ABOUT THE CHURCH AND THE VATICAN

Books presented at the Vatican
look at how the Bible is depicted
in the Sistine Chapel

LA PAROLA DIPINTA: La Bibbia nella Cappella Sistina, vol. 1-4, Vatican Museums & Il Sole 24 Ore, 2009.


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 17 (AP) - A series of four books presented Tuesday at the Vatican seeks to explain how Michelangelo and other artists translated the Bible into images to produce in the Sistine Chapel some of the world's most renowned frescoes.

The first volume focuses on Michelangelo's ceiling and its scenes from the book of Genesis and the creation of the world. Vatican Museums director Antonio Paolucci said the volume offers a "basic code" to understand the symbols and scenes that adorn the room where popes are elected.

"Everybody knows the Sistine Chapel, but how many can recognize the scenes?" Paolucci said Tuesday at a book launch just steps away from the Sistine Chapel.

He said the book succeeds in clarifying "the infinite forest of symbols that are all linked to each other" in the ceiling that the Renaissance master painted between 1508-12.

The series is called LA PAROLA DIPINTA (The Painted Word) and is published by the Vatican Museums' publisher along with Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

The first installment, a coffee-table volume rich in photos, comes out on Friday. Two more will follow focusing on the wall paintings by 15th-century artists such as Sandro Botticelli, and the series will end Dec. 11 with a volume on Michelangelo's Last Judgment.

The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican Museums, which gather hundreds of artworks from painters including Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio. Over 4 million people visit the Vatican Museums every year.


CNS has a more detailed story:



Sistine Scriptures: New book series
underlines Bible stories behind the art
By Cindy Wooden





VATICAN CITY, Nov. 18 (CNS) -- To really see the Sistine Chapel, it's more important to have a Bible in your hands than mini-binoculars, said Msgr. Roberto Zagnoli, an official of the Vatican Museums.

The Italian monsignor is the principal author of "The Painted Word," a new series of books published by the Vatican Museums and the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

In the four-part series, the Italian monsignor quotes and explains the biblical passages that inspired the famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. The first volume focuses on Michelangelo's work on the Sistine ceiling.

"Fascinating the eyes and the spirit," visiting the Sistine Chapel with a Bible helps visitors appreciate Michelangelo's work and come to a more vivid understanding of the Scriptures, said Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the commission governing Vatican City State.

The cardinal presented the first volume of the new series Nov. 17 in the Vatican Museums, which plans to issue the series in English in December.

The ceiling frescoes Michelangelo painted from 1508-1512 focus on nine events from the Book of Genesis; the artist's depiction of the creation of Adam -- with God's outstretched hand filling him with life -- is one of his most widely recognized works.

Msgr. Zagnoli said that rather than showing God shaping Adam out of the clay of the earth, Michelangelo "presents Adam as coming forth from the earth, called to life by the powerful hand of God."

The artist's choice, he said, underlines the mysterious and forceful creative power of God.

In the scene of the creation of Eve, she is shown with her hands clasped in prayer or thanksgiving with her mouth partially open, "underlining the awe and marvel of that first instant of life," the monsignor wrote.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, said everyone knows of Michelangelo's solitary and even misanthropic character, but too many fail to recognize the religious passion he brought to the work.

"The entire Sistine Chapel, taken as a whole, tells the history of salvation," he said. But in order to understand that people need to read the Bible, Paolucci said.

The themes treated in Genesis -- the origin of the universe, the uniqueness of each human person, the presence of good and evil in the world -- "are matters of faith for us Catholics, but they also are issues of common concern for all human beings," which is why each of the millions of people who visit the chapel every year can be touched by the experience, he said.

"The hope is that those who read the book will feel led to approach the word of God and discover unexpected riches there and that they will allow themselves to be excited by the language of beauty," which is a reflection of the beauty of God, Paolucci said.


From the webpage cappella-sistina.ilsole24ore.com/ dedicated to the book series.

Pier Luigi Vercesi, director of Il Sole 24 Ore's publishing group, said that as an executive in a company primarily concerned with business and finance, he felt an obligation to figure out how much it cost the popes to build and decorate the Sistine Chapel.

He said the chapel cost "3,000 ducat," a monetary unit that no longer exists. But a rough calculation of the purchasing power of 3,000 ducat today would be between 1.5 million and 2 million euros ($2.2 million-$3 million), he said, "which means that the Sistine cost 1,200 euros a square meter ($167 a square foot)."

The newspaper is releasing the Sistine Chapel volumes every Friday Nov. 20-Dec. 11. The second and third volumes look at the work of the 15th-century painters, including Sandro Botticelli and Perugino, who depicted events from the life of Moses on the chapel's south wall and events in the life of Christ on the north wall. The final volume returns to Michelangelo, examining the Scriptural basis of his massive fresco of the Last Judgment.



New look for Holy Cross reliquary
in the Vatican collection
By NICOLE WINFIELD



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 19 (AP) – One of the gems of the Vatican's priceless religious art collection — a 6th century reliquary containing the purported fragments of the cross on which Jesus was crucified — has been restored to its Byzantine-era glory.



The Vatican on Thursday unveiled the restored Crux Vaticana, a foot-high (40-centimeter-high) jewel-encrusted golden cross containing what tradition holds are shards of Jesus' cross inside.

The Associated Press was given an early look at the piece, and Byzantine art experts said the restoration rendered the cross much closer to what it would have looked like at the time the Byzantine Emperor Justin II gave it to the people of Rome.

Most significantly, the restoration corrected a botched 19th century restoration that threatened to corrode the piece. And it replaced the brightly colored gems that were added in previous centuries with the large, imperfect pearls that are emblematic of Byzantine-era imperial masterpieces, said restorer Sante Guido.

A circle of 12 pearls now surrounds the relic, and pearls around the cross' edge now alternate with emeralds and sapphires — the two other gems most often associated with Byzantine emperors, he said.

While there are purported fragments of Christ's cross in churches around the world — including at Paris' Notre Dame and even across town at Rome's Holy Cross basilica — the Crux Vaticana is considered the oldest reliquary of the cross. It is the crown in the Vatican's Treasury of St. Peter's collection of religious and historic artifacts.

In addition to the relic inside, the cross itself is an important piece of early Christian art. Measuring 40 cm by 31 cm (15.75 inches by 11.81 inches) it's a rare example of an imperial gift and an expression of the emperor's Christian faith.

Across the piece is written in Latin: "With the wood with which Christ conquered man's enemy, Justin gives his help to Rome and his wife offers the ornamentation."

"It's the most important reliquary of the 'true cross' that we have," Guido told the AP. "It's particularly important because it's the only reliquary that came from an emperor, so there are various levels of religious and historic significance."

For centuries, the cross was used in the Vatican's most solemn ceremonies at Christmas and Easter. But 1,500 years of candle wax and smoke had dulled the gems and the cross's warm golden hue — grime that has been removed following a two-year restoration.

The work was paid for by an anonymous donor who didn't want the pricetag to be made public, officials said.

Ioli Kalavrezou, a Byzantine art history professor at Harvard University who has taught classes on the cross, said the restoration clearly rendered the cross closer to what it would have looked like when it was presented to Romans sometime between 565-578.

"I can't say it's exactly as it would've been, but it comes much closer to what an object like that would've looked like," she said in a phone interview.

The exact circumstances of why Justin gave Rome the relic are unclear. Guido noted that even though the eastern Byzantine Empire gained prominence in Constantinople after the 476 fall of the Roman Empire, Rome remained a religious capital because it was the "city of martyrs" — where Saints Peter and Paul were buried.

Emperor Justin clearly wanted to give the Pope and people of Rome "a recognition of Rome as a city of Christianity," Guido said. At the time, most parts of Christ's cross were in the hands of the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople after being moved from Jerusalem in the 4th century, Kalavrezou noted.

"This is one of the earliest examples of this imperial gift, where he (Justin) shows the power he has in his hands — to control the most important relic in Christiandom and to have the luxury to make a gift of that," she said from Washington, where she is a visiting scholar at the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine research library.

The cross will be on public display inside St. Peter's Basilica through April 12.


The 11/20/09 issue of L'Osservatore Romano has this item about the Crux Vaticana:



The emperor's gift
Translated from
the 11/20/09 issue of



The exposition 'Vexillum Regis: the Crux Vaticana, or Justin's Cross" opened Thursday, Nov. 19, at the Sacristy Chapel of St. Peter's Basilica.

Until April 12, 2010, one can admire the jeweled cross, recently restored by Sante Guido who restored it after the super-impositions and damages undergone by the original over the centuries.

Characterized by a precious adornment of pearls and gems, the jeweled cross also carries the inscription: "Ligno quo Christus humanum subdidit hostem dat Romae Iustinus opem et socia decorem ("With this wood, through which Christ subjugated the enemy of man, Justin presents Rome with the work and from his wife, its ornaments") in characters typical of Latin writing at the end of late antiquity in the Oriental part of the empire.

The text manifests the votive intention of the emperor: to donate to the city of Rome a treasure that is an exemplary testimony to the faith, and from, his wife, the Empress Sofia, the pearls and gemstones that she endowed on it for the same purpose.

In the present restoration, the crown of twelve pearls around the sacred relic of the Cross has been put back, along with the 18 pearls along the front edge of the outer framework.

In the 18th century, the precious stones decorating the cross had been replaced with semi-precious gems, just one indication of the improper handling of the reliquary which lost much of its original design as it had been conceived by the imperial goldsmith in Constantinople.

After the Cross reliquary was restored, it was also decided to create a new compartment for the relic, following the description in the 1779 treatise De Cruce Vaticana by Cardinal Stefano Borgia, which reproduced both the front and back designs of the Cross.

The Church's problems in China
and Cardinal Bertone’s recent letter
by Annie Lam



Hong Kong, Nov. 18 (AsiaNews) – The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone recently wrote a letter to mainland Chinese priests.

For some Church-in-China experts, it is a significant contribution to the debate; for others, it falls short of what is needed.

For Cardinal Joseph Zen, the situation of China’s official Catholic Church has deteriorated rather than improved.

Anthony Lam Sui-ki is a senior researcher at the Holy Spirit Study Centre of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. For him, the letter by the Secretary of State appears to be telling the mainland’s clergy to study more closely the papal letter (released in June 2007) and its compendium (published in May 2009) in order to make it more effective.

Nevertheless, “it may be too early to see the effect of the papal letter just two years after its release,” he said.

For Lam, the Vatican is hard pressed to address in a single letter all the problems of the Chinese Church, such as the unity of official and underground communities.

Cardinal Bertone’s letter focuses on cooperation between bishops and priests, suggesting thatit can be improved through better priest training. Its emphasis is on improving communication and dialogue between bishops and priests.

The researcher points out the letter calls on the Chinese Church to develop a more “normal” pastoral organisation, that it urges mainland Church leaders to better define Episcopal and priestly ministries, and set up more appropriate bodies to manage the dioceses such as priest councils, as suggested in the papal letter.

Kwun Ping-hung, a Hong Kong-based observer of Sino-Vatican relations, noted that Cardinal Bertone has written two letters to the Church in China in two years. This is a sign that since the start of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, the Vatican has become deeply concerned about the Chinese Church, especially after the Holy Father issued his Letter to the Chinese Church in 2007.

“This helps the Holy See strengthen its ties and internal communion with the Chinese Church,” he noted.

As Cardinal Bertone noted, some signs of hope have emerged in recent years in terms of reconciliation within the Church and relations with Chinese authorities. However, difficulties persist. Given this background, the Secretary of State chose to emphasise the priest training.

“This can be regarded as a rather pragmatic approach for the Holy See,” Kwun noted. In fact, many mainland priests live in an atmosphere of utilitarianism and secularisation where they face many tests and challenges. Thus, speaking for the Holy See, the Secretary of State has called on the Chinese Church to focus on priest training as way to ensure the long-term development of the Church in China.

For Fr Gianni Criveller, the cardinal’s unmediated letter to priests is somewhat “unusual” since most Vatican letters are directly addressed to Chinese bishops. However, for Fr Criveller, Cardinal Bertone’s letter is actually directed at the bishops. China’s young pastors need training and support from the universal Church, he said.

Unfortunately, Criveller notes, the Vatican has invested more time and energy in writing nice letters than in implementing what it wrote in them. The 2007 papal letter is a case in point. “So far,” he said, “only the Commission for China has been set up in the past two years, but little more.”

For him, Cardinal Bertone’s letter inadequately addresses challenges like secularisation and modernisation that priests must face in mainland China.

Cardinal Bertone’s letter also gave Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong an opportunity to write on the subject in his blog on the Hong Kong Diocese website.

Even though Cardinal Bertone’s letter sees some “signs of hope”, Cardinal Zen finds events in China over the past two years quite disappointing.

In his blog, the prelate describes how the situation of the Church in China has not improved; indeed, its abnormal situation has actually worsened.

In his opinion, the official Church made a mistake when it decided to take part in celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (July 2007), and the 50th anniversary of Episcopal ordinations without papal mandate (December 2008).

In his conclusion, Cardinal Zen noted that patriotism and love are not in opposition, and that the faithful should be allowed to live peacefully their faith according to their conscience.

For him, the best contribution the Church in China can make to the Chinese nation is having the Church live according to the papal letter.

The future of ecumenism
by Cardinal Walter Kasper
President, Pontifical Council
for Promoting Christian Unity
Translated from
the 11/20/09 issue of




Cardinal Kasper with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Colloquium.


This is the lecture delivered by Cardinal Kasper at the Colloquium sponsored by his dicastery to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, the first President of the Council whom he succeeded. Cardinal Willebrands died in 2006 at 96.





Cardinal Johannes Willebrands was one of the most important figures in the history of the Catholic Church in the preceding century.

He was one of those giants who carried us on their shoulders when it comes to ecumenism, as well as religious relationship with the Jews.

On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, we remember him with profound gratitude as a loving man and eminent theologian.

Willebrands succeeded in creating a network that proved very useful when, in 1960, John XXIII instituted the Secretariat for Christian Unity. Indeed the Pope could read the signs of the times, and indeed, could see the signs of the Holy Spirit at that time.

It was he who decided that the theme of the Council he announced on January 25, 1959, should be the unity of all Christians. It was he who, following the suggestion in 1960 of the Archbishop of Paderborn, Lorenz Jäger, set up the Secretariat for Christian Unity, thus offering an institutional channel for the ecumenical movement in the Catholic Church, at the level of the universal Church.

As its first secretary, Willebrands contributed to shape the new organism, which was initially presided over by Cardinal Augustin Bea, and then by Willebrands himself, from 1969 until he retired in 1989.

He had the gift of finding and inspiring the right co-workers. To cite a few, I will mention here Jérôme Hamer, Charles Moeller, and Pierre Duprey, who all worked for the Secretariat (which later became the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), from 1963-1999.

His collaborators in a wider sense were Yves Congar, Gustave Thils, Balthasar Fisher, Karl Rahner, Johannes Feier, Jean Corbon, Emmanuel Lanne, Raymond Brown and others. Among the women, one must mention Corinna de Martini and Josette Kersters.

We are profoundly grateful to all the men and women who were there in the early years of the Council.

But the grand enthusiastic common vision of the past is absent today: this is a deficiency which also afflicts the World Council of Churches. [Excuse me, Cardinal Kasper. You are writing this in the Pope's newspaper - the Pope who, in his first homily a Pope, singled out the cause of Christian unity as the priority task he set for himself! How much more enthusiasm and what greater vision can there be? More to the point, who has had more ecumenical success in such a few years?] Public opinion has started to speak of stagnation in ecumenism and of an ecumenical winter.

Cardinal Willebrands was farsighted enough to predict that a certain disenchantment would set in after the initial enthusiasm. He warned against thinking that Christian reunification could be achieved in a few years, and that such expectations would only lead inevitably to disappointment.

In this difficult situation, the Catholic Church cannot simply sit around and wait. She has a special responsibility. Her one ecumenical responsibility derives paradoxically from the Petrine ministry, which is often seen as the principal obstacle to unity, but which is a ministry of unity.

In particular, it is precisely in this situation that the Church of Rome should take on herself the responsibility of being the 'seat that presides in charity', in the words of Ignatius of Antioch.

Let us concentrate therefore on the following questions:
- What is our vision for the future of ecumenism?
- What is our task at the start of this new century and new millennium?
- How can we exploit to the maximum the legacy of Vatican-II and of Cardinal Willebrands?

Ecumenism is not just an option that the Church can accept or reject. It is our sacred duty. Nor is ecumenism a mere addendum or 'an article of luxury' in our common pastoral activities: it is the future of the Church's entire life.

The Catholic principles of ecumenism, as expressed by Vatican-II in the decree Unitatis redintegratio - ecumenism in truth and love - are valid even for the future. This decree continues to be the Magna Charta of our ecumenical journey in the future.

The legacy of Cardinal Willebrands will be a good guide for us on this journey. And this goes even for recent developments in which individuals or groups from other Christian confessions, particularly in the Anglican Communion - by the grace of the Lord and impelled by their conscience - wish to join the Catholic Church, preserving legitimate elements of their liturgical and spiritual tradition.

If this comes to a good end, it will not mean a new ecumenism, as we have been reading the past few weeks in some news articles, even in those that should know better.

On the contrary, this has come to pass exactly in conformity with Unitatis redintegratio (No. 4), which clearly distinguishes between the conversion of individuals or groups of persons, on the one hand, and on the other, ecumenism as dialog with other churches with the objective of achieving full communion.

Because we cannot close our doors when someone knocks, even if this does not exonerate us from the mandate of our Lord to open our hearts with love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I repeat: There is no new ecumenism, and the 'old' one has not ended. On the contrary, what's happening is the fruit of ecumenical dialog in the past few decades and is therefore a strong impetus to proceed in our ecumenical commitment, including our dialog with the Anglican Communion, which has been so fruitful.

Nonetheless, both individual conversion as well as ecumenical dialog should be undertaken with the maximum transparency possible, with tact and reciprocal esteem, in order not to cause tensions, often devoid of significance, with our ecumenical partners.

The theological results have been much greater than people think. After two years of work, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has finally put together, in the so-called Harvest Project, the results of 40 years of bilateral dialog with the confessions belonging to the classical tradition of the Reformation (Anglicans, Lutherans and Reform Methodists).



We have put together all this under four headings: Jesus Christ and the Trinity, justification and sanctification, Church, and the two principal sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist.

In every part of Harvesting the Fruits, we have achieved far more than I myself imagined in my most optimistic expectations.

Of course, we are not blind to the problems that remain open. We have also exposed those questions clearly. They are fundamental issues of hermeneutics, of anthropology, of ecclesiology, and of sacramental theology that still need to be resolved.

Nonetheless, identifying a problem with clarity is already halfway to solving it. We undertook the Harvest Project with two precise intentions: we believe it is time to facilitate the reception of the results of the dialogs we have had. And so, we need to begin this process of reception in our churches, so that the results of 40 years do not just gather dust on library shelves, but become a living reality in the body of our churches.

Moreover, a new generation of ecumenists is emerging with new and fresh ideas, but who do not know and cannot know what has been achieved so far, and what open issues will be handed down to them.

With this book, we 'old men' can pass on the torch to a new generation. We hope and trust in the fact that the book will offer them inspiration and encouragement to make further progress along the ecumenical journey.

On the basis of Harvesting the Fruits, we intend to have a consultation in the form of a symposium to be held early next year. Together with our ecumenical partners in dialog, we wish to discuss the results so far and decide how to proceed.

Subsequently, there will be other ecumenical events: the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the centenary of the Edinburgh Conference, the ecumenical Kirchentag in Munich, the plenary session of the World Lutheran Federation in Stuttgart, and the preparatory decade for the fifth centenary of the Reformation already under way and which will continue till 2017.

Therefore, 2010 will be a year that will be quite ecumenical. This proves that ecumenism is not a thing of the past. It is simply getting a fresh start.

Thanks to messainlatino.it for leading me to this interview in a French Catholic newspaper
with Mons. Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.





Two years after Summorum Pontificum:
An assessment
Interview by Philippe Maxence
Translated from

November 18, 2009



How do you evaluate the application of Summorum Pontificum as of today in Europe, particularly in France?
Generally, it seems to me that two years since the publication of Summorum Pontificum , the situation is rather diversified. To generalize or simplify would not be fair.

Perhaps in France and the central and northern part of Europe, the problems are more acute, but in a transition period, reactions of a psychological nature and procedural questions are quite incomprehensible.

The difficulties in responding to the requests of the faithful who ask for the Holy Mass in the extraordinary form are sometimes due to hostility or prejudice, other times to obstacles of a practical nature, like the lack of priests or the difficulty of finding a priest who is competent to celebrate the traditional rite.

Besides, we are just starting to see how to harmonize the pastoral and catechetical objectives of celebrating the sacraments in the traditional rite with currently established objectives in individual parishes.

It is clear that the Motu Proprio calls on bishops and priests to welcome the legitimate requests by the faithful according to the norms which it has set forth, since this is not a concession made to them, but a right of the faithful to be able to have access to the Gregorian liturgy.

On the other hand, it is evident that we must be realistic and work with the necessary tact, because this entails formation and education in the perspective that Benedict XVI introduces in Summorum Pontificum.

He invites us to consider the two forms of the liturgy as two practices of the same single liturgical rite, and therefore not to be seen in opposition, but on the contrary, as an expression of substantial unity in the liturgy.

We are called on to have the forma mentis [the mentality] on which the Motu Proprio was based - which gives priority to the continuity of the history of the faith in the Church - its 'lex orandi, lex credendi'.

The renewal intended by Vatican II is to be understood in continuity with the great doctrinal tradition of the Church.

The history of liturgy has been that of internal growth and development, and we must reject all suggestion of rupture or discontinuity with the past. The patrimony and spiritual treasure of liturgical wealth found in the older form of the Roman Missal, made particularly visible in the extraordinary form, should not remain on the margins of ecclesial life, but should be promoted and appreciated in all the dioceses and ecclesiastical units.


Many of the requests for the extraordinary form of the Mass seem not to get anywhere because of the refusal by parish priests or bishops. Is there a recourse possible with your Commission?
The procedure indicated in the Motu Proprio must be respected: The faithful must first make their request to the parish priest, and if he has difficulties, they should ask the bishop. Only in the case of objections or hindrances on the part of the bishop to the application of the Motu Proprio that the faithful may then turn to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

The bishop himself may turn to Ecclesia Dei if any difficulties arise, for diverse reasons, in which Ecclesia Dei may offer its help and its suggestions.

One must point out that the Commission follows institutional procedures, like any other organism of the Roman Curia. It generally deals with bishops and religious superiors. But the faithful are free to send us any information and to refer any problems, and the Commission claims the right to be able to examine any issues and to decide how best to proceed, while maintaining contact with the diocesan bishop concerned.


Several months ago, it was said that the Commission would issue a document on interpreting the Motu Proprio. Will it be coming out soon?
Article 11 of the Motu Proprio says, among other things, that "This Commission will have the form, the responsibilities and the norms that the Roman Pontiff wishes to confer". An instruction will specify certain aspects about the competence of the Commission and the application of certain normative instructions. It is under study.


Generally, does your work [at Ecclesia Dei] come within the framework of an eventual 'reform of the reform'?
The idea of a 'reform of the liturgical reform' was suggested several times by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. If I remember right, he added that such a reform would not result from the work of a committee of experts, but would result from maturation within the life and ecclesial reality of the Church.

I think that at the point where we are, it is essential to follow the line indicated by the Holy Father in his presentation letter accompanying the Motu Proprio on the use of the Roman liturgy just before the liturgical reform of 1970, namely, that "the two forms can enrich each other reciprocally" and that "what was sacred for previous generations remains great and sacred for us, and cannot suddenly be totally banned, or even considered harmful. It is good for all of us to conserve the riches that have made the faith grow and to give them their right place".

That is what the Holy Father wrote. To promote this idea means contributing effectively to its maturation in liturgical life and consciousness, which could lead, in a not too remote future, to the 'reform of the reform'.

What is essential today in order to recover the profound sense of Catholic liturgy, in both forms of the Roman Missal, is to maintain the sacred nature of liturgical activity, the central role of the priest as the mediator between God and the Christian people, the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass as the primordial dimension which gives rise to the dimension of communion.


Strangely, the Commission charged with overseeing the application of the Motu proprio is named after the preceding Motu proprio on the same subject. Is there a reason for keeping the name Ecclesia Dei?
I think it is because of the substantial continuity of the institution, keeping in mind why it was born, and the necessary organizational adjustments made necessary by new circumstances. [Ecclesia Dei has been absorbed into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but retains its organizational integrity.]

Death certificate imprinted
on the Shroud of Turin,
says Vatican scholar
by Richard Owen in Rome

Nov. 21, 2009


A Vatican scholar claims to have deciphered the "death certificate" imprinted on the Shroud of Turin, or Holy Shroud, a linen cloth revered by Christians and held by many to bear the image of the crucified Jesus.


Dr. Frale's book on the Shroud was published in Italy on 9/21/09. Her 2007 book on the true history of the Knights Templar is considered authoritative.

Dr Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican secret archives, said "I think I have managed to read the burial certificate of Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus of Nazareth."

She said that she had reconstructed it from fragments of Greek, Hebrew and Latin writing imprinted on the cloth together with the image of the crucified man.

The shroud, which is kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral and is to be put in display next spring, is regarded by many scholars as a medieval forgery. A 1988 carbon dating of a fragment of the cloth dated it to the Middle Ages.

However Dr Frale, who is to publish her findings in a new book, La Sindone di Gesu Nazareno (The Shroud of Jesus of Nazareth) said that the inscription provided "historical date consistent with the Gospels account".

The letters, barely visible to the naked eye, were first spotted during an examination of the shroud in 1978, and others have since come to light.

Some scholars have suggested that the writing is from a reliquary attached to the cloth in medieval times. But Dr Frale said that the text could not have been written by a medieval Christian because it did not refer to Jesus as Christ but as "the Nazarene". This would have been "heretical" in the Middle Ages since it defined Jesus as "only a man" rather than the Son of God.

Like the image of the man himself the letters are in reverse and only make sense in negative photographs. Dr Frale told La Repubblica that under Jewish burial practices current at the time of Christ in a Roman colony such as Palestine, a body buried after a death sentence could only be returned to the family after a year in a common grave.

A death certificate was therefore glued to the burial shroud to identify it for later retrieval, and was usually stuck to the cloth around the face. This had apparently been done in the case of Jesus even though he was buried not in a common grave but in the tomb offered by Joseph of Arimathea.

Dr Frale said that many of the letters were missing, with Jesus for example referred to as "(I)esou(s) Nnazarennos" and only the "iber" of "Tiberiou" surviving.

Her reconstruction, however, suggested that the certificate read: "In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year". It ends "signed by" but the signature has not survived.

Dr Frale said that the use of three languages was consistent with the polyglot nature of a community of Greek-speaking Jews in a Roman colony.

Best known for her studies of the Knights Templar, who she claims at one stage preserved the shroud, she said what she had deciphered was "the death sentence on a man called Jesus the Nazarene. If that man was also Christ the Son of God it is beyond my job to establish. I did not set out to demonstrate the truth of faith. I am a Catholic, but all my teachers have been atheists or agnostics, and the only believer among them was a Jew. I forced myself to work on this as I would have done on any other archaeological find."

The Catholic Church has never either endorsed the Turin Shroud or rejected it as inauthentic. Pope John Paul II arranged for public showings in 1998 and 2000, saying:

"The Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin. The imprint left by the tortured body of the Crucified One, which attests to the tremendous human capacity for causing pain and death to one's fellow man, stands as an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age."

Pope Benedict XVI is to pray before the Shroud when it is put on show again next Spring in Turin.





Researcher says writing on
the Shroud of Turin
proves it is authentic
By ARIEL DAVID



ROME, Nov. 21 (AP) - A Vatican researcher claims a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus' burial cloth.

The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.

Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, said Friday she used computers to enhance images of faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the shroud.

She asserts the words include the name "Jesus Nazarene" in Greek, proving the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have labeled Jesus a Nazarene without referring to his divinity.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibers at the time of his resurrection.

The fragile artifact, owned by the Vatican, is kept locked in a special protective chamber in Turin's cathedral and is rarely shown.

Skeptics point out that radiocarbon dating conducted in 1988 determined it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

While faint letters scattered around the face on the shroud were seen decades ago, serious researchers dismissed them due to the test's results, Frale told the Associated Press.

But when she cut out the words from photos of the shroud and showed them to experts they concurred the writing style was typical of the Middle East in the first century -- Jesus's time.

She believes the text was written on a document by a clerk and glued to the shroud over the face so the body could be identified by relatives and buried properly. Metals in the ink used at the time may have allowed the writing to transfer to the linen, Frale claimed.

Frale claimed the text also partially confirms the Gospels' account of Jesus's final moments. A fragment in Greek that can be read as "removed at the ninth hour" may refer to Christ's time of death reported in the holy texts, she said.

On an enhanced image studied by Frale, at least seven words can be seen, fragmented and scattered on and around Jesus' face, crisscrossing the cloth vertically and horizontally.

One short sequence of Aramaic letters has not been translated. Another Latin fragment -- "iber" -- may refer to Emperor Tiberius, who reigned at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, Frale said.

"I tried to be objective and leave religious issue aside," Frale told the AP. "What I studied was an ancient document that certifies the execution of a man, in a specific time and place."

Frale's latest book, titled La Sindone di Gesu Nazareno, raised doubts among some experts.

"People work on grainy photos and think they see things," said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian who has written books about the shroud. "It's all the result of imagination and computer software."

Lombatti said artifacts bearing Greek and Aramaic texts were found in Jewish burials from the first century, but the use of Latin is unheard of.

Unusual sightings in the shroud are common and are often proved false, said Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia.





Jesus Christ's 'death certificate'
found on Turin Shroud
By Nick Squires in Rome



Barbara Frale, a Vatican researcher, claims to have discovered Christ's 'death certificate' on the Turin Shroud.

The historian and researcher at the secret Vatican archive said she has found the words "Jesus Nazarene" on the shroud, proving it was the linen cloth which was wrapped around Christ's body.

She said computer analysis of photographs of the shroud revealed extremely faint words written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin which attested to its authenticity.

Her claim was immediately contested by scholars who said that radiocarbon dating tests in 1988 showed the shroud to be a medieval forgery.

Dr Frale asserts in a new book, The Shroud of Jesus the Nazarene, that computer enhancement enabled her to detect the archaic script, which appears on various parts of the material.

She suggested that it was written by low-ranking Roman officials or mortuary clerks on a scroll or piece of papyrus to identify Christ's corpse. Such a document would have enabled the relatives of a dead person to retrieve a body from a communal morgue, she suggested.

It would have been attached to the corpse with a flour-based glue and the ink could have seeped through into the cloth below, leaving a faint imprint.

Scholars first noticed that there was writing on the shroud in 1978 but when the radiocarbon tests a decade later suggested that the shroud was a forgery, historians lost interest in the script, Dr Frale said.

She claimed she had been able to decipher a jumble of phrases written in three languages, including the Greek words (I)esou(s) Nnazarennos, or Jesus the Nazarene, and (T)iber(iou), which she interprets as Tiberius, the Roman emperor at the time of Christ's crucifixion.

The text also mentions that the man who was wrapped in the shroud had been condemned to death, she believes. The hidden text was in effect the "burial certificate" for Jesus Christ, Dr Frale said.

"I tried to be objective and leave religious issues aside," she said. "What I studied was an ancient document that certifies the execution of a man, in a specific time and place."

But other experts were sceptical. "People work on grainy photos and think they see things," said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian who has written books about the shroud. "It's all the result of imagination and computer software."

UNEXPECTED PICTURES
FROM MIDDLE AMERICA






These are pictures from

a blog on the activities of the Diocese of Kansas. They show a 'Christ the King' procession of participants in the National Catholic Youth Conference held in Kansas City on the weekend, on their way Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction at the downtown Sprint Center.


P.S. Here's the news report from CNS:

Thousands of youths converge on Kansas City
to celebrate their faith
By Kevin Kelly



KANSAS CITY, Missouri, Nov, 24 (CNS) -- They clogged downtown streets, jammed restaurants, took up hotel rooms, ate up parking spaces and generally inconvenienced downtown Kansas City.

But the nearly 21,000 teens and their 3,000 adult chaperones and local volunteers also gave the city a three-day gift of faith.

They came to bring themselves closer to Christ. By the time they left the 2009 National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 19-21, they showed Kansas City -- and the world watching live on the Internet -- what happens when Jesus Christ pours out of the hearts of thousands of believers.

The theme of the conference was "Christ Reigns." It was co-hosted by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan.

Participants heard from keynote speakers, were entertained by various musical artists and attended dozens of workshops on such issues as social justice, the Bible, prayer, spirituality and social networking.

They spent time at a special conference theme park called the Reign Forest, a 200,000-square-foot interactive venue with more than 150 exhibits.

Mass was offered daily, and there were opportunities for the sacrament of reconciliation, eucharistic adoration, meditation, recitation of the rosary, prayer through music and a labyrinth experience.

Ernie Boehner, in charge of the army of 1,100 adult volunteers whose job it was to make the conference run smoothly and safely, smiled through a face that could barely hide the exhaustion of days that began before dawn and ended after midnight.

"When you look at all these kids you don't see all the politics that adults argue about," Boehner told The Catholic Key, newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. "You just think about what a great foundation this church has for the future in these young people."

Just how well-behaved can thousands of teenagers be? Consider opening night, when nearly 20,000 of them, not knowing there was another entrance on the other side of the 20,000-seat Sprint Center, massed early at one entrance and waited for two hours for the doors to open and to undergo security checks of backpacks and purses.

The jam-up could have seemed interminable, but the youths started the conference a bit early outside the arena. They began meeting each other, partying and making new friends with other teens from other parts of the country.

"It's a lot different than Altamont, Kan.," said Seth Blackburn, who came with a group from Mother of God Parish in Oswego, Kan., in the southeast corner of the state. "It's incomprehensible to me. It's mind-blowing."

A group from the Archdiocese of Chicago began dancing with a group of umbrella-wielding, bead-wearing teens from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

"Mardi Gras!" said Ryan Erhardt. "We are young, spirited New Orleans Catholics, and we came to accept and spread God's message."

Bob McCarty, executive director of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, said that three weeks before the conference began, registration had already exceeded the capacity of the main hall, the Sprint Center, where all the general sessions were scheduled.

That left organizers scrambling to prepare a "satellite" site for the overflow in the grand ballroom of the H. Roe Bartle Convention Center, with its own master of ceremonies. Both sites were linked with big screen, high-definition, closed-circuit television.

It worked so well that the masters of ceremonies at each site, musicians Steve Agrisano at Sprint and Jesse Manibusan at Bartle, were able to sing duets together across downtown Kansas City.

"We may be in two places, but we are one body in Christ," Manibusan told audiences in both places by the TV linkup.

Groups of teens were rotated from both sites so that no group was in the Bartle ballroom for more than one general session.

For many of the teens, just showing up in Kansas City was a physical ordeal. They came from all corners of the continental United States, plus Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. One delegation even came from a military base school in Japan, streaming their reports back to the Land of the Rising Sun via the Internet.

Those who lived closer to an ocean were more likely to book an airline flight. But others endured hours on buses.

Andrew Finch and his peers from Fife Lake, Mich., in the Diocese of Gaylord, rode 13 hours. But it was worth it, he said.

"This is ridiculous," Finch said as he joined the party outside the Sprint Center on opening night. "This is 20 times more people in my whole school."

"It's unbelievable," said Hannah Miller, a member of St. Mary's Parish in Albany, Ore., who came by plane.

"The speakers are just so amazing, and you learn so much about faith and how to share it," she said. "There are just so many Catholic teens here and we all believe the same thing."

Alyssa Petri, who came from Ascension Parish in Dayton, Ohio, in the Cincinnati Archdiocese, called it "freaking amazing, the whole atmosphere here. There are just so many people here sharing the same faith that you have."

McCarty make a grand entrance into the Sprint Center. An accomplished mountain climber, he rappelled by rope from the ceiling. Once he landed safely on the floor, he told the thousands of young people that they also need to "show up, step up and step out."

The conference, he said, wasn't just about having a three-day Catholic party. It was more about becoming disciples when they returned home.

"On Sunday, disciples show up for Mass even when they don't feel like it," McCarty said.

"Disciples are also challenged to bring their very best gifts to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ," he said.

"Disciples step up in prayer when painful changes and challenges occur," McCarty said. "And when we encounter disregard for human life, disciples step up in courage to proclaim Gospel values."

McCarty reminded the youths that one in six children in the United States live in poverty and hunger.

"Disciples can't close their eyes to that and give into fear," he said. "That's because we don't do this alone. Our Scriptures are filled with stories of people who stepped out. Our saints are models of people who stepped out."

Catholics set up a task force
for expected Anglican exodus
By Simon Caldwell

23rd November 2009


The Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have set up a task force to help the possible exodus of tens of thousands of disaffected Anglicans into their church.

The move was announced as Anglican leader Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, protested to the Pope in the Vatican over its plans to receive Anglican converts en masse. [This is obviously blatant invention!]

In London, Catholic leaders announced the appointment of a commission to deal with the reception of up to 200 Anglican congregations - a figure proposed by Forward in Faith, an Anglo-Catholic group --which would amount to thousands of converts.

John Broadhurst, the Anglican Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith, said mass conversion was a real prospect.

'We have a thousand priest members in my organisation and there are many others who agree with us,' he said. 'The main issue for many Anglican priests is now the ownership of parish churches.'

The commission is expected to look at the possibility of church-sharing and also the chances of taking out 100-year leases of some Anglican parishes.

Pope Benedict XVI was last month accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops. [Accused by whom? The biased media! The worst criticism levelled by any Anglican prelate against the Catholic Church was of supposedly 'keeping Williams in the dark'.

Obviously, the Vatican did not consult with him about any solutions they planned as a response to Anglicans who wished to convert, since that is entirely an internal Catholic matter. But like anyone else who reads the news, Williams was certainly not unaware of what his 'traddie' constituents - especially those belonging to the Traditional Anglican Communion - were up to.

And Williams himself has said several times he does not see it as poaching - because he knows it is not. He knows it's the disarray within the Anglican Communion and his own inability to settle the internal disputes that caused the more traditional Anglicans (those who already feel near-Catholic) to actively lobby Rome to facilitate their conversion en masse.]

In response to requests from about 30 Anglican bishops around the world for 'corporate reunion' with the Catholic Church, he has permitted vicars and their entire congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many of their Anglican traditions - including married priests.

In a 20-minute meeting on Saturday, Dr Williams complained to the Pope about the 'lack of consultation' over the move, saying it had left him in an 'awkward position'. [A tather improbable assertion, which Williams, even assuming he actually 'complained' to the Pope, is too courteous to claim, even off the record!]



4,000 Anglican priests expected
to join Catholic Church
by Conan Businge



KAMPALA, Uganda, Nov. 21 - Over 4,000 Anglican priests all over the world, including married ones, are expected to join the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya said Friday.

Ssekamanya, who doubles as the chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University, said this does not mean that the Catholic Church is removing the requirement for priests to remain unmarried.

“We are not becoming soft on celibacy for Catholic priests. We shall also not tolerate homosexuals and polygamous marriages in the Catholic Church,” he added.

He was officiating at the 15th graduation ceremony of the Nkozi-based university.

Vatican officials announced that married Anglican priests would be allowed to remain in the priesthood on a case-by-case basis as they join the Roman Catholic fold.

The Vatican’s decision to allow Anglicans to keep some aspects of their liturgy had raised questions over whether the Catholic requirement for celibacy might change.

The Vatican this month released rules and guidelines, known as the Apostolic Constitution, as part of efforts to make it easier for disillusioned, traditionalist Anglicans to cross over to the Roman Catholic Church.

Under the Vatican’s initiative, Anglicans, turned off by their own church’s embrace of gay clerics, women priests and blessing of same-sex unions, can join new parishes, called ‘personal ordinariates’, that are headed by former Anglican prelates.

“There is no change in the Church’s discipline of clerical celibacy,” Bishop Ssekamanya re-affirmed. He praised celibacy as “a sign and a stimulus for pastoral charity”.

The ceremony had 236 students graduating with masters, 522 with bachelors, 13 with advanced diplomas, 212 with diplomas and 10 with certificates.

BEATIFICATION IN NAZARETH:
MOTHER MARIE-ALPHONSINE DANIL GHATTAS







VATICAN CITY, NOV. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- From the Vatican, Benedict XVI joined in the celebration of the Holy Land Christians who attended the beatification ceremony of Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas today in Nazareth.

In an address before praying the midday Angelus today, the Pope noted that "Mother Ghattas" has "the merit" of having founded "a congregation formed solely of women of the region, with the purpose of religious instruction, to overcome illiteracy and improve the conditions of the women of that time in the land where Jesus himself exalted their dignity."

Mother Ghattas was born Soultaneh Maria, a Palestinian in Jerusalem. She became a co-founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem.

The Pontiff affirmed, "The beatification of this very significant figure of a woman is of special comfort to the Catholic community in the Holy Land and it is an invitation to always trust, with firm hope, in Divine Providence and Mary's maternal protection."

The beatification ceremony of Sister Maria Alfonsina (1843-1927) was presided over by Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes and special envoy of the Pope to the event, in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.





Beatified nun could inspire
Holy Land's Christians,
says Patriarch of Jerusalem
By Judith Sudilovsky



NAZARETH, Israel, Nov. 24 (CNS) -- A newly beatified nun from the Holy Land could serve as an inspiration for Christians who remain there, said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The Nov. 22 beatification "breathes upon us a new spirit, renews our church and invites us to the happy hope that we ourselves, too, can be saints like her," said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, referring to Blessed Soultaneh Maria Ghattas, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Jerusalem.

"What the Church needs most is the witness of saints," he added in his homily at the beatification, a major step toward sainthood. "Holiness is the sign of the Church's credibility."

Patriarch Twal beatified Mother Marie-Alphonsine, as she is known, during a Mass for more than 3,000 people, who began filing into Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation almost two hours before the ceremony began. They filled the first-floor sanctuary, where the main ceremony took place; a closed-circuit TV showed the proceedings to pilgrims packed into the ground-floor sanctuary.

By the time the Mass began there was standing room only in both sanctuaries, and people crowded into the aisles, inching forward in the main sanctuary toward the metal fence separating the section next to the altar where members of the Rosary Sisters sat along with other dignitaries, including Helen Zananiri, whose prayer paved the way for Mother Marie-Alphonsine's beatification.

Zananiri had prayed for the protection of her daughter following a premonition just hours before a group of girls fell into a collapsed outdoor septic tank six years ago.

All of the girls, including Natalie Zananiri, who was under the toxic water for at least five minutes according to testimony given in the beatification process, were pulled out unharmed.

"This is a very big event for us, for Christian Palestinians in this land," said Helen Zananiri. "It shows all the world that there are Christians who speak Arabic. We are very proud we live in this holy land."

Natalie Zananiri, now 23, said before being rescued she had never heard of Mother Marie-Alphonsine and had "not really" believed in miracles. She said she now believes.

Slipping into the basilica just minutes before the Mass began, Habib Sabbara, 35, said he had come to Nazareth from East Jerusalem with his wife and two young children to honor a native of his own city.

"These footprints of Jesus Christ are still living. It gives a very big (incentive) to the local Christian community to go after those footsteps," he said. "Even though we (Christians) are less than 1 percent of the population here, we are the most powerful because we are like salt. A little bit of salt makes a big difference. It gives meaning to this land. Without Christians here, there is no meaning to this land."

Nadia Tadros, 16, a student at Rosary Sisters' High School in East Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood, witnessed the beatification from one of several pews she and her classmates had claimed early in the morning.

Sister Hortense Nakhleh, the school's principal, said although she was looking forward to the ceremony, what was of greater significance to her would follow the beatification.

"After this my mission is to do exactly as our foundress. As she lived we have to live; as she was the shining face of the Lord so, too, we have to be the same in our society," she said. "For me that is more important."

Some 23 Rosary Sisters from Lebanon and 50 from Jordan, along with a large number of Catholics from Jordan, began the Israeli visa application process in August and received their permits to travel only days before the ceremony.

Sister Aline Barakat, principal of a Rosary Sisters' high school in Jbeil, Lebanon, said that in addition to asking Mother Marie-Alphonsine to "give us peace and give us grace ... to be like her," the sisters also asked her to send vocations.

Church bells rang out as the Mass began and a sense of excitement swept over the congregants. They applauded enthusiastically when a little girl, dressed in the habit of the Rosary Sisters and representing the order and its founder, walked with her mother to the section where the Rosary Sisters were sitting and was hugged and kissed by several of the nuns.

Applause again exploded through the sanctuary and people stood up in their places, straining to see as Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of Jerusalem completed reading in Arabic the text of the apostolic letter from Pope Benedict XVI, which had been read in Italian by Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.

As the bells grew to a crescendo and the white curtain covering the several-foot tall picture of Mother Marie-Alphonsine was lifted, several Rosary Sisters began to cry and wave their hands toward the picture, which hung from a balcony. Women in the pews behind began to trill in the traditional Arabic way of celebration.

Unable to see past the people crowding the aisles, an elderly nun from another order, sitting in the main section of the sanctuary, picked up her plastic chair and moved it closer to the front.

A belated post. Despite George Weigel's obvious hostility to the FSSPX, this is a very welcome note about the nature of the discussions between the CDF and the FSSPX, which have been routinely labelled by both religious and secular media as 'negotiations', even if Mons. Fellay himself has stated clearly, "We do not seek compromise - we seek clarity".

Weigel defines the disputed points, as identified by the Lefebvrians themselves, and makes it clear the Vatican does expect the Lefebvrians to agree to the Vatican-II positions on religious freedom, Judaism and Christian unity - about which the CDF can surely give them all the clarity they need as to any ambiguities in the Vatican-II documents regarding these issues.



The Vatican and the Lefebvrists:
Not a negotiation


Nov. 18, 2009


Prior to the opening of formal conversations between officials of the Holy See and leaders of the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which began on Oct. 26, the mainstream media frequently misrepresented these discussions as a negotiation aimed at achieving a compromise that both sides can live with.

That was to be expected from reporters and commentators for whom everything is politics and everything is thus negotiable. Alas, similar misrepresentations came from “Vatican insiders” who suggested that the teaching of the Second Vatican Council was under joint review by the Holy See and the SSPX, which only made matters worse.

Here is what’s going on here, and what isn’t.

1. The conversations between leaders of the SSPX and the Holy See are just that: conversations. These are not negotiations, for there is nothing to be negotiated; nor is this a dialogue between equal partners.

On the one hand, we have the Bishop of Rome and those curial officials whose work is an extension of his papal office; on the other hand, we have a society of clergy who have been living in disobedience to the Roman pontiff for decades, and their lay followers, many of whom are more confused than willfully schismatic.

The purpose of these conversations is to make clear what the Second Vatican Council taught (especially about the nature of the Church), to listen politely to what the SSPX has to say, and to invite the SSPX back into the full communion of the Catholic Church, which the SSPX broke in 1988 when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre committed the schismatic act of illicitly ordaining bishops without the authorization of the Roman Pontiff (and against the direct, personal pleas of Pope John Paul II).

2. Despite what some “Vatican insiders” have said, these conversations do not represent a bold initiative by the Holy See; and despite the carping from the mainstream media, these conversations are not a craven papal concession to the demands of angry traditionalists whose dissent from Vatican II Benedict XVI is alleged to share.

Rather, the conversations now underway are an act of pastoral charity by the Pope, who is quite clear about the settled doctrine of the Church and who wishes to invite all, including members of the SSPX, to adhere to that doctrine.

Nor is this about mutual enrichment; it is not easy to see how the Catholic Church is to be theologically enriched by the ideas of those who, whatever the depth of their traditional liturgical piety, reject the mid-20th century reform of Catholic thought of which Joseph Ratzinger was a leader.

The Pope is under no illusions on this score; his purpose is to invite the SSPX back into full communion, thus preventing the schism of 1988 from becoming a permanent wound in the Mystical Body of Christ.

3. The issues to be engaged in these conversations do not involve liturgy: The Pope has addressed the legitimate pastoral needs of SSPX clergy and SSPX-affiliated laity by his decree allowing the unrestricted use of the 1962 Roman Missal.

The real questions have to do with other matters.
- Does the SSPX accept the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on religious freedom as a fundamental human right that can be known by both reason and revelation?
- Does the SSPX accept that the age of altar-and-throne alliances, confessional states, and legally established Catholicism is over, and that the Catholic Church rejects the use of coercive state power on behalf of its truth claims?
- Does the SSPX accept the Council’s teaching on Jews and Judaism as laid down in Vatican II’s “Declaration on Non-Christian Religions” (“Nostra Aetate”), and does the SSPX repudiate all anti-Semitism?
- Does the SSPX accept the Council’s teaching on the imperative of pursuing Christian unity in truth and the Council’s teaching that elements of truth and sanctity exist in other Christian communities, and indeed in other religious communities?

Those are the real issues. Conversation about them is always welcome. Those who confuse conversation with negotiation make genuine conversation all the more difficult.


If Mons. Fellay is sincere about desiring full communion with Rome for the FSSPX - as his statements in the past year seem to indicate - then surely, he must see these talks as a gracious 'exit strategy' [from their schismatic position] benevolently provided to the FSSPX by Benedict XVI, that will enable them to say at the end, "OK, we are satisfied that the CDF has clarified the points we questioned, and we accept the positions as such. We are coming home".

I do think Weigel and other adamant opponents of the FSSPX should show the same benevolence [literally, 'good will'] towards the FSSPX as Benedict XVI does!

My first post on this subject was in ISSUES because the Manhattan Declaration is an ecumenical document. However, Sandro Magister discusses it here in the context of teh Catholic church in Europe and in the United States.

The manifesto that's shaking America

It's been endorsed by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox leaders,
united in defending life and the family.
With the White House in the crosshairs.
In Europe, they would brand it political 'interference' by the Church




ROME, November 25, 2009 – On this side of the Atlantic, the news passed almost without notice: the news about a strong public appeal in defense of life, of marriage, of religious freedom and objection of conscience, launched jointly – a rarity – by top-level representatives of the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Evangelical communities of the United States.



Among the religious leaders who presented the appeal to the public on Friday, November 20, at the National Press Club in Washington, were the archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali (speaking, in photo), the archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl, and the bishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput.

And among the 52 first signatories of the appeal were 11 other Catholic archbishops and bishops of the United States: Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, Timothy Dolan of New York, John J. Myers of Newark, John Nienstedt of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Richard J. Malone of Portland, and David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh.

The 4700-word appeal is entitled "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," and takes its name from the area of New York in which its publication was discussed and decided last September.

The final drafting of the text was entrusted to Robert P. George, a Catholic professor of law at Princeton University, and to Evangelical Protestants Chuck Colson and Timothy George, the latter a professor at the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

The other signers include Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen, primate of the Orthodox Church in America, archpriest Chad Hatfield of the Orthodox seminary of Saint Vladimir, Reverend William Owens, president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, and two leading figures of the Anglican Communion: Robert Wm. Duncan, primate of the Anglican Church in North America, and Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.

Apart from the bishops, the other Catholics who signed the appeal include Jesuit Fr. Joseph D. Fessio, a disciple of Joseph Ratzinger and founder of the publisher Ignatius Press; William Donohue, president of the Catholic League; Jody Bottum, editor of the magazine First Things; and George Weigel, a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The Manhattan Declaration has not emerged in a vacuum, but at a critical moment for American society and politics: precisely while the administration of Barack Obama is pushing hard for passage of a health care reform plan in the United States.

Defending life from the moment of conception and the right to objections of conscience, the appeal contests two of the points endangered by the reform project currently under discussion in the Senate.

In Congress, the danger was averted thanks in part to aggressive lobbying conducted openly by the Catholic episcopate. After the final vote had guaranteed both the right to objections of conscience and the blocking of any public financing for abortion, the bishops' conference hailed this result as a "success."

But now the battle has started all over again in the Senate, on a working document that the Church again considers unacceptable. The bishops' conference has already sent the senators a letter indicating the changes it would like to see made to all of the points in dispute.

But now there is also the ecumenical Manhattan Declaration, the last chapter of which, entitled "Unjust Laws," ends with this solemn statement:

"We will not be intimidated into silence or acquiescence or the violation of our consciences by any power on earth, be it cultural or political, regardless of the consequences to ourselves."

And immediately afterward:

"We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's."

In an initial passage, the appeal also says this:

"While public opinion has moved in a pro-life direction, powerful and determined forces are working to expand abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, and euthanasia."

And it is true. According to the most recent surveys, public opinion in the United States is shifting noticeably toward greater defense of the life of the unborn child.

From 1995 to 2008, all of the research had shown that more people were pro-choice than pro-life, with a significant margin between them: the former at 49 percent, the latter at 42.

Now, instead, the positions have been reversed. The pro-choice have fallen to 46 percent, and the pro-life have risen to 47 percent, overtaking them.

The religious leaders who are pressuring Obama on the minefield of abortion, of homosexual marriage, of euthanasia, therefore know that they have with them a large and growing segment of American society.

The issuing of the Manhattan Declaration has received extensive coverage in the media in the United States, without anyone protesting against this political "interference" by the Churches.

But that's just the way it is in the United States. There has always been a rigorous separation between religion and the state there. There are no concordats, and they're not even conceivable. But this is exactly why the Churches are seen as having the freedom to speak and act in the public sphere.

In Europe, the landscape is very different. Here "secularism" is understood and applied in conflict, either latent or explicit, with the Churches.

This may be another reason for the silence that greeted the Manhattan Declaration in Europe, in Italy, in Rome. It is held to be a typically American phenomenon, foreign to the European way of thinking.

A similar difference in approach concerns the denial of Eucharistic communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians. In the United States, this controversy is extremely heated, while on the other side of the Atlantic it isn't.

This difference in sensibilities also divides the hierarchy of the Catholic Church: in Europe and in Rome the question is practically ignored, left to the individual conscience.

But it most be noted out that something is changing on this point, even on the Old Continent. And not only because there is a Pope like Benedict XVI, who has stated that he prefers the American model of relations between Church and state.

A sign of this came a few days ago from Spain, where the Catholic Church is grappling with an ideologically hostile government, that of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which is preparing a law that would liberalize abortion even more than it is now.

According to reports from sources including L'Osservatore Romano, the secretary general of the Spanish bishops' conference, Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, did not hesitate to advise Catholic politicians that, if they vote in favor of the law, they will not be admitted to Eucharistic communion, because they will have placed themselves in an objective situation of "public sin."

Not only that. Bishop Martínez Camino added that those who maintain that it is morally legitimate to kill an unborn child put themselves in contradiction with the Catholic Church, and thus risk falling into heresy and into "latae sententiae,' or automatic, excommunication.

It is the first time that words so "American" have been heard from the leadership of a bishops' conference in Europe.

Highlights of this report were released last July, so none of this is really a surprise, but the extent of both the abuse and the cover-up is nothing less than sickening, and every retelling is a terrible blow to the church, not just in Ireland. In the Year for Priests, one prays this is a scourge that will never recur again anywhere, and of course, we pray for all the victims, their families and their offenders. May the great Irish saints foster a rebirth of the fervent essential Catholicism that generations of good and saintly Irish nuns and priests brought throughout the world, including my own country.





Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops
'covered up abuse to protect church's reputation'
By Matthew Moore

26 Nov 2009


Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops and police covered up four decades of child sex abuse by priests in a conspiracy to protect the reputation of the church, a report found.

Clergy were able to molest hundreds of vulnerable children because of a "systemic, calculated perversion of power" that put their abusers above the law, the Irish government said.

The damning verdict on the conduct of Church and secular authorities followed a three-year investigation into allegations of child abuse by priests in Dublin going back to the 1960s.

Investigators who were given access to 60,000 previous secret church files accused four Archbishops of Dublin of deliberately suppressing evidence of "widespread" abuse.

Archbishops John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan and Kevin McNamara, who have all since died, and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who is retired, all refused to pass information to local police, the report said.

Evidence was kept inside a secret vault in the archbishop's Dublin residence, with suspect clerics moved between parishes to prevent the allegations being made public.

For their part, Gardai frequently ignored complaints from victims, effectively granting priests immunity from prosecution. The inquiry found that church authorities nurtured inappropriately close relations with senior police officers.

Last night the current Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, apologised to the victims, describing their abuse as an "offence to God". He said: "I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened."

In a 750-page report published yesterday the Commission to Inquire into the Dublin Archdiocese blamed the Church's "don't ask, don't tell" approach for perpetuating abuse.

"The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities," it said.

"The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.

"The State authorities facilitated that cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes."

The inquiry, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, dismissed the claims of former bishops that they did not know sex abuse was a crime. [Incredible that any adult could say that, let alone bishops!]

It concluded that the the church hierarchy was preoccupied with "the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets".

It added: "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities."

The commission looked at a sample study of allegations made by 320 children against 46 priests between 1975 and 2004. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

Two of the priests featured in the report have their names blacked out so not to undermine ongoing criminal actions.

Dermot Ahern, the Irish justice minister, said that the Gardai would review its procedures for dealing with sexual abuse complaints, and promised to continue to pursue the perpetrators.

"The report catalogues evil after evil committed in the name of what was perversely seen as the greater good," he said.

"There is no escaping the cruel irony that the Church, partly motivated by a desire to avoid scandal, in fact created a scandal on an astonishing scale."

Victims called for senior Catholics and police officers to face criminal charges over the cover-up, and for the inquiry to be expanded to cover every Irish archdiocese.

"Those who turn a blind eye to these offences are as much a part of the problem as those who actually commit them," said Andrew Madden, who helped blow the whistle on the abuse 10 years ago.

The publication of the report, which was submitted to the Irish government in July, is expected to prompt a wave of new child abuse allegations against Catholic priests.

On Wednesday the Christian Brothers religious order announced it had set aside £145 million to compensate children who had been abused in its schools in orphanages in Ireland.

That offer came six months after a landmark report revealed widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions dating back to the 1930s.



Dublin sex abuse: this could
finish off Catholic Ireland

November 26th, 2009


This is written in haste, but my first thought on reading about the appalling (but not surprising) cover-up of sex abuse in Dublin archiocese was: this will make the Catholic Church even more loathed in Ireland than it already is.

The greatest scandal, of course, lies in the acts perpetrated by wicked clergy against the innocent. But it’s the secrecy and deceit of the Church authorities that resonates most with me.

For, although I was educated by Irish brothers, I can honestly say that I’ve never experienced clerical paedophilia, or even met a priest or brother who was to my knowledge a classic paedophile.

But I have encountered, many times, the arrogance of senior clergy who believe that almost anything can be kept secret from the laity if it might “damage the good name of the Church” (ie, inconvenience or embarrass them).

And I associate the worst abuses of power with the mean-spirited Jansenism of the Irish Church and the Irish clerical diaspora. More on this subject later.


Back in October 2006, meeting the bishops of Ireland on ad limina visit, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to them in unusually strong terms of the sex offenses against minors by the Irish clergy. It is worth reposting the CNS report of that meeting.

Also worth noting that when the Pope spoke about sexual abuses by priests on his trip the US in April 2008, most reporters treated it as if it was the first time he had ever spoken about the issue as Pope, even if this talk with the Irish bishops was quite well-reported in the Catholic media at the time.


Benedict XVI told Irish bishops in 2006:
'Find the truth and prevent priestly abuse'
By John Thavis



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 30 2006 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said priestly sexual abuse of minors was a "heart-rending" tragedy that requires an effort of purification by the church.

Addressing Ireland's bishops at the Vatican Oct. 28, the Pope encouraged them to establish the truth of past sex abuse cases, take steps to prevent future crimes and bring healing to the victims.

"The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged," the Pope said.

Irish church leaders have had to deal with hundreds of allegations of clerical sexual abuse, many of which came to light in recent years.

The bishops set up an advisory committee and an independent, lay-led commission to study the problem, and earlier this year published "Our Children, Our Church," a child protection policy that included new measures more consistent with state procedures.

The Pope's remarks to the bishops, at the end of their "ad limina" visit to the Vatican, were his most extensive public comments on priestly sex abuse since his election in April 2005. The heads of dioceses are required to make "ad limina" visits every five years to report on the status of their dioceses.

"In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors. These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric," the pope said.

"In your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes," he said.

The Pope said that by facing the problem in this way the church in Ireland would grow stronger and come to see the present moment as a "time of purification."

In their private talks with Vatican agencies, Irish bishops said they were encouraged to continue their efforts to deal with sexual abuse and to develop the policies expressed in "Our Children, Our Church."

When Pope Benedict met privately with Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, Ireland, where more than 100 allegations of clerical sex abuse were made between 1962 and 2002, the Pope communicated his personal anguish and horror at the behavior of the clerical abusers, according to a spokesman for the Ferns Diocese.

Speaking to the bishops as a group, the Pope said it was also important that the good work of the majority of Irish priests not be overshadowed by the transgressions of some.

"I am certain that the people understand this and continue to regard their clergy with affection and esteem," he said.

The Pope said he was concerned about the sharply declining vocation rate in Ireland. He asked the bishops to offer young people an attractive vision of the ordained priesthood.

"Even if Christian commitment is considered unfashionable in some circles, there is a real spiritual hunger and a generous desire to serve others among the young people of Ireland," he said.

The Pope described the Irish as a people shaped by the Christian faith. He said modern changes in Irish society present challenges as well as opportunities, and people are looking to the bishops for leadership.

"Help them to recognize the inability of the secular, materialist culture to bring true satisfaction and joy. Be bold in speaking to them of the joy that comes from following Christ and living according to his commandments," he said.

While the Church sometimes must speak out against evils, he said, it must correct the impression that Catholicism is merely a "collection of prohibitions."

"So often the church's countercultural witness is misunderstood as something backward and negative in today's society. That is why it is important to emphasize the good news, the life-giving and life-enhancing message of the Gospel," he said.

He said one key was sound catechesis among young Catholics. He encouraged bishops to make sure catechetical programs are based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and to avoid superficial presentations of Catholic teaching.

The Pope also said he hoped and prayed for reconciliation, particularly in regard to Northern Ireland, where he said much progress has been made in recent times.

In an address to the pope, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, invited the pontiff to visit the country.

"Should God's will and your heavy responsibilities allow you to accept this invitation, you will discover in Ireland a country of warm welcome, but also of change," Archbishop Brady said. He cited Ireland's recent economic success and the accompanying "loss of Christian memory."

The Pope did not respond directly to the invitation. British newspapers reported that consideration was being given to a simultaneous visit to Northern Ireland next spring by the Pope and Britain's Queen Elizabeth, as a culmination of the Northern Ireland peace process.

The Irish bishops, however, said they were told in the Vatican's Secretariat of State that the Pope appeared to be "booked up" for travels through 2007. He has two known trips scheduled, to Brazil in May and to Austria and the Czech Republic in September [NB: This trip did not take place until this year!]

At a press conference Oct. 28, the Irish bishops said they were impressed with the sympathy and encouragement Pope Benedict showed in their meetings. The Pope tended to do more listening than talking, said Bishop Michael Smith of Meath, Ireland.

Bishop Patrick Walsh of Down and Connor, Northern Ireland, said the Pope, in words and demeanor, was very positive. The Pope "doesn't go around slapping backs or anything like that," but exudes a quiet, restrained joy that comes from faith, he said.

Even as the Pope points to threats to society and the Christian response, he takes care to point out that Christian values are in many ways shared by all humanity, Bishop Walsh said.

"I think the Holy Father at the present moment seems to be right on the wavelength of giving a very positive message, in language people can understand," he said.


The full text of the Pope's 10/28/06 address to the Irish bishops may be found on
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354537&p=8

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Comments of
ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN
on the occasion of the publication of the
Commission of Investigation in the sexual abuse of children
by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin

26th November 2009

It is difficult to find words to describe how I feel today. As Archbishop of a Diocese for which I have pastoral responsibility, of my own native diocese, of the diocese for which I was ordained a priest, of a Diocese which I love and hope to serve to the best of my ability, what can I say when I have to share with you the revolting story of the sexual assault and rape of so many young children and teenagers by priests of the Archdiocese or who ministered in the diocese? No words of apology will ever be sufficient.

Can I take this opportunity to thank Judge Yvonne Murphy and her team for their diligent and professional work in producing this Report, which I expect will provide an invaluable framework for how we can better protect the children of today and the future.

The Report of the Commission gives us some insight into the crimes that took place. But no report can give an indication of the suffering and trauma endured by the children, and indeed the suffering also of their family members.

Many survivors have not yet been able to speak about abuse they experienced. For them the publication of the Report must be truly traumatic. I urge them to turn to some trusted friend, to a counsellor or counselling service of their choice, to the health services, to the Gardai [Irish police] or if they so wish to the Diocesan Child Protection Service.

The report focuses on a representative sample of cases, but the Commission examined many other cases. The Report highlights devastating failings of the past. These failings call on all of us to scrupulously apply clear guidelines and norms. There is no room for revisionism regarding the norms and procedures in place.

The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Report is that while Church leaders – Bishops and religious superiors - failed, almost every parent who came to the diocese to report abuse clearly understood the awfulness of what has involved.

Almost exclusively their primary motivation was to try to ensure that what happened to their child, or in some case to themselves, did not happen to other children. Their motivation was not about money or revenge; it was quite simply about that most basic human sense of right and wrong and that basic Christian motivation of concern for others.

The survivors of abuse who courageously remained determined to have the full truth heard by all deserve our recognition and admiration.

How did those with responsibility dramatically misread the risk that a priest who had hurt one of those whom Jesus calls “the little ones” might go on to abuse another child if decisive action was not taken?

Excuses, denials and minimisations were taken from priest abusers who were at the least in denial, at worst devious in multiple ways, and decisions were taken which resulted in more children being abused.

Efforts made to “protect the Church” and to “avoid scandal” have had the ironic result of bringing this horrendous scandal on the Church today.

The damage done to children abused by priests can never be undone. As Archbishop of Dublin and as Diarmuid Martin I offer to each and every survivor, my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened to them. I am aware however that no words of apology will ever be sufficient.

The fact that the abusers were priests constituted both and offence to God and affront to the priesthood. The many good priests of the Archdiocese share my sense of shame. I ask you to support and encourage us in our ministry at what is a difficult time.

I know also that many others, especially parents, feel shocked and betrayed at what has been revealed. I hope that all of us - bishops, priests and lay persons - working together can rebuild trust by ensuring that day after day the Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin becomes a safer environment for children.

I ask the priests of the diocese and the Parish Pastoral Councils to ensure that the wide reaching measures introduced into our parishes and organizations regarding the safeguarding of children are rigorously observed and constantly verified and updated.

This scandal must be an occasion for all of us to be vigilant so that the abuse of children - wherever it takes place in our society - is addressed and the correct measures are taken promptly.

The hurt done to a child through sexual abuse is horrific. Betrayal of trust is compounded by the theft of self esteem. The horror can last a lifetime.

Today, it must be unequivocally recalled that the Archdiocese of Dublin failed to recognise the theft of childhood which survivors endured and the diocese failed in its responses to them when they had the courage to come forward, compounding the damage done to their innocence.

For that no words of apology will ever be sufficient.

---

Over 120,000 attend opening
of Vietnam's Jubilee Year





Left photo show French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray who led the Vatican delegation representing Pope Benedict XVI.


HANOI, Vietnam, Nov 25, 2009 (CNA) - An estimated 120,000 Catholics participated in the opening ceremony of Vietnam’s Holy Jubilee year marking the 350th anniversary of Catholic vicariates in the country.

However, the celebrations were marred by news of the resignation of the Archbishop of Hanoi, which some believe to be a result of government pressure.

On Monday evening four cardinals, 30 Vietnamese bishops from all 26 dioceses and 1200 priests gathered with an estimated 120,000 lay faithful from northern dioceses to participate in the ceremony.

Fr. J.B. An Dang told CNA that the priests included dozens of foreign clerics from Europe and the United States.

Festivities took place at So Kien, about 43 miles south of Hanoi, where the Church in Vietnam first was able to build a large and durable complex of buildings. The celebrations marked the 350th anniversary of the first apostolic vicariates in Vietnam and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in Vietnam.

The ceremony began at 5:30 pm with a one-hour procession of martyr’s relics. Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, President of the bishops’ conference of Vietnam, presided over the procession.

The gathered faithful were reminded that between the years 1625 and 1886 fifty-three edicts of persecution of Christians were signed by the Trinh Lords, the Nguyen Lords and the dynasty of the Kings of Nguyen. Each persecution was worse than the one before.

Those gathered for the Jubilee celebration expressed their gratitude for the estimated 130,000 Christians who died in these persecutions. Of these martyrs, 117 were beatified on four separate occasions. Their numbers included 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish Dominicans and 10 French members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.

Pope Leo XIII beatified 64 of these martyrs on May 27, 1900. Pope St. Pius X beatified eight on May 20, 1906 and 20 on May 2, 1909. Pope Pius XII beatified 25 on April 29, 1951.

All 117 were canonized on June 19, 1988 by Pope John Paul II under the strong protest of Vietnam’s communist government, Fr. An Dang reports. Another young Vietnamese martyr, Andre Phú Yên, was beatified by John Paul II in March of 2000.

Following the grand opening of the Jubilee ceremonies Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man, President of the Holy Jubilee Committee, delivered his official declaration.

After the opening Mass, the festival’s inaugural night began with a sea of candle lights to welcome a procession of 118 Sisters of St. Paul from Hanoi and also a much loved performance group from the Diocese of Bui Chu. The performers included 400 trumpeters and drummers.

The opening ceremony was the second largest recent Catholic gathering in North Vietnam. The largest gathering was a Mass at Xa Doai on August 15, when more than 500,000 Catholics protested against the assaults on priests in Tam Toa.

The So Kien ceremony was widely reported and interpreted by state media as “an equivocal evidence” for the religious freedom policy of the Vietnam government, Fr. An Dang reported.

“The joy on the opening day of the Holy Jubilee in Vietnam, however, was marred by the news that Archbishop of Hanoi had submitted his resignation to the Pope,” he added.

On November 14 Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet told his priests at their annual archdiocesan retreat that that he had submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI because of deteriorating health. The archbishop, aged 57, is one of the youngest bishops in Vietnam.

Fr. An Dang explained to CNA that while the prelate ran a tight, exhausting schedule in his large archdiocese, many Vietnamese Catholics suspect that he is resigning due to pressure from the Vietnamese government.

It is not surprising by now that the media, particularly those in the UK, take every occasion to denounce the Catholic Church for the sexual abuses against minors committed by some priests, and the Pope and the Vatican for allegedly having tried to cover up these abuses for decades - deliberately distorting Vatican documents and dates to allege the cover-up, trusting that few readers will bother to go check out the documents and dates they cite for veracity.

Thus, even if the contents of the Murphy Report have been generally known for months, the release of the full report earlier this week was treated as though it were a new scandal altogether.

The Vatican press director has also had to make the statement reported below to distinguish between local Churches and the universal Church in terms of direct supervision and responsibility for the conduct of priests serving in the local Churches. But notice the slant in the headline and the report itself.


Holy See keeps its distance
from Irish abuse problem
by PADDY AGNEW in Rome

Nov. 27, 2009


NOT FOR the first time, the Holy See yesterday formally attempted to keep its distance from an Irish clerical sex abuse problem.

Responding to the publication of the Dublin diocesan report, Vatican senior spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told The Irish Times that matters such as these are handled by the local Church rather than by the Holy See.

“With regard to matters like this, the line is very clear. We leave all comment to the local church involved . . .”

In a section of the report, “Documents Held by Rome”, the commission appears to imply that full co-operation was not forthcoming from the Holy See. In particular, the commission reports that requests for information made to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and to the Papal Nuncio in Dublin went unanswered.

The report states that rather than contacting the commission, the CDF contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs, saying that the commission had not gone through “appropriate diplomatic channels”.

Fr Lombardi argued such an explanation was perfectly normal since routine diplomatic practice requires that any outside requests made to the governance of the Holy See, in this case, the CDF, would pass through diplomatic channels – in this case, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and the Irish Embassy to the Holy See in Rome. “It’s obvious, if you are looking for official documents from the Vatican then you have to go through the normal diplomatic channels,” he said.

Vatican observers argue the same “diplomatic” reasoning would apply to the lack of a reply from the Papal Nuncio in Dublin. He, too, as the Vatican’s ambassador in Ireland, cannot respond directly to a request from an albeit independent Irish body.

Vatican analysts point out that while the Catholic Church is very centralised when it comes to issues like Church appointments, it is contrastingly decentralised when it comes to day-to-day, local church financial administration.

Put simply, this means that bishops are appointed in Rome but damages are paid in Dublin.

For the nuncio or indeed the CDF to respond directly to the commission might have implied acceptance of a certain Vatican responsibility or indeed culpability with regard to Irish affairs.

As for the overall findings, Fr Lombardi was reluctant to add any further comment: “In all cases like this, it is not appropriate for Rome to comment, rather that is for the local bishop. In the case of Dublin, we have an excellent archbishop and he knows what has to be said.”


I think Fr. Lombardi missed the occasion remind the reporter of Pope Benedict's address to the Irish bishops back in October 2006 in which he asked the local bishops to find out the truth, attend to the victims and take steps against recurrence of the problem.

He got caught up in explaining a technicality - and whenever someone resorts to a technicality, no matter how valid it is, the impression left is always negative.

Citing Benedict's words to th Irish bishops would at least have introduced something positive. Though there is no guarantee, of course, that the reporter would have used it.

This letter was sent out to all priests about two weeks ago, but I have just now seen it. It is a letter that should perhaps be sent to priests and bishops every week, every day if possible - at least, the epigram that refers to a promise priests and bishops make on the day of their ordination and which they repeat on Maundy Thursday every year.

The incidence and degree of disobedience to the Holy Father exhbitied by many priests and bishops (including quite a few cardinals) has been scandalous and unabated. It constitutes a complete breach of promise, or even worse, a deliberate forgetting that they ever made such a promise.


For priests and bishops,
obedience to the Pope
is a filial obligation

---

"Do you promise filial respect and obedience to me and my successors?"
Pontificale Romanum. De Ordinatione Episcopi, presbyterorum et diaconorum, Edition typica (Typis Polyglotis Vaticanis 1990)

Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,

Even if they are not bound by a Solemn Vow of obedience, ordinands profess a "promise" of "filial respect and obedience" to their own Ordinary and his Successors.

If the theological standing of a Vow and a promise is different, the total and definitive moral obligation is identical, and likewise identical is the offering of one's will to the will of Another: to the Divine will, mediated through the Church.

In a time such as ours, marked as it is by relativism and democraticism, by various forms of autonomous individualism and libertinism, such a promise of obedience appears ever more incomprehensible to the prevailing mindset.

It is not rare for it to be conceived as a diminution of dignity and human freedom, as perseverance in obsolete forms, typical of a society incapable of authentic emancipation.

We who live authentic obedience know well that this is not the case. Obedience in the Church is never contrary to the dignity and respect of the person, nor must it ever be understood as an abandonment of responsibility or as a surrender.

The Rite utilizes a fundamental adjective for the right understanding of such a promise; it defines obedience only after mentioning "respect", and this with the adjective "filial".

Now the term "son", in every language, is a relative name, which implies, specifically, the relationship of a father and a son. It is in this context that the obedience we have promised must be understood.

It is a context in which the father is called to truly be a father, and the son to recognize his own sonship and the beauty of the fatherhood that has been given to him.

As happens in the law of nature, no one chooses his own father, nor does one choose one’s own sons. Therefore, we are all called, fathers and sons, to have a supernatural regard for one another, one of great reciprocal clemency and respect, that is to say the capacity to look at the other keeping always in mind the good Teacher who has brought him into being, and who always, ultimately, moulds him.

Respect is, by definition, simply this: to look at someone while keeping Another in mind!

It is only in the context of "filial respect" that an authentic obedience is possible, one which is not only formal, a mere execution of orders, but one which is ardent, complete, attentive, which can really bring forth the fruits of conversion and of "new life" in him who lives it.

The promise is to the Ordinary at the time of ordination and to his "Successors", since the Church always draws back from an excessive personalism: She has at heart the person, but not the subjectivism that detracts from the power and the beauty, both historical and theological, which characterize the Institution of obedience.

The Spirit resides also in the institution, since it is of divine origin. The institution is charismatic, of its very nature, and thus to be freely bound by it in time (the Successors) means to "remain in the truth", to persevere in Him, present and operative in his living body, the Church, in the beauty of the continuity of time, of ages, which joins us enduringly to Christ and to his Apostles.

Let us ask of the Handmaid of the Lord, the obedient one par excellence, of her who, even in weariness, sang her "Behold, do with me according to your Word", the grace of a filial obedience, entire, joyful, and ready; an obedience which frees us from being the protagonists of our own selves and which can show the world that it is truly possible to give all to Christ and to be men fully real and authentic.


From the Vatican
Nov. 18, 2009

+Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary

---

Swiss bishops criticize ban
on construction of new minarets
By John Thavis



A typical minaret; campaign poster by advocates of the ban says "STOP! YES to the ban on minarets"; and one of the four Swiss mosques that have a minaret.


This story has been getting much play in the Italian media since the Sunday referendum in which 57% of Swiss voters opposed the construction of new minarets (mosque towers) in Switzerland - only the towers, not the mosques. And now, there are protests from around the world, including the United Nations, but so far none as vicious and violent as those that followed the Danish cartoons nor the Regensburg lecture.

Initially, one might see it as a protest against 'Islamization' of the landscape by Swiss who are suddenly conscious, perhaps, that they want to keep their country's traditional European look, i.e., this was not so much a religious statement as a cultural one.

Most reactions see it as a violation of religious freedom.

My beef with all this worldwide outrage against a vote freely taken by a free people in one of the world's most democratic nations is this: Where were all these outraged is people when a Strasbourg court upheld an idnividual's protest at the display of the Cross in Italian public schools, a tradition that had been incorporated into Italian law? Everyone is too ready to rally to the Muslims, but none other than the Italians to the Cross????


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 30 (CNS) -- The bishops of Switzerland said the country's ban on the construction of minarets, the Muslim prayer towers, represents an obstacle to interreligious harmony.

The ban aggravates interfaith tensions and could have negative repercussions on Christian minorities in Muslim countries, the bishops said in a statement Nov. 29.

The prohibition was adopted by Swiss voters in a referendum that passed Sunday with a 58 percent majority. There are about 150 mosques in Switzerland serving some 400,000 Muslims; only four have minarets and, unlike in Islamic countries, they are not used to call Muslims to prayer.

The bishops said the referendum campaign, promoted by right-wing parties, had used exaggeration and caricature, and demonstrated that "religious peace does not operate by itself and always needs to be defended."

"The decision of the people represents an obstacle and a great challenge on the path of integration in dialogue and mutual respect," the bishops said. Banning the building of minarets "increases the problems of coexistence between religions and cultures," they said.

The bishops said the measure "will not help the Christians oppressed and persecuted in Islamic countries, but will weaken the credibility of their commitment in these countries."

Swiss authorities said after the vote that the four existing minarets would be allowed to stand, and that there was no ban on the construction of new mosques.


The Osservatore Romano carried this item in today's issue:


Swiss bishops say
'No' to new minarets
damages religious freedom
Translated from
the 11/30-12/01 issue of



BERN, Switzerland, Nov, 30 - "A severe blow to religious freedom asnd to integration"; a development that will "complicate things for Christians" who live in countries where religious freedom is already 'quite restricted'; a hiundrance "but also a great challenge" on the path of integration through dialog and reciprocal respect.

Those were some comments from the statement of the Swiss bishops' conference on the referendum on Sunday in which 57.5% of Swiss voters opposed the construction of new minarets in the country.

Only four of 26 six cantons (Basel, Geneva, Neuchatel and Vaud) voted in favor of the proposition presented by the governing centrist party.

The country's rightist political party campaigned against the proposition, saying minarets are "a symbol of Islam's claim to political and social power".

The bishops' statement issued by their spokesman Walter Mueller said, "this increases the problem of coexistence among cultures and religions", which are not limited to Switserland.

Before the refrendum, the Church in Switzerland underscored several times that a ban against new minarets would not be good "for Christians who are oppressed or psersecuted in Islamic countries" but would dmage "the credibility of their civic commitments in those countries".

The note also states that the campaign against new minarets "with its exaggerations and caricatures, showed that religious peace does not happen by itself and that it must always be defended".

The bishops said "the people must be given the necessary confidence in our juridical order and its adequate attention to the itnerests of everyone" and said it was now important "to be committed even more" to stand up for Christians who live in countrties with a Muslim majority.

Fr. Felix Gmür, secretary general of the Swiss bishops conference, explained the referendum results this way: "People are afraid of those who come from afar, those whom they do not understand, and therefore, they close up."

[That's disingenuous! The opponents are only against the towers, not the mosques! The opposition is aesthetic and cultura, not religious. Besides, most European mosques no longer use the minaret which was traditionally used by a muezzin to call the faithful to prayer five times a day. Perhaps this should be seen as a stage in the evolution of mosque architecture in keeping with - since only four of Switzerland's 150 mosques have minarets now, i.e., the Muslims themselves don't consider it obligatory. Calls to prayer chanted over a sound system are now used routinely by most mosques, so the minaret has outlived its use.]

He adds that the campaign agains the minarets was "rather harsh", arguing not only against minarets but against Muslim extremist groups.

He likened banning minarets to banning the Curcifix, in an interview with Vatican Radio.

"Those who support the ban claim that religion should be a private matter - that everyone can pray where they please, but not in public places. At the same time, they call themselv es Christians, but for Christians, worship cannot simply be a private matter."

He said this should open a debate to "make things clear, because society is disoriented, there are contradictions throughout all of European society, as demonstrated by the controversy over the Cross in Italy."

He said the four cantons where the vote for the minarets prevailed were those that have the largest Muslim populations.

The Swiss Federation of Evangelical Churches expressed regret at the refendum outcome, saying "the ban against constructing new minraets will not resolve any problems but will only create new ones".

It must be made clear that the ban does not affect the four minarets already existing in the country, much less the construction of new mosques.

But the disappointment among Swiss Muslims was great. Imam Youssef Ibram, who is in charge of Geneva's Islamic Cultural Center, called it "a catastrophic event. We were confident in the clearheadedness of the Swiss people, and this is an enromous disappointment".

The Grand Mufti if Egyot, Ali Gomaa, called the referendum outcome 'an insult' to all Muslims and 'an attack' on religious freedom.

In Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim nation -, the main Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama called it a sign of 'hatred and intolerance' but called on Muslims to react 'without excesses'.



A campaign poster depicting missile-like minarets was among those used by the Swiss People's Party which advocated the ban. Someone posted a 'Thank you' sign over it.


Minaret ban challenges
tolerant Swiss image
By Helena Bachmann



Geneva, Nov. 30, 2009 - The image of Switzerland abroad is of a place where peace, democracy and human rights are valued above all else. The Swiss were even instrumental in setting up the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva.

But this reputation has taken a massive hit now that a majority of residents have voted to ban minarets on mosques, which a right-wing political party likened to missiles on campaign posters.

After months of heated debates fueled by charges of racism and religious discrimination, about 57% of the Swiss electorate voted to ban the construction of new minarets in a nationwide initiative Sunday.

The result stunned the country's 400,000-strong Muslim community, especially since a poll conducted in late October indicated that a majority of Swiss voters were against the ban.

"We are trying to digest this terrible shock, hurt and disappointment," Saida Keller-Messahli, president of the Zurich-based Forum for Progressive Islam, tells TIME. "We see this as a rejection of our culture and identity."

The party behind the initiative, the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), had argued that Islamic symbols should be forbidden in Switzerland because they were a danger to Swiss society.

The SVP claimed that minarets — the tall, thin towers on mosques that are used to call Muslims to prayer — in particular were dangerous because they were indicative of Islamic power and radicalism. If permitted, they could spark Islamic extremism in the country, the SVP said.

"[The vote] clearly shows that our citizens refuse to accept the rampant Islamization of Switzerland," the party said Monday in a statement, adding that those who don't respect the country's laws should leave.

Opposition to the proposal was fierce. The government, most other political parties and religious and human rights groups had urged voters to reject the initiative, insisting it would violate the section of the constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion and incite hostility toward Switzerland's various religious and ethnic groups. Many of these groups now share the Muslim community's outrage.

The Swiss Bishops Conference, backed by the Vatican, said the Catholic Church sees the decision as "an obstacle to a peaceful coexistence of different cultures and religions." The Protestant Church, meanwhile, called the vote "a violation of basic freedoms."

The vote is also a huge embarrassment for the Swiss government, which had launched a nationwide campaign promoting religious tolerance before the vote.

"The outcome of the vote is a reflection of the fears and uncertainties that exist among the population, and concerns that Islamic fundamentalist ideas could lead to the establishment of parallel societies," Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said Sunday.

She added that "marginalization and exclusion on the basis of religious and cultural differences would be devastating for an open country such as Switzerland."

That acknowledgment won't lessen the criticism of leaders around the world.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was "shocked" by the vote. "It is an expression of intolerance," he told the French RTL radio station. "I hope the Swiss will reverse this decision quickly."

The Council of Europe, a 47-member human rights group now chaired by Switzerland, called the outcome "a source of profound concern" and said it goes against "the values of tolerance, dialogue and respect for other people's beliefs."

[The same Council upheld a Finnish-Italian woman's challenge to the Cross displayed in Italian public schools last month.]

Some have even voiced concern that the vote could spark the kinds of riots in the Muslim world that broke out after a Danish newspaper published cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Reaction in the Muslim world was swift. Maskuri Abdillah, the head of Indonesia's largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, said the vote reflected "a hatred of Swiss people against Muslim communities," while Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, Egypt's highest religious official, called it an "insult" to Muslims and an "attack on freedom of beliefs."

Keller-Messahli says she's concerned that radical Muslims could use the vote to convince other Muslims that Western societies discriminate against them. "They might use it as a ruse to stir trouble," she says.

Thus far, however, the initiative's opponents are taking a peaceful approach. On Sunday night, hundreds of people demonstrated on the streets of Zurich and Bern, carrying candles and carton minarets and waving signs reading, "This is not my Switzerland." That's a feeling many of the country's Muslims are undoubtedly sharing today.






Perhaps more concerning to Catholics is this story, which the OR does not carry:


Swiss bishop advocates married clergy
Translated from



BERN. Nov. 29 – Mons. Norbert Brunner, Bishop of Sion and incoming president of the Swiss bishops conference, said in an interview with the Zurich newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that there is no substantial connection between celibacy and priesthood, and that therefore, it should be possible to ordain married men as priests.

He says celibacy should be voluntary, and "I think that in our bishops' conference, there is near unanimity that this should be possible in Switzerland".


This photo of a recent Mass concelebration by the Swiss bishops, taken from their site, speaks volumes about their orientation.

Mons. Brunner, who starts his two-year term as president of the Swiss bishops in January, claims he has interevened several times with the Vatican in favor of abolishing mandatory celibacy for priests.

But what a hardheaded ideologue! Has he read nothing of all that John Paul II wrote - not to mention all previous arguments in recorded history for why celibacy is mandatory for priests?

To begin with, no one has a right to be a priest - just because he or she wants to. The Church has the right to say who it accepts to be priests.

And for centuries, anyone intending to be a priest, who heard the 'call', was never unaware that celibacy would be obligatory, and therefore, became priests knowing this.

Nothing has changed. Those who want to become priests but cannot promise celibacy should stay out and serve the Church in some other way.

Mons. Brunner needs a good spiritual retreat in Ars to clear his head.

Personal Ordinariates:
an expression of Vatican II ecumenism
by Fred Kaffenberger

Nov. 30, 2009

Virtue Online, based in Pennsylvania, bills itself as "the voice for global orthodox Anglicanism" and is a daily compendium of news and commentary focused on developments within the Anglican Communion, It has just opened a fewature called 'Anglicans swimming the Tiber' which puts together all news and commentary regarding the opening to Rome.


The recent apostolic constitution on Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, Anglicanorum Coetibus, has stirred up a wide range of reactions among Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, and the Orthodox churches.

As the Bishop of Rome, the Pope has an apostolic responsibility to all baptized Christians, even if their ecclesial communion does not accept Roman primacy.

And so, when groups of Anglicans approached the Vatican seeking union, Pope Benedict XVI responded with a pastoral gesture to enable groups to be admitted corporately — even retaining as much as possible their historical character and pastoral structures.

This corporate provision is thus a practical expression of Vatican II documents: Lumen Gentium (the dogmatic constitution on the Church) and Unitatis Redintegratio (the decree on Christian ecumenism).

Anglicanism began as a political break between Henry VIII of England and the Catholic Church. In the years after the break, various groups have contended within Anglicanism, from low church congregationalists, to high church sacramentalists, from Evangelical Anglicans to Anglo-Catholics.

Over time, Anglicanism has described itself as a via media - a middle way in which the baptized can hold contradictory opinions regarding the efficacy of the sacraments and understanding of creedal doctrines.

In the nineteeth century, Anglicans in the Oxford Movement articulated a branch theory, which looked to the bishops as bearers of apostolic tradition. This view implies a sacramental view of the episcopacy, which is internally problematic for current Anglicanism.

When Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams recently criticized the Catholic practice of ordaining only men (at an ecumenical conference in Rome), his primary argument appealed to baptismal theology and not to any sacramental theology of Holy Orders.

As the culmination of ecumenical discussions between Catholics and Anglicans in the nineteenth century, the Catholic Church investigated Anglican claims in favor of a valid Anglican episcopacy. Leo XIII issued Apostolicae Curae in 1896, which definitively denied the validity of Anglican orders.

Although Anglicans have priests and bishops, they are not priests and bishops in the way that Catholics understand them. With certain exceptions, Apostolicae Curae closed the door to a corporate answer to Anglicans seeking union with Rome.

The Second Vatican Council expressed a profound respect for other Christians, and a growing awareness that sacramental rituals have a vitality even outside the parameters of apostolic succession and communion with Rome.

Lumen Gentium 8 says: "This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity."

The Vatican II decree Unitatis Redintegratio, on ecumenism among Christians, explores the principles of Christian unity in more depth, but notes that "there is no opposition" between individuals seeking union with Rome and ecumenical actions - because they are both inspired by God.

The new constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, builds on this recognition of "elements of sanctification of truth" in Anglicanism: the pastoral role of Anglican leaders as well as the value of Anglican liturgical forms. P

ersonal Ordinariates allow Anglican groups to enter into communion with the Catholic Church in a way that preserves the pastoral relationship and the ritual practices which are impelling these Anglicans toward Catholic unity.

In many cases, the pastoral role of once-Anglican bishops in the Catholic Church will be (as Rowan Williams criticizes) more of a chaplaincy, but for others will be fully episcopal.

A married Anglican man who served as an Anglican bishop would be ordained as a priest and not a bishop, but he could be appointed as an Ordinary and even retain the insignia of bishop (with the status of a retired bishop). This gesture is not merely symbolic, but is an affirmation of the pastoral relationship which the ordinariate had with his people, and a way of continuing the relationship in the Catholic Church.

The constitution has been met with a surge of positive reactions from Anglicans seeking corporate union with Rome. Now, it's a matter of waiting for the groups to make their requests, and for the local bishops to make a place for them.

SAY A PRAYER FOR FR. BLET

Fr. Blet and his book on Pius XII in the Second World War, based on the 11 volumes of documents from the Vatican Archives that he and three other Jesuit scholars put together on orders from Pope Paul VI in the 1960s.



It's been two days since Pierre Blet, SJ, died Sunday morning, and the only English news item I can find about his death comes from a Catholic blogger who lives in Rome. What are CNS and CNA doing? I will post the blog entry first because right now, I don't have time to translate the articles that came out in OR today.


Rev. Dr. Pierre Blet, S.J., 1918-2009
by J.P. Sonnen

Nov. 30, 2009


Sunday morning at 9 a.m. one of the very last Rome legends passed on to his reward at Rome's Hospital Santo Spirito.

Fr. Pierre Blet, S.J., famous Church historian, Rome professor and renowned Jesuit scholar (and great defender of the memory of the Servant of God Pius XII), passed away at the age of 91.

In him, the Company of Jesus loses one of its most heroic members: ever wise, observant, pious and loyal. May the Lord reward him with the prize of His chosen ones. Every day, Fr. Blet celebrated Holy Mass according to the Usus Antiquior of the Roman Missal.

October of 2008 I was in the lobby of the Gregoriana (Rome's Jesuit University) and took this pic[leftmost photo, above) of our beloved Fr. Blet. It was always a joy to see him at the Gregorian and to see him smile and wave. He was a brilliant man, shy and had an angelic smile. He would always smile back if you smiled at him. He was French and spoke some English.

Fr. Blet joined the Jesuits in the 1930s. In 1958 he graduated from the Sorbonne with his doctorate. In Rome he became professor of modern history at the Pontifical Gregorian Univeristy and for 17 years he taught diplomatic history at the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastics. In 1985 he was elected a corresponding member of the Institut de France.

Once, about 1998, when John Paul II was chatting with journalists on a flight he was asked about Pius XII and his answer was simple: "Read Blet."

Paul VI asked Fr. Blet along with some other scholars to defend the wartime record of Pius XII. After their research they published the Actes et Documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la seconde guerre mondiale (Città del Vaticano, 1965-1981).

In English. you can get Pius XII and the Second World War According to the Archives of the Vatican, which contain Fr. Blet's conclusions drawn from the documents he compiled. The book was published in English by Paulist Press in 1999.


From Wikipedia about the WW-II documentation:



Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Acts and Documents of the Holy See related to the Second World War), often abbreviated Actes or ADSS, is an eleven-volume collection of documents from the Vatican historical archives, related to the papacy of Pope Pius XII during World War II.

The collection was compiled by four Jesuit priest-historians—Pierre Blet (France), Angelo Martini (Italy), Burkhart Schneider (Germany), and Robert A. Graham (United States) — authorized by Pope Paul VI in 1964, and published between 1965 and 1981.

The remainder of the documents from Pius XII's papacy may not be released for years; Bishop Sergio Pagano, the prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives said in June 2009 that it would take five or six more to organize the papers, after which the Pope can decide to make further documents available to researchers.

The completed catalog would include approximately 16 million documents from Pius XII's papacy (1939-1958) contained in approximately 700 boxes.

Cardinals Bertone and Zen:
Opposing views on how to implement
Pope's letter to Chinese Catholics

For the Vatican secretary of state, the clandestine Church must come out into the open
and comply with the Chinese authorities.
Cardinal Zen thinks that would be handing itself over to the enemy.
One Chinese bishop recently 'went over' to the 'official' Church.




ROME, December 3, 2009 – The Catholics of China have received two very different instructions recently from two of the highest authorities of the Church: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun.

As secretary of state, Bertone is responsible for Church geopolitics as a whole. Zen is bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, and a member of the commission set up by the Vatican to follow the implementation of the normative letter written by Benedict XVI to Chinese Catholics in June of 2007.

Cardinals Bertone and Zen are both Salesians, and have known each other for much of their lives. But they are often in disagreement concerning China. The former appears more "realistic," the latter more combative. Each claims to be interpreting the Pope's letter correctly.

In recent weeks, a situation involving a Chinese bishop has again revealed the glaring divergence between the two.

The bishop is Francis An Shuxin, 60, coadjutor of the diocese of Baoding, whose main bishop, James Su Zhimin, 75, has been held in an unknown location since 1996.

Bishop An Shuxin himself spent ten years in prison. He was set free last August 24. But at a high price: that of joining the Patriotic Association, the political instrument used by the Chinese authorities to keep the national Church under supervision and separate it from Rome.

Bishop An Shuxin's decision caused some disarray among the 'underground' clergy and faithful. Baoding is in Hebei, the region of China with the highest concentration of Catholics, at least a million and a half, most of them without official recognition.

In addition to Su Zhmin, two other "clandestine" bishops of Hebei are currently in prison: 85-year-old Cosmas Shi Enxiang, bishop of Yixian, who disappeared after his arrest on April 13, 2001, and 74-year-old Julius Jia Zhiguo, bishop of Zhengding, who was rearrested last March 30.

Together with Bishop An Shuxin, two priests of his diocese were also released from prison, on condition that they join the Patriotic Association.

To some in the underground Church, the action of these three seemed like a betrayal, going over to the side of the enemy. But others believe it is a necessary step in order to emerge from clandestine status, a condition that Benedict XVI described in his 2007 letter as "not a normal feature of the Church's life."

It is widely believed that the Roman curia has been pushing the clandestine bishops and priests to obtain official recognition, for the sake of normalizing the life of the dioceses, even at the price of bowing to some of the diktats of the regime.

In the case of Bishop An Shuxin, the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples is suspected to have counselled him, and on November 3, the congregation issued a statement denying it had ever pressured him.

On November 16, Cardinal Bertone addressed a letter to the priests of the Chinese Church, ostensibly in connection with the Year for Priests.

In the letter, dated November 10, Bertone doesn't mention the case of the bishop of Baoding. But the cardinal urges "reconciliation within the Catholic community and a respectful and constructive dialogue with the civil authorities, without renouncing the principles of the Catholic faith."

Bertone also writes that "a truly Eucharistic community cannot retreat into itself, as though it were self-sufficient, but it must stay in communion with every other Catholic community."

Bertone's letter is interesting for other reasons. In exhorting Chinese priests to virtue, he highlights their vices: frequent infidelity to the promises of poverty and chastity, hotheadedness, laziness in pastoral care, lack of study, disinterest in promoting vocations, the absence of missionary zeal...

The statistics on the Church in China are not encouraging. Over the past ten years, the Catholic population in China has remained unchanged. Vocations to the priesthood are falling, but so are vocations to religious life for women. The priests and bishops are too old, or too young. The generation in the middle is missing, and the younger priests are not suitable candidates to be bishops.

With the Church in such a weak condition, the regime feels encouraged to exercise strong pressure and supervision over it. For two years, the Holy See has been unable to appoint any new bishops in China.

Judging by the 23 pages of an instruction released on November 18 by Cardinal Zen – his latest of many commentaries on the letter from Benedict XVI in 2007 – the responsibility for this disappointing state of affairs lies to a great extent with the Vatican authorities.

In Zen's view, the idea is taking hold that the heroic season of the clandestine Church has ended, and that all of its bishops and priests should join the official Church recognized by the regime.

Zen thinks this would lead to an even worse subservience of the Church to the regime in China, and represents an abusive interpretation of Benedict XVI's letter.

The cardinal's instruction reviews the Pope's letter from start to finish, explaining it in what Zen maintains is the only correct way.

According to Zen, when Benedict XVI writes that "the clandestine condition is not a normal feature of the Church's life," he is not ordering the clandestine communities to give in to the demands of the government, but is telling them to resist as long as the abnormal condition that leads to the clandestine condition continues to exist.

He claims that while the Pope is not forbidding the clandestine communities to ask for and obtain official recognition, neither is he inciting them to do this frivolously. On the contrary, the Pope warns them that the regime "almost always" grants recognition on the condition of doing things that are "incompatible with Catholic doctrine."

Zen firmly believes that joining the Patriotic Association is something a clandestine bishop must never do, not even to obtain his freedom.

To those who point out that the Pope has not asked officially recognized bishops to leave the Patriotic Association, Zen says the compromise is due to historical circumstances. He says the Church is allowing illegitimate bishops appointed by the government who have since returned to communion with Rome to remain 'official' but only provisionally, and with the sincere intention of changing this state of things as soon as possible.

At the Vatican, Cardinal Zen's instruction was considered his latest criticism of the Curia's "diplomatic" stance.

Until a few months ago, Vatican attention to China was mostly directed by Monsignor Pietro Parolin, undersecretary for relations with states, and Monsignor Gianfranco Rota Graziosi, bureau chief of the same section.

Parolin has the most expertise in this area, and also followed the situation of the Church in Vietnam. But last summer he was sent to Venezuela as apostolic nuncio, and no one has replaced him in the Curia who has equal competence on the China dossier.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, about a hundred Catholic representatives appointed by the government, including 40 bishops, postponed a scheduled Nov. 25-26 National Assembly of Catholic Representatives for an undetermined date.

The Assembly is the highest authority governing the Catholic Church in China, formally above the Patriotic Association and the PA's episcopal conference, the Council of Chinese Bishops. None of these three institutions is compatible with the configuration of the Catholic Church.

The powers of the Assembly include that of appointing the presidents of the Patriotic Association and of the Council of Bishops. Both of these posts have been vacant for years, because they were both occupied by the "patriotic" bishop of Beijing, Michael Fu Tieshan, who died in 2007, and of Nanjing, Joseph Liu Yuanren, who died in 2004.

In recent months, Cardinal Zen did everything he could to convince the official bishops and priests to boycott the meetings. He didn't succeed. But the Chinese authorities stopped forcing the issue. And by postponing the National Assembly of Catholic Representatives, they have left open the opportunity – or temptation – for yet another compromise with Vatican authorities.


It's all very confusing. It's difficult to say how prompt and how efficiently the pastoral letters and instructions are disseminated among the underground Catholics. Who knows how many of them are even aware at present of the Bertone letter and the Zen instructions?

In any case, it seems to me the cause of the Church in mainland China is crippled above all by the lack of at least one strong leader or rallying point within China for the underground Chinese.

Cardinal Zen favors the heroic stand but he is not inside China, and we really don't know what influence he has, if any, on the underground Church there. He does have the advantage of proximity and language over the Secretariat of State, whose translators apparently botched the first version of the Pope's letter!

And the Vatican Secretariat of State appears not to have developed an effective way of communicating with the underground Church other than established ways like the Internet (and snail mail) that the Chinese authorities can easily block.

Also, what is it really that Mons. Parolin had to contribute to improving the situation, if in the two years since the Pope's letter, he obviously failed to coordinate with Cardinal Zen in any way?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for now. I personally think the underground bishops should decide what to do individually, based on a realistic asessment of their respective local situations, and what would be best for their underground flock. Some will choose to continue resisting, some will decide that going over to the official Church will bring more good than bad to their flock.

Meanwhile, they can look at the experience of those who are now in the official Church. If they are able to practice their faith freely and in the open, does it really matter that they have to pay lip service to the PA?

And since apparently all the official bishops in China have by now also been recognized by the Vatican, they may be justified in interpreting the Pope's letter to mean that as official bishops, they should be good citizens as well. Which means, in their case, following PA orders.

The PA appears to have just one raison d'etre: to create the appearance of a Chinese Catholic Church that is independent of Rome. It does not seem to have anything to do with the arrest, imprisonment, and sometimes, disappearance and death, of some bishops and priests, which, from all accounts, are carried out by local/regional officials arbitrarily. Equally important, the PA does not appear to deviate from the doctrine of the Church, except for the practical matter of appointing bishops.

In this context, I find the Curial interpretation of the Pope's letter reasonable.

After some accommodation was reached on the naming of bishops - with the Vatican approving the last few bishops named by the PA - Benedict XVI perhaps thinks such a provisional truce is acceptable (and preserves the apostolic succession), until the Vatican is able to work out a more satisfactory agreement with the Beijing central government on the appointment of bishops. This appointing power appears to be the only outward sign of whether the bishops of China are under the jurisdiction of Rome or of Beijing.

Meanwhile, Cardinals Bertone and Zen should come to a mutual accommodation themselves because the lack of coherence - and even downright opposition - of their respective stands only confuses the Chinese Catholics more!

Worse, some would say the Pope's letter was not at al clear, even after the Vatican published a compendium of it, which was supposed to help understanding. So, it's not very reassuring when the two cardinals most involved in the issue have radically different interpretations of what the Pope meant.

Perhaps they should ask the Pope directly which one is right. I suspect the Pope will say it is not a black-and-white situation at all and should not be dealt with inflexibly.

Not so secret: New book
features 105 documents
from Vatican archives
By Cindy Wooden



VATICAN CITY, Dec. 4 (CNS) -- With millions of documents filling almost 53 miles of shelf space, the Vatican Secret Archives obviously still hold some secrets.

Despite the aura of mystery surrounding the archives, the Vatican actually encourages academics to research its holdings and has worked with a Belgian publishing house to bring 105 of the most important, or curious, documents to the public.



The coffee-table book, The Vatican Secret Archives, was published by VdH Books in Dutch, English, French and Italian.

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, the Vatican archivist, wrote in the introduction that he knows popular books and movies love to imply there are deep dark secrets intentionally hidden from public view.

But, as Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the archives, explained, the "secret" in the archives' title comes from the Latin "secretum," meaning "personal" or "private."

In fact, Pope Leo XIII ordered the archives opened to researchers in 1881, and currently 60 to 80 scholars work there each day, poring over the parchments, ledgers, letters and texts.

The new book lets readers see some of the things the academics have seen, including handwritten letters to Pope Pius IX from Abraham Lincoln and from Jefferson Davis.

Both letters were written in 1863 while the U.S. Civil War raged on.

President Lincoln's letter is a formal, diplomatic request that Pope Pius accept Rufus King as the U.S. representative to the Vatican.

The letter makes no mention of the war, but assures the pope that King is "well informed of the relative interests" of both the United States and the Vatican "and of our sincere desire to cultivate and strengthen the friendship and good correspondence between us."

On the other hand, the letter from Jefferson Davis, president of the secessionist Confederate States, is filled with references to the war and its "slaughter, ruin and devastation."

Only the first page of the letter and Davis's signature are included in the book, but the Vatican historian's commentary about the letter includes quotations from the second page as well.

The commentator said Davis wrote to Pope Pius after the Pope had written to the archbishops of New York and New Orleans "urging them to employ every possible means to end the bloodshed and restore peace."

Davis wrote to the Pope about the suffering caused by "the war now waged by the government of the United States against the states and people over which I have been chosen to preside."

He assured the Pope that the people of the South are fighting only to defend themselves and to ensure they can "live at peace with all mankind under our own laws and institutions."

The book's historical commentary said the letter was, in fact, a veiled ploy to convince Pope Pius to recognize the independence of the Confederacy and establish diplomatic relations; the Pope did not do so.

The book also includes a photograph of a letter to Pope Leo written on birch bark. The 1887 letter from the Ojibwe people of Grassy Lake, Ontario, thanks the Pope -- "the Great Master of Prayer, he who holds the place of Jesus" -- for having given them a good "custodian of prayer," the local bishop.

The birch-bark letter and the most fragile ancient documents in the archives have been digitally scanned, and scholars consult them on one of the computers in the archives' Index Room.

But most of their requests result in the actual document being retrieved from storage in an underground bunker, a loft or one of the many rooms lined with 16th- and 17th-century wooden cupboards.

In a silence broken only by an occasional page turning and a constant click-click of keys on laptop computers, the scholars examine and write about the documents.

Alfredo Tuzi, director of the reading room, said the most popular topics of current research are the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the rise of Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy, roughly during the same years.

The archival material those scholars are working with has been available to the researchers only since 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI authorized the opening of all materials related to the papacy of Pope Pius XI, who died in February 1939.

Tuzi said that like any government, the Vatican has a set policy for the gradual opening of documents to public research. While some countries stipulate a number of years -- often 50 years after the documents were written -- the Vatican Secret Archives open records one entire pontificate at a time.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have asked the archives' staff to speed up the organization and cataloguing of the records from the pontificate of Pope Pius XII -- who reigned during and after World War II -- so that scholars can access them soon.

Archival material created after February 1939 is kept behind a strong wire fence in the archives' two-storey underground bunker, inaugurated by Pope John Paul II in 1983.

Made of reinforced concrete, the bunker resembles an underground parking garage featuring rows of metal shelves instead of cars. The yellow lines painted on the floors do not indicate parking spaces, but are glow-in-the-dark arrows pointing to emergency exits.