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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 23/08/2021 11:16
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02/10/2012 16:40
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Tuesday, Oct. 2, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Guardian Angels




AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

A news conference was held to present the International Conference to be held in Rome Oct. 3-5
on "Studies of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the light of the Conciliar Fathers' archives"
to mark the 50th anniversary of the Council opening.




The stories are still dribbling in on the second day of the Paolo Gabriele trial when he took the stand for the first time, saying he was not guilty of aggravated theft [despite all the evidence and his own admissions] but of betraying the Pope. But perhaps his most outrageous statement reported so far was that "My conviction ripened [over time] that it was very easy to manipulate a person with such enormous decisive powers". This simple-minded but delusional man really thinks very little of Benedict XVI whom he seems to see as someone totally naive, uninformed and with so little common sense that he needs him, Gabriele, to watch over him. Can anyone be so delusional - and so insulting to the Pope? Of course, the psychological profiles done on him by the court-appointed psychiatrists did identify megalomania as one of his traits.

P.S. Come to think of it, Gabriele is no worse than all those reporters and commentators who have been so supercilious and condescending to Benedict XVI in their writings - the Politi types and, not rarely, John Allen - wishing to imply, of course, that they can think better than one of the brightest, clearest minds on earth whom they believe cannot see obvious things that would be self-evident even to a moron, and is incapable of making right judgments. That's exactly Gabriele's attitude. I wish I could sincerely say of the commentators and Gabriele, "Father forgive them..." even knowing full well that they are all nails on the Cross Benedict XVI must bear as Christ's Vicar on earth.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/10/2012 17:35]
03/10/2012 00:29
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No one report I have seen so far in the Italian media presents the second day of the Gabriele hearing in a comprehensive and orderly way. I have chosen this one as the most worthwhile translating, because it comes closest to covering all the important points that emerged today, so I shall merely have to add details the reporter missed from the other reports...

Gabriele now claims inhuman
treatment during his detention

by Andrea Gagliarducci
Translated from

Oct. 2, 2012

Paolo Gabriele does not think he is guilty of aggravated theft, but rather of having betrayed the trust of Benedict XVI.

At the same time, however, the line of defense that appears to be emerging is that of claiming a conspiracy against him.

He denied ever having taken the gold nugget found in his residence during a police search in May, nor ever having taken a check for 100,000 euro made out to the Pope by a Spanish university for his charities, although the check was among the papers confiscated from his home. All he would say was that "as my disorder degenerated" [a phrase he had used in the investigating magistrate's interrogations in June], it was possible that he took the objects.

But he also claimed 'inhuman' treatment while he was in detention, claiming that for 20 days, he was held in a cell so small he could not even open his arms apart. [Then he must have slept standing up - because if you can't even open your arms wide, how much room would there be for you to lie down unless you curled up real tight in fetal position?]

Moreover, he said, there was no light switch, so the lights were on all the time to the point that, he claimed, his vision has suffered.

The presiding judge ordered the prosecutor to open a case file to determine the truth about the allegations. And to which Vatican police immediately released a detailed statement about the conditions observed during Gabriele's detention, pointing out that space and other basic requirements all met international standards for individual detention cells. If Gabriele's charges are found to be baseless, Vatican Police reserve the right to charge him for false testimony.

The second day of Gabriele's hearing, he was the only one to take the stand without having to swear on the Bible. [WHY????] The other witnesses who took the stand were Giuseppe Pesci, a Vatican policeman; Cristina Cernetti, a Memor Domini lay nun who is one of the Pope's four housekeepers [she also does some secretarial work in the Pope's study]; Mons. Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's private secretary; and two other Vatican policeman, Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti and Costanzo Alessandrini.

Only Alessandrini had not previously testified during the investigative phase. He was one of five Vatican policemen called to testify by Gabriele's defense lawyer, Cristina Arru. The other 4 will be heard when the hearing resumes tomorrow, Wednesday.

There will be no hearing on Thursday, when the Pope is making a pilgrimage to Loreto. Friday and Saturday, the prosecutor and the defense lawyer will make their concluding statements, followed by a verdict from the three-man tribunal.

It will be a short trial, if only because Gabriele was caught in flagrante, with all the documents he copied from the Pope's study, as well as some originals, found among 82 boxes of documents taken from his house on the evening of May 23. [More important, he also freely confessed to the theft in the statements he made during the investigative phase, obviously adapting a different strategy now to depict himself as victim rather than criminal. As for the allegations of maltreatment while he was in detention, his lawyers [both Arru and Gabriele's boyhood friend Cesare Fusco who withdrew from the case after the trial date was announced] never once claimed 'inhuman treatment' in the statements they made before the trial, so it is quite dishonest of Arru to suddenly have her client allege that he was abused.

Gabriele also said that, yes, he "knew that sooner or later he would have to pay for the consequences of his actions", and that when he understood that the circle was closing in on him, he thought at first of confessing to his spiritual father (whose name he refused to say, probably because there were newsmen at the hearing, calling him only 'Padre Giovanni').

He did not speak to the Pope about it, even if he had the chance to do so. But he said he decided to confide in four persons - Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Arch-Priest of St. Peter's Basllica; Cardinal Paolo Sardi, for whom he had worked early in his 'career' at the Vatican; Mons. Cavina, Bishop of Carpi since January but who had been an official at the Secretariat of State before then; and Prof. Ingrid Stampa, the Pope's housekeeper when he was a cardinal, who happens to live in the same apartment building as Gabriele. [When did he 'confide' in them, and what exactly did he confide? After the May 21 meeting when he 'icily' denied that he had anything to with the leaks? And if the confidence was made not as a confession, were the three prelates not duty bound to report the 'confidence' to the police?]

He spoke with pride about his previous work at the Secretariat of State, where he said 'everyone approached him with favors to ask' so that he was forced to go to work in a car to avoid people from approaching him. [Excuse me! I thought his earlier employment at SecState was as a janitor - which I am not demeaning - but it seems to me the reporter has conflated Gabriele's previous employment at SecState with the routine he claims he followed when he was the Pope's valet.]

But there were contradictions. He said he never took out original documents and that he started gathering them only in 2010, but Mons. Gaenswein would later testify that when he was called by the Vatican police to look at the documents they had confiscated from Gabriele's house, not only did he see "some originals" but that they dated back to the period between 2006-2009. [Which means he started pilfering documents as soon as he was appointed the Pope's valet on the retirement of Angelo Gugel in 2006.]

The confiscated documents, which included voluminous material that Gabriele downloaded from the Internet about Freemasonry, secret services and intelligence, also showed an obsession with the Vatican police, leading perhaps to his accusation today of having been abused by them during his detention.

The Vatican police immediately issued a statement detailing all the provisions that were made for Gabriele during his detention, including 39 specifics about how they sought to make the detention easier for the inmate.

Another confusing point about Gabriele's new testimony. While both Sardi and Stampa were mentioned in a July 15 article by German journalist Paul Badde naming them as two of the three 'masterminds' behind Gabriele's actions [the third one was Mons. Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, who had been Cardinal Ratzinger's private secretary for 19 years], Gabriele's lawyer, on the first day of trial, had specifically requested the exclusion of the article as evidence of anything. [Another media report said that about the seven names Gabriele gave as persons he spoke with who may have made 'suggestive' remarks to him, he also said his contacts with them had nothing to do with the crime he is accused of.]

Many inconclusive statements therefore, which bring to mind the expert opinion of one of two court-appointed psychiatrists who ruled that Gabriele could not be prosecutable on grounds of mental insanity.

And yet, Gabriele showed he was always aware of what he was doing. He said he made the copies on the office copier in the papal secretaries' room in the presence of other staff, during regular office hours when he was in the room, where he had his own desk with a PC, on which he carried out small tasks assigned to him by Gaenswein (such as registering the gifts sent to the Holy Father and then bringing them to the store room, or preparing pro-forma responses to unimportant correspondence].

Later, when Mons. Gaenswein said that he had always trusted Gabriele "and never once thought he could be capable of betrayal", Gabriele's mouth widened into a smile. [Too bad the writer did not describe what kind of a smile it was. Was it, perhaps, "Hah! Fooled you, didn't I?"]

Cristina Cernetti said "It was farthest from my imagination that he would be copying private documents", but she said that when, on May 21, Gaenswein assembled the members of the pontifical family to ask each one pointblank whether they had anything to do with Vatileaks, she had already concluded, reasoning from a process of exclusion, that only Gabriele could have done it.

The police who testified about the search and confiscation in Gabriele's home said they did not use gloves during the search, but that their actions were watched at all times by Gabriele, his wife and children.

A strange thing: During the day, despite all the restrictions to keep the pool reporters from making individual reports ahead of anyone, Gianluigi Nuzzi, Gabriele's major 'client', was tweeting information about the ongoing hearing about which he could have no direct knowledge since he is not in the pool (and is not even accredited to the Vatican).


The more I read of Gabriele's statements, the more I am convinced that he is a megalomaniac with messianic delusions. He truly believes that the Pope is too limited as to be able to see and understand things, whereas he, Gabriele, sees and understands everything so much better, so he must be the person to save and redeem the Pope, and with him, the Church. He alone is destined to be the deliverer, 'infiltrated by the Holy Spirit' for the purpose. [It seems the same Holy Spirit who inspires and directs the election of a Pope would then leave the elected Pope on his own, unworthy to be 'infiltrated', because the work of redeeming the Church should fall on Mr. Paolo Gabriele, the new Messiah.]

Monomaniacs like Gabriele are the most frightening of people, because it is impossible to reason with a driving obsession, or to divest someone, who believes himself destined for a singular mission, of his grand delusions. Absolute evil can take many guises, including that of a man in a gray suit basking in his 15 minutes of fame and completely unmindful of all the unnecessary havoc he is causing to the Church he claims to be saving!



Needless to say, even more disgusting and pathetic than Gabriele's messianic pretensions, is the way the media, who will never let an occasion slip by in order to diss the Church, are buying mindlessly into Gabriele's act with a straight face. Consider this reaction from the Irish Times correspondent to the Vatican, quoted by an ABC News report:

One of them [pool reporters present at the court today], veteran Vatican reporter Paddy Agnew of the Irish Times, told ABC News that Gabriele was calm and dignified.

For Agnew there were two critical points that surfaced:
"He points out that -- as the butler -- he is the closest lay person to him. And as example, serving him at the table, he exchanges words and has a chat, and he came to the conclusion that, from those exchanges that the Pope is not as informed as he should be, he does not know things that he should know... about things in the world, in the Vatican, in the church," Agnew said. "We are not talking about football results, we are talking about serious matters of church affairs and state affairs.

[That is just appalling - that a veteran newsman, who certainly knows Benedict XVI is no ignoramus, would quote the words of a valet as though it were Gospel truth. Can he not imagine that one could hardly 'discuss' Church affairs or world affairs, or even a single simple event, when you are ladling out the Pope's soup, even if you had to serve him again for each of the next three or four courses??? Let alone conclude from the pleasantries of table talk that the Pope 'is not as informed as he should be'???

How would the conversation go? Gabrieie: "One ladle or two, Holy Father? And by the way, did you notice what Prime Minister Monti said last night about the economy?" Would anyone in his right mind, being served one's meal, dignify that rude presumptuousness with a serious answer as if one was really going to pursue the conversation? Because by then, Gabriele ought to be going to the next person to be served, and not let his edifying information and opinion get in the way of the Pope's meal! Or maybe, the Pope might just say absently, "No. What exactly did he say?" So, ergo, QED - Gabriele says to himself, "My God! He doesn't even know!"

Besides, if you were the valet, and knew your place, would you tell the Pope while serving him his pasta, "By the way, Holy Father, did you know that Mons. So and So in Such-and-Such a place is said to be embezzling the funds of the diocese?" That's just rude and out of place! What's he really trying to do? Rate the Pope's knowledge of current affairs like a quiz-show participant? Surely, as much as Benedict XVI genuinely has filial affection for his 'pontifical family', he would never use a family meal to discuss serious business. It is not the time and place. He is not holding a cabinet meeting or seeking advice on matters that are his competence alone, not that of his valet or his housekeepers.

It is more likely that he keeps the mealtime chat to small talk that allows interpersonal interaction: "How was the moview you saw last night?" or "Did you enjoy the football game last night?" or "Were you able to talk to your mother?" I doubt he would even refer to the work load of the two secretaries because that would be bringing the office to the dinner table. Gabriele is so beclouded in his self-built cuckoo realm that he does not even realize the sheer improbability of having a serious discussion with anyone under the circumstances? ... Yet someone like Agnew quotes him as if he were Cardinal Richelieu! And does not realize how preposterously silly he is, doing so!]


"The other thing he said... is -- he speaks of the degradation of the church, the degrade, or the dissatisfaction amongst people in the curia, he comes to the conclusion that a person of power, a person of huge decisional power is very open to manipulation," Agnew said. "He doesn't say that the pope is very open to manipulation, but one presumes that is who he is referring to." [Agnew, where are your neurons and synapses? Why exactly would the dissatisfaction of the Curia - someone is always dissatisfied with something somewhere - leave the Pope open to manipulation? Clearly non sequitur!]

It adds up to portrait of a Pope who is not in control of his own church. [Nitwit! It adds up only to the ravings of a messianic moron whom people like you would much rather 'elevate' to being 'the sage of the Vatican', at the very least (or 'putative savior of the Church') if it will help you humiliate the Pope. Bring out the palm and olive branches, and Hosanna to Gabriele! Gee, remind me again why ever did the College of Cardinals elect Joseph Ratzinger in 2005! One would think from Agnew's awe at Gabriele that if they had only known there was such a human wonder as Paolo Gabriele, the cardinals would have elected the first lay Pope in Church history!]

Benedict, now age 85, is clearly frail. [Frail is physical. If he lives to be 150, his mind will still be far more brilliant than any of you, or all of you put together! In fact, all the journalists in the world together could never be equal to one hair in his head.] He returned just Monday from a three-month summer break at his hillside residence outside Rome.


UGGHHHH..... YECHHHHH.... AND GRRRR....



The CNS story, which is based on information given by the pool reporters, is a bit more organized than the Italian accounts, but it falls into the same trap of bandying about the word 'corruption' in the Vatican against the objective fact that there has not been one specific case of corruption brought to light - not in Nuzzi's book, not in any news reports, much less from any bit of journalistic investigation into Vigano's charges, to begin with, or any other that a newsman might independently uncover!
The last such revelation of apparent corruption was in 2006-2007 about supposed cozy 'favored and exclusive' dealings between the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and some Italian government officials and contractors, when the Congregation was under Cardinal Cresencio Sepe in the previous Pontificate. About which Italian media had endless stories, without ever proving that Sepe himself or any of his subordinates was 'corrupt'...

And by the way, this CNS story was headlined 'Papal butler says he's innocent etc' - but quite apart from the fact that Gabriele was never the butler, simply the valet ['aiutante di camara di Sua Santita' - chamber aide of His Holiness - as the Vatican indictment described him, not 'maggiordomo'!] - he is no longer papal anything. But why do the newsmen continue to designate him as if he were still in the Pope's service? Even in little details, the herd mentality [which is really mindless!] among the Vatican reporters is so absurdly obvious.

Gabriele says he's innocent of theft
but guilty of betraying pope

by Cindy Wooden and Carol Glatz


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 2 (CNS) -- Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler [The Pope's former valet!] charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence, said he was innocent of charges of aggravated theft, but "I feel guilty for having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me."

"I loved him like a son," Gabriele said of the Pope during the second day of his trial. [He 'loved' him then, not now?]

The morning session of the trial Oct. 2 also featured brief testimony by Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal apartment; and longer testimony by Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary.

Msgr. Ganswein, who described himself as "extremely precise," said he never noticed any documents missing, but when he examined what Vatican police had confiscated from Gabriele's Vatican apartment, he discovered both photocopies and originals of documents going back to 2006, when Gabriele began working in the papal apartment. [The fact that Nuzzi chose not to use any of the material before 2009 - or was not given the material by Gabriele - goes to show that perhaps there was nothing particuarly titillating, much less scandalous, about the older documents.]

Taking the stand first, Gabriele said widespread concern about what was happening in the Vatican led him to collect photocopies of private papal correspondence and, eventually, to leak it to a journalist.

"I was looking for a person with whom I could vent about a situation that had become insupportable for many in the Vatican," he testified Oct. 2.

Gabriele told the court that no one encouraged him to steal and leak the documents.

Although he said he acted on his own initiative, Gabriele told the court he did so after "sharing confidences" about the "general atmosphere" in the Vatican with four people in particular: retired Cardinal Paolo Sardi, a former official in the Vatican Secretariat of State; Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica; Ingrid Stampa, a longtime assistant to Pope Benedict XVI, going back to his time as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger; and Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi, who worked in the secretariat of state until 2011. [OK, the timeline suggested by this story is different and a bit more precise than the vague context suggested in the Korazym story above. I must check out the various versions about this detail and compare them. Every reporter appears to haev a different take.]

Gabriele said that although he had set aside some documents previously, he began collecting them seriously in 2010 after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, then secretary-general of Vatican City State, was reported to have run into resistance in his attempt to bring spending under control and bring transparency to the process of granting work contracts to outside companies. The archbishop is now nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States.

Asked to describe his role in the papal household, Gabriele said he served Pope Benedict his meals, informed the Vatican Secretariat of State of the gifts given to the pope, packed the pope's suitcases and accompanied him on trips, and did other "small tasks" assigned to him by Msgr. Ganswein.

"I was the layman closest to the Holy Father, there to respond to his immediate needs," Gabriele said.

Being so close to the Pope, Gabriele said he became aware of how "easy it is to manipulate the one who holds decision-making power in his hands." [Yeah right! Benedict XVI is nothing more than putty at the hands of all and sundry who could easily manipulate him. Who did that, exactly, and how? Even Cardinal Bertone's most egregious apparently power-grabbing moves were all vetoed by the Pope!]

Gabriele had told investigators that he had acted out of concern for the Pope, who he believed was not being fully informed about the corruption and careerism in the Vatican. [WAbout careerism, surely Joseph Ratzinger who spent almost a quarter-century in the Curia is the last man one has to inform about this! But what corruption, specifically? Certainly, none emerged in any of the documents he pilfered that Nuzzi used. Where were the headlines about such cases, if there had been any? None - except blanket use of the word 'corruption', as though just mentioning it was enough proof it existed. And with not one iota of initiative among Vatican journalists to find out any such specific cases. Probably because there isn't any - financial hanky-panky is not always necessarily corruption, it could be sheer incompetence or mismanagement. I'm not saying there are no cases of corruption at all, just that no one has actually reported one single specific case. Under questioning by his lawyer, he said he never showed any of the documents to the Pope, but tried -- conversationally -- to bring some concerns to the Pope's attention.

[What documents, exactly? None of the published documents goes to show corruption at all, not even Vigano's letters, and believe me, if he had known of any genuine corruption case, he would have shouted it to the rooftops - and the media would have exploited any such story to high heavens, and repeated it endlessly, even now during the reporting of the trial - not limited himself to the almost ridiculous example of the alleged Christmas manger overpricing! But no, all anyone can point to is Vigano's general accusation not supported by any data. If, in his letter to Bertone, Vigano could go to the details of the supposed personal shady dealings of the persons he perceived to be his enemies - dealings which had nothing to do with the Vatican - surely he could have provided concrete facts about the 'corruption' in the Vatican that he alleges, if he had any such facts at all. If he really wanted to fight this 'corruption', was it not the opportunity to divulge cases that could then be investigated by the press, if not by the Vatican itself? Why don't the newsmen covering the Vatican not see this obvious contradiction at all? Because they don't want to - it's enough for them that someone like Vigano cries 'Corruption!' without demanding he back up his claim, or uncover the facts themselves.

The Vatican prosecutor objected to any further questioning about Gabriele's motives, saying they "don't matter, we must discuss the facts." The judges agreed and ordered the defendant's lawyer to move on.

Gabriele's lawyer also asked him several questions about the 60 days he spent in Vatican detention, including whether or not it was true that he first was held in a tiny room and that, for the first 15-20 days, the Vatican police left the lights on 24 hours a day. Gabriele said both were true.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, later told reporters that Judge Nicola Picardi, the Vatican prosecutor, had opened an investigation into the conditions under which Gabriele was detained.

Vatican investigators had said they found in Gabriele's Vatican apartment three items given to Pope Benedict as gifts: a check for 100,000 euros ($123,000); a nugget -- presumably of gold -- from the director of a gold mining company in Peru; and a 16th-century edition of a translation of the Aeneid.

Gabriele denied the nugget was ever in his apartment, and he said he had no idea how the check got there. As for the book, he said it was normal for him to take home books given to the Pope to show his children.

"I didn't know its value," and, in fact, he carried it around in a plastic bag, he said.

Msgr. Ganswein testified that he only began suspecting Gabriele in mid-May after a journalist published documents Msgr. Ganswein knew had never left the office he shared with Gabriele.

When Msgr. Ganswein entered the courtroom and when he left again, Gabriele stood. He did not do so for the other witnesses.

The trial formally opened Sept. 29 and Vatican judges decided to separate Gabriele's trial on charges of aggravated theft from the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert in the Vatican Secretariat of State, charged with aiding and abetting Gabriele.

Gabriele was arrested in May after Vatican police found papal correspondence and other items in his Vatican apartment; many of the documents dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a lack of financial transparency at the Vatican.

The former papal valet -- who is 46, married and has three children -- faces up to four years of jail time, which he would serve in an Italian prison.

Aqua called my attention to Robert Moynihan's account of Day 2 as one of the pool reporters present, in his newsletter (sorry I don't have a link). In his usual pfrolix way, he presents no significant details, however, other than what has been reported, but he does tailor his account in order to underscore his apparent belief that, for all the talk of transparency, the Vatican will not allow this investigation to go beyond a certain point. I find that attitude almost malicious, going far beyond journalistic cynicism.

And just to wrap up coverage of this frankly tedious story for Day 2, here's a translation of the Vatican Gendarmerie's statement regarding Paolo Gabriele's detention:


Vatican Police refute
Gabrieles allegations


Regarding the statements made by the accused Paolo Gabriele in response to his lawyer's questions about his detention, let it be stated that Paolo Gabriele, after his arrest, was held in an isolation cell at the headquarters of the Vatican Gendarmerie.

This isolation cell is in accordance with stanrds followed in other countries for analogous situations.

Although the headquarters contains another cell for long-term detnetion, it was at the time in need of renovation which had afready been scheduled. Under the circumstances, and at the urging of the Prosecutor, the work was accelerated, including modifications following the requirements of the Convention against Torture, to which the Holy See is a signatory. [It must be noted that obviously, the long-term detention cell has not been in use at the Vatican.]

During his detention, the detainee, under existing standards,
- ate his meals everyday along with the policemen guarding his cell; = was given his time out in the open, along with moments of relaxation and socialization with his guards, with whom he developed friendship;
- he could use the gym used by the gendarmes themselves (though he refused the offer);
= he was the object of regular medical visits by a doctor designated for the purpose by the Vatican department of health services, during which he told the doctor that he was sleeping well and tranquilly,and that he had even managed to resolve some nervous problems;
- he had constant contacts, especially in the first days, with spiritual assistants;
- he attended Masses with his family;
- he availed of the privilege authorized by judicial authorities of having unlimited conversations with his family members and with his attorneys;
- all this with maximum respect of his person.

Many times, the accused asked to meet with the Commandant to seek words of comfort. Indeed, because of pre-existing links between Gabriele and some members of the Vatican police, Gabriele was granted many instances of special attention so that he might undergo his detention in the most serene way possible.

Regarding the light that was kept on 24 hours a day, this was a measure taken to avoid potential acts of self-injury by the accused and for security purposes. Eventually, he himself requested to keep the lights on all the time because he said it represented 'company' for him.

Moreover, from the start, he was given a sleep mask that would enable him to completely blot out the light. He was always provided with a mattress and clean bed linen that was changed regularly.

Without ever disturbing him, he was discreetly surveilled during the night hours, and he could count, for any necessity, on immediate assistance through a telephone in his cell that was connected to the Oepraitons Room.

The prisoner's rights, even regarding his intimacy, were never violated.

He was moved to the renovated long-term detention cell after 20 days.

Following the statements he made during the proceedings in court this morning, the prosecutor opened Case No. 53/12 to investigate the truth or falsity of the charges made by Gabriele. If the investigation should show that they are groundless, the Vatican Gendarmerie in its turn could file a counter-accusation [for false testimony].


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/10/2012 09:55]
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Benedict's encyclical on faith
to be published in January

Translated from the Italians ervice of


Benedict XVI's next encyclical on faith is practically ready, according to a rnaking prelate in the Curia who said, "The Pope finsihed writing it this summer in Castel Gandolfo and it will be published by January 2013".

It will therefore be one of the significant events of the coming Year of Faith.

The timing of the publication has to do with avoiding an overlap with the release of Volume 3 of JESUS OF NAZARETH expected before Chrismas.

The prelate who has read the draft said, "The text is very beautiful. In simple language, Benedict XVI, succeds in expressing the complex and profound truths of the faith, in a way that will be able to reach anyone who can read - an audience far wider than you might imagine".

The encyclical on faith would complete a triptych on the theological virtues following Deus caritas est (on love) in 2006 and Spe salvi (on hope) in 2007.

04/10/2012 00:21
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Wednesday, October 3, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. MOTHER THEODORE (ANNE-THERESE) GUERIN
(France, 1798-Indiana, 1856)
Missionary and Founder, Sisters of Providence (USA)
Canonized by Benedict XVI on 10/16/2006



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

General Audience - In his catechetical cycle of prayer which has now gone for over a year, the Holy Father reflected
for the second week on liturgical prayer, this time emphasizing its ecclesial nature - liturgy as "participation
in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit", as "the place where God comes to us and enters
our lives. Let us remember that the liturgy is celebrated for God, not for us; it is his work; he is its subject".
At the end, he asked for the prayers of the faithful as he undertakes a pilgrimage to Loreto tomorrow for the success
of the Year of Faith and the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.


04/10/2012 04:00
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GENERAL AUDIENCE
Oct. 3, 2012








'Liturgy is celebrated
for God, not for us'


In his catechetical cycle of prayer which began in May 2011, the Holy Father reflected for the second week on liturgical prayer, this time emphasizing its ecclesial nature - liturgy as "participation
in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit", as "the place where God comes to us and enters our lives".

This is how he synthesized today's lesson in English:

Today, I would like to highlight the ecclesial nature of liturgical prayer. The liturgy is a "participation in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1073).

The Church, as Christ’s Mystical Body and united with him, offers worship to the Father. By identifying ourselves with Christ in his prayer to the Father, we rediscover our deepest identity as Christians, as children of "Our Father who art in heaven".

The liturgy is also an encounter of the whole Christ, that is, with Christ and his body the Church. Thus, the liturgy is a sharing in the prayer of the living, universal community of believers in Christ.

Prayer becomes the habitual realization of the presence of God, as we make the words of the Church our own, and learn to speak in her and through her.

The Church is most truly herself in the liturgy, as it is the place where God comes to us and enters our lives. Let us remember that the liturgy is celebrated for God, not for us; it is his work; he is its subject. For our part, in the liturgy we must leave ourselves open to be guided by him and by his Body, the Church.


At the end, he asked for the prayers of the faithful as he undertakes a pilgrimage to Loreto tomorrow for the success
of the Year of Faith and the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.


Here is Vatican Radio's translation of the catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last catechesis I began speaking about one of the privileged sources of Christian prayer: the sacred liturgy, which - as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms – is “participation in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1073). In the liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal." (n. 1073).

Today I would like us to ask ourselves: in my life, do I reserve enough space for prayer and, above all, what place does liturgical prayer have in my relationship with God, especially the Mass, as participation in the common prayer of the Body of Christ which is the Church?

In answering this question, we must first remember that prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
(cf. ibid., 2565).

Therefore, the life of prayer lies in habitually being in the presence of God and being conscious of it, in living our relationship with God just as we live the usual relationships of our lives, those with close family members, and with real friends; indeed our relationship with the Lord gives light to all of our other relationships.

This communion of life with God, One and Triune, is possible because, through Baptism we have been inserted into Christ, we have begun to be one with Him
(cf. Rom 6:5).

In fact, only in Christ we can talk to God the Father as children, otherwise it is not possible, but in communion with the Son, we too can say, as he said “Abba", because only in communion with Christ, can we know God as our true Father (cf. Mt 11:27).

Because of this, Christian prayer lies in constantly looking, in an ever new way, at Christ, talking with Him, being in silence with Him, listening to Him, acting and suffering with Him. The Christian rediscovers his true identity in Christ, "the firstborn of every creature», in whom all things were created (cf. Col 1:15 ff).

By identifying with Him, being one with Him, I discover my personal identity, that of the true child who sees God as a Father full of love.

But do not forget: we discover Christ, we know him as a living Person, in the Church. It is "his Body." This embodiment can be understood from the biblical words on man and woman: the two shall become one flesh
(cf. Gen 2:24, Eph 5.30 ff. 1 Cor 6.16 s).

The unbreakable bond between Christ and the Church, through the unifying power of love, does not negate the 'you' or ‘I', but raises them to their most profound unity. Finding one’s true identity in Christ means achieving communion with him, that does not cancel me out, but raises me to the highest dignity, that of a child of God in Christ.

"The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God's will increasingly coincide"
(Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, 17).

To pray means to rise towards the heights of God through a necessary gradual transformation of our being.

Thus, participating in the liturgy, we make the language of Mother Church ours - we learn to speak it and for it. Of course, as I have already said, this takes place in a gradual manner, little by little. I have to progressively immerse myself in the words of the Church, with my prayer, my life, my suffering, my joy, my thoughts. It is a journey that transforms us.

Thus I think that these reflections enable us to answer the question that we posed at the beginning: how do I learn to pray, how can I grow in my prayer?

Looking at the model that Jesus taught us, the Pater Noster [Our Father], we see that the first word is "Father" and the second is "our." The answer, then, is clear: I learn to pray, I nourish my prayer, addressing God as Father and praying-with-others, praying with the Church, accepting the gift of his words, which gradually become familiar and rich in meaning.

The dialogue that God establishes with each of us, and we with Him, in prayer, always includes a "with" - you can not pray to God in an individualistic manner.

In liturgical prayer, especially the Eucharist, and - formed by the liturgy - in every prayer, we do not speak as single individuals, rather we enter into the "we" of the Church that prays. We need to transform our "I" entering into this "we".

I would like to recall another important aspect. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: "In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church"
(n. 1097); so it is the "whole Christ" , throughout the Community -, the Body of Christ united with its Head - that celebrates.

Thus the liturgy is not a kind of "self-manifestation" by a community, but it means emerging from the simple fact of "being-oneself", being closed in on ourselves, and accessing the great banquet, entering the great living community in which God nourishes us.

The liturgy implies universality, and our awareness of this universal character must always be renewed. The Christian liturgy is the worship of the universal temple which is the Risen Christ, whose arms are stretched out on the cross to draw us all into the embrace that is the eternal love of God.

It is the cult of the open skies. It is never only the event of a single community, in a given time and space. It is important that every Christian feels and really is part of this universal "we", which provides the foundation and refuge to the "I" in the Body of Christ which is the Church.

In this we must be aware of and accept the logic of the Incarnation of God: He has drawn near, he is present, entering into history and human nature, becoming one of us. And this presence continues in the Church, his Body.

The liturgy then is not the memory of past events, but it is the living presence of Christ's Paschal Mystery that transcends and unites all times and spaces.

If the centrality of Christ does not emerge in the celebration, then it is not a Christian liturgy, totally dependent on the Lord and sustained by his creative presence. God acts through Christ and we can only act through him and in him. Every day the conviction must grow in us that the liturgy is not our, my, 'action', but the action of God in us and with us.

It is not the individual - priest or layman - or the group that celebrates the liturgy. It is primarily God's action through the Church, which has its own history, its rich tradition and creativity. This universality and fundamental openness, which is characteristic of the entire liturgy is one of the reasons why it cannot be created or amended by the individual community or by experts, but must be faithful to the forms of the universal Church.


The entire Church is always present, even in the liturgy of the smallest community. For this reason there-are no "foreigners" in the liturgical community. The entire Church participates in every liturgical celebration - heaven and earth, God and man.

The Christian liturgy, even if it is celebrated in a concrete place and space, and expresses the "yes" of a particular community, is inherently Catholic - it comes from everything and leads to everything, in union with the Pope, the Bishops, with believers of all times and all places.

The more a celebration is animated by this consciousness, the more fruitful the true sense of the liturgy is realized in it.

Dear friends, the Church is made visible in many ways: in its charitable work, in mission projects, in the personal apostolate that every Christian must realize in his or her own environment.

But the place where it is fully experienced as a Church is in the liturgy: it is the act in which we believe that God enters into our reality and we can meet Him, we can touch Him. It is the act in which we come into contact with God, He comes to us, and we are enlightened by Him.

So when in the reflections on the liturgy we concentrate all our attention on how to make it attractive, interesting and beautiful, we risk forgetting the essential: the liturgy is celebrated for God and not for ourselves, it is His work, He is the subject, and we must open ourselves to Him and be guided by Him and His Body which is the Church.


Let us ask the Lord that we may learn every day to live the sacred liturgy, especially the Eucharistic celebration, praying in the "we" of the Church, that directs her gaze not in on herself, but to God, and to feel part of the living Church of all places and of all time. Thank you.


After the plurilingual greetings to the faithful, he said this:

Dear brothers and sisters,
Tomorrow I will visit the Shrine of Loreto, on the 50th anniversary of the famous pilgrimage made by Blessed Pope John XXIII to that Marian site a week before the Second Vatican Council opened.

I ask you to join me in prayer to commend to the Mother of God the major Church events that we are about to experience: The Year of Faith and the General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod on the New Evangelization.

May the Blessed Virgin accompany the Church in her mission to announce the Gospel to the men and women of our time.


How appropriate that the Holy Father's catecheses as we approach the Golden Jubilee of the start of Vatican II should be about understanding the proper sense of the liturgy. A do-as-you-please attitude super-imposed on what was unabashedly a hastily cobbled committee product that was the Protestantizing liturgical overhaul imposed overnight on the Church in 1969-1970, was emblematic of the entire mindset that progessivists passed on to countless Catholics after Vatican-II - to follow the path of least resistance and maximum personal gratification and convenience with regard to Catholic teaching in general and specific practices that had always been prohibited in the Church.

What ever happened to the idea that liturgy should evolve organically and not be invented by committee? Fortunately, someone like Benedict XVI came along to show us how to make the most of a flawed product, seeing that we have to live with it [though he has also given us the choice to worship in the traditional way] and how it can be made to approach the profundity and sacredness of traditional liturgy.


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Before anything else about what happened in the Gabriele trial on Day 3 - the man is even more weird than we thought - I am very pleased that Famiglia Cristiana, Italy's most widely-circulated weekly magazine, ran this editorial today online - the only one I have seen so far that appreciates the witless spectacle of media types citing every statement of Paolo Gabriele as if he were the Archangel Gabriel bringing them messages direct from God, without realizing how farcically pathetic they are to hail a megalomaniac simpleton to high heavens in their mad frenzy to discredit the Pope and the Church.

'Gabriele sayeth...':
How some in the media dispense like Gospel truth
the statements made by the self-confessed thief -
but to the Italian people, he deserves the pillory

by Fulvio Scaglione
Translated from

Oct. 3, 2012

Perhaps Reader 02 was right when, the other day, commenting on our piece about 'caste', called on us journalists to make our own'= a culpa's.

Indeed, when one looks at the media record of these years and the chaotic lying mentality that has seemed to subjugate Italians, one must say something about the habits of Italian media who boast about having a part in consciousness-building.

We have been writing about this for some time: Just take a look at how much is written about the Vatican and how these are written. For example, look back at what they reported about the assessment of the Holy See by Moneyval, the organism of the Council of Europe that evaluates how national laws follow international norms against money-laundering. You will easily understand why the media no longer writes about it because before the report came out, they had written a lot of falsehoods about it.

Then, go forward a few weeks and read what is being written these days about the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the valet who will pass into history for having leaked documents destined to or coming from the Pope's desk. It is obvious that, like all accused persons who cannot deny they have committed the crime they are charged with, Gabriele is now speaking of other things.

We are told he was maltreated in detention, tortured perhaps, in a cell where he could not even open his arms apart, and where the light was on all the time. That some distinguished prelates inspired him, or maybe even helped him, in what he did. And that a huge circle of persons and personages in the Vatican shared his 'mission'.

Who said all this? Gabriele alone. For the more lynchmob-minded newspapers - those for whom anyone who is being investigated for anything must immediately resign his position, or if he has no position, should sink himself in shame - that's all they need! It's what Gabriele says.

Gabriele who, naturally, only acted for good - he wanted to reform the Church, save the Pope, repair all wrongs, restore honesty (he tells us that what impelled him was the 'Vigano case'), perhaps even to groom all dolls and straighten up crooked dogs' legs.

And all of this while [knowingly] betraying his employer and his own faith (Gabriele, he would let us know, is the most Catholic of Catholics, and so, the Pope ought to be more than just his employer), pilfering documents and passing them on to a journalist.

If President Napolitano refuses to disclose the contents of some tapes, there must be something underneath. If the ex-valet exposes hundreds of private documents from the Pope's desk, there must be someone on top of him.

And we lament that people just don't read the newspapers anymore.


It's too bad the article does not support the writer's claim in the headline that the 'Italian people' think Gabriele deserves to be pilloried. And that the writer does not have the language tools of a Giuliano Ferrara to make his point...


Gabriele's smorgasbord of documents
shows his obsession with Fremasonry,
esotericism, Buddhism, etc.



Vatican City, Oct. 3 (AsiaNews) - Documents numbering in the "hundreds of thousands" were found at the home of Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI's ex-valet on trial for aggravated theft. But just "over a thousand" have to do with the Pope and the Holy See.

The rest of the documents reveal what appears to be a very acute interest in secrets and esotericism: papers relating to Freemasonry, esotericism, the P2 Lodge, P4, Luigi Bisignani, the Calvi case, Berlusconi, the IOR and the AIF (the Authority on the Vatican's financial information), the Vatileaks case, Christianity and yoga, Christianity and other religions, Buddhism, how to hide .jpg and Word files, how to record videos, how to use your mobile phone in covert mode."

Today, at the third hearing in the trial, which lasted around an hour and a quarter, four witnesses were heard, all called by the defense - Vatican gendarmes Luca Cintia, Stefano De Santis, Silvano Carli and Luca Bassetti who testified on the searches and on the defendant's treatment in prison.

Concerning the letters found, the witnesses confirmed that many were originals and not photocopies, answering repeatedly the question asked by the presiding judge, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, if they had personally seen original documents during the search or later, after the seizure of 82 boxes of paper and computer materials.

The documents seized number in the "hundreds of thousands", which filled 82 moving boxes (approximately 50 x 60 cm), two large yellow bags and two black leather bags.

Among them, a thousand are papal documents, documents of the Secretariat of State, of the Vatican congregations and of the Pontifical Councils, on the "privacy and family life" of the Pope, "letters written by Cardinals to the Pope to make suggestions or ask for advice", "responses of the Pope to Cardinals", "documents with the Pope's signature", "encrypted documents", "documents bearing the words in German 'to destroy'". In short, "many more documents than those mentioned in the book" by Gianluigi Nuzzi, Sua Santita.

As regards Gabriele's treatment, the gendarmes claimed that they used "kid gloves" both during the seizure and in his cell. Thus, during the search they invited the family to leave the house, so as to reduce as much as possible the discomfort to his children and his wife.

The police Vice-Commissar, Luca Cintia, responsible for the custody of the accused, then wanted to make a statement in relation to the allegation of abuse made yesterday by Gabriele, even though the Chief Magistrate had reminded the court that the investigation into violations while in custody is the subject of other proceedings, aimed at verifying what happened, but also any false declarations.

Dalla Torre also pointed out that the records, already deposited, show that Gabriel has received all sorts of assurances, such as: family visits, medical and spiritual assistance.

''At the very beginning", Cintia said, for his part, "the Commandant of the Gendarmerie (Police) Domenico Giani issued an order to protect Gabriel and his family; he has been treated with kid gloves", "in the best way possible." "Gabriele expressed his gratitude many times for the treatment received".

The trial is due to conclude next Saturday. It will start with the indictment by the Promoter of Justice (Prosecutor) Nicola Picardi, then it will be the defense's turn to speak through attorney Cristiana Arru. After any rebuttals by the prosecution and the defense, the accused will be allowed to speak. The ruling could arrive the same day.

BTW, one thing that the news stories have missed in characterizing Gabriele - which is that he is a self-confessed media junkie, and if we needed any proof, consider those 'hundreds of thousands' of documents he downloaded from the Internet. Which means that his 'suggestible' mind - confirmed by the the psychiatric experts who examined him - has been greatly (if not mostly) shaped by what he reads. And so the ironical paradox from all this is that the ultimate 'mastermind' behind his betrayal of the Pope and a driving force for his messianic mania is the mass media, which had caused him to see 'evil and corruption everywhere in the Vatican".

One is astounded that anyone in the media could simply take statements like that as literal truth - Dp they really think a valet who spends 10 hours a day at work, seven days a week, then has to go home to his wife and three children, also has the time to keep an omniscient eye on the workings of the entire Curia and what everyone in the Vatican thinks! Not to mention, trawl the Internet and download 'hundreds of thousands' of articles. He's not just their prophet and Angel Gabriel, he's also Superman!



About those diverse takes on what exactly Gabriele told the court about seven persons he said had spoken to about the 'situation in the Holy See, this is what Andrea Tornielli reported on his blog - which, for now, I shall consider to be the most reliable:

To questions regarding some persons with whom he was in contact, he replied, confirming what he had said during his interrogations, namely, that he had 'exchanged confidences on the situation in the Holy See' with Cardinals Angelo Comastri (arch priest of St. Peter's basilica) and with Cardinal Paolo Sardi (who earlier headed the Secretariat of State department in charge of translating the papal texts, but has since then been made chaplain of the Sovereign Order of Malta, in which capacity he was made cardinal), with Mons. Francesco Cavina (who worked at the Secretariat of State until he was named Bishop of Carpi), and with Prof. Ingrid Stampa, Cardinal Ratzinger's onetime housekeeper who now works at the Secretariat of State and is in charge of translating and editing the Pope's texts and books from German to Italian). But the ex-valet denied that he had been induced by any of them to pilfer the papal documents.



La Repubblica interviewed Mons. Cavani after Gabriele's statement in court, and Corriere della Sera interviewed Ingrid Stampa.

The bishop of Carpi is shocked
to be named by Gabriele in court

Interview by Orazio La Rocca
Translated from

October 3, 2012

"I have never incited anyone. Much less Paolo Gabriele. I ask myself how he could have stated that I was one of those who might have induced him to do what he did. I am upset and displeased, but nonetheless, I feel calm and ready to defend myself at all levels, even before the court, if they should want to hear my side."

Thus spoke Mons. Franceco Cavinsa, who turned 57 last February, and who has been Bishop of Carpi since January after six years of service at the Secretariat of State. Until yesterday, he had been one among many anonymous prelates in the Church, but since then he has been thrust into the spotlight wllly-nilly, having been named by Gabriele as one of those with whom he had 'exchanged confidences about the situation in the Church'.

Mons. Cavina said that the attempt to implicate him in Vatileaks was absurd, "the result of blindness or the disturbed mind of a person who, it seems, has a double personality".

Mons. Cavina, how well do you know Paolo Gabriele?
We have been friends for some time. But to say that I may have been among those who 'suggested' anything regarding his work in the papal apartment is something else. And the one who can say it is not true is the Paolo Gabriele I knew as an apparently normal and calm person, whom I had no difficulty at all in considering to be a friend.

When and how did you get to know each other?
Around the time he started his service as the Pope's valet in 2006 when I was working in the Secretariat of State. From a superficial acquaintance, we started to see each other often at the Benedictine sisters' school attended by his children. Every 15 days, there was a catechetical meeting for the parents, and Paolo was one of the most assiduous attendees. One day, he offered to take me to the meeting in his car, after which we went back to the Vatican together. That's how it began.

What did you talk about in the car?
This and that. But neither of us ever talked about our work. I knew that he performed close personal services for the Holy Father but I never thought to even ask him about it.

Sometimes we spoke about the general problems in the world, and the difficulties facing the Church and the Vatican, but it was always in the context of the news reported in the newspapers or on TV. Never in reference to our respective tasks.

When was the last time you saw each other?
On January 22, in Imola, at my episcopal consecration. He came to wish me well in my new assignment in Carpi. We did not see each other again after that.

When the first leaked documents were published and subsequently when the accused provider of those documents turned out to be him, I did not want to believe it. But perhaps I was dealing with someone who had a double personality, who would be capable of putting me in the wrong. But I am calm, and ready to testify to a court if I am called.

'I came to know Gabriele because
I visit the Pope once a week,
but we were not close'

Interview with Ingrid Stampa
by Gian Gudio Vecchi
Translated from
Corriere della Sera
Oct. 30, 2012

Ingrid Stampa is usually described as the former housekeeper of Cardinal Ratzinger which is a reductive statement. She is a professor and scholar of music, playing the viola da gamba, and has translated and/or edited the Italian editions of many of Joseph Ratzionger's books [as well as of John Paul II!]

When, in July, a German newsmen attributed Vatileaks to rivalries and jealousies among Pope Benedict XVI's past and present close staff, and named her as one of three 'masterminds' behind Gabriele's actions, it was immediately gossiped that she had been demoted from her position at the Secretariat of State and had fallen into disgrace with the Pope [to the point that some media reported that the keys that enabled her and Mons. Josef Clemens, the Pope's former private secretary, to have access to the papal aprtment through the Pope's private elevator, had been taken from them.]

But she continues to work at the Secretariat of State, and in fact, has just finished translating Vol. 3 of JESUS OF NAZARETH (having translated the first two volumes also), and prepared the material for publication. Obviously, she continues to have the trust of the Pope.

What do you have to say about what happened in court, Prof. Stampa?
If Paolo Gabriele had ever hinted to me what he was doing, I would have told him to stop. I would have told him that if he had concerns, he should speak to the Holy Father, or I could do it for him. But it didn't happen that way...

What about the 'jealousies'?
When I first read the item, I was shaken, I could find no reason for the accusations, but within a day, I regained my interior calm. It was simply ridiculous. Imagined things! Calumnies!

By whom?
I know who instigated the article. But as a person of faith, after I learned who it was, I have prayed for him.

Yet Gabriele says that what he did was 'suggested' to him by the general environment in the Vatican, and he named you among those that he spoke to.
I have no idea why he said so, and I hope he can explain it. All I know is that from the few conversations I had with him, he always expressed great esteem and love for the Holy Father and for the Church.

But now he has caused all this harm, right?
Of course, he has harmed the Pope and the Church. But I don't think that was his intention. His wife says she knew nothing of what he was doing. If he had spoken to someone, perhaps it would not have turned out like this. [C'mon, Prof. Stampa. This is a pathologic personality! Whatever may be his specific psychotic disorder, he has a psychosis.]

Did you know him well?
I wasn't particularly close to him. I got to know him because once a week, I am a guest at the papal apartment. Some have said that we spoke to each other all the time, but that's not true. At one point, we found ourselves living in the same building. His family moved into the apartment two floors below mine.

It did not mean we came to know each other better. We each have our own daily work and we had little contact in the building. I began to visit his family only after he was arrested - I thought it was my Christian duty to see what I could do to help his wife and children. I found a good family. The children prayed for their father as well as for those who wish him ill.

Do you think he was manipulated?
From what I gather, he was one who loved to study things that interested him, but by himself. One imagines he gathered all that mass of material to enable him to get an overview of the situation in the Vatican. I think it was probably all him.
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Thursday, Oct. 4, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI


Some portraits of Francis, from left: Detail from earliest known portrait, done in his lifetime, before 1224, is a fresco in the Chapel of St. Gregory at the Benedictine convent of Subiaco; Francis and the Angels, Botticelli, 1480; by Zurbaran, 1658; Francis receives the stigmata, Fra Angelico, 1440; from the Pesaro altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, 1474; by El Greco, 1585.
SAN FRANCESCO D'ASSISI (Italy, 1181-1226), Deacon, Founder of the Franciscan Orders, Mystic, Patron of Italy, Patron of Ecologists
In addition to his discourses on St. Francis when he visited Assisi in 2007, Benedict XVI devoted his catechesis on January 27, 2010
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100127...
to a saint whom he has mentioned most often next to St. Augustine during his Pontificate, perhaps because he embodies the Pope's own ideal. Calling him 'a great saint and a joyful man', he went on to note in the January catechesis: "There subsists an intimate and indissoluble relationship between holiness and joy... There is only one sorrow in the world: not to be saints, to be close to God... Looking at the testimony of St Francis, we understand that this is the secret of true happiness: to become saints, close to God!" Increasingly, Benedict XVI's message - as to young people every chance he gets - is a call to holiness. St. Francis's story is well-known, but perhaps little noted is that though he founded an order, he was never a priest himself. And yet, as Benedict XVI noted: "Francis always showed great deference towards priests, and asserted that they should always be treated with respect, even in cases where they might be somewhat unworthy personally. The reason he gave for this profound respect was that they receive the gift of consecrating the Eucharist. Dear brothers in the priesthood, let us never forget this teaching: the holiness of the Eucharist appeals to us to be pure, to live in a way that is consistent with the Mystery we celebrate".
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100412.cfm



WITH THE POPE TODAY

PASTORAL VISIT OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI TO LORETO
on the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII's visit to the Marian shrine
October 4, 2012




09.00 Departure by helicopter from the Vatican

10.00 Arrival at the Centro Giovani Paolo II in Montorso.

10.20 Visit to the Holy House of Nazareth in Loreto
- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
- Prayer to Our Lady of Loreto.

10.30 HOLY MASS
Piazza della Madonna
(in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto)
- Homily

13.15 Lunch at the Centrp Giovanni Paolo in Montorso.

17.00 Departure by helicopter for the Vatican

18.00 Arrival at the Vatican heliport


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THE POPE IN LORETO




The Pope enters the enshrined Holy House of Nazareth inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto, below (top photo); bottom panel, the Pope leaving the Basilica.




Entrusting to Mary
'a time of grace'
for the Church


Oct. 4, 2012

One week ahead of the opening of the 13th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Benedict XVI travelled to the Marian Shrine of Loreto, in Italy, to entrust the Assembly and the upcoming Year of Faith to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

More than 10,000 people packed the Piazza in front of the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto to greet Pope Benedict XVI as he made his second visit as Pope to the famous Basilica.

The Holy Father was following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Blessed John XXIII who, exactly fifty years earlier, had visited Loreto to entrust to our Blessed Mother the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council.

In his homily, Pope Benedict said that he, too, had come on pilgrimage “to entrust to the Mother of God two important ecclesial initiatives: the Year of Faith, which will begin in a week, on October 11, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which I have convened this October with the theme ‘The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith’.”

The Pope said, “It is precisely here at Loreto that we have the opportunity to attend the school of Mary who was called ‘blessed’ because she ‘believed’.”

This Shrine, he continued, “build around her earthly home, preserves the memory of the moment when the angel of the Lord came to Mary with the great announcement of the Incarnation, and she gave her positive reply.”

In the Annunciation, Pope Benedict noted, God waits for Mary’s ‘yes’. God “has created a free partner in dialogue, from whom he requests a reply in complete liberty.” Mary’s ‘yes’ is the fruit of divine grace; but, the Pope says, “grace does not eliminate freedom; on the contrary, it creates and sustains it.”

The Holy Father concluded his homily by entrusting to “the Most Holy Mother of God all the difficulties affecting our world as it seeks serenity and peace, the problems of the many families who look anxiously to the future, the aspirations of young people at the start of their lives, the suffering of those awaiting signs or decisions of solidarity and love. I also wish to place in the hands of the Mother of God this special time of grace for the Church, now opening up before us.”




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

Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On 4 October 1962, Blessed John XXIII came as a pilgrim to this Shrine to entrust to the Virgin Mary the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, due to begin a week later.

On that occasion, with deep filial devotion to the Mother of God, he addressed her in these words:

Again today, and in the name of the entire episcopate, I ask you, sweetest Mother, as Help of Bishops, to intercede for me as Bishop of Rome and for all the bishops of the world, to obtain for us the grace to enter the Council Hall of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as the Apostles and the first disciples of Jesus entered the Upper Room: with one heart, one heartbeat of love for Christ and for souls, with one purpose only, to live and to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of individuals and peoples.

Thus, by your maternal intercession, in the years and the centuries to come, may it be said that the grace of God prepared, accompanied and crowned the twenty-first Ecumenical Council, filling all the children of the holy Church with a new fervour, a new impulse to generosity, and a renewed firmness of purpose.
(AAS 54 [1962], 727).


Fifty years on, having been called by divine Providence to succeed that unforgettable Pope to the See of Peter, I too have come on pilgrimage to entrust to the Mother of God two important ecclesial initiatives: the Year of Faith, which will begin in a week, on 11 October, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which I have convened this October with the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”.

Dear friends, to all of you I offer my most cordial greetings. I thank the Most Reverend Giovanni Tonucci, Archbishop of Loreto, for his warm words of welcome. I greet the other bishops present, the priests, the Capuchin Fathers, to whom the pastoral care of this shrine is entrusted, and the religious sisters.

I also salute Dr Paolo Niccoletti, Mayor of Loreto, thanking him for his courteous words, and I greet the representatives of the government and the civil and military authorities here present. My thanks also go to those who have generously offered their assistance to make my pilgrimage possible.

As I said in my Apostolic Letter announcing the Year of Faith, “I wish to invite my brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter, during this time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us, in recalling the precious gift of faith”
(Porta Fidei, 8).

It is precisely here at Loreto that we have the opportunity to attend the school of Mary who was called “blessed” because she “believed” (Lk 1:45).

This Shrine, built around her earthly home, preserves the memory of the moment when the angel of Lord came to Mary with the great announcement of the Incarnation, and she gave her reply. This humble home is a physical, tangible witness to the greatest event in our history, the Incarnation; the Word became flesh and Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, is the privileged channel through which God came to dwell among us (cf. Jn 1:14).

Mary offered her very body; she placed her entire being at the disposal of God’s will, becoming the “place” of his presence, a “place” of dwelling for the Son of God.

We are reminded here of the words of the Psalm with which, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ began his earthly life, saying to the Father, “Sacrifices and offering you have not desired, but you have prepared a body for me… Behold, I have come to do your will, O God”
(10:5,7).

To the Angel who reveals God’s plan for her, Mary replies in similar words: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

The will of Mary coincides with the will of the Son in the Father’s unique project of love and, in her, heaven and earth are united, God the Creator is united to his creature. God becomes man, and Mary becomes a “living house” for the Lord, a temple where the Most High dwells.

Here at Loreto fifty years ago, Blessed John XXIII issued an invitation to contemplate this mystery, to “reflect on that union of heaven and earth, which is the purpose of the Incarnation and Redemption”, and he went on to affirm that the aim of the Council itself was to spread ever wider the beneficent impact of the Incarnation and Redemption on all spheres of life
(cf. AAS 54 [1962], 724).

This invitation resounds today with particular urgency. In the present crisis affecting not only the economy but also many sectors of society, the Incarnation of the Son of God speaks to us of how important man is to God, and God to man.

Without God, man ultimately chooses selfishness over solidarity and love, material things over values, having over being. We must return to God, so that man may return to being man.

With God, even in difficult times or moments of crisis, there is always a horizon of hope: the Incarnation tells us that we are never alone, that God has come to humanity and that he accompanies us.

The idea of the Son of God dwelling in the “living house”, the temple which is Mary, leads us to another thought: we must recognize that where God dwells, all are “at home”; wherever Christ dwells, his brothers and sisters are no longer strangers.

Mary, who is the Mother of Christ, is also our mother, and she open to us the door to her home, she helps us enter into the will of her Son. So it is faith which gives us a home in this world, which brings us together in one family and which makes all of us brothers and sisters.

As we contemplate Mary, we must ask if we too wish to be open to the Lord, if we wish to offer him our life as his dwelling place; or if we are afraid that the presence of God may somehow place limits on our freedom, if we wish to set aside a part of our life in such a way that it belongs only to us.

Yet it is precisely God who liberates our liberty, he frees it from being closed in on itself, from the thirst for power, possessions, and domination; he opens it up to the dimension which completely fulfils it: the gift of self, of love, which in turn becomes service and sharing.

Faith lets us reside, or dwell, but it also lets us walk on the path of life. The Holy House of Loreto contains an important teaching in this respect as well. Its location on a street is well known. At first this might seem strange: after all, a house and a street appear mutually exclusive.

In reality, it is precisely here that an unusual message about this House has been preserved. It is not a private house, nor does it belong to a single person or a single family, rather it is an abode open to everyone placed, as it were, on our street.

So here in Loreto we find a house which lets us stay, or dwell, and which at the same time lets us continue, or journey, and reminds us that we are pilgrims, that we must always be on the way to another dwelling, towards our final home, the Eternal City, the dwelling place of God and the people he has redeemed
(cf. Rev 21:3).

There is one more important point in the Gospel account of the Annunciation which I would like to underline, one which never fails to strike us: God asks for mankind’s “yes”; he has created a free partner in dialogue, from whom he requests a reply in complete liberty.

In one of his most celebrated sermons, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux “recreates”, as it were, the scene where God and humanity wait for Mary to say “yes”. Turning to her he begs: “The angel awaits your response, as he must now return to the One who sent him… O Lady, give that reply which the earth, the underworld and the very heavens await. Just as the King and Lord of all wished to behold your beauty, in the same way he earnestly desires your word of consent… Arise, run, open up! Arise with faith, run with your devotion, open up with your consent!”
(In laudibus Virginis Matris, Hom. IV,8: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4, 1966, p.53f).

God asks for Mary’s free consent that he may become man. To be sure, the “yes” of the Virgin is the fruit of divine grace. But grace does not eliminate freedom; on the contrary it creates and sustains it. Faith removes nothing from the human creature, rather it permits his full and final realization.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this pilgrimage in the footsteps of Blessed John XXIII – and which comes, providentially, on the day in which the Church remembers Saint Francis of Assisi, a veritable “living Gospel” – I wish to entrust to the Most Holy Mother of God all the difficulties affecting our world as it seeks serenity and peace, the problems of the many families who look anxiously to the future, the aspirations of young people at the start of their lives, the suffering of those awaiting signs or decisions of solidarity and love.

I also wish to place in the hands of the Mother of God this special time of grace for the Church, now opening up before us. Mother of the “yes”, you who heard Jesus, speak to us of him; tell us of your journey, that we may follow him on the path of faith; help us to proclaim him, that each person may welcome him and become the dwelling place of God. Amen!





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I just translated an account of the Pope's day in Loreto from the Ancona edition of Il Resto del Carlino when the window closed on me and I am unable to recover it as I was working with Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox has a 'History' feature that enables you to restore closed windows that I wish Explorer also had... I'll just report later, with additional photos of the visit..
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Friday, Oct. 5, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA (Poland, 1905-1938)
Nun and Visionary, canonized in 2002.
Originated the popular devotion to Divine Mercy.

John XXIII banned her writings but John Paul II had the case
re-investigated and eventually canonized her. Polish cardinals
and bishops who gathered this weekend for the 2nd World
Congress of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Lagiewniki have sent
a letter to Benedict XVI asking him to declare St. Faustina
a Doctor of the Church.
Readings for today's Mass:http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100512.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

A briefing was held to present the XIII General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod on the New Evangelization.

The Apostolic Penitentiary released a decree on indulgences that may be earned during the Year of Faith.


As it's Friday today, I won't be 'at work' till about 12 hours from now.
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French philosopher on BXVI's thinking:
'Genuine, well-structured and highly informed'

Translated from the Italian service of


ROME, Oct. 5 (ZENIT) - Benedict XVI has "genuine thinking, well-structured, informed by a vast culture, aided by strong reflection and clearly expressed in a picturesque way," says the French philosopher Remi Brague, one of two winners of the 2012 Ratzinger Prize in Theology.

Brague says Benedict XVI's thinking is free of elements that favor extremist thought, that exaggerate due to emotivity", and are therefore not said in the cold light of reason.

Here is ZENIT's interview with Prof. Brague:

When he presented your name as one of the 2012 RAtzinger Prize winers, Cardinal Camillo Ruini spoke of you as ;a true philosopher' and a 'great historian of ideas and cultjure'. In what way have philosophy and history enriched your life experience?
I will leave Cardinal Ruini - who, I believe did much to make me win this prise - with the responsibility to explain his praise! The fact is the description 'philosopher' is not respected in France. A phuilosopher is presented on French TV as someone who can pump up banality with a lot of hot air.

I dream of the possibility of something like the Order of Physicians and Surgeons to oversee the profession of philosophy, in which there exists a crime called abuse of the medical profession.... Yet when one is dealing with the minds and thinking of persons, so many are allowed to disseminate their poison.

So I prefer to call myself 'a professor of philosophy', which is, objectively, what I do. I have never studied history, and I am not worthy to be called a 'historian' as they would want to honor me.

But in philosophy, I do what I feel obliged to do for the history of ideas.

What do you think is essential in the thinking of Joseph Ratzinger that would help overcome these these times of crisis, characterized by nihilism and relativism, individualism and hedonism?
In the first place, his is genuine thinking, well-structured, informed by a vast culture, sustained by strong reflection, expressed clearly and amply restated.

Its content is classic: a theologian's thought. If it were just a bishop speaking, one does not expect him to be particularly original, but one must present the faith of the Church in the most intelleigent and convincing manner possible.

And his thought does not just oppose all the isms that you mentioned. I do not deny the significance of these categories, or the dangers they represent. The Pope is tireless in pointing out these dangers.

But Benedict XVI's way of thinking excludes all these isms from the intellectual sphere - it is free of any elements that favor extremist thinking, which is that emotivity that can get to your head and make you fool yourself.
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Saturday, Oct. 6, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. BRUNO OF COLOGNE (1030?-1101), Founder of the Carthusian order
This saint has the honor of having founded a religious order which, as the saying goes, 'never had to be reformed because it was never deformed'. He was born in Cologne,
Germany, became a famous teacher at Rheims, and was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese at age 45. He supported Pope Gregory VII in his fight against the decadence
of the clergy and took part in the removal of his own scandalous archbishop. As he had always dreamed of living in solitude and prayer, he persuaded a few friends to join
him in a hermitage. They eventually settled in Chartreuse near Grenoble under the protection of the Bishop of Grenoble, the future St. Hugh of Chateauneuf. They lived
a monastic life, and their chief work was copying manuscripts. Meanwhile, one of Bruno's former pupils had become Urban II in 1080, and he asked Bruno to come to Rome
as an adviser, a job he performed very discreetly. In 1091, with the Pope's blessings, Bruno and some friends retreated to a hermitage in Calabria, southern Italy, where he
eventually died in the first year of the 12th century. The place is now called Serra San Bruno in his honor, and Benedict XVI will be visiting his tomb and the monastery
on Sunday, Oct. 9. Bruno's friend Urban II died a few months before him. Bruno was never formally canonized, because the Carthusians were averse to all occasions of publicity.
Pope Clement extended his feast to the whole Church in 1674.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100612.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

The Press Office published the full brief text of the verdict and sentence of the Vatican Court on former
papal valet Paolo Gabriele, found guilty of aggravated theft, sentenced to three years of prison which was
reduced to 18 months because of attenuating circumstances.

The tribunal's sentence
Translated from



Protocol No. 8/12 Reg. Gen. Pen.

Subject: Penal proceedings against
GABRIELE, Paolo, defended by Atty. Christiana Arru
= accused -

The Tribunal
has pronounced the following sentence:

In the light of Art. 402, 203 No. 1, and 404, comma 1, No.1, c.p.,
it declares

the accused Paolo Gabriele guilty of the crime defined in Art. 404, comma 1, No. 1 c.p., for having operated, with abuse of the confidence deriving from official relations connected with his own service, to take away things that because of such relations, were left and exposed to his good faith,

and therefore condemns him to three (3) years of reclusion*:

In the light of Art. 26 of the law of June 21, 19i69, No. L, considering the absence of preceding crimes, the results of his service before the occurrence of the contested facts, the subjective belief - although erroneous - expressed by the accused as the motivation for his conduct, as well as his statement that he was fully aware that he had betrayed the trust of the Holy Father,

reduces the penalty to one year and six months of reclusion;

and orders him to repay the costs of the judicial proceedings.

SIGNED:

Giuseppe Dalla Torre, President
Paolo Papanti-Pelletier
Venerando Marano
Raffaele Ottaviano, Substitute Registrar

Vatican City
October 6, 2012



*The dictionary translates the Italian term 'reclusione' as imprisonment or confinement, but for some reason, the New York Times article translates it as 'house arrest' - even if the term used by the Italian media when Gabriele was under house arrest after 60-some days in police detention was 'arresto domiciliare'.

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Let me allow the New York Times to occupy the first post about the Gabriele verdict, because it typifies all the erroneous and fallacious assumptions made by the MSM in reporting this case :

Pope’s butler [ex-valet] sentenced
to 18 months for stealing documents

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 6 — A Vatican City court on Saturday sentenced the Pope’s butler [he is no longer the Pope's anything current, but the ex-valet] Paolo Gabriele, to 18 months in prison for leaking confidential documents to the media.

The court found Mr. Gabriele guilty of theft and remanded him to house arrest[??????]. A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Saturday that it was “very likely “ that the Pope would pardon Mr. Gabriele, who had tended to the Pope’s personal needs for six years.

Mr. Gabriele, 46, remained impassive as the chief judge, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, pronounced the sentence “in the name of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning,” [that has been traditional expression for monarchs and sovereigns for centuries!] in a wood-paneled room in the Vatican City tribunal, in a nondescript palazzo near to the apse of St. Peter’s Square.

The verdict capped one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Vatican history after a tell-all book based on dozens of the documents leaked by Mr. Gabriele revealed accusations of financial misdeeds, infighting and widespread tensions within the Vatican.

The court formally sentenced Mr. Gabriele to three years in prison and required him to pay court costs. But the sentence was reduced to 18 months after the court acknowledged several extenuating circumstances, including the butler’s public recognition that he had betrayed the Pope’s trust. The court also took into account Mr. Gabriele’s belief, “albeit erroneously” that his motivations for leaking the documents had been pure.

Before the verdict, Mr. Gabriele addressed the court and told the three judges: “I am not a thief.”

Speaking with little emotion in his voice, Mr. Gabriele said that “he felt the strong conviction deep inside to have acted exclusively for love, a visceral love, for the church” and the pope.

For several months, beginning in November, the butler gave a number of documents to a journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who published many of them in the book “His Holiness: the Secret Papers of Pope Benedict XVI.” The most embarrassing revelations pointed to alleged misdeeds within the Vatican’s administration and its chief financial institution. [General allegations were made, as it is so easy to do, but none were specified at all! And the compliant enabling MSM did not even think it worthwhile to ask about, much less investigate, any specific and concrete cases.]

Two weeks after the book was published in May, Mr. Gabriele was arrested when hundreds of photocopied documents were found in his apartment inside Vatican City, where he lived with his wife and their three children. Mr. Gabriele spent nearly two months in a holding cell at the Vatican before being released to house arrest.

In depositions to Vatican court officials, Mr. Gabriele admitted to taking documents but said he had acted in the interests of the Pope, who he believed was not adequately informed about the misdeeds flourishing within the Vatican. [One would think a respectable journalist would place Gabriele's allegations in quotation marks!]

The butler [FORMER VALET!] told officials investigating the crime that he wanted to bring to light and publicize the evil and corruption as an incitement to clean it up. [Again, the rote repetition of Gabriele's words as if it were gospel truth!]

The trial lasted less than a week and focused the attention of the world’s media onto the world’s smallest — and most secretive — city-state.

“It’s a good sentence, a fair sentence,” said Mr. Gabriele lawyer, Cristiana Arru, who has three days to appeal the sentence.

A Vatican computer expert has also been indicted and is accused of aiding and abetting Mr. Gabriele, and his trial is expected to begin soon.

During a briefing to reporters Saturday afternoon, Father Lombardi said the investigation into the leaks and possible other charges against Mr. Gabriele and others had not formally closed, though the investigations had not turned up anything to suggest “collaboration or complicity” on the part of any others. [I think it is not Fr. Lombardi's place to say the latter, since he is pre-judging an episode that is clearly still unfinished business.]

Now that the trial has ended, the Pope can decide whether to pardon his former employee, a move that Father Lombardi said was “very likely.” [Again, it definitely is not Lombardi's place to anticipate the Pope's action with a statement that effectively pre-announces something that ought to be the Pope's prerogative alone, and thereby 'violates' the Pope's freedom of action.]

In making his decision, the Pope would probably consider the results of a commission of cardinals that he had entrusted to carry out a separate, confidential, investigation. [This statement further implies that the cardinals' 'investigation' uncovered no complicity at all, again effectively pre-announcing its conclusion, or one of its conclusions. While it seems quite likely that Gabriele needed no mastermind to carry out his treason - self-anointed Messiahs need no masterminds - he was really 'aided and abetted' not just by the general media cynicism and perennial suspicions about diabolical deeds within the Vatican but by the attitude of those within the Vatican who have self-serving motives to feed these suspicions actively through the years. The latter are the persons whom I had hoped the cardinals' investigation might uncover, though it seems from earlier news reports that their findings would focus more on structures and relationships among the various Vatican offices rather than on naming any persons.]

But Father Lombardi could not say “when or how” that pardon might be granted. He would also not speculate on whether Mr. Gabriele would remain an employee of the Vatican. “That is another chapter,” he said.

[I do not know why Fr. Lombardi felt compelled at all to volunteer his earlier two statements about a pardon for Gabriele and the outcome of the cardinals' investigation - when all he had to say was "The tribunal's verdict speaks for itself. I cannot speak for the Pope nor for the cardinals' commission!"... It's bad enough that the actual verdict seems very much like the mouse that was delivered after a mountain's heavy labor, without further underscoring it the way he did - and therefore reinforcing the preconceived conclusion of many skeptics that this whole process against Gabriele was merely intended to give the appearance of 'doing justice' but is really part of an entire effort to downplay, if not whitewash, the Vatileaks episode.

Yes, the Vatileaks episode should be downplayed in that it really revealed nothing new or particularly scandalous that had not previously been known and even amply reported upon - even if you would not know that from the way the MSM keep screaming 'corruption and scandal in the Vatican' just as Gabriele keeps claiming "evil and corruption everywhere in the Church".

There is nothing in the documents that concretizes those allegations at all, and no allegation comes even close to being on the order or magnitude of the genuine scandal of the 1980s IOR involvement in Banco Ambrosiano that led to the suicide (or murder) of a bank executive and the Vatican to restitute some $250 million to bank clients affected by the Banco Ambrosiano collapse.


But Vatileaks should nonetheless have opened the way to unmask all those who, less simple-minded and certainly far more malicious than Gabriele, have been actively working against the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, and who are well and comfortably nested within their middle-management niches in the Vatican bureaucracy. Instead of which, we may actually be witnessing a defensive 'cover-up' for all these wriggly worms (pernicious tapeworms, actually, fattening off their prey), despite Benedict XVI's intentions of full transparency.


P.S. I have read one reputable Italian commentator on Vatican affairs say that the Pope ought to pardon Gabriele and must do this before the Year of Faith begins, because believers would expect him to do so, after Gabriele has said that he 'loved him like (as if he were) a father' and has admitted being guilty of betraying the Pope's trust, and "what father would not pardon a son who erred and has said he is sorry"? All that is certainly Christian, but it is most unfortunate all this has to come at this time when the Church and the Pope certainly have far more to worry about than a self-deluding simpleton's misplaced messianic zeal.

On the one hand, one wishes Vatileaks behind us, but it is not, for as long as obvious questions remain unanswered - not who was Gabriele's mastermind, if any, but who are those persons ingrained into the Vatican machinery who are deliberately disrupting the mechanism. Some creative means must be proposed to pry them out of the system ASAP.

However, we can certainly do our part to refocus on the Synodal ASsembly for the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith, in the earnest hope that behind the scenes, those who are in a position to do so will continue to work on the critical task of identifying and purging out the vermin from the Vatican.


Here's a report from AGI's Salvatore Izzo to complete the reportage on this event - it branches out in many directions, including Fr. Lombardi's ruminations on Vatileaks:

Tne conclusion to
Gabriele's trial

by Salvatore Izzo


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 6 (Translated from AGI) - "In the name of His Holiness, floriously reigning" and having "invoked the Most Holy Trinity", Vatican judges Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Paolo Papanti Pelletier and Venerando Marano issued today their first verdict in connection with Vatileaks, after just over two hours of consultation this morning.

All this after an investigation that lasted two months and a half, and a brief trial (4 sessions in 7 days) but one that was devastating [for whom???]. with the Pope's private secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein, forced to testify in public [I don't think GG ever felt he was 'forced' to do something it was his obvious duty to do!], and with various persons who have always been held in esteem now in the media meatgrinder because of certain provocatory statements made by the accused, ex-valet Paolo Gabriele.

The court found him guilty of aggravated theft for taking and copying documents from the Pope's private desk and turning over the copies to a journalist who collected them into a book published last May. It sentenced Gabriele to three years of reclusion, which was 'reduced' to a year and a half because of attenuating circumstances....

When Gabriele was asked to give a concluding statement at the end of the competing arguments between his attorney and the Vatican prosecutor, he said: "What I most feel strongly within me is the belief that I acted out of exclusive, Iould say, visceral, love for the Church of Christ and for its visible leader. This is what I feel. And If I must say so again, I do not feel I am a thief". [I now cringe instinctively everytime I am about to read anything said by Gabriele, and find myself shuddering in repulsion after I have read what he has to say in all his sanctimony. Sure, the Pope may well forgive him, but no Catholic who truly loves the Church would do anything so self-serving, self-centered and utterly selfish as not to be able to see the harm he is actually doing and has already done to the Church.]

The judges obviously did not believe him completely. [It's not a question of belief. It's a question of objective fact. He did steal in the most barefaced manner - in front of all his co-workers in the papal household - and he admitted it. How is he not a thief? The best of intentions - in his case, what he beliebed 'best' was actually the worst - never justifies the commission of any crime or sin. That he cannot even take responsibioity for a crime he has admitted to committing is part of his self-delusion.]

But in some ways, his allegation of good faith was 'accepted' because shortly after the verdict, prosecutor Nicola Picardi hastened to sign an order for Gabriele to continue under house arrest. [For how long, or is that going to be the 'reclusion' meant in the sentence?]

P.S. The Vatican Radio report on the sentencing has the following additional information that makes clear the sentence of 'reclusione' is for imprisonment, not house arrest as the NYT claimed:

A partial ban was handed down on any future employment. Should Gabriele remain a Vatican employee he will not be allowed to work in any offices that deal with " judicial, administrative or legal” affairs.

Paolo Gabriele’s lawyer has not ruled out the possibility of appealing the sentence, given what she has described as “holes” in the judicial investigation. However Ms Arru also described Saturday’s verdict as “balanced”.

For now she said Paolo Gabriele will remain under house arrest in his family home in Vatican City State. The Court must meet again to decide if and when Gabriel will be imprisoned.

And for Vatican press director Fr. Federico Lombardi to declare that "the eventuality of the Pope granting pardon is concrete and very possible".

"I can say without fear of being belied," he said, "that Benedict XVI xould grant the aprdon even without a formal request, because it is within his power".

The penalty inflicted on Gabriele is particularly mild because "the judges acted according to the Zanardelli code, which considers three years appropriate penalty for the crime, but they also applied Art. 26 of Law 50 promulgated in 1969 which provided for various possibilities of reduced sentences - from life imprisonment to limited reclusion, from perpetual interdiction to temporary, and in case of dententive penalties, they may be reduced by as muchas three-quarters, explained Lombardi, saying he was satisfied at the 'magnanimous application of this article'.

After having tried to accuse the Vatican Police of machinations and maltreatment of her client (though yesterday, in his message to the Vatican Police on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, patron of the Corps, the Pope personally defended them, praising the commitment and dedication of Corps Commandant Domenico Giani and his men), Gabriele's lawyer Cristiana Arru this time questioned the transparency of the Vatican Press Office itself regarding her client, claiming that the treasonous valet had been subjected to a 'media chokehold that will continue into the future'.

"Law since ancient days provides for definite penalties characterized by being circumscribed within a certain time. Even when the actual punishment of imposing a yoke that carried the sentence was in use, it was only for a determined number of days", she said. "But Paolo Gabriele has been inflicted with a permanent penalty. [Gabriele inflicted it on himself! He wanted to be immortal -but sorry, 'Paoletto', you will forever live in infamy, instead, for all your misplaced messianism.]/DIM] With the publication on August 13 of the prosecutor's summary that included expert psychiatric evaluation of him, which concerns the private life of the accused, his dignity was violated exposing him to public ridicule, because now anyone seeking his name on the Internet will immediately be exposed to the psychiatric evaluation of him that has to do with sensitive data that ought to have been kept private".

[Two things: Arru has been quite barefacedly dishonest in bringing up all these objections at the last minute: First, the allegations of abuse by the Vatican police, when in all of the lawyers' (she and Carlo Fusco before he resigned) statements at the time of Gabriele's detention, they kept saying he was treated well; and now, with this objection. Why did they raise no objections at the time the prosecutor's summary was released? Since no one - not even the media - protested at the time, I presumed that it was unexceptionable SOP in Italy and the Vatican to release such summaries! And a fine thing for Arru to go into high dudgeon about 'sensitive data that ought to have been kept private' - wasn't that exactly what Gabriele did against the Pope, even if there was nothing in what he disclosed that was embarrassing to the Pope at all? In fact, the most embarrassing element in all this for the Pope was the fact that a man who rendered the most intimate personal services to him daily since 2006 could so flagrantly have been stealing from him all the time!]

Today, for the first time, the prosecutor revealed the name of the priest to whom Gabriele said he consigned copies of everything he provided to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. He is Fr. Giovanni Luzi, who was intgroduced to Gabriele by his previous confessor, Fr, Paolo Miracutti, professor of theology at the Cahtolic University of Rome, who is also the confessor for the Marian community founded by Luzi in Palestrina. Luzi claimed during the investigative phase that he burned everything turned over to him by Gabriele.

The ones who have really been subjected to a media chokehold are persons named by Gabriele in open court, including two cardinals (Comastri and Sardi), two monsignors (Cavina and Polvani*), and three laymen (Ingrid Stampa, and Maureillo and Catano, two persons whom Gabriele claimed to have provided him with inside information against Inspector Giani of the Vatican police), who have now been dragged into the fray simply because he claimed he had spoken to them about his 'concerns'.
[*Izzo is wrong - Gabriele never named Polvani, whose name was brought in because he is the boss at the secretariat of State of Claudio Sciarpelletti, the only other person accused so far of anything in connection with Vatileaks.]

Fr. Lombardi commented on these other names: "No proof has been shown of any shared guilt or complicity in the actions of Paolo Gabriele, and he himself said that they had nothing to do with what he did. [He did say that he may have been 'suggestible' because of his conversations with them, which was another rather malicious statement on his part.] You cannot continue to attribute co-responsibility or shared guilt with the persons whose names were brought up during the investigation".

But Lombardi reiterated that investigation into Vatileaks would continue: "It has not been closed except for this specific charge of aggravated theft".

As for the report of the three cardinals named by Benedict XVI to pursue an administrative canonical investigation of Vatileaks, Lombardi said nothing has been made public about it so far in order not to interfere with the court proceedings.

"I have observed", he said, "the full and total independence of the judges of Vatican City State form other authorities, and the great respect of the Secretary of State who did not exert pressure of any kind".
[Why on earth should Lombardi single out the Secretary of State to praise for not doing anything he is not supposed to do in any case????]

He added: "Besides the positive impression of separation of powers, there is the positive impression of the rapidity of the proceeding, which I think was influenced by the fact that according to the legal code followed by the Vatican, the investigative process becomes part of the court record without having to reconstruct it all over".

"In the Church, shadowy dealings and betrayal are not unusual, but they have been faced with courage, and as never before, during this Pontificate", says an editorial in L'Osservatore Romano on the day marked not only by the first sentence in connection with Vatileaks, but also when the Vatican announced the promotion of Mons. Charles Scicluna from being chief prosecutor of sex-abuse cases against priests at the CDF to being auxiliary Bishop of Valletta in his home country of Malta.

Editor Vian notes that the media would prefer to dwell on 'the negative aspects' but calls on them not to overlook "the will to renew the Church despite the contradictions, deficiencies, and inevitable limitations found in any human institution, and notwithstanding the tenacious sterotypes that have sought and continue to seek to disseminate contrary views about the Church which are not respectful of reality".
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Yesterday, some traditionalist Catholic blog sites were in full attack mode against CDF Prefect Gerhard Mueller for having said in a German radio interview that the Vatican dialog with the FSSPX is over - he was even accused of being "sweet on Protestants, while hostile to the Lefebvrians". I do think it was premature and rather thoughtless of him to make the statement on German radio before the Vatican has even received the 'final' reply from Mons. Fellay.

From what I have read of Mons. Mueller's statements since he became CDF Prefect, he is hardly the most tactful when speaking about the FSSPX, especially in the light of his open hostility to them and the activities of their seminary in Zaithofen near Regensburg when he was Bishop of Regensburg. But even if some of his own statements about his personal positions as a theologian are not always as clear as when his defenders seek to clarify them, he is capable of making clear and tactful statements, as he does in this interview, with specific reference to the FSSPX.


Mons. Mueller on the FSSPX
and what he has said
about Mary and the Eucharist

Interview by EDWARD PENTIN

Oct. 4, 2012

In the second part of an EWTN interview with Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the new CDF prefect discusses the latest on efforts to bring the Society of St. Pius X back into full communion with the Church, the current situation regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and responds to what some saw as controversies over some of his previous writings on the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on the Eucharist.

What stage have we reached in the dialogue between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X?
I wouldn’t call it a dialogue between two Church partners. This was a brotherly colloquium to overcome difficulties with an authentic interpretation of Catholic doctrine. This authentic interpretation is guaranteed by the Pope.

The SSPX must accept the Holy Father, the Pope, as the visible head of the Church. They have a great respect for Tradition. They must, therefore, accept the position of the Pope as stated in the First Vatican Council. They must also accept the doctrinal pronouncements made since the Second Vatican Council, which have been authorized officially by the Pope.

Part of the problem is that, after 30 or more years of separation from the Church, some groups or persons can be very closed in their own dynamic, in their own groups, and very fixed on these points. I believe that these questions will be resolved in the long term.

Is it possible for reconciliation with Bishop Richard Williamson within the society?
Williamson is a separate problem from this reconciliation process. It is simply unacceptable that a Christian or even more a bishop — of course he is not a Catholic bishop, as a bishop is only Catholic when he is in full the Pope, the Successor of Peter, which Williamson is not — denies all that the Nazis had done against the Jewish people, their exterminations. How is it possible to be so cold-hearted about this? [It is not a question of cold-heartedness on the part of Williamson - it is his own ideological blindness to historical fact because he is himself anti-Semitic, and he expresses that by denying the most devastating historical fact to the Jewish people.] It is absolutely unacceptable, but this is a separate problem.

They [the FSSPX] need to accept the complete doctrine of the Catholic Church: the confession of faith, the Creed, and also accept the magisterium of the Pope as it is authentically interpreted. That is necessary. They also need to accept some forms of development in the liturgy. The Holy Father recognized the perennial validity of the extraordinary form of the liturgy, but they also must accept that the new ordinary form of the liturgy, developed after the Council, is valid and legitimate.

Some argue the Second Vatican Council was merely pastoral and, therefore, not binding. How do you respond to this?
The problem here is the interpretation of the word “pastoral.” All councils are pastoral, in that they are concerned with the work of the Church — but this does not mean that they are merely “poetic” and therefore not binding. Vatican II is an official ecumenical council, and everything that was said in the Councilis therefore binding for everyone, but at different levels.

[I think Mueller means "everything stated in the Council documents", because "all that had been said at the Council" contained often diametrically opposing views, which the Council Fathers decided one way or the other by voting on the final document drafts presented. Positions not contained in these documents were obviously not adopted, so how can they even be binding?]

We have dogmatic constitutions, and you are certainly obliged to accept them if you are Catholic. Dei Verbum discusses divine Revelation; it speaks about the Trinitarian God revealing himself and about the Incarnation as fundamental teaching. These are not only pastoral teachings — they are basic elements of our Catholic faith.

Some practical elements contained in the various documents could be changed, but the body of the doctrine of the Council is binding for everyone.

In view of all this, are you nevertheless confident and optimistic there will be reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X?
I’m always confident in our faith and optimistic. We have to pray for goodwill and for unity in the Church. The FSSPX is not the only breakaway group in the Church. There are worse ones on the opposite side, too. These movements are worse because they are often denying essentials of Christianity. [Except that none of them has had the balls to break away to become a fully autonomous group as the FSSPX has!]

We must work for unity, and so it is also my task to invite all to come back into full communion with the Catholic Church, which is led by the supreme shepherd, the Pope — who is the Vicar of Christ.

If they [the FSSPX] do come back, what positive aspects could they bring to the Church?
They could underline what Tradition is, but they also must become broader in their perspective, because the apostolic Tradition of the Church is not only about a few elements. The Tradition of the Church is large and wide.

[More importantly, Tradition with a capital T refers to a body of beliefs and practices that have accrued over the centuries around the primitive faith transmitted by the Apostles - I do not know if the Church formally defines a time limit for this accrual, which is also a way of evolving - but theoretically, it continues to be gradually built over time.

Ecumenical councils have made dogmatic decisions that the Church = and her Tradition - have accepted and abided by. The councils could have easily decided the opposite, and the Church would still have abided by such decisions which would have accrued to Tradition. If, for instance, the Council of Chalcedon had decided that Christ had only one nature - the divine - as the monophsyites claimed, that decision would have entered into the Tradition and doctrine of the Church, and would have been part of that Tradition of which the FSSPX claim to be the 'only zealous custodians'. Fortunately, the Councils appear to have been under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, and so, not one has come out with any decisions that are 'counter-intuitive' to Revelation and the original apostolic teachings. Not even Vatican-II, even if the progressivists, invoking an arbitrary 'spirit of Vatican II' in an obvious and strange disregard for the Holy Spirit who inspires the Church of Christ, have sought mightily to 'establish' as the beginning of a new Church. That in itself is a measure of how their much-invoked 'spirit' has gone to their heads, to the point that they are capable of thinking a Council can 'establish a new Church' instead of merely orienting the human course of the Church that Chirst established.]


On the other hand, there must also be a renewal in the celebration of the liturgy, because we have had a lot of abuses of the liturgy, which have damaged the faith of many people.

Could they perhaps help correct some of the abuses?
That is not their task, but ours. One extreme cannot be the equivalent of the other. The extremes must be corrected by the center.

There were some controversies surrounding your appointment regarding your previous teachings on Mary and the Eucharist. Could you tell us more about this?

[Editor’s note: On the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Archbishop Müller wrote that the doctrine is “not so much concerned with specific physiological proprieties in the natural process of birth (such as the birth canal not having been opened, the hymen not being broken, or the absence of birth pangs), but with the healing and saving influence of the grace of the Savior on human nature.”

On the Eucharist, he stated: “In reality, the body and blood of Christ do not mean the material components of the human person of Jesus during his lifetime or in his transfigured corporality. Here, body and blood mean the presence of Christ in the signs of the medium of bread and wine.”]


These controversies were not so much criticisms as baseless provocations aimed at discrediting me, but everyone can read what I have written in context and systematically. Why should I deny the doctrines of transubstantiation or the perpetual virginity of Mary? I have written whole books in defense of these doctrines.

Concerning miracles, we have to remember that the primary object of our faith is the action of God; the secondary object is what God did inclusively in the material dimension. It is not enough to say that miracles are an inexplicable action — something totally exceptional within the material world — that prove God’s existence. Rather, the miracles performed by Jesus reveal that he is our divine Savior who came to heal a world wounded by sin.

So, for instance, when Jesus performed a miracle, such as the healing of the sick man, the first aspect to look at is not the mere suspension of the natural order. The first priority is to examine the fact that God has healed this person who needed to be healed; the suspension of the laws of nature are a consequence of this divine intervention. Often, people don’t understand this perspective of the faith.

Some have suggested you were trying to push the boundaries, to come up with new thinking, as scholars often do. Does this have something to do with the controversy?
Look, the basis of our faith is revelation. But we need theological explanations, interpretation, to explain the historical truth of revelation and to present and defend it against errors and heresy. So, for instance, the Christological dogmas of the early councils were absolutely necessary to explain in another way the truths about Christ witnessed to and contained in the New Testament. If you want to conserve the content of the truth in other contexts, you must sometimes explain it in other categories.

In the Gospel, Jesus said: “This is my blood; this is my body.” What is the meaning of this? It refers to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but in the New Testament, you don’t find this expression — “Real Presence.” It is a later theological term used to explain the truth contained in the Gospel.

Then, in the context of the 12th and 13th centuries, the Church had to defend the doctrine of the Real Presence, and she did this by expressing it in philosophical terms to explain the difference between substance and appearance. This is the doctrine of transubstantiation — a word which you will not find in the New Testament but which was necessary in order to explain and defend what had been revealed in the New Testament. Often, people do not understand the relationship between revelation and theology.

Finally, what is the situation regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)? The congregation recently issued a doctrinal assessment calling for a renewal of this American organization. Is there a continuing struggle between the CDF and the organization?
There is no struggle between the Holy See and this organization, but we do want to help the LCWR in its renewal of religious life — precisely because of the importance of religious life for the Church. In our times, such renewal will only be possible if there is a renewed commitment to the three vows [chastity, poverty and obedience] and a new identification with our Catholic faith and life.

We cannot fulfill our mission if we are split, everyone speaking against one another, working against one another, or accepting ideas from outside that don’t belong to our faith. And we cannot accept doctrines about sexuality that don’t respect the fundamental essentials of revealed anthropology. So we must find new ways to serve the society of today, not waste our time with “civil wars” inside the Catholic Church. We must work together and have confidence.

But it is important to remember that at no time in the history of the Church has a group or a movement in one country ever been successful when it has taken an attitude against Rome, when it has been “anti-Rome.” Setting oneself up against “Rome” has never brought authentic reform or renewal to the Church. [The 'successful' movements have broken away cleanly to set up their own shop and did not persist in the vain attempt to bring down the Church or even to impose their ideas of what the Church ought to be..]

Only through a renewed commitment to the full teaching of Christ and his Church, and through a renewed spirit of collaboration with the Holy Father and the bishops in communion with him, will there be renewal and new life in the Catholic Church and a new evangelization of our society.

Preaching the Gospel of Christ to a weary world so desperately in need of its liberating truth — this must be our priority.
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13th Synodal assembly will attempt
to turn back 'tsunami of secularism'

By Francis X. Rocca


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 5 (CNS) -- At the Synod of Bishops which opens Oct. 7 with a papal Mass in St. Peter's Square, some 250 prelates from around the world will meet for three weeks to talk and pray about the new evangelization.

[I am bothered by the constant misuse of the term 'Bishops' Synod' to refer to the Synodal assemblies such as the one that opens tomorrow. The Bishops' Synod is the permanent constituent body of all the Catholic bishops of the world, who meet in regular or special assemblies as convoked by the Pope. In other words, these assemblies are not 'the Bishops' Synod' itself but meetings of the Synod, in which not all the bishops of the world necessarily take part. What opens tomorrow is the XIII General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod, to which the Pope has called some 250 bishops along with lay participants, including non-Catholic and non-Christian guests, to contribute to the discussions on the New Evangelization.... Journalists are expected to provide precise and accurate, not approximative, information. It is a duty they cannot and should not take lightly, as most of them habitually do.

Long after the bishops have expressed their diverse views, Pope Benedict XVI will have the last word in an authoritative document of reflections called a post-synodal apostolic exhortation. In the meantime, none of the participants has a better overview of the Vatican gathering, or of the questions it will examine, than Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

As the synod's relator [the proper English translation of the Italian word 'relatore' in the context of an assembly is 'rapporteur'],Cardinal Wuerl has reviewed preliminary suggestions from bishops' conferences around the world and synthesized them in a speech he will deliver in Latin at the first working session Oct. 8. The cardinal will address the assembly again 10 days later, once more in Latin, to summarize hundreds of speeches by his fellow bishops.

Initiated by Blessed John Paul II and eagerly embraced by his successor, the New Evangelization is a project aimed at reviving Catholic faith in increasingly secular societies, especially the wealthiest Western nations.

For Cardinal Wuerl, it is also an opportunity to fulfill the goal for which Blessed John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council: a faithful presentation of Catholic teachings in a way "attractive to a very rapidly changing culture."

It's no mere coincidence, the cardinal said, that the Synodal assembly encompasses the 50th anniversary of the opening of the council, Oct. 11, which Pope Benedict has designated as the beginning of a special Year of Faith. Like Vatican II, the cardinal said, the Synodal assembly will emphasize continuity with the church's ancient traditions.

"There is a continuum of Catholic faith going all the way back to the creed, going all the way back to the apostles," Cardinal Wuerl said. "That continuum is where we find the articulation of our faith."

Although Vatican II was faithful to the Church's traditional doctrines, the cardinal said, implementation of the council's teachings in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with a "current of secularism sweeping the Western world," especially Europe.

"It's almost as if a tsunami of secularism washed across Western Europe and, when it receded, it took with it all of those foundational concepts: family, marriage, right and wrong, common good, objective order," he said.

In Europe and beyond, the cardinal said, that secular wave accompanied a loosening of standards in Catholic religious education.

"Somehow we were to be catechizing without content," the cardinal said, describing what he called a widespread attitude at the time. "Somehow there was supposed to be communicated some experience, some idea that God loves us, we love God, but it wasn't rooted in the creed.

"As our Holy Father has pointed out so many times," the cardinal said, "if you are not proclaiming the Christ that the church knows and lives, then you could be proclaiming a Christ that you've created."


The cost of poor catechesis, Cardinal Wuerl said, was a "diminished allegiance from two generations" of Catholics.

A key part of the church's response to that development was the Catechism of the Catholic Church, whose compilation was overseen by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when the future Pope was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In another non-coincidence, the 20th anniversary of the catechism's publication will also be celebrated Oct. 11.

The cardinal said the catechism has been the basis for dramatic improvement in religious education over the last two decades, especially in the United States. When he and other U.S. bishops met with Pope Benedict earlier this year during their "ad limina" visits, Cardinal Wuerl said he was happy to report the sound state of Catholic education at the elementary and secondary school levels.

"And at the level of the colleges?" the Pope replied, with a smile and what the cardinal describes as a "twinkle in his eye."

The Church in America has a "long way to go" to bring Catholic higher education back into harmony with Church teaching, the cardinal said, and an essential part of that effort is restoring the "institutional identity" of Catholic colleges and universities.

Effective evangelization, he explained, requires that "we speak out of our own identity as members of the Church, as Catholics, as people who hold dear the creed, who worship at the table of the Eucharist, and who simply know Christ is with us."

Despite the setbacks of earlier decades, he said he draws hope from the growing interest among youth in the teachings of the church.

"We have a whole new group of young people coming along," the cardinal said, "and they're saying, 'this secular world isn't answering my questions.'

"There is a lot of good happening," he added. "We just have to find ways of tapping into it and inviting those young people to look to Christ for an answer."

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Mons. Scicluna has been promoted
to be auxiliary bishop of Valletta
and will leave the CDF

by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of

Oct. 5, 2012

Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, the prelate who had stood since 2002 beside Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and then Benedict XVI in the unequivocal effort to stop the tragedy of priests abusing minors and children, is leaving the Vatican.

His nomination is expected to be announced as auxiliary Bishop of Valletta, capital of Malta, his country of origin.

[In fact, Vatican Radio reported today, Oct. 6:

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna as Auxiliary Bishop of Malta nominating him Titular Bishop of San Leone. As Auxiliary Bishop, Monsignor Scicluna, 53, will collaborate with Archbishop Paul Cremona O.P.. His Episcopal ordination will take place on 24 November 2012.

A new position for Scicluna, who has been the 'promoter of justice' (in effect, chief prosecutor) at the CDF against sex offenders in the clergy. had been spoken about for some time. But it was not foreseen that he would be promoted out of the Roman Curia.

Scicluna has embodied the 'zero tolerance' line against clerical sex abuses and supported Joseph Ratzinger's initiatives all these years, not merely to strengthen canonical norms and existing laws against such offenses, but above all, the institutional mentality about this issue.

They have brought to the foreground the suffering of the victims and promulgated what are considered 'emergency measures' to deal more efficiently with such abuse cases. And it is no secret that the measures have stirred some opposition within the Vatican. [Who cares that there is internal opposition - the opponents, whoever they are, are in no position to dictate to the Pope or to the CDF about this. They can oppose till they are blue in the face - it ought not to hinder the Pope or the CDF in what they are doing. The important thing is that the Pope is able to name a successor to Scicluna who will be just as committed and unequivocal about this job.]

Born in Toronto in 1959 to Maltese immigrants, Scicluna decided when he was 19, after he had begun to study law, to become a priest. Ordained in 1986, he continued his studies in Rome, where he obtained his doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, under Professor Navarrete (who would be named an octogenarian cardinal by Benedict XVI) and defending his thesis before Mons. Leo Burke (also a future cardinal).

His potential was quickly noted by his superiors. "They would have wanted me to remain in Rome, at the Apostolic Segnatura (which Cardinal Burke now heads), but my archbishop recalled me to Malta, where I taught for five years at the university and I was the 'defender of the marriage bond' in applications for matrimonial annulment. and worked in the parishes," Scicluna said in an earlier interview with Vatican Insider.

In 1995, insistent requests from Rome won out and Scicluna was named 'promoter of justice' at the Apostolic Segnatura, which is the Church's Supreme Tribunal for canonical matters.

In 2001, after the publication of the motu proprio by which John Paul II decreed that all cases of priestly abuse against children and minors should be elevated to the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger had to set up a mechanism within the CDF for dealing with such cases.

Mons. Scicluna was recruited to the CDF and became one of the closest collaborators of the future Pope when he was named the CDF's 'promoter of justice' in 2002.

Thanks to the new norms promulgated at the start of the millennium (in response to the eruption of the priest-abuse scandal in the USA), all existing laws and decrees regarding such cases were assembled and revised for current application. In 2004, the CDF started its investigation of Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ. Scicluna travelled to the United States and Mexico to interview witnesses and gather information.

[In 2006, Benedict XVI announced that following the CDF investigation, he was ordering Fr. Maciel to a life of privacy and penitence, without the privilege of celebrating Mass in public, though he was not subjected to a formal canonical trial because of his age and the fact that he was suffering from a terminal illness. In fact, he died two years later.]
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I confess I 'ignored' news items in September about the Court of the Gentiles initiative resuming in Stockholm. Sweden, where, by all accounts, it was a success. And here we are today with a major two-day event in Assisi that I have also failed to post about till now. So let me try to make up. In the same way that the MSM hardly covered the three-day official launch of the Court of the Gentiles last year in Paris, there is hardly any reportage of the Assisi event, although it opened yesterday with a dialog between Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who has a background as a staunch Communist, and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council on Culture, which is in charge of the Courtyard project.

In the absence of any news item today in English, Let me introduce the Assisi event with this news item from the Vatican after the event was presented formally at the Vatican earlier this week:



The Courtyard of the Gentiles
makes a stop in Assisi



Vatican City, Oct. 4 (VIS) - "God, the unknown" is to be the theme of the "Atrium of St. Francis", an initiative organised by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Holy Convent of Assisi and the "Oicos Riflessioni" Association.

A press conference presenting the event was held this morning in the Holy See Press Office.

The meeting will take place in the Italian town of Assisi on Oct. 5-6 as part of the "Courtyard of the Gentiles" project, a structure for permanent dialogue between believers and non believers created by the Pontifical Council for Culture under the presidency of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. The Courtyard of the Gentiles has already organised events in several European capitals.

The Assisi meeting, in which more than forty speakers would take part, will be opened by Giorgio Napolitano, president of the Republic of Italy.

The programme, which involves nine meetings in nine different 'courtyards' in Assisi, covers the following themes: "Work, business and responsibility", "Contemplation and meditation", "Inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue for peace", "Young people, between faith and nihilism", "The cry of the earth", "Art and faith", "The cry of the poor, the world economic crisis and sustainable development".

Among the participants will be figures from the worlds of culture, science, art and economics, such as film-maker Ermanno Olmi, architect Massimiliano Fuksas, and trade union leader Susanna Camusso.

"In a second edition of his letter to the faithful, St. Francis addressed himself to 'all Christians, religious, clergy and laity, to men and women, to all inhabitants of the world entire'", notes Fr. Giuseppe Piemontese, custodian of the Holy Convent of Assisi. "We are opening the 'Courtyard of St. Francis' with great humility, and under the sign of that evangelical openness to others. Our hope is that the Courtyard of the Gentiles, in its call at Assisi, will be able to demonstrate the 'pure heart' and 'pure mind' to which St. Francis called us".

The website of the Cortile dei Gentili carries an account of the event, narrated by Vatican Radio correspondent Fabio Colagrande, but I still have to find newsphotos of it.

Italian President says Italy needs
'spirit of Assisi' to emerge from crisis

by Fabio Colagrande
Translated from

Oct. 6, 2012

The Courtyard of the Gentiles, the Vatican structure created to promote dialog between believers and non-believers, made a stop yesterday and today in Assisi.

The event, dedicated to the theme of "God, the unknown", had believers and non-believers alternating presentations at 9 different fora on specific sub-themes.

At the inaugural forum held in the courtyard of the Basilica of St. Francis, the exchange was between Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Cardinal Ravasi.

"To overcome the present crisis in Italy, we need the spirit of Assisi". Saying this was not a religious person but President Napolitano, whose political career was as a staunch Communist, who added that more than ever, Italy needs a new injection of idealistic fervor and of moral sensibility.

"Italian society is undergoing a phase of profound uncertainty and unease, in which it ought perhaps to revisit and more strongly reaffirm the idea of the 'common good' or the 'general interest'", he said.

"The uncertainty we are experiencing arose from the European economic crisis but has been made more acute in Italy by the inadequacy of the political system, by the degradation of customs, and the slide towards illegality which all provoke a rejection of a political system that is misleading", he added.

He proceeded to appeal for overcoming the uncertainty with "an extraordinary concentration and convergence" of efforts by believers and non-believers alike, as it happened once before in the constituent assembly after Italian reunification.

He said the aim is to renew the sense of ethics and duty, a new consciousness of spiritual values, and of the benefits of culture and solidarity.

He also rejected prejudiced comparisons of political forces claiming to represent either believers or non-believers, especially with regard to issues inherent to choices about individuals and families.

His final appeal: "In all sectors of society, wee need openness. reciprocal listening and understanding, dialog, rapprochement and unity in diversity. In short, we need the spirit of Assisi".

In his address, Cardinal Ravasi remarked on the words of the Italian President, expressing strong agreement especially on the idea of a basic anthropology [concept of man - the Italian predilection for using the word 'anthropology' to express this is rather off-putting] as a point of encounter between Catholics and the secular world.

"Identity must be affirmed", he underscored, "but there is always that common basis that we call 'humanity'."

Turning to the Italian President's appeal for moral reawakening, the cardinal said more voices like that of the President are needed, "to reorient consciences, especially in an era dominated by amorality and the arrogance of displaying immoral conduct".

In the forum held at the Cathedral of San Ruffino, the subtheme was "Work, enteprises and responsibility". The administrator of Italian Telecom called for a convergent effort between believers and non-believers to realize reforms that would renew Italian society and its economy.

The representative of Italy's confederation of labor unions denounced the absence of genuine objectives in recent decisions made by the Italian government, resulting, she says, in the fact that "Young people no longer think they can find work or that they have a future. They live in deep anguish and because of this, may even have lost their faith".

It was standing room at the forum dedicated to "Contemplation and meditation", in which discussions were led off by the philosopher Giulio Giorello and by the Prior of the Bose ecumenical monastery, Enzo Bianchi.

"Prayer", said Bianchi, "is thinking in front of God. It is an act that takes away any autarchy of thought. Meditation and contemplation always means addressing oneself to 'an Other' - even if for non-believers, this 'other' does not start with a capital letter".

Giorello also affirmed the idea of contemplation and meditation as 'an opening towards another, in itself" - an activity that "unites intelligent persons = namely, those who are ready to find the reasoning of others 'intelligible'."

Enzo Bianchi concluded by citing an address made by John Paul II to the Roman Curia in December 1986, which was dedicated to the first inter-religious assembly in Assisi, which the late Pope had greatly desired.

He said John Paul II underscored that mankind as a unity more profound than the sum of man's various religious ways - "the integral humanism that is increasingly the platform for dialog in the Courtyard of the Gentiles.


The Swedish embassy to the Holy See has posted a brief 'summary' of the Court of the Gentiles events in Sweden recently:

In Sweden, discussing the world
'with and without God'



On 13 and 14 September, the Embassy of Sweden in the Holy See hosted conceptual discussions on belief and non-belief under the heading 'The World with or without God' in cooperation with the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Fryshuset youth centre.

The discussions were part of the project "Court of the Gentiles".

Participants in the discussion at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 13 September were His Eminence Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Professor and author Georg Klein, physicist Ulf Danielsson, biologist Ingemar Ernberg, Bishop Antje Jackelén, philosopher Åsa Wikforss, authors PC Jersild and Ylva Eggehorn.

Participants in the discussion at Fryshuset youth centre on 14 September were Cardinal Ravasi, former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg, Fryshuset's founder Anders Carlberg, Deputy Chair of Ung Kristen Vänster Linnea Jacobsson, Chair of the Swedish Humanist Youth Organisation Jessica Schedvin, Chairman of the Swedish Humanist Association Christer Sturmark, author Per Wirtén and agent of peace/blogger Fazeela Zaib.

The embassy then posts a link to L'Osservatore Romano of Sept. 19 which carries a substantial article by Jesuit Fr. Ulf Jonsson of the Newman Institute of Upssala describing the 'surprise of the Swedish people and media on seeing the face of the Catholic Church'. Obviously, it bears translating...

Some Anglophone traditionalist blogsites have been rather snippy and harshly critical of the entire Court of the Gentiles idea, echoing the FSSPX line that there is nothing to gain by talking to non-believers because "what on earth would they talk about?" See the following foe a sampling:
rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/10/courtyard-of-gentiles-at-assisi-...

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Oct. 7, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

Illustrations, from left: Sculpture of St Dominic and the Virgin of the Rosary; Battle of Lepanto, by Veronese, 1572; prayer card to the Virgin of the Rosary;
image of Our Lady of Pompeii with Sts. Dominic and Catherine; Mysteries of the Rosary, Lorenzo Lotto, 1539; stained glass window of St. Dominic and the rosary.

Although the rosary had been prayed in some form as early as the second century, St. Dominic is credited with institutionalizing it as a devotion after a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1208. In 1541, the victory of the Holy Fleet against the Ottoman Turks in the naval battle of Lepanto off western Greece was attributed to Our Lady of the Rosary, and the October feast was instituted 30 years later. The rosary reached its present form in the 16th century — with 15 mysteries (joyful, sorrowful and glorious) for meditation. In 2002, Pope John Paul II added the Mysteries of Light to this devotion.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100712.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Proclamation of Saints Juan de Avila and Hildegarde von Bingen as Doctors of the Church and
Opening Mass of the XIII General Assembly of the Bishops's Synod on the New Evangelization

Sunday Angelus - In a brief message at the end of the Mass, before the Angelus prayers, the Holy Father
called on all the faithful to pray the Rosary in order to ask her guidance in leading us to Jesus.
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The following are the biographies of the two new Doctors of the Church in the Vatican libretto for today's Proclamation and Mass.

SAN JUAN DE AVILA (1500-1569)

NB: 'De Avila' is the saint's family name, and does not mean 'of Avila' as it is often mis-translated to English, even the Vatican libretto and other English translations for today's Proclamation. He was not born in Avila but in Almodovar del Campo near Toledo, and never lived in Avila. The San Juan who was born in Avila is better known as San Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross), also a Doctor of the Church.

JUAN DE AVILA was born on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, at Almodovar del Campo (Ciudad Real, then in the Diocese of Toledo), He was the only child of devout Christian parents who enjoyed good social and financial standing.

When he was 14, his parents brought him to the University of Salamanca to read Law but he renounced his studies in his fourth year on account of a profound conversion experience which compelled him to return to the family home in order to pray and reflect.

Intending to become a priest and to depart for the missions in America, he began studying humanities and theology. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1526, he celebrated his first Mass in his home parish. His parents were no longer alive. On this occasion, he invited 12 needy people to his table, and resolved to give the needy all the fortune derived from the silver mines owned by his family. He then set off for Sevilla to await a ship that would take him to Nueva Espana (Mexico).

Meanwhile, he preached in Sevilla and in the surrounding areas, where he met up again with his friend from his days at Alcala - another priest, Fernando de Contreras, who was by then a renowned catechist. The latter was so impressed by the younger man's preaching that he convinced the Archbishop of Sevilla to dissuade Juan from going to America and remain in Andalucia, where after centuries of Muslim control, the need to strengthen the faith was great.

So Juan remained in Sevilla, where he and Fernando shared a home, their poverty and prayer life. Juan continued his studies in theology at the Colegio de Santo Tomas in Sevilla while preaching and doing parish work.

His successes, however, were soon to be obscured by a denunciation to the Inquisition accusing him of holding some questionable doctrinal positions. During his trial in 1531-1533, he was kept in prison where he dedicated himself to prayer.

During this time, Juan received the grace of penetrating the mysteries of God's love, an insight that would shape his spiritual life and become one of the main themes for his work of evangelization.

From his prison cell, he wrote the first version of what would become his best-known work, Audi, filia, a treatise on the spiritual life, dedicated to Dona Sancha Carillo, a young lady from a distinguished family who received spiritual direction from him after an astonishing conversion.

When the Inquisition absolved him in 1533, Juan continued his preaching with notable success. But he chose to move to Cordoba, where he was incardinated, and where he came to know his disciple, friend and first biographer, the Dominica friar Luis de Granada. In 1536., he chose Granada to be his permanent home, where he continued his studies and came to be known as 'Maestro'.

In Granada, Juan lived an austere life dedicated to prayer and preaching. Gradually, he focused on the formation of men for the priesthood. To this end, he founded minor and major colleges for priest formation, which, after the Council of Trent, would become seminaries as envisioned by the Council.

In the eyes of Maestro de Avila, the reform of the Church, which he came to regard as ever more necessary, would come about through the holiness of clerics, religious and lay faithful.

The life of Juan de Avila is associated with famous converts, such as the Marquis of Llombal who would become St. Francisco Borja, and John Cidad, who would become San Juan de Dios. But he is mostly distinguished by his dedication to the poor and by founding colleges for the education of children and adolescents. He also founded the University of Baeza in Jaen, which, for centuries, was an important center for the formation of priests.

He travelled widely throughout Andalucia and parts of neighboring Extremadura to preach. But poor health forced him to retire for good in 1546 to Montilla near Cordoba where he carried out his apostolate through correspondence.

It was also in Montilla that he gave shape to some of his works. He wrote a catechism on Christian doctrine in verses, which children could sing. Juan de Avila also wrote a Treatise on the Love of God and a Treatise of the Priesthood .

On the morning of May 10, 1569, Juan de Avila - in severe pain and holding a crucifix, surrounded by disciples and friends - entrusted his soul to god in his humble home in Montilla. Hearing about his death, Teresa of Avila said, "I mourn because the Church of God has lost an important pillar".


ST. HILDEGARDE VON BINGEN (1098-1179)


Hildegarde was born in 1098 in Bermesheim (in what is now the German state of Rheinpfalz [Rhineland-Palatinate]). She was educated by Jutta von Spontheim at the Benedictine Abbey of Disibodenberg in Rheinpfalz, where Hildegarde took over the community after Jutta's death. Ten years later, she moved her community to Rupertsberg in Bingen, where she would work for the next 30 years.

Despite health problems, she was an energetic promoter of the Christian faith, traveling to meet with politicians and high-ranking clergy. Abbess Hildegarde became much respected by popes and bishops, kings and princes. But she was just as popular with the faithful who trusted her and relied on her. She became one of the most respected personalities in the Church of the 12th century.

Even as a child, Hildegarde had visions which increased over the years. She wrote down her experiences with the help of a 'secretary' for she did not know Latin very well. Her writings are considered to be the first works of German mysticism. But she also wrote on health, natural science, the cosmos, ethical questions and theology, which came to be an important part of the cultural patrimony of the Middle Ages.

She died in Rupertsberg on September 17, 1179, where she was buried. There are relics of her in the convent of Eibingen in Rudesheim, which she had founded in 1148.

On May 10, 2012, Benedict XVI inscribed Hildegarde von Bingen into the General Calendar of the Church and extended her liturgical cult (until then limited to Germany) to the Universal Church, in what is called an equivalent cnaonization. Two weeks later, on May 27, he announced that he would proclaim Hildegarde a Dcotor of the Universal Church, along with Spain's San Juan de Avila.

Pope Benedict dedicated two catecheses to St. Hildegarde on Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, 2010:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100901_en.html
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100908...



Also from the libretto:

THE RITE OF PROCLAIMING
A 'DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH'



Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation f r the Causes of Sainthood, accompanied by the Postulators, addressed the following words to the Holy Father:

Holy Father,

The Year of Faith is nearly upon us, providentially called by Your Holiness so that all may reflect upon the gift and the fundamental value of the Christian life. This 'favorable time', which officially begins next Thursday, Oct. 11, finds in today's liturgy, as it were, a helpful 'antiphon'.

Most Holy Father, it is no coincidence that the word 'antiphon' is used here. The two saints we are asking you to name Dcotors of the Universal Church are distinguished not only for the consistency between their teachings and their lives, but also for their quest for a harmonious convergence between the culture of their time and the mystery of Christ, Revelation of God and Savior of the world.

Despite their different contexts, in both St Juan de Avila and Saint Hildegarde von Bingen, humanism achieves its highest and noblest meaning as evangelical preparation, a true antiphon to him who is the Harmony of the Father and the New Song of a universe redeemed.

As Your Holiness stated in Paragraph i of your Apostolic Letter motu proprio Porta Fidei, "The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the source of living water welling up within him "(cf Jn 4,14).

Above all, Juan de Avila and Hildegarde von Bingen wished to 'hear Jesus'. They admired the depth of the Son of God's presence in the history of the world and, with hearts aflame and great insight, they explored new horizons of the eternal beauty he revealed. Thus today they are still able to pour out the water of life, whcih wells up with the witness to the joy of the tireless, rich quest for the truth.


[The biographies of the two saints were read.]

The holiness and the eminent doctrine of these two saints shine even in our day, for which reason the Apostolic See has received many requests to confer upon them the title of Doctor of the Universal Church.

Your Holiness charged the Congregation for the Causes of Saints with the task of studying carefully every aspect of the question. Having gained the consent of the Cardinals and Bishops in two distinct plenary sessions, Your Holiness announced on May 27 this year, that Saint Juan de Avila and St. Hildegarde von Bingen would today be granted the title of Doctor, for the good of the Church and the joy of their devotees.


Everyone rose, and the Holy Father pronounced the following ritual formula:

We, having obtained the opinions of numerous Brothers in the Episcopate and of many of Christ's faithful throughout the world, having consulted the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, after mature deliberation and with certain knowledge, and by the fullness of the aposwtolic power, declare St. Juan de Avila, diocesan priest, and St. Hildegarde von Bingen, professed nun of the Order of St. Benedict, Doctors of the Universal Church.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.


The Choir:

Let the peoples recount the wisdom of the Saints
and let the Church proclaim their praise.


Cardinal Amato:

Most Holy Father,
In the name of Holy Church, I thank Your Holiness for having today proclaimed St. Juan de Avila and St. Hildegarde von Bingen Dcotors of the Universal Church.


The proclamation ritual was followed by the Celebration of the Eucharist.


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PROCLAMATION OF
2 NEW DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH and
OPENING MASS OF THE XIII GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE BISHOPS' SYNOD



Libretto cover: "The Creator on his Throne among Angels and Cherubim", fresco, by students of Perugino, Raphael Rooms, Vatican Apostolic Palace.





Pope Benedict XVI today proclaimed two new Doctors of the Universal Church in St. Juan de Avila of Spain (1500-1569), and St. Hildegarde von Bingen of Germany (1098-1179), bringing the total number of Doctors to 35. The 33rd Doctor of the Church, St. Therese of Lisieux, was elevated to the honor by Blessed John Paul II in 1997.

St. Hildegarde is the fourth female Doctor of the Church, after Saints Teresa (de Jesus) of Avila and Catherine of Siena, proclaimed Doctors of the Church one week apart by Paul VI in 1970, and St. Therese of Lisieux. She is the second German Doctor of the Church after St. Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great).

St. Juan de Avila is the fourth Spanish Doctor of the Church, after St. Isidore of Seville (560-536), and the third Spanish Doctor from the Counter-Reformation era, after St. Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross) (1542-1591) and St. Teresa de Jesus (1515-1582), both born in Avila. Juan de Avila, who was born and worked in Andalucia, southern Spain, was a friend of his contemporary Doctors, as well as of other famous Spanish saints of the era - Ignacio de Loyola, Francisco Borja, Tomas de Villanueva, and Juan de Dios.

Doctors of the Church are saints of exceptional holiness and spirituality who also contributed greatly to the teachings of the Church by their writing and the message conveyed by their lives. Only the Pope can proclaim a Doctor, after evidence of universal support for the candidate.

The Spanish bishops started their petition to have Juan de Avila declared a Doctor of the Church since his canonization in 1970. The German bishops have carried out a similar effort for St. Hildegarde, and among the signers of a position in the 1970s was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich.

Although beatified, Hildegarde was never formally canonized despite four attempts around the time that the Roman canonization process was first instituted, but her name has been included in Roman Martyrology since the 16th century.


Pope names 2 new Doctors of the Church
and opens two-week Synodal Assembly



VATICAN CITY Oct. 7 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI named two new "doctors" of the church Sunday, conferring one of the Catholic Church's highest honours on a 16th-century Spanish preacher and a 12th-century German mystic who wasn't even officially recognized as a saint until earlier this year.

St. John of Avila [St. John de Avila], Spain, and St. Hildegarde of Bingen, Germany, join the ranks of only 33 other church doctors who have been singled out over the course of Christianity for their contributions to and influence on Catholic doctrine.

Benedict named them doctors at the start of a Mass in St. Peter's Square that kicked off a two-week meeting of the world's bishops to chart the Church's new evangelization mission.

The synod coincides with the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 church meetings that modernized the Church.

Some 262 cardinals, bishops and priests from around the world are in Rome for the synod, the largest number ever. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, was named by Benedict to run the meeting. [Cardinal Wuerl is the rapporteur/moderator. Other prelates were named presiding officers of the Synod.]

Addressing a sea of green-robed clerics, Benedict said the aim of the synod was to help reawaken the faith among Catholics who have drifted away from the church.

He said this crisis of the faith was reflected in the "profound crisis" of an increasing number of failed marriages.

"Matrimony," he said, "is a Gospel in itself."

At the start of the Mass, Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Vatican's saint-making office, read aloud the reasons why the church was proclaiming St. John and St. Hildegarde doctors, saying their "holiness and eminent doctrine" shine hundreds of years after they lived.

Benedict is particularly fond of Hildegarde, who was considered a saint in his native Germany but was never officially proclaimed one by the Vatican. Benedict, who himself referred to Hildegarde as a saint, earlier this year passed the decree making her one officially, a requirement for her to be named a Church doctor.

The last Church doctor named was St. Therese of Lisieux, France, in 1997.

My addendum:

Saints. Ambrose (340-307), Jerome (345-420), Augustine (354-430), and Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) were the first Doctors of the Western Church, proclaimed in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII.

After naming St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) a Doctor of the Church in 1567, St. Pope Pius V in 1568 proclaimed four great contemporaries of the Eastern Church as Doctors - St. Athanasius (295-373), St. Basil the Great (3303-79), St. Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390) and St. John Chrysostom (345-407).

In 1588, Sixtus V recognized St. Bonaventure (1217-1274) with the honor. No new Doctor of the Church was proclaimed till 1720, in St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), by Clement XI.

Subsequently honored were:
St. Isidore of Sevilla (560-636), by Innocent XIII in 1722
St. Peter Chrysologus (400-450), by Benedict XIII, in 1729
St. Pope Leo the Great (390-461), by Benedict XIV, in 1754
St. Peter Damiani (1007-1072), by Leo XII, in 1828
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), by Pius VIII in 1830
St. Hilaire of Poitiers (315-368), by Pius IX in 1851
St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), by Pius IX in 1871
St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), by Pius IX in 1871
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315-387) and
St. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444), by Leo XIII in 1882
St. John Damascene (679-749), by Leo XIII in 1890
St. Bede the Venerable (673-735), by Leo XIII in 1899
St. Ephrem of Syria (306-373), by Benedict XV in 1920
St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597), by Pius XI in 1925
St. Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591), by Pius XI in 1926
St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), by Pius XI in 1931
St. Albert the Great (1200-1280), by Pius XI in 1931
St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), by Pius XII in 1946
St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1622), by John XXIII in 1959
St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), by Paul VI in 1970
St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1379), by Paul VI in 1970
St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), by John Paul II in 1997




The Pope opens Synodal Assembly
for the New Evangelization


Oct. 7, 2012

A host of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay people drawn from throughout the Universal Church gathered around Pope Benedict XVI Sunday morning as he declared the Thirteenth Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation, officially open. Emer McCarthy has this report:

Green was the liturgical colour and the concelebrating Synod fathers took their places at the foot of the altar before the façade of St Peter’s Basilica, as Pope Benedict XVI outlined his vision and hopes for the important task ahead of them in the next three weeks: helping people to rediscover faith in Jesus Christ.

In his homily, he said that “in every time and place, evangelization always has as its starting and finishing points Jesus Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mk 1:1); and the Crucifix is the supremely distinctive sign of him who announces the Gospel: a sign of love and peace, a call to conversion and reconciliation”.

This call, he continued, should take into account “those who do not yet know Jesus Christ and his message of salvation, and those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church”.

Then – reflecting on the Sunday Gospel, Mark Chapter 10 - Pope Benedict singled out one area for particular attention: marriage.

Looking out at the tens of thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square he said that marriage “is a Gospel in itself” and “Good News” for today’s dechristianized world.

“The union of a man and a woman, their becoming “one flesh” in charity, in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a force and an eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis”.

Benedict XVI pointed to a link between the current crisis of faith and this crisis in marriage, because" marriage is based on the grace of God that man of today no longer recognizes. To overcome this crisis, any crisis, we need to be newly reconciled with God"

Above the altar from the central balcony of St Peter’s basilica hung two giant tapestries depicting St John of Avila and St Hildegarde of Bingen. Reciting the solemn formula in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI declared them both Doctors of the Universal Church.

He then reminded the men and women gathered to the Vatican for the Synod that “the saints are the true actors and pioneers in evangelization” and invoking their intercession, Pope Benedict concluded by entrusting the Synod’s work to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization.

Here is the Vatican translation of the Pope's homily today:

With this solemn concelebration we open the thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.

This theme reflects a programmatic direction for the life of the Church, its members, families, its communities and institutions. And this outline is reinforced by the fact that it coincides with the beginning of the Year of Faith, starting on 11 October, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

I give a cordial and grateful welcome to you who have come to be part of the Synodal Assembly, in particular to the Secretary-General of the Synod of Bishops, and to his colleagues. I greet the fraternal delegates of the other churches and ecclesial communities as well as all present, inviting them to accompany in daily prayer the deliberations which will take place over the next three weeks.

The readings for this Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word propose to us two principal points of reflection: the first on matrimony, which I will touch shortly; and the second on Jesus Christ, which I will discuss now.

We do not have time to comment upon the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews but, at the beginning of this Synodal Assembly, we ought to welcome the invitation to fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus, “crowned with glory and honour, because of the suffering of death
(2:9).

The word of God places us before the glorious One who was crucified, so that our whole lives, and in particular the commitment of this Synodal session, will take place in the sight of him and in the light of his mystery.

In every time and place, evangelization always has as its starting and finishing points Jesus Christ, the Son of God
(cf. Mk 1:1); and the Crucifix is the supremely distinctive sign of him who announces the Gospel: a sign of love and peace, a call to conversion and reconciliation.

My dear Brother Bishops, starting with ourselves, let us fix our gaze upon him and let us be purified by his grace.

I would now like briefly to examine the new evangelization, and its relation to ordinary evangelization and the mission ad gentes.

The Church exists to evangelize. Faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command, his disciples went out to the whole world to announce the Good News, spreading Christian communities everywhere. With time, these became well-organized churches with many faithful.

At various times in history, divine providence has given birth to a renewed dynamism in Church’s evangelizing activity. We need only think of the evangelization of the Anglo-Saxon peoples or the Slavs, or the transmission of the faith on the continent of America, or the missionary undertakings among the peoples of Africa, Asia and Oceania.

It is against this dynamic background that I like to look at the two radiant figures that I have just proclaimed Doctors of the Church, Saint Juan de Avila and Saint Hildegarde von Bingen.

Even in our own times, the Holy Spirit has nurtured in the Church a new effort to announce the Good News, a pastoral and spiritual dynamism which found a more universal expression and its most authoritative impulse in the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

Such renewed evangelical dynamism produces a beneficent influence on the two specific “branches” developed by it, that is, on the one hand the Missio ad Gentes or announcement of the Gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ and his message of salvation, and on the other the New Evangelization, directed principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life.

The Synodal Assembly which opens today is dedicated to this new evangelization, to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favour the rediscovery of the faith, that source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life.

Obviously, such a special focus must not diminish either missionary efforts in the strict sense or the ordinary activity of evangelization in our Christian communities, as these are three aspects of the one reality of evangelization which complement and enrich each other.

The theme of marriage, found in the Gospel and the first reading, deserves special attention. The message of the Word of God may be summed up in the expression found in the Book of Genesis and taken up by Jesus himself: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh”
(Gen 2:24; Mk 10:7-8).

What does this word say to us today? It seems to me that it invites us to be more aware of a reality, already well known but not fully appreciated: that matrimony is a Gospel in itself, a Good News for the world of today, especially the dechristianized world.

The union of a man and a woman, their becoming “one flesh” in charity, in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a force and an eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis. And it is not by chance.

Marriage is linked to faith, but not in a general way. Marriage, as a union of faithful and indissoluble love, is based upon the grace that comes from the triune God, who in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross.

Today we ought to grasp the full truth of this statement, in contrast to the painful reality of many marriages which, unhappily, end badly. There is a clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage.

And, as the Church has said and witnessed for a long time now, marriage is called to be not only an object but a subject of the new evangelization. This is already being seen in the many experiences of communities and movements, but its realization is also growing in dioceses and parishes, as shown in the recent World Meeting of Families.

One of the important ideas of the renewed impulse that the Second Vatican Council gave to evangelization is that of the universal call to holiness, which in itself concerns all Christians
(cf. Lumen Gentium, 39-42).

The saints are the true actors in evangelization in all its expressions. In a special way they are even pioneers and bringers of the new evangelization: with their intercession and the example of lives attentive to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they show the beauty of the Gospel to those who are indifferent or even hostile, and they invite, as it were tepid believers, to live with the joy of faith, hope and charity, to rediscover the taste for the word of God and for the sacraments, especially for the bread of life, the Eucharist.

Holy men and women bloom among the generous missionaries who announce the Good News to non-Christians, in the past in mission countries and now in any place where there are non-Christians. Holiness is not confined by cultural, social, political or religious barriers. Its language, that of love and truth, is understandable to all people of good will and it draws them to Jesus Christ, the inexhaustible source of new life.

At this point, let us pause for a moment to appreciate the two saints who today have been added to the elect number of Doctors of the Church.

Saint Juan de Avila lived in the sixteenth century. A profound expert on the sacred Scriptures, he was gifted with an ardent missionary spirit. He knew how to penetrate in a uniquely profound way the mysteries of the redemption worked by Christ for humanity.

A man of God, he united constant prayer to apostolic action. He dedicated himself to preaching and to the more frequent practice of the sacraments, concentrating his commitment on improving the formation of candidates for the priesthood, of religious and of lay people, with a view to a fruitful reform of the Church.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen, an important female figure of the twelfth century, offered her precious contribution to the growth of the Church of her time, employing the gifts received from God and showing herself to be a woman of brilliant intelligence, deep sensitivity and recognized spiritual authority.

The Lord granted her a prophetic spirit and fervent capacity to discern the signs of the times. Hildegard nurtured an evident love of creation, and was learned in medicine, poetry and music. Above all, she maintained a great and faithful love for Christ and the Church.

This summary of the ideal in Christian life, expressed in the call to holiness, draws us to look with humility at the fragility, even sin, of many Christians, as individuals and communities, which is a great obstacle to evangelization and to recognizing the force of God that, in faith, meets human weakness.

Thus, we cannot speak about the new evangelization without a sincere desire for conversion. The best path to the new evangelization is to let ourselves be reconciled with God and with each other
(cf. 2 Cor 5:20).

Solemnly purified, Christians can regain a legitimate pride in their dignity as children of God, created in his image and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and they can experience his joy in order to share it with everyone, both near and far.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us entrust the work of the Synod meeting to God, sustained by the communion of saints, invoking in particular the intercession of great evangelizers, among whom, with much affection, we ought to number Blessed John Paul II, whose long pontificate was an example of the new evangelization.

Let us place ourselves under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization. With her let us invoke a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that from on high he may illumine the Synodal assembly and make it fruitful for the Church’s way ahead.



The Holy Father made these brief remarks before leading the Angelus at the end of the Mass:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Now let us turn in prayer to the Most Blessed Mary, whom we venerate today as Queen of the Holy Rosary.

At this time, in the Shrine to her in Pompeii, the traditional Supplica [Plea] is said, joined by numberless persons around the world. Even as we, too, associate ourselves spiritually to that great communal invocation, I wish to propose to everyone to value the praying of the Rosary during the coming Year of Faith.

Indeed, with the Rosary, we allow ourselves to be guided by Maru, model of faith, in meditating the mysteries of Christ, and day after day, we are helped to assimilate the Gospel so that it gives shape to our whole life.

That is why in the wake of my predecessors, especially of Blessed John Paul II, who ten years ago, gave us the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I invite you all to pray the Rosary individually, in the family, and in the community, placing ourselves in the school of Mary, who leads us to Christ, the living center of our faith.


He then proceeded to say greetings to various pilgrim groups in other languages..

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/10/2012 02:35]
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