Friday, March 16, Fourth Week of Lent
ST. CLEMENS MARIA HOFBAUER (b Moravia, 1751, d Austria, 1820)
Redemptorist, Missionary and Social Worker, Confessor
Born the ninth of 12 children to a poor family in Vienna, John Hofbauer started as a baker, working in
a monastery, where he was allowed to attend classes at the Latin school. When the abbot died, he wanted to
become a hermit but the Emperor banned hermitages at the time, and he went back to being a baker. One day
after serving Mass, he and his friend Thaddeus met two ladies who learned that they wanted to be priests
but had no funds to join a seminary. The ladies offered to send them to Rome, where they entered the Redemptorist
order and were ordained in 1785. He took the name Clemens Maria. The order sent the two back to Vienna, but
religious persecution forced them to go to Warsaw instead, where they tended to German-speaking Catholics.
They said daily Masses, preaching in both German and Polish, eventually starting a boys' school and an orphanage.
They also attracted new priests for the order whom they would later send as missionaries throughout Poland,
Germany and Switzerland. After 20 years, Hofbauer was imprisoned and then exiled. he was to spend the last
12 years of his life in Vienna, where he became known as 'the apostle of Vienna' for hearing confessions,
visiting the sick, counseling the powerful and sharing his holiness with his beloved city. He even established
a Catholic college in Vienna. He died in 1820 and was canonized in 1909. he is often called the 'second founder'
of the Redemptorist order because he brought and propagated the order, founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori in
Italy, north of the Alps.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031613.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
Pope Francis held an audience at the Aula Paolo VI for the representatives of the local international media
who came to Rome for the Conclave and the events attendant to the installation of a new Pope. He told them that
the name Francis came to him when, after the 77th vote was read for him, Cardinal Hummes of Brazil embraced him
and said, "Do not forget the poor".
The Vatican has released the schedule for Pope Francis in the next several days until Palm Sunday:
Sunday, March 17
10.00 Holy Mass at the Parish Church of Santa Anna, in the Vatican ssa
12.00 Angelus from the window of the Pope's study
Monday, March 18
12.50 Meeting with the President of Argentina, Madame Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, at the Domus Sanctae Marthae
Tuesday, March 19
09.30 Eucharistic Celebration to inaugurate Pope Francis's Petrine ministry
St. Peter's Square
(Entrances to the Piazza will open at 6:30 AM)
After the Mass, the Holy Father will leave his Mass vestments at the Pieta Chapel, then proceed to the main altar
before which he will receive the greetings of the heads of official delegations sent to his inauguration
- Lunch at Domus Sanctae Marthae
Wednesday, March 20
11.00 Audience with Fraternal Delegations (from other Christian confessions and faiths)
Sala Clementina
Friday, March 22
11.00 Audience with the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See
Sala Regia
Saturday, March 23
12.00 Leaves the Vatican by helicopter for Castel Gandolfo
12.15 Arrival at Castel Gandolfo to meet Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
They will have lunch together, after which
Pope Francis returns to the Vatican.
Palm Sunday, March 24
09.30 Palm Sunday rites and Eucharistic Celebration
St. Peter's Square
Piazza San Pietro: Celebrazione Eucaristica nella Domenica delle Palme
12.00 Angelus
I'm obviously very glad that Pope Francis will be visiting his predecessor Benedict XVI next Saturday. As it is the Pope's only appointment for the day before Palm Sunday, it makes excellent sense that it will not just be a call for formality's sake, but that the two men will lunch together. Hopefully, we will be provided photographs.
Yet another gracious
acknowledgment of B16
from Pope Francis
In his remarks to the international media today, Pope Francis said this (my translation):
"Christ is the Pastor of the Church, but his presence in history is achieved through free men: among them one is chosen to serve as his Vicar and Successor to the Apostle Peter.
But Christ is the center, our fundamental reference, the heArt of the Church, Without him, Peter and the Church would not exist nor have reason to exist.
As Benedict XVI has repeatedly said, Christ is present and is leading his Church. In everything that has taken place, the protagonist is, in the last analysis, the Holy Spirit. He inspired the decision of Benedict XVI for the good of the Church. He led the cardinals in prayer and in their election [of a new Pope].
It is important, dear friends, to have this interpretative horizon in mind, this hermeneutic, in order to illuminate the heart of the events in recent days.
.
Pope provisionally re-confirms
top jobs in Vatican bureaucracy
VATICAN CITY, March 16, 2013 (Reuters) - Pope Francis has decided that all top administrators in the Vatican bureaucracy will keep their posts while he reflects on any necessary changes, the Vatican said on Saturday.
There had been speculation that the new Pope could make swift changes to the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that has been at the center of allegations of corruption, infighting and intrigue.
"The Holy Father, wants in fact, to give himself a certain amount of time for reflection, prayer and dialogue before any (new) appointments or definitive confirmations," a statement said.
It added that top job holders would "provisionally stay in their respective posts until it is decided otherwise".
[A similar bulletin was issued by the Vatican on April 20, 2005. This is obviously standard practice. All those whose positions were considered ended with the end of the previous Pontificate are reconfirmed as soon as there is a new Pope, until it is decided otherwise (donec aliter provideatur, to use the formal Latin phrase). The question that really interests everyone is how soon will Pope Francis name his own Secretary of State? And who will it be??? And will he replace Georg Gaenswein? I don't think any of the other Curial heads are critical at all (i.e, suspect of any wrongdoing that it would be unconscionable to keep them on) to need replacement immediately or soon, unless Francis wants to start from scratch, and he may. ]
One year ago today...
The Holy Father Benedict XVI began his official day by attending the second Lenten sermon by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household. Afterwards, he met with Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family; His Beatitude Sviatoslav Schevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyć (Uckraine); 13 US bishops from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on ad limina visit; the outgoing ambassador from Portugal on his farewell visit; and in the afternoon, his weekly meeting with the CDF Prefect, at the time, still Cardinal Levada.
The Vatican released a note saying that Cardinal Levada met with FSSPX Superior-General Bernard Fellay to hand him a letter expressing the Holy Father's judgment that the response given by the FSSPX to the Vatican formula for reconciliation last September was 'inadequate' and requested further clarification.
The CDF also announced the creation of a new domain
www.doctrinafidei.va) for better public access online to important documents of the dicastery in the eight official languages of the Vatican.
Fr. Federico Lombardi held a press briefing on the Holy Father's coming apostolic visit to Mexico and Cuba.
Patriarch Gregorios II Laham of Antioch, who met with the Holy Father the day before, revealed the date for Benedict XVI to Lebanon, Sept. 14-16, during which the holy Father would present the Middle East bishops with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation following the 2010 Special Synodal Assembly on the Middle East.
It was announced today that the Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Rowan Williams, would step down from that office in December. [He was succeeded last January by His Grace Justin Welby.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/03/2013 19:11]