BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Gee, the pages go by so fast! Each page accommodates 20 posts - long or short, it does not matter - and here we are on a new page!







Ten key points about Benedict XVI's
second visit to Spain
by Jesús de las Heras
Translated from

March 4, 2010



I could not wait for the first opportunity to post this picture again - from the GA on Wednesday.


From my first impressions, I would like to think that the apostolic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Santiago de Compostela and to Barcelona on November 6 and 7, respectively, can be read on the basis of ten key points:


1. It is a very personal decision for the Pope that matured over time between the original invitations extended to him last year and his meeting with the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and the president of Galicia on Monday, March 3.

2. This trip, following his visit to Valencia in July 2006, and his coming visit to Madrid in August 2011 for World Youth Day, will make Spain the nation he will have most visited as Pope. [NB: Another Spanish article had mentioned he visited Spain seven times as Cardinal.]

3. It indicates the Pope's appreciation for Spain and the Church in Spain - that he has been following the life of the Church and of Spanish society, and is truly interested in what will happen in Spain [which was, after all, once the most Catholic nation of all Europe - and now, its most secularized! Well, perhaps Holland is just a bit more.].

4. Benedict XVI has also enjoyed making these apostolic visits, bringing the Petrine ministry on the road, since he is aware of the great global repercussions coming from these trips, of their mediatic and global reach, and of the benefits for the local faithful before, during and after these trips.

If John Paul II was the traveller Pope, Benedict XVI has not been lagging, especially if one considers that he will be 83 on April 16.

5. His pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela also fits into his travels to the major shrines of the Catholic world. The Shrine in Compostela, during this Holy Year, expects as many as six million pilgrims. He has been to Czestochowa, Altoetting, Aparecida, Mariazaell, Lourdes, and a number of Italian shrines like Loreto and San Giovanni Rotondo, and on May 13, he will be in Fatima.

How could he not go to Compostela, in a Holy Year of St. James? His Compostela pilgrimage will be a great boost for the Camino de Santiago [the age-old walking route for pilgrims to Compostela from France] and for popular religion.

6. Benedict XVI comes from Bavaria, the Christian and Catholic heart of Europe, and all his life has taken place in Europe. He is a Europeanist by conviction, by calling, and by heart, who is also very aware of the cultural deviation that has happened in present-day Europe. He knows - in the words of his fellow German Goethe -that "Europe was born in the pilgrimages to Compostela". No doubt he will use his visit to Santiago - as his predecessor did in 1982 - to sound once more his contant call for Europe's necessary recovery and revitalization of its Christian roots.

7. His visit to Barcelona offers an ample and polyhedric range of meanings. The first is the most obvious: Barcelona is the second city of Spain and the capital of Catalunya, its second largest autonomous region. Barcelona, a modern, prosperous and splendid city, is also a great international metropolis. It is, to a large degree, a new 'courtyard of the Gentiles' - an intercultural and inter-religious mosaic, testimony to an extraordinary historical legacy which is unequivocally Christian in its roots, and admirable in its fruits.

Just think that in the past few months a Catalan was canonized - the Dominican father Francisco Coll Guitart; another one was beatified - the diocesan priest Josep Samsó Elías; and yet another will be beatified on April 25, the Capuchin José Tous Soler.

8. The dialog of religion with culture in all its expressions is another one of the connecting threads of Benedict XVI's apostolic ministry.

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, the temple he will consecrate and dedicate, is a magnificent place and emblem for the dialog between faith and culture, especially for the fruitful encounter between Christianity and art. Only Christian faith and culture can explain the beauty and the decades-long miracle of the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona.

9. In contemplating and experiencing that reality, there emerges, of course, as a beautiful icon, an extraordinary focus, the emblematic figure of Antonio Gaudi, architect of Sagrada Familia - layman, husband, believer, Christian, Catholic - now en route to sainthood.

Art, culture and science are not only not alien to Christianity, but in works like the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona and in men like Antonio Gaudi, make up together with faith a tightly intimate and fruitful symphonic reality, a magnificent symbiosis.

10. Lastly, the complete name of the cathedral which Benedict XVI will consecrate in Barcelona is "Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia" (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family). The Pope comes to Barcelona (as he did in Valencia) to speak of the family, sanctuary of life, for all life, of the life of everyone, life from conception to its natural end. Of the family founded only on matrimony between a man an a woman. Of the family as the basic cell of society, hope for humanity and the Church, the domestic shrine, the nursery for vocations.

Friday, March 5

ST. GIOVAN GIUSEPPE DELLA CROCE [John Joseph of the Cross], (Italy, 1654-1739)
Alcantarine Franciscan, Mystic, Confessor
Born Carlo Gaetano Calosirto on the island of Ischia off Naples, he was very ascetic even
as a youth. He joined the Franciscans in Naples at age 15, and was the first Italian follower
of St. Peter Alcantara's Franciscan reforms. Before he was even ordained a priest, his
superiors entrusted him with setting up a new friary. Subsequently he became novice master,
guardian, and finally Father Provincial. After this term, he devoted himself to hearing
confessions and preaching mortification. A mystic, he was gifted with prophecy and healing
powers, and was said to be able to levitate and bilocate. He was canonized in 1839.
Readings from today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030510.shtml


OR today.


No stories on Benedict XVI in this issue. Page 1 news:
An editorial commentary on abortions in Europe - one
every 11 seconds; tens of millions in aid dollars to
relieve famine in Ethiopia have been diverted to arm
rebel groups; China's army continues to grow, even if
slowly; and the low-level jobless economic recovery in
the United States.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Pope led the Roman Curia in listening to the first Lenten sermon by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household,
Fr. Rainiero Cantalamessa, at the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace. There will be three other
Lenten sermons in the next three Fridays.Theme of this year's sermons is "The priest as minister of the Word and
of the sacraments".

Later, the Holy Father met with
- Bishops of Uganda (Group 3) on ad limina visit. Afterwards, he met with all the Ugandan bishops together
and delivered an address in English.

The writer is the Vatican correspondent of RAI-TV's premier newscast, TG-1. He has also written quite a few books - a memoir of his coverage of John Paul II, another book on inter-religious dialog under John Paul II, one in defense of Vatican II, and one on the Williamson-FSSPX case.


Benedict's example stands out
in the Church today -
but he is alone and the Church
needs a clean sweep
by ALDO MARIA VALLI
Translated from

March 5, 2010

I remember that many years ago, when I met with a high-ranking member of the Roman Curia, the Eminentissimo confided with a sigh what it costs him to have to sign daily diplomas and honorific titles of various kinds [granted by the Vatican to a variety of people around the world].

"But what can I do? That's just how it is..." The cardinal was clearly against the practice, but his fatalistic resignation showed that even he, despite his senior position, could not oppose the practice.

It came back to me when the news came out about 'Gentleman of His Holiness' Balducci and his questionable dealings. In the Annuario Pontificio, it says that "Gentleman...'" is a dignity that is conferred on "persons who have distinguished themselves by personal prestige and have acquired specific merits in the eyes of the Holy See". [NB: It is important to point out that Balducci was conferred this 'dignity' in 1995, so Benedict XVI had nothing to do with it.]

Doubtless there are authentic gentlemen among them, but the formula is too generic and raises perplexing questions. How is personal prestige measured, and what are these merits? There is a grey zone here that can inevitably raise suspicion.

We know that an institution like the Vatican also has to deal with favors, highly placed contacts, friends that matter, legacies, donations, and that most of the time, these are the 'special merits' that lead to the conferment of titles, medals and ribbons.

Which leads us to ask: What does all this have to do with the Gospel?

Benedict XVI, who in this disconsolate panorama stands out more every day as the only credible point of reference, had, five years ago, before he became Pope, issued that now-famous sorrowful lament denouncing the 'filth' within the Church.

He has never stepped back when it comes to denouncing the sins and crimes committed by men of the Church, as he showed most recently in the case of the Irish priests and bishops.

It is significant that Papa Ratzinger, in the letter decreeing the Year for Priests, cited that exemplary passage from the encyclical Evangelii nuntiandi of Paul VI, in which Papa Montini says that "men today will listen more gladly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they listen to teachers at all, it is because such teachers are also witnesses".

The duty of witness [i.e., bearing witness to Christ by living concretely according to Christian principles] has always been decisive for the Church, and is even more so in our day, which is an age of communication. And that is why Benedict XVI insists on the question of life style - he is well aware that the Gospel message carries across primarily by the way a Christian lives, much more than through preaching and documents.

In confronting cases that provoke discomfort or even raise scandal, the Church must have the courage to act with severity and transparency, pinning responsibility on the culpable, and in other ways, making a clean sweep, getting rid of ties, compromises and frills that are enormously heavy obstacles to evangelical testimony. If there is filth, as we have established, let there also be a broom that is able to clean it up.

It is not a question of image. It is a problem of conversion. Because otherwise, anyone will always have the right to ask, in mocking tones, who exactly is preaching what.

Benedict XVI, who has now lived 30 years of his life within Vatican walls and knows the Curia better than anybody else, once said in a 1985 interview that being in Rome, he had learned little by little 'the art of postponement', something he said that was hardly German, but was useful because it allowed a situation to settle down, for controversy to die down, for voices to calm down.

There is curial wisdom in this attitude that certainly brought good results in the course of centuries, but today, it must be set aside because it is incompatible with the society of communication and for that need of personal witness of which this Pope has become a most effective advocate. [More importantly, he is the best witness himself of living up to evangelical values! But he continuously sets the example, and no one seems to follow, not even among his leading 'collaborators'! Moral cowardice and failure to take responsibility for one's official shortcomings are just as much a violation of evangelical values as are corruption and dealing with male prostitutes!]

What's at stake are not only the misdeeds of a papal 'gentleman' or a Vatican choir member who evidently had other hobbies besides Gregorian chant.

It is the credibility of the Church itself. And that is no small matter. Let there be courage to learn from these sad incidents and lead to reforms which, once more in a pregnant expression of Cardinal Ratzinger, must begin with an ablatio, getting rid of everything that obscures the image of Christ.

Strip away honorifics that are shady, get rid of links that are not transparent, dismiss ambitious careerists and ostensible men of the Church whom one can hardly call 'faithful'.

This is a reform that should be perennial, but the situation, in certain aspects, requires exemplary gestures and decisions.

And here I was, worrying about what might be 'revealed' of possible sex abuses by priests when Cardinal Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich-Freising! Now, the scandal has somehow touched his brother! Which is one way for the media - no matter how far-fetched - to associate the Pope himself directly with these abuses

online
reports today (translated):

---

BERLIN - The Bishop of Regensburg has admitted that sexual abuses took place in the environment of the Regensburg boys' choir known as the Domspatzen at the time when they were under the musical direction of Mons. Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI. The Bishop wrote about this in a letter to aggrieved parents published on his site.

---

This time, Repubblica did what dpa was guilty of doing yesterday, but worse: a gross misrepresentation of what Bishop Gerhard Mueller has on his site, in order to focus attention on Mons. Ratzinger who is not even mentioned in this primary source. Compare the Repubblica report to the following information that I gleaned from the diocesan report on its website. It is rather lengthy, so I won't translate, but in effect, it says the ff:

In the past several weeks, reports have been received of incidents, infringements as well as abuses committed by priests in the Diocese of Regensburg, most of them dating to the 1960s and early 1970s (more specifically, according to German news reports, from 1958-1973).

In view of this, the Diocese is calling on all victims to report the incidents to the diocese, even as it is undertaking a systematic inquiry to establish what abuses were committed, who were the offenders, and who were the victims, with the aid of contemporaneous press reports as well as any records in the diocese, interviews with witnesses, etc.

The diocese will follow three objectives in its efforts: to give justice and aid to the victims; to press criminal and canonical action against the offenders; and to prevent any further incidents.

It goes on to list the cases that have been investigated so far. Of the four named, only one had anything to do with the Domspatzen - a priest who was the director of the Domspatzen boarding school from January-August of 1959 before Mons. Ratzinger came to Regensburg , but the accusations against him date to 1969-1971 when he was employed by the diocese itself, and no longer had anything to do with the Domspatzen. He was later reassigned to a seminary in Weiden, which retired him at age 58. He is deceased now.

A second case involves a priest who was the prefect of the Regensburg Musikgymnasium [a 'regular' specialized high school, not having to do with the Domspatzen]* from 1953-1958, when he was dismissed for having been caught in incidents with two of his wards. He was tried and sentenced to two years in jail. *[Correction: It appears from a couple of German news reports I've read that the Regensburger Musikgymnasium is the high school to which the Dompstaen boarding school is attached.]

However, the report also mentions two victim reports received by the diocesan office of alleged abuse in the 1960s attributed to the staff in charge of the Domspatzen. Apparently, not enough information has been gathered about these two cases yet.

Mons. Georg Ratzinger was musical director of the Domspatzen from 1964-1994.

P.S. It turns out that the letter attributed by the first stories to Bishop Mueller was not from him but from the current music director of the choir. No wonder I could not find it on the diocesan site. In any case, the diocesan report is the most reliable account of what is known so far.


From the above, you can see how misleading and unfair the Repubblica account of Mueller's letter is! I can already see the headlines by Church-bashing, Pope-hating editors who will say "Sexual abuses on Regensburg choirboys when Pope's brother was in charge" - based on the Repubblica account alone!


P.S.
online now has a story on this, and the headline is not far from what I thought:

Pedophile priest scandal in Germany
in the choir directed by the Pope's brother -
The bishop of Regensburg admits it

with a lead paragraph substantially similar to, and therefore as deliberately misleading as Repubblica's. The article mentions some of the facts I summarized above, but its last paragraph also has this information:

---

THE REPLY OF GEORG RATZINGER - The brother of Pope Benedict XVI said in an interview today with Bavarian radio Bayerischen Rundfunk that he had no knowledge of any sexual abuses committed in the environment of the Regensburg boys' choir when he was the director.

---

Now I have to see what I can find in the German media... Meanwhile, there has been a reaction from the Vatican, reported by the Italian news agency


The first part is almost identical to the Corriere story, but brings up Mons. Ratzinger's statement to the lead paragraph, with the added detail that the Monsignor said in effect [with his usual solid common sense] that since he has no knowledge of any of this, journalists should direct all questions to the Diocese of Regensburg.

The last paragraph reports the Vatican reaction:

---

The Vatican will 'not intervene' in the question of sexual abuses reportedly committed against the Regensburg boys' choir when it was under the direction of the Pope's brother.

The Vatican Press office said newsmen can refer to the statements from the Diocese of Regensburg and Mons. Ratzinger himself.

"The Holy See is taking the entire matter of pedophile scandals involving priests in Germany very seriously," said the deputy press director, Fr. Ciro Benedettini, but he said the Vatican will not intervene directly in the Regensburg cases. [Which is as it should be - it's the responsibility of the local bishop and the superiors of any religious orders that may have had priest offenders.]

---

I expect the German media will now go all-out to find the ex-Domspatz who claimed he was a victim, or find another victim or someone who knows of victims during his time in the choir, especially when it was under Mons. Ratzinger! Maybe Der Spiegel already has one....Let us pray for Mons. Georg, that he may not have to deal with these problems at all! Fortunately, he and his brother have each other to turn to in trying times. God bless them!


The AP has a fairly subdued brief report that still manages to be tendentious, and with a rather convoluted headline that is factually wrong - it's not the choir that's facing the abuse claims!

Pope's brother's choir
faces abuse claims


BERLIN, March 5 (AP) – The Regensburg Diocese says a former member claims he was abused while singing with Germany's leading Roman Catholic boys' choir that was led for 30 years by the brother of Pope Benedict XVI.

The Diocese said in a statement Friday that one former member of the Regensburger Domspatzen claimed priests abused him in the early 1960s. They did not elaborate on the abuse, but said more allegations were expected. [That would be one of the two cases reported to the diocese but still lacking concrete data, that I cited in my 'summary. The problem with this AP report is that it makes it appear that this complaint was the only content of the diocesan statement and completely ignores the universal overview that it gives of the diocesan approach to the problem and of the concrete cases that can be cited so far.]

In an ever-widening scandal, at least 170 people have alleged they were sexually or physically abused by priests while students at several Catholic high schools across Germany.

The Pope's brother, Georg Ratzinger, led the choir from 1964 to 1994. He told public radio Bayerischer Rundfunk on Friday he did not know of any abuse cases at the choir.


And from dpa - an erroneous headline, to begin with. Mons. Ratzinger was musical director of the choir. He had nothing to do with the Domspatzen's boarding school, and certainly did not teach there, much less head it, as the lead paragraph says! How can dpa, a German news agency, get elementary facts so wrong?


School where Pope's brother taught
is linked to sex abuse


Hamburg, March 5 (dpa) - A boarding school in Germany which was once headed by Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, says it is checking out a claim that a teacher committed sex abuse in the early 1960s.

The Regensburger Domspatzen School, which educates the children who sing in one of Germany's top boys' choirs, said it was shocked to discover a newspaper clipping from the 1950s showing that a man who directed the boarding department was convicted of sex abuse. [The story does not state that the conviction was for offenses committed after the priest had left the Regensburg boarding school!]

The school is under the control of the director of music at Regensburg Cathedral in Germany. [Can that be true???? How can a musical director, who has more than enough of a job to fill, also be in charge of the boarding school???? Also, the diocesan statement made clear that there is a separate position for director of the boarding school.]

The priest who held that post till 1963 was Theobald Schrems, followed by Georg Ratzinger from 1964 to 1994.

Ratzinger, 86, told Bavarian radio in Regensburg on Friday he was not aware of any cases of sex abuse at the school and declined further comment.

In a letter to former pupils published on its website, the cathedral director of music, Roland Buechner, said the school was trying to make contact with a man who has told German newspapers he suffered sexual abuse while he was a pupil at the start of the 1960s. [If it took place before 1964, then clearly Mons. Ratzinger is completely out of the picture, but if it happened when he already was in Regensburg, how can he be expected to know if sexual abuses were committed if no complaints wre made at the time?]

The Catholic Church has come under heavy attack in Germany in recent weeks over allegations that senior officials failed to keep a small number of convicted paedophiles away from children right up to the 1980s.

Nationwide, about 150 people have contacted church-appointed lawyers, describing how they were abused at various church schools. Almost all the cases occurred too long ago to be prosecuted now.

The German bishops are now reviewing whether their 2002 guideline on sex abuse is strong enough. It says that bishops do not need to report borderline cases to police, but should only suggest to offenders that they turn themselves in.


I am thankful I can read German and could go to the original source. Otherwise I would have been at the mercy of the misrepresentations - by commission and omission - in the news reports I have seen so far about this subject!


Additional data thanks to Lella's scouts who have checked out at least four German newspapers:

It appears that the spokesman for the Regensburg diocese gave a news conference Thursday afternoon to talk about the cases described in the diocesan website.

None of the four German newspapers checked out did as the Italians and Anglophone media have - to place the Ratzinger name or the Pope's in their headlines on this story. Examples:

Dozens of victims, a dozen abusers - from the very leftwing FAZ (which had amost insulting headline of Benedict's election in 2005), whose lead for the story was the news conference given by the monks of Ettal Abbey in Bavaria, followed by the Regensburg report.

Scandal reaches the Regensburg Domspatzen - from the tabloid BILD, which mentions Mons. Ratzinger only in the last paragraph.

Abuses committed even in the Regensburg boys choir - from Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the leftist but very influential Munich newspaper which has never been sympathetic to Archbishop/Cardinal/Pope Ratzinger.

Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: Complaints even among the Regensburg Domspatzen - from Der Spiegel, another non-sympathizer.

I salute them all for their well-placed discretion, fairness and elementary decency this time. I hope it lasts! And may these virtues be more widely observed in the media today, where people not sympathetic to the respective editors are generally tried/convicted/sentenced by headline and insinuation, or otherwise besmirched by flagrant attempts at insinuating guilt by association.


Reuters has this report - belated in relation to AP and dpa - but for some reason, it has scaled up the numbers for Regensburg or purposely used the other abuse cases mentioned by the Regensburg diocese website (a couple of them limited to corporal punishment and not necessarily sexual abuse) to suggest they all had to do with sexual abuse of members of the boys' choir!


Abuse cases found at
renowned German Catholic choir



BERLIN, March 5 (Reuters) – A Catholic Church choir once led by the brother of Pope Benedict has learned of several cases of priests abusing boys between 1958 and 1973, the diocese of Regensburg in southern Germany said Friday.

Rev Georg Ratzinger, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994, told Bavarian Radio he knew nothing of the cases, the latest in a series of such charges harming the Church's image in Germany.

Pope Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, taught theology at the University of Regensburg from 1969 to 1977.

The diocese said in a statement that one priest abused two boys sexually in 1958 and was sentenced to two years in jail. Another clergyman served 11 months in jail in 1971 for abuse.

It mentioned three men who claimed to have suffered sexual abuse as well as excessive beatings and humiliation in the early 1960s by several unnamed teachers while they were at boarding schools connected to the choir.

The "Regensburger Domspatzen" (Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows) is the official choir for the diocese that traces its roots back to the year 975. Apart from its work at the cathedral, it regularly performs on tours of Germany and abroad.

The diocese said several people had come forward with charges of abuse because of recent media reports about other cases elsewhere in Germany. It did not give a precise number.

It has employed a lawyer to further clarify past incidents and identify more victims. The diocese set up a five-person panel on sexual abuse in 2008 to assist victims.

"Sexual abuse is contrary to the mission of the church ... People with pedophile fixations can no longer be employed in the service of the church," it said in the statement.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops Conference, apologized last month for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests after over 100 such cases were reported in Jesuit boarding schools around the country.

****************

About the latter: A report today says Mons. Zollitsch will be meeting with Pope Benedict on Monday, March 12. He announced this last week at the end of the German bishops' annual assembly, saying it is his usual post-assembly mwwting with the Pope, only this time, they have the sex abuse brouhaha to discuss as well.

I have reservations about continuing to use the word 'scandal' for these episodes. It is a highly judgmental word intended to connote the worst in the mind of the reader or listener. Sexual offenses committed by priests in an environment that provides them with motive, means and opportunity should not be surprising because priests are human, and some are bound to err or commit abuses. Those who do sin this way obviously have betrayed their calling to be 'alter Christus' and must be made to answer for their offenses/crimes.

At the same time, sexual abuse of minors is by no means limited to priests (statistically, most such abusers are parents, relatives or friends of tthe victim), nor to Catholic priests (just that the media is not much interested in reporting sexual offenses by anyone other than Catholic priests).

What is truly scandalous is when the priest-offenders' superiors cover up for them, tolerate them, and the offender goes on to victimize dozens, if not hundreds, of minors.



Completing the reports filed by the major Anglophone news services on what I call the 'new Regensburg ruckus' aka 'much media ado about nothing' aka 'anything to take down the Pope a notch- or more':


More abuse allegations rock
German Catholic Church



BERLIN, March 5 (AFP) - A sexual abuse scandal rocking Germany’s Catholic Church widened on Friday to include a thousand-year-old boys’ choir led for three decades by Pope Benedict XVI’s brother.

A report into alleged abuse at a monastic school in Ettal, meanwhile, said that minors “were massively abused over decades, sexually, physically and psychologically” by several monks in the past.

The famed Domspatzen (Cathedral Sparrows) choir in the southern city of Regensburg, founded in 975, acknowledged in a “letter to parents” published on its website that a child had been abused in the 1950s.

“To our knowledge the boarding school principal at the time was tried and convicted. He has since died,” the choir said.

It also said a former choir member in the 1960s had recently told a paper that he had been sexually molested. An ombudswoman from the local bishopric, Birgit Boehm, has attempted to contact the man.

“At this point it is not clear whether the alleged abuse occurred in our institution or the Etterzhausen preschool,” it said. “The Foundation Regensburg Domspatzen has to date no other evidence of sexual abuse” but pledged to follow up on any further accusations.

“For this reason we ask all who have learned of sexual abuse of minors in our institution by clerics or other church staff, or are victims themselves, to report to a member of the board” or Boehm.

However a spokesman for the Regensburg bishopric, Clemens Neck, told AFP that it had further “information about alleged abuse between 1958 and 1973.”

“We plan to investigate with total transparency,” Neck said.

Two former members of staff at the Domspatzen, which includes a boarding school and a music college, were previously jailed for abuse, and both died in 1984, Neck said.

One of them was the deputy director, Friedrich Z., a former religious studies teacher hired in 1953 and expelled five years later from the musical college.

He was given a two-year jail term before going to work in a convent in Switzerland between 1961 and 1982.

“We do not know what kind of abuse there was, nor whether there were other victims after his conviction. This is being looked into,” Neck said, declining to give further details.

The second man, a former director of the boarding school for Domspatzen choirboys, was “according to our research, jailed for 11 years in 1971 for abuse committed before May 30, 1969,” Neck said.

“We don’t know what happened after his release.”

The Pope’s brother, 86-year-old Georg Ratzinger, led the Domspatzen between 1964 and 1993. He has not been accused of abuse.

In addition to singing in Regensburg’s cathedral, the Domspatzen also go on tour and in 2009 they performed in the Sistine Chapel in Rome in celebrations for Ratzinger’s 85th birthday.

The latest revelations come days after the German Episcopal Conference put Stephan Ackermann, bishop of the western city of Trier, in charge of probing sexual exploitation of children at a number of Catholic institutions in the country.

The chairman of the Conference, Robert Zollitsch, is to meet with the pope March 12 at the Vatican to discuss the cases.

The scandal in Germany broke in January when an elite Jesuit school in Berlin admitted the systematic sexual abuse of its pupils by two Roman Catholic priests in the 1970s and 1980s. Last month two priests and a college rector resigned over abuse cases.

An independent investigator hired by the Jesuit order said that so far around 120 people had come forward alleging abuse.

It's hell! It's awful and horrible and it has turned into some type of destruction of the enemy feast by the media.
Finally!! They finally have something they can go completely all out crazy about!
And finally, the name Ratzinger can be used in the same sentence as the phrase 'child abuse'.
Obviously we/the Church have to face those dark episodes of the past. All relevant institutions have been cooperating fully and will continue to do so, until all accusations are checked.
Is there going to be false accusations? You bet!!!! Will it matter to the media and public opinion? Take a good guess!!
I only hope that there will be ex choir boys who will come to the defense of their school and of their 'Chef' as they used to call him.

It's very painful for me... being a bit on the hot-headed side, I’m about ready to kill someone… let’s hope it will be my appetite; at least that would be a good effect during lent.
I can NOT imagine what the Ratzinger brothers are going through at the moment. I feel the strange need to voice my solidarity with the Holy Father and his brother - both of them exceptional people and pure as snow.

I hope the requested apostolic visitation at Ettal will take place.
They had a press conference this morning, where cases of abuse where read out loud. It seems that most cases there were physical and mental abuse, occurring in the 50ie and 60ies!

Sorry, but high profile, elite boarding schools were run in an extremely authoritarian way in those days. Catholic, Protestant, Secular, whatever variation. Many of the teachers (clerics included) were treated even worse during their childhood, most of them had served in WW2 and returned traumatized! Some of the abuse was even wanted and tolerated by the parents in order to install toughness and discipline into those boys.
Sorry to say so, but when I look at schools nowadays. I long for teachers with authority and the guts to teach those kids some much needed discipline! I can’t stand soft washed ‘I want to be your friend’ attitudes in teachers!!
I remember clearly being petrified of my English teacher, who even used some physical violence (on boys) in the 80ies!! One day he ripped my grammar booklet into pieces, because he wasn’t satisfied with the way it was kept.
Well, his ways certainly did miracles for my English grammar. He used to drill us (all girls class) upon entry into the classroom. Mercilessly! It worked!!!
I’ve tried to do the same to my Bostonian husband for years… I’ve given up…

On a good note. The current parents of Ettal are standing up for their school and are defending the ex-abbot and ex-prior with everything they have. There will be Mass on Sunday at Kloster Ettal in support of them and the school.

Another point. As much as the Church (or, individual members of it) has failed in the past - the current lack of confidence and resolve is disturbing!
I don't see the point in falling, rolling over, playing dead.
Stand up and point out that, as shameful as the accusations are, the majority of abuse happens elsewhere!!

Oh... I think Mr. Pollanksi's latest movie will be released, shortly.
Does ANYBODY even give the slightest da** about his not so pure past??
Hell no....







I am very much afraid that since the Ratzinger name has been insinuated into this whole episode, the story has now gained more legs and we will continue to hear about it.

The brothers have each other and their faith, and the affection, Best wishes and prayers of all of the faithful who see their goodness as the 'witness to Christ and the Gospel' that Christians are called on to give.

I share your hope that ex-members of the Domspatzen will rally around their 'chief' at this time, and pray no one comes up with any stories to feed the new frenzy!

As for school discipline, I grew up with nuns who punished us with such 'creative' ways as making one kneel on tiny round beans (the 'mung' variety) - and believe me, once you've had to do that for five minutes, you will never dare 'sin' again! Me, I favor compulsory military service for at least a year for all 18-year-olds, boys and girls, to get a sense of what discipline should be. I certainly wish I had it. I saw what wonders military service did for one of my girl cousins whom we had all given up for being absolutely unruly (yet she enlisted voluntarily after college and stayed on for years until she immigrated to the US!)

TERESA

To the bishops of Uganda,
Pope urges special support for
those who care for refugees,
orphans and AIDS victims




At noon today, the Holy Father met with all the bishops of Uganda who are in Rome for their ad limina visit. He had earlier met with them in three separate groups. To the entire assembly, he gave this address in English:

---

Your Eminence,
Dear Brother Bishops,

I am pleased to greet you, the Bishops of Uganda, on your Ad Limina visit to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

I thank Bishop Ssekamanya for the gracious sentiments of communion with the Successor of Peter which he expressed on your behalf. I willingly reciprocate and assure you of my prayers and affection for you and for the People of God entrusted to your care.

In a particular way my thoughts go to those who have been affected by the recent landslides in the Bududa region of your country. I offer prayers to Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, that he may grant eternal rest to the souls of the deceased, and give strength and hope to all who are suffering the consequences of this tragic event.

The recently celebrated Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops was memorable in its call for renewed efforts in the service of a more profound evangelization of your continent (cf. Message to the People of God, 15).

The power of the word of God and the knowledge and love of Jesus cannot but transform people’s lives by changing for the better the way they think and act.

In the light of the Gospel message, you are aware of the need to encourage the Catholics of Uganda to appreciate fully the sacrament of marriage in its unity and indissolubility, and the sacred right to life.

I urge you to help them, priests as well as the lay faithful, to resist the seduction of a materialistic culture of individualism which has taken root in so many countries.

Continue to call for lasting peace based on justice, generosity towards those in need and a spirit of dialogue and reconciliation.

While promoting true ecumenism, be especially close to those who are more vulnerable to the advances of sects. Guide them to reject superficial sentiments and a preaching that would empty the cross of Christ of its power (cf. 1 Cor 1:17); in this way you will continue, as responsible Pastors, to keep them and their children faithful to the Church of Christ.

In this regard I am pleased to learn that your people find spiritual consolation in popular forms of evangelization such as the organized pilgrimages to the Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs at Namugongo, where the active pastoral presence of Bishops and numerous priests guides the piety of the pilgrims towards renewal as individuals and communities.

Continue to sustain all who with generous hearts assist displaced persons and orphans from war-torn areas. Encourage those who care for people afflicted by poverty, AIDS and other diseases, teaching them to see in those whom they serve the suffering face of Jesus (cf. Mt 25:40).

Renewed evangelization gives rise in turn to a deeper Catholic culture which takes root in the family.

From your Quinquennial Reports I am aware that programmes of education in parishes, schools and associations, and your own interventions on topics of common interest, are indeed spreading a stronger Catholic culture.

Great good can come from well-prepared lay people who are active in the media, in politics and culture. Courses for their adequate formation, especially in Catholic Social Doctrine, should be provided, taking advantage of resources at Uganda Martyrs University or other institutions.

Encourage them to be active and outspoken in the service of what is just and noble. In this way, society as a whole will benefit from trained and zealous Christians who take up leadership roles in the service of the common good.

Ecclesial movements also deserve your support for their positive contribution to the life of the Church in many sectors.

Bishops, as the first agents of evangelization, are called to bear clear witness to the practical solidarity born of our communion in Christ. In a spirit of Christian charity Dioceses that enjoy more resources, both materially and spiritually, should assist those that have less.

At the same time, all communities have a duty to strive for self-sufficiency. It is important that your people develop a sense of responsibility towards themselves, their community and their Church, and become more deeply imbued with a Catholic spirit of sensitivity to the needs of the universal Church.

Your priests, as committed ministers of evangelization, already benefit greatly from your fatherly concern and guidance. In this Year for Priests offer them your assistance, your example and your clear teaching.

Exhort them to prayer and vigilance, especially with regard to self-centred, worldly or political ambitions, or excessive attachment to family or ethnic group.

Continue promoting vocations, providing for due discernment of candidates and for their proper motivation and formation, especially their spiritual formation. Priests must be men of God, capable of guiding others, through wise counsel and example, in the Lord’s ways.

Religious men and women in Uganda are called to be an example and a source of encouragement to the whole Church. By your advice and prayers, assist them as they strive for the goal of perfect charity and bear witness to the Kingdom.

Priests and religious require constant support in their lives of celibacy and consecrated virginity. By your own example, teach them of the beauty of this way of life, of the spiritual fatherhood and motherhood with which they can enrich and deepen the love of the faithful for the Creator and Giver of all good gifts.

Your catechists likewise are a great resource. Continue to be attentive to their needs and formation, and place before them, for their encouragement, the example of martyrs such as Blessed Daudi Okello and Blessed Jildo Irwa.

Dear Brother Bishops, with the Apostle Paul, I exhort you: "Always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry" (2 Tim 4:5).

In the Blessed Ugandan Martyrs you and your people have models of great courage and endurance in suffering. Count on their prayers and strive always to be worthy of their legacy.

Commending you and those entrusted to your pastoral care to the loving protection of Mary, Mother of the Church, I affectionately impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

---

Miscellaneous updates from
the official visit site


Mons. Marino to visit Portugal
March 8-10 to check the sites
and liturgical preparations

The vestments to be used by Benedict XVI during the liturgical celebrations he will preside over during his visit to Portugal will all come from the Vatican, but the Mass vessels will all be from the Portuguese churches in Lisbon, Fatima and Porto.

These and other details will be finalized when Archbishop Guido Marini, master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, will come to Portugal next week, from March 8-10, to visit the various sites where papal liturgies will be held.

The Pope will celebrate Mass in Lisbon on May 11 at 6:15 p.m.; the Anniversary Mass in Fatima on May 13 at 10 a.m.; and in Porto at 10:15 a.m. on May 14.

On May 12, he will visit the Chapel of Apparitions in Fatima 1t 5:30 p.m., and then preside at Vespers in the Church of the Holy Trinity at 6 p.m, followed by the recitation of the rosary and a candlelight procession.




A hymn for the Pope



The Pope's hosts have approved the official hymn, "Bem-Vindo, Santo Padre” (Welcome, Holy Father) for his visit, with lyrics by Pfr. Heitor Morais, Jesuit, and music by Fr. Antonio Cartageno, c composer from the Diocese of Beja.

The official T-shirt has also gone on sale. Proceeds from the sales of these and other merchandise will help defray the costs of the visit.





The Archdiocese of Braga, which covers northern Portugal, has launched a special section on the Pope's visit on its website. It will facilitate registration for the faithful who wish to attend any of the Pope's public events.

Saturday, March 6

Scenes from Giotto's St. Francis cycle in Assisi: Sylvester casting out demons in Arezzo; the institution of the Franciscan Rule
by Pope Honorius II; and the death of St. Francis.
SERVANT OF GOD SYLVESTER OF ASSISI (d 1240)
First priest of the Franciscan Order
One of the 12 first followers of St. Francis, he came in relatively late compared to the others
though he was a first cousin of St. Clare (their fathers where brothers). He sold Francis stones
for his church rebuilding efforts, later demanded to be paid more. But when he saw Bernard of
Quintavalle give up his fortune and distribute it to the poor, he decided to cast his lot with Francis
and his original band of brothers. Indeed, he became a close adviser and travel companion to
Francis. Along with St. Clare, he is credited with having persuaded Francis that his mission was
to preach rather than to be secluded in prayer. The single episode popularly told about Sylvester
was when Francis asked him to cast out the demons from Arezzo, which was plagued with civil
war. He did so with a simple invocation, and peace returned to that Tuscan city. Sylvester died
12 years after Francis, and is one of the four companions buried with him in Assisi.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030610.shtml


OR today.

The Pope addresses the bishops of Uganda on ad-limina visit:
'Sustain those who care for refugees, orphans and AIDS victims'
Other Page 1 stories: Iraq's parliamentary elections tomorrow could be a vote against foreign interference especially that of Iran; Greek bonds sell three times beyond the initial $5-billion offering of the 10-year bonds - a sign of confidence by investors that Greece will not default on its immense debt; the Red Cross and UNICEF start campaign to vaccinate 85 million children in west and central Africa against polio. In the inside pages, a story about Nazi hunter Surge Klarenfeld, who had nabbed the notorious Klaus Barbie - in an interview with a French newspaper, Klarenfeld said that in the global context of what Pius XII had to deal with during the war, it was understandable that the fate of the Jews was not his priority.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)

- Two more bishops of Uganda on ad-limina visit (Group 4)

- Officials, staff and volunteers of the Italian agency for national civil protection. Address in Italian.

Benedict XVI on the move
Translated from the Italian service of



We had thought that the agenda for the Pope's foreign travels in 2010 had been defined by the usual number of four, and here we are, with the surprise decision of Benedict XVI to accept two invitations to Spain. So now his foreign trips this year come to five - after Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, the United Kingdom.

It's a good mix: the Mediterranean and Middle East, the Iberian peninsula and norhern Europe. The distances are not great, but the settings are quire diverse. We will have much to listen to, to take part in, and to learn.

The last two Spanish destinations are particularly fascinating.

Barcelona and the church of Sagrada Familia, which the archbishop, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach has called "a temple of artistic, biblical, theological, spiritual and catechetical significance that is unique in the world". An original synthesis of art and faith born from the genius of Antonio Gaudi, it will give the Pope a precious opportunity to continue his discourse on the dialog with art, which he had re-started with great intensity in his meeting with artists at the Sistine Chapel last November.

Santiago de Compostela, goal of pilgrims for centuries converging there from so many nations and from all directions, is a place where the theme of the Christian roots of Europe is not an abstract theory, but a most concrete experience for every kind of person, from every possible origin, pilgrims who come to Compostela impelled by a common spirituality.

With them, Pope Benedict continues his own pilgrimage to speak of God to every man of our time who is willing to find his face.

The good news is that most of the Italian Vaticanistas who reported on "Regensburg #2" in today's printed newspapers punctiliously avoided the prompt manipulation by the online newspapers and news agencies yesterday to link the Ratzinger name in the headlines - however tenuously - to a sexual abuse story. Andrea Tornielli also sets his readers straight on the facts, "just the facts, Ma'am" as Jack Webb used to admonish in Dragnet, granddaddy of all police shows on TV.


A low blow to the Pope
and to his brother
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from

March 6, 2010


A scandal has been uncovered involving the Regensburg boys' choir which was under the musical direction of the Pope's older brother for 30 years.

But to associate the charges of sexual abuse with Georg Ratzinger is sheer bad faith - the incidents revealed so far took place before he even came to Regensburg.

The Church in Germany is in the grip of newly-revealed sexual abuses committed against minors by German priests in the past - and mud has been smeared without basis on the Pope's brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, who was choir director of the Regensburger Domspatzen attached to the Cathedral of Regensburg from 1964 to 1994.

Yesterday, in the online editions of many newspapers as well as the news agencies, the Ratzinger name was associated arbitrarily to the reports of abuses said to have been committed against pupils of the choirboys' boarding school - even if there was nothing to connect Mons. Ratzinger to the incidents.

These are the facts: The bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, earlier this week, issued an apology to the victims and their families for some cases [six to date, exactly] of sexual abuse that had taken place in the diocese in the past.

The diocesan website published a report on cases that had been ascertained to have happened [two of the offending priests, now both dead, were in fact sentenced to jail for the offenses] as well as a couple of newly reported cases said to have taken place in the early 1960s but not yet ascertained.

The Domspatzen is first mentioned in the diocesan report because a former rector of its special music high school who served in 1953-1958, was sentenced to jail for having been caught in flagrante with two of his wards.

A second priest was convicted in 1971 to 11 months in prison for sexual abuse committed in 1969. In 1959, this priest had served for eight months as the director of the choirboys' boarding school - five years before Georg Ratzinger came to Regensburg. But the offense for which he served time took place 10 years after he left the boarding school, while he was serving as the diocesan director for sacred music. [The victim's name is so far not known.] Therefore, this second case had nothing to do with the Domspatzen.

Both convicted priests died in 1984, far from Regensburg.

Of the other cases which the diocese is investigating one was a complaint about corporal punishment and sexual abuse, another for corporal punishment (including lashing) - both incidents not in the city of Regensburg.

Bishop Mueller's spokesman made clear that both in the old cases as well as the two newly-reported ones, none took place during the time Mons. Ratzinger led the Domspatzen.

The present music director, Roland Buecher, together with the prefect of studies Bethold Wahl and the director of the boarding school Rainer Schinko, signed a letter which says: "We are consternated that such shameful things have taken place in ecclesiastical institutions. We have just learned that an ex-choirboy has recently complained that he was the victim of sexual abuse in the early 1960s. On the basis of present information, it is not clear whether the abuses took place in our school or in the elementary school of Etterzhausen."

The letter also says: "Through a press clipping from the 1950s, we obtained concrete information about a case of sexual abuse, showing that a former director of the boarding school was convicted for the offense. At this time, we do not have other concrete facts on any other suspected cases of sexual abuse involving the Regensburg boys' choir".

But meanwhile, the name of Georg Ratzinger - who told Bavarian Radio yesterday that he had "no knowledge of any case of sexual abuse" involving the boy' choir - has been associated irresponsibly with this matter.

At the Vatican, the deputy press director said that the Holy See "considers the problem in Germany a serious matter" but it will not intervene directly in the Regensburg cases.


Tornielli comments further on the story in his blog entry today.

The Pope's brother has nothing to do
with the Regensburg abuses but
he was made the headline
Translated from

March 6, 2010

[First, he briefly summarizes yesterday's press to-do over the Regensburg cases of sexual abuse by priests.]

...But meanwhile, the news had been launched on the Web and on TV associating the name of the Pope's brother to these cases, without an explanatory word.

Everyone knows that after the Williamson case last year, the Holy See is now giving more attention to the Internet. But in this case, no one at the Vatican thought it necessary to clarify anything, even by at least providing the media with a precise account of the facts in a non-official way.

In my humble opinion, it was a mistake because although the newspapers today have reported the story in the proper context [and without using the Ratzinger name in the headlines], the public was exposed to the misleading information all day yesterday from online sites and from TV.

There are many ways of intervening to nip misinformation in the bud, and I think that the Vatican Press Office could have said or passed on something non-official about this matter, especially considering that has intervened even recently with prompt defenses of men or institutions that happen to have some connection with the Holy See. For example, the prompt expression of solidarity with the president of the Bambino Gesu hospital, who is the object of a police inquiry concerning his previous activities in Liguria.

[But my dear Mr. Tornielli - the Press Office and its bosses in the Secretariat of State do not even do that when the Pope himself is the target! And yet they rush to the defense of the Bambino Gesu official or of Mons. Fisichella at the drop of a hat. In both cases, people beholden to and favored by the Secretary of State, who himself has yet to show any such celerity of action when it comes to defending the Pope. Should I point out again the Wielgus, Williamson and Boffo cases?

Also, it is quite possible the Press Office may have called Mons. Gaenswein to ask for guidance on what to do about this, and he could have passed on the word that the Pope, punctilious man that he is, finds it inappropriate for the Vatican Press Office to be involved in his brother's behalf, especially since the Bishop of Regensburg has taken charge of the investigation, as he properly should.

I do agree someone should have immediately translated the Regensburg diocesan report into Italian and provided it to all editorial offices unofficially. Of course, the editorial offices themselves should have done this, but they don't usually bother!]



The other purported
'Vatican sex scandal'

Not to forget that in the Anglophone media, they are just now revving up on the case of the none too gentlemanly 'Gentleman' Balducci, a civilian official under investigation for corruption, and a Nigerian who belonged to a Vatican choir and admits to having procured boys for Balducci - with headlines like 'New sex scandal rocks Vatican', as on
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/06/earlyshow/saturday/main62727...
Never mind that the two principals are only peripherally related to the Vatican.

Balducci, having been named under John Paul II a 'Gentleman of His Holiness', may not sound so peripheral - in fact, he was given important contracts from the Vatican to build some Jubilee sites in preparation for the 2000 celebrations. He may well have won the bids fair and square, but he was already a 'Gentleman' at the time.

It doesn't help when you have priests within the Vatican who say things like this:

---

"We're just scratching the surface here," says CBS News consultant Father Thomas Williams from the Vatican. "There's definitely more to come. We only know of these two men connected with the Vatican in some way, but obviously, they're talking about a ring, and a ring means definitely more people involved. So, I'm sure more will be coming out in the days to come."

---

All I can say is that this Fr. Williams, whoever he is, sure has a sick mind - or, at the very least, a sick and sickening attitude.

Luigi Accattoli has a fascinating article on these 'Gentlemen' - how arbitrary their nominations are, how very much their 'service' is really for empty show, and yet when they happen to be assigned as one of the ushers for a visiting VIP, each one is presented by the name to the VIP before he even enters the Apostolic Palace. Apparently, that's the top perk they live for.

Irish bishop embarrassed that
he had to kiss the Pope's ring
By Colin Gleeson

March 05 2010


A BISHOP has admitted he was "embarrassed" to have to stoop to kiss the Pope's ring during the visit of the Irish bishops to the Vatican.

Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy [born 1936, made bishop by John Paul II in 1998], said he was surprised with the protocol when he arrived at the Vatican, but he followed his fellow bishops who bowed to kiss the papal ring.

"When it came to my turn, the person before me did it and I kissed his [the Pope's] ring as well -- even though I was rather embarrassed by it," Bishop Murphy said. [Why? If he had the courage of his convictions, he would not do something he objects to just because he is 'embarrassed'. Especially since, he reveals next, he has personal precedents for not kissing the papal ring.]

He said when he previously met Pope Benedict -- and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II -- he was greeted with a handshake.

Bishop Murphy said he was sure the Pope would also have preferred to avoid the ancient kissing of the ring custom when he met the bishops in Rome.

"Some people still try to kiss a bishop's ring but, obviously, it's out of touch with modern thinking," he added. ['Some people'? Most Catholics I know automatically do it when they greet a bishop - the more so if it's the Pope. In the same way my generation - and those that preceded us - were raised to greet our elders by bowing, taking their right hand, and touching the back of it to the forehead.

Bishop Murphy's statement is even more absurd because 'modern thinking' also encompasses meaningless things like the "air kiss'(Mwah! Mwah!) trendy people exchange even with those they hardly know!]

Traditionally, the kissing of the papal ring is a sign of respect for the office.

Director of Catholic Communications Martin Long said last night that the bishop's comments were made "in a personal capacity" and would not comment further.

Also known as the Ring of the Fisherman, a new band is cast in gold for each Pontiff. It features an image of Saint Peter fishing from a boat. Raised lettering around the image presents the current Pope's Latin name.

The ring is an official part of the regalia worn by the pope, who is described by the Catholic Church as the successor of Saint Peter, who was a fisherman by trade.

During the rite of papal inauguration, an official of the papal court ceremonially slips the ring on the left fourth finger of the new Pope.

Upon a papal death, the Ring of the Fisherman is ceremonially crushed in the presence of other cardinals using a silver hammer.

Meanwhile, Bishop Murphy rejected claims from abuse survivors that the meeting in Rome was nothing more than a charade. He said the gathering was "very serious and significant" and he conceded the Catholic Church might have been at fault for not lowering the "exaggerated and unrealistic expectations" of the public in advance.

[I don't think so. In this case, no matter what the Church says or does will never be enough - it will always be at fault - for the advocates and promoters of perpetual victimhood. Unfortunately, their legitimate outrage and resentment over sexual abuses committed, along with their pre-existing hostility to the Church, have blocked out from their hearts any trace of Christian charity and the capacity to forgive.]

Pope thanks Italy's
civilian protection volunteers
Translated from
the 3/7/10 issue of







Eleven months to the day since the earthquake that shook the Abruzzo region, particularly the capital L'Aquila and surrounding areas, 7,000 volunteers of Italy's civil protection agency gathered together at the Aula Paolo VI to remember with Pope Benedict XVI their common intensive commitment for weeks to assist the earthquake victims.

The hall was an expanse of volunteers dressed in windbreakers, service overalls, badges of rank and berets of all colors, representing the m,ore than 1,300,000 members of the organization made of more than 3,000 work teams.

Many of them had helped in recent national emergencies; some had helped in major events like World Youth Day in Rome in 2000, John Paul II's wake and funeral in 2005, the Youth Agora in Loreto in 2007. Symbolically present were the volunteers who have been helping out in Haiti, and those who are about to leave for Chile, both struck by catastrophic earthquakes in recent weeks.

Guido Bertolaso, head of the agency, said of his people in greeting the Pope: "It is impossible to quantify their ready availability, solidarity and loving approach to fellowmen in need of help. And that is only fitting, because the characteristic trait of the volunteer is dedication in serving others".

Also taking part in the ceremonies were Cardinal Angelo Comastri, arch priest of St. Peter's Basilica; Archbishops Giuseppe Betori of Florence, Edoardo Manichelli of Ancona, and Giuseppe Molinari of L'Aquila; and Bishops Mariano Crociata, Domenico Sigalini and Giovanni D'Ercole. Also present was the undersecretary of the Prime Minister's cabinet, Gianni Letta.

Before the Pope arrived, Cardinal Comastri delivered a meditation in which he likened the volunteer to the Good Samaritan in the Gospel, saying it is not the role he plays but the heart that makes a man good.




Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to the volunteers:

---

Dear friends:

I am very happy to be among you and to address my cordial welcome to each of you. I greet my brothers in the episcopate and priesthood, and all the authorities.

I greet the Honorable Guido Bertolaso, undersecretary to the Prime Minister and head of the Department of Civil Protection, whom I thank for the kund words he addressed to me in your behalf, and for all that he does for civilian society and for all of us.

I greet the Honorable Gianni Letta, undersecretary to the Prime Minister, who is present at this meeting.

And I address an affectionate greeting to the numerous volunteers and representatives of the components of the Civilian Protection agency's national service .

This meeting was preceded by a joyful celebration, brightened by the musical numbers performed by the Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese. My grateful thoughts to all of you.

You have reviewed the work done by Civilian Protection in the last ten years, both during national and international emergencies, as well as activities to support great events.

How can we forget, in this regard, the interventions in favor of the earthquake victims of San Giuliano di Puglia, and most of all, of the Abruzzo? I myself, visiting Onna and L'Aquila last April, observed first hand the commitment with which you did all you could to assist those who had lost their dear ones as well as their homes.

I think it is appropriate for me to recall what I said to you then: "Thank you for what you have done, and above all, for the love with which you did it. Thank you for the example that you have given us" (Address at the meeting with the faithful and the personnel involved in first aid and rescue, April 28, 2009).

And how could we not think with admiration of all those many volunteers who guaranteed attendance and security to the endless crowds and not just young people - who were present at that unforgettable World Youth Day in Rome, or who had come to Rome to give their last salute to Pope John Paul II?

Dear volunteers of Civil Protection: I know how much you wanted this meeting. I can assure you that I shared your desire. You constitute one of the more recent and mature expressions of a long tradition of solidarity which is rooted in the altruism and generosity of the Italian people.

The volunteer service of the Civil Protection agency has become a national phenomenon which has assumed a character of participation and organization that is particularly significant, and today it includes some 1,300,000 members, subdivided into more than 3,000 units.

The objectives of your association has been recognized in appropriate legislative norms, which have contributed to the formation of a national identity for civilian protection that is attentive to the primary needs of the person and of the common good.

The terms 'protection' and 'civilian' represent precise coordinates that express your mission - I would say, your vocation - in a profound way: to protect people and their dignity - central assets of civilian society - in tragic instances of calamity or emergency that threaten the life and safety of families or entire communities.

This mission does not consist only of managing emergencies, but in a timely and meritorious contribution to realizing the common good, which always represents the horizon of human coexistence even, and above all, in times of great trials.

These are an opportunity for discernment and not for desperation. They offer the opportunity to formulate a new social plan that is better oriented to the virtue and benefit of all.

The double dimension of protection, which is expressed during and after an emergency, is well expressed by the figure of the Good Samaritan, in the account of the Gospel of Luke (cfr Lk 10,30-35). This person certainly demonstrated charity, humility, and courage in helping the unfortunate 'other' at the time he needed help most. This, after everyone else - some out of indifference, others because of hardness of heart - chose to look the other way.

The Good Samaritan teaches, however, that one must go beyond the emergency and predispose, as it were, for the return to normality. Indeed, he binds up the wounds of the fallen man, and then entrusts him to the innkeeper in order that, once the emergency had passed, he could re-establish himself.

As this Gospel page teaches us, love for our neighbor cannot be delegated: the State and politics, despite the necessary attention to welfare, cannot be a substitute. As I wrote in the encyclical Deus caritas est: "Love will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable" (No. 28.

This demands and will always demand personal and voluntary commitment. Precisely because of this, volunteers are not 'stopgaps' in the social network, but persons who truly contribute to delineate the human and Christian face of society.

Without volunteers, the common good and society cannot last long, because their progress and their dignity depend in large measure precisely on those persons who do more than just their narrow duty.

Dear friends, your commitment is a service to the dignity of man based on the fact that he was created in the image and likeness of God (cfr Gen 1,26). As the episode of the Good Samaritan has shown us, there are looks that can be lost in the void or turn to contempt, but there are are looks that express love.

Besides being guardians of the territory, may you always be living icons of the Good Samaritan, paying attention to your neighbor, never forgetting the dignity of man, and inspiring hope.

When a person is not limited only to doing his duty in his profession and in his family, but engages himself in behalf of others, his heart expands. He who loves and freely serves the other as his neighbor lives and acts according to the Gospel, and takes part in the mission of the Church, who always looks at the entire man and wants him to feel the love of God.

Dear volunteers, the Church and the Pope support your precious service. May the Virgin Mary, who went 'in haste' to aid her cousin Elizabeth, be your model,

As I entrust you to the intercession of your patron, St. Pio de Pietrelcina, I assure you of remembrance in my prayers. With affection, I impart to you and your dear ones the Apostolic Blessing!

---

The Pope was presented with his own volunteer's windbreaker:

Tomorrow's issue of L'Osservatore Romano makes up for its total silence today on 'Regensburg-2':


Maximum transparency on
sex abuse cases in Germany
Translated from
the 3/7/10 issue of



REGENSBURG, March 6 - The diocese of Regensburg will examine the accusations of sexual abuses alleged to have happened against members of the Regensburger boys' choir "with the maximum transparency".

This was stated by the diocesan spokesman Clemens Neck, who announced the formation of an ad hoc investigative commission to show that it is not afraid to seek the facts even on recent charges made about which there is still little concrete information.

Meanwhile, the diocese has apologized in an open letter to the families of the victims. The bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, recalled the case of an ex-director of the choirboys' boarding school who was convicted in 1971 for sexual abuse for an incident that apparently took place in 1969, 10 years after he left the boarding school. He served two years in prison, and has since died.

Mueller called on anyone who has knowledge of reported sexual abuses in the Domspatzen institutions to provide information in order to identify the offenders and the victims. Further information about the Domspatzen institutions are published in a separate article [see below].

The recent plenary assembly of the German bishops' conference discussed the cases of sexual abuses by priests that have been uncovered lately. The various dioceses in which cases have been revealed are working to set things right with maxium transparency and determination.

The leadership of the Domspatzen institutions expressed their consternation for the cases that have been reported so far, including those that are linked to the Domspatzen in some way.

[The rest of the story is a translation of the Domspatzen leaders' letter, previously desscribed in Andrea Tornielli's story two posts above.]



STATEMENT FROM
BISHOP OF REGENSBURG
Translated from
the 3/7/10 issue of



The Bishop of Regensburg, Mons. Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, has issued the following statement on the Regensburger Domspatzen:

---

The Regensburger Domspatzen have three components:
- The Gymnasium (high school), which is headed by a lay director
- The Boarding School (Internat), headed by a priest assisted by educators and pedagogues
- The Choir, directed by the Master of the Cathedral Chapel (Domkapellmeister).

The elementary school once in Etterzhausen, now in Pielhofen, is an institution that is independent of the Domspatzen. There is collaboration only on some specific areas in musical education. That is why it is called the Vorschule, the school preliminary to the Domspatzen.

In recent days, we recalled two cases of sexual abuse:
- The first case dates to 1958, and the offender was the vice-director of the preparatory school. When the offense was discovered. he was dismissed and subsequently tried and convicted to a jail term.
- The second case had to do with a person who in 1959 worked for seven months with the Domspatzen. Twelve years after he left the school, he was convicted and jailed for a case of sexual abuse. We are now investigating if there were any such incidents during his seven months with the Domspatzen.

Both cases were of public knowledge at the time they happened and are considered closed in juridical terms.

They do not coincide with the period of service by Prof. Georg Ratzinger (1964-1994).

In the canonical sense, it is the Bishop of Regensburg who has the responsibility for the church institutions in the diocese of Regensburg.

---

The text of Bishop Mueller's statement is followed by this item:

The Holy See supports the Diocese in its readiness to analyze this painful question decisively and openly, in accordance with teh directives of the German bishops' conference.

The principal objective for clarification on the part of the Church is to bring justice to the victims. She is grateful for the commitment to clarity within the Church, and it hopes that the same clarity may apply to other institutions, public and private, and all those who genuinely have the good of children at heart.

Sunday, March 7
Third Sunday of Lent

SAINTS PERPETUA AND FELICITY (Carthage, d 203?), Martyrs
They were both young women - Perpetua, a well-educated noblewoman, daughter of a Christian mother and pagan
father, mother of an infant son; Felicity, her slave, pregnant at the time they were seized and jailed - along
with three men - by Roman persecutors in the time of Septimus Severus, for refusing to denounce their
Christian faith. Perpetua was 22 and wrote an account of their imprisonment, the earliest known surviving
text by a Christian woman. In it she recalls she pleaded successfully with her captors to allow her to have
her son with her in prison. Eventually, they were 'sent to the public games' for execution - the men were
killed by beasts, and the two women were beheaded. They are remembered in the Canon of the Mass as two
of the seven women other than the Virgin Mary who are so memorialized.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030710.shtml



OR today.

The Pope addresses 7,000 volunteers of Italy's civilian protection agency:
'Pay attention to the primary needs of people and the common good'
Page 1 items: An essay on Mary as the sorrowful mother in the Byzantine tradition; an article on how Al Qaeda
and terrorism in general threatens Iraq's general elections today; and the World Food program forced to reduce
school lunch portions for 460,000 children in the Ivory Coast for lack of funds. The inside pages contain the
three related items on the new Regensburg media focus (translated in the post above) and a preparatory story
on the Pope's pastoral visit to the suburban Rome parish of Colle Salario this morning.


THE POPE'S DAY

Pastoral visit to Colle Salario - Mass and meeting with the Parish Council.

Sunday Angelus - He comments on the readings from today's Mass on conversion and humility.

Mons. Georg says 'It is right to
set things clear' on sex-abuse
accusations in Regensburg
By DANILO TAINO
Translated from

March 7. 2010


REGENSBURG - Georg Ratzinger cannot believe that his Church could have done harm to anyone. He opens the door to his home on Luzengasse 2, just a few hundred meters from the St. Peter's Cathedral in Regensburg, an ancient Roman city.

The Pope's older brother was the musical director there for 30 years of the world-famous Regensburger Domspatzen, from 1964 to 1994.

Now, accusations of pedophilia in the choirboys' boarding school have erupted, referring even to the years when he was choir director.

[1) The writer makes it sound as though there were a great number of cases 'erupting'. The fact is the diocese itself took the initiative of disclosing the six cases it has knowledge of so far.

To set the record straight, once again: Only one of the six cases was ascertained to have been committed by a priest in the boarding school in 1958, for which he was dismissed from the school. convicted in court for the sexual abuse, and jailed for two years; the second ascertained case was by a priest who served in the boarding school for seven months, and whose offense was committed 10 years later, for which he, too, served a jail term. Two recent complaints came from former choirboys but the facts have not yet been established - except that only one of the two alleged sexual abuse; the other complained about receiving corporal punishment, including lashing. The two remaining cases concern priests who served in places outside Regensburg.

2) It has already been made clear that none of the above cases took place while Mons. Ratzinger was choir director, including a specific statement by the Bishop of Regensburg to that effect.]

He opens the door - an aged gentleman, a bit bent, hair as white as his brother Joseph's, refined, courteous. he is wearing a black turtleneck, a black cardigan, and grey pants.

"What newspaper did you say you represent?" he asks.

"Corriere della Sera".

"Please take a seat. A leftist newspaper?"

"Not necessarily, I would say, independent."

In his opinion, the press is the real woe.

"Why are you here? What do you want to know?"

He knows that in Germany and Italy, the talk is about sexual abuse cases against the Church in Germany: of pedophilia and sexual abuses in many colleges run by the principle monastic orders. [Excuse me! The charges are not against the Church but against the individual offenders!]

He knows that the denunciations have now come to his Regensburg. He knows it but he does not think it is a serious emergency.

"Is this a problem that strikes you, that makes you feel bad - these revelation of violence in your Choir at the Cathedral?"

"No," he says bluntly. He points out that it is a problem that concerns the press more. "Die presse," he repeats.

He was ordained a priest in 1951, along with his brother the Pope, and he says that in these 60 years, he never imagined that something of the sort - sexual abuses by priests - would become a topic for public debate.

He feels very strongly that the Church is the target. Yes, there can be bad persons within the Church but, he asks, why must the press tar the whole Church?

In his ground-floor salon, there are icons and paintings on the walls, books, a table with a lace cloth and a platter of cinnamon cookies shaped like stars and crescents.

He says that it is right "to make things clear" about the cases that have come to light involving the Domspatzen, and he says "I only hope that the choir does not suffer because of this".

The Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, will form a commission to investigate abuses that may have taken place in the boarding school from 1957 to 1973, and Mons. Ratzinger says that if he is called, he will testify.

"Even if I never heard reports about anything of the sort, I am willing to testify," he said.

He also points out that of the two boarding-school officials who were accused of sexual abuse, one was dismissed in 1958, six years before he, Ratzinger, came to Regensburg; and the other apparently had not committed any offenses while at the boarding school, but in a different city, and much later. [And both were brought to trial, convicted, and served jail terms.]

"I had nothing to do with the discipline of the children. My responsibility was limited to their music," he says.

From the next room, the kitchen separated from the salon by a heavy wooden door, one could hear kitchen noises from Frau Heindl, the lady who has kept house for Georg Ratzinger for decades, the lady who has made Apfelstrudel countless times for Benedict XVI.

My final question: "Have you discussed these things with your brother?"

"Not about this," he says. "It's the press that wants to hear about these things".

But the press has been rather friendly, I point out, especially in Bavaria. [Has Taino been following Sueddeutsche Zeitung?]

"I don't know if they are all that friendly," he reflects. "Some of them are not."

For Georg Ratzinger, this was a surprise, like a lightning bolt, this scandal involving the Domspatzen, the 'sparrows' of the Cathedral.

He is 86, of which 59 years has been as a priest. And he does not understand why all this is happening.


I've pushed down the AP report form this morning because it has been updated, with new upsetting material from the German press, particularly about that hateful, hate-full, annoyingly named nuisance group that calls itself We are Church:


Pope's brother says he would
testify in abuse case if needed
by FRANCES D'EMILIO



ROME, March 7 (AP) - The brother of Pope Benedict XVI has told a newspaper he is willing to testify in the sex scandal rocking Germany's Catholic Church, even though he says he knows nothing about the alleged abuse of boys in a choir he later led.

The Rev. Georg Ratzinger, in an interview published Sunday, also was quoted as saying by the Rome daily La Repubblica that there was "discipline and rigour" but no terror during his 30 years as head of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir in Germany.

The Regensburg Diocese said last week that a former singer came forward with allegations of sexual abuse in the early 1960s. The German newsweekly Der Spiegel has reported that therapists in the region are treating several alleged victims from the choir.
Ratzinger led the choir from 1964 till 1994.

[When I commented here yesterday that the German media must now be sniffing out every possible 'victim' they can come up with, I also added "Maybe Der Spiegel already has one"? I figured if anyone was going all-out on this, it would be Spiegel, which led the charge in the Williamson case.]

The diocese has said it is hiring a lawyer to help it carry out a "systematic" clarification of abuse allegations.

A man who lived in the choir-linked boarding school until 1967 has contended that "a sophisticated system of sadistic punishments in connection with sexual lust" had been installed there.

Der Spiegel quoted the man, Franz Wittenbrink, as saying it would be inexplicable that the Pope's brother didn't know anything about it.

But Ratzinger says he knew nothing about any alleged abuse.

If German justice officials "ask me to give testimony, obviously I'd be very ready to do so, but I am not able to provide any information on any deed that could be punished, because I don't have any, I never knew anything about it," the former choir leader told La Repubblica.

"We're talking about another generation, of another generation than that of my years, and respect to the generation that leads the foundation and chorus now," the Pope's brother told the paper.

Asked why cases of alleged abuse were "covered by silence" for so long, Ratzinger replied: "'I insist, I wasn't around in that situation, I wasn't at the choir when the cases they're talking about happened."

"I hope my chorus isn't damaged by this situation, but it's in my interest that light is shed on it," he added.

Asked by La Repubblica about victims' claims of a "climate of terror at the choir," Ratzinger was quoted as saying: "In my years, thus after those deeds, there was a climate of discipline and rigour, that was obvious, too - we were aiming for a high musical, artistic level."

He said there was a "a climate of human comprehension, almost like a family."

The Pope's brother also wondered what was behind the recent allegations.

"I want to note that I sense a certain animosity toward the Church" behind the scandal, Ratzinger was quoted as saying.

Also Sunday, a prominent German Catholic activist group called on the Pope to explain what he knew about abuses. Christian Weisner, the spokesman for We Are the Church, told the Associated Press on Sunday that Benedict must address whether there was abuse during his time as bishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1981.

[It's been more than a month now since the cases in the Jesuits' Canisius school in Berlin were first disclosed, but it was a sure bet that the first thing the editorial newsrooms all over Germany did at the time was to dig fast and furiously for any such incidents that could have occured in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising when Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop. Then came the news of the abuses in Ettal, a Benedictine monastery south of Munich - with some of them said to have taken place in the 1970s and 1980s. Has anyone traced dates to see if any of it took place between May 1977 and February 1981? Never-underestimate the power of malice. Somehow, someone will come up with something they can lay directly at Joseph Ratzinger's doorstep! Even if it is all part of the daily Via Crucis that is also the lot of the Vicar of Christ, BENEDICTUS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI! ]

The Vatican said Saturday it backed the diocese's efforts to look into the "painful question in a decisive and open way."

Benedict has made no public comment on the choir scandal in his homeland, where the Church has been jolted by abuse allegations from more than 170 former students who studied at some of the country's most prominent Catholic schools.

Ratzinger was asked by another Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, which interviewed him in his Regensburg home, if he had spoken to his brother about the abuse allegations.
"Not about this. It's the press that wants to know about these things," Ratzinger was quoted as replying.


At least one US newspaper has already truncated the AP report to make the 'We are Church' gimmick the lead, with this headline:

German Catholic group:
Pope must come forward about
abuse cases during his time as bishop

Expect 'We are Church' to get all the publicity it can out of this, while trying to blacken the Church. This is the sort of news that would be devastating to Mons. Georg because now they're coming after his brother. (Not that they haven't been coming after him for any pretext!)

But I also surmised that the Pope himself - after the Canisius news broke - would have asked Archbishop Marx in Munich to do a quiet investigation to see if any such incidents took place in the archdiocese since 1977. Then came Ettal, but no one seems to be linking it to Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger's time....

PASTORAL VISIT
TO COLLE SALARIO

At 9 a.m. today, the Holy Father went to the parish of San Giovanni della Croce in Colle Salario, a northern suburb of Rome, where he said Mass and met with the Parish Council.

For once, there is some material that tells us about the parish*:

Portrait of a parish
in a fairly new suburb
Translated from
the 3/7/10 issue of






Rome is truly an open city. And Colle Salario is a recent populist reality, a true crossroads of humanity where diverse spiritual experiences are lived. It lies in the periphery of the north quadrant of Rome, and its parish is named after San Giovanni della Croce (St. John of the Cross).

The parish church is literally the house of God among the houses of the faithful, mostly modest suburban housing. Indeed, for 12 years until 2001, a 185-square-meter storefront served the community as church, parish house and catechism hall. But even then, it was a place that made the faithful feel like one family.

It was being literally in the midst of the people, what was virtually a sidewalk ministry, that inspired a spirit of unity and sharing.

"From the first day we came here, 21 years ago, we have been like a large family - we immediately felt ourselves to be a community," says don Enrico Gemma, 68, who founded the parish.

As a young man, he had experienced monastic life so intensely that he obtained permission to dedicate the parish to the great Carmelite mystic St. John of the Cross. And that is how a piece of Carmel came to Colle Salario.

For Fr. Gemma, the Pope's visit is 'a gift from heaven' - and for those who would not be accommodated inside the small church, a giant screen would be set up in the parish hall, which his parishioners familiarly call 'the house'.

Don Gemma, who for 12 years had to raise and lower the iron shutters of his storefront church every day, saw this suburb born, and it is still in expansion. It has had all the problems of every suburb, where the economic crisis is felt more strongly, and unemployment and welfare checks are the norm.

"The experience of the early years was fundamental for the community," he says. "It gave rise to a lifestyle that still distinguishes us. While the sector itself was being built up and in the midst of construction, the nucleus for the community took form. Making the most of our lack of infrastructure, programs and traditions, the Word of God became a valuable asset and experience."

Having become used to the bare essentials, to direct human relationships, the community welcomed the change to the new church.

"Once they entered the new parish complex," Don Gemma recalls, "parish life seemed to explode into multiple forms of activity and participation".

The 'church of people', he said, quickly learned to make good use of the 'church of bricks'. "Thus, the areas of liturgy, catechesis, and charity are well articulated in efficient pastoral programs, which this year, will be subject to the verification of parochial programs undertaken by the Diocese of Rome".

"Sunday Masses," he continued, "are well-attended, and various groups and movements take turns as animators... with the result that participation is more aware and active".

The catechesis of Christian initiation and the oratory for young people (activities outside of Mass) involves 400 children and adolescents between 8-15 years, who are attended by 60 catechists and animators.

He has 60 young people "who have elected to take various spiritual paths'. He prepares about 35 couples a year for marriage, and parents for about 70 baptisms a year, in what he calls "valuable opportunities to make them rediscover a face of the Church that many of them did not know".

The pastoral ministry at San Giovanni della Croce is necessarily youth-oriented because of the median age of the residents;. There are about 3,300 families with a total of 16,000 residents, but another 1,000 are expected soon as current new housing construction is completed.

For the most part, Colle Salario has young families, with children still of school age. One-fourth of the residents live in low-rent city housing, and there is no lack of poverty and financial difficulties. The parish Caritas is currently supporting more than 80 families in extreme destitution.

Nonetheless, Don Gemma thinks that a characteristic of the parish, which is 'an asset for the community', has been the openness from the beginning to participation in movements and new ecclesial communities. "Together, we have matured a wider consciousness about the Church and to experience new forms of evangelization".

Particularly active in Colle Salario are the Sant'Egidio Community, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, the Focolari movement, Charismatic Renewal, and two Marian movements.

"This particular configuration, on the one hand, offers the community various spiritual paths, and on the other hand, commits us to unite all these entities into our pastoral plan," Don Gemma points out.

In the forefront of pastoral work are 100 laymen directly involved in various pastoral and organizational activities, "who feel themselves co-responsible for what the Church does in the parish, and not just as collaborators with the priests of the parish.

This, he says, is the parish that the Pope would see - "far from perfect but certainly lively and on the go".










Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

"Repent," says the Lord, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" - we proclaimed this before the Gospel on this third Sunday of Lent, which presents us with the fundamental theme of this 'peak season' of the liturgical year: the invitation to change our lives and to carry out works of penitence.

Jesus, as we heard, calls up two episodes that were 'news' at the time: a brutal repression by the Roman police inside the Temple (cfr Lk 13,1), and the tragedy of the 18 persons killed by the collapse of the tower at Shiloh (v. 4).

The people interpreted these events as a divine punishment for those victims, and believing that they themselves were just, thought that they were safe from similar incidents, that there was nothing to change about their lives.

But Jesus denounced this attitude as an illusion: "Do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" (vv 2-3).

And he asks them to reflect on those events in order to make a better commitment to the way of conversion, because it is precisely closing oneself to the Lord, not following the road of converting onself, that leads to death, that of the soul.

During Lent, each of us is asked by God to make a change in our own existence in order to live according to the Gospel, correcting the way we pray, act, and work, and our relations with others.

Jesus addresses this appeal to us with a decided severity but it is because he is concerned for our good, for our happiness, for our salvation. On our part, we should respond with a sincere interior effort, asking him to make us understand what points in particular we should convert.

The end of the Gospel passage takes up the perspective of mercy, showing the need and urgency of a return to God, of renewing our life to conform to God.

Referring to a practice in his time, Jesus presents the parable of a fig tree planted in a vineyard. But this fig tree turns out to be sterile and does not bear fruit (cfr Lk 13,6-9). The dialog that follows between the owner and the vineyard keeper shows, on the one hand, the mercy of God, who is patient, and allows man, allows all of us, time for conversion; on the other hand, it shows us the need to get started soon on an interior and exterior change of life in order not to lose the opportunities that the mercy of God offers us to overcome our spiritual laziness, and to correspond to God's love with our filial love.

Even St. Paul, in the reading we heard, calls on us not to delude ourselves: it is not enough to be baptized and feed at the Eucharistic table if one does not live as a Christian and pays no attention to the signs of the Lord (cfr 1 Cor 10,1-4).

Dearest brothers and sisters of the parish of San Giovanni della Croce, I am very happy to be among you today to celebrate the Lord's Day with you. I greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the sector, your parish priest, don Enrico Gemma, whom I thank for the beautiful words he addressed tp me in your behalf, and the other priests who are his coadjutors.

I wish to extend my greetings to all the residents of this suburb, especially the aged, the sick, those who live alone and those who are in difficulty. I commend each and everyone to the Lord in this Holy Mass.

I know that your parish is a young community, that, in fact, it started its pastoral activity in 1989 at a provisional site for 12 years, until it could build this new parochial complex. Now that you have a new sacred edifice, I hope my visit may encourage you to realize even better that Church of living stones which you are.

I know that the first 12 years brought a lifeestyle that you have maintained; that the lack of adequate infrastructure and a consolidated tradition helped you to put your trust in the power of the Word of God, which has been a lamp along the way, and has borne fruit in terms of conversion, participation in the Sacraments, especially the Sunday Eucharist, and service.

I call on you now to make this Church a place where one learns to listen ever better to the Lord who speaks to us in Sacred Scriptures.
May these always be the vivifying center of your community so that it may become a continuing school in Christian living from which proceeds every pastoral activity.

The construction of your new parish church has impelled you to a communal apostolic commitment, with particular attention to the fields of catechesis and liturgy. I congratulate you for the pastoral efforts that you have been carrying out.

I know that various groups assemble to pray, to form themselves in the school of the Gospel, to participate in the Sacraments - especially Penance and the Eucharist - and to live that essential dimension of Christian life which is charity.

I think with gratitude of all those who contribute to make the liturgical celebrations more lively and well attended, and those who with the parochial Caritas and the Sant'Egidio Community, are engaged in helping to meet the many material needs of this community, particularly those of the poorest and most needy. And I think of all you do in a praiseworthy way in behalf of families, of the Christian education of your children and all the young people who avail of the services at the oratory.

From its birth, this parish has been open to the movements and new ecclesial communities, thus maturing a more ample consciousness of the Church and and leading to new forms of evangelization. I ask you to proceed courageously along this path, taking care to involve all the entities in the parish in a common pastoral plan.

I have learned with pleasure that your community proposes to promote, with respect to vocations and the role of consecrated persons and the lay faithful, the co-responsibility of all the people of God. As I have had occasion to recall, this demands a change of mentality, especially for laymen,in order "to pass from considering themselves as collaborators of the clergy,to recognizing that that they are truly co-responsible in the being and action of the Church, thus promoting a mature and committed laity" (Speech at the opening of the pastoral convention of the Diocese of Rome, May 26, 2009).

Dearest Christian families, dearest young people who live in this suburb and who are members of the parish, let yourselves be involved ever more in the desire to announce the Gospel of Jesus to everyone. Do not wait for others to bring you other messages that do not lead to life, but make yourselves missionaries of Christ among your brothers, where you live, work, study or pass your free time.

Start here a capillary and organic vocational ministry, with the education of families and young people in prayer and in living life as a gift of God.

Dear brothers and sisters, the season of Lent invites each of us to acknowledge the myserty of God, who is present in our life, as we heard in the first reading today.

Moses saw in the desert a burning bush that did not consume itself. Initially, impelled by curiosity, he approaches it to look at this mysterious occurrence, when from the bush a voice calls: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" (Ex 3,6).

It is this God who sends him to Egypt with the mission of leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land, asking the Pharaoh, in the name of God, to liberate the Israelites.

At this point, Moses calls to God to ask his name, the name with which God shows his particular authority, in order that he could name him to the people and to the Pharaoh. God's response may appear strange - it seems like an answer and a non-answer.

He says simply of himself; "I am he who is". He is - this is enough. God therefore did not ignore Moses's question - he manifests his name, thus creating the possibility of being invoked, of being called, of a relationship.

In revealing his name God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He makes himself invocable, he enters into a relationship with us, and he gives us the possibility of being in a relationship with him. This means that he gives himself, in a way, to our human world, by becoming accessible, almost one of us.

That which began at the burning bush in the desert is fulfilled in the burning bush of the Cross where God, who had become accessible in his Son made man, who truly became one of us, is delivered into our hands, and in this way, achieves the liberation of mankind.

On Golgotha, God who on the night of the flight from Egypt, revealed himself as he who liberates from slavery, reveals himself as he who embraces every man with the saving power of the Cross and the Resurrection, and frees him from sin and death, takes him into the embrace of his love.

Let us remain in contemplation of this mystery of the name of God in order to better understand the mystery of Lent, and live as individuals and as a community in permanent conversion, in order to be, in the world, a constant epiphany, testimony of the living God who liberates and saves us our of love. Amen.

---

ANGELUS TODAY



After returning from a pastoral visit to the Roman parish of San Giovanni dalla Croce in Colle Salario, a northern suburb of Rome, the Holy Father led the Sunday noontime Angelus as usual from his study window at the Apostolic Palace. He commented on the readings from today's Mass for the third Sunday of Lent. Here is what he said in English:

---

The readings of today’s liturgy invite all of us to embrace conversion, and to be humble in allowing the Lord to prepare us to bear more fruit.

Our cooperation with the Lord often demands great sacrifice, but the fruit which that conversion bears always leads to freedom and joy. May we experience these great gifts of God!

Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

---

Here is a translation of tHE Holy Father's words before the Angelus prayers:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

The liturgy on this third Sunday of Lent presents us with the theme of conversion. In the first reading, taken from the Book of Exodus, Moses, while he is pasturing his flock, sees a burning bush that does not consume itself. He approaches to observe this wonder, when a voice calls him by name and, asking him to be aware of his unworthiness, commands him to take off his sandals because he was in a sacred place.

"I am the God of your father," the voice tells him, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" and he adds: "I am he who is" (Ex 3, 6a,14).

God manifests himself in various ways even in the life of each of us. But in order to recognize his presence, it is necessary that we come close to him, conscious of our poverty and with profound respect. Otherwise, we make ourselves incapable of meeting him and of entering into communion with him.

As the apostle Paul writes, the event of the burning bush was narrated to admonish us: it reminds us that God does not reveal hismelf to those who are replete with sufficiency and an easy life, but to those who are poor and humble before him.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is interpellated about some mournful news: the murder inside the Temple of some Galileans on orders of Pontius Pilate, and the collapse on a tower on some passersby (cfr Lk 13,1-5).

In the face of the facile conclusion to consider bad happenings as divine punishment, Jesus restores the truee image of God, who is good and cannot wish evil of anyone, and warning against thinking that misfortunes are the immediate effects of personal offenses committed by those who suffer them, he says: "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" (Lk 13,2-3).

Jesus asks us to make a different reading of such events, placing them in the context of conversion: misfortunes, mournful events, should not arouse curiosity in us nor a search for those who are presumed culpable, but should represent occasions to reflect, in order to conquer the illusion of being able to live without God, and in order to strengthen, with the help of the Lord, one's commitment to change his life.

In the face of sin, God shows himself to be full of mercy, and he does not cease calling on sinners to avoid evil, to grow in his love, and to give concrete aid to the neighbor who is in need, in order to experience the joy of grace and not head towards eternal death.

The possiblity of conversion demands that we learn to read the facts of life in the perspective of the faith, namely, inspired by a sacred awe of God.

In the presence of suffering and mourning, true wisdom is to allow ourselves to see the precariousness of existence and to read human history with the eyes of God who, always wanting only good for his children, through his inscrutable plan of love, sometimes allows them to be tried by sorrow in order to lead them to a greater good.

Dear friends, let us pray to the Most Blessed Mary, to accompany us on our Lenten itinerary, and to help every Christian to return to the Lord with all his heart. May she sustain our decision to renounce evil and accept, with faith, the will of God in our life.

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My earlier post above about Georg Ratzinger has been updated twice now, and the new AP wrap-up is sure to outrage any Benaddict...


Bishop says there is
no reason Pope cannot meet
with Irish abuse victims
by PATSY MCGARRY
Religious Affairs Correspondent

March 7, 2010


The Catholic Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh has said that he can see no reason why the Pope would not meet Irish victims of clerical child sex abuse.

He also said funding for the compensation of such victims should come from the sale of assets rather than by asking people to put their hands in their pockets.

He also did not believe the Vatican should be approached about assisting with such funding. “I do believe this is an Irish question which has to be solved, I believe, within Ireland,” he said today.

He was speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme.

He pointed out the Pope had met clerical abuse victims over the years but that he hadn’t met Irish victims. “I think it would be great to see that happening but I don’t know whether that’s going to happen or not,” he said.

This hadn’t been discussed at the meeting between the Pope and Ireland’s Catholic bishops in Rome last month, he said but that he “would like that to happen. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t happen, no.”

When it came to raising funds for compensation be said “overall I think it should be that one would sell assets, sell houses, that sort of thing” rather than asking people to put their hands in their pockets.

”Transparency, that’s the most important thing. That people would be consulted and know where the money was coming from”, he said

Ultimately it was for each bishop in consultation with the people, he said. “I would be very strong in emphasizing that. I don’t know of any diocese which has asked the people to contribute. I don’t know of any diocese that has done that. It’s unlikely. I would find it very hard to visualize doing it,” he said.

As regards the Vatican contributing to such funds he said there was nothing in canon law “to say that the Vatican should bail out.”

There was “a question mark of course about the Church, be it Vatican or local church, holding a whole lot of valuable assets.

“I’m not particularly comfortable about that but I do believe this is an Irish question which has to be solved, I believe, within Ireland . I think really, whether the Vatican should be selling assets or not, is really a separate question from this.”

The matter “didn’t arise at all in the meeting in Rome,” he said.

He felt “the Rome visit certainly didn’t meet expectations of people and I think it was unfortunate that the formalities of dress and whether people kissed the Pope’s ring or didn’t kiss it, I think in a way it distracted from the real purpose of the meeting and indeed the substance of the meeting.”

The meeting had been “a very open and honest one where everybody had an opportunity to express their understanding of the dreadful failure on the part of us as bishops and others responsible for responding to the crimes of sexual abuse.”

But he felt “people were angry and rightly angry at the apparent pomp and ceremony, at the kissing of the Pope’s ring.” Bishop Walsh did not kiss the ring. [What people? The bishops themselves? Or their parishioners?]

He felt “somewhat uncomfortable in relation to both the dress and the kissing of rings, that sort of thing. I feel it belonged to another era,” he said. It was “a pity in a way that the big focus seemed to be put on that more than on the substance of the meeting.”

[What's with these Irish bishops anyway playing holier-than-thou on things like dress - papal dress, I suppose. And why, if this bishop objects to public discussion of the Pope's ring detracting from the real issue, is he bringing it up and even reinforcing it by enlarging the complaint to 'the apparent pomp and ceremony' and to 'dress'? I am surprised he actually does not think the Vatican should sell off its assets to help the Irish church recompense the victims! ]

He hoped the Pope’s pastoral letter “would be more satisfactory perhaps, from the survivors point of view. I think again there is no quick way of bringing healing to victims. I think it’s a journey and the most important thing on that journey is actually listening to them, listening to their pain.”

Hmmm.. what do they expect the Pope to wear?? A pair of Lederhosen!!?
Or a suit, or what?!
As we all know, it took Joseph Ratzinger quite a while to get used to the constant ring-kissing and genuflexions. If it was up to him, he'd be wearing a simple cassock (he must have had a fev. one) and he'd live in a simple place with a small garden and a few cats and a few million books, he'd have his brother over for tea and music and he wouldn't have to be concerned about ANY of this.
If it wasn't for our advantage, I sometimes really wish he was spared of this painful office.

Again: were they expecting some casual chit chat over a few pints of Guinness or weißbier?? Have they EVER been to Rome before? What do they wear 'at home'? Track suits??!!
What's with them??!! Are they nuts!? Trying to push the blame over to Rome, when it's clearly their lack of leadership that made all this possible?!
I have no idea what went wrong in Ireland. When I hear the stories my husband tells me about Father *insert any Irish name possible* from his Sunday school going times (late 60ies/early 70ies), they must have scared those kids to death with threatening them with hell for just about everything.
For instance, roll on deodorants were found devilish and forbidden!!
Now, it's my job to gently introduce him to the real catholic faith... the joy and love and hope part, he had never heard of before!!!
I already ordered ‘Salt of the Earth’ in English… that was the book that broke the ice with me – the former militant protestant…

today a more diverse collection of grumpy smileys..

www.kath.net/detail.php?id=25905

I knew we could rely on Bsp. Müller to take a stand. I'm SO tired of the self-destructive approach to this...

I like one of the comments in the comm-box:

'The Empire Strikes Back'

I've been a huge Star Wars fan all my life....




Thanks for the tip! It's a lengthy document, though, so I don't know how soon I can translate it. In any case, for those who do not read German -
It is a very detailed statement by Bishop Mueller denouncing the instrumentalization of the recently unearthed priestly sex abuses in Germany to launch a new anti-Catholic media campaign, particularly on the part of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. Mueller likens this campaign to the Nazi rally in 1939 when 20,000 Nazi fanatics denounced thousands of Catholic priests as sexual perverts in an effort to criminalize all Catholic clergy and the Church itself in the eyes of the public. Bishop Mueller also clearly sets out the principles of the Church regarding the general issue of priestly conduct.

TERESA