Saturday, Oct. 13, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
SAINT MARGUERITE-MARIE ALACOQUE (France, 1647-1690), Virgin, Visitation nun, Mystic, Apostle of the Sacred Heart
Growing up a sickly child, she was always very devout and practised mortifications. she was healed from a crippling disorder by a vision the Virgin Mary. She also had visions of Jesus, including seeing him fresh from the scourging. This led her to join the Visitation nuns in Paray-le-Monial when she was 24. Visitation nuns were taught to be 'extraordinary by being ordinary' which suited Marguerite's temperament. In 1974, she received the first of several visions of Jesus during which he told her he wanted his love for mankind to be made evident through devotion to his heart, symbol of his love. He recommended frequent Holy Communion especially on the first Friday of each month, an hour's prayer vigil on Thursdays in memory of his agony in Gethsemane, and a feast of the Sacred Heart. Marguerite met hostility from her fellow sisters, theologians and the community who thought she was delusional. Then a Jesuit confessor, Claude de la Colombiere, recognized her genuineness and supported her. She went on to serve as novice mistress and assistant superior but she died at an early age. After her death, the Jesuits promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart, which continued to be controversial, but 75 years after her death, the devotion was officially recognized. She was beatified in 1864, at which time her body was found to be incorrupt. Buried at what is now the Sanctuaries at Paray-le-Monial, many miracles have since been attributed to her. She was canonized in 1920, and in a 1928 encyclical, Pius XI officially reaffirmed Church approval of the Sacred Heart devotions.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101312.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy Father attended the morning session of the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.
Two announcements:
Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, emeritus Archbishop of Manila (Philippines), to be his personal representative at the X Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) to be held In Xuan Loc, Vietnam, from Nov. 19-25, with a concluding ceremony at the Catehdral of Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon).
- An agreement was signed between the Holy See and the Republic fo Equatorial Guinea on relations between Church and State, in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conceptiopn in the capital city of Mongomo. In the presence of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the agreement was signed by the country's Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Equatorial Guinea, Archbishop Piero Poppo.
May I just add a news item from yesterday that at any other time than at the start of the Year of Faith to commemorate 50 years since Vatican-II opened, and a major Synodal Assembly, would have been the headline-maker.
Legion of Christ superior
and top Maciel aide steps down
by Nicole Winfield
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 12 (AP) -- The superior general of the troubled Legion of Christ religious order has stepped aside unexpectedly, saying he simply doesn't have the energy to oversee the radical reform of the congregation ordered by the Vatican.
The Rev. Alvaro Corcuera said in a letter obtained Thursday that his vicar general, the Rev. Sylvester Heereman, 38, will govern the order until a general assembly in 2013 or 2014 to elect a new superior.
The group has been in turmoil since it acknowledged in 2009 that its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children.
The Vatican took it over in 2010 after a yearlong investigation determined that the order's very culture had been infected by Maciel's influence and needed to be "purified."
Corcuera worked with Maciel after being named superior in 2005 but has insisted that he didn't know of Maciel's crimes;
[No one believes that improbable claim, of course, considering that accusations had been openly levelled against Maciel since the 1950s, but he somehow always managed to slither through, until Joseph Ratzinger's CDF finally nailed him in 2006. I haven't checked, but Sandro Magister must rejoice because he has always held that the Vatican's 'reform' of the LC was meaningless until and unless the top men associated with Maciel were taken out of their leadership positions.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/10/2012 23:36]