BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Here's the first public indication so far that the Holy Father may be visiting Ireland for the IEC next year.
The news item reflects the present media hostility in Ireland to the Pope and the Church.



Pope may visit Ireland in 2012
but protests are expected
By John Cooney, Religion Correspondent

Monday, March 07 2011

A PAPAL visit to Ireland is expected in June next year, although no confirmation has yet been announced by the Vatican.

The Pope is expected to be the chief celebrant at an open air Mass in Dublin's Croke Park on June 17, 2012, marking the end of a week-long International Eucharistic Congress.

Church leaders hope Pope Benedict XVI will also visit Northern Ireland.

This would be only the second visit by a pontiff to the Republic and the first to Northern Ireland.

During the historic visit of the late Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979, plans for the Polish pontiff to go North were called off on account of Provisional IRA violence.

Last September, Pope Benedict did not include Northern Ireland on his visit to Scotland and England, which was acclaimed a success in spite of protests from abuse victims and gay rights groups.

After the public and media outrage over the Vatican's refusal to cooperate with the commission of inquiry into the archdiocese of Dublin, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, a visit to Ireland by Pope Benedict would almost certainly provoke protests, and would not attract the enthusiastic crowds who flocked to see Pope John Paul.

Speculation of a papal visit to Ireland has been rife since Pope Benedict selected Dublin as the venue for the world congress to foster spiritual renewal, in the wake of the clerical child abuse scandals and cover-ups which damaged the standing of the Irish Church.

Invitations to visit Ireland are in Pope Benedict's in-tray from President Mary McAleese, the Government, and Cardinal Sean Brady on behalf of the Irish Conference of Bishops.

But under Vatican protocol, it is the Pope's prerogative to announce his travel plans, and as Pope Benedict would be 85 by June 2011, a confirmation of his intention of leading the Congress in Ireland would not be expected until early next year.

The more immediate focus of the German pontiff is the report and recommendations that he will receive later this month from a team of international investigators he appointed to conduct a confidential probe in Ireland.

However, preparations for the Eucharistic Congress have been intensifying and a programme of events will be unveiled today at a conference at the RDS in Dublin.

Launching the schedule for June 10-17, 2012, will be Cardinal Brady, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, who will be the president of the congress, which was last held in the Irish capital in 1932.

Also taking part will be Fr Kevin Doran, secretary general of the congress, and Anne Griffin, the congress's general manager.

Also present will be the choir from the Holy Child Secondary School, Killiney, who will sing the selected Congress hymn, 'Though We Are Many', composed by Bernard Sexton.

Next week, on St Patrick's Day, a pilgrimage of the Congress Bell will leave St Mary's Pro Cathedral, Dublin, for St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh, and from there, to the other 24 dioceses in Ireland.

However...
2012 IEC program announced,
but organizers say 'no plans'
right now for a papal visit
by SARAH MACDONALD


DUBLIN, March 7 (CNS) — Irish Catholic leaders formally announced plans for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, including efforts to keep the costs affordable.

The congress will be June 10-17, 2012, at various locations in the Dublin Archdiocese, including Royal Dublin Society. The closing Mass will be held at Dublin’s Croke Park and is expected to attract up to 80,000 pilgrims, including 12,000 from overseas.

During the official launch March 7, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin moved to dampen expectations that Pope Benedict XVI will attend the congress.

“There are no plans in place for a visit of the Pope at this moment,” he said. He added that the Pope had been invited.

Anne Griffin, general manager of the congress, told Catholic News Service the closing ceremony will be ticketed and that international delegates who come on a three- or seven-day registration will have the option to attend.

“Registration is opening in the next month for anybody who wishes to come to the Congress,” she said March 7.

“We know that there will be roughly 1,000 people from Canada because they have already expressed an interest; we have approximately 1,200 from the deaf community from all around the world; we have 100 priests from South Africa who are waiting for registration to open so that they can come; and we have a delegation from Taiwan who are waiting to register.”

At least 800 pilgrims from Australia are also expected to attend, she said.

Griffin said the congress’ organizational team in Dublin had set the registration fee at 80 euros ($112).

“The equivalent fee for Quebec was 240 euros, so you can see that we have really tried to keep the cost down very low. We don’t want the cost to be prohibitive for anybody,” she said.

Those who cannot afford to attend can follow the website, www.iec2012.ie, which provides resources in six languages, she added.

The theme of the congress is “The Eucharist: Communion With Christ and One Another.”

A different country hosts the Congress every four years. Canada — Quebec City — hosted the 2008 Congress.

Ireland also hosted the congress in 1932.

Monday, March 7, 9th Week in Ordinary Time


SAINTS PERPETUA AND FELICITY (Carthage, d 203?), Martyrs
They were both young women - Perpetua, a well-educated noblewoman, daughter of a Christian mother and pagan
father, mother of an infant son; Felicity, her slave, pregnant at the time they were seized and jailed, along
with three men, by Roman persecutors in the time of Septimus Severus, for refusing to denounce their
Christian faith. Perpetua was 22 and wrote an account of their imprisonment, the earliest known surviving
text by a Christian woman. In it she recalls she pleaded successfully with her captors to allow her to have
her son with her in prison. Eventually, they were 'sent to the public games' for execution - the men were
killed by beasts, and the two women were beheaded. They are remembered in the Canon of the Mass as two
of the seven women other than the Virgin Mary who are so memorialized. They are among the earliest
of North Aftican saints.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030710.shtml


No OR today.


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian bishops' conference.


Cardinal Attilio Nicora, Presidente of the new Autorità per l’Informazione Finanziaria (AIF), which oversees all financial
activities at the Vatican, has named Francesco De Pasquale, an experienced appeals lawyer and financial expert, particularly on
international regulations against money-laundering, as a director of the AIF.




A couple of significant developments in the US Church that deserve mention and follow-up, which I have not found time to 'process' appropriately before posting - and which, on this anniversary month of the worst sex-abuse stories launched against Benedict XVI last year, may well presage a 2011 reprise:

- Grand jury indictments in the Diocese of Philadelphia that have included, for the first time, an archdiocesan official accused of covering up for sex-offender priests, followed by a New York times expose that as many as 32 such offenders are still active in pastoral duties within the diocese. Rocco Palmo, who lives in Philadelphia, has a running coverage, and fears that the Philadelphia story may be even worse than Boston 2002!

- The formal installation of Mons. Jose Gomez as Archbishop of Los Angeles succeeding Cardinal Roger Mahoney - only to be confronted almost right away by an AP expose claiming that "dozens of former and current priests and religious brothers accused of childhood sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles... now live unmonitored by civil authorities in communities across the state and nation".

- Then there's the really pesky but not minor case of a Zimbabwe national, Lesley Anne Knight, whom the Vatican Secretariat of State publicly announced it would not put her forward for a second term as secretary-general of Caritas International. John Allen has posted an interview with her, in which, as Protect the Pope points out, it appears she is one of those Catholics who profess their own personal brand of Catholicism and who therefore refers to the Vatican as just 'another brand of Catholicism'. If you can't properly represent the only brand of genuine Catholicism there is when you lead an organization like Caritas, why should the Vatican hold on to you?

The Pope, the Jews - and the pagans
by Francis X. Clooney, S.J.

March 6, 2011

Father Clooney is the Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School.

Cambridge, MA - I at least was enthralled for the last six weeks by my series on Swami Prabhavananda on the Sermon on the Mount, and so have not commented on other issues. [Perhaps it is indicative of Fr. Clooney's mindset that he does not seem to be aware that at around the same time, until yesterday, in fact, Benedict XVI's Angelus mini-homilies have been about the Sermon on the Mount as the Sunday liturgy has offered it for the reflection of the faithful! Prabhavananda (1973-1976) was a renowned Hindu philosopher, monk and scholar who translated the Bhagavad Gita to English and wrote many English works on Hindu culture, including one on the Sermon on the Mount as it relates to similar principles in sacred Hindu literature; he influenced many prominent Westerners).

For the sake of catch-up, I did want to make one comment now — on the extract from Pope Benedict’s Holy Week: from the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, which Austin Ivereigh kindly posted for us recently. (I’ve not seen any other part of the book).

Namely, my attention was caught by the Pope’s comment that in the Passion Narratives the Evangelists did not mean the Jewish people in general when referring to the Jews who killed Jesus, and did not mean all the Jewish people when referring to the crowd who called down the blood of Jesus on their heads.

Rather, the Pope writes, “the Jews” refers to the “Temple aristocracy,” and the crowd calling for the death of Jesus was by no means the whole people, but rather a small group, perhaps a “rabble,” brought in for this deadly purpose. Yes, indeed, and reading the narratives with sensitivity can be of great help in getting at what the Evangelists truly meant.

I appreciate this reminder, even if it is not novel, as we look forward to Lent and Holy Week, and the question of how to proclaim and interpret the Passion narratives without lapsing, by our silence, into old anti-Semitic accusations and stereotypes.

But as our relationship to the Jewish people changes, so too should change our relationship to the wider array of religious people through the world, in history and now.

Once we start noticing the literary style and rhetoric of Biblical texts and learn to narrow down the scope of what at first seem to be sweeping claims about Jews, then the Pope’s insights can be extended further, to other groups that were stereotyped in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament: namely, the nations, Gentiles, the Egyptians, the Moabites, and also those who worshipped their deities on high places, who worshipped the Baal, who made idols and worshipped them.

Surely there were people in all these groups who were enemies of Israel, who were blinded by worldly desires, who hated truth or who in their pride thought they could evade the will of God. Surely there were some who worshipped things thoughtlessly and in a demeaning fashion, and perhaps even people who really thought of carved wooden and stone objects as their deities.

Surely there were some pagans — Athenians for example — who balked before the evident truth, refusing to recognize the evidence of the creator God’s presence and action in creation.

And yet we can say, following the Pope’s generous insight, that it would be a very great mistake to imagine that the Biblical authors were seriously attempting to characterize all non-Jews (and later all non-Christians), all Egyptians or Canaanites or Moabites or Greeks, or seriously claiming that all Baal-worshipers were blind and foolish, obsessed with blood sacrifices, etc.

Just as “the Jews” did not mean all Jews, it seems appropriate to extend this generous insight to those who did (and do) venerate images carved of wood and stone: the idolaters who are dangerous and on a downward path are few, and no generalization can be made, rhetoric aside, about the much larger number of people in all the nations referred to in the Bible, who lived good religious lives, in Canaan, among the Moabites, with their Baals and the like.

Let us not speak ill of idol-worshipers, even if you do not know any personally. Even the larger New Testament claims about the nations who do not know Christ seem, in the spirit of the Pope’s remarks, to be claims that need to be deciphered, but do not, at the start, offer reliable information about people outside of Israel and the Church.

As we learn to rethink – and state in different words – our relation to Israel and the Jewish people, this opens the door to a less heated, more productive relation to the peoples we used to call heathens, pagans, idolaters, and the like. It is not just about dropping offensive language, but of reinterpreting, as the Pope does, the Biblical claims themselves.

This matters today because we are still faced with the prospect of turning to the Bible for guidance in thinking about our relations with people of other religious traditions. Once we know that the New Testament did not explain to us the Jewish people by talking about “the Jews," we can realize that neither does it explain to us any religious group, anywhere in the world, simply by this or that label.

In this spirit, we can learn carefully to avoid stereotyping Hindus and Buddhists and others, or even the West’s atheists and humanists, merely by applying to them terms lifted from the Bible.

While the Pope’s insights are not new, it is good that he has reminded us not to under-estimate the wisdom of the Bible — or the real-life complexity of the peoples about whom it speaks.

I first saw Fr. Clooney's name in a spirited rebuttal by Carl Olson to a lengthy article by Clooney in Commonweal published soon after the Regensburg lecture, in which Clooney reproved Benedict XVI for his 'brusque' approach to inter-religious dialog, and seemed to argue that the Pope should learn to be more politically correct in these matters. In effect, it was a relativist view of religions. Both the article by Clooney and Olson's rebuttal can be seen in the READINGS thread of the PRF:
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=355008&p=2

Since then, I found an even longer but earlier article written by Clooney in October 2005,
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_18_132/ai_n27861421/?tag=cont...
in which he speculates on what Benedict XVI's approach would be to inter-religious dialog, and is optimistic based on Joseph Ratzinger's views in two books, Many Religions - One Covenant; and Truth and Tolerance, from which Clooney takes excellent excerpts. He concludes the article with these words:

---

"...another mission pervades Benedict's writings. It has to do with an honest search shared by believers who already, by grace, know the truth but who also, by grace, are unafraid to look deeper and learn still more. In this dialogue, we need to say who we are, honestly and in light of our faith, but we need also to have real questions.

As Benedict puts it, "The proclamation of the gospel must be necessarily a dialogical process. We are not telling the other person something that is entirely unknown to him .... The reverse is also the case: the one who proclaims is not only the giver; he is also the receiver; rather, we are opening up the hidden depth of something with which, in his own religion, he is already in touch."

Benedict goes on, "The dialogue of religions should become more and more a listening to the Logos, who is pointing out to us, in the midst of our separation and our contradictory affirmations, the unity we already share." This dialogue is a mission I would happily accept, were it asked of me.

---

Clooney's world view is shaped by his experience. Having first discovered Hindu and Buddhist scriptures as a high-school teacher in Nepal, he went on to get a doctorate in South Asian civilizations and languages, choosing to specialize in the Hindu religion, and has by now written about six or seven books about it. Like most narrow specialists, he therefore tends to refract everything else from his particular prism - espousing religious pluralism but careful not to verge on the heretical.



William Oddie sounds the by-now-familiar-if-somewhat-late-in-coming refrain that in his new book, "The Pope is not saying anything new" about the Jews that the Church had not been teaching earlier. The problem, of course, is that relatively few Catholics were aware exactly what that teaching was, since it is not a mainstream Catholic concern that priests and catechists are likely to preach and teach. Whereas now the Pope has articulated it all clearly, with the appropriate historical and exegetic considerations that happily do not get in the way of his exposition but are integral to it.

So, it is not fair to blame Mr. Netanyahu and the Jews for not knowing something many Catholics were not aware of, either. Because of this, the Holy Father's unique megaphone from the pulpit of his books, is invaluable - it has enabled this particular teaching to break into the wider public consciousness, which not even John Paul II's Golden Jubilee apology and subsequent dramatic prayer at the Western Wall were able to accomplish.


It is good that Mr Netanyahu
should praise the Pope’s book:
but it contains nothing new about the Jews
The crucifixion was caused by our own sins -
That has always been mainstream Catholic teaching
By William Oddie

7 March 2011

Last week, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked Pope Benedict for making it clear – in his new book, Jesus of Nazareth part II – that there is no basis in Scripture for the accusation that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus’s death.

“I commend you for rejecting in your new book the false claim that was used as a basis for the hatred of Jews for hundreds of years,” Mr Netanyahu wrote to the Pope. He added that he hoped that “the clarity and bravery” shown by Benedict XVI would strengthen relations between Jews and Christians worldwide and promote peace in the next generations.

This reaction is certainly to be welcomed, and I certainly hope that this will be one outcome. I have to say, all the same, that I don’t quite see that the Pope needed any particular bravery to assert what Catholics have taken for granted for generations. [Really????]

It is surely odd that anyone could suppose (as Mr Netanyahu seems to) that what the Pope has said is any sort of breakthrough, that it represents a new teaching, or creates a new situation.

In my lifetime, certainly (and I would have thought for a lot longer than that) it has been normative Christian teaching that the mob who called out “Crucify him”, though in fact Jewish (they had to be something after all), represented humanity as a whole, then and now – that it was ultimately our own sins which led to Our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary.

None of us, surely, was taught that the cry from the crowd “his blood be on our head and those of our children” was intended to imply that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for the crucifixion: on the contrary, so far as those who actually encompassed his death and surrounded him jeering as he died, was concerned, the words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” was far closer to the central meaning of Christ’s Passion and death.

Many Jews simply do not and will not accept this. When Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ (from which the cry “his blood be on our heads” was deliberately cut from the English subtitles) appeared, the writer Melanie Phillips – normally a model of well-informed common sense – wrote this:

---

As a Jew, I left the screening of The Passion in a state of shock. In the course of two hours, the ancient calumny fuelling centuries of Jewish persecution is boosted by the turbocharge of Hollywood’s most sophisticated form of emotional manipulation.

After decades of decent Christian attempts to interpret the Gospels in a way that does not blame the Jewish people for the death of Jesus, this horrific film resurrects the core charge against the Jews of deicide…

Among others, images of the Jewish mob screaming for Jesus’s death will simply be an incitement to hatred. At a time when Jew-hatred has been revived and attacks on Jews are rising around the world, such a film could have an incendiary effect.

---

Of course, it did nothing of the sort. As the Irish Independent noted:

---

…as word got out that Mel Gibson intended to direct a film about the last 12 hours of Christ’s life, some Jewish groups, allied with some Bible scholars, moved to stymie it. They feared it would re-ignite barely latent anti-Semitism.

They have been proven wrong… The chief reason for this is that ordinary people are simply not seeing anti-Semitism in it. What they are witnessing instead is the religious authority of the day … moving against a person they regard as a heretic and a blasphemer. The fact that the Sanhedrin is Jewish is incidental…

Why have the predictions that The Passion would provoke anti-Semitism fallen so far short of the mark? The answer is that the movie’s critics are badly out of touch with modern Christian opinion.

---

Am I saying that some Jews are paranoid about the Church: not just the Church, but about the New Testament account of the Passion itself? I suppose so, though that can hardly be an accusation of any kind – the Jews have a lot, after all, to be paranoid about.

But I do think that it would be good if more Jews were to recognise that this has led to unjust accusations on their part (such as those against Pope Pius XII) and that if Mr Netanyahu’s hopes for strengthened relations between Jews and Christians (a development for which we should surely all hope and pray) are to be realised, it would be good if this were recognised more often than it is. That, too, is no kind of accusation: but it is an aspiration I think I am entitled to express.

The anti-Christian (and therefore anti-Pius XII) elements among the Jews choose to be willfully blind, as bigots generally do, to anything that does not reinforce their most cherished biases. A statement I would apply with equal regret to ultra-traditionalists like the Lefebvrians in their attitude towards Vatican II. Granted, the Council documents have many imperfections but that does not invalidate the entire Council, which is their quixotic and misguided goal, whereas Benedict XVI has sought to correct those imperfections in a practical way by interpreting the documents in the light of the Church's Tradition, not against it.

Lenten conversions
to the Ordinariate


LONDON, March 7 (Translated from SIR) - Thirty-three Anglican groups in England and Wales will formally start preparing to enter the Catholic Church on Ash Wednesday, March 9.

The press office of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said it will not be possible to have exact figures until next week.

The British weekly newspaper Tablet says that at least 20 ministers and some 600 laymen will be converting to the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus promulgated on November 2009.

The start of Lent will mark their preparation to enter the Catholic Church. The Ordinariate and the diocesan bishop now responsible for coordinating the conversions will determine the date for the new converts' formal admission to the Catholic Church with the sacrament of Confirmation.

This is expected to take place during the Chrismal Mass on Maundy Thursday or at the Easter Vigil.

At Pentecost, the Anglican pastors approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be re ordained as Catholic priests.

Ongoing news about developments in the Ordinariate may be found on the portal
ordinariateportal.wordpress.com/
which also contains messages from Anglican pastors who have decided to become Catholic.

This is one of the most exciting communications initiatives involving the Pope. Welcome back, indeed, Dino Boffo, and everyone who has a hand in this landmark project...


'Sunday with Benedict XVI'
Starting Saturday, the Italian bishops' TV 2000 network will broadcast a half-hour program
featuring a homily by Benedict XVI accompanied by appropriate sacred art and music, to serve
as a guide for Sunday Mass. Though broadcast in Italy primarily and on TV2000's satellite service,
it will be available to everyone on livestream over the Internet.


ROME, March 7, 2011 – Beginning next Saturday, eve of the first Sunday of Lent, Benedict XVI will be on TV every Saturday with the best of his preaching: from his homilies and Angelus reflections on the Gospel of the day.

The program entitled La Domenica con Benedetto XVI (Sunday with Benedict XVI" will unfold in three closely related segments: art, words, music.

The words, the central segment, will be those of the Pope himself.
From the recorded archive of his almost six years of homilies and Angelus addresses – a rich repository by now - the original audio-video recordings will be excerpted to best convey the meaning and flavor of the texts of the following day's Mass.

An art segment will provide an "overture" to the broadcast, in which art historian Timothy Verdon will display and illustrate three masterpieces of Christian painting connected to the themes and subjects of the next day's Mass.

Finally, a musical segment to crown the broadcast. The Cantori Gregoriani conducted by maestro Fulvio Rampi – among the best interpreters of Latin rite liturgical chant in the world – will sing the entrance and communion chant of the proper of each Sunday, in the purest Gregorian chant, with a commentary by their conductor to point out their musical and liturgical features.

"Sunday with Benedict XVI" will last for half an hour. It will air in Italy every Saturday at 5:30 p.m., with a repeat at 10:35. And it will accompany the entire liturgical year, with no hiatus.

The channel that will air this new program is TV 2000, owned by the Italian episcopal conference, with Dino Boffo now back as program director. Studio headquarters are in Rome. The broadcast can be seen on satellite and cable in Italy, and via streaming all over the world, on its website:
www.tv2000.it/

B the program may soon be picked up by TV channels in other countries, who have already expressed strong interest in broadcasting it, in their respective languages.

In creating the new broadcast, TV 2000 took its inspiration from one of the main features of Benedict XVI's pontificate: the centrality of the Mass in the life of the Christian: "the act in which God comes among us and we touch him," as the Pope described it the interview-book Light of the World; the act in which the Word of God "becomes flesh" in the person of God and "is eaten" in the transubstantiated bread.

The Mass is not "theater," it is not "spectacle," Pope Benedict continues. It "draws its life from an Other, and this must be made clear."

But in welcoming this gift received from Christ, the Catholic Church acts not only through the sacrament, but also through architecture, the arts, and music. In this way, the liturgy opens more doors to God to provide a glimpse of his mystery, even for those of lukewarm faith or who have distanced themselves from it.

In concrete terms, every Saturday, Benedict XVI will illustrate the texts of the Sunday Mass with excerpts taken from his live preaching. As needed, the Pope's spoken words will be supplemented with readings from his book Jesus of Nazareth as they concern the Gospel of the day.

For the first broadcast, on the day before the first Sunday of Lent. On the vigil, Benedict XVI will be heard in an Angelus reflection dedicated to the temptation of Jesus in the desert, which will be read in the Gospel of the following day.

But the main part of his segment will be taken from his first volume on Jesus, where he comments on Satan's last temptation, that of power. In what is perhaps the most memorable passage of Volume 1, the Pope asks: "But what did Jesus truly bring, if he did not bring peace upon the earth, prosperity for all, a better world? What did he bring?" And he answers: "He brought God."

Other times, the Pope's words will be supplemented by readings from the Fathers of the Church, often the subject of his citations and commentary.

In most cases, it will be Benedict XVI himself reflecting on the the biblical readings of the Sunday Mass in his papal homilies during these past six years.

These are increasingly revealing themselves to be a significant component of his pontificate.

[Since 2008, Magister has edited an annual anthology of Benedict XVI's homilies and Angelus reflections throughout the liturgical year. On the occasion of the publication recently of the 2010 homilies - third volume in the series - he wrote the following article:> Benedict XVI: Man of the Year. For His Homilies.
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1346098?eng=y]

As for the artistic "overture" of the broadcast, it should be noted that Timothy Verdon – art historian, priest, born in the United States but residing in Florence, where he directs the diocesan office for catechesis through art – is one of the staunchest supporters of an idea precious to Papa Ratzinger, in which Christian art is a privileged means of introduction to the divine mysteries.

Verdon is so convinced of this that in recent years he has published three volumes dedicated to the three cycles of readings of the Roman missal, in which he has illustrated and commented on every Sunday and feast day Mass, using masterpieces of Christian art chosen on the basis of that day's Gospel.
> How to Paint a Homily by the Rules of Art
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1341812?eng=y

In this new broadcast series, Verdon will translate this idea into the language of television, making it accessible to a vast audience. For the first broadcast, Verdon will illustrate the Gospel of the temptation with a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto, found in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice; a panel by Duccio di Buoninsegna from the Frick Collection in New York; and a mosaic from 5th-century Ravenna depicting Jesus multiplying the loaves.

As for the musical part, the performances in Gregorian chant of parts of the proper of the Sundays of Lent will take place in the church of Sant'Abbondio in Cremona, where the great polyphonic master Claudio Monteverdi was baptized.

But from Easter onward, the chants will be performed in other places as well, including some of the most beautiful churches of Rome.

And on some occasions, the Cantori Gregoriani will be replaced by a polyphonic choir also conducted by maestro Rampi, which will perform motets by Palestrina, Monteverdi, and other great composers, pertaining to the liturgical texts of each Sunday.

The Cantori Gregoriani have been active for many years and have held concerts in various countries of the world. But they have been among the first to advocate that Gregorian chant can be comprehended and savored only if it is performed in its proper context, within the liturgy.

This will be one way to restore the primacy of Gregorian chant in liturgy, as explicitly stated by Vatican-II in the dogmatic constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium.

For more information about this choir, there is a website in Italian and English:
> Cantori Gregoriani
www.cantorigregoriani.com/

Maestro Rampi has also written one of the most erudite and fascinating books on this subject: "Del canto gregoriano. Dialoghi sul canto proprio della Chiesa," published by Rugginenti, Milan.

NB: In today's Le Figaro, Jean Sevillia presents two excerpts from the French edition of the chapter on the Resurrection in JON-2... I shall first check to see whether the official English translation is out...P.S. And no, it is not. Unfortunately, there has been no movement on the Ignatius Press website for JON-2 since it published the three excerpts out so far in English... But the JON-2 website by Ignatius's UK partner, CTS, has a couple more brief items today:

Pope Benedict thinks
and teaches like St John,
Oxford scholar says
by Ian Boxall


In Pope Benedict’s forthcoming book, Jesus of Nazareth II, the Holy Father draws heavily on St John’s Gospel. Oxford New Testament scholar Ian Boxall, looks at the relationship between the two texts...Boxall is a senior Tutor and New Testament scholar at St Stephen’s House, Oxford.


Past treatment of St John
At least for purposes of historical reconstruction, John’s Gospel used to be treated as the ‘Cinderella’ among the gospels: a theological treatise containing little of historical worth. Pope Benedict’s extensive use of John reflects the more nuanced view scholars now take of the interplay between history and theology within all four gospels.

There are at least three ways in which the Pope is especially indebted to St John’s witness to Christ.

The historicity of John’s account
The first is his openness to the possibility that John contains important historical traditions, particular relating to the Passion. This does not mean that he ignores the difficulties of reading John’s Gospel as a straightforward historical record. It remains a complex theological book. Yet John may well have preserved unique historical details.

A case in point is the date of the crucifixion. The Synoptics place this on the Feast of Passover, 15 Nisan in the Jewish calendar.

Yet it is doubtful whether such an event could have taken place during a major festival. John’s alternative dating, on the previous Day of Preparation, may be more historically satisfying.

Of course, this enables John to exploit its theological significance: the death of the true paschal Lamb at the time when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple. But it is precisely an interweaving of history and theology, rather than a replacing of one by the other.

Events exclusively in John
Secondly, this book devotes considerable space to exploring the meaning of events only found in John’s account of the Passion, from the seamless robe to the blood and water flowing from Christ’s side.

Two chapters are devoted entirely to Johannine scenes: the foot-washing at the Last Supper, and the so-called ‘high priestly prayer’ of John 17, interpreted through the lens of the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Both chapters are profound meditations on the passages in question, and will provide much food for thought during Holy Week.

Using St John’s method and pace
The third way in which the Pope betrays the profound influence of John’s Gospel is in his overall approach to the events of Holy Week.

Back in the second century, Clement of Alexandria identified the slower, more meditative character of John, its multilayered quality.

Pope Benedict adopts a similar ‘Johannine’ method in his treatment of the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.

He too is interested in slowing us down, enabling us to see the events ‘from the inside’, penetrating more deeply into the truth of the Passion. In short, Benedict thinks and teaches like John.

A possible postscript
The ultimate aim of Pope Benedict’s book, as expressed in his Foreword, is to aid ‘all readers who seek to encounter Jesus and to believe in him.’

John’s Gospel too sets out its purpose with equal clarity, which could form an excellent postscript to the Pope’s new volume:

“Now Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written about in this book. But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31).

In JON-1, one of the most fascinating experiences for me was to read for the first time about the disputes that have surrounded the fourth Gospel, not just about who exactly was its author, but also why it has a historicity that is not any less valid because of the Gospel's theological richness. Benedict XVI devoted 20 pages to this exposition before he went on to tackle the principal images associated with Christ in the Johannine Gospel...

If now, a Biblical scholar notes that "Benedict thinks and teaches like John", it is a tribute to how Joseph Ratzinger thoroughly internalizes Scripture, indeed, how he internalizes' almost embodies, the entire history and Tradition of the Church!... My personal sensation, for instance, when he discusses anything from St. Paul, is that he is speaking in the persona of the Apostle of the Gentiles, of the man who met the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus...

Which brings me to the fact that in two days, I have read Benedict XVI compared to Leo the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and now St. John. Has any Pope in recent memory been compared to such a range of towering figures in the history of the Church? At almost 84, Benedict XVI is ageless and timeless....


Benedict XVI proclaims Christ
by Fr. Joseph Evans


With the publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s book, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 2, just four days away, Fr Joseph Evans, chaplain of King’s College London, points out that it is much more than an academic study of the figure of Jesus.
God made man
What is refreshing about this new work is that it is a good straightforward proclamation of Jesus Christ.

At a time when so many Christian leaders seem afraid to present Jesus as the one saviour of the world, Pope Benedict has no hesitation in doing so. But he does so as part of a dialogue: he offers, proposes Christ, he does not impose him.

Like the first volume, this new book is above all the Pope’s own search for the face of Jesus, inviting us to join him in this search to discover Jesus as the one Saviour of mankind, as truly God made man.

But a God who comes to us gently, who invites, who does not force. Indeed, a God who is prepared to suffer for us and instead of us.

A belated post...

The Pope marks 60 years
as priest this year
Translated from the 3/6/11 issue of




Prayer was the protagonist during the evening spent on Friday by Benedict XVI with some 200 young aspirants to the priesthood who are undertaking their formation in the diocesan seminaries of Rome.

The meeting took place in the chapel of the Madonna della Fiducia of the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary.

For the occasion, the seminarians paid homage to the Holy Father in advance of the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on June 29.

Besides the seminarians of the Seminario Maggiore, also present were those of the Minor Seminary, Redemptoris Mater diocesan college, Almo Collegio Capranica and the Seminary of Divino Amore; along with Japanese seminarians how attending Redemptoris Mater, led by the emeritus Bishop of Oita, Peter Hirayama.

Arriving at the Major Seminary (located right next to the Lateran Basilica) shortly after 6 p.m., the Pope was welcomed by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini, and seminary rector Mons. Giuseppe Tani.

Assembled in the chapel along with the seminarians and their process, were the auxiliary bishops of Rome, the seminary rectors, and some prelates who had been alumni of the seminary.

In his greeting, Mons. Tani thanked the Pope not only for his annual visit but also for the letter he wrote last October to all the seminarians of the world, especially for his encouragement "in these times when it can seem that to become a priest has somehow become useless and devoid of sense".

Before ending his remarks, the rector extended his advance best wishes to the Holy Father for the 60th anniversary of his ordination as a priest this year.

The seminarians responded by praying in unison the prayer that the Pope had written for the Year for Priests The prayer had been printed on a commemorative prayer card which was given out to all those present.

"Lord," the prayer reads, "we thank you because you have opened your heart to us, because in your death and resurrection, you have become the source of life. Let us be persons who live from your fount of graces, and give us the gift to be sources ourselves, able to give the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Bless us, Lord, and bless all men in our time who are thirsting and on a quest".

After the Pope concluded his lectio divina [full translation posted in the original post on this event, in the preceding page], one of the seminarians, Claudio Fabbri, from the Roman parish of San Giuseppe da Copertino, thanked the Holy Father "for having responded to the desire of us seminarians to be able to spend some time with our bishop".



From left: Seminarian Joseph (extreme left); ordination at Freising Cathedral; with brother Georg on ordination day; their parents at the ordination Mass.

The brothers Ratzinger and their friend Rupert Berger celebrated their First Mass as priest (Primiz) in the St. Oswald Church in Traunstein. Left, the three (second to fourth from left) concelebrated the silver jubilee of their ordination and Primiz in 1976.

Tuesday, March 8, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Extreme left, a portrait by Murillo; center, the saint's statue in the Founders' Corner of St. Peter's Basilica.
SAN JUAN DE DIOS [John of God] (b Portugal 1495, d Spain 1550)
Founder of the Hospitaliers Order, Patron of Hospitals and the Sick
Born to an impoverished noble family near Evora, Portugal, he was a shepherd until age 27, when he decided to go to Spain
and serve in the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He was not actively religious until he was 40, when he decided
to change his life and embarked for Africa hoping to be a martyr. Always impulsive, he ended up helping out a family of
exiles who fell on hard times, and went back to Spain shortly afterwards. He started selling religious books, first as an
itinerant vendor, then from a bookstore in Granada. In 1538, he heard a sermon by John of Avila, and he underwent his 'second'
conversion - giving away all he owned, beating himself in public, and other acts that caused him to be committed to the mental
ward of the Royal Hospital. He was visited there by St. John who became his spiritual mentor and advised him to channel
his services to help the poor. He did so, begging for alms to set up a hospital for the poor, first in a rented house, then
in an old Carmelite monastery. His work drew likeminded men, who became the nucleus of the Order of Hospitaliers. He also
started getting contributions from the rich and powerful, and was even granted an audience with Charles's V's son and
successor, Philip, who would reign as Phillip II. He earned the name 'Juan de Dios' from the Archbishop of Granada who
called him to give him a habit of his own, because he was used to giving the clothes on his back to the first beggar he met.
After 10 years of exemplary work, with other hospitals for the poor set up in other places, he died of pneumonia that he
contracted when he jumped into the river to save a drowning child. He was canonized in 1690 and named patron saint of hospitals
and sick people. Today there are hospitals all over the world named for him. He is also considered the patron saint of
booksellers and firefighters (because he heroically saved the Royal Hospital from burning down and survived miraculously).
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030811.shtml

OR for 3/7-3/8/11:

No papal photos on Page 1 to accompany the lead papal story, the Holy Father's Angelus message in which he paid tribute to the courageous example of Shabaz Bhatti, the slain minister of minorities for Pakistan, and expressed his concern for the plight of the Libyan people; in his mini-homily, he urged the faithful to build their lives on the rock of Christ and not on the shifting sands of power, money or success. Other Page 1 news: Libya's Qaddhafi chooses open war against Libyan rebels; Beijing announces it will slow down its economic growth in order to stabilize its economic ascendancy; and the emerging crisis in gasoline prices as a result of instability in Libya, a major oil producer.


No papal events announced for today.

To all disaffected Catholics, consider how other Christians now want to go back to the Catholic Church because they find their current affiliations no longer follow the apostolic Christian tradition! And here you are trying to overthrow that Tradition and seeking to 'construct' a church of your own, yet still insisting on calling yourselves Catholic... Would it not be easier and more honest to just join a Christian Church that already practices the changes you want to inflict on the Church? How can you continue to call yourselves Catholic if you refuse to take on the essential features and responsibilities that go with the Catholic identity? Disobedience is the first sign of the devil.


'Lutheranorum coetibus...'?:
Some Lutheran groups seek
a Catholic Ordinariate
Translated from

March 89, 2011

The director of the Doctrinal Office in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Hermann Geissler, has confirmed that following the mass conversion of traditional Anglicans to the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has been receiving similar requests from groups of Lutherans who wish to return to communion with Rome.

Fr. Geissler says this in an interview given to The Portal, the new monthly magazine dedicated to the Anglican Ordinariate.

He said the interested Lutherans wish to know if a similar Ordinariate could be created for them. Geissler said the CDF is studying the matter, saying "The Holy Father will do everything possible to bring other Christians to full communion within the Catholic Church".

I became aware of the interview given by Geissler to The Portal this weekend but it skipped my mind to follow through. Here it is:



'The Ordinariate is very
important to the Holy Father":
An interview with the CDF
by Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane
www.portalmag.co.uk/default.htm
Issue of March 2011


Cover photo shows interviewers Crane and Ottaway with Cardinal Levada at the CDF; center photo shows an interactive map that can enable interested Anglicans to find the nearest Ordinariate group; and right, is the column by Fr. Keith Newton, who heads the first Ordinariate.

In the time Cardinal William Levada had with us, he was concerned to put us at our ease. Anxious we had some fine pictures, he made sure his Secretary Msgr Steven Lopes operated the camera.

Cardinal Levada explained that Fr Hermann Geissler, who is the head of the Doctrinal Office at the CDF, would give us an in-depth interview the very next day.

We left the CDF after an hour, as we did so, the Cardinal gave us both his blessing. One was overawed to be in the presence of such an holy man, yet at the same time totally won over by his North American
charm and grace. It is clear that the CDF is very keen on the Ordinariate, and we were given a warm welcome by everyone.

Sitting on Louis XIV chairs, with valuable paintings hanging on the wall, we chatted with Cardinal Levada and his staff.

Fr Hermann is an Austrian, and a member of the Spiritual Family The Work (The Sisters of The Work run the College in Littlemore-Oxford, where John Henry Newman was received in the Catholic Church).
His English is excellent.

He has a keen interest in the Ordinariate and in Blessed John Henry Newman. The issue of the Ordinariate is close to his heart, as it is to that of the Holy Father. We were told that some two years ago, members of the Anglican Communion knocked at the CDF’s door and asked for help. It was clear that they shared the Catholic Faith and Catechism, yet needed Peter, and Communion with Peter.

The CDF informed the Holy Father who said that if they shared the same
Faith and sought Communion with Peter, the Vatican must be helpful. Fr.r Hermann informed us that a Working Group was set up involving members of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. It met on and off for two years. It produced a scheme for corporate reunion that
would welcome groups as well as individuals.

When it was shown to Pope Be nedict XIV he thought it helpful, and it was presented to a group of CDF Theologians, all twenty of them, and finally to the Cardinal Members of the CDF. They pronounced the scheme good and necessary, and the Holy Father approved.

Fr Hermann said, “I believe it was the Holy Spirit. He brought them
to our doors, guided them and us.”

The CDF foresees few difficulties between the Ordinariate and other Catholics. We were told quite definitely that the Catholic Church was not a uniformity. There is unity of faith, of course; but not
uniformity [except, one must underscore, in doctrine - what the Church teaches - and the correct way to obey this doctrine].

There is already a diversity of expression among various parts of the Catholic Church. There are differences of liturgy and even of Canon Law. This is the case in India, for example, where three Ritual Catholic Churches (Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankar) exist in harmony.

Fr Hermann was adamant that the Ordinariate and the rest of the Catholic Church complement each other.

“The Ordinariate is very important to the Holy Father. In the area of ecumenism it strengthens the Catholic Church’s approach in two ways. It promotes sincere dialogue with a Christian defence of life, and the promotion of peace. The goal of the ecumenical movement is complete visible union in Christ and with Peter in one Church. We must co-operate and grow together.”

For the CDF, Anglicans joining the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate will receive the fullness of faith, the fullness of the sacramental life of the Church as well as unity with the Holy Father. It produces security in one’s Faith.

But this is not one-way traffic. All converts bring enthusiasm and a freshness of faith to the Church. They prepare well, they do not take the Faith for granted and in that, they refresh the Faith of the Church.

Fr Hermann was enthusiastic about Anglican Patrimony. For him it was the Anglican approach to Liturgy and to music. Quoting Saint Augustine he said, “He who sings, prays twice.”

He continued to tell us that the newcomers will enrich the Church and
stimulate Mission. In this they will take their place in the New Evangelisation.

Pursuing the question of Unity, we were reminded that unity is not just an option, it is a duty. Jesus prayed “That they may be one.” Unity is the express will of Our Lord. When Christians are divided, they are unfaithful. Christians must be united so that “the world may believe”.

The two go together, Mission and Unity. Fr Hermann said, “The Ordinariate promotes unity and is a powerful instrument for unity, it will help Christians to be evangelists.”

The document Anglicanorum Coetibus is a result of the mandate from Jesus Christ. It is not just the verse from John quoted earlier, it is the total mandate of the Gospel: The rock of Peter, the one who is the visible sign of Christ in the Church.

Fr Hermann explained that the Pope is called to promote unity in the Church and in the world. “He is the chief shepherd, he cannot do otherwise”. “Unity,” he continued, “is built on two pillars, love and truth.”

The CDF is aware of the delicate question of Anglican–Catholic relations, yet knows that courage is requiredf or Christian unity.

“The Holy Father did not travel to the UK to fish in Anglican waters, the fish swam to our door! We opened the door. The Archbishop of Canterbury knew some would leave, but he knew where they would go.”

It is the view of the CDF that ecumenical dialogue must be honest and sincere. “One’s conscience must be followed at all times, it is sacred. ARCIC will continue, so official dialogue continues; yet Anglicanorum coetibus makes the goal of that dialogue clear.”

It has been said that there are some ground-breaking elements to Anglicanorum coetibus such as married clergy and worker priests (????). Fr Hermann thinks these are not so ground-breaking. The Catholic Church has had married priests for some time now, hundreds
of ex-Anglicans for example. And Eastern Rite Catholics have always had married priests, so it is not such an innovation.

“Yet celibacy will continue to be cherished. The Holy Father has an open heart here,” he said.

With regard to the small numbers joining the Ordinariate so far, Fr Hermann told us that the numbers were not so small: fifty or sixty clergy and some one thousand lay people or maybe more.

“Every soul is precious,” he said. “When the Holy Spirit works, the
devil works as well.” So he is not surprised at some of the adverse comment. He would have been surprised if there had been no adverse comments.

“We are not to give in to difficulties. We are to be generous and welcoming. The issue is the whole question of unity and of mission.
When God plants a beautiful tree, he cares for it.”

We asked Fr Geissler where he saw the Ordinariate in ten years time. He responded, “I am not a prophet!”

Yet he hopes it grows in numbers of clergy and lay faithful, as well as people living the consecrated life. He mentioned that it was gratifying that the Ordinariate already had a group of religious sisters.

What hopes did he have for the Ordinariate in other parts of the Anglican Communion, we asked.

He enthused that there were already groups interested in the USA, Canada and Australia. Then he wondered, “What will happen in Africa? There are many Anglicans faithful to the Gospel in Africa. True
they are Evangelicals I know, but at the CDF we are
watching events carefully.”

The Ordinariate has been provided for Anglicans; but could this model be used for other groups? We know from Forward in Faith contacts in North America and Scandinavia that there are Lutherans who may well
benefit from a similar model to the Ordinariate. Would
this be possible?

The CDF acknowledged that this was an important question. Already they were receiving similar requests from Lutherans. Would this model be of use to them?

“The Holy Father will do all he can to bring other Christians into unity,” Fr. Geissler said.

He concluded, “Thank you sincerely for coming to Rome. We pray for you that the Ordinariate goes well. Priests are already ordained. We must be faithful to unity. We will do all we can to help you together with the Bishops of England and Wales. Be encouraged by the words of Jesus Christ, ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be given you.’ There will be suffering, but God will guide us.”

We thanked Cardinal Levada and Fr Geissler, and as we left the Vatican, we marvelled at the generosity and warmth of the welcome. We do indeed live in interesting times.

Call him the media Pope:
On Good Friday, RAI-TV
will feature a Pope taking part
for the first time in a TV program


06 MARCH 2010 (RV) - For the first time ever, a Pope will take part in a regular TV program. This Good Friday, Italian State TV Raiuno, will broadcast the Holy Father’s answers to three questions about Jesus chosen from those submitted by the faithful, during the program “A Sua Imagine” or, “In His Image”. The footage will be pre-recorded by Vatican Television Centre.

Also Tuesday, it was announced that a televised press conference will be held Thursday to mark the presentation of the second of the three-volume work by Pope Benedict XVI on Jesus of Nazareth. Chaired by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the conference will take place at 5pm Rome time in the Vatican Press Office.


Pope Benedict XVI to make rare
pre-recorded appearance on
an Italian TV program


VATICAN CITY, March 8 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI will answer questions posed by the faithful during a rare, prerecorded appearance on Italian TV next month.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said the Pontiff will appear on a religious show on April 22, when Catholics mark Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday. The Vatican confirmed the report Tuesday.

The show on state-run RAI is focused on Jesus. Benedict's second book about Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Part II, is being released Thursday.

Benedict will record his segment from the Apostolic Palace and will answer three questions from the faithful.

Show creator and host Rosario Carello told Corriere that the program will begin collecting the questions in coming days and will then select which to submit to the Pontiff.


And now the Pope answers
questions from the public -
on TV!
by Luigi Accattoli
Translated from

March 8, 2011

The professor Pope who answers questions from the man of today: This, we can be sure, was the idea that led Benedict XVI to accept a proposal by Rosario Carello, host of the TV program A suo immagine, to answer three questions from the public for a segment of its special broadcast on Good Friday, April 22, at 2:10 p.m., on RAI-1, the premier channel of Italian state TV.

Papa Ratzinger himself in his booklength interview Light of the World spoke of the specific charism of reflectiveness that is a mark of German culture: “I think that God, having chosen a professor to be Pope, must have wished to highlight this element of reflectiveness and the effort to unite faith and reason”.

We might say that Benedict XVI feels himself most to be Pope when he reasons and explains the faith. We have seen him many times on TV doing this with different groups – children, young people, priests, newsmen – and now, we shall see how he will do it specifically for a television audience.

Until Paul VI, the rule had been “Never ask a question of the Pope”. But John Paul II answered everyone, and Benedict XVI has carried on.

The Polish Pope loved the extemporaneous quip and did not mind getting into a spontaneous Q&A with a single newsman.

The professor Pope prefers to answer from a selection of questions, preferably known in advance. He does not believe in an improvised response but prefers to reflect, argue and explain his answers. He improvises when he does so, but after having previously considered the question posed to him. [One certainly does not get the impression that the questions were 'previously known' when watching these Q&As.]

The news just announced obviously has to do with the first time that a Pope appears as part of a regular TV broadcast with a specific role, but it confirms that distinction of ‘reflectiveness’ with which the professor Pope will be known in history.

With some daring, he will now experience the use of TV to reach with his reasoning on the faith a wider public beyond even that which he reaches with his homilies, his books on Jesus, and his interview books. [‘Wider public’? I don’t know - it does potentially enlarge the public that he can reach on TV beyond those that merely watch regular papal broadcasts such as the Angelus and the major masses.]



While there is no promotional material yet for the Good Friday broadcast posted on the program site, 'A Sua Immagine' this Sunday was dedicated to a discussion of the Pope's new book, with the Primate of the Benedictine Order, Fr. Notker Wolf, as the principal resource person.


The Pope's Good Friday telecast:
An absolute 'first ever'


On April 22, Good Friday, Benedict XVI will reply to three questions about Jesus from the public, on RAI-1's TV program 'A Sua Immagine'. Suggestions may be sent to the program's web site, from which the questions will be chosen. The Pope's answers will be recorded at the Vatican a few days before the broadcast. Alessandro Gisotti spoke to program host Rosario Carello about how this came about.

CARELLO: It all started with this consideration: Good Friday was always a special day even for TV which, until a few years ago, had sought to pay homage to the day with programming which was conducive to reflection. But that sentiment got lost. Today, Good Friday has become just like any other day on TV, with the usual disputes, gossip and trivia.

So at 'A Sua Immagine' we wished to resuscitate a historic program called 'Domande su Gesu' (Questions on Jesus) and bring back Jesus to the public on that day, at the hour when he died.

So many questions about Jesus come to us from viewers, and of course, we have appropriate people to answer them. But we thought, wouldn't it be truly special if the Pope answered the questions, especially since he is very concerned about listening and dialog. It seemed foolish to even think of it. But we felt that Benedict XVI's style lent itself to the idea, so we proposed it anyway - and he accepted!

It would be truly unusual for a Pope to speak about Jesus on TV, on Good Friday... [NO! The novelty is that he does so within a regular TV program, and in response to specific questions. RAI has always broadcast the Good Friday Via Crucis, in which the Pope participates, and then ends the occasion with a brief homily, necessarily on Jesus!]
We felt this was the strong point. The Pope is well aware, and he writes so about it, that if we know little about Jesus, then we cannot love him enough nor believe enough in him. So, through an activity which we consider vast, the Pope can carry out his commitment to have Jesus 'rediscovered', particularly the truth that the Jesus of the Gospels is the historical Jesus.

How will the questions be chosen?
We intended to launch the initiative next Sunday, but I must say that as soon as this news became known, we started to be flooded with questions. Well, we will read all the questions and try to determine if there are certain questions that seem to prevail. We will choose those that will seem to be the best ones, the most relevant, and the most likely to inspire discussion, and we wil bring them to the Holy Father, who will answer three questions.

As an information provider, what is it about Benedict XVI's style of communication that strikes you most?
His clarity. The Pope is able to express concepts that are often complicated in themselves, in a simple but exhaustive manner that the mind understands but which also warms the heart.

It is a great gift with this Pope who, I think, little by little, everyone is getting to really know. And because TV speaks to all, this Good Friday occasion will be an extraordinary demonstration of this bility, this gift which Benedict XVI has, and which he has placed at the service of the Church and the world.



Only yesterday, Sandro Magister announced an even more unusual and equally unprecedented weekly TV program on Saturdays, LA DOMENICA CON BENEDETTO XVI (Sunday with Benedict XVI) that will have the Holy Father provide a guide to the Sunday Mass the following day with excerpts from his recorded homilies over the past six years, illustrated with appropriate sacred art, and accompanied by appropriate Gregorian chant. The program is produced and will be aired twice on Saturdays by TV2000, the cable and satellite network of the Italian bishops' conference.... I think this is the most exciting media initiative yet conceived for Benedict XVI, or for any Pope, for that matter.

BENEDICT XVI: MULTIMEDIA STAR - Between his best-selling books and his expanding TV and Internet exposure, the Holy Father is the Church's best vehicle today for mission and evangelization!

I am posting this item on this thread because of its inherent news significance.

New Egyptian Prime Minister meets Christians
who protest recently torched Coptic church


08 MARCH 2011 (RV) -Egypt’s new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has met with the Christians who have been protesting since a church was set on fire on the outskirts of Cairo at the weekend -- the latest sectarian flare-up in a country already facing political turmoil.

Witnesses say the church in Helwan, on the outskirts of Cairo, was torched after a row sparked by a relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.

“Some of the Muslim mobs in the area took the land […] and put a sign that it’s now a mosque,” says Michael Meunier, President of the U.S. Copts Association.

Prime Minister Sharaf told members of the Coptic community that he would speak to the military council about taking back the area and rebuilding the church, but so far no action has been taken.

“That’s the first time a seated prime minister has addressed any protesters in Egypt,” Meunier told Vatican Radio. “He’s trying – the problem is he’s not fully authorized. It’s still the military council that holds all the cards.”

Meunier is currently in Egypt, and has met with the Prime Minister twice to discuss the issue.



An unfortunate postscript:
Six Copts shot dead in
Cairo clash with Muslims


CAIRO, March 9 (AFP) - Six Coptic Christians were shot dead and at least 45 were injured in religious clashes with Muslims in the Egyptian capital, a Coptic priest told AFP on Wednesday.

"We have at the clinic the bodies of six Copts, all of them shot," local priest Samann Ibrahim told AFP.

The clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted in the poor working class district of Moqattam late Tuesday after at least 1,000 Christians gathered there to protest the burning of a church last week.

I still have not seen any English posts of the JON-2 excerpts on the Resurrection published yesterday by Le Figaro, so for the time being, here is a translation.

Benedict XVI's Jesus:
'The Resurrection -
foundation of Christian faith'
by Jean Sevilla
Translated from

March 7, 2001

The second volume of JESUS OF NAZARETH written by Benedict XVI is coming out on March 10. The first volume in 2007 covered the period of Christ's life from his baptism on the Jordan to the Transfiguration.

The author began this project during the Pontificate of John Paul II [To be precise, he started actually writing it in August 2004.] When he became Pope, he continued it as a personal undertaking: it is the theologian Joseph Ratzinger who reflects and comments here on the life of Jesus.

In the third volume which he has started to write, he will focus on the so-called Gospels of infancy. The second volume covers the entry into Jerusalem on 'Palm Sunday' to the Resurrection.

We present here a preview of excerpts in which Benedict XVI examines the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus and its meaning for Christians.


The Resurrection occupies the last 37 pages of JON-2.

---

What is in play in the resurrection of Jesus

"If Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ" (1 Cor 15,14f).

With these words, St. Paul underlined in a radical way the importance for the whole of the Christian message of faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is its foundation. The Christian faith is held together by the truth of the testimony that Christ rose from the dead - otherwise, it collapses.

If one suppresses this, of course it is still possible to salvage from Christian tradition a number of ideas worthy of attention about God and about man, about man's being and what he ought to be - a kind of religious concept of the world. But the Christian faith itself would be dead.

Jesus, in this case, would be a religious personality who failed. A personality who, despite his failure, remains great and can impose on our reflection, but would remain in a purely human dimension, whose authority would only be valid insofar as his message can convince. He no longer is the criterion of reference - the criterion would then be merely our personal appreciation that chooses what we find useful from what we are given. This means that we are left to ourselves, and that our personal appreciation is the last word.

Only if Jesus has resurrected would something truly new have been produced that is able to change the world and the human condition. He, Jesus, then becomes the criterion upon which we can depend. Because God would have truly made himself manifest.

And that is why, in our inquiry on the figure of Jesus, the Resurrection is the decisive point. Whether Jesus only existed in the past or, on the contrary, continues to exist in the present depends on the Resurrection.

In answering Yes or No to this question, one is not deciding on an event among others, but on the figure of Jesus himself.

That is why it is necessary to listen with particular attentiveness to the testimony on the Resurrection that the New Testament offers us. But we must, in the first place, note that this testimony, from the historical point of view, is presented to us in a particularly complex form which does raise many questions.

What then had taken place exactly? Evidently, for the witnesses who encountered the Risen One, it is not easy to express. They found themselves facing a phenomenon which was totally new because it went far beyond the horizon of their experience.

As much as the reality of what they experienced had profoundly overwhelmed them to the point that that they felt constrained to bear witness to it, it was nonetheless a totally unhabitual phenomenon.

St. Mark tells us that the disciples had been reflecting, coming down from the Mount of the Transfiguration, concerned about Jesus's words that the Son of Man would 'rise from the dead'. And they asked themselves, questioning what rising from the dead means (9,9f). What, they wondered, did that mean? The disciples did not know, and would only learn what it meant later when they encountered its reality.

Whoever approaches the accounts of the Resurrection hoping to learn what the resurrection of the dead could be, can only interpret these accounts erroneously and must reject them as nonsense.

Against faith in the Resurrection, Rudolf Bultmann had objected that even if Jesus had come back from the tomb, one must nonetheless say that "a miraculous fact like the revival of the dead" does not help us in anything, and that from the existential point of view, it has no importance at all (cf. Neues Testament und Mythologie, p. 19).

And that is so: If Jesus.s resurrection had been nothing but the miracle of a re-animated cadaver, it would be of no interest to us at all. It would be no more important than the revival, thanks to medical skill, of clinically dead persons. For the world in general, and for us, nothing would have changed.

The miracle of a revived cadaver would mean that Jesus's resurrection was of the same order as the revival of the young man of Nain (cf. Lk 7,11-17), of Jairus's daughter (cf. Mk 5, 22-24.35-43 et par.) or of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11,1-44). In fact, these persons took up their life as before, only to die definitively later.

The testimonials in the New Testament leave us in no doubt that something totally different had happened in the 'resurrection of the Son of Man'.

The resurrection of Jesus was flight towards a totally new kind of life, towards a life no longer subject to the law of death and becoming, but situated beyond all this - a life which inaugurated a new dimension of the human being.

That is why the resurrection of Jesus is not just a singular event that we can ignore and which belongs only to the past - it is a kind of 'decisive mutation' (to use an expression in an analogous way, even if it is equivocal), a qualitative leap.

In the resurrection of Jesus, a new possibility of being human was achieved, a future of an entirely new kind for men.

That is why, Paul rightly linked together indissociably the resurrection of Christians and the resurrection of Jesus: "For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised... But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Co 15,16.20).

Either the resurrection of Christ was a universal event or it was not, Paul tells us. Only to the degree that we understand it as a universal event, as the inauguration of a new dimension of human existence, are we on the way to a right interpretation of the testimony on the Resurrection presented in the New Testament.

Starting from this, then we can understand the originality of the New Testament testimonials. Jesus did not come back to a normal life in this world, as did Lazarus and the other dead who were brought back to life by Jesus. He went to a different life, a new one - towards the immensity of God, and coming back from there, he manifested himself to his people....

The nature of the Resurrection
and its historical significance

Let us ask ourselves once more, in sum: What kind of encounter did the witnesses have with the resurrected Lord? The following distinctions are important:

- Jesus is not just anyone who came back to ordinary biological life and who, subsequently, according to the laws of biology, would have had to die again one day.

- The Jesus they met was not a phantom (a ghost). It means he was not someone who really belonged to the world of the dead, even if it was possible for him to manifest somehow in the world of the living.

- The encounters with the Resurrected One were also something distinct from mystical experiences, in which the human spirit is momentarily raised above itself in order to perceive the world of the divine and the eternal, only to return to the normal horizon of existence.

Mystical experience is a momentary surpassing of the domain of the soul and its perceptive faculties. But it is not an encounter with a person who from outside comes to me.

Paul clearly made the distinction between his mystical experiences - for instance, his elevation to the third heaven that he describes in 2Corinthians 12,1-4 - and his encounter with the Risen One on the road to Damascus, which was an event in history, an encounter with a living person.

Starting from all this Biblical information, what can we truly say about the singular nature of the resurrection of Christ?

It is an event that is part of history, and which, nonetheless, explodes the domain of history and goes beyond it. We can perhaps use analogical language which remains inadequate in many aspects but which can nonetheless open an access to understanding.

We could (as we already did in the earlier part of this chapter) consider the Resurrection as a kind of radical qualitative leap which opens a new dimension of life, of being man.

Moreover, matter itself is transformed to a new genre of reality. From then on, the man Jesus also belonged totally to the sphere of the divine and the eternal. From that moment on, Tertuliian once wrote, "spirit and blood' took their place with God (cf. De resurrect. mort. 51,3:CC lat.II994).

Even if man, by nature, is created for immortality, the place where his immortal soul finds 'room' exists here and now, and it is within this 'corporeality' that immortality acquires its significance, as communion with God and with a mankind that is fully reconciled.

The Letters of Paul addressed during his captivity to the Colossians (cf. 1,12-23) and to the Ephesians (cf. 1,3-23) comprehend this when they speak of the cosmic body of Christ, indicating that the transformed body of Christ is also the place where men enter into communion with God and among themselves, and can thus live definitively in the fullness of indestructible life.

Given that we ourselves have no experience at all of this renewed and transformed genre of materiality and of life, we should not be surprised by the fact that it completely goes beyond anything we can imagine.

What is essential is the fact that what took place in the resurrection of Jesus was not the revitalization of someone who died at some time, but that in the Resurrection, an ontological leap was realized. This leap concerns being per se, and thus was inaugurated a dimension which is of interest to all of us, and which created for all of us a new milieu of life, of being with God.

Starting with this, we must also face the question about the Resurrection as a historical event. On the one hand, we must say that the essence of the Resurrection can be found precisely in the fact that it shatters history and that it inaugurates a new dimension which we commonly call the eschatological dimension [concerned with the last events before the end of time].

TheResurrection allows a glimpse of the new space that history opens beyond itself, creating what is definitive. In this sense, it is true that the Resurrection is not a historical event of the same type as the birth or the crucifixion of Jesus. It is something new. A new kind of event.

But one must, at the same time, bear in mind that it is not simply beyond and above history. As an eruption outside history by surpassing it, the Resurrection nonetheless begins in history itself and is part of it up to a certain point.

One could perhaps express this thus: The Resurrection of Jesus goes beyond history but it has left its imprint on history. That is why it could be attested by witnesses as an event of an entirely new quality.

In fact, the apostolic announcement [of the Resurrection] with its enthusiasm and audacity is unthinkable without the real contact of the witnesses with this totally new and unexpected phenomenon that came to them from the outside as the manifestation and announcement of the resurrected Christ.

Only a real event with a radically new quality would have rendered possible the apostolic announcement, which cannot be explained by speculation or by internal mystical experience. In its audacity and its novelty, this announcement took life from the impetuous power of an event that no one could have conceived and which surpassed all imagination.

In the end, nonetheless, there remains for all of us the question that Jude asked Jesus at the Cenacle: "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" (Jn 14,22).

Yes, why did you not forcefully oppose your enemies who placed you on the Cross? - we wish to ask. Why did you not demonstrate with irrefutable power that you are the Living One, Lord of life and death? Why did you manifest yourself only to a small group of disciples in whose testimony we must now trust?

Yet this question concerns not just the Resurrection, but the entire way in which God has revealed himself to the world. Why only to Abraham - and not to the powerful of the world? Why only to Israel and not in an indisputable way to all the peoples of the earth?

It is precisely part of God's mystery to act in humble ways. Only little by little does he construct his own story within the great history of mankind.

He became man but in such a way that he could be ignored by his contemporaries, by the authorities of history. He suffered and he died, and as the Resurrected One, he did not wish to reach mankind other than through the faith of those who were his own to whom he manifested himself. Continually, he knocks at the door of our heart, and if we open it to him, he makes us slowly capable of 'seeing'.

But is not that the style of the divine? Not to crush by external power, but to give freedom, to give and inspire love. And is not that which is apparently small - upon reflection - that which is truly great?

Did not a ray of light emanate from Jesus that could not come from any simple being, a ray through which the splendor of God's light truly entered the world?

Could the announcement of the Apostles have found faith and constructed a universal community if the power of truth had not been at work in it?

If we listen to the witnesses of the Resurrection with an attentive heart, and if we open ourselves to the signs with which the Lord makes them and himself credible, then we will know: He truly resurrected. He is the Living One.

We entrust ourselves to him and we know that we are on the right way. With Thomas, let us place our hands on the pierced side of Jesus and let us profess "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20,28).

---

On his blog today, Andrea Tornielli puts an end to the alarmism - still inexplicable to me - by some Catholic traditionalist bloggers who whipped up a frenzy of apprehension that Benedict XVI's long-awaited Instructions regarding correct implementation of Summorum Pontificum would 'water down' its provisions - to the point of initiating a petition asking the Pope not to do so! What on earth could have made them think that the Holy Father would back down at all in this matter?

I still think it was rather insulting of them to think so - and yet, among the sparkplugs of what I still think, well-meaning as it was, a misguided and totally unnecessary initiative were people like those behind Rorate caeli and New Liturgical Movement, whose sites I have trusted and agreed with all these years. Not the first time one might say, "Oh ye of little faith!' And I hope, when the Instruction does come out, that they will not then claim it was their petition that made the Pope 'come to his senses'!

An instruction for the faithful
and the clergy on the traditional Mass
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from

March 8, 2011

In the next few weeks, probably at the start of April, an Instruction will be issued from the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei - approved by Benedict XVI, and signed by Cardinal William Levada, CDF prefect, and Mons. Guido Pozzo, secretary of Ecclesia Dei - which will establish applicative criteria for the 1977 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The motu proprio liberalized the use of the traditional Mass and made it possible for groups of faithful to ask their parish priest directly for at least one Sunday Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal, as it was before the 1969-1970 liturgical reform.

It cannot be denied that in the face of such liberalization and a growing number of congregations choosing the traditional Mass, many bishops around the world have also reacted with restrictions and prohibitions, even if it is no longer their prerogative to do so.

The Instruction, now being translated to Latin and the other official Vatican languages from the basic text in Italian, will be an important document.

In the past several weeks, some websites and blogs associated with the so-called traditionalist circle, or who otherwise have been following the liturgical scene closely, have been pushing a series of preemptive and preventive critiques against the document, claiming that it would effectively water down Benedict XVI's intentions. [Given that the Pope would have to approve any such document before it is issued, why would he condone any such thing? Some sites have even written that "there are powerful voices in the Vatican against the traditional Mass, and it is not the first time that a Pope's arm has been twisted". Is there a single instance at all when 'powerful voices' opposing the Pope's intentions have managed to prevail? Benedict may be going on 84, but when has he ever had his arm twisted as Pope? (Assuming that he had been overruled by other voices around John Paul II with respect to the sex abuse cases against Maciel and Bishop Groer of Vienna.)]

From what I have learned, that interpretation does not correspond to reality. Consider the following:

First of all, the Instruction and its contents confirm that the Motu Proprio is a universal law of the Church, and that everyone is therefore held to apply it and to guarantee that it shall be applied.

The Instruction affirms that celebration of the traditional Mass must be assured wherever a group of faithful requests it. The text does not specify a minimum number of faithful that may be considered 'a group'.

Indeed, it also adds that, in keeping with Benedict's post-Synodal Exhortation on the Eucharist, seminarians would benefit from studying Latin again, as well as that they should know how to celebrate the traditional Mass.

The 'sacerdos ideneus' [appropriate priest] for celebrating the traditional Mass does not need to be a Latin expert, but one who can read Latin, understand what he is reading and what he must pray during the Mass.

The Ecclesia Dei Pontifical Commission, which since two years ago, has been incorporated into the CDF, is redefined in the Instruction as the organism with the responsibility of resolving questions and controversies about the traditional Latin rite, adjudicating them in the name of the Pope.

Bishops should not nor can they promulgate norms which restrict the faculties granted by the Motu Proprio or modify its conditions, Rather, they are called on to apply them.

Even the Paschal Triduum can be celebrated according to the 1962 Missal wherever there is a stable group of faithful linked to the rite.

Members of the religious orders can celebrate the liturgy with their respective pre-conciliar rites.

The Ambrosian rite is not mentioned in the Instruction because the Motu Proprio was intended only for the Roman rite - Ecclesia Dei , for instance, never had jurisdiction over the Ambrosian or other rites, which are under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

But this does not mean that the Motu Proprio, or better yet, the clear and explicit papal intention, does not apply to the Archdiocese of Milan.

In fact, after the 1969-1970 liturgical reform, and before that, the changes in the Holy Week rites introduced in 1954 by Pius XII, the Ambrosian rite was subsequently modified.

It is likely, given the evident desire of the Pope that the traditional rite should be available to all the faithful, in view of the juridical framework specified in the imminent Instruction, and considering that the Ambrosian rite is a Latin rite that was reformed after Vatican II - an analogous document could be under consideration to explicitly extend Summorum Pontificum to the Ambrosian rite which is predominantly used in the Archdiocese of Milan.

I do fear a rash of new public and boisterous defiances by some bishops who have indicated time and again that they will stand and die by their total and absolute abhorrence of the traditional Mass - as though it were a curse on their souls! Surely they cannot be holier than Padre Pio or the great saints of the Counter-Reformation who championed the Tridentine Mass, and the entire Communion of Saints till 1969-70!

In any case, I cannot pray DEO GRATIAS! enough once the Instruction is out.

ASH WEDNESDAY, March 9

Second from left, the saint's statue in the Founders' Corner at St. Peter's Basilica; extreme right: The Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana off the Roman Forum.
ST. FRANCESCA ROMANA (Rome, 1384-1440), Wife, Mother, Founder of the Olivetan Oblates of Mary
Born to a wealthy Roman family, she always wanted to enter the religious life, but at 13, she was made to marry Lorenzo, who was commander
of the papal troops in Rome and was often away at war. She came to love him and they had six children. He indulged her Christian devotion which
she shared with a sister-in-law, with whom she went around Rome helping the poor and the sick, inspiring other wealthy women to do the same.
When a plague struck Rome, two of their children died. By this time, they had lost most of their possessions because of Lorenzo's long absence
fighting the many anti-Pope wars. Francesca begged for alms to be able to keep helping the sick and the poor, and after her second child was
taken by the plague, she converted part of her house to a hospital. In 1425, she asked the Pope to be able to set up a women's religious community
without vows but following the Benedictine rule and dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. In 1433, she founded the order's first and only
convent in Tor di'Specchi. By this time, Lorenzo had come home, wounded, and Francesca nursed him until he died in 1436. Only after his death did
she move in with her community, where she died four years later. Miracles abounded after her death, but already in life, she was known to have had
mystic ecstasies, and after her first son died in the plague, an angel is said to have appeared to her to tell her that a daughter would also be taken
by God. Her remains are venerated in the 10th century church of Santa Maria Nova near the Colosseum. The Church was renamed after her when she was
canonized in 1608. During Lent in 2009, after a visit to Rome's City Hall, Benedict XVI visited her convent where he paid tribute to her as
'the most Roman of women saints'.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030910.shtml


OR today.
No papal news in this issue. Page 1 international news: The continuing asymmetrical war in Libya between Qaddafi's armed forces and rebels with some weapons but no army or training; cotton hits peak prices in commodity trading; and Nigerian children are victims of lead poisoning from illegal means of gold mining.


WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY

General Audience - The Holy Father stresses the significance of Lent for the Christian faithful. In the afternoon,
he will lead traditional 'stagione Romana' prayers, penitential procession and Ash Wednesday Mass at the Church
Sant'Anselmo and the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill.


The Vatican released the text of a letter from the Pope to Mons. Geraldo Lyrio Rocha, President of the Brazilian
bishops' conference and Archbishop of Mariana, on the occasion of the Church;s annual Campaign for Fraternity for
the benefit of the peoples of the Amazon region and the preservation of their environment.




- How much more perverse can German media be when the country's most prestigious newspaper, the Frankfuerter Allgemeine Zeitung, has not reported anything so far about the Pope's new book but devotes a lengthy interview today with Hans Kueng who has a new book coming out next week entitled Ist die Kirche noch zu retten? (Can the Church still be rescued?)! The interviewer also obligingly provides leading questions to enable Kueng to hit out at Benedict XVI on anything and everything, including a criticism of his liturgical vestments and his red shoes, to cite just one example of Kueng's pettiness. He claims that he always sends the Pope a copy whenever he has a new book out and says that 'at least' he writes back to acknowledge getting it.

- German media today are reporting that the Pope will say Mass on the grounds of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin and that the organizers ruled out the Berlin Olympic Stadium where John Paul II once said Mass because they did not think they 'would even get close to filling the seats'... Also, that the Pope has written the president of the Evangelical Church in Germany expressing the wish that he can spend more time in ecumenical meetings during his trip in September than has been planned so far... I won't be able to do translations until much later today...

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY:
Lenten journey begins



Here is how the Holy Father synthesized his catechesis today on the significance of the Lenten season for all Christians:

---

Today the Church celebrates Ash Wednesday, the beginning of her Lenten journey towards Easter.

The Christian life is itself a constant journey of conversion and renewal in the company of the Lord, as we follow him along the path that leads through the Cross to the joy of the Resurrection.

The primary way by which we follow Christ is by the liturgy, in which his person and his saving power become present and effective in our lives. In the Lenten liturgy, as we accompany the catechumens preparing for Baptism, we open our hearts anew to the grace of our rebirth in Christ.

This spiritual journey is traditionally marked by the practice of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. The Fathers of the Church teach that these three pious exercises are closely related: indeed, Saint Augustine calls fasting and almsgiving the "wings of prayer", since they prepare our hearts to take flight and seek the things of heaven, where Christ has prepared a place for us.

As this Lent begins, let us accept Christ's invitation to follow him more closely, renew our commitment to conversion and prayer, and look forward to celebrating the Resurrection in joy and newness of life.

I welcome all the English-speaking visitors present at today's Audience, especially those from Ireland, Japan, South Korea and the United States. I also greet the pilgrims from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. With prayerful good wishes for a spiritually fruitful Lent, I cordially invoke upon you and your families God's blessings of joy and peace!

---

'Fasting and almsgiving
give wings to prayer'
Adapted from


09 MARCH 2011 (RV) - In his Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict spoke to the pilgrims who packed the Paul VI hall about why we fast, pray and give alms during the 40 days of Lent.

He said �fasting means abstinence from food , but it also includes other forms of privation for a more sober life�. Nonetheless, he added, this is not �the full reality of fasting; it is merely the external sign of an interior reality; of our commitment, with the full help of God, to abstain from evil and live the Gospel. Those who do not nourish themselves with the Word of God, are not really fasting".

The Pope also encouraged Christians to find more time for prayer. �The Fathers of the Church teach that these three pious exercises are closely related: indeed, Saint Augustine calls fasting and almsgiving the 'wings of prayer', since they prepare our hearts to take flight and seek the things of heaven, where Christ has prepared a place for us�.

�The Church knows that, because of our weakness, it is often difficult to be silent before God and be fully aware of our condition as creatures who depend on Him, as sinners who are in need of His love. This is why Lent invites us to a more faithful and intense prayer�.

He said Christian life "consists not so much of a law to be observed, but in meeting, welcoming and following Christ� and that to reach him �in the light and joy of the resurrection, the victory of life, love and good, then we too have to take up the cross of everyday life�.



Here is a full translation of today's catechesis:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today, which is marked by the austere symbol of ashes, we enter the period of Lent, and start a spiritual itinerary which prepares us to celebrate the Paschal mysteries worthily.

The blessed ashes which are placed on our head is a sign that reminds us of our condition as creatures of God, an invitation to penitence and to intensify our commitment to repentance in order to follow the Lord ever more closely.

Lent is a journey - it is accompanying Jesus who goes up to Jerusalem, place of fulfillment for the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection. Lent reminds us that Christian life is a 'way' to be travelled, consisting not so much in a law to be followed, but the person of Christ himself, to encounter, to accept and to follow.

Jesus, in fact, tells us: "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9,23).

He is telling us that in order to reach, with him, the light and the joy of the Resurrection, the victory of life, of love, of goodness, we too must take up the cross every day, as we are called on in a beautiful page of the Imitation of Christ: "Therefore take up your Cross and follow Jesus; thus you will enter into eternal life. He himself has preceded you, carrying his cross (Jn 19,17) and died for you, so that you too may carry your cross and may desire to be crucified yourself. Indeed, if you die with him, them you will live like him and with him. If you would be his companion in suffering, the you will be his companion in glory"
(L. 2, c. 12, n. 2).

In the Holy Mass on the first Sunday of Lent, we pray: "O God, our Father, with the celebration of this Lent, sacramental sign of our conversion, grant that your faithful may grow in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ and bear witness to him through worthy conduct in life" (Collect). ().

It is an invocation we address to God because we know that only he can convert our heart. It is above all in the liturgy, in participating in the sacred mysteries, that we are led to follow this journey with the Lord.

It is placing ourselves in the school of Jesus, to re-live the events which have brought us salvation, but not as a simple commemoration, a remembrance of things past.

In liturgical actions, Christ becomes present through the work of the Holy Spirit, and those salvific events become actual. There is a key word that recurs often in liturgy to indicate this: the word 'today' - which must be understood in its original and concrete sense, not as a metaphor.

Today, God reveals his law, and today, it is given to us to choose between good and evil, between life and death (cfr Dt 30,19); today, "The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1,15). Today, Christ died on Calvary and he has resurrected from the dead; he has ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father; today, we are given the Holy Spirit; today is a propitious time.

To take part in the liturgy therefore means to immerse one's life in the mystery of Christ, in his permanent presence, to travel a road in which we enter into his death and resurrection in order to have life.

On the Sundays of Lent, in a very special way on this liturgical year of Cycle A, we are introduced to a baptismal itinerary, almost as if retracing the way of the catechumens, those who are preparing to receive Baptism, in order to revive this gift, such that our life may recover the demands and the tasks of this Sacrament which is the basis of our Christian life.

In the Message that I sent out this Lent, I wished to recall the particular nexus which links the Lenten period to Baptism. The Church has always associated the Easter Vigil, step by step, with the celebration of Baptism: in it is realized that great mystery for which man, dead to sin, is rendered a participant of new life in the Risen Christ, and receives the Spirit of God who resurrected Jesus from the dead (cfr Rm 8,11).

The Readings we shall listen to in the following Sundays and to which I invite you to pay special attention, have been taken from ancient tradition, that which accompanied the catechumens in the discovery of Baptism: they constitute the great announcement of what God is able to work through this Sacrament, a stupendous baptismal catechism addressed to each of us.

The first Sunday, called the Sunday of Temptation, because it presents the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, invites us to renew our definitive decision in favor of God and to face with courage the struggle before us to remain faithful to him. There is always a need to decide anew to resist evil, to follow Jesus.

This first Sunday, the Church, after having heard the testimonies of godparents and catechists, celebrates the election of those who are admitted to the Paschal sacraments.

The Second Sunday is called the Sunday of Abraham and of the Transfiguration. Baptism is the sacrament of faith and of becoming children of God. Like Abraham, father of believers, we too are invited to set off, leave our homeland, leave behind the certainties we have built, in order to place our trust in God. We glimpse the goal in the Transfiguration of Christ, the beloved Son, in which even we become 'children of God'.

In the succeeding Sundays, Baptism will be presented in the images of water, of light and of life.

On the Third Sunday, we will encounter the Samaritan woman(cfr Gv 4,5-42). Like Israel in the Exodus, we too in Baptism received the water which saves. Jesus, as he tells the Samaritan woman, has the water of life that quenches every thirst, and this water is his Spirit.

The Church on this Sunday celebrates the first scrutiny of the catechumens, and during the week, will entrust to them the Symbol: the Profession of Faith, the Creed.

The fourth Sunday will make us reflect on the experience of the man who was born blind (cfr Jn 90,1-41). In Baptism, we are liberated from the shadows of evil and we receive the light of Christ in order to live as children of light.

Even we should learn to see the presence of God in the face of Christ and thus, see the light. In the path of the catechumens, this Sunday marks their second scrutiny.

Finally, the fifth Sunday presents us with the resurrection of Lazarus (cfr Gv 11,1-45). In Baptism, we passed from death to life, and we were made capable of pleasing God, for the old person to die in order to live in the Spirit of the Risen One. For the catechumens, this is their third scrutiny, and during the week, they will be given the Lord's Prayer.

This itinerary of Lent that we are invited to follow is characterized, in the tradition of the Church, by certain practices: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

Fasting means abstaining from food, but it also includes other forms of privation towards more moderate living. But even this is not the full realization of fasting: it is the external sign of an interior reality, of our commitment, with God's help, to abstain from evil and to live the Gospel. He who does not nourish himself from the Word of God is not really fasting.

Fasting, in the Christian tradition, is closely linked to almsgiving. St. Leo the Great taught in one of his discourses on Lent: "What every Christian is held to do at all times, he must now practise with greater concern and devotion, so that the apostolic norm of Lenten fasting may be fulfilled, consisting of abstaining not only from food, but also and above all, from sin. Therefore, to this dutiful and sacred fasting, no work cannot be associated more usefully than almsgiving, which under the simpler name of mercy embraces many good works. Immense is the field for works of mercy! Not only the rich and the well-off can benefit others with almsgiving, but even those who are modest and poor. Thus, although unequal in the goods of fortune, everyone can be the same in spiritual sentiments of piety".
(Discourse 6 on Lent, 2: PL 54, 286).

St. Gregory the Great reminded us, in his Pastoral Rule, that fasting is rendered sacred by the virtues that accompany it, especially charity, by every gesture of generosity which gives to the poor and the needy a result of our privation (cfr 19,10-11).

Lent, moreover, is a propitious time for prayer. St. Augustine says that fasting and almsgiving are 'the two wings of prayer' which allow them to more easily take flight and reach God. He says: "In this way, our prayer, done in humility and charity, in fasting and almsgiving, in temperance and the forgiveness of offenses, giving good things and not returning the bad, distancing ourselves from evil and doing good, seeks peace and finds it. With the wings of these virtues, our prayer flies surely, and is more easily brought to heaven where Christ our peace has preceded us" (Sermon 206, 3 on Lent: PL 238, 1042).

The Church knows that, because of our weakness, it is effortful to be silent in order to place ourselves before God, and to be conscious of our condition as creatures who depend on him and as sinners who need his love.

Because of this, in Lent, she invites us to more faithful and intense prayer, and to prolonged meditation on the Word of God. St John Chrysostom exhorts: "Adorn your modest and humble home with the practice of prayer. Make your habitation splendid with the light of justice. Decorate your walls with good works like a patina of pure gold, and in place of walls and precious stones, display faith and supernatural magnanimity, and placing above everything, on the gable ends, prayer to decorate the entire complex. Thus you prepare a worthy dwelling for the Lord, thus you welcome him to a splendid palace. And he will transform your soul into a temple of his presence". (Homily 6 on Prayer: PG 64,466).

Dear friends, on this Lenten journey, let us be sure to accept Christ's invitation to follow him in a more decisive and consistent way, renewing the grace and the commitments of our Baptism, to abandon the old person that is in us and clothe ourselves in Christ, so we can arrive renewed at Easter and we can say with St. Paul, "Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2,20).

I wish all of you a good Lenten journey! Thank you.

---

This is a very welcome presentation by Mr. Weigel on a subject that he is most familiar with, in which he brings up some historical facts that are integral to an appreciation of relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate. In the process, he reinforces the impression that in its dealings with the Vatican, Moscow is far more interested in asserting its hegemony over the Orthodox Churches in the Russian sphere of influence than in the principle of religious freedom. The Russians have never been coy about what they consider to be a hegemony they are 'entitled to', even while professing that they are all for improving relations with the Catholic Church. Weigel does not go as far as calling the Russian Orthodox position bad faith, but it is...


Rome and Moscow:
The questionable bases
of Russian intransigence

March 9, 2O11

Russian Federation president Dmitri Medvedev’s recent visit to the Vatican, which included an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, is being trumpeted in some quarters as further evidence of a dramatic breakthrough in relations between the Holy See and Russia, and between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. While I wish that were the case, several recent experiences prompt a certain skepticism.

In what were called “elections” in December 2010, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko was returned to office. Virtually all international observers regarded the “elections” as fraudulent and condemned Lukashenko’s post-election arrest and jailing of candidates who had dared oppose him.

Yet shortly after the results were announced, Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of Russian Orthodoxy, sent a congratulatory message to Lukashenko, whom he praised for having “honestly served the whole country and its citizens”; “the results of the elections,” he wrote, “show the large amount of trust that the nation has for you.”

Coddling autocrats is not, unfortunately, unknown in Christian history. What is new, however, is the Moscow patriarchate’s repeated claims that Russian Orthodoxy is the sole repository of the religious identity of the peoples of ancient “Rus’” (Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians) and their principal cultural guarantor today.

That close identification of ethnicity and Russian Orthodoxy raises serious theological questions, even as it crudely simplifies a complex history involving multiple cultural and religious currents.

More disturbing still were remarks made in Washington in February by Metropolitan Hilarion, the Moscow patriarchate’s “external affairs” officer - Russian Orthodoxy’s chief ecumenist.

Hilarion is an impressive personality in many ways: he is entirely at home in English, he displays a nice sense of humor, and his curriculum vitae includes a large number of publications and musical compositions.

Yet when I asked him whether the L’viv Sobor (Council) of 1946 — which forcibly reincorporated the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine into Russian Orthodoxy, turning the Greek Catholics into the world’s largest illegal religious body — was a “theologically legitimate ecclesial act,” Hilarion unhesitatingly responded “Yes.”

I then noted that serious historians describe the L’viv Sobor as an act of the Stalinist state, carried out by the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB); Hilarion responded that the “modalities” of history are always complicated. In any event, he continued, it was always legitimate for straying members of the Russian Orthodox flock (as he regarded the Ukrainian Greek Catholics) to return to their true home (i.e., Russian Orthodoxy).

Throughout the meeting, Hilarion smoothly but unmistakably tried to drive a wedge between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (whom two patriarchs of Moscow, both KGB-connected, refused to invite to Russia).

He also suggested that Benedict’s calls for a “new evangelization” in Europe, including a recovery of classic Christian morality, could be addressed by joint Catholic-Russian Orthodoxy initiatives.

Yet, in what seemed a strange lack of reciprocity, Hilarion also spoke as if the entirety of the former “Soviet space” is the exclusive ecclesial turf of the Russian Orthodox patriarchate of Moscow.

Some clarifications are thus in order.

The Catholic-Russian Orthodox dialogue clearly needs theological recalibration. If Russian Orthodoxy’s leadership truly believes that a 1946 ecclesiastical coup conducted by the Stalinist secret police is a “theologically legitimate ecclesial act,” then there are basic questions of the nature of the Church and its relationship to state power that have to be threshed out between Rome and Moscow.

Serious theological issues are also at stake in the Moscow patriarchate’s insistence on a virtual one-to-one correspondence between ethnicity and ecclesiology, a position Rome (which does not believe that genes determine anyone’s ecclesial home) cannot share.

Second, the relationship between the Russian Orthodox leadership and the efforts of the Medvedev/Putin government to reconstitute the old Stalinist empire, de facto if not de iure, have to be clarified.

Patriarch Kirill’s praise of the dictator Lukashenko, like his forays into Ukrainian politics, suggest the unhappy possibility that the Russian Orthodox leadership is functioning as an arm of Russian state power, as it did from 1943 until 1991.

If that is not the case, it would be helpful if Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion would make that clear, in word and in deed.

This headline and the lead paragraph of this news item express a shamelessly exploitative attitude about Benedict XVI whom the Irish media cannot possibly treat with more hostility as they have since 2009 when the Irish government reports came out about sex abuses by Irish priests. Now it seems they may have 'use' for him after all - if he does decide eventually to visit Dublin for the International Eucharistic Congress next year.

A papal visit would bring multi-million
cash boost to the Irish economy
By CATHY HAYES

March 9, 2011

If Pope Benedict's visit to Ireland in June 2012 goes ahead it will bring a multi-million dollar boost to the Irish economy.

Irish Church leaders are confident that the leader of the Catholic Church will preside over an open-air Mass at Croke Park as the closing ceremony of the Eucharistic Congress.

Organizer for the Congress, Anne Griffin, told a conference in Dublin that there would be at least 80,000 people at the Croke Park Mass.

Also, the Pope's visit would mean a week-long celebration and, she estimated, about 12,000 visitors to Ireland.

The secretary for the Congress, Father Kevin Doran, said that they would need 300 volunteers to help organizing the congress which will run from June 10 to 17, 2012.

However, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has insisted that there are no definite plans for the Pope to visit Dublin next year according to “Irish Independent” reports. He did confirm that the Pope had been invited to Ireland by Primate Sean Brady.

The International Eucharistic Congress is a series of devotional rallies which began in France in 1881. They take place every four years with the aim of making Catholics aware of the importance of the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict XVI selected Dublin as the location for the 50th congress.

Archbishop Martin said that the Pope would look at the Dublin congress in the context of the renewal of the Irish Church following years of revelations about clerical abuse.

He also pointed out that the Pope did not attend the last congress in Quebec in 2008. He added that the Pope's participation in the congress would be subject to other factors such as his health.

Martin said this Congress would not be an exercise in looking back and trying to replicate the last Congress which took place in Ireland in 1932, over one million Catholics attended.

He said, "These are very different times… There are people who will not be interested and people who have other parts of a church agenda."

The latest posts from the CTS promo-site for JON-2:

Reading For Lent

Jesus of Nazareth II is the perfect book for reading during the season of Lent, which begins today.

“A whole Lenten retreat in one volume” is what Oxford Professor Ian Boxall called it.

Fr Joseph Carola, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, adds that the mystery of Easter, which we are now walking towards, is always central to the Pope’s writing:

“This eagerly awaited volume should be seen not only as the second part of his exegetical-theological study of the figure of Jesus in the Gospels, but also as the necessary complement to his work The Spirit of the Liturgy.

“For as Joseph Ratzinger never fails to demonstrate, the Paschal Mystery inaugurates true spiritual worship, opening for all men and women the pathway to God—a worship prefigured in the ancient Hebrew rites and brought to fulfillment in the Risen Jesus Crucified.”


Benedict XVI’s 360-degree
vsion of the Gospel

The historical-critical method of looking at the Gospels is central to the Pope’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth II (being released tomorrow), but as Biblical scholar Dom Henry Wansbrough explains, the Holy Father is proposing a new way of understanding them.

Pope Benedict claims in his book to use and build on the historical-critical method. However, his real aim is to produce a “faith hermeneutic”. What does this mean?

It is superbly illustrated by the opening chapter on the Entry into Jerusalem. Benedict looks not only at the incident itself but forwards and backwards.

The example of a donkey
He looks backwards in that he delves profoundly into the overtones of the description which would be familiar to the original hearers of the account.

The most obvious allusion is to the humble king who chooses a donkey as his mount, no warlike steed. This excludes any interpretation which sees Jesus’ entry into the city as a political revolutionary movement. But there is plenty that is kingly: the donkey itself is an allusion to the royal blessing on Judah in Genesis 49.

The requisitioning of transport is a royal right. Jesus is set on the donkey by his followers just as Solomon was set on his mount by his followers at his coronation.

More than kingly, the praise of the children is reminiscent of Psalm 8, the praise to God “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.” None of this could be seen at the time, but the account is no flat and factual recital, and all these overtones are described as ‘hidden in the prophetic vision’.

A vision of the future
He looks forward too, to the Church’s liturgy. The ‘Hosanna’ is an ‘anticipation of the great outpouring of praise’, for the ‘Hosanna’ enters the Church’s liturgy in the earliest liturgical document of all, the Didache.

The entry into Jerusalem was not forgotten as “a thing of the past. Just as the Lord entered the Holy City that day on a donkey, so too the Church saw him coming again and again in the humble form of bread and wine.” This is what is meant by “a faith hermeneutic.”


JON-2 and Dei Verbum

The Pope’s new book is an answer to the call made in the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation for a more complete understanding of Scripture, as Rev Dr Adrian Graffy explains. Graffy is director of The Commission for Evangelisation and Formation in the English diocese of Brentwood

Pope Benedict made it very clear through several statements in the foreword of the first volume what his intention has been in writing the two volumes of Jesus of Nazareth.

“I hope it is clear to the reader that my intention in writing this book is not to counter modern exegesis; rather, I write with profound gratitude for all that it has given and continues to give us.

"It has opened up to us a wealth of material and an abundance of findings that enable the figure of Jesus to become present to us with a vitality and depth that we could not have imagined even just a few decades ago.

"I have merely tried to go beyond purely historical-critical exegesis so as to apply new methodological insights that allow us to offer a properly theological interpretation of the Bible.”

With this intention Pope Benedict is taking up paragraph 12 of Vatican II’s Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, where the Council Fathers teach that to understand a text properly it must be seen in the context of the whole of Scripture and of the tradition of the Church. [It is well-known, of course, that Dei Verbum is the Vatican II document in whose preparation theologian Joseph Ratzinger most had a hand.]

Pope Benedict believes that this teaching of Vatican II has not been properly taken up. [An understatement! Especially considering that many of the most vehement exponents of a so-called 'spirit of Vatican II' interpretation have apparently never bothered to read the documents - or have not done so in 40 years. Progressivist liturgists are the best case in point!]

His approach is both historical and theological. Ian Boxall puts it very well when he calls the work “a masterful interweaving of history and theology”.

This indeed is what the Gospels themselves are, and any interpretation must respect the nature of Gospel writing.

ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICES



Penitential Procession from
Sant'Anselmo to Santa Sabina










Offering a living witness of faith
in a troubled world this Lent


09MARCH 2011 (RV) - Pope Benedict began the celebration of Ash Wednesday at the traditional first station church in Rome – Santa Sabina.

Before that, he led a penitential procession from the neighboring church of Sant'Anselmo, through the streets of the Aventine neighbourhood where both churches are located.

Cars were stopped, and pedestrians paused, as the procession went to the 5th-century basilica of Santa Sabina.

In the ancient edifice, he called on the whole Church to conversion - not a superficial and transient conversion, but a spiritual journey that presupposes sincere repentance.

After his homily, the Pope received ashes from the titular Cardinal of Santa Sabina, Jozef Tomko, and then helped distribute the ashes to the people of Rome attending the Mass.

He said the 40 days of Lent which separate us from Easter constitute a time to listen more attentively to the Word of God, a time for prayer and penance, and a to be more attentive to those of our neighbours in need.





Vatican Radio has provided a translation of the Holy Father's homily:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today we begin the liturgical season of Lent with the impressive ritual of the imposition of ashes, through which we undertake to convert our hearts to the horizons of grace.

In general, the common opinion is that this time is likely to be characterized by sadness, the greyness of life. Instead it is a precious gift of God, it is a time of strength, and full of significance in the journey of the Church, it is the road to the Lord's Passover.

The Biblical Readings of the day offer an indication of how to live this spiritual experience.

"Come back to me with your whole heart" (Joel 2:12). In the first reading from the book of the prophet Joel, we heard these words with which God invites the Jewish people to a sincere, not an empty, repentance. This is not a superficial and transient conversion, but a spiritual journey that covers in depth the attitudes of conscience and presupposes a sincere act of repentance.

The prophet is inspired by the plight of the invasion of locusts that had befallen the people, destroying their crops, to invite them an interior penance, to tear their hearts, not their garments (cf. 2.13). That is, to implement an attitude of genuine conversion to God - to return to Him - by recognizing His holiness, His power, His majesty.

And this conversion is possible because God is rich in mercy and love. His mercy is all-renewing, which creates in us a clean heart, bringing new life to our spirit, giving us the joy of salvation. God does not want the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (cf. Ez 33:11).

Thus the prophet Joel, on behalf of the Lord, orders the creation of a proper penitential environment – which is like a trumpet awakening consciences. The Lenten season offers us that liturgical and penitential environment: a journey of forty days in which to experience the merciful love of God.

Today we hear again the call "Come back to me with your whole heart", and today we are being called to convert our hearts to God, always conscious of not being able to complete our conversion ourselves, by our own power, because it is God who converts.

He still offers us His forgiveness, inviting us to return to Him, giving us a new heart, purified from the evil that oppresses it, for us to share in His joy. Our world needs to be converted by God, it needs His forgiveness, His love, it needs a new heart.

"Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). In the second reading St. Paul gives us another element in the path of conversion. The Apostle calls us to lift our gaze from him and pay attention instead to who has sent him and the content of his message: "So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (ibid.).

An ambassador repeats what he has heard spoken by the Lord and speaks with the authority and within the limits that he has received. Those who have held the position know than an ambassador does not attract attention to himself, but is at the service of the message that has been sent and He who sends him.

This is how St. Paul behaves in carrying out his ministry as a preacher of the Word of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He does not flinch in the face of the task given him, but goes about it with complete dedication. He invites all to be open to grace, to let God convert us.

"Working together then,", he writes, "we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor 6:1).

"Christ's call to conversion", says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "continues to resonate in the lives of Christians. [...] It is the continued commitment to the whole Church, which "includes sinners in its bosom ", and that is "at once holy and always in need of purification, to follow constantly the path of penance and renewal."

This endeavour of conversion is not just a human task. It is the movement of a "contrite heart" (Ps 51.19), attracted and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first" (No. 1428).

St. Paul speaks to the Christians of Corinth, but through them he speaks to all people. For all have need of God's grace, to enlighten their minds and hearts.

And the Apostle insisted: "Now is the time, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). All are open to the action of God, his love. With our Christian witness, we Christians must be a living message, indeed, in many cases we are the only Gospel that people today still read.

Here is our responsibility in the footsteps of St. Paul, here is one more reason to live this Lent well: to offer a living witness of faith in a troubled world that needs to return to God, a world which needs conversion.

"Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them" (Matt. 6:1). Jesus, in today's Gospel, reinvigorates the three major works of mercy under the law of Moses. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting are the three foundational works of piety under Jewish law. Over time, these provisions had been eroded by a rigid external formalism, or even mutated into a sign of superiority.

Jesus highlights in these three works of mercy a common temptation. When you do something good, almost instinctively comes the desire to be respected and admired for the good deed, to have that satisfaction. On the one hand this makes you close in on yourself, and at the same time, removes you from yourself, because it is completely directed towards what others think of us and admire in us.

In proposing these requirements, the Lord Jesus did not require a formal compliance with a law alien to man, imposed by a severe legislature as a heavy burden, but invites us to rediscover these three works of piety, living them in a deeper way, not for our own love, but for the love of God, as a means on our the path of conversion towards Him.

Alms, fasting and prayer: this is the path of divine pedagogy that accompanies us, and not only in Lent, to our encounter with the Risen Lord, a path to be followed without ostentation, in the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows how to read and see the inner depths of our hearts.

Dear brothers and sisters, we begin our Lenten journey with trust and joy. Forty days separate us from Easter. This is a powerful time in the liturgical year, and it is a special time that is given to us to look, with greater commitment, to our conversion, to listen more attentively to the Word of God, a time for prayer and penance – of opening our hearts to the workings of Divine will, for a more generous practice of mortification, thanks to which we can be more attentive to neighbours in need: it is a spiritual journey that prepares us to relive the Paschal Mystery.

May Mary, our guide in our Lenten journey, lead us to an ever deeper knowledge of Christ dead and risen, help us in our spiritual battle against sin and support us in calling out with all our strength: “Converte nos, Deus sg]alutaris noster” converted unto thee, O God, our Salvation." Amen!

---

It is surprising that even Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops, should make a great to-do about the program segment that the Pope will have on the Good Friday broadcast of A Sua Immagine, when it should be much more hyped up on its own TV2000's landmark initiative, LA DOMENICA CON BENEDETTO XVI, which starts this Saturday and which will be a weekly program!

In fact, I still have not seen a story about it in Avvenire itself, or even an advertisement. I improvised the banner above from a box announcement on the TV2000 website.

Benedict XVI on TV:
Rome's TV Vaticanistas say
he speaks to the heart
by Mimmo Muolo
Translated from

March 9, 2011



"A surprising Pope", many say.

But only for those who do not know him. This Pope,who would 'avoid TV cameras at all costs' but when he is on TV, has shown he does very well indeed.

That is how Rome's TV Vaticanistas reacted to the announcement that Benedict XVI will take part in RAI-1's 'Domande su Gesu Questions on Jesus) on the special broadcast of 'A Sua Immagine' on Good Friday.

«Papa Ratzinger," says Fa­bio Zavattaro of TG1 (RAI-1's daily newscast), "is a veteran of dialog with the media world. Rather, it is we who should get better used to his way of communicating. In the sense that often, we fail to be on his wavelength".

For Zavattaro, in fact, it is time to do away [High time, and way overdue, after almost six years!) with the image of a rather 'retro' Pope, a label that many mass media have pinned on John Paul II's successor.

"He does very well speaking off the cuff, and he can catch the attention of listeners. And he knows not just traditional media but even the Internet and social networking, as one can tell by what he says about these subjects".

For Lucio Brunelli of TG2, the Pope's decision to answer questions from the public on TV "speaks of the Pope's modernity, which was quite evident in his recent booklength interview". [And in his whole career! Respect for what is good in tradition is not being anti-modern.]]

Brunelli says "Benedict XVI shows us a different logic in his use of TV. He is certainly not 'seeking' TV presence, and is always very moderate in his style, but he does not shun it, because he wants to convey his message and bring back the Church to what is essential, namely the person of Jesus Christ".

Substantially, he adds, this decision shows that "Papa Ratzinger does not fear 'modernity', he does not demonize television even if he sees its limitations, but proves it can be used for his purposes".

A use which, according to Stefano Maria Paci, anchor of Sky TG24's Vatican coverage, "will be good for the image of this Pope".

To begin with, he points out, "it surprises only those who do not know Benedict XVI. Because he is often portrayed as a conservative whereas he is really innovative in many ways".

Paci says provocatively: "A large part of observers still do not understand this Pontificate - partly out of willful misrepresentation, partly because of erroneous evaluation arising from prejudices and from a certain laziness inherent in their brand of journalism".

For instance, he says, "When the Pope speaks about ethics and morality, he is not saying anything different from what John Paul II said, but the media always make a big controversy of what Benedict XVI says. And when he speaks in favor of Africa and other social issues of current concern, the media almost ignore it completely.

"I think history will judge him well, far better than we who now report daily on him".

TG6's Marina Ricci said: "Let us be honest. For many, Papa Ratzinger continues to be the Panzerkardinal that he was portrayed when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

In fact, she points out, "that was a mythological figure who never existed, one that was entirely created by the media. Joseph Ratzinger has never changed. Even as Pope, he remains a very gentle person, one who has never used the iron fist, wno has enormous respect for women, for instance, and who has never been afraid to seek forgiveness even for faults in the Church that are not his".

It's an equivocation - "Only those who do not know him would be surprised at the decisions he has made" - that applies even to his relations with the media."

Benedict XVI, says Ricci, "was never a media hound who sought publicity at any cost, but when he has the spotlight, then he knows how to use it much better than so many others, because he is firm in his faith, and when one listens to him, one has no doubt that he believes what he says". {Better yet, that he lives what he says!]


Pretty soon, someone will - and should - come up with an appropriately comprehensive overview of the true surprises that Benedict XVI has sprung on the Church and the world, in a Pontificate that has been very creative and decisive during its fairly short span so far. And not the least in the agile but calmly equable way in which this Pope has dealt with the most urgent challenges to the Church... The sixth anniversary of the Pontificate is coming soon, and that should be a good occasion for such an overview, particularly since the opportunity of the five-year anniversary - the first lustrum - was dissipated last year by the media-induced obsession with the sex-abuse problems.