BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries posted 7/30/10.






Art educator and critic Elizabeth Lev devotes her weekly feature for ZENIT this week to the coming papal visit to the UK. She starts with a breat story about the Raphael tapestries that the Vatican is sending to the V&A as an unprecedented cultural treat to mark the Pope's visit. But I will turn the sequence around and start with her second item which is a more general commentary on the visit:


What the MSM is missing
about the Pope's visit
by Elizabeth Lev

July 29, 2010


The truly newsworthy qualities of the upcoming papal visit seem to have been lost on the secular media.

Benedict the Brave, as the Wall Street Journal once dubbed him, will be marching like Daniel into a veritable lion’s den. Feral foes like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are already sharpening their claws to strip the Pontiff’s flesh from bone as he attempts to reach out to Christ’s sheep. How many 83-year-olds would undertake the same daunting mission?

Perhaps some fear is creeping into the hearts of the atheists because of the imminent beatification of John Henry Newman, the highest profile convert to Catholicism in the 19th century.

Newman went from founding the Oxford movement of High Church Anglicans to becoming one of the greatest intellectuals of the Catholic Church, and four of his works are cited in the Catechism, drafted well before the announcement of his beatification.

Given that Newman once held that the Pope was the anti-Christ, one can see why Dawkins and Hitchens (neither of whom would be described as approaching Newman’s intellectual stature) are antsy about this great convert being raised to the altars.

While obviously a lesser theme, the arrival of the Raphael tapestries highlights the power of beauty to bring about unity. The royal cartoons side by side with the papal tapestries do not underscore the divisions and tragedies that are part of their 500-year history, but rather how human genius and transcendent beauty can draw people together.

After the July 14 press conference [on the tapestries going to London], the Vatican Museums remained open to allow the general public to visit the Sistine Chapel and enjoy the exquisite vision of Raphael’s tapestries.

A steady stream of tourists flowed into the Chapel mixing with the journalists, members of the Curia, art historians and the more privileged guests, but differences in language, education and station were forgotten as everyone shared in common awe.

We can only hope that courage, conversion and beauty, which have long been the stuff of great literature, may eventually outshine stories of scandal.


Raphael's tapestries return
to the Sistine Chapel -
before being lent to London
by Elizabeth Lev


I'm re-using photos used in the previous page. At 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 14 news conference.

ROME, JULY 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- It was perhaps the greatest reunion I have ever attended.

On the evening of July 14, for one night only, a series of tapestries designed by Raphael in 1519 returned to their rightful home in the Sistine Chapel under Michelangelo’s epic ceiling fresco. A sight not seen since 1983, the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s birth.

One of the most moving aspects of the evening was to watch the different branches of the Vatican Museums working in such beautiful concert. The viewing was preceded by a press conference where Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, Arnold Nesselrath, curator of Renaissance art, and Anna Maria DeStrobel, curator of tapestries and fabrics, discussed different facets and aspects of the works in flawless harmony.

This extraordinary evening was made possible by the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, who, under the direction of Legionary of Christ Father Mark Haydu, and the inspiration of Nesselrath, have organized a spectacular exhibit of four Raphael tapestries from the Vatican Museums to be displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London alongside the original designs (called “cartoons”) drawn by Raphael.

The exhibit will open on Sept. 8 to coincide with Benedict XVI’s visit to Great Britain, and will close Oct. 17. The tapestries belong to the papal collections, while the cartoons belong to Queen Elizabeth II, having been purchased in Genoa for 300£ in 1623 by the future King Charles I. They have been on permanent loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum since 1865.

Admission to the exhibit is free of charge thanks to the Patrons of the Arts and in particular Michael and Dorothy Hintze -- a reminder of the longstanding generosity in the arts that has marked the Church.

Raphael’s tapestries were commissioned in 1515 by Pope Leo X Medici in the second year of his reign. His predecessor, Julius II, had left posterity Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling and "discovered" Raphael by hiring him to paint the papal apartments.

Julius died before Raphael could complete the four rooms, but Pope Leo X, duly impressed, commissioned him to complete the decoration of the Sistine Chapel in a medium that would require a very different set of skills than those Michelangelo had displayed on the ceiling.

Raphael was asked to prepare drawings illustrating the lives of Sts. Peter and Paul to be transformed into a series of tapestries. Working specially prepared paper the same size as the finished product (343 centimeters by 532 centimeters -- more than 11 feet by 17 feet), Raphael and his studio executed their designs in mirror image, since tapestries were woven from the back.

Raphael had executed several engravings and was therefore accustomed to working in reverse, although in the image of "The Healing of the Lame Man," St. Peter lifts the paralytic with his right hand in the cartoon (as in Acts 3:7) but in the finished tapestry (one of the four going to the London show), Peter extends his left arm.

The tapestries were woven in Belgium at the studio of Peter van Aelst, then considered the greatest weaver of his age. At seven warps per centimeter, a square foot took a month to weave.

For Pope Leo’s tapestries, Aelst employed special threads: silk to get the same color quality as oil paint (now sadly faded) and gold and silver wrapped thread to shimmer especially in the candlelight of the Chapel. Aelst worked hard for his papal patron, producing the first seven by 1519. Another three arrived in 1521 but Leo’s dream of 16 tapestries to cover the lower walls (painted with trompe d’oeil hangings under Pope Sixtus IV) was never to be realized.

The cost of these spectacular works was staggering. Raphael was paid 1,000 gold ducats, but the finished product cost 15,000, four times the cost of Michelangelo’s ceiling.

Tapestry cartoons required more detail than most Italian painting of that age, but Raphael rose to the occasion. The tapestry of the Lame Man represents the beautiful gate of the Temple of Jerusalem employing the richly decorated twisting marble columns that surrounded the tomb of St. Peter at the time.

The columns parse the narrative perfectly: children tug and scamper on the left, Peter and the paralytic occupy the center, and beggars crowd the right, one with his ragged robe seeming to unravel before one’s eyes.

The most significant of the four tapestries destined for the London show is the "Maiestas Papalis," where Christ tells St. Peter to “feed my sheep” and “look after my lambs” (John 21:15-17).


Part of the Maiestas papalis tapestry seen at left; right, the cartoon. Sorry I can't gind better pictures to do justice to Lev's description.

Jesus is a luminous vision of shining gold and white, his right hand pointing to Peter kneeling at his feet and clutching the keys, while the other indicates to a flock of sheep. The apostles cluster around Jesus and Peter, slightly offset from the center, seeming to react to a gravitational pull from Christ.

This image seems tailor-made for Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain. Following his Divine mandate, the successor of Peter will bring nourishment to his starving flock, despite hardship, rejection and in Peter’s case, martyrdom.

The seven completed tapestries were first displayed in the Sistine Chapel on Dec. 26, 1519, to universal awe and amazement. Hanging on the walls, the tapestries seem to widen the room so that visitors appear to witness the lives of Sts. Peter and Paul unfolding before their eyes.

Monumentally designed and richly decorated, they achieved the impossible: to draw the eye away from the ceiling and fix one’s gaze straight ahead. For the first time, few people craned their necks to look at Michelangelo, transfixed by Raphael’s parallel world.

Michelangelo’s sculptural simplicity reunited with Raphael’s painterly complexity transformed the chapel for one magical night into a visual paradise.

The importance of Raphael’s drawings was immediately recognized. While most cartoons were destroyed in the process of tapestry weaving, eight of Raphael’s 10 survived, despite the fragile nature of the medium. The tapestries had a more complicated fate.

Dispersed in 1530, they traveled to Constantinople, Tunisia and France. Several were recouped in Venice, but in the case of the “Death of Ananias,” the tapestry had been quartered and only two parts were ever recovered.

While Raphael lived to see his work hang in the Sistine Chapel, he had no way of knowing that he himself would be dead within four months, killed by a fever at the age of 37. Raphael’s death, followed a year later by Pope Leo’s, signaled the end of the golden age of the Renaissance.

While Raphael and Peter van Aelst were toiling away at the tapestries, Martin Luther was penning his 95 Theses that would soon unravel the fabric of Christendom.

These tapestries, the last great work of art of a united Western Church, have never before visited England. In the wake of Benedict’s apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and its provisions for Anglicans to return to the Catholic Church, Raphael’s cartoons and tapestries are reunited after 500 years.

Their images of Peter and Paul evangelizing side by side make for an eloquent illustration of the Pope’s call to unity.

Almost as if he was picking up from the reflections of Mons. Kurt Koch on Vatican II in the preceding page. Fr. Gheddo, who last wrote a few days ago on having read Ratzinger professore for the summer, here reflects on Vatican II. Like Joseph Ratzinger, he took part as an expert, specifically in the preparation of the Council document on evangelization... Since Vatican II is the topic of this year's Ratzinger Schuelerkreis seminar in Castel Gandolfo, I will be posting Vatican II stories on this thread even if they do not directly involve Benedict XVI.


Why is the post-Conciliar period
still so difficult?
by Fr. PIERO GHEDDO
Translated from
the Italian service of



ROME, July 30 (ZENIT.org) - The last 50-60 years of the Catholic Church are difficult to read.

To understand this statement, one must remember that the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965) was a watershed event, demarcating how the Church was before and after it.

Having been born in 1929 and a priest since 1953, I have lived long enough to say that the Church before the Council was very different from what we experience today.

Certainly more untetd and far more sure of the Truth which she announced (the study of theology for us seminarians and priests gave us certainty, but now, it sows questioning, hypothesizing and doubts), but it was also cast in undesirable tendencies like formalism, schematicism, clericalism, juridicism, authoritarianism, triumphalism...

Pius XII, speaking to newsman in the Holy Year 1950, called for 'public opinion' to be formed within the Church (that speech was later often cited in Italian schools of journalism), with the freedom to form mature consciences and to discuss, even to dissent, from non-doctrinal lines set by ecclesiastical authorities - debate and sharing in order not to suffocate the birth of new ideas coming from the clergy and from the lay faithful.

The Pope's exhortation was meant, of course, within the context of the faith and of substantial obedience to fundamental Church teaching in order to maintain unity and charity among the members of Christ's flock.

Then came the unexpected and extraordinary John XXIII and his Vatican Council - a wonderful and providential turning point in the history of the Church in our time. In those years, the Spirit seemed to breathe quite powerfully to push the Church towards aggiornamento (updating), to use John XXIII's term.

The issues considered most urgent by the Fathers of the Council and by their 'base' were sincerity, transparency, collegiality, poverty, denouncing triumphalism and clericalism, and openness to dialog with other Christian confessions and with the non-Christian religions.

In short, we all felt the urgency for the Church to renew itself so it could be more effective in bearing witness to the message of Christ and thus transmitting it to the people of our time.

I followed the Council in Rome as editor of the magazine Mondo e Missione (then it was called Le Missioni Cattoliche) and as a reporter for L'Osservatore Romano. I was also named an expert consultant by John XXIII for the decree 'Ad gentes'.

I remember well that during the Council and shortly after it ended, we young priests were most enthusiastic about the Church and its mission. We were highly charged with evangelizing zeal by the Council itself. They were years when the Spirit also inspired many vocations to the consecrated life and to priesthood.

But that fascinating period did not last. Not long afterwards, there was born in the Church a spirit of criticism, of contestation, of polemic, which was a fruit of the 'revolution' of 1968, a cultural movement of denunciation and revolt against the existing society and any type of 'power' or 'authority', which would create irreparable damages to the family (somplete sexual freedom), to schools (lack of discipline), to society (a culture of protest and revolt), and to the Church (a permanent and militant opposition to the Pope).

Those are simply summary examples to indicate the anarchic consequences of 1968.

In the Church - notably between theologians and the Catholic media - two currents of thought emerged that, in simplified form, had the following characteristics:

1. On the one hand, the Council was considered a done thing, which now had to be studied, applied and lived. On the other, that the Council was an uncompleted job, left in midstream, and therefore, in order to completely bring the Church abreast with the modern world, it was necessary to follow, not the letter of the Council - namely, what the official texts said, but rather the so-called 'spirit of the Council' alleged to consist of ongoing debate and experimentation, that would, in effect, accelerate holding an inevitable Third Vatican Council to finish the work. [Ah, so! No wonder we have heard this Vatican-III talk lately from such as Cardinal Martini and Hans Kueng!]

Thus started the continuing debate over the letter and the spirit of the Council: the letter, meaning the official texts of Vatican II; while the 'spirit' was the interpretation of those texts by the progressivists and prophets.

Soon, all it took was to oppose anything the Pope said or wrote - think of Humanae Vitae in 1968 - to be proclaimed 'a prophet of the new times'.

2) On the one hand, the Council was seen as the end of a long historical road of 'aggiornamento' for the Church, but in continuity with her rich past. On the other, the Council was understood to be a revolution, a rupture from the past, the start of a new road that was to be reinvented day to day - in fact, as if the Council were the starting point for a new Church that saw everything from the past as negative.

3) Collegiality in governing the Church was interpreted in almost polarly opposite ways: On the one hand, the freedom to express and discuss experiences and new ideas was asserted, but in obedience to the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. And on the other, the freedom and autonomy of local Churches assumed an absolute value, and any intervention from Rome was seen [and still seen today] as putting a brake on renewal, an obstacle to actualizing the 'spirit of the Council'.

Worse, authority in the Church, in dioceses, in seminaries, in religious and missionary organizations, was strongly undermined by the now prevalent idea that the People of God must be governed by 'collegial' and 'democratic' methods; that authority comes from the base, it is born at the bottom, witj the people.

In Scripture and Tradition, the Church was never considered to be a 'republic' but a 'monarchy', for the simple reason that her authority comes from God. (I may be over-simplifying but this is to make more clear the consequences of the spirit of the times.)

4) Inter-religious and intercultural dialog was welcomed with joy. But on the one hand, it was understood as a readiness to listen, to compare ideas and to work together where possible with members of other faiths, while remaining firmly rooted in one's own faith, in Christian tradition, and in the unity of the Church.

On the other, it was thought to mean making approaches to others with a view to appreciating their values and to 'walking the same road together' in order to reach some sort of reciprocal integration. That is how anomalies like 'Christians for socialism' (an absurd illusion) were born and quickly died out, and of those who promoted dialog with Marxists and Communists were such efforts, as were those who pushed for 'dialog' with Buddhists and Hindus without really knowing anything about these religions, and with erroneous concepts of dialog.

5) The other novelty of the Council was the Church taking a stand on the existence of hunger and extreme poverty in many parts of the world, and of the injustices at the international level between rich and poor nations.

The solution proposed by the Council, beyond reforms to orient the faithful, following Christ, Christ towards the poor and the 'least', was the 'social doctrine of the Church', mentioned several times in Gaudium et spes.

But in the post-conciliar post-68 era, some 'prophetic' interpreters of the 'spirit of the Council' affirmed that the Church had nothing or virtually nothing to say on political, social and economic matters. That if one really wanted to do good for the poor, one must follow the "only scientific reading of society" that favors the poor, namely, the Marxist view. Not to become communists and approve everything that Communist regimes did, but to 'walk the same path' as the masses who oppose capitalism and who are working for a new world that is more just and equitable!

"The only hope for the poor is socialism,"I was told by Fr. Davide Turoldo in November 1973, in Turin, at a congress of 'Christians shoulder to shoulder with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia' (to which I had been invited by one of the organizing cardinals).

Turoldo's statement was not surprising because at the time, the dominant culture in a good part of the Catholic world (including the youth associations) believed that.

But today, no Catholic with simple common sense would even say it now, considering how the countries with 'true socialism' ended up. [Or how the socialist welfare states of Europe are ending up!]

6) In the confusion of ideas at that time - which resulted among other things, in the alienation (or disaffection) of not a few priests and faithful with the Church - for most Italian bishops, the fixed point of reference was the Pope.

But the opposing current of thought mocked Paul VI (the 'tentative Pope', 'Paul the pitiful') and said he was afflicted by 'fear of anything new'. [Did they forget so soon that they owe him the Novus Ordo???] Not long after the Council had ended, they accused him of putting on the brakes with many decrees on applying the Council - like Ecclesiae Sanctae in 1966 - which, they claim, effectively 're-established' the authority of Rome over local Churches and took away the autonomy which was indispensable for them in order that they could experiment and carry forward the novelties of the Council.

Paul VI was snubbed, opposed, even derided, to the point that I sometimes say he was the 'martyr Pope' of the 20th century. Some, seeking to defend his person, said that what they criticized him for was not his fault, but that he was a prisoner of the mythical 'Roman Curia that was forcing him to take a path that is not what he wanted or foresaw.

The Church continues to suffer from this division, which does not arise from the Council and its documents, but from the wrong interpretation that has been given to them.

And therefore, whereas in the past, it was far 'easier' to be a priest even if it meant renunciations, sacrifices and mortifications, it has become much more difficult. because for many, the path to follow is no longer clear and sure. [But Fr. Gheddo, all they have to is listen to the Holy Father. The path he shows cannot be clearer and surer! If they can't listen to him, who will they listen to?]


Fr. Gheddo (born 1929) is currently the head of the history division of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME, from its Italian acronym) since 1994. Before that, he was the editor of the magazine Mondo e Missioni for 35 years (1959-1994) and founded AsiaNews in 1987. He has travelled and lived with local people in 80 countries and has written some 70 books about the work of missions, also writing for many secular publications. He is also the postulator for the causes for canonization of four contemporary missionaries.

Encouragement for China
By Fr. Federico Lombardi

Reported by

7/31/10

"Communion with Peter and his successors is a guarantee of freedom for the pastors of the Church and for the communities entrusted to them" - This is one of the key passages in the recent letter written by the Prefect of the Congregation for Peoples to the bishops and priests of mainland China, which Fr. Federico Lombardi speaks about in his editorial this week for the CTV program Octavo Dies.

---

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Ivan Dias, has published a beautiful and important letter to the bishops and priests of mainland China, inspired by the recently concluded Year for Priests.

Those who think of the Church in China exclusively in terms of political problems or diplomatic relations will fail to understand it.

Speaking from a pastoral perspective, Cardinal Dias speaks of the testimony that the bishop and the priest must make first as a man of God and man for others.

He speaks of prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist, and he speaks of the unselfish service of the small and the poor, of sinners, all following the example of Jesus.

He speaks of communion with the Holy Father in the Church as a guarantee of freedom in adherence to truth and authentic tradition.
No one is more aware of this, probably, than the faithful and the pastors of the Church in China, in the light of their experience.

But he also speaks to a greater degree about unity among the members of the ecclesial community, of overcoming divisions with patience and courage.

Divisions are in fact a consequence of sin, that sin which - as mentioned by the Pope several times recently - is most serious and dangerous for the Church. It is a danger that comes from within and is worse those that come from outside.

“The Pope urges you to continue without fear on the path of holiness, unity and communion" says Cardinal Dias.

For the Chinese Catholic priests and bishops, like all priests and bishops of the universal Church to which they belong, these are the primordial points on which to build the future. We are in solidarity with them on this path, which must be ours too.

---

I must note that L'Osservatore Romano has so far not reported on this subject at all, since FIDES released the text of Cardinal Dias's letter on July 29. Just another one of the baffling and inexplicable editorial judgments one comes across almost daily in the Vatican newspaper.

Saturday, July 31, 17th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. IGNACIO DE LOYOLA (b Spain, 1491, d Rome 1556), Soldier, Mystic, Priest, Founder of the Society of Jesus
Among the founders of the major religious congregations, perhaps no one had as troubled a history as the Basque mystic, who converted fairly late in life (he was 30). Son of a Basque nobleman, Inigo de Loyola became a courtier at the court of the King of Castile, and lived a courtier's profligate life until he decided to become a soldier. In the 1521 Battle of Pamplona, while fighting the French, a cannon ball tore through his left leg and ended his military career. During his long convalescence, the only book available at the hospital was a Life of Christ. It had a profound effect on him, and a vision of Mary and the Infant Jesus convinced led him to visit her shrine in Montserrat. He then retired to a cave in nearby Manresa where he underwent further spiritual trials including a 'dark night of the soul' that made him contemplate suicide. But he eventually found peace, and his experiences resulted in his great work, the Spiritual Exercises. In 1523, he went to the Holy Land, expecting to settle there, but the Franciscan custodians sent him back because a papal bull allowed them to minimize the Muslim threat of kidnapping Christians for ransom. Back in Europe, choosing to be called Ignacio, he spent the next 11 years studying in various universities, starting from the basics, and usually in hard straits. He was never erudite (and he never finished his doctorate in theology) but he learned enough to hold his own among learned men. In Paris, in 1534, when he was already 43, he and six friends (among them, the future St. Francis Xavier) vowed themselves to poverty and chastity, and to go to the Holy Land, but if the latter objective continued to be impractical, they would dedicate themselves to apostolic service for the Pope, which indeed became their only choice. Four years later, having been ordained a priest in 1537, Ignacio decided to formalize their association. Pope Paul II approved the new Society of Jesus, and Ignacio was elected the first Minister General. While his companions were sent to do various missions for the Pope, Ignacio remained in Rome to consolidate the new order. He also built homes for orphans, catechumens and penitents. He founded the Collegio Romano as a model for all Jesuit schools. But the practical leader of the congregation remained a true mystic, profoundly devoted to the essentials of the Faith, especially Christ, the Trinity, and the Eucharist. He gave the Jesuits his personal motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam (For the greater glory of God). He emphasized obedience as a primary virtue, and taught his priests that all activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Pope as the head of the Church. That is why the Jesuits profess a fourth vow that formalizes this allegiance to the Holy Father. [Which makes it a great irony that the major theological dissenters in our day are Jesuits, who apparently have chosen to ignore Ignatius's admonition of 'sentire cum Ecclesia' - think with the Church.] Famously, he said the ff:

---

That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity with the Church herself, if she shall have defined anything to be black which appears to our eyes to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black. For we must undoubtingly believe, that the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of the Orthodox Church His Spouse, by which Spirit we are governed and directed to Salvation, is the same.

---

He died of a form of malaria in Rome and is buried in the Church of Gesu. He was beatified in 1609 and canonized in 1622.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/073110.shtml


OR today.

Benedict XVI's words after viewing a film by Bavarian State broadcasting on his Pontificate:
'The Lord carries us through and carries me -
and the Church has not aged, even if she suffers much, but remains young and joyous'
The issue features the story about the preview for the Holy Father Thursday afternoon of a TV film on the first five years of his Pontificate, with the text of his remarks afterwards. Along with the photos, I posted translations of these yesterday on the preceding page of this thread. Page 1 international news: The Arab League endorses direct talks between Israel and Palestinian leaders; Al Qaeda's African subsidiary, Al Shahaab, threatens the African Union which plans to reinforce its mission in Mogadishu; efforts to lighten tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, but Chavez masses troops on the border.


Sorry for the very late start today. I had to attend to some urgent matters that took much more time than I expected. Fortunately, it turned out to be a day of really scant papal news.

UK Catholic leaders expect
great things from Pope’s visit
By Deacon Nick Donnelly

July 31st, 2010

In two separate interviews this week Archbishop Nichols and Lord Patten expressed their expectations that the Holy Father’s visit will bring about great things for the UK

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Archbishop Nichols’ said the papal visit promises to bring hope to a society suffering from the strain of financial troubles and family breakdown.

“He [Pope Benedict XVI] represents a depth of commitment to humanity that finds an echo in many people. This is an opportunity to move away from seeing faith as a problem and seeing it as a resource to be discovered afresh.

“It will be a symbolic embrace by the leader of the Catholic Church of Britain as it is today: multi-faith, multicultural, facing inner difficulties, but with great inner human inner resources which are strengthened by faith in God.”

In a separate interview with Vatican Radio Lord Patten said, “I hope Pope Benedict’s visit will encourage some people who think that they don’t need God in their lives to question that”.


Here is the Telegraph story on the interview with Archbshop Nichols:


Archbishop Nichols thinks PM Cameron's
proposed 'Big Society' is good for religions
and a step in the right direction
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

31 Jul 2010



LOURDES, FRANCE - Listening to David Cameron's first speech on the steps of Downing Street, Archbishop Vincent Nichols says he nearly fell off his chair at the Prime Minister's pledge to work for "the common good".

His surprise was down to the fact that only a few weeks earlier, Catholic bishops had published a document offering election advice to churchgoers called "Choosing the Common Good".

Sitting comfortably now in a shaded garden off the main road in Lourdes, the leader of the Church in England and Wales admits to being encouraged at the echoes of Catholic teaching emerging in the language of the new Coalition Government.

In particular, he is enthusiastic at the opportunities offered by Mr Cameron's call for a Big Society. The concept may have been widely derided, described by David Davis, the Conservative backbencher, as "Blairite dressing", but the Archbishop believes that it offers the chance to rebuild communities based on mutual support and genuine care.

There is no better model for this, he says, than in Lourdes.

While it is doubtful that David Cameron had the French market town in mind when he launched the policy, across the cobbled road from the garden where we talk, smiling teenagers push elderly pilgrims in their wheelchairs. Around the corner in the hospital, groups of volunteers care for the sick and the frail.

"It gives us an experience of being together in a place that turns things on their head a bit," he says.

Much of Archbishop Nichols's thinking seems to be driven by a desire to see things turned around, but while he is surprisingly candid in revealing his dismay with the previous government, he does not spare his own Church from criticism either.

Whether it is due to the glorious French weather or to the holy water of Lourdes, the Archbishop appears filled with an infectious optimism that the country could be on the cusp of returning to a more cohesive, united society.

Britain might be facing its worst economic crisis since the Second World War and experiencing an unprecedented level of cuts, but he believes it will emerge stronger through overcoming its current challenges.

"One of the things that we see in Lourdes is the great value of tapping into people's goodwill. If we can generate that sense of volunteering and the sense of fulfilment that comes from it in our society, then we would be better for it. The Big Society is a step in that direction."

Having earned a reputation as a combative Church leader during his time as Archbishop of Birmingham, whether in his battles with the BBC or the government, he has been careful to avoid making political pronouncements since his move to Westminster.

Now, however, he expresses an excitement at the potential for the Coalition and reveals he had become disillusioned with the Labour administration.

"The last government was too overarching. In attempting to create a state that provided everything, it ended up losing touch with the people it was trying to serve."

The introduction of laws that allowed the creation of animal-human embryos and greater rights for homosexuals also seemed to suggest that it had lost touch with the Catholic Church.

For the first time, Archbishop Nichols admits that this is true.

"I think if there had been more thorough and genuine engagement on some of the bills, especially, for example, in some of the equality legislation, it could have been less confrontational. Another example would be around the school admissions scrap that we had.

"There was a lack of consultation because it [the government] was a long time in office, had a big majority, and had some quite strong ideological positions at certain levels which the government would be determined not to concede."

He says that the secularist agenda was more successful in securing its objectives, but has been encouraged by the attitude of the Coalition towards faith groups.

"My guess is that this Government is more pragmatic than the previous administration was."

Although the Archbishop is too canny to confirm suspicions that the Church's election document was an endorsement of the Conservative Party, he says that David Cameron has read it and suggests that many of the steps taken by the Coalition in tackling the economic situation resonate with the document.

"The Catholic Church has highlighted the need for society to not fall into the trap of thinking that everything is to be provided and that it is somebody else's responsibility."

As someone who grew up in Liverpool, a city bruised by the swinging cuts of the Thatcher years, he is well aware of the dangers if the impact of government action is not spread fairly.

Nevertheless he believes the current age of austerity can help to rebuild communities based on mutual support and hopes that faith groups can play a key role in achieving this.

"There is a fresh attitude on the part of the Government that seems to respect the integrity of what a faith group wants to do, and respect its language, so that a faith community coming into co-operation with others will not have to sing from their hymn sheet.

"It marks a shift from the last government, which required a high degree of conformity to its own theories. And if they clashed with those of a faith community then either the partnership came to an end or the faith group had to conform."

While the Catholic Church is already playing an increasingly active part in society, most notably through its schools, the Archbishop warns that it could be generations before the Muslim community is properly integrated into British life.

"'Integrated' means we become accustomed to having a Muslim community in Britain which we view in a reasonably positive way and which we know is committed to the wellbeing of this country.

"It will take time for a small mosque in Birmingham that is basically a replica of a village in Pakistan to grow in confidence, to learn the language and cultural ways that enable it to become a contributor to society. It could take generations for them to become integrated."

This observation carries particular weight from the leader of a community that has grown from its migrant roots and today is learning how to incorporate Catholics arriving from African and European countries.

He fears that the burka can hinder the ability of Muslims to fully integrate into British society, as it limits the ability of Muslim women to communicate.

In 2006, Aishah Azmi, a Muslim teaching assistant, complained after she was suspended for refusing to remove her veil in class, but the Archbishop says schools should be free to take action.

"My own instinct is that it must be very difficult to teach and learn without any facial expressions. I would hope that a school could come up with a policy that honoured the different traditions of its people, but which put in first place the primary purpose of the school, which is good teaching and learning."

However, he agrees with the Government that it would be "un-British" to introduce a ban, as he stresses that everybody should be free to express themselves.

That includes the protests bound to be staged when Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Britain next month.

Richard Dawkins, the atheist polemicist, has already stated that he will try to have the ontiff arrested "for crimes against humanity" in his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

It is also highly likely that homosexual rights groups will demonstrate against statements made by Catholic leaders, including the Pope, who described homosexuality as a tendency towards an "intrinsic moral evil".

The Archbishop has been fierce in his criticism of secularists such as Dawkins, yet he is not blind to the failings in the Church's response to the child sex abuse crisis.

Even though it is incredibly rare for a Catholic leader to criticise the Vatican, he is not afraid to speak out on an issue that has left such deep wounds with the victims and also scarred the Church.

"On this issue, the Vatican has got itself in a very defensive position, which probably inhibits some of the positive initiatives which we could be taking," he says.

"The Holy See can do a lot better in its understanding of how the media perceives things and how important those perceptions are." [Excuse me, Your Excellency! That would be a perfectly appropriate statement to make if the media reports about the Church were in any way fair and objective, but they have overwhelmingly been hostile and tailored to place the Pope and the Church in the worst light possible!]

Since his appointment to be Archbishop of Westminster in the spring of 2009, the Church has been engulfed in a series of sex abuse cases across the world and its leaders have been lambasted for ill-judged statements on homosexuality and women's ordination. [Who is guilty of ill judgment? Certainly, not the Church, which is simply restating its teachings about homosexuality and women's ordination. Why should it try to be politically correct and 'PR-wise' about its teachings?]

Furthermore, Pope Benedict XVI's offer to disaffected Anglicans to defect to the Roman Catholic Church was viewed as an undiplomatic attempt to poach clergy.

Yet, while the storms have swirled in neighbouring countries, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has remained relatively unscathed and the reputation of Archbishop Nichols, its leader, has been enhanced.

As other Churches were slow to denounce the crimes committed by priests in their countries, he issued a statement that was unequivocal in its condemnation, even though this country has had very few cases in recent years.

He repeats this now: "Child abuse is a dreadful scandal which is to be condemned and it's something for which every Catholic feels ashamed and sorrowful."

Nevertheless, the Archbishop finds it difficult to recognise claims that the crisis has been as far-reaching as some have suggested.

"I think there are difficult issues in certain countries, but I don't get any sense of it here."

Rather than focusing on the past, the Archbishop is keen to look forward to restoring trust and rebuilding communities and he believes that the papal visit promises to bring hope to a society suffering from the strain of financial troubles and family breakdown.

"He represents a depth of commitment to humanity that finds an echo in many people.

"This is an opportunity to move away from seeing faith as a problem and seeing it as a resource to be discovered afresh.

"It will be a symbolic embrace by the leader of the Catholic Church of Britain as it is today: multi-faith, multicultural, facing inner difficulties, but with great inner human inner resources which are strengthened by faith in God."

The full transcript of Lord Patten's interview with Vatican Radio is on the preceding page of this thread.


In Scotland, a local councilman writes a Letter to the Editor that reminds us that in Scotland, at least, the opposition to John Paul II's visit in 1982 was significant and ideological:


Papal visit is important for all,
regardless of religion
by Councillor Eric Milligan
(Sighthill/Gorgie wards)

July 31, 2010

Your report in Wednesday's News that all Edinburgh Schools, both denominational and non-denominational, are invited to participate in the celebrations of the papal visit (City pupils in mass exodus to see Pope, News July 28) is news that we all should welcome.

That the whole community should participate is proper because this is an official state visit when the Holy Father will be received by Her Majesty the Queen as both the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and also as a visiting Head of State.

What a contrast to the last papal visit of John Paul II. Controversy over the Falkland War hung over the preparations back in 1982 when it was stressed for reasons of protocol and sensitivity that the visit was a pastoral one and not an official state visit.

The then Lothian Education Committee declared its intention that all schools should celebrate the papal visit only to find that the then Secretary of State, George Younger, initiated legal action against the authority in the courts to block our intentions. His intent was to confine the school celebrations to only denominational schools.

In the local elections that year a number of 'Against The Papal Visit 'candidates presented themselves for election.

Papal visits are occasions that are important and historic to both Catholic and non-Catholic people. They are also important and historic to both Christian and non-Christian people. They offer all of us the opportunity to consider the role of the Christian Church in our lives and its continuing relevancy in the future.

Let us not allow the controversies of yesterday to surface today.

Let us all enter into the proper spirit and display the growing maturity of the Scottish people and with smiles on our faces extend the warmest possible welcome to Pope Benedict XVI when he comes to visit our land.

Barcelona prepares for the Pope:
Interview with the Archbishop
by Carmel Munte
Translated from

August 1, 2010



The weekly newspaper dedicates its current issue to the Pope's visit, but a technical problem prevents downloading the issue itself, so I cannot enlarge the available image of Page 1.

As the date for the Pope's visit to Barcelona draws closer, we are learning more details about it. For instance, that Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona, had requested the Congregation for Divine Worship for the Holy Father to grant the status of basilica to the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, which the Holy Father will consecrate on November 7 - a request which has been granted.

Cathedrals and churches that are important for their history, singular beauty or dedication to a particular Catholic saint or devotion are designated as basilicas by the Pope.


Left, tourists at the front facade of Sagrada Familia'; right, Cardinal Martinez.

Should we then start to refer to the Basilica of Sagrada Familia?
Yes, after the Holy Father has consecrated it, then we can properly call it the Basilica of Sagrada Familia. I think that the entire complex will be completed in 16 years on the centennial of the death of Antonio Gaudi in 2026. Just as I hope that our beloved Servant of God may be declared Blessed soon in a joyful celebration that can fittingly take place in the basilica that he designed. We Christians who admire him should pray that this happens soon.

After having considered various possibilities, finally it has been decided that the Holy Father will also be visiting the Obra Benéfico Social del Niño Dios.
The Pope will dedicate Sagrada Familia on the morning of November 7, and through this church dedicated to the Holy Family, all Christian families will be reminded to emulate the virtues and holiness of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

And so, the Pope also wished to meet families who live in concrete difficulties today but also in hope. He will do this in the afternoon of Nov, 7 by visiting the Nino Dios facility located in the Guinardo neighborhood. He will meet with families who have children afflicted with Downs Syndrome and other incurable ailments.

Nino Dios is a diocesan foundation set up in 1982 and entrusted to the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary. It now has a school and a day clinic, and in the Tiana district, it has a vocational training school and a residence. A larger residence will be constructed [and the pope will bless its first stone].

With this visit, the Pope also wishes to make clear his concern for all the institutions of the archdiocese in the service of needy persons. The Pope will bless the first stone of the new residence in Tiana for Downs children, particularly those whose parents are unable to care for them.

What was the reaction of the families concerned and the Franciscan sisters to the Pope's visit?
Naturally, there was great joy to be able to receive the Holy Father and to pray with him. It will be very emotional. This institution is an authentic family made up of its patrons, the nuns, the teachers, the nursing and administrative staff, the children themselves and their families.

These families love their handicapped children very much, and the children reciprocate it. I say it from my own experience, not just meeting them, but because I have a niece with Downs who is a piece of heaven and is the center of attention for the whole family.

The Pope's visit to the Guinardo neighborhood also has a special meaning for you personally...
Yes, because it is the neighborhood where I lived until I was named Bishop of Tortosa. Of course, this was not the reason why Nino Dios was chosen for the Pope's visit. The institution started out in Guinardo, and only recently, it was able to build on a new site to provide more room for its services.

The work carried out by the nuns and their co-workers for disabled children has been very important. We might point out that Gaudi, while he started the construction of Sagrada Familia - which he conceived as a 'cathedral for the poor', locating it in the neighborhood of Poblet, which at the time was much neglected, also built near it some schools for children and illiterate adults.

Catalunya is undergoing a resurgence of nationalistic fervor after the recent court ruling striking down its claim to be a nation in its regional constitution. Is the Pope aware of the situation in Catalunya? [Spain’s courts recently granted sweeping new powers of self-rule to the autonomous region, whose capital is Barcelona, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month forbids Catalunya from calling itself a 'nation' since the Constitution only recognizes all of Spain as the country’s only nation. Catalans, like the Basques, are fiercely 'nationalistic' - they are both autonomous regions of Spain, with their own respective languages distinct from Castilian Spanish, and consider themselves separate 'nations' from the rest of Spain. i.e., they are Basques and Catalans, rather than Spaniards.]
The Holy Father is coming to Barcelona to consecrate Sagrada Familia - which is a monument with physical dimensions, artistic beauty and Biblical-liturgical symbolism which make it almost unique in the world, which is an expression of the genius of Antonio Gaudi and of the identity of Catalans.

Some visitors, after seeing its magnificence, rightly say that not many peoples are capable of such a construction. I believe that Gaudi, in planning this church, employed personal interest and liturgical preparation that are very much Catalan. We must not forget that in his time, the first Liturgical Congress was held in Montserrat [famous medieval Benedictine shrine to Our Lady located outside Barcelona] in 1915.

The Holy Father loves and appreciates every place he visits for what they are. In Barcelona, he will speak in Catalan, as his closest collaborator, Cardinal Bertone did, during his recent visit.

The fact that, amidst his crowded schedule and the demands on his time, he accepted the invitation to come to Barcelona at this time shows in itself he love and interest that he has for us, for Barcelona and for Catalunya.

And how does the Church in Catalunya feel about the current controversy?
On several occasions, the bishops of Catalunya have referred to the document 'Christian roots of Catalunya' published 26 years ago and which retains all of its relevance, especially in what it says about the identity of the Catalan people. This document was integrated into the resolutions of the provincial council in Tarragona in 1995.

With regard to Sagrada Familia, I can only say with Gaudi: "I work for Catalunya in my own field, constructing this temple, which is a most worthy way of representing a people".

Gaudi always described himself as a Christian and a Catalan, giving these two adjectives reciprocal value - one not only does not exclude the other, but they explain each other.

What impression would you like the Pope to have?
I hope he gets a very good impression from the welcome he gets from our people and all the pilgrims who will be in Barcelona on November 7. He will no doubt have a magnificent impression when he sees the beauty and rich symbolism of Sagrada Familia, and from the participation in the Mass presided by the Vicar of Christ.

We have a long history of liturgical preparation and participation in this country. Even if, for instance, the church choir area itself can only accommodate 200 choir members, all of the people inside the church and those outside will be singing with them, as is habitual for us. This follows what Gaudi called the "purpose of this great temple': collective prayer, solemn liturgy in communion with all of the faithful who sing and respond to the celebrant".

What can you say about the promotional materials for the visit, particularly the posters?
They are published in Catalan and in Spanish, and we have already disseminated them widely in the diocese and other parts of Spain. I think it is a dynamic image that invites us to leave our homes, our cities, to Sagrada Familia, if only symbolically, in order to meet the Pope - to welcome him so we can be enriched by his Magisterium, as he confirms us in our faith, which is one of the Pope's specific and most important missions.

The poster highlights the Pope, the temple of Sagrada Familia, and the city of Barcelona. Likewise, we have prepared a catechetical booklet, with three catecheses on St. Peter, which Benedict XVI delivered in 2006, two lessons on the Servant of God Antonio Gaudi as an architectural genius and exemplary Christian; and two on the church which the Holy Father will consecrate, which is Gaudi's masterpiece. An Italian Nuncio after visiting Gaudi's body of work in and around Barcelona said he was 'the Dante of architecture'.

The poster shows Sagrada Familia in the center of Barcelona, where it is located, but it also fulfills Gaudi's own dream that it would be the center of the city - to indicate the presence of God, an urban shrine amidst the hustle and bustle of life in Barcelona, surrounded by a cloister all around its perimeter to insulate it from that hustle and bustle.

The poster invites the faithful to be with the Pope along the streets he will be travelling during his visit here from the evening of November 6 and the whole day of November 7. The Pope is shown welcoming and embracing all those who will join him during his visit.




Earlier, there was this item about the catechesis booklet from Forum Libertas, one of several Catholic-oriented online news-and-commentary journals that seem to be flourishing in Spain:

The catechetical preparation
Translated from

July 26, 2010

Barcelona's preparations for the papal visit on November 6-7 includes a catechetical booklet that offers a look at the Holy Family and St. Peter as spiritual references, along with an exploration of the rich iconography and architecture of the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, which the Holy Father will be consecrating, as well as the life of its architect genius, Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926), who is in the process of beatification.

At the news conference last week led by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Fr. Enric Puig, who is coordinating the papal visit for the archdiocese, spoke about the booklet, with a first printing of 30,000 copies distributed to the various Spanish dioceses.

The first three of seven catecheses are Benedict XVI's lessons dedicated to Peter the fisher of men and the rock on which Christ founded his Church. In his catecheses, given at his Wednesday audiences in 2006, the Holy Father also reflects on the Cross and the Eucharist, on the Church in pilgrimage throgh time, and the humility of Peter and his mission.

The next three catecheses illustrate key events in the spiritual itinerary and progress of Gaudi, particularly his sense of the Church, his personal life, and his public commitment to helping the poor.

Gaudi is seen as "a man of his times and an artist who opened a way to God through beauty".

The concluding catechesis is in two parts - first, on the significance of the Sagrada Familia church as a temple for the community of Christ to gather together in worship, and then, on the relevance of the Holy Family of Nazareth as a model for families, for the Church and for society.

August 1, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ST. ALFONSO MARIA LIGUORI (Italy, 1696-1787), Bishop, Confessor, Founder of the Redemptorist Order, Doctor of the Church
Another saint born to nobility, Alfonso was a multi-talented child prodigy who earned a double doctorate in canon adn civil law from the University of Naples when he was just 16. By age 21, he owned a law firm and was one of the leading lawyers of Naples. He was also a music lover, especially of opera, and played the harpsichord. The more he got on in the world, the less he liked it. He turned down an arranged marriage, studied theology, and was ordained a priest at age 29. He quickly became known for his simple direct preaching and his kindness and understanding as a confessor, emphasizing moderation and genuine penitence. In his time, Alfonso fought to liberate moral theology from Jansenist rigorism; in fact, his main work on Moral Theology underwent 60 editions in the century following his death. In 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (thus, Redemptorists) as a community of priests and brothers dedicated to teh imitation of Christ and propagating the Gospel through popular missions, especially among peasants. It took 17 years for their Rules to be approved by Rome. Critics accused them of laxity because of Alfonso's policies on confession. In 1762, Pope Clement XIII named him Bishop of Sant'Agata de Goti, then one of the most corrupt dioceses in Italy. He worked to reform the clergy and revitalize the faithful but resigned in 1775 due to continued failing health (he was virtually immobilized by severe rheumatism). In 1777, shortly after the Jesuits were expelled from Italy in 1773, the Redemptorists were also threatened with disbandment by the Kingdom of Naples. The aging and near-blind Alfonso defended his order personally and obtained royal approval. But he was tricked into signing a revised Rule of the Congregation which suited the King and his anti-clerical government. Seeing the revised Rule, Pope Pius VI condemned it and removed Alfonso as leader of the Order. This afflicted him in the final years of his life, during which 'dark nights of the soul' alternated with ecstasies. He was canonized in 1839. In his lifetime, he wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology - 21,500 editions and translations into 72 languages attest that he is one of the most widely read Catholic authors. He was a Marian devotee whose The Glories of Mary and other Marian works rediscovered the Mariology of Saint Augustine and and other fathers, and represented an intellectual defence of Mariology in the 18th century. In 1882, there was a popular edition of his Sermons for all Sundays of the Year. His prayers and meditations for the Way of the Cross have been the most popular version used throughout the Catholic world. He also wrote the Italian Christmas carol Tu scende dalle stelle, popularized by Pope Pius IX after he translated it from Latin to Italian. Pius IX also proclaimed Alfonso a Doctor of the Church, and in 1950, Pius XII dedicated an encyclical to him.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080110.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR, and no real 'news' on Page 1, except an item that China has now
officially surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy after the United States.


THE POPE'S DAY

Angelus at Castel Gandolfo - A mini-homily on the parable of the foolish rich man in the Bible,
a reminder of all the liturgical feasts this week culminating in the Transfiguration on Friday, and
praise for the international convention against the use of cluster bombs that goes into effect today.

Separately, the Vatican issued a statement on the Convention against clueter bombs and the Vatican's
participation towards its promulgation by the United Nations.


THE POPE'S PRAYER INTENTIONS
FOR AUGUST 2010

---

General intention:
"That those who are without work or homes or who are otherwise in serious need may find understanding and welcome, as well as concrete help in overcoming their difficulties.”

Missionary intention:
“That the Church may be a 'home' for all people, ready to open her doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination, hunger or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries.”

---

ANGELUS TODAY




In his Angelus messages today, the Holy Father noted the succession of significant feast days this week for the Church, starting with the memorial of St. Ignatius Loyola yesterday; that of St. Alphonsus Liguori today; tomorrow, St. Eusebius of Vercelli, one of the early Fathers; then St. Julien Eymard, who, like Loyola and Liguori, founded a religious order (two, in fact); then St. Jean Marie Vianney, recently the model of the Year for Priests celebration; then the feast of the dedication of Santa Maria Maggiore; and on Friday, the feast of the Transfiguration, as well as the anniversary of the death of Paul VI in Castel Gandolfo 32 years ago.

[In fact, there is hardly a 'minor' saint in the liturgical calendar for the month of August.]

In his mini-homily, the Pope reflected on Jesus's parable of the foolish rich man whose material acquisitions were not matched with requisite wisdom.

After the Angelus prayers, the Holy Father welcomed the coming in force today of the worldwide convention against the use of cluster bombs.





Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words today:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

These days, we are observing the liturgical feast of some saints. Yesterday, we commemorated St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. In the 16th century, he converted after reading the lfie of Jesus and other saints during a long convalescence from a serious battle injury. He was so impressed by what he read that he decided to follow the Lord.

Today, we remember St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, who was proclaimed Patron of Confessors by the Venerable Pius XII. He was aware that God wants us all to be holy, each according to our own condition.

This year, the liturgy next commemorates St. Eusebius, first bishop of Piedmont, staunch defender of the divinity of Christ; and then, St. Jean-Marie Vianney, the Curate of Ars, whose example was the model for the recently concluded Year for Priests, and to whose intercession I once more entrust all the pastors of the Church.

A common commitment of these saints was to save souls and to serve the Church with their respective charisms, contributing to renew and enrich her.

These men acquired 'a wise heart' (Ps 89,12), accumulating that which does not corrupt and discarding what is irremediably mutable in time - power, wealth and ephemeral pleasures. Choosing God, they possessed everything that is necessary, having a foretaste of eternity even in their earthly life (cfr Ecc 1-5).

In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus's teaching is about true wisdom, and is introduced by a question from the crowd: "Teacher, tell my brother to share his inheritance with me" (Lk 12,13).

Jesus, responding, warns his listeners against the claim of earthly goods with the parable of the foolish rich man, who, having accummulated an abundant harvest for himself, stopped working, consumed his goods by amusing himself, and even deluded himself into being able to ward off death.

"But God said to him: 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’" (Lk 13,20).

The foolish man of the Bible is whoever does not wish to take note, from his experience of visible things, that nothing lasts for ever, but everything passes - youth and physical strength, the conveniences as well as the roles of power. To make one's life depend on such fleeting realities is therefore foolishness.

On the other hand, the man who trusts in the Lord does not fear the adversities of life, not even the inevitable reality of death. Such a man is one who has acquired 'a wise heart', like the saints.

In addressing our prayer to the Most Blessed Mary, I wish to call attention to other significant observances:

Tomorrow, one can avail of the so-called Porziuncola indulgence, or 'the pardon of Assisi', which St, Francis obtained in 1216 from Pope Honorius III.

On Thursday, August 5, which commemorates the dedication of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, we shall honor the Mother of God who was acclaimed with this title in the Council of Ephesus of 431.

And on Friday, August 6, anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI, we celebrate the Feast of the Lord's Transfiguration. The date of August 6, considered the peak of summer light, was chosen to signify that the splendor of the Face of Christ illumines the entire world.


After the prayers, he said this:

I wish to express my sincere pleasure that today, the international convention goes into effect banning the use of cluster bombs which cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

My first thought goes to the numerous victims who have suffered and continue to suffer grave physical and moral damages, including loss of life, because of these insidious weapons, whose lingering presence [in mined fields] often hinders entire communities for a long time from resuming their normal daily activities.

With the enforcement of the new Convention, which I call on all states to sign, the international community has demonstrated wisdom, farsightedness and the capacity to follow up a significant initiative in disarmament and in international human rights.

My wish and encouragement is that it may continue more vigorously along this road for the defense of human dignity and life, for the promotion of integral human development, for the establishment of a peaceful international order, and for the realization of the common good for all persons and all peoples.

---

Pope remembers
cluster bomb victims


VATICAN CITY, August 1 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI says the international community has shown wisdom in banning cluster bombs.

The Pope said Sunday that his first thoughts are for the numerous victims who have suffered and continue to suffer physical and moral damage — including death — from the "insidious ordnance."

He welcomed a new treaty banning the weapons that takes effect Aug. 1, calling it an encouraging sign of the world's capacity to make progress on disarmament and international human rights.

Benedict made the remarks after the Angeles prayer from Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome where he is vacationing.

Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas.

Towards the 'brave new world'
of embryo exploitation

Not that it did Barack Obama any good at all, but when he visited Benedict XVI at the Vatican on July 10, 2009, the Pope did something probably unprecedented for papal audiences.

He gave the President of the United States, a known pro-abortionist and promoter of all things liberal, a copy of the December 2008 'Instruction on Some Bioethical Issues' by the Congregation for the Doctirne of the Faith, Dignitas Personae.



From the AP account of the meeting at the time:

---

Benedict gave Obama with a copy of a Vatican document on bioethics that hardened the Church's opposition to using embryos for stem cell research, cloning and in-vitro fertilization.

"Yes, this is what we had talked about," Obama said, telling the Pope he would read it on the flight to Ghana.

Earlier, the Pope's secretary, the Rev. Georg Ganswein, had told reporters the document would "help the President better understand the position of the Catholic Church."

---

Likewise, the communique issued at the time mentioned 'defense of life' in its first substantive sentence:

---

During the cordial conversations, they dwelt first of all on questions that are of interest to everyone and which constitute the great challenge for the future of each nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defense and promotion of life and the right to conscientious objection.

---

For now, let us pass over the various ploys Obama used to get pro-life holdouts in the House of Representatives to vote for his healthcare bill - without their votes, it would never have been passed by Congress - and the subsequent schemes now enabling various states to use federal funds for abortion, nonetheless. After all, a zebra never changes stripes.

This weekend, the big news on life issues in the USA was this:

---

FDA OKs first embryonic stem cell
research trial on humans despite concerns
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

Washington, DC, July 30 (LifeNews.com) -- The Obama administration has approved the bid by cloning company Geron to undertake the first trial involving the use of embryonic stem cells in humans.

They have never been used before in people because the cells cause tumors and have been plagued by immune system rejection issues when tried in animals.

Scientists and pro-life advocates say human embryonic stem cells are not ready for trial because problems associated with the cells in animals haven't been solved.

The Food and Drug Administration had initially placed the trial on hold but Geron indicated today that the agency is now allowing it to proceed with an early stage trial on a stem cell therapy for acute spinal cord injury.

The FDA placed a hold on the trial last August, when evidence showed Geron's GRNOPC1 encountered safety issues when used in animal studies. Geron's own data showed higher frequency of small cysts within the injury site in the spinal cord of animals injected with the embryonic cells...

---

Today after a Vatican Radio interview with the former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Anglophone news agencies are blaring out, 'Vatican slams US green light for embryonic stem cell research'.

Here is the brief interview translated from the Italian service of Vatican Radio:

'Exploiting the human embryo
is just completely wrong'
Translated from
the Italian service of


From the United States, for the first time anywhere, the green light for clinical trials on humans of embryonic stem cells. In its first phase, the experimentation will be carried out in many centers on a selected number of patients with serious injuries to the spinal cord.

The first objective is to verify the safety of the technique, rather than its effectiveness. Many experts have said this is unacceptable [especially because many therapies using adult stem cells have successfully had human clinical human trials!]

Massimiliano Manichetti talks to Mons. Elio Sgreccia, emeritus president of the Pontifical Academy for Life:

MONS. SGRECCIA: The exploitation of the human embryo is judged completely wrong not just by Catholic morals but by whoever respects the human being. No matter how much it is sought to be denied, science is firm about the fact that the human embryo is a human being in progress.

Nonetheless, experimentation with human embryos has been going on in South Korea, Great Britain and the United States. What happens to the embryos that are used in experiments?
They are sacrificed, of course, in this case to use their stem cells, and this can only be wrong. From the results so far, it has been shown for some time and in different places that they have not been as expected, because embryonic stem cells are totipotential, tending to produce an organism, not merely other cells. In any case, it remains a moral crime.

Mons. Sgreccia, why is it that they continue experimenting on embryos and thus violating life, when adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells have proven to be sources of possible therapies?
It's hard to say... Perhaps there is a particular challenge in simply attempting something that has not been done before, and also because they have quite a supply of humann embryos from those left over and frozen after assisted reproduction.

So this desire to use embryonic stem cells to find a cure for other human beings at the cost of immolating defenseless human embryos is condemnable in itself, against reason and moral probity.

What Benedict XVI has said about faith
in his previous encyclicals
by Kevin M. Clarke



SAN MARCOS, California, JULY 30, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In recent weeks, Benedict XVI has been "resting" at Castel Gandolfo and, according to media reports, working on a third volume of Jesus of Nazareth and a new encyclical on faith.

Many thought that the third encyclical would be on the topic of faith, but the Pope as pastor of the Church believed a more needed letter was Caritas in Veritate. Thus, the arrival of a faith encyclical may be more anticipated than at first glance.

The goal of this article is not to anticipate the work of the Holy Spirit or the words of the Holy Father, but to look at what the Pontiff has already spoken concerning faith in his previous encyclicals. And indeed there is much to focus upon as we look back. What better way to get into a "faith-ful" state of mind for the coming encyclical?

A common thread throughout Deus Caritas Est and Spe Salvi is the interconnectedness between all the theological virtues. Faith gives certain hope that God has given himself in love to us.

He writes in Deus Caritas Est: "Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love" (No. 39).

He also wrote that faith, which is an encounter with the living God in itself, opens "new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason" but also purifies reason of any blindness. Thus "faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly" (No. 28).

Now would be a great time for a close rereading of Spe Salvi, for of his three encyclicals none is as focused on faith as this one. The reason lies in the profound unity in the New Testament between the concepts of faith and hope. Faith is hope's "substance" which leads to eternal life (cf. No. 10).

Commenting upon the Letter to the Hebrews, Benedict XVI explains the nature of faith: "Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a 'proof' of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a 'not yet'" (No. 7).

The Holy Father identified a faith-hope crisis today, which he traced from the time of Francis Bacon to the present day: faith in progress is an attempt to build the kingdom of man. But faith in progress has failed man, showing itself to be a "threat" that betrays man's dignity and freedom (No. 17-23).

Later in the encyclical, he developed an eschatological theme of faith -- looking "forward" in trust to the coming resurrection of the body and judgment as the path to definitive justice. God is the one who brings justice; faith gives the certainty that death is not the end and that God will do so. In this certainty we also have certainty in eternal life (cf. Nos. 41-44).

He wrote, "Only in connection with the impossibility that the injustice of history should be the final word does the necessity for Christ's return and for new life become fully convincing" (No. 43).

The Holy Father wrote in Caritas in Veritate that truth in charity reflects the twofold dimension of faith, one that is both personal and public (No. 3). Furthermore, the Church's social doctrine is an "instrument and an indispensable setting" for faith's formation (No. 15).

Echoing Pope Paul VI, Benedict XVI pointed out that while reason can grasp the equality of peoples, it cannot establish brotherhood without faith. Only faith in Divine Revelation enables us to perceive that we are one family under the Father (No. 19). He also emphasized the need for dialogue between faith and reason in human authentic human development (Nos. 56-57).

Many false forms of faith threaten development -- faith in human progress, faith in institutions, faith in political structures, faith in technology. But without faith in God, all of these "faiths" use, reduce or destroy man. Faith in God's presence in the mission of development gives purpose and hope to those who face such a great amount of work.

Can a faithless humanism work for the greater good of man in development? To this question, the Holy Father gave a striking answer: "A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism" (No. 78). True development does not neglect man's spiritual dimension. Thus only development that is open to God is true to man. The Holy Father concluded his encyclical with the essential truth that development needs prayer (No. 79).

The need for a full development of the essence of faith is a need for the Church and the world. I hesitate to say what Benedict XVI will say in his coming encyclical, but I can say is that he will give us a rich theology of faith. Of that we can be certain.

But surely in his encyclical he will bring to the forefront, as he has often done, a model for faith. She is Mary, to whom the Pope has typically devoted the final paragraph of each encyclical.

The Holy Father often has commented upon Mary's faith, a model for the Christian confession and response to God's call. At the close of the Year for Priests, Benedict XVI called Mary the "great woman of faith and love who has become in every generation a wellspring of faith, love and life" (Homily, June 11, 2010).

He has often emphasized her assent to God's plan in the Annunciation, her journey of faith to share the good news with her cousin Elizabeth, her unwavering presence at the foot of the Cross, and her hope throughout the darkness of Holy Saturday awaiting the dawn of the fulfillment of the promises of her Son.

In Spe Salvi he asked, "Could it have ended before it began? No, at the foot of the Cross, on the strength of Jesus's own word, you became the mother of believers. In this faith, which even in the darkness of Holy Saturday bore the certitude of hope, you made your way towards Easter morning" (No. 50).

No matter what, we will come to a deeper understanding how to live "the faith" in the virtue of faith following the faith of the Virgin Mother, of whom Elizabeth said, "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Luke 1:45).

It certainly is a tall task for a papal retreat to compose a third volume of Jesus of Nazareth and an encyclical -- all the while being sure to work in some well-deserved piano time. [I don't think the Holy Father himself thinks he can do all of that this summer! Perhaps a draft of the encyclical yes, but the book always takes longer to do, particularly about the 'infancy Gospels' which is a path hardly trodden at all by previous writers about Jesus.]

But if there is any man who can pull it off, have faith that he is none other than our Holy Father.


Kevin M. Clarke has a master's degree in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, and teaches religion at St. Joseph Academy in San Marcos, California. He is the author of a chapter on Benedict XVI's Mariology in De Maria Numquam Satis: The Significance of the Catholic Doctrines on the Blessed Virgin Mary for All People (University Press of America, 2009), and is a recent contributor to the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

Monday, August 2, 18th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI (Italy, 283-371), Bishop and Confessor
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on October 17, 2007 to this early Father of the Church
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20071017...
Born in Sardinia, he grew up in Rome where he became a priest at the height of the Arian heresy and was named the first bishop
of northern Italy, with his seat in Vercelli, in 345. He firmly allied himself to the fourth-century Fathers, including St. Athanasius
and St. Hilary of Poitiers, in defending the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy. Inspired by Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony
Abbot, the father of eastern monasticism, Eusebius organized his priests into a community within the city where they lived like
monks, setting a standard for apostolic holiness that inspired other bishops who were subsequently named in northern Italy, many
of whom also became saints. For defending Arianism, Eusebius, like Athanasius and many other bishops, was exiled by the philo-
Arian emperor Constantius II. Eusebius lived in Palestine from 355-360, where he wrote about his life, then went on to Asia
Minor and Egypt until 362, when a new emperor, though he wished to restore paganism, allowed all exiled bishops to return.
In Alexandria, he took part in Anastasius's Council which confirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit and the orthodox doctrine on
the Incarnation. He was bishop for ten more years until his death.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080210.shtml


No OR today.


New secretary at Congregation
for Institutes of Consecrated Life
Translated from

August 2, 2010

The Holy Father has named a new Secretary for the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life
and Societies of Apostolic Life - Fr. Joseph William Tobin, C.SS.R., who is also elevated to the rank of
Archbishop. He was the Superior General of the Redemptorists from 1997-2009. In 2001-2009, he was a member
of the coordinating council between the Congregation and the worldwide Union of Superiors-General. He was
born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1952. NB: AFP, which ought to know better, has reported erroneously that Mons. Tobin now
heads the Congregation to which he has been named secretary. That is obviously wrong. He was named secretary, not Prefect,
who is still Cardinal Franc Rode. But Rode turned 75 last September and may well be retiring soon.




- In La Repubblica today, Orazio La Rocca says the three ostensibly homosexual priests who were the subject of the recent Panorama expose continue to carry out their functions at the Curial dicasteries to which they belong and saying daily Mass in the Diocese of Rome. La Rocca claims he has been able to identify them easily by name as an Italian, a Frenchman, and a South American, employed respectively in dicasteries having to do with justice, mass media and ecumenical relations... This, despite the fact that Cardinal Vallini's statement issued the day the the article came out was supposedly cleared by Cardinal Bertone - and yet, his deputy for internal affairs has not done anything about the three Curial employes? The Secretariat of State cannot use the summer vacation as an excuse for inaction!
- Cardinal Bertone spent his recent summer holiday at the papal chalet in Les Combes. The facility is part of a summer colony owned by the Salesians, the order to which the cardinal belongs.
- One of the sillier reactions to the C&L children's book Gli Amici di Gesu adopting texts from Benedict XVI's catecheses on the Apostles and St. Paul was something headlined "Benedict 'unfriends' Mary Magdalane". Feminists - and probably 'Da Vinci Code' enthusiasts - claim the Pope has further slighted all women by not including Mary Magdalene in the book!
- The Anglophone media's current B16-Vatican newslist includes the Pope's remarks on cluster bombs and 'Vatican slams US green light on stem-cell work', from yesterday; and from much earlier, the Swiss Guard rule against immodest wear when in the Vatican, not just in St. Peter's; and the OR's boo-boo on 'the Caravaggio that isn't'.
- "Scandals have scared off new recruits", says the president of the German bishops' conference in this interview with dpa
www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/337481,germanys-top-catholic-s...
claiming applications to seminaries this year have only come to 150 throughout Germany - a record low, according to Mons. Zollitsch. It's a weak faith that young German Catholic males have if the 'scandals' have 'scared them' from responding to vocation! It should be a call to German pastors to find ways to reinforce the faith at the individual level of their parishioners.
- And yet (see report in preceding page), 44,000 of the 53,000 young ministrants from Europe who will be coming to Rome for a pilgrimage this week are said to be from Germany. They didn't get scared! Let us hope many of them will go on to become priests and religious.

Pope likely to meet victims
of clergy abuse during visit
by Tom Hamilton

August 2, 2010

SCOTS victims of abusive nuns and priests are expected to meet the Pope next month.

Organisers of the visit by Pope Benedict XVI have confirmed the matter is being seriously considered.

In the last two years, during visits to Malta, Australia and the United States, the Pontiff has held private meetings with people who have been raped or abused by the clergy.

Last night, a senior Scottish Catholic church source said: "It is definitely under consideration."

Any meeting is likely to take place in England because the schedule for the Pope's one-day visit to Scotland is full.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has already confirmed "careful consideration" is being made to hold a private meeting with victims during the visit.

It emerged at the weekend that Scots victims would be included in such an event.

Archbishop Nichols said: "There will be, as you have seen in previous visits, careful consideration given to whether it is appropriate for the Pope to privately meet with people who have suffered abuse.

"It is not seen as a way to use those who have suffered - whose pain is intense and continuing - to satisfy some kind of public agenda or public curiosity."

The 83-year-old Pontiff will spend three days in England after his visit to Scotland on September 16.

During the trip, Pope Benedict will hold a mass for almost 100,000 people at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

He will also witness the St. Ninian's Day parade in Edinburgh.




Hardly surprising:
Church 'oversubscribed' for
Pope's visit to Birmingham

Aug. 1, 2010


The Pope will beatify Cardinal Newman during his visit to Birmingham The Catholic Church in Birmingham said it is oversubscribed with parishioners wanting to go to next month's Papal Mass in the city.

About 14,000 of some 70,000 tickets have been allocated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham for Pope Benedict XVI's visit.

Pilgrims have just three more days to apply to attend, a spokesman said.

Parishes will then decide on ways of selecting people, which could include picking names from a hat.

But the archdiocese said some people would unfortunately be left disappointed.

The archdiocese covers more than 3,000 square miles (4,827 sq km), taking in counties such as Staffordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

The Pope will hold a Mass in Cofton Park to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman.


On the other hand, there is a premature, to say the least, report in a Scottish paper entitled "Pilgrims shun visit of Pope"
www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/pilgrims-shun-visit-of-pope-1.1045311?localLinksEnabl...


Official merchandise
for the visit


The 'Shop' on the official website is now in business
www.papalvisitstore.com/




Very tasteful and proper, but no room for exuberance. The cover design of the booklet, with Cardinal Newman in the background might have done well for a T-shirt!

Is there a reason the Pope's image is not on anything but on the program booklet and the keychain (and one of the T-shirts - black is somehow all wrong for a 'papal' T-shirt!).

Here's a T-shirt designed by a private individual to give out to his friends (cropped from a photo of someone wearing the shirt, hence the 'shadows':

Clarifying the Council
by JOHN GRONDELSKI

08/01/2010


At the start of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI called for a “rereading of the Second Vatican Council.” Kenneth Whitehead does just that.

The Renewed Church presents readers with the content of the three major conciliar documents on the Church — Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes and Orientalium Ecclesiarum.


The cover photo is a rarity: one that shows Paul VI and the future John Paul II together!

Whitehead, former assistant secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan, confronts readers with what the Council said, not what some people think it said or want it to say.

Philippe Delhaye, a French moral theologian active during Vatican II, observed that the Council has been replaced by a “meta-Council,” in whose name various deviations were justified.

When one considers what has been done in the name of the “spirit of Vatican II,” one would at least demand an Ignatian testing of spirits if not an outright exorcism.

Whitehead wants readers first and foremost to see what the documents of Vatican II actually do (and do not) say.

“This brings us to the question of what the Council really did do — as contrasted to what many people think ‘the spirit of Vatican II’ stood for,” Whitehead writes. “For, as everybody knows, there has been a good deal of confusion following the Council, not to speak of a number of false starts, and so it is especially important to understand and keep in mind what the Council did do that remains permanently valid.”

Admitting that “there is no good contemporary history of the Council in English,” Whitehead carefully situates what the Council says in historical context, both in terms of what was afoot in the Church as well as how the text itself acquired its final shape. He also notes how conciliar teaching was subsequently implemented and developed by the post-conciliar Popes, especially John Paul II.

The author’s survey of the Council’s documents on the Church hits all the lightning rods:
- how Christ’s Church “subsists” in the Catholic Church (and why the formulation does not mean the Church surrenders her claim to be the true Church); the meaning of “People of God” (which does not exclude the hierarchy);
- the Church’s teaching authority and the duty of the faithful to adhere to it;
- the significance of the universal call to holiness;
- contemporary Mariology;
- episcopal collegiality;
- what Gaudium et Spes really said about marriage and sexuality (and why it is compatible with Humanae Vitae);
- atheism, and
- the doctrinal component of personalism in Gaudium et Spes.

Whitehead also shows how continuous and consistent Church teaching really is.

For that is the nub of the problem: As Pope Benedict XVI points out, interpreting Vatican II properly requires a “hermeneutic of continuity,” a method of reading the conciliar magisterium that allows it to be seen within the organic whole of the rest of the Church’s teaching.

Although the book is comprehensive and solid, I would dispute some of Whitehead’s perspectives. His dismissal of Gaudium et Spes on culture (“quite pedestrian”) ignores the fact that Vatican II was the first truly worldwide (as opposed to European) Council, whose teaching on “the right to culture” remains to be assimilated.

The focus of his last chapter is a bit off-balance: He spends too much time convincing traditional Catholics to embrace Vatican II. The problem is not so much a few “conservative” Catholics who wish Vatican II might go away like a “bad dream,” but that most Catholics — including “conservatives” — have yet to learn what Vatican II really taught and put it into action.

That last task is especially pressing now: Ever fewer bishops lived through the Council, and Benedict is likely the last Pope to have been a Council Father. [Not just 'likely to have been' - but is! By reason of age alone, even an expert (not a bishop, because bishops would have been older) who was as young as 25 in 1965 - unlikely as that may be - when the council ended, would be 70 years old by now. No one in the 70-80 age range in today's hierarchy (and therefore papabile if only by age) took part in Vatican II.]

Appropriating the Council’s teaching is especially germane today. This book answers that call.


Benedict XVI actually has a double catechetical task as Pope. Not only must he reiterate and reaffirm the essentials of the faith that many Catholics have strayed from, neglected or failed to learn as they should. He must also restate clearly what Vatican-II really said and in what way it renewed aspects of the Church Magisterium in continuity with Tradition, because this has never really been made clear, at least not in catechetical terms to the great majority of Catholics.

It seems as though in the past 50 years, the field was largely left to the the purveyors of the spurious 'spirit of Vatican II' - who have been consistently and stridently aggressive about pushing their interpretation. And so, the general impression about Vatican II is that it brought the 'fun Mass', priests without cassocks, nuns in weird halfway costumes devoid of the dignity that comes with long robes and wimples - nothing but the external signs of an attempt to 'belong' to the world rather than to the Church. Hardly anything about the substantive renewal that it is supposed to mean.

Even John Paul II's attempt to lay down the context for the corect reception of Vatican II in the special synod of 1985 was never translated into a focused presentation of what Vatican II really said.

It did result in the Catechism of the Catholic Church - but that is such a large and formidable document that does not lend itself to easy study, or even easy reading. It almost requires that it be be studied like a text, under the guidance of a teacher. As far as I have seen, it has served mainly like a technical reference book used by authors when they wish to illustrate or cite authority for specific arguments they are making.

The fact that the CDF perceived a need to republish it in a more handy form as a Compendium was a recognition that it has to be much more accessible to the faithful.

And yet, the average Catholic is not likely to have the Compendium as home reading, not even Sunday reading. I have never been a Bible reader, but I never cease to be surprised by the number of Christians who are devoted to Bible reading - and somehow, if they had to choose between reading the Bible as against the Catechism or its Compendium, most would probably choose the Bible.

I wish someone would take the initiative of putting together the highlights of the Magisterium from Vatican II - including its most controversial (because deliberately stated ambiguously) points - in a form similar to the Baltimore Catechism [of venerated memory to Catholic schoolchildren of my generation and earlier ones, few of whom may still be living]. Presented in Q&A format, its simple but beautiful language was guaranteed to imprint the answers in your mind to your dying day.

What could be more simple and beautiful than one of its opening questions:

---

Why did God make you?
God made me to know him, to love him and to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in heaven.

---

When you imbibe that as a six-year-old, it stays with you forever.

'A Vatican Catechism on What Vatican II Teaches Us' is really something one could look forward to. Unless, of course, Benedict XVI decides to undertake a book on the topic, a consummation devoutly to be wished! Only he is capable of it today with the kind of authoritativeness that can and should trump the entire 'Bologna school' version of Vatican II.

P.S. Even better, for maxium impact: a catechetical cycle at the GA to discuss each of the 16 Vatican II documents! The catecheses could then be put together into a book... Without precluding that Papino could still be writing a more scholarly version of it...

Tuesday, August 3, 18th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. PIERRE JULIEN EYMARD (France, 1811-1868), Marist priest, Founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, Apostle of the Eucharist
This contemporary of Jean-Marie Vianney was born in the southeastern region of Isere in France. He was ordained in 1834 and joined the Marists five years later, where he became an esteemed spiritual adviser for seminarians priests. He also worked with laymen to promote devotion to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary. In 1856, following a dispute with the Marists, of which he had become the provincial for France, he established the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, distinguished by carrying out active apostolate as well as a contemplative life; and two years later, the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for women. All his life, Eymard was sickly, but his greatest personal struggle was against his own Jansenistic striving for perfection. In 1862, the sculptor Rodin joined his congregation as a lay brother, but Eymard persuaded him to continue with his art; Rodin later made a famous bust of Eymard. he was beatified in 1925 and canonized by John XXIII at the closing of Vatican-II's-s first sessions in December 1962.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080310.shtml


OR for 8/2-8/3/10:

The Pope's Angelus wish on the day that the International Convention against cluster bombs went into effect:
'That all states may sign up and enforce the ban'
Other Page 1 features: A commentary on the loss of privacy resulting from social networks on the Internet; new tension in the Middle East after four rocket attacks from the Sinai towards the Israeli port town of Eilat; record summer temperatures provoke raging fires all over Russia, including Moscow. In the inside pages, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, tells a university conference on life issues in Spain that any law which legitimizes abortion and euthanasia ceases to be a morally binding law.


The Vatican issued a communique on the annual meeting held July 20-23 of the Populorum Progressio Autonomous Foundation in the capital of the Dominican Republic. The foundation was established by John Paul II in 1992 to administer papal charities for the indigenous, rural and Afro-American populations of Latin America and the Caribbean and coordinates with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

The Pope’s coming trip
to the United Kingdom
by Dr.Robert Moynihan

August 3rd, 2010

Over the next few weeks, the press will focus ever more attention on Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Great Britain (Scotland and England) from September 16 to 19.

In this regard, I feel it is important to make two points.

First, conflict.

Benedict is one of the most intelligent and eloquent and poetic defenders in the world today of a vision of human life in which there is a dimension which transcends the purely material, the purely utilitarian.

Great Britain is the home of utilitarianism, of a pragmatic, problem-solving, technological view of human affairs.

This would suggest that there could be a “clash of world views” during this visit.

And I hope it will be so.

I hope the Pope lays out, in the most intelligent, eloquent and poetic way, the case for a view of human affairs in which holiness plays a part, and not just profit; in which justice and generosity have a central space, not just a peripheral one, as if they were “secondary” to “the main business” of life, which, in the utilitarian view, is business.

So, I expect a conflict of world views, because I expect Benedict to express, eloquently, the Christian conviction that man has incalculable dignity — a dignity beyond financial calculation, a dignity which overturns all the calculations of every actuarial table humans can fashion.

Second, a surprising “cathartic moment.”

I expect this “conflict” to take Great Britain by surprise. I expect that the image of this small, white-haired man, preaching that human beings have a transcendent dignity, that they were made for love, not profit, will be so striking that some, unexpectedly, will be drawn to the message, and to the man presenting the message, in a way they do not anticipate now.

They may even find in this message something precious for their own lives, and for the life of the British nation: a call to return to ideals and beliefs that were once fervently held, and shaped the culture, customs and laws of the beautiful islands across the channel from France, but which are now increasingly being rejected.

And so I foresee a cathartic moment for Britain, when, amid all the shouting, all the vilification — and there may be a lot of this — Benedict’s words are heard, and are felt to be a reminder of what many in Britain, deep down, also believe, or wish they could believe.

And in this catharsis, true patriots, true lovers of Britain, may find that, in this little professor from Bavaria, via Rome, they hear a call to return to the beliefs and traditions and customs and laws that made England “great,” and also “merry.”

This is the background for the remarks that I have just published in the August-September “Special Issue” of Inside the Vatican previewing the Pope’s trip to Great Britain, as my editorial. Here below is that text. I would urge readers to order extra copies of this issue, especially in Great Britain, as I think it provides a balanced, comprehensive view of all the chief issues the Pope will confront during his visit.

The following is the text of the editorial of the August-September “Special Issue” of Inside the Vatican, now at the printers.


Why is Benedict XVI
going to England?
Editorial
by Robert Moynihan

August-September 2010

Benedict XVI is going to Great Britain to preach the Gospel, to call the British back to the faith which once shaped their culture, their law, their art and architecture, their hopes and aspirations — faith in Christ, and in his cross….

---

Many might be tempted to ask why we Christians celebrate an instrument of torture, a sign of suffering, defeat and failure. It is true that the Cross expresses all these things. And yet, because of him who was lifted up on the Cross for our salvation, it also represents the definitive triumph of God’s love over all the evil in the world… The Cross, then, is something far greater and more mysterious than it at first appears.
—Pope Benedict XVI, June 5, 2010, Cyprus

---

There have been many surmises about why Benedict has chosen to visit Great Britain. Some of the analysis has been informed, much uninformed, and some motivated by plain bigotry.

The media has exploited the confusion created by this mix to play its role of generating controversies, creating suspicions, finding villains, even to reporting Ian Paisley’s predictable indictment that the Pope is the Antichrist and should not be allowed to enter the country.

Benedict’s reasons for going to Great Britain are quite clear, though obscured by those unwilling to accept his word. His reasons are not only simple, but touch on the essence of his faith and the faith of the Church.

What is immediately clear is that he wishes personally to beatify the remarkable 19th century Christian scholar and convert to Catholicism, John Henry Cardinal Newman — a man he has studied and admired for nearly 60 years.

And, around that beatification, he wishes to visit his Scottish and English flocks in hopes of strengthening them in their faith.

In the eyes of some observers, the legitimacy of these pastoral purposes is compromised by Benedict’s stated concern for those “high church” Anglicans who have openly asked to be received as a body into the Catholic Church.

How, these critics ask, will it be possible to maintain cordial relations between Rome and Canterbury if a large group of Anglicans, with the Pope’s encouragement, breaks away from the Church of England and enters the Catholic Church?

Benedict’s answer, in a sense, will be to encourage the conversion and simultaneously stress the common baptismal bond shared by all Christians. He will do this by a highly symbolic joint prayer service with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Then there are the liberal Christians, accusatory secularists and militant atheists who have depicted Benedict as visiting England and Scotland to campaign against human rights, specifically, against new British laws that reject Christian teachings on marriage and promote same-sex relationships.

These accusers are so fired up at the prospect of the Pope’s presence in Great Britain that they have openly called for his arrest and deportation as a human rights offender and a man criminally responsible for the sexual crimes of priests. (British officials have taken steps to ensure that the militant secularists do not publicly try to arrest and pillory Benedict.)

Such conflicting views of Benedict’s presence in Great Britain threaten to turn a religious pilgrimage into a political free-for-all.

Let’s state as clearly as possible what has moved Benedict to visit Scotland and England. Yes, Newman’s beatification, yes, the situation of British Catholics, yes, Anglicans longing to join the Catholic Church, yes, the hope of maintaining ties with Anglicanism.

But at the heart of Benedict’s journey is the belief that God is in charge of His world, that nothing happens without a purpose, that men can take part in God’s plan for the world.

Like his predecessors, he believes there are no accidents in history, only events we cannot fully grasp or explain convincingly, but events God will one day allow us to understand.

Over and over Joseph Ratzinger has said that divine providence rules the world.

He believes that the Gospel’s encounter with Greek thought providentially determined the way the Church developed. He holds that, though we can never predict in advance how things will turn out, things which seem to be harmful to the spread of the Gospel may eventually be seen even as a blessing.

His initial attraction to Newman may have been to Newman’s theological writing, but his strongest attachment to him is surely to the man of faith, a man who could say of himself:

---

I understood… that the exterior world, physical and historical, was but the manifestation to our senses of realities greater than itself. Nature was a parable, Scripture was an allegory, pagan literature, philosophy and mythology, properly understood, were but a preparation for the Gospel. The Greek poets and sages were, in a sense, prophets.

---

Benedict wants to be in England not because theologians are of crucial importance, but because saints are absolutely essential to the growth, purification and existence of the Church.

Benedict wants to be in England because a new paganism has triumphed in Western society, articulately in England. In many ways he is motivated by what he said in God and the World:

---

Whenever a person or society refuses to take God’s business seriously, some way or the other, the fate of Gomorrah overtakes them again… Whenever any society turns away from fellowship with the living God, it cuts the root of its social cohesion. We see such retribution at work even today.

---

He will be in England to point out the “narrow way” that leads away from the dead end and desolation of “Gomorrah” — the “narrow way” taken by More, Fisher, Newman, and countless thousands of others.

The militant advocates of Sodom recognize the danger Benedict presents to their program, so they describe the Pope’s English visit as a mission to promote superstition and the implicit evil of traditional Christianity.

But it is something else altogether.

It is a mission to dispel superstition and lies, and to call the British back to the truth which many still recall, deep down: that men and women have an eternal destiny, that this fallen world has been redeemed, and that that redemption frees men from fear and frustration, even from their own self-loathing.

It is a message of hope, and he will preach it fearlessly, though the prophets of perdition would silence him and caricature his message as anything but what it is.

They will attempt to drown out his call, but he will issue it anyway, to all with ears to hear: that it is not too late to change course, that there is still time for a new direction, still time to embrace the path that leads not to death, but to life, and true joy.


Anglican Theologian says Pope's visit
'crucial' for relations between two Churches -
especially with anti-Popery revival



London, August 2 (AsiaNews) – Benedict XVI’s visit next September to the UK is of “crucial” importance. It is a chance to revitalize his image in the eyes of the British press, after the media storm involving the Pope has in recent months (in reality since the beginning of his pontificate), but also to bring together two cultures and two confessions - Catholic and Anglican - often in conflict.

This is the view point of John Milbank, Anglican theologian and professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics, at the University of Nottingham, interviewed by AsiaNews ahead of the next papal trip:


What does Benedict XVI’s visit mean for the UK and the Church of England?
The visit is of crucial importance because Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular are under increasing attack in the United Kingdom.

One would have thought that ‘anti Popery’ was dead and yet it has recently revived. At the same time Catholics play a very important role in British cultural and political life. They and all other Christians in this country need the encouragement that the Pope can give them.

In addition I believe that this visit is a chance for Pope Benedict to correct the mistaken impressions of him that are often given in the British media. He can show that he is a person of great all-round vision whose thinking about society, economics and human relationships is often far more insightful than that of the general run of secular culture.

October marks one year from Anglicanorum Coetibus: how important is the meeting between the Primate Rowan Williams and the Pope?
I think it is important that the two leaders take the opportunity to show that their agreements are far more profound than their differences. For they espouse a similar sort of theology: rooted in the legacy of Augustine and the recovery of authentic Patristic and High Medieval tradition.

Their approaches to the political and economic sphere are also highly compatible, with both of them stressing the importance of Civil Society as against either the State or the Market and both following Bruni and Zamagni in advocating a ‘civil economy’.

In your estimation, how many bishops and faithful of the Church of England have taken up the opportunity offered by Anglicanorum coetibus?
Extremely few and I don’t think that many will follow in the UK, though more may in the USA. However, I still think that the AC will be of great importance in the future.

First because it involves a new recognition by the Papacy of the validity of the Anglican tradition, beginning to equate it more with Eastern Orthodoxy; secondly because it can create a fluidity between the two communions that will help to lead to full intercommunion in the future.

The debates about the role of women, married clergy and the norms for homosexuals are discussions that are now common to all the episcopally-ordered churches and in a globalised era it will prove anachronistic to think that they can be confined within any one single communion.

The Pope will beatify the Cardinal Newman in Birmingham. Do you think it will bring Rome and Canterbury closer or, on the contrary, fuel controversy?
I think that this is a wholly positive development and will be welcomed by Anglicans. Apart from a few evangelical extremists, who dislike Newman’s theology anyway, Anglicans by no means feel that Newman ‘betrayed’ them by becoming a Catholic.

On the contrary, they are very proud of Newman’s double contribution to both modern Anglicanism and to modern Catholicism. Newman is a sign of unity: he belongs to both Churches and I am sure that our prayers to God through him will aid us in the cause of Church unity, as in the revival of a Christian Britain.

Just over a week ago, the Synod of the Church of England ended in York. Lots of English newspapers talked about the “defeat” of the Primate concerning the ordination of women bishops. Do you agree that it was a “defeat”?
No, that is a big exaggeration. Unfortunately, the two Archbishops of York and Canterbury tried to push through a minor amendment that was probably unnecessary, but was intended to safeguard the interests of those who cannot accept the advent of women bishops.

Although this was defeated, most people involved agree that these interests will be in any case adequately safeguarded under the arrangements now agreed upon. I think that Rowan Williams now also accepts that. His standing has not been in any way seriously damaged by this matter of detail.

Clearly women bishops seem to be controversial from an ecumenical point of view, but I do not think that this will prove the case in the long term. One irony is that Anglican liturgy, involving ordained women, is in many ways far more conservative and numinous in character than much modern Catholic liturgy, in which the lay involvement of both men and women seems rather random and ill thought-through.

I support the efforts of Pope Benedict to give back a place to the Latin Mass, just as I believe that Anglicans must conserve the dignity of their worship at its best.




When I posted yesterday about the official merchandise now on sale for the Pope's visit, I thought I had been caught napping and failed to catch the development on the site until then. Only to find out later that apparently I caught it just in time because it is all the news right now. (It took me some time to put the post together as I tried to fit a representative sampling of the items into one neat frame.) The BBC was first out with it, but the Daily Telegraph report is the most interesting:


Pope visit merchandise includes
'metal' T-shirt and baseball cap
by Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent

August 3, 2010

Official merchandise for the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Britain has gone on sale, including some items that wouldn’t look out of place at a rock concert.
www.papalvisitstore.com

The online store is offering a baseball cap, a jacket and a range of T-shirts bearing Benedict XVI’s image and the motto of the historic trip – Heart speaks unto heart.

One of the shirts, costing £20, can be customised to include the name of the pilgrim’s local church.

Also on sale are a flag and an £8 electronic flashing candle, which can be waved during the open-air events just as music fans hold cigarette lighters aloft at festivals.

It comes after the 83 year-old Pope himself was pictured wearing a white baseball cap at his summer residence.

The similarity between the religious souvenirs and the memorabilia sold by touring rock bands was noted by some commentators on the internet.


The plate, second from left, is not in the Official Store catalog (but the image would look good on a white version of the 'heavy metal' T-shirt!); and the second baseball cap design is nifty, but I have this thing against black for papal -related gear

Sophia Deboick, a researcher at the University of Liverpool, wrote on Twitter about one item, a black T-shirt showing three pictures of the Pope inside a circular design: “I can't believe how metal this T-shirt is!

“You really would have to look twice to realise it isn't some metal band. I like it!”

She added that a T-shirt to commemorate the highlight of the pontiff’s visit in September, the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, had a “homemade-chic look”.

The online store for the first-ever state papal visit to Britain, which coincides with London Fashion Week, is also selling a £30 blue bracelet featuring “bling” Swarovski crystals. [I don't see this item anywhere on the site!]

More traditional items include bookmarks, fridge magnets, keyrings, mugs, plates and a glossy programme.

For the particularly devout there are candles, rosary beads and crosses.

The Roman Catholic hierarchies of England and Wales, and Scotland, will be hoping that sales help cover their costs associated with the visit, likely to be more than £7million.

But there is also a brisk trade in unofficial merchandise, with a website called Catholics With Attitude selling hooded tops bearing slogans such as “Vatican All Stars”, “Team Benedict” and “Top of the Popes”.

Check them out:
www.catholicswithattitude.net/

And a site called Zazzle
www.zazzle.co.uk/pope+benedict+gifts
that still has items from the US visit, some of which are 'timeless':


The National Secular Society, which is planning public protests during the visit, is selling T-shirts bearing the message “Pope Nope”.

Zazzle also deals the 'PopeNope' materials, unfortunately, but perhaps we should be glad the seculars are too lazy to come up with anything more 'original' than this (extreme left sticker), which a shortsighted person like me would easily read HOPE instead of NOPE, and which I've crudely tried to transform to a HOPE sight instead. (I don't have a good graphics program - but you get the idea...)



On another negative note, the BBC has officially announced its intended negative programming in advance of the Pope's visit. YUKKKKK already...


BBC to mark Pope's UK visit with
documentary on clerical abuse scandals
Film to search for 'the real Joseph Ratzinger' [their idea of 'the real Ratzinger', that is!]
while other shows will focus on John Henry Newman and the Vatican

August 3, 2010

The BBC is to air a documentary about the Catholic clerical abuse scandals next month as part of a season of factual programmes [That's what they call biased/tendentious programs now?] to coincide with the first papal visit to the UK for 28 years.

Dowd travels to Pope Benedict XVI's homeland of Bavaria and the programme includes a rare interview with his brother, Georg Ratzinger, who reveals how he has been affected by the abuse scandals.

The hour-long BBC2 documentary also looks at how the Catholic church has tried to "fashion a positive message about Pope Benedict by training up an army of young religious spin doctors called Catholic Voices". [When it's the BBC dishing out the dirt, it calls its work 'factual programmes'. When British Catholics write positive things - which are well-supported by facts, not spin - about the Pope and the Church, they are 'spin doctors'.]

Ann Widdecombe will also explore the life of the 19th century cardinal, John Henry Newman, in Newman: The Reluctant Saint.

Newman is being beatified – one step below becoming a saint – in a ceremony that will be the climax of the Pope's visit to Britain in September. [COLORE=#1216FF[Who knows what they will say in the Newman film about the future saint's sexuality! They will most likely feature the gay leader who made such a nasty fuss about it when Newman's grave was opened last autumn.]]

BBC4 also looks into the workings of the Vatican itself in Vatican: The Hidden World. The hour-long documentary includes a look at the curators who tend the Vatican's treasures and relics such as the bones of St Peter. [How might they work in something negative into this? The double-entendre title of the film is a clue - as much as saying that the Vatican is far from transparent! The same thing must be said for the title Benedict XVI: The trials of a Pope - I bet they do not mean so much the tests of character that he has been made to go through, but the fact that the BBC, in league with other Pope detractors, are placing him on trial with their selectively biased presentation of fact.

I'm sorry to assume the BBC will be negatively biased, but their history shows they can't be otherwise. They will most likely repeat the clearly erroneous premises of their 2006 documentary - which they never bothered to correct, despite their utter distortion of Crimen sollecitationis to say it ordered bishops to cover up for offending priests).]

The BBC commissioning editor religion and head of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, said: Benedict: Trials of a Pope and Newman: The Reluctant Saint are both fascinating and thought-provoking documentaries which will provide a unique insight and background to the papal visit." [Fascinating? Perhaps it will be to people who want to 'confirm' their darkest biases against the Pope, but thought-provoking? More likely rage- and retch-provoking to Catholics who love and admire their Pope.]

The BBC also said it will give "full coverage" to the papal visit in "news and events programmes and current affairs across radio and TV", details of which are still being finalised. [One has to wonder what sort of commentary their anchors and newswriters will have! Full coverage perhaps, but don't expect objectivity! More likely, they will use the events simply as a convenient platform to vent all their negative ideas by way of commentary.]


A situationer in the Guardian on preparations for the visit leads off with a pop culture note announced earlier.

Platinum-selling clergy trio
to perform in Hyde Park before
prayer vigil with the Pope
by Riazat Butt

Aug. 2, 2010


The Priests, a trio of clerics from Northern Ireland, are to headline a key event during Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK, performing in front of 80,000 people in Hyde Park, London.

The platinum-selling trio – brothers Eugene and Martin O'Hagan and their friend, David Delargy – have previously sung at the Vatican and gone head-to-head with Pope Benedict, a Classical Brit award nominee, in the album charts twice before. [An anomalous out-of-place nomination, since the Pope's participation in the nominated album was liturgical, not a performance!]

The Pope will be in the UK from 16 September, spending two days in London. Other artists lined up for his visit include Susan Boyle, who will perform in the mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who will compere the London event. The venues are together expected to attract up to 300,000 people.

There are six million Catholics in England, Scotland and Wales and about 1.2 million attend mass every week. Papal appearances often have an element of showbusiness to them. In 2008 the US Conference of Catholic Bishops arranged performances by American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and jazz singer Harry Connick Jr, while the weekly Vatican audiences can resemble a variety show with their brass bands, pianists, jugglers and choristers. [The 'performances' at Vatican audiences are primarily an expression of Catholic pride and national identity. And Catholic artists consider it a privilege and an honor to perform at a papal event.]

Those unable to go to the performances during the papal visit will be able to watch online streaming of the events. People going to the parks face a "pay to pray" levy – £25 for the beatification of Cardinal Henry Newman in Birmingham, £10 for the vigil in Hyde Park, and £20 for the mass in Glasgow. [I continue to believe that no Catholic, given the chance to attend a papal event, would resist or hesitate to pay the fee which in this case specifically helps the Church in the UK defray costs for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion!]

The money will finance transport costs and "pilgrim" packs of commemorative items. Passes to see the Pope are only available through churches, which will decide whether they allocate on a lottery or first come, first served, basis.

A church spokesman said: "There will clearly be more demand than supply. The Pope wants to keep things simple. There is an acceptance of a limited timescale and there was never going to be the possibility for all Catholics to see him."

Organisers insist that nobody should feel compelled to part with more money. But one parish website says money will also be collected at the time of allocation.

A Vatican spokesman said it was rare for anyone to have to pay to see Benedict. The Rev Federico Lombardi said that during the 2008 papal visit to the US tickets were free. Father Joseph Evans, writing in the Catholic Herald, said clergy were in an awkward position last May, after appealing to congregations to contribute to the costs of the visit while knowing that few among them would get to see the Pope. [Even that should not be cause for awkwardness. The faithful know that unless they live in the cities where the papal events will take place, they must go out of their way literally to 'see' him in person if they wish to do so. Otherwise, they know they can follow teh events on TV.]

Most of the £5m so far raised through private and parish collections will pay for staging the public gatherings.

An army of young ministrants
throng the streets of Rome
to meet Benedict XVI tomorrow
Translated from the Italian service of


In looking for happiness, 'you have decided to be with Jesus'. That is what the Bishop of Palestrina, Mons. Domenico Sigalini, told the young ministrants gathered this morning at the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura at the Mass that began the 10th annual pilgrimage to Rome of the Coetum Internationalis Ministrantium.



Fifty-three thousand European youth - 44,000 from Germany alone - enjoyed the sights in the Eternal City today, on the first day of a two-day pilgrimage.

Sigalini, who is the spiritual director of Italian Catholic Action called on the ministrants, ranging in age from 9 to 25, to follow Jesus despite the seductions of the world.

This afternoon, the ministrants - more familiarly known in the past as altar servers, but not since they have included girls and young women as sacristy assistants - were to have a prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square preparatory to being the special guests tomorrow morning when Pope Benedict XVI resumes his weekly General Audience.

Federico Piano interviewed Mons. Sigalini to find out who exactly these ministrants are and what role to they play in the parishes:

MONS. SIGALINI: These young people are generally very generous individuals who experience their faith from the heart, because in serving the liturgy, which is the point of arrival and departure for every Christian experience, and is the heart of Christian life.

They have the capacity to set their own personal path of spirituality - they love prayer, to begin with. Obviously, with all the enthusiasm and energy that young people have, they are a resource for the Church, an opportunity for the Church to continually renew its capacity to dialog with the young even in such profound matters as prayer and service to the liturgy. They are potential announcers and apostles of the faith.

The motto for this year's pilgrimage is "To drink at the true fountain'. What does it mean for them?
The service that the ministrants render is a vocation itself - not just a choice that they made because they like it. It can start from a personal preference, but the Lord has a plan for the life of every individual.

It is a place, a space, an experience, that helps young people to find their own personal paths to true happiness. To drink at the true fountain means that if they live this experience, if they follow the Lord's call, if they experience being heart to heart with him in their service to liturgy, to the Eucharist, then they are in touch with the true spring of happiness.

What does it mean exactly to be a ministrant today in the service of the Church?
It means acquiring a familiarity with Christian life, which leads young people to truly become friends with Jesus, whom we announce to everyone.

They seem to be very enthusiastic in what they do...
Yes, in general, they know their minds and are quite determined. It may seem strange indeed, that in the face of a sea of available diversions today, they have chosen to devote themselves to something that is demanding - because it is a sacrifice to be present at the Church early in the morning, when their friends are still asleep. But precisely because they are enthusiastic, they deserve to be helped and encouraged. Especially since, I think, young people today lack challenges - they do not learn to make sacrifices, and if they don't make sacrifices, they don't have to try hard, and if they stop trying hard, then their energy is not properly used.

Sandro Magister on his blog today (8/3) ties in two recent developments in the Anglican world (about which I have deferred posting) with the Pope's visit to the UK.


Papal attraction: Anglican groups
vote to set up Ordinariates
Translated from

August 3, 2010


The closer we get to Benedict XVI's apostolic visit to the United Kingdom in mid-September, more traditional Anglicans and Anglo-Catholics are speaking up about wanting to join the Church of Rome under the provisions laid down by the Pope in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (AC) promulgated last Nov. 7.

The most eager are members of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), comprising almost half a mlllion members and many bishops and priests, who are dispersed in the United States, Canada and Australia.

For the past 20 years, they have denounced the growing liberalization of the Anglican Communion having allowed women priests and now on the verge of allowing women bishops, ordaiend homosexual bishops, and recognizing same-sex marriage.

Within a few days of each other last week, two blocs of dioceses who have led the TAC movement to convert to Catholicism, formally voted to do so.

In Vancouver at the end of July, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada voted with a curshing majority to join the Roman Catholic Church under the modality provided by AC and designated Bishop Peter Wilkinson to preside at constituting the new Ordinariate.

Shortly thereafter, a Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church of Australia decided the same thing, with only 6 bishops voting No and 56 voting Yes.

A similar decision is expeced any time soon from the other major TAC group in Australia, the Church of Torres Strait.

But if the TAC developments may be taken for granted by some, more surprising was something that happened in the very heart of Anglicanism, teh Church of England itself.

Fifteen Anglican bishops wrote an open letter saying they were increasingly uneasy within the Anglican Communion and increasingly attracted to the idea of joining the Roman Catholic Church. Two other bishops then said they associated themselves with the letter.

All these bishops are among the so-called Anglo-Catholics eho have alwasy been more traditional in their liturgy and in their practices. In contrast, majority of the 77-million strong worldwide Anglican Communion are considered 'evangelical', similar to the Reformed Churches. But although such Anglicans in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and other African countries also oppose the ordination of women and homosexuals, they are not inclined at all to convert to cAtholicism.

Probably the most famous of the 'evangelical' Anglican bishops in the UK today is the Anglo-Pakistan Michael Nazir-Ali, who is critical of how the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, has been trying to seek a compromise among the various Anglican factions and on his approach in general to major issues confronting UK society today, such as Islam and secularization.

I will post the Open Letter in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread.

MEDIA BIAS AT A GLANCE -
AND IT STARTS WITH GOOGLE!

I am not sure how Google assigns precedence - which names or items appear at the top of any list of search results - to its news listings when one does a search on a specific subject. As far as I know, it grants precedence for any search of commercial firms or business names to those who pay an escalating scale of monthly premiums in order to be listed ahead of everybody else.

I think that for news or general topics, Google editors set their own criteria and assign precedence according to their personal preferences (and ideology) - remember all the flap in recent months about how any search for the general subject of Christianity comes up with all sorts of negative attributes first? That seems to be very much at work in Google's listing of news about the Pope and the Vatican, which leads off with some of the most negative headlines in the past few months rather than anything new, which is what 'news' means.

As I try to show from time to time, this is a snapshot (captured last night but it remains the same today) of what Google's top-of-the-list for Pope&Vatican news has been for the past several weeks. For over a year since it was first published, the March 2009 headline from the UK's Telegraph held top place.




Of course, even if the Holy Father does not think of it this way, the best answer to detractors is to do well, be well - and look very very well, as Benedict XVI always does:

Wednesday, August 4, 18th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. JEAN-BAPTISTE MARIE VIANNEY (France, 1786-1859), the Holy Cure d'Ars. Patron Saint of Parish Priests
Because Benedict XVI upheld him as the model for the recent Year for Priests, decreed to honor his 150th death anniversary, this French saint has become one of the best-known of all modern saints. The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis on August 5, 2009, to the 'saint of the year' www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090805...
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080410.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR, except a brief item anticipating the General Audience today with the presence of 50,000 young ministrants on a pilgrimage to Rome. Page 1 international news: US leaders tout economic recovery despite continuing high unemployment; 3 million affected by monsoon floods in Pakistan; Kenya votes today on a new Constitution; and suspense over whether the closure of the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico will hold.


THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience today - The Holy Father resumed the GA after the July pause before a crowd of at least
80,000 in St. Peter's Square, largely composed of young ministrants from Europe on their once-every-five-years
pilgrimage to Rome.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY


The Pope arrives by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo.



Europe’s altar servers gift
Pope with a ‘happy heart’


04 Aug 10 (RV) - They are future of the Church in Europe. From Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and even Georgia.

They travelled by night and day across the continent by bus, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Coetus Ministrantium Internationalis (ICD), the International Movement of Altar servers, together in St Peter’s Square.

On Wednesday, from early morning they filled the square to capacity, with banners unfurled and in song, making it in the words of Pope Benedict XVI “happier place” and gifting him with "a happier heart".

In fact, the Wednesday audience – the first since the summer break – was entirely dedicated to the estimated 55,000 young boys and girls who serve the altars of Europe.

In his address delivered mainly in German, the Pope recalled that he too had once been an altar boy, and in a gesture that was greeted by rousing applause donned a scarf gifted him by the Archdiocese of Basel, headquarters of CIM.

“Serve Jesus generously in the Eucharist”, he told them. "It's an important task, which allows you to be particularly close to the Lord and to grow as his true friends."

A large bronze statue of St. Tarcisius, the young Roman who was martyred in 257 AD for having defended the Blessed Sacrament stood on the steps to the basilica.

It had reached Rome at the end of a journey throughout central Europe and at the close of the pilgrimage. it will be placed before the catacomb of St. Callistus where the martyr and patron saint of altar servers, is buried.

Reflecting on this ‘young and brave man’s’ devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Pope Benedict recalled that the Eucharist is "the greatest gift Jesus left us, support and strength for our daily journey”.

He called on the altar servers to "communicate the gift of this friendship to their peers, with joy, enthusiasm, without fear."

The Pope added that “probably martyrdom will not be demanded of us”, but instead Jesus asks us for "fidelity to the little things, our daily tasks, to witnessing his love."

Pope Benedict’s concluding words to the crowd of young boys and girls were that the witness of St. Tarcisius, "shows us the great love we must have towards the Eucharist", a "immeasurable treasure", "an open road to eternal life".

“You are lucky to live near this great mystery, carry out your task with love and devotion. Prepare yourselves well for Holy Mass ", helping priests, you can become closer to Jesus," He will not fail to reward you, giving you true joy, and complete happiness".



Eucharist is Jesus's greatest gift to us,
Pope tells crowd of young ministrants



Rome, Italy, Aug 4, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Benedict XVI underscored the importance of the Eucharist on Wednesday as a "treasure whose value cannot be measured." Illustrating a young third century martyr's [St. Tarcisius] example of dedication to the Body of Christ, he exhorted altar servers to also give their lives in service to the Lord.

St. Peter's Square was packed for the Pope's first audience after nearly a month of vacation without any public or private audiences. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi estimated the number of people in St. Peter's Square at more than 80,000.

The Holy Father addressed the faithful in German, out of consideration for the native tongue of the great majority of the 53,000 young people present at the audience as part of a pilgrimage of European altar servers.

After donning a white pilgrim's handkerchief himself, he remembered St. Tarcisius in the catechesis. At age 12, he was martyred in Rome in the year 257 in the act of protecting the Eucharist and is now one of the patron saints of altar servers.

Reflecting on this life given in devotion to God, Pope Benedict told the young people in the square that St. Tarcisius teaches us "the profound love and great veneration that we should have towards the Eucharist.

"It is a precious good," he said, "a treasure whose value cannot be measured, it is the Bread of life, it is Jesus who makes himself food, support and strength for our daily path and open road to eternal life; it is the greatest gift that Jesus left us."

Turning to altar servers everywhere, the Pope exhorted generous service to Jesus in the Eucharist. "It is an important task," he explained, "which permits you to be particularly close to the Lord and to grow as his true friends.

He went on to ask them to protect this friendship as St. Tarcisius did, "ready to give (their) lives so that Jesus might be brought to all," and to be courageous and joyful in communicating it to their friends.

And, while our calling may not be to martyrdom, he said, "Jesus asks faithfulness of us in the small things, the every day tasks, the witness of His love, attending Church and to the many friends with whom we learn to know him ever more. "

Reminded of the significance of their help, present at the altar when the bread becomes Jesus' body and the wine His blood, the Holy Father told them, "You are fortunate to live this great mystery closely!

"Carry out with love, with devotion and with faithfulness your task of serving; prepare yourselves well for the Holy Mass! Helping your priests in the service at the altar you contribute to making Jesus closer, to being ever more present in the world, in everyday life, in the Church and in every place."

He concluded by asking the intercessions of St. Tarcisius and St. John Vianney to aid them in their service.











Pope expresses his solidarity with victims
of fires in Russia, floods in Pakistan



VATICAN CITY, Aug. 4 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has expressed solidarity with the victims of natural disaster in Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Pontiff said his thoughts were with the victims in this period of "serious natural calamity that has caused the loss of human life, injury and damage, leaving many people homeless."

The Pope, in remarks at St. Peters on Wednesday, cited the huge fires in Russia and devastating floods in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The monsoon season has prompted the worst flooding in Pakistan in living memory, killing more than 1,500. Wildfires in Russia, meanwhile, have killed 48, wiping out Russian forests, villages and a military base.







Before the catechesis, the Holy Father was presented with a ministrant's scarf by Mons. Martin Gachter, auxiliary bishop of Basel, and president of the CIM:




Here is a translation of the catechesis. Except for the opening paragraph, he delivered the catechesis in German because majority of the ministrants are German-speaking (including the Austrians and Swiss):

THE HOLY FATHER'S CATECHESIS

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

I wish to manifest my joy at being among you today in this Piazza, where you have gathered festively for this General Audience, with very significant presence of the great pilgrimage of European ministrants to Rome.

Dear boys and girls and young people, dear German-speaking pilgrims, welcome to Rome! I greet you all from the heart. And with you, I greet the Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, who is named after your patron. You invited him to be here, and he is happy to be here among the ministrants of Europe.

I greet my dear brothers in the Episcopate and priesthood, and the deacons who chose to take part in this audience.

And I thank from the heart the auxiliary Bishop of Basel, Mons. Martin Gaechter, president of the Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium, for his words of greeting, for the great gift of the statue of St. Tarcisius, and for the foulard he has given me.

I also thank him, in your name for the great work he has been doing among you, along with his co-workers and all those who have made this joyful meeting possible. I also thank the Swiss sponsors and those who worked in various ways to realize the statue of St. Tarcisius.

There are so many of you! From the helicopter flying over St. Peter's Square, I coudl see all the colors and the joy that animate this Piazza. You have not only created an atmosphere of celebration in the Piazza, but you have also made my heart even happier! Thank you!

The statue of St. Tarcisio has come to us after a long pilgrimage. In September 2008, it was presented first in Switzerland to an audience of 8,000 ministrants - I am sure some fo you were present. From Switzerland, it went on to Luxembourg and so on, to Hungary.

Today we welcome it joyously, glad to be able to know better this figure from the early centuries of the Church. The statue, as Mons. Gaechter said, will then be erected near the Catacombs of St. Callistus, where St. Tarcisius is buried.

The hope I express for everyone is that the Catacombs of St. Callistus and this statue may become a reference point for ministrants and all those who wish to follow Jesus more closely through the priestly, religious and missionary life.

Everyone can look at this courageous and strong boy, and renew the commitment of friendship with the Lord himself, in order to learn how to live with him always, following the path that he shows us with ths Word and the testimony of so many saints and martyrs, to whom, through Baptism, we have become brothers and sisters.

Who was St. Tarcisius? We have little information. We are in the first centuries of the Church's history - more precisely in the third century. We are told he was a boy who often came to the Catacombs of St. Callistuz here in Rome and was very faithful to his Christian commitments.

He loved the Eucharist very much, and from various elements, we conclude that presumably, he was an acolyte, that is, a ministrant. In those years, the Emperor Valerian persecuted Christians very severely, and they were forced to gather secretly in private homes, or sometimes, in the Catacombs, to listen to the word of God, and to pray and celebrate Holy Mass.

The custom of bringing the Eucharist to prisoners and to the sick became increasingly more dangerous. One day, when the priest asked, as he usually did, for someone among those present who was ready to bring the Eucharist that day to the prisoners, the young Tarcisius got up and said, "Send me!" The boy seemed too young for such a demanding task. But he said, "My age will be the best refuge for the Eucharist".

The priest, convinced, entrusted the precious Bread to him, saying, "Tarcisius, remember that a celestial treasure has been entrusted to your care. Avoid the crowded streets and do not forget that precious things must not be thrown to the dogs nor gems to swine. Will you guard the Sascred Mysteries with faithfulness and safety?"

"I will die," Tarcisius responded resolutely, "rather than yield".

On his way, however, he met some friends who asked him to join them. When he refused, the friends, who were pagan, became suspicious and more insistent. They noticed that he seemed to be holding something close to his chest that he seemed to be protective of. They tried to take this away from him but in vain. They fought him more furiously, especially upon learning that he was a Christian. They kicked at him and threw stones, but he did not yield.

Dying, he was brought back to the catacombs by a Praetorian officer called Quadratus, who was a secret Christian. Tarcisius was dead on arrival, but close to his heart, he still had the fabric in which the Eucharist had been wrapped. And so he was buried in the Catacombs.

Pope Damasus later ordered an inscription for his tomb which states that he died in 257. The Roman Martyrology records the date as August 15, and it also contains the account of a beautiful oral tradition, according to which the Eucharist was not found in his clothes nor anywhere on the body. It was believed that the consecrated hosts, defended with his life by the boy martyr, had become flesh of his flesh, thus forming with his body, one single immaculate Host offered to God.

Dear ministrants, the witness of St. Tarcisius and this beautiful tradition teach us the profound love and great veneration that we must have for the Eucharist: It is a precious good, a treasure whose vlaue cannot be measured. It is the Bread of life, It is Jesus hismelf who becomes food for us, support and strength for our journey every day, and the open way to eternal life. It is the greatest gift that Jesus has left us.

I address those of you who are present, and through you, all the ministrants of the world: Generously serve Jesus who is present in the Eucharist. It is an important task that allows you to be particularly close to the Lord and to grow in true and profound friendship with him.

Jealously guard this friendsip in your ehart as St. Tarcisius did, ready to commit yourselves, to fight and to give your life so that Jesus may reach all men.

You must communicate to your contemporaries the gift of this friendship, with joy, with enthusiasm, without fear, so that they can feel that you know this Mystery which is true and which you love!

Everytime that you are near the altar, you are fortunate to assist at this great gesture of love from God, who continues to want to give himself to each of us, to be close in order to help us, to give us strength to live well.

At the Consecration, as you know, that small piece of bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine becomes his Blood. You are fortunate to be able to experience from up close this inexpressible mystery!

Carry out your task as ministrants with love, devotion and faithfulness. Do not enter the Church for Mass superficially, but prepare yourself interiorly for the Holy Mass!

In helping your priests in service at the altar, you contribute to make Jesus closer in a way that people can feel it and be much more aware that he is here. And you collaborate so that he may be more present in this world, in everyday life, in the Church and everywhere.

Dear friends, you give Jesus your hands, your thoughts, your time. He will not fail to reward you, giving you true joy and making you feel a happiness that is truly full.

St. Tarcisius showed us that love can lead us to give our own life for authentic good, for the true good, for the Lord.

Martyrdom will probably not be asked of us, but Jesus does ask for our faithfulness in the little things, he asks for our inner contemoplation, our interior participation, our faith and the effort to keep this treasure present in our everyday life.

He asks us for faithfulness in our daily tasks, as a witness to his love, attending Church frequently out of interior conviction and for the joy of his presence. In this way, we can make our contemporaries know that Jesus lives.

In this task, may we be helped by the intercession of St. Jean Marie Vianney, whose liturgical feast we observe today, by this humble parish priest of France who changed his small community and gave the world a new light.

May the examples of Saints Tarcisius and Jean Marie Vianney urge us daily to love Jesus and to fulfill his Will as did the Virgin Mary, who was faithful to Her Son to the very end.

Once again, I thank all of you. May God bless you and I wish you a good trip back to your countries.

After the catechesis and his pluringual greetings, he made a special appeal:

My thoughts go to the populations who have been struck, at this time, by serious natural calamities which have caused loss of human life, injuries and damages, leaving numerous persons homeless - in particular, by the vast fires in the Russian Fderation and the devastating floods in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

I pray to the Lord for the victims and I am spiritually close to those who are tried by these adversities. For them, I ask God to relieve their suffering and sustain them in their difficulties. I also wish that they will not lack for solidarity from everyone.

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After the catechesis, the Holy Father blessed the giant statue of St. Tarcisius, which has been travelling through Europe for the past two years and will now be set up in front of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus.near where the 12-year-old acolyte met his martyrdom.






The harvest of photos today makes up in some way for the summer photo drought!