BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Saturday, March 13

Second from left: Medieval illustration of Pope Gregory and Leandro; extreme right, the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spain).
ST. LEANDRO DE SEVILLA [Leander of Seville] (Spain, 550-600), Benedictine, Bishop and Confessor
All four siblings in this Hispano-Roman family became saints. Leandro was the older brother of Isidore, who succeeded him as Bishop of Seville
and went on to become a Doctor of the Church. Their brother Fulgencio, who became Bishop of Cartagena, and their sister Florentina, who was
an abbess over a thousand nuns, are also saints. Leandro spent most of his life fighting the Arian heresy. He is credited with introducing the
Credo into the Mass in order for the faithful to always keep in mind the essentials of their faith. He was named Bishop of Seville in 579 but in
the same year he was exiled by the Visigoth king who was Arian. He spent three years in Constantinople where he met the future Pope Gregory
the Great (Pope 590-604), who was papal legate to the Byzantine court. They were to carry on a correspondence. Gregory gave Leandro an
image of Mary which became venerated in Seville. In 711, when the Moors invaded Seville, the Spanish king's men placed the image in a casket
and buried it in the mountains. In 1326, a peasant in the western region of Extremadura had a vision of Mary which led him to the casket. The
image was found intact and a church was built for it in the village of Guadalupe, and her cult grew nationwide. Columbus and the Spanish
conquistadors carried her image on their travels. Not surprising that the Spanish bishop in Mexico who certified Jaun Diego's Marian vision
in 1531 named the miraculous image Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose renown has now far outstripped the original. After his exile, Leandro went on
with his campaign to root out the Arian heresy and converted two Visigoth kings away from Arianism. In 589, he convoked the Third Council of T
oledo, at which Visigoth Spain abjured Arianism. Leandro was considered a greater writer than Isidore but only two short works survive.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/031310.shtml


OR today.

To participants of a Rome convention on the priesthood, the Holy Father recalls
the sacramental identity of priests and reiterates the value of priestly celibacy:
'Live a prophetic life without compromises to serve God and the world'
Other Page 1 stories: A belated report about a February 11 homily by the Archbishop of Westminster opposing proposed euthanasia laws in the UK; a conflict between the USA and the European Union on proposed reforms in the financial markets; and Russia's Putin is in India to strengthen cooperation on defense and nuclear matters. In the inside pages, an essay by a German psychologist on the values and reasons for priestly celibacy; a belated report on Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Mueller's statement from March 9 (undated in the newspaper) protesting the false statements made by the German justice minister; and a reproduction of Mons. Zollitsch's note on the German bishops' website about his meeting with the Pope yesterday. But not a word about the revelations from Munich yesterday. [The unprofessional editorial decisions at OR are increasingly troubling! You cannot ignore 'news' as it happens, especially when it involves the Pope himself. One might have expected a sober reassuring front-page editorial!]



THE POPE'S DAY

- H.E. Madame Jadranka Kosor, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, with her delegation

- Bishops of Sudan (Group 3) on ad-limina visit, with the Apostolic Administrator in Sudan

- Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras)

- All the bishops of Sudan on ad-limina visit. Address in English.