BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier posts today, 12/22/10.






Here is a surprisingly sanguine view of the Church - and of Italian Catholics - by someone who has often been skeptical of what the Church does.


The Church in a year of doubts
by Fr. Filippo di Giacomo
Translated from

Dec. 21, 2010

Was the year that is about to end really that terrible for the Church?

For those who continue to mistake closeness to 'the power of the world' as the specific mission of those who live within the Vatican, 2010 certainly did not represent a time of exaltation.

But Benedict XVI and his co-workers, even during the storm over pedophile priests, did not skimp on doing what was necessary to transmit the teachings of the Vicar of Christ, even when referring to political structures, media mobilization, or proposing radical questions and Catholic answers.

Rather, taking off from what the Pope himself said on Monday to the Roman Curia, 2010 was a year of the most radical doubts raised by those who do not fear to dig into the depths of the misrepresentation that the 'power of the world' has made of Catholicism and the Church.

"We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen," the Pope told his co-workers, referring to the scandal of pedophile priests.

It is therefore legitimate to ask what is wrong with the image of the 'official' Church in Italy that too many people see as working alongside, collateral to, the dominant political forces in the country.

If the analyses provided promptly after every election are true, then Italian Catholics generally vote gladly using their heads. Of course, a Catholic bishop has a right to respect, veneration and obedience for what he teaches, and for what he does, pastorally, in the diocese.

Because a bishop - when he speaks of subjects like conception, birth, life, education, family, love, eros, death - is supposed to speak in obedience, which must begin with himself, to the Gospel that Christ has left mankind.

But to presume that the Catholic Church, in its entirety, or even that part of the episcopate that the newspapers refer to as 'CEI' [the Italian bishops' conference], has adopted the strategy to avail of a general crisis in ideals in order to claim to be the bearer of a specific political design, does not make ecclesiological sense.

All it takes is to visit any Italian parish in order to realize that the faithful in Italy are not exactly waiting for the 'guide' of the moment (be it Ruini, Bertone, Bagnasco or Fisichella) imagined by the media, to live and testify to that which anthropologically, culturally and socially they believe in and have always sought to express.

And although they may only be starting to grasp little by little what Benedict XVI has been teaching, even during his foreign travels among other peoples and cultures, it is also obvious that 2010 was a year of enriched reflection for contemporary Catholicism.

By contemporary Catholicism we mean a communion of fraternal local Churches that are increasingly open to the demands of evangelization, true friends to all the communities of believers around the world, who are spiritually ready (as so many martyrs and witnesses have shown in recent years) not to attenuate in any way the mystery of the Cross and everything that should serve as a goad to the 'flesh' of the world.

Therefore, Benedict XVI says, in referring to the scandals that have come to light during his Pontificate, the Catholic Church of the future cannot do less than to obey ever more closely the Pauline precept of "living the truth in love" (Eph 4,15).

Into the Chrismas grotto of 2010, Papa Ratzinger has already deposited all the important words - that are always seemingly new - in his Magisterium and that of the bishops, inviting us to dialog, to work, to courage, to political imagination, to social compactness.

Words with a content which, in the extended and often painful reflections that news reports have imposed on the Church, have made Catholicism comprehend not only its specific 'confessional culture' but are also leading to a better internalization of fundamental values even in civilian society.

It is in this that Benedict XVI sees the topos, the terrain on which the basic Gospel message must and can be embodied - through dialog, altruism, sincerity, honesty, assumption of social-political-economic responsibilities, an authentic spirit of democracy, and the tranquillity of social relationships.

Because, as John Paul II said, "Faith tells us that whatever we do for others is done for Christ". And because Jesus Christ is born every Christmas. Which one cannot say for Christian Democrats.

Like Andrea Tornielli (see preceding page), Rodari also anticipates an important new Curial nomination by Benedict XVI:


Two initiatives from the Vatican:
On condom use and China
by Paolo Rodari
Translated from

Dec. 22, 2010

After the release of Light of the World, Pope Benedict XVI's interview book with Peter Seewald, many criticisms reached the Vatican from prominent Catholics close to the Church regarding the statements made by Benedict XVI about the use of condoms.

The Pope had cited the specific case of an HIV-infected prostitute who may wish to minimize the chance of infecting a sexual partner, but the interpretations that prolfierated immediately as soon as the statements were made known, gave the impression that the Pope's statement was a first step towards revisiting Catholic teaching on artificial contraception.

Yesterday, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith intervened with a note of clarification - unusual in that it corrects the interpretations given to a non-magisterial statement by the Pope.

The CDF note says categorically that Benedict XVI was not indicating a change in the Church's moral doctrine nor in its pastoral practice. but that the use of a condom by prostitutes as cited by the Pope remains a possibility.

['Remains a possibility' is meaningless here. It was and always has been a possibility, whether the Pope mentioned it or not, and even if the condom is not generally used by prostitutes or their clients. That is why it is important to quote exactly what the note says about this:

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However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV-positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another – even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity. This understanding is in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the Church.

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The problem, however, is that the leniency advocates are extrapolating the use of the condom in inherently sinful non-contraceptive situations - as in prostitution or extra-marital sex - to its use in the marital act when one of the spouses is HIV-positive, in which the Church teaching continues to be that of abstinence.]

In the next few days, the Vatican will officially announce the name of the new secretary for Propaganda Fide, the Vatican 'ministry' in charge of Catholic missions around the world.

The post has been vacant since October when the former secretary, now-Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, was named president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to succeed German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, who retired.

The Pope's choice for #2 man in Propaganda Fide is significant. Barring any last-minute change, he is a Chinese Salesian priest who is very familiar with both the 'underground' church in China as well as with the 'patriotic' one.

Fr. Hon Tai-Fai is expected to continue the line of dialog opened by the Pope himself in his 2007 Letter to Chinese Catholics. He appears to have all the right qualifications. He has the the Pope's esteem as a professor of systematic theology at Hongkong's Tehological Seminary and as a member of the International Theological Commission. But his best advantage is his knowledge of the situation of the Church in China, which is indispensable for the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

Some have interpreted the recent Vatican note denouncing recent actions by the 'official' Church in China as an abandonment of the Pope's line in favor of one that is more hardline and intransigent.

But the nomination of Fr. Hon says the opposite - that the Vatican will continue to pursue dialog, while not giving up the right to criticize what it finds wrong.

Even if in the past few months, after having hurdled its international image problems by hosting the Summer Olympics and the latest World's Fair, the Chinese government has seemed to return to its bullying attitude towards Chinese Catholics.

Vatican relations with China are carried on through the second section of the Secretariat of State under Mons. Ettore Balestrero, underesecretary for Relations with States, who is a man of dialog and openness.

It was he who succeeded last June to have a non-resident representative named to Vietnam as the first step towards establishing full diplomatic relations. It is the same strategy that he intends to follow in China.

I am re-posting this here as a complete post, since what I posted earlier on the preceding page does not have the translation of the Holy Father's entire catechesis today - which offers us some uncommon ideas about the meaning of Christmas.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY:
Reflections on Christmas




The Pope to the faithful:
'Prepare our hearts as well
as our homes for Christmas'


22 DEC 2010 (RV) - The Vatican Nativity Scene is still tightly under wraps with only two days to go to Christmas, but on Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI told thousands of pilgrims and visitors at his general audience, that he was “delighted” that the tradition of building cribs in homes and workplaces, is still alive and moreover, growing.

Looking ahead to the twelve days of the festive season, the Pope pointed out that the Christmas crib, traditionally built during Advent is a “visible sign of our awaiting the coming of the Lord” and still capable of “evoking wonderment” in the hearts of adults and children alike.

He urged Christians worldwide to prepare themselves in the coming days, not only by decorating their homes, but more importantly by “purifying their hearts and souls”

Speaking in the Paul VI audience hall he said: “In these last days before Christmas, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s Birth and to receive the gift of his presence, which is the fulfilment of humanity’s deepest hopes and expectations. We share in the quiet joy which filled the hearts of Mary and Joseph, and all those who first welcomed the promised Saviour, who is Emmanuel, God-with-us. By taking our flesh, the Lord saved us from the sin of our first parents; now he bids us to become like him, to see the world through his eyes and to let our hearts be transformed by his infinite goodness and mercy”.

This is what the Pope said in his English greeting.

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In these last days before Christmas, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s Birth and to receive the gift of his presence, which is the fulfilment of humanity’s deepest hopes and expectations.

We share in the quiet joy which filled the hearts of Mary and Joseph, and all those who first welcomed the promised Saviour, who is Emmanuel, God-with-us.

By taking our flesh, the Lord saved us from the sin of our first parents; now he bids us to become like him, to see the world through his eyes and to let our hearts be transformed by his infinite goodness and mercy.

This Christmas, may the Christ Child find all of us spiritually prepared for his coming.

The traditional Christmas crib, which families prepare in these days, is an eloquent sign of our expectation of the Lord who comes.

May the wonderment that the crib evokes in children and adults alike bring us closer to the mystery of God’s love revealed in the incarnation of his beloved Son.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph to help us contemplate this great mystery with renewed joy and gratitude.

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience. To all of you, and especially the children, I offer my heartfelt good wishes for a serene and joy-filled Christmas!

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While the festive season usually signals a time of rest for most, in the coming days Pope Benedict XVI will be presiding over the traditional liturgical celebrations here in St Peter’s.

Mgr. Marini, master of papal ceremonies, issued the list of appointments Wednesday. Among them: the Christmas Vigil, Friday Dec. 24 at beginning at 10 pm local time; the Pope’s Christmas Message, Urbi et orbi, to the city and the world, Saturday Dec. 25, at 12 pm local time; on Friday, Dec. 31, the Pope will preside at Vespers for the feast of Mary Queen of Peace, followed by the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and the traditional 'Te Deum'. On New Year's Day, the Pope will preside at Mass at 10 am local time in St. Peter's Basilica.









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

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Dear brothers and sisters:

With the last General Audience before the Christmas festivities, we approach, in awe and wonder, the 'place' where everything began for us and our salvation, where all was fulfilled, where the expectations of the world and the human heart encounterin the presence of God.

We can now have a foretaste of that little light that radiated throughout the world from the cave in Bethlehem. In the Advent journey that the liturgy asked us to take, we have been guided to welcome with readiness and acknowledgement the great event of the coming of the Savior and to contemplate with wonder his entry into the world.

The joyous expectation which characterizes the days before the Holy Nativity is certainly the fundamental attitude of the Christian who wishes to live fruitfully this renewed encounter with him who came to live among us: Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.

Let us recover the disposition of the heart - and make it ours - in those who first welcomed the coming of the Messiah: Zachary and Elizabeth, the shepherds, the simple folk, adn especially Mary and Joseph, who personally experienced all the trepidation, but most of all, the joy, in the mystery of this birth.

All of the Old Testament constituted one great promise that was to be fulfilled with the coming of a powerful Savior. This is particularly attested to by the book of the prophet Isaiah, who tells us that the sufferings of history and of all creation were destined for a redemption that would give new energies and a new orientation to the whole world.

Thus, alongside the expectations of the personages in Scriptures, our own expectations find room and significance through the centuries, the expectations that we experience in these days, and those that will keep us upright for the entire journey of our life.

All human existence, in fact, is animated by this profound sentiment, by the desire that everything we have seen and intuited with the mind and heart to be the truest, the most beautiful and the greatest, can come to us, become concrete before our eyes, and uplift us.

"Here comes the almighty Lord: he will be called Emmanuel, God-with-us" (Entrance antiphon, Holy Mass on December 21). These days, we have frequently repeated these words. In liturgical time, which re-actualizes the mystery, He is at hand who comes to save us from sin and death - He who, after the disobedience of Adam and Eve, embraces us again and opens wide for us the access to true life.

St. Irenaeus explains it in his tract "Against heresies", when he says: "The Son of God himself comes down 'in the likeness of sinful flesh' (Rm 8,3) to condemn sin, and after condemning it, to exclude it completely from the human race. He calls on man to be the likeness of himself, to make him an imitator of Christ, to set him on the road indicated by the Father so that he may see God, who gave his son to us" (III, 20, 2-3).

Some favorite ideas of St. Irenaeus come to us here: that God with the Baby Jesus calls us to be like himself. We see what God is. And so it reminds us that we must be like God. And so we should imitate him. God has given himself to us, into our hands. We must imitate God. And finally, that in this way, we can see God.

This is a central idea in Irenaeus: Man cannot see God, he cannot see him, and therefore he is in the dark about truth, the truth about himself. But if man cannot see God, he can see Jesus. And therefore he sees God. Thus he starts to see the truth. thus he begins to live.

The Savior comes to reduce to impotence the work of evil and everything that can keep us away from God, in order to bring man back to his ancient splendor and to his original paternity.

With his arrival among us, the Lord assigns us a task: namely, to be like him, to aim for true life, to achieve seeing God in the face of Christ.

St. Irenaeus says further: "The Word of God makes his dwelling among men and makes himself a son of man in order to habituate man to perceive God and to habituate God to dwell in man according to the will of the Father. And that is why God has given us as the 'sign' of our salvation him who, born of the Virgin, is Emmanuel" (ibid.).

Even here, there is a very beautiful central idea from St. Irenaeus: We must accustom ourselves to perceive God. God is normally far from our life, from our ideas, from our actions. He cane near to us, and now we must accustom ourselves to being with God.

But then, audaciously, Irenaeus dares to say that God himself should accustom himself to be with us and in us. God must accompany us at Christmas, to accustom us to him, as God must accustom himself to us, to our poverty and frailness.

Thus the coming of the Lord cannot have any other purpose but to teach us to see and love events, the world, and everything that surrounds us, with the eyes of God himself. The Word that has become a Baby helps us to understand how God acts, in order that we may become ever more capable to let ourselves be transformed by his goodness and his infinite mercy.

In the night of the world, let us allow ourselves to be surprised once more and illuminated by this act of God which is totally unexpected: God as a Baby. Let us allow ourselves to be surprised and illuminated by the Star that flooded the universe with joy.

That the Baby Jesus, coming to us, may not find us unprepared and concerned only with making external reality more beautiful. Let the care that we put into making our streets and homes more splendid this season impel us more to predispose our spirit to meeting him who is coming to visit us, he who is true beauty and true light.

Therefore, let us purify our conscience and our life of all that is contrary to this coming: thoughts, words, attitudes and actions should urge us to do good and to contribute to achieve peace and justice in this world for every man, and in this way, to walk forward to meet the Lord.

A characteristic sign of the Nativity season is the Christmas crib. Even in St. Peter's Square, in what has become tradition, the Nativity scene is almost ready, symbolically facing Rome and the whole world, representing the beauty of the Mystery of God who became man and dwelt among us (cfr Jn 1,14).

The creche is an expression of our expectation that God is coming to us, that Jesus is near, but it is also an expression of thanks to him who decided to share our human condition in poverty and simplicity.

I am glad that the tradition remains alive - or rather, that it is being rediscovered - of setting up the Nativity scene in homes, in workplaces, in places where people gather.

This genuine testimonial of Christian faith can also offer today to all men of good will an evocative icon of the Father's infinite love for all of us. May the hearts of children and adults still be able to feel wonder in front of it.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph help us to live the Mystery of the Nativity with renewed gratitude to the Lord. Amidst the frantic activity of our days, this time gives us a bit of calm and joy, and makes us touch first hand the goodness of our God, who made himself a Baby to save us and give us new courage and new light for our journey.

This is my wish for a blessed and happy Christmas, and I address it with affection to you who are present, to your families, especially to the sick and suffering, as well as to your communities and all those who are dear to you.

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Sidelights of today's GA
Translated from the 12/23/10 issue of




Pope Benedict XVI extended 'heartfelt wishes for a happy Christmas' and the hope that 2011 may bring new progress in the ecumenical dialog to Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Innikentiy of Chersoneso, parrochial administrator in Italy of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and to Abba Yoseph, Aarchbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, after the General Audience today.

The Pipers of Matese, accompanied by the Archibshop of Campobasso-Bojano, Mons. Brigantini, performed typical Christmas melodies for the Pope, as they have done every year since 1993.

A delegation from Bolsena, led by Mayor Paolo Dottarelli, presented the Pope with fish from Lake Bolsena, continuing an ancient tradition resumed in 1976 after Pope Paul VI had visited that city.

Among other special guests today was Spanish priest José Sánchez Adalid, author of best-selling historical novels, who led a pilgrim group from his parish of Alange, in the diocese of Mérida-Badajoz.

Four new books were presented to the Pope;
- The first edition in German from the Fonti Francescane [the Franciscan order's archive of original Franciscan sources] edited by Capuchin Friar Leonard Lehmann with Protestant scholar Dieter Berg.
- Memento Aquila, a photograph book by Enzo Altorio, presented by Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums. The book documents the devastation caused by the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, especially to many cultural landmarks, and its sale is intended to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Abbot's Chapel in the Basilica of Collemaggio, which was sevrely damaged.
- The Centro San Domenico of Bologna, which hosted Cardinal Ratzinger in 1986 for a lecture on theology and the Church, presented him with a collection of writings by their founder, Fr. Machele Casali.
- Finally (photo below) , the Pope was presented with the book L'Invito alla Lettura [Invitation to reading' Joseph Ratzinger's Opera omnia. The book was published by the Vatixan publishing house to accompany the first volume of the Italian edition of Joseph Ratzinger's Complete Works.

Presenting were from left, Giovanni Maria Vian, OR editor; Pierluca Azzaro, who edited the book; historian Lucetta Scaraffia, who wrote an essay for the book; and Don Giuseppe Costa, diector of the Vatican publishing house.

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CALENDAR OF PONTIFICAL LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS

December 24, 2010 to January 9, 2011

Dec. 24, Friday
CHRISTMAS EVE
22:00 St. Peter's Basilica
CAPPELLA PAPALE
Holy Mass

Dec. 25, Saturday
NATIVITY OF THE LORD
12:00 Central Loggia of St. Peter's Basilica
'Urbi et Orbi' Benediction

Dec. 31. Friday
EVE OF THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
18:00 St. Peter's Basilica
First Vespers and Te Deum
in thanksgiving for the year past

Jan. 1, Saturday
XLIV World Day of Peace
SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
10:00 St. Peter's Basilica
CAPPELLA PAPALE
Holy Mass

Jan. 6, Thursday
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
10:00 St. Peter's Basilica
CAPPELLA PAPALE
Holy Mass

Jan. 9, Sunday
THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
10:00 Sistine Chapel
Holy Mass and Baptism rites

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Pope to deliver Christmas Eve
'Thought for the Day' on BBC

Dec. 22, 2010



Pope Benedict has recorded a Christmas message especially for the UK, to be broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Eve. It will go out as the Thought For The Day on the Today programme on Radio 4.

It is the first time that Pope Benedict has addressed a Christmas message especially for one of the countries he has visited during the year.

The BBC's David Willey says it is the Pope's way of saying thank you for what he regarded as a hugely successful trip to England and Scotland in September.

He speaks of his great fondness for Britain and asks listeners to step back for a moment to consider the meaning of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Vatican correspondent says.



Negotiations between the BBC and the Vatican went on for many months to enable the recording to take place. [If I remember right, BBC originally wanted the message given during the Pope''s visit last September.]

The Pope does not like to perform in front of teleprompters, and he chose to read his radio message in a room next to the cavernous audience hall in the Vatican, where earlier on Wednesday he had welcomed several thousand pilgrims from around the world, he adds.

Thought For The Day is broadcast within the Today programme at 0745 from Monday to Saturday.

Since 1970, it has offered approximately three minutes of personal reflection from faith leaders and believers of a variety of religious denominations.

Gwyneth Williams, the controller of BBC Radio 4, said: "I'm delighted Pope Benedict is sharing his Christmas message with the Radio 4 audience."

"It's significant that the Pope has chosen Thought For The Day to give his first personally scripted broadcast - and what better time to do so than on the eve of one of the biggest celebrations on the Christian calendar."

Austen Ivereigh, co-ordinator of the group Catholic Voices, welcomed the announcement, saying it was "another milestone" in the papacy's relations with the media.

"Just weeks after the publication of the first ever sit-down interview with a Pope comes the first ever papal Thought For The Day," he said.

"Benedict XVI is turning out to be highly communicative, adept at the kind of crisp, startling phrases which you need to use nowadays to break through the noise and willing to try non-traditional platforms to speak to contemporary society."

However, the decision was criticised by the UK's National Secular Society (NSS).

"Why isn't the Pope being subjected the same rigorous questioning that other heads of state would get?

"After the overkill from the BBC during the Pope's visit, this indicates the corporation's obsession with religion, whereas the nation is largely indifferent to it," he added

'Another milestone'
Analysis by Robert Pigott
Religious Affairs correspondent

Dec. 22, 2010


Thought for the Day is a national institution, reserving a peak-time slot for religion on "Today", BBC Radio's flagship news programme.

The slot has been controversial in the past, when it has been caught up in a wider debate about the privileges still given to religion in Britain. It was the role of religion in secular democracies that formed the central theme of Pope Benedict's message during his visit in September.

We will have to wait to hear exactly what is in the Pope's Christmas Eve message, including whether he'll renew his claim that the timeless values brought by religion are necessary to sustaining the health of democracy.

But it is clear that the Pope believes he began a conversation with secular Britain in September, and he wants to continue it. The debate about the role of religion in society is gathering pace elsewhere in Europe, but nowhere is it as intense as in the UK.

Churchgoing in Britain has become a minority activity, yet religious doctrine still has influence. For the Pope it all makes the country a key forum for the debate.


Pope's Christmas Eve message
a scoop for the BBC's Today
by Tara Conlan

22 December 2010


The BBC hailed a historic coup in securing Pope Benedict XVI to deliver the Christmas Eve message on Radio 4's Thought for the Day.

The pontiff recorded his first scripted radio or television address in Rome today, for the Today programme's religious slot.

The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, a Roman Catholic, is understood to have been involved in securing the Pope for the show. He has met the Pope and attended a service in London during the papal visit to Britain.

The unprecedented move comes at the end of a turbulent year for the Roman Catholic church in Britain, with the £10m papal visit in September marked by protests against child abuse as well as the Pope's stance on other issues, including homosexuality.

Although details of his Thought for the Day are being kept under wraps before it airs on 24 December, BBC sources said it would be a "warm Christmas message for the British people".

The National Secular Society said the BBC was "obsessed with religion". Its president, Terry Sanderson, said: "We're not happy about it. We spent most of the year chasing the pope about the allegations of child abuse within the church, particularly when he came to Britain in September.

"Nobody in the BBC was prepared to ask the difficult questions and here we are again with the BBC giving him an uninterrupted platform.

"Why isn't John Humphrys being asked to insist that the pope gives an explanation for the teachings that hurt so many people – women, gay people, those suffering with Aids because condoms are banned – and future generations through overpopulation?"

The BBC was criticised in some quarters after it gave the visit blanket coverage with more than 10 hours of live broadcasting on BBC1 and BBC2.

The Pope will join the ranks of Thought for the Day contributors such as the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, and one of the most popular and regular speakers, Rabbi Lionel Blue.

Thought for the Day was launched in 1970. Guest speakers from various faiths have two minutes and 45 seconds to reflect on topical issues.

Last year the BBC Trust rejected calls for humanists and other non-religious commentators to be allowed on the programme.

Thursday, December 23, Fourth Week of Advent

ST. JAN KANTY [JOHN CANTIUS)( (Poland, 1390-1473), Priest and Professor
Born near present-day Auschwitz, Jan went on to brilliant studies in Krakow where he was to be a professor Sacred Scriptures until his death, except for a brief early stint as a parish priest. He lived only on what was absolutely necessary and gave away all his earnings to the poor. He made four pilgrimages to Rome on foot and travelled once to Jerusalem hoping to be martyred by the Turks. Even in life, many miracles were attributed to him, and his tomb in Krakow quickly became a pilgrimage site. Canonized in 1767, he is one of the patron saints of Krakow. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who was himself a professor
priest for some time, called Jan Kanty the patron saint of academic priests. The present-day Canons Regular of St. John Cantius are dedicated to the celebration of liturgy, especially the traditional Mass.
Readings from today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/122310.shtml


OR today.

At the General Audience, Benedict XVI speaks of the mystery of Christmas
'Let us allow ourselves to wonder at a Baby'
Other Page 1 stories: Ettore Gotti Tedeschi argues that Europe would benefit by carrying out Marshall Plan-like aid to Africa as a 10-year economic report shows the continent grew at an average of 5% yearly in gross domestic product, and that emergent large economies like China and Brazil have profited well from investing in Africa; China is prepared to buy EU bonds to help the European economy; and violence spreads in the Ivory Coast in the post-election refusal of a defeated president to admit defeat. In the inside pages, excerpts from Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran's acceptance of an honorary doctorate from the Institut Catholique of Paris, in which the President of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialog argues that Catholics can speak to other faiths better if we first know our faith well enough.


No events announced for the Holy Father today.



The Vatican announced the nomination of Fr. Hon Tai-Fai of Hongkong to be the Secretary of the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide), as anticipated yesterday by the Italian media.




- Mons. Andre-Joseph Leonard, Archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen, has testified before a Belgian parliamentary commission investigating sexual offenses by priests, and his report (right now available only in French) is a model of exposition. He reports in three capacities, as former Archbishop of Namur, as present Archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen and Primate of Belgium, and as president of the Belgian bishops' conference. On the other hand, his immediatte predecessor in Brussels disowned any responsibility for abuses committed during his long tenure (almsot 30 years) as Primate of Belgium:

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Cardinal Godfried Danneels, former primate of Belgium, said Tuesday before a parliamentary commission to investigate sexual abuse by clergy that he was not responsible for other Belgian bishops.

A report published in September by a commission set up by the Church has identified 475 victims of priests, including at least 13 suicides.

Based on recordings made this summer in Belgium, Cardinal Godfried Danneels was aware of sexual abuse by the Bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, but he discouraged the victim from making an immediate public statements on this matter .

"I cannot give orders to other bishops. I have no authority over other bishops and I think that is the basis for many problems that have been cited here", Danneels defended himself.

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One shivers to think there were those who considered Danneels as a leading candidate for Pope in 2005!

- I haven't found time to post on the courageous action of Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix to wtihdraw the 'Catholic' designation from a hospital that performed an abortion with the consent of its nun-director, but Ignatius Insight Scoop
insightscoop.typepad.com/
provides the best links to get a full picture of it, and I will translate a reaction from Cardinal Raymond Burke that has appeared in the Italian media.

- Marco Tosatti, Vaticanista of La Stampa, today outdoes the Tornielli-Rodari duo in predicting imminent Curial nominees: He says the leading candidate to replace Cardinal Dias at Propaganda Fide when he retires in April is Mons. Giuseppe Bertello, now the Apostolic Nuncio in Italy. And to succeed Cardinal Rode at the very critical Congregation for Institutes for Consecrated life, Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras.

- AFP today picked up the 12/21 Croatian IKA story about the Pope's program in Croatia (posted two days ago on this thread).

- In ISSUES, I have posted a Guardian account with a misleading headline of some Wikileaked US diplomatic cables, with all sorts of idle conjectures that feed the wider context of MSM perpetrating the Black Legend about Pius XII and MSM anti-Church bias.

We finally have a reply from the Chinese government to the Vatican statement of Dec. 17, as published in Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.


China rejects Vatican's criticism
as 'very imprudent, ungrounded'


BEIJIN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) - A spokesperson of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) on Wednesday said Vatican's criticism of the recent national congress of Chinese Catholics was very imprudent and ungrounded.

In a statement dated Dec. 17, the Vatican condemned the congress, which elected the new leadership of China's Catholic church, and accused China of violating religious freedom.

The congress from Dec. 7 to 9 elected the heads and other senior members of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC).

The spokesperson said the congress, which is held every five years to amend the CCPA and BCCCC's constitutions, elect a new leadership and set future agenda, does not deal with Catholic doctrines or violate the fundamental Catholic faith, and "there is no question of getting recognition by any foreign organization or state."

The spokesperson said China's religious freedom was protected by the Chinese Constitution, and it was a misinterpretation by the Vatican to declare the incompatibility of Catholic doctrine and the Chinese Catholic church's principle of independent self-governance.

China's Constitution grants Chinese citizens freedom of religious beliefs, but requires independence of religious organizations and affairs in China from foreign influence.

Under this constitutional provision, the Catholic church and other religions in China adhered to the principle of self-governance and self-support, the spokesperson said.

The CCPA and the BCCCC endorsed this principle in their new constitutions adopted at the congress, he said.

"The BCCCC fulfills her Pastoral Mission at the Faith and Evangelization according to the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit endowed upon His Disciples," said the BCCCC's constitution.

On the dogma and moral teachings of the Church, the constitution said the BCCCC is "in union with the Successor of St. Peter, the Head of the community of the Disciples."

"Has the Vatican not read the two constitutions, or is it obscuring the boundary between faith and politics on purpose?" the spokesperson said in response to Vatican's declaration of the incompatibility of the constitutions with Catholic doctrine.

The spokesperson called the Vatican's practice of seeking to pushing political ideology through religious belief "very dangerous" and warned it could have serious percussions for the Catholic church's development in China.

A happy holiday note looking forward to April 2011 and the sixth anniversary of Benedict XVI's Pontificate...

Another Pontifical Mass in the EF
at Washington Basilica to mark
6th anniversary of B-XVI inauguration

Dec. 21, 2010

The Paulus Institute is pleased to announce that a Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated at the High Altar of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, on Saturday April 9, 2011.

The Mass will celebrate the 6th anniversary of the inauguration of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, which is April 24, 2011 (Easter Sunday this year).

The celebrant will be His Excellency Archbishop Joseph Augustine DiNoia, O.P, who will be coming from the Vatican. Archbishop DiNoia is Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, second only to the Prefect, His Eminence Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera ( who personally suggested His Excellency for this Mass).

Archbishop DiNoia will celebrate the Mass from the throne according to the Extraordinary Form, commonly called the “Traditional Latin Mass” or the “Tridentine Mass.”

Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have encouraged this use of the Roman Rite, most recently in 2007 by Pope Benedict in his papal letter Summorum Pontificum. This Mass follows the first Mass sponsored by The Paulus Institute and celebrated April 24, 2010.

The priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter will assist at the Mass, along with several priests and servers from the Greater Washington DC region.

Liturgically, this Mass will be a rare one, something few Catholics have ever had the experience of attending. It will be a Pontifical Mass, Extraordinary Form, said on Saturday in the fourth week of Lent. Rarely, we understand, is a Pontifical Solemn High Mass said in Lent.

Furthermore, the Mass of the Saturday in the fourth week of Lent takes precedence as a privileged ferial day in the traditional liturgical calendar; it can only be replaced by a feast of the 2nd class or higher.

The vestments of the Mass will be penitential violet. The Propers, however, are inspirational. Also, as a Lenten Mass there can be singing, but no instrumentation and no Gloria. Therefore, this Pontifical Mass will one rarely celebrated, of exceptional Lenten beauty, both solemn and exquisite.

The National Shrine is the largest Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere and among the ten largest in the world. The Shrine seats 3,500, with a total capacity of 6,500.

We especially encourage those Catholics to come who may not already be familiar know the Extraordinary Form. In particular, we are inviting young adults and university students, whom Pope Benedict has recognized are attracted to the Mass in the Extraordinary form. For the Mass celebrated April 24, 2010, people came from throughout the Eastern United States, and some from beyond, even one from Mexico.

The Paulus Institute follows the example of our patron saint, Saint Paul, who widely made known the Catholic Faith. Therefore, this Mass is presented for all the Catholic Faithful. We strive to enhance the appreciation of the Mass as Holy Sacrifice, to build respect for the Holy Eucharist, and to solidify belief in the Real Presence. As Pope Benedict has written—

"The Church stands and falls with the Liturgy. When the adoration of the divine Trinity declines, when the faith no longer appears in its fullness on the Liturgy of the Church, when man’s words, his thoughts, his intentions are suffocating him, then faith will have lost the place where it is expressed and where it dwells. For that reason, the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the centre of any renewal of the Church whatever".

Cardinal Burke's war against
'false Catholics' who defy
the Pope and Church teaching
by Paolo Rodari
Translated from

Dec. 23, 2010

Whether it was a step back or not [Why would it be 'a step back' in any way, unless Rodari is among those who think that the Pope had a made a doctrinal 'opening' in LOTW, and the CDF now has to draw him back???] one thing is sure: The CDF note affirming that statements made by Benedict XVI in the interview-book Light of the World, do not change Catholic teaching on sexuality [not so much on sexuality but on the use of condoms!] ought to calm down those who think that the Pope had gone too far in what he said about condom use, many of them prominent Catholic conservatives in the USA.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis (Missouri) and Prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura's Supreme Tribunal, told Il Foglio: "The issue became heated in the USA. Too many had misinterpreted what the Pope said. And too few explained that the Pope was not indicating any change in Catholic teaching. Therefore, the CDF has done something that ought to placate polemics and cool down overheated feelings".

In defense of Catholic doctrine, Burke has always been in the frontlines. In 2004, when he was Bishop of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, he asked three prominent Catholics to refrain from presenting themselves for Communion in view of their open support of abortion.

One year ago, he reproached Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston for having participated in the funeral rites for Senator Ted Kennedy because "All his life, he chose to defy Church teaching on abortion."

And he continues to come down hard on Catholics "who say they are Catholics but betray the teaching of the Church".

For example?

"In the United States, groups like Catholics for Choice, a lobby that, with the support of the media, has managed to sow confusion among the faithful. They urge impossible reforms on the Church and confuse the simple folk. It is simply absurd that Catholics can declare themselves to be 'pro-abortion'. To them I say, 'Then you are not Catholics'. And that is why the CDF note is important. Without the CDF clarification, the words of the Pope would continue to be exploited at will by progressivist groups for their own purposes".

Who can say who is Catholic or not? Cardinal Burke cites a paradigmatic case - that of St. Joseph Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

One year ago, with the consent of Sr. Margaret McBride, a nun administrator of the hospital in behalf of the Catholic Church, an abortion was performed on a woman whom her doctors claimed would otherwise have died. [I have not read up on the medical merits or demerits of the case.] The bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, excommunicated McBride, and a few days later, he withdrew the patronage of the Church from the hospital.

Burke says: "The case is emblematic and must be taken as an example. Because otherwise, anyone can call himself Catholic and openly ignore or violate what the Church teaches. Of course, it is difficult for preogressivists to remain faithful to the Catholic identity. We know, for example, that many nuns and their organizations openly advocated Obama's healthcare bill. We have a problem [with dissident nuns] even if the current apostolic visitation of nuns' orders in the USA is doing well".

One month ago, the American bishops elected Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York as president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops., which many saw as a choice against the liberal line.

Burke says: "Dolan's election is important. The bishops expect him to take strong and decisive actions". He also adds that "Now, many Catholics who voted for Obama have realized they made a mistake".

Paolo Rodari is a very enterprising journalist, but he is often careless with his words, like John Allen is - in a way, for instance, that Vittorio Messori never is, or George Weigel. So much so that five years ago, when I first started reading Rodari, I thought he was another callow beginning journalist because he was prone to imprecisions. Imprecision is just a step away from inaccuracy. Yet, too many journalists these days seem to have little respect for words and the way we say them - in that they write their news reports and commentaries the way most of us talk - using words loosely, imprecisely, and often inappropriately, which is fine for chatting, but not when you are a journalist carrying out your professional task to 'inform'. One does not inform properly by using words loosely, imprecisely and/or inappropriately.

The Ecumenical Vatican Council II:
A Much Needed Discussion
By Msgr. Brunero Gherardini
Translated into English from Italian
by the Franciscans of the Immaculate

A book review by Brian Mershon

Dec. 22, 2010

Volumes upon volumes — seemingly ad nauseam — have been written in both the popular press and within the Church over the past 40 years about the Second Vatican Council. If only so much had been written and discussed about the previous two (Vatican I and Trent) or 20 Councils...

Few, however, have responded to Pope Benedict XVI's appeal in his speech to the Roman curia in December 2005 to undertake a serious attempt to use a hermeneutic of continuity with the specific teachings of the Second Vatican Council in light of Tradition.

Indeed, a trace of this appeal was found in Ecclesia Dei Adflicta issued in 1988, when Pope John Paul II requested theologians take up this task to more explicitly show how the Council's teachings can be understood in light of Tradition.

Aside from Fathers William Most and Brian Harrison, nary a serious theologian or orthodox Catholic scholar in the English world has taken up this challenge to date.

This 300-page readable work by the notable Thomistic scholar and 86-year-old editor of Divinitas magazine who serves as a Canon of St. Peter's Basilica, and is the secretary for the Pontifical Academy of Theology and professor emeritus at the Pontifical Lateran University, is a serious initial response to these invitations of the Popes.

While Gherardini presupposes the attempt to provide an authentic interpretation of the Second Vatican Council's teachings with a hermeneutic of continuity, he believes an exhaustive analysis must be undertaken with an objective, critical and scientific analysis, and therefore he does not presume in advance that every jot and tittle of the Second Vatican Council can be squared with Tradition. This remains to be proven.

In fact, he concludes in the book that Dignitatis Humanae may indeed be difficult, if not impossible, to harmonize with the doctrine taught continuously and unambiguously by the Popes of the late 19th century up to Pope Pius XII including Humani Generis.

While acknowledging the "greatness" of the Second Vatican Council and what has become known in the past 40 years as the "para-Council event," or "the Vulgate" of the Council, as the author dubs it, Msgr. Gherardini provides an incisive analysis of the key points of dispute in the post-Conciliar era: the Tradition in Vatican II, the liturgical reform, religious freedom, ecumenism and collegiality.

The book concludes with a letter of urgent appeal to the Sovereign Pontiff to take action to clarify the disputed points of the Second Vatican Council in light of Tradition and to definitively declare the disciplinary and doctrinal weight and value of each of the documents of the Council.

[At the risk of opining completely out of my depth, I am not sure that Benedict XVI would go so far as to undertake such a sweeping task - which would make him the one-man arbiter-exegete, so to speak, of an entire Council, a presumption one would think Benedict XVI is unlikely to have. Even if Vatican II was not a doctrinal council but a pastoral one - its purpose was how to make the Church pastorally abreast with the times, not to review its doctrine - its 16 official documents still constitute part of the Church Magisterium.

The documents cannot be altered by a Pope willy nilly [or, technically speaking, motu proprio, by his own word), but they can be interpreted, and the doctrinal discussions going on with the FSSPX, which represents unalloyed (and intransigent) Tradition, are a first step to clarifying the most contentious issues in the interpretation of Vatican II. [I have not read anywhere what happens after - if and when - they reach a consensus on interpretation. Will the Pope have to submit the 'consensus' to ratification, as it were, by the full Synod of Bishops? Or will an extended Doctrinal Note from the CDF suffice?]

Beyond the issues that the FSSPX is most concerned about - and they are the most substantive issues bearing on Catholic identity in the contemporary world - I think perhaps lesser issues are pastoral rather than doctrinal, and more easily dealt with on a case to case basis. The distinction I make between doctrinal and pastoral (and this may be valid only for my personal thought process) is that doctrine concerns the basic teaching itself, whereas pastoral refers to the nitty-gritty application of specific teachings about morality and social issues to actual concrete realities in the community and individuals served by the pastor.]

Gherardini's own assessment is that the Council itself has limited its authority to that of a pastoral Council, citing then Cardinal Ratzinger's address to the Bishops of Chile in 1988 as well as the declarations of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, the theological note attached to Lumen Gentium and the declarations of the Council's theologian.

The book contains Forewords written by Bishop Mario Oliveri of Albenga, Italy, and Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, former Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, now Archbishop of Sri Lanka.

Regarding Msgr. Gherardini's appeal to the Holy Father that the ecclesiastical magisterium undertake "a grand and possibly definitive ordering of the last Council in all of its dimensions and content," Bishop Oliveri writes, "Holy Father, please allow me to be united toto corde [with all our heart] to this appeal."

Cardinal Ranjith expressed his endorsement and appreciation for Msgr. Gherardini's study of some of the key texts of the Second Vatican Council in this book: "This initiative takes on great value especially in the present context of the debate which is being undertaken about the meaning of the Conciliar teachings, above all according to the hermeneutical key proposed and valued by Pope Benedict XVI: namely that of the continuity of such teachings within the ecclesial Tradition."

In a recent interview, Superior General Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of St. Pius X opined: "I just hope there will be more than one theology professor who would begin to say such things. I think it would be a great, great help in helping to restore the Church."

Like Romero Amerio's Iota Unum, this book should be read, digested and reflected upon by every priest, religious, bishop and serious Catholic in order to gain clearer insights into doctrinal weight and authority of the Second Vatican Council documents in light of Tradition.


There is a more recent book published in Italy this month about Vatican II that has been much discussed in the Italian media: Il concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta (The Second Vatican Council: A history that has never been written), by Roberto de Mattei.

The 680-page book is considered by one reviewer as a strictly historical account of Vatican II, complementary to Gherardini's philosophical approach and Romano Amerio's theological approach, but in any case, a good starting point for a rational discussion of Vatican II beyond the progressivist biases reinforced and espoused by the Bologna school's five-volume ideological treatment of the council. In fact, I will start with Mr. de Mattei's own 'introduction' to his book in an article for LIBERO, the week the book came out in Italy:



Vatican-II caused a Catholic crisis,
not a progressivist revolution
as the liberal ideologs would have it
by Roberto de Mattei
Translated from


Forty-five years have passed since the end of the Second Vatican Council, the 21st in the history of the Church, but the problems that it raised continue to be alive and actual.

A first problem has been the relationship between the 'letter' (the texts or formal documents) of the Council and its 'spirit', respectively embodied by the opposing schools of continuity and discontinuity.

But this confrontation risks being reduced to a dialog among the deaf. The documents promulgated by the supreme ecclesial authorities in Vatican II, do not, in fact, from the theological point of view, have equal value and weight. [The three different types of Council documents should give a clue - the four key ones are labelled 'Dogmatic Constitution' (on Scriptures, the Church throughout history, the liturgy, and the Church in the mdoern world), then there are three 'declarations', including Nostra aetate, and the other nine are decrees.]

When Benedict XVI expresses some opinions in an interview, as he did in Light of the World, evidently they must be met with maximum respect because it is the Vicar of Christ who says it.

But is also evident that between an interview and a formal definition of dogma by the Pope, there is a gradation of authoritativeness that does not compel obedience from the faithful to the same degree.

The same can be said for a Church council like Vatican II, which, insofar as it is a solemn meeting of the world's bishops united with the Pope, proposed autentic teachings that are certainly not without authority. But only those who do not know theology would assign 'infallibility' to these Conciliar teachings.

If a Council has the authority that the Pope who calls it and/or who ends up leading it wants to give it, then all the pronouncements of John XXIII and Paul VI befor, during and after the Council, underline its pastoral, not doctrinal, dimension.

Benedict XVI atttributes the same pastoral intent - not doctrine-defining - to Vatican II. But the present Pope's 'hermeneutic of continuity' about Vatican-II is totally misunderstood by many Catholics, wqhether conservatice or progressivist.

The statement that Vatican II must be undertstood in its continuity with the Magisterium of the Church is based on the fact that the Conciliar documents have passages that are doubtful or ambiguous and therefore in need of interpretation.

For Benedict XVI [as it must be for any Pope, going by how he defined, in LOTW, the duty of the Pope with respect to preserving the deposit of faith intact], the criterion for interpreting any doubtful passages cannot be anything other than the Tradition of the Church, as he has made clear several times.

However, if one maintains, like the followers of the website 'Viva il Concilio' do, that Vatican II should be the interpretive key for a new reading of Tradition, then we have the paradox of giving interpretive power to the very thing that needs to be interpreted!

To interpret Tradition in the light of Vatican II, rather than the other way around, is possible only if one takes the position of Giuseppe Alberigo [the late head of the so-called Bologna school which more or less co-opted discussion of Vatican II for decades because it issued a five-volume history of the Council recounted in their ideological terms] who attributes interpretative value not to the texts of the Council but to the so-called 'spirit' of Vatican II.

That is not, of course, the position of Benedict XVI who criticizes the hermeneutic of discontinuity precisely because of the primacy that its advocates attribute to this 'spirit' over the texts.

Mons. Gherardini in his book Concilio Vaticano II: Un discoro da faredeveloped very well the correct criteria for theological interpretation.

So, either one maintains, like Gherardini does, that the doctrines of the Council that cannot be traced to previous definitions of life concepts, are neither infallible nor unreformable, and therefore not binding; or one gives the Council an authority such as to obscure the twenty other Councils of the Church, abrogating or replacing everything that those Councils taught! On this last point, there does not seem to be much difference between the Bologna school and sociologists like Massimo Introvigne who seem to attribute an infallibility to Vatican II. [But where in all of Church teaching has infallibility been assigned to a Council?]

But there is a second problem that goes beyond the discussion of continuity or discontinuity of the texts. Nor does it involve theology, but has to do with the history of the Council itself. It is the contribution I wish to make with my book Il Concilio Vaticano II: Una storia mai scritta, published by Lindau.

I do not set about to make a theological reading of the texts by evaluating their coontinuity or discontinuity with Tradition, but rather, historical reconstruction of what took place in Rome between October 11, 1962 and December 8, 1965.

It is complementary to the theological account and it should not raise anyone's hackles. In fact, one cannot understand the alarm of those who fear that this book would 'carry water' for those who believe in the hermeneutic of continuity.

Should one then not write the history of Vatican II because some may not like it? Which would therefore leave its history to be recounted only by the Bologna school which has made scientific contributions that are praiseworthy, except that they are also ideologically tendentious.

The historian who girds himself for this task cannot isolate the texts of Vatican II from the historical context in which they were produced, because as a historian, one is primarily concerned in the context rather than the texts.

In the same way Vatican-II cannot be presented as an event that began and ended in the space of three years without considering its profound roots as well as the profound consequences it has had in the Church and in society.

The conceit of separating the Council from the post-Conciliar era is just as untenable as that of separating the Conciliar texts from the pastoral context in which they were produced.

No serious historian - nor any person with common sense - would accept such artificial separations, which arise from partisanship and not from a calm and objective evaluation of facts.

Even today, we are still living through the consequences of the 'Conciliar revolution' which preceded and accompanied that of 1968. Why should we hide it? As Leo XIII said, when he opened the Vatican Archive to historians, "The Church should not fear the truth".

[Too bad de Mattei does not elaborate on the Church crisis provoked by Vatican II as he rightly says in the title of the article.]

has updated its online blurb for LOTW with this from the Archbishop of Miami, joining George Wiegel and Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput...

---

Peter Seewald's book length interview, Light of the World, allows the reader to ‘eavesdrop' on an intimate and revealing conversation with the Vicar of Christ that reveals him to be the "humble servant in the vineyard of the Lord" that he described himself as shortly after his election to the See of Peter.

Both the reader who does not count himself or herself among his flock as well as one who, like the Holy Father, calls the Church ‘Mother', can profit from engaging in this ‘conversation' with a man who continues to surprise and disarm his critics with the authenticity of his witness.

As an intellectual and as a pastor, Benedict witnesses - with great joy and unwavering hope - that God does matter.
-Mons. Thomas Wenski
Archbishop of Miami

---

And here's one review I missed earlier - unpretentious, straightforward and deeply felt - from a British writer who reviews a wide range of books including history, but is obviously Catholic.

LOTW: 'A walk for a while
with a humble and holy man'
by Francis Phillips

Dec. 9, 2010

In his introduction, journalist Peter Seewald, who interviewed the Holy Father over several hours at Castel Gandolfo for this book, points out that it is the first time a Pope has engaged in such a personal interview.

Although his questions appear at times a little convoluted and repetitive, he can rightly take credit for the scoop, for in this long ‘conversation’ Benedict XVI reveals himself in a way not possible for the public smiling figure we have seen during the papal visit or on our television screens.

What is revealed is a man at once engagingly straightforward and wholly bound up with bearing witness to the “truth, the love and the joy that comes from conversion to Christ”, as George Weigel writes in his foreword.

Prayer, the Holy Father admits, is “begging, for the most part.” It is also trusting and humble: his immediate thought on his election to the papacy was “I can’t do it. If you wanted me, then you must also help me.”

Asked by his interviewer about comparisons between his pontificate and that of John Paul II, his great predecessor, Benedict simply replies, “I am who I am.” Not surprisingly, given both the burden of his office and his radical trust in God, his private motto as Pope is, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.”

There is also humour. Asked by Seewald if, like Churchill, he would say, “No sports!” the Holy Father instantly responded, “Yes!” Not a keen goal-keeper in his youth then, unlike his predecessor.

Press speculation on his unusual headwear, the camauro, can now fall silent; it appears “I was just cold and I happen to have a sensitive head.”

A further glimpse of his personality comes through in the fact that the Holy Father brought his desk and his bookcases, as well as his books, with him to the Vatican: “I know every nook and cranny and everything has its history.” The scholarly furniture of his mind is reflected in the actual furniture of his study.

He also wears the watch his late sister Maria, who acted as his housekeeper, bequeathed to him.

Naturally, some of the conversation centred on the priesthood, a vocation which has been central to the Pope’s life for almost sixty years, since his ordination in 1951. Celibacy is possible to live “when priests begin to form communities...not to live on their own somewhere, in isolation”. [I don't think that was the sense of what he said, as though it should be a condition for celibates to live in communities - rather, that living in communities would relieve the sense of isolation that would be felt by men who have no families of their own].

But Benedict is clear that celibacy “cannot be a ‘pretext’ for bringing people into the priesthood who don’t want to get married” – a clear reference to those of a homosexual orientation. Asked about the purpose of the recently concluded Year for Priests, Benedict sees it as a year of purification, of interior renewal and “above all penance.”

This last, a frank allusion to the scandal of child abuse, has brought him great suffering; the priesthood “suddenly seemed to be a place of shame.”

Asked if he had considered resignation over the gravity of this scandal, the Pope characteristically replied, “When the danger is great one must not run away.”

Several times during the interview he touched on the “mystery of evil” – referring to the abuse, to unworthy past holders of the papal office and to the particular case of Marciel Delgollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ.

Yet even here the Holy Father was not prepared to remain in a negative stance, reflecting on “the paradox, that a false prophet could still have a positive effect.”

It will not come as a surprise to readers to learn that Benedict, although speaking with his customary care and courtesy, believes the Church has greater “spiritual kinship” and “interior affinity” with the Orthodox Church rather than with Protestantism, whose closeness to “the spirit of the modern age” has made dialogue more difficult.

Challenged over his Regensburg Address, which caused such a furore in the Islamic world, the Holy Father did not prevaricate: Islam, he stated, still needed to clarify two questions – its relationship to violence and it relationship to reason.

Yet as with other grave problems encountered in his papacy, he emphasised that hope had followed this serious crisis: 138 Islamic scholars had written to him after Regensburg, asking for dialogue.

On the subject of Bishop Williamson of the SSPX and Holocaust notoriety, Seewald was given a disarming admission: “None of us went on the internet”, the result being, in the Holy Father’s words, a “total meltdown.” Indeed, “our public relations work was a failure.”

The same could perhaps be said of the advance media publicity given to one paragraph on page 119 of the book, the Holy Father’s response to a question about condom use. So much has been written on this – and will continue to be written in the months to come – that it hardly needs to be stated here that Catholic doctrinal teaching about sex, love and relationships has not changed.

In this conversation Benedict was speaking as a pastor of souls, aware both of the gravity of sin and the mysterious possibilities of grace in the heart of a sinner. To me it brought to mind the quotation from Isaiah in St Mathew’s Gospel: “He will not break a bruised reed.”

Was such an interview imprudent, as critics have suggested? I do not think so. Everything the Holy Father said in his candid, considered responses revolves around his passionate belief in the one thing needful: coming to know God’s love and how this is manifested in Christ through the Church.

This is what the elderly interviewee in the white cassock, aware that his “forces are diminishing” and, since his election, no longer able to go for walks with his brother near his house in Pentling, Bavaria, wants to communicate.

The book is well worth reading, not in order to find loopholes in the law or to rake up controversy, but to walk for a while in the company of a humble and holy man.

Vatican emerges from WikiLeaks
as a key player on global scene
By John Thavis



VATICAN CITY, Dec. 23 (CNS) -- If there's one clear conclusion that can be drawn from the Vatican-related WikiLeaks disclosures, it's that the United States takes the Vatican and its diplomatic activity very seriously.

In memo after memo in recent years, officials of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See have reported back to Washington on the impact of papal trips, statements and documents; on the Vatican's behind-the-scenes efforts to head off conflicts; on church-state tensions in Latin America; on the evolution of Catholic teaching on bioethics; and even on the international repercussions of ecumenical affairs.

When a Vatican agency organized a conference on genetically modified foods, the U.S. embassy paid attention. When the Vatican condemned human trafficking, embassy officials met with Vatican counterparts to broaden areas of cooperation on that issue.

And when Pope Benedict XVI said in 2007 that "nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees," the embassy quickly objected, telling a high-level Vatican official that Iraq was experiencing positive developments and that the papal comments were not constructive.

Reading the cables, it's hard to imagine that before 1984, the United States did not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Today, the U.S. Embassy has five diplomatic officials and a support staff of 14, and is considered one of the busiest delegations accredited to the Vatican.

To anyone still wondering why so much attention is being paid to the world's smallest state, a U.S. Embassy cable of 2009 -- prepared for President Barack Obama ahead of his first meeting with Pope Benedict -- gave the answer:

"The Vatican is second only to the United States in the number of countries with which it enjoys diplomatic relations (188 and 177, respectively), and there are Catholic priests, nuns and laypeople in every country on the planet. As a result, the Holy See is interested and well-informed about developments all over the globe," it said.

Since that memo was written, the Vatican has established full diplomatic relations with Russia, bringing the total to 178 countries. That leaves only about 16 countries off the list, places such as China, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The Vatican also maintains delegations to nearly 20 international institutions, including the United Nations.

The WikiLeaks cables have described Vatican diplomats as generally well-informed and as influential lobbyists behind the scenes. What's amazing is that the Vatican accomplishes all this with a relatively tiny diplomatic corps -- a few hundred bishops and priests who were hand-picked and trained at a little-known diplomatic academy in downtown Rome, The Pontiofical Ecclesiastic Academy.



The academy has only 30 or so priest-students, who spend years studying papal diplomacy, diplomatic style, diplomatic history and international law. By the time they graduate, they are expected to be fluent in four languages.

Most of the graduates go on to serve at lower-level positions at a Vatican nunciature, or embassy, and are rotated to new posts after a few years. Some may be brought back for a turn at the "Second Section" of the Vatican Secretariat of State, a kind of international nerve-center where about 35 prelates keep tabs on the entire world.

Eventually, they may become papal nuncios, or ambassadors. The nuncio's job differs from that of a normal ambassador in several respects, however. For one thing, a nuncio acts not only as the pope's representative to a foreign government, but as the Pope's liaison with the local Catholic population. Much of his time, therefore, is spent dealing with internal church affairs.

In a broader sense, unlike other ambassadors, the papal nuncio is promoting a moral agenda, not the commercial or political interests of his government. A primary focus of papal diplomats in recent decades has been human rights, peaceful resolution of conflicts and protection of core social values. Those concerns show up repeatedly in the WikiLeaks cables.

In Rome, the Vatican also communicates with U.S. diplomats through various agencies of the Roman Curia, in particular the pontifical councils that deal with justice and peace, migration, health care, charity work and the family. Embassy officials seek out experts who work at these councils for briefings on the Vatican's position and -- as one can now read in detail -- report it all back to the U.S. State Department.

Vatican officials, of course, also are reading the WikiLeaks cables with interest. So far they seem unsurprised at the content. Much of the U.S. Embassy's effort seems geared toward enlarging areas of U.S.-Vatican cooperation, which has never been a secret objective.

The cables show the Vatican as open on some issues, such as human trafficking, but clearly wary of becoming too closely identified with the policies and initiatives of the world's biggest superpower.

Occasionally, there are frank assessments of differences, as in a U.S. Embassy memo from July 2001, which forecast continued problems with the Vatican over Israel, the death penalty and Iraq.

"The Vatican will continue to oppose U.S. efforts to isolate Saddam Hussein. We should recognize that the Vatican will not support our efforts in Iraq, and investigate ways to limit Vatican interference with our objectives," the cable said tersely.

The WikiLeaks cables often reveal U.S. diplomats as trying very hard to figure out the Vatican, as they deal with an institution that is both a sovereign state and the center of a global religion. One "confidential" cable boiled it down to the simplest terms: "The Vatican strives to translate its religious beliefs and its humanitarian concerns into concrete policies."

In an otherwise excellent story that goes beyond the mere 'shock value' of the leaked US State Department cables concerning the Vatican, John Thavis for some reason fails to mention the most important single factor that makes the Vatican of indispensable interest to the United States - and other major world powers, for that matter: The Pope!

The Vatican would never be considered as important as the US sees it if the Vatican and the Church were not structured as they are, in which the Vicar of Christ, spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, is also head of state. A figure universally recognized to be not just the voice of Christianity but also the world's single most compelling moral authority, who also embodies the world's two most enduring institutions - the Roman Catholic Church and the Papacy.

And obviously, Vatican diplomacy functions primarily to support the work of the Pope and the Church in proclaiming, propagating and bearing witness to the Gospel of Christ.

That is why I posted this story here, not in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread.

Friday, December 24
A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

The two paintings are from Giotto's frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi: second from left, the Institution of the Crib in Greccio, and second from right, the Nativity scene.CHRISTMAS IN GRECCIO
The Church commemorates the Christmas Eve when St. Francis instituted what has now become one of the most enduring Christmas tradition for Catholics - recreating the Nativity scene. Last year, the Holy Father dedicated his last pre-Christmas GA catechesis to that night in Greccio,
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...

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The night in Greccio, in fact, gave back to Christianity the intensity and beauty of Christmas, and educated the People of God to grasp its most authentic message, its special warmth, to love and adore the humanity of Christ.

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OR today.

The only papal story in this issue is that he visited the Secretariat of State, located in the Apostolic Palace, to view a collection of 54 Nativity scenes presented to the Vatican from Nunciatures around the world. Two Christmas stories on Page 1 is an essay on Christmas in the Siro-Occidental tradition, in Manuel Nin's series on traditions in the Christian East; and an undated handwritten brief reflection about Christmas from Paul VI.

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Christmas is the apparition of God. We will never cease to look at the universal framework of being, of history, of mankind, in the Light that appeared in Bethelehem. As when in a dark night, a light is kindled and everything around takes shape and measure, so with the appearance of Christ, everything acquires meaning and value. It is not yet the full light but enough to teach us and to fill us with wonder and a desire to know more. Christianity generates a knowledge, a gnosis, a trust in thought and in reality.

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THE POPE'S DAY


Christmas Eve Mass starting at 10:00 pm

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HAVE A BLESSED AND JOYFUL CHRISTMAS!

PRAY FOR THE HOLY FATHER AND HIS INTENTIONS.

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[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/12/2010 08:04]

THE MESSAGE

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Recalling with great fondness my four-day visit to the United Kingdom last September, I am glad to have the opportunity to greet you once again, and indeed to greet listeners everywhere as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Our thoughts turn back to a moment in history when God's chosen people, the children of Israel, were living in intense expectation. They were waiting for the Messiah that God had promised to send, and they pictured him as a great leader who would rescue them from foreign domination and restore their freedom.

God is always faithful to his promises, but he often surprises us in the way he fulfils them. The child that was born in Bethlehem did indeed bring liberation, but not only for the people of that time and place - he was to be the Saviour of all people throughout the world and throughout history.

And it was not a political liberation that he brought, achieved through military means: rather, Christ destroyed death for ever and restored life by means of his shameful death on the Cross.

And while he was born in poverty and obscurity, far from the centres of earthly power, he was none other than the Son of God. Out of love for us he took upon himself our human condition, our fragility, our vulnerability, and he opened up for us the path that leads to the fullness of life, to a share in the life of God himself.

As we ponder this great mystery in our hearts this Christmas, let us give thanks to God for his goodness to us, and let us joyfully proclaim to those around us the good news that God offers us freedom from whatever weighs us down: he gives us hope, he brings us life.

Dear Friends from Scotland, England, Wales, and indeed every part of the English-speaking world, I want you to know that I keep all of you very much in my prayers during this Holy Season.

I pray for your families, for your children, for those who are sick, and for those who are going through any form of hardship at this time. I pray especially for the elderly and for those who are approaching the end of their days.

I ask Christ, the light of the nations, to dispel whatever darkness there may be in your lives and to grant to every one of you the grace of a peaceful and joyful Christmas. May God bless all of you!

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It's a beautiful pitch-perfect Christmas Eve gift for everyone of us....How powerful simple words are when used by Benedict XVI!


The Pope on Thought for the Day:
'Mere Christianity' without
the toe-curling whimsy

December 24th, 2010


Video on
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8222744/The-Pope-delivers-Thought-for-the-Day-Christmas-mess...

The first Thought for the Day message by a Pope was what C S Lewis would have called “mere Christianity” – a Christmas Eve reminder of who Jesus was and why he was born, presented without any of the whimsical showing-off that normally makes listening to this part of the Today programme such a maddening experience.

Speaking in the Bavarian sing-song accent we remember from September, Benedict XVI spoke gratefully of his historic and joyful visit to Britain. But basically this was the full Christian message, skilfully compressed into its tiny time-frame. The Pope told us:c

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God is always faithful to his promises, but he often surprises us in the way he fulfils them. The child that was born in Bethlehem did indeed bring liberation, but not only for the people of that time and place – he was to be the Saviour of all people throughout the world and throughout history.

And it was not a political liberation that he brought, achieved through military means: rather, Christ destroyed death for ever and restored life by means of his shameful death on the Cross.

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The Saviour of all people throughout the world and throughout history. There’s no sense here of Christianity as just one among many “faith communities”. The Pope was indeed being “inclusive”, but not in the way that Thought for the Day encourages its contributors to be.

One can’t help wondering: if Benedict was an ordinary contributor who’d been required to submit his script for vetting the night before, as usually happens, would BBC Religion and Ethics – which controls the three-minute slot, much to the annoyance of the Today team – have insisted on a little PC fluffiness?

Still, this was a coup for the BBC and a touching message, the more so because the Pope said that he prays “especially for the elderly and for those who are approaching the end of their days”. At a time when popular culture obsessively associates Christmas with children, Benedict reminded us that the baby in Bethlehem was born for old and frail people, too.

He is 83 now, and in his Light of the World interview this summer confessed that he was aware of his failing physical powers. But one thing that hasn’t faded is his ability – which took the British people by surprise three months ago – to present the message of Christ in language that is simultaneously unapologetic, concentrated and gentle.


Pope makes Christmas news -
by making Christmas 'the news'
by Austen Ivereigh

Friday, December 24, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI's historic three-minute BBC broadcast this morning can be heard and read here.
news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9316000/9316977.stm

It began with words of fond recollection of his UK visit in September and ended with warm assurances of his prayers for the English-speaking people of the world, with particular intentions for the elderly, the sick and those suffering hardship.

In between was a simple and typically Benedictine message that by taking on the fragility of humanity and poverty Christ "opened up for us the path that leads to the fullness of life to a share in the life of God himself".

As you'd expect with a mainstream broadcast it was not remarkable theologically and, while expressed with his customary elegance and precision, contained no especially memorable phrases. But in its warmth it reminded me of those famous words of John XXII to the crowds in Rome to go home and give their children a hug from the Pope.

But consider this. As a quick Google news search shows, the Pope's broadcast is currently one of the leading news stories across the world. Thousands of news outlets carry the story of his unprecedented action, but then follow it with paragraphs quoting what he actually said.

Since when did phrases such as "God is always faithful to his promises, but he often surprises us in the way he fulfils them" (Reuters), "Christ destroyed death forever 'by means of his shameful death on the cross'" (Press Association), "I ask Christ, the light of nations, to dispel whatever darkness there may be in your lives and to grant every one of you the grace of a peaceful and joyful Christmas" (Daily Telegraph) lead the mainstream news?

Pope Benedict hasn't just made the news at Christmas. He's made Christmas the news.

I had to 'adapt' the ZENIT story below because the original erroneously reports that the main figures of the Nativity scene are from the Philippines. They are not. Only the lateral tableau is from the Philippines. The parts I corrected are in blue.

Vatican Nativity scene
unveiled tonight
Adapted from


VATICAN CITY, DEC. 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- On Friday, Christmas Eve, the nativity scene in St. Peter's Square will be opened, according to a tradition started by John Paul II in 1982.

The ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. and will include the participation of Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, the secretary of the governorate; and Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, president of the Central Labor Office of the Holy See.

Staged on a surface of more than 3,200 square feet, with a front of about 82 feet, the nativity scene is inspired by the Gospel and includes scenes from Palestine of the time of Jesus's birth.

At the center is the humble environment of the divine birth: a cabin inserted in a natural grotto that houses the Child Jesus, Mary and Joseph, accompanied by the silent presence of the ox and the donkey.

To one side, a building with a wooden cupola shelters nine figures -- men, women and children -- intent on playing string, wind and percussion instruments in front of a net full of fish. A boat and baskets of fruit furnish the scene indicating the main activity of the small community: fishing and cultivation of the earth.

On the opposite end of the scene, a grotto with a wooden roof gives shelter to the first witnesses of the birth: the shepherds and wise men in the act of adoring the Child God.

The traditional figures of the central Nativity scene are the nine statues from the Christmas composition prepared in 1842 by St. Vincent Pallotti in the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. They are cared for by the Vatican community of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, to whom has been entrusted the making of the clothes of different personages.

The Philippine contribution to this year's tableau are panels depicting the Filipino Christians (described in the article below from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

The Filipon theme was adapted to anticipate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the Philippines to be celebrated next year on April 8.

The sculptures highlight the values of the Filipino family, traditionally assimilated at home, where the father is "the pillar" and the mother is "the light" that illumines and orients the members of the domestic nucleus in the course of life.

The creator of the statues is Filipino sculptor Kublai Ponce Millan of Cotabato City, who with his work called "Nativity" wished to express the Christmas atmosphere of his land and celebrate the gift of that day received with joy and gratitude by his people.

The inauguration of the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square will be followed at 6 p.m. by another ceremony: the lighting by Benedict XVI of the "light of peace" placed on the windowsill of his private study.

The Pope will visit the manger scene on the afternoon of Dec. 31, after the celebration of vespers in St. Peter's Basilica.


From the site of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP):

Filipino figurines showcased
in Vatican Nativity scene


MANILA, Philippines – A set of nine Filipino figures made by Filipino sculptor Kublai Ponce-Millan will form part of the Nativity scene to be put on display in Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican beginning Dec. 24.

The Philippine figurines depict a Filipino family in a boat, pulling in a net with a plentiful catch from the sea.

The other figures are portrayed playing different indigenous musical instruments. The tableau will be decorated with baskets filled with different Philippine tropical fruits, vegetables, fishes and shells, highlighting the bountiful harvest of the earth and the sea in the archipelago.

The sculptures represent different indigenous groups of the Philippines in a festive celebration of faith, music, food and family on the occasion of the birth of Jesus.

Ponce-Millan, based in Davao,on the island of Mindanao, in southern Philippines, started working in August after Philippine ambassador to the Vatican Mercedes Tuason presented the project to the governorate of the Vatican City state as part of the launching activities of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the Holy See.

“To include the Filipino figures at the Vatican nativity scene will surely be most meaningful for all Filipinos, knowing that the solemnity of Christmas is perhaps the most popular celebration among Filipino Catholics,” Tuason said in her letter to Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the governorate of Vatican City.

Delighted with this proposal, Cardinal Lajolo reportedly responded, “This gesture would be meaningful for the vast Filipino community in Italy, a hardworking community of great faith and family values.”

Under the supervision of the Technical Services of the governorate of the Vatican City state, around 35 workers began work on the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s square in early November.

The tradition of displaying Nativity scenes at the Vatican started during the time of the late Pope John Paul II. It is considered one of the most viewed Nativity scenes in the world.



Earlier this month, the Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost) issued a set of four Christmas stamps to commemorate the pcoming 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Philippines which will be celebrated in 2011.

The Christmas 2010 stamps feature the traditional “Belen” representing the infant Jesus with the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. One of the four stamps features the Holy Family in Filipino attire with the majestic dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as background.

The three “parols” (Christmas lanterns) on the upper left-corner of the stamp represent Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippine Archipelago.

The special Christmas stamp 2010 highlights not only the diplomatic relations but also the special bond of communion between the Holy See and the Philippines centered on the Holy Family.

The Nativity figures in the stamp that features St. Peter's Dome were drawn by the sculptor of the auxiliary Philippine figures for the Vatican creche this year. Nary and Joseph are dressed as Filipino peasants.

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NB: The Filipino term for the Nativity scene set up during the Christmas season is Belen, the Spanish form of Bethlehem. (The Spaniards introduced Christianity to the Philippines in 1521, and colonized the country until 1896, when US troops defeated the Spaniards in Manila Bay, and the US went on to rule the Philippines till 1946.)

Belens can be seen in homes, churches, schools, office buildings and most institutions, including government buildings. The institutional Belens can be extravagant, using different materials for the figures and using Christmas lights, the distinctive anf fantasy-inspired star-shaped lanterns caled 'parol' (corruption of the Spanish 'farol' for lantern), and painted background scenery.

Filipinos also have the longest Christmas season in the world - it starts on December 16, the first night of the dawn-Mass Christmas novena, and ends on the day of the Chinese New Year in late January or early February.

'Pasko', the Filipino term for Christmas, is a corruption of the Spanish 'Pascua'! .

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The Christmas liturgies:
Celebrating the mystery
of the Incarnation with the Pope
An interview with Mons. Guido Marini
by Gianni Cardinale
Translated from

December 24, 2010

ROME - The Christmas season is rich with liturgical moments that are highly significant, and in Rome, solemnly celebrated by Benedict XVI. We spoke about the season's liturgy with Mons. Guido Marini, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations.

"These celebrations", he said, "starting with Christmas Eve Mass, lead the faithful to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. The Church once more feels all the enchantment at the beauty of God's mystery in revealing himself as 'God with us', the Savior who is surprising and infinitely great in his love."

"Indeed, the characteristic note of the Christmas Eve Eucharistic celebration is wonder, and consequently, overwhelmingly joyful gratitude."

Has Benedict XVI introduced any significant 'novelties'?
Not particularly. But it's worth recalling a couple of minor changes that will once again be observed this year. The Kalenda - the ancient solemn announcement of the Nativity once intoned within the Mass, is now sung at the end of the prayer vigil preceding the midnight Mass. Likewise, the floral homage by children to the Baby Jesus - which once took place during the Gloria - now takes place after the Mass, when the Holy Father venerates the Nativity scene inside St. Peter's Basilica.

When the Holy Father imparts his Christmas blessing urbi et orbi on Christmas Day, is that a liturgical act?
It is a specially solemn Benediction to which a plenary indulgence with the usual conditions is attached. It is a very evocative Christmas gesture because the Holy Father addresses the whole world and all peoples, as symbolized by the many languages in which he expresses his Christmas greetings.

On December 31, Benedict XVI will lead the traditional year-end Te Deum. What is the significance of this liturgy?
First, the Te Deum is sung at the end of every Vespers celebration. But at the end of the year, the Church addresses the Lord, prostrating herself in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and raises this hymn of thanks to acknowledge the actions of the providential and good Lord in the year just past.

At the same time, the Church is aware that she must invoke the mercy of God for the sins of her children who look to the coming year with humble and renewed hope. Giving voice to these 'movements of the heart' are the final words of the Te Deum: "Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy... You are our hope, let us never be confounded".

On January 1, the Church observes the World Day of Peace. What is the liturgical significance of what the secular world calls New Year's Day?
First of all, we must not forget that the first day of the year is liturgically the Solemnity of the Most Holy Mother of God. Which Paul VI recalled in his message for the very first World day of Peace.

The liturgical sense of the first day of the year is to find in Christ, the Prince of Peace, the true source of peace in our hearts, among peoples and among nations.

And we invoke Mary, Mother of our Lord, so that we may obtain the gift of peace in the coming year through her maternal and powerful intercession.

January 6 is the Solemnity of the Epiphany. What is the real meaning of this feast?
It is the day on which the Church celebrates the manifestation of the Lord to the Three Wise Men from the East. The Magi, who represent the peoples of all nations and in all times, recognized and honored the Baby of Bethlehem as the Lord, the King who came to save the world.

In this sense, January 6 is the day on which the Church lives with particularly intensity her universal catholic dimension. Jesus Christ is the one and true Savior of the world. Every man needs him in order to find himself and to be saved. So his disciples feel with great intensity the power of the mandate of Jesus to announce his Gospel to the very ends of the earth.

I would also like to point out that for this solemnity, the liturgy contains the so-called 'Announcement of Easter' - by which it is clear that Jesus's manifestation to the Magi was the first act of a series of epiphany/manifestations woven into the fabric of his earthly life.

Finally, Sunday, January 9, is the feast of the Lord's Baptism, which the Pope will celebrate in the Sistine Chapel. Will the celebration this year also be versus altarem?
Yes. And this year, too, the Holy Father will once again administer Baptism - to 22 babies - facing the Crucifix, since the rite takes place within the Eucharistic celebration.

It should no longer be surprising that the Pope celebrates Mass at the Sistine Chapel's original altar as it was used in the past without altering it, especially in a place like the Sistine Chapel with its architectural beauty and harmony.

On the other hand, it should be amply clear by now that even in the ordinary form (Novus Ordo), the celebration of Mass, theologically and spiritually, is always 'towards the Lord', even in what has become the habitual position of the priest facing the assembly. This is the reason why the Holy Father, when he celebrates Mass 'facing the people', has the Crucifix on the altar in front of him, which orients both the celebrant and the assembly towards the Lord.

Out of curiosity - the Holy Father often wears liturgical vestments that are 'daunting'. What criteria are used to choose what he wears when?
Actually, it would be curious if the Holy Father, or any other Mass celebrant, wore liturgical vestments that are shabby and banal.

In liturgy, wherever possible, everything should contribute to that simple and noble beauty of the rite to be capable of evoking the beauty of God's mystery that is being celebrated.

One must recall what the Holy Father said in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during his apostolic visit to France:

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The beauty of our celebrations can never be sufficiently cultivated, fostered and refined, for nothing can be too beautiful for God, who is himself infinite Beauty. Yet our earthly liturgies will never be more than a pale reflection of the liturgy celebrated in the Jerusalem on high, the goal of our pilgrimage on earth. May our own celebrations nonetheless resemble that liturgy as closely as possible and grant us a foretaste of it!

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Vatican Nativity scene unveiled -
and the Pope lights the candle of peace









Pope opens Christmas amid security fears
due to past Vatican breaches and Rome letter bombs
by Nicole Winfield



VATICAN CITY, Dec. 24 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI is ushering in Christmas with an evening Mass on Friday amid heightened security concerns following the package bombings at two Rome embassies and Christmas Eve security breaches at the Vatican the past two years running.

Benedict kicked off the holiday as night fell by silently lighting a candle in his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. Heavy rains kept the traditionally large crowds to a minimum.

At 2100 GMT, Benedict will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. During that service in 2008 and 2009, a mentally disturbed woman lunged at the pope — and last year managed to pull him to the ground as he processed down the aisle.

Security was expected to be vigilant as a result, and also due to Thursday's package bombings at the Swiss and Chilean embassies, for which anarchists claimed responsibility. The two people who opened the envelopes were injured.

The bombings added to tensions in the capital following a violent, anti-government protest last week in the historic centre and a fake bomb found Tuesday on a Rome subway.

All eyes Friday were expected to be on the crowds inside St. Peter's — particularly on anyone wearing a red hooded sweat shirt. For the past two years in a row during Christmas Eve Mass, a woman wearing a red sweat shirt has lunged at the pope as he walked down the main aisle.

The Vatican has identified her as Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national with a history of psychiatric problems.

In 2008, the Pope's security detail blocked her from getting to him. But in 2009, she jumped the wooden security barrier along the aisle, grabbed Benedict's vestments and pulled him to the ground as the Pope's bodyguards toppled her.

The Pontiff wasn't hurt and after a few seconds on the ground got up and continued with his processional entry and the Mass. But Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a retired Vatican diplomat who was near the Pope, suffered a broken hip in the fall.

Maiolo was treated for some time at a clinic in Rome, and Benedict's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, visited her there. Three weeks later, Maiolo and her family met privately with the Pope at the Vatican and the Pontiff forgave her.

The Vatican reviewed security procedures after the knockdown. But officials have long warned there will always be risks to the Pontiff since he is regularly surrounded by tens of thousands of people for his weekly audiences, Masses, papal greetings and other events.

And the context in the region of where the first Christmas took place, as we prepare to welcome the birth of the Christ Child...

Christmas joy mixed with threats
for Mideast Christians



BAGHDAD, Dec. 24 (AFP) - Christians in the Middle East prepared on Friday to celebrate Christmas, some in fear of attacks against their community, as in Iraq, and others in the most discreet way possible, as in Saudi Arabia.

For Iraq's battered Christian community, threats of attacks from Al-Qaeda and mourning for the victims of an October massacre at a Baghdad church have turned a normally festive season into one of fear and sadness.

Many Mass gatherings in Iraq were cancelled on Friday, and Saturday services will be held during the morning for safety reasons.

Security measures have been stepped up after Al-Qaeda threats against Christians, with protective walls erected around some churches and the number of soldiers and police guarding churches strengthened.

On October 31, militants laid siege to Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation church, leaving 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel dead in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Ten days later a string of attacks targeted the homes of Christians in Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 33 others.

On Friday, Chaldean Catholic archbishop Monsignor Louis Sarko said in a message from Kirkuk that Iraqi Christians must remain steadfast, despite their fears.

"Today we are living a painful experience in Iraq, which reached its peak with the massacre at Our Lady of Salvation, which touched both Christians and Muslims. But we must persevere in the face of disaster," Sarko said.

"We will not surrender to division and frustration," he said.

Father Saad Sirop Hanna, the priest of the Saint Joseph Chaldean Catholic church in central Baghdad, told his congregation at a Christmas Eve service: "Do not fear -- that is the message today."

In Saudi Arabia, Christians will be as discreet as possible in their Christmas celebrations, as the Gulf kingdom forbids the overt practice of any religion but Islam.

In the capital Riyadh, there are no signs of the Christmas season.

"We don't do much for Christmas; we have to be careful," said Raul, one of the more than one million mostly Christian Filipino migrant workers in the country, who along with two other fellow welders from Pangasinan were doing their weekly shopping at the popular Pinoy supermarket in Riyadh.

"I put up some Christmas lights in my apartment, and made a tree in the shop," said Valentin, a metal shop worker from Cavite. "You can't buy a Christmas tree in Saudi Arabia."

Religious services take place, but are exceedingly hush-hush. The state oil giant Aramco, with thousands of non-Muslim employees, has long allowed services in its tightly guarded compounds in Eastern Province.

Foreign communities also organise their own services, though most of the Christians in the country do not have access.

Although private worship in homes is protected under government orders, many Saudis including the religious police are not aware of that and so Christians are particularly cautious of attracting attention.

In other Gulf oil monarchies, major shopping centres have been particularly lively, with shoppers drawn to decorations and Christmas presents.

Various hotels in the United Arab Emirates have decorated trees, with one in Abu Dhabi housing a 13-metre-high (42 foot) version decorated with jewellery said to be worth more than 11 million dollars (8.4 million euros), making it "the most expensive Christmas tree ever."

In shopping areas of the Syrian capital Damascus, Christmas ornaments, toys, Santa Claus suits and sweets can be found.

And Christmas trees have been put up in some Syrian cities, including one in Safita near Tartus in the country's east that is 18 metres (60 feet) tall and has 3,200 lights, with a large nativity scene nearby.

Lebanon, a tiny multi-confessional Mediterranean state that is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state, is one of the few countries in the region where Christians have full religious freedom.

Christmas celebrations there transcend the multitude of religious communities, members of which formed often sectarian-based militias in Lebanon's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.

Many Muslim families have Christmas trees and decorations, and gifts and Santa Claus are social phenomena in the country which is caught up in a frenzy of buying that would match many Western states.

Mass is held in Christian communities across Lebanon, including those in religiously mixed areas.

South of the border, crowds of tourists and Palestinians flocked into the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, to celebrate Christmas.

Bethlehem bounces back
in time for Christmas
By Matt Beynon Rees

Dec. 24, 2010

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — For the first time in years, the people of Bethlehem have something more to celebrate at Christmas than the recollection of an important birth in their town 2,000 years ago.

After the city’s economy was devastated by the Palestinian intifada over the last decade, Bethlehem’s economic recovery has picked up pace in the last year with gross domestic product rising by 9 percent.

This Christmas the city’s streets are packed with tourists and pilgrims, and if the Holy Family were to arrive today they would, once more, discover that there’s no room at the inn — Bethlehem’s hotels are filled to capacity.

Locals see this as an important marker on their road back to normality. “Tourists are coming. Things are all right in Bethlehem,” said Walid Zawahra, a taxi driver.

Zawahra stood beside his yellow Mercedes cab, watching tourists pour through the massive gate in Israel’s security wall around Bethlehem. The gate is opened only once a year, for Christmas, so that the Roman Catholic Patriarch can enter in procession with his entourage from Jerusalem. The rest of the year, visitors must pass through a smaller entrance at the nearby checkpoint.

Security remains a factor, however. The streets beyond the gate were closed to traffic. Palestinian security forces were out in force on the roads around Rachel’s Tomb, which Jews believe to be the site of the burial of the biblical matriarch and where Israeli soldiers still stand guard.

The tomb, which has taken on the dimensions of a fortress in the last decade, is a frequent point of friction between the soldiers and Palestinian rioters, and the authorities don’t want Christmas marred by any violence.

The Church of the Nativity, which stands over the site of Jesus’s birth, opened Friday after a 24-hour security closure, as police swept it for bombs before the Patriarch’s arrival for Midnight Mass.

In Manger Square, outside the church, two new cafes have been doing a bumper business, hosting local families and tourists late into the night. A stage built against the buttresses of the Armenian monastery at the front of the church hosted live musical performances in the evening.

The Bethlehem area also has something novel to entertain its young people — namely, something to do after dark. Until recently, youngsters in Bethlehem complained that their city shut down at twilight.

Two night clubs opened in the last few months in the largely Christian district of Beit Jala. One of them is named Taboo, because it serves pork and, therefore, contravenes the proscriptions of Islam by which most West Bank restaurants operate.

The intifada, which began in 2000, devastated Bethlehem’s tourist-oriented economy. Almost 90 percent of the souvenir shops in the city closed. Many of the city’s residents emigrated to the United States or South America. Most of those who left were Christian Palestinians, making a shrinking minority feel even more threatened.

This year, the relative quiet has encouraged tourists to return. The Palestinian Tourism Ministry says a record 1.5 million people have visited Bethlehem this year, 60 percent more than last year.

The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce says there are 31 hotels operating in the city, compared to only six in 1995. Three more hotels are under construction.

Officials at the Chamber of Commerce add that the biggest disco in the Middle East will begin construction in Bethlehem in March.

As always in the Middle East, there remain plenty of reasons to cry “Humbug” in the face of this Christmas spirit. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are stymied, meaning that there’s always the chance violence could engulf Bethlehem once more.

And local Christians point out that their numbers have dwindled to a mere 2 percent of the West Bank population, raising the possibility of future Christmases more or less without Christians.

But the city the Patriarch enters today is more attuned to the message of hope inherent in the Christmas holiday than it has been for years.

Benedict XVI at the Grotto
of the Nativity, Bethlehem
May 13, 2009


Photos on the left, above, and inset of the Nativity 'starburst' marker which Tradition says marks the spot where the Christ Child was born, are stock photos to make the context of the Nativity chapel clearer. It is located in the underground crypt of the Church of the Nativity.

CHRISTMAS EVE MASS



Libretto illustrations from a 12th century Evangelarium from the Benedictine monastery of Pruem, Bibliotheque National de France, Paris.







Here is Vatican Radio's translation of the Holy Father's homily tonight:

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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

“You are my son, this day I have begotten you” – with this passage from Psalm 2, the Church begins the liturgy of this holy night.

She knows that this passage originally formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of Israel. The king, who in himself is a man like others, becomes the “Son of God” through being called and installed in his office.

It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive act by which he grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into his own being.

The reading from the prophet Isaiah that we have just heard presents the same process even more clearly in a situation of hardship and danger for Israel: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder” (Is 9:6).

Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. As one newly born through God’s personal choice, as a child born of God, the king embodies hope. On his shoulders the future rests. He is the bearer of the promise of peace.

On that night in Bethlehem this prophetic saying came true in a way that would still have been unimaginable at the time of Isaiah. Yes indeed, now it really is a child on whose shoulders government is laid. In him the new kingship appears that God establishes in the world. This child is truly born of God.

It is God’s eternal Word that unites humanity with divinity. To this child belong those titles of honour which Isaiah’s coronation song attributes to him: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6).

Yes, this king does not need counsellors drawn from the wise of this world. He bears in himself God’s wisdom and God’s counsel. In the weakness of infancy, he is the mighty God and he shows us God’s own might in contrast to the self-asserting powers of this world.

Truly, the words of Israel’s coronation rite were only ever rites of hope which looked ahead to a distant future that God would bestow. None of the kings who were greeted in this way lived up to the sublime content of these words.

In all of them, those words about divine sonship, about installation into the heritage of the peoples, about making the ends of the earth their possession (Ps 2:8) were only pointers towards what was to come – as it were, signposts of hope indicating a future that at that moment was still beyond comprehension.

Thus the fulfilment of the prophecy, which began that night in Bethlehem, is both infinitely greater and in worldly terms smaller than the prophecy itself might lead one to imagine.

It is greater in the sense that this child is truly the Son of God, truly “God from God, light from light, begotten not made, of one being with the Father”.

The infinite distance between God and man is overcome. God has not only bent down, as we read in the Psalms; he has truly “come down”, he has come into the world, he has become one of us, in order to draw all of us to himself.

This child is truly Emmanuel – God-with-us. His kingdom truly stretches to the ends of the earth. He has truly built islands of peace in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist. Wherever it is celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God’s own peace.

This child has ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to overcome the tyranny of might. This child builds his kingdom in every generation from within, from the heart. But at the same time it is true that the “rod of his oppressor” is not yet broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the “garment rolled in blood” (Is 9:4f) still remains.

So part of this night is simply joy at God’s closeness. We are grateful that God gives himself into our hands as a child, begging as it were for our love, implanting his peace in our hearts.

But this joy is also a prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in blood come to an end. Fulfil the prophecy that “of peace there will be no end” (Is 9:7).

We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to show forth your power. Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in the world – the “kingdom of righteousness, love and peace”.

“Mary gave birth to her first-born son” (Lk 2:7). In this sentence, Saint Luke recounts quite soberly the great event to which the prophecies from Israel’s history had pointed.

Luke calls the child the “first-born”. In the language which developed within the sacred Scripture of the Old Covenant, “first-born” does not mean the first of a series of children. The word “first-born” is a title of honour, quite independently of whether other brothers and sisters follow or not.

So Israel is designated by God in the Book of Exodus (4:22) as “my first-born Son”, and this expresses Israel’s election, its singular dignity, the particular love of God the Father.

The early Church knew that in Jesus this saying had acquired a new depth, that the promises made to Israel were summed up in him. Thus the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus “the first-born”, simply in order to designate him as the Son sent into the world by God (cf. 1:5-7) after the ground had been prepared by Old Testament prophecy.

The first-born belongs to God in a special way – and therefore he had to be handed over to God in a special way – as in many religions – and he had to be ransomed through a vicarious sacrifice, as Saint Luke recounts in the episode of the Presentation in the Temple.

The first-born belongs to God in a special way, and is, as it were, destined for sacrifice. In Jesus’S sacrifice on the Cross ,this destiny of the first-born is fulfilled in a unique way. In his person he brings humanity before God and unites man with God in such a way that God becomes all in all.

Saint Paul amplified and deepened the idea of Jesus as first-born in the Letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians: Jesus, we read in these letters, is the first-born of all creation – the true prototype of man, according to which God formed the human creature. Man can be the image of God because Jesus is both God and man, the true image of God and of man.

Furthermore, as these letters tell us, he is the first-born from the dead. In the resurrection he has broken down the wall of death for all of us. He has opened up to man the dimension of eternal life in fellowship with God.

Finally, it is said to us that he is the first-born of many brothers. Yes indeed, now he really is the first of a series of brothers and sisters: the first, that is, who opens up for us the possibility of communing with God.

He creates true brotherhood – not the kind defiled by sin as in the case of Cain and Abel, or Romulus and Remus, but the new brotherhood in which we are God’s own family. This new family of God begins at the moment when Mary wraps her first-born in swaddling clothes and lays him in a manger.

Let us pray to him: Lord Jesus, who wanted to be born as the first of many brothers and sisters, grant us the grace of true brotherhood. Help us to become like you.

Help us to recognize your face in others who need our assistance, in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to become one family, your family.

At the end of the Christmas Gospel, we are told that a great heavenly host of angels praised God and said: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Lk 2:14).

The Church has extended this song of praise, which the angels sang in response to the event of the holy night, into a hymn of joy at God’s glory – “we praise you for your glory”. We praise you for the beauty, for the greatness, for the goodness of God, which becomes visible to us this night.

The appearing of beauty, of the beautiful, makes us happy without our having to ask what use it can serve. God’s glory, from which all beauty derives, causes us to break out in astonishment and joy. Anyone who catches a glimpse of God experiences joy, and on this night we see something of his light.

But the angels’ message on that holy night also spoke of men: “Peace among men with whom he is pleased”. The Latin translation of the angels’ song that we use in the liturgy, taken from Saint Jerome, is slightly different: “peace to men of good will”.

The expression “men of good will” has become an important part of the Church’s vocabulary in recent decades. But which is the correct translation? We must read both texts together; only in this way do we truly understand the angels’ song.

It would be a false interpretation to see this exclusively as the action of God, as if he had not called man to a free response of love. But it would be equally mistaken to adopt a moralizing interpretation as if man were so to speak able to redeem himself by his good will.

Both elements belong together: grace and freedom, God’s prior love for us, without which we could not love him, and the response that he awaits from us, the response that he asks for so palpably through the birth of his son.

We cannot divide up into independent entities the interplay of grace and freedom, or the interplay of call and response. The two are inseparably woven together. So this part of the angels’ message is both promise and call at the same time.

God has anticipated us with the gift of his Son. God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways. He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed.

God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he begins afresh with us. But he is still waiting for us to join him in love. He loves us, so that we too may become people who love, so that there may be peace on earth.

Saint Luke does not say that the angels sang. He states quite soberly: the heavenly host praised God and said: “Glory to God in the highest” (Lk 2:13f). But men have always known that the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that above all on this night of joyful proclamation, it was in song that they extolled God’s heavenly glory.

So this angelic song has been recognized from the earliest days as music proceeding from God, indeed, as an invitation to join in the singing with hearts filled with joy at the fact that we are loved by God.

Cantare amantis est, says Saint Augustine: singing belongs to one who loves. Thus, down the centuries, the angels’ song has again and again become a song of love and joy, a song of those who love.

At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth, angels and men. Yes, indeed, we praise you for your glory. We praise you for your love. Grant that we may join with you in love more and more and thus become people of peace. Amen.

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Other than Fulton Sheen back in the 1960s, I have not followed - or read - any homilist before April 19, 2005, but I do not cease to marvel at Benedict XVI's homilies, which are not only inspiring and uplifting, but even erudite informative - but totally accessible - on many levels. On major occasions, they are a virtual lectio divina, like tonight's was....

No Christmas Eve scare this time, thank God! I was a bit worried that Papino's voice sounded weak at the start of the Mass, but he was just warming up. By the time he got to the Canon, he even chanted the 'Per ipsum and cum ipsum' in what sounded like a tenor pitch! At the Consecration, how gracefully and nimbly he kneels and gets up again in one fluid motion! How many 83-year-olds can do that?...



Pope Benedict XVI says Christmas Mass
in peaceful circumstances despite
heightened security alert in Rome
by Nina Mandell

Friday, December 24th, 2010



With security heightened, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed in Christmas at the Vatican in the most peaceful ceremony in years.

Keeping with tradition, the Pope walked down the aisle of St. Peter's Basilica, stopping several times to bless babies held up for him at the mass.

While no worshippers seemed to act out of the ordinary, Vatican officials were on high alert. For the past two years, a deranged woman has tried to lunge at Benedict as he passed – last year she succeeded, pulling the elderly man to the ground.

Benedict later visited the woman, identified as a Susanna Maiolo, and told her later at a private meeting that she was forgiven. Maiolo reportedly suffered from mental illness.

This year, guards were looking at more than crazed worshippers. Security was heightened following bombings at embassies across Rome earlier this week, which were said to be caused by anarchist groups.

But this year, the Christmas season began peacefully.

The Pope recalled the birth of Jesus and prayed for the usual Christmas themes: peace on earth, personal responsibility and the importance helping others.

Earlier today, the first broadcast by a serving Pontiff spoke to BBC listeners about the meaning of Christmas, the Telegraph reported, where he remembered fondly his visit to the United Kingdom.



As there were many newsphotos of tonight's Mass, I will place them in the next post...

CHRISTMAS EVE MASS
Photo Supplement






The image of the Madonna used this year is a 15th-century painting by Pinturichhio.

















Unfortunately, as usual, newsphoto coverage of the Mass is very spotty in terms of covering the essential parts of the liturgy.

I missed seeing the ff John Allen post earlier, but I want to post it for the record. In it, Allen blogs on a comparison between the Holy Fahter's presentation of the sex abuse scandal in his Dec. 20 address to the Roman Curia and the views of a dissident priest, Fr. Thomas Doyle, who has collaborated actively with lawyers prosecuting the Church on behalf of abuse victims. Allen himself acknowledges the disparity of the side by side comparison but makes it nonetheless - wthout any attempt to rebut the outrageous allegations made by Doyle, whose 'side' is presented as the summary of a 22-point memo he sent Allen commenting on Allen's previous presentation in November of a zsession he and George Weigel had for a Washington DC group, in which both of them weighed in on the Vatican's general and sometimes disastrous communications failures.... Allen's very title, 'Benedict XVI and Tom Doyle on the sex abuse crisis' is objectionable and almost offensivelky presumptuous, in that it assumes the reader must know who 'Tom Doyle' is, that he must be as much a household name as Benedict XVI...

ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/benedict-xvi-and-tom-doyl...

NCR keeps all of John Allen's poss online indefinitely, so I will forego posting the actual blog which is mostly unpleasant. My main objection to Doyle and his ilk is that they are completely blinded by their animus against the Church and will not see anything good whatsover about her, especially not in anything that has to do with the sex abuses by priests. How can Doyle and priests like him call themselves Christian if they lack the least modicum of charity in them?