At the General Audience, the Pope speaks of San Pier Damiani's work for the renewal of the Church:
'No compromise with evil on the path to holiness'
Photo shows the Holy Father greeting Mme. Asha-Rose Migiro, deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations at a private audience yesterday. Other Page 1 stories: US loses perennial #1 ranking in economic competitiveness to Switzerland, according to World Economic Forum, indicating fundamental problems in the US financial system; and an update on the Afghan situation. In the inside pages, two articles on Benedict XVI's meeting with contemporary artists on Nov. 21 in the Sistine Chapel to renew the alliance between faith and art that characterized the pre-modern centuries of the Church.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today at the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo with

- Bishops of Brazil (Northeast Sector 2) on ad limina visit

- Organizers of the Holy See pavilion at the International Expo 2008 held in Zaragoza, Spain, last year.
[The theme of the Expo was "Water and sustainable development".] Address in Spanish.


At the Vatican, a news briefing was held today by Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council
on Culture, and Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, on the Nov, 21 meeting between Benedict XVI
and contemporary artists, the first such meeting since one held by Paul VI 45 years ago.

Another historic first:
Pope invites Muslim director
of UN food agency to
address Bishops' Synod



VATICAN CITY, Sept. 10 (Translated from Apcom) - According to the French news agency I-Media, Pope Benedict XVI has invited two prominent African laymen to address the second special assembly for Africa of the Bishops Synod, to be held at the Vatican next month.

The two men are Jacques Diouf of Senegal, who is the current head of the Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; and Rodolphe Adada from the Congo, former head of the peace- making mission to Darfur of the United Nations and the African Union.

Diouf, 71, has been head of FAO since 1993. He will be the first Muslim ever to address a Catholic Bishops' Synod. There will be some 240 bishops present, at least 200 of them African.

In 1995, three Muslim representatives were invited to be observers at a special assembly for Lebanon.

Last year, the Holy Father invited Shear Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, to address the 12th General Assembly of the Synod on the Word of God. Cohen became the first non-Christian to address the Synod.

This year, Benedict XVI has also invited the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abouna Paul Gebre Yohannes, who heads one of the oldest national churches on the African continent.

Pope to meet artists in Sistine Chapel
to rekindle faith-art dialogue
By Sarah Delaney



VATICAN CITY, Sept.10 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has invited hundreds of artists to meet with him in the Vatican in an attempt to rekindle the special historical relationship between faith and art.

More than 500 personalities from the worlds of art, theater, literature and music have been asked to gather with the Pope under the legendary Michelangelo frescoes in the Sistine Chapel Nov. 21.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the meeting was to be the first of many initiatives aimed at bridging the gap that has developed between spirituality and artistic expression over the last century or so.


Center photo, Mons. Ravasi; top right, Vatican Museums director Antonio Paolucci; bottom right, Fr. Ciro Benedittini, deputy Vatican press director.

At a news conference at the Vatican Sept. 10, Archbishop Ravasi said that separation could best be seen in the art and architecture of many modern churches, which he said "do not offer beauty, but rather ugliness."

He said the Church hoped that dialogue could help artists regain the "transcendence" that once inspired the 16th-century painter and sculptor Michelangelo, his contemporaries and countless other artists of religious works over the centuries.

The guest list for the papal encounter is comprised of people who have made their mark in visual arts, architecture, literature, poetry, music and performing arts, including theater, dance, cinema and television.

Most of the list will be disclosed shortly before the event, but a few names of the invited were mentioned at the news conference: Italian film score composer Ennio Morricone, avant-garde theater director Bob Wilson, architect Daniel Libeskind, and Bono, the lead singer of the group U2. American video artist Bill Viola was asked but has already said he won't be able to attend.

Archbishop Ravasi said the meeting was conceived as a continuation of earlier papal rapprochements with contemporary culture. Forty-five years ago Pope Paul VI had a similar encounter with artists in the Sistine Chapel and some years later opened the Collection of Modern Religious Art within the Vatican Museums complex.

And ten years ago Pope John Paul II wrote his "Letter to Artists," in which he complimented their work and urged a greater cooperation between the church and the arts.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, said at the news conference that contemporary religious art has been diminished by "bad taste."

In medieval times, he said, the faithful lived poor and colorless lives, but found brilliant colors and "a glimpse of heaven" by going to churches filled with wonderful works of art.

"Nowadays," he said, "many people live in the dreary outskirts of cities, in ugly houses. They go to church and it's uglier still!"

Paolucci said that throughout history the Catholic Church had taken great risks in its patronage of new forms of art, and that the art inspired by the Christian faith had produced much of the world's greatest art.

Over the last century, however, artistic excellence and faith have separated and it's the job of people of culture to try to mend the rift, he said. The church, he said, must show the courage it showed in the past in confronting contemporary art.

Archbishop Ravasi said that choosing the artists for the Vatican event was the most difficult part, but that they were selected on the basis of their reputation and awards they had received. The day before meeting with the Pope in the Sistine Chapel, the artists will get a special tour of the contemporary art collection at the Vatican Museums.


The Collection of Modern Religious Art in the Vatican Museums is accessible
at the bottom of a magnificent helical staircase:



Works shown above: Panel 1- Church of Carriere-St. Denis, Andre Derain, 1909; Lot's Daughters, Carlo Carra, 1940; Adolescence, Giacomo Manzu, 1941; Christ and Veronica, Otto Dix, 1943. Panel 2- Sainte Volte (Holy Face), Georges Rouault, 1946; Study for Crucifixion, Graham Sutherland, 1947; Tree of Life, Henri Matisse, 1949; Third Allegory, Ben Shahn, 1955.

But the most conspicuous contemporary work in the Vatican today is a building, the Aula Paolo VI, commissioned in 1964 by Paul VI from Pier Luigi Nervi, one of the great architects of the 20th century. He finished it in 1971 (he died in 1979 at age 88).

The stage of the audience hall, which is its main space, is dominated by a two-tone brass sculpture which is 60 feet wide, 23 feet tall, and 10 feet in depth, called Resurrection, by Italian sculptor Pericle Fazzini done in 1965. It lends itself to a play of lights that 'alters' its aspect according to the season and/or the mood to be projected.


As far as I have seen, only AFP among the major news agencies reported the story:

Pope invites artists from around the world
to a Nov. 21 meeting at the Sistine chapel



VATICAN CITY, Sept. 10 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI has invited 500 artists from around the world to a rare meeting at the Sistine Chapel in November to revive links between art and religion, the Vatican said Thursday.

It will be the first such meeting since Pope Paul VI 45 years ago met artists at the chapel famous for its frescoes painted by Michelangelo.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Roman Catholic Church's relations with artists had been good in the past but the two worlds were currently in a "divorce."

The pope "will invite artists to resume dialogue with the Church," Ravasi told a news conference, adding that the November 21 meeting would be the "starting stage."

"We would like for this meeting to be followed by a series of concrete achievements," he said.

"The Pope is opening the dialogue, saying the Church needs to have ties with art. The artists should start responding through their work," Ravasi said.

The Vatican has invited 500 painters, sculptors, architects, writers, musicians, singers and film and theatre directors to the meeting, said Monsignor Pasquale Iacobone, head of the culture council's art and faith department.

Around 75 artists have agreed to attend the gathering so far, including Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone, US stage director Bob Wilson, Italian film-maker Giuseppe Tornatore and Mexican sculptor Sebastian.

In the last meeting nearly half a century ago, Pope Paul VI issued a mea culpa for the Church's past treatment of artists, telling the group assembled: "We need you."

Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, wrote a letter to artists 10 years ago insisting that the Church "needs art."


I really look forward to what Benedict XVI will tell the artists.

The Church's great patrimony in art and literature was achieved as much by the personal inspiration and spirituality of the artists as by the ability of the Church and wealthy Catholics to commission important artistic projects, particularly in architecture and all the arts that went into the decorative and liturgical furnishings for these edifices.

How many artists in this secular world today find inspiration in the transcendent, not to mention in directly religious subjects? And how many churches and contemporary Mycenae are there who are in a position to commission Churches or works of art worthy of the patrimony that precedes them?

There have been quite a few 'mega-churches' commissioned by phenomenally successful evangelical preachers but few that merit architectural distinction. And we are all familiar with the dismal pedestrian look of most of the new Catholic churches built after Vatican II.

Art, nonetheless, need not always be expressed on a grand scale. Illustrating Missals, prayerbooks and Bibles; films, books and music inspired by sacred themes and figures; paintings and sculptures intended to grace a local shrine, church or chapel - the opportunities are certainly there. Contemporary expressions in the visual arts or in music will always be controversial, and time will tell which expressions are valid.

In any case, the artists who will respond to the Pope's invitation for Nov. 21 can be sure that in Benedict XVI, they have someone who knows the arts, who has internalized this knowledge and appreciation, and is more than capable of speaking to them in their language. A sublime artist-practitioner in the art of Christian living.

Benedict XVI once again addresses
responsibility for the environment







VATICAN CITY, 10 SEP 2009 (VIS) - This morning in the Apostolic Palace of Castelgandolfo Benedict XVI received a group of sponsors of the Holy See's Pavilion at "Expo Zaragoza 2008", an international exposition held in the Spanish city of Zaragoza in 2008 on the theme: "Water and sustainable development".

The group included Francisco Vazquez, Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, and Archbishop Manuel Urena, Bishop of Zaragoza.

In his address the Pope noted how the pavilion, which "was one of the most visited and appreciated, contained an important display of the priceless artistic, cultural and religious heritage of the Church. The aim of this initiative was to offer the many visitors an opportunity to reflect upon the significance and primordial importance water has for human life".

"By participating in the exposition", the Holy Father explained, "the Holy See wished to demonstrate not only the urgent need constantly to defend the environment and the natural world, but also to discover its more profound spiritual and religious dimension. ...

"The truth is that when God, through creation, gave man the keys to the earth, He wanted him to use this great gift responsibly and respectfully, making it fruitful. ...

"In this context it is important to reiterate the close relationship between protection of the environment and respect for the ethical requirements of human nature, because 'when human ecology is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits'".

Pope Benedict XVI concluded his remarks by entrusting the promoters of the Holy See pavilion to Our Lady of the Pillar "at whose feet flow the abundant waters of the River Ebro".


At last year's Expo in Zaragoza, the Vatican sponsored a parallel International Congress on the Ecology held at the Tribune of Water on the Expo grounds, from July 10-12. The theme was 'Respect the human being, and respect Nature'.

Upper left photo shows the Expo mascots representing drops of water, passing by the Cathedral of Zaragoza, where Our Lady of the Pillars is venerated. Lower left photos show the Bridge Pavilion across the city's Ebro River. The ultra-modern Expo site was built on a tongue of land formed by a deep U-bend of the river.


Unfortunately, I cannot find any pictures of the Vatican pavilion.


Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address, which was delivered in Spanish:

---

Dear Archbishop,
Your Excellency, the Ambassador,
Dear brothers:

I am happy to receive you and welcome each and everyone, along with your families, to this meeting. I sincerely wish that your visit to Rome, at the tombs of the Apostles, may strengthen you in your faith and fill your hearts with joy and peace.

First of all, I wish to express my sincere gratitude for your significant collaboration with the Archdiocese of Zaragoza and the Apostolic Nunciature in Madrid, in the realization of the Holy See's pavilion for the International Exposition in Zaragoza last year.

The pavilion, which was one of the most visited and appreciated, held important examples of the artistic, cultural and religious patrimony kept in custody by the Church.

This initiative offered its numerous visitors a timely reflection on the importance and primodial value of water in the life of mam.

Through its participation in the Exposition, the Holy See also wished to manifest the imperative need nnot only to always protect the environment and nature, but also to discover its more profound spiritual and religious dimension.

Now more than ever, one must help those who see in creation something more than just a simple source of riches or for exploitation at the hands of man.

Indeed, when God, through his creation, gave man the keys to the earth, he expected him to use this great gift by making it fruitful in a respectful and responsible manner.

The human being discovers the intrinsic value of nature if he learns to see it as it is in reality - an expression of a plan of love and truth, that speaks to us of the Creator and his love for mankind, and which will encounter its fullness in Christ at the end of times (cf. Caritas in veritate, 48).

In this sense, it is timely to recall once more the close relation that exists between caring for the world around us and respect for the ethical exigencies of human nature, since respect for human ecology in society also benefits the natural ecology (Ibid. 51).

At the conclusion of our meeting, I wish to express to you once more my appreciation for your generous collaboration, and also to all those persons, institutions and enterprises who participated in this important and laudable project.

On this occasion, I commend you most specially to the intercession of Our Lady of the Pillar (Virgen del Pilar) beneath whose feet flow the waters of the Ebro. With these sincere sentiments, I impart to you all and your families my Apostolic Blessing.

---

Friday, Sept. 11

ST. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE (Roman Africa, d 258)
Bishop, Theologian and Martyr
(Beheaded in the persecutions of Emperor Valerian I)



OR today.

Except for the routine note on the Pope's appointments yesterday, there is a Page 1 reference
to the text of his address [photo above, text translated in the preceding post] to the sponsors
of the Vatican pavilion at Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain, last year on the theme of 'Water and
sustainable development'. Other Page 1 stories: New proposals of dialog from Iran - but not about
its nuclear weapons program ; President Obama's healthcare pitch to the joint session of Congress;
and after 10 weeks, Lebanese Prime Minister gives up trying to form a coalition government with
the Hezbollah.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, President of Panama, with his wife and delegation

- Bishops of Brazil) (Northeast Sector-2) on ad limina visit

- Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz (Germany)



MESSAGE FOR RAMADAN

The Vatican released the text of the annual message from the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog (CIRD)
on the occasion of Id-al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The theme
of the message, signed by CIRD president Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, is "Christians and Muslims together
to conquer poverty".