BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Saturday, February 19, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

ST. CORRADO (Conrad) DA PIACENZA (Italy, 1290-1350), Lay Franciscan, Hermit
Corrado and his wife both belonged to nobility in Piacenza, central Italy. One day, during a hunt,
he accidentally set fire to a field that spread to the nearby forest. A peasant was accused and
sentenced to death for the crime. Corrado owned up and had to indemnify all the damages. This
drained his personal resources, and soon thereafter, he and his wife entered the religious life.
She joined the Poor Clares. He joined the Third Order of Franciscans, where he soon earned such
a reputation for holiness and received so many visitors that he left for Noto, in Sicily, where he
lived for 36 years until his death as a hermit. He was a reputed miracle-worker even in his solitary
life of prayer. He is said to have died on his knees before a Crucifix. For some reason, he is invoked
to cure hernias. He was canonized in 1625.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/021911.shtml


OR today.

Benedict XVI to second batch of Filipino bishops on ad limina visit:
'The Gospel has implications on individual life and society'
Other Page 1 news: A commentary on the coming G20 summit in Paris which could well be dominated by the BRICS emerging giant economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) rather than the Western industrial nations who have failed to come out of the financial crisis that hit the world in September 2008; government repression fails to quell popular uprisings in Libya and Bahrain, as similar unrest starts in Djibouti (on the horn of Africa); Belgium sets a dubious record for failure to name a government for 250 days as of yesterday, and counting. In the inside pages, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest, president of the Conference of Catholic Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CEEC), reiterates Benedict XVI's mesaage that there can be no peace without religious freedom, to a Belgrade joint meeting of the CEEC and the Council of European Churches; and two new books assess the impact of Paul VI's Humanae vitae encyclical 40 years after it was written.

NB: Note the use once again by OR of an almost meaningless, too generic and puzzling photo choice to illustrate the Pope's meeting with Philippine bishops on Page 1 (I used an sinde page photo and a Vatican Radio photo to at least show the Pope better and some faces! Where in the world of journalism are anonymous backs of heads used to convey anything about a specific event?), and the equally generic headline. Were it not that the headline is apparent in the photo, I am often sorely tempted to give a more appropriate and compelling headline than the insipid headlines that the OR gives to the Holy Father's messages and addresses.


PAPAL EVENTS TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- Six more Filipino bishops (central region, Group 5) on ad limina visit. Individual meetings continued
after he addressed the entire visiting delegation yesterday. The Philippines has 250 bishops who are
visiting Rome in 3 batches. The northern region bishops came to Rome in October.

- Community of the Collegio Filippino (Phlippine seminary in Rome) on the occasion of the institute's
50th anniversary. Address in English.

- Cardinal tarcisio Bertone, who rpesented the 2011 edition of the Annuario Pontificio (or Pontifical yearbook)
containing statistics of the Catholic Church as of December 21, 2009.


And this afternoon with

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting).




The Holy Father has named

- Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, till now the Apostolic Nuncio in the Ukraine, as the new Nuncio in
the Russian Federation, succeeding Abp. Anotnio Mennini, who was named
Apostolic Huncio to Great Britain.

FIVE YEARS & TEN MONTHS TODAY, AND COUNTING....

AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!

We can never love you enough.

Mons. Marini speaks on
upcoming JPII events
Translated from the Italian service of


Feb 2011 (RV) - A preparatory prayer vigil, the beatification Mass itself, the exposition of the new Blessed's casket in St. Peter's basilica, the Mass of Thanksgiving one week later, and the private ceremony of re-interment of the casket in the basilica's Chapel of St. Sebastian. These will be the main events announced by the Vatican yesterday related to the upcoming beatification of the Venerable John Paul II.

Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, emeritus prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood, says that as of now, 2.8 million pilgrims are expected to flood Rome for the beatification.

Amedeo Lomonaco spoke to the master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, Mons. Guido Marini,

MONS. MARINI: The beatification rite itself will have all the characteristics of any beatification rite which takes place within the Mass. First, a brief summary of his life. Then the Pope will solemnly proclaim that he is mow Blessed John Paul II, his image will be unfurled from the central loggia of the Basilica, and the veneration of a relic brought to the altar for the occasion. These are the events of the beatification itself taking place within the Mass.

And then, shortly after the Mass, St. Peter's basilica will be opened to the faithful for the veneration of the Bleesed's casket in front of the main altar...
Yes. The casket with John Paul II's remains, appropriately adorned - will be placed in front of the Altar of the Confession, and the faithful will be allowed to pass through for a brief moment of veneration. This enables the pilgrims to pay their respects in an appropriate atmosphere of recollection and meditation, as an authentically religious moment.

And then, the Vatican has also emphasized that no one needs any ticket or pass to attend the Beatification Mass [or presumably, the veneration of the casket in the Basilica]....
Yes, the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household has said that many times, but has to emphasize it all over....

Which means that any 'offers' regarding 'admission tickets' on the Internet and elsewhere are absolutely false...
Absolutely. This must be made plainly clear to everybody.

[Too bad the interviewer didn't go on to ask for more details about the Thanksgiving Mass and the re-interment ceremony.]

Papal Yearbook presented
to Benedict XVI




18 FEB 2011 (RV) - The Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone presented the Holy Father with the 2011 Annuario Pontificio yearbook Saturday morning at the Vatican in what has become a traditional annual event.

The Annuario Pontificio is the Holy See’s annual directory. Among other things, the more than 2000 pages of the Annuario contain information about the Apostolic See, the College of Cardinals and the whole Roman Curia, as well as a list of the Holy See’s diplomatic missions and the world’s dioceses, exarchates and areas under Apostolic administration.

Some of the more interesting elements contained in the Annuario tell us about the growth of the Church throughout the world.

The 2011 Annuario reports a significant increase in the number of baptized faithful, which rose by 15 million from 1 billion 166 million in 2008 to 1 billion 181 million in 2009 (the last year for which complete data have been assembled and tabulated) – with nearly half of all the world’s Catholics living in the Americas.

Asia’s Catholic population rose slightly during the same period as a percentage of that continent’s total population.

The number of priests in the world also grew modestly, continuing an upward trend that began a decade ago: there were 410,593 priests in the world in 2009, up from 405,178 in the year 2000.

The number of candidates for priestly ordination grew by nearly 1%, from 117,024 in 2008, to 117,978 in 2009, with the number of men in formation from Asia and Africa growing by more than 2%, while the number of seminarians from Europe and America contracted slightly.

The number of women religious, meanwhile, dropped by nearly 10 thousand, to a worldwide total of 729,371: significant growth in the number of African and Asian women religious was not enough to offset declines in other areas.

A more extended summary is provided by and translated here from


The 2011 Annuario Pontificio was presented to the Holy Father by Cardinal Bertone and his deputy for general affairs, Mons. Fernando Filoni, along with Mons. Vittorio Formenti, head of the Central Office of Statistics for the Catholic Church and editor of the Annuario, with his collaborators.

The Holy Father thanked them for their work and asked them to extend his gratitude to all who had worked with them on this new edition of the Pontifical yearbook.

In 2009 (the year covered by the survey), the Holy Father established 10 new diocesan sees, 1 Apostolic Exarchate, and one Apostolic Vicariate. He also raised the status of 1 diocese to a metropolitan see, 2 prelatures to dioceses, and 2 prefectures and 1 Apostolic Administration to Apostolic Vicariates.

The statistical data provide a summary analysis of the principal dynamics within the Church in its 2,956 ecclesiastical circumscriptions around the world.

The number of Catholics increased from 1.168 billion in 2007 to 1.181 billion in 2009, representing a 1.3% increase.

But the distribution of Catholics in the five continents differs considerably from the total population distribution.

Catholics in the Americas remained at 12.5% of the global population, but 49.4% of all Catholics in the world.

Catholics in Asia grew from 10.6 to 10.7% of the Asian population, whose total population constitutes, however, 50.7% of the world population.

Europe's population was only 9% Catholic in 2009, less than the Americas, and in absolute numbers, European Catholics constitute only 24% of the global Catholic population - less than half of the American percentage.

In Africa and Oceania (Australia and the South Pacific islands), the percentage of Catholics in the total population is 15,2% and 0.8%, respectively.

The number of bishops increased from 5002 in 2008 to 6065 in 2008, p[resenting an increase of 1.3%. The most dynamic continent in this respect was Africa (1.6%), followed by Oceania (1.5%), whereas Asia (0.8%) and the Americas (1.2%) were below the median. Europe was at 1.3%.

The number of priests maintained the moderate growth noted since 2000 after a long period of disappointing numbers. Indeed, in the past 10 years, the number of priests worldwide - diocesan as well as members of religious orders - improved by 1.38% overall, from 495, 178 in 2000 to 410,593 in 2009. In 2009, the increase over 2008 was 0.34% - from a 0.56% increase in diocesan priests and only 0.08% increase in the religious orders.

Europe was the only region that showed a decrease - 0.82% in diocesan priests and 0.99% in religious. In Asia and Africa, likewise, the number of professed religious decreased although the diocesan priests increased.

Permanent deacons increased by 2.5% worldwide, from 37,203 in 2008 to 36,155 in 2009. The presence of deacons in Oceania and Asia, particularly, has stepped up: in Oceania, bu 19%, and in Asia by 16%. But deacons have also increased in the Americans and Europe where they represent 98% of all deacons worldwide, increasing from 2.3% to 2.6%.

A notable decrease was registered by the religious orders (male and female). In 2008, there were 739,068, down to 729,251 in 2009.

The number of candidates for priesthood worldwide increased by 0.82%, from 117,024 in 2008 to 117,978 in 2009, mostly in Africa and Asia, where seminarians increased by 2.2% and 2.39%, respectively from 2008 to 2009.

In Europe and the Americas, the number of seminarians fell by 1.64% and 0.17%, respectively in the same period.

The US site of the FSSPX has published a lengthy interview done by them with Mons. Fellay, superior-general of the controversial fraternity of priests. The questions and the answers are to be considered as primarily directed at their own membership, and therefore slanted (sometiems the questions border on the outrageous even, or are at least, very off-putting), but they are of interest to other Catholics nonetheless as a snapshot of Mons. Fellay's views on the outstanding issues between Rome and the SSPX - some of them obviously fallacious!

Also, I think that many of the questions, mutatis mutandis, should be asked of every bishop today, and it would be interesting if someone like John Allen, say, could compile a uniform questionnaire on doctrinal and pastoral issues within the Church and ask every bishop in the United States to provide written answers to see exactly where they stand with respect to the Magisterium of the Church. And likewise, for an enterprising Catholic journalist in pther countries where there is a significant Catholic population...We know where Mons. Fellay stands. What about our own bishops who are supposed to be in full communion with Rome and the Holy Father?


Questions for Mons. Fellay
Interview by

February 2011

A significant interview was given by Bishop Fellay to the USA District wherein he comments on the main questions concerning the Church and SSPX. No issue has been skipped and we thank His Excellency for giving his time to answer our 54 questions.

We will be offering this comprehensive interview over a 2-day period in six parts: 1: Doctrinal discussions; 2: Motu proprio effects; 3: Assisi III. presented now, and the second part consisting of 4: Beatification of John Paul I; 5: SSPX; and 6: SSPX in USA, and conclusion, later.

Part I: Doctrinal Discussions:

1. Your Excellency, you have decided to attempt doctrinal discussions with Rome. Could you remind us of the purpose?
You have to distinguish between Rome’s purpose and ours. Rome indicated that there were doctrinal problems with the Society [of St. Pius X] and that these problems would have to be cleared up before any canonical recognition, problems which obviously would be up to us to resolve, concerning our acceptance of the [Second Vatican] Council.

But for us it is about something else: we hope to tell Rome what the Church has always taught and thereby to show the contradictions between this centuries-old teaching and what has been done in the Church since the Council. As we look at it, this is the only goal that we are pursuing.

2. What sort of talks are these: negotiations, discussions, or doctrinal explanation?
You can’t call them negotiations. That’s not what they’re about at all. There is on the one hand an explanation of doctrine, and on the other hand a discussion, because we have in fact a Roman interlocutor with whom we are discussing the documents and how to understand them. But you can’t call them negotiations, nor a search for a compromise, for it is a question of Faith.

3. Could you recall the method that is used in the work? What topics have already been addressed?
The working method is the written method; texts are composed which then become the basis for further theological discussion. Several topics have been addressed already. But for the moment I will leave that question up in the air. I can simply tell you that we are coming to the conclusion, because we have made the tour of the major questions raised by the Council.

4. Can you describe the Roman panelists?
They are experts, in other words, theology professors who are also consulting members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. One can say that they are “professionals” in theology. One is Swiss, the Rector of the Angelicum, Fr. Morerod, O.P., another is a Jesuit who is somewhat older, Fr. Becker; another is a member of Opus Dei, the Vicar General, Msgr. Ocariz Braña; then Archbishop Ladaria Ferrer, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and finally the moderator, Msgr. Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission.

5. Has there been a development in the thinking of our dialogue partners since they read the presentations by the SSPX theologians?
I don’t think that you can say that.

6. Bishop de Galarreta, in a sermon during the ordinations in La Reja in December 2009, said that Rome had agreed that the Magisterium prior to Vatican II would be taken as “the only possible common standard” in these talks. Is there some hope that our counterparts will reconsider Vatican II, or is that impossible for them? Is Vatican II really a stumbling-block?
I think that you have to pose the question another way. Pope Benedict XVI made distinctions during his speech in December 2005, by which we see very clearly that one particular understanding of the Council is no longer permitted and therefore, without speaking directly about a re-examination of the Council, there is despite everything a certain intention to revise the way in which the Council is presented.

The distinction may seem rather subtle, but it is precisely the distinction relied on by those who do not want to alter the Council and nevertheless recognize that, because of a certain number of ambiguities there has been an opening leading to forbidden paths, and that we must remember that they are forbidden. Is Vatican II really a stumbling-block? For us, no doubt whatsoever: yes!

But Mons. Fellay and the FSSPX must recognize that Pope has no authority to 'revoke' Vatican II, as it were, because an ecumenical council has valid Magisterial authority that a Pope cannot nullify, that it would take another ecumenical council to revoke or amend any of it. In fact, as Pope, he is required to uphold the Magisterium of an ecumenical council.

The most a Pope is to decree a proper interpretation of key aspects of the Vatican II documents as Benedict XVI did in Summorum Pontificum, in which he points out that nothing in the Council's dogmatic constitution on the liturgy abrogated or invalidated the traditional Mass.

Also, it is most unrealistic and even intellectually dishonest of the FSSPX to demand revocation of the Vatican II pronouncements, no matter how ambiguous, about inter-religious dialog and ecumenism, for instance, knowing full well that Mons. Marcel Lefebvre himself, who had been a Council Father, signed on to all the Vatican II documents without having been coerced to do so! The 1970 liturgical reform sparked off his eventual schism.]

7. Why is it so difficult for them to admit a contradiction between Vatican II and the previous Magisterium?
The answer is rather simple. The moment you recognize the principle that the Church cannot change, if you want to have Vatican II accepted, you are obliged to say that Vatican II did not change anything either. That is why they do not admit that they find any contradiction between Vatican II and the previous Magisterium, but they are nevertheless at a loss to explain the nature of the change which quite evidently has taken place. [Not at all! Benedict XVI has never been 'at a loss' to explain the post-Conciliar crisis of the Church: Very simply, the fact that the progressivists hijacked the interpretation of the Vatican II documents - taking advantage of the deliberate ambiguity chosen in many of its formulations, just to get a majority vote during the Council - and managed to get the media and many bishops and priests on their side. And actually managed to establish some sort of dominance around the world in the next four decades - in their ultra-successful media campaigns, in their influence on seminaries and theologians, in their reinforcement of the liberalizing and secularizing tendencies among many bishops and priests - all the not-so-faithful who came to believe in the 'spirit of Vatican II' mantra that Vatican II had built a 'new Church' and never bothered to read the Vatican-II documents themselves, even if there are only 16 of them!]

8. Besides witnessing to the Faith, is it important and advantageous for the Society of St. Pius X to go to Rome? Is it dangerous, and do you think that it might last a long time?
It is very important that the Society give this witness; that is the reason for these doctrinal talks. It is really a matter of making the Catholic faith understood in Rome, and trying, why not, to make it understood even more throughout the Church. [What an arrogant statement! As if Benedict XVI and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were deficient in the faith because they are practical enough to show how Vatican II need not be interpreted as a contradiction of or rejection of Tradition.[

There is one danger: the danger of keeping up illusions. We see that some Catholics have managed to lull themselves to sleep with illusions. But recent events have managed to dispel them. I am thinking about the announcement of the beatification of John Paul II or the announcement of a new Assisi event along the lines of the inter-religious gatherings in 1986 and 2002.
[John Paul II may have failed to act more decisively about the failed 'reception' of Vatican II in its first four decades - not in the way Benedict XVI clearly declared on December 22, 2005, that the only right interpretation of Vatican II is in the hermeneutic of continuity, that it was a renewal of the Church in continuity with Tradition. But his personal holiness which qualifies him to be a future saint has nothing to do with his administrative actions and decisions as Pope.... And about Assisi 2011, even Mons. Fellay admits in this interview and elsewhere that we really do not know what Benedict XVI intends to do. Surely he will not have any of the features that he deemed objectionable or questionable about Assisi-1! And surely, Mons. Fellay should credit Benedict XVI a priori for common sense!]

9. Has the Pope been following these talks closely? Has he commented yet on these talks?
I think so, but have no specific details. Has he commented on these talks? During the meeting last summer with his former students at Castel Gandolfo he said that he was pleased with them. That is all.

10. Can we say that the Holy Father, who has been dealing with the Society of St. Pius X for more than 25 years, is proving to be more benevolent toward it today than in the past?
I am not sure. Yes and no. I think that as Pope, he has responsibility for the whole Church, a concern about its unity, a fear of seeing a schism declared. He himself said that these were the motives that impelled him to act. He is now the visible head of the Church, which may explain why he acts like that. Does that mean that he is showing more understanding toward the Society? I think that he has a certain sympathy for us, but within limits.

11. To sum up, what would you say about these talks today?
If we had to do them over again, we would redo them. They are very important. Of capital importance. If you hope to correct a whole movement of thought, you cannot do without these talks.

12. For some time now we have been hearing voices of ecclesiastics, for example Msgr. Gherardini or Bishop Schneider, who even in Rome are producing genuine critiques of the documents of Vatican II and not just of their interpretation. Can we hope that this movement will grow and make its way into the Vatican?
[With all due respect to Monsignors Gherardini and Schneider, they too have to be practical about what the Pope can and cannot do about the Vatican II documents. Technically, can the full Bishops' Synod - of which the Pope is president - revoke or amend these documents without being constituted into an ecumenical council?]
I do not say that we can hope for it, but that we must hope for it. We must really hope that these initial critiques — let us call them serene, objective critiques — will develop.

Until now Vatican II was always considered as a taboo [as something not to be questioned at all] [Joseph Ratzinger questioned all of the faulty interpretations in the 1984 Ratzinger Report, the single event which crystallized progressivist hostility towards him for breaking the 'taboo', and John Paul II agreed enough with him to convoke the Synodal Assembly on the reception of Vatican II in 1985, on the 20th anniversary of the end of Vatican-II] which makes the cure of this sickness, which is the crisis in the Church, almost impossible. We have to be able to talk about the problems and to go in-depth into these matters, or else we will never get to apply the right remedies.

13. Can the Society of St. Pius X plan an important role in making Rome aware of this? How? What is the role of the lay faithful in this momentous matter?
As for the Society, yes, we can play a role, precisely by presenting what the Church has always taught and by raising objections to the conciliar novelties. The role of the lay faithful is to provide proof in action, for they are the proof that Tradition can be lived today. What the Church has always demanded — traditional discipline — is not only relevant but really viable even today.

14. Your Excellency, do you think that the Motu Proprio, despite its deficiencies, is a step toward restoring Tradition?
It is a step of capital importance. You could even call it an essential step, even though so far it has had practically no effect, or very little, because there is massive opposition by the bishops.

At the juridical level, the Motu Proprio has recognized that the old law, the one pertaining to the traditional Mass, had never been abrogated: this is a step of capital importance in restoring Tradition to its place.

15. Practically speaking, have you seen across the world any important changes on the part of the bishops concerning the traditional Mass since the Motu Proprio?
No. A few here and there who obey the Pope, but they are rare.

16. How about the priests?
Yes, I see a lot of interest on their part, but many of them are persecuted. It takes extraordinary courage simply to dare to apply the Motu Proprio as it was worded; and of course, yes, there are more and more priests, especially in the younger generations, who are interested in the traditional Mass. It is very encouraging!

17. Are there communities that have decided to adopt the old liturgy?
There may be several, but there is one that we know about, in Italy, the community of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, which has decided to return to the old liturgy; in the women’s branch it has already been done. For the priests who are involved in ministry in the dioceses, it is not so easy.

18. What advice do you give to Catholics who, since and thanks to the Motu Proprio, now have a traditional Mass closer to them than a chapel of the Society of St. Pius X?
My advice to them is to ask the priests of the Society for advice first, not to go with their eyes closed to just any traditional Mass that is celebrated nearby. The Mass is a treasure; but there is also a way of saying it, and everything that goes with it: the sermon, the catechesis, the way of administering the sacraments…

Not every traditional Mass is necessarily accompanied by the conditions required for it to bear all its fruits and to protect the soul from the dangers of the current crisis. Therefore ask the priests of the Society for advice first.

19. The liturgy is not the basis of the crisis in the Church. Do you think that the return of the (traditional) Liturgy is always the start of a return to the integrity of the Faith?
The traditional Mass has an absolutely extraordinary power of grace. You see it in the apostolic work, you see it especially in the priests who come back to it: It is truly the antidote to the crisis. It is really very powerful, at all levels. At the level of grace, at the level of faith…. I think that if the old Mass were allowed to be truly free, the Church could emerge rather quickly from this crisis, but it would still take several years!

20. For a long time the Pope has been speaking about “the reform of the reform”. Do you think that he hopes to try to reconcile the old liturgy with the teaching of Vatican II in a reform that would be a middle term?
At the moment we know nothing about it! We know that he wants this reform, but where is that reform is headed? Will everything eventually be blended together, “the ordinary form” and “the extraordinary form”? That is not what we find in the Motu Proprio, which requires us to distinguish the two “forms” and not to mix them: this is very wise. We have to wait and see; for the moment let us stick to what the Roman authorities say.

Assisi III: Part 3

21. The Holy Father has announced the next meeting in Assisi. You reacted in your sermon at St. Nicholas Church on February 9, 2011, and decided to oppose it, just as Archbishop Lefebvre had done at the time of the first meeting, 25 years ago. Do you plan to intervene directly with the Holy Father?
If the opportunity presents itself, if it can bear some fruit, why not?

22. Is it such a serious matter to call other religions to work for peace?
In one respect, and only in that respect, no. To call other religions to work for peace — a civil peace — there is no problem with that, but in that case it is not at the religious level, it is at the civil level. It is not an act of religion, it is quite simply an act of a religious society that works civilly to promote peace. It is not even religious peace being sought, but rather civil peace among men.

In contrast, to ask people to perform religious acts during that gathering is absurd, because there is a radical lack of understanding among the various religions. In those circumstances, it is not clear what aspiring to peace is supposed to mean, when there is not even any agreement about the nature of God, about the meaning that you ascribe to divinity. Really, you wonder how you could achieve anything serious.

[An inter-religious gathering in Assisi - without the distraction of any religious rites - is obviously intended to be a highly visible symbol of the common intention for peace among the major religions of the world. But the only religious rite in which one could possibly imagine Benedict XVI participating would be a Mass he would celebrate, to which the other religious leaders present would be invited if they wished to attend. I suppose the other leaders would be welcome to perform their own rites, if they chose to, in their own places of worship. But their common declaration in favor of 'peace on earth' would take place at a civilian event.]

23. We might think that the Holy Father does not understand ecumenism in the same way as John Paul II. Isn’t this a difference in degree in the same error?
No, I think that he understands it in the same way. He correctly says, “It is impossible to pray together.” [But Mons. Fellay, interfaith dialog is not ecumenism in the sense the Church uses it, where cumenism refers to relations with the non-Catholic Christian confessions!] But we have to see exactly what he means by that. He gave an explanation in 2003, in a book entitled Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions (English edition: Ignatius Press, 2004). I find that he splits hairs. He tries to justify Assisi. You really wonder how that will be possible next October. [Since quotations from Truth and Tolerance have been amply trotted out since the Pope's announcement of an Assisi 2011, Fellay is obviously misrepresenting what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote then. He was not justifying Assisi-1 but pointing out how inter-religious events can be possible without risk of syncretism, provided there is no attempt at 'inter-religious prayer' or praying together, which is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. But there can be multi-religious prayer - prayer alongside each other - in which everyone prays according to their faith.]

24. Some Italian intellectuals have publicly declared their uneasiness about the consequences of such a meeting. Do you know of other reactions within the Church? [Those so-called 'intellectuals' - all nine of them - obviously spoke out of line, simply assuming that Benedict XVI was merely going to replicate Assisi-1. I really don't understand how so many people, on so many occasions, seem to think Benedict XVI has no common sense, much less, their intelligence. At almost 84, he is still much sharper than all of them put together!]
They are right. Do we see other reactions within the Church? In official circles, no. Among us [SSPX members], obviously yes.

25. What about the reaction of the traditional congregations affiliated with Ecclesia Dei?
There is none that I know of!

26. How do you explain the fact that the Holy Father, who denounces relativism in religious matters and who had even refused to attend the Assisi meeting in 1986, could now want to commemorate such a meeting by repeating it? [There you go! Simply assuming that he is going to repeat aspects of an inter-religious gathering that he found questionable at the very least! He's not a dotard!]
It is a mystery to me. I do not know. I think that he may be under some pressures or influences. Probably he is alarmed by the anti-Christian acts [recently in the news], the anti-Catholic violence: those bombs in Egypt and Iraq. That is perhaps the reason that prompted him to propose this new Assisi gathering; I won’t call it an act of desperation, but a last resort…. He is trying something, anyway. I would not be surprised if that was it, but I know nothing more about it.

27. Is there a possibility that the Holy Father might give up this inter-religious demonstration?
We don’t know very well how it will be organized. We will have to see. I supposed that they will try to minimize the event because, once again, for the present Pope, it is impossible for different groups to be able to pray together when they do not even acknowledge the same god. [Stay with that thought until we know what exactly Benedict XVI has in mind!] Therefore, once again you wonder what they are going to be able to do there together!

28. What should Catholics do with regard to this announcement about Assisi III?
Pray that the Good Lord intervenes in one way or another so that it doesn’t take place, and in any case start making reparation now! [That is stupid! And I don't understand the FSSPX aversion to any dialog at all with other religions! Their attitude does not show very much confidence in the ability of Catholics to stand up for the faith properly against other religions - and why they should doubt the Pope's ability to do that is truly insulting! There is a place for both inter-religious dialog and evangelization in the work of the Church, but they are separate compartments. Especially right now, when it is more important for Catholics to re-evangelize those who have become secularized, than to 'poach' in other waters since after all, recruitment in the traditional mission lands is going well... And I don't think Fellay can claim that the FSSPX has been converting non-Catholics to Catholicism!]

Pope urges Colleggio Filippino
to form courageous priests
ready to face the future


9 FEB 2011 (RV) - Pope Benedict XVI granted a special private audience to the students and faculty of Rome’s Pontifical Filipino College on Saturday, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, urging them to "form well-prepared and intrepid priests ready to face whatever the future holds".

In 1961, Blessed John XXIII established and inaugurated the Pontifical Filipino College of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage (one of the oldest Marian icons considered miraculous and venerated in the Philippines brought by one of the early galleons from Mexico) as a house of priestly formation and a residence for Filipino clergy studying in Rome. It is one of several such pontifical colleges maintained by various nations in Rome.

Before the audience for the whole community, the Pope gave a private audience to the current rector, Mons. Ramon Gaston, appointed last October. A zoologist before he became a priest, Mons. Gaston has become a specialist in bioethical issues, with training in the United States and the Angelicum University in Rome.

Here is the text of the address delivered by the Pope in English:

---

Your Eminence,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

I am pleased to greet you, the students and faculty of the Pontifical Filipino College in this year marking the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment by my predecessor Blessed John XXIII. I join you in giving thanks to God for all your College has contributed to the life of your fellow Filipinos both at home and abroad over the course of the last five decades.

As a house of formation located here, by the tombs of the great Apostles Peter and Paul, the Filipino College has fulfilled the mission entrusted to it in a variety of ways.

Its first and most important task remains to assist students in their formation in the sacred sciences. This the College has accomplished well, as hundreds of priests have returned home with advanced degrees obtained from the various Pontifical universities and institutions in the city, and have gone on to serve the Church throughout the world, some of them with great distinction.

Let me encourage you, the present generation of students at the College, to grow in faith, to strive for excellence in your studies, and to grasp every opportunity afforded you to attain spiritual and theological maturity, so that you will be equipped, trained, and stout-hearted for whatever awaits you in the future.

As you know, a complete priestly formation includes not only the academic: over and above the intellectual component offered to them here, the students of the Filipino College are also formed spiritually through the Church of Rome’s living history and the shining example of her martyrs, whose sacrifice configures them perfectly to the person of Jesus Christ himself.

I am confident that each of you will be inspired by their union with the mystery of Christ and embrace the Lord's call to holiness which demands from you as priests nothing less than the complete gift of your lives and labors to God.

Doing so in the company of other young priests and seminarians gathered here from throughout the world, you will return home, like those before you, with a grateful and permanent sense of the Church of Rome’s history, of her roots in the paschal mystery of Christ, and of her wonderful universality.

While you are in Rome, pastoral necessity should not be overlooked and so it is right, even for priests in studies, to consider the needs of those around them, including the members of the Filipino community living in Rome and its environs.

In doing so, let the use of your time always strike a healthy balance between local pastoral concerns and the academic requirements of your stay here, to the benefit of all.

Finally, do not forget the affection of the Pope for you and for your homeland. I urge you all to return to the Philippines with an unshakeable affection of your own for the Successor of Peter and with the desire to strengthen and maintain the communion which binds the Church in charity around him.

In this way, having completed your studies, you will surely be a leaven of the Gospel in the life of your beloved nation.

Invoking the intercession of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, and as a pledge of grace and peace in the Lord, I willingly impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

---

It seems that we're surrounded by a bunch of fruitcakes - from the left and from the right!! Very determined and very proud and self centered fruitcakes!

Don Bosco's Prophecy of the Two Columns comes in mind.

February 20. Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Shrine at Fatima celebrated the centenary of Jacinta's birth in 2009r (photo, extreme right), and of Francisco's birth last year; second from right, a Portuguese newspaper's
coverage of the Sept. 1917 apparition and 'miracle of the sun'.
BLESSED JACINTA AND FRANCISCO MARTO (Portugal, 1910-1920 and 1908-1919, respectively), Visionaries of Fatima
The story of the three peasant children of Fatima - Jacinta and Francisco, and their older cousin Lucia Dos Santos - is the best-known and best documented
20th-century story of divine favor on the humble. Three apparitions of an angel in 1916 preceded the six apparitions to them of the Virgin Mary on the 13th
day of each month, from May to September 1917, the last of them attended by 90,000 people who attested to seeing the 'miracle of the sun'. The two younger
children died shortly after the apparitions, victims of an influenza epidemic that swept Europe after the First World War. But the lives they led in that short
time were so exemplary in holiness, to the point of practising stringent self-mortification, that it was obvious these two pre-teen children had undergone
an experience of divine grace. When their bodies were exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951 (for re-burial in the Basilica of Our Lady in Fatima), Jacinta's face
was found to be incorrupt. They were beatified by special decree in 2000, and John Paul II presided at their beatification rites in Fatima, attended by their
cousin Lucia (who died in 2005 after spending most of her life as a Carmelite nun in Coimbra). February 20 is the day Jacinta died.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022011.shtml


OR today.
The papal stories in this issue are not reported on Page 1 - the Holy Father's audience with the faculty and community of the Pontificio Colleggio Filippino in Rome, which marks the 50th anniversary of its founding; and the presentation of the 2011 Annuario Pontificio covering worldwide Catholic statistics for 2009. Page 1 items: an editorial commentary decrying the general lack of attention to older patients especially in the 'developed' societies; news, continuing coverage of the 'Arab tempest'; and at the G20 financial ministers meeting in Paris, the BRICS emerging large economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) oppose two external measures of financial instability proposed to be applied to nations - balance of trade and available currency reserves.


PAPAL EVENTS TODAY
Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father reflected on God's call to the Israelites in the Old Testament to be holy as he is, echoed by Jesus, who said man should strive to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect - man does this by imitating Christ in the great commandment of love of God and fellowmen. He also anticipated the Feast of Peter's Chair which the Church will mark on Tuesday, Feb. 22.



New Egyptian government reinstates
its ambassador to the Vatican


CAIRO, Feb. 20 (dpa) - Egypt said Sunday it was reinstating its ambassador to the Vatican, more than a month after she was recalled over "unacceptable" comments made Pope Benedict XVI.

Ambassador Lamia Mekheimar will return to the Vatican on Wednesday in light of "positive messages" recently sent to Egypt by Vatican officials, Egypt's foreign ministry said in a press statement.

Mekheimar was recalled in January after a speech by the Pope to foreign diplomats in which he referred to the violence against Christians in Iraq and an attack on a church in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria.

Benedict then called on governments in majority Muslim countries to increase efforts to protect their Christian populations.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said the statements were an "unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs."

Egyptian authorities have described the New Year's Eve attack on a church in Alexandria which left 23 people dead as an act of terrorism, and have rejected allegations that Coptic Christians are persecuted in Egypt.

Official figures estimate that Christians comprise between 10 and 15 per cent of Egypt's population.

I always thought that the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar - who had first levelled the outrgaeous accusation of interference by the Pope in Egypt's internal affairs - was responsible for the Mubarak government echoing his sentiment and recalling their ambassdor last month. Does this show of reason by the post-Mubarak ruling council indicate that the Grand Imam, a Mubarak appointee, may have less influence with the military council than he had with the ousted President?

ANGELUS TODAY




Benedict XVI:
'Praying for our persecutors
a mark of Christian witness'




20 FEB 2011 (RV) - “We are all called to love unconditionally, as today’s Gospel reminds us, and to place ourselves generously at the service of our neighbour”, said Pope Benedict today.

In his greeting to thousands of pilgrims and visitors to St Peter’s square for the Angelus prayer the Holy Father said “when we suffer for evil, persecution, injustice, let us avoid revenge, vengeance and hatred, and pray for our persecutors. Overcome evil with good. We entrust all adversity to God to achieve freedom and peace of mind”.

Pope Benedict dedicated his reflections before the Angelus prayer this week to the Sunday readings and Gospel. The "perfection" to which Jesus invites us to "live as children of God is actually doing his will" and Jesus himself tells us: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven".



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

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

On this seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Biblical readings speak to us of God's will to make men take part in his life: "Be holy, because, I, the Lord, am holy", we read in the Book of Leviticus (19,1).

With these words, and the precepts that their consequence, the Lord invited the people chosen to be faithful to the Covenant with him, walking in his ways, and founded social legislation on the commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself"(Lv 19,19).

If we listen to Jesus , in whom God had assumed a mortal body in order to come close to every man and to reveal his infinite love for us, we find the same call, the same daring objective.

The Lord says, in fact: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5,46).

But who can become perfect? Our perfection is to life humbly as children of God, complying concretely with his will. St. Cyprian wrote that "To God's fatherhood must correspond our behavior as children of God, so that God may be glorified and praised by man's good conduct" (De zelo et livore, 15: CCL 3a, 83).

And how can we imitate Jesus? He himself says: "love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father" (Mt 5,44-45).

He who welcomes the Lord in his own life and loves him with all his heart is capable of a new beginning. He succeeds in fulfilling the will of God: to realize a new form of existence animated by love and destined for eternity.

The Apostle Paul adds: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor 3,16).

{G}If we are truly aware of this reality, and our life is profoundly formed by it, then our witness becomes clear, eloquent and effective. A medieval author wrote: "When man's entire being is, so to speak, mixed into the love of God, then the splendor of his soul is reflected even in his exterior aspect" (John Climacus, Scala Paradisi, XXX: PG 88, 1157 B), in the totality of his life.

"Love is a great thing - " we read in Thomas Kempis's book Imitation of Christ. "a good that makes every heavy thing light and makes us bear serenely every difficulty. Love aspires to ascend without being kept back by anything earthly. It is born of God and only in God can it find repose" (III, V, 3).

Dear friends, day after tomorrow, on February 22, we shall celebrate the Feast of St. Peter's Chair. To him, first among the Apostles, Christ entrusted the task of Teacher and Pastor for the spiritual guidance of the People of God, so that they may be uplifted to heaven.

Therefore, I call on all Pastors to "assimilate that 'new style of life' that was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and which the Apostles made their own" (Letter decreeing the year for Priests, 2009-2010).

Let us invoke the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, so that she can teach us to love each other and to accept each other as brothers, children of the same heavenly Father.

---

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/02/2011 22:02]

Sorry I missed this item when it came out... Credit to the NYT for reporting it the way it did - in marked contrast to AP's report.


CDF sanctions 80-year-old Chilean priest
reported last year and subsequently
found guilty of abusing minors
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO and PASCALE BONNEFOY

February 18, 2011

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — After an internal investigation, the Vatican found the Rev. Fernando Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in Chile and ordered him to retire to a “life of prayer and penitence,” the archbishop of Santiago said Friday.

The ruling, announced by the archbishop, Ricardo Ezzati, said that Father Karadima, 80, would be relocated to a place where he would have no contact with his former parishioners or “persons that have been spiritually guided by him.”

The accusations by former parishioners against Father Karadima last year stunned Chile, a conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic nation unaccustomed to questioning its priests, especially one as revered as Father Karadima.

He had trained five bishops and dozens of priests, acting as a spiritual leader and father figure for young men who later accused him of molesting them.

The decision is a rare case of a powerful Church figure being called to account for the charges of sexual abuse that have swept the Catholic world the past few years. [Rare only because there have been few major Church figures accused of sexual abuse lately. In the past, the Church sanctioned two Austrian bishops and one Austrian bishops in the 1990s, and under Benedict XVI, Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of a major ecclesiastical movement and religious order, and a couple of prominent priests in Italy.]

The Vatican decision “is going to mark a before and after in the way the Chilean Catholic Church proceeds in cases like these, or at least it should,” said Antonio Delfau, a Jesuit priest in Santiago, the capital. “From now on, every case of sexual abuse must be treated with meticulous care and not be based on the gut feeling of a given church official.” [Where has this priest been since 2001? As though the Church has been less than scrupulous and meticulous since the CDF took over the responsibility for investigating sexual abuses by priests!]

For the accusers, including at least four men who said Father Karadima abused them when they were young parishioners, the decision was a long-awaited vindication. One original accuser said the abuse began when he was 14.

“At last the truth was revealed and acknowledged,” said an emotional Juan Carlos Cruz, 47. “This was like having a father who abused you and a mother who slapped you in the face,” he said of the Catholic Church. “Now I feel like this mother has taken me in.”

President Sebastián Piñera reacted to the decision by vowing that his government would “defend children and minors from sexual abuse with all the strength in the world and force of the law.”

Father Karadima has not been prosecuted criminally. A judge investigating the accusations against him closed the case late last year, ruling that there was not enough evidence to charge him.

An appeals court in Santiago is still deciding whether to reopen the criminal investigation. It remains unclear whether the Vatican’s decision will prod the Chilean authorities to do so.

The Vatican ruling announced Friday said that Father Karadima was subject to “lifelong prohibition from the public exercise of any ministerial act, particularly confession and the spiritual guidance of any category of persons.”

In consideration of his age, the Vatican deemed it appropriate “to impose on the accused his retirement to a life of prayer and penitence, also in reparation to the victims of his abuses,” said the ruling, read by Archbishop Ezzati.

If he violates the conditions of the ruling, Father Karadima could face stricter sanctions, including removal from the priesthood, the archbishop said.

Juan Pablo Bulnes, Father Karadima’s lawyer, said the priest maintained his innocence and would appeal the Vatican’s decision. He said the priest, respecting the ruling, had already retired to a religious convent in Santiago, away from anyone in his El Bosque parish.

The Chilean Catholic Church referred the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last June, sending a 700-page investigative report to the Vatican.

Last month, the Vatican quietly issued its ruling and informed the Chilean church on Jan. 16. Archbishop Ezzati said he notified Father Karadima the next day and immediately identified a new residence for him.

The penalty given to Karadima is substantially like that given to Maciel and a prominent Florentine priest - all three being aged 80 or more at the time they were investigated and found culpable.


AP'S story was quite perfunctory and only five sentences long - total downplay! Gee, I wonder why. If the CDF ahd not acted on the complaints - and as fast as it did - you can bet AP would have run a lengthy article dredging up once again their litany of accusations against the Church, teh CDF and Joseph Ratzinger for inaction about priestly abuses! Also note that the headline does not credit the Vatican for the action! Little things that are very revealing of media bias!


Chilean priest guilty
of abusing minors
By EVA VERGARA


SANTIAGO, Chile, fEB. 18 (ap) – A prominent Chilean priest whose sex abuse case was closed by a judge has been found guilty by the Vatican.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says Fernando Karadima is guilty of abusing minors and "must retire to a life of prayer and penitence." Friday's statement from the Vatican means Karadima can't meet with his former parishioners or other priests.

Four men accused Karadima of sexually abusing them for years in a wealthy Santiago parish where he was a respected leader in Chile's Catholic church.

The former archbishop didn't believe them, and a local judge closed the case, citing the statute of limitations. A prosecutor is appealing.

I had previously expressed my perplexity at the dire alarms being raised by traditionalist sites like the Italian messainlatino.org and the US-based blog Rorate caeli claiming that the forthcoming and long-awaited instruction from the Holy Father intended to clarify points about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, will in fact mean restricting the effects it originally intended.... Why would they think so, regardless of the fact that they claim to have heard it will be so from 'authoritative sources'? Why would they think that Benedict XVI, having gestated SP for more than two years after he became Pope, would suddenly step it back in any way?...

Now I am genuinely alarmed = not about what the instructions will be - but because influential bloggers like Father Z and Inside the Vatican's Robert Moynihan are not only providing a sounding-board for the traditionalists' klaxon call, but also urging the faithful to sign an online petition to the Holy Father, which espresses, among other things, "grave concern that any restrictive measures would cause scandal, disunity and suffering in the Church and would frustrate the reconciliation you so earnestly desire, as well as impede further liturgical renewal and development in continuity with Tradition, which is already so great a fruit of your pontificate".

I think it is a monumental presumption on the part of well-meaning traditionalists to consider information from 'authoritative sources' - whom they never name, of course - as gospel truth, especially when it makes no sense at all in vithe light of Benedict XVI's long-standing positions on the liturgy; and then, 2) on the basis of such rumor or possibly maliciously planted disinformation, to presume to advise the Pope what he should do about it... Not incidentally, I would call their attention to the fact that Mons. Fellay of the FSSPX, in his most recent interview, did not seem to show much concern about these rumors... Can it be that messainlatino and Rorate caeli are even more zealous and jealous about the traditional Mass than Mons. Fellay himself?

Much as I find this whole exercise distasteful, I am posting Moynihan's recent 'newsflash' about this, which mostly quotes the overheated, near-hysterical alarm expressed in Rorate caeli, but also tries to look at the issue - which I find artificially generated and therefore a non-issue - with some degree of equanimity, even if Dr. Moynihan is obviously not above enjoying controversy, as his title shows:

Will a new papal document
curtail use of the Old Mass?
by Robert Moynihan

February 2011

Will the Vatican soon issue a document calling for some restrictions on the use of the old rite of the Mass?

The internet, especially in traditional Catholic circles, is abuzz with reports that this may be about to happen.

But for the moment, these reports are based only on rumors.

Officially, no one yet knows the content of the upcoming Vatican Instruction to give guidelines for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum -- the dramatic and controversial July 7, 2007 papal motu proprio in which Benedict XVI, after long hesitation, granted wider use of the old, pre-Vatican II liturgy, also known as the Tridentine liturgy or the Latin Mass.

The upcoming document is indeed being prepared; that much is certain. It is said to bear the date of February 22 -- just four days from now.

But it is not likely to be made public on February 22, but some days or weeks later, as often happens with Roman documents, and the document can even be rewritten during that time, after the date it is signed.

So we may be in for a considerable period of uncertainty on this question. And that will naturally allow room for fears based on uncertain or partial information to grow.

According to unconfirmed "leaks" of portions of the document's contents, the Instruction will, somewhat unexpectedly, contain two clauses which will restrict the celebration of the old rite.

I say "somewhat unexpectedly" because the expectation for this document was that it would concretize what Benedict said in 2007 was his desire for a "generous" granting of permission to celebrate the old liturgy "widely."

It therefore seems strange to many that, if the reports are true, it may contain new restrictions, as if this would be out of keeping with Benedict's own expressed will.

First, according to these reports, the old Mass will not be able to be freely celebrated in places where "non-Roman" Western rites once flourished, especially in Milan, where the Ambrosian rite flourished. (This is of importance because Milan is the largest diocese in the world.)

In an internet report on the Catholic website Rorate Coeli, we read:

"In its current draft, the Instruction definitely 'clarifies' that the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum is applied exclusively to the Roman Rite, in the strictest interpretation of the word. Therefore, not to the non-Roman Latin Rites: the clearly minoritarian or even forgotten Mozarabic, Braga, or Sarum rites. But the rule would apply also to the not few religious who have tried to rediscover their Traditional rites or uses: Dominicans and Carmelites, in particular, but also Carthusians, Norbertines... What is surprising is that the extension of the spirit of the motu proprio to other Western rites and uses had always been assumed...

"This restrictive rule," the web site continues, "would in particular (and would seem thus planned, considering the complications of the Italian Church) exclude the application of the motu proprio to the Traditional Liturgy of the largest diocese in the Old World, and third with most Catholics in the world: Milan. Excluding the enclaves of Roman Rite, the motu proprio would be void in the Archdiocese and in the Ambrosian zones of the Diocese of Lugano, Switzerland.

"For over five million Catholics in that area, and for religious priests dedicated to their rites or uses, the rules to be applied would not be those of Summorum (the Traditional Liturgy as a right of priests and groups of faithful), but only Ecclesia-Dei-like privileges and concessions, granted by the liturgical authorities of the Archdiocese (in the case of Milan) or the Superiors (in the case of the orders).

"Why such a restriction? In legal terms, nothing seems to demand it: the text of Summorum is sufficiently ambiguous that it can be interpreted in both ways...

"This first major point of the instruction has, thus, a clear repressive and punitive intention. Its sense would be extremely dangerous: that the Traditional liturgies of the West, rather than being encouraged (as the letter of the motu proprio makes clear), must be contained, regulated, oppressed. Not a clear declaration of rights, but a bureaucratic web of limited privileges and concessions: this small example seems to set the general new tone regarding the Traditional Liturgy.

"This may seem minor," the Rorate Coeli website concludes. "Yet it is quite significant in what it reveals: an interpretation of the rights recognized by Summorum as privileges or 'indults' that can be curtailed."

Second, and "much, much, more serious and insidious" says Rorate Coeli, is the report that "the Instruction, in its current draft, will explicitly prevent Bishops from using the Traditional Rite of Holy Orders."

In other words, bishops will not be able freely to ordain their seminarians using the old rite. They will be able to celebrate all of the other sacraments -- baptism, confirmation, etc. -- according to the old rite, but not holy orders, unless they receive ask permission first from Rome. [And why would Benedict XVI choose Holy Orders, of all the sacraments. as one in which the traditional rite would not be valid????]

There will be two exceptions, according to the leaked information, when bishops may use the old rite in priestly ordination ceremonies.

The first involves those institutes (the Ecclesia Dei institutes) and particular Churches dedicated exclusively to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The other exception is that the Bishop that desires to ordain a certain seminarian in the ancient Rite will have to ask prior permission to Rome (to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei), which will then evaluate if said permission should be granted or not.

"What is to be achieved by this odious restrictive interpretation?" Rorate Coeli asks. "Why should bishops be forbidden to choose with which Rite to ordain their own deacons and priests? The intention is, among others, to ghettoize the Traditional Rite of this most pivotal of all Sacraments, Holy Orders; and, further, to identify 'problematic' bishops and future priests, with all consequences that could entail (including for their careers)."

The website concludes: "It is an alarming sign that the thrust of the Instruction is once again to make, even in law, all Catholics attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or those who merely appreciate it (and, in this case, even Bishops and poor hopeful seminarians) second-class Catholics."

[How can anyone who respects Benedict XVI be so ready to accept as gospel truth purported provisions that defy common sense and logic?]

Some web bloggers argue that the leaks that have been leaked thus far are disinformation, that there is an effort being made to confuse people just before the Instruction's appearance.

"These documents go through many drafts, with many changes," one blogger wrote. "My guess is that such info is disinformation, intending to influence the document or – perhaps more importantly – its reception... It might have happened like this: A few powerful German or French bishops communicate with or visit Ecclesia Dei, recommending that certain restrictions be in the Instruction. Then word is put out through sources that such restrictions will be in the Instruction. A similar MO [modus operandi] was used before Humanae Vitae was promulgated." [That certainly sounds like a plausible scenario, but it is still conjecture. At least, the blogger does not cite unnamed 'authoritative sources' to underpin his conjecture!]

Father John Zuhlsdorf, whose popular website "What Does the Prayer Really Say?" (http://wdtprs.com/blog) has reported on the leaks, has encouraged his readers to pray for the Holy Father.

"If you are concerned about what might happen to Summorum Pontificum," he writes, "pray and fast. Don’t whine. Don’t panic. Don’t fret. Don’t behave like a suddenly headless chicken.

"Do what a committed Catholic warrior would do for a cause that is dear," Zuhldsorf continues. "Go to church and spend time before the Blessed Sacrament every day until this resolves one way or another. Ask Jesus to either stop the Instruction or to make Summorum Pontificum even better. Pray the Rosary for the Holy Father. Ask our Blessed Mother to move the Holy Father to keep Summorum Pontificum strong, to make it even stronger. Pray to the Holy Father’s guardian angels constantly during the day asking them to strengthen him and to weaken his many enemies, some of them very close to him."

Zuhlsdorf and others desire to "keep Summorum Pontificum strong" because they see the revival of the old liturgy as positive not only for the Church's cultural identity, but also for the holiness of her faith and morals.

One blogger, noting that he had just read through the "shocking" Philadelphia Grand Jury report, just published, on the investigation into the priestly abuse of minors in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, expresses a feeling widely shared by traditional Catholics: that the loss of the sense of the sacred which followed the introduction of the new Mass in 1970 -- for whatever reason -- also contributed to a loss of moral discipline, of a moral compass, among many Catholics, especially among the clergy, and that the return to the faith and practice inculcated by the old Mass is the best way to restore the holiness of the life of the Church and end the scandals.

But, this blogger notes, after four decades, a return to that faith and practice is bitterly opposed by many in the Church, some of them very powerful and highly placed.


{I wish people like Father Z and Dr. Moynihan, who have both spent years at the Vatican and have close contacts there, would tell us exactly which 'very powerful and highly placed' persons could possibly manage to impose their will over that of the Holy Father, under whose signature and approval any Vatican document - especially one regarding SP - will necessarily be issued? It's another instance when, for a reason I cannot fathom, even the most intelligent and most well-intentioned Catholics seem to treat Benedict XVI as if he were a dotard!

Two dicasteries logically are the ones most concerned with the implementing instructions of SP - the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which now has Ecclesia Dei under it, and the Congregation for Divine Worship. Does anyone really think that Cardinal Levada or any of his underlings at CDF, particularly, Mons. Pozzo who now heads Ecclesia Dei; or Cardinal Canizares at Divine Worship or his underlings, would draft any document for the Holy Father's approval that so clearly contradicts the intentions of the motu proprio? Still less, that the Holy Father himself would ask them to make SP 'more restrictive'?

It all seems to me like an inexplicable abdication of common sense on the part of the alarmists. For that reason, I will not bother to post here the text of the well-ontended but rather preposterous online petition, which may be found on
click.icptrack.com/icp/rclick.php?d=r_FSjbDEQwUsvi4AMjfZ_Q0srGkCmdlT&w=1&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motuproprioappea...
for those who may want to sign on.

I pray for the Holy Father constantly, as I always do - not the least, that the Spirit may always be with him and in him - but I would not lecture him as the petition does, in effect, even if it uses the most respectful words. Without impugning the good intentions behind the petition, could there not be, somewhere in the background, an anticipation of patting-oneself-on-the-back for 'doing the job' if it turns out that the instructions come without any of the restrictions the alarmists fear?

John Allen's Friday column was lengthy and multi-nodal but starts out by speculating about a post-Mubarak Egypt. Since even Obama's State Department was caught flat-footed by what happened in Egypt, and even the principal players in the political chessboard there are still playing it by ear, looks like, I will not post Mr. Allen's speculations about what could happen in Egypt - it's anybody's guess - but will simply pick up parts of the column that have a more general relevance and basis in fact...

A Catholic contribution in Egypt?

Feb. 18, 2011

For better or worse, Egypt is now a bellwether of the struggle for the soul of global Islam. While a great deal is up in the air, one point seems crystal clear: If the post-Mubarak choice comes down to Islamic militants on one side and Western-style secular liberals on the other -- what we might call the "Facebook crowd" -- then the militants are going to win, and they're going to win huge [????]....

[He goes on to postulate that the Egyptian revolution could conceivably give birth to a cadre of 'Muslim democrats' akin to the Christian Democrats who rebuilt postwar Western Europe into stable democracies with economies that took off with the stimulus of the US Marshall Plan... To which, I would note that the European Christian Dems had the positive aspects of the Enlightenment and the French and American Revolutions behind them. There is nothing comparable in Egyptian, Arabic or Muslim history, to support the hypothesis that a hybrid species of 'moderate Muslim democrats' who will not be Islam-driven, is about to emerge by spontaneous generation! In fact, one of Benedict XVI's theses in the Regensburg lecture was that Islam has been unable to shed its medieval concepts and structures because it has never gone through an Enlightenment phase. ]

...There are three compelling reasons to believe that Christianity, and the Catholic church in particular, could play an important supporting role in the Egyptian drama.

Benedict's vision for Christian/Muslim relations
Pope John Paul II was a great pioneer in Catholic/Muslim relations, typically grounding his outreach on the usual pillars of inter-faith relations: peace, tolerance, and in the case of the Western monotheistic faiths, our common heritage as sons of Abraham.

Benedict XVI has embraced all that, with a slightly sharper emphasis on matters of religious freedom and the need for Islamic leaders to reject violence -- usually as part of his broader analysis of the intrinsic relationship between reason and faith.

Benedict's genius, however, lies in adding another basis for Christian/Muslim solidarity to the mix, one with special appeal to the hawks on both sides. It boils down to this: We have a common enemy, whose name is secularism.

The basic fault line in the 21st century, Benedict has argued in a variety of venues, does not run between Christianity and Islam. It runs between belief and unbelief -- that is, between those who take religion seriously and who want it to be a vital contributor to public life, and those who seek to muzzle and marginalize religious faith.

In that great struggle, the Pope believes, Christians and Muslims are natural allies.

That's what Benedict had in mind when he called for an "alliance of civilizations" between Christianity and Islam during his May 2009 trip to the Middle East, a phrase coined as an alternative to Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations."

The concept of an "alliance of civilizations" actually comes from a United Nations initiative by that name, which ironically was first floated by Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain, the radical secularist bête noir of the European Catholic imagination.

Though they're not mutually exclusive, Benedict's version of an alliance can engage Muslims at a level the U.N. can't, because Benedict represents a set of common spiritual and moral convictions.

In his recent book-length interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, Benedict was asked about the long history of Christian/Muslim antagonism. Without disowning the past, this was his answer: "Today we are living in a completely different world, in which the battle lines are drawn differently. In this world, radical secularism stands on one side, and the question of God, in its various forms, stands on the other."

The notion of an "alliance of civilizations" in defense of a robust public role for religion, while still respecting human rights and especially religious freedom, could provide a key component of the intellectual infrastructure for a "Muslim Democrats" movement -- one which sees Christianity as a partner rather than a threat.

[Oremus... But that's a lot of 'ifs', and that is assuming that a handful of putative moderate Muslim leaders in Egypt - we don't know that they exist , and if they do, whether they can assert themselves during Egypt's critical transition from Mubarak to a more lasting institutional government - could somehow outweigh all the othere Arab and Muslim leaders in the world whose overriding common political goal is to make the whole world a universal Muslim caliphate!]

Christianity's sociological footprint
In terms of raw numbers, Egypt has the largest Christian population in the Middle East. The consensus estimate is that there are eight million Christians, representing close to 10 percent of the population.

The vast majority is Coptic Orthodox, but there are also seven Catholic communities: Syrian, Maronite, Melkite, Armenian, Chaldean, and Coptic, in addition to the Latin rite. The Coptic Catholics are the largest group, estimated at 200,000.

Christianity thus has a sociological footprint in Egypt it lacks in most other Muslim nations, making Christianity not just an outside force but an important domestic constituency.

To be sure, those Christians face rising fundamentalist pressures, the most dramatic recent expression of which came in a New Year's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria which left 21 people dead and 80 injured. Given that background, Christians naturally feel a mix of hope and fear about the country's new course.

Yet Egypt's demographics mean that if a moderate majority is to take hold, it must be a three-legged stool composed of Muslim Democrats, Christians, and secularists. Take one of those legs away, and the stool falls.

At the moment, Egypt's Christian leadership may have some credibility to recover. Until the very end, both Coptic and Catholic leaders were making statements supportive of Mubarak and instructing their people not to participate in the protests -- advice that went largely unheeded.

Now they need to position themselves as partners in the new Egypt, which was the thrust of a recent statement from the Coptic Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Antonios Naguib, pledging that the church will work to build a nation "based on laws, justice and equality, that respects one's freedom and dignity based on citizenship."

[Apparently. the Copts have been productive members of Egyptian society for centuries, but if the Islamists prevail as Mr. Allen suggests they may, who is to say they will continue to see the Copts as a useful component of the population, even if they are second-class to Muslims, being Christians and therefore infidels? That's why it is pointless to speculate for now on what's in store for the Copts.]

The Catholic footprint is also enhanced by the presence of a talented nuncio, or papal ambassador: English Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, the former president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (CIRD).

A member of the Missionaries of Africa, Fitzgerald is the real deal -- an academic expert on Islam who holds a degree in Arabic from the University of London, with decades of experience in the relationship.

When Benedict XVI sent Fitzgerald to Cairo in 2006, many Vatican-watchers took it as a demotion or an exile. [In a way it was, because at CIRD - and this was written about a lot by the Vaticanistas when the new Pope reassigned Fitzgerald - he had apparently become too invested in advancing the Muslim cause. Benedict XVI assigned him as Nuncio to Egypt as well as the Vatican's permanent observer to the Arab League - both positions where his outstanding qualifications are best put to use, and for someone like him, perhaps, a more exciting and challenging assignment.] Today, however, the assignment looks prophetic, as Fitzgerald stands on the front lines of the most compelling drama in the Muslim world.

Diplomatic relations between Egypt and the Vatican were recently interrupted when the Mubarak government withdrew its ambassador in protest over comments by Benedict XVI in January, calling for greater protection for the country's Christian minority.

Now there's a chance to rebuild the relationship, and whether by foresight, providence, or just dumb luck, the Vatican has the perfect architect in Fitzgerald.

{Also today, Egypt's ruling council announced they were sending back the Egyptian ambassador to the Vatican.]

Allen's third point is quite far-fetched, IMHO:

The American parallel
Catholics, especially in the United States, have something particular to offer to the Egyptian conversation. In a nutshell, American Catholics have stood before roughly where reform-minded Egyptian Muslims stand today -- wondering how to bring their religious faith and their democratic convictions into alignment....

...Catholics here had to make their way in a pluralistic culture from the very beginning, and the great discovery was that in a society marked by religious freedom and the absence of state support, the faith not only survived but thrived....

Today, Egyptians find themselves wrestling with much the same question: How can their new society be both seriously religious and genuinely democratic? With allowances for obvious cultural and historical differences, the American Catholic journey, and more recently that of American Muslims, could provide powerful resources for reflection.

[Allen may be ascribing the general secular attitude of American citizens to Egyptians who, by all acocunts, are fierce in their Islamic faith and their practice of it. Why would they be more likely to look at the American experience - which is Western, and therefore infidel, and worst, secularized to the point of considering religion peripheral - when they can look to the variety of 'democratic' experiences in Muslim countries like Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Indonesia, or, if the Muslim Brotherhood gets the upper hand, even Iran?]

Cardinals lead rites of penitence
for sex abuses in Dublin
By Lisa Wangsness

February 21, 2011



DUBLIN — Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin lay prostrate before a bare altar as the packed cathedral watched in silence.

They listened as lectors read long sections of government reports detailing horrific abuse of children in Dublin parishes and church-run industrial schools.

Then O’Malley and Martin washed the feet of eight abuse victims. Several wept as Martin poured water from a large pitcher and O’Malley knelt and dried them with a white terry cloth towel.

“We want to be part of a church that puts survivors, the victims of abuse, first — ahead of self-interest, reputation, and institutional needs,’’ O’Malley said.

O’Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, is in Ireland at the request of Pope Benedict XVI, who has charged him with conducting a review of the response to sexual abuse by the Archdiocese of Dublin.

At yesterday’s “Liturgy of Lament and Repentance,’’ held at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, he and Martin each asked God and abuse victims for forgiveness in unusually specific terms.

“On behalf of the Holy Father, I ask forgiveness, for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests, and the past failures of the church’s hierarchy, here and in Rome — the failure to respond appropriately to the problem of sexual abuse,’’ said O’Malley, who wore the brown habit of his Capuchin order. “Publicly atoning for the church’s failures is an important element of asking the forgiveness of those who have been harmed by priests and bishops, whose actions — and inactions — gravely harmed the lives of children entrusted to their care.’’

Martin, dressed in a simple black cassock, thanked those who had the courage to speak about their abuse.

“The first step towards any form of healing is to allow the truth to come out,’’ said Martin, who became archbishop in 2004 and has been highly critical of his predecessors’ handling of abuse cases.

“The truth will set us free, but not in a simplistic way,’’ he said. “The truth hurts. The truth cleanses, not with designer soap, but with a fire that burns and hurts and lances.’’

Martin added that there is more reckoning to come, saying, “there is still a long path to journey in honesty before we can truly merit forgiveness.’’

Announced only days ago, the service was not heavily publicized. Nonetheless, the church was full, drawing about 400 people on a dark, drizzly afternoon.

Angela McParland, 57, said she heard about the service yesterday morning and decided, without quite knowing why, to come.

“I know it’s a terrible thing, and we need to try to understand it,’’ she said of the abuse crisis.

The service was written largely by victims of sexual abuse who participated in the liturgy.

Among them was the Rev. Paddy McCafferty, a priest originally from Belfast who said he was abused as a young seminarian; he said he was startled by the emotion that overcame him during the foot-washing ceremony.

“It was very powerful,’’ he said. “It’s the beginning. We’re only starting on the road to healing. And please God, today has been a significant event for people.’’

He said he hoped that the service had helped the worshipers and other victims.

“There’s still an awful lot of anger and hurt, which is understandable and we have to sit with that,’’ he said. “Bit by bit. Gently, gently does it.’’

The service included long stretches of soft, airy music, and readings from Scripture and prayer.

“Lord, we are so sorry for what some of us did to your children: treated them so cruelly, especially in their hour of need,’’ the congregation prayed after each reading from the government reports. “We have left them with a lifelong suffering.’’

A handful of protesters ridiculed the service as ecclesiastical theater. Among them was Paddy Doyle, one of the first abuse victims to go public with his story in his 1988 autobiography “The God Squad,’’ his account of suffering severe physical and sexual abuse at a church-run industrial school.

Doyle said he had been invited to have his feet washed, but he declined.

“It’s a stunt,’’ he said. “Another stunt by the Catholic Church to absolve itself of the rape and abuse of children all over the world.’’

The service was disrupted several times by victims who interrupted to speak.

The first such case occurred minutes after the service began, when a man strode down the center aisle and asked the musicians to stop playing for a moment.

The man, Robert Dempsey, spoke for five minutes about being sexually abused in a church-run mental institution as a child, waiting endlessly for his case to be heard in court, and being mistreated by police.

“What the hell did I do wrong as a child?’’ he said. “What the hell did any of us do?’’

When he said he had pictures proving his story to give to Martin, Martin came and stood by his side. And when he finished, the cathedral burst into applause.

A while later, an elderly man made his way to the microphone from the middle of the pews.

He gave a terse account of how, as a child in a church-run school, he was thrown into a cold bath and then brought into another room, “frozen, naked, and terrified.’’

He was forced to climb a ladder, and with each step, he was lashed with a whip.

“May God forgive them,’’ he said.

The congregation applauded again — and again a bit later, when a young man spoke in remembrance of those who had committed suicide as a result of abuse.

“I was delighted it was interrupted,’’ said a woman who would allow only her middle name, Bridget, to be used because her work would soon involve church-run organizations and she feared professional repercussions. “It brought the reality and the edge of pain to something that could be, despite Diarmuid Martin’s words and Cardinal O’Malley’s words at the end, just a smoothing-over experience.’’


Forgiveness sought
for 'sins' of clergy
by PATSY McGARRY
Religious Affairs Correspondent

Feb. 21, 2011


THE CATHOLIC Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Seán O’Malley yesterday washed the feet of a representative number of victims of clerical child sex abuse in “an act of humble service” at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral.

At the beginning of a moving 90-minute liturgy “of lament and repentance”, prepared in the main by abuse victims themselves, Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O’Malley both prostrated themselves in silent prayer before the altar which was dominated by a large, bare, wooden cross, symbolising the cross of Jesus Christ.

Most of the readings, which included excerpts from the Ryan and Murphy reports, were by victims or relatives of abuse victims. A woman victim read from Matthew’s gospel about Jesus and children, and his words that “anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones . . . would be better drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Among the eight people who had their feet washed were Marie Collins, abused as a child by Fr Paul McGenis, Darren McGavin whose abuse led to former priest Fr Tony Walsh being sentenced to 16 years imprisonment last December, and Christine Buckley who was abused in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage.

Archbishop Martin asked God’s forgiveness “for the sins of bishops and religious superiors, when they failed to respond as good shepherds to victims of abuse by priests and religious.”

He sought forgiveness too “for indifference in the face of human suffering, for putting the institutional Church before the safety of children, for covering up crimes of abuse, and by so doing actually causing the sexual abuse of more children.” He asked God’s forgiveness “for the deaf ear, the blind eye and the hard of heart.”

Cardinal O’Malley, who is leading the apostolic visitation to Dublin sent by Pope Benedict,said “we confess that we are guilty and our sins fill us with dismay.” He also said “on behalf of the Holy Father, I ask forgiveness for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests and the past failures of the Churchs hierarchy, here and in Rome . . . to respond appropriately to the problem of sexual abuse”.

Archbishop Martin said “no one, no one who shared any responsibility for what happened in . . . this archdiocese can ask forgiveness of these who were abused without first recognising the injustice done and their own failure for what took place.”

He said “I, as Archbishop of Dublin . . . ask forgiveness of God and I ask from each of you for the first steps of forgiveness from the victims of abuse.”

He expressed “immense gratitude” to those men and women who, “despite the hurt it cost them . . . had the courage to speak out, to speak out, to speak out and to speak out again and again, courageously and with determination even in the face of unbelief and rejection.” All victims were indebted to them, he said, as was “the Church in Dublin and worldwide and everyone here today.”

He apologised “in my own name” for “the insensitivity and even hurtful and nasty reactions that you have encountered. I appeal to you to continue to speak out. There is still a long path to journey in honesty before we can truly merit forgiveness.”

At the end of the liturgy a “Candle of Protection” was blessed by Archbishop Martin and lit from the Paschal Candle before it was carried in procession to nearby St Joseph’s altar.

Two victims made unplanned contributions at the service. Interrupting the liturgy, Robert Dempsey presented Archbishop Martin with documents alleging continued abuse by civil authorities while, doing likewise, Christopher Heaphy spoke of his savage treatment in an institution as a five-year-old.


I am frankly ambivalent about what happened here. Of course, a rite of repentance is always salutary, and, in this case, even a much-needed gesture. But it also turned into a theater of catharsis for some of the abuse victims - and I don't think the Mass was the right place for that. Still, given what they went through, it's hard to blame them for using the occasion as they did. Also, the Mass probably brought many of these victims inside a church for the first time since their respective traumas, and something had to give...

BTW, I do not recall Cardinal O'Malley ever having held a similar rite in his own diocese of Boston, which shares with Dublin the dubious distinction of being the undisputed center of pedophile abuses by priests and the cover-up and inaction of their bishops.

Also, please remember that last year, the media, the victims. the victimhood advocates, and various assorted critics of the Pope had openly derided the part of his pastoral letter to the Irish in which he proposed the following spiritual program as the first concrete step in confronting the festering abuse issue - before even the apostolic visitations that he ordered carried out:

---

I now invite all of you to devote your Friday penances, for a period of one year, between now and Easter 2011, to this intention. I ask you to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland.

I encourage you to discover anew the sacrament of Reconciliation and to avail yourselves more frequently of the transforming power of its grace.

Particular attention should also be given to Eucharistic adoration, and in every diocese there should be churches or chapels specifically devoted to this purpose. I ask parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries to organize periods of Eucharistic adoration, so that all have an opportunity to take part.

Through intense prayer before the real presence of the Lord, you can make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm, at the same time imploring the grace of renewed strength and a deeper sense of mission on the part of all bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful.

- BENEDICT XVI
Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland
March 19, 2010

---

I certainly hope the bishops and priests have been promoting and carrying out this part of the program - they are spiritual exercises that do not command the headlines that yesterday's liturgy in Dublin did, but are far more meaningful in the long run.

I think it is an occasion to recall the prayer with which the Holy Father ended his pastoral letter to the Irish.

---

Prayer for the Church in Ireland

God of our fathers,
renew us in the faith which is our life and salvation,
the hope which promises forgiveness and interior renewal,
the charity which purifies and opens our hearts
to love you, and in you, each of our brothers and sisters.

Lord Jesus Christ,
may the Church in Ireland renew her age-old commitment
to the education of our young people in the way of truth and goodness,
holiness and generous service to society.
Holy Spirit, comforter, advocate and guide,
inspire a new springtime of holiness and apostolic zeal
for the Church in Ireland.
May our sorrow and our tears,
our sincere effort to redress past wrongs,
and our firm purpose of amendment
bear an abundant harvest of grace
for the deepening of the faith
in our families, parishes, schools and communities,
for the spiritual progress of Irish society,
and the growth of charity, justice, joy and peace
within the whole human family.

To you, Triune God,
confident in the loving protection of Mary,
Queen of Ireland, our Mother,
and of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and all the saints,
do we entrust ourselves, our children,
and the needs of the Church in Ireland.
Amen.

---

Monday, February 21, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

ST. PIER DAMIANI (Peter Damian) (Italy, 1007-1072)
Professor, Benedictine monk, Abbot, Papal Legate, Cardinal, Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI dedicated a catechesis to the saint on September 9, 2009.
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...
Born to an impoverished noble family in Ravenna, his brother Damian (from whom he takes his second name) put him through school where he excelled in languages and the law. A renowned professor in Parma and Ravenna by age 24, he decided to join the Benedictine monastery founded by St. Romuald in Fonte Avellana. Always an ascetic himself, he championed a return to the rules of early monasticism, and all his life, would champion reforms in the Church promulgated by the Popes of his time. Although he considered a hermit's life as 'the peak of Christian existence', he found himself being assigned to arbitrate local disputes and other missions from the Vatican, in addition to being a prolific writer (he is considered one of the greatest of medieval Latin writers). He became abbot at Fonte Avellana and founded five other monasteries. In 1057, he reluctantly accepted a papal appointment as Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, where he served for ten years, then obtained papal dispensation to return to Fonte Avellana. He carried out more missions for the Pope, and was returning from one when he fell ill and died. In the Divine Comedy, Dante called him the precursor of St. Francis. He was never formally canonized, but in 1878, Pope Leo XII made him a Doctor of the Church (Doctor of Reform and Renewal), the last of the Early Church Doctors.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022111.shtml



No OR today.


PAPAL EVENTS TODAY

At noon today, after celebration of the Midday prayers of the Divine Office, the Holy Father presided at an ordinary public consistory for the canonization of the following Blesseds:

- Guido Maria Conforti, Italian (1865-1931), Archbishop of Parma, Founder of the Pia Società di San Francesco Saverio
(Pious Society of St. Francis Xavier) for foreign missions, better known as the Xavierian missionaries.

- Luigi Guanella, Italian (1842-1915), Priest, Founder of the Congregations Servants of Charity and Daughters of St. Mary of Providence.

- Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro, Spaniard (1837-1905), Virgin, Founder of the Congregation of the Servants of St. Joseph.

The Holy Father decreed their canonization on Sunday, October 23, 2011.

It took him two weeks but at least Mons. Zollitsch, president of theGerman bishops' conference has finally taken a position on the dissident theologians' 'memorandum'. For now, I will post the brief SIR report, as I have just seen the German original, and I won't be able to post a translation right away... I can translate Italian, Spanish, and even French while sleepwalking, but German requires more time and effort on my part!


German bishops' president says
'Kirche 2011' is not helpful at all
From the English service of

Feb. 21, 2011


The “memorandum” of reforms recently produced by German-speaking theologians (originally, 147; 256 at last count) “is not helpful”, according to Mons. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and president of the German Bishops Conference (DBK), in an article published yesterday by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Mgr. Zollitsch criticised the fact that the process of dialogue among lay people, priests and bishops promoted by the DBK had led to "questioning some established [Church] practices again”.

“In this situation”, he went on, “it may be inevitable, but certainly not helpful, to quickly produce requests and claims in the form of deficiencies which to be immediately corrected”.

However, “the Church must focus on how to keep the need for God alive in modern society and how to give a Christian answer to such questions”, Zollitsch wrote.

He warned against the idea that to have a better Church,all it takes is some sort of “an ecclesiastic garage that will just tighten a few screws here and there”.

At the same time, Zollitsch confirmed that the bishops are prepared to engage in such dialogue and reiterated their belief that “it is possible and certainly essential to make some changes in the life and structure of the Church”, an issue that will be tackled at the next plenary in March.


The SIR report unfortunately does not contextualize Zollitsch's article which the bishop does in his first few sentences, which I have translated:

List of complaints
about the faith
by Mons. Robert Zollitsch
Translated from

February 20, 2011

This autumn, Pope Benedict XVI will visit his homeland. What awaits him is a living Church which is firmly rooted in society, though one which, one must admit, has had rather stormy going. Questions have been raised regarding pastoral approaches and programs, as well as Church structures. Many of these debates are, in fact, not new, but the discussion on Church reform has reached a new intensity.

There is no reason to fear such discussions, but it is nonetheless urgent to ask whether, in the necessary dialog over the future form of the Church, the central problem is confronted in depth and if the basic vision for a renewal of the Church has been thought out enough.

Ultimately, it has to do with how to keep alive the question of God in our society and how to formulate a convincing Christian answer, and above all, how such an answer can be lived in practice....


At least, he has the fundamentals right, but the article on the whole does not rule out the peripheral discussions, and promises that the questions raised in the KRCIHE 2011 Memorandum will be taken up at the next meeting of the DBK in March - as though a a few days of discussion will produce any answers that have not already been given to these 40-year-old demands! But of course, dissidents will never take NO for an answer.... Will post the rest of the translation when I have more time tonight....

Remember all the hullaballoo raised in the British media for months over the cost of the Pope's visit to the UK? When the government finally totalled its bills last week, it turns out it was nearer the original estimate of 6-million pounds, and far from the inflated 12-million that was the low figure much of the media played up - and which the atheists seized as a populist club to wield against the Church. Sorry not to have posted anything about it till now....

Pope visit to UK
cost taxpayers £6.9-million

Feb. 16. 2011


The Pope visited the UK for four days in September 2010 The Pope's four-day UK visit in 2010 cost taxpayers £6.9m, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

The government paid a further £6.3m - to be reimbursed by the Catholic Church - and the Church paid another £3.8m directly. [So the Church really paid much mpre pf the total costs than did the government!]

The figures do not include policing costs. The Scottish government funded part of the trip north of the border.

Foreign office minister Henry Bellingham said the visit was "historic".

Pope Benedict XVI spent four days in the UK last September, with engagements in Glasgow, London and Birmingham.

It was the first-ever state visit by a Pope to the UK, and "an important milestone in the relationship between the UK and the Holy See", Mr Bellingham said.

"It was on a far bigger scale than a normal State visit: police estimates suggest that 500,000 people saw the Pope either during events or along the Pope mobile routes.

"Approximately 3,000 media representatives were accredited to cover the visit.

"The combination of official events, pastoral events, through which the Pope engaged with Britain's Roman Catholics, and meetings with the Church of England and with people of other faiths, made this a visit that was out of the ordinary in every way," he said.
Costs included £3m for facilities for the media, £1.7m for a beatification Mass in Birmingham and £483,821 for a service at St Mary's University College in Twickenham.


Now, here's how the anti-Pope elements are pooh-poohing the actual figures:

Protesters against Pope’s UK visit
now say it wasn’t really about the cost
By Deacon Nick

February 18th, 2011

Now that the government has announced that the majority of costs to the taxpayer for Pope Benedict’s State visit were way below the exaggerated claims of the Pope’s opponents, the protesters are now stating their protests weren’t really about the costs anyway. If the government had announced much higher costs no doubt the protesters would be self-righteously crowing.

Here’s what Paul Sims of the New Humanist writes:

---

However, even if we take the figure provided by the Foreign Office at face value, it’s important to point out that the objections that many people had to the Papal Visit did not revolve exclusively around the finances. It was a point made by the British Humanist Association at the time and I asked their head of public affairs, Naomi Phillips, for her thoughts in light of the latest news. Here’s what she said:

“Our main opposition to awarding the Pope the honour of a state visit, as head of the 'state' of the Holy See, was never just about the cost – there were plenty of many principled objections to it. Things like the Holy See’s opposition to the distribution of condoms in AIDS prevention programmes and opposition to abortion that destroys people’s lives. Or the Holy See’s international opposition to gay equality. Or perhaps the failure to address, and even to cover-up, the systemic child abuse within its own organisation throughout the world.’

---

Having distanced themselves from the NSS exagerated focus on the costs, which is now a busted flush, the New Humanists then have another dig about the costs, but from a totally different angle, that is just as misleadingly based on half-truths and distortions:

---

But if we are looking at the money, at least £7 million has been funded by the taxpayer, being taken from funds including for international development (i.e. money meant to help the world’s poorest), and from crucial environmental budgets.

Many more millions than that will have been spent on the security costs – the exact figure not yet known – and it seems we’re still waiting to be ‘reimbursed’ for another £6 million or so for the many pastoral activities the Pope undertook during the state visit.”

---

Here’s a few facts to put this bit of black propaganda into perspective:

o The money taken from international development was taken from their administration budget, not the budget used to fund emergency or development aid. This money would never have gone to aid the world’s poor.
o The New Humanists fail to mention that because the papal visit came under budget the government is refunding £600,000 to each of the contributing departments, including Dfid.
o The New Humanists mention sneeringly, ‘it seems we’re still waiting to be ‘reimbursed’ for another £6 million. The Tablet reports that the Church has stated it will re-pay the £ 6.3 million by 1st March 2011. This is on top of the £3.8 million that Catholics have already payed towards the costs.
o The New Humanists make no mention of the fact that Catholics will be paying £10 million in total.

Protect the Pope comment: Five months later the secular humanists are up to the same black propaganda tricks they used before the Holy Father’s visit – half truths and only half the facts.

Why is it that they don’t want their readers to know the full facts about the Pope’s visit? Obviously they’re not interested in the truth of the matter because they can’t or don’t want to see past their own anti-Catholic prejudices.

And to complete the twisted perspective that British media, including the BBC, chose to take about the costs of the papal visit, it's worth posting a lengthy set-up from BBC in May 2010 (I'm posting the whole thing instead of just the link because I don't know how long the BBC keeps its news items online.


Who should pay
for the Pope's visit?
By Dan Bell

May 21, 2010

Pope Benedict has been invited to make a state visit this autumn
By the time Mass has ended this Sunday morning, the Catholic Church in the UK hopes the trickle of pounds and pence onto collection plates will have raised £1m towards this year's papal visit.

£1m is a lot of small change to pull together in a single morning, but this is a fraction of the total needed to fund the Pope's state visit to England and Scotland in September.

The total bill for the invited visit - without the cost of police and security - is estimated by the Foreign Office to be about £15m. Of this, £7m will come from the Catholic Church, the rest will be shouldered by taxpayers.

It is this final issue of whether, in a secular democracy, the public purse should pay for the visit of a religious leader, that has led to criticism.

In March the National Secular Society (NSS) pressure group delivered a 28,000-name petition to Downing Street objecting to any state funding of what they say is a religious activity.

Terry Sanderson, president of the NSS, said the benefits of the state visit did not justify its cost.

Mr Sanderson said: "State visits are to do with improving trade relations or having some sort of diplomatic contact that will be useful in the future for improving trade - there's nothing like this in this visit.

"The government said it would cost £15m, without the cost of security. But of course, as we've seen with state visits to other countries, it's the security that's the big ticket.

"The Church is trying to take the sting out of this by raising £7m. I'm glad that they also feel that this is a religious visit really and it's got nothing to with the state.

The Pope is coming as a religious leader, but he is also coming at the request of the Queen as a head of state, so all the usual concerns apply.

Unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has a different view.

Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, who is co-ordinating the visit, said: "Firstly, the Pope is coming as a religious leader, but he is also coming at the request of the Queen as a head of state, so all the usual concerns apply. Secondly, one in 10 people in this country is Catholic.

"I do understand how people would not agree with the Catholic Church on some things, and they would translate that into why should the British taxpayer [have to pay for the visit].

"But there are many others who would be very willing to support the visit." He added that taxes were often spent on things that not everyone agrees with, but that this was "part of being a society".

So where is the Church going to find the £7m it has pledged to contribute?

Mgr Summersgill said most Sunday collections remained within their diocese but for big national collections - such as the Day for Life, which supports the Catholic Church's pro-life work - the Church would expect to collect about £400,000 to £500,000.

We cannot confirm the total costs as these will depend on an assessment of the policing required to manage the security threat posed at the time.

He said for the Papal visit the Church hoped people would double their contributions to come up with close to a million.

Mgr Summersgill said more than £3m had already been raised through personal donations and that, along with a range of other fund-raising efforts, he hoped there would be no need to ask parishioners for another collection after the one on Sunday.

The Church's contribution will pay for staging and organising the "pastoral" elements of the Pope's itinerary, such as public masses to take place in different cities across the country.

Mgr Summersgill said: "The cost of staging large gatherings in particular are really quite significant.

"If we are going to make those gatherings moments which are both prayerful and safe for those who can be there and if, we're going to make them available online and on television for the vast majority of people who cannot be there, we have to find a way of meeting those costs."

The government remains vague on the details of what the final cost will be to the taxpayer.

The Church said its "very rough estimate" of the number of people who would attend the events was a total of about 400,000.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Policing will be provided by the state and we expect these costs to be met from existing budgets.

"We cannot confirm the total costs as these will depend on an assessment of the policing required to manage the security threat posed at the time of the visit.

"The non-policing costs of the papal visit will be in the region of £15m, including both 'state' and pastoral elements.

"Planning and discussions are continuing to firm up this estimate and the appropriate contributions from the government and the Catholic Bishops' Conference. More detailed figures will be made public in due course."

Mgr Summersgill estimated the last visit by a Pope, in 1982, cost between £15m and £16m. [John Paul !!'s visit lasted six days and he visited eight cities.]

According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, an event costing £16m in 1982 would cost about £42m today.

I did this translation two nights ago but my computer froze before I could post it but I had earlier copied the translation onto my holding doument, then forgot all about posting it when I came back to the PC....

Cardinal Cottier explains
'how to read Joseph Ratzinger'
by SILVIA GUIDI
Translated from the 2/20/11 issue of


"There are boring books, we all know, but luckily for us, not in this case," saud Cardinal Georges Cottier, emertius Theologian of the Pontifical Household, in a Friday evening encounter entitled "How to read Ratzinger' spoonsored by the Vatican publishing house, LEV, at the Libreria Internazionale Paolo VI in Rome.

The library's meeting hall could not accommodate all the persons who showed up and additional seats had to be placed in the bookstore area among the shelves, with a jumbo screen where they could follow the proceedings.

Cardinal Cottier spoke of the totality of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's writings from the earliest works up to Light of the world, saying "I would suggest to take what he says literally".

"Theology is the human attempt - therefore perfectible - to inquire into the mystery of God," Cottier said. "The theologian has his point of view., he can be mistaken, and he can change his opinions.

"On the other hand, the charism of the Successor of Peter is to maintain the unity of the Church and the correctness of the message that she transmits.

"When the Pope signs himself as Joseph Ratzinger, he is underscoring that difference - which may seem obvious, but I am afraid it is not sufficiently understood".

Cottier observed that "In the works of Cardinal Ratzinger, there were recurrent issues, one being the 'divorce' between faith and reason which is a crucial problem in modern times. Faith has been reduced to superstition or sentiment, as if it had nothing to do with reality.

"But reason is present in the Bible, in Christian theology - and in Augustine, in Thomas Aquinas, we have great thinkers in our tradition.

"The problem of our time is reason that claims to be self-sufficient, denies, ignores or assails as unreasonable everything that it cannot manage to reach on its own".

In the exegetical mode, he said, an analogous rupture was created between the 'historical Jesus' and the 'Christ of faith'. The historico-critical method has resulted in valuable results, but one must beware of those 'life of Jesus' books which betray the method and in which the authors are writing more about themselves than about Jesus".

If the 18th century considered philosophical reason as its standard, today it is scientific knowledge that claims to be the only criterion for knowledge, he said.

"The great spirits think of the most evident things which we do not see." Cottier commented in his 'guided tour' of the principal themes in the Ratzingerian theology. "It is the Word, the Logos made flesh that the Gospel of John describes which is the bridge between human reason and divine reason. God has revealed himself, he has come to me - this is what is meant by 'the Word was made flesh'."

"What is most amazing about Benedict XVI", the cardinal concluded, "is that he remains a happy man. The theme of joy is very much present in his work, and even in his preaching. So many readers have been struck by the authenticity and simplicity of many things the Pope says in Light of the World.

"Readers may well ask, 'Is this the same person we read about in the newspapers? The same person who has been transformed by the media into a caricature in a display of bad taste?

"In many pages of the book, one encounters a Pope who is relaxed, confident, and who expresses himself freely, holding back nothing. He takes note without censure of secularization and relativism which prevail in the experience of so many today.

"In the face of all this, his serenity does not seem to rely on something he has discovered, or on any particular formula. Rather, he simply reiterates it is Jesus himself who keeps the living flame of faith lit in the Church".


The Vatican bookstores in Rome, each named for a Pope: From left, the original bookstore, in the Charlemagne arm of the Bernini Colonnade, established in 1984 and named for John Paul II in 2005; the bookstore in central Rome, in the Palazzo of Propaganda Fide, opened in June 2008 and named for Paul VI; and the third bookstore at the Palazzo delle Congregazioni on Piazza Pio XII (the square immediately adjoining St. Peter's Square and opening to the Via della Conciliazione), established in November 2008 and named for Benedict XVI. The LEV has been sponsoring these so-called 'Venerdi della Propaganda', Friday lectures at the Paul VI bookstore at Propaganda Fide.


NB: In the December 2010 issue of the magazine 30 GIORNI, which came out last month (it usually comes out the month after its issue date), Cardinal Cottier wrote an appreciation of Light of the World which I had wanted to translate, but stopped when I realized it meant I had to look up each and every citation he made in the English version of the book in order to use the official translation of a book already published - which I can do if we are talking of 3 or 4 citations, but not more than that because LOTW is not indexed, and I have to leaf through the book to find the exact passage cited. (It's much easier and far less time-consuming for me to translate the citations all over, but I never do that when the book or article has already been published in English) ... 30 GIORNI has now posted an English translation online on www.30giorni.it/us/articolo.asp?id=23383

Tuesday, February 22, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

FEAST OF PETER'S CHAIR
[This feast commemorates Christ’s choosing Peter to sit in his place as the servant-authority of the whole Church. Already in the second half of the 8th century, an ancient wooden Chair inlaid with ivory was venerated and traditionally held to be the Episcopal chair on which St. Peter sat as he instructed the faithful of Rome. In fact, it is a throne in which fragments of acacia wood are visible, which could be part of the chair of St. Peter, encased in oak and reinforced with iron bands. Several rings facilitated its transportation during processions. Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to build a sumptuous monument which would give prominence to this ancient wooden chair. Bernini built a throne in gilded bronze, richly ornamented with bas-reliefs in which the chair was enclosed: two pieces of furniture, one within the other. It was installed in 1666 on the altar just below the alabaster window depicting the Holy Spirit. Every February 22, the altar of Peter's Chair is decorated with dozens of lighted candles, while the familiar black sculpture of St. Peter is dressed in full papal regalia.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022211.shtml


OR for 2/21-2/22/11:

At the Angelus, the Pope speaks of Christian witness
'Lives shaped by love'
Other papal stories in this issue: The consistory that approved the canonization of three Blesseds - two Italian priests and a Spanish nun, all founders of religious orders - to take place on Oct. 23; and the elevation of six cardinal-deacons at their request to the rank of cardinal priests, thus elevating Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran (photo above), who has elected to remain a cardinal-deacon for now, to the post of Proto-Deacon of the College of Cardinals - in which role he would make the 'Habemus Papam' announcement after the next papal conclave. Top Page 1 international news is the escalating popular uprising in Libya which may well bring down Muammar Khaddafi's 41-year rule. At the Paris G20 summit, China prevails over the Western industrialized nations by blocking a proposal to make outstanding national debt and foreign currency reserves external criteria for determining financial instability, and by not giving in to US demands for a revaluation of the yuan. A Stockholm group monitoring the arms trade says it is the only business that has not undergone any crisis - with a total of $400 billion in arms sales in 2009, representing an 8% increase over 2008, and a 59% increase compared to the trade volume in 2002.

No papal events announced for today.

The Vatican released the Holy Father's message for Lent, which begins on March 9, at a news conference this morning.




Papal nominations made known today include -

- Mons. Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, I.S.P.X., until now Auxiliary Bishop, to be the Metropolitan Archbishop of Quebec (Canada)

- Mons. Edward Joseph Adams, who has been the Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines, now reassigned to Greece

- Mons. Joseph Kalathiparambil, till now Bishop of Calicut (India), as secretary of the Pontifical Council
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Workers;


FEAST OF PETER'S CHAIR


Left, Bernini's altar of Peter's Chair - the Church Doctors holding up the Chair are, on the left, Augustine and John Chrysostom, and on the right, Athanasius and Ambrose. Center, the altar with the lighted candles on Feb. 22; right, Arnolfo di Cambio's sculpture of St. Peter, dressed in papal regalia every Feb. 22.

---

The Latin liturgy celebrates today the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. It comes from a very ancient tradition, chronicled at Rome from the end of the 4th century, which renders thanks to God for the mission entrusted to the Apostle Peter and to his successors.

The cathedra, literally, is the fixed seat of the Bishop, found in the mother church in a diocese, which for this reason is called "cathedral," and is the symbol of the authority of the Bishop and, in particular, of his "magisterium," the evangelical teaching which he, as a successor of the Apostles, is called to maintain and pass on to the Christian community.

When the Bishop takes possession of the particular Church entrusted to him, he, wearing the mitre and carrying the pastoral staff, is seated in the cathedra. From that seat he will guide, as teacher and pastor, the path of the faithful in faith, in hope and in love....

Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the apse of St. Peter's Basilica, as you know, can be found the monument to the Chair of the Apostle, Bernini's oldest work, realized in the form of a great bronze throne, held up by statues of four Doctors of the Church, two from the West, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, two from the east, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius.

I invite you to stand before this evocative work, which today is decorated with many candles, and pray in a particular way for the ministry which God has entrusted to me. Raising our gaze to the alabaster window which opens over the Chair, invoking the Holy Spirit, may He always sustain with his light and strength my daily service to all the Church.

BENEDICT XVI
February 22, 2006

---

- CNS finally has a story today
www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100721.htm
based on Part 1 of an interview with FSSPX bishop Mons. Fellay posted last week on the US site of the Lefebvrians, which today posted Part 2 of the interview.

- A news report I have not posted is a story from this weekend about some Australian priests - 12 so far - saying they will not use the new English translation of the Mass. Father Z fisks that report thoroughly. Like the 400 Irtish priests who earlier dismissed the translation and demanded a five-year period of consultation with them before it goes into effect, the Australian dissidents claim they were not consulted.

Hey, was anyone consulted by the committee that hastily prepared the current English translation in time for the 1970 liturgical reform? How come everyone in the universal Church who obediently followed the Novus Ordo never complained about that translation which was always intended to be provisional, and now, there are those who quarrel with a translation that has gone through years of effort, review and revision by every English-speaking bishops' conference in the world - who can surely represent their flock in such an undertaking?

One must remember that the original translation provided by the English-speaking sons of Bugnini - and that has been in use since 1970 - was not an exact translation of the Paul VI Missal in its so-called 'typical' or standard edition in Latin, but much more of an adaptation to the protestantizing tendencies of the liturgical reformists at the time. This prompted John Paul II to finally issue, through the Congregation of Divine Worship, the March 2001 Instruction Liturgiam authenticam requiring that in translations of the liturgical texts from the official Latin original, "the original text, insofar as possible, must be translated integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses. Any adaptation to the characteristics or the nature of the various vernacular languages is to be sober and discreet." That was the canonical basis for the new English translation which will be universally in force by Advent this year, and which is translated from the 2002 typical edition (the third one) of the Novus Ordo.

A prayer is a prayer, especially if its adapted as a universal standard - you may not like the translation, but live with it: It is no less valid because you don't like it! - All you have to do is use it often enough, until it becomes second nature.

By the preposterous pretext that these dissident priests make about the new translation, they probably would not say the Our Father in the beautiful archaic English we all learned! This is just one instance of how corrosive and corrupting the so-called 'spirit of Vatican II' has been for so many of our fellow Catholics, who have discarded the rule of obedience in the faith, and have made it their existential choice to oppose the Church and the Pope as much as they can and as often as they can, from trivial and relatively unimportant matters to the essential tenets of the faith...

Re-post from last year: A wonderful little essay by then Cardinal Ratzinger which sounds like he could have delivered it today - yet another proof, if anyone needed it, of the consistency, clarity and singular beauty of his exposition of the faith. It is more special in this case because he presents the faith in the context of the Petrine ministry - and when he wrote this in the 1990s, he could not have possibly thought that he would one day hold that ministry.



Excerpted from IMAGES OF HOPE



Anyone who, after wandering through the massive nave of Saint Peter's Basilica, at last arrives at the final altar in the apse would probably expect here a triumphal depiction of Saint Peter, around whose tomb the church is built. But nothing of the kind is the case. The figure of the Apostle does not appear among the sculptures of this altar.

Instead, we stand before an empty throne that almost seems to float but is supported by the four figures of the great Church teachers of the West and the East. The muted light over the throne emanates from the window surrounded by floating angels, who conduct the rays of light downward.

What is this whole composition trying to express? What does it tell us? It seems to me that a deep analysis of the essence of the Church lies hidden here, is contained here, an analysis of the office of Peter.

Let us begin with the window, with its muted colors, which both gathers in to the center and opens outward and upward. It unites the Church with creation as a whole. It signifies through the dove of the Holy Spirit that God is the actual source of all light.

But it tells us also something else) the Church herself is in essence, so to speak, a window, a place of contact between the other-worldly mystery of God and our world, the place where the world is permeable to the radiance of his light.

The Church is not there for herself, she is not an end, but rather a point of departure beyond herself and us. The more transparent she becomes for the other, from whom she comes and to whom she leads, the more she fulfills her true essence.

Through the window of her faith God enters this world and awakens in us the longing for what is greater. The Church is the place of encounter where God meets us and we find God. It is her task to open up a world closing in on itself, to give it the light without which it would be unlivable.

Let us look now at the next level of the altar: the empty cathedra made of gilded bronze, in which a wooden chair from the ninth century is embedded, held for a long time to be the cathedra of the Apostle Peter and for this reason placed in this location. The meaning of this part of the altar is thereby made clear.

The teaching chair of Peter says more than a picture could say. It expresses the abiding presence of the Apostle, who as teacher remains present in his successors. The chair of the Apostle is a sign of nobility--it is the throne of truth, which in that hour at Caesarea became his and his successors' charge.

The seat of the one who teaches re-echoes, so to speak, for our memory the word of the Lord from the room of the Last Supper: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:32).

But there is also another remembrance connected to the chair of the Apostle: the saying of Ignatius of Antioch, who in the year 110 in his Letter to the Romans called the Church of Rome "the primacy of love". Primacy in faith must be primacy in love.

The two are not to be separated from each other. A faith without love would no longer be the faith of Jesus Christ. The idea of Saint Ignatius was however still more concrete: the word "love" is in the language of the early Church also an expression for the Eucharist.

Eucharist originates in the love of Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us. In the Eucharist, he evermore shares himself with us; he places himself in our hands. Through the Eucharist he fulfills evermore his promise that from the Cross he will draw us into his open arms (see Jn 12:32).

In Christ's embrace we are led to one another. We are taken into the one Christ, and thereby we now also belong reciprocally together. I can no longer consider anyone a stranger who stands in the same contact with Christ.

These are all, however, in no way remote mystical thoughts. Eucharist is the basic form of the Church. The Church is formed in the eucharistic assembly. And since all assemblies of all places and all times always belong only to the one Christ, it follows that they all form only one single Church. They lay, so to speak, a net of brotherhood across the world and join the near and the far to one another so that through Christ they are all near.

Now we usually tend to think that love and order are opposites. Where there is love, order is no longer needed because all has become self-evident. But that is a misunderstanding of love as well as of order.

True human order is something different from the bars one places before beasts of prey so that they are restrained. Order is respect for the other and for one's own, which is then most loved when it is taken in its correct sense. Thus order belongs to the Eucharist, and its order is the actual core of the order of the Church.

The empty chair that points to the primacy in love speaks to us accordingly of the harmony between love and order. It points in its deepest aspect to Christ as the true primate, the true presider in love. It points to the fact that the Church has her center in the liturgy. It tells us that the Church can remain one only from communion with the crucified Christ.

No organizational efficiency can guarantee her unity. She can be and remain world Church only when her unity is more than that of an organization - when she lives from Christ. Only the eucharistic faith, only the assembly around the present Lord can she keep for the long term. And from here she receives her order.

The Church is not ruled by majority decisions but rather through the faith that matures in the encounter with Christ in the liturgy.

The Petrine service is primacy in love, which means care for the fact that the Church takes her measure from the Eucharist. She becomes all the more united, the more she lives from the eucharistic dimension and the more she remains true in the Eucharist to the dimension of the tradition of faith. Love will also mature from unity, love that is directed to the world.

The Eucharist is based on the act of love of Jesus Christ unto death. That means, too, that anyone who views pain as something that should be abolished or at least left to others is someone incapable of love.

"Primacy in love": we spoke in the beginning about the empty throne, but now it is apparent that the "throne" of the Eucharist is not a throne of lordship but rather the hard chair of the one who serves.

Let us now look at the third level of the altar, at the Fathers who bear the throne of serving. The two teachers of the East, Chrysostom and Athanasius, embody together with the Latin Fathers Ambrose and Augustine the entirety of the tradition and thus the fullness of the faith of the one Church.

Two considerations are important here: love stands on faith. It collapses when man lacks orientation. It falls apart when man can no longer perceive God. Like and with love, order and justice also stand on faith; authority in the Church stands on faith.

The Church cannot conceive for herself how she wants to be ordered. She can only try ever more clearly to understand the inner call of faith and to live from faith. She does not need the majority principle, which always has something atrocious about it: the subordinated part must bend to the decision of the majority for the sake of peace even when this decision is perhaps misguided or even destructive.

In human arrangements, there is perhaps no alternative. But in the Church the binding to faith protects all of us: each is bound to faith, and in this respect the sacramental order guarantees more freedom than could be given by those who would subject the Church to the majority principle.

A second consideration is needed here: the Church Fathers appear as the guarantors of loyalty to Sacred Scripture. The hypotheses of human interpretation waver. They cannot carry the throne. The life-sustaining power of the scriptural word is interpreted and applied in the faith that the Fathers and the great councils have learned from that word.

The one who holds to this has found what gives secure ground in times of change.

Finally, now, we must not forget the whole for the parts. For the three levels of the altar take us into a movement that is ascent and descent at the same time.

Faith leads to love. Here it becomes evident whether it is faith at all. A dark, complaining, egotistic faith is false faith. Whoever discovers Christ, whoever discovers the worldwide net of love that he has cast in the Eucharist, must be joyful and must become a giver himself.

Faith leads to love, and only through love do we attain to the heights of the window, to the view to the living God, to contact with the streaming light of the Holy Spirit. Thus the two directions permeate each other. The light comes from God, flows downward awakening faith and love, in order then to take us up the ladder that leads from faith to love and to the light of the eternal.

The inner dynamic into which the altar draws us allows finally a last element to become understandable.

The window of the Holy Spirit does not stand there on its own. It is surrounded by the overflowing fullness of angels, by a choir of joy. That is to say, God is never alone. That would contradict his essence.

Love is participation, community, joy. This perception allows still another thought to emerge. Sound joins the light. We think we hear them singing, these angels, for we cannot imagine these streams of joy to be silent or as talking idly or shouting. They can be perceived only as praise in which harmony and diversity unite.

"Yet you are... enthroned on the praises of Israel", we read in the psalm (22:3). Praise is likewise the cloud of joy through which God comes and which bears him as its companion into this world.

Liturgy is therefore the eternal light shining into our world. It is God's joy, sounding into our world. And it is at the same time our feeling about the consoling glow of this light out of the depth of our questions and confusion, climbing up the ladder that leads from faith to love, thereby opening the view to hope.




Since we might consider the Feast of St. Peter's Chair as the annual Pope's Day (we did, back in 1950s Catholic Philippines), let me pass on Father Z's commendable initiative in preparation for the Holy Father's 'name day' on March 19:



The link for indicating your offering is the Feb. 21 entry on
wdtprs.com/blog/

The Holy Father actually has two 'name days' close to each other - the other being St. Benedict's feast day on March 21 (his birthday in heaven, as the Benedictines say, having coined the phrase for the day their founder's earthly life came to an end). So we may all extend the apecial prayers and offerings to March 21, or all the way to his other double anniversary on April 16-April 19, or every day of the year, for that matter.

The Pope prepares
the faithful for Lent



22 FEB 2011 (RV) - The cleansing power of baptism, conversion and a renewal of the faith – these are the focus of this year’s Lenten Message issued by the Pope’s charity office Cor Unum and presented at a press conference in the Vatican Tuesday.

The Message draws from a verse in Colossians: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him.” Through the Sacrament of Baptism, the Pope writes, “man dies to sin,” and “is made a sharer in the new life of the Risen Christ.”

“By immersing ourselves into the death and resurrection of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are moved to free our hearts every day from the burden of material things, from a self-centered relationship with the ‘world’ that impoverishes us and prevents us from being available and open to God and our neighbour.”

The Message highlights “a particular connection” that binds Baptism to Lent as “the favourable time” to experience God’s saving Grace and reminds the faithful that the Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism.

Inviting the faithful to solemnly reflect on the Gospel readings over the five Sundays of Lent, the Message calls us to “undertake more seriously our journey towards Easter and prepare ourselves to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.”

“Through the traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer which are an expression of our commitment to conversion,” the message continues, “Lent teaches us how to live the love of Christ in an ever more radical way.”

Here is teh full text of the message:

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“You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him.” (cf. Col 2: 12)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Lenten period, which leads us to the celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with due diligence.

As she awaits the definitive encounter with her Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent).

[G}1. This very life was already bestowed upon us on the day of our Baptism, when we “become sharers in Christ’s death and Resurrection”, and there began for us “the joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples” (Homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 10 January, 2010).

In his Letters, St. Paul repeatedly insists on the singular communion with the Son of God that this washing brings about. The fact that, in most cases, Baptism is received in infancy highlights how it is a gift of God: no one earns eternal life through their own efforts.

The mercy of God, which cancels sin and, at the same time, allows us to experience in our lives “the mind of Christ Jesus” (Phil 2: 5), is given to men and women freely.

The Apostle to the Gentiles, in the Letter to the Philippians, expresses the meaning of the transformation that takes place through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, pointing to its goal: that “I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead”(Phil 3: 10-11).

Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the baptized to reach the adult stature of Christ.

A particular connection binds Baptism to Lent as the favorable time to experience this saving Grace. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council exhorted all of the Church’s Pastors to make greater use “of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 109).

In fact, the Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism: this Sacrament realizes the great mystery in which man dies to sin, is made a sharer in the new life of the Risen Christ and receives the same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rm 8: 11).

This free gift must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today, is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life. Truly, they live their Baptism as an act that shapes their entire existence.

2. In order to undertake more seriously our journey towards Easter and prepare ourselves to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord – the most joyous and solemn feast of the entire liturgical year – what could be more appropriate than allowing ourselves to be guided by the Word of God?

For this reason, the Church, in the Gospel texts of the Sundays of Lent, leads us to a particularly intense encounter with the Lord, calling us to retrace the steps of Christian initiation: for catechumens, in preparation for receiving the Sacrament of rebirth; for the baptized, in light of the new and decisive steps to be taken in the sequela Christi and a fuller giving of oneself to him.

The First Sunday of the Lenten journey reveals our condition as human beings here on earth. The victorious battle against temptation, the starting point of Jesus’ mission, is an invitation to become aware of our own fragility in order to accept the Grace that frees from sin and infuses new strength in Christ – the way, the truth and the life (cf. Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, n. 25).

It is a powerful reminder that Christian faith implies, following the example of Jesus and in union with him, a battle “against the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world” (Eph 6: 12), in which the devil is at work and never tires – even today – of tempting whoever wishes to draw close to the Lord: Christ emerges victorious to open also our hearts to hope and guide us in overcoming the seductions of evil.

The Gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord puts before our eyes the glory of Christ, which anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of man. The Christian community becomes aware that Jesus leads it, like the Apostles Peter, James and John “up a high mountain by themselves” (Mt 17: 1), to receive once again in Christ, as sons and daughters in the Son, the gift of the Grace of God: “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him” (Mt 17: 5).

It is the invitation to take a distance from the noisiness of everyday life in order to immerse oneself in God’s presence. He desires to hand down to us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit, where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12), reinforcing our will to follow the Lord.

The question that Jesus puts to the Samaritan woman: “Give me a drink” (Jn 4: 7), is presented to us in the liturgy of the third Sunday; it expresses the passion of God for every man and woman, and wishes to awaken in our hearts the desire for the gift of “a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life” (Jn 4: 14): this is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who transforms Christians into “true worshipers,” capable of praying to the Father “in spirit and truth” (Jn 4: 23).

Only this water can extinguish our thirst for goodness, truth and beauty! Only this water, given to us by the Son, can irrigate the deserts of our restless and unsatisfied soul, until it “finds rest in God”, as per the famous words of St. Augustine.

The Sunday of the man born blind presents Christ as the light of the world. The Gospel confronts each one of us with the question: “Do you believe in the Son of man?” “Lord, I believe!” (Jn 9: 35. 38), the man born blind joyfully exclaims, giving voice to all believers.

The miracle of this healing is a sign that Christ wants not only to give us sight, but also open our interior vision, so that our faith may become ever deeper and we may recognize him as our only Savior. He illuminates all that is dark in life and leads men and women to live as “children of the light”.

On the fifth Sunday, when the resurrection of Lazarus is proclaimed, we are faced with the ultimate mystery of our existence: “I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this?”(Jn 11: 25-26).

For the Christian community, it is the moment to place with sincerity – together with Martha – all of our hopes in Jesus of Nazareth: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world” (Jn 11: 27).

Communion with Christ in this life prepares us to overcome the barrier of death, so that we may live eternally with him.

Faith in the resurrection of the dead and hope in eternal life open our eyes to the ultimate meaning of our existence: God created men and women for resurrection and life, and this truth gives an authentic and definitive meaning to human history, to the personal and social lives of men and women, to culture, politics and the economy.

Without the light of faith, the entire universe finishes shut within a tomb devoid of any future, any hope.

The Lenten journey finds its fulfillment in the Paschal Triduum, especially in the Great Vigil of the Holy Night: renewing our baptismal promises, we reaffirm that Christ is the Lord of our life, that life which God bestowed upon us when we were reborn of “water and Holy Spirit”, and we profess again our firm commitment to respond to the action of the Grace in order to be his disciples.

3. By immersing ourselves into the death and resurrection of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are moved to free our hearts every day from the burden of material things, from a self-centered relationship with the “world” that impoverishes us and prevents us from being available and open to God and our neighbor.

In Christ, God revealed himself as Love(cf. 1Jn 4: 7-10). The Cross of Christ, the “word of the Cross”, manifests God’s saving power (cf. 1Cor 1: 18), that is given to raise men and women anew and bring them salvation: it is love in its most extreme form (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, n. 12).

Through the traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, which are an expression of our commitment to conversion, Lent teaches us how to live the love of Christ in an ever more radical way.

Fasting, which can have various motivations, takes on a profoundly religious significance for the Christian: by rendering our table poorer, we learn to overcome selfishness in order to live in the logic of gift and love; by bearing some form of deprivation – and not just what is in excess – we learn to look away from our “ego”, to discover Someone close to us and to recognize God in the face of so many brothers and sisters.

For Christians, fasting, far from being depressing, opens us ever more to God and to the needs of others, thus allowing love of God to become also love of our neighbor (cf. Mk 12: 31).

In our journey, we are often faced with the temptation of accumulating and love of money that undermine God’s primacy in our lives. The greed of possession leads to violence, exploitation and death; for this, the Church, especially during the Lenten period, reminds us to practice almsgiving – which is the capacity to share.

The idolatry of goods, on the other hand, not only causes us to drift away from others, but divests man, making him unhappy, deceiving him, deluding him without fulfilling its promises, since it puts materialistic goods in the place of God, the only source of life. How can we understand God’s paternal goodness, if our heart is full of egoism and our own projects, deceiving us that our future is guaranteed?

The temptation is to think, just like the rich man in the parable: “My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come…”. We are all aware of the Lord’s judgment: “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul…” (Lk 12: 19-20).

The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention towards others, so that we may rediscover how good our Father is, and receive his mercy.

During the entire Lenten period, the Church offers us God’s Word with particular abundance. By meditating and internalizing the Word in order to live it every day, we learn a precious and irreplaceable form of prayer; by attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.

Prayer also allows us to gain a new concept of time: without the perspective of eternity and transcendence, in fact, time simply directs our steps towards a horizon without a future. Instead, when we pray, we find time for God, to understand that his “words will not pass away” (cf. Mk 13: 31), to enter into that intimate communion with Him “that no one shall take from you” (Jn 16: 22), opening us to the hope that does not disappoint, eternal life.

In synthesis, the Lenten journey, in which we are invited to contemplate the Mystery of the Cross, is meant to reproduce within us “the pattern of his death”(Ph 3: 10), so as to effect a deep conversion in our lives; that we may be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, like St. Paul on the road to Damascus; that we may firmly orient our existence according to the will of God; that we may be freed of our egoism, overcoming the instinct to dominate others and opening us to the love of Christ.

The Lenten period is a favorable time to recognize our weakness and to accept, through a sincere inventory of our life, the renewing Grace of the Sacrament of Penance, and walk resolutely towards Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, through the personal encounter with our Redeemer and through fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the journey of conversion towards Easter leads us to rediscover our Baptism.

This Lent, let us renew our acceptance of the Grace that God bestowed upon us at that moment, so that it may illuminate and guide all of our actions.

What the Sacrament signifies and realizes, we are called to experience every day by following Christ in an ever more generous and authentic manner. In this our itinerary, let us entrust ourselves to the Virgin Mary, who generated the Word of God in faith and in the flesh, so that we may immerse ourselves – just as she did – in the death and resurrection of her Son Jesus, and possess eternal life.

From the Vatican
4 November, 2010

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Bishop presents program
of Pope's visit in June
to San Marino-Montefeltro



SAN MARINO, Feb. 22 - "It is a historic moment for the Republic of San Marino and for the Montefeltro region of Italy," Mons. Luigi Negri, archbishop of the unique diocese, said at a news conference this afternoon held at the Palazzo Bagni, the seat of San Marino's Foreign Ministry.

Seated with Foreign Secretary Antonella Mularoni, the Bishop of San Marino-Montefelto said, "Today, we present the definitive program for the Holy Father's visit on June 11. It is a pious occasion, for which we must prepare ourselves appropriately".

He said the theme of the visit will be: "Lord, make us grow in faith".

San Marino-Montefeltro is a unique diocese in that it straddles two countries - the independent Republic of San Marino, and the adjoining Montefeltro district of Italy's central region of Emlia-Romagna.

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PROGRAM FOR THE PASTORAL VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

DIOCESE OF SAN MARINO-MONTEFELTRO

Sunday, June 19, 2011

08:00 Departure from the Vatican heliport

09:15 Arrival at the heliport of Torraccia in San Marino.
The Holy Father will be welcomed by the two Captains Regent* of San Marino;
Foreign Secretary Antonella Mularoni; Sante Canducci, San Marino's
ambassador to the Holy See;
Mons. Giuseppe Bertello, Apostolic Nuncio to San Marino and Italy;
Mons. Luigi Negri, Bishop of San Marino-Montelfetro;
and San Marino's Protocol Director Marcello Baccari.
[San Marino is also unique in that its head of state is a council of two Captains Regent, who, since 1243, have been named by the elected legislature called the Great and General Council, a multi-party unicameral Parliament. The Captains Regent are named every six months, on April 1 and Oct. 1.]

The Holy Father will proceed by car to the Stadium of Serravalle.

10:00 Eucharistic concelebration at the Stadium of Serravalle.
- Greeting by Mons. Negri
- Homily by the Holy Father
- Angelus

12:30 After Mass, the Holy Father will travel by car to the Casa di San Giuseppe in the Valdragone district.

13:30 Lunch at Casa San Giuseppe, followed by a brief rest.
Before leaving Casa Giuseppe, the Holy Father will greet
the members of the organizing committee for the visit and
members of the Fondazione Internazionale Giovanni Paolo II.

16:15 The Holy Father leaves Casa San Giuseppe by car for Piazza della Liberta.

16:30 At Piazza della Libertà, the Holy Father will be greeted by Their Excellencies the Captains Regent
for the official visit.
- Military honors
- Hymns of the Vatican and San Marino

16:45 The Holy Father and the Captains Regent will enter the Palazzo Publico, where the Holy Father will
- Meet the government ministers and their wives
- Sign the Golden Book of visitors
- Have a private talk withthe Captains Regent

17:30 After the private talk, the Holy Father and his hosts will proceed to the Sala del Consiglio Grande,
where the Holy Father will meet the other members of the government, Congress, and the diplomatic corps.
- Greetings from the Captains Regent
- Address by the Holy Father
- Exchange of gifts

18:00 The Holy Father and the Captains Regent leave the Palazzo Pubblico for the Basilica of San Marino.
He will be welcomed by the Basilica's rector, Mons. Lino Tosi.
In the Basilica, the Holy Father will pause in Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament,
and then venerate the relics of San Marino.

18:15 The Holy Father and the Captains Regent will leave the Basilica and proceed to the Torraccia heliport.

18:30 The Holy Father takes his leave of the Captains Regent and the other officials who had welcomed him earlier.
He departs by helicopter for Pennabili.

18:45 Arrival at the Pennabili sports field.
The Holy Father will be welcomed by a representative of the Italian government;
by H.E Francisco Maria Greco, Italy's ambassador to the Holy See;
Vasco Errani, president of Emilia-Romagna region; Vittorio Saladino prefect of Rimini;
Stefano Vitali, president of Rimini province; and the mayor of Pennabili.
They will proceed by car to the Cathedral of Pennabili.

19:00 At the Cathedral, the Holy Father will be welcomed by the parish priest, Don Maurizio Farneti.
After Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Father will emerge into the Cathedral piazza.

19:15 At the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele, the Holy Father will meet with the young people of the diocese.
- Introduction by Mons. Negri
- Greeting from a youth representative
- Address by the Holy Father
- Brief meeting with a group of youth representatives

20:00 The Holy Father will proceed by car to the Pennabili sports field and say farewell to his hosts.
Departure by helicopter for the Vatican.

21:00 Arrival at the Vatican heliport.

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