BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Tuesday, July 27, 17th Week in Ordinary Time

BLESSED ANTONIO LUCCI (Italy, 1683-1752), Franciscan and Bishop
Educated by Franciscans, he became a Franciscan himself and went on to teach theology
in Franciscan seminaries. In 1717, he became provincial-general of the Franciscans, and
the following year, was named a professor at St. Bonaventure College in Rome. In 1729,
Pope Benedict XII named him Bishop of Bovino (east central Italy) calling him "an
eminent theologian and a great saint". He was bishop for 23 years, renewing his diocese
in living according to the gospel, and giving up his personal income to works of education
and charity. He also wrote a book about the conventual Franciscans who were canonized
and beatified in the first 200 years of the order. He was beatified in 1989.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/072710.shtml



OR for 7/25-7/27:

Photo shows the Holy Father addressing the overflow crowd at last Sunday's Angelus from the front
balcony of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.
At the Angelus, Benedict XVI reflects on the 'Our Father'
and greets the pilgrims in Compostela for St. James's feast day
'He who prays is never alone'
The Pope's sorrow for tragedy at German technorock festival
Other Page 1 stories: US-South Korean annual war games proceed despite North
Korea's threats; Venezuelan President Chavez threatens to withhold crude oil
supplies to the US if Colombia should attack Venezuela for harboring Colombian
guerrillas; BP to replace Tony Hayward as CEO as of Oct. 1; and the director
of the Vatican Museums says that the 'Martyrdom of St. Lawrence' attributed
last week to Caravaggio in an OR article was in fact a copy by one of his disciples
of a now-lost painting by another master of the time. (It must be noted that
formal identification/authentication of the newly unearthed painting is yet to
be made, and that Paolucci came to his conclusion after one visit to see the painting.
Everyone involved here seems to be rushing to judgment one way or the other!)

NB: The OR certainly set itself up for a huge embarassment - most news media today
picked up the story of the 'false' Caravaggio and the OR's mistake!


The following story properly belongs to yesterday's 'almanac':

Pope's message for
Spain's grandparents


Vatican City, Jul 26, 2010 (CNA) - The apostolic nuncio to Spain, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, recently sent a message on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to those celebrating Grandparents' Day on July 26, the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Ann.

The message is addressed to the president of the Mensajeros de la Paz (Messengers of Peace), Father Angel Garcia, and members of the organization Edad Dorada (Golden Age)*.

“The Holy Father, with appreciation for the religious, spiritual, human and social richness of grandparents, gladly joins in this gesture of affection and gratitude, and he encourages them to persevere in the faith, giving meaning with the light of Christ the Lord to all the moments of their lives,” the message states.

“May the Lord help them with his providence and mercy,” the message continues, “and imploring the protection of the holy grandparents Sts. Joaquin and Ana, and of their daughter, the glorious Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Holy Father affectionately imparts to you his apostolic blessing, which he joyfully extends to your children, grandchildren and to all those participating in the celebration.”



*For the past 11 years, the two Catholic associations engaged in social assistance to families and older people, have sponsored the annual observance of the Dia de Los Abuelos (Day for Grandparents) in a major Spanish city. This year, it was in Jaen, Andalucia, and the celebration was attended by the Spanish Minister of Welfare.

There's no hard news so far that I can simply cut and post, and even some UK papers today
had to fall back on the baseball cap photo for 'news', there being nothing new to report on the Pope's visit...


Baseball-cap photo
plays well in the media

A UK tabloid used it to sort of 'humanize' the Pope; and a 'respectable' paper, to illustrate a days-old news item with a snide slant.

First, here's what the UK's largest tabloid made of the Pope-in-baseball-cap photo released by the OR yesterday. Obviously, the writer - and her editors - never saw similar photos of the Pope from Les Combes (and Mont Blanc) in 2005 and 2006 (See strip). The cap and the pectoral bling? Street groove!


The item ends with an 'informative' paragraph:
The Pope is due to make a four-day visit to the UK in September, when he will meet
the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and conduct a service to beatify Cardinal
Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham. Check him out, bro...

Rival tabloid The Sun went even farther...



Here's what The Guardian did with it:



To reduce the Pope to just another celebrity writing a book for children is a cheap shot and tawdry, to say
the least. Also, he did not exactly 'write the book' for children - rather, the book adapts his catecheses on the
Apostles to tell their stories to children...

'Pope publishes children's book' is cited quite a few times in today's catalog of Pope news online, so at least that publicizes the book:




And the Pope also ends up as the 'Fashion' note this morning in the wildly popular celebrity news online site TMZ:




I really don't know where all these editors and reporters have been in the past five years, but as long as they use the photograph and say nothing bad about the Pope, then I won't fault them. The following story (you have to excuse its adolescent gush and complete ignorance that the Pope has worn a baseball cap before) also leads into an update on a previously reported item - that the Pope won't be flying British Airways back to Rome after the UK visit:

Peak trend: Stylish Pope Benedict
channels urban fashion
with his white baseball cap
By Mail Foreign Service

27th July 2010


It is not the sort of head-wear you'd expect the Pope to sport. But Pope Benedict XVI broke with tradition by wearing a baseball cap as he went for a stroll around his summer residence on Sunday.

The Pontiff looked like he would be more comfortable walking through the mean streets of an inner-city than a quiet garden in rural Italy.

He even colour-coordinated his new cap, perhaps mindful of the need for it to blend in with his white robe and white hair.

The 83-year-old donned the trendy hat as he walked around his estate in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The cap also served the more useful purpose of keeping the hot summer sun off the Pope's head.

[ Quibble and serious note: What's trendy about a baseball cap? It's a most useful headgear - it keeps the head cool and it shields the eyes from direct sunlight. Being ultra-sensitive to both heat and sun glare, the Pope is simply protecting himself.]

The move isn't the first time that the Vatican has broken with tradition this week.

It emerged at the weekend that officials have decided not to fly the Pope home to Italy on British Airways at the end of his state visit to the UK this autumn. The decision is due, in part, to the threat of BA strikes.

It has become customary for the Pope to return home from official visits on the flag carrier of the country he has toured.

But Pope Benedict will instead fly from Rome to Britain and back on an Airbus A320 operated by Italian state airline Alitalia.

One factor understood to have concerned Roman Catholic officials was the BA cabin crew strikes, which threaten to restart in September when the visit takes place.

The Vatican is determined nothing should detract from the four-day trip, the first state visit by a Pope to Britain.

He will meet the Queen in Scotland before visiting London and Birmingham.

British Airways was asked earlier this year to provide a quote to charter a 747 jet to fly the Pope back to Rome.

A BA source said it offered a quote at ‘commercial rates’, but heard no more from the Church.

Airline officials assumed the Vatican had been given a cheaper quote by a rival.

Vatican sources, however, claim Church officials in the UK tried to contact BA again to discuss the details but received no response.

[The article uses both the baseball-cap photo and one of the Pope and GG praying before a statue of the Madonna, from the series released by the Vatican.]

Lord Patten makes an obvious point here about the unique character of a papal visit that few people ever take into account:


Challenges and consensus
ahead of papal trip:
More difficult to prepare than
a visit by the US President



26 Jul 10 (RV) - There is just over a month and a half to go to Pope Benedict XVI’s historic state visit to the United Kingdom, and preparations for the trip, after some initial difficulties, are now entering the final stages.

In the lead up to the Pope’s arrival in September 16, UK media have been focusing on the cost of the visit on tax payers and on limited capacity in venues for the Holy Father’s public liturgical celebrations.

Lord Chris Patten is the British government’s special representative for the papal visit. He says the nature of papal visits are far more complex than simple state visits:

---

I think at the outset, and this is no criticism, people had perhaps underestimated the complexity involved in fitting together the state visit aspect and the pastoral aspects as if they were a seamless whole.

Its incomparably more difficult arranging the state visit of the Holy Father than arranging the state visit of even President Obama. President Obama doesn’t go out and meet one hundred thousand people at an open air venue.

The difficulties in getting all this together, were I think a little underestimated, but now I think we’re on top of things.

I also think it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate that the government of a largely non-Catholic country still has a formidably large agenda to work with the Catholic Church on issues of consensus; the Millennium Development Goals, environmental protection, global equity, disarmament issues. Domestic issues, such as strengthening the relationship between faith groups in the community.

When we ‘parade’ the importance of this relationship we will perhaps even surprise some people who were critical of this visit in the first place.

---

Unfortunately, the English service of Vatican Radio does not generally provide transcripts of the interviews they air. The rest of Patten's interview appears in the Italian service but in Italian translation, which I am translating back to English here:

---

Some of the criticism has to do with the cost of this visit which seem to be constantly rising...
The costs for the tax-payers being in the range of 10-12 million, but when you consider that last year the UK hosted a G20 summit, which lasted just one day and cost 19-20 million pounds, I think this should show that we have to consider facts in the right context...

Recently, you said that the UK is the most secularized country that the Pope will have visited...D. –
I’m talking about issues like church attendance and the extent to which I think the desire for visibility on the part of intellectual agnostics and atheists have acquired wide play in the public agenda and in the media.

There is a phrase in a very beautiful book by Julian Barnes about death (Nothing to be Afraid of). He begins the book with something he said to his brother: "I don't believe in God, but I miss him!" I think that is the sense in which many people live these days in my country.

You have also spoken about intolerance for religious belief. Do you think this is particularly directed against the Catholic Church?
I think it’s particularly directed to the Catholic Church because of the important pre-eminence of the Catholic Church, her longevity, and the certainty with which she asserts fundamental truths.

But this does not concern me excessively. I think we should be consistent in our faith, but we should also remember that in the past, we have been guilty of intolerance ourselves.

In this context, how difficult will it be for the Pope's message to reach the people?
I think it should be easier to get across, in terms of what the Church has been doing on a broad range of social issues - especially considering the interest of the younger generations in the aspects of social justice on a global level.

For instance, it is probably not generally known that 25% of school instruction in sub-Saharan Africa is provided by the Church, and that likewise, 25% of health care in sub-Saharan Africa comes from the Church and Church-related groups.

But these messages will come out during the Pope's visit in the many important meetings he will have. I am not at all pessimistic in this regard.

---

And from the official website for the papal visit:

Weekly audio update
on the Papal Visit
Transcript from

26 July 2010

Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, visit coordinator for the Church of England and Wales, answers the question:
What's been happening over the past few days?

Well, quite a lot has been happening recently. We have just had a party of officials over from the Vatican for a final planning meeting. That went very well - they managed to visit most of the places where Pope Benedict will be going and the group has now returned to the Vatican. The final stage of this process will see us get together at the end of August to make sure that all the details are properly in place.

Also in the last few days we have been able to finalise the text for the handbook, the Missal, which will enable those who are participating in some of the gatherings with the Holy Father to follow the Visit. It will also be a valuable accompaniment to those celebrating the Visit in their parishes, at home, on television or online.

So that’s all come together now, it’s gone to the printers, and will be distributed in the couple of weeks leading up to the Papal Visit.

When the Papal Visit Missal does become available and we are ready to distribute it, we will publish details of the liturgies here on the website, so that people will be able to follow online as well. So it's nice to have that in place because it’s one of the key things required to bring the whole of the Visit together.

Also in the coming days, we will be letting you know more about the merchandising and souvenirs that will be available for the Pope’s Visit. We have had quite a lot of enquiries from parishes and groups looking to purchase papal flags and papal decorations for their churches, halls and schools.

We’re sending all that information out and people will be able to order that quite soon. Again the place to look this information will thepapalvisit.org.uk - the online shop and full details will be there.

Finally, with the Diocesan Co-ordinators, we’ve firmed up putting the groups together who will be attending the Papal gatherings - this is going well. Clearly there are a lot of queries and people here are
doing their best to respond to those to offer the clarity needed.

We’re in touch with the security services and the different local authorities in order to make sure that we’re giving the right information.

I think it’s important to stress again that one does have to be part of a group in order to attend one of the Masses or the Prayer Vigil, and the dioceses and local parishes all have that information. [That's not what the news releases have been saying so far - that one has to be part of a parish group to attend!]

But I think it’s also important to underline that there will be other opportunities for people to see the Holy Father in person. When the final programme is published in about a month’s time, people will be able to see that there are opportunities to greet Pope Benedict as he is travelling around.

Some of his movements be in the Popemobile precisely so that people can gather and greet him as he travels, and that will be made quite clear when the programme is published. I hope that as many people as possible would take that opportunity to be able to welcome Pope Benedict as he goes by - that would be great.


The following item has been previously reported, but a new report on it is a great standby for a lean news day:

'Once in a lifetime' Raphael exhibit
to mark the Pope's historic visit
By Mario Masciullo

Jul 26, 2010



To commemorate the historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland in September, the Victoria and Albert Museum, in collaboration with the Vatican Museums, will hold this “once in a lifetime event” entitled Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel.

The official announcement was made at a press conference last July 17 in the magnificent Sala Regia of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, followed by the privilege of admiring Raphael’s tapestries displayed in the Sistine Chapel, their original sixteenth century location.

The forthcoming event is a unique and memorable experience made even more memorable since the Pope and Queen Elisabeth will present the complementary parts of the two collections as a contribution of the common cultural traditions of European heritage.

The fact that the tapestries were made in Brussels, at that time a stronghold of textile art, adds another dimension to the culture behind these tapestries.

The V&A (Vatican and Arts) announced that four of the ten tapestries designed by Raphael for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City will go on display from September 8 to October 17, 2010.

These are the original tapestries from the only series designed by Raphael of which examples survive. They are considered along with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceilings as masterpiecies of High Renaissance art.

The tapestries will be displayed alongside the full-size designs for them - the famous Raphael cartoons - which have been on display in the V&A since 1865. This will be the first time that the design and tapestries have been displayed together – something Raphael himself never witnessed. The tapestries have not been shown before in the UK.

[The term 'cartoon' for these designs comes from the Italian word 'cartoni' for the heavy paper on which they were drawn.]

The Raphael cartoons were commissioned from the great Italian Renaissance painter Raffaelo Sanzio in 1515 by Pope Leo X (1513-21). The cartoons and tapestries depict the histories of St. Peter - “ex Lege” - and St.Paul - “ex gentibus” - represented as twin founders of the early church, the Papacy.


Left, the Sistine Chapel wall, with the familiar Perugino painting of Jesus giving the Keys to St. Peter, and part of the lower wall originally intended to be covered by the Raphael tapestries; right, the tapestries hung over the lower wall for the July 17 news conference.

They were designed to cover the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel, below the frescoes depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ created during the period of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484).

The first delivery of seven of these magnificent works of art, made of wool, silk, and gold and silver thread, were displayed in the Sistine Chapel for Christmas in 1519, while the remaining three tapestries reached the Vatican in 1521.

The tapestries were woven in Brussels, Europe’s leading center for tapestry-weaving, and then sent to Rome for display. As the cartoons remained in Brussels, Raphael himself never saw the cartoons beside the tapestries woven from them.

Several European monarchs, including Henry VIII, later commissioned copies of the tapestries, which were made from the cartoons brought to England to have his own set woven in the Mortlake tapestry workshops, and they have remained in England ever since.

The Vatican Museum owns the tapestries from the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons belong to the Queen, but have been on long-term loan to the V&A since Queen Victoria lent them in 1865. The cartoons are too fragile to leave the museum building, so they have never left the V&A.

The four tapestries will be hung in the V&A’s Raphael gallery next to the seven cartoons. The design of each cartoon correspond in every point, but in reverse, to the tapestry it was made for.

The weavers cut Raphael’s cartoons into strips and copied them closely, weaving each tapestry from the back. The front image was thus the reverse of its cartoon.


The tapestry 'Feed my lambs' and its reverse image cartoon.

The painted strips of cartoon were joined together again later, and became prized as artworks in their own right.

Below, cartoon and tapestry showing 'The Miraculous Catch of Fish':



The exhibition of the tapestries will take place over a six-week period to coincide with the historic visit to England and Scotland of Pope Benedict XVI.

Martk Jones, director of the V&A said: “This is a marvelous opportunity to see great Renaissance masterpieces reunited for the first time in almost 500 years. We are very happy to show these important works in our Raphael Gallery.”

The exhibition is made possible by a collaboration between the V&A and the Vatican Museums and is generously supported by Michael and Dorothy Hintze and the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation, with further support from the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums. [Pope Benedict recently mentioned the Hintzes as among the donors for the new St. Joseph Fountain in the Vatican Gardens.]

The patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums is an organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of one of the word’s greatest collections of art, which has been displayed in the Vatican for more than 500 years. More info may be found at www.vaticanpatrons.org and mv.vatican.va .


And here's three cheers and our undying gratitude to the unnamed weavers who have turned out these precious tapestries and others like it, along with the legions of unnamed artists and artisans responsible for the world's great churches and unsigned pieces inspired by the message and story of Christianity.

Photos show CIM pilgrims during their last visit to Rome in 2001.


53,000 ministrants to attend
Pope's general audience
when it resumes on August 4
by SALVATORE IZZO



ROME, July 27 (Translated from AGI) - There will be 53,000 ministrants present at St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, August 4, when Pope Benedict XVI resumes his General Audience, suspended since July 9 during the time the Pope would normally have been on summer holiday in the mountains.

The young ministrants will come from 17 countries under the Basel-based international association of ministrants, Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium CIM, which marks its 50th anniversary this year.

The anniversary pilgrimage will also include a prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The theme of this year's pilgrimage is "Drinking water from the true well".

According to a preliminary report from VIS last week, 44,000 of the participants will come from Germany alone. {A surprising statistic!]

At the GA, Bishop Martin Gachter, auxiliary bishop of Basel, Switzerland, and president of CIM, will greet the national groups then present the Pope with a white pilgrim shawl. Following the Holy Father's address and blessing, a band and choir from Hamburg will play in honour of the Pope.

The pilgrims will be bringing to Rome a giant statue of St. Tarcisius which left Basel two years ago to travel around Europe as a symbol of the 'little great service' that young people can render at the altar. The statue will be enshrined in the catacombs of St. Callistus on the Via Appia Antica.

[A boy martyr and the patron saint of acolytes, Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. One day, there was no deacon to send, and so Tarcisius was sent instead. A group of non-Christian boys who asked him to play with them noticed that he was carrying something of which he was very protective. They beat him up badly, and although he was brought back to the catacombs, he died of his injuries.]

Additional information about CIM from


"There are ministrants in all parishes. They represent an important nucleus for the pastoral care of the youth; a nucleus which is present in each parish and which can be further developed. Ministrants' service involves major dimensions of pastoral work: proclamation, liturgy, deaconry and communion", said Mons. Gachterr, president of CIM.

The bishop said that the theme for this year's pilgrimage to Rome "is rich with biblical references, such as the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. It also reflects the words of the Creation, the vivifying power of God, the Exodus and baptism".

Wednesday, July 28, 17th Week in Ordinary Time


ST. LEOPOLD MANDIC (b Montenegro 1887, d Italy 1942), Capuchin, Apostle of the Confessional
Baptized Bogdan, the saint was born to a family of noble Croatian origin. At 16, he entered the Franciscan seminary in Udine, northern Italy, took the name Leopold, and was ordained a Capuchin at age 24. He lived in Italy for the rest of his life, eventually settling in Padua. Suffering from physical deformity (he was only 4'4"), stuttering and a variety of ailments all his life, Leopold taught patrology (the study of the Church Fathers) in Franciscan seminaries, But he was best known for his zeal in promoting confession, often spending 13-16 hours a day hearing confessions. His dream was to preach to the Orthodox Christians and promote reunification of the Church, but his poor health never allowed him to be a missionary. He died of esophageal cancer in Padua in 1942, and was canonized in 1982.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/072810.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR, but there is an interview with the Archbishop of Compostela on the recent Dia de Santiago and the Pope's coming visit, and a story on the celebration of the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anna on Monday at the Vatican, where the parish church is dedicated to St. Ann (Cardinals Vallini, Comastri and Canizares offered Masses). Page 1 international news: The IMF says the Chinese yuan is still grossly undervalued; hackers dump secret US Defense Department documents on the war in Afghanistan and claim that war crimes were committed by US forces; the European Union expresses concern over the continued weakness of human rights compliance in the Sudan; armed Brazilian tribal natives occupy an Amazon power plant and hold teh workers hostage until they are paid indemnity for the use of their tribal lands. In the inside pages, a tribute to 1960 - the year of Fellini's La Dolce Vita - as the peak year for Italian cinema.

Faithful are urged to line
the streets to greet Pontiff
By Anna Arco

Wednesday, 28 July 2010




The faithful are being urged to line the streets for the Pope during his visit to Britain in September.

After some confusion about whether Catholics would be encouraged to see Pope Benedict XVI as he made his way to events during his four-day stay in Britain, organisers have said they hope people will come out to see him.

Tickets for papal events are becoming ever more difficult to obtain as many parishes are experiencing a high demand for them, so organisers are urging Catholics to consider other options.

According to Mgr Andrew Summersgill, the bishops’ papal visit coordinator, the Pope will use the Popemobile, a white fortified Mercedes with a glass cage, for some parts of the trip so that people can greet him. When the final programme is finished, he said, people will have opportunities to greet the Pope.

“Some of his movements will be in the Popemobile, precisely so that people can gather and greet him as he travels, and that will be made quite clear when the programme is published,” he said. “I hope that as many people as possible would take that opportunity to be able to welcome Pope Benedict as he goes by – that would be great.”

The Popemobile plans also include the possibility of the Pope being driven around Cofton Park in Birmingham before and after the Beatification of John Henry Newman so that assembled pilgrims can see him.

Some reports said that the idea of the Popemobile for Cofton Park had been dropped because of rising costs, but Canon Patrick Browne, the papal visit coordinator for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, said they were still working on “allowing as many people as possible to view the Holy Father as he passes by and to welcome him and support the Church in its mission”.

Speaking at a press conference in Birmingham, Canon Browne said organisers were still working with the various agencies to get the Popemobile to Birmingham. He said there were fears that the slope at Cofton Park might be too dangerous for the Popemobile.

Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham said: “think of the papal audiences in Rome which are very often in St Peter’s Square and the huge numbers of people who come there.

“It is an ideal way of letting people who are at some distance from where the Pope speaks to actually see something of him up close. I think that remains a legitimate aspiration.”

He also announced that the American deacon miraculously cured with the help of Cardinal Newman will have a major role in the Birmingham cardinal’s beatification Mass.

Deacon Jack Sullivan, from Massachusetts, whose spinal disorder disappeared after he prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman, will proclaim the Gospel and act as deacon at the beatification Mass.

The miracle, subjected to rigorous tests by a series of doctors and then by theologians, was necessary to advance the process of beatification. The Church requires one miracle attributed to a Servant of God for beatification and a second one for canonisation.

Archbishop Longley said: “Another thing that is at the heart of the beatification is a recognition of Cardinal Newman’s intercessory powers. We can speak about prayer to the saints as part of the life of the Church.

“We feel a closeness to those who are part of the communion of the saints. So people do pray and have prayed to Cardinal Newman that his prayers to Almighty God may assist him in their daily lives. This has been recognised through the Church’s miraculous cure of an American deacon who is living and working in the diocese of Boston. I also had the chance of meeting him quite recently. I am glad that he will be coming to Birmingham together with his wife, Carol, and some of his family as my personal guest for the beatification itself.”

Mr Sullivan and his wife will take part in a procession to honour Newman at the beginning of the Mass at Cofton Park during the rite of Beatification.

At the start of the rite, Archbishop Longley will formally request the beatification of Cardinal Newman from the Pope. The archbishop also said that the beatification was one of the main reasons for which Pope Benedict accepted the Government’s invitation to come to Britain.

He said: “The beatification comes as the culmination of the four-day visit of the Holy Father and I think that the interest and excitement towards the beatification will build up inevitably within those four days. I think that’s right because, as far as I understand it, one of the things which has persuaded Pope Benedict to accept this invitation on the part of Her Majesty’s Government, to accept also the welcome from our own Catholic Church in England and Wales and Scotland, is precisely because of the beatification of Cardinal Newman.

“His own interest is in this and it is significant that he has decided, has chosen to do something which is quite unusual today.”


Now, the secular media are making much of the fee being asked of pilgrims who will get tickets to the prayer vigil in London and the beatification Mass in Birmingham - and the communications pooh-bahs of the Church of England and Wales are being much too defensive about it. The Church obviously needs help to defray its part of the expenses. So why not ask the faithful to help out? I cannot imagine any Catholic - even in these difficult times - begrudging a 25-pound contribution for this purpose, especially since it comes with the privilege of admission to one of the two historic public events of the papal visit. I would think of it as a 'sacrifice' of 2 pounds a month for one year... After all, there is no lack of people willing to pay ten times or even 100 times that amount to scalpers for a ticket to a rock concert or a big game.


Papal visit will see public
paying up to £25 for a ticket
By Lewis Smith

Thursday, 29 July 2010


The faithful are to be charged up to £25 a head to see Pope Benedict XVI when he comes to Britain later this year.

It will be the first time pilgrims have been charged to attend events during a papal visit and the charges reflect mounting concerns about the costs of the trip.

Charges will be levied for tickets to two events: a prayer vigil in London's Hyde Park on 18 September and the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Birmingham the following day.

Church officials said the charges are for transportation to the London and Birmingham events but that pilgrims who want to attend must join a parish group and cannot travel independently. There are 70,000 tickets for the beatification and 130,000 for the Hyde Park vigil.

They said the charges were being made because the pilgrims would be "journeying" to see the Pope, just as ancient pilgrims did, and would be provided with a "pilgrim pack". [This kind of 'forced' justification is painful even to read! Just say it out plainly: "We have been unable to raise everything we need to pay for during the visit, so we need your help in the form of a modest contribution". The 'pilgrim pack' itself is usually given free at similar papal visits, and I cannot imagine any pilgrim to these events not wanting to keep souvenirs of it.]

A spokesman said: "Those attending the gatherings are not just 'ticket' holders, nor guests nor visitors; they are gathering as a representative body of the faithful from across the UK and thus are more akin to the ancient notion of pilgrims journeying to a spiritual experience – in the same way that the Vatican entitles all papal visits as an 'apostolic journey'." [UGH! It gets even more embarrassing - all these faux sentiments! Each pilgrim who makes an effort to see the Pope during these visits knows exactly why he/she is doing it, and what a privilege it is to get a ticket to historic events. They don't have to be told.

I only feel bad that English Catholics will not have the opportunity to experience the first beatification to be presided by a Pope on English soil in the same way that the Brazilians did when the Pope canonized Fray Galvao in Sao Paolo three years ago - almost a million of them turned up at Sao Paolo's old airfield.]

The Vatican has been alarmed by the costs of the visit, with the most recent estimates suggesting it will have to find £14m while taxpayers are facing a £20m bill. [Too late now to lament what the British taxpayer will have to pay for - but as Lord Patten has pointed out, they spent 20-mil alone in security costs for one day of a Western leaders' summit, in which none of them had to face the public in any way at all.

Why did the Labor government volunteer to make the visit a state visit at, to begin with? Since Gordon Brown is not Catholic and therefore had no special reason to honor the Pope with the highest possible type of official invitation, one must surmise his government saw some advantage to be had from having the Pope make a state visit!]

Officials have blamed health and safety rules for increasing the costs and said there are considerably more regulations than in 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited. [That and the natural inflation that has occurred over the past three decades! We're talking 1982 and 2010 here - a different generation and a different epoch even!]]

This is the kind of news we will never see reported in the condom-fixated, free-sex-at-any-cost liberal media, and they will never ever admit that strategies involving self-discipline will always be far more effective than a rubber thingy that raises false confidence among its users ("In gum we trust!"). Much less, apologize to the Pope, who certainly needs no vindication for what he said last year about condoms and AIDS, but it's always good to have more studies behind him. Sorry I didn't see this item earlier...


UN study backs
Church strategy on AIDS
By Paul Jeffrey

Wednesday, 21 July 2010


A new UN studyn AIDS has lent credibility to faith leaders who have long argued that behavioural change is key to combating the spread of the illness, a Catholic expert on the disease has said.

Mgr Robert Vitillo, special adviser to Caritas Internationalis on HIV and Aids, said: “Within the United Nations there is more and more attention to focusing on abstinence and the reduction of the number of sexual partners as well as the strategy of promoting condoms. This is a validation of what we’ve done.”

Mgr Vitillo and other Catholics who work with people living with HIV and Aids joined thousands of researchers, politicians and activists from around the world for the XVIII International Aids Conference on July 18-23 in Vienna.

The biennial conference takes place as new studies indicate progress is being made in lowering the HIV infection rate among young people in several countries around the world.

A study from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids released last week showed that HIV prevalence among young people has declined by more than 25 per cent in 15 of the 21 most-affected countries.

In eight countries, according to the report, the declines in HIV prevalence have resulted, at least in part, from positive changes in sexual behaviour among young people, including youth waiting longer before they become sexually active and having fewer partners.

Mgr Vitillo said other recent studies had shown that behavioural change had more to do with reducing HIV infection in countries such as Uganda and Kenya than promoting condom use.

Mgr Vitillo, who is based in Geneva and works closely with UN agencies and other international organisations, admitted that respect for the Church’s approach was not universal.

“I was involved in a UN AIDS group that developed a strategic framework on HIV prevention. It was a small group, and there were some protests that they’d invited someone from the Catholic Church, especially me, a priest. But there were others in the group who said: ‘No, the Catholic Church has excellent prevention programmes and a valid approach to prevention,’” Mgr Vitillo said.

Activists at the Vienna conference said, however, that recent progress in combating the effects of the virus was at risk because of declining financial support for care and treatment of those living with HIV and AIDS.

A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation and UN AIDS shows that donor governments provided £5 billion for AIDS relief in 2009, compared with the more than £5 billion disbursed in 2008. Those figures ended a run of annual double digit percentage point increases in donor support for international AIDS assistance since at least 2002, when donor governments provided £787 million.

The opening session of the conference was interrupted by hundreds of activists who staged a “die-in” to protest the cuts in international Aids funding.

Mgr Vitillo said the funding decline was already affecting the Church’s work.

“I was in Uganda in June and our care workers are being told that no new patients should be put on the rolls, and in some cases people are being dropped,” he said.

“Some newly diagnosed families are being told that they have to choose which person will get treatment. Given the culture of Africa, what that means is that the family will divide up the medication to share it among several members. As a result, no one will get well,” he said.

Mgr Vitillo said there was more to the funding cuts than a bad world economy, however.

“Part of this is the result of the global economic crisis. But inevitably when we cut back it’s the most vulnerable populations that are most affected, because they don’t have much of a voice,” he said.

“There is no uproar, like that which would come from big business interests if they were cut back. We have scrambled to get back to giving bonuses to the bankers who started the economic crisis, but not to the vulnerable who are victims of it. There are sufficient resources out there, if we choose to change how we prioritise our global resources.”

Before the international AIDS conference Mgr Vitillo joined more than 100 other Catholic Aids workers from 23 countries in a two-day conference to discuss their work. Many Catholics also participated in a one-day interfaith conference sponsored by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an international network of churches and church agencies.

Participants in the latter conference were challenged by Aids activists to step up their commitment to accepting people living with HIV.

Kevin Moody, international co-ordinator and CEO of the Global Network of People Living with HIV, told the ecumenical conference that despite a lot of progress, religious leaders continue to be accomplices in worsening the suffering of people living with HIV and AIDS.

My attention was called to this article from the FSSPX information site, because of an article today by Paolo Rodari in Il Foglio in which he claims that the FSSPX is 'criticizing the Pope for an event that has not yet taken place'. In fairness, I went to read the editorial itself. It does not say anything that the Lefebvrians have not always said, and despite a couple of questionable points, I think it is a good statement for their side that makes effective use of the metaphor the writer chooses:


The compass and the magnet
Editorial
Translated from

24-07-2010


At the end of August, several ecclesiastics, ex-students of Prof, Joseph Ratzinger, will gather in Castel Gandolfo to discuss the hermeneutic of Vatican II, that is, how to interpret the texts of the Council.

Last March, the Lenten lectures at Notre Dame de Paris presented Vatican II as 'the compass for our time'.

Which begs the question: Can one interpret the direction given by a compass? If it shows the true north, as all compasses should, then what commentary is needed? A compass ought to give precise information that does not leave room for discussion: here is the north, everything else is superfluous.

[I think it is grossly unfair, as well as a non sequitur, to link the slogan of the Notre Dame lectures to the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis discussions. They have nothing to do with each other. Certainly, neither Joseph Ratzinger nor any of his students have made the claim that Vatican II is the compass for our time, nor are they likely to, after the seminar which will presumably reinforce Benedict XVI's reading of Vatican II as 'renewal in continuity with Tradition'.]

There follows another naive question: Why is it that after 50 years, Vatican II continues to be the subject of so many divergent and downright contradictory readings and re-readings? [Because, as those who took part in it wrote afterwards, many documents were the product of compromises in terms of language, or ways of expression, in order to obtain consensus. So, of course, the very ambiguities that come with any compromise are the very provisions that have been subjected to polarly opposed interpretations. On the other hand, however, the progressivist interpreters have tended to completely ignore the provisions that are clear and unequivocal, such as, to name the most obvious, the primacy of the Supreme Pontiff over all other bishops and the duty of the bishops to be in communion with him.]

There is talk of discontinuity and rupture, of renewal in continuity and continuity despite change. The opinions have been clashing and those involved in the dispute appear entirely out of compass! [Not the advocates of ressourcement-cum-aggiornamento such Benedict XVI, for whom the constant compass has always been the depositum fidei as well as the sensum fidei, of which Vatican-II teachings, when interpreted in their light, now form part of.]

An answer might be the fact that the needle of a compass no longer points to the true north when it is directly subjected to an external magnet. A magnet can cause it to deviate or even drive it 'wild'.

The Second Vatican Council, in its desire to open up to the spirit of the modern world, placed itself under an extraneous force of attraction that is foreign to the Church.

In order to find the true north again, the Church must overcome the influence of that extraneous force. And in this, there is no need of a hermeneutic, simply listen to St. Paul who says bluntly: "Do not conform yourselves to this age.." {Rom 12,2).

[The complete verse continues: "... but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" and in verse 3, "to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned".]

I will translate Rodari's piece later.... More importantly, I must translate a very important lecture given recently at the Fraternal Society of St. Peter's (FSSP) seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany, by Mons. Guido Pozzo, secretary of Ecclesia Dei, and therefore the CDF official directly responsible for overseeing the 'doctrinal talks' on Vatican II begun by the CDF last October with the Lefebvrians.

It is entitled 'Aspects of Catholic ecclesiology in the reception of Vatican II'. 'Reception' is the Church term for how a teaching is received, not just int erms of acceptance, but in terms of how it is interpreted, which has everything to do with whether it is accepted or not.

Sandro Magister thinks that Pozzo lays out the line followed by the CDF in its talks with the FSSPX, intending to show that even the Vatican II statements found most objectionable by the FSSPX can and should be itnerpreted in the light of tradition. Pozzo's piece is very lengthy, however, and I am not sure how soon I can provide a translation.


Coincidentally, Phil Lawler had a post yesterday that is related to my comment above on how progressivists who have been pontificating their counter-Magisterium vociferously for the past 50 years completely ignore what Vatican II says about the primacy of the pope and their duty to be communion with him.


When bishops should denounce other bishops:
the limits of episcopal courtesy
by Phil Lawler

July 26, 2010


Catholic bishops are extremely reluctant to engage in public criticism of other Catholic bishops. They are many good reasons for their reluctance. But there are times, I suggest, when they must overcome it, for the good of the Church.

Bishops may disagree about fine points of doctrine and discipline. That is understandable; there is plenty of room of differences of opinion among loyal Catholics.

But is there a point at which a bishop’s public statements are so obviously at odds with the teachings of the Church that they must be explicitly condemned? Is there a point at which orthodox bishops are duty-bound to condemn a colleague’s position?

The faithful have the right — even the obligation — to presume that a bishop who is in good standing speaks with some authority. Yet a bishop’s teaching authority cannot be exercised apart from the authority of the Magisterium. The Code of Canon Law instructs us:

---

By their episcopal consecration, Bishops receive, together with the office of sanctifying, the offices also of teaching and of ruling, which however, by their nature, can be exercised only in hierarchical communion with the head of the College and its members.

---

The “head of the College” — that is, the Pope — has stated clearly and unequivocally that the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood is impossible, that this decision is final, that it is binding, that debate on the issue should be ended since it can only cause vexation and confusion. Nevertheless, in a homily delivered at a Mass for Pax Christi members, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton pronounced:

"So we listen to those women in our church who say 'I am called'. Christ is in them as Christ is in every male member of the church. I hope and pray that all of us will listen deeply to God's word today and that we will hear what the spirit is speaking to the Church at this time in history and in our Church throughout the world." [The problem is that Gumbleton's 'spirit' is not the Holy Spirit but that oh-so-presumptuous 'spirit of Vatican II'!]

When Bishop Gumbleton made that statement, surely 100% of the people who heard him interpreted his words as, if not a call for the ordination of women, at the very least a call for reconsideration of the Church teaching.

In other words, Bishop Gumbleton’s statement was directly contradicting a definitive doctrinal statement by the “head of the College.” He was not exercising his episcopal authority properly; he was abusing it.

But how could an ordinary lay Catholic know that? An innocent Catholic, hearing Bishop Gumbleton defend those who call for women’s ordination, might understandably conclude that a faithful Catholic is free to embrace that position; after all, he heard it from a bishop!

Bishop Gumbleton retired, very reluctantly, in 2006, having reached the normative age limit. The Vatican — much less reluctantly, one assumes —accepted his resignation.

Still he remains a bishop in good standing. He will continue to mislead the faithful, unless or until others in authority in the Church — his fellow bishops — explicitly denounce his heterodox public statements.

[I will survey what there is online, but I have not come across any bishop who has objected to Gumbleton's latest pontification, A very appropriate term, BTW, since dissident bishops - and priests, and nuns, and ordinary laymen - do consider themselves equal to the Pope when they 'promulgate' their views. Not just that they have every right to speak out as an individual, but that what they have to say is worth much more than what the Pope says in upholding the entire Church Magisterium (which is the Pope's function by definition).

Unfortunately, the only example that comes to mind is rather an agregious one of what not to do! The illustrious and erudite Archbishop of Vienna, who recently accused a fellow of cardinal of grave wrongdoing without due process (for which Benedict XVI rightly admonished him as being out of bounds), while upholding one of his bishops for saying that the Church should consider ordaining women. This, from the man who was the editor-in-chief of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is not even 10 years old!

In the first case, making an ad-hominem criminal accusation against another cardinal was highly improper. In the second, he upholds a dissenter to the Magisterium! The limit of episcopal courtesy, as even common sense would show, is that you cannot attack another bishop [or any other person, for that matter] ad hominem, but that you certainly should if he deviates from the Magisterium! Cardinal Schoenborn got it the other way around.]

In retrospect, the hue and cry in MSM over the publication of the codified norms for the Church, through the CDF, to deal with crimes against the faith, against morals and against Sacraments, was literally a seven-day wonder - outside, that is, of advocacy vehicles like the National Catholic Reporter which is almost fanatical in its militant espousal of women priests among other egregiously liberal causes... And so, the following blog entry which I have discovered one week late almost sounds anachronistic today!


To whom shall we go?
by MONS. TIMOTHY DOLAN
Archbishop of New York

July 21, 2010


Because of all the inaccuracies in the recent coverage of the Catholic Church in the New York Times and other publications, appearing in news articles, editorials, and op-eds, I was tempted to try my best to offer corrections to the multitude of errors. However, I soon realized that this would probably be a full time job.

It is a source of consternation as to why, instead of complimenting the Vatican and a reformer like Pope Benedict XVI, for codifying procedures long advocated by critics, such outfits would instead choose to intrude on a matter of internal doctrine, namely the ordination of women.

But, correcting the paper is not what really matters. What is important is the well-being of God’s people, especially of His little ones.

The bottom line is that the Holy Father, the Vatican, and the Church universal regards with the utmost seriousness the heinous and sinful crime of child abuse and is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that justice is served and that such abuse never happens again.

If critics want to say, “It’s about time,” fair enough. But for critics to continue their obsessive criticism of Benedict XVI, claiming that he just “doesn’t get it,” is simply out of bounds.

The norms released last week by the Holy See take what have been standard practice for several years, especially here in the United States, and made them formally part of Church law. You can read the norms, and an explanation by the Vatican’s press officer, Father Frederico Lombardi, on the Vatican resources site.
www.vatican.va/resources/index_en.htm

This is very important. It’s not merely administrative housekeeping as some have said, or procedural updates. The offenses listed — child abuse, use of child pornography, and abuse of a mentally disabled adult — now carry the weight of the most serious of crimes against the very heart of the Church.

These norms speed up the processing of cases, allow qualified individuals who are not priests to serve on tribunals, require that the sexual abuse of a mentally handicapped person be treated as gravely as that of a minor, extends the time in which penalties are applicable, and confirm that child pornography is not only a grievous sin but a Church crime.

These are serious advances and clearly lay out Pope Benedict’s ongoing firm commitment to providing justice and healing for the victims of abuse in an effective, timely, just and compassionate manner.

The Church is, contrary to media reports, ahead of her time. As Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and internationally recognized expert in child abuse has said, “Nobody is doing more to address the tragedy of sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church.”

That the Church is indeed doing this is the real story here.

It is fair to say that decades ago the Catholic Church was an example of what not to do when dealing with sexual abuse of minors. However, now it is fair to say that the Catholic Church is an example of what to do about a crime found in every religion, every profession, every culture, and many families.

Make no mistake, Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church are at the forefront of addressing the problem of clerical abuse but, even more, of addressing abuse wherever it occurs in society.

And that won’t change no matter how much some in the media try to slant the truth.


An even earlier commentary that I missed and that I am posting for the record. Thanks to a follower of Lella's blog who posted the link.

A strange attack from
the New York Times
by Russell Shaw

July 14, 2010


Since at least last March, the New York Times has been obsessed with a question: "What did Joseph Ratzinger know, and when did he know it?" At issue, of course, is the role played by Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- in relation to the scandal of clergy sex abuse.

It's a fair question. Probably the Times has spent too much time on it while straining to place a negative interpretation on the facts. But the question undoubtedly is an acceptable one for a newspaper -- and for the rest of us, too -- to ask.

The latest Times story in this line, published July 2, concerns the years from 1981, when Cardinal Ratzinger became prefect of the Vatican's Congregation of the Faith, until 2005, when he was elected pope.

The headline is unspeakably bad because grossly untrue ("Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal"), but the text that follows is a mixed bag.

Closely read, the picture that emerges is that Cardinal Ratzinger did a good-to-excellent job on the abuse issue as CDF head. The Times's own overall conclusion -- he didn't do everything that, ideally, he might -- comes across as a stretch. So does a follow-up editorial a week later that strains to make the same point.

Here I must admit to a personal interest in this particular journalistic exercise. In a conversation (not an interview) several weeks ago with one of the Times' writers whose bylines appear on the story, I said something like this:

"As far as I can see, Ratzinger was one of the first people at his level in the Curia -- perhaps the first -- to understand how serious this whole problem was and really try to grapple with it. Remember, he didn't have an entirely free hand, he faced obstacles and opposition within the Vatican. But given what was possible, he did very well."

A great deal of the Times story sounds like a reply to that.
It's a bizarre piece of writing, full of helpful information that leads the reader to think well of Cardinal Ratzinger along with obtuse comments by the writers that conflict with the facts they report.

They choose to describe Ratzinger as part of a closed, self-referential culture at the Vatican; but unwittingly what they've written reflects a closed, self-referential culture at The New York Times, with limited understanding combined with a hypercritical view of the Catholic Church.

The story makes much of the disclosure that the CDF (or, more properly, its predecessor, the Holy Office) was "given authority over sexual abuse cases" by a papal mandate in 1922. That is 79 years before Pope John Paul II specifically placed CDF in charge of the issue. This 1922 mandate is said to have been reaffirmed in 1962. [Even more pertinent, and something that few commentators ever pick up, both 1922 and 1962 Instructions had to do mainly with violations of the Sacrament of Confession connected with a priest soliciting or going on to commit sexual offenses with women, which until the 1960s, had been the primary issue of chastity facing priests. Sexual offenses against minors are mentioned in one article only.]

The implication is that Cardinal Ratzinger had jurisdiction over this matter from the time he arrived at CDF in 1981 and didn't have to wait for new papal instructions in order to take charge of the issue.
In no way, however, is this persuasive.

As the story itself makes clear, by the 1980s and 1990s the mandate of 1922/1962 had long been forgotten by just about everyone in Rome. Even to the few who were aware of it, it was far from clear that it was still in force.

Obviously that applies to John Paul II, who in 2001 deemed it necessary specifically to assign the issue to Ratzinger's congregation, and to Cardinal Ratzinger, who was closely and actively involved in causing the Pope to do that.

It's inconceivable that either man would have felt a need to act as he did in 2001 if he believed CDF at that time already had clear authority as the Holy See's lead agent on clerical sex abuse.

To its credit, nonetheless, the Times story makes a number of important points. For instance:
- That bishops in years past had "a variety of disciplinary tools at their disposal" for dealing with abuse, without having to refer to the Vatican;
- That there nevertheless was "a bewildering bureaucratic and canonical legal process" on this issue in Rome throughout the 1980s and 1990s;
- That the staff of the doctrinal congregation, numbering a modest three dozen, had many things besides sex abuse to worry about in those years [A gross understatement, considering that the primary function of the CDF is defense of the faith! If Cardinal Ratzinger had not been John Paul's man at CDF, it is unlikely he would have issued the Motu Proprio as it is and/or he would have assigned the lead role to the Congregation for the Clergy]; and
- That, at a hitherto unreported 2000 meeting between Vatican officials and worried bishops from several English-speaking countries, Cardinal Ratzinger stood out for his understanding and passionate concern.

"I felt, this guy gets it, he's understanding the situation we're facing. At long last, we'll be able to move forward," the Times quotes an Australian bishop.

The comment is similar to a remark by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta, president of the U.S. bishops' conference at the time the scandal of sex abuse and cover-up erupted in 2002, who says that in his many meetings with Cardinal Ratzinger he found him "extraordinarily supportive" of the American steps to take corrective action.

One can readily agree that confusion at the Vatican and among bishops in the field helped worsen this tragedy. And it is dismaying to read even now in the Times that Vatican officials "declined to answer detailed questions" about the record of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict. [What exactly are these detailed questions that have not been answered? If they are referring to the Munich case, they have been properly answered by the Archdiocese of Munich which has the records. The Vatican is not obligated, nor in any position, to account for whatever Benedict XVI did when he was not yet at the Vatican.]

Detailed answers to detailed questions were and are precisely what have long been needed to settle at least one aspect of this whole ugly business once and for all. [What aspect is that? If Shaw has fallen into the MSM trap nonetheless and means the Munich question, obviously the Times and AP, Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and all their likeminded minions have been unable to unearth anything to show that Archbishop Ratzinger knowingly appointed a known sex offender to do pastoral work in his Archdiocese, which is the burden of the MSM's huffing and puffing - i.e., anything to show that Joseph Ratzinger himself was guilty of playing blind or covering up for sex offenders in the clergy.!]

Even as it stands, however, and taking due account of its journalistic failings, the latest venture by the New York Times into this thicket contains ample information to show that Benedict XVI should be praised, not blamed, for his handling of the abuse crisis during his CDF years. Too bad [but good for the objective reader!] the Times doesn't understand what it found out.

No vacation for the Pope
in looking after the Church
by Bruno Mastroianni

July 28, 2010


Benedict XVI on vacation is not sitting on his hands. In the summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, he has been working on the first draft for a new encyclical (apparently on the theological virtue of faith), and on a third volume that will be an appendix to Volumes I and II of JESUS OF NAZARETH, with Vol. II now in translation).

Which is no surprise. Benedict XVI's serious and industrious habits are known to all. He is a Pope who sets himself an agenda to follow, one capable of turning up his sleeves and getting to work without attention-getting gestures. Far from being the ivory-tower theoretician that many feared he would be when he was elected Pope. [Some detractors still persist in painting him as isolated and interested only in his theological studies.]

Until recently, he was remembered by outsiders mainly for having spoken out against 'the filth in the Church' back in 2005. But now, they must admit, it is clear how capable he is of taking broom in hand to sweep out the filth.

The lucid and well-prepared intellectual is also a tireless worker who is giving himself totally for his Church with calm determination. And so, he can avail even of his vacation to continue educating the faithful in the ABCs of the faith.

And in doing so, he is following what he has said from the beginning of his Pontificate: The Lord has wanted him to be the 'rock' on which everyone can find support and security.

At the Angelus on July 18, he said that "the human person needs God, above all" because without God who is love, "even the most important activities lose value and fail to give joy".

And that is what the Pope has been doing on his vacation: He does not tire calling attention to the primacy of what man today has often left aside, either from distraction or sheer conformity with dominant mentality.

Thursday, July 29

Fifth from left: An Orthodox icon showing Mary, Lazarus and Martha.
ST. MARTHA OF BETHANY, Virgin, Myrrh-bearer
St. Luke's Gospel recounts the visit of Jesus to the home of Mary and Martha, during which, famously, Martha bustled about serving the Lord as mistress of the house, while Mary sat at his feet, listening to him. Jesus then tells Martha that Mary had chosen 'the better part'. St. John's Gospel mentions the siblings of Bethany twice: first, the episode where the sisters call for Jesus to come to them because their brother Lazarus had died. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead four days after he was buried, and tells the sisters "I am the Resurrection and the Life...Do you believe this? Martha answers, "Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who has come to the world". The second episode is one that takes place shortly before the Lord's Passion, when Mary anoints the Lord's feet with perfume and dries it with her hair. Matthew and Mark recount the same episode but without naming the woman, as John does. It is this episode that has resulted in the conflation of Mary of Bethany with the figure of Mary of Magdala and an adulterous woman pardoned by Jesus - a conflation that St. Gregory the Great articulated. As a result, Mary of Bethany does not have a feast day of her own in the Roman Catholic faith, although her brother and sister do. The orthodox celebrate a joint feast for Mary and Martha on June 4. Martha is the patron saint of housewives adn cooks.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/072910.shtml


Today's OR carries a preparatory story in the inside pages on the Holy Father's visit to Carpineto Romano on Sept. 5 to highlight the bicentennial celebration of the birth of Pope Leo XIII. Page 1 news: Obama will not change strategy in Afghanistan despite leaked documents on past US military actions in that country; Russia opposes sanctions announced against Iran by the European Union, the United States and Canada, since they are not done within the United Nations; the IMF urges China to promote private consumption in its report on China's economic status; and British Prime Minister David Cameron visits India to re-launch relations between the UK and its once largest colony.


THE POPE'S DAY

At 5:30 p.m., at the Swiss Hall of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father will preview a film Five Years of Benedict XVI to be shown on Bavarian state TV, Bayerischer Rundfunk. The film highlights the significant moments of the Pontificate so far and the Pope's trips abroad.

It was written and directed by Michael Mandlik, a German journalist who has covered Joseph Ratzinger since he was Prefect of the CDF, and who last year published the Benedikt XVI: In Rome und unterwegs (Benedict XVI: In Rome and on the road).


Bulletin Board

To post in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread:

- Via AsiaNews, Cardinal Zen disputes that China's acquiescence to recent Vatican bishop nominations is anything but a pragmatic move. This is to counter a recent 30 GIORNI article saying this was proof China and the Vatican may be moving towards better relations.
- Via Ignatius Insight, Dr. Anthony Clark's recent interview with Cardinal Zen about the Chinese situation.
- Radio Vatican and FIDES release a recent letter from Cardinal Dias of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to the Bishops of China.

Posted in NOTABLES:

- Items by George Weigel and Carl Olson in praise of Fr. James Schall, now recovering from major jaw surgery due to a cancer diagnosed years back.

Things that occupy the media today about the Vatican and the Pope:

- Swiss Guard now forbid immodest wear anywhere within the Vatican, not just inside St. Peter's. The initial reaction in the media is just as silly as the reaction to the Vatican's nth iteration that Catholic doctrine does not allow women to be ordained as priests.

- The baseball cap photo, after being treated as a refreshing summer novelty (though it's a five-year-old 'novelty' by now), comes in for snide remarks from the fringe.

- The fee English Catholics are asked to pay if they get a ticket to the Pope's Hyde Park prayer vigil or to his Birmingham Mass.

- The painting that the OR rushed to hail as a newly discovered Caravaggio only to have the Vatican Museum director say a few days later, after one look at the painting, that it is not by the master. And yet, they live in Italy where, more than anyone else, they should know one never rushes to judgment on the authorship of a work of art that has not been formally authenticated!

It's definite now:
Ignatius Press will publish
JON-II in English next spring


SAN FRANCISCO, July 29 (Christian Newswire)-Pope Benedict XVI's second volume of Jesus of Nazareth ("From his Transfiguration to His Death and Resurrection") will be published in English by Ignatius Press, according to an agreement between Ignatius Press and the Vatican's Publishing House, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV).

Slated for release in Spring 2011, the much-anticipated second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth" takes up where the first volume left off.

"We are eagerly awaiting Volume II because it will contain the Holy Father's reflections on the central mysteries of our faith: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection," says Ignatius Press Founder and Editor, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio. Father Fessio is a former student of Pope Benedict.

The second volume is expected to address such controversial questions as: Who was responsible for Jesus's death? Did Jesus establish the Church to carry on his work? How did he view his suffering and death? How should we? And, most importantly, did Jesus really rise from the dead?

"Jesus remains controversial," notes Ignatius Press President Mark Brumley. "Christians believe he is the Son of God, the founder of the Church, and the Savior of the world. For non-Christians, Jesus is almost anything else -- a myth, a revolutionary, or a prophet whose teaching was misunderstood or distorted by his followers."

Benedict XVI insists Jesus is the Son of God, yet the Pope acknowledges that opinion is divided. He brings readers face-to-face with the challenge of Jesus.

What to make of a real man who taught and acted in ways tantamount to claims of divine authority? Believers and unbelievers alike must come to their own judgment about Jesus and what he means for them. The second volume of Jesus of Nazareth will help them to do so.

Ignatius Press is the primary English-language publisher of the works of Pope Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger.

Tribute to Leo XIII
Translated from
the 7/29/10 issue of





Benedict XVI will be in Carpineto Romano on September 5 to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903, born Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci), the Pope of Rerum novarum [Of new things].

The Pope is expected to arrive by helicopter at Carpineto, in the diocese of Anagni-Alatri, around 8:45 a.m. and will be welcomed by Bishop Lorenzo Loppa, the town mayor and other authorities.

[The program for the visit, approved by the Pontifical Household and sent to Mons. Loppa two weeks ago, was posted on Page 116 of this thread on July 18:
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=85272... ]

The Pope will celebrate Mass along the Largo dei Monte Lepini, in the heart of the little city located in the mountains of Lazio just 60 kms southeast of Rome.

After meeting with a representative group of citizenry, the Pope will return around noon to Castel Gandolfo.

Benedict XVI will be the third Pope after Paul VI and John Paul II to visit the birthplace of their predecessor, the second longest-serving Pope in history (25 years) after Pius IX.

Paul VI visited Carpineto on September 11, 1966, to conclude the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Leo XIII's Rerum novarum, the first 'social encyclical'.

He visited the medieval palazzo of the Pecci counts, where Leo XIII was born. It houses a museum honoring both the Pope and his brother Giuseppe, who became a cardinal and was a famous philosopher of his time.

On Sept. 1, 1991, John Paul II visited Carpineto and also said Mass at Largo dei Monte Lepini.

During his visit, Paul VI recalled his predecessor thus:

---

Two things characterized the 25-year Pontificate of Leo XIII. The first was the vigorous affirmation of his personal piety as a complement to his liturgical worship. The other was affirming Christian social doctrine in his memorable encyclical Rerum novarum.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, recitation of the Rosary, and devotion to St. Joseph are all directly linked to the work and teaching of Leo XIII, and of which he was a convinced and exemplary advocate.

---

Paul VI underscored that Leo XII had left an indelible mark in the social field, in a historical context when the Church "had recently been deprived of all its temporal privileges [after the abolition of the Papal states during the reunification of Italy in the 1860s] and its international and public prestige consequently diminished".

---

Isolated from the world, in an atmosphere of rupture and detachment, of raging controversy, of anti-clericalism and deliberate profanity that was widely propagandized, he was left with only his voice, the word...

Thus was born the great encyclical on the perennial values of freedom and democracy, and above all, on the social problem. Before then, the defense of the humble and the poor had never had such an authoritative spokesman.

---

In 1991, John Paul II said:

---

In a historical period characterized by profound transformations arising from the new relationship that has been created between capital and labor, Leo XIII wished to formulate the thinking of the Church clearly in such an important field.

He did it with courage, challenging not just the secular world, but the conscience of the Catholic world itself. His prophetic intervention led to consolidating the social doctrine of the Church.

---

John Paul II underscored the validity of his predecessor's statement that "the full solution to the social question is through Christ and acceptance of his truth".

Rerum novarum was published on May 15, 1891, a modern milestone for the Church, laying the basis for relaunching Catholic activity in society, particularly on behalf of workers and in industry. It was widely received well, but it also aroused strong aversions.

Culturally, Papa Pecci brought to the Church an open attitude towards culture itself and to scientific progress. Indeed, in 1898, just two years since the movie camera was invented, he allowed himself to be filmed and is shown smiling.

He was also the first to open the Vatican Archives to scholars, and in the 1893 encyclical Providentissimus dei, he called on scholars to consider new scientific knowledge in their interpretation of Sacred Scripture.

He was particularly sensitive to the question of Church unity, and promoted contacts with the Anglicans. [He visited England when he was a bishop.] And it was he who made Anglican convert John Henry Newman a cardinal.

With the encyclical Orientalium dignitas in 1894, he validated the decision not to Latinize the Oriental rites of eastern European churches, acknowledging the dignity of their rites and liturgical traditions.

On the religious aspect, he strongly promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart, consecrating mankind to the Sacred Heart and Christ the King in the Jubilee Year of 1900. He also promoted the Rosary and Marian devotion.

With the encyclical Aeterni Patris in 1879, he endorsed Thomism as the basis for education in seminaries and Catholic universities, almost making it the 'official philosophy' of the Church.


Center: The Pecci home where the future Pope was born.

Commemorative postcard from Carpiento, 1878, of Leo XII's election as Pope.

Until I can translate the article referred to, here's a CNA account:

What Cardinal Newman and
Pope Benedict share in common



Vatican City, Jul 28, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Similarities between the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal John Henry Newman are detailed in Wednesday's edition of Il Foglio. According to the author, at least one major element unites their thought - their aversion to a relativistic society.

Vatican expert Paolo Rodari examines the Pope's interest in the soon-to-be beatified English cardinal in an article entitled, "Benedict XVI's fight against relativism is the same as Newman's one hundred years ago."

The Il Foglio writer refers to the argument of Msgr. Roderick Strange, who in his "spiritual biography" of Cardinal Newman, illustrates a moment when then-Cardinal Ratzinger showed a "bond" with the founder of the Birmingham Oratory.

Speaking to the College of Cardinals on the Mass that preceded the Conclave in which he was elected Pope in 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of the "dictatorship of relativism" that is threatening the world, in which nothing is definite and the only thing that remains is "oneself and one's desires."

This, wrote Msgr. Strange, is a "not necessarily coincidental" link to Cardinal Newman's own premise of a "simply non religious world."

In his book on Newman, Msgr. Strange goes on to describe a further occasion for comparison, when at a lecture on the 100th anniversary of Cardinal Newman's death, "Ratzinger makes a reference to the link between truth and personal conscience."

Newman, pointed out Cardinal Ratzinger, taught that the conscience must be nourished as a way of obedience to objective truth. "And Newman's entire life witnesses that conviction," he said.

So, continued Msgr. Strange, during World War II, the future Pope "experienced what Newman had predicted: the consequences of when revealed religion is not recognized as true (and) objective, but is considered as something private from which the people might choose for themselves whatever they like."

Newman, concluded Rodari, went "straight to the heart" of the issue when, on being named cardinal in 1879, said "Religious liberalism is the doctrine according to which there doesn't exist any positive truth in the religious field, but that any creed is as good as any other; and this is the doctrine that, day after day, is acquiring consistency and vigor.

"This position is incompatible with every recognition of a religion as true."

And, as this worried Cardinal Newman, it also "worries Ratzinger today," concluded Rodari.

I will try to translate Rodari's piece directly, because as usual, I prefer a direct translation of the original rather than a random paraphrase. Here first is a translation of Rodari's interview with the immediate past prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood who was very much involved in the processes leading to the forthcoming beatification of Cardinal Newman:


'Benedict XVI sees much of himself
in Cardinal Newman', says Cardinal Saraiva
Interview by Paolo Rodari
Translated from

July 29, 2010

“Joseph Ratzinger is fascinated by John Henry Newman because he sees something of himself in him," says Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, emeritus prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood.

"Before he became Catholic," Saraiva points out, "Newman founded the Oxford Movement whose objective was to save the Anglican Church from the liberalism of the day - a liberalism that was anti-dogmatic by nature. Papa Ratzinger, too, wants to rid Christianity of every 'liberalism' and to anchor it on a purity of faith, of doctrine, of its bimillennial beliefs. And like Newsman, he wants to work this salvation by integrating and not wxcluding extremists".

The Portuguese cardinal retired two years ago but remains quite energetic. He lives near the Vatican, where he studies and writes, and he has represented the Pope at many beatifications held abroad in the past five years.

Now, he is looking forward to the day when his favorite cause in recent years, Newman, will be beatified by the Pope himself on September 19 in Birmingham, England.


Why do you refer to Newman as your 'favorite pupil'?
In a sense, yes. For many years, I was the rector of the Pontifical Urbanian University [the university attached to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples]. In 1846-47, Newman was a student at the Urbaniana, then called the Collegio di Propaganda Fide. In my time, I made sure that a portrait of its most illustrious student, Cardinal Newman, would hang in the Academic Senate Hall, the heart of the university - so no one will forget.

What are the extreme forces that Papa Ratzinger must deal with?
The Pope has in a certain sense chosen something similar to Newman's 'middle way'. Before Newman converted to Catholicism, he dreamed of an Anglicanism that was close to Rome, as a religious confession that would maintain its identity without yielding to extremism. That's exactly what Benedict XVI wants for Catholici8sm.

The signals, the opening he has provided towards Anglicans - like those to the Lefebvrians - clearly say that we must take the road to unity but without sacrificing diversity. In the Church, there have always been anti-Roman forces, as well as extremists on both sides. The Pope would not like anyone excluded [Anyone who believes in the Church's doctrine and practices, that is. It is not enough that dissenting Catholics want to stay in the Church. They have to abide by its reachings and discipline.

But then Newman abandoned his dream and converted to Catholicism. Leaving the Anglican Church was painful for him. But he became convinced that the truth was in the Catholic Church. And he also believed that the search for truth was possible for everyone, including other Anglicans.

This search for truth was a constant in his life. From his earliest youth. Like Ratzinger later, Newman was a passionate scholar of the Fathers of the Church. he learned evangelical perfection from them. It can be said it was the Fathers who impelled him towards Rome.

This evangelical perfection - it's the purity of Christianity, the purity that Benedict XVI wants the Church to rediscover...
Newman was born into an era which was just as tormented as ours. When every certainty was vacillating. Believers had to combat the threats of rationalism and fideism. Rationalism rejected authority and transcendence. Fideism encouraged persons to ignore history and instead have an insane dependence on authority and the supernatural.

So for Newman, the way of faith and reason was the necessary synthesis to counteract those trends. For him, they were the two wings necessary in order to contemplate the truth.

Newman died on August 11, 1890. The next day, the Times of London published a lengty eulogy which ended this way: "We cna be sure oif one thing: that the memory of this pure and noble life will last, and that he will be sanctified in the memory of people of all confessions in England. The saint in him will survive".
The Times was right, of course. Newman is an example for everyone, even for and especially for Anglicans. His entire life was based on healthy ecumenism.

It was not a search for something that different faiths have in common. Above all, his ecumenism was not like that. Rather, it was a search for truth together. He lived it in practice. His search brought him to Rome. But he was the first to say the approach need not be the same for everyone.

I believe Papa Ratzinger fully shares this ecumenical attitude of Newman. He has a free approach to the various Christian confessions. He does not set litmus tests - he is open to everyone and respects their respective histories.

It is not by chance that he promulgated something like Anglicanorum coetibus. At the same time, he has also stressed the primacy of Peter, of the need to protect that primacy but respecting the positions taken by the orthodox, for example.

The process towards Newman's beatification was not brief. He was recognized as Venerable in 1991. But the miracle that led to his beatification was fairly recent.
I was able to follow all the phases closely. When the healing of Deacon Jack Sullivan through the intercession of CArdinal Newman was first reported, I immediately sent an expert from the Congregation to start verifying it. We follow the same rule for every phase of the process. Every procedure must be carried out rigorously and without errors.

And so I have always said that there are no short or long processes. Every process has its own rhythm which depends on the amount of documents and testimonies that have to be verified. The Newman case had a great mass of documents to be weighed. Each document was read and examined.

It seems clear now that Benedict XVI is handling the situation in China principally through the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples which is in charge of Church work in all mission lands and of financing the work of the world's poorest dioceses.

For the second time in several months, Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation has sent a letter to the bishops and priests of mainland China, as reported today by the Congregation's news agency FIDES. Attention can be more focused on the Chinese situation by this Congregation than by the Vatican Secretariat of State, where political and diplomatic considerations can easily get in the way of sound judgment.

Strangely, however, AsiaNews, which is the news agency of the Congregation's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME, from its Italian acronym), appears to have its own agenda. It has not reported Cardinal Dias's letters at all - which are in line with the Pope's July 2007 Letter to the Chinese Catholics- but instead has actively propagandized the hardline stand taken by Cardinal Joaeph Zen of HongKong.

Cardinal Zen can only have the best of intentions, but how can he say, as he does in his latest interview with AsiaNews, that the Holy Father never asked the 'underground' Catholics to come out and seek reconciliation with the 'official' Church? The Pope does that exactly in Paragraph 6 of the Letter, saying he also understands the practical problems this may entail, but that each bishop and community should decide together on a case-to-case basis how best to arrive at internal communion within their respective communities.


Vatican official urges Chinese clerics
to continue promoting unity
By Cindy Wooden



VATICAN CITY, July 29 (CNS) -- The head of the Vatican's missionary office urged bishops and priests in China to live simply, show kindness to all people and continue working for the unity of the Catholic community on the mainland.

Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, wrote to Chinese bishops and priests July 5; the text of his letter was released July 29 by Fides, the congregation's news agency.

Reflecting on the themes Pope Benedict XVI highlighted during the Year for Priests, which ended in June, Cardinal Dias said bishops and priests must remember they are ministers of Christ and his forgiveness, servants of all people and promoters of the unity of the Church.

Promoting unity, he said, requires both communion with the Pope and with other Catholics.

"We are all too aware of how some of you suffered in the recent past because of loyalty to the Holy See," he said. "The exemplary and courageous loyalty toward the See of Peter demonstrated by Catholics in China is a precious gift of the Lord."

When China began suppressing the Church in the late 1950s, it established the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, whose members initially were asked to reject ties with the Vatican.

Catholics who refused to join the patriotic association and overtly maintained their loyalty to the Vatican suffered decades of persecution.

Being Catholic and obeying the will of Christ that his followers be one means Catholics must be in union with one another, Cardinal Dias said.

"This important challenge you are already tackling," he said, as bishops and priests try to promote reconciliation between those who practiced their faith clandestinely and those who participated in officially sanctioned activities with the patriotic association.

Cardinal Dias reminded the bishops and priests of what Pope Benedict said in his homily for the June 29 feast of Sts. Peter and Paul about attacks on the Church and persecution of Christians having a long history, yet never being able to defeat the Church completely.

On the other hand, the cardinal said, the pope noted how the church "is subjected to the greatest danger by what pollutes the faith and Christian life of her members and communities."

The Pope said that "one of the typical effects of the action of the Evil One is, precisely, the internal division of the ecclesial community," the cardinal wrote.

Cardinal Dias also urged each Chinese bishop and priest to be a man of prayer and simplicity and to show special concern for the poor and needy, including "sheep who do not yet belong to his fold."


Here is the full text of the letter, released by FIDES:

Letter to the Catholic Bishops
and Priests of mainland China
from CARDINAL IVAN DIAS, Prefect
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples


Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Secretary of the same Congregation have addressed the following Letter to the Catholic Bishops and Priests of mainland China.

---

Dearest Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest,

Peace be with you!

Inspired by celebrations during the Year for Priests, recently concluded, I send to you cordial and brotherly greetings and a word of encouragement for your arduous pastoral duties as shepherds of the flock entrusted to you by the Lord in your noble nation.

I long to say these things to you personally, to hear about your joys and your woes, about the hopes you nurture and the challenges you face every day.

Your testimony and your messages received here at the Missionary Congregation fill us with consolation and spur us to pray fervently that the Lord may render you ever stronger in the faith and sustain your activity to propagate the Good News of Jesus Christ in your beloved country.

With our thoughts still set on the famous figure of Saint Jean Marie Vianney, Cure d'Ars, so often recalled during the Year for Priests, we acknowledge first of all - with deep humility - that we are called by Jesus to be “not servants, but friends” (cfr Jn 15, 15) not through our own merits, but through His infinite mercy.

He has conferred upon us the lofty dignity of being Alter Christus and ministers of his Word, his Body and Blood and his Forgiveness. May we always remember His words: “You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last;” (Jn 15, 16).

Precisely because the priest is Alter Christus — indeed, Ipse Christus —, he must be a Man of God and a Man for others.

Firstly, a Man of God: that is, a man who leads men and women to God and carries God to men and women. Therefore he must distinguish himself as a man of prayer and an austere style of life, profoundly in love with Christ and, like John the Baptist, proud to proclaim His presence amongst us, especially in the Most Holy Eucharist.

Secondly, a priest must be a Man for others: a man entirely dedicated to the faithful, youth and adults, entrusted to his pastoral care and to all those with whom the Lord Jesus chose to identify himself or those towards whom He showed special kindness: sinners first of all, the poor, the sick and the excluded, widows, children, but also sheep who do not yet belong to His fold (cfr Jn 10, 16).

An ecclesiastic will therefore resist any temptation to enrich himself with material goods or seek favours for his family or ethnic group, or nurture unwholesome ambitions of making a career for himself in society or in politics. These things are entirely foreign to the priestly vocation and would be a serious distraction from his mission to lead the faithful like the good shepherd on the path of holiness, justice and peace.

Allow me, my dearest Confreres, to dwell on the important role of a bishop or priest as an operator of unity within the Church. This task has a twofold dimension and entails communion with the Pope, the "rock" upon which Jesus chose to build his Church, and secondly union with all the members of the Church.

Firstly: communion with the Holy Father. We are all too aware of how some of you suffered in the recent past because of loyalty to the Holy See. We pay homage to each and all, certain that, as Pope Benedict XVI affirms:

---

Communion with Peter and with his Successors is in fact a guarantee of freedom for the Church's Pastors and for the Communities entrusted to them… the Petrine ministry is a guarantee of freedom in the sense of full adherence to the truth, to the authentic tradition, so that the People of God may be preserved from errors concerning faith and morals” (Homily during Mass on the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 2010).

---

The exemplary and courageous loyalty towards the See of Peter demonstrated by Catholics in China, is a precious gift of the Lord.

The other dimension of unity among Christians is union among individual members of the ecclesial community. This important challenge you are already tackling, as you seek to strengthen unity within the Church herself.

It would be helpful to enter, in spirit, the Upper Room where, after celebrating the Last Supper with his Apostles and ordaining them priests of the New and Eternal Covenant, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father with these words “May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me” (Jn 17, 21).

Three times Jesus insists on the unity of his followers as a sign of credibility that he has been sent by the Father into the world. My dearest confreres, let us heed this eloquent call for the unity of Christians coming from the Heart of the One who loved them, called them and sent them to work in His Vineyard.

In the above mentioned homily the Holy Father affirms:

---

Indeed if we think of the two millenniums of the Church's history, we may note as the Lord Jesus had foretold (cf. Mt 10:16-33) that trials for Christians have never been lacking and in certain periods and places have assumed the character of true and proper persecution.

Yet, despite the suffering they cause, they do not constitute the gravest danger for the Church. Indeed she is subjected to the greatest danger by what pollutes the faith and Christian life of her members and communities, corroding the integrity of the Mystical Body, weakening her capacity for prophecy and witness, and marring the beauty of her face.

---

The Pope goes on to indicate the instigator of this evil situation and says:

---

One of the typical effects of the action of the Evil One is, precisely, the internal division of the ecclesial Community. Ruptures are in fact symptoms of the power of sin that continues to act in members of the Church even after the redemption. However, Christ's word is clear: "Non praevalebunt! They shall not prevail" (Mt 16:18).

The unity of the Church is rooted in her union with Christ and the cause of full Christian unity that must ever be sought and renewed, from generation to generation is also sustained by his prayer and his promise.

---

Let us praise the Lord for your efforts, accomplished and ongoing, for unity within the Church, in faithful response to the indications given by the Holy Father in the Letter he addressed to you on 27 May, 2007, and for the results already obtained.

May God bless your initiatives so that unity of ministers among themselves and between them and their flock may be ever stronger in Christ and in his Church “ad maiorem Dei gloriam”.

On this happy circumstance, I have the honour of assuring you of the closeness of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI; with paternal affection he blesses you and all those entrusted to your pastoral care and urges you to continue without fear on the path of holiness, unity and communion, as did the generations which have gone before you.

May Most Holy Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with tender, filial devotion by the Church in China at Sheshan, protect you and intercede that your resolutions to spread the sweet fragrance of the Gospel of her Son Jesus to every corner of your beloved homeland may bear fruit.

In this important and demanding task may you be assisted by the luminous example of the unforgettable missionary to China, Fr Matteo Ricci S.J., of whom we recall with gratitude and affection the 400th anniversary of his departure for the Kingdom of the “Lord of Heaven ”.

Once again I assure you of our prayers,
with brotherly greetings In Corde Mariae.

from the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
5 July 2010.

Cardinal Ivan Dias
Prefect

+ Robert Sarah
Secretary

---

In the Compendium of the Pope's Letter released last year in Q&A form, with the answers taken from the Letter itself, the issue raised by Cardinal Zen was directly referred to:

---

Does the process of reconciliation mean that one must now join the officially registered Catholic community?

Not a few members of the Catholic community are asking whether recognition from the civil authorities – necessary in order to function publicly – somehow compromises communion with the universal Church. I am fully aware that this problem causes painful disquiet in the hearts of Pastors and faithful.

In this regard I maintain, in the first place, that the requisite and courageous safeguarding of the deposit of faith and of sacramental and hierarchical communion is not of itself opposed to dialogue with the authorities concerning those aspects of the life of the ecclesial community that fall within the civil sphere.

There would not be any particular difficulties with acceptance of the recognition granted by civil authorities on condition that this does not entail the denial of irrenunciable principles of faith and of ecclesiastical communion.

In not a few particular instances, however, indeed almost always, in the process of recognition the intervention of certain bodies obliges the people involved to adopt attitudes, make gestures and undertake commitments that are contrary to the dictates of their conscience as Catholics. I understand, therefore, how in such varied conditions and circumstances it is difficult to determine the correct choice to be made.

For this reason the Holy See, after restating the principles, leaves the decision to the individual Bishop who, having consulted his presbyterate, is better able to know the local situation, to weigh the concrete possibilities of choice and to evaluate the possible consequences within the diocesan community.

It could be that the final decision does not obtain the consensus of all the priests and faithful. I express the hope, however, that it will be accepted, albeit with suffering, and that the unity of the diocesan community with its own Pastor will be maintained.

It would be good, finally, if Bishops and priests, with truly pastoral hearts, were to take every possible step to avoid giving rise to situations of scandal, seizing opportunities to form the
consciences of the faithful, with particular attention to the weakest: All this should be lived out in communion and in fraternal understanding, avoiding judgements and mutual condemnations.

In this case too, it must be kept in mind, especially where there is little room for freedom, that in order to evaluate the morality of an act, it is necessary to devote particular care to establishing the
real intentions of the person concerned, in addition to the objective shortcoming. Every case, then, will have to be pondered individually, taking account of the circumstances” (7.9).

The clandestine condition is not a normal feature of the Church's life, and history shows that Pastors and faithful have recourse to it only amid suffering, in the desire to maintain the integrity of their faith and to resist interference from State agencies in matters pertaining intimately to the Church's life.

For this reason the Holy See hopes that these legitimate Pastors may be recognized as such by governmental authorities for civil effects too – insofar as these are necessary – and that all the faithful may be able to express their faith freely in the social context
in which they live".

- BENEDICT XVI
Letter to the Catholics of China
May 27, 2007

---

In the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, I will post two interviews given by Cardinal Zen recently - one with Prof. Antony Lake for Ignatius Insight, the other with AsiaNews.

IMHO, one cannot wait for ideal conditions everywhere in China before undertaking the process of reconciling the two 'churches'. Sometimes, it is more heroic to know when and how to make compromises that do not compromise the faith itself - as the Bishop of Shanghai has shown for so many years now - than to insist on saying "No, we won't budge an inch until all our demands are met", especially when the 'underground' Catholics are hardly in any position to be able to budge the Chinese government!

Meanwhile, the Church can welcome every bit of good news that comes its way - such as the 'accord' with the Chinese government on all recent episcopal nominations. That is not to say this is necessarily a trend or a sign of 'capitulation' on the part of the Chinese, but you don't turn down a gift that apparently comes without strings attached. Nor do you let your guard down and stop working for something more consistently reliable and clearly spelled out, not simply implied and/or inferred.

Benedict XVI's problems with China are worse, in a way, than with Russia, and in both cases, the Roman Catholic Church is a virtually insignificant minority of the population. In China, he has to deal with a weak and divided Church in the face of a hostile and unpredictably contingent government. In Russia, he is up against a weak but united local Church in the face of assertion of local hegemony by a stronger Russian Orthodox Church that sees itself as somehow equivalent to Rome, or at least its principal rival and counterweight.

Two more good-natured clippings for the baseball-cap file:



The ff is from a satirical online journal called Weekly World News. It's actually quite clever and pursues
the sports metaphor rather well:


The rest of the 'story' is here:
weeklyworldnews.com/sports/19723/pope-signs-with-the-angels/

THE POPE AND THE VATICAN:
SUMMARY OF EVENTS
January 1 toJuly 22, 2010



Following are highlights of the activities of Pope Benedict XVI and of the Holy See for the months of January to July 2010.


JANUARY

1: Benedict XVI presides at a Eucharistic celebration for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, and for the forty-third World Day of Peace which has as its theme this year: "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation".

7: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Kenan Gursoy, the new ambassador of Turkey to the Holy See.

9: Cardinal Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, archbishop emeritus of Antananarivo, Madagascar, dies at the age of 84.

17: Benedict XVI visits the synagogue of Rome.

19: Presentation of the "Lineamenta" of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. The synodal meeting is due to be held in the Vatican from 10 to 24 October on the theme: "The Catholic Church in the Middle East. Communion and Witness. Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul".

21: Appointment of Flaminia Giovanelli as under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

22: Publication of a Letter from the Holy Father, dated 15 January, in which he reiterates his confidence in Cardinal Tariciso Bertone S.D.B. as secretary of State. On 2 December 2009 Cardinal Bertone reached the age of 75 and presented his resignation from office, in accordance with the norms of Canon Law.

23: Beatification of Servant of God Josep Samso i Elias, priest and martyr, at the parochial basilica of Santa Maria en Mataro in the archdiocese of Barcelona, Spain.

23: Presentation of the Holy Father's Message for the forty-fourth World Day of Social Communications, on the theme: "The priest and pastoral ministry in a digital world: new media at the service of the Word".

FEBRUARY

1: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

4: Publication of Benedict XVI's Message for Lent 2010. The text, dated 30 October 2009, has as its title a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ".

5: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Bishops' Conference of Scotland at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

6: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Alfonso Roberto Matta Fahsen, the new ambassador of Guatemala to the Holy See.

9-11: Celebrations marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers, and the eighteenth World Day of the Sick, on the them: "The Church at the loving service of those who suffer".

12: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Romania at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

14: Benedict XVI visits a shelter run by Roman diocesan Caritas at the city's main railway station, Termini.

15: Holy Father meets with prelates of the Irish Episcopal Conference.

16: Publication of the Pope's message for the forty-seventh World Day of Prayer for Vocations (to be celebrated on 25 April, the Fourth Sunday of Easter) on the theme: "Witness Awakens Vocations".

19: Holy Father presides at an ordinary public consistory for the canonisation of the following Blesseds: Stanislao Soltys, called Kazimierczyk (1433-1489); Andre Bessette, ne Alfred (1845-1937); Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola, nee Juana Josefa (1845-1912); Mary of the Cross MacKillop, nee Mary Helen (1842-1909); Giulia Salzano (1846-1929); Battista da Varano, nee Camilla (1458-1524). The canonisation ceremony will take place on 17 October.

20: The Pope receives in audience Saad Hariri, prime minister of Lebanon.

MARCH

5: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Uganda Episcopal Conference at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

7: Benedict XVI visits the parish of St. John of the Cross in the northern sector of the diocese of Rome, where he celebrates Mass at 9.30 a.m.

13: The Pope receives in audience Jadranka Kosor, prime minister of the Republic of Croatia.

13: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

14: Benedict XVI visits the Evangelical-Lutheran community of Rome at the "Christuskirche" in the city's Via Sicilia.

16: Publication of the Message of the Holy Father for twenty-fifth World Youth Day, celebrated this year at a diocesan level on Palm Sunday 28 March, with the theme: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

20: Publication of Pope's Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland.

20: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Conference of Bishops of Burkina Faso and Niger at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

25: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Scandinavian Episcopal Conference at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

25: The official acts of the Holy See and of the collection of documents from the period of World War II become available online on the Vatican website.

26: Publication of Pope's Message for the eighty-fourth World Mission Day, on the theme: "Building Ecclesial Communion is the Key to the Mission".

26: The Pope receives in audience Alvaro Colom Caballeros, president of the Republic of Guatemala.

29: Benedict XVI presides at Mass in the Vatican Basilica to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Venerable Servant of God John Paul II, who passed away on 2 April 2005.


APRIL

9: The Vatican Information Service (VIS), apart from its daily news bulletin, acquires its own blog which includes news items from the last few years in Spanish, English, French and Italian. The blog also allows access to the Vatican's Twitter account and YouTube portal. The website is: www.visnews.org.

12: The Vatican website, under the section "Focus", publishes a guide to understanding the procedures of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on sexual abuse allegations towards minors.

15: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Northern Region II), at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

15: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, presides at Mass for Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other victims of the air accident that occurred on 10 April in Smolensk, Russia.

16: Czech Cardinal Tomas Spidlik S.J. dies at the age of 90.

17-18: Benedict XVI makes an apostolic trip to Malta.

18: Beatification of Servant of God Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos, priest of the order of the Society of Jesus, at the cathedral of Valladolid, Spain.

19: Fifth anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope. On 19 April 2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, succeeding Pope John Paul II, became the 264th successor of St. Peter.

24: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Charles Ghislain, the new ambassador of Belgium to the Holy See.

25: Beatification of Servant of God Angelo Paoli, priest of the order of Carmelites of the Strict Observance, at the papal basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

25: Beatification of Servant of God Jose Tous y Soler, priest of the order of Capuchin Friars Minor and founder of the Institute of the Capuchin sisters of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd, at the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona, Spain.

25: Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

29: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Jean-Pierre Hamuli Mupenda, the new ambassador to the Holy See of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

29: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

30: Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer O.S.B., president emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, dies at the age of 98.

MAY

2: Holy Father makes a pastoral visit to the Italian city of Turin, for the exposition of the Holy Shroud.

4: Cardinal Luigi Poggi, archivist and librarian emeritus of Holy Roman Church, dies at the age of 92.

6: The Pope receives in audience Doris Leuthard, president of the Swiss Confederation.

6: The Pope receives in audience His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait.

7: The Pope receives in audience Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia.

8: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Belgium, at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

10: Announcement that the definitive text of the second volume of the book 'Jesus of Nazareth' by His Holiness Benedict XVI was recently consigned to the publishers. The second volume is dedicated to the Passion and the Resurrection, and starts where the first volume finished.

11-14: Benedict XVI makes an apostolic trip to Portugal.

17: The Pope receives in audience Evo Morales Ayma, president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

20: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Hissa Abdulla Ahmed Al-Otaiba, the first ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the Holy See.

20: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Luvsantseren Orgil, the new ambassador of Mongolia to the Holy See.

20: The Pope receives in audience Feleti Vaka'uta Sevele, prime minister of Tonga.

21: The Pope receives in audience Leonel Antonio Fernandez Reyna, president of the Dominican Republic.

22: Beatification of Servant of God Teresa Manganiello, virgin and Franciscan tertiary, at the basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Benevento, Italy.

24: The Pope receives in audience Denis Sassou N'guesso, president of the Republic of Congo.

24: The Pope receives in audience Mihai Ghimpu, speaker of parliament and acting president of the Republic of Moldova.

28: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Theodore Loko, the first resident ambassador of Benin to the Holy See.

30: Beatification of Servant of God Maria Pierina De Micheli, virgin and sister of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception in Buenos Aires, at the papal basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

JUNE

4-6: Benedict XVI makes an apostolic trip to Cyprus.

6: Beatification of Servant of God Jerzy Popieluszko, priest and martyr, at Marshal J. Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, Poland.

9-11: International meeting of clergy to mark the end of the Year for Priests, called by Benedict XVI for the 150th anniversary of the death of the holy "Cure of Ars".

10: The Pope receives in audience Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, prime minister of Spain.

12: Beatification of Servant of God Manuel Lozano Garrido, layman, in Linares, Spain.

13: Beatification of Servant of God Lojze Grozde, Slovenian layman and martyr, in Celje, Slovenia.

19: Holy Father receives in audience prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Eastern Region II), at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

27: Beatification of Servant of God Stephen Nehme (ne Joseph), Lebanese professed religious of the Order of Maronites, in Kfifan, Lebanon.

28: The Pope creates a new organisation, in the form of a Pontifical Council, with the fundamental task of promoting renewed evangelisation in countries undergoing a progressive secularisation of society.

30: Publication of the Message for World Tourism Day by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. The Day, which is due to be celebrated on 27 December, has as its theme: "Tourism and Biodiversity".

JULY

2: Holy Father receives the Letters of Credence of Habbeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al-Sadr, the new ambassador of Iraq to the Holy See.

4: The Pope makes a pastoral visit to the town of Sulmona, in the Italian region of Abruzzo.

7: Benedict XVI moves to his summer residence at Castelgandolfo for a period of rest.

13: Announcement of the theme chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for the 2011 World Day of Peace: "Religious freedom, the path to peace".

15: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith publishes its new "Norms concerning the most serious crimes".

22: Publication of "The Friends of Jesus", a new book for children by Benedict XVI in which he recounts the story of the twelve Apostles and St. Paul.

Friday, July 30, 2010

ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS (Italy, 406-450), Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Born in Imola, central Italy, he was a deacon serving the Bishop of his diocese when he was named Bishop of Ravenna
by Pope Sixtus II in 433. The Pope had a vision in which St. Peter and St. Apollinaire, the first bishop of Ravenna,
showed him a young man whom they said should be the next Bishop of Ravenna, then the capital of the Western Roman
Empire. Sixtus recognized the young man of the vision at an audience with a delegation from Ravenna who came to tell
him whom they had elected bishop; he consecrated Peter instead. The new bishop quickly became known for his short
but inspired sermons (he said he was afraid of boring his listeners). When the Empress Galla Placidia first heard
him speak, she called her 'Peter Chrysologos' (Peter of the Golden Words) and later was the patroness of many of
his projects. Peter spoke against the Arian and Monophysite heresies and explained the basic topics of the faith
in simple and clear language. He advocated daily Communion and trust in the power of confession. He was a counsellor
to Pope Leo I, but he died young of an illness when he was on a visit to Imola. In the eighth century, a bishop of
Ravenna assembled 176 of Peter's homilies, which are still reprinted today. Benedict XIII proclaimed him a Doctor
of the Church (Doctor of Homilies) in 1729.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/073010.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR, except a brief item about the film preview for the Holy Father yesterday
afternoon. (Story, full text of Pope's remarks and photos in the post below). The most important
Page 1 news is that the UN has voted to make the right to potable drinking water as one of the basic
human rights. In the inside pages, three articles based on a new book by an Italian bishop who took part
in Vatican-II and kept a diary of it, Mons. Carlo Ferrari, Council Father: Diary (1962-1965);
he died in 1992.


No Vatican announcements so far.

'The Church is young and joyful':
The Pope on the film of his first 5 years
set to Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'



At Castel Gandolfo yesterday afternoon, the Holy Father previewed a film on the first five years of his Pontificate which will be shown on Bavarian state TV, Bayerischer Rundfunk.

The film entitled Five years of Benedikt XVI: Impressions in Rome and on his travels and subtitled "A selection of decisive moments in the Pontificate of the Holy Father from his election to the present", waswritten and directed by Michael Mandlik, a German journalist who has covered Joseph Ratzinger for German radio since he was Prefect of the CDF.

Last year, Mandlik published the book Benedict XVI In Rome und unterwegs: Der Papst aus der Nahe (Benedict XVI - In Rome and on the road: The Pope up close).

The executive producer for the film is Gerhard Fuchs, TV director of Bayerische Rundfunk.


I have not found any online clips so far of the new BR film. The above is a montage from the title screens of the ZDF and BR presentations on the first 5 years of the Pontificate last April 19, and the book by Mandlik.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks after the screening:

---

Eminence, Excellencies,
Dear Prof. Fuchs, dear Mandlik,
Dear friends,
Ladies and gentlemen:

Right now I can only give thanks to Bayerische Rundfunk for this extraordinary spiritual voyage which has allowed us to relive and review the decisive moments and high points of these five years of my Petrine ministry and of the life of the Church herself.

For me it was personally very moving to see some moments - above all, when the Lord placed the Petrina service on my shoulders. It is a weight that no one can carry by himself with his own strength, but which can only be borne because the Lord carries us, because the Lord carries me.

I think this film shows the richness of the life of the Church, the multiplicity of its cultures, charisms and different gifts that live within the Church, and how in this multiplicity and great diversity, the same one and only Church lives on.

The Petrine primacy has the mandate to make visible and concrete this unity in its concrete historical multiplicity, a unity of the past, present, future and the eternal.

We see that the Church today, although it is suffering much, as we know, is nonetheless a joyous Church. It is not a Church that has aged - we see a Church that is young, in which faith creates joy.

That is why I found it most interesting, a beautiful idea, to frame all of it in the context of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the Ode to Joy, which says that underlying all of history is the joy of our redemption.

I also found it beautiful that the film ends with a visit to the Mother of God who teaches us humility, obedience and the joy of God- with-us.

In German he said:
A heartfelt 'Vergelt's Gott' [May God reward you!], dear Prof. Fuchs, dear Mr. Mandlik, and all your co-workers for these wonderful moments that you have given us.

---

Nice to see that the OR reporter who wrote the following story for tomorrow's issue also singled out what I thought most remarkable about the film on the Pope!


Beethoven's 'Ode to joy':
Soundtrack for this Pontificate
Translated from
the 7/31/10 issue of


A throng of the faithful in St. Peter's Square all looking towards the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, within which the cordinals in conclave were electing a new Pope. It was April 19, 2005.

Suddenly, white smoke! Shouts of celebration, emotional outbursts, and the 'Ode to Joy' from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sounds out. [And as the Pope notes in hsi remarks afterwards, it was used to give context to the whole film.]

On the central Loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Joseph Ratzinger appears, for the first time in papal garments, not long after Cardinal Proto-Deacon Jorge Medina Estevez had announced 'Habemus papam!'.

These images - which flashed instantly around the world five years ago - are the first seen in the beautiful film Five years of Benedict XVI: Impressions in Rome and on his travels, directed by the German journalist Michael Mandlik and produced by Bayerische Rundfunk.

The film was shown in a sort of world premiere to the Pope himself and selected guests Thursday afternoon, June 29, at the Swiss Hall of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.

The film proceeds with scenes from a typical day for Benedict XVI, starting with the Mass he says daily in his private chapel and ends with a late afternoon walk through the Vatican Gardens, praying the rosary with his secretaries.

The scene broadens to show some of the most significant events of the Pontificate: his first trip outside Rome, to Bari where he closed an Italian Eucharistic Congress on May 29, 2005; his first visit to the Quirinale Palace, to then President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, also in May 2005; his visit to Cologne for World Youth Day on Aug. 18-21, and his visit to Auschwitz in May 2006 at the end of his visit to Poland.

Next, we see him in Manoppello, east central Italy, where he venerates the Holy Face imprinted inexplicably on fabric, followed by his trip to his Bavarian homeland in September 2006, starting in Munich where his successor as Archbishop, Cardinal Frederick Wetter, greets him with the words, "Welcome home!"

Much footage is shown from Altoetting, where the Pope venerated the Madonna, so dear to him and his family - and all Bavarians; and from Regensburg, including the visit made by him and his brother Georg to the family graves near Pentling, and finally Freising.

A splendid view of the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia introduces the November 2006 visit to Turkey. The artistic wonders of Santa Sophia and the Blue Mosque prepare the scene of Benedict XVI's meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Fanar, on the Feast of St. Andrew.

Next, he is venerating the tomb of St. Augustine on his visit to Pavia in April 2007. It is a prelude to his visit to Brazil in May that year, with events in Sao Paolo, Facenda Esperanza and Aparecida. In September that year, he is in Austria for a pilgrimage to Mariazell.

From his US visit in April 2008, the welcome by President Bush, his speech to the UN, his visit to Ground Zero, and an intimate birthday party at the Apostolic Nunciature in New York.

Sydney harbor and the smiling faces of young people introduce the trip to Sydney for World Youth Day in July 2008, where in addition to the events on the program, he is also seen with Australian animals.

From the trip to France in September 2008, the most memorable scene is the long line of sick people in wheelchairs and stretchers at the Grotto of the Apparitions.

In 2009, tribal chants and dances with a panorama of African geography introduce the trip to Cameroon and Angola in March. And then the event-filled pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visiting the principal sites of Christianity as well the Western Wall and he Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem.

The film includes the Pope's visit to Malta, his pilgrimage to the Holy Shroud of Turin, and ends with the Marian procession in Fatima on May 13.

Among the personalities present for the film viewing were Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State; his two deputies, Monsignors Fernando Filoni and Dominique Mamberti; the Bishop of Albano, Mons. Semeraro; the parish priest of San Tomasso de Villanova, Fr. Waldemar Niedzolka; the director of the Pontifical Villas, Saverio Petrillo; the Pope's security chief, Inspector Domenico Giani; his personal physician and head of the Vatican's health department, Dr. Patrizio Polisca; our editor, Giovanni Maria Vian; and the Pope's personal secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein.

Writer-director Michael Mandlik introduced the film with brief remarks: "The fact that the present Pope of the universal Church is a native of Bavaria is divine will which naturally fills all the faithful of his homeland with great joy and prestige".

He said that the film presents the first five years of the Pontificate "through the images that have impressed themselves lastingly in the public mind, and that allow an overall view of a total composition - something that is much more complex. more broad, and at the same time, more harmonious, than what one might deduce from single events".

Mandlik also presented the Pope with a piece of rock from the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, where 30 years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger had consecrated a chapel to St. Mary of the Visitation.




P.S. According to Mons. Semeraro who gave an interview about his impressions of the film [mostly a general description of the main sequences and references to the Pope's remarks, so I am not posting a separate story about it], the sound track is from a performance of the Ninth Symphony by the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra under Maris Janssons at the Aula Paula VI in October 2007.

Benedict XVI:
Back to being professor
for two days this August
by Massimo Donaddio
Translated from

July 30, 2010


A summer of rest - and work nonetheless - like Popes' summers always are. Except that for Benedict XVI this year, he is spending the entire summer in Castel Gandolfo. No holiday in the mountains as his predecessor always had, and as he had himself in the previous five summers of his Pontificate so far.

For Benedict XVI, summer 'holidays' mean relaxation from his Vatican routine and long walks outdoors, but also a chance to do more reading, studying and writing, a scholarly regimen that the theologian Pope has always kept up.

Having finished the second volume of his JESUS OF NAZARETH, dedicated to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, he has started working on a third volume - not previously planned - dealing with the stories of the young pre-public Jesus.

He is also reviewing the next volumes due for publication of his 16-volume Gesammelte Schriften(Collected Works) of his writings before he became Pope.

At the end of August (8/29-8/29), the Pope will have his annual reunion with the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis, ex-students of his at the universities of Bonn, Muenster, Tuebingen and Regensburg, who have met annually with him since 1977.

It is an occasion that ex-Professor Ratzinger has never missed, not even the summer after he was elected Pope. An indication of how much inter-personal relations and intellectual companionship continue to be important for Joseph Ratzinger, even now that he is the Pastor of the Universal Church.

The annual meeting itself was originally patterned after the bimonthly meeting that Prof. Ratzinger used to have with all of his current doctoral students. It was an occasion for the students to freely discuss their respective doctoral subjects with each other under the supervision of their thesis adviser, according to Gianni Valente in his 2008 book Ratzinger professore.

The first summer reunion of the Schuelerkreis took place the summer after the Regensburg professor was named Archbishop of Freising and Munich in early 1977, and they have continued uninterrupted during his 23 years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The format changed, in that the ex-students decide beforehand, in consultation with their ex-professor, on a specific topic for discussion for a seminar-type reunion, as well as the resource persons to be invited to lecture on the chosen topic.

However, since he became Pope, Papa Ratzinger has generally attended only one of the two seminar days, at the end of which he delivers a summary of what he has learned from the discussions. He generally has breakfast or lunch with them on this day, and then he celebrates Mass to close the seminar.

But who exactly are those who make up the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis? They are not necessarily bishops or ranking prelates. Many of them have remained simple priests or partish priests, and others are theologians. About 40 of them have been coming to Castel Gandolfo for the seminars. [Two years ago, they started to be joined by young theology students from German universities who are specializing in studying Joseph Ratzionger's work.]

The most prominent in the Schuelerkreis is the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who was not a doctoral student of Ratzinger [He obtained his doctorate in theology from the Sorbonne] but attended some courses under him in Regensburg for two semesters.

The man who keeps the Schuelerkreis togather is the Salvatorian priest Stephan Horn, 72, who had been Prof. Ratzinger's last student assistant in Regensburg.

Other key persons are
- Peter Kuhn, a scholar of Judaism, who was a student assistant to Prof. Ratzinger in Tuebingen;
- Fr. Vincent Toomey, the Irish theologian who has written a biography of the Pope, and who studied under him in Regensburg;
- Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, founder of Ignatius Press which publishes the Ratzinger/Benedict XVI books in English; and
- Fr. Barthélémy Adoukonou, whom the Pope named a few months back to be the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
[He was the African student from Benin whom the professor and his sister were honoring at lunch in their Regensburg home (for having passed his oral defense of his doctoral dissertation) on the day they got the news of his appointment to Munich.]

The testimonials of his former students bring forth some specific features of their sessions with Prof. Ratzinger. First of all, his obvious joy to be back with his students, and the atmosphere of freedom that has always characterized their theological and cultural discussions.

"Joseph Ratzinger's classes were an arena for diverse opinions, in which the teacher did not impose himself and did not confine ideas to a specific thought system, but he guaranteed his accessibility to each one and their right to raise objections or criticism," writes Gianni Valente.

"His role was maeiutic [from the Greek word for 'midwifery; it describes teaching based on the idea that the truth is latent in the mind of every human being due to his innate reason but has to be "given birth" by answering questions that are intelligently proposed]. He clarfied questions and he suggested take-off points or further paths for study, in the tradition of the great classic theologians, particularly St. Augustine".

His teaching, Valente continues, "confronted the pivotal issues of modern culture in relation to Sacred Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, and was distinguished by a richness of ideas and the breadth of discussions that arose".

Valenti cites Ratzinger's first Prefect of Studies at the seminary in Freising, Prof. Alfred Laepple, on the ultimate objective of Ratzinger the teacher, quoting what Prof. Ratzinger later told him:

---

The greatest satisfaction is when the students stop taking notes and just sit up and listen. If they take notes while you are lecturing, it means you are doing well, but you have not said anything to surprise them. But when they stop writing and look at you as you speak, then it means that perhaps you have touched their heart.

---

Fr. Adoukounou said in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano:

---

When I came to Regensburg, I found a brilliant theologian who did not read a lecture he had prepared from the chair, but who gave the impression he was reading something from Heaven. He had a vision that was a panoramic historical synthesis - profound as one expects of a German and clear as befits Latin thought.

The Christocentrism of his thinking enchanted me: it was present in every argument he undertook, and with his rare ability to articulate his thoughts. He developed his thinking on the basis of achieving communion with his listeners, and was able to synthesize a multiplicity of elements which many teachers, including me, are not always able to do.

---

In Castel Gandolfo so far, the topics of the annual seminar have been
the concept of God in Islam (2005), cration and evolution (2006 and 2007), the historical Jesus and Jesus of the Gospels (2008), and mission in the Church (2009) - reflecting principal concerns of Benedict XVI's Pontificate.

As is the topic this year: the hermeneutic of Vatican II.

Principal guest and lecturer is the Pope's own new ecumenical minister, Mons. Kurt Koch, Bishop of Basel before he was named president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity last June, and a theologian himself.

Benedict XVI, of course, spoke about the proper interpretation of Vatican II in his Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2005. This is an occasion which Popes generally use to indicate the programmatic lines of their Pontificate.

Having taken part in Vatican II as a theological consultant to Cardinal Frings of Cologne, he subsequently dedicated much of his intellectual energies to what he believes to be the correct reading of Vatican II, counteracting all the tendencies and practices that he considers a betrayal of the Council.

"Why has the implementation of the Coucil, in large parts of the Church herself, been so difficult thus far?", he asked in 2005 in his address to the Curia.

---

The problem arose from the fact that two contrary heremeutics came face to face, and quarreled with each other. One caused confusion; the other, silently but more and more visibly, has borne fruit.

---

He called the first a 'hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture', and the other, the 'hermeneutic of reform'. Clearly, the Pope takes the latter view: reform or renewal within Tradition - renewal in continuity - against those who claim that Vatican II had finally toppled centuries of anachronistic doctrine which is out of step with the times.

"The entire leitmotiv of this Pontificate," says Vaticanista Paolo Rodari, "can be summed up in a phrase, 'renewal without betrayal', which is Papa Ratzinger's interpetation of Vatican II. The Pope has been calling on the Church, even today, when the sex-abuse scandal peaked, to renew and regenerate itself, to look ahead but without forgetting the long Tradition of the Church - neither surrendering to the world, nor a sterile return to the past. The Pope is firmly taking the middle way."

"It is not I who changed [and betrayed the Council] - it is they," Cardinal Ratzinger told Vittorio Messori in the interview-book Rapporto sulla Fede (1984), referring to 'progressivist' theologians such as his former colleague Hans Kueng.

Across the distance of decades, Joseph Ratzinger's beliefs about Vatican II and its correct interpretation have guided his governance of the Church. Even in his overtures to the Lefebvrians who have demanded that the Church denounce the 'errors' of Vatican II.

As much as he rejects the progressivist interpretation of Vatican-II, that is something Benedict XVI will never do. The problem, he has said over and over, is not what the Council decided, but in how its decisions have been interpreted.

Meanwhile, he is firmly in command of Peter's boat and, keeping to the center, seeking to navigate the best he can.


P.S. I just saw a most informative interview by a Spanish news agency dedicated to Catholic content, with Mons. Koch, the new president of the PCPCU, in which, among other things, he is asked about his being the principal lecturer at the Schuelerkreis seminar. For this post, I will excerpt what he says about it and Vatican II. I will translate the whole post for the ChURCH&VATICAN thread later.

Mons. Koch on his Schuelerkreis lecture:
'Like being asked to play for Mozart'
Excerpt from an interview
by Anna Artymiak

July 15, 2010

---

You were invited to present the main lecture at the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis seminar this August in the presence of the Holy Father...
I was very surprised by the invitation. I feel somewhat like having to play the piano in front of Mozart. Like being a piano student before Mozart himself.

But it is a great challenge that I take great pleasure in confronting, at which I shall experience the atmosphere among the disciples of Joseph Ratzinger.

The Pope is very open to discussion. But the great challenge is the conflict between the two interpretations of Vatican II. One says Tradition ended with Vatican II and that it brought a new era which is no longer linked to the past, to tradition.

I see the Council as a great event in the river of the Church's living tradition. The Council was open to the past as well as to the future. And I believe that was the thinking of the Council Fathers.

But we have had some instrumentalization of Vatican II in order for some theologians to advance their own ideas - they are not being sincere in presenting the Council.

Additionally, many people talk about 'the Council' and say the Pope should 'return to it' but they don't really know what they are talking about.

First of all, there is Lumen gentium, the Council's great dogmatic constitution on the Church in the modern world, with its eight chapters. Most people only know the title of Chapter 2, 'The Church and the People of God'. But you cannot understand Chapter 2 without first knowing Chapter 1, which is about the mystery of the Church.

Personally, I think that Chapter 5, on the vocation to holiness, is the fundamental theme of Lumen gentium.

The two interpretations of the Council also affect attitudes towards liturgy. How should we look at liturgy today?
Everything that people said was 'new' after Vatican II was not contained in its Constitution on Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium). For instance, celebrating the Mass facing the congregation was never part of tradition - it was always to celebrate Mass facing east, symbolizing the direction of the Resurrection. In St. Peter's Basilica, it has been celebrated at the main altar for some time 'facing the congregation' only because that is the east. [Also, The main altar of St. Peter's is open on all sides and does not have an altarpiece behind it.]

The second thing is about the use of the vernacular. The Council wanted Latin to remain as the language of liturgy. [Only Readings were intended to be in the vernacular.]

Moreover, the most fundamental and profound elements in the liturgical constitution are not known. [In fact, it is quite obvious, from the liturgical abuses and preposterously ignorant statements made by progressivist priests and bishops that most of them have probably not even bothered to read Sacrosanctum Concilium - which is relatively short, and has no equivocal language! How did it come about that practically the entire Church was conned into accepting the deliberately false and self-serving interpretations made by the progressivists about the liturgy - and that, outside of the Lefebvrians and a few good men like Joseph Ratzinger, no priest or bishop ever dared to say "But that is not what Sacrosanctum concilium says!" Yet even someone like Cardinal Ratzinger, being obedient and faithful to the Pope, had to follow the liturgical changes Paul VI decreed!]

All the fundamental and profound provisions of the liturgical constitution are little known to the public. How liturgy relates to the mystery of Christ's passion, death and resurrection. You cannot celebrate Mass without the idea of sacrifice, which is its very meaning in theology.

But then, even the constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum, is not really known in the Church. [And one of the purposes of the 2009 Synodal Assembly on the Word of God was to make it better known through active implementation in the Church. It is also the major Vatican II document in which Joseph Ratzinger most had a hand.]

Truly, there is so much more to be done in order to make the Council work known and understood.

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