BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

The big news from the Vatican on Friday, Oct. 26, was the presentation of he Synodal Assembly's concluding Message to the People of God, as the three-week meeting draws to an end. Here is the English text of the Message:

MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD


During the Twentieth Congregation held today, Friday, October 26 2012, the Synodal Fathers approved the Message, for the conclusion of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

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Brothers and sisters,

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7). Before returning to our particular Churches, we, Bishops coming from the whole world gathered by the invitation of the Bishop of Rome Pope Benedict XVI to reflect on “the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith”, wish to address you all in order to sustain and direct the preaching and teaching of the Gospel in the diverse contexts in which the Church finds herself today to give witness.

1. Like the Samaritan woman at the well
Let us draw light from a Gospel passage: Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman (cf. John 4:5-42). There is no man or woman who, in one's life, would not find oneself like the woman of Samaria beside a well with an empty bucket, with the hope of finding the fulfillment of the heart's most profound desire, that which alone could give full meaning to life.

Today, many wells offer themselves to quench humanity's thirst, but we must discern in order to avoid polluted waters. We must orient the search properly, so as not to fall prey to disappointment, which can be damaging.

Like Jesus at the well of Sychar, the Church also feels obliged to sit beside today's men and women. She wants to render the Lord present in their lives so that they can encounter him because his Spirit alone is the water that gives true and eternal life. Only Jesus can read the depths of our heart and reveal the truth about ourselves: “He told me everything I have done”, the woman confesses to her fellow citizens. This word of proclamation is united to the question that opens up to faith: “Could he possibly be the Messiah?”

It shows that whoever receives new life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim truth and hope to others. The sinner who was converted becomes a messenger of salvation and leads the whole city to Jesus. The people pass from welcoming her testimony to personally experiencing the encounter: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world”.

2. A new evangelization
Leading the men and women of our time to Jesus, to the encounter with him is a necessity that touches all the regions of the world, those of the old and those of the recent evangelization. Everywhere indeed we feel the need to revive a faith that risks eclipse in cultural contexts that hinders its taking root in persons and its presence in society, the clarity of its content and the coherence of its fruits.

It is not a matter of starting again, but of entering into the long path of proclaiming the Gospel with the apostolic courage of Paul who would go so far as to say “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Throughout history, from the first centuries of the Christian era to the present, the Gospel has edified communities of believers in all parts of the world. Whether small or great, these are the fruit of the dedication of generations of witnesses to Jesus – missionaries and martyrs – whom we remember with gratitude.

The changed social, cultural, economic, civil and religious scenarios call us to something new: to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in its methods, in its expressions” (John Paul II, Discourse to the XIX Assembly of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3) as John Paul II said.

Benedict XVI recalled that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life... to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills our existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the rediscovery of the faith, that source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life” (Benedict XVI, Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the solemn inauguration of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 7 October 2012).

3. The personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church
Before saying anything about the forms that this new evangelization must assume, we feel the need to tell you with profound conviction that the faith determines everything in the relationship that we build with the person of Jesus who takes the initiative to encounter us.

The work of the new evangelization consists in presenting once more the beauty and perennial newness of the encounter with Christ to the often distracted and confused heart and mind of the men and women of our time, above all to ourselves.

We invite you all to contemplate the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, to enter the mystery of his life given for us on the cross, reconfirmed in his resurrection from the dead as the Father's gift and imparted to us through the Spirit.

In the person of Jesus, the mystery of God the Father's love for the entire human family is revealed. He did not want us to remain in a false autonomy. Rather he reconciled us to himself in a renewed pact of love.

The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God's children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity and the strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all.

We must form welcoming communities in which all outcasts find a home, concrete experiences of communion which attract the disenchanted glance of contemporary humanity with the ardent force of love – “See how they love one another!” (Tertullian, Apology, 39, 7).

The beauty of faith must particularly shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all in the Sunday Eucharist. It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the Church reveals herself as God's work and makes the meaning of the Gospel visible in word and gesture.

It is up to us today to render experiences of the Church concretely accessible, to multiply the wells where thirsting men and women are invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases in the deserts of life. Christian communities and, in them, every disciple of the Lord are responsible for this: an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each one, so that the Gospel can enter the lives of all. This requires of us holiness of life.

4. The occasions of encountering Jesus and listening to the Scriptures
Someone will ask how to do all this. We need not invent new strategies as if the Gospel were a product to be placed in the market of religions. We need to rediscover the ways in which Jesus approached persons and called them, in order to put these approaches into practice in today's circumstances.

We recall, for example, how Jesus engaged Peter, Andrew, James and John in the context of their work, how Zaccheus was able to pass from simple curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal with the Master, how the Roman centurion asked him to heal a person dear to him, how the man born blind invoked him as liberator from his own marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw the hospitality of their house and of their heart rewarded by his presence.

By going through the pages of the Gospels as well as the apostles' missionary experiences in the early Church, we can discover the various ways and circumstances in which persons' lives were opened to Christ's presence.

The frequent reading of the Sacred Scriptures – illuminated by the Tradition of the Church who hands them over to us and is their authentic interpreter – is not only necessary for knowing the very content of the Gospel, which is the person of Jesus in the context of salvation history. Reading the Scriptures also helps us to discover opportunities to encounter Jesus, truly evangelical approaches rooted in the fundamental dimensions of human life: the family, work, friendship, various forms of poverty and the trials of life, etc.

5. Evangelizing ourselves and opening ourselves to conversion
We, however, should never think that the new evangelization does not concern us personally. In these days voices among the Bishops were raised to recall that the Church must first of all heed the Word before she can evangelize the world. The invitation to evangelize becomes a call to conversion.

We firmly believe that we must convert ourselves first to the power of Christ who alone can make all things new, above all our poor existence. With humility we must recognize that the poverty and weaknesses of Jesus's disciples, especially of his ministers, weigh on the credibility of the mission.

We are certainly aware – we Bishops first of all – that we could never really be equal to the Lord's calling and mandate to proclaim his Gospel to the nations. We know that we must humbly recognize our vulnerability to the wounds of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins.

We are, however, also convinced that the Lord's Spirit is capable of renewing his Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let him mold us. This is demonstrated by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance and narration of which is a privileged means of the new evangelization.

If this renewal were up to us, there would be serious reasons to doubt. But conversion in the Church, just like evangelization, does not come about primarily through us poor mortals, but rather through the Spirit of the Lord. Here we find our strength and our certainty that evil will never have the last word whether in the Church or in history: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27),Jesus said to his disciples.

The work of the new evangelization rests on this serene certainty. We are confident in the inspiration and strength of the Spirit, who will teach us what we are to say and what we are to do even in the most difficult moments. It is our duty, therefore, to conquer fear through faith, discouragement through hope, indifference through love.

6. Seizing new opportunities for evangelization in the world today
This serene courage also affects the way we look at the world today. We are not intimidated by the circumstances of the times in which we live. Our world is full of contradictions and challenges, but it remains God's creation. The world is wounded by evil, but God loves it still. It is his field in which the sowing of the Word can be renewed so that it would bear fruit once more.

There is no room for pessimism in the minds and hearts of those who know that their Lord has conquered death and that his Spirit works with might in history. We approach this world with humility, but also with determination. This comes from the certainty that the truth triumphs in the end.

We choose to see in the world the Risen Christ´s invitation to witness to his Name. Our Church is alive and faces the challenges that history brings with the courage of faith and the testimony of her many daughters and sons.

We know that we must face in this world a battle against the “principalities” and “powers”, “the evil spirits” (Eph 6:12). We do not ignore the problems that such challenges bring, but they do not frighten us. This is true above all for the phenomena of globalization which must be for us opportunities to expand the presence of the Gospel.

Despite the intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as brothers and sisters, migrations have been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith and build communion in its various forms. Secularization – as well as the crisis brought about by the dominance of politics and of the State – requires the Church to rethink its presence in society without however renouncing it.

The many and ever new forms of poverty open new opportunities for charitable service: the proclamation of the Gospel binds the Church to be with the poor and to take on their sufferings like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms of atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize – although in contradictory forms – not a void but a longing, an expectation that awaits an adequate response.

In the face of the questions that prevailing cultures pose to faith and to the Church, we renew our trust in the Lord, certain that even in these contexts the Gospel is the bearer of light and capable of healing every human weakness.

It is not we who are to conduct the work of evangelization, but God, as the Pope reminded us: “The first word, the true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves in to the divine initiative, only by begging this divine initiative, will we too be able to become – with him and in him – evangelizers” (Benedict XVI, Meditation during the first general Congregation of the XIII General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 8 October 2012).

7. Evangelization, the family and consecrated life
Ever since the first evangelization, the transmission of the faith from one generation to the next found a natural home in the family where women play a very special role without diminishing the figure and responsibility of the father. In the context of the care that every family provides for the growth of its little ones, infants and children are introduced to the signs of faith, the communication of first truths, education in prayer, and the witness of the fruits of love.

Despite the diversity of their geographical, cultural and social situations, all the Bishops of the Synod reconfirmed this essential role of the family in the transmission of the faith. A new evangelization is unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility to proclaim the Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of education.

We do not ignore the fact that today the family, established in the marriage of a man and of a woman which makes them “one flesh” (Matthew 19:6) open to life, is assaulted by crises everywhere. It is surrounded by models of life that penalize it and neglected by the politics of society of which it is also the fundamental cell. It is not always respected in its rhythms and sustained in its tasks by ecclesial communities.

It is precisely this, however, that impels us to say that we must particularly take care of the family and its mission in society and in the Church, developing specific paths of accompaniment before and after matrimony. We also want to express our gratitude to the many Christian couples and families who, through their witness, show the world an experience of communion and of service which is the seed of a more loving and peaceful society.

Our thoughts also went to the many families and couples living together which do not reflect that image of unity and of lifelong love that the Lord entrusted to us. There are couples who live together without the sacramental bond of matrimony. More and more families in irregular situations are established after the failure of previous marriages. These are painful situations that affect the education of sons and daughters in the faith.

To all of them we want to say that God's love does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist.

May our Catholic communities welcome all who live in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion and reconciliation.

Family life is the first place in which the Gospel encounters the ordinary life and demonstrates its capacity to transform the fundamental conditions of existence in the horizon of love. But not less important for the witness of the Church is to show how this temporal existence has a fulfillment that goes beyond human history and attains to eternal communion with God.

Jesus does not introduce himself to the Samaritan woman simply as the one who gives life, but as the one who gives “eternal life” (John 4:14). God's gift, which faith renders present, is not simply the promise of better conditions in this world.[?????] It is the proclamation that our life's ultimate meaning is beyond this world, in that full communion with God that we await at the end of time.

Of this supernatural horizon of the meaning of human existence, there are particular witnesses in the Church and in the world whom the Lord has called to consecrated life. Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the sign of a future world that relativizes everything that is good in this world.

May the gratitude of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reach these our brothers and sisters for their fidelity to the Lord's calling and for the contribution that they have given and give to the Church's mission.

We exhort them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them in these times of change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses and promoters of new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism of each of their institutes assigns them.

8. The ecclesial community and the many agents of evangelization
No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where one has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service, mission.

In this perspective, the role of the parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can require of it either to be made up of small Christian communities or to forge bonds of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts.

We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional pastoral care of God's people. These must also permeate the various important expressions of popular piety.

In the parish, the ministry of the priest – father and pastor of his people – remains crucial. To all priests, the Bishops of this Synodal Assembly express thanks and fraternal closeness for their difficult task. We invite them to strengthen the bonds of the diocesan presbyterium, to deepen their spiritual life, and to an ongoing formation that enables them to face the changes.

Alongside the priests, the presence of deacons is to be sustained, as well as the pastoral action of catechists and of many other ministers and animators in the fields of proclamation, catechesis, liturgical life, charitable service.

The various forms of participation and co-responsibility of the faithful must also be promoted. We cannot thank enough our lay men and women for their dedication in our communities' manifold services. We ask all of them, too, to place their presence and their service in the Church in the perspective of the new evangelization, taking care of their own human and Christian formation, their understanding of the faith and their sensitivity to contemporary cultural phenomena.

With regard to the laity, a special word goes to the various forms of old and new associations, together with the ecclesial movements and the new communities: All are an expression of the richness of the gifts that the Spirit bestows on the Church. We also thank these forms of life and of commitment in the Church, exhorting them to be faithful to their proper charism and to earnest ecclesial communion especially in the concrete context of the particular Churches.

Witnessing to the Gospel is not the privilege of one or of a few. We recognize with joy the presence of many men and women who with their lives become a sign of the Gospel in the midst of the world.

We also recognize them in many of our Christian brothers and sisters with whom unity unfortunately is not yet full, but are nevertheless marked by the Lord's Baptism and proclaim it.

In these days it was a moving experience for us to listen to the voices of many authorities of Churches and ecclesial communities who gave witness to their thirst for Christ and their dedication to the proclamation of the Gospel. They, too, are convinced that the world needs a new evangelization. We are grateful to the Lord for this unity in the necessity of the mission.

9. That the youth may encounter Christ
The youth are particularly dear to us, because they, who are a significant part of humanity and the Church today, are also their future. With regard to them, the Bishops are far from being pessimistic. Concerned, yes; but not pessimistic.

We are concerned because the most aggressive attacks of our times happen to converge precisely on them. We are not, however, pessimistic, above all because what moves in the depths of history is Christ's love, but also because we sense in our youth deep aspirations for authenticity, truth, freedom, generosity, to which we are convinced that the adequate response is Christ.

We want to support them in their search and we encourage our communities to listen to, dialogue with and respond boldly and without reservation to the difficult condition of the youth.
We want our communities to harness, not to suppress, the power of their enthusiasm; to struggle for them against the fallacies and selfish ventures of worldly powers which, to their own advantage, dissipate the energies and waste the passion of the young, taking from them every grateful memory of the past and every profound vision of the future.

The world of the young is a demanding but also particularly promising field of the New Evangelization. This is demonstrated by many experiences, from those that draw many of them like the World Youth Days, to the most hidden – but nonetheless powerful – like the different experiences of spirituality, service and mission. Young people's active role in evangelizing first and foremost their world is to be recognized.

10. The Gospel in dialogue with human culture and experience and with religions
The New Evangelization is centered on Christ and on care for the human person in order to give life to a real encounter with him. However, its horizons are as wide as the world and beyond any human experience.

This means that it carefully cultivates the dialogue with cultures, confident that it can find in each of them the “seeds of the Word” about which the ancient Fathers spoke. In particular, the new evangelization needs a renewed alliance between faith and reason.

We are convinced that faith has the capacity to welcome the fruits of sound thinking open to transcendence and the strength to heal the limits and contradictions into which reason can fall. Faith does not close its eyes, not even before the excruciating questions arising from evil's presence in life and in history, in order to draw the light of hope from Christ's Paschal Mystery.

The encounter between faith and reason also nourishes the Christian community's commitment in the field of education and culture. The institutions of formation and of research – schools and universities – occupy a special place in this.

Wherever human intelligence is developed and educated, the Church is pleased to bring her experience and contribution to the integral formation of the person. In this context particular care is to be reserved for Catholic schools and for Catholic universities, in which the openness to transcendence that belongs to every authentic cultural and educational course, must be fulfilled in paths of encounter with the event of Jesus Christ and of his Church. May the gratitude of the Bishops reach all who, in sometimes difficult conditions, are involved in this.

Evangelization requires that we pay much attention to the world of social communication, especially the new media, in which many lives, questions and expectations converge. It is the place where consciences are often formed, where people spend their time and live their lives. It is a new opportunity for touching the human heart.

A particular field of the encounter between faith and reason today is the dialogue with scientific knowledge. This is not at all far from faith, since it manifests the spiritual principle that God placed in his creatures. It allows us to see the rational structures on which creation is founded.

When science and technology do not presume to imprison humanity and the world in a barren materialism, they become an invaluable ally in making life more humane. Our thanks also go to those who are involved in this sensitive field of knowledge.

We also want to thank men and women involved in another expression of the human genius, art in its various forms, from the most ancient to the most recent. We recognize in works of art a particularly meaningful way of expressing spirituality inasmuch as they strive to embody humanity's attraction to beauty. We are grateful when artists through their beautiful creations bring out the beauty of God's face and that of his creatures. The way of beauty is a particularly effective path of the new evangelization.

In addition to works of art, all of human activity draws our attention as an opportunity in which we cooperate in divine creation through work.

We want to remind the world of economy and of labor of some matters arising from the Gospel: to redeem work from the conditions that often make it an unbearable burden and an uncertain future threatened by youth unemployment, to place the human person at the center of economic development, to think of this development as an occasion for humanity to grow in justice and unity. Humanity transforms the world through work. Nevertheless we are called to safeguard the integrity of creation out of a sense of responsibility towards future generations.

The Gospel also illuminates the suffering brought about by disease. Christians must help the sick feel that the Church is near to persons with illness or with disabilities. Christians are to thank all who take care of them professionally and humanely.

A field in which the light of the Gospel can and must shine in order to illuminate humanity's footsteps is politics. Politics requires a commitment of selfless and sincere care for the common good by fully respecting the dignity of the human person from conception to natural end, honoring the family founded by the marriage of a man and a woman, and protecting academic freedom; by removing the causes of injustice, inequality, discrimination, violence, racism, hunger and war. Christians are asked to give a clear witness to the precept of charity in the exercise of politics.

Finally, the Church considers the followers of religions as her natural partners in dialogue. One is evangelized because one is convinced of the truth of Christ, not because one is against another. The Gospel of Jesus is peace and joy, and his disciples are happy to recognize whatever is true and good that humanity's religious spirit has been able to glimpse in the world created by God and that it has expressed in the various religions.

The dialogue among believers of various religions intends to be a contribution to peace. It rejects every fundamentalism and denounces every violence that is brought upon believers as serious violations of human rights. The Churches of the whole world are united in prayer and in fraternity to the suffering brothers and sisters and ask those who are responsible for the destinies of peoples to safeguard everyone's right to freely choose, profess and witness to one's faith.

11. Remembering the Second Vatican Council and
referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the Year of Faith
In the path opened by the New Evangelization, we might also feel as if we were in a desert, in the midst of dangers and lacking points of reference. The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his homily for the Mass opening the Year of Faith, spoke of a “spiritual 'desertification'” that has advanced in the last decades.

But he also encouraged us by affirming that “it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living” (Homily for the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the Year of Faith, Rome, 11 October 2012).

In the desert, like the Samaritan woman, we seek water and a well from which to drink: blessed is the one who encounters Christ there!

We thank the Holy Father for the gift of the Year of Faith, a precious gateway into the path of the new evangelization. We thank him also for having linked this Year to the grateful remembrance of the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago.

Its fundamental magisterium for our time shines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is proposed once more as a sure reference of faith twenty years after its publication. These are important anniversaries, which allow us to reaffirm our close adherence to the Council's teaching and our firm commitment to carry on its implementation.

12. Contemplating the mystery and being at the side of the poor
In this perspective we wish to indicate to all the faithful two expressions of the life of faith which seem particularly important to us for witnessing to it in the New Evangelization.

The first is constituted by the gift and experience of contemplation. A testimony that the world would consider credible can arise only from an adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only from the deep silence that receives the unique saving Word like a womb. Only this prayerful silence can prevent the word of salvation from being lost in the many noises that overrun the world.

We now address a word of gratitude to all men and women who dedicate their lives to prayer and contemplation in monasteries and hermitages. Moments of contemplation must interweave with people's ordinary lives: spaces in the soul, but also physical ones, that remind us of God; interior sanctuaries and temples of stone that, like crossroads, keep us from losing ourselves in a flood of experiences; opportunities in which all could feel accepted, even those who barely know what and whom to seek.

The other symbol of authenticity of the new evangelization has the face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side with those who are wounded by life is not only a social exercise, but above all a spiritual act because it is Christ's face that shines in the face of the poor: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

We must recognize the privileged place of the poor in our communities, a place that does not exclude anyone, but wants to reflect how Jesus bound himself to them. The presence of the poor in our communities is mysteriously powerful: it changes persons more than a discourse does, it teaches fidelity, it makes us understand the fragility of life, it asks for prayer: in short, it brings us to Christ.

The gesture of charity, on the other hand, must also be accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that concerns all, poor and rich. Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is integral to the pathways of the new evangelization, as well as the formation of Christians to dedicate themselves to serve the human community in social and political life.

13. To the Churches in the various regions of the world
The vision of the Bishops gathered in the synodal assembly embraces all the ecclesial communities spread throughout the world. Their vision seeks to be comprehensive, because the call to encounter Christ is one, while keeping diversity in mind.

The Bishops gathered in the Synod gave special consideration, full of fraternal affection and gratitude, to you Christians of the Catholic Oriental Churches, those who are heirs of the first wave of evangelization – an experience preserved with love and faithfulness – and those present in Eastern Europe.

Today the Gospel comes to you again in a new evangelization through liturgical life, catechesis, daily family prayer, fasting, solidarity among families, the participation of the laity in the life of communities and in dialogue with society.

In many places your Churches are amidst trials and tribulation through which they witness to their participation in the sufferings of Christ. Some of the faithful are forced to emigrate. Keeping alive their oneness with their community of origin, they can contribute to the pastoral care and to the work of evangelization in the countries that have welcomed them.

May the Lord continue to bless your faithfulness. May your future be marked by the serene confession and practice of your faith in peace and religious liberty.

We look to you Christians, men and women, who live in the countries of Africa and we express our gratitude for your witness to the Gospel often in difficult circumstances.

We exhort you to revive the evangelization that you received in recent times, to build the Church as the family of God, to strengthen the identity of the family, to sustain the commitment of priests and catechists especially in the small Christian communities.

We affirm the need to develop the encounter between the Gospel and old and new cultures. Great expectation and a strong appeal is addressed to the world of politics and to the governments of the various countries of Africa, so that, in collaboration with all people of good will, basic human rights may be promoted and the continent freed from violence and conflicts which still afflict it.

The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you, Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization, while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne generous fruits of faith, charity and mission.

You need to recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but leaves you in their midst to offer to all the light of faith and the power of life.

As you welcome in your generous lands new populations of immigrants and refugees, may you be willing to open the doors of your homes to the faith. Faithful to the commitments taken at the synodal Assembly for America, be united with Latin America in the ongoing evangelization of the continent you share.

The synodal assembly addressed the same sentiment of gratitude to the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly striking throughout the ages is the development in your countries of forms of popular piety still fixed in the hearts of many people, of charitable service and of dialogue with cultures.

Now, in the face of many present challenges, first of all poverty and violence, the Church in Latin America and in the Caribbean is encouraged to live in an ongoing state of mission, announcing the Gospel with hope and joy, forming communities of true missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, showing in the commitment of its sons and daughters how the Gospel could be the source of a new, just and fraternal society.

Religious pluralism also tests your Churches and requires a renewed proclamation of the Gospel.To you, Christians of Asia, we also offer a word of encouragement and of exhortation. As a small minority in the continent which houses almost two thirds of the world's population, your presence is a fruitful seed entrusted to the power of the Spirit, which grows in dialogue with the diverse cultures, with the ancient religions and with the countless poor.

Although often outcast by society and in many places also persecuted, the Church of Asia, with its firm faith, is a valuable presence of Christ's Gospel which proclaims justice, life and harmony. Christians of Asia, feel the fraternal closeness of Christians of other countries of the world which cannot forget that in your continent – in the Holy Land – Jesus was born, lived, died and rose from the dead.

The Bishops address a word of gratitude and hope to the Churches of the European continent, in part marked today by a strong – sometimes even aggressive – secularization, and in part still wounded by many decades of regimes with ideologies hostile to God and to humanity.

We look with gratitude towards the past, but also to the present, in which the Gospel has created in Europe particular expressions and experiences of faith – often overflowing with holiness – that have been decisive for the evangelization of the whole world: rich theological thought, various charismatic expressions, various forms of charitable service for the poor, profound contemplative experiences, the creation of a humanistic culture which has contributed to defining the dignity of the person and shaping the common good.

May the present difficulties not pull you down, dear Christians of Europe: may you consider them instead as a challenge to be overcome and an occasion for a more joyful and vivid proclamation of Christ and of his Gospel of life.

Finally, the bishops of the synodal assembly greet the people of Oceania who live under the protection of the Southern Cross, they thank them for their witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Our prayer for you is that you might feel a profound thirst for new life, like the Samaritan Woman at the well, and that you might be able to hear the word of Jesus which says: “If you knew the gift of God” (John 4:10).

May you more strongly feel the commitment to preach the Gospel and to make Jesus known in the world of today. We exhort you to encounter him in your daily life, to listen to him and to discover, through prayer and meditation, the grace to be able to say: “We know that this is truly the Savior of the World” (John 4:42).

14. The star of Mary illumines the desert
Arriving at the end of this experience of communion among Bishops of the entire world and of collaboration with the ministry of the Successor of Peter, we hear echoing in us the actual command of Jesus to his apostles: “Go and make disciples of all nations [...] and behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:19,20).

The mission of the Church is not addressed to one geographic area only, but goes to the very hidden depths of the hearts of our contemporaries to draw them back to an encounter with Jesus, the Living One who makes himself present in our communities.

This presence fills our hearts with joy. Grateful for the gifts received from him in these days, we raise to him the hymn of praise: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord [...] The Mighty One has done great things for me” (Lk 1:46,49).

make Mary’s words our own: the Lord has indeed done great things for his Church throughout the ages in various parts of the world and we magnify him, certain that he will not fail to look on our poverty in order to show the strength of his arm in our days and to sustain us in the path of the new evangelization.

The figure of Mary guides us on our way. Our journey, as Pope Benedict XVI told us, can seem like a path across the desert; we know that we must take it, bringing with us what is essential: the gift of the Spirit, the company of Jesus, the truth of his word, the eucharistic bread which nourishes us, the fellowship of ecclesial communion, the impetus of charity.

It is the water of the well that makes the desert bloom. As stars shine more brightly at night in the desert, so the light of Mary, the Star of the new evangelization, brightly shines in heaven on our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves.

---

Jesuit superior-general says Synodal Assembly
has failed to draw lessons from history
by Gerard O'Connell

October 26, 2012

The head of the Jesuits, Spanish Fr Adolfo Nicolás, believes the Synod missed an opportunity to draw lessons from the history of evangelization because of its concern about what to do in the future.

He believes that while the Synod of bishops on the new evangelization did much good work, it missed the opportunity to address some important questions that he believes are highly relevant for the future work of evangelization.

In particular, he said, the Synod did not reflect on the history of evangelization, both ‘the good things’ that were done in past centuries and ‘the serious mistakes’ that were made.

Furthermore, it did not focus on such sensitive “frontier issues” as the dialogue with other religions and cultures. Consequently, it did not draw lessons that could have contributed positively to future evangelization.

The Spanish-born Jesuit who spent most of his life in Asia before his election as head of his order made his comments in a briefing for English-speaking journalists at the Vatican, October 25.

In his speech to the Synod assembly, October 8, he spoke about the Jesuit missionary effort over the past four centuries. He noted how Jesuits were trained “to find God in all things” and “to be positive” in their encounter with “other cultures and traditions” but, he admitted, their optic had been mainly European, they had seen “mostly Western, European signs of Faith and Sanctity” and “had not entered with sufficient depth into the cultures where the Gospel was proclaimed” so as to see the signs of God “already there, rooted and active in the hearts and relationships of people.”

“By not paying sufficient attention to how God was present and had been working in the peoples we encountered, we missed important clues, insights and discoveries”, he stated. He implied the same was true for the general missionary effort of the Church over those centuries too.

He suggested that “it is now time, to learn from this history, from what was missing in the First Evangelization, before we move ahead in the New”.

True, he said, “Many good things have happened that we want to keep, develop and celebrate“. At the same time, he added, “We know that many mistakes have also taken place, particularly in terms of not listening to the people, in judging with great superficiality the merits of old and rich cultures and traditions, in imposing forms of worship that did not, in the least, express the relationship and sensibility of the people in their turning to God in prayer and praise.”

He concluded by listing seven lessons that can be learned from the past which can help evangelization in the future.

At the synod, many bishops, experts and observers reacted “very positively” to his speech, the Jesuit leader said, but the fact of the matter is that the issue was not addressed by the assembly. [The participants at the Assembly came to the Vatican with their interventions already prepared. Surely, Nicolas was being unrealistic to expect that those who spoke after him would suddenly revise their prepared addresses - each of which has generally focused on a specific aspect of evangelization in general - to accommodate his point of view.]

From the three-week deliberations, Father Nicolás concluded that there was “a very low awareness of the history of evangelization” at the synod. [That's rather condescending to the participants. While they may not have been explicit about the 'past' work of evangelization, surely the consciousness was there of building upon that past, avoiding its mistakes, and adapting the New Evangelization to the radically changed nature of the present compared to the past.]

He attributed this to the fact that “psychologically the whole project was to look ahead, to see the current changes that show that we are in a new historical set up and therefore humanity changes [And where does this assumption come from? 'Humanity' per se does not change - man remains the flawed creature of God stained by original sin and in constant need of redemption (from his flawed base nature, primarily)], and so evangelization has to change too. The concern has been looking ahead, what do we do?” [With all due respect, that is what the Synodal Assembly was supposed to do. It wasn't supposed to be an exercise in 'mea culpa' fo what was done wrong in the past (John Paul II dedicated the Jubilee Year of 2000 for extensive reflection on that). Looking back at the past is a masochistic exercise if it is simply for the Church to flagellate herself over and over for its mistakes - looking back must be productive: to build upon what was done right and seek to avoid repeating what was done wrong.]

He had expected that the synod could “draw new wisdom from our mistakes”, but he said the synod was moving in another direction, “the awareness was more on what we want to do, and what we want to underline or stress, or affirm of the new evangelization” while “the attention to the past has been very little.”

As for the dialogue with other religions, Father Nicolás said that topic too “has not been very central” to this synod which “spent a lot of energy and time reflecting on the foundations of the new evangelization, or on evangelization in general”. [Excuse me, but the Catholic Church and her evangelizers must first attend to internalizing and assimilating the essentials of Catholicism itself - living the Christian message in order to best transmit it as witnesses to others - before it can worry about dialog with other religions. Charity begins at home, Fr. Nicolas!]

In actual fact, he said, “This is ‘a frontier issue’, so frontier that you have to walk very carefully not to venture into territory that has no clear boundaries.”

On the other hand, he acknowledged that there was “a higher awareness” of Islam at the synod and “there has been a great effort not to condemn, not to think negatively and, in terms of openness to dialogue, to protect human rights of the Muslims themselves.”

Bishops had “underlined the desire of more and more Muslims to live in peace and to respect others, and noted how they resent the image of Islam that very radical groups are projecting on the world and said they are harming Islam itself and the majority of Muslims who don’t share this kind of attitude”. Father Nicolás concluded that the real challenge is to find ways for greater cooperation and open dialogue with them.

Pardon my prejudices, but I always found Fr. Nicolas almost intolerably sanctimonious, condescending and dismissive of everyone else in the Church since he was elected superior-general a few years back. He has embodied the worst aspects of what has comed to be known as 'jesuitical' in the vocabulary. In his sanctimony and presumptuous claim to superiority (because he spent decades as a missionary in Japan - which does not make him any more qualified or meritorious compared to the missionaries who worked in Africa, where they also constantly had to deal with cultures radically different from Western culture), he has been more obnoxious than his fellow Jesuit Cardinal Martini who died and chose to leave behind his overwhelmingly negative view of the Church as an institution. I doubt that Ignatius of Loyola was ever so censorious of the Church (nor could he have afforded to, in the high tide of the Counter-Reformation).

Saturday, Oct. 27, 29th Week in Ordinary Time

BLESSED BARTOLOMEO DA VINCENZA(Italy, 1200-1270), Dominican, Bishop
Dominicans honor one of their own today, Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza, who used
his skills as a preacher to challenge the heresies of his day. He was born Bartolomeo
di Breganza of the famous medieval family, in Vicenza around 1200. At 20 he joined
the Dominican order. Following his ordination he served in various leadership
positions. As a young priest he founded a military order whose purpose was
to keep civil peace in towns throughout Italy. In 1248, he was named a bishop
and assigned to Cyprus. For Bartholomew, it was a form of exile that had been
urged by an antipapal group that was only too happy to see him leave for Cyprus.
Not many years later, however, Bartholomew was transferred back to Vicenza.
Despite the antipapal feelings that were still evident, he worked diligently -
especially through his preaching—to rebuild his diocese and strengthen the people’s
loyalty to Rome. During his years as bishop in Cyprus, Bartholomew befriended
St. Louis IX of France, who is said to have given the holy bishop a relic
of Christ’s Crown of Thorns. Bartholomew died in 1271. He was beatified in 1793.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102712.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.

A number of episcopal and secondary Curial appointments were announced.

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement
saying that in a letter dated Sept. 6, 2015, the FSSPX had requetsed more time to reply to the Vatican proposal
aimed at taking back the Lefebvrians into the fold.
So once again, prognosticators in the media and blogosphere were wrong in predicting that the FSSPX was definitely closing the door to talks
with the Vatican. Perhaps they may eventually, but just not now, it seems.


One year ago...

Benedict XVI led a pilgrimage for peace and truth to Assisi where leaders and representatives of the world's
religious communities, joined by prominent atheists, came together in a "Day of Reflection, Dialog and Prayer
for Peace and Justice in the World". The Holy Father convoked the gathering to mark the 25th anniversary
of the first inter-religious meeting in Assisi called by Blessed John Paul II in 1986.

Iconic picture from Assisi 2011: A dove hovers above Benedict XVI after monks released doves while the religious leaders exchanged signs of peace.

FSSPX seeks more time before giving
a 'final' response to Vatican proposal -
positive communique from the CDF

October 27, 2012

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia DEI, under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued the following communique today in English, French and Italian:

---

The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" takes this occasion to announce that, in its most recent official communication (6 September 2012), the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X has indicated that additional time for reflection and study is needed on their part as they prepare their response to the Holy See’s latest initiatives.

The current stage in the ongoing discussions between the Holy See and the Priestly Fraternity follows three years of doctrinal and theological dialogues during which a joint commission met eight times to study and discuss, among other matters, some disputed issues in the interpretation of certain documents of Vatican Council II.

Once these doctrinal dialogues were concluded, it became possible to proceed to a phase of discussion more directly focused on the greatly desired reconciliation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X with the See of Peter.

Other critical steps in this positive process of gradual reintegration had already been taken by the Holy See in 2007 with the extension of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to the Universal Church by the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificumand in 2009 with the lifting of the excommunications.

Just a few months ago, a culminating point along this difficult path was reached when, on 13 June 2012, the Pontifical Commission presented to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X a doctrinal declaration together with a proposal for the canonical normalization of its status within the Catholic Church.

At the present time, the Holy See is awaiting the official response of the superiors of the Priestly Fraternity to these two documents. After thirty years of separation, it is understandable that time is needed to absorb the significance of these recent developments.

As Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI seeks to foster and preserve the unity of the Church by realizing the long hoped-for reconciliation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X with the See of Peter – a dramatic manifestation of the munus Petrinum in action – patience, serenity, perseverance and trust are needed.

---

13th Synodal Assembly ends its work -
Address from the Holy Father
22nd and Final General Congregation
Saturday morning, October 27, 2012




Today, Saturday, October 27 2012, at 9:05 a.m, in the presence of the Holy Father, with the chant of the Hour of Terce, the Twenty-second General Congregation began for the presentation and voting on the Final list of Propositions.

President delegate on duty was Cardinal Francisco ROBLES ORTEGA, Archbishop of Guadalajara (MEXICO).

President Delegate, Cardinal Laurent MONSENGWO PASINYA, Archbishop of Kinshasa (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO) addressed a Salutation to the Holy Father, followed by remarks by the Holy Father.

Some Auditors also intervened.

At the conclusion of the work, the Secretary General communicated that today’s was the last Congregation of this Synodal Assembly. Therefore the Twenty-third General Congregation foreseen for this afternoon will not take place.

The General Relator His Em. Card. Donald William WUERL, Archbishop of Washington (USA) and the Special Secretary His Exc. Msgr. Pierre-Marie CARRÉ, Archbishop of Montpellier (FRANCE) finished reading the Final List of Propositions in Latin, which began during the General Congregation yesterday afternoon. The Propositions will be published in full in the next Synod bulletin.

At this General Congregation, which ended at 12:40 am with the prayer of Te lodiamo, Trinità. 252 Fathers were present.


Pope reassigns curial responsibilities
for seminaries and for catechesis

October 27, 2012

The transcript of the Holy Father's closing remarks have not been published but the Synodal Bulletin carries this summary (adaptged from their English translation):

The Holy Father thanked the Synodal Fathers for their work, and then proceeded to make ab important announcement.

After the reading of the Final List of Propositions for the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the Holy Father Benedict XVI announced his decision to transfer the competence for seminaries from the Congregation for Catholic Education to the Congregation for the Clergy and the competence for catechesis from the Congregation for the Clergy to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization.

He explained his decision in the context of the Synodal Assembly that had discussed the New Evangelization, saying he arrived at it after reflection and prayer. The new pastoral competencies of the Dicasteries will be defined with a Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter.

The Holy Father congratulated the six new cardinals-to-be that he named last Wednesday. He said the mini-consistory next month is inended to complete the consistory held last February, in the context of New Evangelization, and further expression of the the universality of the Church and its continuing Pentecost.

He said that this universality was seen clearly during this Synodal Assembly. Despite difficulties and contrary winds, he said, the Church is dominated by the wind of the Spirit; faith grows and is alive, this is demonstrated by the experiences of Catholics around the world, even in unlikely places like Cambodia and Norway.

In thanking all the participants and the members of the Presidency, the Holy Father reminded them of what must be their individual and constant commitment: to proclaim Christ and his Gospel.

He concluded by saying that he hoped the Propositions offered for his reflection [and eventual Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation], will be transformed into a document that "comes from life and that will generate life".


58 'Propositions' from the Assembly
Adapted from the English service of

October 27, 2012

The three-week 13th General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod has presented 58 proposals (“propositiones” in Latin) which Pope Benedict XVI is free to reject or include in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation.

The list of final Propositions was culled by the 262 Synod fathers from 326 that were presented to the various working groups for consideration. These were narrowed down by the Synod’s General Rapporteur, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC.

The proposals cover a wide range of topics: secularisation, the role of the Second Vatican Council, human rights, religious freedom, migration, the Church’s social doctrine, catechists, theology, poverty, people’s mercy, the role of new movements, science and even ecumenical dialogue and dialogue with Islam.

All these themes are presented in the context of wodespread secularisation which has weakened faith in areas with ancient Christian traditions, making the Synod necessary.

“As Christians we cannot remain indifferent to the process of secularization. We are in fact in a situation similar to that of the first Christians and as such we should see this both as a challenge and a possibility. We live in this world, but are not of this world.”

The proposals do not fail to mention the issue of sex-offender priests which has engulfed the Church in recent years, even if the large majority of offenses against minors and children was committed in the 19602-1990s.

Proposal 49 reads in part: "Confronted with the scandals affecting priestly life and ministry, which we deeply regret, we propose nevertheless that thanks and encouragement be given to the faithful service of so many priests.”

Point 48 addresses the issue of remarried divorcees and “irregular” families, as they were defined in the assembly’s concluding Message published yesterday: “The New Evangelization should strive to address significant pastoral problems around marriage, the case of divorced and remarried, the situation of their children, the fate of abandoned spouses, the couples who live together without marriage and the trend in society to redefine marriage.”

On the subject of religious freedom, proposal 10 stresses that “it is an inalienable right for each person, whatever one’s religion or lack of religion, to be able to know Jesus Christ and the Gospel.”

\

October 28, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Portraits of Simon (third from left) and Jude (fifth from left) from THE APOSTLES series by El Greco.
Saints SIMON and JUDE, Apostles
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on Oct. 11, 2006 to these Apostles.
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20061011...
As very little is known of them, the Holy Father's catechesis is valuable for his reflections on the little that the Bible tells us about Simon 'the Zealot' and Jude Thaddeus. Particularly beautiful are his comments on the Letter in the New Testament that is attributed to Jude Thaddeus (the surname distinguishes him from Judas Iscariot), and on the meaning of Simon's 'zealotry' in the context of his faith in God.
Readings from today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102812.cfm


WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY

The Holy Father presided over the Closing Mass of the Synodal Assembly and delivered his Sunday Angelus
remarks later.



Lots to make up for, after unavoidable absence from the Forum on Saturday and Saturday.

CLOSING MASS
13th General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod
October 28, 2012


Libretto cover: 'The Four Evangelists', fresco by the studio of Fra Angelico, Cappella Niccolina, Vatican Apostolic Palace.







Here is the Vatican translation of the Holy Father's homily at the Mass today:

---

Dear Brother Bishops,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The miracle of the healing of blind Bartimaeus comes at a significant point in the structure of Saint Mark’s Gospel. It is situated at the end of the section on the “journey to Jerusalem”, that is, Jesus’s last pilgrimage to the Holy City, for the Passover, in which he knows that his passion, death and resurrection await him.

In order to ascend to Jerusalem from the Jordan valley, Jesus passes through Jericho, and the meeting with Bartimaeus occurs as he leaves the city – in the evangelist’s words, “as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude” (10:46). This is the multitude that soon afterwards would acclaim Jesus as Messiah on his entry into Jerusalem.

Sitting and begging by the side of the road was Bartimaeus, whose name means “son of Timaeus”, as the evangelist tells us. The whole of Mark’s Gospel is a journey of faith, which develops gradually under Jesus’s tutelage. The disciples are the first actors on this journey of discovery, but there are also other characters who play an important role, and Bartimaeus is one of them.

His is the last miraculous healing that Jesus performs before his Passion, and it is no accident that it should be that of a blind person, someone whose eyes have lost the light. We know from other texts too that the state of blindness has great significance in the Gospels. It represents man who needs God’s light, the light of faith, if he is to know reality truly and to walk the path of life. It is essential to acknowledge one’s blindness, one’s need for this light, otherwise one could remain blind for ever (cf. Jn 9:39-41).

Bartimaeus, then, at that strategic point of Mark’s account, is presented as a model. He was not blind from birth, but he lost his sight. He represents man who has lost the light and knows it, but has not lost hope: he knows how to seize the opportunity to encounter Jesus and he entrusts himself to him for healing.

Indeed, when he hears that the Master is passing along the road, he cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mk 10:47), and he repeats it even louder (v. 48). And when Jesus calls him and asks what he wants from him, he replies: “Master, let me receive my sight!” (v. 51).

Bartimaeus represents man aware of his pain and crying out to the Lord, confident of being healed. His simple and sincere plea is exemplary, and indeed – like that of the publican in the Temple: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk 18:13) – it has found its way into the tradition of Christian prayer. In the encounter with Christ, lived with faith, Bartimaeus regains the light he had lost, and with it the fullness of his dignity: he gets back onto his feet and resumes the journey, which from that moment has a guide, Jesus, and a path, the same that Jesus is travelling.

The evangelist tells us nothing more about Bartimaeus, but in him he shows us what discipleship is: following Jesus “along the way” (v. 52), in the light of faith.

Saint Augustine, in one of his writings, makes a striking comment about the figure of Bartimaeus, which can be interesting and important for us today. He reflects on the fact that in this case Mark indicates not only the name of the person who is healed, but also the name of his father, and he concludes that “Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, had fallen from some position of great prosperity, and was now regarded as an object of the most notorious and the most remarkable wretchedness, because, in addition to being blind, he had also to sit begging. And this is also the reason, then, why Mark has chosen to mention only the one whose restoration to sight acquired for the miracle a fame as widespread as was the notoriety which the man’s misfortune itself had gained” (On the Consensus of the Evangelists, 2, 65, 125: PL 34, 1138). Those are Saint Augustine’s words.

This interpretation, that Bartimaeus was a man who had fallen from a condition of “great prosperity”, causes us to think. It invites us to reflect on the fact that our lives contain precious riches that we can lose, and I am not speaking of material riches here.

From this perspective, Bartimaeus could represent those who live in regions that were evangelized long ago, where the light of faith has grown dim and people have drifted away from God, no longer considering him relevant for their lives.

These people have therefore lost a precious treasure, they have “fallen” from a lofty dignity – not financially or in terms of earthly power, but in a Christian sense – their lives have lost a secure and sound direction and they have become, often unconsciously, beggars for the meaning of existence. They are the many in need of a new evangelization, that is, a new encounter with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mk 1:1), who can open their eyes afresh and teach them the path.

It is significant that the liturgy puts the Gospel of Bartimaeus before us today, as we conclude the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization. This biblical passage has something particular to say to us as we grapple with the urgent need to proclaim Christ anew in places where the light of faith has been weakened, in places where the fire of God is more like smouldering cinders, crying out to be stirred up, so that they can become a living flame that gives light and heat to the whole house.

The new evangelization applies to the whole of the Church’s life. It applies, in the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in community worship and gather on the Lord’s day to be nourished by his word and by the bread of eternal life.

I would like here to highlight three pastoral themes that have emerged from the Synod. The first concerns the sacraments of Christian initiation. It has been reaffirmed that appropriate catechesis must accompany preparation for Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.

The importance of Confession, the sacrament of God’s mercy, has also been emphasized. This sacramental journey is where we encounter the Lord’s call to holiness, addressed to all Christians. In fact it has often been said that the real protagonists of the new evangelization are the saints: they speak a language intelligible to all through the example of their lives and their works of charity.

Secondly, the new evangelization is essentially linked to the missio ad gentes. The Church’s task is to evangelize, to proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ. During the Synod, it was emphasized that there are still many regions in Africa, Asia and Oceania whose inhabitants await with lively expectation, sometimes without being fully aware of it, the first proclamation of the Gospel.

So we must ask the Holy Spirit to arouse in the Church a new missionary dynamism, whose progatonists are, in particular, pastoral workers and the lay faithful. Globalization has led to a remarkable migration of peoples. So the first proclamation is needed even in countries that were evangelized long ago.

All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and his Gospel: and Christians, all Christians – priests, religious and lay faithful – have a corresponding duty to proclaim the Good News.

A third aspect concerns the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism. During the Synod, it was emphasized that such people are found in all continents, especially in the most secularized countries. The Church is particularly concerned that they should encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover the joy of faith and return to religious practice in the community of the faithful.

Besides traditional and perennially valid pastoral methods, the Church seeks to adopt new ones, developing new language attuned to the different world cultures, proposing the truth of Christ with an attitude of dialogue and friendship rooted in God who is Love.

In various parts of the world, the Church has already set out on this path of pastoral creativity, so as to bring back those who have drifted away or are seeking the meaning of life, happiness and, ultimately, God.

We may recall some important city missions, the “Courtyard of the Gentiles”, the continental mission [in Latin America], and so on. There is no doubt that the Lord, the Good Shepherd, will abundantly bless these efforts which proceed from zeal for his Person and his Gospel.

Dear brothers and sisters, Bartimaeus, on regaining his sight from Jesus, joined the crowd of disciples, which must certainly have included others like him, who had been healed by the Master. New evangelizers are like that: people who have had the experience of being healed by God, through Jesus Christ.

And characteristic of them all is a joyful heart that cries out with the Psalmist: “What marvels the Lord worked for us: indeed we were glad” (Ps 125:3).

Today, we too turn to the Lord Jesus, Redemptor hominis and lumen gentium [Redeemer of man and Light to all peoples], [G} with joyful gratitude, making our own a prayer of Saint Clement of Alexandria: “Until now I wandered in the hope of finding God, but since you enlighten me, O Lord, I find God through you and I receive the Father from you, I become your co-heir, since you did not shrink from having me for your brother. Let us put away, then, let us put away all blindness to the truth, all ignorance: and removing the darkness that obscures our vision like fog before the eyes, let us contemplate the true God ...; since a light from heaven shone down upon us who were buried in darkness and imprisoned in the shadow of death, [a light] purer than the sun, sweeter than life on this earth” (Protrepticus, 113: 2 – 114:1). Amen.

---

ANGELUS TODAY
Reflections on the just-concluded Synodal Assembly
and an appeal in behalf of the victims of hurricane Sandy
Adapted from the English service of

October 28, 2012



After Angelus prayers today, before proceeding with his pluriingual synthesis of his Sunday reflection, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to the faithful in behalf of the victims and all those affected by Hurricane Sandy, which has killed more than twenty people across the Caribbean, striking the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, [and is expected to hit eastern United States in the next 48 hours, affecting at least 15 million people].

Here is a translation of his appeal:

---

In recent days, a devastating hurricane struck Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas with particular violence, causing several deaths and enormous damage, and forcing many people to leave their homes.

I wish to assure you of my closeness and my recollection of those who have been affected by this natural disaster, while I invite everyone to prayer and solidarity, in order to alleviate the pain of the families of the victims and offer support to the thousands of people who have been hurt in various ways by the storm.

---

In his remarks before the Angelus prayers, the Pope reflected on the just-concluded Synodal Assembly and its stress on the New Evangelization. Here is a translation:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

The Holy Mass celebrated this morning at St. Peter's Basilica has concluded the XIII General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod. For three weeks, we confronted the relaities of the New Evangelization for the transmisison of the Christian faith.

All of the Church was represented and therefore engaged in this task, which will not fail to bear fruit with the Lord's grace.

First of all, the Bishops' Synodal Assembly is always a time of strong ecclesial communion, and for this, along with all of you, I wish to thank God who has once more made us experience the beauty of 'being Church' and to be the Chuirch today, in the world as it is, amidst men today with their problems and hopes.

It is very significant that this Synodal Assembly coincided with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and therefore, with the beginning of the Year of Faith.

Thinking back on Blessed John XXIII, the Servant of God Paul VI, to the time of the Council has been more than ever propitious because it has helped us to recognize that the New Evangelization is not an invention of ours, but a dynamism that has developed in the Church epecially starting from the 1950s, when it appeared evident that the countries with an ancient Christian tradition had become, as we usually say, 'mission lands'.

Thus emerged the urgency of a renewed proclamation of the Gospel in secularized societies, in the dpouble certainty that, on the one hand, it is only Jesus Christ who is the true 'novelty' who responds to the expectations of man in every time, and on the other, that is message demands to be transmitted adequately under changed social and cultural contexts.

What can we say at teh end of these intense days of work? On my part, I listened to and gathered many points for reflection and many proposals which, with the aid of the Synod Secretariat and my own co-workers, I shall seek to organize and elaborate upon, inorder to offer the whole Church an organic synthesis and consistent instructions arising from these proposals.

We can say so far that this Synodal Assembly has reinforced our commitment for the spiritual renewal of the Church herself in order to be able to renew the secular world spiritually. This renewal will come from the rediscovery of Jesus Christ, his truth and his grace, of his 'face' that is so human and at the same time so divine, from which the transendent mystery of God shines forth.

Let us entrust to the Virgin Mary the fruits of the work of this just concluded Synodal Assembly. May she, the Star of the New Evangelization, teach and help us to bring Christ to everyone with courage and with joy.

---

Newsphotos of Kaduna bombing.

Suicide bomber kills at least 8,
injures more than hundred,
in yet another Nigeria church attack

October 28, 2012


Left, the bombed-out church; right, Christian youths seek reprisal.
During morning mass in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least eight people, wounding more than 100 and triggering reprisal attacks that killed at least two more.

There was no claim of responsibility but Islamist sect Boko Haram has bombed several churches in the past in its fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria where the 160 million population is evenly split between Christians and Muslims.

The bomber drove the car into the wall of the packed St Rita's church in the Malali area of Kaduna, a volatile ethnically and religiously mixed city, witnesses said.

A wall of the church was blasted open and scorched black, with debris lying around. "The heavy explosion also damaged so many buildings around the area," said survivor Linus Lighthouse.

A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Yushua Shuaib said eight people (including the suicide bomber) had been confirmed killed and more than 100 wounded.

Church attacks often target Nigeria's middle belt, where its largely Christian south and mostly Muslim north meet and where sectarian tensions run high. Kaduna's mixed population lies along that faultline.

Shortly after the blast, angry Christian youths took to the streets armed with sticks and knives. A Reuters reporter saw two bodies at the roadside lying in pools of blood.

"We killed them and we'll do more," shouted a youth, with blood on his shirt, before police chased him and others away. Police set up roadblocks and patrols across the town in an effort to prevent the violence spreading.

Police spokesman Aminu Lawal said later the situation was calm. "All the areas prone to reprisal attacks are under control and getting back to normal," he said by telephone.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting since Boko Haram's insurrection began in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch. Most were Muslims in the northeast of the country, where the sect usually attacks politicians and security forces.

Another witness to the bombing, Daniel Kazah, a member of the Catholic cadets at the church, said he had seen three bodies on the bloodied church floor in the aftermath.

In previous such attacks, bombers have usually failed to enter church buildings and detonated their explosives at entrances or in car parks. A spokesman for St Gerard's Catholic hospital, Sunday John, said the hospital was treating 14 wounded. Another hospital, Garkura, had at least 84 victims, a NEMA official said.

Many residents of Kaduna rushed indoors, fearing a resurgence of the sectarian killing that has periodically blighted the city.

A bomb attack in a church in Kaduna state in June triggered a week of tit-for-tat violence that killed at least 90 people.




The senseless tragedy of the 19-month-long civil conflict in Syria appears to be recapitulated in this hair-raising story of another bomb attack in a Christian church.

Bomb kills several at funeral of
Syrian Orthodox priest killed by
his abductors while seeking to
ransom a kidnapped parishioner

October 28, 2012

QATANA, SYRIA - A bomb went off this morning as faithful said their final goodbye to Fr. Fadi Jamil Haddad, the Orthodox priest who was abducted and found dead in Damascus yesterday.

local sources told the Catholic news agency Fides that the explosion killed two civilians and some soldiers. The funeral Mass, celebrated in the church of St. Elias in Qatana by Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim, was attended by thousands of Christians moved and saddened by the loss of the priest.

In a statement sent to Fides, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch called Fr. Haddad a "martyr of reconciliation and harmony." In fact, the priest "had engaged in a noble humanitarian mission to free a member of his parish who had been kidnapped a few days before." In the mediation, Fr. Fadi was kidnapped along with another intermediary. The kidnappers demanded a huge ransom and then killed him.

Father Haddad was born in the city of Qatana on February 2, 1969. He studied theology in Damascus and Lebanon. He had married and was ordained a priest in 1995 by His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim. He was the pastor of the Greek-Orthodox church of St. Elijah in Qatana.

A source of the Patriarchate remarks that "he was loved by all religious groups and had not taken a position in the political conflict in Syria, but was strongly committed to reconciliation."

The note of the Orthodox Patriarchate said:

---

Father Fadi Haddad’s body was found on the morning of October 25 in the Drousha area. There were indescribable signs of torture and mutilation on his body. He was identified by Father Elias el-Baba, a priest of the town of Hina, and was taken to the clinic in the city. The Patriarchate in Damascus was informed of his martyrdom: hi.s innocent blood is a sacrifice for reconciliation and harmony

We strongly condemn this brutal and barbaric act against civilians, the innocent and men of God, who strive to be apostles of peace. They are men who hold together the hearts, wrap the wounds of suffering, comfort the sick, strengthen the weak in these difficult circumstances. We express the depth of our sorrow for these heinous acts that are unprecedented in the long history of our beloved nation, built on the foundations of love, cooperation, peace and harmony.

---

The Patriarchate urged "all citizens, humanitarian organizations and all people of good will to condemn kidnapping, murder, destruction, robbery, assault to the safety and welfare of citizens... We call all to dialogue, peace and harmony," he continues, "to put an end to the innocent bloodshed that takes place every day... and to stand firm in our faith and our hope in the power of the Lord who wanted us to have life, and in abundance (John 10:10), stay in their land and look to the future with the power of faith."

"We ask God," said the Orthodox Patriarch, "that Father Haddad’s martyrdom be a sacrifice offered for the children of this nation and for a truce in the painful events we are experiencing in this period."

I've stayed away from this story, partly because I did not have an idea of what one Jimmy Savile represented to the British public. He was a popular BBC radio-TV host whose 'secret life' of habitually abusing minors was disclosed after his death in October 2011 at the age of 84. But it has become 'Vatican news' because Savile was conferred a papal knighthood by John Paul II, obviously when Savile's image was simon pure (in the original sense of the term, but it turns out now, he was, in the pejorative secondary but contrary sense of it), and no one had any suspicions whatever of his double life... BTW, Savile was named to the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and eventually knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1990, for his charitable work. Unless he used his charities to solicit his victims, his charitable work remains meritorious obviously, though it does not excuse or attenuate his offenses against minors and children (some 400 accusations surfaced after he died, and at least 300 are being investigated by Scotland Yard).

Fr. Lombardi says papal knighthood for Jimmy Savile
was a mistake, but the honor cannot now be revoked
Papal honors are not listed in the Pontifical Yearbook
and cease upon the death of the recipient

October 28, 2012

Jimmy Savile, the late BBC DJ who was posthumously accused of sexually abusing minors, was invested as Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great (an equestrian order recognised by the Holy See) during John Paul II’s pontificate.

Now, after information requests from the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, the Holy See has stated that the knighthood given to the DJ should never have been bestowed. It also strongly condemned the acts of sexual abuse committed by Savile and stressed through the Vatican’s official spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi that “the honour expires with the death of the individual.”

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales confirmed that Archbishop Nichols "wrote last week to the Holy See asking the competent office to investigate whether the papal honour awarded to Jimmy Savile for his charitable works could be posthumously removed and its effects nullified."

The Vatican spokesman told the BBC that the Holy See "firmly condemns the horrible crimes of sexual abuse of minors," and considers the Savile revelations "very grave". He said the Holy See is “deeply saddened that a person who has been soiled in this way could in his lifetime have been proposed for an honour by the Holy See, which in the light of recent information should certainly not have been bestowed."

Regarding the removal of the British DJ's knighthood, Lombardi said: "As there does not exist any permanent official list of persons who have received papal honours in the past, it is not possible to strike anyone off a list that does not exist.”

However, “the names of recipients of papal honours do not appear in the Pontifical Year Book and the honour expires with the death of the individual.”

Lombardi concluded: "The most important thing, therefore, is to reaffirm the Church's condemnation of all forms of sexual abuse, and particularly abuse of minors, as extremely grave crimes. The Holy See is adamant on this point."

It would be easy to say that the individual or individuals in the hierarchy of the Church of England and Wales who had originally proposed Savile for his papal kinghthood - it had to have originated from them, or was pursued through them and subsequently endorsed by them - must bear part of the blame for what now looks like a huge travesty. (And so I find it rather hypocritical for Mons. Nichols to demand 'information' from the Vatican, because if any institution has to have a record of how and why Savile was proposed for the papal honor, it would be the Church of England and Wales, and perhaps, specifically, the Diocese of Westminster!]

But some popular personalities like Savile - in an analogous manner, the assistant football coach of Penn State University, Jerry Sanduski, recently convicted to 60 yearr in prison for serially abusing at least 10 boys - are somehow able to live their duplicitous criminal lives successfully and get hailed as public heroes (in Savile's case, because he apparently supported many charities; in Sandusky's case, he created a charity supposedly to help disadvantaged children, some of whom he went on to abuse). So whoever proposed Savile for the papal honor was/were surely as ignorant as the rest of the British public that his comedian persona masked a serial child abuser.

The Vatican - and the Popes in whose name papal honors are conferred - obviousely accept in good faith the recommendations presented by local Church hierarchies especially if they come with solid endorsements from a cross-section of persons who know the prospective awardee well. However, Fr. Lombardi's answer was too 'technical'. If Savile's pedophilia had been revealed while he was still alive, and after he had received his papal knighthood, would the Vatican not have taken steps to revoke the honor formally? I can't imagine Lombardi saying under those circumstances, "It can't be revoked because it is not listed in the official Pontifical Directory". That's just BS.

Besides, if there is no mechanism for revoking a papal honor that has been conferred, why not start it now? In the case of Savile, why not simply say, "If Blessed John Paul II were alive today, he would never have conferred the knighthood on Savile, knowing what is now known. In his name, we cannot now revoke something that the Pope did confer, albeit based on what now turns out to be a false picture of Mr. Savile, but the Vatican hopes that in the future, sponsors recommending persons for papal honors are able to investigate their candidates more thoroughly."

Perhaps the wording of a papal conferment should be amended to indicate that the honor is conferred "on the basis of the candidate's known rcord in his public and private life and in the absence of contrary evidence"...

A British writer reflects on the Savile case and the cult of celebrity and how it can corrupt - with an interesting sidelight into the psychology of isolated gorups like the former sedevacantist nuns who have seen the light and returned to Rome...

How did Jimmy Savile fool everyone for so long?
The BBC was blinded by his celebrity status
But its problems with group-think
are shared by many institutions
By Francis Phillips

October 26, 2012

I have just been watching a replay of the BBC Panorama programme about Jimmy Savile. There were many clips of his very successful TV programmes dominated by Savile himself, with his trademark cigar, platinum hair and wearing his tracksuit. With the advantage of hindsight we all now know that he was far from the public-spirited eccentric that he presented in the media.

Watching his antics during the Panorama programme, the question in my mind was: how did he get away with not just fooling some of the people some of the time, but seemingly all the people all the time – for decades?

Some of the answer to this lies in the institutional blindness of the BBC to the reality behind Savile’s smiling, zany mask. Mary Riddell, in an article about Savile in the Telegraph, reiterated the well-known quote of Edmund Burke that evil flourishes when good men do nothing. But in this case it seems that the BBC did nothing because they saw nothing; they lived in a complacent cocoon in which high ratings and celebrity status were all-important. [This was certainly very much the case in the story of Penn State and Jerry Sandusky, in which the money-making draw of the unviersity's renowned football program appeared to have been the only consideration by all the actors in the tragedy who all willfully turned a blind eye to Sandusky's known propensities, if not to his actual offenses. Celebrity and money-making power are a lethal deterrent to any sense of morality.]

This inability to see what is obvious can be true of any institution – including the Church. I am not talking here about cover-ups in the case of child abuse (though that has parallels with the Savile case) but more generally: when the self-belief of an institution takes over and becomes an end in itself, so that no one says “Wait a minute. What’s going on here?” Self-preservation has become more important than truth. [More than just self-preservation is involved, obviously, but the primary exigency of not killing the golden goose at all!]

These reflections followed both the Savile programme and an article by Jim Graves which I then read in Catholic World Report, about a group of sedevacantist nuns who returned to the Church five years ago and who are now thriving in a new religious community.

Sedevacantists, for those who have not come across them, do not accept the legitimacy of any of the Popes since the end of the Second Vatican Council; they believe that all the recent Popes – Paul VI, John Paul I and II and now Pope Benedict XVI – are “illegitimate” because they have preached modernist doctrines and that the Ordinary rite of Mass and the Sacraments are invalid.

Ordinary Catholics think that to have a mindset like this is weird as well as extreme – but it happens. Group-think takes over, reinforced by isolation from everyday life, and before you know it you have a skewed view of reality which is quite out of touch with the norm.

It could be the BBC, with its cult of a “celebrity” like Savile and its refusal to notice certain peculiar features of his act; or it could be a band of ultra-faithful Catholics, deciding to march away from the Church and set up an alternative magisterium of their own.

Sister Mary Eucharista, one of the former sedevacantist nuns who have now returned to Rome, says tellingly that “the traditional environment [she was living with her family] kept us from being concerned about the cult-like practices of the group”. These practices included women having to wear long dresses and cover their heads; being discouraged from reading newspapers and watching TV; and smoking being regarded as a mortal sin.

Another nun, Mother Kathryn Joseph, added, “It seemed like an oasis of Catholic culture. We never saw ourselves as separate from the Catholic Church. In fact, we thought the Catholic Church left us.”

Gradually the truth filtered through: the Sisters saw devout rank-and-file Catholics on a pilgrimage to Rome; they watched EWTN; they met members of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity as well as faithful, mainstream parish clergy. These slowly combined to “break the spell of lies the Sisters were living under”.

Mother Kathryn Joseph admits: “I realised I had been wrong for 35 years. But I was happy to have been proved wrong.”

What about the BBC? The spell has certainly been rudely broken. Now tearing itself apart over), will it do some serious soul-searching and return to the high standards of its original remit as a public service broadcaster – or will it intone the mantra “Nothing like this must ever happen again”, go through the motion of official enquiries but still seek to preserve its self-serving, sharp-suited (as journalist Peter Oborne describes it) fiefdom?

The Vatican finally published the transcript of the Holy Father's brief remarks at the final congregation of the Synodal Assembly on Saturday morning. The remarks were rather brief so I do not see why the Synod Secretariat in charge of publishing the Synodal bulletins could not have done a quick unofficial translation of it, instead of wasting its time on a very labored and awkward 'summary'.

Unofficial translations - as Vatican Radio sometimes does - have the advantage of immediacy and do not generally pose a risk of mistranslation that would have significant if not serious consequences for the doctrine of the Church. That is why I have always tried to provide competent translation of papal texts ASAP, insofar as I can do it, if no official translation is immediately available. Benedict XVI is a precise thinker and chooses his words optimally, so there is never any danger of mistranslating him![/DIM}

The Pope's closing remarks
to the XIII Synodal Assembly
Translated from

October 27, 2012

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

Before expressing my thanks to the Assembly, I wish to make an announcement.

In the context of the reflections of the Bishops' Synod on "the New Evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith", and at the end of reflection on the subject of seminaries and catechesis, I am pleased to announce that I have decided, after prayer and further reflection, to transfer the competency over seminaries from the Congregation for Catholic Education to the Congregation for the Clergy, and the competence for catechesis from the Congregation for the Clergy to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

The pertinent documents will follow in the form of an Apostolic Letter motu proprio to define the areas covered by the new competencies and their respective faculties to carry out their tasks.

Let us pray to the Lord that he may be with these three dicasteries of the Roman Curia in their important mission with the collaboration of the entire Church.

As I already have the floor, I also wish to express my most heartfelt wishes to the new cardinals. With this mini-Consistory, it is my intention to complete the Consistory of February (2012), precisely in the context of the New Evangelization, with a gesture that expresses the universality of the Church, showing that the Church is the Church of all peoples, that it speaks in all languages, and that it is always the Church of the Pentecost - not the Church of one continent alone but a universal Church.

This is my intention - to express this context, this universality of the Church, which is also beautifully expressed in the Bishops' Synod.

For me, it was truly edifying, comforting and encouraging to see here at this Assembly a mirror of the universal Church, with her sufferings, threats, dangers and joys - an expression of the presence of the Lord, even in difficult times.

We have heard how the Church is growing even today - it is alive. I think, for instance, for what has been said about Cambodia, where the Church and the faith have been reborn. And even about Norway, and other nations.

We see that today, even where we least expect it, the Lord is present and powerful, the Lord works through our work and reflections.

Even if the Church feels contrary winds, it feels above all the wind of the Holy Spirit who helps us, who shows us the right way. And thus, with new enthusiasm, it seems to me, we are on our way, and we thank the Lord for giving us this truly Catholic gathering.

I thank everyone: the Fathers of the Synod; the auditors who often presented very moving testimonials; the experts and the fraternal delegates who have helped us - we know that each of us wishes to proclaim Christ and his Gospel, and to fight, during these difficult times, for the presence of Christ's truth and to announce him.

Above all, I wish to thank our President-Delegates who guided us through this Assembly gently and decisively, and the rapporteurs who have worked day and night. I've always thought that it's somewhat contrary to natural law to work at night, but since they did it voluntarily, we thank them and we must feel grateful to them. And naturally, our Secretary General [Mons. Nikola Eterovic] who has been tireless and full of ideas.

Now these 'Propositiones' a testament, a gift, given to me for all of us, so that I may elaborate it all in a document that comes from life and must generate life. Let us hope so, and pray that it is so.

In any case, let us move forward with the help of the Lord. Thank you to everyone. We will see many of you again next month - I mean at the Consistory. Thank you.

---

BTW, I am surprised there has hardly been any reaction so far to the Pope's decision to transfer responsibility over seminaries to the Congregation for the Clergy - which seems an obvious choice, since the Congregation for Catholic Education has its hands full enough with 'policing' the kind, quality and content of education about the Church and the faith that are provided - or not - by Catholic schools, especially institutes of higher education; and that the Congregation for the Clergy obviously has to be primarily responsible for the education and training of aspiring priests.

The decision about making the new Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization primarily responsible for catechesis - by which I understand not just the content of catechesis but also the formation of qualified catechists - is equally obvious. Now that the Council exists, the Congregation for the Clergy no longer has any reason to be involved as well with training lay catechists. The Lord knows that training would-be priests and supervising priests (many of whom were and are afflicted withVatican-II spiritosis) is difficult enough!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/10/2012 13:35]

My thanks yet again to Beatrice who ran this item on her site Benoit-et-moi to introduce a section devoted to Benedict XVI's recent texts and addresses regarding Vatican-II... Present is an evening newspaper in France, often described as 'close to the traditionalist movement', but self-describes its inspiration as being 'national and Catholic'. Jean Madiran, one of its founders, has written about 40 books on religion, history and political criticism. His latest book was Chronique sous Benoit XVI (Chronicles in the time of Benedict XVI) in 2010 that assembled his writings about the Church and the Papacy from the death of John Paul II to December 2009.(

Finally, an updating of
the word 'aggiornamento'
with respect to Vatican-II
Editorial
by JEAN MADIRAN
Translated from

October 23, 2012

Benedict XVI has just set an example: One can now - without being considered fundamentalist or racist - re-examine the key word of Vatican-II. One can now suggest that the word aggiornamento [literally, to bring up to date] was a not-quite-felicitous expression to begin with. [I would suggest that a more appropriate English translation is 'to keep abreast of events' - which implies, in the context of the Church, being aware of present circumstances and developments in order to respond appropriately, without necessarily adapting the Church to secular positions that contradict or attenuate what the Church has taught for 200 years, much less adopting such positions.]

It was understood [or at least willfully and tendentiously interpreted] as announcing a rupture with tradition, which led to a diminution of the faith, bending it according to the climate of the time and to what would please public opinion.

Thus, the years that followed Vatican II (but already, I would add, even in the years preceding it), one needed no discernment to grasp the dominant mentality which placed into question the very foundations of Christian faith.

And that is why ], Benedict XVI says, if the Church invites the faithful to this Year of Faith, it is not so much to mark an anniversary but because the Church today feels much more than it did 50 years ago the need to awaken the faith and instruct the faithful in it.

This initiative by the Pope was not isolated - it came with many others that are similar or complementary. The Vaticanistas have, in effect, reviewed seven interventions by Benedict XVI regarding Vatican II in the five days from Oct. 5-11. La Croix [a French Catholic news daily] has published some statements from these interventions.

One hopes, without expecting much, that La Documentation Catholique [a service that provides the full texts of important Church documents] will dare publish all seven documents in full.

It is true that such a generous salvo of papal texts, by their very nature, would escape the intellectual reach of the so-called world of 'information' such as it has become in an age of 'instant news' quickly followed by another, so fast and so often, that one forgets them just as quickly.

Yet the state of the question on aggiornamento has developed strongly in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, at first discreetly, but since then, explicitly.

It has become clear that the faith had already cooled considerably before Vatican II was convoked, and that today, 50 years later, it has cooled even more - but notably due to an aggiornamento that has been, in fact, a rupture with the traditional expressions of Christian faith.

This idea of rupture was exciting to the French bishops, as their official documents at the time show, and since then, the idea has been firmly anchored among the older members of the French clergy, in French Catholic universities, within that entire official world of the supposedly elite that believes and teaches that Jacques Delors (the former Christian Democrat who joined the Socialist Party) "embodies the options chosen by the Church at the Second Vatican Council".

The most striking and also the most ravaging instance of rupture was the abolition of the traditional Mass, which was replaced by a new Mass presented as one that came directly from Vatican II. It was a profound wound in the very bosom of the Church.

It has been disavowed, the wound has been dressed, so to speak, by the Church, but it has not healed. Few bishops have publicly associated themselves with the Pope's disavowal of the 'abolition' of the old Mass and of the rupture it has caused, and even fewer are taking any active part in trying to alleviate the persistent wound.

In fact, the majority, at least in France (but also in many other European countries, it seems), authoritatively manifest their opposition to the Pope or hide it behind a facade of inattention and waiting it out.

Yes, indeed, it was very good of Benedict XVI to have publicly referred to the unfortunate use of the word aggiornamento - and everything that has gone with it.

The remarks of Benedict XVI on aggiornamento that are the subject of Madiran's editorial were made at a luncheon he gave on Oct. 12 to the surviving bishops who took part in Vatican II. Here is the pertinent part:

---

I wish to recall one word, which was first used by Blessed John XXIII, almost in a programmatic way and which would recur frequently during the work of the Council: the word 'aggiornamento'.

Fifty years since the opening of that solemn Church Assembly, some may ask whether that term was not, perhaps from the beginning, not quite felicitous. I think one can dispute the choice of words for hours and always find discordant opinions, but I am convinced that the intuition that Blessed John XXIII summed up in that word was and still is precise.

Christianity should not be considered as 'a thing of the past', nor must it be experienced looking perennially 'backward', because Christ is yesterday, today, and for always (cfr Heb 13,8).

Christianity is distinguished by the presence of the eternal God who entered time and is present in all times, because all time proceeds from his creative power, from his eternal 'today'.

That is Christianity is always new. We should never see it as a tree that has fully developed from the evangelical mustard seed, that has grown and borne fruit, but will inevitably age and see the decline of its vital energy.

Christianity is a tree that is, so to speak, in a perennial 'dawn' - it is always young. Its continuous actuality, its aggiornamento (being up to date), does not mean a rupture with tradition, but expresses the continued vitality of that tradition.

It does not mean reducing the faith to the level of he times, according to what one wishes or what is pleasing to public opinion, but the opposite: Exactly as the Council Fathers did, we must elevate the 'today' that we live to the measure of the Christian event - we must bring the 'today' of our time to the 'today' of God.

---

And now, the intransigent progressivist view of Vatican-II as a clean break with the past, reiterated recently by the unregenerate ultra-liberal Archbishop-emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels, Cardinal Godfried Danneels - he who infamously left Rome in a huff on the evening of April 19, 2005, to underscore his open 'disappointment', to say the least, at its outcome... The good news is his statements could have been even more outrageous, were it not that he was giving them in the course of a lecture series, and therefore he had to be more 'academically' responsible.



Cardinal Danneels shares his thoughts
on Vatican II at a London lecture
by Maria Teresa Pontara Pederiva

Oct. 28, 2012

“The conciliar Church marks a sharp discontinuity with the past, comparable only to what happened at the Council of Nicea which gave birth to the Creed.” The Bishop of Mechelen-Brussels Cardinal Godfried Danneels (79) made this powerful statement during a series of lectures for the Archdiocese of Westminster (London). [That the Archdiocese even asked him to be a resource person in any way tells us something of the liberal tendencies of the Church establishment in England that Damian Thompson constantly denounces and derides!]

That the Council was different from all those which preceded it, is an opinion that is shared by the vast majority of academics, Danneels said. And so is the sense that many of those talking about it actually know next to nothing about the Council’s texts or have only read parts of these or are not able to compare them with material that dates back to before the Council. [Indeed, many of the progressivist rants one sees in the media clearly show they have not read even such simple documents as the Constitution on the liturgy, much less the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium which is a contemporary recapitulation of 2000 years of Church history.]

But in what way is the Council a first? First and foremost, it signalled the definitive end of the Constantine era in the history of the Church, giving it greater freedom to announce the Gospel; secondly, unlike previous Councils which generally focused on one question in particular, it addressed a wide variety of issues.

The key element addressed was the value and role of the laity [Really????], whilst the second most important element addressed, according to Danneels, was the introduction of national languages in the liturgy. “Vatican II showed that what had been thought and practiced for centuries must not necessarily remain unchanged for ever.” [That's it? That's what progressivists consider to be the primary outcomes of the Council? What a superficial and erroneous view!]

Other new documents introduced during the Second Vatican Council, were: that on relations between the Catholic Church and its Jewish “brothers”, a text on religious freedom and on the relationship between Church and State.

But where the cardinal sees a clear break with the past is in the Church-world report. “Rejection and defensiveness, marked by a certain tone of superiority, had always been prevalent; then, the Church finally started talking about listening, because “God so loved the world.” [That's a pretty sweeping and fallacious statement that certainly does not apply to the Magisterium of the Popes in the 20th century!]

It is also worth mentioning the changes in the Church hierarchy: the Church went from referring to the purely consultative role of bishops, to speaking about Episcopal collegiality, although this was not then acted upon (“Synods promote affective not effective collegiality”).

“Before the Council, papal encyclicals had gone from strength to strength, and so the voice of the Church was increasingly identified with that of the Pope (not to mention the question of infallibility), with the power of the Magisterium being concentrated exclusively in his hands. The bureaucratisation of the Roman Curia and, most importantly, the role taken on by the Holy Office, completed the picture.”

However, with the arrival of the 20th century came an increased awareness of the fact that the hierarchy was only one piece of the puzzle in terms of the relationship between the Church and the people of God (an awareness that was encoded in the Council). People started talking about the Church as a great “familia Dei” whose members are all siblings though their common baptism, their charisms and participation. [Didn't the Church always teach this???? That we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, belonging to the family of God???]

“This vocabulary which was completely new at the time is now common language in today’s Church.” The Church abandoned the authoritarian-judicial-legislative language (which had culminated in the use of the disdainful and threatening term “canons” (rules) at the Council of Trent), opting for the clearer and more concise adjective, “pastoral”. [Excuse me, Your Eminence, you surely know that 'canon' is not 'cannon' - that it comes from the Greek word kanon meaning 'measuring rod or standard", and in current usage, it means any standard, convention or principle applicable to any specific field of human endeavor. Canon law is the set of rules and regulations adopted by the Church to govern the institutional Church and its members.]

The language of the Church changed to fit in with the real world, leaving dated terminology behind. John XXIII was “the Pope who led the transition from the old to the new world.” The term “update” [i.e., aggiornamento, in its limited primary meaning] which marked the Second Vatican Council’s spring is significant.

But the Council marked a turning point in various other areas of Church life too, for example in ecumenical dialogue and in the Church’s relations with the media (“All secrecy was gone at the blink of an eye and all arguments and debates, even tough ones, spread to the rest of the world”). [This had much more to do with the communications revolution that marked the second half of the 20th century, rather than with the Church's volition or lack thereof!] not with the

It also led to the removal of the distance between celebrant priests and the congregation and the active participation in the liturgy and to a change in the role of the Scriptures which are now entrusted to the faithful.

Monday, Oct. 29, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Right photo, 19th-cent engraving showing the miracle of the oil lamps.
ST. NARCISSUS OF JERUSALEM (b ca 99, d 216), Bishop, Hermit and Confessor
Born around 99 AD, the Greek-born Narcissus was consecrated the 30th Bishop of Jerusalem around 180 and was known for his holiness.
In 196, he presided at a council of the bishops of Palestine which decided that Easter was to be celebrated on a Sunday and not on
the day of the Jewish passover. Some thought him too rigid in imposing discipline and despite his age, a detractor accused him of
a serious crime, which his flock did not believe. Thinking he could not serve under a cloud, he retired to be a hermit in the desert.
He was gone for so long people believed he had died. But after he was cleared of the accusation, he came back more zealous than
ever. He was said to have worked many miracles. The one most told is how he changed water to oil for the holy lamps on a Holy Saturday
when the deacon forgot to fill the lamps. In advanced age, he begged God to send him a younger man who could help him run the diocese.
The future St. Alexander of Cappadocia came and stayed with him till he died. It is said he was praying on his knees when he died.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102912.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

The Holy Father met with

- H.E. Zoran Milanović, Prime Minister of Croatia, and his delegation

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

Cardinal Burke and the 'real antinomianism'
that has developed in the post-Vatican II Church

Father Z on his blog has called attention to the intervention at the recently concluded Synodal Assembly by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura.

Before proceeding to Cardinal Burke's intervention, a definition is necessary for a term that I have seen occasionally but never really thought about, nor did I even knew what it means. Some googling has informed me that antinomianism is a theological doctrine, held by many heretical Christians in the past, that by faith and God's grace alone, Christian is freed from all laws (including the moral standards of the culture).

It goes beyond the familiar 'faith alone' theory of justification by the Protestants because it opposes the very idea of 'law' and the need for obedience to any code of religious law. Antinomians believe that Christians are thereby exempt from from the rules of good conduct and the laws of the community, with the corollary that each individual is free to determine his own moral and ethical standards. But isn't the latter statement the line followed by liberal Catholics and dissident clergy and religious in proclaiming their contrary interpretations of Catholic teaching and defending their comportment as 'Christians'?

In his intervention, Cardinal Burke appears to extend the concept of antinomianism (he calls it 'real antinomianism') to the contemporary tendency to legalize acts which are inherently evil - a paradoxical exercise in which antinomians use the law to impose their own standards on the community. It is too bad we only have the summary of his intervention, as provided by the Synodal bulletin, but I am sure Cardinal Burke's full intervention will turn up soon on some blog or website.

Intervention by Cardinal Burke

Bulletin No. 28, Oct. 24, 2012

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The Instrumentum Laboris reminds us that witness to the Christian faith is a valid response to the pressing problems of life in every age and culture, especially because that witness overcomes the false separation existing between the Gospel and life (cf. no. 118).

However, so that witness to the faith will have a place, which today’s world urgently needs, cohesion is needed within the Church between life and faith.

Among the most serious wounds of society today is the separation of legal culture from its metaphysical objective, which is moral law. In recent times this separation has been much accentuated, manifesting itself as a real antinomianism, which claims [in error] to render actions which are intrinsically evil as legal,*

for example, abortion on demand, artificial conception of human life with the aim of carrying out experimentation on the life of a human embryo, the so-called euthanasia of those who have the right to our preferential assistance, legal recognition of same-sex unions as marriage, and the negation of the fundamental right to conscience and religious liberty.

This antinomianism embedded in civil society has unfortunately infected post-Council ecclesial life, associating itself, regrettably, with so-called cultural novelties.

Excitement following the Council, linked to the establishment of 'a new Church' which teaches freedom and love, has strongly encouraged an attitude of indifference towards Church discipline, if not even hostility. The reforms of ecclesial life which were hoped for by the Council Fathers were therefore, in a certain sense, hindered, if not betrayed.

Devoted to present-day new evangelization, we have the task of laying the foundation for awareness of the disciplinary tradition of the Church and respect of the law in the Church.

An interest in the discipline of the Church is not to be equated with an idea contrary to the mission of the Church in the world, but to a correct attention to cohesively witnessing to faith in the world.

This service, certainly humble, of Church Canon Law is also absolutely necessary. How indeed will we be able to witness our faith in the world if we ignore or neglect the demands of justice within the Church?

Salvation of the soul, the primary goal of a new evangelization, must also always be in the Church “the supreme law” (can. 1752)

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*Father Z's parenthetical comment on the legalization of intrinsically evil acts: "Have you ever heard a Catholic politician defend abortion on the ground that it is 'legal'?" Well, yes. Everytime they cite 'Roe v Wade', the US Supreme Court decision in 1973 that, in effect, legalized abortion on demand throughout the United States. Basically, it decided that a woman's right to privacy extended to her unborn child - meaning she could do what she wanted to with the child (hence, the term 'pro-choice').

BTW, all those Catholics-in-name-only who scoff at the 'discipline' of the Catholic Church would do well to read about the detailed punctilious discipline required of Jews and specified scrupulously in the Torah and its commentaries, codified in the halacha, and the equally detailed punctilious discipline required of Muslims by the Quran and its commentaries, articulated in Sharia law codified by Muslim scholars as "the expression of the divine will... (in a) system of duties that are incumbent upon a Muslim by virtue of his religious belief".

Sharia covers all aspects of life, from matters of state, like governance and foreign relations, to issues of daily living like diet and clothing. So does the halacha, the collection of all Jewish religious laws that define the Jewish way of life.

In that respect, the Catholic Church is far less 'restrictive' than the two other monotheistic religions. Catholics are taught to observe the Ten Commandments, above all, and up to my days in Catholic school (and still found in the Catechism), the five commandments of the Church as well (going to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation; going to confession at least once a year; receiving Communion at least on Easter; observe days of fasting and abstinence prescribed by your local church; and help provide for the needs of the Church).

The Church's Canon Law refers to the Church's internal system of ecclesiastical justice, mainly having to do with the discipline of ecclesiastics (bishops, priests and religious), and where relevant, church discipline of the laity in matters such as marriage in the Church and excommunicable offenses.

how much 'easier' it is to be Catholic and not have to worry about the 300 strictures in the Torah or the excessive punctiliousness of Sharia hanging over your head during every waking moment!

Cardinal Wuerl:
'The Synod marks a new moment in the Church'
Interview by Gerard O'Connell

October 29, 2012

Through the synod, “Pope Benedict has succeeded in focusing the entire Church on what we need to do as we move into the future”, said Cardinal Wuerl, who was the Geneeral Rapporteur of the recently-concluded 13th General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod.

The Assembly that discussed “The New Evangelization for the transmission of the Christian Faith” completed its work on October 27 by approving 58 Propositions (proposals) that Pope Benedict will now use as the basis for drafting an Apostolic Exhortation, a ‘road map’ to guide the Church in its evangelizing mission in the coming decades.

In an interview after the synod ended, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Waahington, DC, and the 13th Asembly's General Rapporteur, talked with me about some of the things that struck him most in that assembly.

He said the 58 Propositions contain “every one of the main ideas” that emerged during the synod’s deliberations. He said the synod fathers presented more that 270 propositions, but these were reduced to the present 58, which incorpporates some of the 700+ amendments/modifications (some substantial, others not) presented to the final list of 58.. The propositions were approved ‘almost unanimously’, he said, with no more than 10% of votes against any one.

What are the things that really stood out for you in this Synodal assembly?
The first thing is the unity, the understanding of bishops from around the world that this is a new moment in the Church. This is a very special, unique moment. We are all recognizing everywhere the inroads of secularism, the inroads of materialism and, at the same, there is the sense that there is a lot of energy in the Church, especially among younger people saying this secular model isn’t enough, it isn’t going to answer our questions.

That for me was one of the most significant things of this whole synodal meeting, that there was unanimity of thought on what everyone was experiencing.

So, if I had to sum up, I would say the first point was the context of the Church’s Gospel message today, the context of the work of the Church today, is pretty well recognized as being this very secular, material world, and a lot of that is driven by the entertainment industry and the media because that’s pretty much the horizon of their thought.

The second point is that there’s a lot of movement in the Church, especially among young people that "(What the secular world offers) isn’t enough, there has to be more to life that this". And the Church’s perennial Gospel – Jesus Christ, is touching people. It’s almost as if the Church today is like the early Church, preaching a Gospel that’s new, that contradicts almost everything around it, but touches people where they are.

The third point that struck me was talking about all the different agents of the new evangelization, that is the people that are engaged in it – young people, families all over the world - who are saying "I want to be a part of telling the story of Jesus to my kids, schools, catechists, the new movements, new religious communities and so on." There’s a lot of energy among Catholics who will carry out this work.

The fourth point is to say - where does all this take place? In the Synod we have identified parishes as the life of the diocesan Church, and so the New Evangelization must take placein parishes, families, Catholic schools, institutions of learning and of health care, social service ministries, the new communities, and the movements. All of those are areas where this vision is taking place.

What is remarkable is that Pope Benedict has succeeded in focusing the entire Church on what we need to do as we move into the future. I think this is the most significant synodal assembly that certainly I’ve been a part of and am aware of. Because it is not dealing with any one aspect of the Church, it’s saying this is what Jesus is all about, this is what the Gospel is all about, bringing people to God, having them experience God speaking to them, breaking the silence around them and actually speaking to them, inviting them into the family of God – the Church.

Building on everything that Blessed John Paul II talked about, Pope Benedict has been able to synthesize all this into a vision that’s going to carry the Church into the future for decades.

Proposition 7 says the Church must proclaim “the permanent world-wide missionary dimension of her mission”. Surely this has always been the case? Was there a general feeling that this missionary dimension had stopped?
I think what this Proposition is saying is that the New Evangelization is not just a program that someone is talking about today. It is saying that we have to somehow renew ‘permanently’ in the life of the Church – at parish, diocesan and Church universal levels – the understanding that renewing the life of the Church is what we are all about.

That’s why there are those three points in that penultimate proposition (n.57). That is there at the end, because many Synod fathers said, “We need some way to sum up the New Evangelization for the passing on of the Catholic faith.” This brand new proposition came out of that request.

The three points - and this is the permanent part about it, are: First, every believer, every member of the Church today has to say: I need to renew and deepen my faith so that I know more about it intellectually and affectively. Secondly, I really have to restore my own personal confidence in the truth of the Gospel; and, thirdly, I have to joyfully share it.

And that last part came out so strongly in the assembly – “joyfully”. Why can’t we let the joy of the Risen Lord be evident in the Church? Why does it have to appear that we are just a Church of rules and regulations and theories? How do we make the joy of having met, encountered Jesus in our lives come across?

I was struck by Proposition 36 which says children should be “encouraged and taught to pray from infancy” and this is to be done in the family. I think this is fundamental.
Absolutely! And in my report at the opening of the assembly, I mentioned that one of the things we are suffering from is a generation that doesn’t even know the prayers. And the Synod fathers, out of their own experience, are saying that we have to get back to having parents sit down with their kids and pray.

The New Evangelization, according to Proposition 7, is directed to three groups: those who do not know God or Christ, those who are growing in the faith in the Church, and those who have distanced themselves from the Church.
As regards those three categories that are mentioned, it’s one thing for all the members of the Church to be renewing their own faith, and that’s a pretty clear one. The second one, reaching out to all those who have drifted away, that’s also very clear - we all know people who should be with us, and if invited might even consider coming back.

In the case of the third group, it means to go out and proclaim the Gospel “Ad Gentes”, that is to people who already have a faith or who belong to a culture that reflects a faith tradition. We have to be able to do that fully respectful of the traditions of others, and separate that from ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue.

It’s one thing to talk to people of other faiths about how we work together, what are some things we are able to do, and be respectful of the distances. But it’s another thing to be at the same time aware that I still want to be proclaiming Christ to people.

I think one of the things the synod talked about was letting our actions speak as much as our words. Sometimes, if we truly live up to our faith we will be attractive to people who are looking for something different.

[It seems to me that, through the centuries, the missio ad gentes has been most successful among indigenous peoples who either have no religious tradition per se, or have practised some form of tribal quasi-religious rituals (and this category would cover the native populations of Latin America who were Christianized by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries, and of Africa in the continent's coloonial and post-colonial history). But despite Jesuit SG Fr. Nicolas's admirable premises about evangelizing the Shintos and Buddhists of Japan, where he worked for decades, I am not aware that he and the Jesuits performed significantly more in their time than the early missionaries to Japan could.

Neither Buddhism nor Hinduism, the two largest world faiths after Christianity and Islam, have proven fertile ground for conversions. And if statistics are not readily available for this deficit of evangelization among the Buddhists and Hindus, perhaps it is because the figures involved are fairly insignificant. And while Buddhists are famously 'passive', Hindus in recent years have proven they can be militantly, and even violently, hostile to any Christian initiative.

In terms of persons who are currently non-Christian, what other target can there be for the missio ad gentes as a massive organized effort? Not the Jews, who are extremely touchy about any proselytizing among their members - look how they reacted just to the Good Friday prayer! And certainly, not the Muslims, who have existing national laws - and are ready to promulgate new ones at the drop of a hat - expressly making it a crime to practice Christianity openly, and a capital crime to convert any Muslim to Christianity, teaching about Christ and his Gospel must be

In the case of these large groups representing the most firmly established world religions, evangelization has been - and will continue to be - limited to inter-personal one-on-one efforts, in which the Christian seeking to convert someone must himself be an shining example of the Christian message.

Of course, the Church's traditional missionary activity will continue in all the places considered 'mission lands', including China. But this Synodal Assembly was targeted toward the New Evangelization of fallen-away Christians in previously Christian countries. And if its efforts also manage to bring in non-believers, then so much the better,]

Proposition 20 recalls Saint Augustine’s comment about the beauty that attracts, saying: “It is not possible to love what is not beautiful”. Perhaps one of the reasons that people are not attracted is that sometimes the Church does not look beautiful?
That is one of the things I heard many times from people in the synodal assembly, also from some of the younger people and lay people who spoke to us – the Church has to look joyful. One young person from a parish in Rome put it well when he said, “Be joyful in your message!” [Well, everyone should take a lesson from Benedict XVI who not only constantly expresses the joyfulnes of being Christian but radiates that joy himself! But Christians have different charisms. St. Jean Marie Vianney may not fit anyone's image of a joyful persona, but his message of divine absolution for all who confess their sins sincerely was certainly joyful. Neither Pius XII not Paul VI had the generally affable personalities of John XXIII, the two John Pauls, and Benedict XVI despite all the media myths about him, but their lives were no less a shining projection of the Christian message than their 'smiling' fellow Popes!]


Certainly the image of the Church that is transmitted is important. I recall that some speakers at the synod insisted that the Church must be a humble Church.
Yes, that’s a big part of it. The message is wonderful; the message of salvation is a message of love, of peace, and we have to recognize that individuals in the Church don’t always live up to that and we do need to say ‘mea culpa’. We do need to say it, and that’s why we have confession.

Certainly there is no place for arrogance in the Church. If people are going to see in us the face of Jesus Christ, then they have to see a Church that is reaching out to the poor, that is caring for the sick, that’s taking care of the marginalized, that’s providing for children the next step in their encounter with God. They have to see all the good that the Church is doing, and that somehow those of us who are responsible for seeing that that work goes on, we have to look a lot more like the work. This is the challenge, that at whatever level the bishop or priest is working, he has to reflect the style and the love of Jesus.

I really object to this cheap palaver about the Church today being arrogant - especially considering all the humiliation it has been subjected to in recdent decades. The arrogance of the Church' is a convenient but largely false platform for ecclesiastical types currying fast favor with the media, usually ignoring at the same time the good that the Church does. Some cardinals, some bishops, some priests, some nuns may be arrogant in different ways, yes - but they misrepresent the Church obviously.

Yet there is nothing arrogant in the Magisterium deriving from the Popes and the ecumenical councils, and explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Anyone who considers himself Christian, and listens to the words of Jesus, even if only superficially, cannot miss the fact that humility is the first trait that characterized Jesus the man, despite his self-awareness that he was the Son of God. Just as humility was the first trait shown to the world by Benedict XVI after his election as Pope.

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I am just as incensed about Christians, clergy and laity alike, who will go on and on about 'the poor' and the Church's duty to them, as if it were the mission of the Church to rescue everyone from material poverty. Jesus said it best when he reproached those who objected when a woman chose to pour expensive perfume to anoint him - they said to Jesus that the perfume could have been sold instead to help the poor. This episode is related almost in an identical way by Matthew, Mark and John (who identifies the woman as Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus). but Mark provided the fullest quotation which underscores the context of Jesus's words: "The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me." The goody-two-shoes in the Church today will probably say Jesus was being arrogant!

Just reading the statement literally (which is all Im am capable of doing), it says clearly that there will always be poor people - a statement of human reality - and those of us who are better of must help them when we can, which is the Christian message. Would Jesus say that at all if he were the social worker and Marxist revolutionary that contemporary bleeding hearts would make him to be? The Son of God who also said "Man does not live by bread alone'? I really should look up any commentary by the Fathers about this passage.

Pope meets Croatian Prime Minister,
expresses support for EU membership

October 29, 2012




The Prime Mnister of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, was received in audience Monday morning by Pope Benedict XVI, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Croatia and the Holy See.

The Prime Minister’s audience with the Holy Father was followed by meetings with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

These meetings enabled the parties to discuss the challenges which Croatia is currently facing, both with regard to the economic crisis, as well as on issues of mutual interest within the framework of bilateral relations.

As regards the well-known case of Dajla*, both sodes agreed to resolve the question as soon as possible, in the spirit of traditional friendship between the Holy See and the Republic of Croatia. [*Dajla is the Benedictine monastery and estate whose ownership is claimed by a Benedictine community in Italy to whom a Croatian nobleman donated the property in the 19th century. The property was subsequently seized by the Yugoslav government during the Communist regime, but after the creation of Croaia as an independent state, it was returned to the Diocese of Dajla, which now contests the Benedictine claim to the property. The diocese already sold part of the estate to raise funds.]

Finally, the Holy See reiterated its support for Croatia's legitimate aspirations to full European integration, and consideration was given to the regional situation, with particular reference to the situation of Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina.





On October 22, a plenary session of the Croatian Conference of Bishops (CCB) released a statement for the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Holy See. The session was chaired by CCB president Archbishop Marin Srakić of Đakovo-Osijek. The apostolic nuncio to the Republic of Croatia, Msgr. Alessandro D'Errico, also participated in the session.

During last week’s session the bishops discussed the visit by Mr. Milanović to the Holy See, as well as a symposium on the relations between the Holy See and Croatia to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Republic Croatia. The symposium, which is being organized by the Croatian Embassy to the Holy See, was to take place October 29 in the Vatican.

At the session, the bishops also discussed details related to the National Pilgrimage of Thanksgiving to Rome during the Year of Faith, which will take place from November 5 to 9, 2012.

The Vatican today released the text of Pope Benedict XVI's Message for the World Day for Migrants and Refuugees to be observed by the Church on January 13, 2013. Here is the English text.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, recalled that “the Church goes forward together with humanity” (No. 40); therefore “the joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts” (ibid., 1).

The Servant of God Paul VI echoed these words when he called the Church an “expert in humanity” (Populorum Progressio, 13), as did Blessed John Paul II when he stated that the human person is “the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission... the way traced out by Christ himself” (Centesimus Annus, 53).

In the footsteps of my predecessors, I sought to emphasize in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate that “the whole Church, in all her being and acting – when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity – is engaged in promoting integral human development” (No. 11).

I was thinking also of the millions of men and women who, for various reasons, have known the experience of migration. Migration is in fact “a striking phenomenon because of the sheer numbers of people involved, the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community” (ibid., 62), for “every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance” (ibid.).

For this reason, I have chosen to dedicate the 2013 World Day of Migrants and Refugees to the theme “Migrations: pilgrimage of faith and hope”, in conjunction with the celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia, and at a time when the whole Church is celebrating the Year of Faith, taking up with enthusiasm the challenge of the new evangelization.

Faith and hope are inseparable in the hearts of many migrants, who deeply desire a better life and not infrequently try to leave behind the “hopelessness” of an unpromising future. During their journey many of them are sustained by the deep trust that God never abandons his children; this certainty makes the pain of their uprooting and separation more tolerable and even gives them the hope of eventually returning to their country of origin.

Faith and hope are often among the possessions which emigrants carry with them, knowing that with them, “we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey” (Spe Salvi, 1).

In the vast sector of migration, the Church shows her maternal concern in a variety of ways. On the one hand, she witnesses the immense poverty and suffering entailed in migration, leading often to painful and tragic situations. This inspires the creation of programmes aimed at meeting emergencies through the generous help of individuals and groups, volunteer associations and movements, parochial and diocesan organizations in cooperation with all people of good will.

The Church also works to highlight the positive aspects, the potential and the resources which migrations offer. Along these lines, programmes and centres of welcome have been established to help and sustain the full integration of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees into a new social and cultural context, without neglecting the religious dimension, fundamental for every person’s life.

Indeed, it is to this dimension that the Church, by virtue of the mission entrusted to her by Christ, must devote special attention and care: this is her most important and specific task.

For Christians coming from various parts of the world, attention to the religious dimension also entails ecumenical dialogue and the care of new communities, while for the Catholic faithful it involves, among other things, establishing new pastoral structures and showing esteem for the various rites, so as to foster full participation in the life of the local ecclesial community.

Human promotion goes side by side with spiritual communion, which opens the way “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Saviour of the world” (Porta Fidei, 6). The Church always offers a precious gift when she guides people to an encounter with Christ, which opens the way to a stable and trustworthy hope.

Where migrants and refugees are concerned, the Church and her various agencies ought to avoid offering charitable services alone; they are also called to promote real integration in a society where all are active members and responsible for one another’s welfare, generously offering a creative contribution and rightfully sharing in the same rights and duties.

Emigrants bring with them a sense of trust and hope which has inspired and sustained their search for better opportunities in life. Yet they do not seek simply to improve their financial, social and political condition.

It is true that the experience of migration often begins in fear, especially when persecutions and violence are its cause, and in the trauma of having to leave behind family and possessions which had in some way ensured survival. But suffering, great losses and at times a sense of disorientation before an uncertain future do not destroy the dream of being able to build, with hope and courage, a new life in a new country.

Indeed, migrants trust that they will encounter acceptance, solidarity and help, that they will meet people who sympathize with the distress and tragedy experienced by others, recognize the values and resources the latter have to offer, and are open to sharing humanly and materially with the needy and disadvantaged. It is important to realize that “the reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty” (Caritas in Veritate, 43).

Migrants and refugees can experience, along with difficulties, new, welcoming relationships which enable them to enrich their new countries with their professional skills, their social and cultural heritage and, not infrequently, their witness of faith, which can bring new energy and life to communities of ancient Christian tradition, and invite others to encounter Christ and to come to know the Church.

Certainly every state has the right to regulate migration and to enact policies dictated by the general requirements of the common good, albeit always in safeguarding respect for the dignity of each human person.

The right of persons to migrate – as the Council’s Constitution Gaudium et Spes, No. 65, recalled – is numbered among the fundamental human rights, allowing persons to settle wherever they consider best for the realization of their abilities, aspirations and plans.

In the current social and political context, however, even before the right to migrate, there is need to reaffirm the right not to emigrate, that is, to remain in one’s homeland; as Blessed John Paul II stated: “It is a basic human right to live in one’s own country. However this rights become effective only if the factors that urge people to emigrate are constantly kept under control” (Address to the Fourth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, 9 October 1998).

Today in fact we can see that many migrations are the result of economic instability, the lack of essential goods, natural disasters, wars and social unrest. Instead of a pilgrimage filled with trust, faith and hope, migration then becomes an ordeal undertaken for the sake of survival, where men and women appear more as victims than as agents responsible for the decision to migrate.

As a result, while some migrants attain a satisfactory social status and a dignified level of life through proper integration into their new social setting, many others are living at the margins, frequently exploited and deprived of their fundamental rights, or engaged in forms of behaviour harmful to their host society.

The process of integration entails rights and duties, attention and concern for the dignified existence of migrants; it also calls for attention on the part of migrants to the values offered by the society to which they now belong.

In this regard, we must not overlook the question of irregular migration, an issue all the more pressing when it takes the form of human trafficking and exploitation, particularly of women and children. These crimes must be clearly condemned and prosecuted, while an orderly migration policy which does not end up in a hermetic sealing of borders, more severe sanctions against irregular migrants and the adoption of measures meant to discourage new entries, could at least limit for many migrants the danger of falling prey to such forms of human trafficking.

There is an urgent need for structured multilateral interventions for the development of the countries of departure, effective countermeasures aimed at eliminating human trafficking, comprehensive programmes regulating legal entry, and a greater openness to considering individual cases calling for humanitarian protection more than political asylum.

In addition to suitable legislation, there is a need for a patient and persevering effort to form minds and consciences. In all this, it is important to strengthen and develop understanding and cooperation between ecclesial and other institutions devoted to promoting the integral development of the human person. In the Christian vision, social and humanitarian commitment draws its strength from fidelity to the Gospel, in the knowledge that “to follow Christ, the perfect man, is to become more human oneself” (Gaudium et Spes, 41).

Dear brothers and sisters who yourselves are migrants, may this World Day help you renew your trust and hope in the Lord who is always at our side!

Take every opportunity to encounter him and to see his face in the acts of kindness you receive during your pilgrimage of migration. Rejoice, for the Lord is near, and with him you will be able to overcome obstacles and difficulties, treasuring the experiences of openness and acceptance that many people offer you.

For “life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope.

Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by – people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way” (Spe Salvi, 49).

I entrust each of you to the Blessed Virgin Mary, sign of sure hope and consolation, our “guiding star”, who with her maternal presence is close to us at every moment of our life. To all I affectionately impart my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican
12 October 2012[

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The following article was written by a professor of contemporary history at the University of Val D'Aosta and a credentialled historical researcher himself, who has written numerous articles and essays on contemporary historical issues, including Vatican II. Born in 1968, and educated at the Catholic University of Milan in philosophy and then with a doctorate in researching contemporary history, he earned a scholarship to study the history of Vatican II at the Pontifical Lateran University in 1999-2000...

Who was responsible for 'dividing'
the Church into right and left
during and since Vatican II?
The media and the Council's first historians
by Paolo Gheda
Translated from

Oct. 24, 2012

The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which opened fifty years ago this month, was an event that has profoundly marked the history of the contemporary Catholic Church and had a significant impact on the recent evolution of value systems in the Western world.

Just three years since Vatican-II ended, 1968 marked a profound - and in some ways, tragic - gap between the demands for social renewal proposed by the new generations and the politico-cultural establishment at the time.

Does this mean there is a link between the two events (Vatican II and the 1968 counterculture revolution) that were both fundamental to the second half of the 20th century? Probably yes, and one may identify it as questioning the concept of authority by almost all of society.

What happened? John XXIII, certainly one of the finest men of the Church in the 20th century - and anything but corresponding in his ecclesial and pastoral vision to that image of 'progressivist' with which he was instantly labelled by many observers and commentators - on that Roman Sunday of January 25, 2959, when he announced that he was convoking a Second Vatican Council, stated that he wished to adopt "a decisive resolution to recover some ancient doctrinal statements and a wise re-ordering of ecclesiastical discipline which, in the history of the Church. had yielded results of extraordinary efficacy during any period of renewal, through clarity of thought, and the compactness of religious unity".

It was a plan of action that would eventually lead, it was hoped, to the desired and expected updating of the Code of Canon Law (last revised in 1917). This was not at all the theory of 'rupture' with tradition whose incessant repetition from then on would construct the paradigmatic interpretation of Vatican-II in terms of 'novelty'.

Moreover, Papa Roncalli, to the perplexity of the bishops he had assembled at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, also announced a Roman Synod along with Vatican II. He probably never imagined the Conciliar disputes that developed after his death.

And the problem was not the Council per se. According to protagonists among the Italian bishops who were considered 'not progressive' - led by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, then the president of the Italian bishops' conference - disputes were resolved by arriving at a necessary equilibrium between the demands of liturgical and pastoral renewal, and faithfulness to the apostolic tradition. Cardinal Siri would write in 1966: "Without this Council, I am afraid we (the Church) would not have any horizons".

Rather, it was 'the Conciliar event' - an ecumenical council that was reported for the first time by the mass media, including television, who swallowed all kinds of exaggeration (and even tales told by Roman taxi drivers who picked up snippets of conversations from bishops who rode their cabs), and reported the Council as a confrontation between the 'discontinuity' line (of the left), reported to be in favor of a new protagonism by the episcopal college (the bishops of the world) and above all, in favor of a profound dissolution of differences between ordained persons and laymen;, and the line of 'continuity' (of the right), described as determined to defend with drawn swords the premises of the Petrine primacy as it had been defined by Vatican-I in the 19th century, while ignoring every need for pastoral renewal.That was the media narrative.

It was an unprecedented kind of reporting but one that was journalistically captivating because it presented the media view of the Council to the world Indeed, Vatican-II launched the profession of 'Vaticanista' in reporters tending to offer a rather stereotyped, if not downright caricaturish, image of the doctrinal disputes among the Council Fathers, in which substantially, the one institution that had continued to be perceived till then as sacred and untouchable. saw her very principles of self-government and the authority of her own components challenged and questioned.

And so, even the important and legitimate revaluation of the role of the laity - which would be expressed in all its ecclesial seriousness in Lumen gentium, setting the premises for the maturation of the new ecclesial movements in the second half of the 20th century - was presented by the media as an 'uprising' against the Church hierarchy and Magisterium.

In the booming Italy of the 1960s, the impact of this media message was shattering. Especially on the youth, who began to question the authority of the Church herself, against the background of echoes resounding from the civil rights movement for black Americans and the populist demonstrations against the US government over the Vietnam War.

Perhaps that was all it took for university students, especially females - who had grown up in the reassuring climate of postwar Italian reconstruction while anchored to 19th-century roles - to find other existential and social causes which sometimes took on revolutionary overtones.

In the years that followed - from sexual liberation to the transformation of family mechanisms, from the workplace to cultural and political participation - an entire 'ancient world' was overcome by this generational tsunami.

And the Church herself, which had just concluded a reformatory council intended to bring her abreast of the modern world, now found she had to catch up once more with a civilian society that was getting too far ahead, taking on a responsibility that was really extraneous to her mission.

But besides the idea of Vatican-II according to the media, there was = and still is - the Vatican-II according to the historians.

The Pope who led Vatican-II to its conclusion, Paul VI, had decided to make the archives of Vatican-II immediately accessible to scholars. In effect, the general attitude in the scientific community was immediately characterized by the need to 'pin down' and disseminate their view of the Council and its significance: first of all, through news reporting such as the accounts of Giovanni Caprile for the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica.even as the Secretariat of the Council's central coordinating committee was still compiling and editing the Acta et documenta concilio oecumenico); and then, through instant historiography, some of it already completed by the end of the 1960s.

Then, amid the subsequent flourishing of theological and historico-interpretative papers about Vatican-II, the Church was only just beginning the laborious work of pastorally implementing the Conciliar dictamen contained in the dogmatic constitutions - work that still has to be completed, as the then rector of the Lateran University, Mons. Angelo Scola, had warned at the time.

In the 1990s, the debate over Vatican-II was re-ignited by the publication of a five=volume History of Vatican II edited by the late Giuseppe Alberigo, an imposing work for the sheer mass of material it contained and the number of its contributors, using all available sources (some of them oral) including accounts relative to the process of approval of the various 'schema' (document drafts) presented to the Council. [What Gheda fails to mention at this point, for the reader who may have no idea about that 'History', is that it tendentiously presented the progressivist view and interpretation of Vatican II.]

The blurb for the new edition published this year ]to mark the 50th anniversary of the Council opening, says: "The secret of this historical account, of its enduring interest, is that it historicized the Council, rejecting all pacifying or colorless readings that would have been a generic flattening of what was a living reality, well-debated, complex, and constellated by fights and compromises, passions and delusions, but also by open perspectives that still remain open."

[What does it mean exactly to 'historicize' an event? To convert it to instant history upon which the historians can impose their own context and interpretation? Which is what Alberigo and his collaborators in the so-called 'Bologna school' managed to do. Especially since no one else started writing alternate accounts of Vatican II that early in any comprehensive manner that even approached the massiveness of their effort! And no one has so far.]

But historicizing the event [I think the operative word 'instantly' should precede 'historicizing', because it is not reporting the Council as history that is objectionable - it is the speed with which it was done, obviously as a preemptive move that would give the editors the first 'historical' word about Vatican-II - and they bet right!] meant they they also were able to condition and influence the 'reception' of Vatican-II. with its presentation of the Council as an event that marked a rupture with the past rather than as a renewal in continuity.

It must be pointed out that never before as in the implementation of Vatican II have historico-interpretative texts about the event ended up being so 'sensitive' because, in re-reading the events that transpired between the discussions held at the Council to the framing of the final Council documents, they potentially affected from the outside the receptive process that was still freshly under way, and were therefore impacting pastoral decisions beyond the Church's own mechanisms for the institutional transmission of her messages to the People of God.

Obviously, this does not mean that one should be indifferent to the history of Vatican II, but to underscore that the 'consciousness' about an event is in itself probably one of the principal elements that are useful for understanding the contemporary Church.

But one must be careful to consider every reading of Vatican II as the perspective of outside scholars who have their own sensibilities but who are interpreting complex internal Church questions, issues that are especially not reducible to the stereotypes of political history. It is clear that the Catholic experience has to do with reality at several levels - for believers, the highest level being faith in Jesus Christ - which cannot be comprehended in 'parliamentarizing' views that would categorize opposing camps in the Church as 'right' and 'left'.

Finally, there has been a recent development in the historiography of Vatican II - and more generally, in that of the Church in the 20th century - which must constrain a reflection on the risk entailed in adopting concepts that seek to be definitive, and are hostile to the normal revisions inherent in continuing research. And that development is the growing availability of new sources, often coming from the personal and diocesan records of individual prelates who were involved in Vatican II, and from the episcopal conferences.

These sources, if not completely belying the 'rupture' hypothesis of the Bologna school, nonetheless serve to enrich the historical account with often essential nuances, not to lead to a 'flattening' of the event, but to render the complexity of the Council more reliably.

All this, ultimately, to account for the natural functioning [or supernatural, for believers) of the body of the Church which, throughout history, has drawn from the multiplicity of positions taken by her members a synthesis that is always superior, even if, especially in times of great confusion, it may cost an effort to discern it through the many-layered clouds of post-modernity.

Perhaps because of this, and quite different from what was recently advocated by De Rita and Diotallevi in Corriere della Sera, it is still useful and even necessary to rake up the coals of VAtican-II from within the Church herself.

Moreover, the work of the historian is to constantly review sources and interpretations, with the increasing irrelevance of the old depiction of clergy and laity as either lovers of the Council or its detractors, as 'progressivists or conservatives'. There are those who consider the collective mobilization of the faith that Vatican II set into motion more relevant, and those who think that even a crude revision of the Conciliar decisions is necessary.

The Church has never been a Parliament, not even during the Council, when, despite the most diverse and contrasting positions and human characters involved, even in the tactical and politicizing attitudes they may have adopted, the participants never lost their awareness of being part of one mystical body destined for salvation.


My thoughts, from my own personal experience of the post-Conciliar changes in the Church which began when I was in my midteens, and my subsequent career as a journalist: IMHO, while Gheda's assessment of the role of media and the 'preemptive' historians of Vatican II is factual and plausible, the polarization between extreme traditionalists and ultra-progressivists was inherent among the Council Fathers, even if still amenable to compromise as the eventual agreement over the 16 Council document's showed. But given the confrontation narrative that the media played up throughout the Council, the polarization erupted into open hostilities among the advocates of both camps right after the Council.

The media bias, overwhelmingly secular, naturally favored the ascendancy of the progressivists who used their media advantage to push their message of rupture and shape public opinion their way, including gullible and/or weak-willed bishops and clergy for whom the path of least resistance was to go with the dominant 'popular' position.

This dominance was reinforced by the publication of the Bologna school's History of Vatican-IIwhose progressivist point of view = encapsulated in the phrase 'spirit of Vatican II' - was virtually unopposed because there was no comparable alternative history from the centrist point of view. Outside of the centrist theologians who published Communio as a reaction to what they saw as a distortion of the Council by the progressivists, the centrists in the Church appeared to put up no fight against the progressivist tide which was Protestantizing if not secularizing the Church in many ways. Consequently, the extreme traditionalists provided the media with the 'straw man' to keep their confrontation narrative going.

The apparent absence of any centrist resistance to the progressivist tsunami was epitomized in the swift and widespread bastardization of the Novus Ordo which was virtually unopposed in any effective way until Benedict XVI became Pope. In fact, it fell to him to articulate the centrist hermeneutic of reform and continuity in renewal, as against the hermeneutic of rupture advocated by the progressivist and traditionalist extremes. And look how much progress has been made in seven years, not just in the liturgy, but in pushing back the progressivist Old Guard and encouraging the newer Catholic generations to rediscover and appreciate the essentials of the faith that had been obscured by the surface polemics of the preceding four decades - four decades during which it seemed as if the only Catholics that mattered in the eyes of the media and public opinion were the extremists on both sides of the spectrum and their points of view, and the center inhabited by the majority of the world's Catholics appeared non-existent.

A belated account of the Closing Mass of the Synodal Assembly from the 10/29-10/30 issue of L'Osservatore Romano. OR stories on papal events usually include this kind of wrap-up story which gives pertinent details, as well as occasional color and immediacy (not in this report, though) to events generally reported in the MSM only in terms of what the Pope said. But this kind of chronicle is also necessary to provide a fuller picture of a papal event. Unfortunately, such OR accounts often seem like a mere pretext to enumerate the names of Vatican functionaries taking part in the event...

The Pope lays down 3 main paths
for the New Evangelization
Translated from the 10/29-10/30/12 issue of


Catecheses appropriate to prepare the faithful for the sacraments of initiation and penitence. re-launching mission efforts where the message of Christ has not yet reached and in the secularized Christian countries; and dialog through new methods and language with baptized persons who have drifted or turned away from the Church.

These were the three pastoral lines indicated by the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization which Benedict XVI stressed in his homily at the concluding Mass of the assembly.

On the morning of Sunday, October 28, the Holy Father presided at the Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter's Basilica a s a solemn seal to the three-week work of the Synodal Assembly undertaken on the 50th anniversary year of the opening the Second Vatican Council, the 20th anniversary of the post-Conciliar Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the opening of the Year of Faith.

The New Evangelization was the background for the Pope's homily centered on the figure of the blind Bartimaeus whom Jesus healed, and later, in his reflections before the Sunday Angelus prayers.

In fact, before the Angelus, Benedict XVI - who also asked the faithful to pray for the victims of hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean, as well as new earthquakes in southern Italy - called the Synodal Assembly "a high point in ecclesial communion".

This communion was visible throughout the Eucharistic liturgy in St. Peter's. Starting with the entry of the Synodal Fathers - about 270, counting cardinals, bishops, prelates and priests - who concelebrated the Mass, along with the dozens of priests who had taken part in the Synodal Assembly in various roles as members of the Secretariat, auditors, experts, communications personnel, translators and assistants.

In their white damask miters, some 50 cardinals led by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, preceded the Holy Father into the Basilica.

Six officials of the Synodal Assembly later joined the Pope at the altar for the Eucharistic prayers: Cardinals Robles Ortega of Mexico, Laurent Pasinya of the Congo, John Tong Hon of Hongkong, and Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC - presidents-delegate and general rapporteur, respectively; along with Archbishops Eterovic and Carre, secretary-general of the Bishops' Synod and special secretary of the Synodal Assembly, respectively.

Laymen who had addressed the Assembly also took part in the liturgy - in the readings, the prayers of intention in behalf of the faithful, and the offertory.

The first and second readings were given by Ralph Martin, director of a theological course on the New Evangelization at the diocesan seminary of Detroit, and by Chantal Le Ricque, a pastoral worker from the Archdiocese of Paris.

The prayers of intention were offered in Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic and Czech, by among others, Ewa Kusz of Poland, ex-president of the World Conference of Secular Institutes; Rita Maria Hernandez, pastoral coordinator for the Cuban bishops' conference; and Syrian Riad Sarqi, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Damascus.

The Mass offerings were brought to the Holy Father by three Italian families, followed by Chiara Amirante, founder of the Nuovo Orizzonti association; Joakim Kipyego Koech, an official of Comunione e Liberazione in Kenya; Gisèle Muchati, a Syrian member of the Famiglie Nuove movement; and Prof. Yong Suk Francis Xavier Oh, secretary-generla of the Apostolate for the Laity in South Korea.

Also taking part in the Mass were 15 cardinals and numerous bishops and priests from the Roman Curia, and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, flanked by Archbishops Becciu, deputy Secretary of State, and Mamberti, deputy for relations with states, along with Monsignors Balestrero, secretary to Mamberti, and Nwachukwu, chief of protocol at the secretariat of State.

Accompanying Benedict XVI were Archbishop James Harvey, Prefect of the Pontifical Household who will be named cardinal next month; the Pope's private secretaries Monsignors Gaenswein and Xuereb; and his personal physician, Dr. Patrizio Polisca.

The liturgy, under the direction of Mons. Guido Marini, master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, opened with the hymn 'Tu es Petrus' and ended with the Marian antiphon 'Sub tuum presidium' chanted by the Sistine Chapel choir directed by Maestro Palombella.