Monday, February 25, Second Week of Lent
BLESSED SEBASTIAN DE APARICIO (b Spain 1502 - d Mexico 1600)
Roadbuilder, Franciscan brother
Beato Sebastian has one of the most unusual biographies. Born in Spain to a poor family, who brought him up in the faith, he fell ill with bubonic plague as a a boy, from which he was miraculously cured after having been isolated to avoid infecting his family. After various migrant jobs all over Spain, he emigrated at age 31 to Mexico where he started as a farm hand and jack of all trades, then decided to build roads that would facilitate commerce in the region. He is considered the father of Mexican highways, as well as Mexico's first 'cowboy' who domesticated wild horses and cattle to be used in farm work. He introduced ox-driven carts to replace the labor carried out by humans before then. By age 50, he was a wealthy man, who had a reputation for unfailing generosity and service to the natives. He then gave up the transport business to devote himself to agriculture and ranching. Part of his personal faith was his early vow to live a chaste life. In his 60s, he married twice - both times to provide his wife's family with a dowry, and with the understanding that it would be a chaste marriage. Both wives died within a year of marriage - the first of an illness, the second because she fell from a tree while picking fruit. He said of them, "God gave me two little doves to care for and send back to him". After this, he decided to become a Franciscan friar, giving away all his goods to the convent and to the poor. He spent his novitiate as cook, porter and gardener in a Poor Clares convent, and finally became a professed friar in 1575. He spent the next 23 years as alms-collector for his community, once again taken to the roads in his horse-drawn carts for a new purpose, and came to be known as the 'fraile de las carretas'. He never learned to read and write, and all his life, his prayers were limited to the Our Father and the Rosary. Many miracles started being attributed to him in the last 10 years of his life, and he died in the odor of sanctity at age 98. His incorrupt body is venerated in the Church of St. Francis in Puebla, Mexico. When he was beatified in 1789, 968 documented miracles were presented in his cause, of which more than 500 beneficiaries testified personally.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022513.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy Father Benedict XVI met this morning with
- Cardinals Julián Herranz, Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi (the cardinals he named last summer to undertake
a full administrative investigation of Vatileaks and the environment in the Vatican that has allowed or promoted
turf wars and bureaucratic intrigue).
- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
By a singular coincidence, the last one-on-one audiences held by Benedict XVI with his cardinals fell to Cardinals Angelo Bagnasco and Angelo Scola of Genoa and Milan, respectively, who headed their regional bishops' ad-limina visit to the Holy Father this year, and whom the Pope met with on Friday and Saturday respectively before the Lenten retreat of the Curia. Now Cardinal Ouellet, in their last weekly meeting to decide on episcopal appointments around the world. All three also happen to be among the leading papabile in this year's unusually tepid toto-Papa (papal sweepstakes) speculation. A subject I have studiously avoided.
- Benedict XVi continued to make news in other ways by issuing the expected motu proprio modifying or clarifying procedural details in what happens during the sede vacante and the Conclave that will choose a new Successor of Peter.
- He also sent a telegram of condolence on the death of one of the over-80 cardinals he created (consistory of February 2012), Belgian Cardinal Julien Ries, 83, who had been called 'the greatest living religious scholar' of our time. The telegram was sent to the Bishop of Tournai (Belgium). Here is a translation from the French.
HIS EXCELLENCY MONSEIGNEUR GUY HARPIGNY
BISHOP OF TOURNAI
Having learned with emotion about the death of Cardinal Julien Ries, I extend to you my most sincere condolences as well as to his fmaily and those close to him.
May the Lord welcome to the light of eternal liufe this eminent man of faith who faithfully served the Church. Through his teaching and research, especially in the field of the history of religions, in which he was a recognized expert, he was always concerned with bearing witness to his faith among his contemporaries in a spirit of dialog.
As a token of cinfirt. I extend to you a special Apostolic Blessing, as well as to the family of the late Cardinal and those close to him; to the religious who surrounded and supported him in his work, and to all who will take part in his funeral rites.
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
- Meanwhile, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sent a message to all the members of contemplative orders in the Church, saying that the Holy Father's appeal to the faithful "to accompany him with their prayers as he commends the Petrine ministry into the Lord’s hands, and to await with trust the arrival of the new Pope" was especially directed at the contemplatives around the world, who "provide the precious resource of that prayerful faith which down the centuries has accompanied and sustained the Church along her pilgrim path". He extends the thanks of Benedict XVI "who is deeply appreciative and... assures you of his immense love and esteem".
- But there was distressing news in the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien as Archbishop of St. Andrew and Edinburgh in Scotland, following public accusations by three priests and an ex-priest claiming that O'Brien had made improper advances to them when they were seminarians.
The Vatican announced that the Pope had accepted O'Brien's resignation for having reached canonical retirement age (he turns 75 on March 15). O'Brien announced he will not now be taking part in the Conclave.
True or not, the accusations are devastating for the image of the Church on the eve of a Conclave. It gives a powerful guided missile to the enemies of the Church to attack all over. As censurable as some Irish bishops were in protecting their pervert priests, none of them were accused of 'improper behavior' with young men (or women, for that matter). It recalls the distasteful case of Cardinal Groer in Vienna in the mid-1990s, and it reinforces the secular stereotype that all priests must be latent or repressed homosexuals. I do not bring up Maciel only because he was not a cardinal... What a blow this must have been for Pope Benedict! At this time of all times... .
It's the worst time for me to be missing in action from the for almost two days now, and I apologize. Sometimes, work and personal circumstances can be a force majeure...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/02/2013 12:58]