BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Please see preceding page for earlier entries on 8/22/12, including a full translation of the Pope's catechesis at the GA.





Fallout from Bishop Ma's decision:
Shanghai seminaries told they
cannot re-open until further notice
by Gerard O'Connell

August 22, 2012

In the most recent sign of the serious difficulties facing the Catholic Church in Shanghai, Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, head of the ‘open’ Church community in this megalopolis of 23 million people, notified the two seminaries in the diocese that they cannot reopen for classes “until further notice”.

The seminaries were due to reopen soon, after the summer holidays. Bishop Jin, 96, attributed the delay in opening the academic year at Sheshan major seminary and at Tailaiqiao Minor Seminary to “the current situation”, without giving any further explanation.

Both seminaries are recognized by the government, and are part of the ‘open’ Church community. Sheshan is a regional seminary. It opened in 1982, and accepts candidates for the priesthood from the Shanghai municipality and from the five nearby provinces that make up the central-eastern region of China – Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

In 1992 it had 120 students for the priesthood, but today it has only 46 seminarians – a historic low, reflecting a decline in vocations in this region.

Bishop Jin’s announcement that their opening has been postponed took everyone in the Church by surprise. Sources believe he was simply communicating an instruction given by the government authorities.

“The notice was brief but it shocked us,” a priest told UCA News, which first broke the news on August 21. He declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Another Church source – who also asked for anonymity - told the news agency that Church leaders in areas around Shanghai were planning to raise objections to the decision with the provincial authorities.

“Sheshan is a regional seminary. It should not be embroiled in the ordination incident,” a third Church source, who also declined to be identified, told the news agency.

Everyone in the diocese, however, priests and faithful alike, understood that Bishop Jin’s mention of “the current situation” was a direct reference to the dramatic and tense situation created in the diocese, between the Catholic Church there and the government authorities in Shanghai and Beijing, following the announcement by Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin at his episcopal ordination that he was resigning from his posts in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).

He announced this in St. Ignatius Cathedral, Shanghai, on July 7, at the end of the ceremony in which he was ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, with the Pope’s approval. On that occasion, the new bishop did what no other bishop in the government-recognized “open” Church community had ever done before: he announced that from that very day he was resigning from the positions of responsibility he had in the CCPA and would not henceforth hold any other post in that body so as to devote himself fully to his pastoral ministry as a bishop.

The CCPA was set up by the Communist government in the late 1950s to control the Catholic Church in mainland China. Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2007 Letter to the Catholics in China declared that this body was “incompatible” with Church doctrine.

Bishop Ma’s statement greatly upset the government authorities not only in Shanghai but also in Beijing. They saw it as the most serious challenge yet to the CCPA and its role in controlling the Church in China, and feared he had set a precedent that others could follow.

That same evening of his ordination, they sent a group of unidentified men to take him away to an unknown destination. He was later taken to the seminary in Sheshan, and has been confined there ever since. He is deprived of freedom of movement and freedom of speech, and is even prevented from dressing as a bishop.

After confining him at Sheshan, the CCPA and Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) opened an investigation into the alleged breaking of official regulations at his ordination ceremony. They interviewed as many as 100 priests and nuns in the Shanghai diocese, and several bishops. But they have not yet communicated the results of that extensive investigation. Sources say they have not yet been able to reach a decision regarding Bishop Ma.

The bishop remains confined in the seminary, where he spends his time praying, reading and reflecting in solitude. The staff and students are still on holiday and do not know when they can return. Right now, the seminary is a deserted place, surrounded by bamboo and other trees, at the foot of the famous Marian Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians at Sheshan, on the outskirts of Shanghai. It is not known if there are any other people in the seminary. “He looks pale and thin”, a source who has seen him recently told UCA News.

Clearly the postponement of the seminaries’ opening is directly linked to the fact that Bishop Ma is being confined at Sheshan seminary. It seems that the government authorities need more time to resolve his case without losing face, nationally or internationally.

While we must all applaud Mons. Ma for his courage, and pray that his detention may end soon and the seminaries may re-open, one must question why he chose to challenge the authorities so openly by announcing what he did on the day of his ordination, knowing full well that in a totalitarian regime, all the cards are stacked against him. Could he not have sent them a letter instead to resign from his posts at the Patriotic Association? If he had done it out of the public glare, the retribution may not have been so severe.

Perhaps he might have benefited by first seeking the advice of his superior, Bishop Jin, now 96, who has weathered decades of co-existence with the regime, initially as a PA nominee, then eventually winning papal recognition, and apparently straddling the fence, so to speak, successfully. Everyone had expected Mons. Ma would be his eventual successor, and that his ordination was a step towards this.

The pragmatic in me sees that in the Chinese situation, it obviously pays to make a realistic cost-benefit analysis of the actions one might take. As Bishop Jin must have had to make so many times. Was that one moment of defiance by Mons. Ma worth the immediate curtailment of his freedom and therefore, his current inability to carry out any of his pastoral functions? His detention and the decision not to reopen the seminaries when the schoolyear begins could be indefinite, or simply a short-term tactic by the Chinese authorities to serve as a lesson to all concerned. But one can imagine that even if they did eventually allow Mons. Ma to carry out his episcopal ministry, they could still compel him to fulfill his PA assignments as well, as they would have to do to save face [a major cultural consideration among the Chinese!]

Catholic results in Pew survey
are a crying matter
By Russell Shaw

August 20, 2012

Worried conservatives reacted negatively to the news that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York had invited Barack Obama to the Al Smith Dinner in October. But the cardinal plainly believes the invitation serves the best interests of the Church — declaring war on the President of the United States by excluding him from this politically tinged festive event would hardly be helpful.

That’s a reasonable position. But we need also to ask whether war has already been declared — not by the Church but on the Church and what it stands for. With Catholic institutions battling for survival in light of the Obama administration’s “free birth control” rule, this alarming possibility must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Just how alarming the possibility is was underlined by a recent Pew Research Center survey covering voters’ views. I found myself wondering whether to laugh or cry when scanning the Catholic results. Then reality set in, and the answer was clear: Cry of course. If these figures are correct — and there’s every reason to think they are — the Church is in deep trouble.

Some news accounts found encouragement in particular findings of the survey. But they failed to mention the finding that really catches the eye. Asked who better reflects their views on social issues like abortion and gay rights, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, 51 percent of Catholics said Obama, against 34 percent who said Romney. (For all voters, the figures were 50 percent and 36 percent respectively.)

This has two explanations, neither consoling.

The first, certainly true in some cases, is ignorance. Obama supports legalized abortion and same-sex marriage. As for Romney, whatever his position may have been when he was governor of Massachusetts, he’s now opposed to both, though neither he nor his campaign people have been very forthcoming about saying so. Catholics unaware of these things should know them — which is not to say they will. [Shaw ought to be the first to know! But obviously, he is not even aware of the open letter in which pro-life and pro-family leaders, including six former US ambassadors (Democrat as well as Republican) to the Vatican, make clear and in detail - against the black propaganda on Romney by his opponents - what Romney's actual positions and actions were as governor of Massachusetts!]

The second explanation, also undoubtedly true in many cases, is that Catholics who say they and Obama stand together on the social issues know where Obama stands and are speaking the simple truth.

This survey was conducted for the Pew people in late June and early July. The researchers did phone interviews with 2,973 adults, including 619 Catholics. For the Catholic sample, the margin of error was 4.6 percent — in other words, the numbers for all Catholics could be slightly higher or slightly lower. As noted, some readers saw the results as encouraging. But except for matters already known (e.g., Catholics generally take a positive view of their local bishops), I did not.

Throughout, the survey results reflected a familiar split within the ranks of Catholics, between those who attend Mass weekly and those who don’t. (Among the latter, there was no breakdown to show how often or seldom they do attend or whether they attend at all.)

On the Obama-Romney question, 53 percent of weekly Mass-attenders said Romney better reflects where their position on social issues, against 37 percent who said Obama. But the results were reversed among those who don’t attend weekly, with 54 percent giving the nod to Obama and 31 percent to Romney.

Since non-attenders now outnumber weekly attenders by more than two to one in the general body of American Catholics, that presumably accounts for the tilt toward Obama (51 percent) among Catholics overall.

With more than two months remaining before the election, it’s too soon to say how all of this will play out in November. But one thing already is clear. This will be an election of singular importance for Catholicism in America.


The details of the Pew report may be found on
religions.pewforum.org/reports
ibut this is how Reuters reported that Pew survey, with its emphasis on other elements polled :

Poll shows candidates' religion
not a factor in presidential race


WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - The religious faiths of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will have little weight in November's presidential election, a poll showed on Thursday.

Sixty percent of voters are aware that Romney is a Mormon, and 81 percent say it does not matter to them, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center. The awareness level is almost unchanged from four months ago, during the Republican primary elections.

"Unease with Romney's religion has little impact on voting preferences," the Pew report said.

"Republicans and white evangelicals overwhelmingly back Romney irrespective of their views of his faith, and Democrats and seculars overwhelmingly oppose him regardless of their impression."

The United States has never had a Mormon president.

Obama is a Christian but the view that he is Muslim persists almost four years into his presidency, with 17 percent of voters saying he is Muslim. Forty-nine percent say he is Christian, down from 55 percent near the end of his 2008 campaign, and 31 percent say they do not know Obama's religion.

Among conservative Republicans, 34 percent say Obama, a Democrat, is Muslim, the poll showed.

Overall, 45 percent of voters are comfortable with Obama's religion, 5 percent say it does not matter and 19 percent are uncomfortable.

About two-thirds of voters - 67 percent - agree with the statement "It's important to me that a president have strong religious beliefs." The level has changed little in the past decade.

But 66 percent oppose churches or other houses of worship endorsing political candidates.

The telephone survey was carried out by Pew's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press from June 28 to July 9.

The poll sampled 2,973 adults, including 2,373 registered voters. The margin of error for adults was 2.1 percentage points and 2.3 percentage points for voters.

One welcomes it whenever high Church officials anywhere make an apology to victims of sex-offender priests, admit Church failures in the past that may have aided and abetted the offenders, and reiterate the changes that have come over the entire Church since then in this respect. The news media understandably play up such statements with no small amount of Schadenfreude.

My problem with the following report from Australia's press association is that it makes no reference at all to the very relevant fact that Pope Benedict XVI, when he visited Sydney in July 2008, not only expressed everything that he has always felt about this 'filth' in the Church, but also met with some of the abuse victims. In fact, the bishops' statement itself does not refer to it, although it says "The Church has apologized for these failures".

Also, all the bishops of Australia should have immediately taken the lead of the Holy Father back in 2008 to make their own individual apologies for any such sex offenses committed by priests in their jurisdiction, instead of waiting - as seems to be the case here - to make such a statement because of a government inquiry into the matter. It's been four years since the Pope was in Sydney![


Church in Australian state of Victoria
apologizes to victims of sex abuse
By Daniel Fogarty


MELBOURNE, Australia, August 20 (AAP) - Victoria's most senior Catholics have apologised for the sexual abuse of children under the church's care and say they will continue to take decisive action to protect children.

In a letter to parishioners, the church says it is "deeply sorry" for the suffering and trauma endured by children and the betrayal of trust.

The letter acknowledges that the impact of abuse on children and their families "can be devastating and lasting".

It also acknowledges the abuse and suffering is a matter of continuing shame for Catholics.

The letter, which is a statement on the Victorian parliamentary inquiry on child abuse, is signed by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, Diocese of Ballarat Bishop Peter Connors, Diocese of Sale Bishop Christopher Prowse and Diocese of Sandhurst Bishop Leslie Tomlinson.

The president of Catholic Religious Australia, Sister Annette Cunliffe and the organisation's Victorian president, Sister Helen Toohey, also signed the letter.

"The suffering and trauma endured by some children who have been in the church's care, and the effect on their family members, is a matter of continuing shame and dismay to all Catholics," the letter says.

"Let us be very clear. The sexual abuse of a child was, is and always will be a crime, and is contrary to all we believe in.

"We know that parents especially feel an intense betrayal of trust, that even one child could have been so grievously hurt by people whose call it is to serve others.

"The Church has apologised for these failures. Today we renew this apology to victims and their families. We are deeply sorry."

The letter says the Church will co-operate with a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse in religious and other organisations.

"We promise you that we will act on our apology by continuing to take decisive action to protect our children and to respond when abuse has occurred," it says.

In a statement, Archbishop Hart said the letter spoke of the difficult time ahead for victims and the need to learn from past failures.

"Mistakes were made and we apologise to victims and their families for these failures," he said.

"The Church has learnt from these failures and our response has changed. We are focused on the needs of those who have been abused and have taken action to prevent future abuse."

Thursday, August 23, 20th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. ROSA DE LIMA (Peru, 15816-1617), Dominican Lay Sister, Mystic, First Saint of the Americas
Born Isabel Flores de Oliva to Spanish parents, the future saint was baptized by the future St. Toribio de Mongrovejo, Archbishop of Lima. Pious and devout even as a girl, she was unmindful of her family's position and wealth and her own personal beauty. An admirer of Catherine of Siena, she imposed mortifications on herself, tended a garden and did fine embroidery from which she earned money to care for the poor. At age 20, she professed her vows in the Third Order of St. Dominic, and spent the remaining years of her short life in good deeds - caring for homeless children, the elderly and the sick - penance and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, experiencing many ecstatic visions. When she died, all of Lima turned out for her funeral, and many miracles were soon attributed to her. She is venerated in Lima's Basilica of St. Dominic along with two other Lima saints, Martin de Porres (who had been her confessor) and Alonso Abad. She was beatified in 1667 and canonized in 1671. As a Hispanic saint, she was one of the official patron saints of the WYD 2011 in Madrid. and one of the intercessors for WYD 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082312.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

The Pope mourns the death
of Taiwanese Cardinal Shan, 88

The Vatican has released the text of the Holy Father's telegram of condolence for the death yesterday of Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, S.J., emeritus bishop of Kaohsiung (Taiwan). The telegram (in English) was sent to the current Bishop of Kaohsiung, Mons. Peter Liu Cheng-chung:

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THE MOST REVEREND PETER LIU CHENG-CHUNG
BISHOP OF KAOHSIUNG

I WAS DEEPLY SADDENED TO LEARN OF THE DEATH OF CARDINAL PAUL SHAN KUO-HSI, BISHOP EMERITUS OF KAOHSIUNG.

WITH GRATITUDE TO ALMIGHTY GOD, I RECALL HIS YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE THERE, AS WELL AS HIS MINISTRY AS BISHOP OF HWALIEN AND AS PRESIDENT OF THE CHINESE REGIONAL BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE.

I OFFER YOU, THE CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAY FAITHFUL OF THOSE DIOCESES, AND INDEED THE ENTIRE CHURCH IN TAIWAN, MY CONDOLENCES AND THE ASSURANCE OF MY PRAYERS.

IN JOINING YOU AND ALL WHO MOURN HIM, INCLUDING HIS JESUIT CONFRERES, I COMMEND HIS PRIESTLY SOUL TO THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD OUR LOVING FATHER. TO ALL ASSEMBLED FOR THE SOLEMN FUNERAL MASS, AND AS A PLEDGE OF PEACE AND CONSOLATION IN THE LORD, I CORDIALLY IMPART MY APOSTOLIC BLESSING.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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The Vatican also released the text of the Holy Father's message to Mons. Domenico Sigalini, spiritual director
of the International Forum of Catholic Action, which is holding its annual assembly in Romania August 22-26.

Nuncio Brown on the future
of the Church in Ireland

August 23, 2012

The site of the Irish Bishops' conference has posted the text of the homly delivered by Archbishop Charles Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, at the concluding Mass yesterday of the National Novena in Knock, Ireland's major Marian shrine.

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Your Excellencies… Father Richard Gibbons [Parish Priest of Knock], my fellow priests, dear men and women religious, beloved brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

It is truly an honour and a joy for me to be here with you today on the final day of the National Novena at Our Lady’s Shrine in Knock.

When Blessed John Paul II came here on September 30, 1979, to celebrate Holy Mass, he began with the words: “Here I am at the goal of my journey to Ireland: the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock” and, in a certain sense, his words are true for all of us here today, as we celebrate the conclusion of the National Novena; we too have come to the goal of our journey.

We come as pilgrims to pray at the feet of Mary, the humble girl of Nazareth, the glorious Mother of God, the “woman clothed with the sun” who appeared here in 1879 to comfort and console the Catholic people of Ireland.

The passage of time tends to make us forget what things were like in Ireland when Mary appeared. Ireland was not yet a free and independent nation; close to a million people had suffered and died during the Great Famine thirty years previously, and in the year 1879 when Mary appeared, hunger had returned to the West of Ireland. Huge numbers of Irish people had been forced to leave as immigrants, never to return, so much so that the population of Ireland plummeted by something like 25 per cent.

And so it was that, in those very bad times, Mary appeared, to comfort and to console and – although she never spoke a word – to lead her people, to direct her children to the Lamb on the altar, the Lamb who was slain but who now is alive, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.

Yes, the times in which Mary appeared here in Knock were very bad, and yet it bears noting that the century which followed the apparition would be marked by an extraordinary flourishing of the Catholic Church in Ireland, with huge numbers of vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a deep Christianisation of all aspects of society. Such a flourishing would have seemed impossible in 1879. But the night is often darkest before the dawn.

When we reflect on Our Lady’s apparition at Knock and the historical circumstances in which it occurred, we cannot help thinking about our times and our own future. Certainly, there are reasons for discouragement.

It seems as if every few months, a new survey is released showing, or purporting to show, that the Catholic faith is disappearing in Ireland. We have had two decades of scandals, crimes and failures. ‘The Church is finished!’ seems to be the cry heard everywhere.

But, my brothers and sisters, let me tell you what I have seen and heard (cf. 1 John 1:3). Two months ago, I saw the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin exceed everyone’s expectations, with tens of thousands of people coming to learn more about the central mystery of our faith – the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

One month ago today, I was in Ballyvourney in County Cork, where I had the joy of ordaining a young man to the priesthood. The small country church was filled with people young and old; the liturgy was celebrated in a beautiful way, with music and hymns in the Irish language. The sanctuary was packed with more than eighty good and faithful priests, many very young, some quite old, all of them there to welcome and to support their newest brother in the priesthood.

Three weeks ago, in County Mayo, I saw thousands of pilgrims climbing Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday. Many young people. Many men. Some climbing in bare feet. I saw hundreds of people that day going to confession to the priests on the top of the mountain.

Ten days ago, I was at Clonmacnoise and I saw literally hundreds of young people kneeling in adoration in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, praying the Rosary, confessing their sins, rejoicing in the liberating love of God, and sharing the joy and excitement of being Catholic with their peers.

That, my brothers and sisters, is the future of the Church in Ireland.

So what is this future going to be like? Before all else, I would say that the future needs to be authentically Catholic if there is to be a future. We need to propose the Catholic faith in its fullness, in its beauty and in its radicality, with compassion and with conviction. We need to be unafraid to affirm the elements of the Catholic way which secular society rejects and ridicules.

I believe that the Gospel for today’s Mass points the way for the future of the Church in Ireland. Jesus speaks to his disciples about priorities. He tells us not to worry about things like what we are to wear and what we are to eat, or about how much money we can amass. He says put first things first: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well” (Mt 6:33).

And what is this Kingdom of God proposed by Jesus? It cannot be identified with a worldly kingdom. As Jesus says in front of Pontius Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is a Kingdom which only reaches its fulfilment and fruition in the life of the world to come, as described in our first reading from the Book of the Apocalypse. Only in the end, will the Kingdom be complete: “a new heaven and a new earth”, the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.

That city – to paraphrase Pope John Paul II’s words about Knock – is the goal of our journey. If we seek that city, that goal, that Kingdom, then everything else will be taken care of. But that Kingdom of light and joy is not only a future reality, it is also anticipated, made real in advance, wherever Jesus Christ is truly present in our world, in the celebration and adoration of the Holy Eucharist, in the sacraments and in the love we have for one another.

As the Church in Ireland moves into the future, we need to recognise that everything the Church does is somehow related to that reality: the reality of salvation.

Pope Benedict XVI has instituted a number of initiatives designed to help the Church move into the future. He has established an office for the New Evangelisation, which means finding new ways of presenting and communicating the ancient faith, especially in those countries like Ireland which were first given the gift of Catholic faith many centuries ago.

The Holy Father has called a Synod of Bishops, that is, a meeting of Bishops in Rome, which will take place in October of this year, in order to have Bishops from all over the world reflect on this most critical question.

And thirdly, Pope Benedict has established a “Year of Faith”, which will also begin this October, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Benedict writes: “We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner. Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times” (Porta fidei, 8).

The Holy Father is insistent on this point. If we are indeed to “transmit to future generations the faith of all times,” we need to deepen our own understanding of that faith. In calling for the Year of Faith, the Holy Father has also indicated a means for deepening our understanding of the faith.

The opening day of the Year of Faith (October 11, 2012) is not only the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, it is also the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a magnificent summary and synthesis of the Catholic faith.

The Holy Father recommends that we study the Catechism as part of the Year of Faith. He describes the Catechism as a means of encountering the person of Christ. Remarkably, he writes “on page after page, we find that what is presented here is no theory, but an encounter with a Person who lives within the Church” (Porta fidei, 11). That Person is Jesus Christ, God made man.

Here in Ireland, the recently published National Directory for Catechesis of the Bishops of Ireland, entitled Share the Good News, also recommends that Catholics “consider setting up a [study] group to look at the Catechism over a period of time”… “like a book club taking a night to discuss a particular section read beforehand” (page 74). This is a great idea, which would have a very positive effect on the future life of the Church in Ireland.

Brothers and sisters, the future of the Church in Ireland begins now. We have all been revitalised in our faith by the unforgettable experience of the International Eucharistic Congress, which, pray God, has marked a turning point in the life of the Church in Ireland.

Certainly, the road ahead is not an easy one, but the road ahead for Catholics in Ireland did not look very easy in 1879 when Our Lady appeared here on that rainy evening in August. And yet her appearance was followed by one of the most fruitful periods in the fifteen centuries of Catholicism on this Island.

Yes, brothers and sisters: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well” (Mt 6,33).

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Here's some background about this little-known manifestation of the Mother of God:

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The Apparition at Knock took place on 21st August, 1879, eight years after Pontmain in 1871. The two apparitions are broadly similar, in that they both took place in the evening and only lasted for three hours or so, and similarly, in both, no words were spoken.

On the evening of Thursday, 21 August 1879, two women from the small village of Knock, Mary McLoughlin and Mary Beirne, were walking back to their home in the rain when they passed by the back of the town church. There against the wall of the church stood the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and an altar with a lamb and a cross on it. Flying around the altar were several angels.

The women called several other people to the church. They too saw the apparition. What they and thirteen others saw in the still-bright day was a beautiful woman, clothed in white garments, wearing a large brilliant crown. Her hands were raised as if in prayer. This woman was understood by all who saw her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Queen of the Angels.

Other villagers, who were not involved with the apparition, nonetheless reported seeing a very bright light illuminating the area around where the church was located. There were subsequent reports of inexplicable healings associated with visits to the church at Knock.

Ten days after the first apparition, the first cure occurred. A young girl, born deaf, was instantly given the gift of hearing. At the end of 1880, some 300 cures, apparently miraculous, had been recorded in the diary of the parish priest.

One of the pilgrims, who had been cured soon after the apparition, testified many years later that he had seen "as many as half-a-dozen pilgrims simultaneously undergoing their cure, or getting relief, and in vision I see the lame walk, my case included, the sightless seeing, the withered skins smoothening."

As the news spread, pilgrims by the thousands arrived here with their sick. A large number of unusual cures were reported. Those who claimed a cure left their crutches and canes at the site, and many of those supports were attached to the wall. Pilgrims snatched plaster and bits of cement off the apparition wall for relics in 1879 and the 1880s.

In the fall of 1880, a statue of Our Lady of Knock was erected where she had been seen during the vision. This place in Ireland had become a place for pilgrimage: one-and-a-half million visitors trek there annually.

The Church response to this series of events was typically circumspect. The Church officially investigated the apparition at Knock in 1879, and again in 1936. It was found that the witnesses were believable and that there was nothing contrary to the faith. A record of purported cures and devotional material was maintained until 1936. At that time, the head of the diocese of Tuam, Archbishop Gilmartin, authorized the publication of a pamphlet supporting devotion to the apparition at Knock.

Four recent popes have honored Knock. Pius XII blessed the Banner of Knock at St. Peter's and decorated it with a special medal on All Saints' Day, 1945. It was the Marian year. On this occasion, the Pope announced the new feast of the Queenship of Mary.

Pope John XXIII presented a special candle to Knock on Candlemas Day in 1960. He had always regarded it as one of outstanding shrines devoted to Our Lady. Pope Paul VI blessed the foundation stone for the Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, on June 6, 1974.



Pope John Paul II made a personel pilgrimage to the Shrine to the shrine on Sept. 30, 1979. He addressed the sick and the nursing staff, celebrated Mass, established the shrine church as a basilica, presented a candle and the golden rose to the shrine, and finally knelt in prayer at the apparition wall.

Knock was different from other approved apparitions in many ways. The first difference is the number of figures in the apparition. Usually, only Mary appears. The second difference is the lack of a verbal message. In all of the other apparitions, Mary appears with a request or a warning. Another difference is the large number of people that saw the apparition.

Apparitions are typically seen by no more than five people. Finally, the apparition was very brief. It only occurred once, for a two hour duration. Other Marian apparitions involved multiple visitations.

The Irish people have always understood that the Blessed Virgin Mary was a human being, a sister to humankind, as well as mother. However, she is the mother of Jesus Christ, and therefore, the mother of God. She has no power of her own, but she is, and always will be, the mother of God made man. She has been assumed into heaven, but sometimes she comes back to earth as a heavenly messenger, sent by her Son. When the Virgin Mary speaks, she brings no new messages, nothing that is not contained in the biblical teachings of Jesus. The Virgin Mary represents Him to us, and she calls upon us to have sorrow for sin, to repent and turn to God.

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Mons. Brown's hopeful portrait of Catholics in Ireland today comes just as the Rome correspondent of an Israeli newspaper has filed a highly inflammatory article
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4271916,00.html
claiming that the appointment of Mons. Giuseppe Lazzarotto as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Israel is a 'slap in the face to Israel' because the new Nuncio was the papal representative to Ireland in 2000-2007. The correspondent cites false allegations by the Irish government that the Nuncio refused to cooperate with the Murphy Commission hich investigated sex abuses committed by Irish priests against children and minors; as well as the wild unfounded charges made in the Irish Parliament by the Irish Prime Minister in July last year.



THE THREE-WEEK 'RAGE OF THE IRISH'
AGAINST THE VATICAN IN THE SUMMER OF 2011

The release of the so-called Cloyne Report on July 13, 2011, triggered an unprecedented national anti-Vatican, anti-Church hysteria in Ireland for about three weeks - from July 13-August 2 based on the reports I posted on this thread at the time, as reflected in MSM coverage - which included the Irish PM's highly 'truth-challenged' rant on July 20. The hysteria was in total disproportion to the actual negative findings of the report, which moreover, had been known to everyone since December 2010. However, the full text of the report could not be released at the time because one of the accused priest still had a court case pending.

A psychologist of mass hysteria can probably explain why the furor exploded in July 2011, when nothing new was disclosed about the contents of the report. Especially since nothing similar had erupted following the three earlier reports on child abuse in Ireland:

(1) The 2005 report on abuses committed in the diocese of Ferns cfrom 1962-2002. The figures: In a 40-year period, 'more than 100 complaints' presented against 10 priests. [This is an unusually high offense rate for a small diocese, and it was the basis for Benedict XVI's stern admonition to the Irish bishops during their first ad-limina visit in his Pontificate in October 2006.]

2) The Ryan Report in May 2009 on physical, psychological and sexual abuses committed against children and minors, not just by priests but also by lay employees, from 1913-2000 in 200 schools run by Catholic religious orders, which had about 25,000 pupils during the period investigated. The figures: In a 35-year period (1965-2000 when it was possible to track most of those concerned), 1500 complaints (of which only 391 were sexual), 800 accused abusers.

3) The Murphy Report in November 2009 on abuses committed in the Archdiocese of Dublin from the 1940s to 2000, during which time, altogether 2,800 priests and religious served in the archdiocese. During that period, 102 priests/religious were named in complaints received by the Commission. Again, because of practical time considerations, the investigation focused on the period from 1975 to 2004. The figures: For the 29-year period, 320 complaints were presented against 46 priests, of which 11 had confessed or been convicted, 1 was clearly a case of false accusation, and two were merely 'suspected' but not accused.

The Murphy Commission extended its investigation to the Diocese of Cloyne because there was evidence of unsavory things happening as late as 1996-2005, the period investigated by the commission. And here's what the July 2011 eruption was all about:

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The Murphy Report on The Diocese of Cloyne, July 2011

Let me cite the Irish Times's summary of the objective findings of the report - because this newspaper wouldn't be expected to be restrained, much less to whitewash, anything bad at all against the Church
www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0713/breaki...
and indeed it frontloads its article with everything bad that the report can say about the Vatican.

The 'case against the Vatican' comes down to two things -
1) that it was 'entirely unhelpful' and 'unsupportive' of the civilian inquiry; [What could the Vatican have told them about local events which even the bishop and his collaborators sought to conceal from local investigators? And did the investigators fail to find out anything significant because the Vatican was 'unsupportive'?};; and
2) that the 1997 letter from the Nuncio 'gave individual bishops the freedom to ignore' guidelines set by the Irish Church to resolve the problem of child abuse by priests. [But the Report itself makes it clear that the bishops of Cloyne in this case, admitted they chose not to follow Vatican directives, and not because of anything Storero's letter said. Besides, did they investigate how many other Irish bishops, if any, openly violated directives after Storero's letter? Even the scrupulous Mons. Martin of Dublin - when pushed - can only cite the Diocese of Cloyne in this regard.]

Then, the key issue in the Cloyne affair: "The primary responsibility for the failure to implement the agreed child sexual abuse procedures lies with then Bishop of Cloyne John Magee, who resigned in March 2010." [He stopped running the diocese in March 2009 in order 'to cooperate with the inquiry'.]

More than halfway down the story we find the other substantive facts uncovered by the inquiry:

- There were 15 cases between 1996 and 2005 which “very clearly” should have been reported by the diocese to the police. Nine (9) of the cases were not reported.
- Bishop Magee had misled (i.e, lied to) former inquiries by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2009.
- An accusation against Bishop Magee himself was dismissed; another 18 priests were named using pseudonyms.

And the supposed 'smoking gun':
- "In a secret letter the Vatican described the Irish bishops' 1996 guidelines to be a "study document", and not a binding set of rules". [Which is, as anyone who has read the letter knows, a flat-out distortion of the sense and the words of the letter. It was obviously not so 'secret' that copies of it were not soon floating all over the Internet... And because it was a study document, the Congregation for the Clergy felt it could still present its reservations or objections to the formulation of the 'mandatory reporting' guideline.]

The Diocese of Cloyne has pointed out that the number of cases unearthed (19) must be seen in the context of the 415 priests in the diocese during that period about whom no complaints were made. [And that is only fair to the good priests.]

---

Nothing in this presentation excuses a single crime that was committed by the sex-offender priests and the bishops who sought to cover up for them. God will forgive the culpable who have repented or will repent, quite apart from the justice that should be meted to them by the law.

But figures provide a sociological perspective, as well as a measure of fairness. The culture within the Church is obviously not overwhelmingly malignant as it is made out to be when we consider the numbers, and by what we know of our own personal experience with good priests and good bishops, bad priests and bad bishops.

One could argue that the only perspective that matters is that of the individual victim. But Christ was always just as concerned with the sinner. The Church must treat both the victim and the offender as Christ would.

The Pope to Catholic Action forum:
Informed laity are co-responsible
for the Church at their level
By Cindy Wooden


VATICAN CITY, August 23 (CNS) -- As Catholics prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, all Church members need to make a renewed effort to ensure laypeople are aware of their responsibility for the Church and are allowed to exercise it, Pope Benedict XVI wrote in a message to the VI Assembly of the International Forum of Catholic Action (IFCA) being held in Iasi, Romania from August 22-26.

[NB: The IFCA was created in June 1995 by a decree of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, as an international organization of pontifical right, with a juridical personality under canon law. It brings together the various national Catholic Action movements around the world.]

IFCA promotes lay involvement in parish and community life, particularly through studying and acting on the principles of Catholic social teaching.

[Pope Benedict's message was addressed to Mons. Domenico Sigalini, Bishop of Palestrina, who is also the spiritual director of IFCA, after having been for years the spiritual director of Italian Catholic Action.]

The Pope said the Church needs a "mature and committed laity, able to make its specific contribution to the mission of the Church" in a way that respects the different roles and ministries of its members.

He pointed out that the Vatican II dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, described the style of relationships within the Church as "familial," thus emphasizing shared responsibility, mutual support and joint action while, at the same time, recognizing the special role of guidance belonging to the Church's pastors.

The Pope asked Catholic Action members to work with and for the Church through their "prayer, study, active participation in ecclesial life, (and) with an attentive and positive gaze upon the world in a continuous search for the signs of the times."

He asked the members to help with the new evangelization, proclaiming salvation in Christ "with language and methods understandable in our age."

In addition, he encouraged them to continue studying and applying Catholic social teaching, particularly with the aim of bringing about a "globalization of solidarity and charity," which will further the Church's mission of bringing hope to the world.

Here is a full translation of the Holy Fahter's message:

---

To My Venerated Brother
Mons. Domenico Sigalini
Spiritual Director
International Forum of Catholic Action

On the occasion of the VI Assembly of this International Forum of Catholic Action, I wish to address a heartfelt greeting to you and all who are taking part in this significant meeting, especially to the Secretariat Coordinator, Emilio Inzaurraga, and to the national presidents and spiritual directors.

I address a special thought to the Bishop of Iasi, Mons. Petru Ghergal, and his diocese, which is hosting this ecclesial event during which you are called to reflect on 'ecclesial and social co-responsibility'.

It is a theme of great relevance for the laity and which fits in very well with the imminent Year of Faith and the Ordinary Assembly of the Bishops' Synod on the New Evangelization.

Co-responsibility demands a change of mentality, particularly on the role of the laity in the Church, where they must be considered not as 'collaborators' of the clergy, but as persons who are truly 'co-responsible' for the being and actions of the Church.

It is therefore important to consolidate a mature and committed laity, capable of giving its specific contribution to the ecclesial mission, while respecting the ministers and the tasks that each one has in the life of the Church, and always in cordial communion with the bishops.

To this end, the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium describes the style of relationship between laity and Pastors with the adjective 'familial': "A great many wonderful things are to be hoped for from this familial dialogue between the laity and their spiritual leaders: in the laity a strengthened sense of personal responsibility; a renewed enthusiasm; a more ready application of their talents to the projects of their spiritual leaders. The latter, on the other hand, aided by the experience of the laity, can more clearly and more incisively come to decisions regarding both spiritual and temporal matters. In this way, the whole Church, strengthened by each one of its members, may more effectively fulfill is mission for the life of the world." (No. 37)

Dear friends, it is important to deeply study and live this spirit of profound communion in the Church, characteristic of the beginnings of the Christian community, as the Acts of the Apostles attests: "The multitude of those who had become believers had one heart and one soul only" (4,32).

You must feel it your commitment to work for the mission of the Church: with prayer, with study, with active participation in ecclesial life, with an attentive and positive view of the world in a continual search for the signs of the times.

Do not tire of ever refining, with serious and daily formative commitment, the aspects of your special vocation as faithful laymen, who are called to be courageous and credible witnesses in all areas of society, so that the Gospel may be the light that brings hope in problem situations, in difficulties, in the darkness that men today often find along their journey of life.

The great challenge of the New Evangelization is to lead men to an encounter with Christ, announcing his message of salvation in language and ways that are comprehensible in our time which is characterized by social and cultural processes in rapid transformation.

I encourage you to proceed with generosity in your service to the Church, living your charisms fully, whose fundamental trait is that of taking on the apostolic purpose of the Church in her globality, her fruitful equilibrium between the universal Church and the local Churches, and in the spirit of intimate union with the Successor of Peter, and of industrious co-responsibility with your own Pastors (cfr II Vat. Ecum. Conc.,Decree on lay apostolate, Apostolicam actuoritatem, 20).

At this stage of history, in the light of the social Magisterium of the Church, work in order to be ever more a laboratory of "globalizing solidarity and charity', in order to grow, with the whole Church, in the co-responsibility of offering a future of hope to mankind, having the courage even to formulate demanding proposals.

Your associations of Catholic Action boast of a long and fruitful history, written by courageous witnesses to Christ and the Gospel, some of whom have been recognized by the Church as Blesseds and saints.

You are called today to renew the commitment of walking along the path of sanctity, favoring and respecting personal paths of faith and valuing the richness of everyone, with the accompaniment of your priest directors and of officials who can educate you ion ecclesial and social co-responsibility.

Let your life be 'transparent', guided by the Gospel and enlightened by the encounter with Christ, loved and followed without fear. Take on and share the pastoral choices of your dioceses and parishes, promoting occasions of encounter and sincere collaboration with other components of the ecclesial community, creating relationships of esteem and communion with priests, for a community that is alive, ministerial and missionary,

Cultivate authentic personal relationships with everyone, starting with your family, and offer your readiness to participate at all levels of social, cultural and political life, aiming always for the common good.

With these brief thoughts, as I assure you of my affectionate prayers for you, your families and your associations, I send from the heart to all the participants of the Assembly the Apostolic Blessing that I gladly extend to those whom you encounter in your daily apostolate.

Castel Gandolfo
August 10, 2012

---

Security and the papal trip to Lebanon
by Cindy Wooden


VATICAN CITY, August 23 — Vatican officials, papal trip organizers and the Maronite Patriarch who will be one of Pope Benedict XVI’s hosts in Lebanon Sept. 14-16 all say the trip is a go.

But violence related to the conflict in Syria has been reported in Tripoli, about 43 miles north of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, where the Pope will spend most of his time.

As the Vatican newspaper reported on its front page this afternoon, there are widespread fears that violence between groups in Syria could spill over the border and ignite more trouble in Lebanon between groups who support and those who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, has said the Vatican has no doubt the Pope’s trip will take place, and, in fact, the Vatican already has shipped the popemobile to Beirut. [It has arrived in Beirut.]

Yesterday, Maronite Archbishop Camille Zaidan of Antelias, chairman of the Lebanese bishops’ committee preparing the trip, reviewed the steps being taken to ensure a safe and successful papal trip.

At the briefing, Father Abdo Abu Kassem denied “recent rumors which suggested that the visit will be postponed.”

In addition, yesterday the Catholic movemnt Aid to the Church in Need reported their conversation with Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Rai, who told a delegation that the Pope’s visit is not in jeopardy, and “Of course the visit will go ahead.”

There is no doubt that Vatican officials and Lebanese Catholics want the Pope to make the trip. However, they also have an obligation to ensure the safety of the Pope and of the thousands of people who would come to see him in Lebanon.

[If security services foresee or suspect any possible danger at all for the Pope and the faithful during the visit, obviously the Pope - and the Vatican - will abide by their recommendations. For now apparently, their best information, and the current situation, indicate a 'go'.]

While Church leaders continue preparing the trip, they also are asking for prayers that the violence cease. [OREMUS!]

Friday, August 24, 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Fifth from right: Bartholomew holding his skin, from Michelangelo's Last Judgment.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW (b Judea, d Armenia, 1st cent), Apostle and Martyr
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on Oct. 4, 2006,
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20061004...
to this apostle about whom little is known for certain. He is mentioned in all four Gospels, always associated with Philip, and once in the Acts, but as Bartholomew, he was never the center of any Gospel episode. It has become widely accepted however that he was likely the man called Nathanael who became a disciple after an encounter when Jesus told him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree", a reference known only to Nathanael, who then professed "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" In John's Gospel, Nathanael is quoted to have told Philip "Can anything good come from Nazareth", after Philip tells him he has found "the man of whom Moses and the prophets wrote" in Jesus of Nazareth. The early historian Eusebius claimed that after the Ascension, Bartholomew brought the Gospel eastward up to India. A stronger tradition holds that he and Jude Thaddeus evangelized Armenia (they are the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church), where Bartholomew converted the king, and was then flayed alive and crucified head downward by the king's brother. A famous monastery in Armenia was built in the 13th century on what was said to be the site of Bartholomew's martyrdom. Eventually, his remains were brought to Rome, where he is venerated in the church named for him on Tiberina island on the Tiber river. The legend of his martyrdom, particularly the aspect of having been skinned alive, was a favorite subject of artists in the past. Michelangelo depicts him in the Last Judgment, holding out his skin, on which the artist painted his own face.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082412.cfm


No events announced for the Holy Father today.

Joseph Ratzinger on Vatican-II
in the summer before it began
by Gianni Valente
Translated from the Italian service of

August 24, 2012

Half a century ago, the future Pope Benedict XVI was 'under pressure' in his role as a theological expert in the forthcoming Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

In the quiet summers of Castel Gandolfo, Benedict XVI has concluded the draft of his third and last volume on the life of Jesus and it is said he is also drafting his fourth encyclical.

Even 50 years ago, around this time, the then 35-year-old Joseph Ratzinger, who was at that time a professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Bonn - was occupied with books to study, papers to correct, and texts to contemplate and to write.

Adding to his workload were requests coming from the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings, who had asked him to be his theological consultant for the Council and wished to avail of his help even during the final exchanges with the Vatican during the preparatory phase for the Council.

Frings was a member of the Council's central preparatory committee, and even then, he stood out for his interventions and his initiatives as a future playmaker in the Council.

Thanks to Frings, Ratzinger had access, in the spring of 1962, to the so-called 'schema', the drafts of documents prepared by the various preparatory committees on various themes to be discussed and approved by the Council.

Between May and September, as documented in the authoritative study by historians Norbert Trippen and the Jesuit Jared Wicks, Ratzinger analyzed for Frings a good part of the materials produced by the drafting committees, expressing opinions about them which were lucid, clearcut and often surprising.

For example, in a letter written in May 1962 to Fr. Hubert Luthe, Frings's secretary, who had been Ratzinger's fellow student at the theological faculty of Munich - Ratzinger was most enthusiastic about the drafts produced by the Secretariat for Christian Unity, which was led by Cardinal Augustin Bea, which had been increasingly emerging as the dialectical opposite of the Theological Commission, then presided by the Secretary of the Holy Office [predecessor organism pf the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani.

Among the schema signed by Bea were the first drafts of what would become the conciliar decrees on ecumenism and religious freedom.

"If the Council could be oriented to the point of adopting these texts," wrote Ratzinger to Frings's secretary in May 1962, "it will have been worthwhile for that alone, and true progress would be achieved. This is truly language that serves our time, that can be understood by all men of good will".

At the end of June, still at the request of Frings - who by that time had become the spokesman for the growing dissatisfaction by ample sectors of the European episcopates at the way the preparatory phase of the Council was going - Ratzinger offered a draft of an Apostolic Constitution which would synthesize and define with didactic clarity the objectives of Vatican II before it began: three typewritten pages in Latin, in which the young Bavarian theologian presented a realistic observation of the historical circumstances during which Vatican II had been convoked ("The divine light seems obscured, and Our Lord seems to be sleeping in the middle of today's storms and buffeting waves"), and concludes by citing the model of announcing the Gospel laid down by St. Paul, who, in order to give witness to Jesus Christ, "became everything to everyone" (1 Cor 9,22).

The critical discernment of Ratzinger with regard to the preparatory drafts for Council documents reached its peak in September 1962. Less than a month from the opening of the Council, Ratzinger applied it directly to the first body of seven schema that had been proposed in definitive form by the preparatory commissions, largely under the dominant influence of the doctrinal organisms in the Roman Curia.

In a text prepared by Ratzinger in mid-September - and promptly forwarded by Cardinal Frings without changes and under his signature to Secretary of State Amleto Cicognani - positive evaluations were given only to the schema on liturgical reform and on unity with the Oriental churches.

According to Ratzinger, only these texts "correspond very well to the purpose of the Council as stated by the Roman Pontiff". If the intention is "the renewal of Christian life and adaptation of the regimen of the Church to the needs of today's world", he wrote, it is methodologically important to avoid having the Council bogged down from the start "in complicated questions raised by theologians which people in our time cannot grasp and which can only end in confusing them".

All the other schema - especially those elaborated by the preparatory theological commission presided by Cardinal Ottaviani - were considered by Ratzinger to be 'too scholastic'. In particular, he was very critical of the draft on preserving the purity of the depositum fidei [the deposit of faith] - "It is so deficient that it cannot be presented to the Council int his form".

For the schema dedicated to the 'sources' of divine Revelation, Ratzinger proposed substantial changes in structure and content. [This would become the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei verbum, which was the Vatican II document most associated with the work of theological expert Joseph Ratzinger, as Gaudium et spes was associated with the work of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Cracow.]

Ratzinger criticized the texts on Christian morality, celibacy, marriage and the family, arguing against their practical pastoral application. He also said they tended "to lose the reader in an excess of words".

He stressed that the Conciliar texts "should give answers to the most urgent questions for the faithful, and should do this, as much as possible, not by judging or condemning, but using a maternal language, with an ample presentation of the treasures of the faith and her comforts".

From the suggestions he made to Cardinal Frings, starting from the preparatory phase, one sees that Joseph Ratzinger did not come to Vatican II unprepared. The young Bavarian professor appeared very much aware of what was at stake in this ecclesial event even before it began.

In his collaboration with Frings, Ratzinger already availed of a flexible but well-defined armamentarium of proposals and reflections which would give depth to his intense participation in the conciliar event.

A belated post, but definitely a signal one....

Vatican and Apple team up
to produce Pope's work
in electronic formats

August 24, 2012

The Vatican publishing house has reached agreement with Apple to make the works of Pope Benedict XVI available in electronic form, accessible to a variety of high-tech devices.

The Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) will work with Apple to produce eBooks and I-Tunes containing the Pope’s catechetical talks from his Wednesday public audiences.

A series on “Prayer in the New Testament,” already available in print form, will soon be produced in electronic formats, richly illustrated with artwork from the Vatican collection.

The Pope’s works will eventually be available through computers, smart phones, and PDAs.

Saturday, August 25, 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Fourth from left, portrait by El Greco, Ca. 1600; 6th from left, 16th century portrait of Louis feeding the poor; next to it a medieval illumination depicting the meeting in Cluny between Pope Innocent IV and Louis.
ST. LOUIS IX OF FRANCE (b France 1226, d Tunis 1270), King, Crusader, Confessor
Descended from the Capetian dynasty, he became king at age 12, and his mother Blanche aced as regent until he was 19, when he married Marguerite of Provence with whom he would have 11 children, one of whom would found the Bourbon dynasty. He took his coronation oath seriously to 'behave as God's anointed' and became the embodiment of the ideal Christian monarch. He was primus inter pares among the monarchs of Europe because France at the time was the largest and wealthiest of the European nations. He brought many reforms to civil administration, particularly in the justice system, and building on the earlier work of his mother, he successfully fought down the Albigensian (Cathar) heresy. But in his efforts to defend the faith, he also expelled the Jews and strengthened the Inquisition in France. He was devoted to his people, keeping lists of the needy to bring them regular aid, founding hospitals, visiting the sick, caring for lepers, and bringing together all classes of people by his personality and holiness. He was a patron of arts and culture, under whom Gothic architecture and arts flourished, and Paris reinforced its medieval reputation as center and arbiter. He built the famous Sainte Chapelle in Paris as his private chapel. As a Christian king, he took part in the Seventh and Eighth Crusades. The first time, he conquered the Egyptian city of Damietta, but ended up being captured by the Mameluke army and had to be ransomed by the Knights Templar. He spent the next four years in the Holy Land, using his wealth to help the Crusaders and build defences in Acre, Jaffa and Haifa. More than 20 years later, in 1570, he would take part in the Eighth Crusade, but he died unexpectedly of disease (probably dysentery) in Tunis. He was canonized in 1297, just 24 years after his death. He is the only French king to have been canonized.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082412.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father today.

The Holy Father has named Cardinal Raúl Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, emeritus Archbishop of Quito (Ecuador),
as his special representative to the celebration of the 475th anniversary of the Diocese of Cuzco (Peru),
first diocese established in Peru and in South America. The celebrations take place on Oct. 22-28.


34 YEARS AGO TODAY...

August 25-26 Days of Smiles - Observance of the anniversary by the Associazione Amici di Papa Luciani.
The Conclave began which would elect Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, the next day, on the fourth ballot, to succeed
Paul VI as Pope and Bishop of Rome, taking the name John Paul I.

John Paul I's town of Canale d'Agordo in northern Italy has also been celebrating this year the centenary
of his birth, which will culminate on October 17, the actual birth date.



- It is now widely known that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and president of the USCCB, will deliver a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, next week on the night Mitt Romney, a Mormon, will be formally nominated to be his party's candidate for President of the United States to run against non-denominational Christian Barack Obama.

The spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York said that the cardinal wrote both parties weeks ago to say he would be 'grateful' to be allowed to say a prayer at their respective nominating conventions, with the stipulation that his participation would not mean an endorsement of the party's candidate(s). The Republicans accepted, and the Democrats declined.

Of course, this comes against the past few weeks of raging polemics in the US Catholic media about Dolan inviting President Obama to speak at the annual Al Smith dinner sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York (in honor of the Republican Catholic who ran against Harry Truman in the 1952 elections and who was thought, on the basis of early returns, to have defeated the President) one month before the presidential elections.

The question is: Should Dolan have invited Obama at all, and what did he hope to gain from it? Certainly, not Obama's good will for the Catholic Church nor a softening of his well-publicized support for abortion of all kinds, including partial birth abortion which is direct infanticide by the most cruel means of a baby being delivered, not to mention his recently 'evolved' full support for same-sex marriage. And there's the matter of his administration's aasault on religious freedom by forcing religious institutions to pay for abortions on demand by their employees - which Dolan and the USCCB have been militantly fighting in the courts and in the tribunal of public opinion.

Dolan's reason was that presidential candidates have always been invited to the Al Smith dinner in a presidential election year, but it would not be a sin to 'ignore' that practice at all, i.e., there is no law of the land or divine precept that has cast this in stone with a penalty for not putting into practice at all; and if Cardinal Dolan had to invite anyone at all, why did he not invite both presidential candidates? [P.S. I was grossly mistaken about this as Janeway points out below; I apologize!]

Obviously, the cardinal cannot disinvite the President, who is only too happy to have a Catholic forum once again (Has anyone forgotten Notre Dame?) offer to host whatever he chooses to say that evening. There is nothing we can do about it, but expect another hypocritical performance by Obama, who has not hesitated to say the most outrageous lies about the state of the US economy and against his opponent in the past few months. In a way, Catholics like me, who deeply resent the lies Obama spreads around lavishly as an SOP to mask his monumental failure to govern fairly and effectively, will be exposed to an occasion of sin - explosively stirring up all their (my) uncharitable thoughts about Obama.

So Cardinal Dolan wins brownie points for 'turning the other cheek' - to be slapped gloatingly and unhesitatingly by the opponent. But are those brownie points worth going through yet another exercise in hypocrisy by Obama?

Compare the situation to that of evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who planned to host a nationally televised forum on the outstanding issues of the elections featuring both presidential candidates. Warren cancelled the plan because of 'the lack of civility' in the election rhetoric so far, on both sides, and rightly concluded it would be hypocritical to have the candidates putting their best foot forward in a religious forum, and then going back to all the mudslinging and outright lying right afterwards.

- Two days ago, on his blog, Luigi Accattoli, one of the Vatican observers whose views I usually find congenial, filed a startling commentary
www.luigiaccattoli.it/blog/?page_id=9443
in which he compares the treasonous Paolo Gabriele to the late Mons. Renato Dardozzi, who archived papers from the IOR (that he had access to as the long-standing secretary to the senior prelate usually assigned to day-to-day operations at the so-called 'Vatican bank') that he consigned for publication after his death. [Nuzzi also describes him as one of the rare non-Polish persons who was regularly invited to the Thursday lunch with John Paul II.] The main burden of the more than 4,000 documents he kept was that from 1989 onwards, there was a parallel IOR - a bank within the bank, he called it - set up to channel a great many funds from questionable sources, even 'dirty money', into activities that had nothing to do with the Church or religious works, such as political funding, including bribes.]

The only thing the two have in common is that they both handed Vatican documents over to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. There is no moral equivalence to their actions, as Accattoli seems to say.

Dardozzi had legitimate access to the documents he kept copies of, and he intended them to be disclosed after his death, in order to let the world know what was happening internally during the decades when there was no direct information about the IOR at all, decades during which genuine scandals took place as well as all kinds of unsavoury rumors about IOR. Dardozzi's archive contained factual documentation of what took place within the IOR itself.

Gabriele stole the documents he copied from the papal study behind everyone's back, and although he, too, claimed that it was for the purpose of exposing what he considered to be 'evil and corruption everywhere in the Church', the documents he purloined 1) covered at the very most a limited two-year period from late 2009 to early 2012, 2) they did not really disclose anything significant that had not already been reported on by Vatican correspondents, and 3) they revealed no real scandals other than some power plays and internecine rivalry that are part of the daily life of any institution.

Accattoli argues that one must consider the 'good intention' to help the Church in both cases. Dardozzi's was obviously a sensible and considerate 'good intention', with an outcome that has been salutary (not the least because the information was disclosed during the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, who has nothing to hide and does not want the Church or the Vatican to hide anything that the faithful should know).

But Gabriele's 'good intention' was thoughtless and arrogant - as if none of the information he disclosed through the stolen documents would not otherwise have been known, when most of it already was known [if he was the source of the Vigano letters, then those two documents, whose disclosure on TV by Nuzzi, began the entire Vatileaks episode, were the only two that offered fresh first=hand information].

But worse, since in doing what he did, Gabriele claimed it was because he thought the Pope was not informed or not being correctly informed. Which can only mean that 1) he chose to remain completely ignorant of everything Benedict XVI has said and done, with regard to the filth in the Church and the purification that the Church herself must undergo continually [One has to be self-blinded to claim to see only 'evil and corruption everywhere' while ignoring completely the good represented and carried out by the person you serve in the most intimate needs of his daily routine], and 2) he had this presumptuous and almost insulting thought that the Pope had not even seen or read any of the documents he stole indiscriminately (in the sense that he only copied what he could lay his hands on) and therefore unsystematically.

Even so, it says volumes for Benedict XVI that in a two-year period, the in-house thief copied nothing that could be considered negative for the Pope in any way, nor was there any direct proof of any canonical or civil crime committed by any of the multiple others who wrote or who were cited in the documents (except perhaps from the Legionary insider who spoke to Georg Gaenswein that he had information he had about Father Maciel that he had wanted to give John Paul II directly but was not allowed to do so). Sins perhaps, yes, and human failings in abundance, are documented in these stolen papers, but no crimes.

But back to Accattoli, his commentary takes Gabriele's words = as transcribed in the Vatican reports on his interrogation and indictment - on prima facie value (he only meant well, he saw evil and corruption everywhere in the Vatican, he felt he had been infiltrated by the Holy Spirit to do this, he only wanted to save the Pope} - never mind that even to the average person, the motivations sound like those of a person with delusions or megalomania), independent of the circumstances of the criminal actions and the delusional character of the thief.

In the last line of the blog, Accattoli even credits Gabriele's first spoken reaction when he was informed he by Georg Gaenswein that he was under preventive suspension, namely, that he was being made the scapegoat: "He knows full well that he is the traitor (corvo), but the media had planted the idea - and even Nuzzi told him so - that sooner or later, the Vatican police would find a sacrificial goat outside the fold, and that for him the day had come. At that moment, reality and his (Gabriele's) idea of the media had coincided. This is an image to be used as an icon of the entire episode".

Is Accattoli saying that one must overlook Gabriele's crime(s) because of the motivations he articulated or at least find his motivations and ideas attenuating circumstances for the crimes? Or perhaps, Accattoli is saying, because he describes Gabriele as 'media-dependent', that reality is often confused with what the media report as reality, in which case, he could have said it more directly.

My first reaction was that he was using this commentary as a vehicle to say, "Yes, Gabriele is right, do not brush him off, because there is evil and corruption everywhere in the Church", but that conclusion is far from novel for any journalist, Vaticanista or not. Such sweeping statements have been made about the Church since time immemorial, and if Accattoli wishes to add his voice to it, let him not do so through Paolo Gabriele, but come out with concrete stories he knows and has investigated about this 'evil and corruption' that have not been previously reported.

Actually, the invitation was extended to both President Obama and Mitt Romney, and they have both accepted the invitation.

From the New York Times:


Dolan Will Let Obama and Romney Joke It Up at the Al Smith Dinner
By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: August 7, 2012

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have been up in arms about various policies of President Obama , including his support for same-sex marriage and his insistence that employer health insurance cover contraception.

But the nation’s top bishop, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan , signaled on Tuesday that he was willing to share at least one night of joking and camaraderie with the Democratic president, despite their differences.

The Archdiocese of New York confirmed that both Mr. Obama and Mitt Romney , the presumptive Republican nominee, had accepted an invitation to speak on Oct. 18 at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a glittering New York Catholic charity event that has served for more than six decades as a lighthearted pit stop for presidential candidates in the weeks before national elections.

Mr. Obama’s invitation has generated dismay among some opponents of abortion, who point out that there are precedents for barring candidates from the dinner. In 1996, Cardinal John O’Connor decided not to invite the candidates, apparently because President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had just vetoed a partial-birth abortion bill, and in 2004, Cardinal Edward M. Egan did not invite the candidates, apparently because the Democratic nominee was Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Roman Catholic who supports abortion rights.

Cardinal Dolan, who has a dual role as archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has warned that the nation’s religious liberty is at risk as a result of several Obama administration policies, like the new health care law ’s mandate that some religiously affiliated institutions provide coverage that includes contraception for employees.

But the cardinal has also said it is important to engage those he disagrees with, and as the president of the Al Smith Foundation’s board of directors, he sent the invitation, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese.

“It is the tradition of the Smith dinner to invite the presidential candidates in the presidential election years in the spirit of nonpartisanship, good humor and good fellowship,” Mr. Zwilling said in an interview.

At the dinner, which is held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, the two candidates will be asked to give seven-minute speeches. By tradition, the speeches are humorous and self-deprecating.

In 2008, Mr. Obama got big laughs when he exchanged quips and compliments with the Republican candidate, John McCain, though neither man had a joke as memorable as that of George W. Bush in 2000, who told the well-heeled crowd: “Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.”



Here's Cardinal Dolan's Response, taken from his blog:


Al Smith Dinner
FEAST OF ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

Last week I was out in Anaheim for the annual Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus. It was, as usual, a most uplifting and inspirational event.

In his rousing address to the thousands of delegates, representing 1.8 million knights, Dr. Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight, exhorted us to a renewed sense of faithful citizenship, encouraging us not to be shy about bringing the values of faith to the public square. This duty, he reminded us, came not just from the fact that we are Catholic, but also from the fact that we are loyal Americans.

He then went on to announce a promising initiative of the Knights of Columbus to foster civility in politics. Quoting a very recent study, he noted that over 80% of Americans are fed up with the negativity, judgmentalism, name-calling, and mudslinging of our election-year process, and eagerly want a campaign of respect, substance, amity — civility!

For seven decades, the Al Smith Dinner here in New York has been an acclaimed example of such civility in political life. As you may know, every four years, during the presidential election campaign, the Al Smith Dinner is the venue of history, as it is the only time outside of the presidential debates that the two presidential candidates come together, at the invitation of the Al Smith Foundation, through the archbishop of New York, for an evening of positive, upbeat, patriotic, enjoyable civil discourse. This year, both President Obama and Governor Romney have accepted our invitation. I am grateful to them.

The evening has always had a special meaning, as it is named after Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic nominated, in 1928, as a candidate for president, who was viciously maligned because of his own Catholic faith. Smith was known as The Happy Warrior, because while he fought fiercely for what he believed was right, he never sought to demonize those who opposed him. And, the dinner named in his honor is truly life-affirming as it raises funds to help support mothers in need and their babies (both born and unborn) of any faith, or none at all.

The Al Smith Dinner has never been without controversy, since, as Carl Anderson reminded us, politics can inspire disdain and negativity as well as patriotism and civility.

This year is surely no exception: I am receiving stacks of mail protesting the invitation to President Obama (and by the way, even some objecting to the invitation to Governor Romney).

The objections are somewhat heightened this year, since the Catholic community in the United States has rightly expressed vigorous criticism of the President’s support of the abortion license, and his approval of mandates which radically intruded upon Freedom of Religion. We bishops, including yours truly, have been unrelenting in our opposition to these issues, and will continue to be.

So, my correspondents ask, how can you justify inviting the President? Let me try to explain.

For one, an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner is not an award, or the provision of a platform to expound views at odds with the Church. It is an occasion of conversation; it is personal, not partisan.

Two, the purpose of the Al Smith Dinner is to show both our country and our Church at their best: people of faith gathered in an evening of friendship, civility, and patriotism, to help those in need, not to endorse either candidate. Those who started the dinner sixty-seven years ago believed that you can accomplish a lot more by inviting folks of different political loyalties to an uplifting evening, rather than in closing the door to them.

Three, the teaching of the Church, so radiant in the Second Vatican Council, is that the posture of the Church towards culture, society, and government is that of engagement and dialogue. In other words, it’s better to invite than to ignore, more effective to talk together than to yell from a distance, more productive to open a door than to shut one. Our recent popes have been examples of this principle, receiving dozens of leaders with whom on some points they have serious disagreements. Thus did our present Holy Father graciously receive our current President of the United States. And, in the current climate, we bishops have maintained that we are open to dialogue with the administration to try and resolve our differences. What message would I send if I refused to meet with the President?

Finally, an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner in no way indicates a slackening in our vigorous promotion of values we Catholic bishops believe to be at the heart of both gospel and American values, particularly the defense of human dignity, fragile life, and religious freedom. In fact, one could make the case that anyone attending the dinner, even the two candidates, would, by the vibrant solidarity of the evening, be reminded that America is at her finest when people, free to exercise their religion, assemble on behalf of poor women and their babies, born and unborn, in a spirit of civility and respect.

Some have told me the invitation is a scandal. That charge weighs on me, as it would on any person of faith, but especially a pastor, who longs to give good example, never bad. So, I apologize if I have given such scandal. I suppose it’s a case of prudential judgment: would I give more scandal by inviting the two candidates, or by not inviting them?

No matter what you might think of this particular decision, might I ask your prayers for me and my brother bishops and priests who are faced with making these decisions, so that we will be wise and faithful shepherds as God calls us to be?

In the end, I’m encouraged by the example of Jesus, who was blistered by his critics for dining with those some considered sinners; and by the recognition that, if I only sat down with people who agreed with me, and I with them, or with those who were saints, I’d be taking all my meals alone.


How did Cardinal Dolan get into this? Some background information might help.

Taken from their website:
About the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner


Lyndon Johnson, 23rd Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, 1968 Although both his state and his country generously honored Alfred E. Smith after his death in 1944, the most unusual and notable memorial to him has been an ongoing series of black-tie dinners. Sponsored by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, these annual fêtes were initiated by then-Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis J. Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York in 1945. Since that time the Foundation has raised millions of dollars for healthcare causes.

Cardinal Spellman, capitalizing on the fact that Governor Smith died in the month of October (the peak of election season), used the dinner to remind later generations of Smith's extraordinary public career and unique role in political history by securing the participation of the leading political figures of those later generations. Over the years, the dinner has attracted the cream of modern American politics: the list of speakers and attendees reads like a who's who of the political landscape.

In the early years of the dinner's existence, this event might have been the only time some of these candidates would share a dais during the entire campaign. By 1960 the Al Smith dinner had truly reached its zenith as "a ritual of American politics," in the words of Theodore H. White.Many of past dinners have generated front-page news items as a result of the program, i.e. joint appearances of opposing presidential nominees.

While commendatory references to Smith and his actions were once common, by chance or by design, many of the addresses at later dinners have taken on a lighter tone. Indeed, the occasion has evolved into something of an opportunity for speakers - particularly ones whose mien is typically quite serious - to show, through quips and slightly irreverent humor, that they can poke fun at a political issue, an opponent, or themselves. In 1988, Michael S. Dukakis solemnly declared, "I've... been told that I lack passion. But that doesn't affect me one way or the other. Some people say I am arrogant, but I know better than that." In the days before Saturday Night Live, the Al Smith dinner served as a kind of "proving ground for the candidate as entertainer," as one reporter described it.

Today the dinner remains a true phenomenon - a living memorial to an uncommon public figure, best known as the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate, who died more than six decades ago. Doubtless the dinner's honoree would be deeply gratified that he is being remembered each year in this fashion. He would be even more gratified to know that the dinner commemorating him and his unique role in American politics has contributed millions of dollars for charitable endeavors in the city he loved so much.

— Donn Neal

[I should add that the Archbishop of New York is on the foundation's board of directors. If memory serves me right, I believe the Archbishop becomes the president of the foundation.] -Joanna



Thanks for the major correction!...However, I was not questioning Cardinal Dolan's involvement in the Al Smith dinner (I am aware of the role of the Archdiocese in all this) but in what I call the Obama dilemma. I have no problem with the Cardinal sitting down with Obama, except that the dinner will just be that - sitting down together. I doubt they will get to talk at all other than pleasantries. In fact, I imagine they would not talk about their differences in a social setting. My problem is giving Obama a Catholic forum at all - be it ever so 'lighthearted - because he is unregenerate. I just think the Obama dilemma should have been avoided entirely - why not, for instance, have invited the two vice-ppresidential candidates, instead, who are both Catholic? However, if tha rationale is that Obama's presence, as President, will help raise much more funds for the beneficiaries of the Al Smith charities, then it's worth it for the beneficiaries.

TERSA

It took some time but I finally found a French website on Annaba, from which the photos come.

Benedict XVI makes personal contribution
to restore the Basilica of St. Augustine
in Algerian city of Annaba, former Hippo
by Tiziana Campisi
Translated from the 8/25/12 issue of




The Basilica without the scaffoldings; and the interior.

A sarcophagus with a lifesize effigy of the saint in the Basilica stands in for Augustine's final resting place in the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy. His remains were taken from Hippo by Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by a Vandal leader in the early 6th century. They brought the remains to Cagliari, Sardinia, where in the early 8th century, a Bishop of Pavia ransomed them from conquering Saracens.

The restoration work began more than a year ago. On its hill overlooking the Algerian port city of Annaba, scaffolding and work bridges hide the Arab-Moorish/Romanesque-Byzantine exterior of the Basilica dedicated to St. Augustine, Bishop from 395 to 430 of Hippo, the ancient name for the place.

[Annaba is in the northeastern corner of Algeria. With a population of about 260,000 in 2008, it is Algeria’s fourth largest city, a leading industrial center, and the main port for exporting its minerals.]

Next year, this place of worship, built by Africans who were able to harmonize diverse cultures, will resound once more - from its splendid facade, its multicolored stained glass windows, its precious marbles - with the words of the great philosopher-theologian whom the Church recognizes as a Father and Doctor of the Church.

The major restoration is financed by Algerian and French public authorities, various institutions, religious orders, dioceses, and diverse individual benefactors.

Among the latter, Benedict XVI, who has made a personal contribution.



A statue of Augustine looks down from the Basilica on the ruins of Hippo and the modern city of Annaba.

L'Osservatore Romano interviewed Mons. Paul Desfarges, Bishop of Constantine-Hippo, on the progress of the work and the importance of the shrine.

MONS DEFARGES: Its importance may be gauged by the fact that Benedict XVI himself has taken an interest in the restoration. The Papal Foundation already made a contribution. But the Pope wished to make his own personal contribution. We all know, of course, how dear the saint is to the Pope.

He also knows that this is not just about the Basilica. The hill of Hippo, at the top of which the Basilica was built, is a symbolic site of coexistence, of spiritual and human fraternity. It is a trans-cultural, trans-religious place because of St. Augustine who transformed these values through his humanism, his faith and his culture, to lead man to the essential. As he loved to day, to live is to love. This message is actual today as it was yesterday.

The Basilica, which was consecrated in the first years of the 20th century is a hundred metres above the archaeological site of ancient Hippo Regius, which still has remains of the Basilica Pacis, where Augustine exercised his ministry. The cathedra as well as the baptismal font have been recovered.

This is not just a matter of pride for the Catholic Church in Algeria but all Algerians. That is why the restoration was welcomed and is supported by everyone. The people of Annaba are proud of St. Augustine. The pastoral care of the Basilica is entrusted to the Augustinians, and the Little Sisters of the Poor run a home for old people who have no families to live with or who have no resources.

How is it that the work has had the collaboration of so many institutions, including the Algerian and French governments.
Institutional cooperation has been great. From France, there has been great support especially from the Rhone-Alpes region, where three cities - St. Etienne, Grenoble and Lyons are twinned with Annaba, Constantine and Setif, respectively in Algeria.

As I said, the work represents solidarity and brotherhood between the two sides of the Mediterranean, between Christians and Muslims, between West and East, among men who seek reason and truth..

What exactly do the Augustinians do who are in charge of the pastoral work at the Basilica?
Right now, there are just three of them, but they hope to have more colleagues soon. But we have to resolve the problem of visas for priests, which continues to be an obstacle for priests and religious coming to work in Algeria [as it has been in Israel!]

However, they have been successful in animating pastoral life. They celebrate the liturgies and administer the sacraments and they act as guides for visitors. We get many - Algerian Muslims, Muslims from other countries, and tourists who come not only to visit the place, but to knwo more about St. Augustine, to pray and to meditate. Once they enter the Basilica, they know they have not entered a museum but a place where the silence and the peace can be gripping. And since the Augustinians are a religious order, they perform their daily office as if they were in a monastery, and so the life of the Basilica is has the rhythm of monastic life.

How can people contribute to the restoration work?
First of all, through prayer, through the communion of fraternal friendship, to make our church and this symbolic site known. Financially, I can say we still need about 500,000 euro to complete the restoration. We trust in Divine Providence. But we also ask for prayers without frontiers in order to be heard.

What is the situation of the Church in Algeria today?
The Catholic Church in Algeria at present is mostly represented by young sub-Saharans who are scholars from their respective countries, and in some cases, are also financed by the Algerian state. For some of them, it is not always easy to integrate. But with time, relationships deepen into friendship,and it is part of the mission of the Church to foster this.

Besides the students, there are those who work in the construction industries, mostly Filipinos. It is not easy for them to attend church regularly but they turn out for all the big religious holidays.

Then there are the Algerian Catholics themselves. We call some of them the friends of St. Augustine - persons who, in their own way, discovered like Augustine the presence of God in their heart and have therefore been able to call on Jesus. They are a sign that God desires to dwell in us and among us.

The Catholic communities of Algeria are small, somewhat like those of the primitive Church. They are minorities in in a geographical area where another religion prevails. What is the value of their witness and can they be an example?
I don't know. We don't claim to be an example. We are a small Church, discreet and modest. Sr. Madeleine, who founded the Little Sisters of Jesus of Charles de Foucault, used to say that in a Muslim country, we should not cast a shadow on anyone. All we want to do is to exist. That is our vocation, and that of the whole Church. God wants to dwell among his people. As Jesus would say, "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcome him who sent me:. Here we feel welcome.

Is there respect for religious freedom?
The freedom of conscience of some persons [Muslims] who have encountered Christ is not always respected. It is not easy. The Cross is never absent in our journey. But here, we also experience the beauty of profound spiritual and human encounters. The Church here is a sign of the love of God the Father who comes in his Son Jesus to dwell among us.

What is the relationship with Islam?
We know the Holy Spirit works in the heart of all believers. I would call some important and profound encounters with the spirituality of Islam surprising. We often have the distorted view that Islam is nothing but a political and ideological religion, and very often, its interior aspects are overlooked. We find here many Muslims who are genuinely spiritual.

The Christian brothers at Thibirine used to tell the Algerians that Christ so loved Algeria that he died for them, for all of us. We are a manger-Church, like Jesus, laid in a manger, who became bread for us. The Church here wishes to be a humble presence alongside the people.


Left, 2001 rite at the Basilica during which the Algerian government finally 're-appropriated' Augustine as a figure in the universal patrimony, after centuries of being denounced as a symbol of Christian colonialism. At the initiative of then President Bouteflika, an international colloquium was held in Annaba from April 1-7, 2001, on the theme, "St Augustine: Africanity and Universality'; right, Augustine's tomb in Hippo.


Benedict XVI at Augustine's tomb in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, in April 2007.


For the record, the title given by the OR to this article, which was featured on the back page of the 8/25/12 issue, along with a photo of the restoration in progress

translates to 'Benedict XVI's donation for another thousand years of splendor', even though there is no reference to these 'thousand years of splendor' in the text. Since the Basilica was constructed in the first decade of the 20th century, and the basilica Augustine used in Hippo probably did not survive the sack of the Vandals, neither date could have been the reference point for the headline-writer's flight of fancy. Yet another editorial oversight at OR.

Coincidentally, a follower of Lella's blog, whom I thank for this lead, calls attention to an article on church architecture and Joseph Ratzinger that came out last year in the US-based Sacred Architecture Journal.

A French theologian's influence on
Joseph Ratzinger's chapters
about church architecture in
'The Spirit of the Liturgy'
by Uwe Michael Lang

Spring 2011 issue

The present Holy Father’s thought on liturgy and church architecture was considerably influenced by Louis Bouyer (1913-2004), a convert from Lutheranism, priest of the French Oratory (a religious congregation founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle in the seventeenth century and distinct from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri) and protagonist of the liturgical movement in France.(1)

Bouyer has left an enormous oeuvre extending not only to the study of the sacred liturgy but to other fields of theology and spirituality. Although he taught for several years in American universities and many of his books were published in English, Bouyer’s passing away on October 22, 2004 at the age of ninety-one seemed to have gone largely unnoticed in the Anglophone world. (2)

Joseph Ratzinger and Louis Bouyer were friends who held each other’s work in high esteem. Both were called to the International Theological Commission when it was instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1969. Bouyer recalls the working sessions of the Commission in his unpublished memoirs, and comments especially on Ratzinger’s clarity of vision, vast knowledge, intellectual courage, incisive judgment, and gentle sense of humour.

In his remarkable book-length interview of 1979, entitled Le Métier de Théologien (The Craft of the Theologian), which has unfortunately not yet been published in English, Bouyer praises the appointment of the outstanding theologian Joseph Ratzinger as Archbishop of Munich. (3)

Cardinal Ratzinger, in his turn, in a contribution published originally in 2002, recalls the founding of the international theological review Communio. Initiated by a group of friends, Communio including the noted theologians Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Louis Bouyer, and Jorge Medina Estévez, who later became the Cardinal-Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (197-2002)(4) [Side note: How fitting that as Cardinal Proto-Deacon, the most senior of the cardinal deacons, Cardinal Medina Estevez delivered the 'Habemus Papam' proclamation of Benedict XVI and imposed the pallium on him during the Inaugural Mass!]

In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, the present Pope’s debt to Bouyer is especially evident in the chapters “Sacred Places – The Significance of the Church Building” and “The Altar and the Direction of Liturgical Prayer”, where the French theologian is cited throughout. (5) In the short bibliography, Bouyer’s book Liturgy and Architecture features prominently. This work was published originally in English in 1967 by the University of Notre Dame Press; its German translation, used by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, appeared as late as 1993.

The theme of orientation in liturgical prayer occupied the theologian Joseph Ratzinger as early as 1966, at the height of the post-conciliar liturgical reform (6); his first significant contribution to the debate dates from the late 1978 and was included in the important volume The Feast of Faith, published in German in 1981. (7)

However, it appears to have been the work of his friend Bouyer that led Ratzinger to a more profound approach to the subject as is reflected in The Spirit of the Liturgy.

One of the characteristics of Pope Benedict’s theology of the liturgy is his emphasis on the Jewish roots of Christian worship, which he considers a manifestation of the essential unity of Old and New Testament, a subject to which he repeatedly calls attention. (8) Bouyer pursues this methodology in his monograph Eucharist, where he argues that the form of the Church’s liturgy must be understood as emerging from a Jewish ritual context. (9)

In Liturgy and Architecture, Bouyer explores the Jewish background to early church architecture, especially with regard to the “sacred direction” taken in divine worship. He notes that Jews in the Diaspora prayed towards Jerusalem or, more precisely, towards the presence of the transcendent God (shekinah) in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. Even after the destruction of the Temple the prevailing custom of turning towards Jerusalem for prayer was kept in the liturgy of the synagogue.

Thus Jews have expressed their eschatological hope for the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the gathering of God’s people from the Diaspora. The direction of prayer was thus inseparably bound up with the messianic expectation of Israel. (10)

Bouyer observes that this direction of prayer towards the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem gave Jewish synagogue worship a quasi-sacramental quality that went beyond the mere proclamation of the word. This sacred direction was highlighted by the later development of the Torah shrine, where the scrolls of the Holy Scripture are solemnly kept. The Torah shrine thus becomes a sign of God’s presence among his people, keeping alive the memory of his ineffable presence in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.

Ratzinger notes in his Spirit of the Liturgy that in Christian sacred architecture, which both continues and transforms synagogue architecture, the Torah shrine has its equivalent in the altar at the east wall or in the apse, thus being the place where the sacrifice of Christ, the Word incarnate, becomes present in the liturgy of the Mass. (11)

Bouyer’s Liturgy and Architecture made available to a wider public in the 1960s current research on early Christian sacred architecture in the Near East. (12) The oldest surviving Syrian churches, dating from the fourth century onwards, mostly follow the model of the basilica, similar to contemporary synagogues, with the difference, however, that they were in general built with their apse facing towards the east.

In churches where some clue remains as to the position of the altar, it appears to have been placed only a little forward from the east wall or directly before it. The orientation of church and altar thus corresponds to the universally accepted principle of facing east in prayer and expresses the eschatological hope of the early Christians for the second coming of Christ as the Sun of righteousness.

The bema, a raised platform in the middle of the building, was taken over from the synagogue, where it served as the place for the reading of Holy Scripture and the recitation of prayers. The bishop would sit with his clergy on the west side of the bema in the nave facing towards the apse. The psalmody and readings that form part of the liturgy of the Word are conducted from the bema. The clergy then proceed eastward to the altar for the liturgy of the Eucharist. (13)

Bouyer’s theory that the “Syrian arrangement” with the bema in the nave was also the original layout of Byzantine churches has met with a very mixed reception among scholars.– What is widely agreed, however, is that the celebrant would have stood in front of the altar, facing east with the congregation for the Eucharistic liturgy.


Left, a Louis Bouyer church plan; right, the Byzantine development of the richly decorated east wall as “liturgical east” as illustrated by the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.

Early Roman churches, especially those with an oriented entrance, such as the Lateran Basilica or Saint Peter’s in the Vatican (which is unique in many ways), present questions regarding their liturgical use that are still being debated by scholars.

According to Bouyer the whole assembly, the bishop or priest celebrant who stood behind the altar as well as the people in the nave would turn towards the east and hence towards the doors during the Eucharistic prayer. (15) The doors may have been left open so that the light of the rising sun, the symbol of the risen Christ and his second coming in glory, flooded into the nave. The assembly would have formed a semicircle that opened to the east, with the celebrating priest as its apex.

In the context of religious practice in the ancient world, this liturgical gesture does not appear as extraordinary as it might seem today. It was the general custom in antiquity to pray towards the open sky, which meant that in a closed room one would turn to an open door or an open window for prayer, a custom that is well attested by Jewish and Christian sources. (16)

Against this background it would seem quite possible that for the Eucharistic prayer the faithful, along with the celebrant, turned towards the eastern entrance. The practice of priest and people facing each other arose when the profound symbolism of facing east was no longer understood and the faithful no longer turned eastward for the Eucharistic prayer. This happened especially in those basilicas where the altar was moved from the middle of the nave to the apse.

Another line of argument can be pursued if we start from the observation that facing east was accompanied by looking upwards, namely towards the eastern sky which was considered the place of Paradise and the scene of Christ’s second coming. The lifting up of hearts for the canon, in response to the admonition “Sursum corda,” included the bodily gestures of standing upright, raising one’s arms and looking heavenward.

It is no mere accident that in many basilicas (only) the apse and triumphal arch were decorated with magnificent mosaics; their iconographic programmes are often related to the Eucharist that is celebrated underneath. These mosaics may well have served to direct the attention of the assembly whose eyes were raised up during the Eucharistic prayer. Even the priest at the altar prayed with outstretched, raised arms and no further ritual gestures.

Where the altar was placed at the entrance of the apse or in the central nave, the celebrant standing in front of it could easily have looked up towards the apse. With splendid mosaics representing the celestial world, the apse may have indicated the “liturgical east” and hence the focus of prayer. (17)

This theory has the distinct advantage that it accounts better for the correlation between liturgy, art, and architecture than that of Bouyer, which must accommodate a discrepancy between the sacred rites and the space created for them. Pope Benedict alludes to this theory in the beautiful comments he made on orientation in liturgical prayer in his homily during the Easter Vigil 2008. (18)

Even if we assume that priest and people were facing one another in early Christian basilicas with an eastward entrance, we can exclude any visual contact at least for the canon, since all prayed with arms raised, looking upwards. At any rate, there was not much to see at the altar, since ritual gestures, such as signs of the cross, altar kisses, genuflections, and the elevation of the Eucharistic species, were only added later. (19) Bouyer is certainly correct in saying that the Mass “facing the people,” in the modern sense, was unknown to Christian antiquity, and that it would be anachronistic to see the Eucharistic liturgy in the early Roman basilicas as its prototype. [As claimed by diehard advocates of the unlegislated but somehow universally adopted 'priest facing the people' post-Vatican II change!]

Bouyer acclaims Byzantine church architecture as a genuine development of the early Christian basilica: those elements that were not appropriate for the celebration of the liturgy were either changed or removed, so that a new type of building came into being.

A major achievement was the formation of a particular iconography that stood in close connection with the sacred mysteries celebrated in the liturgy and gave them a visible artistic form. Church architecture in the West, on the other hand, was more strongly indebted to the basilican structure.

Significantly, the rich decoration of the east wall and dome in Byzantine churches has its counterpart in the Ottonian and Romanesque wall-paintings and, even further developed, in the sumptuous altar compositions of the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque, which display themes intimately related to the Eucharist and so give a foretaste of the eternal glory given to the faithful in the sacrifice of the Mass. (20)

Drawing on his own experience, Bouyer relates that the pioneers of the Liturgical Movement in the twentieth century had two chief motives for promoting the celebration of Mass versus populum. First, they wanted the Word of God to be proclaimed towards the people. According to the rubrics for Low Mass, the priest had to read the Epistle and the Gospel from the book resting on the altar. Thus the only option was to celebrate the whole Mass “facing the people,” as was provided for by the Missal of St Pius V (21) to cover the particular arrangement of the major Roman basilicas.

The instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Rites Inter Oecumenici of September 26, 1964 allowed the reading of the Epistle and Gospel from a pulpit or ambo, so that the first incentive for Mass facing the people was met.

There was, however, another reason motivating many exponents of the Liturgical Movement to press for this change, namely, the intention to reclaim the perception of the Holy Eucharist as a sacred banquet, which was deemed to be eclipsed by the strong emphasis on its sacrificial character. The celebration of Mass facing the people was seen as an adequate way of recovering this loss.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrating Mass ad orientem (Photo: Vatican Photo Service)

Bouyer notes in retrospect a tendency to conceive of the Eucharist as a meal in contrast to a sacrifice, which he calls a fabricated dualism that has no warrant in the liturgical tradition. (22) As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord’s body and blood” (23), and these two aspects cannot be isolated from each other.

According to Bouyer, our situation today is very different from that of the first half of the twentieth century, since the meal aspect of the Eucharist has become common property, and it is its sacrificial character that needs to be recovered. (24)

Pastoral experience confirms this analysis, because the understanding of the Mass as both the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Church has diminished considerably, if not faded away among the faithful. (25)

Therefore it is a legitimate question to ask whether the stress on the meal aspect of the Eucharist that complemented the celebrant priest’s turning towards the people has been overdone and has failed to proclaim the Eucharist as “a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands).” (26)

The sacrificial character of the Eucharist must find an adequate expression in the actual rite. Since the third century, the Eucharist has been named “prosphora,” “anaphora,” and “oblation,” terms that articulate the idea of “bringing to,” “presenting,” and thus of a movement towards God.

Bouyer painted with a broad brush, and his interpretation of historical data is sometimes questionable or even untenable. Moreover, he was inclined to express his theological positions sharply, and his taste for polemics made him at times overstate the good case he had. Like other important theologians of the years before the Second Vatican Council, he had an ambiguous relationship to post-Tridentine Catholicism and was not entirely free of an iconoclastic attitude. (27) Later, he deplored some post-conciliar developments especially in the liturgy and in religious life, and again expressed this in the strongest possible terms. (28)

Needless to say, Benedict XVI does not share Bouyer’s attitude, as is evident from his appreciation of sound and legitimate developments in post-Tridentine liturgy, sacred architecture, art, and music.

It should also be noted that Joseph Ratzinger does not take up the later, more experimental chapters of Liturgy and Architecture, where new schematic models of church buildings are presented. Despite its limitations, however, Bouyer’s book remains an important work, and it is perhaps its greatest merit that it introduced a wider audience to the significance of early Syrian church architecture. Louis Bouyer was one of the first to raise questions that seemed deeply outmoded then, but have now become matters of intense liturgical and theological debate. (29)

The writer of the article, Rev. Uwe Michael Lang, is a native of Germany, priest of the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in London, Coordinator of the Master’s program in “Architecture, Sacred Art and Liturgy” at the Università Europea di Roma/Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, and a Consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. He has published in the fields of Patristics and liturgical studies, including Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer, for which Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the Preface.

NOTES:
1 Cf. the more recent contributions of J.-F. Thomas, “Notes sur le sacré et la liturgie chez Louis Bouyer et Joseph Ratzinger,”Communio 31 (2006): 45-62; and K. Lemna, “Louis Bouyer’s Defense of Religion and the Sacred: Sacrifice and the Primacy of Divine Gift in Christian Liturgy,” Antiphon 12 (2008): 2-24.
2 Unlike in France, where an obituary by J.-R. Armogathe was published in Le Figaro, October 27, 2004 and one by H. Tinq in Le Monde, October 27, 2004.
3 L. Bouyer, Le Métier du Théologien. Entretiens avec Georges Daix (Paris: Editions France-Empire, 1979; republished Geneva: Ad Solem, 2005), 166.
4 J. Ratzinger, “Eucharist–Communion–Solidarity: Christ Present and Active in the Blessed Sacrament,” in On the Way to Jesus Christ, trans. M. J. Miller (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 112.
5 J. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. J. Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 62-84.
6 In a lecture at the Katholikentag in Bamberg, also published in English translation: J. Ratzinger, “Catholicism after the Council,” trans. P. Russell, The Furrow 18 (1967): 3-23.
7 J. Ratzinger, The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy, trans. G. Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986. 2nd Ed. 2006), 139-145.
8 See, for instance, Spirit of the Liturgy, 66.
9 L. Bouyer, Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality of the Eucharistic Prayer, trans. C. U. Quinn (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968).
10 Cf. Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture, 17-20.
11 Cf. Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 70-71.
12 For example, J. Lassus, Sanctuaires chrétiens de Syrie (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1947); and G. Tchalenko, Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus à l’époque romaine, 3 vol. (Paris: P. Geutner, 1953-1958).
13 See Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture, 24-39.
14 Cf. the criticism of R. F. Taft, “Some Notes on the Bema in the East and West Syrian Traditions,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 34 (1968): 326-359 (reprint with supplementary notes in R. F. Taft, Liturgy in Byzantium and Beyond, Aldershot: Ashgate, 1995), 327, 359.
15 Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture, 55-56.
16 Daniel 6:10, Tobit 3:11, and Acts 10:9; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 5,1 (31a); 5,5 (34b); Origen, De oratione 32. There is archaeological evidence of Galilean synagogues from the late first century A.D. with the entrance facing towards Jerusalem. It would seem that the assembly turned towards the open doors for prayer and thus looked towards the direction of the sacred city.
17 See especially S. Heid, “Gebetshaltung und Ostung in frühchristlicher Zeit,” Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 82 (2006): 347-404.
18 Benedict XVI, Homily for the Easter Vigil, March 22, 2008.
19 See Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture, 56-59.
20 Ibid., 60-70.
21Missale Romanum (1570/1962), Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, V,3.
22 Cf. Bouyer’s postscript to the French edition of K. Gamber, Tournés vers le Seigneur! (Zum Herrn hin!), trans. S. Wallon (Le Barroux: Sainte-Madeleine 1993), 67: “il n’y a jamais eu, dans aucune religion, un sacrifice qui ne soit pas un repas, mais un repas sacré : reconnu comme enveloppant le mystère d’une spéciale présence et communication divine.”
23 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1382.
24 Cf. Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture, 106-111.
25 Cf. the telling comments of R. J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies. Foreword by E. Schillebeeckx (London: SCM Press, 1985), 67.
26 Council of Trent (1562), Session XXII, Doctrine on the Sacrifice of the Mass, ch. 1: Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1740, quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1366.
27 In fact, his position on Mass “facing the people” developed: see his letter to Father Pie Duployé, O.P., of 1943, a text that proved to be very influential for liturgical renewal in France. Bouyer writes that, in order to promote the participation of the faithful in the liturgy, certain changes need to be made: “Cela doit, dans beaucoup de cas, signifier l’autel face au people, comme dans les basiliques romaines; et c’est, dans tous les cas, la disparition irrémédiable des retables, des pots de fleur, des gradins, … des tabernacles inutiles ou inutilement volumineux.” The letter is conveniently added to the Ad Solem edition of Le Métier du théologien, 281.
28 L. Bouyer, in The Decomposition of Catholicism: “We must speak plainly: there is practically no liturgy worthy of the name today in the Catholic Church … Perhaps in no other area is there a greater distance (and even formal opposition) between what the Council worked out and what we actually have” (trans. C. U. Quinn [London: Sands & Co., 1970], 99). See also Religieux et clercs contre Dieu (Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1975), 12.
29 Cf. the preface written by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 for the first volume of his collected works: “Zum Eröffnungsband meiner Schriften,” in Theologie der Liturgie: Die sakramentale Begründung christlicher Existenz (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2008), 5-8. An English translation by M. Sherry is available on chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/208933?eng=y (accessed on August 11, 2010).

August 26, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Third from left, Fr. Jose's Last Communion, by Francisco Goya, 1819; next to it, the saint's founder statue in St. Peter's Basilica.
ST. JOSE DE CALASANZ (Joseph Calasanctius) (b Spain 1556 - d Rome 1648), Priest, Educator, Founder of the Piarist Order
Born in Aragon, he obtained degrees in canon law and theology before he was ordained a priest. He performed a variety of pastoral activities during which he revived religious zeal among the laity. In 1592, following a vision, he gave away much of his inheritance, renounced the rest, and travelled to Rome where he worked as a theological adviser to a Cardinal. In 1595, he worked with plague victims. Then he and some colleagues in a Confraternity for Christian Doctrine opened a small free school for poor children, the first such free public school in Europe. Demand for this revolutionary service was so great that they soon had a number of 'pious schools' (scuole pie) in Rome. Their work attracted the attention of Pope Clement VIII who gave them his support, which continued under his successor Paul V. As more schools were opened and more men were drawn to the work, the teachers who lived as a community were recognized as a religious community, the Clerks Regular of Religious Schools, of whom Jose was appointed superior for life. But the Piarists, as they came to be called, were to have many problems - opposition from social classes who feared that educating the poor would leave no one to do lowly tasks, from other communities working for the poor who feared they would be absorbed by the Piarists, and within the order itself, from those who mistrusted Calasanz's friendship with Galileo. An advocate of educating his schoolchildren in Latin, science and mathematics, Calasanz sent some of his teachers to learn from Galileo. At one point, Calasanz was replaced as superior by a younger priest who accused him of incompetence. A papal investigation in 1645 acquitted Calasanz of all accusations and returned him as Superior. Nonetheless, internal dissent continued to the point that Innocent X dissolved the Order and placed the priests under their local bishops. The Piarists would not be reconstituted until 1656, eight years after their founder's death at the age of 92. He was beatified in 1748 and canonized in 1767. In 1948, Pope Pius XII declared him the Universal Patron of all Christian popular schools in the world.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082612.cfm


WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY
Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father reflected on those disciples of Jesus who chose to leave him after his 'Bread of Life'
discourse in Capharnaum, saying they did not understand him in their concern only for material things, and citing St. Augustine
who said one understands when one believes. One who stayed, for his ulterior motives, was Judas Iscariot, who had
stopped believing because he thought Jesus was the Messiah who would lead the Jews against the Roman Empire, and whose
dishonesty in staying on until he could avenge himself by betraying Jesus, the Pope said, is the devil's mark.

Remembering the 'Pope of smiles'
34 years since his election




[I had to make do with the AP's commercial catalog for these pictures because for some reason, nothing shows up in a search of images online for that day, not even the traditional 'Habemus Papam' issue of L'Osservatore Romano, nor Wikipedia, for that matter. In fact, not even the main websites dedicated to Papa Luciani carry any pictures of his 'proclamation' and inaugural Mass.



OR today commemorates John Paul I with a beautiful two-page spread that does not have any 'Habemus Papam' photo, but includes the letter he wrote to Jesus in his book of letters to famous people, written when he was Patriarch of Venice, but I won't be able to translate these pieces today.

Meanwhile, an update on where we are in the beatification process for the Pope of smiles:

'Positio' for John Paul I's beatification
to be submitted to the Congregation for Saints
on Oct. 17, the late Pope's 100th birthday
by Gianni Santomaso
Translated from


CANALE D'AGORDO - "On October 17, on the centenary of the birth of
Albino Luciani, my collaborator Stefana Falasca and I shall officially hand over to Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood, the 'positio' for the beatification of the Servant of God John Paul I".

This was the announcement made by Mons. Enrico Dal Covolo, Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical Lateran University and postulator the the late Pope's cause, in his homily last June 29 on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, patrons of Agordo, the region where the late Pope was born.

Invited for the festivity by the Archdeacon Giorgio Liso of Agordo, Dal Covolo explained to the faithful what to expect in the beatification process.

"The positio", he said, "is a dossier that, in this case, consists of two large red books: the first contains the testimonials about Papa Luciani's life and virtues, while the second is focused on his personal biography. These documents illustrate in the nest way possible the heroic virtues of John Paul I, which will be examined at two levels: first by the experts of the Congregation itself, and later, by all the members of the Congregation.

"If the outcome of their examination is positive, as I am sure it will be, then the Pope will authorize the title of 'Venerable'. The process will then continue with complete verification of a miracle, something on which we have already made great progress on our level, and for which we expect that in a few years, your illustrious compatriot will ascend to the honor of the altar".

In his homily. Dal Covolo recalled often the links that Papa Luciani had and maintasined with the community of Agordo, where he said his first Mass in 1936-1937, along with the then archdeacon Luigi Cappello (brother of the Jesuit Felice Maria Cappello, another Agordo native who is undergoing the process towards sainthood).

In June 1978, as Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Luciani visited Mons. Cappello, just two months before he would be elected Pope. "On that occasion," said Dal Covolo, "the cardinal recalled wtih great emotion the 'most beautiful time of my life, here in Agordo, serving children, simple people, the poor, and the miners of Valle Imperina".

Archdeacon Lise pointed out thay Agordo has been a center of immmigration "by miners and mining experts who have gone to other parts of the world and done honor to our city and Italy".

The process towards the canonisation of John Paul I formally began in 1990 with the petition by 226 Brazilian bishops, including four cardinals. [Most unusual, since the process usually begins in the candidate saint's home diocese, or in the case of a Pope who is also Bishop of Rome, in Rome.]

On 26 August 2002, Bishop Vincenzo Savio announced the start of the preliminary phase to collect documents and testimonies necessary to start the process of canonisation. On 8 June 2003 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave its assent to the work. On 23 November, the process formally opened in the Cathedral Basilica of Belluno with Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, then Prefect of the Congregation for Saints.

The Diocesan inquiry concluded on 11 November 2006 at Belluno. In June 2009, the Vatican began the "Roman" phase of the beatification, drawing upon the testimony of Giuseppe Denora who claimed to have been cured of cancer through the late Pope's intercession. An official investigation into the alleged miracle is under way.

In the absence of any current articles in English on John Paul I, herewith is one written for the Archdiocesan newsapaper of Boston in 2008 on the 30th anniversary of his election:

A lasting legacy from
the 33-day Pope of smiles
By Neil W. McCabe

It has been 30 years since the Church had its year of three popes. The first, Pope Paul VI, led the Church from June 21, 1963, to Aug. 6, 1978, through a time of great change, including the completion of the Second Vatican Council, as well as the social and economic upheavals of that era.

The third, Pope John Paul II, sat in the chair of St. Peter from Oct. 22, 1978 until April 2, 2005, and during that time saw his influence topple tyrannical governments and through his pastorship established new paths to evangelize, especially the youth of the Church.

In between these two monumental pontiffs there was a humble man who for 33 days, from his Aug. 26, 1978, election until his Sept. 28 death, was known around the world as “the smiling Pope.” He took the name Pope John Paul I, in honor of his two predecessors. Pope Blessed John XXIII had ordained him a bishop in 1958 and Pope Paul VI elevated him a cardinal in 1973. He was born Albino Luciani Oct. 17, 1912, in the Northern Italian village of Forno di Canale (now known as Canale d'Agordo),

“I think we were all stunned,” said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, who was a priest at the time working in Washington with a ministry for Central American immigrants. “It was quite a summer. It was such a surprise to see a Holy Father pass away so quickly.”

The cardinal said when he reflects on that time, the brief pontificate of Pope John Paul I served as a necessary pause in the history of the Church.

“I think it was his short reign that allowed the College of Cardinals to make the bold move to elect a non-Italian. Of course, they were impressed by the vitality of the Church in Poland and the outstanding participation of John Paul II, then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, in the Second Vatican Council. They were impressed by his intellectual and his pastoral abilities,” he said.

“It seems almost absurd to have a Pope for just one month, but that month allowed the Church to look outside the box and seek new leadership,” he said. “The reign of John Paul II was certainly very significant, and now we have another non-Italian pope in Benedict XVI.”

Raymond Seabeck, who with his wife Lauretta Seabeck founded the Missionary Servants of Pope John Paul I, said they were inspired by the Pope’s example. Together, they converted part of their home into the Papa Luciani Center for the Poor, where they collect goods for overseas missions and host confirmation retreats.

The center serves as a drop-off point for people who want to donate, he said. When they have enough material to fill a shipboard container, they call for a tractor trailer truck to come up from Elizabeth, N.J., which they load up with the help of 30 or 40 volunteers from their parish at St. Joseph Church in Laconia.

“We have some people who drive hundreds of miles to bring us things. One woman always brings us disposable diapers. Another woman, when she shops for groceries, buys an extra bag of dried beans that she leaves in the truck of her car. When the pile becomes big enough, she brings them over.”

Seabeck said he and his wife pray for the promotion of Pope John Paul’s cause for sainthood and they are convinced he will eventually be canonized.

“He was like a shooting star,” said blogger Rocco Palmo. “Those 33 days were full of unscripted joy.” [Palmo, of course, who is in his 20s, was not even born at the time, so it is strange to use him as a primary resource person..]

Palmo said because of the tremendous changes in the Church in the previous two decades there were expectations that the new pope would roll back reforms. Instead, he refocused the Church away from the discussions and back to pastoralship.

It was a shame Pope John Paul did not have time to develop his own magisterium, he said. “But in a way, his brief reign was the simplest and most beautiful of all.”

Palmo said the Pope’s light and informal manner was a relief to the Church that had become heavy from the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath. By taking office at an installation Mass rather than the traditional coronation, Pope John Paul I signaled a shift in the symbols of the office from the crown to the pallium of the archbishop. “It was a shift of burdens from the head to the shoulders.”

Lori Pieper, a historian of Pope John Paul I, said the Pope had trouble sleeping since he moved into the papal apartments and would often wake at two or three o’clock in the morning, then read in bed until it was time to begin his day.

At 4:30 in the morning on the day of the death of Pope John Paul I, Sister Vincenza, a sister who serves in the papal residence, placed a cup of coffee on a table outside the bedroom and knocked on the door.

At five, the sister returned to pick up the empty cup, but found it untouched, said Pieper, who lives in New York City, and in addition to her biography of the pontiff, is translating his writings and talks from Italian to English.

When the sister opened the door she found the ope’s lifeless body and she ran to get help, she said.

[Papa Luciani's death has, of course, provided rich fodder for all kinds of conspiracy theories about which many books have been written.]

I apologize for one of the rare times in the past seven years that I have failed to post Benedict XVI's Angelus reflection in a timely manner, because personal obligations did not give me the time to do so, not because of PC or Internet problems....

SUNDAY ANGELUS
August 26, 2012



In his Sunday Angelus message from the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father reflected on those disciples of Jesus who chose to leave him after his 'Bread of Life' discourse in Capharnaum, saying they did not understand him in their concern only for material things, and citing St. Augustine who said one understands when one believes.

One who stayed, for ulterior motives, was Judas Iscariot, who had stopped believing because he thought Jesus was the Messiah who would lead the Jews against the Roman Empire, and whose dishonesty in staying on until he could avenge himself by betraying Jesus, the Pope said, is the devil's work.

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

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

In the past few Sundays, we have meditated on the discourse on the 'Bread of life;' that Jesus gave at the synagogue in Capharnaum after having fed thousands the day before with just five loaves and two fishes.

Today, the Gospel presents the reaction of his disciples to that discourse a reaction that Jesus himself had consciously provoked. First of all, the evangelist John - who was present along with the other Apostles - says that "as a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him" .(Jn 6,66)

Why? Why did they not believe Jesus who said: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever" (Jn 6,51) In truth, these words were at that time difficult to accept or to understand. This revelation was incomprehensible to them, because they understood it in the material sense, whereas the words pre-announced the Paschal mystery of Jesus, in which he would give himself for the salvation of the world - the new presence in the Holy Eucharist.

Seeing that many of his disciples were leaving, Jesus turned to the Apostles, saying: "Do you also want to leave?" (Jn 6,67) As he had done in other instances, it was Peter who replied in the name of the Twelve: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6,68-69).

On this point, we have a very beautiful comment by St, Augustine, who says, in one of his sermons on John 6: "Do you see how Peter - by the grace of God, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - understood> Why did he understand? Because he believed 'you have the words of eternal life. You give us eternal life by offering us your resurrected body and your blood - your very self'. He does not say, we knew and then we believed, but we believed and then we knew. We believed in order to know. If, in fact, we would want to know before we believe, then we would not succeed either to know or to believe. What have we believed and what have we learned? That you are the Christ, Son of God, you are the eternal life, and in flesh and blood you give us your very self" (Comment on the Gospel of John, 27,9). Thus said St. Augustine in a sermon to his believers.

Finally, Jesus knew that even among the twelve Apostles, there was one who did not believe: Judas. Even Judas could have left like the other disciples - or better, he ought to have gone if he had been honest. Instead, he stayed with Jesus.

He stayed not out of faith, not for love, but with the secret intention of avenging himself on the Master. Why? Because Judas felt that he had been betrayed by Jesus, and he decided that, in his turn, he would betray him.

Judas was a Zealot, he wanted a triumphant Messiah who would lead a revolt against the Romans. But Jesus had let down Judas's expectations. The problem was that he did not leave, and his most serious fault was falsehood, which is the devil's brand. That is why Jesus said to the Twelve: "Is not one of you a devil?" (Jn 6,70)

Let us pray to the Virgin Mary that she may help us believe in Jesus, as St. Peter did, and to be always sincere with him and with everyone.

---

Monday, August 27, 21st Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF ST. MONICA

Center painting is Andrea del Verrochio's 15th-century homage to St. Monica, in the Church of Santo Spirito, Florence.
ST. MONICA (b Tagaste [in present Algeria] 331, d Ostia, Italy, 387), Mother and Widow
Born to a Christian family of Berbers (indigenous white people of North Africa) in Roman North Africa, she was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan, who had a violent temper and was adulterous but apparently respected his wife for her charity and piety. Her prayers would lead to the conversion of her husband one year before his death, when the oldest of their three children, Augustine, was 16. Sent to study in Carthage, Augustine turned out to be licentious and embraced the Manichean heresy. His lifestyle distressed his mother who for a while refused to let him eat or sleep in her house. But a vision told her that Augustine would eventually return to the faith, so from then on, she stayed close to him and prayed and fasted for his conversion. He became a teacher of rhetoric and had a son by one of his mistresses. At age 29, when Augustine decided to pursue his career in Italy, he got away by tricking Monica, who followed him nonetheless all the way to Milan. Augustine came under the influence of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who also became Monica's spiritual adviser. Augustine started Christian instruction under Ambrose, who baptized Augustine and some of his friends at Easter 387. Shortly afterwards, Augustine decided to go back to Africa with his mother and son. In Rome's port city of Ostia, where they were to take the ship for Africa, Monica fell ill and died after a few days, having told her son, "I do not know what there is left for me to do - all my hopes in this world have been fulfilled". She was buried in Ostia, where her remains were transferred to a secret crypt in the sixth century, and after a cult to her developed in the 13th century, Pope Martin VI ordered her relics brought to Rome, where they now repose in the Church of St. Augustine in Campo Marzio. She is venerated as the patroness of wives and mothers.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082712.cfm


No bulletins so far from the Vatican.

Summer brings the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis
to Castel Gandolfo once again -
this time, to look at ecumenism
Translated from

August 27, 2012

An assessment of ecumenism and how it has fared since Vatican II is the topic of the coming annual summer seminar of Benedict XVI;s former doctoral students in theology, the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis.

The three-day seminar starts on August 30, the eighth time it is held in Castel Gandolfo, where, since he became Pope in April 2005, the former Professor Ratzinger has carried on the annual study reunion of his alumni first begun in 1977.

Besides Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna, and a member of the Schuelerkreis, also present will be Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Unity (who was the principal resource speaker for the seminar in 2010 on "The Hermeneutic of Vatican II"), and emeritus Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Ulrich Wilckens, who has translated and commented on the New Testament, and whose writings are of great importance to the ecumenical movement.

The title of this year's seminar is "Ecumenical results and questions about the dialog with Lutherans and Anglicans" based on the book by Cardinal Walter Kasper, immediate past president of the Christian Unity Council. [Kasper's book, Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenical Dialogue, based on his two decades of experience as secretary and then president of the PCPCU, was published shortly before his retirement in 2009.]

The annual reunion with his former students is one of the few known private commitments that the ex-professor Pope has chosen to continue.

"We are always eager to listen to what he will say in his opening remarks [at the seminar]," said Mons. Hans-Joachim Jaschke, a member of the Schuelerkreis and auxiliary bishop of Hamburg, " because he does not speak on the theme of the seminar itself, but rather portrays the situation of the universal Church". [It is our loss that the public does not get to read about these remarks. The seminar has always been a private event, and unless the Schuelerkreis decides to publish the proceedings of a particular seminar - as they did for the first seminar on the theme of 'Creation and Evolution' in 2007, the public only gets sketchy reports about them.]

For quick reference, these are the topics that have been discussed by the Schuelerkreis seminars in Castel Gandolfo so far:
2005 - Islam and its concept of God
2006 and 2007 - Creation and evolution
2008 - Jesus and the Gospels
2009 - The mission of the Church
2010 - The hermeneutic of Vatican II
2011 - The New Evangelization

It appears from the way information is reported about this meeting that it comes from a Vatican Press Office bulletin, which has not been posted online at this time - 9 pm Monday in Rome... And since it took place at least two hours after tomorrow's OR went to press, it won't be in the Vatican paper tomorrow, either...

Pope Benedict has unannounced meeting
at Castel Gandolfo with Italian PM Monti
A papal blessing for the Italian government
as it resumes work after long summer holiday
by GI7COMO GALEAZZI
Translated from the Italian service of


A visit to the Pope to seek a blessing for the Italian government as it resumes work after the annual summer holiday seems to be another sign of a 'feeling' that has been consolidated between the Pontiff and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

The Holy See announced after the fact that Monti had a private audience with the Pope at the Apostolic Residence in Castel Gandolfo late Monday afternoon.

The Prime Minister, who arrived at the residence at 5 p.m. subsequently met with Benedict XVI for 45 minutes. The Vatican described it as a strictly private meeting, without "any official agenda", but they had "a frank exchange of impressions on international affairs and the economic crisis".

Monti discussed with the Pope, and later with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, "the European situation, the principal challenges faced by the European Uniom and the contributions that Europeans, especially the young people, could offer towards human and spiritual growth".

The familial atmosphere of the meeting underscored the good relationship that has developed between the Pope and the Prime Minister.

The two first met on November 18 last year, a few hours after Monti had formed a new government succeeding that of resigned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The new PM turned upon at Fiumicino airport in Rome to say 'Bon voyage' to the Pope who was leaving for his apostolic trip to Benin.

It was the first time they had ever met, but the tone was immediately warm and friendly. Monti was waiting at Fiumicino at 8:45 a.m,. when the Pope's helicopter flew in from the Vatican. The Pope congratulated him for the new government and thanked him for taking time off from his busy first day to greet him. He asked him a few questions about the internal situation in Italy and the financial crisis bedevilling the European Union.

Their first official meeting took place at the Vatican on January 14. On March 23, Monti was at Fiumicion again, this time to see the Pope off on his apostolic visits to Mexico and Cuba.

On April 18, Monti made a private visit to the Vatican to greet the Pope on the seventh anniversary of his election and his 85th birthday two days earlier. The Pope, greeting him with the salutation, "Presidente!" [the formal title of Italy's Prime Minister is President of the Council of Ministers], encouraged him for a 'good start in an arduous task'. At that time, the meeting lasted about half an hour. It took place shortly after Monti had met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The continuing financial crisis in Europe, in which Italy is one of the most troubled nations, was the focus of their conversation. Monti also took the occasion afterwards to present his wife Elsa and some of his senior ministers to the Pope.

On May 13 and June 3, Monti attended the Papal Masses in Arezzo and in Milan, respectively.