BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries posted today, 8/4/10, including main post on today's GA and accompanying bonanza of photographs.





Surprising coverage in La Repubblica online for the GA today, with pictures even! Maybe because nothing much is happening in the usual news circuits, and a big event like this occurring at the peak of summer is both noteworthy and newsworthy.

60,000 young ministrants
acclaim Benedict XVI
Translated from

August 4, 2010




VATICAN CITY - Some 60,OOO altar servers of both sexes from 17 European countries - 44,00 from Germany alone - greeted the arrival of Benedict XVI Wednesday morning at St. Peter's Square with uncontainable enthusiasm.

The resumption of the Pope's General Audiences after a holiday pause last month coincided with the second day of the altar servers' pilgrimage to Rome this year under the coordination of the Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium (CIM) based in Basel, Switzerland.

Arriving by helicopter from the papal summer residence o Castel Gandolfo, the Pope toured the various sectors of the vast crowd in an open Popemobile to great acclaim.

The overall attendance between the ministrants and the regular GA crowd was aabout 85,000, according to Fr. Federico Lombardi. They spilled over from St. Peter's Square into the adjoining Piazza Pio XII.

Papa Ratzinger wore the red saturno against the summer sun and appeared all smiles and in good form.

Before he arrived, the young people passed the time singing religious hymns in pop and rock arrangements.

When he mounted to the platform on the steps of St. Peter's, he was greeted by CIM president Mons. Martin Gaechter, auxiliary bishop of Basel. Gaechter presented the Pope with the white kerchief symbolizing the ministrants. The Pope wore the kerchief around his neck for teh catechesis and the blessing.

The audience today ended a three-week interruption corresponding to the three-week vacation that the Pope takes annually.

The Vatican underscored that the presence of so many adolescents and young people after a period of media attacks on the Church regarding the handling of pedophile priests demonstrated great confidence in papa Ratzinger's Church on the part of Catholic families in Germany and the rest of Europe.



Because of the page change midway through the posting day, I am posting the translation of the Holy Father's catechesis here as well. 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.

---

The 8/5/10 issue of L'Osservatore Romano devotes quite a few items to the gathering of ministrants in Rome. An editorial takes note of La Repubblica's coverage...




The acolytes celebrate
with the Pope
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 8/5/10 issue of



In these days which constitute the heart of summer, Rome has been merrily invaded by some 60,000 young people - largely German - who belong to the Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium and who came to Rome for a pilgrimage that culminated in a gathering around Benedict XVI.

Smiling faces and summer wear, accented by colorful scarves, sporty berets and caps of all kinds. An event that was very surprising to many, and yet most important without a doubt, to which the newspaper La Repubblica - which often pays no attention to routine Church events and is not generally benevolent towards the Church - decided to dovote three entire pages.

But truly, these days have been an extraordinary Catholic celebration.

Who are these ministrants anyway? They are normal children and young people who are full of joie de vivre. Once they were called 'altar boys' [chierichetti in Italian], a term which is less precise than its current form taken from the beautiful Latin verb ministrare (to serve, in this case, to serve at liturgy above all) but sounds more familiar and less bureaucratic.

Even in the feminine form, chierichette, an Italian neologism which sounds a bit funny but nonetheless generally said with sympathy, to indicate the introduction in recent decades of girls and young women, especially in German-speaking countries, to a role once exclusively reserved for males.

But the role of 'ministrant' now has wider dimensions because, as a neutral noun that does not distinguish gender or age, it indicates and educates about being close to Christ. This is an education that begins first in the family, and continues in the church and in the Church, forming and preparing young people for a truly Christian life.

Not just through their actual service but through listening to the Word made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, and in the adoration and contemplation of his real presence in the Eucharist.

The Pope never tires of demonstrating, in his words and by the example of the liturgies he celebrates, the beauty and centrality of liturgy, whose renewal according to Vatican II must be considered in a vital continuity with Tradition.

The beauty and the commitment of this international gathering of ministrants at the height of summer obviously demonstrate - after a long and chilly mediatic season that has sought to indiscriminately obscure the beauty and radicalness of Catholic priesthood - the importance of what the Church has done throughout history and continues to do, every day and everywhere in the world, for the formation of the younger generations.

They are boys and girls who are educated in and educate others in being close to Jesus, of friendship with the Lord whom the Oriental liturgies call 'the friend of men'. A friendship that thousands of young people expressed joyously at St. Peter's Square yesterday, waving their caps and kerchiefs for his Vicar on earth.


A white kerchief for the Pope
Translated from the 8/5/10 issue of




The Pope wore the white kerchief given to him as a symbol of the young ministrants' Rome pilgrimage during the entire catechesis and blessing yesterday.

"I, too, was an altar boy," he told his young 'colleagues' after he was given the kerchief by Mons. Martin Gaechter, president of Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium.

The kerchief for the Pope was woven by disabled workers in the Caritas workshop in Munich, along with the fabric for 45,000 vanilla-colored ones for the Germans, green for the Italians, yellow for the Austrians, black for the Swiss, etc., to make up the 'rainbow' of 17 nations who brightened up St. Peter's Square and the streets of Rome this week.

Kerchiefs were also presented to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and all other bishops who were at the General Audience yesterday. Including Mons. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and president of the German bishops' conference.

"Today, everyone can see that in Germany, there is a young Church that is very vibrant," he told us. "To see so many young people so enthusiastic and aware gives us confidence and new spiritual strength to face the challenges we have".

Before the catechesis, Mons. Gaechter expressed the esteem and affection of the pilgrims for the Pope.

"Here in Rome," he said, "we have learned to appreciate better our communion with the faith. Today, we have brought you the statue of St. Tarcisius, patron saint of ministrants for his willingness to serve and his love for the Eucharist which he testified to by giving his own life".

At the end of the audience, the Pope blssed the statue and spoke to a representative group of pilgrims.

Pope tells Knights of Columbus:
Best response to attacks against
the Church is greater fidelity



Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- In an emotional letter sent by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to the Knights of Columbus, the Pontiff said that the best response to the attacks against the Church is a greater fidelity to Christ.

The Pope also used the fraternal organization as an example of loyalty to the Catholic Church.

In the letter, read during the first session of the 128th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Washington D.C., Cardinal Bertone wrote that “in the face of often unfair and unfounded attacks on the Church and her leaders, His Holiness is convinced that the most effective response is a great fidelity to God’s word, a more resolute pursuit of holiness, and an increased commitment to charity in truth on the part of all the faithful.”

“He asks the Knights to persevere in their witness of faith and charity, in the serene trust that, as the Church embraces this period of purification, her light will come to shine all the more brightly (cf. Mt 5:15-16) before men and women of fair mind and good will,” he added.

“At a time when fundamental moral norms, grounded in truth and inscribed in the human heart, are increasingly called into question and at times overturned by legislation,” Cardinal Bertone continued, the Pope “is grateful for the efforts made by the Knights, in cooperation with other men and women of good will, to uphold the reasonableness of the Church’s moral teaching and its importance for a sound, just and enduring social order.”

In the letter addressed to Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, the Cardinal Secretary of State said that the Holy Father “once more thanks your Order for its witness to the sanctity of human life and the authentic nature of marriage, and for its efforts to promote in the Catholic laity a greater consciousness of the need to overcome every separation between the faith we profess and the daily decisions which shape our lives as individuals and the life of society as a whole."



Highlight of the convention was the award by the KofC yesterday, Tuesday, of its 8th Gaudium et Spes Award to Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino of Havana, Cuba, during the States Dinner for his tireless witness to the Gospel and his defense of religious freedom.

I missed this one - pointed out today by one of Lella's regular followers - because I merely sniffed and shrugged when I read last week vampire queen Anne Rice's pompous and self-contradictory declaration of 'giving up Chtistianity but not Christ'. I was not looking for anyone like Messori to actually address her 'un-conversion' following a much-ballyhooed 'conversion' some years back...

I'm posting it on this thread because her dissent - coming not too many years after her 'conversion' - ostentatiously goes beyond the familiar dissent of Catholic liberals who have nonetheless chosen to 'stay' in the Church hoping (or even expecting) to change her from within, and because Messori argues a point that Benedict XVI often makes, namely:

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Human opinions come and go. What is very modern today will be very antiquated tomorrow. On the other hand, the Word of God is the Word of eternal life, it bears within it eternity and is valid for ever. By carrying the Word of God within us, we therefore carry within us eternity, eternal life.

---

Ideological fashions come and go,
but Church Tradition is eternal
di Vittorio Messori
Translated from

July 31, 2010


It is boring for those who know the drill: the usual conformist adaptation to the currently reigning ideology but which purports to be courageous revolt. It is the usual superficiality of someone who has not understood the dynamic of faith but professes to have profound vision.

Moreover, with a fundamental equivocation. For some years, the writer Anne Rice has been saying that without having found faith in the Gospels again, her work would have been arid.

She wrote a book read by millions about the story of her conversion, entitled Called out of darkness in which 'the shadows' are those places where Jesus is not adored.

Now, having reaped bountiful royalties, the writer 'reborn in the faith' is calling on her unsuspecting readers to throw that bestseller into the wastebin and tells them she has 'stopped being Christian'.

A mis-statement, right out: What she has done is to cease calling herself Catholic. Because all she has to do is enter any of the numerous Protestant communities who do not simply allow but even sanctify all those things for which she now professes to be scandalized that the Catholic Church rejects: church weddings for homosexual couples, women bishops (even better if they are also lesbian), contraception as a basic tenet and human right, 'democracy' in determining not just the Church hierarchy but also theological, liturgical and yes, moral, norms.

In those Protestant communities, she will find all her expectations satisfied, in the name of the dominant ideology which today is the political correctness of liberalism (and libertinism).

But ideologies change, and that which may appear indisputable today will be improbable tomorrow.

Anne Rice is old enough to remember that until about 20 years ago, priests and nuns were abandoning the Catholic Church for reasons opposed to what she now claims have urged her to leave again: it was the height of socio-political 'commitments' - of the red kind, obviously - which condemened as bourgeois individualism those tendencies that liberal conformists today consider sacred.

But if she had lived in the 1930s as a German woman, with exactly the logic she uses today, she would have 'ceased to be Catholic' because Rome refused to follow the example of the Lutheran Church, assimilated (with very few exceptions) into the so-called Deutsche Christen (German Christians), who, under the leadership of the "Bishop of the Reich', taught among others, the Aryanity of Jesus, the Biblixcal duty to be racist, the beauty of war, and some such kooky doctrines.

So let Ms. Rice beware, she who believes she is 'walking towards the future': That future, as history has shown, will become sooner or later a past to discard with a red face. Whoever weds the spirit of the time will soon be a widow/widower.

And just as we now ask how could there have been 'Christian Nazis', or 'Christian Communists', we can also ask how can there be 'Christian liberals'?

Ms. Rice's retreat from the Catholic Church runs counter to the increasingly crowded ranks of those who are coming back to Rome. Hundreds of Anglican ministers and dozens of bishops have asked the Pope to welcome them back, precisely because the Catholic Church rejects those very causes in defense of which Rice is so passionate about. [And yet, at the time of her 'conversion' years ago, the Catholic Church held those positions she now denounces, as the Church has held them for 2,000 years!]

Those who know the Protestant world - the 'historic' one, which was born from the Reformation in the 16th century - knows that ever larger groups are thinking about leaving it. Again, for reasons directly opposite to Rice's.

So one must watch out all the time: it has happened time and again among Christians that those who are called 'reactionary' today become 'prophets' tomorrow.


People who end up being ultra-successful international best-selling authors - regardless of the quality or genre of their work - sometimes become afflicted with towering megalomania. And I believe Anne Rise is one of them. I have not read anything she wrote because vampires are simply not my idea of escapist literature, and I had vaguely welcomed her 'conversion' as I welcome anyone who seemingly comes home.

Obviously, she had 'converted' earlier for the wrong reasons and/or misunderstands Christian doctrine appallingly for her to be capable of making the statements she recently made. Like she's bigger than Christianity or any Church now, and will follow only whatever suits her - the fallacy of 'I know best' - and what she thinks to be 'following Christ'. And I can only say 'Good riddance'.

In the same catechesis on St. Jerome from which the words of Benedict XVI quoted above are taken, the Holy Father said this earlier in the same paragraph:

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...To avoid falling into individualism, we must bear in mind that the Word of God has been given to us precisely in order to build communion and to join forces in the truth on our journey towards God. Thus, although it is always a personal Word, it is also a Word that builds community, that builds the Church. We must therefore read it in communion with the living Church...

---

And that is exactly what arrogant people like Anne Rice are violating when they constitute themselves into a one-man church, rejecting not just the concept of communion but the underlying discipline that faith demands.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/08/2010 08:00]

Thursday, August 5, 18th Week in Ordinary Time

From left: Pope Liberius tracing out the church design on snow, from a triptych by Masaccio and Masalino, 1492; shower of white petals from the church ceiling on August 5; upper panel, the altar of 'Maria,
Salus Populi Romani', venerated at Santa Maria Maggiore; the icon itself; coronation of Mary from the apse mosaic at SMM; and detail of the mosaic; lower panel, various images of Our Lady of the Snows.
DEDICATION OF 'SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE'
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS
Today's feast commemorates the Roman legend that God responded with a snowfall in August to the gesture of a couple who pledged their treasure to the Church and told them a church should be built on the site, the Esquiline, one of the seven hills of Rome. Pope Liberius first built a church on the site in the mid-4th century, but after the Council of Ephesus affirmed Mary's title as Mother of God, Pope Sixtus rededicated the church to her in 431. It is called Santa Maria Maggiore because it is the largest church dedicated to Mary in the Eternal City. It has undergone many renovations over the centuries but it retains its character as an early Roman basilica. Its 5th-century mosaic decorations are the most ancient in Rome, and its famous coffered ceiling was lined with gold leaf made from the first gold mined in the New World. It is one of four papal basilicas, along with St. Peter, St John Lateran and St Paul outside the Walls. Today, the miracle of the snow is remembered annually at the Basilica on August 5, with a shower of white petals from the ceiling.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080510.shtml


OR today:

Benedict XVI recalls St. Tarcisius to some 60,000 ministrants at St. Peter's Square:
'Life can be given for Christ, the true and authentic good'
The Pope also offers prayers for victims of summer fires in Russia and widespread floods in Pakistan

Other Page 1 stories: Russian summer fires continue to burn and Moscow itself is under a smoke pall; new troop movements on the Israel-Lebanon border after Lebanese guerrillas fire on Israeli troops who cut down a few trees to improve their sightlines - the UN confirms the trees were on the Israeli side of the border.



The Vatican today announced the official program for the Pope's pastoral visit to Carpineto Romano
on Sunday, Sept. 5, a highlight of the yearlong bicentennial celebration of the birth of Pope Leo XIII
who was born in that city.

Thanks to Ann Engelhart, who sent me the current letter to subscribers by Dr. Robert Moynihan, editor of INSIDE THE VATICAN magazine, in which he discloses something that most Benaddicts probably have known For some time. In June 2007, I posted a translated news item from Il Giornale about this sidelight in the PRF, the top of which I am reproducing here (and have enlarged the photo).


[Cardinal Farina, right, on the day in 2007 the Pope visited the Vatican Library and named him Chief Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, to succeed
Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, whom Benedict XVI named to be rpesident of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog.

However, Dr. Moynihan does have new details in a letter from Cardinal Farina himself....

The man who expected
to be a librarian...
by ROBERT MOYNIHAN


There have been a number of providential turning points in the life of Pope Benedict XVI. His birth, of course, on Easter Saturday, 1927. Then there was the summer of 1945, when he was an American prisoner-of-war at age 18. And the moment in the mid-1950s when his dissertation was almost rejected, and it briefly seemed his academic career might be derailed.

And the moment in 2002 when he handed in his resignation to Pope John Paul II, only to have it rejected. (If that resignation had been accepted, he might not have been as prominent a candidate to succeed John Paul II.) [Or he might never have been a candidate at all, since he would have retired, away from Rome. He would still have been a cardinal-elector in 2005, but what retired prelate in modern times has ever been considred papabile?]

Now another ironic "turning point" in Joseph Ratzinger's life has come to light. In 1997, it seems, he was expecting to end his Vatican career by becoming, not Pope, but the Chief Librarian of the Vatican Library...

...In this letter I would like to "change gears" and deal with a curious, little known yet moving incident in the life of Joseph Ratzinger.

I recently received a warm note from Cardinal Raffaele Farina, SDB (Society of Don Bosco), Prefect of the Vatican Library. [NB: Since June 2007, Farina ahs been the Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, a step above Prefect of the Vatican Library.]

The note recounts an encounter Cardinal Farina had with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) 13 years ago, in 1997, shortly after Farina became Prefect of the Vatican Library.

At that time, Farina had just succeeded Father Leonard Boyle, OP, my dear friend and mentor, as Prefect.

Unfortunately, Boyle had involved the Library in licensing deals which ended up in complicated lawsuits. Among the tasks Farina faced was sorting out those problems. Boyle, a brilliant paleographer and saintly man, was unexperienced in business, as he told me personally on several occasions. He died a few months after his dismissal; I believe it was due to a broken heart — to the shame he felt at his failure to obtain funds for his beloved Library through the licensing initiatives he entered into.

Boyle's successor, who will turn 77 in September, a month from now, is another wonderful man, scholarly, precise, kind...

...This is the note he sent to me, when I asked him if he had any memories to share of Pope Benedict XVI on the 5th anniversary of Benedict's election last April. (The following text is all by Cardinal Farina, translated from the original Italian.)

---

Cardinal Ratzinger's 'secret project'
By Cardinal Raffaele Farina
Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church


It is well known that the Vatican Library bears the name Apostolic not by chance, since it is an institution regarded since its foundation as “The Pope’s Library,” his personal property, as it were.

This is what Benedict XVI said on the occasion of his visit to the Vatican Library and the Vatican Secret Archives on June 25, 2007.

At the end of his speech, addressed to the staff and management of the Library and the Archives, the Pope said:

“I confess that, on reaching the age of 70 [in April 1997], I very much hoped that the beloved John Paul II would have allowed me to devote myself to the study of interesting documents and manuscripts which you preserve with such care, true masterpieces which help us study the history of humanity and Christianity. In His providential designs the Lord had other plans for me and now I’m here among you not as a keen student of ancient texts, but as a shepherd called on to encourage all believers to cooperate for the salvation of the world, each carrying out the mission God has assigned to him."

It was the year 1997. Cardinal Ratzinger had turned 70 on April 16.

On May 24, I was named Prefect of the Vatican Library, and as I began to carry out that task, I began to realize bit by bit realized the difficulties, economic and managerial in particular, which I would have to confront.

I took over the full management of the Library when my mandate as Rector of the Salesian University expired on July 12.

On that same day I learned of the sequestering under seal of the sales counters in the Galleries of the Library, which are, still today, part of the public area of the Vatican Museums, as well as of the laboratories and storage room of the Belser publishing company from Stuttgart, located in the Vatican Library in the rooms under my offices.

The Cardinal Librarian was at the time His Eminence Luigi Poggi; we knew already, during the month of July, that both of us would have the thankless task of dismissing as many as 39 of our employees.

In the midst of this worrisome situation, I received, among other things, an application for employment from a young woman from Munich in Bavaria who had worked as a trainee in our manuscript restoration laboratory.

She was in Rome and she called me almost every day, asking to be hired by the Library or at least to be accepted as an apprentice in our laboratory for a year or two.

I could not hire her, despite her excellent record of studies and her degree, obtained in Germany, not only on account of the firings which had been planned, but also because the Library had been put under the administration of an external commissioner (I was the external commissioner!) owing to the judicial proceedings connected to the aforesaid sequesterings, caused by the licences which my predecessor had incautiously granted to companies in California.

Tired by my refusals to hire her, polite though they were, this young woman got to the point of threatening me, saying that, unless I took into serious consideration her request to work in our Library, she would enter a convent.

As you might imagine, it came to me naturally and spontaneously to tell to her that I thought her decision was a blessing from God, for many reasons. So I deluded myself into believing that I had solved this problem.

In August 1997, I received a letter from Cardinal Ratzinger, who was on holiday in Munich.

In his letter, the cardinal recommended the young woman to me. He said she had paid him a visit, accompanied by her parents, to seek his help. He said that he was disposed to pay personally for a two-year scholarship for her as an intern.

I did not know what to do. I consulted with Cardinal Poggi, who counseled me to wait for Cardinal Ratzinger to return to Rome and ask to see him.

That’s what I did. On September 22, the cardinal received me for about 40 minutes. Without waiting for me to tell him about my problem, he began to speak as if he already knew the reason of my visit.

He went on for half an hour talking about his work at the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, making reference, among other things, to a project on which I had worked on with him, the opening of the Archive of the Index to researchers.

He continued to speak until I, reflecting on what he was telling me, realized that he thought I knew a piece of news which was in fact then circulating within a restricted number in the Roman Curia: that, having turned 70 on April 16 that year, he had asked the Pope to relieve him of his burdensome task as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and to grant his wish to spend his last years in the Vatican as Cardinal Librarian.

In other words, he was asking me what I thought of his idea and what being Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church involved.

When I realized what the Pope-to-be really meant, I gave him to understand that I had already heard the news, and I expressed clearly how happy I and the whole staff of the Library were to have him join us.

Only when I took leave of him did I tell him about the problem of Elizabeth, the young woman who later, in fact, entered a convent.

---

For convenience, I have decided to post here that June 2007 item from Il Giornale, via PRF:

Ratzinger would have wanted
to be the Vatican Librarian
Translated from

June 26, 2007

Ten years ago, Joseph Ratzinger asked John Paul II in vain to allow him to leave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in order to dedicate his time to studying documents in the Vatican Library and Archives.

But of course, Wojtyla did not allow his right arm - who would end up being his successor - to become a 'library mouse' [literal translation of the Italian idiom 'topo di biblioteca'; there must be an English equivalent, but definitely not 'bookworm'.]

Benedict XV himself revealed this yesterday during his visit to the Vatican Apostolic Library on the eve of restoration work which will keep it partially closed for three years.

The Pope also announced his nomination of Cardinal Jean-Luis Tauran as President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, with his prefect, the Salesian Bishop Raffaele Farina, to take over as Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church.

In his remarks at the Library, the Pope said: "I confess that when I turned 70, I had wanted very much the beloved John Paul II to let me dedicate myself to the study and research of documents and references in your care - true masterworks that help us to retrace the history of mankind and of Christianity."

In fact, in 1997, the year Ratzinger turned 70 and published his autobiography (which only went as far as 1977, when he became Archbishop of Munich), it was rumored that he could possibly be transferred to the Vatican Library to spend his last five years before the statutory retirement age of 75. But the rumor remained just that, because he stayed on at the CDF.



But his words yesterday confirmed the rumor then - that after having guided the CDF since 1981, Ratzinger would have wanted to leave after his third term to go back to being a scholar even while remaining in Rome. Papa Wojtyla asked him instead to stay on at CDF.

"In his providential design, the Lord had other plans for me, and so I am here among you today, not as a passionate student of ancient texts, but as a shepherd called on to urge all the faithful to cooperate in the salvation of the world, by each of us fulfilling the will of God wherever he puts us to work," Benedict said yesterday.

Then John Paul II went on to confirm Ratzinger for an unprecedented fifth term as head of CDF when he turned 75 in 2002.

In September 2001, Ratzinger had commented in Cernobbio on a statement made by his contemporary Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, who also wished to retire at 75: "It's a very hard life. I am impatient for the day when I can go back to write books myself. I can understand Cardinal Martini - we are both professors."

So, it is no secret that Ratzinger had asked John Paul II several times to be allowed to retire. But obviously, Wojtyla thought it necessary to keep his 'guardian of the faith' beside him.

There was talk then that John Paul II would propose to Ratzinger a plan that would relieve him of the day-to-day routine at CDF and just maintain its supervision. Something that never materialized.

And with the death of John Paul, Ratzinger was not only still CDF Prefect but also, despite his age, the most authoritative candidate for the difficult succession.

The Vatican today released the official program for the Holy Father's visit to Carpineto Romano. It confirms the program posted by the Diocese on its website last month after receiving it from the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. The version from the diocese reproduced below from my 7/19/10 post, has more details than the schematic program released by the Vatican today.


The poster also pictures Pope Paul VI and John Paul II, who visited Carpineto in 1966 and 1991, respectively.

---

[

PASTORAL VISIT OF THE HOLY FATHER

BENEDICT XVI TO CARPINETO ROMANO

on the bicentenary of the birth of

POPE LEO XIII

Sunday, September 5, 2010

P R O G R A M




08:30 The Pope leaves by helicopter from the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo

08:45 The helicopter lands at the Galeotti sports field in Carpineto.
The Holy Father will be welcomed by
- Mons. Lorenzo Loppa, Bishop of Anagni-Alatri
- A representative of the Italian government
- Mme. Renato Polverini, President of Lazio Region
- Dr. Giuseppe Pecoraro, Prefect of Rome Province
- H.E. Antonio Zanardi Landi, Italian ambassador to the Holy See
- Mons. Giuseppe Bertello, Apostolic Nuncio to Italy
- Quirino Briganti, Mayor of Carpineto
- Hon. Nicola Zingaetti, President of Rome Province
- Fr. Giuseppe Ghirelli, parish priest of Carpineto

The Holy Father will transfer to the Popemobile to proceed to Largo dei Monte Lepini

09:15 At Largo dei Monte Lepini, the Holy Father will be formally welcomed by Mayor Briganti and Mons. Loppa.
There will be an exchange of gifts.

09:30 CELEBRATION OF HOLY MASS
- Homily

11:00 After Mass, the Holy Father will greet a delegation representing the civilian and religious community.

11:30 The Pope departs Carpineto by helicopter from the Galeotti sports field.

11:45 He arrives back in Castel Gandolfo.

---

After Carpineto, the Holy Father's last pastoral trip in Italy for 2010 will be to Palermo, Sicily, in October.

Nothing really new about the UK visit in the regular online lists this morning - other, that is, than rehashes on the theme 'Catholics made to pay to attend papal events'(SHOCK&OUTRAGE!Blah-blah-blah...) Meanwhile, the English service of Vatican Radio is replaying pertinent passages from the Holy Father's words to the Bishops of England and Wales earlier this year - the kind of productive exercise I hope they keep up between now and September 15...


Pope Benedict speaks to Britain

8/5/2010


Excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the bishops of England and Wales at the end of their Ad Limina Visit February 2010:

---

Renewal and evangelisation
Even amid the pressures of a secular age, there are many signs of living faith and devotion among the Catholics of England and Wales…
On the occasion of my forthcoming Apostolic Visit to Great Britain, I shall be able to witness that faith for myself and, as Successor of Peter, to strengthen and confirm it…be sure to encourage the Catholics of England and Wales in their devotion, and assure them that the Pope constantly remembers them in his prayers and holds them in his heart.

Offering Truth and Freedom
Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society.

Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.

In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed […] Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth.

Right to be heard
Continue to insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society.

In doing so, you are not only maintaining long-standing British traditions of freedom of expression and honest exchange of opinion, but you are actually giving voice to the convictions of many people who lack the means to express them:

When so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard?

Communicating Unity
If the full saving message of Christ is to be presented effectively and convincingly to the world, the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice.

Dissent and Newman’s Kindly Light
In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate.

It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free.

Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that “kindly light” wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost.

---

Meanwhile, there's a new book out by an Irish author about Benedict XVI. It seems he wrote one of those instant biographies about him shortly after he was elected Pope, and has now written about the first five years of the Pontificate:

Pope Benedict XVI: The First Five Years



By Michael Collins
Published by: Columba Press
Publication date: 30/Jun/2010
Format: Paperback - 160 pages

Here's what the publisher's blurb says about it:

---

Joseph Ratzinger was elected to the papacy three days after his 78th birthday on 19 April 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI. His unenviable task was to follow the 26 year pontificate of the Polish pontiff, John Paul II.

The elderly cardinal was preparing for his retirement before he was thrust into the limelight. Given his age, many presumed the pontificate would be brief.

Perhaps a caretaker Pope until a suitable candidate could be found from the lively churches of Asia, Latin America or Africa?

Benedict has confounded observers. Critics point to his slow reaction to important issues such as clerical child abuse. His supporters cite his theological discourses and efforts to heal Jewish and Muslim sensibilities. Yet neither view is entirely accurate.

While Benedict was not proactive in healing the victims of clerical child abuse, he was forced into a reactive role which led to vital improvements and the reporting of all perpetrators to civil authorities.

His outreach to Jews and Muslims was marred by approval of the beatification of Pius XII and a potentially explosive quotation from a 14th century writer which deeply offended many Muslims in 2006.

At the same time, the German pontiff seeks to persuade by reason rather than by dictates (as) favoured by some of his predecessors.

This new biography, marking the first five years of Benedict's tenure, shows how the unfolding pontificate has been one of light and shades and of several surprises.

As leader of the world s 1.24 billion Catholics, Benedict's papacy continues to play an important role in the religious sphere as well as on the world political stage.

The reader is given a comprehensive pen portrait of the Bavarian Pope whose pontificate has been anything but predictable.

About the Author
Fr Michael Collins is an accredited journalist to the Holy See. He spent several years as a tourist guide to the Vatican. He currently serves in a parish of the Dublin Archdiocese and is also author of The Fisherman's Net: The Influence of the Popes in History (The Columba Press, 2003)

---

Note that the blurb says nothing at all about the great surprises of the Pontificate so far, particularly Anglicanorum coetibus as one might expect for a book published in the UK.


The book is mentioned secondarily in this news item with a headline that's typical of all the typically crass and snarky reactions to the fee that UK Catholics are asked to give if they get a ticket to one of the three main public events during the Pope's UK visit:


Pope will cash in
on 'paying pilgrims'
By Ruth Gledhill and John Cooney

Thursday August 05 2010

CATHOLICS in Britain are being asked to pay between £10 (€12) and £25 (€30) to attend Masses and Pope Benedict XVI's other public appearances during his four-day visit in September.

The donations, described as "pilgrim contributions" by the Church, are needed to help defray costs of up to £20m (€24m) and were disclosed as the 'Protest the Pope' coalition announced its first public event to campaign against the visit, in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, next week.

The most expensive event, at £25 a head, will be the Mass in Birmingham on September 19, which is expected to attract 70,000 people and will beatify the Anglican convert Cardinal John Henry Newman.

The September 16 Mass in Glasgow will cost £20 and includes a performance by Susan Boyle.

The cheapest event will be the prayer vigil in Hyde Park in London on September 17, with tickets selling at £5.

Each pilgrim will be given a "pilgrim pack" containing their "pilgrim passport", a commemorative CD and a "how-to-keep-in-touch postcard".

Meanwhile, a new biography of the German Pontiff has claimed that Pope Benedict's place in papal history will depend on how he deals with paedophile clerics.

The book, Pope Benedict XVI, The First Five Years, is written by an Irish priest, Fr Michael Collins, an expert in Vatican affairs, and is published today.

This, Fr Collins's latest book, covers the first five years of what he describes as "arguably one of the most important pontificates in recent history for the Catholic Church".

Inevitably, the rivetting part of the book is the focus on the paedophile scandals of the Ryan and Murphy Reports.

The book is now on sale at €11.50.


Another Irish newspaper takes the same line as the above about the new book, but its tendentious headline uses a quote that does not appear anywhere in the brief item!

Abuse ‘may badly impair papal legacy’

Thursday, 5 August 2010

Pope Benedict's place in papal history will depend on how he deals with paedophile clerics, a new biography of the German Pontiff claims.

The book, Pope Benedict XVI: The First Five Years, is written by Irish priest Fr Michael Collins, an expert in Vatican affairs.

“As the pontificate continued, the unfolding issue of clerical child abuse and its management by religious superiors, bishops and the Holy See occupied more and more of Benedict's energy,” writes Fr Collins. “His leadership was reactive, not pro-active.”

Fr Collins, a priest of the archdiocese of Dublin, taught in Rome until 2005. He was the first to publish an English-language biography soon after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.


Another one of my belated posts, but it's a good one that's better late than never! The writer has his biases but at least he sees through the evident irrationality of current Catholic-bashing. It comes from SPIKED, which describes itself as "an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms"...

The backwardness of Catholic-bashing
Far from being enlightened, the attacks on Catholicism
ahead of the Pope’s UK visit are illiberal, censorious and ignorant.
by Kevin Rooney

July 28, 2010


Even before the child-abuse scandals it was difficult to find many outside the Catholic Church willing to defend Catholicism. Now it’s impossible.

The old-style scoffing at Catholic teaching on sex before marriage and contraception has given way to a thinly veiled hatred towards a church that bans gay couples from adopting children in their care, protects child-abusing priests [A most unobjective gneralization], and preaches chastity in AIDS-affected parts of Africa. [It works! - it's one of the most effective strategies uses so far! People can curb their lusts if it's a matter of life and death!]

In this febrile atmosphere, the appetite to pour scorn on Catholicism has never been greater. Public debates about Catholicism sell out like rock concerts as people delight in the derision of big-name speakers like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens.

Unsurprisingly then, the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain has not been greeted with the same enthusiasm as previous visits. Aside from loud objections to the cost of the visit, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell’s call for the Pope to be arrested on child-abuse charges has enjoyed widespread media coverage and was well received in the Dawkins camp.

There is much to be enjoyed in expressions of atheism, especially when articulated by great orators. There is also much about the Catholic Church’s teachings to rage against.

However, the current animosity to all things Catholic manifests itself in ways that are far from healthy. So while many of the exponents of this popular new breed of anti-Catholicism would certainly consider themselves liberal, their treatment of the Church is anything but.

One of the disturbing aspects of this anti-Catholicism is its censoriousness. I grew up as a socialist republican in Belfast completely opposed to the power of the Catholic Church in the Irish Republic.

In those days the Church more or less wrote the Irish Constitution and questioning Church power was a shortcut to political suicide. From this perspective, the separation of Church and state in Ireland and throughout Europe was undoubtedly a progressive move.

But the pendulum has swung so far the other way that many now suggest that, like a child, the Church should be seen and not heard.

When the Irish bishops recently entered the debate on the civil partnerships bill, commentators did not rubbish their arguments or engage them in debate – they lambasted the Church for expressing any opinion at all.

Green Party member and environment minister John Gormley declared himself ‘taken aback’ by the Church’s ‘intervention’ and said he had hoped we had ‘left the era of Church interference behind’.

Since the Church’s power to ‘interfere’ to prevent the passing of the civil partnership laws is absolutely zero, Gormley can only mean one thing: that the Catholic Church is not entitled to any say in important national debates.

To drive that point home Gormley suggested that the Church should ‘stick to spiritual matters and stay out of politics’.

While Gormley’s position would have been extraordinary in Ireland until recently, the view that the Catholic Church has no right to comment on social issues has long been a respectable one in Britain. But what would this censorious approach look like in another context?

What if the gay movement in Ireland was told by anyone (God forbid a bishop!) that it should stick to sexuality and stay out of politics? [And out of religion!]

Slamming the Catholic Church is fine, as is dismissing it as irrelevant [A matter of opinion, after all], but proscribing it from entering debate, as many now do, is a form of censorship.

And censoriousness is not the only distasteful aspect of modern anti-Catholicism. ‘They are all at it’ is a common refrain in my school’s staff room where debates about the Catholic Church focus almost exclusively on paedophilia.

Clearly they are not ‘all at it’, but then again the burden of proof when it comes to Catholic priests and abuse seems pretty light. Many of the high-profile cases featured in the media have not been proven in a court of law: they are contested and messy, with allegations dating back many years and sometimes with only a single accuser.

There is no doubt that some of the accused are guilty. Maybe all are guilty. But their liberal accusers, who in many other cases would adhere to the principle of innocent until proven guilty, seem to apply a different set of rules to Catholic priests.

It is therefore ironic that those same teachers that tell me ‘they are all at it’ are often in uproar at cases where teachers are automatically suspended after allegations of abuse made by children. As with the right to free speech, it seems the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty does not extend to the Catholic Church.

My final example of the unattractive side of this new vogue for Catholic-baiting is the acceptability of ignorance in matters of Catholicism.

To the delight of his audience, Christopher Hitchens once began a speech by citing the number of cities that are religious and also are embroiled in conflict, starting with the letter B (Belfast, Beirut, Bombay, Belgrade, Bethlehem, Baghdad), in order to prove his point that religion, including Catholicism, is responsible for most wars.

Hitchens is far from ignorant, but like many of his contemporaries he enjoys a license to apply less intellectual rigour to his critique of Catholics than to other areas of interest.

It is a familiar trait. I am not a practicing Catholic but my education at the hands of the Christian Brothers and the teenage inspiration I took from the liberation theologists of Latin America means that I have grown up with a respect for aspects of the Church.

Talk to any practising Catholic or ‘ethnic’ Catholic on this subject, and within minutes they will give you a shocking example of ignorance from their own friends and intellectual equals that would rarely be displayed in discussions of politics, the arts, etc.

For instance, I have a highly intelligent friend who, upon hearing that Tony Blair had converted to Catholicism, expressed his astonishment that Blair was ‘allowed in’ given his support for stem-cell research and abortion.

This friend had apparently never noticed that millions of people worldwide practise Catholicism while opposing almost all of the church’s rules. People who become Catholics are not first forced to sign up to a reactionary contract before they are ‘allowed in’.

To display such ignorance about Islam these days would be described as racism – but when it comes to Catholicism it is perfectly okay. Of course, it is fascinating to explore why and how people do the kind of intellectual cartwheels needed to be part of a Church whose views they despise. [But such people don't turn any cartwheels at all - they simply stand by their fallacious positions and expect that the Church should change its bimillenary Magisterium to suit their personal preferences! And i suspect they stay 'Catholic' because they believe that sooner rather than later, the Church will yield and see things their way - and then, they will be cultural heros!]

But that does not excuse the fact that otherwise intelligent people seem to have carte blanche to be ignorant and prejudiced when it comes to Catholicism.

As we approach the Pope’s visit to London we can expect open season on the Catholic Church – and for all my disagreements with the Church, I for one will not be taking part. In fact, I’m so fed up with it already that I might even grab my Pope Scope and book a place in a stadium…

Kevin Rooney teaches government and politics at a London school. He is producing the session ‘The Catholic Church: More sinned against than sinner?’ at this October’s Battle of Ideas festival to be held at the Royal College of Art in London.

BTW, check out this site daily:

protectthepope.com/
In addition to positive news, it also keeps track of all the media crap including the most manic and hysterical and far-out, for those who are masochistic or simply want to know what's the worst out there.

No recent news release so far from the Archdiocese of Palermo on the Pope's October visit but it has opened a site for it,

www.ilpapaapalermo.it/

which right now contains only the official poster for the visit, which lists its major events - Mass; a meeting with the clergy, rel;igious and seminarians; and a meeting with the youth. (Was the visit not announced earlier as 'an encounter with families and youth' in connection with a national congress held in Palermo?) There's an advisory that the site will start posting news items on September 1.

'Welcome letter' campaign
for Benedict XVI



More than a thousand Spanish personalities in politics, culture, finance and sports signed up initially last month to launch an online campaign soliciting signatures from Spaniards for a Letter of Welcome addressed to Benedict XVI. The initiative is promoted a group that claims no affiliation. The campaign is on www.bb16.org.

Here is a translation of the letter:

---

WELCOME, BENEDICT XVI!
The Spanish people welcome Pope Benedict XVI
and await his visit to Barcelona and Santiago

As Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Spain approaches - he is coming as a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela during the Jacobean Holy Year and to consecrate the Templo de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona - we the undersigned wish to thank the Pontiff for coming to our land once again, at a time of social and economic crisis that has its roots in a profound moral crisis.

We are sure that the millions of Spaniard, along with those who came here from other countries seeking a better life, share this sentiment of gratitude and welcome, and await with joy and hope the Pope's arrival in Spain this autumn.

We wish to publicly express our gratitude for his example, for his extraordinary Magisterium, and for his tireless defense of human dignity and the values that today's world needs.

His continuing teachings in the service of goodness and truth demonstrate a profound sensitivity to the problems that mankind confronts at the start of the 21st century.

His motto, 'Cooperators in the Truth', is a firm commitment to promote a fruitful dialog between reason and faith towards a greater humanization of society. A dialog which, with the participation of everyone, demands full protection for the exercise of religious freedom consistent with the concept of a positively secular State.

We also wish to thank the Pope for his clearsightedness and insistent reminders about the dominance of relativism. Benedict XVI warns all men of goodwill against relativism which purports to do without the categories of the true, the good and the beautiful, and foments the selfish individualism that is the main origin of our social crisis today.

It is precisely that relativism which is the inspirational source of initiatives against the right to life, to a normal family, and the right of parents to have primary responsibility for the education of their children.

The Pope's humanity is also manifested in his continuing advocacy of the Church's social commitment, today as always, being the first to come to the aid of the neediest, of those whom society has rejected, of AIDS patients, drug addicts, prisoners, the mentally afflicted, terminal patients, victims of prostitution, abandoned children, and the millions of persons who live in poverty in the less developed nations.

And in the face of the unworthy conduct of some members of the Church who offend us all, Benedict XVI has given an example of humility and transparency, while demanding a profound purification of the Church, along with the necessary reparation to the victims.

Finally, his travels offer to everyone without distinction a message of peace and concord, an offering of wisdom and hope.

---

For days now, I have been frustrated by the portal to the site of the Archdiocese of Santiago, because the window pertaining to the papal visit does not have a link, or whatever the technical term is when you click on it and nothing happens whatsoever! It seems they have not yet constructed the webpage because I have tried accessing it by direct search commands in Spanish, and nothing turns up. Same non-results when I do a search for any poster or other promotinal material now available on the Pope's visit to Compostela.

Below left, the useless window.


Meanwhile, from other sources, two items of interest from Santiago de Compostela:

12,000 youth gather in Santiago;
and first monument to Benedict XVI
Translated from various news agencies



The first is the start yesterday afternoon of the Peregrinacion y Encuentro de Jovenes (Pilgrimage and Encounter of Youth) from August 5-8, a gathering of some 12,000 youth from all over Spain as a preparation for World Youth Day in Madrid next year.

The motto of the PEJ is 'Like the Apostle James, friends of the Lord'.

Diocesan coordinators also consider it a 'technical rehearsal' for the Pope's visit in November.

PEJ activities include 30 catecheses (given by 18 Spanish bishops), 17 theatrical events, 15 workshops, 14 liturgies, nine lectures with discussions, 7 expositions and six concerts.

The second is a public campaign to raise the 100,000 euros necessary to erect an eight-foot bronze statue of Benedict XVI - it would the very first monument to him anywhere - in Santiago, in the Jardines de Lazaro adjoining the Puerta de Europa, the gate to the city that marks the end of the major French route of the Camino de Santiago. (The photo above shows a photomontage of how the monument would be situated with respect to the gate.) It is the most popular of the 10 pilgrim routes leading to Compostela.

Already sponsored by many of the leading organizations in Galicia (the Spanish region where Santiago is located), sculptor Candido Pazos said that he has all the plans ready for the work and that it would be ready in time for the Pope's visit.

The Holy Father will be entering Santiago through the Puerta de Europa and would therefore be able to see the giant statue.

Pazos said he hopes this 'special offering will not only be from the people of Compostela but from all of Galicia as in homage and gratitude to the Holy Father for his visit to Compostela".

He also said that the location of the monument will give pilgrims the feeling of being accompanied by the Holy Father as they enter the city.


P.S. If they raise more than 100,000 euro, would the sculptor consider making it a 12-foot statue instead?

A year after storm over Pope's remarks,
statistics continue to show
he's still right on condoms



DENVER, Colorado, Aug. 4 (CNA) - Seventeen months after the Holy Father visited Africa and sparked controversy over the ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, the facts continue to speak in favour of the Pope.

Making his first papal visit to Africa in March 2009, the Pope said the Catholic Church can help bring answers to the continent's chronic problems, including poverty, AIDS and tribalism.

Benedict XVI’s remarks on condoms were made to a French reporter during an inflight interview on the way to Cameroon, as he explained the Church’s two-pronged approach to fighting AIDS [abstinence when necessary, and avoidance of promiscuity].

At one point in his response, the Pontiff stressed that AIDS cannot be overcome by advertising slogans and distributing condoms and argued that they “worsen the problem.”

The media responded with an avalanche of over 4,000 articles on the subject, calling Benedict a “threat to public health,” and saying that the Catholic Church should “enter the 21st century.”

Harry Knox, a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships added to the criticism, accusing the Pope of “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

Then last month, when Knox was asked if he still stood by his statement, despite growing evidence that the Pope was right, he replied in the affirmative, stating that “scientific evidence shows otherwise.”

[The tragedy is that none of those who have it wrong about relying almost completely on condoms alone to bring down the AIDS epidemic - nor the media outlets that howled sanctimoniously about the Pope's remarks - will ever step back from their ideological position (i.e., 'Even the threat of AIDS should not stop anyone from enjoying sexual freedom, and the condom will protect them') and respect objective facts. Nor will they apologize for treating Benedict XVI as if he was some politician simply speaking off the top of his head, and not a man of God who respects truth, not to mention the world's leading intellectual today in terms of influence.]

However, “the Pope is right,” argued Chris Stefanick, director of Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministries for the Archdiocese of Denver, “and the fact that people like Harry Knox are critiquing the Pope and continuing to throw condoms at the AIDS epidemic globally, and (that) it’s not working, shows you who has personal dogmas that are more important to them than human lives.”

But, Stefanick argued, the facts are behind Benedict XVI. Stefanick compared the African nations of Botswana and Uganda. Botswana promoted condom use from the beginning. Uganda, a primarily Catholic country, encouraged abstinence.

“In Botswana, Cameroon, and Kenya - they saw AIDS prevalence rise alongside condom distribution, until they both levelled out,” noted Stefanick. “In Botswana today, where condoms are available nearly everywhere, one in six people is HIV positive or living with AIDS.”

In Uganda, where abstinence is strongly promoted, the prevalence of AIDS has dropped and now affects less than six percent of the population.

Stefanick quoted BBC News which stated that Uganda has done extremely well in fighting AIDS because, in many parts of the country, its prevalence “was at least three times higher in the early 90s.”

Stefanick also cited a similar comparison, made between Thailand and the Philippines, where AIDS broke out at the same time. Thailand’s approach promoted the distribution of condoms while the highly Catholic Philippines promoted abstinence.

Twenty years after the outbreak, the prevalence of AIDS in Thailand is 50 times higher than in the Philippines.

“According to the British Medical Journal, which is not a Catholic publication mind you, ‘the greater the percentage of Catholics in any country, the lower the level of HIV. If the Catholic Church is promoting a message about HIV in those countries it seems to be working,’” said Stefanick.

Other relevant facts to the Pope’s opposition of condom use come from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) itself.

Despite the claims on condom packaging, which assert a 99 per cent effectiveness, the NIH found that condoms are only 85 per cent effective in preventing the transmission of AIDS and about 50 per cent effective at blocking other STDs.

“The calculus of condoms is very simple,” says Stefanick. “You decrease the risk a little, increase the risk takers a whole lot, and pretty soon you get what they have in Botswana where one in six people has AIDS,” Stefanek said.

“Or you get what we have here in America, where we are aggressively promoting condoms, yet every year, nine million young people under the age of 25 are getting an STD.”

Friday, August 6, 18th Week in Ordinary Time
FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

Top panel, from left, The Transfiguration, by Fra Angelico; detail of Raphael's great painting; an 18th-century depiction; the Chapel of the Transfiguration at St. Peter's Basilica surmounted by a mosaic rendering of Raphael's painting. Bottom panel, from left; 14th-century icon by Theophanes the Greek; 13th century anonymous icon; icon by Andrei Rublev, 1405; an African painting; and a contemporary-art version by Chris Cook.

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Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up a mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.
- Luke 9:28b-36

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]Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080610.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR and nothing but 'non-news' reports on Page 1. Nonetheless, a number of interesting Church-related stores: one about Raphael's 'Transfiguration', his last work before he died; on the 32nd anniversary of his death today, a story about Paul VI's belief that the Risorgimento (Italian reunification) which brought an end to the temporal power of the Popes was a providential opportunity; an excerpt from an article in the current issue of La Civilta Cattolica describing the ways in which Catholicism in France is not quite dead; the concluding act of the young ministrants' Rome pilgrimage as they install the statue of St. Tarcisius near the Catacombs of St. Callistus; and the discovery of what could be the oldest Etruscan fresco (7th century BC) in a tomb in Tarquinia, the ancient Etruscan capital not far from Rome.



No Vatican bulletins so far.

End this liberal hostility to the Pope
by Carla Powell

Published 06 August 2010

The first state visit to the UK of David Cam­eron's premiership will be that of Pope Benedict XVI in mid-September. It will be packed with events that show how Britain has changed.

Perhaps the most poignant moment will be the meeting between the Queen and the Pope in Edinburgh on 16 September, the first day of his visit. They are among the few world leaders left, after all, who personally experienced the Second World War.

The following day - even before he visits Westminster Cathedral - the Pope will call at Lambeth Palace and also pray in Westminster Abbey, an act underscoring his admiration for Archbishop Rowan Williams's intellect and integrity.

Even more interesting, I think, will be the speech he makes to parliamentarians in Westminster Hall. That the spiritual leader of Britain's largest minority, Catholics, should stand where St Thomas More was condemned to death will make a powerful statement about modern British tolerance and inclusiveness. It will reson­ate around the world, beyond the fifth of the globe's population who are Catholic.

If it is true that the Prime Minister intends to send a senior political figure to succeed the remarkable Francis Campbell as British ambassador to the Holy See, this signals his intention to forge closer links with an organisation tiny in territory but huge in influence. It would be win-win for everyone, you might think - for Britain, the Catholic Church, the government and parliament.

And yet, on recent visits to London, I have been shocked by the negative criticism of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Why are so many of the capital's liberal elite upset? Why is Pope Benedict, an 83-year-old retired university professor, causing such anxiety?

The child abuse scandals central to all this have been a stain on the Catholic Church. But it is important to remember that this is a problem the Pope has been working to resolve for at least a decade. Grave as it is, the scandal should not be allowed to obscure his core message.

The tabloids will always offer apparently easy solutions and those hostile to the robust moral teaching of my faith will jump on any bandwagon. But solving human problems is seldom simple, as any social services department will tell you.

It hurts me that those advocating the arrest of His Holiness are increasingly in danger of sounding like the Chinese government, which seeks to use its brute economic influence to silence the Dalai Lama whenever he travels abroad. So much for British freedom of speech.

Benedict is complex and much misunderstood. I have met him fleetingly three times, twice in the company of Tony and Cherie Blair and once with Margaret Thatcher.

He comes across as shy, a little embarrassed by his position and, perhaps, as a man who hankers after the seclusion of the library. Behind the smile and exquisite manners, he radiates the air of All Souls [a famous college of Oxford University] : indeed, I was struck by how alike it was to meeting Isaiah Berlin in Oxford many years ago.

Though he has none of John Paul's film-star charisma, Benedict is a man with a message. He was the late Pontiff's closest friend, his intellectual soulmate and loyal colleague. In all his time in Rome as Pope, and on his travels around the world, he has argued against what he calls "the dictatorship of relativism".

Moral relativism has become a kind of intellectual disease, weakening the vitality and self-confidence of Europe and the west. Left unchecked, it will destroy us, because it removes our power to resist the distortion of our values, erosion of our liberty and, ultimately, threats to our democratic way of life.

To Britons, schooled in scepticism, this can seem alien, obscure, even threatening. Yet, as an intellectual, Pope Benedict believes that ideas have consequences and that bad ideas can lead to the crushing of the individual. These themes are central to his papacy and will, without question, inform what he says during his visit.

Speaking on the weekend when we officially celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain will be deeply symbolic. He knows that the triumph of British freedom assisted his liberation as a German.

His message will be clear: the conscience of the individual is the foundation of democracy. Even those who are not Catholic should welcome the Pope's state visit to Britain and leave any unexamined anti-Catholic prejudice where it belongs - in the decayed ghettos of Glasgow or the dreary backstreet murals of Ulster.


Powell is an Italian-born, Britsh-educated businesswoman married to Lord Powell of Bayswater. She lives in England and Italy. Apparently, she serves as interpreter for high-ranking British officials visiting the Vatican.


UK ambassador to the Vatican
says controversy is 'normal'
as Pope's visit approaches


ROME, Aug 5, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News) - According to the U.K. ambassador to the Holy See, Britain is "very proud" of its shared relationship with the Catholic Church.

Despite critique and controversy, he told CNA in an interview that there is great interest in the Pope's visit this coming fall, and if people listen to his words closely, they might find that the Catholic Church is a "force for good."

Ambassador Francis Campbell, a practicing Catholic, has been the lead British diplomat at the Vatican since 2005. His time in Rome would likely have been limited to just four years if not for his commitment to the papal trip from Sept. 16-19, he explained as he met for an interview with CNA.

Commenting on the positive impact of the Pope's pending visit, Campbell said much can be accomplished for the U.K.

"The figure of the Pope represents 17.5 percent of the world's population, it's a huge opportunity for Britain to say something to a huge section of the world community (with which), actually, historically there have been tensions.

"The fact that a Pope is coming to Britain on a state visit also speaks volumes about how far we have come in the United Kingdom," he added, noting that "the world is very different positively and negatively than when Pope John Paul II was there" in 1982.

Campbell said that "looked at on the whole, [it] is a tremendous opportunity for the United Kingdom and the Holy See to really point to a strong, shared relationship."

The U.K. government and the Church collaborate extensively, not only in Britain but all over the world, he said, pointing to areas such as education, elder and health care and achievement of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals.

And while the two sides do not see eye-to-eye on everything, even on the points of dissension they continue negotiating to see how they can reach common ground, the ambassador said.

"By and large," Campbell said as he assessed the relationship, "there are these areas of tension between the Catholic Church and the government in any country, and in Britain it's no different. And there have been issues in the past number of years about stem cell research, about quality legislation, and you could stand on those points of division and say there is animosity, there is distance, but there are other points of tremendous collaboration. School structure, for example."

Addressing the voices in the media that attempt to "inflate" obstacles to the Pope's visit, he said that naysayers have been there throughout the nation's history, and that they represent a part of "the fabric of British life," much like the openness that can be seen in British parliament discussions.

He pointed out that it would have been much like this also in the "world of Newman," the influential 19th century Englishman who will be beatified by the Holy Father on Sept. 19 in Birmingham.

Controversy and critique, explained the ambassador, are preferable to indifference in the context of the papal visit.

"There's an active interest in where he's going, for positive and negative reasons, and an active interest in what he's going to say. Now, how people hear that will be very interesting. There can be many strong preconceived ideas of what the papacy is and what the Pope is."

Reflecting on a possible effect of the trip, he said, "when people will sit and listen, and if they listen genuinely with an open spirit, then they may well be surprised at some of the things the Catholic Church is doing. It is getting people to address these preconceived ideas they have and actually realizing that the Church is there as a force for good."

Campbell said that many times when he reads critiques raining blows on the Catholic Church or the Pope, he doesn't recognize his personal experience of the Church or the papacy in their descriptions.

"I don't know where this description is coming from, but if you want to create a 'straw man' to knock it down, try to get an accurate picture.

"The Church is complex, it is large, it is global. And like any institution it has its pluses and its minuses, but, overall, we each have to answer the question as to whether or not it's a force for good in the world and international development, and climate change and disarmament … ”

"The Church is playing a very, very active part in the life of the international community and we in the U.K. are very proud of our track record of working with it."



Weekly audio update
on the Papal Visit
by Mons. Andrew Summersgill
Coordinator of the Papal Visit
Transcript from

August 3, 2010

During the last week we’ve been finalising the information that pilgrims will need to attend the Mass in Bellahouston, the Vigil in Hyde Park and the Mass in Cofton Park. We have prepared what we’re calling the ‘pilgrim passport’ containing all the information pilgrims will need to participate in the journey and the celebrations.

The passport has now been finalised and has gone to the printers for preparation and inclusion in the pilgrim packs. The packs will then be distributed to those who have said they’re coming to one of the papal gatherings – probably around the beginning of September.

Hyde Park suggested contribution reduced to £5
We’ve been listening to a lot of feedback from people who are intending to come to Hyde Park. Many of those people come from the London area (and I imagine they are people who are working in London). Consequently, they already have Oyster cards or travel passes, and our contribution of £10 included a travel pass for that day.

Many, many people have said to us that it’s something of a duplication and it would be better not to include a travel card. We would have difficulties if we had some pilgrim packs with a travel card and some without. So we thought it would be better to take out the travel cards and reduce the contribution to £5.

Transport for London assure us that they can quite easily cater for the numbers of people who will need travel cards – it’s the kind of number they comfortably deal with on a regular basis. Also, for families, it does mean that the outlay will potentially be a little bit lower, because the family travel cards would be cheaper, rather than say have a pilgrim travel contribution from four people.

Suggested pilgrim contribution
It is a contribution, not, as I’ve been reading in some places, a charge for people to go to Mass. Its main purpose is to cover the cost of transportation, particularly to Cofton and to Bellahouston, and for some of the costs around the traffic management that needs take place when dealing with large numbers of people not to mention some of the secured accreditation that is needed for people to get in.

I was thinking about how it’s done in other events associated with the Pope, and I was thinking especially of the World Youth Days. What happens at the World Youth Days is that everybody is invited to register online and part of that registration includes a contribution which is usually made by credit card or through groups. So it’s not totally dissimilar to the way these things work in other parts of the world.

The contribution is being kept the same across the board and therefore it’s an act, if you like, of solidarity, so that anybody who is attending either the Beatification Mass or the Mass in Glasgow is making the same contribution no matter where they are coming from.

In England and Wales, the contributions are collected through the dioceses and it is up to each one to decide how they wish to collect the contributions from within their own dioceses. The diocese itself may make the contribution; it may be passed to parishes, there may be fundraising groups within parishes and parishes may wish to support other people attending Papal events. It isn’t a direct contribution in that sense.

In Scotland, contributions are collected through the parishes and how a parish makes that contribution is entirely up to the parish.

Media accreditation
Media accreditation is being handled by the government, and particularly through the Foreign Office which is handling all the logistics for the media.

The media accreditation will open this week and as far as I’m aware it will be open for around three weeks – I think that’s the usual period for this kind of thing. Journalists are invited to go to the Foreign Office website and register their interest in being accredited.

I understand that the provision for the media is quite extensive; there will be media centres in the main locations for the Papal Visit and a media centre in London which will receive a live feed of all the Pope’s movements while he’s in the UK.

Further details about media accreditation are available online at thepapalvisit.org.uk in our news and media area, but if you want to check out the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s website it’s fco.gov.uk – search for “Papal Visit 2010”.

Nothing makes me happier than the fact that L'Osservatore Romano has stayed with the story of the young ministrants who brought a welcome jolt of sheer Christian joy to the summer doldrums of Rome earlier this week. Here is a front page commentary in tomorrow's issue, followed in this post by the story in today's (Friday) issue of how the statue of St. Tarcisius finally came home' to the Catacombs of St. Callistus near where the 12-year-old boy in the 4th century lost his life defending the Eucharist. What a genuine godsend he is as patron saint and inspiration for Catholic children today!

The school of ministrants:
An education in the faith
by Lucetta Scaraffia
Translated from the 8/7/10 issue of


In the very beautiful old church of the Crocefisso (The Crucified one) in Todi, where I go to Sunday Mass this summer, the parish priest celebrates Mass helped by at least four servers, boys and girls, proudly robed in their beautiful white tunics adorned with red, serious and composed although their average age is ten.

One of the most assiduous is a little boy who is smaller than all the rest, but very lively, who tries hard to keep still during the moments when the service demands it, and is always the first to fetch and carry anytime a liturgical object is needed, very focused on his task which he takes very seriously.

He is a living example of how a young child can understand the importance of his role in assisting the priest during Mass. And an example for us adults of how to attentively follow every step of the liturgy. How can we allow ourselves to be distracted when a naturally lively boy like him can show he does not lose a single moment of the sacrifice?

During the meeting in Rome earlier this week, the term 'chierichetti' (and its feminine form 'chierichette', never used previously) was used again by the Italian media. It's a term that I prefer to the more correct and current 'ministrant', simply because I am fond of the older way of calling altar servers. Just as I love the old-fashioned term 'serving Mass', because the Catholic Church has woven into these words the cultural tradition fo so many preceding generations.

To be an altar server was an intense and responsible way of living one's Christian identity, an unparalleled experience, quite different from reading Sacred Scripture or going to catechism class, which are the other central elements of a Catholic education.

Because to serve Mass means to assist up close, collaborating in the central mystery of our faith, and to be attentive to everything that takes place means to take responsibility for the successful celebration of the constant miracle that every liturgical celebration ought to be.

It is clear that for children, their concrete participation and direct experience have a far greater weight than mere theoretical learning or moral admonitions. The great educator Maria Montessori knew this, and one of her teaching exercises was to let her pupils build liturgical objects and altars in miniature, a practice which caused much perplexity to the Church.

One could well imagine their apprehensions over what her particular pedagogy might mean for the religious life of her students, but it is interesting that as an educator, she grasped the importance for children of participation in liturgy as a way to approach the sacred.

To be an altar server was always perceived, in fact, as both a service and a privilege because it takes the child to the heart of the liturgical rite, into the space of the altar itself, and in drirect contact with the Eucharist.

The earlier exclusion of girls from becoming altar servers was always of some concern because it showed a profound inequality in this aspect of Catholic education, but fortunately, this has been corrected over the past few decades.

Even if many parish priests in Italy are perhaps merely 'resigned' to using girl servers in the absence of available boy servers, it was a big thing for girls to have overcome the gender barrier. And that is why there was a majority of girls at the tenth CIM pilgrimage to Rome which we witnessed last week.

For girls, in a way, being allowed into altar space meant the effective end of any attribution of impurity to the female sex [????], and has meant having equal opportunity as boys to live this very significant formative experience in their religious education. It has meant a whole new attentiveness to liturgy and getting closer to the faith by taking part in the central ritual of Christian life.

And it was these boys and girls and young men and women - joyful, festive and proud of their role - who came to Rome to bring their affectionate enthusiasm to Benedict XVI. They were - not by intention but in fact - a concrete and positive response to accusations, true and false, that have been heaped upon the Church in recent months.

It was a confirmation that an ancient and traditional role, that of the acolyte who helps the priest in celebrating liturgy, is a meaningful and decisive experience for an education in the faith.


All I can say is I was born a decade and a half too early to have benefited from the opening up of acolyte functions to girls. I was very frustrated, but never bitter, that I couldn't serve Mass as a school child when I learned the Latin prayers by heart much faster than my boy classmates! But the thrill has never gone from imagining for many decades - and experiencing again over the past several months - the eternal promise and joy contained in the opening exchange at the start of the traditional Mass:
Priest: Introibo ad altare Dei. (I go to the altar of God)
Server: Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. (To God who gives joy to my youth.)
The response takes on direct personal significance as well for someone like me, who can never thank God enough that I was brought up in the faith, in its centuries-old Hispanic tradition, expressed in wonderfully baroque practices and imagery that clearly distinguished Church as an experience of the sacred not to be confused in any way with the commonplace. That is why I am touched to the core by the glowing example of the ministrants who came to Rome.



A walk of faith
along the Appia Antica
Translated from the 8/6/10 issue of




Left, the statue now permanently set up; middle panel, the statue being hoisted into place for the Wednesday audience at St. Peter's; and right, sculptor Bernhard Lang with his creation.

The statue of St. Tarcisius, blessed by the Pope at the General Audience on August 4, has now been set up permanently outside the Catacombs of St. Callistus.

Thousands of young ministrants, starting in the early hours of Thursday, August 5, walked from the city along the Via Appia Antica "to pay homage to their patron, offering a spectacle of faith that was truly moving", according to Salesian priest Don Elio Torrigiani, director of these catabombs.

"This pilgrimage by the ministrants', said Don Elio, "immediately resulted in increased tourist visits to the catacombs after the Holy Father's catechesis, and he cited St. Tarcisius as a reference point for the ministrants as well as all those who wish to follow Jesus more closely through the priestly, religious and missionary life".

The statue was set up along the sideroad that leads from the Appia Antica to the entrance to the catacombs. It traverses a 170 square-meter piazza that lends itself to group celebrations.

From now on, the five-meter bronze statue of the boy martyr will welcome pilgrims coming to St. Callistus's catacombs. Don Elio points out that Tarcisius is also the patron saint of first communicants.

"We Salesians welcome this statue with great joy, because it will be a positive experience for all visitors. His story will continue to touch the hearts and consciences of Christians today".

The 13-foot statue, which weighs four tons, was cast in a Swiss foundry by thewiss sculptor and goldmsith Bernhard Lang, who told the Pope after the audience, that in creating the statue, he was inspired by memories of his own experiences as an altar boy. He explained that he did not provide the statue with a pedestal because 'boys never stand still'.

Mons. Martin Gaechter, auxiliary bishop of basel and president of teh Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium, confirmed that the statue would "remain the true and proper symbol of this particular pilgrimage of the ministrants".

At noon, the bishop led the first commelctive prayer before the statue.

"The boy is depicted in mid-stride," he said. "It is a dynamic image that invites us to do something, not sit around with our hands in our pocket. It is a synthesis of the message that the pope entrusted to us yesterday."

The assessment of this pilgrimage will take place at a CIM board meeting in Strasbourg on Setp 8-111, at the St. Thomsa Cultural Center.

"But even now," Mons. Gaechter points out, "we all agree that this pilgrimage was of enormous important, not just for the number of participants (easily double that registered in the previous pilgrimage."

"The most important thing is that, all of them, from the children to the university-age students, showed that they feel themselves totally in the Church and with the Church, aware of their responsibilities that includes announcement, liturgy, diaconate adn communion.".

He said the growing numbers could be explained by word of mouth (and social networking platforms) which is typical of young people who love to recount their direct and personal experiences.

After this, he said, it was important to relaunch the pastoral care on ministrants in the parishes - not to be content with the success of the Rome pilgrimage.

At a news conference after the General Audience on Wednesday, Mons. Gaechter said "Benedict XVI expressed his great happiness at seeing so many young people come to Rome and to learn about what we are doing for them.

To explain why the Germans made up the great majority of the young pilgrims, he said: "Germany is the world champion in this particular areza of pastoral activity".

He said the pilgrimage served to show "the face of a young Church, made up of young people who give us great hope for today and tomorrow".

He also pointed out the objective of CIM is not to foster vocations but more fundamentally,"to offer young people the experience of a living Church".

He singled out Albania, "a country where Christians have always been sorely persecuted: six ministrants came to Rome accompanied by two nuns. A tiny presence but very significant - as the sign of rebirth and of the communion that should take place among all local Churches, without making distinctions bween the larger and stronger communities and the small and weak communites".

Mons. Bernanrd Hsslberger, auxiliary bishop of Munich, and in charge of the youth ministry for the German bishops conference, said he was 'very confident' of the further fruits of this pilgrimage.:

"It is not a straw fire that will burn out soon. When these young people go home, they will have a fresh charge of enthusiasm that will sustain them for a long time. Their mission now is to share what they have seen and lived in Rome with others of their age.

"In Germany, our experience with ministrants has been one of the sustaining pillars in pastoral ministry. It provides young people with an itinerary that comprises liturgical education, catechesis and social commitment, in a climate of communion and friendship."

Hasslberger also said that the event was something that the young people themselves wanted and had looked forward to, but he denied that it was meant to be 'a show of force'.

However, according to Mons. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and president of the German bishops' conference, the event proved without a doubt "that the Church in Germany is young and alive, and that it will continue this educational mission as it has been doing for the past 50 years. And it will always be young because of its young people".

Surprise excursion by the Pope
Translated from an exclusive story in


ROCCA DI MEZZO, August 6 - Just over a month since he visited Sulmona, Benedict XVI returned to the Abruzzo today and prayed for those who still suffer from the effects of the Holy Week earthquakes last yeara.

He also met with Cardinal Angelo Sodano who is spending his summer holiday here.

Although it was a private visit, it confirms the Pontiff's closeness to the region. It marks his fourth visit to the Abruzzo - after the visit to L'Aquila shortly after the earthquake last year; then the pastoral visit to San Giovanni Rotondo to venerate St. Padre Pio; and last July in Sulmona, to honor St. Pope Celstine V on the eighth centenary of his death.

The Pope was welcomed by Mayor Emilio Nusca and other officials of the commune. Before leaving Rocca, the Pope addressed the faithful and promied that he would be back soon in the Abruzzo.

NB: In February 2006, it was speculated that the Pope could spend his sumemr holiday in Rocca di Mezzo instead of Les Combes, where he holidayed in 2005, and eventually, in 2006 as well (and 2009).
This is what Paolo Rodari wrote at the time:

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.. Or he may go to Rocca di Mezzo in the mountains of Abruzzo, not far from L’Aquila, and less than 200 miles east of Rome. It is where Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi usually vacations, as well as Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Rocca is a ski resort in the winter.

The speculation about Rocca di Mezzo comes from the reported renovation and expansion for possible Papal occupancy of a 400-square-meter villa owned by the Roman Curia.

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There is no mention of Mons. Georg Ratzinger. I thought he would be in Castel Gandolfo by now.


This morning (8/7), Radio Vatican has a more accurate account of the Pope's day out:

A small pilgrimage to mountain shrines
on the Feast of the Trnsfiguration
Translated from the Italian service of

August 7, 2010

Benedict XVI made a surprise visit yesterday to the Abruzzo, visiting the Shrine of the Madonna dei Bisognosi (Our Lady of the Needy), Carsoli and Rocca di Mezzo.

A little over a month since his visit to Sulmona on July 4, and sixteen months since a devastating earthquake hit the region, the Pontiff continues to be concerned for those who have most suffered the consequences of the disaster. Giasda Aquilino spoke to Fr. Federico Lombardi about the Pope's day out:

FR. LOMBARDI: Yesterday was the Feast of the Transfiguration, in which the Gospel says the Lord went to the mountain to pray. So the Pope thought that he too would make a little pilgrimage to the small shrine of the Madonna dei Bisognosi on the border between Lazio and Abruzzo.

He then went to Carsoli, where he had lunch with a community of nuns as the guest of Cardinal (Fiorenzo) Angelini. In the afternoon, he went to Rocca di Mezzo and paid a visit to Cardinal Sodano who is vacationing there.

Lastly, he went to the Church of San Leucio which was damaged by the earthquake. It is much frequented by the emigrants who live in the area. He offered prayers in particular for those who continue to suffer the consequences of the earthquake. He returned to Castel Gandolfo in time for dinner.

... This was a private visit and was not pre-announced. It was a small pilgrimage, as I said, done on the Day of the Transfiguration.
The Pope did meet with the authorities at Rocca di Mezzo and told them that he follows the situation in the region closely following last year's earthquake.

Was he able to meet any of the local population?
Since this was a private visit, it was not intended to be an occasion to meet the residents. But the persons who happened to be at the places the Pope visited at the time were able to greet him. It was not organized for public encounters.Hmmm, still no mention of brother Georg!


The Abruzzo regional newspaper Il Centro also has a more detailed account in its paper edition today, but only of the Rocca di Mezzo part - and a photograph:

The Pope spends
3 hours in Rocca
by Enrico Nardecchia
Translated from

August 7, 2010


The Pope walks towards the Church of San Leucio with, from left, Angelo Gugel, his valet while Paolo Gabriele is on vacation; Georg Gaenswein, Inspector Domenico Giani, and Cardinal Sodano.

ROCCA DI MEZZO - A Wojtyla-like blitz, having left Castel Gandolfo without fanfare. And three hours in Rocca di Mezzo.

Where he walked with Cardinal Angelo Sodano - who is spending the sumemr in the Curial villa in the center of the Rocca plateau - towards the Church of San :eucio.

"The air is great here. It's a marvelous place," the Pope remarked.

He had a thought for the victims of last year's earthquake: "I pray for all of them".

And to the continuing reconstruction: "It is important that everyone works together," he said ;ater to Mayor Emilio Nusca.

After visiting the church, tea at Cardinal Sodano's holiday home, the Villino Di Paola, where the dean of the College of Cardinals is attended by some nuns.

Then, after a brief chat with a delegation of six persons whom the Pope received, he took his leave, saying, "I will be back soon."

Benedict XVI has made three official visits to the land of Pope St. Celestine V - to Manoppello in September 2006, to L' Auqila in April last year, and recently, to Sulmona.

The Pope arrived in Rocca without great ado around 3 p.m. with a small entourage. He was welcomed by Cardinal Sodano who showed him around the villa donated by Mons. Vittorio Di Paola, a prelate who is a native of Rocca, to the Vicariate of Rome. and later acquired by the Vatican.

The villa was also damaged in the earthquake and classified with Type B unlivability. But it was restored in record time, and last year, too, Cardinal Sodano spent his summer holiday here, as he has done for many years.

During this visit, the Pope, who passed up a mountain holiday this year, might have considered the possibility of spending some time here in the future as sort of a Castel Gandolfo 2.

During the 300-meter walk from the villetta to the Church of San Leucio, the Pope remarked that walking in the shade of evergreen trees was an 'ideal way' during which to pray the Rosary.

The church itself was so damaged by the earthquake that the recent feast day of its patron saint was celebrated outdoors by Cardinal Sodano. The Pope hoped for prompt intervention to restore the Church 'as soon as possible'.

Tea and strudel awaited the Pope and his party when they came back from the church. A snack on the porch, and then a brief audience with Mayor Nusca and four of his councilors, as well as the parish priest Don Vincenzo Catalfo.

"We did not have the time to prepare a gift," said the mayor later. "We went to San Leucio thinking that it would be for our traditional greeting to the Cardinal, whom we know very well and has been 'at home' here for many years".

"To our great surprise, we met the Pope. The emotion was great! The Pontiff said that he feels for those of us who are still suffering from the effects of the earthquake and that he has been praying for the rebirth of the city and all the other population centers damaged by the quake. He encouraged us to undertake the remaining work of reconstruction together, in unity, and assured us of his support. He gave each of us a rosary and promised he would return soon for another visit".

Around 6 p.m., the Pope left in a car to go back to Castel Gandolfo. Keeping the window open, the better to enjoy the bracing mountain air, he waved at the people along the way out of Rocca.


Finally, CNA has this account, which fleshes out Fr. Lombardi's interview:

Pope leaves Castel Gandolfo
on unannounced pilgrimage


Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 7, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- In a symbolic gesture, the Holy Father went to the mountains to pray on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

During the day trip away from his summer residence he visited a number of places, taking the time also to drop in on some old friends.

There were no public events on Pope Benedict's unnannounced Aug. 6 tour, although, as Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio, despite its private nature, he was able to greet some surely surprised people in the course of the day.

The Pope left the bounds of Castel Gandolfo in the morning to pay a visit to the "Madonna dei Bisognosi" Sanctuary for the Feast of the Transfiguration, according to the Holy See's Press Office.

During the Lord's Transfiguration, as recounted in all four gospels, Jesus leads Peter, James and John to a high mountain where he changed in appearance before them and was surrounded by a glorious light.

Marking this feast also in a mountain setting, the Pope prayed with those who accompanied him in the Marian sanctuary located in Italy's Abruzzo region at an altitude of over 3,000 ft.

Following the stop at the sanctuary, the Holy Father went to a religious community in the nearby town of Carsoli for lunch, joining the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, who just celebrated his 94th birthday on Aug. 1.

Later, together with Msgr. Georg Ganswein, his personal secretary, Pope Benedict went to the city of Rocca di Mezzo, where he saw the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who is onvacation there.

He also visited St. Leucio's parish church where he prayed for those affected by the earthquake that rocked the region in April of last year, also damaging the Church.

After meeting with the parish priest, Rocca di Mezzo's mayor and other city administrators, he returned to Castel Gandolfo.


A look at the sites
of the Pope's excursion


Framed in red are the places he visited yesterday; framed in yellow are reference points like Subiaco in the west, and Sulmona in the east.

tHE SHRINE OF THE MADONNA DEI BISOGNOSI

The image venerated here is a statue of olive wood brought to Italy in the 7th century by a Spanish family who fled during the first wave of Moorish invasion. The church itself is famed for its well-preserved medieval murals executed by local artists.


CARSOLI - where the Pope visited with retired Cardinal Angelini and had lunch with a local community of nuns.


ROCCA DI MEZZO

The city is a favorite summer resort as well as a ski resort in winter. Below, the church of San Leucio, named after a third-century bishop born inAlexandria who became the first Bishop of Brindisi. Lower left photo shows a crew that worked on the church after the earthquake of April 2009.




P,S. The Vatican has now released a brief statement from Fr. Lombardi about the Pope's excursion to the Abruzzo yesterday. It is substantially what Fr. lombardi said in the Vatican Radio interview posted here earlier.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/08/2010 15:43]

Saturday, August 7, 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Second left, San Cayetano images in Buenos Aires; portrait by Solimena hangs in San Paolo Maggiore in Naples; next to it, Gaetano's founder statue in St. Peter's Basilica.
ST. GAETANO (Cajetan) DA THIENE (Italy, 1480-1557), Papal Diplomat, Priest, Founder of the Theatines
Born in Vicenza, northern Italy, and the son of a count, Gaetano was always pious but he did not become a priest until he was 36. Before that,
he was a lawyer, and then served in the court of Pope Julius II as a diplomat who helped reconcile the Republic of Venice with the Pope.
He was ordained in 1516. The following year, his mother's death brought him back to Vicenza where he founded a hospital for ncurables
and started to think about an order of priests who could combine active ministry and the spirit of monasticism. He left the papal court
after Pope Adrian VI died in 1523. Along with four companions (one of whom would become Pope Paul IV), he founded the Theatine Order,
named after the city in central Italy where they were first based. Harassed by anti-Catholic forces after the sack of Rome in 1527, the
Theatines fled to Venice, where Gaetano met the future St. Jerome Emiliani and helped him establish his Order of Clerics Regular. The
Theatines became active in countering Lutheranism and Gaetano founded houses in Verona and Naples, where he died. He is buried in the
church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples. He was beatified in 1629, and canonized in 1671 along with St. Rosa of Lima and the Spanish saints
Luis Beltran, Francisco Borja and Felipe Benicio. He is considered the patron saint of jobseekers and the unemployed. His cult in Buenos
Aires is particularly strong and widespread.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080710.shtml



No stories about Benedict XVI in today's OR, but there are two stories to commemorate Paul VI on the 32nd anniversary
of his death yesterday, and one of Pope Pius VII who dared to defy Napoleon. Lucetta Scaraffia's commentary on the
recent ministrants' gathering in Rome was translated and posted on this thread yesterday. Page 1 international news:
4 million made homeless by Pakistan's latest floods; and the European economy appears better than expected.




Other than the communique about the Pope's visit to the Abruzzo yesterday, the Vatican also announced today
that the Pope has named his personal representative to two important Church anniversaries in October:

- Cardinal Josef Tomko, emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to the III centenary
celebration of the consecration of the Cathedral of Minsk in Belarus, on Oct. 9;

- Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, to the 1000th anniversary
of the founding of Abbey of St. Pierre in Solesmes, France, on Oct. 12.




- Lella notes that the Italian newspapers today are rhapsodic about a U2 concert because it attracted 45,000 fans last night in Turin, whereas earlier in the week, most of them did not report the number of pilgrims present at the Pope's General Audience on Wednesday (85,000),of which the young ministrants alone constituted almost 50,000, in reporting the Pope's audience.!
- The OR has yet to acknowledge - at least in its online version, which is all I see - the California judge's highly illogical ruling that the state voters' approval of a ban on same-sex marriage in a referendum last year is 'unconstitutional'. The judge is gay himself and is obviously promoting his own cause. [This case is definitely headed to the US Supreme Court which must rule, in effect, by defining once and for all what 'marriage' is and ought to be, and, hopefully, against the notion that the right to marry anyone you please [including your dog, under this logic] is a constitutional right! But why is it that not one legal hotshot raised the question of constitutionality when the gay marriage ban was placed on the ballot to begin with? It seems to be a post-facto argument...]

This article unfortunately proceeds from many of the false premises used by the MSM to make judgments on the Church and the Pope. It is in every way just as injurious and malicious as anything the New York Times and AP, Time and Newswekk, have written, even if it appears in the Christian Science Monitor, which is supposed to observe a more responsible, less 'herd-mentality' journalism! BTW, the article heading bears little relation to what it really is all about - another dastardly exercise in Benedict-bashing, masquerading as news analysis!


Pope Benedict XVI's 30-year campaign
to reassert conservative Catholicism
Some believe Pope Benedict XVI is 'the greatest scholar to rule the Church
since [Pope] Innocent III', in the 13th century.
Child-abuse scandals [for which he was in no way responsible,
quite the contrary) have marred his tenure.
by Robert Marquand

August 6, 2010


Munich and Tubingen, Germany — In the past 30 years, the Vatican has moved strongly to reassert the authority of a traditional, even orthodox Roman Catholicism – to bring the notion of a "one true Church" to Europe and then the larger world. The intent was to reverse the "open" or liberalizing trend of the Church represented by Vatican II.

In the past three decades, the Vatican has cracked down on liberation theology, affirmed traditional sexual morality, and is now quietly supporting ultra--devout Catholic groups such as Opus Dei and the Legions of Christ – while curbing ecumenical outreach and describing Protestant churches as not authentic.

The most constant, diligent, and serious champion of these moves is a shy but brilliant German theologian, Josef Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI.

Princeton University Renaissance scholar Anthony Grafton, not a Catholic, says Pope Benedict is "probably the greatest scholar to rule the church since [Pope] Innocent III," in the 13th century.

"There is no great issue, no direction in Catholic theology, not dominated by Ratzinger over the past three decades," says Hermann Häring, a liberal Jesuit theologian who studied with Ratzinger and has written a book about his theology.

Yet a grand effort to restore authority and make the Church purer coincides with an epic impurity – abuse of children by thousands of priests and many bishops in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

To understand Pope Benedict's past, present, and perhaps future responses to the sexual abuse crisis, one must examine the arc of his religious life.

His vision for reforming the Catholic Church was often so all-absorbing that pedophilia got swept under the Vatican carpet, sources say. At the same time, a crackdown on Vatican II – the controversial three-year papal council in the mid-1960s – amplified a culture of fear, secrecy, and hierarchy.

"Many rules and codes came down, but efforts to talk 'up' were thwarted," says a Jesuit official in Germany with knowledge of the issue.

"[Pope] John Paul II was the face of the Church's world mission, while Ratzinger stayed in Rome, working the books, making rules as the Pope's enforcer," says Karl Josef Kuschel at the University of Tubingen seminary in Germany. "Ratzinger has been appointing bishops for 30 years.[Excuse me! He has only been Pope five years - before that, he had no business appointing bishops, and very little influence in the broad scheme of the Roman Curia.] It is now his Church. The bishops today were chosen exactly because they agreed with him."

In dozens of interviews with church officials and theologians in Germany, the US, Spain, and France, many Catholics say the Vatican is not missing cues nor "tone deaf" in its handling of pedophilia. Rather, the abuse cases are playing out fitfully within the Pope's vision of the church as ultimate arbiter of spiritual authority, Scripture, and holiness on earth.

In this sense, the Vatican is not looking to adapt, modernize, or open itself to new interpretations. [Not the Vatican - the Church, which must be faithful to what Christ said and, following that, what has evolved over centuries of Tradition]. Recent Vatican statements against women's ordination, and reaffirming priestly celibacy, are small examples. [I have not checked Marquand's background, but he obviously cannot or will not see teh Church's view of its essentials as immutable! Like most liberals, he deludes himself that the Church must and will yield to secular pressure about its most hallowed practices.]

"The world is evil and the Church is pure," says an Austrian Church official. [COLORE=1216#FF][Is that meant to be sardonic? Shame on the prelate!] "This is serious for Benedict. He doesn't want the Church to be a joke. He's suspicious of chaos and avoidance of discipline and order, and of human efforts to adopt popular culture and create Church out of the world, instead of a church that transforms the world. This deeply upsets him. He sees all salvation taking place inside the Catholic Church. He believes that."
[Shouldn't this supercilious Austrian prelate not believe it as well, since he is a CAtholic priest????]

Yet ironically, child abuse has arguably brought greater disorder than the ferment of Vatican II in the late 1960s. [That is one of the most hyperbolic and least-founded statements ever made! The chaos - not ferment - of VAtican II has been wreaking its havoc since 1965, and part of that havoc was the new permissiveness and self-indulgence that some priests alowed themselves in their self-serving misinterpretation of Vatican II.]

This spring, the Pope described pedophilia as "the petty gossip of dominant opinion" before shifting 180 degrees and asking contrition from St. Peter's Basilica on June 11: "We ... insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again."

[And shame on Marquand as a journalist! Did he even botherto go back and check what the Pope actually said on Palm Sunday, or did he simply regurgitate the endlessly erroneous versions of it? The Pope was not referring to pedophilia at all, and, in fact, the sub-theme of the homily was about purification!

The Pope is the last person in the world to accuse of taking a '180-degree shift' towards purification, because that is what salvation is all about - continually purifying oneself to earn salvation and the Church which is the messenger of Christ's salvation: Here is the Pope's entire paragraph, said towards the start of the homily which was all about how to follow Jesus:

---

Man can choose an easy way and avoid any effort. He can also descend to the low, the vulgar. He can sink into the swamp of lies and dishonesty. But Jesus walks ahead of us, and his way is upward. He leads us to what is great, pure; he leads us to the salubrious air of the heights: towards a life that is in accordance with truth; towards courage which does not let itself be intimidated by the idle chatter of dominant opinions; towards patience which supports and sustains the other.

---

Ratzinger was not always seen as the conservative enforcer of Catholic doctrine. In 1965, the arrival of Ratzinger to the theology faculty at Tubingen brought a stir of anticipation. Ratzinger's bestselling Introduction to Christianity seemed a new impulse for democracy and freedom. [In what way? Has Marquand read the book at all? It was a fresh espousal of what the Church has always stood for as it is 'codified' in the articles of the Apostles' Creed!

The academic enthusiasm about Ratzinger was because his reputation as a brilliant lecturer preceded him, and probably secondarily, that he had also taken part in Vatican II, which gave most people the erroneous impression that he was in the ultra-liberal mold of Hans Kueng who had recruited him to Tuebingen.]

The school had a joint Protestant-Catholic faculty. [No, get your facts right, Marquand! The faculty of Catholic theology was separate from the faculty of Protestant theology. That was why when Kueng was disciplined by the pre-Ratzinger CDF, he stopped teaching at the faculty of Catholic theology but continued teaching in Tuebingen.] Change was in the air. Ratzinger was brought in by Hans Kung, a progressive young Swiss lion of Vatican II; for a time, it looked as if the two men were at the start of a beautiful friendship.

Nazism and the war had disturbed young German Catholics who were suspicious of absolute ideology. Vatican II appeared to "open" the Church and allow dialogue and airing of views without fear of ecclesiastical reprisal.

At Tuebingen, Protestants partook of Catholic learning; Catholics learned Protestant concepts of scriptural interpretation and subjective ideas about spirituality from the teachings of Swiss theologian Karl Barth and German theologian Rudolph Bultmann. [That was because students were allowed to attend lectures even in classes for which they were not registered - not because the curriculum was inter-religious!]

Yet Ratzinger's first lecture to the joint faculty, an important tradition for new professors, was surprising. He spoke on "The significance of the Church Fathers for Christianity."

Mr. Kung was "a little shocked," says Professor Häring. "Rat­zinger was saying the basis of true theology was not the Bible, but the Bible as interpreted by five centuries of church fathers. He was basically telling the Protestant faculty, 'Get lost.' He was saying you must return to Greek theology ... to Hellenism."

[That is totally Haring's opinion of what Prof. Ratzinger was saying - because he has always maintained how important it is for every Christian to read the Bible directly, but to help himself reflect on what the Bible says - which is virtually infinite - in the light of the great thinkers of the Church, which is a way of thinking with the Church. And the thinking of the Fathers represented par excellence the use of reason with faith. And what is this 'Greek theology' that Haring refers to? - it is a term that is meaningless in this context!]

The student protest marches at Tubin­gen in the '60s were a watershed for Rat­zinger, moving him toward conservatism. [No, moving him to assert and reassert, as he does to this day, that Vatican II was renewal in continuity, and not a total rejection of everything that had gone before.] He departed to a quiet Bavarian college.

He wrote against democracy in the Church, berated the influence of Marxism, and criticized what he called "the dictatorship of relativism." He disliked the language of individualism, of crisis of faith, the search for freedom and meaning, and existential moments.

"He saw it as individuals separated from the collective institution of Church, where salvation and meaning are found. In service to the true Church, one found a new life," says Professor Kuschel.

In 1977, Ratzinger became archbishop of Munich and Freising. Former Jesuit Paul Imhoff remembers Ratzinger as absorbed in medieval Catholicism. [A euphemism for saying he was nothing but a 'medieval obscurantist'?] Mr. Imhoff, who was ordained by Ratzinger before leaving the Church to marry a theology student, went to a "professors' carnival" with him.

"We had jokes, dancing, harmless fun ... Ratzinger was charming. [But surely, he did not dance! The way zahring puts it, one would think JR took part in all the acitivities of the 'carnival'.] But the whole time he spoke about restoring the old Europe ... where the Church takes precedence over the state." [A deliberate distortion! Joseph Ratzinger has never once advocated that the Church take precedence over the State! And his advocacy of conserving what is valuable in Tradition is not 'restorationist' - it is what the Church has done over the centuries, in greater or lesser degree but consistently.]

Pedophilia cases started mounting in Vatican files in the 1980s. But now, as head of Church discipline, Ratzinger was primarily focused on silencing priests or liberation theologians, such as the Brazilian Leo­nardo Boff, who tried to empower farm­ers and peasants. [That seemed to be the case to the media, because that was all they reported about what the CDF was doing at the time. Did anyone ever bother to look into all the various functions of the CDF in its defense of the faith? Even with Joseph Ratzinger heading CDF, it was never written about except to be dismissed in the MSM as 'the former Inquisition' ins hte same breath as 'scourge of dissident theologians'.

Sorry, but calling attention to the anti-Catholic content of dissident theology is part of the defense of the faith! But since the faith is anathema to the secular media, Ratzinger doing his primary duty has been portrayed as Ratzinger the obsessed Grand Inquisitor - as though disciplining the few dissident theologians whose work needed to be branded to Catholics as contrary to orthodox teaching were all he did. Put it this way: The CDF disciplined around 10 theologians during Ratzinger's 24 years at the CDF. Surely that was not all they did in 24 years!]

The 1990s brought strictures against abortion, gay rights, same-sex marriage, contraception, and promotion of abstinence and celibacy – just as US bishops were reporting hundreds of child abuse cases, but getting little clarity on how to handle them. [Now that is blatant revisionism of the most shameless kind! When exactly did US bishops start reporting 'hundreds of cases???? So far, the MSM has dug up a handful of sex abuse cases elevated to the Vatican (only two of which they have related directly to Cardinal Ratzinger) by US bishops before the scandal came to a head in 2002.]

Most heads of the church's Congrega­tion for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) serve two terms, or 10 years. Ratzinger served 24, then became Pope. [That statement sounds like Ratzinger is to blame that he served 24 years. Would it have hurt Marquand to add the well-known fact that John Paul II kept re-naming him to the position and refused all his requests to resign since 1997?]

In recent years, a Vatican focus on ecumenical outreach has given way to evangelical outreach. [Another major misunderstanding perpetrated by the MSM. The Vatican does not focus on only one aspect of the mission of the Church. It has to do it all. And the evangelical mission of the Church - to announce Christ and his Gospel - is always the most basic and most important mission. The ecumenical mission is auxiliary, and again the MSM think the Church was 'focused' on it simply because the media have chosen to pay more attention to it than any other aspect of the Church other than 'scandals' and Pope-bashing.]

In June, a new pontifical office to "evangelize" areas of the world that have suffered "an eclipse of the sense of God" was announced. The Church has rebuffed Protestants [Who are you to say that? Ask the more objective Protestant leaders if they feel rebuffed! Why do you think tvery leader of any major Protestant aggrupation or community never fails to pay a courtesy call on the Pope when they are in Rome? Is that the behavior of persons who are rebuffed?] and drawn sharp lines on Islam. But Rome has improved ties to Eastern Orthodox churches.

On July 21, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill praised the Pope for holding firm against women priests and not succumbing to "sinful elements of the world" that have entered Protestant churches via gays and female clergy, and offered to work with the Pope on world issues. {It is not as if it is the first time that Kirill or a ranking Russian Orthodox prelate has ever expressed agreement with the Catholic Church about all such practices that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider heterodox, i.e., against the Christian orthodoxy that they preach.]

Today, after his 30-year quest to reshape the Church, the sex scandal may be a sizable legacy.It is unclear where the Pope is headed. [Stop playing blind, darn it! How much clearer can anyone be that Joseph Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI???? He is 'unclear' only to those who deliberately put on blinkers when they look at the Catholic Church!]

In the past month, there's been some shift in tone and attention. In late July the Church extended to 20 years the period that victims' claims can be investigated. [What the Church announced was that it has codified into canon law norms that the CDF has been observing since 2003 in dealing with sex abuse cases brought to their attention! The Vatican never said these norms were 'new', i.e., minted in 2010. But media report it otherwise in order to make it appears that the changes were made now because of media pressure in recent months!]

But the key question of whether offending priests should be reported to civil authorities is undecided in Rome. [It is not undecided and never has been. Bishops are to do their civic duty in this as in any other while respecting the wishes of the victims. Many victims do not want to make a criminal case of the offenses made against them. That is why, for instance, the investigative commission named by the Church in Belgium got so many complaints reported to them instead of to the police.]

Beyond his few pronouncements, the Pope's views on the sex scandal are an enigma. [Few pronouncements! An enigma! If one were to put together everything he has said about this issue, it would easily make a book. The Letter to the Irish Catholics alone is a compendium in itself of his thoughts about this issue. But does Marquand even bring it up at all? As if it were not an unprecedented and signally historical letter from a modern Pope!]

Vatican sources say the Pontiff spends time writing books and only sees two church officials regularly. "Even bishops now wait two weeks or more for a meeting," says a Church official who is concerned about the Pope's isolation. [Now, how much more disparaging can this reporter get to end his very dubious and unequivocally biased reportage/analysis this way? Does Marquand think that when he is 83 he can manage the activities that the Pope must carry out daily? And if the Pope spends time writing, it is because he writes most of his own texts himself - not just books, of which he only finished one, and completed a second in five years - and does not simply rely on any draft prepared for him by the Vatican staff.]


BTW, note that the writer makes it a point to start out his report with a dateline from 'Munich and Tuebingen'. One can only conclude - and rejoice - that the quotations he cites from sources in the two cities were 'the worst' he could turn up. No further reportable 'slime or scum' to smear on Joseph Ratzinger after AP, the New York Times, Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung had turned upside down every possible stones they could find to slam the Holy Father with!

Very disappointing that the Vatican saw fit to release only two photos from the Pope's three-site visit in the Abruzzo yesterday. The same photos they released to the news agencies are also what appear in tomorrow's issue of the OR. I am making this a separate post since I first posted reports about this late last night.


THE POPE'S DAY OUT


At the Shrine of the Madonna dei Bisognosi outside Pereto, the Pope admires its medieval murals.
At right, a mural detail [Photo from from an Abruzzo cultural site].


Below, the Pope walks through the woods near the Curial villa in Rocca di Mezzo.
Left photo cropped from the group picture published by the regional newspaper Il Centro yesterday.


Here's how AP reported the Pope's excursion, based on Fr. Lombardi's statement:

No-notice papal trip
to the mountains



VATICAN CITY, Aug. 7 (AP) — Normally there's lots of fanfare when the Pope travels. But the Vatican says Benedict XVI slipped away for the day without notice for lunch and prayer in the mountains of central Italy.

[Actually, if the AP desk had done some reseearch, Benedict VXI has done this more than once. Early in his Pontificate, he slipped away from the Vatican to visit the Marian shrine in Mentorella just outside Rome. And even from Castel Gandolfo, he has made a couple of excursions in the past to nearby towns with his brother.][/DIM]

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said Saturday that a day earlier, Benedict went to pray in a mountaintop sanctuary known as Madonna of the Needy.

Then the Pope lunched with a cardinal in the town of Carsoli and later visited a church in Rocca di Mezzo, known for its cool summer temperatures. The Apennine town, 90 miles east of Rome, is a busy base in winter for cross-country skiers.

[I am frankly surprised the AP makes no mention at all of Cardinal Sodano in Rocca di Mezzo, since it would have been an occasion for them to once more insinuate their negative bias towards him - in order to show that Benedict XVI is 'friendly' with people who are believed to have been remiss in dealing with the sex abuse issue!]

Instead of vacationing in the Alps as in the past, Benedict is spending this summer at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, one of Rome's suburban hill towns.


Here's a sidebar from Il Centro:


John Paul II and Benedict XVI
share a love of Nature outdoors
The late Pope's last excursion had been to Rocca di Mezzo
by Giustino Parisse
Translated from

August 7, 2010


L'AQUILA - In July 2004, John Paul II was already very ill. He was hardly able to move by himself, and he was always trailed by a fully equipped medical mobile unit in case of an emergency.

And yet, he had not lost the occasional desire to 'escape' the Vatican for a few hours to go to the Abruzzi mountains not too far away.

Six years ago, it was never reported that he made a 'secret' visit to Rocca di Mezzo as a guest of his Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who has spent his summer holiday in Rocca for many years.

It was to be Karol Wotyla's last 'escapade' from the Vatican. After that, his health worsened further, and on April 2, 2005, he returned to his Father's house.

When, after 20 days, Cardinal Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, one of the first comments we made among us in the newsroom was that we would never more have to worry about being scooped of a 'secret' papal visit to the Abruzzo.

Benedict XVI was not known to be a lover of the mountains [But he is. He grew up near the Bavarian Alps, after all, and his summer holidays as a cardinal were always in the mountains!] unlike his secretary Georg Gaenswein who is a skier. Besides he was already 78 at the time.

We tried hard to find out whether Cardinal Ratzinger had ever been to the Abruzzo, but it was only a few months ago that we learned from the auxiliary bishop of L'Aquila, Giovanni D'Ercole, that indeed, he had visited some localities around L'Aquila many years ago.

One of those localities was Onna, where he particularly wanted to see the markers regarding Nazi massacres that took place in June 1944.

On April 28 last year, he came back to Onna as Benedict XVI - it was the first community he visited when he came to comfort the earthquake victims, before going to Collemaggio to pay his respects to the remains of Pope St. Celestine V.

[I wish they had asked the bishop for more details of Cardinal Ratzinger's visit then, including the date!]

Yesterday afternoon, Rocca di Mezzo had the privilege of welcoming another Pontiff. Very discreetly, the Pope arrived to visit Cardinal Sodano who is once again spending the summer here.

Later with the town mayor and his councilors, the Pope asked about the status of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the area. But with Sodano, he apparently discussed reconsidering a shelved project for a Casa dei Papi in Rocca di Mezzo, which had seemed a certainty in 2004.

The home for the Popes in Rocca would be a second Castel Gandolfo, a quick trip away from the Vatican for a few hours of relaxation and contemplation in a setting of great natural beauty. It arose from John Paul II's predilection for Rocca di Mezzo, which began in 1986. {In his memoir about his life with Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal Dsiwisz mentioned that Rocca di Mezzo was a favorite destination on John Paul's escapades over the years, especially in winter when he was able to ski.]

Twenty-six years ago on August 9, the Pope, who was in excellent form at the time, came to say Mass for 13,000 Boy Scouts camped on the Piani di Pezza nearby.

"It is this life in contact with Nature," he told them in his homily, "that teaches us a kind of asceticism - that is, the effort and the courage necessary to make a life choice that is genuinely evangelical".

Tomorrow, in San Pietro della Lenca, a locality in the Gran Sasso [Abruzzo's highest mountain peak], there will be a ceremony to commemorate the many private visits made by Papa Wojtyla to the Abruzzi peaks.

Yesterday, Benedict XVI promised he would come back soon to Rocca di Mezzo - and perhaps he will do so again on a Friday. Perhaps, we are in for more surprises.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/08/2010 02:07]

Thanks to Lella's blog

for pointing me to this article.


Benedict XVI: Tourist attraction
US hotel chains consider building
7 or 8 large new hotels in Rome
in view of increasing pilgrim numbers
by Caterina Maniaci
Translated from

August 4, 2010


It's not official yet - though it is being planned - but it is almost certain that some US hotel chains will finance and build seven or eight large new hotels in the suburbs of Rome.

The reason? Increasing tourist traffic not just from the USA but from Latin America by pilgrims whose primary purpose is to see the Pope, St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums, according to surveys.

Despite all the overblown scandals, the mediatic and political attacks, and even inspite of profound confusion among many Catholics about doctrinal and pastoral aspects of the faith, the popularity of Benedict XVI only seems to be increasing.

In time, prejudices and antipathies propagated about him seem to have vanished in the public mind [even if very much alive in the media], unlike the first years of his Pontificate when it was almost obligatory to compare every word and action of his - and always unfavorably - to his predecessor.

But the pilgrims continue to flock to his audiences, the Angelus and his Masses; and continue to buy his books.

In fact, though it may sound somewhat profane, it is not amiss to speak of an economic inducement linked to the figure of Benedict XVI. Not just in Rome, and not just in Italy.

In the USA, many pilgrims appear incentivized to travel to Rome because they are aware of the Pope's age and a potential for illness, and that these factors limit the possibilities for Benedict XVI to travel as much as his predecessor did.

The hoteliers figure that pilgrims to Rome will continue to increase exponentially, thus the need for new hotels that can handle large pilgrim groups.

Figures from the Tourism Board of Lazio (the region to which Rome belongs) for the first half of 2010 showed a 3% increase in foreign tourists compared to December 2009, and a 5% increase over the preceding 12 months. A drop in visitors from Japan (-6%) was more than covered up by an icnrease in visitors from Brazil (+9%).

The president of the Hotel Federation of Rome, Giuseppe Roscioli, confirmed, "We have 6% more hotel occupancy this year compared to last summer".

The phenomenon even extends to Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope resides in summer. For weeks now, there has been a great influx of pilgrims every Sunday for the Pope's Angelus.

The Bishop of Albano, Mons. Marcello Semeraro said "We have had to add more Masses on Sunday to accommodate pilgrims".

Coincidentally, pilgrims to the Holy Land have also increased considerably since the Pope's pilgrimage in May 2009. This is due to factors like the war in Gaza in early 2009 which discouraged tourist visits, but it could also be the 'wave' generated by the Pope's visit.

In the first half of 2010, Israel registered 1.6 million visitors - an increase of 39% over a comparable period in 2009, and a 10% increase over 2008, which had been a record year for Israeli tourism.

All of this also means more new jobs. In Bethlehem, they are building five new hotels.

Papal attraction is good for business!

I am confused - but pleasantly so. This unsigned piece comes under the newspaper's rubric 'Telegraph View', as opposed to 'Private View' which are opinions epxressed by individuals who sign their name. Does it mean that this is the editorial position of the newspaper? The sheer commonsense logic of it - and the fact that there is not a single negative statement in it about the Church or the Pope - seem almost miraculous! Deo gratias for this...


The success of the Pope's visit
matters to all of us
Any attempts to humiliate the Pontiff
during his visit would damage Britain

06 Aug 2010


We are now little more than a month away from the first state visit to Britain by a Pope. On September 16, Benedict XVI will fly to Scotland, where he will be received by the Queen at Holyrood House.

His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, also met Her Majesty when he visited this country in 1982 – a historic meeting, but essentially a courtesy call during a pastoral visit to the Catholics of Britain.

This time, the Queen will be playing the formal role of host to a fellow head of state, who is also the spiritual leader of a billion people.

Pope Benedict XVI will be, to use the traditional phrase, the honoured guest of the British people. But will he be honoured – or will his enemies in public life use the opportunity to humiliate him?

One might imagine that this Pope would be safer from attack than his predecessor. Old-fashioned anti-Popery is not the force that it was in 1982, because the community of anti-papal fundamentalists has shrunk, along with the Christian community in general.

But alongside religious indifference has arisen a strident secularism that actively despises Christianity. (On the whole it is too nervous to attack Islam.)

According to this school of thought, Roman Catholicism is the most contemptible of Churches, and its leader, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the ideal target for criticism.

Like millions of German men born in the 1920s, he was dragooned into the Hitler Youth and served in the German Army at the end of the Second World War. This allows his cruder critics to label him, libellously, as a Nazi.

His more sophisticated critics argue that, as a senior cardinal, he covered up child abuse. This charge – levelled obsessively by sections of the media – falls apart under scrutiny.

Moreover, since taking office, Benedict XVI has done far more than John Paul II to address this scandal. Even so, a double misconception has taken hold.

First, that the Pontiff is complicit in crimes of paedophilia; second, that in welcoming him here, the Government, and therefore the taxpayer, is turning a blind eye to wicked abuse.

It was Gordon Brown who initiated this state visit, but it falls to the current Prime Minister to ensure its success. Already David Cameron has saved it from organisational chaos by appointing Lord Patten of Barnes to co-ordinate the secular and religious aspects of the exercise.

More needs to be done, however. Freedom of speech must be respected; but it would be wrong for the licence fee or any other public money to be used to pay for biased and mean-spirited attacks on the Pope.

Both the BBC and the Government set great store by "celebrating other cultures". Benedict XVI's arrival is an opportunity to celebrate a culture that planted our Christian roots; for it was a Pope who sent St Augustine to Britain.

This state invitation does not require Anglicans and other Christians to recognise papal authority.

But, as the Archbishop of Canterbury recognises, if Benedict XVI is greeted with hostility and manufactured scandals, then British Christianity as a whole will be weakened. And, in the eyes of hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world, our national reputation will be damaged.

The Pope's visit is more than a great event for Catholics: it is a test of Britain's professionalism, hospitality, tolerance and maturity.



Bishops and Pope will pose
for historic photograph at Oscott
By Anna Arco

Friday, 6 August 2010


When Pope Benedict XVI goes to St Mary’s College in Oscott near Birmingham at the end of his visit to Britain, he will sit at the middle of a circle of bishops for a photograph that will recreate a historic moment in the British Church’s history.


Left, the chapel at Oscott; right, the historic painting.

The painting, which will be recreated with Pope Benedict at its heart features the first Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Nicholas Wiseman and other bishops. Cardinal Newman is also part of the meeting, which was the first Provincial Synod of Westminster to take place after the hierarchy was restored in 1850.

Pope Pius IX issued a papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae establishing the hierarchy in England. Until then Britain had been treated as mission territory.

Cardinal Wiseman was called to Rome where he was told he would become Archbishop of Westminster. He stirred up anti-Catholic sentiment in England when he issued his first pastoral letter about the restoration of the hierarchy from Rome entited From out of the Flaminian Gate.

The meeting depicted in the painting took place in 1852 at Oscott. At the event, Cardinal Newman preached his now famous Second Spring sermon about the return of English Catholicism.

In 2002, the bishops of England and Wales also sat for a portrait photograph based on the painting to commemorate the 150th anniversary of that first Synod of Westminster.

Oscott is the seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and serves the dioceses of England and Wales.

The meeting with the bishops of England and Wales will be the last event on the final day of the Pope's visit to England.






A few more items from the online Shop:

The program booklet, the Swarowski crystal bracelet, and folding icons of the Holy Father and Blessed Newman.


Prayer cards:


I must confess I am taken aback by the prayer on the papal card! Is there a theological basis to invoke a living person, to pray to a living person? My idea of a prayer card for the Pope would be a prayer that we, the faithful, can say for him, not to ask him for anything.

Some commentators have gone to town on the subject of tackiness in most Catholic devotional items. I have to read up somewhere on the psychology behind the creation of kitsch and schlock. Mind you, in the realm of religion, it's not limited to Catholic tschotchkes.

But at a certain point, kitsch can actually become'attractive'. I am thinking of the colorful panoply of Hindu ceramic tchotchkes depicting the remarkable pantheon of Hindu divinities, both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, that one can acquire very cheaply outside most Hindu temples in India. They are wonderful inexpensive cultural souvenirs, and if one were so minded, they can well be used as teaching aids for a crash cultural course in Hinduism 101.

As always, one starts reading these analyses hoping not to encounter the same logical fallacies and cavalier journalistic generalizations, only to have to face a barrage of them, as with the Christian Science Monitor item posted earlier. If you think this item is well-meaning, think again!


Dealing with priest pedophilia:
How Benedict XVI has distinguished
himself from John Paul II
by Stéphanie Le Bars
Translated from

August 7, 2010


The past months and the cascade of revelations linked to pedophile scandals caused by Catholic priests [mostly in previous decades and few of them new or current, it must be pointed out!] will surely have a long-term effect on the credibility of the Church and lead to still unsuspected developments.

But the scandals and how they have been managed, as chaotic as this may have seemed in the past several months, will allow Benedict XVI to put his own stamp on his Pontificate that sets it apart from that of John Paul II, of whom he was, for over 20 years,one of the most faithful and closest of collaborators.

The radically different personal styles of the two men has been noted well enough - an apparently more conservative approach by teh current Pope to some issues, especially the liturgy; a much more marked concern over the blackness of the world, the de-Christianization of Europe and the 'absence of God'; a world view that is more rational than emotional of the world and of Church affairs.

In five years, Benedict XVI has renewed and brought younger faces to a large part of the Roman Curia's leadership. But the dossier on priest pedophiles will probably be the principal marker of the difference between the two Pontificates.

In five months - certainly constrained by the revelations of sexual abuses in Ireland and Germany***- Benedict XVI, following his own rhythm, has broken with the culture of silence. By his words, by his actions and by new rules. [Not new! The CDF had been operating under these rules since 2003 but no one ever wrote about them - an incredible journalistic negligence, despite the worldwide media outrage over teh US scandals in 2001-2002. It goes to show that media interest in this issue has little to do with what is actually being done about it, but more with embarrassing and discrediting the Church, and secondarily, with its prurient potential for grabbing public attention.]

His letter to Irish Catholics in March was the the first significant step in this direction: an admission, without any attempt at whitewashing, of the faults and errors of the Irish Catholic Church, including a direct reproach to its hierarchy for their responsibility in all this.

Later, in contrast to defensive reflexes that had been used to shield the Church in the past, the Pope further pointed out in May: "The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from its external enemies, but arises from the sins within the Church herself".

He completed this collective 'mea culpa' by asking forgiveness from God and from the victims". And In July, by updating canon law to accelerate adjudication of sex abuse complaints and eventual penalties.

[LeBars's schematic presentation is misleading and tendentious. It follows the media line of portraying Benedict XVI's words and actions as simply reactions 'constrained' (to use their habitual verb) by media pressure - ignoring all the times he has referred to this problem in the past, in practically identical terms, but which the MSM hardly if ever reported, simply because they did not think them noteworthy at the time.

The most obvious is the Pope's address to the Irish bishops in October 2006 when they were in Rome for their ad-limina visit. The Catholic media at the time gave it the importance it deserved but it was largely ignored by the news agencies and the great paladins of sanctimony like the New York Times and Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, because they had also largely ignored the newspeg that was the basis of Benedict's admonitions - a sex-abuse inquiry in the Irish county of Fern. And yet this was just a few weeks after the BBC aired its infamous documentary accusing Cardinal Ratzinger of having ordered the bishops of the world to 'cover up' sex offenses by their priests!]

This attitude has been contested by some ranking figures in the Catholic hierarchy traditionally gripped by fear of scandal and the fear of having to 'defrock' a number of guilty priests. [Another generalization by the media which they never support. Which of the sixty or more prelates in the Roman Curia (counting the heads and secretaries of each dicastery) have come out recently or in the past against Benedict's policy of transparency?

Media reports in the past few months have singled out just two, both retired from the Curia:
- Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, retired since last year after he turned 80, who as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2001, wrote a French bishop to congratulate him for deciding not to turn in an erring priest to the police. The circumstances behind the French bishop's action are arguable [he claims he learned of the priest's culpability in the confessional], but the relevant point is that when Castrillon's letter came to public light last April, he defended his letter and said he got John Paul II's clearance before he sent it out.
- The other prelate subjected to public fire, Cardinal Sodano, has been pilloried mercilessly on the basis of rumor and hearsay, as having been responsible for blocking formal CDF investigation of two prominent personages: the late Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Groer, who resigned in 1995 over allegations of sex abuse, and the late Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ.

I personally believe Cardinal Sodano owes it to the Church to make a statement once and for all about these accusations - sooner rather than later, because he is 83 now. And if he does not speak up for himself, then he may well be recorded in history with an asterisk on his name, to say the least.

Of course, there may be some in the Curia who oppose transparency in principle, but the relevant question is: Are they in positions where they can counteract the Pope's actions in any way? The greater danger is from any bishops who may still prefer not to wash the family linen in public, and that's up to their respective local media to find out and pursue.

And the second part of LeBars's accusation - fear of having to defrock any priests - is too ludicrous to answer.]

Differences between the old guard and new Turks has led to acrimonious public exchanges among prelates, which is rare for the Vatican. [Again, a loose and cavalier generalization by LeBars which is unsupported by fact. There have been no exchanges even in the cases she mentions next - they were all one-sided - which I anticipated in my previous comment.}

Thus, two men who were close to John Paul II, Mons. Sodano and Mons. Castrillon Hoyos, who both seem to justify the silences of the Church, have been swatted down by Benedict XVI's entourage, a sign of the image wars being waged in the Vatican about the scandals.

[It is clear that the journalistic error of accusation by unfounded generalization is deeply ingrained in Ms. LeBars. While she is free to think that both Sodano and Castrillon 'seem to justify the silences of the Church', to say that they have been swatted down by 'Benedict XVI's entourage' (entourage literally means 'those who surround; him) is clearly an exaggeration. What did it consist of? Two specific instances, each directed at one of the two.

Fr. Lombardi, as the Vatican spokesman, made one statement distancing the Vatican from Castrillon when the letter was made public - doing so without bothering to talk to Castrillon first. And of course, the infamous case of the Archbishop of Vienna, who directly told Austrian newspaper editors that Cardinal Sodano was the man who had blocked CDF investigation of Cardinal Groer.

However, Cardinal Schoenborn was acting on his own, crassly looking out for number-one, to portray himself in the media as a knight in shining armor ready to speak the 'truth' at any cost. Certainly, no one can believe he was encouraged to do what he did by Benedict XVI, who eventually admonished him privately and in a public statement for improper behavior towards a fellow cardinal.

It may seem a quibble, but in the interests of journalistic precision, I don't think either Fr. Lombardi or Cardinal Schoenborn can be called part of 'Benedict XVI's entourage'. Although he works at the Vatican, Fr. Lombardi has appeared to be too timid to even exercise his prerogative to speak to the Pope directly when he has to. And Schoenborn, despite his personal friendship with the Pope, lives and works in Vienna - we don't know if the Pope calls to consult him whenever he has to make a decision, nor that Schoenborn volunteers his advice whenever he wants to!... And speaking of what an entourage really is, it must be pointed out that even the media never considered Cardinal Ratzinger - as close as they acknowledge he was to John Paul II - part of John Paul's 'entourage'.]

This Vatican chronology, which Benedict XVI's entourage knows is vital for the credibility of the Church, could have a collateral effect: a brake on the rapid beatification of John Paul II which was considered almost a done deal several months ago.

]['...which Benedict XVI's entourage knows is vital for the credibility of the Church' - And the Pope himself does not know it but his 'entourage does??? How absurd to think that there is anyone in the Vatican who knows the extent of the problem better than the Pope and who has thought and done as much about it than he has!

But let us consider this so-called entourage. Who are they exactly? In terms of prelates, the most obvious are Cardinal Bertone whom he meets daily; Cardinal Harvey, the prefect of the Apostolic Household, who is with him at all official events; Mons. Gaenswein and Mons. Xuereb, who have the unparalleled proximity required by their duties as the Pope's private secretaries.

Then there are the two Curial heads whom he must meet on a weekly basis because of the nature of their responsibilities - the Prefect of the CDF and the Prefect of Bishops. The Pope is an open-minded person, so surely he would listen to their ideas, not only about their own direct responsibilities but of other matters regarding the Church. Nonetheless, can anyone imagine Cardinals Levada and Re )and now, Ouellet) - not even they themselves would! - presuming to tell Benedict XVI what he must do to keep the Church credible?]

"In highlighting the intransigence of Benedict XVI on the pedophilia issue, the Vatican risks tarnishing the image of John Paul II," Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornielli has written in Il Giornale.

[I beg to disagree with both opinions. The argumentation for and against John Paul II's 'heroic virtues' before the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood is over and done with. His heroic virtues have been proclaimed, so he now has the title of Venerable. What he did or did not do with respect to Maciel is moot in this regard. If he erred on the side of indulgence, he erred. All saints have erred.

The only thing in the way of his beatification is confirmation by medical and theological experts of one miracle attributable to his post-mortem intercession. Once that confirmation comes, he will be beatified. That's all there is to it.

And on Tornielli's point, I believe John Paul II's image in the public mind is strong enough to resist significant tarnishing because of the Maciel case. And it is unworthy to even suggest that the Vatican has intended to denigrate John Paul II in any way by 'highlighting' Benedict XVI's actions regarding the sex abuse issue. Are they supposed to keep silent about the positive things Benedict XVI has done? They are facts, after all, not suppositions.]

A risk that is even more real because, since 2007, those in charge of the beatification profess have questioned John Paul II's benevolent attitude towards Fr. Maciel, who was accused at the time of sexual offenses that have been confirmed lately.

Benedict XVI's severe sanction of Fr. Maciel in 2006 for what the Vatican later called 'extremely grave offenses' was the official manifestation of his rupture with the preceding Pontificate. [An inappropriate choice of words. It was a divergence - and a very significant one - but hardly a rupture! This is a careless hyperbole like calling Vatican II a rupture with the Church of the past.] Maciel's Legionnaires are now under the charge of a prelate named by Benedict XVI.

After having announced a modification of the canonical regulations applicable to priest pedophiles, aimed at a faster and more transparent disposition of cases, the Vatican has also underscored that 'civil justice' must be respected. But nothing ensures that the omerta [criminal vow of silence] practised under previous Pontificates can be easily and totally lifted. [For the simple reason that nothing can guarantee that priests and bishops, being human, will not sin again!]

Rome's recriminations over the Belgian Catholic Church's tangles with the justice system, after investigations and raids were conducted in the very heart of the Belgian Church, underline the Vatican's difficulty in accepting a 'profane' treatment of Church affairs.

['Recriminations'? There were only two statements made by the Vatican - the Pope called the Belgian raids 'deplorable', and Cardinal Bertone said they were reminiscent of Communist-era tactics. Neither elaborated a single word further on these comments, which are factually justified. And no one in the Vatican, nor in the Church of Belgium, belabored the point after the initial protests. LeBars makes it sound as if the Church has been whining.]

Improvements in the selection of candidates for priesthood, in the formation of priests and in their continuing education have been announced, but no one knows if they will ever be made concrete and how far they will go.

The suggestion of some bishops, in the light of the pedophile scandals, to open a discussion on mandatory celibacy for priests has 'received a new result of non-acceptance' [literal translation of 'a recu une nouvelle fin de non-recevoir', whose sense I frankly do not get. Does she mean "that the Church has flatly turned down'?]

Even if, in terms of sanctions, an unprecedented 'housecleaning' has taken place in the Catholic Church with the resignations of several bishops accepted, many fear that the force of inertia in the Church makes the task difficult. [Yada yada yada... Let's see where things are one year from now, say! Even in physics, any inertial force can be overcome by a greater force.]

Statements by the Bishop of Dublin, Mons. Diarmuid Martin, who is engaged in cleaning house within the Church of Ireland, raise some hope. In May, he called to question "the powerful forces (in the Church) who prefer that the truth not be revealed".

[I believe he was referring to forces within the Irish Church, specifically, not to the Universal Church. After all, who in the Universal Church is more powerful than the Pope?

Which brings us to the point that the whole sex abuse problem has never been a problem of the Universal Church, but of the local churches, whose bishops have always had the autonomy, authority and discretion to investigate and adjudicate erring priests under their jusridiction. The failure of many bishops to do this was compounded by the lack of an adequate overview mechanism at the Vatican until the CDF was given the mandate in 2001.

LeBars should have the guts to identify these 'powerful forces' instead of placing the burden of her argument on a statement by Mons. Martin that is taken out of context - and on sweeping generalities and ambiguities, in general.]


*NB: The blatant revisionism in LeBars's account and chronology of events relating to the sex-abuse issue in 2010 is breathtakingly objectionable. I will briefly recreate the actual events and timeline that she refers to, after I check out all the facts, not simply state them off the top of my head, from personal recollection which is always fallible. It's a necessary but useful exercise because MSM, in addition to all its habitual journalistic, ethical and moral faults, has also been engaged in constant revisionism - presenting even recent, easily verifiable facts in a way that tends to fit their narrative rather than simply as they are.