BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Please see preceding page for earlier entries on 8/27/12.




Indirectly, here is Andrea Tornielli's riposte to Sandro Magister's recent strange and rather trivial speculation about JON-3, the third volume of the Holy Father's JESUS OF NAZARETH, in which Magister blows up the question of who will publish the Italian version as a pretext to bring in his apparent belief, following the so far unsubstantiated speculation of German journalist Paul Badde that Ingrid Stampa, the Pope's onetime housekeeper, confidante and translator [she also translated many of John Paul II's books into German] has become a pariah to the Pope, because of Vatileaks.

About JON-3: Italian publisher still unclear -
Rizzoli is bidding for it - but one thing sure,
Ingrid Stampa continues to be involved
by ANDREA TORNIELLI
Translated from the Italian service of

August 27, 2012

Rizzoli publishing house has made a bid for the rights to the book and Herder's 'reader' of the Pope's German texts is hard at work going through the manuscript of the volume dedicated to the childhood and 'hidden years' of Jesus.

And Ingrid Stampa continues to be involved in preparing the book for publication.

Burkhard Menke, 51, had to forego his summer vacation this year stay in Freiburg, headquarters of the German publisher Herder, to pore through the manuscript of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on the Kindheitsgeschichten (Infancy Gospels), whose Italian edition could be published By Rizzoli which published Vol. 1 of JON.

This third book, initially conceived by the Pope to be simply a 'chapter' or at the most, a pamphlet, is being closely 'read' these days by Burkhard Menke, 51, a layman with a degree in theology.

Menke is a so-called reader of Herder publishing house, which has published the works of Joseph Ratzinger for more than 50 years, and has been involved with pre-publication vetting of other Ratzinger/Benedict XVI books.

The scrupulous work of the reader has to do mostly with a factual and bibliographical ckeck of the book's contents, an aid that the Pope appreciates. Menke calls the attention of his designated contact at the Secretariat of State or the Pope's own secretaries, about every doubt he perceives in his reading. The Pope, who has written the JON books for the wider public beyond the academic and scientific world, apparently considers Menke's observations useful.

On August 2, after Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone made known that the Pope had finally finished his draft of JON-3, the Vatican Press Office followed with a confirmation, saying: "It will now proceed to being translated into the various major languages, which will be done in each case, directly from the German in which the book was written - this will require the appropriate time for careful translation of an important and much-awaited text".

But the Vatican note did not indicate who would be publishing the book nor an expected publication date.

The Pope's books also require scrupulous checking of citations - the Pope often cites texts from the Gospels and from the Fathers of the Church from memory, and so each citation must be checked, chapter and verse, against the sources, to make sure that every word and every punctuation mark is in place.

This is, of course, routinely done for any scientific or historical manuscript, all the more so when the book carries the double byline of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Even if the Pope said in his Preface to the first volume that his work on Jesus must not be considered "in any way as a Magisterial act", which means "anyone is free to contradict me", it does not mean that it gets any less pre-publication scrutiny.

The next few days may also bring a decision on who will publish JON-3 in Italy. It will be recalled that the Vatican publishing house LEV granted the rights of translation and worldwide distribution of JON-1 to Italy's Rizzoli publishing house. In Germany, it was published by Herder, in the USA by Doubleday/Random House.

The decision to have the book published by the major secular publishing houses in most countries stirred objections from Catholic publishers.

In 2010, the Vatican publishing house decided to retain the rights to translate and sell the book around the world, and this time, it chose Catholic publishers in countries like the USA (Ignatius Press), Spain and France.

It is known that LEV and the Secretariat of State is considering a bid by Rizzoli which wishes to acquire the same rights for JON-3 as it did for JON-1.

The 150-page manuscript is expected to come to 200 pages in book form, compared to 446 and 348 pages, respectively, for the first two volumes in their Italian edition.

An importanjt factor to consider is the timing of the publication. The Pope's book on the Child Jesus, although it would be of great interest at any time, would obviously benefit greatly from being released around Christmas. In the same way that the second volume on the Passion, Death and Resurrection came out during Lent of 2011.

But even if Vol. 3 is much shorter, translation into the major languages, which is supervised by the translation department of the Secretariat of State, still requires time. And although the goal is to publish it by Christmas, this autumn will be a busy time for the Secretariat of State because of the General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod and the Year of Faith. [Awww, surely the translation department can work out an appropriate schedule and division of labor to translate the Pope's book as well. It can well be done if the German-speaking translators who will be translating to English, French, Spanish, etc, were asked to devote their weekends to translate the Pope's book so it does not 'get in the way' of their routine translations - by all means, pay them for those few weekends!]

In this work on JON-3 by the Secretariat of State, Prof. Ingrid Stampa, who was a co-editor of the Italian edition of JON-1, and translated JON-2 to Italian, will continue to be involved. Housekeeper to Cardinal Ratzinger for 14 years until he became Pope, she was named by a German journalist last July as one of the supposed 'masterminds' of Vatileaks, which drew an unusual statement of denial from the Secretariat of State and Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi.

The German members of Benedict XVI's inner circle felt under pressure during Vatileaks, especially those of them who had the privilege of easy access to Cardinal Ratzinger, have retained this privilege even after he became Pope.

In any case, the newspaper report appears not to have had any effect on Ms. Stampa's employment at the Secretariat of State, where she is involved in the translation and editing of the Pope's various texts.

Some interesting random facts
about Vatican activities in 2011



VATICAN CITY, August 27, 2012 – "The activity of the Holy See" is the title of a weighty volume that year after year offers an account of the actions undertaken by the Pope, the Roman curia, and other Vatican offices.

It is an "unofficial publication," it says on the title page, but it is compiled by the Secretariat of State, and contains a substantial amount of information and not a few curiosities, often unpublished elsewhere.

The latest edition on the activities in 2011, was published at the end of July by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. It is 1,366 pages long, and costs 80 euro.

Here are some of the interesting things we learn from it:

– The activities of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith included the re-publication in the November 30, 2011 issue of L'Osservatore Romano of a text by then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger published in a 1988 volume "On the pastoral care of the divorced and remarried."

It is explained that the re-publication was intended to "draw the attention of pastors" to that "unfortunately little known" book which reiterates the traditional Catholic position on the topic, and which confirms among other things, that the practice of the Orthodox Churches of allowing u,nder certain conditions, a second and third marriage after the failure of the first remains "unacceptable for doctrinal reasons" to the Catholic Church.

– Last year, the disciplinary office of the CDF opened 599 new procedures, 440 of them concerning delicta graviora (serious offenses), and that the most numerous of these, 404 to be exact, are cases of abuse perpetrated by clergy against minors.

The CDF underscores that "in the year 2011, with respect to the year 2010, the disciplinary office received fewer notifications," but that nonetheless "with respect to previous years (for example, the period of 2005–2009) the number of cases has risen considerably."

In this respect, the CDF recommended to the Pope the dismissal from the clerical state of 125 priests, and for another 135 to ber dispenses from priestly obligations. [Both actions laicize the priests concerned.]

– The Congregation for the Clergy, which handles canonical cases ivnolving priests other than for delicta graviora, issued 540 certifications of dispensation from priestly obligations for 49 diocesan deacons, 26 religious deacons, 280 secular priests, and 185 religious.

– The Congregation for Divine Worship, in addition to its regular functions, says "it is closely following the proposal of 'thematic homilies', in conjunction with the CDF and the cCngregation for the Clergy," evidently with the intention of improving the content of preaching at Masses.

– The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples granted, through the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, more than $75 million in aid to dioceses in mission territory, compared to %85 million in 2010.

- The Congregation for religious orders authorized the entrance into consecrated life of five married persons whose spouses were still alive.

– The Congregation for Catholic Education is preparing a document on the use of the internet in priestly formation.

– The apostolic penitentiary granted 1,315 indulgences,with Germany, Martin Luther's homeland, benefiting most (329), followed by Taly (260).

– The Roman Rota, whose jurisprudence is the model for all the ecclesiastical tribunals of the world, issued 179 definitive verdicts in cases seeking matrimonial nullification. Most of the verdicts (94) rejected the requests, whereas in 2010, 93 out of 175 requests for nullification were granted.

– The Pontifical Council Cor Unum directly distributed, in the name of the Pope, $1.8 million dollars on behalf of populations struck by disaster, and $2.3 million in support of projects of human and Christian development.

Moreover, two foundations funded by the dicastery, the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel and Populorum Progressio for Latin America, respectively contributed $1.86 million and $2.1 million to finance humanitarian projects on those continents.

– The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts continues in its work to revise some portions of the code of canon law, regarding questions of penal law (an area in which the Council says work is particularly advanced), procedural law, matrimonial law, and patrimonial law, and relating the code of the Latin Church to that of the Eastern Churches.

– 1,321 entrance permits were granted for the Vatican secret archive to scholars from 54 countries. The most numerous were the Italians (673), followed by scholars from Spain and Germany (102 each), the United States and France (64 each), Britain (30), Poland (35). Scholars also came from Azerbaijan, China, Syria, Togo, Turkey. None from Israel.

– Vatican Radio has 352 employees, 307 of them laypeople. They account for more than 12 percent of all of the 2,832 employees of the Holy See.

– The office of papal charities – with 10 employees and 17 external calligraphers – which replies to some 7,000 letters each year from Christians and members of other religions requesting aid for personal needs,dispensed "with discretion" and "on a daily basis," in the name of the Pope, "around 900,000 euro" in 2011, compared to about 1 million euro in 2010.

The sum was completely covered by contributions received from tghe faithful who request parchments with which the Pope grants an apostolic blessing to individuals. In 2011, 120,000 parchments werre released by the Office of Papal Charities (115,000 in 2010), plus another 108,00 distributed through various affiliates (112,000 in 2010).

– Even as the CDF, through an international commission of inquiry headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, is examining the claimed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate reports it has received many requests from prayer groups that "born from Medjugorje, have no point of reference in order to channel the grace of conversion obtained in that blessed place." [Why can they not just 'channel the grace' into devotion to Mary, supported by acts of faith, hope and charity, without linking her to any one place?]

– As of December 31, 2011, there were 594 persons in possession of Vatican citizenship: 71 cardinals, 307 ecclesiastics with diplomatic status, 51 other ecclesiastics, one religious sister, 109 Swiss guards, 55 other laypeople. [And the Pope makes 595????]

Moreover, 238 persons were authorized to reside in Vatican City–State while retaining their citizenship of origin, and another 3,500 were resident in extraterritorial or tax–exempt properties of the Vatican.

– In 2011, the Vatican police levied 96 fines for violations of traffic regulations within thje pocket-size State. At the same time, the police claim that after "thorough police activity," they have 'stamped out' the phenomenon of pickpockets which had been "widespread in the Vatican museums, but especially in St. Peter's Basilica and t. Peter's Square."

– Also last year, "the Vatican museums entered the highly exclusive club of the 'over five million' (visitors a year), thanks to measures established by the responsible official, Mons. Paolo Nicolini." [One must note that Nicolini is the 'enemy' denounced by Mons. Carlo Vigano in his infamous letters as having left the Pntifical Lateran University after incurring financial shortfalls for which he was personally responsible, and allegedly continuing his questionable activities at the Vatican Museums. Vigano's attack was even more astounding because the main income for the Vatican Governatorate for which he worked comes precisely from the Vatican Museums, which has registered increasingly greatere revenues every year under Nicolini.]

Moreover, thanks to the license of definitive exportation granted by the Italian ministry of cultural heritage, the Vatican museums were able to acquire the Francesco Pagano collection donated by his heirs in 1998, comprising 94 objects dating to the fourth century B.C. of the Roman era.

In 2011, the editorial activity of the museums was taken over by a new office of publications, with the new imprint Edizione Musei Vaticani. In 2009, the Museums started the Bookshop in collaboration with Opera Laboratori Fiorentini SpA.

- In 2011, Vatican City state consumed 32 million kWh of electricity, 4.5 million for the extraterritorial zones, and 1.8 million for the pontifical villas. Vatican central heating required about 1,225,000 cubic meters of methane gas, provided by the Italian firms ACEA, Italgas, and the Gas & Power division of ENI.

– The Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo has a collection of meteorites that in 2011 was expanded with new elements, "including a slab of 21 grams of rare and primitive acondrite NWA 6901" procured from "an anonymous German provider."

– Among the curiosities reported: A happy conclusion to the invasion of porcupines into the Catacomba dei Giordani in Rome from the park of Villa Ada above it. And that "the scourge of the red weevil" has infested one of the four imposing palm trees at the portico of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, but "with the assistance of a specialized company ,the battle is underway to save it from complete desiccation."

The book does not contain any information about the financial agencies of the Holy See - APSA, IOR, or AIF (about the latter, only that 170 square meters of the mezzanine of the Palazzo San Carlo within Vatican City–State were rneovated to provide its offices).

But detailed information about the 2011 activities of these agencies can be found in the appendices to the Moneyval report on the Vatican published online last month.

Paul VI's unscripted reproach
to irresponsible media in 1971
by Angela Ambrogetti
Translated from

August 27, 2012

Contemporary information media often create what they report. When, in fact, media should not create but describe things as they are. But in creating stories, they also create - or better, shape - public opinion.

The more the media system develops, the more the media is able to create stories which lead the [gullible] media consumer to "think according to what the media tell them". Even if it is not true [And most of it often is not].

It is an old trick to 'muddy up the water', which provoked public criticism of the media even by Pope Paul VI, son of a Catholic journalist.



It was 1971, and times were different from today. [The media system was far simpler and far less pervasive, without the 24/7 instant convenience of the Internet.] A program on RAI, the Italian state TV, carried interwoven interviews with Cardinal Jean Danielou and Father Ernesto Balducci. [I had to look him up - apparently, Balducci (1922-1992) was quite a prominent peace activist in Italy whose ideal was a supranational world community in which there would be social justice ad peace for everyone.] It was a post-Conciliar debate which continues to be very actual: the 'contrast' between the Church apparatus and the 'Church of the poor'.

The program was aired in connection with an upcoming Synodal assembly of bishops which was to open September 30, 1971, with a Mass in the Sistine Chapel. The Synod's theme was "Justice in the world and the priestly ministry" but the theme was hardly discussed in the program, which was dominated by the Danielou-Balducci 'debate'.

The French cardinal spoke for the 'institutional' Church, while Balducci spoke about a Church 'remote' from the oppressed, not open to social justice and not concerned about peace. [It is always appalling how sanctimonious Catholics, including priests and bishops - and assorted types like Paolo Gabriele - can see nothing but evil in the Church and ignore the good it does!]

Balducci generalized without considering the good work of so many priests, religious and bishops, and the cardinal [an academic theologian, above all, professor, author and Church historian whose career did not include much pastoral work] appeared unable to answer effectively.

However, the newspapers at the time picked up and reported not so much the TV program itself but the reaction of Paul VI. The day after the broadcast, Sept. 29, the Pope had a General Audience. It so happened that the discourse prepared for the day was precisely on the subject of how the Church had come to be commonly thought about for her 'negative' aspects rather than for what she actually is.

A reflection that, just six years after Vatican II, was meant to tell the faithful, in direct language, the salient points of the dogmatic constitution on the Church Lumen gentium.

Paul VI's reaction was unusually direct, especially for him. At a certain point in his address, he departed from the text and said extemporaneously: "Even yesterday, on Italian TV, there were strong attacks against the Church because of the way she is constituted, the way she is built. What has entered into the soul and brain of so many people, otherwise good and honest, who feel that they must turn against the Church and criticize her despite all the good that they themselves have received from the institutional Church? If there had not been this Church constituted by Christ, what would happen to their souls?" [In fairness to RAI, the attacks against the Church in the program apparently came from the priest, Balducci, not from RAI, who can be faulted for creating an 'unequal' debate by juxtaposing two separate interviews in which Cardinal Danielou was most likely unaware that his answers to an interview with him alone were to be matched against charges made by an activist-polemicist.]

He then resumed reading his written text which, read today, despite Paul VI's not easy way with language, is very much actual. The Pope spoke to pilgrims coming to the tomb of St. Peter "seeking a sensible as well as spiritual impression of this central point for the Church... (as well as) to enjoy the positive aspects of the Church" , He went on:

---

Whereas today, through what has become an almost habitual deformation, we see too many persons predisposed to see only her negative aspects - or those that are reputed to be negative - such that too many observers of the Church have a tendency to be critical and intolerant of ecclesial reality, and on the pretext of being oriented towards an ideal Church, they find it boring to even consider any positive contact with the Church as she is...

They would like a Church that is spiritually pure which fits into their own ideas of what she should be. This critical, disputatious, and discontented attitude, is widespread, and is fundamentally decadent, incapable of admiration, enthusiasm or love, and therefore devoid of joy and of the spirit of sacrifice.

---

The official published text includes but does not indicate the impromptu words inserted by the Pope, though these were reported as such by the newspapers in the following days.

It was clear that the issue was very much a concern for Paul VI, who was disappointed that the media - in this case, RAI-TV - were contributing to confuse the faithful.

Some commentators saw in his reaction a 'nervous release' of pent-up feelings, while others criticized the broadcast harshly, saying "The Pope could not have acted otherwise".

Re-reading the accounts 41 years later, it is evident that many issues in the internal Catholic debate are far from resolved. [What an understatement! And yet, perhaps, it is inherent to have an internal debate for as long as there exist two extremely polarized sides, i.e., the progressivists on the left, and the rigid traditionalists on the other, both seemingly unmindful of the broad conservative and orthodox center that is open to necessary practical changes but always respectful of tried-and-tested Tradition - in short, those who advocate 'renewal in continuity'.]

Equally evident is that often, the way the media report on the Church is intended to generate controversy, even to the point, in fact, of creating what they purport to describe.

The question we can ask today is the same one Paul VI asked: What is it that gets into the heart and mind of so many good and honest persons who feel that they must speak only of the 'evil and corruption' in the bosom of the Church? What is triggered in the minds of those who, like Paolo Gabriele, reading media reports constructed to pre-condition simple minds, think, "Seeing evil and corruption everywhere in the Church... I was sure that a shock, like one from the media, would help to put the Church back on the right track".

[Gee, would it not be the devil, whose workshop is idle minds - not to mention minds that are incapable of thinking for themselves, happy to let others think for them? Paolo Gabriele was/is simple-minded enough to mistake the sanctimonious, presumptuous spirit that 'infiltrated' him to be the Holy Spirit, unable to discern the devil himself in the guise of media sanctimony and censoriousness of the Church, nor to remember the age-old adage that pride (hubris - presumptuous arrogance - in his case) always precedes a fall.]

Tuesday, August 28, 21st Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF ST. AUGUSTINE

ST. AUGUSTINE (b 354, Tagaste 354, d Hippo 430 - both in what is now Algeria], Bishop, Theologian, Fahter of the Church, Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI devoted six discourses to St. Augustine on his pilgrimage in April 2006 to the saint's tomb in Pavia
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/travels/2007/index_vigevano-pavi...
and five General Audience catecheses in January-February 2008
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/inde...
In addition, he has referred to him countless times during the past seven years of his Pontificate that it is surprising the Vatican has not yet published a compilation of his papal texts referring to St. Augustine. Not to be repetitive, here is a link to a couple of brief articles about Benedict and Augustine that I posted in 2009 on this thread:
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082812.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father today.

The Press Office posted the brief bulletin about the previously unannounced meeting yesterday between the Pope
and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Castel Gandolfo.

The Pope's condolences for victims
of Venezuela oil refinery explosion

August 28, 2012

Here is the text of a telegram sent by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone in the name of
the Holy Father to the president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference for the huge explosion that
took place Saturday in Venezuela's largest oil refinery.
At least 41 people have been killed and more than 80 injured
in one of the deadliest disasters to hit the country's oil industry.
The explosion affected homes and businesses around the refinery.

---

MONS. DIEGO RAFAEL PADRÓN SÁNCHEZ
ARCHBISHOP OF CUMANÁ and
PRESIDENT OF THE VENEZUELAN BISHOPS' CONFERENCE
CUMANÁ

HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI, PROFOUNDLY SADDENED BY THE NEWS OF THE SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN THE AMMAY REFINERY, WHICH HAS CLAIMED MANY VICTIMS AND CAUSED GREAT MATERIAL DAMAGE, OFFERS HIS RAYERS FOR THE ETERNAL REST OF THOSE WHO DIED, AND EXPRESSES HIS PATERNAL CLOSENESS TO THE INJURED AND TO THE FAMILIES OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE ACCIDENT.

THE POPE LIKEWISE WISHES TO ENCOURAGE THE ENTIRE CIVILIAN AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNITY OF VENEZUELA TO EXTEND THE NECESSARY AID, IN A SPIRIT OF CHARITY AND cHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY, TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.

WITH THESE SENTIMENTS, THE HOLY FATHER IMPARTS ON ALL THOSE CONCERNED AND ON THOSE WHO ARE AIDING THEM A COMFORTING APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A SIGN OF HIS LOVE FOR THE BELOVED PEOPLE OF VENEZUELA.

CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE TO HIS HOLINESS

---

In the past few weeks, Ignatius Press started to publicize its distribution of a film on the life of St. Augustine entitled THE RESTLESS HEART for English audiences, based upon a miniseries produced for Italian TV first shown in the autumn of 2009. An abridged version of the miniseries was shown to Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo in September 2009, when it was revealed that the Pope himself had inspired the film project with some words he said in the pre-visit interview shown on German TV before his apostolic visit to Bavaria in September 2006.

"Make a film on Augustine, for example," the Pope had remarked in the interview, "to show that film subjects need not be about terrible situations. There are marvelous figures in history who are far from boring and whose lives are still very relevant".

I postponed making this post until today, the actual feast day of the man whose one-of-a-kind 'Confessions' have been read by generations in the past 15 centuries.

St. Augustine comes to the big screen:
Ignatius Press starts sponsored screenings
by TIM DRAKE




ARLINGTON, Texas, August 24 — The first feature-length theatrical motion picture on the life of St. Augustine has its official U.S. premiere in Texas next week. The film’s distributor, Ignatius Press, hopes to bring it to screens across the country using a hosted-screening program.

The official premiere of Restless Heart: The Confessions of Augustine takes place Aug. 29 at the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show, which is being held in Arlington, Texas. Many Catholic leaders and retailers will have an opportunity to see the film there for the first time.

Restless Heart was directed by award-winning Canadian director Christian Duguay and was co-produced by Italian, German and Polish production companies. It originally aired as a five-episode TV series in Italy in 2009.

American Catholic publisher Ignatius Press has repackaged the film and will not only be distributing the DVD in North America, but has also developed a program that allows parishes, organizations and individuals to bring the film to theaters in their locale.

For the past few years, Ignatius Press has worked with European production companies to secure North American licenses to release films about saints on DVD. When the company heard that a film was being made about St. Augustine, it expressed interest in obtaining the North American rights.

“We are thrilled to bring Restless Heart to the big screen,” said Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press. “St. Augustine is one of the first doctors of the Church. His story is inspiring and compelling, and his writings are among the most respected in the world, even today.”

“We’re doing this on a bigger level because we understand the importance of films for impacting the culture in modern society and the importance of evangelizing through the film medium,” said Anthony Ryan, director of marketing with Ignatius Press. “We decided that if we were ever going to try to get these films in theaters, this was the perfect movie to do it with.”

The film draws largely from the Confessions of St. Augustine to tell his story. Unlike many saint films, it does not shy away from telling about his less-than-saintly early life and his conflicts with his mother, St. Monica.

Born in North Africa, St. Augustine led a hedonistic lifestyle and ignored the advice of his Christian mother before his conversion and baptism in Milan, Italy, at the age of 33. His Confessions and City of God are two of the Church’s great spiritual classics. Augustine was declared one of the first doctors of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII in 1295.

The film has drawn praise from many who have seen it.

“This film brings the words of the Confessions to life by enabling us to more fully understand the relationships and the culture that shaped Augustine and to better grasp his talents and ambitions, sins and struggles and, ultimately, his sanctity,” said Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago. “Restless Heart
draws us to appreciate the magnitude and the totality of Augustine’s conversion of mind and heart.”

“As the life and times of this saint for all ages are beautifully re-created before our eyes, we understand better than ever the danger of being ‘in love with love,’ the insatiable void of a life defined by secular pursuits,” said Bishop Felipe Estévez of St. Augustine, Fla. “Appealing to the restless heart in each of us, this film of faith and hope is sure to become a spiritual classic.”

Pope Benedict XVI saw an abridged version of the TV series in September 2009. He praised the film for its depiction of man’s search for truth.

“This (is) the great hope that it ends with: We cannot find truth by ourselves, but the Truth, which is a person (Christ), finds us,” said Pope Benedict. “We hope that many who watch this inspiring human drama will allow themselves to be found by the Truth and in return also find Love.”

It is well-known that Joseph Ratzinger's own thinking was inspired by the saint and theologian. As a young priest in 1953, the Pope wrote his doctoral thesis on St. Augustine’s teachings about the People of God and the Church.

Victor Pap, vice president of marketing and outreach for the PR firm helping Ignatius to promote the film, bookings have already been made dioceses, educational institutions, parishes, charitable organizations, colleges and Knights of Columbus groups across the USA. Pap said there has even been interest among Protestant groups, such as some Lutheran churches and Baylor University.

One organization that’s organized a showing is Denver’s Augustine Institute, a graduate school for Scripture and theology. The Augustine Institute is hosting the film as a fundraiser at the Landmark Theater in Greenwood Village, Colo., on the feast of St. Augustine, Aug. 28, at 7pm.

Interest in the film was so great that they sold out the Landmark Theater’s largest theater and had to rent a second theater for those who want to see the film. They’re expecting more than 350 people.

“The director was first inspired to make this film because the Holy Father had lamented that no one had taken the really interiorly great people of history and made films of their lives,” explained Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute. “We wanted to host a showing because we’re an institute for evangelization, and Augustine is our model.”

The film is having several national premieres across the country. In addition to the showing at the Catholic Marketing Network event, Catholic Charities of Central Colorado and the Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo., are sponsoring a showing as a fundraiser.

The film will premiere in Rochester, N.Y., and Cincinnati’s Parkland Theater Aug. 28, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2. The other premieres include St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church’s sponsored showing in Washington on Aug. 29 and St. Dominic Catholic Church’s sponsored showing at Silverado 16 Theater in San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 1.

Individuals interested in learning more or hosting a local screening can find information at the RestlessHeartFilm.com website.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to launch the Year of Faith and engage in the New Evangelization,” said Ignatius[s’ Ryan. “There hasn’t been much in terms of films with Catholic themes. This gives people an opportunity to evangelize the culture locally.”

Here is the post on this thread about the preview of the film for Benedict XVI in September 2009.




TV miniseries on St. Augustine
previewed for Benedict XVI


Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sep 2, 2009 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI was to attend a special screening this afternoon of the new television miniseries, “Augustine, The Decline of the Roman Empire", based on the life of the doctor of the Church and Bishop of Hippo, in the Swiss Hall at Castel Gandolfo.

Christian Duguay, who directed the series, also directed the films “Joan of Arc” and “The Art of War.”


One of the projects of Lux Vide which should also interest Benedict XVI is their film on St. Bakhita. The videocaps from the brief trailer available online show Preziosi and Nero playing the young and the older Augustine. P.S. Half of the very brief trailer showed scenes from Augustine's life of dissolution!

Franco Nero plays the older St. Augustine, while Alessandro Preziosi plays the saint as a young man. Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, is played by Monica Guerritore.

The miniseries is part of the “Imperium” project by the Italian production company Lux Vide, which is also planning a remake of “Ben Hur.” Duguay, together with other American filmmakers, will produce the new version.

The Holy Father was shown an edited summary of all five episodes in the mini-series.



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's brief remarks after the film was screened:

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Dear friends:

At the end of this great spiritual voyage that is portrayed in the film that we just saw, I feel I must say Thank you to all those who have offered us this vision.

Thanks to Bavarian TV for its generous commitment - it is a great joy that a casual observation I made three years ago* started off a journey that has brought us this great representation of the life of St. Augustine. Thank you to Lux Vide and to RAI for this realization.

In fact, the film seems to be a spiritual voyage to a spiritual continent that is very remote from us but also very near, because the human drama remains the same.

We have seen how, in a context that is very distant for us. all the reality of human life is portrayed, with all its problems, its sorrows, its failures, as well as the fact that, in the end, Truth is stronger than any obstacle and finds man.

Externally, the life of St. Augustine may be seem to end tragically: the world in which he lived and for which he lived, is ruined. But as the film affirms, his message has lived on, and even through the continuing changes in the world, that message endures, because it comes from the Truth and leads to Love, which is our common destination.

Thank you to everyone. Let us hope that many, upon seeing this human drama, may be found by the Truth and may, in turn, find Love.

---

A review of 'Restless Heart':
He allowed Truth to find him
by Brandon Vogt
brandonvogt.com/restlessheart/
August 27, 2012

Over the centuries, millions of people have been captured by the story of St. Augustine. The brilliant young orator, seeking Truth in many philosophies, found it in the Catholic Church and became the most famous convert in history [after St. Paul!]

His whole journey is recounted in his spiritual autobiography, The Confessions, which is a classic by any measure. Even many non=believers praise it, a fact signaled by its inclusion in the mostly-secular Great Books of the Western World.

(If you're looking for a copy, Ignatius Press just published a new edition as part of their Ignatius Critical Edition Series, edited by Joseph Pearce. It features the acclaimed English translation by Sister Maria Boulding, O.S.B., along with extra annotations and essays, all for roughly $8.)

My wife and I read through The Confessions together a few months ago and were deeply moved. So much so that, being pregnant with our third child, we decided to name him Augustine. So we were especially excited to see a new full-length feature movie on the saint titled Restless Heart.



The title, of course, comes from Augustine's classic line on the first page of The Confessions: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Restless Heart follows Augustine through this restlessness. We watch him as a youth, pursuing mastery in the art of rhetoric, convinced that the fame and power which flow from it would eventually satisfy him. When that failed, he turned to physical pleasure. He satiated his lusts through sex and partying, yet those failed him too. [I bet the producers edited this part suitably for the version that Benedict XVI previewed!]

From there he drifted through several Gnostic philosophies, including Manichaeism, a Christian heresy. And again, nothing satisfied.

Even after pouring himself into fame, power, money, pleasure, and cults he was still left panting for more. It wasn't until he encountered Christ and his Church that he realized how empty his indulgences were. Only then were all his longings and all his seeking fulfilled.

While Restless Heart depicts this whole search, the film accentuates two aspects better than the book. First, the power of rhetoric in Augustine's life. At the beginning of Restless Heart, we see Augustine begging Microbius, the top orator and lawyer of his day, to teach him the art of oration. At first, Microbius balks. Augustine is unfocused and unskilled, and Microbius is too busy to train him.

But Augustine refuses to give up. He studies hard, continues to beg Microbius, and the master eventually gives in. He begins teaching Augustine how to persuade through words, how to sway judges and jurors through appealing to emotion. Microbius openly admits to twisting the truth to his advantage.

Once he tastes this power, Augustine becomes drunk on it. He works hard and becomes one of the world's greatest orators. Like his master, he sways courts and even convinces a jury to acquit a man whose guilt is later proved true.

By request of the emperor, Augustine is summoned to Milan to become the emperor’s personal orator. And there he meets a pivotal figure in his conversion: St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Augustine is immediately taken aback by the bishop's intelligence and rhetorical skill. He had rarely encountered anyone whose genius could match his own, much less a Christian bishop.

Ambrose, though, seems to use rhetoric in a different way — a more noble way. He doesn't twist words nor pretend to create his own truth. Instead Ambrose tells Augustine that men never find the truth through words. "They must,” he says, “let the Truth find them.”

And so it does. It takes many more months, but Augustine eventually relents and lets this objective truth enrapture him, within and without. He gives up his lusts, he becomes baptized, and grows into the most ardent, articulate defender of Christianity of his day, in no small part due to his early rhetorical studies.

Restless Heart exhibits the profound transfiguration that occurs when gifts once used negatively against God are redeemed and then used for him (one thinks of St. Paul's own pen, for example.) In Augustine's case, his gift was rhetoric, first developed and used for ill. But when untwisted it became a powerful tool used in the service of God.

Second, the movie beautifully highlights the role of St. Monica, Augustine's mother. Almost all we know about her comes from Augustine's own Confessions. And even there, the details are scant. Like Mary in Scripture, Monica rarely speaks directly. She instead hovers on the periphery, praying in the background for her son.

The film, however, places her front and center. It showcases her resilient, tear-drenched prayers which influence Augustine as much as Ambrose's intellectual appeals. She's featured almost as much as her son, a testament to her profound role in his conversion.

In the end, Restless Heart is the most epic saint biography ever produced. The film stands above the recent flow of sappy, low-budget Christian films and is more in line with The Passion of the Christ. With gifted acting, a moving score, and masterful screenwriting, it breathes life into three of the Church's greatest and most iconic saints: Augustine, Ambrose, and Monica.

The media - and San Francisco's notoriously liberal Catholics - will never let Mons. Cordileone live this down. Even if - or especially because - he was driving his mother home after a dinner with friends where he apparently drank too much wine... Thank God there was no accident...

San Francisco archbishop-designate
arrested and detained for drunken driving
He apologizes and expresses shame but this is hardly
a happy start for a bishop coming in as a reformer!
by Ronnie Cohen


SAN FRANCISCO, August 28 (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic bishop newly chosen by the Vatican to lead the archdiocese of San Francisco and two other Bay Area counties publicly apologized on Monday after he was arrested and held behind bars over the weekend on suspicion of drunken driving.

Salvatore Cordileone, 56, appointed in July by Pope Benedict XVI to preside over more than 500,000 Catholics as metropolitan archbishop of San Francisco, was taken into custody on Saturday near San Diego State University, according to the San Diego Police Department.

He was jailed on suspicion of driving under the influence after he was stopped at a police checkpoint and failed a field sobriety test, police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen said. The bishop was released on $2,500 bail, about 11 hours after his arrest, he said.

Cordileone, a San Diego native who currently is bishop of Oakland, had dined earlier that evening with friends and another priest and was driving his mother home from the gathering when he was arrested, he said in a statement released by his diocese.

He acknowledged that his blood-alcohol level was found to be over the legal limit, apologized for his "error in judgment" and said he felt "shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the C hurch and myself."

"I will repay my debt to society, and I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and co-workers at the Diocese of Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco," the statement said. "I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this."

An arraignment in the case has been scheduled for October 9.

Cordileone is due to be installed at a special mass on October 4 as head of an archdiocese encompassing 91 parishes in San Francisco and the neighboring counties of San Mateo and Marin.

He is replacing Archbishop George Niederauer, who is retiring.

Cordileone has been particularly outspoken in Church opposition to same-sex matrimony as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, a role that has put him at odds with many Catholics in the largely gay-friendly Bay area.

He also led Church support for the 2008 voter-approved California state constitutional amendment, Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.

The good bishop needs our prayers. Let us hope his parishioners in Oakland continue to pray for him,

In Scotland, all the Catholic bishops are standing up against the government's determination to legitimize same-sex marriage, and the Church's latest move to assert its opposition is drawing fire...

Atheists, gay activists urge
Scottish government to resist
Catholic Church 'campaign'
against same-sex marriage
by Lizzie Davis

August 26, 2012

The Scottish government has been urged to stand firm over its plans to legalise same-sex marriage and not be derailed by an "anti-gay agenda", as the Catholic Church in Scotland launched a campaign to maintain "the universally accepted definition of marriage" as a union between a man and a woman.

In a letter read out in all 500 of the church's parishes on Sunday, Scotland's Catholic bishops expressed their "deep disappointment" that Alex Salmond's administration has vowed to pass legislation that could see the first gay marriage ceremonies by 2015.

The letter called on worshippers to pray for their political leaders so that they may preserve the traditional nature of marriage "for the good of Scotland and of our society".



Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the country's Catholic church, who last weekend broke off direct talks with the Scottish government on gay marriage, said: "The church's teaching on marriage is unequivocal, it is uniquely the union of a man and a woman and it is wrong that governments, politicians or parliaments should seek to alter or destroy that reality."

He added: "While we pray that our elected leaders will sustain rather than subvert marriage, we promise to continue to do everything we can to convince them that redefining marriage would be wrong for society."

Gay rights activists condemned the move. "It is increasingly clear that the church has an anti-gay agenda that it wants to impose on the rest of society," said Tom French, policy co-ordinator of the Equality Network. "We urge the Scottish government to stand firm on plans to introduce equal marriage and not give in to demands that would discriminate against LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people."

Particularly worrying, said French, was any suggestion that the Catholic Church would take the fight into schools. According to the bishops' letter, a National Commission for Marriage and the Family will be launched, which would be especially important for young people and children. O'Brien said the body would "develop an online presence and produce materials and organise events" to promote the cause.

French said the Equality Network would be "deeply concerned" by any attempt to take these activities into schools. "School should be a welcoming environment for all young people, regardless of their sexual orientation or their family situation," he said.

In the face of intense pressure from not only the Catholic church but also Muslim organisations and evangelical and presbyterian churches, the Scottish government has continued with its plan to legalise gay marriage. A draft bill is to be published later this year.

Opinion polls have shown that about two-thirds of Scots are in favour of the changes.

The government has insisted that no clergy would be forced to carry out same-sex weddings and has included new protections and "conscience clauses" for churches and individual clergy in the legislation.

This has not, however, succeeded in placating opponents, foremost among them O'Brien, who in March drew criticism when describing gay marriage as a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right".

Here is the text of the pastoral letter read on Sunday in all the Catholic churches throughout Scotland:

---

In all things, we as Catholics look to Jesus Christ as our model and teacher. When asked about marriage He gave a profound and rich reply: “Have you not read that the Creator, from the beginning, ‘made them male and female’, and said: ‘This is why a man must leave father and mother and cling to his wife and the two become one body’.” (Mt 19,4-5)

In the Year of Faith, which begins this October, we wish to place a special emphasis on the role of the family founded on marriage. The family is the domestic Church, and the first place in which the faith is transmitted. For that reason it must have a primary focus in our prayerful considerations during this period of grace.

We write to you having already expressed our deep disappointment that the Scottish Government has decided to redefine marriage and legislate for same-sex marriage.

We take this opportunity to thank you for your past support in defense of marriage and hope you will continue to act against efforts to redefine it.

We reaffirm before you all the common wisdom of humanity and the revealed faith of the Church that marriage is a unique life-long union of a man and a woman.

In circumstances when the true nature of marriage is being obscured, we wish
- To affirm and celebrate the truth and beauty of the Sacrament of Matrimony and family life as Jesus revealed it;
- To do something new to support marriage and family life in the Catholic community and in the country; and
- To reinforce the vocation of marriage and the pastoral care of families which takes in the everyday life of the Church in dioceses and parishes across the country.

For that reason, in the forthcoming Year of Faith we have decided to establish a new Commission for Marriage and the Family. This Commission will be led by a bishop and will be composed mostly of lay men and women.

The Commission will be charged with engaging with those young men and women who will be future husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and with those who already live out their vocation to marriage and parenthood in surroundings which often make it hard to sustain and develop the full Catholic family life we cherish.

We wish to support too, those who are widowed, separated and divorced and all who need to feel the Church’s maternal care in the circumstances in which they find themselves.

The new Commission will promote the true nature of marriage as both a human institution and a union blessed by Jesus.

The Commission will be asked to develop an online presence so that prayer, reflection, formation and practical information on matters to do with marriage and family life can be quickly accessible to all. It will also work to produce materials and organise events which will support ordinary Catholic families in their daily lives. During the course of the coming year we will ask for your support for these initiatives.

Our faith teaches us that marriage is a great and holy mystery. The Bishops of Scotland will continue to promote and uphold the universally accepted definition of marriage as the union solely of a man and a woman. At the same time, we wish to work positively for the strengthening of marriage within the Church and within our society.

This is an important initiative for all our people, but especially our young people and children. We urge you to join us in this endeavour. Pray for your own family every day, and pray for those families whose lives are made difficult by the problems and cares which they encounter.

Finally, we invite you to pray for our elected leaders, invoking the Holy Spirit on them, that they may be moved to safeguard marriage as it has always been understood, for the good of Scotland and of our society.

---

Perhaps it would not have been amiss if the Scottish bishops also announced a pastoral initiative to help Catholic homosexuals deal with their dilemma and reconcile themselves with Catholic teaching. Yes, it may be calling on them to be 'superhuman', but renunciation of unnatural sex is possible and has been done by not a few Catholics who have come out to share their experience. God bless all those who think they cannot do anything but indulge the 'nature' they believe they have and enlighten them about what is right.

Monday, August 29, 21st Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance, and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom. The “voice crying in the desert” did not hesitate to accuse the guilty, did not hesitate to speak the truth. This great religious reformer was sent by God to prepare the people for the Messiah. His vocation was one of selfless giving. “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3,11). Scripture tells us that many people followed John looking to him for hope, perhaps in anticipation of some great messianic power. John never allowed himself the false honor of receiving these people for his own glory. He knew his calling was one of preparation. When the time came, he led his disciples to Jesus: “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus” (Jn 1,35-37). It is John the Baptist who has pointed the way to Christ. John’s life and death were a giving over of self for God and other people. The Church celebrates two feasts dedicated to John the Baptist during the year - his nativity on June 24, and his beheading.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082912.cfm


WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY

General Audience - In his catechesis today, Benedict XVI paid tribute to John the Baptist on the liturgical feast
of his martyrdom, saying he reminds Christians of all time that we can never compromise our love for Christ nor
the Truth, but this can happen only if a life of constant prayer keeps our relationship with God solid, to give us
the strength to testify to Christ and the truth with courage.


P.S. Daylife.com has just notified its readers that it is no longer providing its news and photo service to ordinary readers but only to their regular paying customers. That's an enormous loss in terms of easy and generally prompt access to photos of the Pope in each of his public events, or that OR has released to the news media. Yahoo stopped its news photo service on 'the Papacy and the Vatican' quite a while back, so I have to search out a free newsphoto service that is comparably convenient as Yahoo and Daylife were. I've applied to be a regular customer of Daylife using the Forum as my business URL, but I don't know how that will turn out... Perhaps Gloria has alternatives....

GENERAL AUDIENCE
August 29, 2012




'There can be no compromise
on Christ or on the Truth'


The liturgical memorial of John the Baptist’s martyrdom, “reminds us Christians of our time that we cannot compromise the love of Christ, his Word, the Truth. The Truth is the Truth and there is no compromise”, said Pope Benedict XVI Wednesday during his general audience held in the inner courtyard of Castel Gandolfo.

In addition to the faithful in the courtyard, 2,000 French altar servers – girls and boys – were among the thousands gathered in the city's Freedom Square in front of the Apostolic Palace, to hear Pope Benedict’s catechesis dedicated to John the Baptist and the lesson he teaches us that Christian witness is fed by prayer.

“Christian life”, he said “requires, so to speak, the daily martyrdom of fidelity to the Gospel - the courage to let Christ grow in us and direct our thinking and our actions”.

This courage, he said, can only come from a solid relationship with God: “Prayer is not a waste of time, it does not rob much space from our activities, not even apostolic activities, it does the exact opposite: only if we are able to have a life of faithful, constant, confident prayer will God Himself give us the strength and capacity to live in a happy and peaceful way, to overcome difficulties and to bear witness with courage. St. John the Baptist,intercede for us, so that we always maintain the primacy of God in our lives”.

This is my first post on something that has been in the news for several days now on the latest outrage in Pakistan, where local Muslims use the country's harsh blasphemy laws in defense of Islam to persecute Christians on the slightest pretext. Aasia Bibi, who was notoriously jailed in 2009 and condemned to death, still languishes in jail, despite actions by the international community and local Pakistani groups to set her free...



The tale of Rimsha, latest victim
of Christian persecution in Pakistan

August 29, 2012

Her name is Rimsha Masih. She is between 11 and 13 years old. She is a Christian and comes from a poor family of street sweepers. She is from Pakistan. As of Wednesday, August 29th, Rimsha has spent 13 days in a high-security jail in Rawalpindi, far from home, because Muslim protesters claim she burned pages from an Islamic holy book.

Rimsha is the one of the 1,100 victims of Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws and its youngest to date. Emer McCarthy has this report:

“Thirteen days in jail is inexcusable, its incomprehensible” says Peter Jacob, President of the Pakistani bishops National Commission for Justice and Peace. “It’s a punishment without any judgment”.

On the insistence of the mob who surrounded the child on Aug. 6th and fearing violence, the police arrested Rimsha and immediately filed blasphemy charges against her. If she is found guilty, she faces life in prison.

Her family and human rights activists say she is 11 years old and mentally impaired, which would make her exempt from the blasphemy laws. On Tuesday, court-appointed medical experts ruled instead she was 14, but that that her mental condition “does not match her age and physical condition”.

But the mob’s anger has not been quelled by Rimsha’s arrest. Jacob reports that 250 families Christian families have been forced to leave there homes in the area. Rimsha’s parents are reportedly in the protective custody of the minister for national harmony, Paul Bhatti. Last year his brother, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot dead outside his Islamabad home.

Shabaz, the former minorities minister, together with assassinated Punjab Governor Salman Taseer championed the battle against the Blasphemy law and the release of Asia Bibi , the first Christian woman to be sentenced under the law and who still remains in prison.

“There is a lack of political will on the part of the government to do anything while the country is in crisis. [Pakistan has yet to recover from the political consequences of the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2009.] We need urgent reforms, juridical, political and civic reforms. Above all we need to remove hate material from the [school] curricula. That is what is needed to bring peace to this country”.

Speaking at the Rimini Meeting last Saturday on “International politics and religious freedom”, the President of the Vatican Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, French Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran called for dialogue and transparency in her case, stating : "This is a girl who can neither write nor read, who collected garbage for a living, and may have found the fragments of the book among the rubbish. These facts must be checked before claims are made that she desecrated a sacred text. "



Free Rimsha now and end the Blasphemy Law
used for anti-Christian witch hunts
by Manzer Munir

August 28, 2012

The writer is the Kansas City international affairs correspondent of the Examiner and president of a group called Pakistanis for Peace.

Pakistan’s latest victim of the notorious blasphemy laws, is an 11 year old girl suffering from Downs Syndrome. Rimshah Masih was taken from her mother by an angry mob intent on killing her.

Burnt religious texts mysteriously appeared in a bag she was carrying, suspected by rights activists to have been planted by members of the mob. Worldwide condemnation and demands by the Pakistani Government to take action to stop this ongoing discrimination, persecution and hatred towards minorities living has done little to change the situation. Christian advocacy groups have called on the US and British Governments, the EU and the UN to intervene on behalf of this poor child and to bring about her immediate freedom.

In order to help bring an end to hatred towards minorities in the conservative nation of Pakistan and to defend these otherwise helpless victims like Rimsha, we are asking people worldwide to please sign the petition below: www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/freerimshamasih

Once enough signatures are collected, the plan is to send this petition to the Pakistan Government at the highest levels possible to secure her immediate freedom.

“While the Burmese’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslims has indeed been appalling and deserves condemnation, the religious minorities that are living inside Pakistan face their very own Burma within Pakistan on a daily basis.

“As the rest of the country goes about its way, having just celebrated another joyous Eid, spare a thought for a little girl with special needs, languishing in a juvenile jail", lamented a Christian outside her home.

“She is probably all alone, and scared. With her condition, she very well might not even know the reason she is in there.

“But ask her neighbors, some who are frothing at the teeth to have a go at her, and they will tell you that she deserves to die" he said wanting to remain anonymous out of fear for his life.

Perhaps the first bit of good news, if one can call it that came on Tuesday when a medical examiner confirmed that she is indeed a minor, offering some hope that if her case proceeds, at least she will be tried as a minor and not an adult.

Regardless, the blasphemy law and charges against her are undoubtedly false and majority of the time, they are used to intimidate and settle vendettas against the scared Christian minority in 98% Muslim and increasingly Talibanized Pakistan.

“The girl and her mother were severely beaten by an enraged mob that had converged outside their house, while the rest of her family managed to flee. If the police had not intervened, there is no telling what else could have happened”, reported a neighbor.

Please sign the petition and help free Rimsha and Aasia Bibi and put an end to Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws.

An informative background to Aasia Bibi's case is on
mail.tlaxcala.es/article.asp?reference=3149

Man, the Infinite,
and everything in-between
by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

August 30, 2012

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[DIM=10pt]“To say that ‘the nature of man is a relation with the infinite’ indicates that every person is created so that he can enter into a dialogue with God, with the Infinite.”
— Pope Benedict XVI
Letter to the Bishop of Rimini, August 12, 2012

---

Earlier in August, a conference entitled “The nature of man in relation to the Infinite” was held in the Italian city of Rimini. On this occasion the Holy Father wrote a letter to the members of the conference. The Pope thought the title was particularly pertinent because of the Year of Faith and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II.

“To speak of man and of his ardent desire for the infinite indicates above all recognition of man’s constitutive relation with the Creator.”

The Pope adds that “Man is a creature of God.” He then reflects soberly that today this word “Creator” seems out-of-date. People prefer to talk of man as “a being who is the maker of himself and the absolute fabricator of his own proper destiny.”

When we consider man as a “creature,” however, the idea proves inconvenient for modern man. It suggests that man’s being has an essential reference to something “higher and better,” to “Someone” higher who is not simply “manipulated by man.”

Here man’s being in relation to God would rightly include his identity, an identity which is not capable of being refashioned by man. Man’s being, of its very nature, is “relational.” It is not complete by itself.

The first datum about our being is that it has an original and ontological dependence on “Him who has willed and created us.” This dependency, from which contemporary man strives to free himself, does not, however, hide or diminish him. Rather it reveals in a luminous way his grandeur and his supreme human dignity. He is called to enter a life in relation with “Life itself, with God.”

To maintain that “the nature of man is a relation with the Infinite” is to say that “every person is created so that he can enter into a dialogue with God, with the Infinite.” Adam and Eve themselves are the result of an act of love of God. They are made in the “image and likeness of God.”

Original sin has its ultimate root in the efforts of our first parents to withdraw themselves from this relation to God. They wished to place themselves in the stead of God. As Psalm 63 teaches us, both our body and soul are made to find peace, its realization, in God. This seeking cannot be cancelled in our hearts. We can find “false infinites” that only satisfy us for a time. The alternatives of drugs, disordered sexuality, all-encompassing technology, success at any cause, especially disguised in a religious mode, will not satisfy us.

The good things that God has created can become idols that substitute for God. They can be absolutized. When we recognize that we are created for the Infinite, we run along a path that seeks conversion of heart and mind. We have to uproot all the false premises about the Infinite that seduce man and make him a slave. Truly to rediscover ourselves, to live at the height of our proper being, we need to recognize ourselves as creatures that depend on God.

To recognize this dependence — it is really a joyful to be children of God — is truly a free way. St Paul says in Romans that the contrary of slavery is not so much freedom as it is filiation, in our receiving the Holy Spirit, in which we can call God “Father.”

Paul contrasts our situation not with freedom or autonomy but with slavery to Christ. The main point then is not to eliminate dependence, which is constitutive of our nature, but to direct it towards Him who alone can make us free.

This question brings us directly to the heart of Christianity. The Infinite itself has taken on a finite form. From the Incarnation, from the moment when the Word became flesh, He has cancelled the “infinite distance between the Infinite and the finite.”

The eternal and infinite God has left his everlasting heaven to enter into time. He immersed Himself :in human finiteness.” Nothing then is banal in the ways of the world.

“Man is made by an infinite God who has become flesh, who has assumed our humanity to attract it to the level of the divine being.” Nothing in our reflections can imagine this real finality of our being that we are freely invited to accept.

The “truest dimension of human existence” is that of “life as a vocation.” Every thing, every relationship, every joy, as well as every difficulty, finds its ultimate reason in the relation to the Infinite, the voice of God that continually calls us and invites us to raise our gaze, to discover in the adhesion to Him “the full realization of our humanity.”

We should have “no fear” of that which God asks us across the circumstances of our lives. He even may ask also the total dedication of our lives as a religious or priest. He calls all to live a human life related to the Infinite.

God has at heart “our happiness and our full human realization.” Let us ask then, with “the gaze of faith” that characterizes the saints, to be able to discover the seeds of the good that the Lord casts along the pathways of our lives and adherer with joy to our vocation. We are beings whose relation to the Infinite is what constitutes the drives and searchings of our whole lives.

Thursday, August 30, 2ist Week in Ordinary Time

ST. MARIE DE LA CROIX (JEANNE JUGAN)(France, 1792-1879), Founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor
Jeanne was one of eight children in a family in Brittany who lost their father at sea. They were so poor that Jeanne learned to read and write from religious women belonging to the Third Order of St. John Eudes. She was a shepherd until at age 15, she was hired to be a maid with a wealthy family. She went on to become an assistant nurse at a local hospital but she had to resign because of health problems. By then, she had joined the lay order of St. Jean Eudes, and was hired by one of the order's wealthy ladies to be her companion. She worked with her and in their common apostolate until the lady died 12 years later. In 1837, Jeanne found herself sharing rooms with two companions aged 72 and 17. An encounter with a blind old lady to whom she gave her own bed crystallized her mission to attend to abandoned old people who were numerous in post-revolutionary France. Begging for everything they needed, her work soon attracted other women. They banded into a community for which she wrote the rules. She took the name Marie de la Croix (Mary of the Cross). Ironically, even if Jeanne had been elected, the local bishop named a 21-year-old to be the Superior of the new order - a rebuff that Jeanne accepted humbly and did not deter her from carrying on her organizing work away from the motherhouse. The Little Sisters of the Poor would not be formally recognized by the Vatican until 1852, but meanwhile, Jeanne's work won for her a national prize in 1845 awarded yearly to a 'poor man or woman for meritorious social work'. The prize money seeded the order's first house and soon she had set up four more in other French cities. When the order was formally recognized, Jeanne, now 60, was recalled to the motherhouse where she worked with younger members who never realized she was the foundress of the community until after her death. She would live for another 27 years. By the time of her death, her Congregation numbered 2,400 Little Sisters in 177 homes on three continents. The Little Sisters, a semi-contemplative order, have remained faithful to Jeanne Jugan's original mission. She was beatified in 1982, and canonized by Benedict XVI on Oct. 19, 2009.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083012.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.




- Carlo Fusco, Paolo Gabriele's childhood friend and chief attorney in Vatileaks so far, has announced he is quitting as Gabriel's lawyer, because of 'disagreements [with Gabriele] over defense strategy". That leaves Cristiana Arru as Gabriele's remaining lawyer weeks before the disgraced ex-valet to the Pope goes on trial for aggravated theft. [What defense strategy is there to dispute? What defense strategy can there be against the truth - at least as self-confessed by Gabriele? No psychiatric test exists that will show he was 'infiltrated' by the Holy Spirit, as he claims! For him to dispute his own lawyer-friend's legal counsel, which is his right, of course, would seem to be another indication of Gabriele's delusions about himself!]

Meanwhile, assistant Vatican Press Director Fr. Ciro Benedettini made this statement about recent filling-the-Vatileaks-vacuum news reports in the Italian media: "News reports circulated these days speculating that there are 20 - or around 20 - under investigation for crimes related to Vatileaks, are unfounded". He asked the media "not to confuse people who have been questioned so far to be under investigation themselves".

[The arbitrary number of 20 is apparently based on the fact that Gabriele, in his camouflaged interview with his media accomplice Gianluigi Nuzzi aired about two weeks before he was arrested, claimed that he was working with about 20 other supposedly well-meaning malcontent whistleblowers in the Vatican, and the fact that the witnesses identified only by letters of the alphabet in the Vatican reports indicting Gabriele number around 20.

The Vatican has said that the continuing investigations into Vatileaks would involve the more serious crimes associated wit the unauthorized appropriation, release and dissemination of private documents belonging to a head of state, but it is strange that none of the reporting has pointed out that the first and principal person besides Gabriele who would be under investigation for these more serious crimes would be Nuzzi himself.]

There may be some lawyerly logic behind this move that, as an average news follower, I absolutely fail to see, but how can the Vatican defend withdrawing a request enjoining dissemination of a German magazine's grossly offensive doctored photos of Benedict XVI on the front and back cover of a recent issue, after the Vatican had easily won its temporary injunction?

Vatican withdraws legal suit against
a German satirical magazine for
offensive photoshopped B16 cover


VATICAN CITY, August 30 (Translated from ASCA) - The Vatican has taken a step back: After having obtained a temporary injunction last July that directed the German satirical magazine Titanic to withdraw from dissemination in any form an issue that featured front and back covers with offensively photoshopped images of Benedict XVI, the Holy See made the following announcement through the German bishops; conference:

---

After ample consultation, the Holy See has decided to withdraw its demand for an injunction against the magazine Titanic. At the same time, further legal action will be examined with a view to effectively counteracting attacks against the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church.

---

Using the headline, "Hallelujah at the Vatican- The source of Vatileaks is found", the cover featured a full-length frontal photo of the Pope on the front cover with a large yellow stain on his cassock, repeated on the back cover with a rear-view photo, this time featuring an icky brown stain on the cassock. [By any standard of civility, that is simply not acceptable, even if it is meant as 'satire', because it is malicious and obviously unrelated to the event in question. And it is all the more offensive because the person held up to unfounded ridicule is a Head of State, even if the magazine publishers may not think that being spiritual head of the Catholic Church does not exempt the Pope from outright disrespect..]

According to the magazine publishers, the yellow stain was, in fact, Fanta, a soda that is known to be taken by the Pope on occasion. [Quite apart from the fact of how ridiculous that 'defense' is - the question is not what the magazine used to create the stain but that they even thought of creating it at all - I am upset that in all the reporting about this cover, I have not seen one report - not even this - which points out that the Pope drinks Fanta orange, which is conspicuously orange-coloured, not yellow! That may be a 'trivial' detail but not when it openly contradicts a preposterous claim by the editors.]

When the issue first came out last July, Secretary of State Mons. Angelo Becciu immediately contacted a German law firm in Hamburg to examine what legal action could be taken. The immediate result was the temporary injunction against Titanic issued by the Hamburg court.

Subsequently, the Archbishop of Bamberg, proposed the urgent passage of a law that would protect religions from blasphemous acts. [It ought to be more wide-ranging. The offensive cover was not blasphemous in the strict sense - but it was an open offense against the dignity of a Head of State, which, I believe, is prosecutable in most civilized countries, and therefore, should already be covered by existing law.

BTW, does this now mean that Titanic is free once again to disseminate its cover online and in all the ways that it can?

Interview with Cardinal Schoenborn:
Schuelerkreis discussion of ecumenism
highlights its importance to Benedict XVI
Translated from the Italian service of

August 30, 2012

Starting tomorrow, theologians, professors and pastors of the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis - ex-doctoral students of Prof. Joseph Ratzinger - will be holding their annual summer seminar-reunion in Castel Gandolfo.

The closed-door seminar will be considering the status of ecumenism today, especially relations with Lutherans and Anglicans, on the basis of the 2009 book Reaping the Fruits written by Cardinal Walter Kasper before he retired as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in which he discusses developments in the four decades since the Second Vatican Council promulgated a degree on ecumenism.

Gudrun Sailer, of the German service of Vatican Radio, interviewed Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna and member of the Schuelerkreis [He already had a doctorate in theology from the Sorbonne when he attended Prof. Ratzinger's doctoral colloquia as a 'visiting scholar' for two semesters at the University of Regensburg in the early 1970s. Mons. Vincent Twomey recalls that Schoenborn joined the Schuelerkreis meetings only in 1977, after Prof. Ratzinger was named Archbishop of Munich-Freising..]

CARDINAL SCHOENBORN: This year, we shall have the emeritus Lutheran bishop Ulrich Wilkens, a famous exegete, who will speak on the progress of relations between Catholics and Lutherans. Mons Charles Morerod, who was recently named Bishop of of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, who is an expert on the matter, will speak on the relations with the Anglicans. [Mons. Morerod was previously a theologian at the CDF, and was on the Vatican panel that held the doctirnal discussions with FSSPX theologians.] And Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will be there.

The fact that the Holy Father chose this theme for this year's seminar is a sign that he considers the ecumenical question of primary importance. In the context of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II this year, it is a strong sign of the Holy Father's insistence on the importance of the dialog among separated Christians.

In five years it will be the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Will this in some way be a background for the seminar discussions?
I think that inevitably it will be the horizon for the Lutherans and the Anglicans because they were born from the Reformation. And the truth includes the tragedy of the division among the Christians of Europe, and consequently, in all the world.

But it also concerns the great theme of reform in the Catholic Church itself, which is of key importance to the Holy Father. Think of all that he has said and taught about reform in continuity as the model for reform within the Church. In the context of the Reformation, much will be said about this internal reform, the true reform that we need today.

How exactly do the discussions go in the Schuelerkreis?
It's an academic circle, which means that it's the reasoning that counts. Of course, there is the friendship among people who have been meeting each other once a year for more than 30 years. All of us are almost at retirement age!

The Holy Father remains the 'youngest' of us all. It was always that way. It is what I have experienced all these years. Above all, he is a man of reflection. What matters to him is reasoning and the search for truth. If it had not been possible to discuss anything openly with him, there would not have been a Schuelerkreis.

This atmosphere of searching for the truth - whether it is historical, philosophical or theological - has remained invariable, with the added value of friendship.

What always strikes me is how well the Holy Father knows his ex-students: He asks them about their families, their children. He knows when there has been sadness or difficulty in the family, and it concerns him... This human aspect - paternal and fraternal - is always present in him. And I think this is one of the reasons why this 'circle' has kept itself together since 1977.

We understand that at the start of each seminar, the Holy Father generally gives an overview of the situation in the Church and the Vatican since the previous seminar. What aspects do you yourself expect him to stress this time?
It is always a very important moment in our annual meetings, and it already was 30 years ago... At that time, he would speak of the situation from his view at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, so we always looked forward with great interest to this tour d'horizon - we all take notes.

This year, what will the signals be from the Holy Father? Just think of the major issues in the past 12 months! For us, it is always enlightening to see not just which issues the Holy Father takes up but how he does it - the light of wisdom and of perspicacity that he brings to bear on the issues.

Patriarch of Jerusalem says the Pope’s trip
to Lebanon is on behalf of the entire region

August 30, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI will visit Lebanon from September 14 to 16, 2012. During this time, the Pope will present to the heads of Churches and leaders of Christian communities the Apostolic Exhortation or concluding document following the Bishops Synod;s Special Assembly for the Middle East n 2010.

His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem spoke to Vatican Radio ahead of the Holy Father’s visit.

“We anticipate this Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, in a special way,” said Mons. Twal. "It is a summary of what we wanted for our Synod.”

The Patriarch clarified, “It goes back to the idea of belonging to this land (Holy Land-Palestine). It is a matter of identity, of politics. (…) It is for us, pastors, and a few in the international community to be concerned for the presence of Christians.”’

When asked, the Patriarch did not conceal his disappointment regarding inter-religious contacts: “There has not been much progress in the dialogue with the Jews, even if there are people of good will... Even the recent feast of Ramadan, which presented a good opportunity for openness and dialogue to seek peace, did not prevent or minimize the rise of certain Muslim radicalism.”

What concerns the Patriarch most is probably the deplorable violence in Syria which has also focused international attention away from the ongoing tensions and difficulties in the Holy Land.

“We expect the Pope’s message of encouragement,” the Patriarch concluded. “This is not just a trip to Lebanon that the Pope will make, but for the entire region. The seven Catholic Patriarchs will be there to discuss the situation as it is, even if we do not easily see an end to the violence in the Middle East.”

I thought I might have misread when I first saw this headline, but it's real... But where were all this people in March 2009 when the MSM and major governments in Europe ridiculed Benedict XVI and some Parliaments even censured him formally for speaking the simple obvious truth about fighting AIDS? That it can't be done by simply giving condoms to everyone?

UN and WHO thank the Church for commitment
to fight AIDS and help its victims in Africa
Translated from

August 28, 2012



In May 2011, the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers sponsored an international Conference on "The Centrality of the Person in the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS: Exploring the New Frontiers", with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone opening it.

One of the resource persons was Michael Sidibé, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and executive director of UN-AIDS, who was interviewed by Vatican Radio about some of the criticisms that have been directed at the Catholic Church because of her teaching against the use of condoms as a 'panacea for all evils' and which critics assail as being the Catholic anthem for the spread of AIDS among Africans.

Sibide responded: "I think there are vast areas [on the AIDS question] on which we [the UN] and the Church agree, and the disagreements are relatively few. I believe the Catholic Church is making enormous efforts to fight stigmatization and discrimination against HIV-infected persons. The communitarian Church activities she provides - which are also the most decentralized - directly reach families and give them information about how to prevent HIV transmission, how to protect themselves, and of course, they contribute to consolidate the concept of family which is even more indispensable among the poor".

On the other hand, Pope Benedict XVI continually appeals to the international community to provide free health care to AIDS patients.

The concreteness of the Catholic commitment in Africa is well exemplified by Sr. Miriam Duggan, originator of an innovative and effective program to combat AIDS in Uganda without the use of condoms, for which she has been awarded a prixe by both Harvard University and the University of Cork (Ireland).

Sibide also pointed out that the African countries with a majority Catholic population also have the lowest incidence of AIDS.

On another occasion, Mons. José L. Redrado Marchite, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers, pointed out that "In many places of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the most remote regions where median income is at its lowest, the only places that are able to provide anti-retroviral therapies and to intervene in favor of AIDS vistims are the dispensaries and medical clinics belonging to Catholic congregations, orders and institutions, along with some non-government organizations of Christian inspiration".

All this was confirmed during sessions dedicated to "HIV, the forgotten epidemic" during the recent Meeting for Friendship among Peoples in Rimini. Leading international experts on the disease participated.

Carlo Federico Perno, professor of virology at the Università di Roma Tor Vergata, reiterated the extreme necessity to fight this difficult battle through changing attitudes towards sex, and not so much by massiv e reliance on 'technical' solutions.

Towards the end of the sessions, the contribution of the CAtholic Church to the fight against AIDS was presented through
the work of faith-based organizations.

Alberto Piatti, Secretary General of an anti-HIV foundation and moderator of the sessions, cited statistics which show that more than 50% of primary health services in Africa are provided by missionary hospitals, but despite this, the Global Fund for fighting diseases has given the faith-based organization since 2002 only %541 million of the total $22.6 billion that it has distributed.

Paul De Lay, executive director of UN-AIDS, spoke about collaborating with Caritas, saying "The confessional communities and religion have a most important role beyond providing services. They represent the sources of so much prevention, assistance and support services. I think it is important to underscore this role of religion in the life of the peoples affected by the epidemic". He too underscored their role in taking away the stigma and discrimination originally directed against AIDS patients and their families.

He added that AIDS is not just a health issue nor can it be treated only as a health issue. Rather, that "faith and religious organizations come into play. Community-based treatment models are much more effective than those based only on a purely health-oriented approach".

The World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, Luis Gomes Sambo, "acknowledged and strongly appreciated the role and commitment of the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers and the Church's entire network of healthcare services in Africa, which have carried out preventive and treatment services for HIV patients and, above all, in showing compassion for those who were struck and who suffered".

But why such commitment on the part of Catholics, Dr. Piatti asked as he ended the session. "Because they wish to respond to the needs of these individuals, recognizing in each of them, as we do in our own selves, the innate dignity' man has as a creature of God".

Friday, August 31, 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Central illustration shows Joseph and Nicodemus taking down Christ's body from the Cross.
SAINTS JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA and NICODEMUS (Judea, 1st century), Pharisees and early followers of Jesus
Both Joseph and Nicodemus were Pharisee leaders, probably both members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council of 23 judges that passed sentence on Jesus. Nicodemus was said in the Bible to have gone to see Jesus secretly at night to learn from him, and later defended his cause before the Sanhedrin. Joseph is cited in all four Gospels for having obtained permission from Pilate to take Jesus's body and bury it - in the tomb near Golgotha that he had had prepared for himself. In the Gospel of John, Joseph and Nicodemus together assist in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. While tradition says that Nicodemus eventually died a martyr in Jerusalem, Joseph passed on to legends of the Holy Grail in which he had custody of the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, conflated with the legend that he introduced Christianity to Britain, where he came to Glastonbury, and planting his staff on the ground, it took root and became the Glastonbury thorn.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083112.cfm


No bulletins from the Vatican so far.




Pray for Cardinal Martini

The Archdiocese of Milan issued a bulletin yesterday to say that the condition of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini,
who suffers from the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease, has worsened. Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop
of Milan, asked the faithful to pray for the Jesuit cardinal, who has lived at a Jesuit retirement home in Gallareta
near Milan since 2008. He is 85. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002 when he retired.


It's Friday, so I won't be able to do any Forum work till this evening.

CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI, S.J. (1927-2012)

From left, the cardinal with B16 in May 2005; on his 80th birthday in Jerusalem (Feb 2007); next 2 photos taken 2009-2010 after he retired to a Jesuit home in Gallarate, near Milan; last 3 photos taken 2011-2012.


Benedict XVI mourns the death
of Cardinal Martini

August 31, 2012



Here is Vatican Radio's translation of the telegram sent by the Holy Father to Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan, on the death of his predecessor as head of Europe's largest diocese:

---

Having heard with sadness the news of the death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini after a long illness, which he lived with a tranquil soul and with confident abandonment to the will of the Lord, I wish to express to you and to the entire diocesan community, as well as to the family of the late Cardinal, my profound share in their sorrow, recalling with affection this dear brother who served the Gospel and the Church so generously.

I recall with gratitude the intense and profuse Apostolic work of this zealous, spiritual child of St. Ignatius, an expert teacher, an authoritative biblical scholar, and a beloved Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and a wise and diligent Archbishop of the Ambrosian Archdiocese.

I think also of the competent and fervent service he gave to the Word of God, always opening to the ecclesial community the treasures of the Sacred Scriptures, especially through the promotion of Lectio Divina.

I raise fervent prayers to the Lord that, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He will receive His faithful servant and worthy shepherd into the heavenly Jerusalem; and upon all those who mourn his death, I warmly impart the comfort of the Apostolic Blessing.

---

Cardinal Martini, a rare liberal
who was a papal contender in 2005
conclave, dies at age 85

VATICAN CITY. August 31 (AP) - Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a rare liberal within the highly conservative Catholic Church hierarchy who was nevertheless long considered a papal contender, has died at age 85.

Martini, former archbishop of the important archdiocese of Milan, had been battling Parkinson's disease for years. His death Friday was announced by the Milan archdiocese.

Martini frequently voiced openness to divisive issues, such as using condoms to fight AIDS or homosexuality, which, while not at odds with Church teaching [What an understatement!], nevertheless showed his progressive bent.

He was a noted biblical scholar and, despite his liberal views, was considered a possible contender in the 2005 conclave that brought Pope Benedict XVI to the papacy. ['Possible contender' is far removed from the pre-Conclave hype that virtually crowned him Pope in an orgy of wishful thinking by people who did not even consider Joseph Ratzinger papabile in any way (too old, too conservative, too polarizing, the very opposite of the MSM's image of the ideal Pope'.]

He retired as archbishop in 2002 and moved to Jerusalem, but returned to Italy in 2008 as his Parkinson's worsened.

It makes the death of a major personality doubly saddening when someone who was for the better part of three decades the hero of the liberal MSM - because he was a major figure in the Church hierarchy who articulated many liberal viewpoints advocated by the MSM themselves - gets nothing better than the brief and uninformative obituary above by the epitome of MSM today, the Associated Press, no less. Reuters had a slightly longer report....

Former papal candidate
Milan archbishop Martini,
dies at 85

ROME, August 31 (Reuters) - Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, former archbishop of Milan and a favorite of Vatican progressives to succeed Pope John Paul II in 2005, died on Friday aged 85, the Milan diocese said on its website.

In a letter marking Martini's death, Pope Benedict remembered him as a "skilful teacher and preeminent biblical scholar," and recalled his dedication to Christian works.

Martini retired because of his age in 2002 after 22 years as head of the diocese, revealing at the same time that he was suffering from a form of Parkinson's disease, which hurt his chances of becoming Pope three years later.

A Jesuit intellectual, Martini was reported to speak 11 languages. But his liberal opinions sometimes raised the hackles of Church conservatives.

He once told an interviewer that even issues as controversial as birth control and women priests could be seen in a different light in the future.

"Certainly the use of condoms in particular situations can constitute a lesser evil," Martini said in an interview with the Italian magazine l'Espresso in 2006.

"There is the particular situation of married couples in which one of the spouses is affected by AIDS. This person has an obligation to protect the other partner and the other partner also has to protect him or herself."

The Catholic Church, which runs many hospitals and institutions to help AIDS victims, opposes the use of condoms and teaches that fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence are the best way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

It says promoting condoms to fight the spread of AIDS fosters what it sees as immoral and hedonistic lifestyles and behavior that will only contribute to its spread.

Martini remained a prominent voice in the Church, and in May spoke out about the leaks scandal that led to the arrest of Pope Benedict's butler. Martini appealed to Church leaders to "urgently win back the trust of the faithful" after the scandal. [Perhaps this thought needed to be articulated in the open, but surely, Pope Benedict and those of his collaborators at the Vatican who are both faithful to the Pope as well as blameless in the Vatileaks mess, did not need to be reminded about that!]

After he retired from the Milan post, he spent about six years in Jerusalem, returning to his first love - Biblical studies.

After he lost the ability to swallow around two weeks ago, Martini refused to be fed artificially, his neurologist Gianni Pezzoli said.

"We saw the inexorable consequences of his affliction, which progressively robbed him of speech, reducing it to a whisper that was barely audible, and of his movement," said an article published on the Milan diocese's website.

How emblematic that the obituaries by the two leading news agencies in the world have focused only on the two aspects of Cardinal Martini that have ever interested them - that he was the liberal candidate for Pope in 2005, and his more controversial liberal views. Hardly a word for his larger career which, after all, saw him Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and 22 years as Archbishop of Milan, not to mention, author of many books. (BTW, AP is starting a new MSM myth, and ignoring the MSM's own reporting history, by claiming that Cardinal Martini was the 'rare liberal' who was a papal contender. Before him, for two Conclaves, there was the formidable Cardinal Benelli of Florence, who was the leading liberal candidate in the twp conclaves of 1987 = when both times, the cardinal electors agreed instead on a 'consensus moderate', first, Albino Luciani, and then, after his unexpected death, Karol Wojtyla.]

Anyway, as much as I held an active resentment against Cardinal Martini - or perhaps, not so much him as his acolytes in the media - for quite a few statements that he made since 2005 that were quickly touted by the MSM as nothing less than the counter-Magisterium from 'the anti-Pope to Benedict XVI', I drew something from Benedict XVI's own example to consider the cardinal more charitably and even sympathetically, especially in recent years, as his condition worsened. And so, not too long ago, I posted what has amounted to be his last public statement when he decided to end a twice-monthly column he had been contributing to Corriere della Sera...



'Dialog with the heart defies time:
My three happy years as a columnist with Corriere'
by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini
Translated from

June 24, 2012

The time has come when age and illness are giving me a clear signal that it is the time to retire from the greater part of earthly concerns in order to prepare for the imminent coming of the Kingdom.

I assure my prayers for all those whose questions have remained unanswered in this column that I have held for three years in Corriere. Dialog with the heart defies time.

I wish to start the last page of this column to thank all those who have written me in these years. I have received thousands of letters of affection, of gratitude, of encouragement, and of criticism.

I ask forgiveness from those whom I was not able to answer and from those who, though receiving an acknowledgment of their questions, have considered the answer barely exhaustive or not at all.

I thank the editor of Corriere who has allowed me this time of dialog despite the fact that my voice has weakened, and I thank all his co-workers.

Thanks from the heart also to my successors on the Chair of St, Ambrose for the patience that they have shown during these monthly interventions.

Now the time has come to retire. May Jesus respond to the most profound questions in the heart of everyone.

He proceeds to answer the letter he has chosen:

The greatest sorrow
is to lose a young child

Dear Cardinal Martini, On Monday, April 2, I lost my 10-year-old son. I humbly ask you for a word of comfort and the way to follows so that somehow I can bo back to living. How, Eminence, can I believe in Jesus? I beg you, Eminence, help me, you who are a special man. - Francesco Rizzo

Dear Francesco, there are really no words of comfort before a sorrow that is so great, perhaps the greatest sorrow for a human being. Nor can I show you the right ways exactly. I can tell you that I pray for you in order that Jesus himself, Son of God, may show you the way. It certainly will not come right away, because such great sorrows take away our strength, our sight and our hearing, and even harm our fundamental strength to have the courage to face any event.

I have not been able to get the last part of the column, but a writer who reported on Cardinal Martini's farewell to his Corriere readers, writes this about it:

The emeritus Archbishop of Milan also answers a reader who asks him what is happening in the Church. Citing the Gospel of Matthew, the Cardinal assures the reader - and the Pope - that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail".

It is the second time in a few weeks that Cardinal Martini, often portrayed as an antagonist of Benedict XVI, has given his explicit and affectionate support for the Pontiff. [The first was after their brief meeting at the Archbishop's Palace in Milan when the Pope was there for the VII World Meeting of Families. Before that, they met in the Vatican on April 4, 2011, at the time the Pope was deciding on who would be the next Archbishop of Milan..]

Cardinal Martini has been suffering from Parkinson's disease since 2002 - he announced he had the first signs of the disease shortly before retiring at age 75 as Archbishop of Milan. It has now advanced to the point where he has difficulty moving and talking. In 2008, he wrote an essay saying he felt that death was imminent, but apparently, the Lord did not think so. In 2010, he wrote a beautiful essay on how he has been coping with his ailment, and revealed how, spiritually, he relies on the well-known Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, but that he discovered it was the music of Mozart that helps him best, not just to counteract depression with joy, but also to accompany the necessary exercises to keep him physically moving. I will translate it when I can... I think it might have been a small shock to Benedict XVI earlier this month to observe the difference that a year could make (since their April 2011 meeting), and I am sure he has Cardinal Martini in his prayers every day. Let us pray for him, too.


9/2/12
P.S. Alas, I spoke too soon. It turns out the cardinal had enough reserve energy - and motivation, obviously - to grant a last interview some time in August, at any rate a few weeks before he died - which Corriere della Sera has now published. In which the apparently quintessential Carlo Maria Martini emerges without ifs or buts, assailing the Church as 200 years behind the times, and saying everyone in it, starting with the Pope, needs urgent cleansing. Dear Cardinal, did you choose not to read at all anything that has been happening in the Church since Benedict XVI became Pope? Anyway, more below in the corresponding post on the CdS posthumous 'scoop'.

CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI, S.J. (1927-2012)

From left, The cardinal with B16 in May 2005; on his 80th birthday in Jerusalem (Feb 2007); next 2 photos taken 2009-2010 after he retired to a Jesuit home in Gallarate, near Milan; last 3 photos taken 2011-2012.


Fr. Federico Lombardi dedicates his weekly editorial to his fellow Jesuit:

The life and legacy
of Cardinal Martini

Sept. 1, 2012

The death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini is an event that stirs great emotion well beyond the confines even of the vast Archdiocese of Milan, which he governed for 22 years.

It concerns a bishop that, with his words, his many writings, his innovative pastoral initiatives, was able to effectively witness to and proclaim the faith to the people of our time; earning the esteem and respect of those both near and far; inspiring so many of his brother bishops throughout the world in the exercise of their ministry.

Cardinal Martini’s formation and personality were those of a Jesuit scholar of Sacred Scripture. The Word of God was the starting point and the foundation of his approach to every aspect of reality and all of his contributions.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola were the matrix of his spirituality and spiritual pedagogy, of the continued engagement, at once direct and concrete, between the reading of the Word of God and life, of spiritual discernment and determinations in the light of the Gospel.

It was the courageous intuition of Pope John Paul II to put the spiritual and cultural wealth of the man who had been until then a scholar — the rector first of the Biblicum and then of the Gregorian University — in the service of the pastoral care of one of the largest dioceses in the world.

He had a distinctive style of governing. In his last little book—Il Vescovo (“The Bishop”) — Martini wrote: “Do not think the bishop is able to effectively guide the people entrusted to him with a multitude of regulations and decrees, with prohibitions and negative judgements. Focus instead on interior formation, on a taste for and fascination with Sacred Scripture; show the positive reasons for our actions, inspired by the Gospel. One will gain so much more than one would by a rigid observance of rules and regulations.”

It is a precious heritage, to reflect upon seriously when we seek the paths of the “new evangelisation.”

Giacomo Galeazzi has additional sidelights to the story in his Stampa/Insider article:

In death, Cardinal Martini's
'last lesson' to the world
addresses right-to-die issue
by Giacomo Galeazzi

August 31, 2012

Having learnt “with sadness” the news about Cardinal Martini’s death, which came “which he lived with a tranquil soul and with confident abandonment to the will of the Lord,” the Pope expressed his “profound share in [the] sorrow” for the death of “this dear brother who served the Gospel and the Church so generously.”

Benedict XVI will talk about the cardinal’s death at the earliest opportunity, probably at the Angelus on Sunday. The Pope kept track of the late cardinal’s deteriorating health condition right from the beginning and was constantly updated on Martini’s long suffering.

“We last met ten days ago. The deep emotion and interest triggered by the cardinal’s death stretch beyond the Catholic community and this is a sign that his mission of evangelisation was successful,” the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi explained to Vatican Insider just a few hours after the death of his fellow Jesuit brother Carlo Maria Martini.

The cardinal’s will lie in state for the public from 12:00 onwards on Saturday in Milan Cathedral (the Duomo), until the funeral which will take place at 16:00.

“Now that we are really thinking of ways to announce the Gospel in today’s society, ahead of the Bishops’ Synod in October, "Martini’s example is especially valuable... His example contributes hugely to the essential themes of the new evangelisation. The cardinal was able to communicate not just with faithful but also with people who were far from the faith, bringing the message of the Gospel to everyone. The reflections he was able to develop appear extremely relevant to me. And the vast interest shown in the light of his death shows that his ministry stretched across many social and cultural strata.”

The cardinal’s embrace with Benedict XVI during the World Meeting of Families was the seal to his pastoral career, Fr. Lombardi thinks.

“The meeting in Milan two months ago was a highly significant moment and demonstrated continuity in the pastoral service of the archdiocese. Martini knew he had reached the end of the line and meeting the Pope, for him, was the greatest gift and gesture of recognition for the work he had done over the years in the Diocese of Milan,” Fr. Lombardi said. [It must be noted that in all his public discourses in Milan last June. Benedict XVI did not fail to include Cardinal Martini in his salutations.]

The death of Cardinal Martini, the conciliar bishop par excellence [I think if anyone should be called that, it would be Karol Wojtyla, who was not only both an actual bishop-Father of the Council, but was also probably the most active pastoral champion of the true spirit of Vatican II in the years immediately following the Council. Cardinal Martini did not become a bishop until 1980, when John Paul II made him one.] coincides with the beginning of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.

“He celebrated his last Mass yesterday morning,” said Fr. Cesare Bosatra, Superior of the Aloisianum in the northern Italian city of Gallarate, where the late cardinal had been residing over the past years.

“Martini had been sedated since yesterday and died peacefully in his sleep today, at 15:45.” Meanwhile, on Twitter, the #martini hashtag made it among the top ten most talked about topics.

But apart from the countless messages of condolence (he remained a great man up until the end, an example of reflection and of dialogue with both believers and non believers) posted, there were also a great deal of comments about the news that the cardinal had rejected futile medical care as was confirmed by his neurologist Gianni Pezzoli.

The cardinal had refused to have a nasogastric tube inserted into him to feed him. He had not been able to swallow for fifteen days and was only being kept alive through parenteral (intravenous) hydration. The neurologist’s announcement of this to the press seems like a last minute message in a country (Italy) where the most controversial part of the end-of-life law is precisely the obligation to feed a patient, as it is considered a crucial part of therapy. [The obligation of others is one thing, but in end-of-life decisions, this obligation is applicable to patients who are already on life support, not to patients who freely choose, as apparently Cardinal Martini did, not to go into futile therapies that can only delay but not halt the natural inevitable progress of a terminal illness.]

The cardinal had already made his position on the matter clear back in 2007, in an article titled: “Welby and death and me”, written just a few weeks after the death of Piergiorgio Welby, a terminally ill Italian suffering from muscular dystrophy, who asked for his treatment to be suspended. [Welby had been on a respirator for years, and at the time he was first given the therapy, he obviously did not refuse it, from which time his doctors had the obligation to keep him alive. That he decided years later to finally give it up meant that his doctors - Welby's family shared his final wish - were nonetheless under legal obligation to maintain his treatment. But these are the gray areas of the modern right-to-die legal issue, in the light of Catholic teaching, as is the final consideration cited below from Cardinal Martini.]

He reiterated his position in his last book entitled "Credere e conoscere" (“Believing and knowing”), published by Einaudi last March. In the book, he appeals to reason, even on the subject of euthanasia: “The new technologies which make increasingly efficient operations on the human body possible, require a dose of wisdom, to prevent prolonging treatments when they no longer benefit the patient.”

[I do not know what the pastoral practice is in this case - I don't believe there is a one-size-fits-all line - but when the patient is no longer able or competent enough to decide for himself, as Cardinal Martini had the final privilege of doing, surely the decision of the family - often dictated primarily by the astronomical cost of life support for the most medically hopeless cases, as much as by the desire to curtail a long agony for a loved one - must be taken into account. Cardinal Martini must be happy to know that even his death is provoking a fresh look at this contemporary situation that constitutes a Catholic dilemma.]

Saturday, Sept. 1, 21st Week in Ordinary Time

ST. EGIDIUS (Giles, Gilles, Gil, Egidio) (b Athens, ca 650, d France, ca 710), Hermit and Abbot
Born a wealthy noble in Athens, Egidius used his wealth, after his parents died, to help the poor and soon became known as a miracle worker. To escape
the adulation, he left Greece around 683 for France where he lived as a hermit in a cave outside Nimes. The enduring legend about him is that he lived so
deprived that God sent him a hind to nourish him with her milk. One day, a hunter aimed an arrow at the deer but hit Giles instead. The king himself sent
a doctor to care for him but the leg wound crippled him. As the king paid him frequent visits, his fame as a sage and miracle worker spread. The king built
him a monastery in what is now known as St. Gilles du Gard and he became the first abbot, establishing his own rule. A small town grew up around the
monastery, and after his death, it became a major place of pilgrimage, especially for the faithful making their way to Compostela along the Road of St.
James. Later it became a Benedictine monastery. His cult became widespread in Europe in the Middle Ages with countless churches and institutions
named after him, and numerous writings dedicated to his life and miracles. His remains were secretly transferred to Toulouse to safeguard them during
the French Revolution but were returned to St Gilles du Gard in 1852. He is the patron saint of Edinburgh whose cathedral is named for him. He is the
patron saint of cripples and of beggars.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/090111.shtml
*It strikes me almost everyday that parishes and institutions named for the saints generally do not even carry an image of their patron
saint on their website. Not even the worldwide and well-funded Sant'Egidio community carries an image of the saint on its site!


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

The Press Office posted the text of the Pope's telegram of condolence to Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan
on the death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, SJ, yesterday.


Today, the Pope named Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, emeritus Archbishop of Westminster (London)
as his special representative to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Dhaka
(Bangladesh) and the fourth centenary of the evangelization of the territory that is now Bangladesh.
The celebration will take place on Nov. 9-10.

The Press Office released the texts of the letters written by Benedict XVI to the cardinals he named
earlier to represent him at two other significant Church events to be held earlier:
- to Cardinal Josef Tomko, emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for the the Evangelization of Peoples,
who will represent the Pope at the 600th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Leopoli of the Latins
(Lvov, Ukraine), on Sept. 8; and
- to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, who will represent the Pope at the consecration
of the Cathedral of Karaganda in Kzakhstan on Sept. 9;


THE POPE'S PRAYER INTENTIONS
FOR SEPTEMBER 2012

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General Intention:
That politicians may always act with honesty, integrity, and love for the truth.

Missionary Intention:
That Christian communities may have a growing willingness to send missionaries, priests, and lay people,
along with concrete resources, to the poorest churches.

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