BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Nov. 4, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Center painting: San Carlo (left) and St. Francis (right), in adoration at the Manger.
ST. CARLO BORROMEO (Italy 1538-1584). Church Administrator, Cardinal, Papal Secretary of State, Reformer, Bishop of Milan
A Medici on his mother's side, he was born in Arona, northwest Italy. and was a precocious learner. When his uncle, Cardinal Angelo de Medici, became Pius IV in 1559, he made Carlo a cardinal deacon and administrator of the Church of Milan even if he was a layman and still a student. By age 22, he was Vatican secretary of state in charge of the Papal States. He rejected his family's desire for him to marry and carry on the lineage when his older brother died. Instead, he became a priest and at age 25, was consecrated Archbishop of Milan. Meanwhile, however, the Council of Trent was underway and this kept him from taking up his post in Milan. He worked tirelessly behind the scenes and facilitated the Council's final deliberations. He also had a large part in drawing up the Tridentine Catechism, and in the reform of teh Roman Missal and Breviary. When he finally took up his duties in Milan, he devoted himself to the reform of every phase of Catholic life among the clergy and the laity. He enjoined the clergy that unless they gave the Christian example and renewed their apostolic spirit, they could not succeed with their flocks. He set the example for poverty and penitence. In the famine of 1576, he borrowed large sums of money to be able to feed up to 70,000 people a day, and stayed in the city to tend to the victims, while civilian authorities fled. He was greatly esteemed by his brother cardinals, and his counsel was sought by the Catholic sovereigns of Europ: Henry III of France, Philip II of Spain, and Mary, Queen of Scots. His thought lives on in his letters and homilies, which are among the most quoted even today. The heavy burdens of his office took a toll on his health and he died at the young age of 46. In Milan, popular devotion to him as a saint arose quickly and continued to grow. The Milanese celebrated his anniversary as though he were already canonized. Supporters initiated the process for his canonization in Milan, Pavia, Bologna and other places. He was beatified in 1602 and canonized in 1610. His remains are enshrined in a glass urn in a crypt of the Cathedral of Milan. Im 2010, the Archdiocese of Milan marked the fourth centenary of his canonization.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110412.cfm


WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY

Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father reflected on today's Gospel reading from St. Mark on 'the greatest commandment of all' -
love of God and, inseparable from it, love of our fellowmen.

ANGELUS TODAY




'Love of God and
love of neighbor
are inseparable'
Adapted from

November 4, 2012

Despite severe weather warnings, there was an unusually large crowd of pilgrims gathered below the Holy Father'Ss study window at midday for the Angelus, with a crowd estimate as many as 50,000.

Before the prayers, the Holy Father offered his reflections on the Gospel reading from St. Mark, in which Jesus tells his disciples that
“the greatest of all commandments” is the commandment to love.

Love of God and love of each other, he said, "is one inseparable commandment", to be done with words and witness. He also added that “before being a command, love is a gift”, a reality that "God allows us to know and experience”, teaching us to “always and only want the good, never the bad”, to “see others with His eyes”, with unconditional love.

When we are filled with God's love, he noted, "we can love even those who don't deserve it, just as God loves us".

Ge concluded: “The person of Jesus and all His Mystery embody the unity of love of God and neighbour, like the two arms of the Cross, vertical and horizontal. In the Eucharist He gifts us this twofold love, gifting Himself, because, nourished by this bread, we love one another as He has loved us”.

In English, he said:

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Jesus teaches us that those who love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength are not far from the Kingdom. Let us love the Lord in this way, and our neighbour as ourselves. May God bless all of you!

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Here is Vatican Radio;s translation of the Holy Father's words:

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Dear brothers and sisters!

This Sunday's Gospel (Mk 12.28-34) offers us the teaching of Jesus about the greatest commandment, the commandment of love, which is twofold: to love God and to love your neighbour.

The Saints, whom we have recently celebrated altogether in a single solemn Feast, are precisely those who, trusting in God's grace, try to live according to this fundamental law. In fact, those who live a profound relationship with God, just as the child becomes capable of loving from a good relationship with his mother and father, are those who can put the commandment of love fully into practice.

Saint John of Avila, whom I recently proclaimed a doctor of the Church, writes at the beginning of his treatise on the love of God: «The reason that mostly pushes our hearts to love of God is considering deeply the love that He had for us ... This, beyond any benefit, pushes the heart to love; because he who gives something of benefit to another, gives him something he possesses; but he who loves, gives himself with everything he has, until he has nothing left to give" (No. 1).

Before being a command, love is a gift, a reality that God allows us to know and experience, so that, like a seed, it can also germinate within us and develop throughout our life.

If the love of God has planted deep roots in a person, then he is able to love even those who do not deserve it, as God does toward us. Father and mother do not love their children only when they deserve love: they love them always, though of course, they make them understand when they are wrong.

From God we learn to want only the good and never the bad. We learn to look at each other not only with our eyes, but with the eyes of God, which is the gaze of Jesus Christ. A gaze that starts from the heart and does not stop at the surface, that goes beyond appearances and manages to capture the deepest desires of the other: to be heard, wanting attention - in a word: love.

But there is also the reverse: that by opening myself to the other person, just as he or she is, by reaching out, by making myself available, I am also opening myself up to know God, to feel that He is there and is good. Love of God and love of neighbour are inseparable and are in mutual relationship.

Jesus did not invent one or the other, but revealed that they are, after all, a single commandment, and did so not just by Word, but especially with his testimony: the person of Jesus and all His Mystery embody the unity of love of God and neighbour, like the two arms of the Cross, vertical and horizontal.

In the Eucharist He gifts us with this twofold love, gifting Himself, because, nourished by this bread, we love one another as He has loved us.

Dear friends, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we pray that every Christian knows how to show his faith in the one true God with a clear witness to love of neighbour.

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Vatican's own media ignore
'Summorum Pontificum' pilgrimage
and Pope's message to the organizers

Yesterday, I saw a passing reference to a message in French that Pope Benedict XVI had sent to the organizers of the 'Una cum Papa nostro' pilgrimage to Rome on Nov 1-3, which culminated in the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday. I thought it would be published in the daily bulletins of the Vatican Press Office, but it was not. Nor was it on the site of the pilgrimage itself. On Sunday, Lella published the text on her blog,

saying it had reached her from an anonymous source - it is a message sent in the name of the Pope by Cardinal Bertone, which I have translated below.

The Pope's message

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On the occasion of the international pilgrimage organized in Rome for the fifth anniversary of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI extends his heartfelt greeting to all the participants, assuring them of his fervent prayers.

Through this Motu Proprio, the Holy Father had wished to respond to the hopes of the faithful who are attached to the previous liturgical form. In effect, as he wrote in his letter to all the bishops to present the Motu Proprio, it is good to conserve the riches that have grown within the faith and the prayers of the Church, and to give them their right place, even while fully acknowledging the value and the sacredness of the Ordinary Form of the Roman rite.

In this Year of Faith, promulgated as the Church marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Father calls on all the faithful to manifest their unity in the faith, so they can be effective workers for the New Evangelization.

Entrusting all the participants of the pilgrimage to Rome to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Father bestows on them his Apostolic Blessing.

+Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Secretary of State to His Holiness

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My question, of course, is: Did the Press Office think this message was so unimportant or peripheral that it did not deserve being published by them? In fact, there is no report about the Mass at all (let alone the pilgrimage) in any of the Vatican Radio language services, nor in L'Osservatore Romano, for that matter, even if the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship celebrated the Mass....

I had been previously skeptical about comments made by some Vaticanistas regarding hostility to the EF Mass by many 'within the Vatican' itself, being unable to conceive how persons worklng directly for the Pope could possibly that petty - but this deliberate 'boycott' of a significant event, in which even the papal message for the occasion is not reported, confirms it.

In the same way, I could never understand the sheer obstinate hostility of not a few diocesan bishops who have done all they can to obstruct the EF, as if it were something evil and diabolical, instead of the Mass form that had been consolidated from centuries of Tradition, standardized in the Council of Trent in the 16th century, and in use for the next four centuries and during the Second Vatican Council itself.

The Motu Proprio forces no bishop of priest to celebrate the EF nor the faithful to attend an EF Mass if it is not their preference. How could it harm the anti-EF elements in the Church at all to simply accept the Motu Proprio and obey the Pope in allowing others to avail of the EF?

It is their self-pride that has been mortslly wounded, because, being progressivists, they had chosen to interpret the liturgical reforms of 1969-1970 as a rejection of the traditional Mass in toto, even if nowhere in Sacrosanctum concilium is that said explicitly or even implicitly at all. In fact, they have chosen to ignore the specific provisions of that Vatican=II Constitution on the liturgy regarding the use of Latin in the Mass and the kind of music that is appropriate to the Mass, including an encouragement of Gregorian chant.

Anyway, here is an account of the Nov. 3 EF Mass at the Altar of the Chair from a French website:


The 'extraordinary' form
becomes a 'normal' Mass

November 3, 2012

Before the Mass that took place at St. Peter's Basilica today, Cardinal Anonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said to Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli in an interview, weighing his words carefully: "It is a way of making it understood that the use of the 1962 missal [the latest revision of the Tridentine Mass according to John XXIII] is normal".

To those who know how the Roman Curia operates, the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite Mass by the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship within the papal basilica, could only have been inspired, one way or the other, by the Papal message in French read to the congregation before the Mass began.

At 2:30 pm on Saturday, Nov, 3, the long procession of confraternities, priests, seminarians and faithful, left the Church of San Salvatore across the Tiber, going through the Sant'Angelo bridge into the Via della Conciliazione, which had been closed to traffic for the occasion, towards St. Peter's Square and the Basilica itself.



At 3 p.m., Cardinal Canizares began the Pontifical Mass beneath the Chair of St. Peter surrounded by a congregation of about 3,000 in the Basilica. As in the other events of this Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, one of the most striking impressions was the notable presence of diocesan priests and seminarians from the various pontifical universities and pilgrims who had come from other countries, especially France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Among the Curial prelates who attended the Mass (Mons. Camille Perl, former secretary of Ecclesia Dei; Mons. Pozzo who succeeded him and who has just been named Major Almoner to the Pope; and some members of the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations), the most remarkable presence was that of Mons. Augustine De Noia, recently named vice-president of Ecclesia Dei, surrounded by his staff, including Fr. De Andrade, of the same commission, who was the impeccable master of liturgical ceremonies for this Mass, assisted by a diocesan priest of Rome, Fr. Cuneo.

The assistant priest was Mons. Ferrer, deputy secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship; the deacon, Fr. Barker, vicar of the Roman parish dedicated to the traditional Mass; and the subdeacon, Fr. Reginal-Marie of the Fraternité Saint-Vincent-Ferrier. The other Mass assistants were seminarians from the Roman colleges or members of the diocesan clergy.

Everything suggested that, starting as a privilege granted under the Motu Proprio, the way has progressed towards 'normalcy' of the traditional form of the Mass, even if the goal is still a way off, nd that the Extraordinary Form is becoming re-integrated gradually into the life of dioceses and parishes, of youth movements, and into the life the Church herself.

Cardinal Canizares underscored this himself in his very spiritual homily, elaborating a theme that is dear to him: that the Motu Proprio represents a pacification of the Church with herself, namely, with her Tradition, whose axis was the traditional Mass.

When Benedict XVI's 'minister for the liturgy' referred delicately to "the enlightenment that Sacrosanctum concilium should bring to both forms of the Roman rite", was it not a way of saying that if until recently, many had considered that Vatican-II was best expressed by Paul VI's liturgical reform, it should now be seen as well in the context of the Mass of Tradition (often called the Mass of St. Pius V)?

The emotion that gripped those who heard the Mass on November 3 came from the awareness of witnessing a near-Copernican revolution in the current attitude towards liturgy.

Cardinal Canizares reiterated the objectives of the pilgrimage to Rome: as an act of thanksgiving to the Pope and support for his intentions and to demonstrate the 'affectionate' communion of 'the people of Summorum Pontificum' with the common Father of all Catholics.

P.S. The OR reports the papal message
in the 11/5-11/6 issue coming out tomorrow
but does not identify the story


Perhaps I am making too much of it, but the OR does belatedly report the Pope's message for 'Una cum Papa nostro'. For some reason, however, the newspaper failed to identify the story with a headline, or with a caption to the accompanying picture. Perhaps it was just editorial inattentiveness, but when was the last time you recall seeing a newspaper story that did not have a h=edline? I noticed the story in the online edition only because the picture showed Cardinal Canizares reading his homily at the Novembeer 3 Mass.

The text quotes some lines from the message sent in the Pope's name by Cardinal Bertone, and adds the following information:

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The message in French was read on the occasion of the international pilgrimage 'Una cum Papa nostro' to Rome organized by the Coetus internationalis Summorum Pontificum, which culiminated with a Mass on Saturday afternoon, Nov, 3, in St. Peter's basilica that was presided by Cardinal Antonio Canizares, Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Attending the Mass celerbated according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite were many faithful belonging to groups using the Missal revised in 1962 by Blessed John XXIII which the whole Church used before the post-Vatican II conciliar reform

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Augustinus at the Rorate caeli blogsite contributes this list of public EF Masses known to have been celebrated in Rome since the Jubilee Year of 2000 (i.e., when special papal indults were required to celebrate the traditional Mass). The list is not very encouraging:

Public EF Masses said in Rome
have been few and far between

November 4, 2012

...It should be kept in mind that many private EF Masses are celebrated daily in St. Peter's Basilica, and that there is a regularly-scheduled First Saturday Mass at the Capella Cesi in Santa Maria Maggiore (offered by priests of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest), in addition to private Masses in the same Basilica.

1) September 2, 2000 (Saturday) -- Messa Prelatizia according to the Traditional Ambrosian Rite, Bishop Bernardo Citterio, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Milan, at St. Stephen Chapel of ST. PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS. This was billed as the official Mass of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce for the Jubilee Year 2000. In attendance were the highest officials of Una Voce, led by the late Michael Davies.

2) May 24, 2003 (Sunday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, at the Papal Altar of SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE.

Five cardinals and one archbishop (and future cardinal) were present: Bernard Cardinal Law, the Archbishop Emeritus of Boston; William Cardinal Baum, Major Penitentiary Emeritus; Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina Estévez, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; Alfons Maria Stickler, Archivist and Librarian Emeritus of the Holy Roman Church; Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, Archbishop Emeritus of Antananarivo, Madagascar, and Archbishop Julián Herranz (later Cardinal), President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos read a message from Angelo Cardinal Sodano, at that time the Vatican's Secretary of State, transmitting the Pope's blessing to those present.

This was the first traditional Solemn Pontifical Mass in any of the four Patriarchal/Papal Basilicas in Rome since the liturgical reform of 1969-1970.

3) February 23, 2008 (Saturday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass, with diaconal ordinations for the Institute of the Good Shepherd, by Archbishop Luigi de Magistris, Pro-Major Penitentiary Emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary, at the ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN. He celebrated Mass in front of the Cathedra of the Bishop of Rome, on the altar that is used by the Pope every Corpus Christi in the square of the same Basilica.

4) April 16, 2009 (Easter Thursday) -- Solemn Mass, offered by Fr. Stefano Ma. Manelli FFI, Founder and Superior General of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, at the Papal Altar of the ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN.

5) April 21, 2009 (Tuesday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, at the Papal Altar of the ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN.

6) October 18, 2009 (Sunday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, at the Chapel of Eucharistic Adoration in ST. PETER'S BASILICA.

In attendance was Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who was then the Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda in Kazakhstan.

7) January 7, 2010 (Thursday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, at the Papal Altar of the ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN.

The sermon was preached by Bishop Luc Mathys, at that time Bishop of Armidale, Australia. Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, then and now the Bishop of Lismore, Australia, was also present.

8) May 15, 2011 (Sunday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Walter Cardinal Brandmüller, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, at the Altar of the Chair in ST. PETER'S BASILICA.

Three cardinals and three bishops were present: William Joseph Cardinal Levada, at that time the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Franc Cardinal Rodé, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci, who conducted the choir. Also present were Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan, and Bishop Peter J. Elliott, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne.

9) November 5, 2011 (Saturday) -- Low Mass (Messa Prelatizia) offered by Dario Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy and President Emeritus of PCED, at the Chapel of Eucharistic Adoration in ST. PETER'S BASILICA. This Mass was for the 20th General Assembly of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce, in Rome.

10) November 3, 2012 (Saturday) -- Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, at the Altar of the Chair in ST. PETER'S BASILICA.

Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia OP, Vice President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, was in attendance.

Cardinal Cañizares Llovera read a message from Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, transmitting the Pope's greetings to those present.

Monday, Nov. 5, 31st Week in Ordinary Time

VENERABLE SOLANUS CASEY (USA, 1870-1957)
Capuchin Priest, Candidate for Beatification
The first US-born man to be named Venerable, Fr. Casey
was the son of Irish immigrants who did several odd
jobs before he entered high school at age 21. Ordained
a Capuchin at age 33, he was not allowed to preach or
hear confessions because of a poor academic record at
the seminary. In 1924, he became porter-receptionist
at St. Bonaventure monastery in Chicago until he died,
distinguishing himself by his great faith, humility, and
role as spiritual counselor and intercessor. He was
declared Venerable in 1995 by John Paul II.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110512.cfm
I am confused about the Venerable Casey's true feast day. Last Year the American Catholic Org had him listed on Nov. 5,
but this year, they have him on Nov. 3; in other online entries, I see July 27; and both the USCCB liturgical calendar
(which carries no saint for Nov. 3) and American Catholic do not carry any saint for today, Nov. 5.


AT THE VATICAN TODAY



The Holy Father received the credentials of three new ambassadors to the Holy See:

- H.E. Francis Chukwuemeka Okeke, Ambassador of Nigeria

- H.E. John Anthony Gerard McCarthy, Ambassador of Australia

- H.E. Germán Cardona Gutiérrez, Ambassador of Colombia

He also met with

- H.E. Miguel Humberto Díaz, Ambassador of the United States of American, and his wife, on their farewell visit.


The Vatican also released the text of the congratulatory telegram sent by the Holy Father to the newly-elected
Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt.

Benedict XVI's message to Pope-elect
of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church

November 5, 2012

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HIS HOLINESS ANBA TAWADROS
POPE-ELECT OF ALEXANDRIA AND
PATRIARCH OF THE SEE OF SAINT MARK

I WAS FILLED WITH JOY ON LEARNING OF YOUR ELECTION AS POPE OF ALEXANDRIA AND PATRIARCH OF THE SEE OF SAINT MARK AND I GLADLY EXTEND TO YOU AND TO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH MY GOOD WISHES AND PRAYERFUL SOLIDARITY, ASKING THE LORD TO POUR OUT HIS ABUNDANT BLESSINGS UPON THE LOFTY MINISTRY YOU ARE ABOUT TO ASSUME.

I AM CONFIDENT THAT, LIKE YOUR RENOWNED PREDECESSOR POPE SHENOUDA III, YOU WILL BE A GENUINE SPIRITUAL FATHER FOR YOUR PEOPLE AND AN EFFECTIVE PARTNER WITH ALL YOUR FELLOW-CITIZENS IN BUILDING THE NEW EGYPT IN PEACE AND HARMONY, SERVING THE COMMON GOOD AND THE GOOD OF THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST.

IN THESE CHALLENGING TIMES IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL CHRISTIANS TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP THAT BINDS THEM TOGETHER, MINDFUL OF THE PRAYER OFFERED BY OUR LORD AT THE LAST SUPPER: THAT ALL MAY BE ONE, SO THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE (CF JN 17:21).

I THANK THE ALMIGHTY FOR THE IMPORTANT PROGRESS THAT WAS MADE, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF YOUR ESTEEMED PREDECESSOR, IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND I EARNESTLY HOPE AND PRAY THAT OUR CONTINUING FRIENDSHIP AND DIALOGUE, GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WILL BEAR FRUIT IN EVER CLOSER SOLIDARITY AND LASTING RECONCILIATION.

MAY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER FILL YOU WITH PEACE AND STRENGTH FOR THE NOBLE TASK THAT AWAITS YOU.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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Perhaps no one best expresses the socio-cultural context and almost-seminal significance of the US presidential elections tomorrow from the Catholic point of view than George Weigel does in this essay....

Catholic reflections on
the endgame of 2012
The Church in the United States, irreversibly changed,
leads the fight to restore freedom and decency.


For several decades now, Catholic thinkers influenced by the late Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar have been arguing that beauty can be a window into the true and the good. Postmodernity affirms “your truth” and “my truth” but is profoundly nervous about “the truth.”

Postmoderns break out in hives at the claim that the good is embedded in reality, not inside my head. Yet a profound encounter with the beautiful in art, architecture, music, or literature can make even the deepest skeptic and the most assiduous relativist consider the possibility that some things simply are, well, true and good. That Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and Fra Angelico’s Annunciation are beautiful, and that the chord these beautiful things touch in us is noble, isn’t a matter of my opinion or your opinion; it’s just true, just as the experience of true beauty is undeniably good.

This same dynamic works in reverse, for the ugly often illuminates what is base and ignoble. If a sane person didn’t know anything else about Communism and its effects on the lives of individuals and communities, a first encounter with the crudity, the sheer unloveliness, of socialist-realist architecture or painting would set off alarm bells: Something is seriously wrong here.

The ignoble and the base come in many forms. Two episodes of profound ugliness in the endgame of the 2012 campaign shed light on the character of some of those who would lead us for the next four years, and those who design their campaigns.

The vice president of the United States, for example, is not just a man whose natural exuberance makes him prone to gaffes. He is a national embarrassment, and from the point of view of his fellow Catholics he is an ecclesial embarrassment.

Biden’s moral incoherence during the VP debate was a disservice to both church and state. For he not only misrepresented the sources of Catholic teaching on the inalienable right to life by suggesting that this conviction was some sort of weird Catholic hocus-pocus; he also distorted the public-policy debate by claiming that moral judgments could not be “imposed” on a pluralistic society (a nonsensical claim that is flatly contradicted by his defense of Obamacare).

Worse, Biden either lied or exhibited grotesque misunderstanding of the policy of the administration of which he is the putative second-in-command — and he surely boggled Paul Ryan’s mind (and the mind of any Catholic who has been paying attention for the past ten months) — when he claimed that the HHS “contraceptive mandate” did not require Catholic institutions to include coverage of contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs in the health-care benefits they provide their employees.

The next morning, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement saying flatly that the vice president was wrong — a point underscored the previous night by Congressman Ryan, who quite rightly asked the clueless (or mendacious) Biden why he thought more than 40 Catholic institutions and employers were suing the administration over the HHS mandate.

But the worst was yet to come. At a recent memorial service for former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., the vice president of the United States, in what the elder Woods described as “an extremely loud and boisterous voice,” asked Woods’s grieving father, Charles, “Did your son always have balls the size of cue balls?” Yet another gaffe, the latest in the administration’s post-Benghazi thrashing? No. Ugliness, of the sort that illustrates the truth about a man’s character, or lack thereof.

At about the same time that Biden, who is a heartbeat from the Oval Office and whom the President proposes to keep there, was setting a lowest-of-the-low benchmark for personal boorishness, the Obama campaign unrolled a TV ad that might have been scripted by Larry Flynt. In it, Lena Dunham, the creator of HBO’s smutty Girls, offers advice to seemingly innocent young women and other onlookers. The 26-year-old star, who has the look and mannerisms of a 13-year-old, channels her inner Lolita and coos the following:

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Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy. It should be with a guy . . . who really cares about and understands women.

A guy who cares about whether you get health insurance, and specifically whether you get birth control. The consequences are huge. You want to do it with a guy who brought the troops out of Iraq. You don’t want a guy who says ‘Oh, hey, I’m at the library studying,’ when he’s really out not signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Or who thinks that gay people should never have beautiful, complicated weddings of the kind we see on Bravo or TLC all the time . . .

Think about how you want to spend those four years. In college-age time, that’s 150 years. Also, it’s super uncool to be out and about and someone says, ‘Did you vote?’ and ‘No, I didn’t vote, I wasn’t ready.’ My first time voting was amazing. It was this line in the sand. Before I was a girl. Now I was a woman. I went to the polling station and pulled back the curtain. I voted for Barack Obama.

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Voting as analogy to recreational sex underwritten financially by tax dollars: That’s what the Obama campaign imagines to be a winning strategy in fighting what it is pleased to call the “War against Women.” Showcasing Sandra Fluke at the Democratic National Convention was not, as the Marxists used to say, an accident: This is an administration that seems to imagine that America is a nation of Sandra Flukes (and their gigolos), and that this is a Good Thing.

Even attempting to parse this kind of vulgarity seems demeaning, although it’s clear enough that the administration is committed to an ideology of lifestyle libertinism that it is eager to “impose on a pluralistic society” (as the vice president would not put it). So let’s just say that the Lolita ad is ugly, coarse, breathtakingly stupid, and profoundly anti-woman — which tells us something about the character of the people who create and authorize such ads, even as it further clarifies their vision of the American future.

Beauty is a window into what is true and good and life-giving. Ugliness helps us understand what is base, ignoble, and dehumanizing. That’s worth keeping in mind when entering the voting booth.

The non-existent “Catholic Vote”
The polling in recent weeks confirms what close observers of the U.S. Catholic scene have known for decades: There is no such thing as “the Catholic vote.” Rather, Catholics tend to vote like other non-black or non-Hispanic Christians: Frequent churchgoers skew heavily Republican; rare churchgoers skew heavily Democratic; and the scale slides steadily between those two poles, such that the more you go to church, the more you incline Republican. In that sense, at least, US Catholics have become thoroughly Americanized [or are inherently 'American', to begin with!]

Where some marginal, but not inconsequential, difference along this scale might show itself on November 6 is among those less-than-regular Catholic Mass–goers who might normally incline Democratic but who in this instance will react against “my Church” getting muscled by the administration (as in the HHS mandate) and will thus vote Republican.

That this could make a considerable difference is illustrated by the 2004 election in Ohio, where several hundred thousand angry Evangelicals registered to vote in order to cast a ballot against gay marriage and, while they were at it, voted for George W. Bush — decisions that explain, in retrospect, why we are not living at the end of the second John Kerry administration.

Might Catholics who are unhappy over the administration’s ham-handedness with the Catholic Church make the difference in Ohio? Wisconsin? Other battleground states?

They will if they’ve been paying attention. There is little room for doubt, now, that a continued Obama administration — however agenda-free it might otherwise seem at the end of October 2012 — would be the most aggressively secular in American history.

With Obamacare set in concrete, the current “HHS mandate” battle (which the Church may well win in the courts, thanks to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) would almost certainly be a preview of distractions to come as the administration used the incredibly loose language of the Affordable Care Act to “mandate” any number of other “services” that would jeopardize the integrity of Catholic institutions and the consciences of private-sector Catholic employers.

Obama Supreme Court nominees would certainly take a gimlet-eyed view of the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment, further whittling away the free space in American civil society for religious communities and their institutions.

Those same Obama Supreme Court nominees could lock in a pro–Roe v. Wade Court majority for the next quarter-century, thus dealing a severe legal blow to the pro-life cause. And does anyone seriously believe that an administration that runs the Lolita ad would do anything but accelerate the toxification of American culture?

Catholics who are still pondering their presidential vote will have heard, endlessly, that no political party fully embodies the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. That is certainly true. And it is also largely irrelevant.

For the choice in 2012 is not between two parties that, in relative degrees, inadequately embody the Catholic vision of the free and virtuous society. The choice is between a party that inadequately embodies that vision and a party that holds that vision in contempt, as it has made clear in everything from the “HHS mandate” through the Charlotte convention votes against God to the Lolita ad. Catholics who do not like their Church, or their vote, or themselves to be held in contempt could make the decisive difference in 2012 — not so much as a “Catholic vote” bloc, but as a community of American citizens determined to restore the decencies to public life and American culture.

A changed Catholicism
Whatever happens on November 6, though, the Catholic Church in America has been changed, likely in irreversible ways, by the experience of this campaign year.

A critical mass of U.S. bishops now understands the challenge of this cultural moment, and these bishops are prepared to exercise their pastoral office in the prophetic way that the challenge of the culture requires.

The utter incoherence of the Pelosi/Biden/Sebelius form of Catholicism has created a situation that those prophetic bishops will not likely fail to address. For while it is true that the Catholic Church is big enough for Paul Ryan and Joe Biden (and Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius), it is also true, and far more urgently true from a pastoral point of view, that there are different pews within Big Church Catholicism. Many of those in the more distant pews are grievously uncatechized, which causes them to lead lives of spiritual and moral incoherence. That situation will not be tolerated indefinitely.

As the Catholic Church once became the lead Christian community in intellectually formulating the pro-life position, it has now become the lead church in articulating, through the arts of public reason, the defense of America’s first freedom, religious liberty. In both of these exercises, Catholics have found common cause with evangelical Protestants; and in the religious-freedom battle (and the battle to defend marriage rightly understood), Catholics have found new allies among Mormons. And as the Catholic-Evangelical alliance in the American culture war led unexpectedly to new and rich theological exchanges, so, it may be expected, will the partnership in battle alongside Latter-day Saints. The ecumenical landscape in the 21st century will thus look nothing like the ecumenical landscape when the Second Vatican Council opened 50 years ago.

“Progressive” Catholicism in America once claimed the Church’s Vatican II defense of religious freedom as its proudest accomplishment — as well it might. Yet that, too, has changed. The abandonment of the religious-freedom issue by far too much of the Catholic Left in 2012 was a further indicator of what Francis Cardinal George announced years ago: the death of liberal Catholicism from what had become, in the post–Vatican II decades, its spiraling intellectual implausibility.

Should the Republican ticket prevail, Vice President Paul Ryan will be the new face of public Catholicism in America, and a bracing new debate will unfold about embodying the principles of Catholic social doctrine in American public policy, and in joint work by the public and private sectors, to empower the poor, reform health care and education, and build a cultural and legal architecture of life. This debate will set the intellectual pace for the Catholic Church throughout the Western world.

Should the Democratic ticket prevail, the Catholic Church in the United States will be compelled to confront the federal government as it has never done before in the history of the Republic. The Church will do that to defend its own. But it will also do that for the sake of American constitutionalism. For what prickly John Adams once facetiously referred to as “Grandmother Church” has, in 2012, become the lead church in the defense of the constitutional order for which Adams and his contemporaries argued, fought, and bled.

Egypt's 118th Coptic Orthodox pope
faces a charged political scene but
is known as a man of dialog
By Yasmine Saleh

Nov. 4, 2012


Acting Coptic Pope Pachomios (l.) displays the name of the new Pope Tawadros II, depicted in the large poster, during the papal election ceremony at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Sunday, Nov. 4. Below, the new Cpoptic pope greets well-wishers with a photo of His predecessor, Shenouda III, in the background.


CAIRO, Nov. 5 - Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church chose a new pope, Tawadros II, in a sumptuous service on Sunday, and Christians hope he will lead them through an Islamist-dominated landscape and protect what is the Middle East's biggest Christian community.

Christians, who make up about a tenth of Egypt's 83 million population, worry about political gains made by Islamists since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year. Radical Islamists have been blamed for attacks on churches several times since, but Copts have long complained of discrimination in Muslim-majority Egypt.

In a ritual steeped in tradition and filled with prayer, chants and incense at Abbasiya cathedral in Cairo, the names of three papal candidates chosen in an earlier vote were placed in a wax-sealed bowl before a blindfolded boy picked out one name.

Copts, who trace their church's origins to before the birth of Islam in the 7th century, believe this long-established selection process ensured that worldly influences did not determine the successor to Pope Shenouda III, who led the church for four decades until his death in March at the age of 88.

"Pope Tawadros II is the 118th [leader of the church], blessed congratulations to you," said the interim Pope Bakhomious, who was dressed in gold-embroidered robes.

As he held the name aloft, the congregation in the packed cathedral applauded. The formal ceremony to install Bishop Tawadros, 60, as pope will take place on Nov. 18, a priest said.

Pope Shenouda was criticized by some Christians for being too close to Mubarak. Church analysts say he was partly prompted to take a strong advocacy role in Mubarak's era because many Christians withdrew from public life, complaining of discrimination, leaving the pope their main defender.

"Pope Tawadros faces different rules of the political game," said Youssef Sidhom, editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani. "Copts are now encouraged, and even encouraged by the church, to get out and participate in the political arena."

The new pope, bishop of a region in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, was shown on television praying at Pope Shenouda's tomb in a desert monastery in Wadi el-Natrun surrounded by priests.

Bearded, bespectacled and in black priestly robes, Mr. Tawadros thanked God, praised his predecessor and said: "I carry love to all our brothers in Egypt," in comments broadcast on television.

Church experts said Tawadros, trained as a pharmacist before becoming a priest, had strong communication skills and called for peaceful co-existence in Egyptian society.

Coptic activist Peter el-Naggar welcomed the choice, adding: "He is not the kind of man who would compromise our rights."

Marina Nabil, 20, said amid the applause after the ceremony that lasted several hours: "I am so happy. I have had dealings with Bishop Tawadros before and he is a very wise and calm man."

Muslim leaders and politicians offered congratulations and voiced hopes he would foster greater national unity.

In a ballot last week the candidates had been whittled down to the three. Voters included leading members of the church, public figures and a handful of representatives of the Ethiopian church, which has historic links to the church in Egypt.

The other two candidates for the papal post were Bishop Rafael, a 54-year-old who qualified as a doctor before entering the priesthood, and Father Rafael Afamena, a 70-year-old monk who studied law before taking on holy orders.

Echoing worries of many Copts, shopkeeper Michael George said: "Christians fear the Islamists' rule especially because their presence is encouraging radicals to act freely."

Since Mubarak was ousted, Christians have complained of several attacks on churches by radical Islamists, incidents that have sharpened longstanding Christian complaints about being sidelined in the workplace and in law.

As an example, they point to rules that make it harder to obtain official permission to build a church than a mosque.

Sectarian tensions have often flared into violence, particularly in rural areas where rivalries between clans or families sometimes add to friction. Romantic relations between Muslims and Christians are regularly to blame for clashes.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the mainstream Islamist movement from which President Mohamed Mursi emerged to win power via free elections, has sworn to guard the rights of Christians.

Mursi congratulated the pope and the head of his Freedom and Justice Party, Saad al-Katatni, said on his Facebook page he was "optimistic about fruitful cooperation with [the pope] as spiritual leader of Coptic brethren."

Christianity spread into Egypt in the early years of the faith, several centuries before Islam emerged from the Arabian Peninsula and then swept across North Africa and beyond.

The Coptic Orthodox church is the biggest in Egypt, although there is also a much smaller Coptic Catholic church, as well as other small groups affiliated to churches abroad.

Any Lutherans coming back to Rome?
One leading Vaticanista speculates
without any basis in fact

Two days ago, Vaticanista Paolo Rodari went out on a very tenous limb to hypothesize a return to Rome of Lutherans, similar to that which has taken place with some Anglicans under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. He started off his speculative report this way:

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After the Anglicans, will the Lutherans come next? The unthinkable may take place in the era of Benedict XVI - the return of Lutherans to full communion with Rome...

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The trouble is it was misleadingly based on an interview given by Cardinal Kurt Koch to the German service of Zenit towards the end of the Bishops' Synod. As you can see in ZENIT's translation of the interview below, the cardinal made a fundamental distinction for the Anglican case, in which some Anglican groups sought a return to Rome as early as 15 years ago and persisted in their request until Benedict XVI devised a solution for them. No such initiative has come from any Lutheran group, and it is unlikely to come as the Lutheran World Federation prepares to celebrate the fifth centenary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.

But it is not the first time that Rodari, who does have valid inside sources in the Vatican and occasionally gets good stories from them, nonetheless resorts to the cheap journalistic ploy of creating a headline and constructing a whole story out of a most tenuoos thread - in this case, a statement by Cardinal Koch which rules out rather than rules in the possibility that Rodari speculates upon. Such journalistic practice is dishonest and obejctionable....

Interview with Cardinal Koch:
'Lutherans have a different understanding
from Catholics of the essence of Church'
by Jan Bentz


VATICAN CITY, OCTOBER 29, 2012 (Zenit.org).- During the 13th General Congregation of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, ZENIT interviewed Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

In the past you have taken part in other Synodal assemblies. What are your impressions of this Synod?
This is now my fourth Synod experience. In two of them, I participated as bishop of Basel - in the Extraordinary Synod on Europe; then in the [Synod] on the Word of God in 2008. In my new position, I took part in the Synod on the Middle East and now, in that of the New Evangelization.

On the whole, the outline is always the same, but a general assembly of the Synod of bishops is particularly interesting since there are episcopal representatives of the whole world. To be able to glean the experiences of all the bishops is already something extraordinary, and also to be able to experience how different the Church is in various parts of the world and at the same time how much the problems resemble one another.

You are the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The dialogue with Protestants is, in fact, very important in Germany. In your opinion, what progress has been made recently in Germany and what can be expected concretely from the Synod?
The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed in August of 1999 was undoubtedly a great step forward in the ecumenical dialogue with Lutherans. The task remaining now is to discuss the ecclesiological consequences of this Joint Declaration.

What is clear, in fact, is that the Evangelicals (Lutherans) have another understanding of the Church compared to what we Catholics have. It’s not enough to recognize one another mutually as a Church. What is needed, rather, is a serious theological dialogue on what constitutes the essence of the Church.

Is a solution similar to the Anglicanorum coetibus for Anglicans possible for Evangelical Christians?
Anglicanorum coetibus was not an initiative of Rome, but came from groups within the Anglican Church. The Holy Father then sought a solution and, in my opinion, found a very broad solution, in which the Anglicans’ ecclesial and liturgical traditions were taken into ample consideration. If similar desires are expressed by the Lutherans, then we will have to reflect on them. However, the initiative is up to the Lutherans.

During the recent Synodal sssembly, we also heard representatives of the Orthodox Churches. What is emerging for the dialogue with the Orthodox in the near future?
At present the Orthodox Church is very busy with preparations for the Pan-Orthodox Synod. Personally, I am convinced that when it takes place, it will be a great step forward for ecumenical dialogue. Hence, we must support these Orthodox efforts and also have patience. In the ecumenical commissions we continue the theological dialogue on the relation between 'Synodalism' and Primacy.

Many believe that secularization was also caused by the Church, even if involuntarily. On the whole, isn’t it necessary to analyze which currents and attitudes led to secularization in order to correct them?
In fact, some historians rightly stress that the 16thcentury schism and the subsequent bloody confessional wars, in particular the Thirty Years’ War, caused secularization in the sense of the privatizing religion.

Given that Christianity was present only in the form of different faiths which were fighting one another to the point of spilling blood, it could no longer serve as the foundation and guarantor of social unity and peace. For this reason, the current modern age sought a new foundation of unity, doing without religion.

These grievous processes must also be kept present in view of the 500thanniversary of the Reformation. In the subsequent history of the modern age other developments of secularization certainly arose such as the abandonment of the question of God, which have other motives and are also addressed in the plan of the New Evangelization.,

In regard to Vatican Council II, the discussion is very timely today on the concept of the “hermeneutics of continuity.” Is it not the case that the two “political” extremes of the Church, that is traditionalists and progressives, are both committing the same error, in the sense that they consider the Council a “break”?
Yes, but precisely for this reason the Pope calls his interpretation of the Council not “hermeneutic of continuity” but “hermeneutics of reform” - it is a question of renewal in continuity with Tradition.

This is the difference: the progressives profess a hermeneutics of discontinuity and rupture. The traditionalists profess a hermeneutics of pure continuity - only that which is already present in Tradition can be Catholic doctrine and practice. In this view, practically, there cannot be a renewal.

Both extremes see the Council equally as a rupture with the past, even if in a very different way. The Holy Father has questioned this understanding of the conciliar hermeneutics of rupture and promotes the hermeneutics of reform, which unites continuity and renewal - renewal in continuity.

The Holy Father presented this hermeneutics in his first Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2005 and thus gave precise indications on how to interpret the Council and make it fruitful for the future.

Trial of SecState computer tech
for Vatileaks involvement begins
but will resume Nov. 10
By Cindy Wooden


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 5 (CNS) -- A Vatican computer technician charged with aiding and abetting the papal butler in stealing confidential documents went on trial amid legal arguments over the definition of the charge and questions about the "anonymous source" who reported him to officials.

As the trial began Nov. 5, the lawyer for Claudio Sciarpelletti, 48, argued Nov. 5 that his client and the papal butler, Paolo Gabriele, were acquaintances, not friends, and that Sciarpelletti had no motive to set aside "20 years of service to the Holy See" to help someone he wasn't particularly close to.

The court rejected the motion by Gianluca Benedetti, the defense attorney, to drop the charge against Sciarpelletti, who works in the Vatican Secretariat of State, but accepted his request for a copy of documents from the butler's trial. After asking Benedetti how much time he needed to read the documents, the court ruled the trial will continue Nov. 10.

Gabriele, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing and leaking confidential Vatican correspondence, including letters to and from the pope, was present in the courtroom along with others called as witnesses. They will be questioned Nov. 10.

Sciarpelletti was arrested May 25, two days after Gabriele; Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's office after investigators were told that he and Gabriele had "continual contacts."

Benedetti told the court, "Everything began with an anonymous tip -- from someone in the Secretariat of State, I understand -- who spoke of frequent contacts between Paolo Gabriele and Claudio Sciarpelletti, and from there the idea of a friendship developed."

But, Benedetti said, the two were little more than acquaintances. And, he said, if the two were such good friends, the court should wonder why, over the course of six years, Gabriele refused to allow Sciarpelletti to replace his work computer even though it was "obsolete." [What Wooden does not explain, as the Italian media did, was that part of Sciarpelletti's job was to service the computers used in the papal study, replacing them as they became obsolete. The computer Gabriele used in his home [confiscated later by Vatican police] was one belonging to the Vatican and issued to him for his personal use. This is the computer that he refused to have Sciarpelletti replace.]

The court rejected Benedetti's request for "the acquisition of evidence relative to telephone traffic and electronic mail communications" between Sciarpelletti and Gabriele. The court said it would be difficult to ascertain precisely the men's relationship from phone records and emails.

The Vatican's indictment of Sciarpelletti said he had led police to their key piece of evidence against him: an envelope in his desk marked "Personal: P. Gabriele."

Indicting Sciarpelletti in August, the court said that, among other contents, the envelope contained a copy of a section of an Italian journalist's book, which was based on documents leaked by Gabriele. It also contained copies of email, but the court did not describe the email further.

According to the court documents, Sciarpelletti's descriptions of his relationship with Gabriele and of the origin and destination of the envelope changed several times over the course of the investigation.

"The contrasting version of facts furnished by the accused, Claudio Sciarpelletti, may have hindered the investigation," the indictment said, leading to the charge of "aiding and abetting," which is the closest crime the Vatican has to an accusation of being an accessory after the fact by obstructing justice.

At the opening of the trial, Benedetti asked the court how it could accuse Sciarpelletti of obstructing the investigation when the Vatican police had already confiscated from Gabriele's Vatican apartment 82 boxes of material, including about 1,000 pages of sensitive correspondence, much of which had been leaked to and published by an Italian journalist. [According to Vatican police accounts, these 1,000 pages or so represented documents copied from the Pope's files, including some that were not among those provided to Nuzzi, and that these documents constituted only a small part of the 82 boxes of documents taken from Gabriele's apartment, most of them being material he downloaded from the Internet on subjects that he was interested in.]

Benedetti said the differing version of facts initially given by Sciarpelletti was due to his client's "emotional confusion."

Sciarpelletti had spent one night in a Vatican jail cell and then was released on his own recognizance. If found guilty, he is not expected to be sentenced to jail time, although the charge could carry a penalty of up to one year in prison.

My addendum:
Among the witnesses called by Benedetti to question in behalf of his client at the trial are Gabriele himself, who is expected to take the stand on Nov. 10, Vatican police chief Domenico Giani and two others in connection with the accusatory document against Giani and the Vatican police which was in the envelop taken from Sciarpelletti;s desk, and Mons. Carlo Maria Polvani, head of the Secretariat of State's department of information and documentation, and Sciarpelletti's immediate superior. He is also the nephew of Mons. Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to Washington, whose 2011 letters to the Pope and the Cardinal Bertone protesting his reassignment from the Vatican and alleging 'corruption' at the Vatican Governatorate where he was the @2 man for a couple of years, were the first of the Vatileaks documents to be made public last January.

PHOTO POST-SCRIPTS

Some recent photos I belatedly picked up from available newsphotos online:

November 2
Benedict XVI prays at the tombs
of his predecessors in the Vatican grottoes



The Holy Father also led prayers in front of the tomb of St. Peter.





November 3
Mass for departed cardinals and bishops






November 5
Meeting with ambassadors

Videocaps from ROME REPORTS:


An infant interacts with the Holy Father.


Ambassador Miguel Diaz makes his farewell visit after less than four years as President Obama's ambassador to the Holy See.

Tuesday, November 6, 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Third and fourth from left: Anonymous paiting, 1480, Leonard between St Sebastian and St. Catherine of Siena; Correggio, 1617, Leonard(extreme right) with St. Peter, the Blessed Virgin, and Mary Magdalene.
ST. LEONARD DE LIMOGES (France, died 559), 6th-century monk
Traditional 'lives of saints' in the 11th century say he was a Frankish courtier in the Merovingian court, who was converted by St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, then, refused the offer of a See from his godfather, King Clovis I, and became a monk instead. He lived as a hermit at Limoges and was rewarded by the king with all the land he could ride around on a donkey in a day for his prayers, which were believed to have brought the Queen through a difficult delivery safely. He founded Noblac monastery on the land so granted him, and it grew into the town of Saint-Leonard. He remained there evangelizing the surrounding area until his death. He is invoked by women in labor and by prisoners of war because of the legend that Clovis promised to release every captive Leonard visited.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110612.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father today.

The Vatican released the text of an address delivered by 'Foreign Minister' Mons. Dominique Mamber
to the 81st general assembly of Interpol.


Two years ago...
The Holy Father traveled to Santiago de Compostela in Spain on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James
during the Jacobean Holy Year, and later proceeded to Barcelona for the consecration of Antoni Gaudi's
Basilica of La Sagrada Familia the next day.

Here's a useful updater-cum-backgrounder on the status of the Vatican dialog with the Lefebvrians, which is far from over, it appears, going by the most recent statement by the Vatican...

Vatican-FSSPX dialogue continues:
'Patience, serenity and trust are needed'
by Michael J. Miller

Nov. 6, 2012

The last several months’ developments in Vatican-FSSPX relations have been misinterpreted by extremists of all ideological stripes.

The last official meeting between the Ecclesia Dei Commission and the authorities of the Society of Saint Pius X took place in the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 13, 2012. Some sanguine observers expected the return of the Society to the fold in months if not weeks, while the more cynical opined that the meeting marked the end of the CDF-FSSPX negotiations.

Since June there were major personnel changes at the CDF, and the Society held a General Chapter, defined the parameters for its future dealings with the Vatican, and neutralized an internal threat to its unity.

Commentators weighed each of these developments in turn as though it could seal the ultimate fate of the Society. Often lost in the shuffle was the key fact that the FSSPX authorities still had not responded officially to Rome’s latest offer — a fact helpfully pointed out in a communiqué from the Ecclesia Dei Commission issued in late October.

This article reviews these events and offers a perspective on the controversies surrounding them.

A new phase of discussions
At the June 13 meeting at the Vatican, Cardinal William J. Levada, then Prefect of the CDF, presented to Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the FSSPX, a doctrinal declaration and a proposal for the canonical regularization of the Society.

The first document was the most recent form of the “Doctrinal Preamble” drawn up by the Ecclesia Dei Commission in late 2011; the acceptance by the FSSPX of the principles stated therein was to be the basis for any arrangement to reinstate the Society in the Church with a canonical mission.

It was understood that the Society could modify the wording but not the substance of the Doctrinal Preamble; as of June 2012 the FSSPX authorities were waiting for Rome’s response to a version that they had proposed.

They were surprised, therefore, that the “Doctrinal Declaration” presented for them to sign on June 13 was almost identical to the original version. They were even more perplexed by the canonical proposal.

When the Society began its doctrinal discussions with the CDF, it assured its members that there would be no talk about regularizing its canonical status until after the doctrinal issues were settled. Now Rome was asking for both at once. Bishop Fellay and his assistants prudently deferred their response to Rome’s proposal until they had the opportunity to consult widely with other FSSPX members.

Less than three weeks later, on July 2, the Vatican announced the retirement of Cardinal Levada and the appointment of Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg as the new prefect of the CDF.

Over the years the prelate had been on none-too-neighborly terms with the FSSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, within the territory of his diocese. One German theologian from the Society had proactively responded to early rumors of Müller’s appointment by circulating in several languages a few excerpts from the latter’s voluminous scholarly writings that purportedly demonstrated his heterodox views on fundamental dogmas, such as the Virgin Birth and the Real Presence. In several of the many interviews that he granted after his appointment, now-Archbishop Müller flatly stated that the doctrinal discussions with the SSPX were “over.” [Statements which were rash, to say the least, considering that he had to backtrack on them later to sound conciliatory, and obviously, to fall in place with the larger Vatican line (presumably Benedict XVI's)!]

So, militant traditionalists could repeat their battle cry, “Rome is ruled by Modernists!” while liberal ideologues could gloat that the thick-headed Lefebvrists had passed up their last opportunity to get with the times and join the post-conciliar Church. Except that both extreme views of the situation were false.

The excerpts from Müller's writings, all taken out of context, were flimsy evidence of heretical teaching. As a university professor of dogmatic theology, Müller had forcefully defended unpopular Catholic doctrines (such as the ineligibility of women for Holy Orders), and as a bishop he had defunded a dissident group in his diocese.

On the other hand, while the CDF had unilaterally declared that the “doctrinal discussion” phase was concluded after eight sessions with the FSSPX panel, they had also started a new phase of negotiations by putting on the table a concrete proposal to recognize the Society canonically.

Pope Benedict XVI also filled the vice presidency of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, an office that had been vacant for some time, by appointing Archbishop Joseph Augustine DiNoia, OP, an expert on ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue who was instrumental in preparing theologically correct liturgical texts for the new Anglican Ordinariates.

Although Archbishop Müller is the ex-officio president of Ecclesia Dei, the FSSPX will now deal directly with Archbishop DiNoia. To make a clean sweep, the former secretary of the Commission, Msgr. Guido Pozzo, was appointed Almoner of His Holiness and Titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio in early November. [As secretary of Ecclesia Dei, Pozzo technically a tdministered the dialog sessions held with the FSSPX by a panel of CDF theologians and their Lefebvrian counterparts.]

The FSSPX 'General Chapter' meeting
The General Chapter of the FSSPX, which is held every 12 years, is its supreme and extraordinary authority. Ordinarily the Society is governed by its superior general with the help of his council.

In 2006, when he was re-elected head of the Society, Bishop Fellay announced that he would convene a special “midterm” chapter in 2012 to review current affairs. Bishop Fellay had had an audience with Benedict XVI on August 29, 2005, during the newly-elected Pope’s first stay at Castel Gandolfo, and so he had every reason to expect that the third Christian millennium would be kinder to the Society than the second had been.

He may not have foreseen the extent and rapidity of the favorable developments: the 2007 motu proprio liberalizing the use of the 1962 Roman Missal, the lifting of the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops, then a year and a half of theological discussions with the CDF. The 2012 General Chapter was so perfectly timed that it must have been providential.

The General Chapter is composed of the Superior General and his council, the bishops of the Society, former superiors general, district superiors, seminary rectors and superiors of autonomous houses, plus a certain number of senior priests who do not hold any of the previously mentioned offices. The 2012 General Chapter took place on July 9-14, following a five-day spiritual retreat by the participants. Bishop Richard Williamson was not invited because he had been suspended from his office in 2010 because of “serious breaches of discipline” [and 'exiled' to an FSSPX house in London].

The most important business on the agenda concerned the Society’s relations with Rome. The Chapter formulated conditions to be set by the Society in any negotiations leading to canonical normalization. These conditions were subsequently made public in a declaration designed to reassure the members of the Society and the faithful who are under their pastoral care.

The sine qua non conditions they laid down are as follows:
1. “The freedom to preserve, transmit and teach the sound doctrine of the constant Magisterium of the Church and of the unchangeable truth of divine Tradition; the freedom to prohibit, correct and reprove, even publicly, those who foment the errors or innovations of modernism, liberalism, the Second Vatican Council and their consequences;

2. The freedom to use the 1962 liturgy exclusively. To preserve the sacramental practice that we presently have (including: Holy Orders, Confirmation, Matrimony);

3. A guarantee of at least one bishop.”

Three “desirable conditions” were also mentioned: that the Society should have its own tribunals, that its houses should be independent from the local bishops, and that a Pontifical Commission for Tradition should be instituted “answering directly to the Pope, with the majority of its members and governing board in favor of Tradition.”

A procedural rule was established: the superior general and his council will not exercise their own authority to accept a proposed canonical normalization, but will convoke an Extraordinary General Chapter that will have a deliberative vote, with an absolute majority required for acceptance.

Internal unity preserved
Bishop Williamson was excluded from the General Chapter in July 2012 and expelled from the Society in October. The reasons are tactfully explained in a letter dated October 26 to the friends and benefactors of the Society by his former seminary classmate and former FSSPX superior general, Father Franz Schmidberger.

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It is the painful conclusion of a development that has lasted for years now and that dramatically came to a head in recent months. [Bishop Williamson’s] dislike of the Superior General and his council became refusal to acknowledge them, this refusal became resistance, and this resistance became open rebellion. He missed no opportunity to exasperate the leadership of the Society, divulged confidential documents and finally called publicly for the resignation of the Superior General.... On June 29, 1976, at his priestly ordination, Bishop Williamson, like any other candidate for Holy Orders, vowed “obedience and reverence” to Archbishop Lefebvre and his successors.... Since Bishop Williamson, despite much advice, fraternal admonishment and many warnings, was not ready to change his attitude, ultimately the only thing left was separation....

---

Catholics acquainted with the FSSPX only through media coverage might mistakenly picture it as an association of Catholic clerics who prefer the old Latin Mass and cling to the pre-conciliar Magisterium of the Church.

While that description is not inaccurate, it misses the heart of the matter: the priests and brothers of the FSSPX are traditional religious - members of a priestly society of apostolic life which is dedicated to the preservation of the Church’s doctrinal and liturgical tradition.

Archbishop Lefebvre could be likened in some respects to St. Vincent de Paul, who made a long-term investment in the restoration of the Church in 17th-century France by founding the Congregation of the Mission to preach the Gospel in rural areas and to staff seminaries. Just as the mission of “the Vincentians” eventually spread to the New World, so too the foundation of Archbishop Lefebvre grew rapidly—during the post-conciliar “vocation shortage”—and today has hundreds of priests serving on all five continents.

The work of the FSSPX is a community apostolate, which is why vowed obedience is so important to them. The insubordination of Bishop Williamson struck at the root of the Society and posed an existential threat. Through a course of action approved by the 2012 General Chapter, the Superior General disciplined the offender and preserved unity within the Society.

Encouraging words
An English-language statement by the Ecclesia Dei Commission dated October 27 announced 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 document speaks about “the current stage in the ongoing discussions between the Holy See and the Priestly Fraternity” and cites several “critical steps in this positive process of gradual integration” since 2007.

The Ecclesia Dei document is remarkably evenhanded and diplomatic: “After thirty years of separation, it is understandable that time is needed to absorb the significance of these recent developments.” This observation applies to both parties in the discussions.

The document concludes, “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…patience, serenity, perseverance, and trust are needed.”

[It is not far-fetched to see the hand of Mons. Di Noia in the wording of the document.]

'Spe salvi facti sumus', oil on canvas, Natalie Chavieve, 2011; Resurrection, fresco, Piero della Francesca, 1465.

Benedict XVI
and bearing witness to death
Translated from

November 6, 2012

One of the most impressive things about Benedict XVI's preaching is his way of facing up to the theme of death.

The Pope never is 'outside' whatever he says or writes, and in this sense, he is a model of what it means 'to bear witness'. His own human experience is always implied in whatever he explains or proposes, almost as if he were accompanying us physically along the course he indicates. When the theme is death and what's beyond it, what he says is especially significant. [It says much about his personal attitude towards death -and in this respect, nothing could be more illuminating than the reflections he expresses in his second (and IMHO, his best but very under-appreciated) encyclical so far, Spe salvi.]

After the Feast of All Souls, the Pope also presided at a Mass in suffrage for the cardinals and bishops who passed away in the past 12 months, and this time, he surprised once more by speaking of cemeteries as places of assembly in which the living encounter their dear departed and reaffirm bonds with them which death does not interrupt.

In the face of death and its hard reality. he said, "man in every age has sought a ray of light that allows him to hope, that still speaks to him of life". But in a time like ours when fear of death leads many persons to despair and a quest for illusory comforts, the Christian is distinguished by what makes him feel secure: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The essence of the Christian faith changes everything: "Death opens us to life, to eternal life which is not an infinite copy of the present but something completely new".

Joseph Ratzinger, it seems, has always found it necessary to approach 'something completely new', stir it up and make it understandable to the mind and heart of men asphyxiated by the dogma of scientism [belief in science as the answer to everything].

For him, it is not a question of being creative, of letting the imagination or one's sentiments take flight, but to look into the Word of God and the great Tradition of the Church for how to dialog with contemporary man in his own language. We can understand this best by rereading the precious pages dedicated to Eternal Life in his encyclical Spe salvi [There we go!]

He has now revisited the theme: "The true immortality that we aspire to is not an idea or a concept, but a relationship of full communion with the living God. It consists in placing ourselves in his hands, in his love, and reach in him full unity with our brothers and sisters who he has created and redeemed - with all of creation".

These recent words of Benedict XVI led me to re-read another impressive homily he gave at the funeral rites for his fellow German, Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer, a couple of years ago: "This is the destiny of human existence: It flourishes on earth - at a specific place - and is called back to heaven, the homeland from which it 'mysteriously came. "Desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus' (My soul longs for you, O God) (Ps 41/42,2).Imn the word desiderat is all of men, his flesh and spirit, earth and heaven. It is the original mystery of the image of God in man"

¡Desiderat! - here is all of human mystery, of that strange flower born in the last act of creation. That is why, in front of the opaque wall of death, man seeks the slightest opening, for that ray of light that the Pope most recently spoke about.

God wished to come towards men in his quest to fill up the void left by sin and to re-establish through eh death and resurrection of Jesus the triumph of life over death.

As the Pope said at the funeral rite for his friend, "Every man who dies in the Lord participates through faith in this act of infinite love, in some way brings his spirit together with Christ, in the certain hope that the hand of the Father will resurrect him from the dead and will introduce him to the Kingdom of life".

But what is contained in that kingdom, at least, what it it that our profound aspiration and God's revelation allow us to glimpse? Will it be the fulfillment of our desire "to live together in peace, no longer threatened by death, enjoying full communion with God and among ourselves"?

Mayer was a Benedictine, and Papa Ratzinger wished to show that "the Church, and especially, the monastic community, constitute a pre-figuration on earth of this final goal".

It is an imperfect anticipation, we know, marked by limitations and sin, that is always in need of purification. But even so, the Pope insists, "there is a foretaste in the eucharistic community of the triumph of the love of Christ over anything that divides and mortifies".

And so it is legitimate to 'imagine' that 'something completely new' in the pale light of what we have been able to experience, as an incredible correspondence to what which our heart desires" a feast without end, peace without shadows, a warm home that is illuminated all throughout, a meal among friends who are free of all fear and second thoughts.

All this is only what we can imagine "like glimpses of a blue sky behind a fog". And that is why Benedict XVI could respond simply to a young person who asked him about it at the World Meeting of Families in Milan: "When I try to imagine something of what it must be in Paradise, I always think of my childhood... and in this sense, I anticipate 'going home' when I must leave this world".

Cardinal Koch:
'No question at all that
Nostra aetate is part
of the Church Magisterium'
Translated from

November 6, 2012

"With regard to the Jews, the Pope has charged me with presenting the question correctly: Nostra aetate is not in the least bit at issue in the Magisterium of the Church, as the Pope himself has demonstrated so many times in his speeches, his writings, and his personal gestures towards Judaism and the Jews. Rapprochement with the FSSPX absolutely does not mean that their positions are accepted and supported by the Vatican".

The Lefebvrian issue was the crucial one faced by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, as well as the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, during the Commission's plenary meeting held at the Vatican on Oct. 28-30.

It was only the third plenary for the Commission (after 1982 and 2005) which assembled its consultants and delegates responsible for relations with the Jews from the various national bishops' conferences.

Among the topics taken up were an evaluation of all the dialogs that have been undertaken, "Day of Judaism" on the national level, and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra aestate on October 21, 2015.

In his opening remarks to the plenary, Cardinal Koch dedicated his first remarks to the 'Lefebvrian question' to clear up doubts and false interpretations generated by the "possibility of the readmission of the FSSPX into the Roman Catholic Church" and to reaffirm that the Vatican II declaration Nostra aetate is and remains "the founding document, the Magna Carta of the Church's dialog with Judaism", as well as "the crucial compass for all the efforts made to promote the Jewish-Catholic dialog".

Koch said: "The question has been raised, and not just on the part of the Jews, about the importance and validity of Nostra aetate. The Jews fear that , through the eventual reintegration of priests and believers who have anti-Jewish tendencies, and who would fundamentally reject Nostra aetate, the Catholic Church could give a new direction to the dialog with Judaism, or that the importance of this Conciliar declaration for the whole Church could be relativized".

He added that "even on the part of Catholics, "voices have been heard at times that it is one of the minor declarations of Vatican II, whose binding character could be considered more limited compared to the other texts"

Not so, he says, because "from the point of view of content, all the Conciliar documents must be seen and considered in their inter-relationship".

Nostra aetate recalls "the profound link that spiritually unites the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock". It also "affirms decisively that Catholics must avoid every scorn, debasement or insults against Jews, and furthermore, explicitly underscores thew Jewish roots of Christianity. It discards the accusation of 'deicide' that had been unfortunately attributed to all Jews in general by Christians in various places through the centuries".

And that in the fight against every form of anti-Semitism, "the Jews must continue to be comforted by the thought that they have in the Catholic Church a reliable ally in the battle against anti-Semitism which has not yet been uprooted from the world today".

Cardinal Koch then expressed his gratitude for the efforts at dialog undertaken by Benedict XVI "since his Pontificate began... (in order) to intensify relationships with the Jews, upon which there can be no doubts".

In recounting the most important stages of this history of friendship between Benedict XVI and the Jews, He pointed out that "No Pope has visited as many synagogues as Benedict XVI".

Koch also cited the dialogs of the Church with the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations Jewish and with the Grand Rabbinate of Israel, as having contributed in the past 40 years to developing relationships to the point that "traditional confrontations have been transformed to gainful collaboration, bellicosity replaced by the capacity to manage conflicts positively, and simple coexistence has become solid friendship. The bonds of friendship developed over the years have proven to be resistant, so that it has been possible to face controversial themes together without running the risk of any lasting damage to dialog".

While I realize that Koch's remarks were specific for a plenary on Catholic-Jewish relations, it must not be forgotten that Nostra aetate was not just about relationship with Judaism, but with other non-Christian religions, of which Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are specifically mentioned. In fact, its full title is "Declaration on the relation of the Church with non-Christian religions". Nor must one ignore what one might call the 'heart' of the declaration:

---

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.

---

It is far from saying that all religions are equally valid, nor from glossing over the belief in Christ as the one true way to human fulfillment.

'Ratzinger-thinking' comes
to the land of liberation theology
by Andres Beltramo Alvarez
Translated from the Spanish service of


Not long after a meeting of 700 Marxist theologians in Rio de Janeiro, an international congress is being held in that city to discuss the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.

For years, Brazil has been the center of Latin American liberation theology, the cradle of persons like Leonardo Boff, now an ex-Franciscan, who was a leading ideologue of Mrxist-inspired liberation theology.

But Brazilian Catholicism is more than just the 'iberationists' and their co-called 'base communities'. It has also given birth to movements that are profoundly faithful to Church orthodoxy and the Pope, like the Heralds of the Gospel.

'What makes man man" is the title of the second international congress of studies organized by the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI that will take place at the Catholic Unviersity of Rio de Janeiro on November 8-9. The first took place in Bydgoszcz, Poland in late 2011. More than 30 acadfmic institutions will be represented in Rio de Janeiro.

The conference indirectly addresses an important issue for the Church in Latin America: Where are the great Catholic thinkers of the region? Is there an autocthonous theology beyond the liberationists who promote what they call a 'Church of the people', which is critical and generally sets itself apart from the Holy See? Questions that are more prominent following a continental meeting of some 700 liberation theologians in San Leopoldo, Brazil on Oct. 7-13.

"Liberation theology appeared to be a great movement, but it soon was clear that it does not offer a Catholic perspective nor does it bring joy," said Mons. Giuseppe Scotti, president of the Ratzinger Foundation in Italy. "But in reflecting on how to proced beyond liberation theology, we must guard against a simple return to the pas or the temptation not to indulge in more theology."

While acknowledging that the Foundation has so far not recognized any Catholic intellectual in Latin America worthy of receiving the Foundation's Ratzinger Prize for theology, Scotti said "Latin America has more possibilities than one would think".

"We have seen professors who are very active and who have great cultural preparation who are capable of not losing their ties to Rome in the good and beautiful sense of the faith, while applying their activities to local conditions," he said. "Theology cannot be eurocentric. Man lescrns to speak of God not only with his own language but in the proper culturaal, human and social context".

But for the moment, Ratzinger thinking has been launched in the land of liberation theology - the thinking of the theologian Ratzinger who 50 years ago, at the Second Vatican Council, was labelled a 'progressive' but who has shown himself to be orthodox but 'open-minded'.

Mons. Scotti has no doubt that "The modern world finds Ratzinger the theologian a cultural provocateur".

Wednesday, November 7, 31st Week in Ordinary Time
ST. DIEGO DE ALCALA (Spain, 1400-1463), Franciscan friar and miracle worker
Today's saint is one of the most beloved of Spanish saints, for whom the Franciscans named their California mission, now the city of San Diego. Born to poor parents, he mas raised by a hermit and joined the Franciscan lay order at 17. He was first assigned to Fuenteventura in the Canary Islands, as guardian of the Franciscan community and then, because of his great zeal and personal sanctity, as superior of the Convent of San Buenaventura, even if he was just a lay brother. In 1449, he was sent to Rome for the canonization of St. Bernardino of Siena, where he served as infirmarian at the convent of Ara Coeli. His biographers recorded many miraculous cures attributed to him. When he was recalled to Spain, he spent his remaining years in penance, solitude and contemplation at a convent in Alcala de Henares. He died of an abscess, which emitted fragrance. Indeed, his body remained incorrupt and continued to exude the odor of sanctity. Two Spanish princes were reported to have been miraculously cured by contact with his body. He is the subject of a cycle of paintings by Annibale Caracci in the Roman church dedicated to Santiago (St. James), patron of Spain, and by a series of paintings by Esteban Murillo in the 17th century. His most famous portrait is by Francisco Zurbaran. Diego was canonized in 1588.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110712.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

General Audience - Continuing his catechetical cycle for the Year of Faith, the Holy Father reflected today
on "a fascinating aspect of the human and Christian experience - the mysterious desire for God". Afterwards,
he announced that "various circumstances and developments have made a previously announced Vatican mission
to Syria not possible". Instead, the Pope has sent Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of Cor Unum, to Lebanon
in order to meet with Syrian bishops and coordinate the work of Catholic charities in Syria.

The Vatican announced that on Monday, Nov. 12, Benedict XVI will visit the Sant'Egidio Community's
home for the aged in Trastevere to mark the European Year for solidarity with the aged.


Benedict XVI mourns the death
of Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarch


Pope Benedict XVI has sent a telegram of condolence on the occasion of the death of Patriarch Maxim of Sophia, the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Maxim died Tuesday of heart failure. He was 98.

The Bulgarian Church's Holy Synod of 13 senior clergy will meet to make funeral arrangements and choose an interim patriarch until a larger Church Council is held within the next four months to pick Maxim's successor, church officials said.

Orthodox Christianity is Bulgaria's dominant religion, which more than 80 percent of the country's 7.4 million people profess. Maxim was the church's leader for more than four decades, bridging the country's transition from communism.

Here is a translation of the Pope's telegram sent in French:

---

To His Eminence Grigorij di Veliko Trnovo
Interim President of the Holy Synod
of the Orthodox Church of Bulgaria

It is with deep sorrow that I heard the news of the death of our beloved brother in Christ, His Holiness Maxim, Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of Bulgaria, who served our Lord and his people with devotion for many years.

On behalf of the Catholic Church, I wish to assure you and all the bishops, priests, and faithful of the Orthodox Church of Bulgaria that I join in prayer in your grief. May the Lord, Who is good and merciful, welcome our beloved brother Maxim into His heavenly home. May He grant him peace and eternal memory!

Participating in the pain of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, I thank God for all the blessings of the late Patriarch for his church and the people of his country. In particular, I remember the warm hospitality accorded to Blessed Pope John Paul II during his visit to Bulgaria in May 2002.

I thank the Lord for the good relations that the Patriarch has fostered with the Catholic Church in these lands, and I sincerely hope that the good relations can continue in order to promote the proclamation of the Gospel.

With renewed expressions of sympathy and the assurance of my remembrance and of my prayer, and I ask you to accept, your Eminence, the expression of my sincere greetings in Christ.

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

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Benedict XVI congratulates
US President on his re-election
Translated from

Nov. 7, 2011

Vatican news director Fr. Federico Lombardi released this statement today:

---

Through the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, the Pope has sent a message to Barack Obam who has been re-elected President of the United States.

In the message, the Holy Father conbgratulated the President for his new mandate, and assured him of his prayers that God may assist him in his enormous responsibilities to his nation and the international community, and so that the ideals of peace and justice which guided the founders of the United States of America may continue to shine along the nation's parh.

---

Fr. Lombardi's statement continues with his own sentiments about Obama's re-election which he expressed in response to questions from newsmen.
[It's strange that Lombardi would have issued the transcript of his response to the newsmen but not the text itself of the Pope's message.]
Reuters reports Fr. Lombardi's statement and attributes it to 'the Vatican' while seeking to provide context.

Vatican reminds Obama of differences
on healthcare and abortion issues


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 7 (Reuters) - The Vatican congratulated President Barack Obama on his re-election but reminded him on Wednesday of the thorny differences between the Catholic Church and his administration over abortion and healthcare.

The Vatican hoped Obama would be able to serve law and justice "in respect of the essential human and spiritual values and the promotion of the culture of life and freedom of religion, which have always been so precious in the traditions of the American people and their culture," a spokesman said.

The "culture of life" is a phrase covering the Church's opposition to abortion. Obama supports abortion rights and made women's health issues a key part of his campaign.

The Catholic Church in the United States has been at odds with the Obama administration over his healthcare law, which requires private employers, including most religious private institutions, to provide workers with health insurance that covers contraceptives.

The Church has seen this as a threat to the freedom of religion enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, a cry that was taken up by Pope Benedict this year.

More than 20 lawsuits have been filed against the birth control law by the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic University of America and the Archdiocese of New York and dozens of Catholic institutions.

To coincide with the elections, the U.S. bishops conference set up a website, firstamericanfreedom.com, saying religious freedom was under threat at the federal, state and local levels of government.

It targeted national healthcare reform and local legislation that it said stopped Church workers providing services to undocumented immigrants.

The Vatican said Pope Benedict sent Obama a private message but did not release its text. The Pope told the President he prayed that Obama would be able to carry out the ideals of freedom and justice, the Vatican added.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY






Benedict XVI on the desire for God
in today's secularized world

November 7, 2012

"What really satisfies man’s deepest desire? Is the desire for God absurd, irrational in today’s secularised world? How do we reach out to people who have lost their faith? To people who do not believe in God? How do we accompany them on their search for true good?"

These were the questions Pope Benedict XVI posed to some 30,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square at the general audience today, the third in his catechetical series for the Year of Faith.

“We must believe that even in our era, seemingly reluctant to the transcendent dimension, that it is possible to open a path toward an authentic religious meaning of life, showing how the gift of faith is not absurd, it is not irrational", the Pope said.



Here is a translation of the Pope's catechesis:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

The journey of reflection that we are making together this Year of Faith leads us to meditate today on a fascinating aspect of the human and Christian experience: man carries within himself a mysterious desire for God.

In a very significant way, the Catechism of the Catholic Church opens with the following consideration: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for" (No. 27).

Such a statement, which even today in many cultural contexts seems quite acceptable, almost obvious, might instead appear as a provocation in the sphere of secularized Western culture. Many of our contemporaries could, in fact, argue that they do not feel such a desire for God at all.

For large sectors of society He is no longer desired, nor expected, but rather a reality that leaves some indifferent and not even worth wasting one’s breath over.

Actually, what we have defined as "desire for God” has not completely disappeared and today, in many ways, it continues to be present in the heart of man. Human desire always tends towards certain tangible goods, which are often far from spiritual, and yet it is still faced with the question of what 'good' really is. and therefore, must face something other than the self, something man cannot construct but is clled upon to recognize. What could truly satisfy human desire?

In my first encyclical, Deus caritas est, I tried to analyze how such dynamism is experienced in human love, an experience which in our era is more easily perceived as a moment of ecstasy, of going beyond oneself, as a place where man senses that he is being filled with a desire that is beyond him.

Through love, men and women can experience in a new way, thanks to one another, the grandeur and beauty of life and of reality. If what I experience is not mere illusion, if I really want the good of the other as a path towards my own good, then I must be willing to de-centralize myself, to put myself at the service of the other to the point of surrendering myself.

The answer to the question about the meaning of the experience of love thus passes through the cleansing and healing of the will, which is demanded by wanting only good for the other. We have to practise, train and even correct ourselves in ordere to truly want what is good for the other.

The initial ecstasy of love thus translates into a pilgrimage, «an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God» (Enc. Deus caritas est, 6).

Through this journey man will gradually deepen his knowledge of that love which initiated this experience. And the mystery which it represents will increasingly come to the fore: because not even the beloved, in fact, can fully satiate the desire that dwells in the human heart.

Indeed, the more authentic is this love for each other, all the more emerges the question of its origin, its destiny and its chance of lasting forever. Therefore, the human experience of love has a dynamism that draws us beyond ourselves, it is an experience of a good that leads us beyond ourselves to face the mystery that surrounds all existence.

Similar considerations also could also be made about other human experiences, such as friendship, the experience of beauty, love of knowledge: all that is good and experienced by man is projected toward the mystery that surrounds man himself. Every wish that arises in the human heart is echoed by a fundamental desire that is never fully satisfied.

Certainly from that deep desire, which also hides something enigmatic, one cannot arrive directly at faith. Man, after all, knows what does not satisfy, but cannot imagine or define that which would make him experience the happiness that his heart longs for. One cannot know God, starting only from such a desire.

In this sense, the mystery remains: Man seeks the Absolute, in small and uncertain steps. And yet, the experience of desire, of the 'restless heart' as St. Augustine called it, is very significant. It proves that man is, deep down, a religious being (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 28), a "beggar of God».

We can say with the words of Pascal: "man infinitely surpasses man” (Pensees, Chevalier 438; ed. Brunschvicg 434). The eyes recognize objects when they are illuminated by light. Hence the desire to know the light itself that makes the things of the world shine and thus illuminate the sense of beauty.

We therefore must believe that even in our era, seemingly reluctant to the transcendent dimension, it is possible to open a path toward an authentic religious meaning of life, that the gift of faith is not absurd, it is not irrational.

It would be of great use, for that purpose, to promote a pedagogy of desire, both for the journey of those who still do not believe, and for those who have already received the gift of faith.

A pedagogy that includes at least two aspects. First, learning or relearning an authentic taste for the joys of life. Not every satisfaction produces the same effect in us: some leave a positive trace, are able to pacify the spirit, make us more active and generous. Others, after an initial light, seem to disappoint the expectations that they had aroused and sometimes leave behind bitterness, dissatisfaction or a sense of emptiness.

Educating persons from their childhood to savour the true joys in all spheres of life – family, friendship, solidarity with those who suffer, renouncing oneself to serve others, love for knowledge, for art, for the beauty of nature – means exercising the inner taste and producing effective 'antibodies' against today’s widespread trivialization and banalization.

Adults also need to rediscover these joys, to desire authentic realities, purifying themselves of the mediocrity which may have enveloped them. In this way it becomes then easier to leave aside or reject all that which, while seemingly attractive, turns out to be rather tasteless, a source of addiction, not freedom. And this fosters the desire of God that we speak of.

A second aspect, which goes hand in hand with the former, is never settling for what has been achieved. The truest joys can liberate in us that healthy restlessness that leads us to be more demanding – to want a higher, deeper good – and also to perceive with increasing clarity that nothing finite can ever fill our hearts.

In this way we will learn to reach out, unarmed, towards that good that we cannot build or provide ourselves by our own means, not to bebdiscouraged by fatigue or by obstacles born of our sins.

In this regard, we must not forget that the dynamism of desire is always open to redemption. Even when it takes a wrong turn, chasing artificial paradises, and seems to lose the ability to yearn for true good. Even in the abyss of sin, that spark is still alive in human hearts that enables man to recognize true good, to savour it, and set out again on the upward climb, in which God, with the gift of His grace, never fails to help.

All of us need to tread a path of purification and healing of desire. We are pilgrims on the journey toward our Heavenly homeland, towards that full, eternal good, that nothing can every take from us. It is not a question of suffocating the desire that is in the human heart, but of freeing it, so that it can reach its true height. When desire is open to God, this is already a sign of the presence of faith in the soul, faith that is a grace of God.

In this pilgrimage, all are our brethren, our fellow travellers, even those who do not believe, those who are seeking, those who sincerely question the dynamism of their desire for truth and good. Let us pray, in this Year of faith, that God may shows His face to all who seek him with a sincere heart.

---

Appeal for Syria

At the end of his General Audience, the Holy Father announced that due to “tragic” developments in Syria, the announced Vatican delegation would no longer be able to carry out its peace mission to that nation.

Instead the Holy Father has sent a special mission to Lebanon headed by Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to meet with Catholic charities currently providing assistance within Syria and caring for refugees who have fled to Lebanon.

Here is translation of the Holy Father’s appeal:

---

I continue to follow with great concern the tragic situation of violent conflict in Syria, where the fighting has not ceased and each day, the toll of victims rises, accompanied by the untold suffering of many civilians, especially those who have been forced to abandon their homes.

As a sign of my own solidarity and that of the whole Church for the Syrian people, as well as our spiritual closeness to the Christian communities in that country, I had hoped to send a delegation of Synod Fathers to Damascus.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances and developments, it was not possible to carry out this initiative as planned, and so I have decided to entrust a special mission to Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

From today until 10 November, he will be in Lebanon, where he will meet the Pastors and faithful of the Churches present in Syria. He will visit a number of refugees from that country and will chair a meeting of Catholic charitable agencies to coordinate efforts, as the Holy See has urgently requested, to provide assistance to the Syrian people, within and outside the country.

As I make my prayer to God, I renew my invitation to the parties in conflict, and to all those who have the good of Syria at heart, to spare no effort in the search for peace and to pursue through dialogue the path to a just coexistence, in view of a suitable political solution of the conflict.

It is never too late to work for peace!

---

I'm so sorry!! I'm still too stunned to voice a coherent opinion!!
It will take a while...



Think what it's like for the 50-million-plus Americans who voted against him!... Me, if only I could will myself into selective amnesia to get out of this frightful catastrophic nightmare! But alI can do is not watch TV news or listen to the radio for the next century if I can help it...There are no words that can express the dimensions of my outrage and utter disgust! It's almost as if the Conclave in 2005 had elected Cardinal Danneels as Pope... There must be a reason God allowed this abomination to recur...

TERESA

Benedict XVI
and the pathologies of 6eligion
by Samuel Gregg

Nov. 7, 2012

It passed almost unnoticed, but last month Benedict XVI significantly upped the ante in an argument he’s made one of his pontificate’s centerpieces. To the horror, one suspects, of some professional interfaith dialoguers and wishful-thinkers more generally, the Pope indicated the Church should recognize that some types of religion are in fact “sick and distorted.”

This message isn’t likely to be well-received among those who think religious pluralism is somehow an end in itself. Their discomfort, however, doesn’t lessen the force of Benedict’s point.

The context of Benedict’s remarks was the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s opening. In an article published in the Holy See’s semi-official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Benedict reflected upon his own memories of the Council. Characteristically, however, he used the occasion to make subtle but pointed observations about particular challenges presently confronting the Church and orthodox Christianity more generally: difficulties that no amount of interfaith happy-talk and ecumenical handholding will make go away. [The 'article' is actually Benedict XVI's Foreword to the double volume of his writings over the years on Vatican II which is coming out this month as the latest installment of his 16-volume Collected Writings of Joseph Ratzinger.]

One of Vatican II’s achievements, the Pope argued, was the Declaration Nostra Aetate, which addressed the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. This document focused on the most theologically-important relationship — Judaism and Christianity — but also ventured remarks about Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Without watering down Christianity’s truth-claims, Benedict wrote, Nostra Aetate outlined how Catholics could engage in “respectful dialogue and collaboration with other religions.”

Then, however, Benedict made his move. With the passage of time, he noted, “a weakness” of Nostra Aetate has become apparent: “it speaks of religion solely in a positive way and it disregards the sick and distorted forms of religion.”

Plainly Benedict wasn’t referring to the choice of Christians to sin. The Catholic who, for instance, intentionally chooses to kill innocent life is, after all, acting contrary to the Church’s teaching. Instead Benedict appears to have in mind religions which seemingly legitimize gross violations of human dignity or inhibit its members from condemning their co-religionists’ actions.

One example is the pre-Christian pagan religions. Their view of the gods as mere hedonists who treated humans as toys, their deification of the state, their profound contempt for human life, and their conception of women as virtual sub-humans made such religions, from a Jewish and Christian standpoint, irredeemable.

Then there are particular practices that indicate profound dysfunctionality in a religion’s core beliefs, such as the Aztec ritual of human sacrifice.

Which brings us to the burning inter-religious question of our time. And it is this. Those people who drive trucks filled with explosives into Catholic churches in Nigeria; who torture and murder Orthodox priests in Syria and detonate bombs at their funeral; who decapitate teenage Indonesian Christian schoolgirls; who shoot teenage Pakistani girls in the head for suggesting that women should be educated; who regularly describe Jews as “pigs and apes”; or who are pursuing what Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk recently described as an effort to exterminate the Christian presence in the Middle-East — are they acting in ways that reflect distortions of Islam, or are their choices consistent with Islam’s central beliefs?

The jury, I’m afraid, remains out — way, way, way out on this one. Certainly there is the Qur’anic passage: “Let there be no compulsion on religion” (2:256). But this concerns allowing non-Muslims to convert freely to Islam. It was never traditionally understood as applicable to Muslims wanting to embrace another faith. Nor is it presently inhibiting some Muslims from engaging in forced conversions or slaughtering former Muslims who have chosen different paths.

Then there are the numerous verses from the Qu’ran and Hadith that seemingly justify violence against pagans, non-believers, and “polytheists” (which includes Trinitarian Christians). Their meaning has been debated by some Muslims for centuries. Alas, Islam doesn’t possess an equivalent of Catholicism’s magisterial teaching authority that can definitely resolve disputed questions in ways that bind all Catholics. [They should be binding on all Catholics, but many Catholics self=exempt themselves from being bound by any of the Church's teachings that they disagree with!]

What isn’t, however, in question is the invocation of such passages by contemporary jihadists to justify violence. Nor is this a new phenomenon. As the French historian Sylvain Gouguenheim pointed out in his Aristote au Mont Saint-Michel (2008), even as apparently an enlightened twelfth-century Muslim thinker as Averroes didn’t hesitate to preach jihad against Christians in what was (contrary to popular mythology) a not-so-tolerant Islamic Spain.

That’s not to suggest Christianity has always remained distortion-free. In our own time, we can recall those now largely-defunct liberation theologies that sought an absurd synthesis between Christianity and Marxism and, in some instances, tried to rationalize leftist violence.

One problem that took centuries to overcome was Christians’ entanglement with state power as secular rulers tried to reduce the Church to a mere government department. In many instances, this helped facilitate cruelty by Christians against Christians and non-Christians alike. Catholicism, Benedict notes in his article, was eventually able to escape this trap precisely because Christianity itself “had come into being claiming that the State could neither decide on the truth nor prescribe any kind of worship.”

But having diagnosed the sickness, Benedict didn’t shy away from outlining how the Church should tackle it. His Osservatore Romano article devoted considerable attention to another Council declaration which, like Nostra Aetate, Benedict described as having assumed even greater importance after Vatican II: the text on religious liberty, Dignitatis humanae.

So how does Dignitatis humanae help address distorted religiosity? First, Dignitatis humanae affirms as a matter of natural law that religious liberty properly understood is a fundamental human right and precondition for human flourishing.

Hence it is unreasonable for anyone — Christian, secularist, or Muslim — to harass or coerce those who don’t share their religious faith or want to change their religion.

Benedict has been hammering away at this message since his 2006 Regensburg address. Yet while it’s obviously relevant for countries like Communist China, the most systematic and ferocious violations of religious liberty today are occurring in the Islamic world. To grasp just how awful things are, everyone should read Rupert Shortt’s just-published Christianophobia.

Unfortunately the problem goes beyond jihadists. As the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran observed in a recent interview: “the great problem lies in the fact that in countries where Muslim law is that of the majority, as of now no Muslim accepts that the freedom to change religion, or to choose it, should be inscribed in a legal text.”

Somewhat ominously, Tauran then commented: “In all of my conversations with Muslims, many of them well-disposed, this has been a taboo subject.”

There is, however, a second dimension of Dignitatis humanae which Benedict considers critical for addressing sick religiosity. Here we should recall that the Declaration’s argument for religious liberty is not based upon the type of pluralism-for-the-sake-of-diversity babble that’s corrupted most universities. Instead it is grounded upon religious liberty as a precondition for the honest search for and embrace of religious truth.

Just as the Church sees the truth about man as the foundation for religious liberty, Catholicism also regards truth as the end of religious liberty. Dignitatis Humanae was never about putting error and truth on the same footing. In fact, it explicitly disavowed that claim.

For why else would you rationally choose to be a Catholic unless you’re convinced that orthodox Christianity’s claims are true and all other religions are therefore either incomplete to varying degrees or deeply erroneous?

To that extent, Dignitatis Humanae was always concerned with creating the conditions for the Church to propose the truth of Christianity in a context in which everyone was free to argue about the truth without killing each other.

As Benedict wrote in his Osservatore Romano piece, “the Christian faith, from the outset, adopted a critical stance towards religion, both internally and externally.”

If, as reported, Benedict is preparing an encyclical on faith to complete what would be a trilogy of encyclicals on love and hope, he may well use the occasion to illustrate how faith can become positively pathological, just as he’s shown how love can be distorted into liberal sentimentalism, and hope into secularist utopianism.

And as every single Christian living in the Middle East today knows, that’s a warning about faith which today’s world desperately needs to hear.

The Shroud: 'An image of man
at the moment beyond death'
Translated from

November 7, 2012

"The image of a man not at the moment of death but at the moment beyond death".

"A sign that leads mankind to confront the mystery and the miracle of the Face of God".

Jews and Muslims spoke thus of the Shroud of Turin at the day of study and inter-religious dialog dedicated to the Shroud by the research group Othonia in collaboration with the Institute of Science and Faith of the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum.

For Bruno Di Porto, president of the Jewish community Lev Chadash, the Shroud is a proposed figuration of Jesus, "of the Jewish man who was Jesus - a way to see him, to imagine him and imagine him at the moment of death". But in that "image of atrocious suffering, one nevertheless recognizes an icon of sanctity as well as of suffering".

"The suffering on the Face in the Shroud," he continued, "addresses us today and unites us. That sufferings abound, even if variously distributed, is foreboding evidence from the very start of life today, and they are many and disparate. They evoke religion as a question that addresses suffering, and from which man seeks care, comfort and reparation".

But the religious answer to human suffering "does not satisfy all unrest in the heart. Questions always remain. There is always a horizon of incomprehensibility to the suffering of the just".

For his part, the imam Yahya Pallavicini, president of COREIS ( the Islamic religious community of Italy), cried passages from the Quran about Jesus, and recalled that in Islamic tradition, "Jesus never died, he was not killed because no one and no power could put him to death. He was elevated, living, to heaven and is with God".

Therefore if Jesus did not die, according to Islam, the Shroud poses an extremely complex question. He said however that the Shroud should be considered a 'sign'.

"For Muslim sages," he pointed out, "the signs of God are sacred - they have a symbolic value which translates and transposes something that goes beyond the sign itself. The Shroud is a sign, a representation of Jesus that leads man to the mystery and miracle of the Face of God".

Bruno Barberis, director of the International Center of Sindonology in Turin, said one must look at the Shroud without "allowing oneself to fall into fundamentalism or to wild speculations such as those that say it is a painting by Leonardo or the work of a medieval counterfeiter"

At the same time, he said, one must also guard against the risk of considering the Shroud as "the scientific proof of the Resurrection of Jesus, as if the Resurrection were a natural event that can be scientifically explained".

But science and faith do present two approaches to the Shroud that must necessarily converge and be integrated. "They can well coexist as long as their distinctive planes of competence are respected and not mixed up in order to force conclusions that fail to respect the Shroud's very singularity".

Concluding, he said: "Christian faith is not based nor will be based on the Shroud... It is based on other premises, for which the Shroud can be a valid support if it is seen as a valuable instrument which, through the language of imagery, contributes to reflecting on the main pillar of the faith: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ".

Vatican II, the Vatican Press Office
and covering the Council
by Cindy Wooden


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 7 — The 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council is being celebrated as a major step in the opening of the Vatican Press Office, the successor of the council’s information office.

LUMSA, a Rome university nestled between St. Peter’s Square and Vatican Radio, held a conference this morning marking the 50th anniversary of the press office, its evolving role and — more generally — the Church’s changing attitude toward and relationship with the press.

As Catholic News Service marks the 50th anniversary of Vatican II by posting the dispatches written by its team of reporters covering the council, vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/, the work they produced becomes even more striking in the light of the problems that faced Italian Catholic journalists trying to report on the Council.

During the Second Vatican Council, Raniero La Valle was editor of Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ daily newspaper. He said the fact that during the first session of the Council almost everything officially was considered secret “put us in great difficulty.”

“Information did come out, but we couldn’t write most of it,” he said this morning. “Our hands were tied behind our backs.”

La Valle said Italian news stories about the 1962 session of the council are “not fully accurate” because the Italian Catholic press felt bound by the secrecy rules, while the Italian secular press based their reports on interviews with anyone they could find. La Valle said most of those willing to be interviewed had an agenda and wanted to get out their point of view.

“The Council could not be covered except as a scoop by secular journalists,” he said.

As the old CNS stories spelled out, the U.S. bishops participating in the Council acted quickly to help the English-speaking journalists cover the Council. They established a panel of experts to meet with reporters each day and answer their questions.

La Valle said that when the second session of the Council opened in 1963, Msgr. Pericle Felici, the Council’s general secretary, told reporters that while the workings of the Council were to be considered secret, reporters should feel free to use “common sense” in determining the limits of the secrecy. From then on, he said, the Italian Catholic media began fully reporting the Council. {How they reported it is another matter, perhaps. The fact that they were told they could determine what they could report probably encouraged a lot of speculation for the sake of speculation and having soemthing to 'report' even without apparent basis in fact, and/or selective reporting in which the reporter/newspaper's ideological attitude was the primary determinant of what was reported and how it was reported, and in which ideological conflicts were necessarily highlighted or even blown up.]

“For four years, the Council was good news and that’s how the public saw it,” he said. [I think perhaps this hindsight wears rose-colored lenses.]

Despite traditionalist voices that try to imply the council — or interpretations of it — have destroyed the Church, “it remains good news, which is the reason the Church is celebrating its 50th anniversary,” La Valle said.