ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
March 10, Fourth Sunday of Lent
Extreme right, Don Bosco's biography of the young Domenico.
ST. DOMENICO [Dominic] SAVIO (Italy, 1842-1857), Confessor, Patron of Choirboys
One of the youngest saints who was not a martyr, the sickly boy with pleurisy became a student of John
Bosco at his Oratory in Turin when he was 12, after a childhood already remarkable for his intense prayer
life, having learned to serve Mass at age 5. He often became lost to the world in prayer and afterwards
would describe visions, including one about a papal reconversion of England to Catholicism [antedating
Anglicanorum coetibus by 150 years!]. Don Bosco tempered the boy's zeal by teaching him 'the heroism
of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense'. As his disease worsened and the end appeared near,
he was sent home to his family. His dying words were: "Oh, what wonderful things I see!" He died a month
short of his 15th birthday. Shortly after his death, Don Bosco wrote The Life of Dominic Savio, a book
so well-written that along with Don Bosco's History of Italy, it was used in many public schools as part
of course materials on the Italian language, and provided the basis for Domenico's eventual canonization.
Pius X promoted his cause. He was proclaimed Venerable in 1933 under Pius XI, and he was beatified and
canonized under Pius XII in 1950 and 1954, respectively.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031013.cfm
No bulletins so far from the Vatican.
There is no General Congregation today of the College of Cardinals and none till Monday.
Today, they are all supposed to be saying Sunday Mass at their titular churches in Rome.
One year ago today...
The Holy Father Benedict XVI met with 13 US bishops from Iowa and Kansas on ad-limina visit; Frère Alois, Prior of Taizé; and His Grace Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Anglican Communion, and his delegation.
In the afternoon, he presided at Vespers, joined by Mons. Williams, at the Roman church of San Gregorio Magno (Pope Gregory the Great) in Celio (on the Caelian hill). It was the eve of St. Gregory's death anniversary on March 11, which used to be his feast day, but after Vatican II, because March 11 usually falls within Lent, the feast was transferred to Sept. 3.
ARRIVING AT SAN GREGORIO AL CELIO:
The Pope climbed the stairs!
Shortly after this Vespers event with the Pope and Abp. Williams was announced last week, Italian media took pains to report that Pope Benedict XVI would enter the church of San Gregorio al Celio through the monastery entrance at the back so he would not have to climb the front steps. That's not what happened today! The Holy Father never does anything out of sheer bravado - he knows what he can do, and what he can't. Obviously, he felt able to do this - under closest scrutiny...
2013 P.S. Abp. Williams stepped down as Archbishop of Canterbury last December in a move announced months ahead. This joint event took place a few weeks before Benedict XVI travelled to Mexico and Cuba where a minor nighttime incident apparently helped mature his decision to renounce the Papacy.
On this day in 2011...
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, formally presented Volume 2 of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's JESUS OF NAZARETH. The book release had been preceded by two weeks of worldwide commentary on pre-publication excerpts of the book, notably the part in which the Holy Father reiterates Catholic teaching since
the Catechism published after the 16th-century Council of Trent that Jews should not be blamed for the execution of Jesus - a teaching reiterated in the 1992
Catechism of the Catholic Church but otherwise widely unknown even to most Catholics. In less than a year, the book had sold 2.5 million copies in 12 languages.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/03/2013 12:25]